Night volley: U.S. political surprises, ceasefire hopes, and global tensions

It happened while you slept. Here’s what global agencies reported during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

• U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris unexpectedly took the stage on Monday, the first day of the Democratic convention in Chicago. Harris highlighted Biden's contributions to the country in a brief speech that was not previously announced and not on the convention's schedule.

• Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that if he wins the November elections, he will repeal the emission limits on power plants imposed by the current Democratic administration of Joe Biden.

• Israel has backed the American proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, now Hamas must do the same - said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday.

• The U.S. State Department approved the sale of 36 Apache attack helicopters to South Korea along with related equipment for a total of about 4.7 billion Canadian dollars - announced the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

• Belarusian Air and Air Defence Forces commander Andrey Lukyanovich stated on Monday on state television that additional air defence forces, aircraft, and other types of military equipment have been sent to the border with Ukraine.

• The Montenegrin government is preparing a tender for oil and gas exploration on the seabed of its Adriatic coast - said Montenegrin Minister of Mining, Oil, and Gas Admir Šahmanović.

• The wildfire raging since Wednesday on the Portuguese island of Madeira had consumed more than 7,284 hectares of forest by Monday evening. The burnt area now exceeds by more than 1,983 hectares the forest area destroyed there in all of 2023.