Atomic energy watchdog reports damage after Russia accuses Ukraine of dropping explosive charge nearby
The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned on Saturday that the safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “deteriorating” after a nearby drone strike.
Earlier on Saturday, Russia accused Ukraine of dropping an explosive charge on a road near the occupied plant in southern Ukraine.
Continue reading...The UK foreign secretary and his French counterpart write in the Observer about their fears over Israel’s escalating tensions with Iran
• It’s never too late for peace in the Middle East – we must break the cycle of violence
There is a rising risk of “full-scale regional war” in the Middle East, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned, amid frantic international efforts to calm tensions with Iran and reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
With the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, flying into Israel this weekend to push for a deal, Lammy has joined forces with his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, to warn that now is a “perilous moment” for the region in the midst of widespread fears of escalation involving Tehran and allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
Russia has lost 598,180 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
This number includes 1,230 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.
8,501 tanks
16,473 armoured fighting vehicles
22,913 vehicles and fuel tanks
16,985 artillery systems
1,160 multiple-launch rocket systems
923 air defence systems
367 aircraft
328 helicopters
13,714 drones
28 warships and boats
1 submarine
Continue reading...After months of being pushed steadily back – short of troops and ammunition – a Kyiv offensive to occupy a chunk of Russian territory took the Kremlin by surprise. The move has a clear political logic but is fraught with military danger
The immediate impact of Ukraine’s incursion into the Russian region of Kursk that began on 6 August has been a transformation in the morale of the Ukrainian public and even more so the narrative among Ukraine’s international partners.
The slow but inexorable loss of ground in Donbas that painted a grim picture of retreat has been replaced by images of a dynamic front. While deceptive, this new narrative is important in reminding Ukraine’s international partners that outcomes in war are not inevitable.
Continue reading...Staff were left cleaning bloodstains from the floor after brawl which started when one MP called the ruling majority ‘terrorists’
Dozens of lawmakers became embroiled in a fisticuffs brawl in Turkey’s parliament on Friday as they argued over a jailed opposition deputy stripped of his parliamentary immunity this year.
The 30-minute ruckus, which left at least two lawmakers injured, forced the suspension of the hearing. Deputies eventually returned for a vote that rejected an opposition move to restore the parliamentary mandate of lawyer and rights activist Can Atalay.
Continue reading...Dimitri Simes, whose name appeared prominently in Mueller report, ‘puzzled and concerned’ by raid in Virginia
FBI agents have raided and searched the Virginia home of Dimitri Simes, an author and policy analyst, who advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign and who currently hosts a current affairs program on Russia’s state-run Channel One.
The raid began on 13 August, the FBI told the local Rappahannock News, which first reported the story.
Continue reading...Pest control expert says warmer winters help creatures such as oriental hornets, snakes and rats thrive in the city
A Rome zoologist says the Italian capital has become “a proper jungle” amid a surge in the presence of snakes, oriental hornets, seagulls and rats owing to a combination of high temperatures and the city’s persistent problem with rubbish.
Andrea Lunerti, who is well known in Rome for capturing dangerous animals, said he had been inundated with calls this summer, especially about snake sightings.
Continue reading...Gardaí believe boy had been radicalised online and bore grudge about Irish peacekeepers in Middle East
Irish police suspect a possible terror motive in a stabbing attack outside an army barracks in Galway that inflicted serious injuries on a military chaplain.
Police have detained a 16-year-old boy who was reportedly radicalised online and had a grievance about Irish peacekeepers in the Middle East.
Continue reading...Comments by Zelenskiy aide come as officials in strategic Pokrovsk say Moscow’s forces are ‘advancing at a fast pace’
Ukraine’s lightning offensive into several Russian border regions is designed to persuade Moscow to engage in “fair” talks about its war in Ukraine, an aide to Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, as Russian forces close in on the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region.
“We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia,” the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process.
Continue reading...The UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were initially disorganised following Ukraine’s lightning offensive
Russian forces took control of Serhiivka, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Reuters reported citing the TASS state news agency.
Joe Biden has met with Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family in the White House.
Continue reading...Transport for London confirms 330 vehicles approved for donation to help country’s war effort
More than 200 vehicles that fell foul of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) have been sent to Ukraine to aid the country’s war effort, despite initial legal concerns over the plan.
Transport for London (TfL) said on Friday that 330 vehicles had been given the green light to be sent to Ukraine under the Ulez vehicle scrappage scheme. More than 200 are already in the eastern European country.
Continue reading...People say they are determined and that prevention will be key to mitigating the effects of the climate crisis
“I used to talk to them every day.” Dimitris Petrou takes in the creatures that were once his fluffy chicks but now look like coals. The buckled cage with its carbonised birds is part of the cataclysmic scenery left behind by the fire that bore down on Athens after raging across the Attica plains consuming everything in its path.
The 72-year-old retiree and his wife, Frosso, though red-eyed and fatigued, are “somehow still going” but are profoundly shocked.
Continue reading...In letter to Ilham Aliyev, campaigners urge release of Gubad Ibadoghlu after pre-trial process halted indefinitely
A group of British MPs have called on the Azerbaijan government to free an academic from the London School of Economics and Political Science who was detained after writing articles critical of the country’s environmental policies.
Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, who is based in the UK, was arrested and held by Azerbaijan authorities while visiting members of his family in July 2023. He has been a prominent critic of the ruling elite in the Eurasian nation, which is preparing to host the Cop29 Climate Summit in November.
Continue reading...Clade I case comes after World Health Organization declares a global public health emergency
Sweden confirmed its first case of the more contagious variant of mpox, a viral infection that spreads through close contact, marking the first time it has been found outside Africa.
The person was infected while in a part of Africa where there was a large outbreak of the disease, Olivia Wigzell, director-general at the Swedish public health agency, told a press conference.
Continue reading...Military commandant’s office is being established in city, says president as discussions over prisoner exchanges restart
Ukraine’s president has claimed Kyiv’s troops have full control over the Russian town of Sudzha, which had a prewar population of 5,000 people and contains infrastructure pumping Russian gas towards Europe.
Sudzha, roughly six miles (9.6km) inside Russian territory, is the biggest of 80 settlements that Ukraine claims to have taken during the 10 days since its surprise incursion into Russia began.
Continue reading...Paul Watson fighting efforts byJapan to have him stand trial there for 2010 confrontation with whalers
A Greenland court has ordered the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson to remain in custody until 5 September pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan.
Watson, an American-Canadian who has been detained since his arrest in Nuuk in July, had appealed against the court’s decision, the statement on Thursday added.
Continue reading...Police arrest Letzte Generation protesters who cut holes in fences and glued themselves to asphalt
Climate activists have broken into four German airport sites, briefly bringing air traffic to a halt at two of those before police made arrests.
Protesters from Letzte Generation – Germany’s equivalent to Just Stop Oil – gained access on Thursday to airfields in areas near the takeoff and landing strips of Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg, Berlin Brandenburg and Stuttgart airports at dawn. Air traffic was suspended for a short time at Nuremberg and Cologne-Bonn due to police operations.
Continue reading...President says military commandant’s office being established in city. This live blog is closed
Russia’s defence ministry said today that its forces had regained control of the settlement of Krupets in the Kursk region, Reuters reported.
Here are some of the latest images from eastern Ukraine.
Continue reading...Germany’s Bahlsen biscuit empire used workers from Nazi-occupied Poland and Ukraine from 1940 until 1945
Germany’s Bahlsen biscuit empire has apologised for the “painful” findings of a report showing that it used several times more forced labourers than previously thought during the Nazi period.
The report was commissioned after family heiress Verena Bahlsen caused outrage in 2019 by appearing to play down the hardship suffered by hundreds of people, many of them women from Nazi-occupied Ukraine, forced to work at the family business.
Continue reading...Spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelenskiy denies WSJ claims and again accuses Russia of carrying out the sabotage
The Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up by a small Ukrainian sabotage team in an operation that was initially approved by Volodymyr Zelenskiy and then called off, but which went ahead anyway, according to claims in a report in the Wall Street Journal.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian president has denied the claims.
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