Group numbering at least 80 discovered in uninhabited region reportedly without water, food or shelter
Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants they said had been left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water, food or shelter.
Hundreds of people from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city.
Continue reading...Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, her adopted France took her to its heart
France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.
Continue reading...Russia says air defence forces intercepted attacks over port city of Sevastopol; Putin says Russia will take ‘reciprocal’ action if devices used on his troops
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said Ukraine has done an “extraordinary” job in defending their country but when asked what endgame looked like he said the path will be “extremely difficult”.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday:
I think there are two issues … it’s extremely difficult to see how you get a solution to this unless it’s very clear that Ukraine has a clear path to European Union membership, and a clear path to Nato membership.
I think probably people will wait and see what happens after this Ukrainian counter offensive. The Ukrainians have done an extraordinary job in defending their country and by the way, defending us by defending their country, but I think it will be how you deal with those two issues together. This is going to be extremely difficult, but I do think once we take stock after the counteroffensive, we’ve got to see if there was a way to bring it to an end with a negotiated end to it.
Territory is going to be the most difficult thing because Ukrainians will never accept the territory that, from an international community point of view has being taken wrongly from them, should be left with with Russia.
Of course, if they are used against us, we reserve the right to take reciprocal action.
Continue reading...Kyiv reports fighting has intensified on eastern front, with its forces on defensive near Kupiansk
Ukraine said fighting had intensified on the eastern front as further details emerged about the number of Wagner troops who had relocated to Belarus.
“The situation has somewhat intensified in the east,” the Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. She added that Ukrainian forces were on the defensive near the eastern city of Kupiansk but making advances near Bakhmut.
Continue reading...New system pushing into region from north Africa could lead to temperatures above record 48.8C
Southern Europe is bracing for a second heat storm in a week, with Italy, Greece and Spain, along with Morocco and other Mediterranean countries, being told temperature records could be broken on Tuesday.
A new anticyclone that pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday could lift temperatures above the record 48.8C (120F) seen in Sicily in August 2021, and follows last week’s Cerberus heatwave.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister fitted with monitoring device after being kept overnight with dehydration
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been discharged from hospital after heart monitoring tests showed no irregularities during an overnight admission for dehydration.
Netanyahu, 73, was taken to hospital near his private residence in the coastal town of Caesarea on Saturday afternoon after complaining of dizziness and kept overnight for observation, his office said.
Continue reading...Fifteen-year-old boy charged with assault by police after incident in Queensland in early hours of Sunday
A British backpacker has been stabbed by a teenager at an Australian beach resort, according to local media reports.
Police were called to Hastings Street in Noosa, on the Queensland coast, in the early hours of Sunday after a 25-year-old man was allegedly attacked by a 15-year-old boy after an argument.
Continue reading...The walkout by writers and screen stars won’t affect just the US film industry but production in UK and Europe
There will be no fresh helpings of The White Lotus, The Last of Us or even Emily in Paris beaming into front rooms when summer fades. Nor will a screen version of the musical Wicked, starring Ariana Grande, be showing in your local cinema in the spring. And all shooting on Gladiator 2 in Morocco is likely to be indefinitely paused. Already, the wails are almost audible.
On this, the first weekend of the American screen actors’ strike, the level of frustration registered by film and TV drama fans around the world has dwarfed earlier reactions to the equivalent writers’ strike, running since the beginning of May.
Continue reading...Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of shelling civilians; Moscow issues criminal charges against seven in alleged plot to kill top Russian journalists
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling civilians in a village in Zaporizhzhia after three people were wounded in attacks. The head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said Russian forces bombed the village of Stepnohirske using multiple rocket launchers, hitting an administrative building. Moscow-backed officials claimed it was Kyiv’s forces that shelled a school in the village of Stulneve and air defence forces intercepted a drone over the city of Tokmak. Both sides have denied targeting civilians.
Russia has issued criminal charges against seven people who planned to kill two prominent Russian journalists in an alleged Ukrainian-backed plot, according to the state-owned Tass news agency. Russia’s FSB security service detained an unspecified number of people who conducted reconnaissance near the homes and workplaces of journalists Margarita Simonyan, head of state media outlet RT, and Ksenia Sobchak, who ran against President Vladimir Putin in 2018. The FSB said detainees had admitted preparing attacks on the two women on behalf of Ukraine and had been promised a reward of 1.5m roubles for each one.
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has pledged to increase his country’s humanitarian and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Yoon said Seoul would “expand the scale of supplies from last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bullet-proof vests”, adding that humanitarian aid would be increased to $150m in 2023, from $100m last year.
Vladimir Putin has said the main objective of the deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume was not achieved, in a call with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa. The Black Sea grain deal that eased fears of a global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine is due to expire late Monday unless Russia agrees to renew it. “The main goal of the deal, namely the supply of grain to countries in need, including on the African continent, has not been implemented,” Putin said according to a Kremlin release.
Ukraine has criticised Bulgaria’s president over his remarks that Kyiv is to blame for Russia’s ongoing war and that supplying arms to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict. President Rumen Radev spoke about the recent Nato summit and said that he wanted “to make it clear that Ukraine insists on fighting this war … But it should also be clear that the bill is paid by the whole of Europe.” The embassy of Ukraine in Sofia rejected Radev’s stance that supplying arms to Ukraine fuels and prolongs the war, saying Kyiv was making all possible efforts to restore peace.
Ukrainians have reacted with bemusement, mild irritation and irony to UK defence secretary Ben Wallace’s comments that the country should be more grateful for the help it is receiving from the UK and other allies as it fights off Russian aggression. Kyiv previously regarded Wallace as a staunch supporter and friend. His remarks – on the second day of the Nato summit in Lithuania last week – mystified officials. “Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” Wallace said, asked about President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s frustration at not being given a formal invitation to join Nato.
A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early on Saturday, according to independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun. At least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police. Belarus’s defence ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills.
Continue reading...Mary Somerville, 39, died in Edinburgh following loss of Jaime Carsi, 40, in Mallorca, which was blamed on a faulty fridge
A woman has died two months after her husband was killed by a suspected gas leak from a broken fridge while on honeymoon in Mallorca.
Mary Somerville, 39, was found unconscious lying next to Jaime Carsi at a holiday home on 6 May.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister, 73, thought to be suffering from dehydration and is undergoing medical tests in hospital near Tel Aviv
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he “feels very good” after being taken to a Tel Aviv hospital for what doctors determined was likely to be dehydration.
Israel’s prime minister issued a video statement hours after he was hospitalised. In the statement, Netanyahu said he had been out in the sun on Friday without a hat and without water. “Not a good idea,” he said.
Continue reading...FSB says it has detained people carrying out reconnaissance near the homes of Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak
Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in which the two leaders discussed the Black Sea grain deal and an African peace initiative on Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
On the grain deal, which expires on Monday, Putin reiterated to Ramaphosa that commitments to remove obstacles to Russian food and fertiliser exports had not yet been fulfilled, the Kremlin said.
Continue reading...Soaring hurricane-cover premiums are bad news for the state’s homeowners – and Ron DeSantis is accused of dragging his feet
Households in Florida, the third most populous state in the US, have been grappling for some time with a property insurance crisis that is making home ownership unaffordable for many. After at least six insurers went insolvent in Florida last year, Farmers on Tuesday became the latest to pull out of the Florida market, saying in a statement that the decision was based on risk exposure in the hurricane-prone state.
Climate change is threatening the very existence of some parts of Florida. And the costs are already being felt by Floridians. At the end of 2022, average annual property insurance premiums had already risen to more than $4,200 in Florida – three times the national average.
Continue reading...Bodies recovered from underpass as downpours trigger landslides and force evacuation of thousands
Rescuers in South Korea are battling to reach people trapped in a flooded tunnel, while at least 37 people have died after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides.
South Korea is at the peak of its summer monsoon season and there has been heavy rainfall for the last four days, causing a major dam to overflow.
Continue reading...Yoon Suk-yeol, whose country gives humanitarian and financial aid but not arms, laid flowers at monument to war dead
The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, in an apparent show of support for the country in its war with Russia.
Yoon travelled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Keon-hee, after trips to Lithuania for a Nato summit and to Poland, his office said. It is his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 17 months ago.
Continue reading...Rome, Florence and Bologna among areas affected as forecasters say Sicily and Sardinia could face record 49C temperatures
Sixteen cities across Italy have been issued with red alerts as southern Europe continues to experience fierce heat and faces the possibility of record-breaking temperatures.
Rome, Florence and Bologna are among the areas affected by the heatwave, with forecasters suggesting that Sicily and Sardinia could see temperatures climb as high as 49C (120F), which would be the hottest ever recorded in Europe.
Continue reading...Political scientists read the Republican runes and suggest Trump will win the nomination – but how would he fare in a 2020 rematch?
As it stands, political scientists expect Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination for president. Most GOP candidates are in lockstep with Trumpist policies and culture wars, failing to differentiate in an already scattered field; despite the appearance of a united front, factions within the party cannot agree on when and how to pass hardline legislation. Traditional conservative forces are looking for a less volatile alternative with a more viable path to win the general election, and as that concern mounts, some experts say Biden could be narrowly re-elected if the race is a rematch of 2020.
“Trump is the mainstream,” said Allan Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University, pointing out that “so-called mainstream Republicans” such as Liz Cheney are now out of office.
Continue reading...Retirement from Rainbow PUSH Coalition follows several health problems in recent years
The US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is to step down down as head of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded.
The organisation announced on Friday that the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate would be celebrated this weekend at the coalition’s annual convention.
Continue reading...After years of underinvestment, reservoir has had to be topped up from estuary, raising health concerns
More than half of Uruguay’s 3.5 million citizens are without access to tap water fit for drinking, and experts say the situation could continue for months.
Some had predicted the crisis years ago when pointing out the vulnerability of the single reservoir supplying water to the metropolitan area around the capital, Montevideo.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy says Russia doing everything it can to stop Ukrainian troop advance; Putin says he tried and failed to have Prigozhin replaced as Wagner leader in Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukrainians must understand that Russia is deploying all possible resources to stop Kyiv’s forces from advancing in the east and south of Ukraine. It comes after reports of the counteroffensive advancing slowly. The Ukrainian president said on Friday: “We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers.”
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office said battles were difficult but that western allies were not putting pressure on Kyiv to advance faster. Andriy Yermak said: “Today it’s advancing not so quickly. If we are going to see that something is going wrong, we’ll say so. No one is going to embellish.”
Vladimir Putin has said he sought and failed to have Yevgeny Prigozhin replaced as the leader of Wagner’s fighters in Ukraine. Putin’s version of events, which appeared in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, was a surprise admission that the Russian president was still negotiating a takeover of the Wagner mercenary group.
Boris Johnson has criticised Nato’s “mealy mouthed procrastination” and called for a timetable to be drawn up for Ukraine to join, after this week’s difficult summit in Lithuania. Writing in the Daily Mail, the former British prime minister said it was “no wonder” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “found it hard” to conceal his frustration at the joint declaration released on Tuesday that stopped short of outlining a roadmap to Nato membership.
Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which expires next week, according to the Turkish president. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he had spoken with his Russian counterpart about the crucial deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis. Moscow played down Erdoğan’s comments, saying an agreement had not yet been reached.
A Kyiv court has ordered pre-trial detention for a senior cleric of a branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with historic links to Moscow on suspicion of sympathising with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian news reports said a Kyiv district court set bail at more than 33 million hryvnias (about $900,000). The church denies the allegations and says it severed all ties with Moscow last year. Metropolitan Pavlo had been under house arrest since April on suspicion of inflaming religious hatred and justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
An alleged Russian intelligence officer has pleaded not guilty to US charges of smuggling American-origin electronics and ammunition to Russia to help its war against Ukraine. Vadim Konoschenok, who was extradited on Thursday from Estonia, entered the plea in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday. Magistrate judge Ramon Reyes ordered Konoschenok, 48, be detained pending trial, after prosecutors called him a flight risk.
Russian air defence systems shot down two UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles that Ukraine had fired at Melitopol and Berdiansk on Thursday, the Russian-imposed leader of occupied Zaporizhzhia, Yevhen Balitsky, has claimed.
Mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the country’s defence ministry has said. “[Wagner] fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines,” it said on Friday.
A Ukrainian court has jailed a man for 10 years after finding him guilty of plotting with Russia to blow up transport infrastructure to disrupt foreign arms supplies. Ukraine’s domestic security agency said it detained the man in February before he had been able to carry out his mission.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a meeting with Ukraine’s intelligence chief and said on Telegram that according to intelligence data, there was no threat of invasion from Belarus.
Russia has accused the west of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the Chornobyl plant is located. Roman Starovoit, the Kursk oblast governor, said on Telegram that no residents were injured. “Critical facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and its subsequent detonation.”
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