How successful has Ukraine’s counteroffensive been so far?

Ukraine’s brigades record videos of flag-raisings in a series of villages but its fundamental challenge of a lack of combat aircraft remains

Two things stand out with Ukraine’s counteroffensive more than a week under way. Ukraine is pushing forward at several points, mostly along the southern front but also in the east. And in some places, its army is making incremental but real gains, liberating villages near the frontline.

In the last week Ukraine has attacked on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia sector, where the frontlines meet the Dnipro River at a point; again south of Orikhiv 18 miles east and, most significantly, either side of a Russian salient at the border between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts.

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About 100 wedding guests feared dead as boat capsizes in northern Nigeria

Victims, including women and children, were reportedly returning from ceremony

A boat carrying residents returning from a wedding capsized in northern Nigeria killing about 100 people, police and local residents have said, as a search for survivors intensified.

The boat capsized early on Monday on the Niger River in the state of Kwara close to neighbouring Niger state, a police spokesperson, Okasanmi Ajayi, said.

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Pakistan media decry de facto ban on giving airtime to Imran Khan

Journalists say directive on hate speech issued by regulator indirectly affects coverage of former PM

Broadcast journalists in Pakistan have decried a de facto ban on mentioning Imran Khan by name or showing his image after a series of directives issued by the country’s media regulator.

Pakistan’s parliament ousted Khan from parliament in April last year. Since then he has been making nearly daily headlines with fiery speeches and tweets directed at the government and army.

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Israel prepares for vote related to controversial judicial reform plan

Knesset to elect two members to judges selection committee, with hardliners in ruling coalition pushing to pick both members

Israeli politics is once again reaching a fever pitch before a crucial vote related to the government’s controversial proposals to overhaul the judiciary.

The Knesset will convene on Wednesday to elect two representatives to Israel’s judicial selection committee – the composition of which is at the heart of the now six-month-old battle over the future of Israeli democracy.

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US halts appointments using migrant phone app at Texas border crossing

Move follows reports of extortion by Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo who threaten migrants with missing asylum appointments

The Biden administration has stopped taking mobile phone app appointments to admit asylum seekers at a Texas border crossing that connects to a notoriously dangerous Mexican city after advocates warned US authorities that migrants were being targeted there for extortion.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gave no explanation for its decision to stop scheduling new appointments via the CBP One app for the crossing in Laredo, Texas.

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No need for martial law in Russia, says Putin; senior Russian general killed in Zaporizhzhia, says Moscow – as it happened

Russian president says Russia needs to ‘fight enemy agents’ inside its own territory; Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev killed by cruise missile. This live blog is closed

What we know on day 475 of the way

A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, Russia’s RBK news outlet reported, citing the local city administration.

RBK reported that the fire was now contained and its cause was not immediately clear.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.

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Twenty-two troops injured in helicopter ‘mishap’ in Syria, US military says

Ten evacuated to care facilities outside region after incident on Sunday that is being investigated

Twenty-two US service members were injured in a helicopter “mishap” in north-east Syria on Sunday, the US military said late on Monday, without disclosing the cause of the incident or detailing the severity of the injuries.

The military’s Central Command said 10 service members had been evacuated to higher-level care facilities outside the region.

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Ukraine: Russia launches deadly missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, says mayor

People feared trapped in rubble from attack on five-storey residential building in central Ukrainian city

Six people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, as air attacks were reported in Kyiv and other cities.

“A five-storey building got destroyed” Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. “There are still people under the rubble.”

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Aid agencies raise alarm as solo children cross Chad border to flee Sudan fighting

Unicef says ‘more and more unaccompanied children’ among thousands of refugees streaming across 1,000km-long border

Hundreds of unaccompanied children have crossed the border from Sudan into Chad in recent weeks as fighting separates families and forces minors to make the arduous journey to safety without their parents.

Humanitarian workers say “more and more” children are arriving alone in the neighbouring country, to which more than 100,000 refugees, about 60% of them under-18s, have fled since fighting erupted between rival military factions in mid-April.

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Gillian Anderson and Stanley Tucci back calls to rescue British families in Syria

Estimated 60 children among those trapped in detention camps since Islamic State collapse

A group of celebrities including Olivia Colman, Stephen Fry and Gillian Anderson have called on ministers to rescue and bring home British families trapped in detention camps in north-east Syria.

The stars, along with various NGOs including War Child UK and Human Rights Watch, the Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi and several national security experts, have signed an open letter to the UK government appealing for the rescue of approximately 25 British families, including an estimated 60 children most of whom are under 10 years old, who are languishing in the camps.

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Canada: top judge investigated over alleged drunken fight steps down

Supreme court justice Russell Brown says allegations of misconduct are false but investigation has placed strain on family

A Canadian supreme court judge under investigation for his alleged involvement in a drunken fight has resigned, marking the first time a member of the top court has resigned amid questions of misconduct.

Russell Brown, appointed to the nine-judge court in August 2015, had stepped aside in February after reports emerged of a confrontation with a US marine veteran in an Arizona resort in late January.

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Donald Trump arrives in Florida on eve of arraignment; Miami police say they can handle crowds of up to 50,000 – live

Former US president lands in Miami ahead of court appearance on Tuesday; Miami officials detailed security measures in press briefing

The White House said Joe Biden will not be under anesthesia during his root canal today, meaning the 25th amendment won’t be invoked.

Ratified in 1967, the amendment is one of the most recent additions to the constitution, and outlines the procedure for the vice-president to temporarily assume the president’s duties at the chief executive’s request. In November 2021, Biden used its authority to hand power to Kamala Harris while he underwent a colonoscopy.

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Mexico City mayor resigns in bid to become country’s first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum will seek ruling party’s nomination to succeed Andrés Manuel López Obrador in election next year

Mexico City’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has announced that she will step down this Friday to seek the ruling party’s presidential nomination, bidding to become the country’s first female leader in an election due to be held next year.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) said on Sunday it would on6 September announce the winning candidate from its internal selection process. Sheinbaum is one of the favorites.

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Belgian man charged with fatally shooting British girl, 11, in France

Suspect Dirk Raats has been officially put under investigation for murder of Solaine Thornton

A man has appeared in court in France charged with shooting dead an 11-year-old British girl who was playing in the garden of her family home.

The suspect, Dirk Raats, 70, originally from Antwerp in Belgium, has been officially put under investigation for the murder of Solaine Thornton and the attempted murder of her parents, Adrian and Rachel Thornton.

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Rescuers reveal tragic words of children who survived in Colombian jungle

Siblings, who spent more than 40 days in Amazon after plane crash in early May, told of mother’s death when search party arrived

The tragic first words four Colombian children spoke after surviving for 40 days in the Amazon jungle have been revealed by their rescuers, as the youngsters recover at a military hospital in Bogotá.

When a search party found the emaciated children on Friday, the first thing Tien Noriel Ranoque Mucutuy, four, said was: “My mother is dead.”

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Romania recalls ambassador who allegedly compared monkey to African diplomats

UN’s Africa group ‘not prepared to participate’ with Dragos Viorel Tigau after alleged comment in Kenya

The Africa group within the United Nations said it would never work again with the Romanian ambassador to Kenya in certain forums after he allegedly compared them to a monkey while attending a meeting in Nairobi.

The group also demanded an unconditional and public apology to the people of Africa.

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Too soon to say where counteroffensive going, US says, but Washington confident Kyiv will prevail – as it happened

US secretary of state Antony Blinken says Ukraine should expect ‘robust’ political and practical support from the Nato summit. This live blog is closed

Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Kherson over the news wires.

Ukraine has issued this video which shows footage from the liberation of Storozheve.

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Silvio Berlusconi, scandal-ridden former Italian prime minister, dies aged 86

Health of flamboyant media tycoon who led three Italian governments had deteriorated in recent years

Allies and critics have paid tribute to the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the country’s longest-serving postwar leader and one of its most divisive, who has died aged 86.

The billionaire media tycoon and former AC Milan owner who entered politics at the head of his own Forza Italia in the 1990s as the traditional parties of the right collapsed led three governments between 1994 and 2011 and succeeded in making a comeback in 2017 despite a career tainted by sex scandals, allegations of corruption and a tax fraud conviction.

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Quebec fires weakened by rain as blazes in western Canada force many to flee

More than 14,000 remain under evacuation as nearly 450 fires burned across the country on Sunday, with 220 out of control

Overdue rains and cooler temperatures have given Quebec fire crews a chance to launch their assault on dozens of wildfires, but the reprieve for one part of Canada comes as fires in the west of the country have once again forced residents to flee their homes.

The country has been struggling with an “unprecedented” wildfire season, with nearly 450 forest fires across the country on Sunday, 220 of which were burning out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

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