Tourist boat was reportedly carrying more than 20 people when it was struck by a whirlwind on Sunday
Two agents from the Italian intelligence services and a retired member of the Israeli security forces were among the victims when a tourist boat capsized and sank in a sudden, violent storm in a northern Italian lake, it has emerged.
Claudio Alonzi, 62, and Tiziana Barnobi, 53, who worked for Italian intelligence, were officially named among the dead on Monday.
Continue reading...Decision follows poor performance in Sunday’s regional and municipal elections
Spain’s centre-right Citizens party, once seen as a potential kingmaker, has announced it will not run in July’s snap general election after an abysmal performance in Sunday’s regional and municipal elections, ceding its space to the triumphant conservative People’s party (PP).
Citizens attracted just 1.35% of the vote and lost its seats in 12 regional parliaments on Sunday, suggesting that the party is in its death throes. Its decline began in 2018 when it refused to back the socialists’ successful vote of no confidence in the corruption-mired PP government of Mariano Rajoy, and was exacerbated by its decision to abandon the centre ground and shift to the right.
Continue reading...ICC warrant for Russian president’s arrest issued in March over alleged war crimes in Ukraine
South Africa has issued blanket diplomatic immunity to all leaders attending an August summit, meaning Vladimir Putin might be able to travel to Johannesburg and not fear the country acting on an international criminal court warrant for his arrest.
South African officials insisted the broad offer of immunity, issued in a government gazette, may not trump the ICC arrest warrant. As an ICC member, South Africa would be under pressure, and possibly under a legal requirement, to arrest Putin. The court issued a warrant for his arrest in March over the alleged forcible deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
Continue reading...‘Massive’ strikes early on Tuesday morning, with falling debris setting an apartment building on fire
At least one person has died in Kyiv and three were injured when falling debris reportedly from a destroyed Russian drone hit a high-rise apartment building early on Tuesday and started a fire, officials in the Ukrainian capital said.
The attack on Kyiv was the third in 24 hours and came after a rare daytime attack on Monday that sent people running for shelter.
Continue reading...Eleven Russian missiles aimed at Kyiv shot down in rare daytime attack; Russia puts US senator Lindsey Graham on wanted list
Eleven Russian missiles aimed at Kyiv were shot down by the Ukrainian air defence on Monday morning. One person was hospitalised as a result of the attacks. The local authority reported that the roof of a two-story building caught fire in the district as a result of falling debris, but that the fire was contained.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that using US-provided Patriot anti-missile systems ensured a 100% interception rate and would play a role in pushing forward against Russia’s invasion. “When Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a 100% interception rate of any Russian missile, terror will be defeated,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Any peace settlement acceptable to Ukraine would include a demilitarised zone extending between 100km and 120km into Russia, the adviser to the head of the office of Ukraine’s president, Mykhailo Podolyak, has suggested. The key topic of the postwar settlement should be the establishment of safeguards to prevent a recurrence of aggression in the future, he said.
US president Joe Biden said that in a call on Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan repeated Ankara’s desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while Biden responded that Washington was keen to see Ankara drop its objection to Sweden’s joining Nato. The exchange took place when Biden called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday.
Two people were killed and eight were wounded in a Russian attack on the city of Toretsk on Monday morning, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said. Kyrylenko said Russian forces had used high-explosive aerial bombs in the attack at about 11:30 am local time which damaged a gas station and a multi-storey building in the city.
Russia’s interior ministry has put US senator Lindsey Graham on a wanted list after the Investigative Committee said it was opening a criminal probe into his comments on a Ukrainian state video. In an edited video released by the Ukrainian president’s office of Graham’s meeting with Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday, Graham was shown saying “the Russians are dying” and then saying US support was the “best money we’ve ever spent”. Russia said Graham should say publicly if he believes his words were taken out of context in the video edit.
Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said that he would sign a bill to allow a panel to investigate whether the opposition party Civic Platform (PO) allowed the country to be unduly influenced by Russia and as a result become too dependent on its fuel when it was in power. The PO party rejects the claims and says the law is designed to destroy support for the party in the lead up to the elections being held at the end of the year.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said that her government planned to increase spending on military aid to Ukraine by $2.6bn over this year and next year. Earlier this year, Denmark set up a $1b fund for military, civilian and business aid to Ukraine. Danmarks Radio, the Danish public-service broadcaster, reported that the new funds were earmarked for military aid.
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill that sanctions Iran for 50 years. The bill was put forward by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The bill will stop Iranian goods transiting through Ukraine and ban use of its airspace, as well as imposing trade, financial and technology sanctions against Iran and its citizens.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin “appears to have again indirectly undermined Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authority and regime”, the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its latest analysis of the conflict. The US-based thinktank based its assertion on the response given by Prigozhin to a journalist asking about Russian state media’s ban on any discussion of Wagner.
Foreign investors who left Russia after selling their businesses there between March 2022 and March 2023 withdrew about $36bn from the country, the state RIA news agency reports, citing analysis of data from the Central Bank.
The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a medical facility in Dnipro on Friday rose from two to four people, according to the region’s governor.
Continue reading...Local media say man, 26, was being filmed in sea off Agia Agathi beach in Rhodes when lightning struck water nearby
An investigation has been launched into the death of a British man who was reportedly struck by lightning while paddleboarding in Greece.
The unnamed man was in the sea off the beach in Agia Agathi, Rhodes, as his girlfriend filmed him from the beach, according to local media.
Continue reading...Dozens of Italian and Hungarian soldiers from Kfor mission and more than 50 Serbs were injured in clashes over ethnic Albanian mayors taking office
More than 30 Nato peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo have been injured in clashes with Serb protesters, while Serbia’s president put the army on the highest level of combat alert.
The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb-majority area after elections that the Serbs boycotted – a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.
Continue reading...Sixteen months since Elina Svitolina last competed in a grand slam tournament, the Australian Open, life has changed significantly. She is now a mother, having taken maternity leave from the tour before giving birth to her first child, Skaï, with her husband, Gaël Monfils. Her country, Ukraine, has been invaded by Russia. She spent much of her time away from the sport, including during her pregnancy, advocating for her country’s cause.
On the court, however, not too much has changed. Svitolina returned to the French Open with a spectacular performance, dismantling the 26th seed, Martina Trevisan, a semi-finalist last year, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the second round. Trevisan is Svitolina’s first top‑30 win of her comeback.
Continue reading...Beluga whale was first spotted in Norway wearing a harness marked ‘Equipment St Petersburg’ in 2019
A beluga whale that turned up in Norway wearing a harness in 2019, prompting speculation it was a spy trained by the Russian navy, has reappeared off Sweden’s coast.
First discovered in Norway’s far northern region of Finnmark, the whale spent more than three years slowly moving down the top half of the Norwegian coastline, before suddenly speeding up in recent months to cover the second half and move on to Sweden.
Continue reading...Capital’s mayor warns residents to take shelter after explosions reported in central area
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this roundup of overnight events in the skies over Ukraine:
At night, Russia launched up to 40 cruise missiles and about 35 drones over Ukraine: air defence managed to shoot down 37 missiles and 29 “Shahed” drones. Debris fell in several districts of Kyiv and the region. There are no dead or injured.
Russia attacked targets in the Khmelnytskyi region: one of them is a military one. Five aircraft were disabled, and fires broke out in fuel and lubricant warehouses. Fires are being extinguished and the runway is being restored.
Continue reading...Airline said to have demanded two passengers pay €45 each to take ensaïmada onboard with hand luggage
The government of the Balearic Islands has called an urgent meeting with Ryanair and the local pastry-makers’ association after the airline tried to charge passengers to bring cakes onboard, claiming it exceeded their cabin baggage limit.
The row erupted after two passengers at Palma de Mallorca airport tried to each carry an ensaïmada, a traditional Mallorcan pastry, along with their hand baggage. The airline demanded an additional €45 (£39) each to bring the pastries onboard, at which point the passengers abandoned them rather than paying.
Continue reading...Residents run for shelter during attack that appears to have been part of effort to exhaust air defences
Russian forces have launched an intense and unusual daytime missile barrage at Kyiv, forcing residents to flee to bomb shelters, in what appears to be an effort to exhaust Ukraine’s air defences.
The Ukrainian military said it had intercepted all 11 of the ballistic and cruise missiles fired at the city in the attack that began at 11am. One person was reported to have been injured. Residents who had become accustomed to a string of night-time attacks ran to Kyiv’s metro stations and other shelters after a succession of loud bangs as incoming missiles were intercepted and bursts of smoke from air defences dotted the clear morning sky.
Continue reading...At least one person hospitalised after daytime missile attack on Kyiv; Ukraine claims to have shot down 37 missiles and 29 drones overnight
Continue reading...Latvians woke up to go to work Monday morning, only to find they didn’t have to. Their parliament had met at midnight to declare a holiday after the national ice hockey team chalked up its best result at the world championship.
Latvia, where hockey is hugely popular, co-hosted the men’s championship with Finland, and the country’s 4-3 overtime victory over the United States for the bronze medal on Sunday was greeted with jubilation.
Continue reading...People’s party strengthens hold on Madrid and could take regions of Valencia and Aragón, according to poll
Spain’s opposition conservative People’s party (PP) is heading for an emphatic win in Sunday’s key regional and municipal elections, winning an absolute majority in the city of Madrid and in the surrounding area.
It is poised to wrest the regions of Valencia, Aragón and the Balearic islands from the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE).
Continue reading...Boat reportedly carrying more than 20 people was overturned in ‘whirlwind’ on Lake Maggiore on Sunday
Italian firefighters say they have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized and sank in a sudden, violent storm.
The boat was reportedly carrying more than 20 people, including a group of foreign tourists celebrating a birthday, plus two crew members, when a whirlwind overturned the vessel on Sunday.
Continue reading...Re-elected president could take Nato country further towards Russia, or may instead be more open to alternatives
Western capitals remained silent through Turkey’s presidential campaign – privately hoping Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s erratic 20-year rule would come to a surprise close – but now he has been handed a decisive mandate to serve a third term, the west is caught between fear and hope.
It fears he will exploit the result to take this Nato founder member further from the liberal secular west, but hopes against hope that, not being eligible to run again and thus freed from the need to pander to a nationalist electorate for the rest of his political life, he may at least be open to persuasion and base his foreign policy on something other than self-preservation.
Continue reading...Pink Floyd co-founder rejects accusations before his Sunday night concert in former Nazi site
Several Jewish groups, politicians and an alliance of civil society groups gathered for a memorial ceremony and a protest rally against a concert by Roger Waters in Frankfurt on Sunday evening.
They accuse the Pink Floyd co-founder of antisemitism – an allegation he denies.
Continue reading...Andrei Kelin tells BBC: ‘It is an idealistic mistake to think that Ukraine will prevail’
The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a clinic in Dnipro has risen from two to four people, according to the region’s governor.
In a post on Telegram, Serhii Lysak said further analysis had confirmed that three missing people had been killed in the attack on Friday.
Continue reading...Speculation climate protesters could be responsible for phosphorescent patch that appeared by Rialto Bridge
Police in Venice are investigating the source of phosphorescent green liquid that appeared on Sunday in the city’s Grand Canal, amid speculation it was caused by climate protesters.
Gondoliers could be seen punting through the phosphorescent waters while tourists took photographs of the green patch, from the Rialto Bridge up and along part of the canal.
Continue reading...