Russia blamed for targeting the town of Marhanets calculating it would be risky to return fire
Ukraine has accused Russia of firing rockets from around a captured nuclear power plant, killing at least 13 people and wounding 10, in the knowledge that it would be risky for Ukraine to return fire.
The town Ukraine says Russia targeted – Marhanets – is one Moscow says its foes have used in the past to shell Russian soldiers at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which they seized in March.
Continue reading...Attack on Saky military base in Novofedorivka on Tuesday afternoon killed one and wounded 13
Ukraine’s air force said it believed that up to a dozen Russian aircraft were destroyed on the ground following Tuesday’s dramatic explosions at the Saky airbase in Crimea, which Russia said killed one, wounded 13 and damaged dozens of nearby houses.
Political sources in Ukraine said the country had carried out the attack – but no public claim of responsibility was made by Kyiv of the incident that one expert believes may have been the product of a daring raid rather than a missile strike.
Continue reading...President urges regime, which denies involvement, to release Tice, who disappeared in 2012 covering Syrian war
Joe Biden has said that the US knows “with certainty” that the Syrian government is holding Austin Tice – an American journalist who has been missing for a decade – and called on Damascus to release him.
Ten years after the freelance reporter disappeared while reporting on the Syrian war, Biden said the US government knows “that [Tice] has been held by the Syrian regime”.
Continue reading...Ex-president pleads the fifth two days after the FBI raided his Florida home seeking classified documents
Donald Trump declined to answer questions under oath on Wednesday in New York state’s civil investigation into his business dealings, pleading the fifth two days after the FBI raided his Florida home in a criminal case, seeking classified documents taken from the White House.
The former US president’s decision to exercise his fifth-amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination was delivered during a closed-door deposition in Manhattan, where the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is examining the Trump family real estate empire.
Continue reading...High temperatures and drought in the wine-growing region of Gironde force partial closure of motorway
About 10,000 people have been evacuated to save them from wildfires in the Gironde region of south-west France after a massive blaze that destroyed more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of pine forest in July sparked up again and tore through woodland.
“The fire is rampant and has now spread to the Landes départment,” local authorities in the wine-growing départment said. The French government doubled the number of firefighters to 1,000 on Wednesday afternoon, supported by planes dropping water.
Continue reading...After seven years and an ambitious plan to open 880 outlets, US chain’s local franchise files for bankruptcy
Domino’s Pizza has pulled out of the Italian market after failing in its mission to conquer the home of pizza.
The US fast food chain’s departure from Italy after seven years followed a period in which the business was badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which in turn forced traditional Italian pizzerias to adopt their own delivery services.
Continue reading...Shahram Poursafi, who US says belongs to Revolutionary Guards, offered money to hitman to avenge Suleimani death, DoJ alleges
The US has charged an Iranian man it says is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with attempting to hire a hitman for $300,000 to kill John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration.
The Department of Justice said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered the money in November 2021 to an unidentified person in the US to “eliminate” Bolton, apparently to avenge the drone killing of the IRGC commander Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says Russians ‘should live in their own world until they change their philosophy’
The EU has been urged to introduce a travel ban on Russian tourists with some member states saying visiting Europe was “a privilege, not a human right” for holidaymakers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with the Washington Post that the “most important sanction” was to “close the borders, because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land”. Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy”, he said.
Continue reading...Beijing blames its actions on US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan
Taiwan has become the latest focal point in the fraught relationship between London and Beijing, with the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, summoning China’s ambassador to explain his government’s recent actions over the self-ruled democracy.
“I instructed officials to summon the Chinese ambassador to explain his country’s actions. We have seen increasingly aggressive behaviour and rhetoric from Beijing in recent months, which threaten peace and stability in the region,” Truss said in a statement.
Continue reading...Analysts say result too close to call, with poor turnout amid cost of living crisis and soaring unemployment
Kenya’s veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga and the deputy president, William Ruto, are locked in a tight race for the country’s highest office, according to early results from Tuesday’s election.
National media updates put Ruto in the lead, at roughly 52%, with Odinga a close second at 47%. The deputy president is performing better than polls had predicted, with a number having placed Odinga in both clear and marginal leads.
Continue reading...Zhou Xiaoxuan, who alleges TV host groped her, hopes case proves ‘difficulty of being a woman’ in China
The woman at the centre of a landmark case in China’s #MeToo movement has vowed not to give up after a court rejected her appeal for an apology and damages.
In 2018 Zhou Xiaoxuan accused a high-profile state TV presenter, Zhu Jun, of forcibly kissing and groping her during a 2014 internship. The case inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault and caused a social media storm.
Continue reading...Antony Blinken announces formal working group during Kinshasa visit, while voicing concerns over auction of oil and gas permits
The US and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have agreed to form a working group to protect the enormous Congo basin rainforest and peatlands, which are threatened by oil and gas exploration.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, made the announcement in Kinshasa on Tuesday while expressing his concern over the sale of dozens of oil and gas permits in the DRC that included blocks in Virunga national park and the Cuvette Centrale tropical peatlands, part of an area described as “the worst place on the planet” to drill for oil and gas.
Continue reading...Reshuffle comes after murder of Shinzo Abe put spotlight on ruling party’s ties with religious movement
Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has removed ministers associated with the Unification church in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at reviving his fortunes amid a public outcry over his party’s ties to the religious movement.
The reshuffle comes just over a month after the murder of Shinzo Abe by a man who has said he targeted the former prime minister over his links to the church, which he blamed for his family’s financial ruin.
Continue reading...Beijing repeats resolve to annex Taiwan by force if peaceful means prove unsuccessful
Beijing has announced an end to its military drills surrounding Taiwan but said further “training and war preparation” would continue.
It made the announcement shortly after reaffirming its commitment, in a major policy paper, to use force against Taiwan if it could not take control “by peaceful means”.
Continue reading...Study identifies mystery elements in Kaogong ji, shedding light on how early bronzes were produced
Researchers have deciphered enigmatic recipes for metal-making contained in an ancient Chinese text, revealing unexpected complexity in the art at the time.
Six chemical formulas are given in a Chinese text from 300BC known as the Kaogong ji. The manuscript, known as The World’s Oldest Encyclopedia of Technologies, forms part of a detailed archive of early imperial rule, which archeologists have been trying to decode since the 1920s.
Continue reading...The claim by Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces comes after widely reported explosions at Russia’s Saki air base. This live blog is now closed
Ukrainian officials are reporting that 11 people were killed and 13 wounded by Russian shelling in the Nikopol district in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region overnight.
Residential homes were reportedly damaged in the attack and as many as 1,000 people are without gas, the regional regional military administration said.
Russia likely plans to resource a large proportion of 3 AC from newly formed ‘volunteer’ battalions, which are being raised across the country, and which group together recruits from the same areas.
Russian regional politicians have confirmed that potential 3 AC recruits are being offered lucrative cash bonuses once they deploy to Ukraine.
Continue reading...Alexander Blong smashed the previous world record for the most carriages in a Lego train
A New Zealand teenager has broken a Guinness World Record for the most carriages in a Lego toy train, beating the previous record by 32 carriages, after he was inspired to break a record during boring Covid lockdowns.
It took 14-year-old Aucklander Alexander Blong roughly 50 hours to build the 101-carriage locomotive. When finished, it measured 25 metres long.
Continue reading...Xiao Qian says reset of China-Australia relationship is possible and suggests Washington had turned Canberra against Beijing
China’s ambassador to Australia has warned Beijing is prepared to use “all necessary means” to prevent Taiwan from being independent, saying there can be “no compromise” on the “one China” policy.
Xiao Qian on Wednesday repeatedly blamed the US for the recent escalation in tensions. China’s decision to launch ballistic missiles in live-fire exercises in response to speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was “legitimate and justified”, he told the National Press Club in Canberra.
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Continue reading...Manasseh Sogavare has moved to change the constitution to stay in office until after the Pacific Games in November 2023
The Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, has offered assurances any changes to the constitution to extend his time in office would be a one-time move, Australia’s Pacific minister says.
Sogavare has moved to change the constitution to extend his term in government until after the Pacific Games in November 2023.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy vows to ‘liberate’ Crimea as Kyiv denies responsibility for deadly attack on Russian airbase in the annexed peninsula
A Russian airbase deep behind the frontline in Crimea has been damaged by several large explosions, killing at least one person. It was not immediately clear whether it had been targeted by a long-range Ukrainian missile strike. In his nightly address, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, did not discuss who was behind the attacks but vowed to “liberate” Crimea, saying: “This Russian war against Ukraine and against the entire free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation.” An adviser to the president, Mikhail Podolyak, said Ukraine was not taking responsibility for the explosions, suggesting partisans might have been involved.
The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm warned of the “very high” risks from shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south and said it was vital Kyiv regains control over the facility in time for winter. Energoatom’s chief, Petro Kotin, told Reuters in an interview that last week’s Russian shelling had damaged three lines that connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Ukrainian grid and that Russia wanted to connect the facility to its grid.
Russian forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are reorienting the plant’s electricity production to connect to Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, according to Ukrainian operator Energoatom. “To do this, you must first damage the power lines of the plant connected to the Ukrainian energy system. From August 7 to 9, the Russians have already damaged three power lines. At the moment, the plant is operating with only one production line, which is an extremely dangerous way of working,” Energoatom president Petro Kotin told Ukrainian television. The plant, located not far from the Crimean peninsula, has six of Ukraine’s 15 reactors, and is capable of supplying power for four million homes.
The leaders of Estonia and Finland want fellow European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not be able to take holidays in Europe while the Russian government carries out a war in Ukraine. The Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, wrote on Tuesday on Twitter that “visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right” and that it was “time to end tourism from Russia now”, the Associated Press reported.
US president Joe Biden on Tuesday signed documents endorsing Finland and Sweden’s accession to Nato, the most significant expansion of the military alliance since the 1990s as it responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The US state department has approved $89m worth of assistance to help Ukraine equip and train 100 teams to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance for a year, Reuters reported.
The total number of grain-carrying ships to leave Ukrainian ports under a UN brokered deal to ease the global food crisis has now reached 12, with the two latest ships which left on Tuesday headed for Istanbul and Turkey.
Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has been struggling with quotas imposed by the EU for sanctioned goods that it can import across Lithuania from mainland Russia or Belarus, the region’s governor admitted. Lithuania infuriated Moscow in June by banning the land transit of goods such as concrete and steel to Kaliningrad after EU sanctions on them came into force, Reuters reported.
Russia has launched an Iranian satellite from Kazakhstan amid concerns it could be used for battlefield surveillance in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Iran has denied that the Khayyam satellite, which was delivered into orbit onboard a Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur cosmodrome, would ever be under Russian control. But the Washington Post previously reported that Moscow told Tehran it “plans to use the satellite for several months, or longer, to enhance its surveillance of military targets” in Ukraine, according to two US officials.
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