This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blog
Russian security services have moved swiftly against the Wagner boss,
denouncing Prigozhin for “treachery” and ordering the mercenary
group’s fighters to detain their commander.
The defence ministry also published videos with several senior
military generals who urged Prigozhin to stop what one commander
described as a “coup.”
Boat capsized in strong winds with most passengers feared dead, according to four survivors cited by migrants’ organisation
Thirty-seven people are missing after their boat capsized between Tunisia and the Italian island of Lampedusa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, citing an account by four survivors of the shipwreck.
The UN agency said the survivors, all from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived on Lampedusa late on Thursday, having been rescued from the shipwreck by another vessel.
Continue reading...FSB opens criminal case after Yevgeny Prigozhin accuses Russia’s military of rocket attack and says ‘evil’ leadership must be stopped
Russia’s FSB security service has opened a criminal case for armed mutiny against Wagner’s Yevgeny Prigozhin after the mercenary chief accused the Russian military of targeting his forces and vowed to “destroy” his rivals.
In an extraordinary series of audio clips released late on Friday, Prigozhin claimed that a Russian rocket attack had killed scores of his fighters, vowing to take “revenge” and “stop the evil brought by the military leadership of the country”.
Continue reading...Spanish and Moroccan authorities blamed for 12-hour delay after up to 60 people seen stranded en route to Canary Islands
Spain’s public ombudsman has begun an investigation into why as many as 60 people stranded on an inflatable boat bound for the Canary Islands had to wait more than 12 hours to be rescued, leading to the loss of at least 35 lives, among them a child.
Passengers on the boat – which got into difficulties off the coast of Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon – appealed for help, but a Moroccan rescue boat did not appear until the following day, when it picked up 24 people.
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin dismisses justification for war that Kyiv was planning 2022 attack on Donbas and Crimea
The Wagner head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has accused Moscow’s leadership of lying to the public about the justifications for invading Ukraine, in the latest sign of conflict between Vladimir Putin’s government and one of his most important allies.
In an explosive 30-minute video posted on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin dismissed Moscow’s claims that Kyiv was planning to launch an offensive on the Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine in February 2022.
Continue reading...Countries in debt distress thrown financial lifeline but critics say measures fall short of what is needed
Poorer countries struggling with a growing debt crisis were thrown a lifeline at a global finance summit in Paris but the plans still fell short of the debt forgiveness programme that some had hoped for.
Progress was made on reforms that would help address the climate emergency, as nearly 40 world leaders and the heads of global institutions met in Paris for the summit, which ended on Friday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Head of ground forces says ‘everything is still ahead’ in counteroffensive against Russia
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces has confirmed for the first time that the main force of his offensive reserve is yet to be committed into battle with Russia, saying: “Everything is still ahead.”
In an exclusive interview from a military base in east Ukraine, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi spoke of the stresses and difficulties of the fight, with Moscow launching its own offensive efforts in recent days.
Continue reading...Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed governor of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, says Chongar bridge would be closed for around 20 days. This live blog is now closed
Ukraine’s armed forces have stopped a Russian offensive in the east of the country towards the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman, a senior defence official has claimed.
The deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television: “We had very fierce battles in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, but our soldiers stopped the enemy there.”
Continue reading...Statues were unearthed last year in what was a place of worship for both the Etruscans and Romans
A trove of bronze statues buried by mud and boiling water for thousands of years before being found in the ruins of a network of ancient thermal springs in a small town in Tuscany are going on display in Rome.
The 24 bronzes, mostly dedicated to the gods, are the largest discovery of their kind in Italy and were unearthed last year in the ancient springs of San Casciano dei Bagni, in what used to be a place of worship for both the Etruscans and Romans.
Continue reading...Russia killed 136 children in Ukraine last year, says UN report; Kyiv accuses Moscow’s forces of hiding bodies in aftermath of Kakhovka dam breach
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has called out Russia for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022 and added its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the UN security council. The UN also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups injured 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. The forces used 91 children as human shields, according to the report. Guterres was “particularly shocked” by the high number of child casualties, he said in the report, while also saying he was disturbed by the high number of offences against children by Ukrainian forces.
Russia has formed special groups to collect and hide bodies of people killed in the aftermath of Kakhovka dam breach in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian president said in a video address on Thursday that the situation in Russian-occupied parts of the region was “catastrophic to put it mildly”.
Ukraine’s prime minister has said its counteroffensive will take time but he is optimistic about its success. Denys Shmyhal’s comments, on the sidelines of a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London on Thursday, came after Zelenskiy said the counteroffensive might be going “slower than desired” but he would not needlessly risk soldiers’ lives to meet international expectations. Moscow had suggested there appeared to have been a break in the counteroffensive’s intensity.
Foreign donors pledged €60bn of new financial support for Ukraine, the UK said, as the international conference in London aimed at funding the country’s reconstruction closed. The commitments from governments and international organisations targeted supporting Ukraine in the short- and medium-term, the British foreign minister, James Cleverly, said on Thursday.
Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine early on Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said.
Russian-backed officials in southern Ukraine have accused Kyiv of using British-supplied long-range missiles to strike a bridge connecting Kherson province with the Crimean peninsula. A series of photos and videos circulating on Telegram on Thursday showed a large crater on the bridge, and debris littering the roads. There were no casualties reported.
Ukraine and Moldova have made good progress on their journey to becoming members of the EU, a European commissioner has said. The EC reportedly made clear that Ukraine had a way to go to complete the seven steps the EU outlined last year when it granted Kyiv the status of a candidate for membership.
Russia is 99.9% certain to quit a UN-brokered deal on the safe wartime passage of Black Sea grain in July as it no longer needs Ukrainian ports to export ammonia, a senior Ukrainian diplomat has said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy reportedly said Ukrainian spies believed Russia was plotting an incident to release radiation from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, an allegation denied by the Kremlin.
Continue reading...Exclusive: A change in planning rules has stopped the EU flag from being raised, say City Hall sources
Ministers have been accused of criminalising the flying of the European Union flag on government buildings in England after London’s City Hall was told it could be prosecuted for displaying it on the anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
Seven years after the referendum on leaving the EU, the Greater London authority (GLA) had planned to fly the flag on Friday but officials were advised that under the latest regulations they would need to secure permission from the local authority.
Continue reading...Chonhar Bridge is one of a handful of infrastructures linking Crimea with the mainland
Russian-backed officials in southern Ukraine have accused Kyiv of using British-supplied long-range missiles to strike a bridge connecting Kherson province with the Crimean peninsula.
The strike on the Chonhar Bridge, one of the few links between mainland Ukraine and Crimea, came two days after Moscow threatened to attack Kyiv’s “decision-making centres” if western-supplied missiles were used against Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Continue reading...Move to allow spyware to be placed on reporters’ phones would have a ‘chilling effect’, say media experts
Draft legislation published by EU leaders that would allow national security agencies to spy on journalists has been condemned by media and civic society groups as dangerous and described by a leading MEP as “incomprehensible”.
On Wednesday, the European Council – which represents the governments of EU member states – published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act that would allow spyware to be placed on journalists’ phones if a national government thought it necessary.
Continue reading...Rescues come as refugee charities say more than 30 people may have died after dinghy sank on same route this week
Emergency services say 168 people have been rescued near Spain’s Canary Islands, one day after refugee charities said they feared more than 30 people had died after their inflatable dinghy sank on the same route.
The Canary Islands, off the coast of west Africa, have become the main destination for refugees and migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much smaller number also seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Spanish mainland. Summer is the busiest period for all attempted crossings.
Continue reading...US ambassador says she is ‘extremely disappointed’ at decision not to release WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich
A Moscow court has ruled that the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich must remain in pre-trial detention on espionage charges until at least late August, rejecting the American journalist’s appeal to be released.
Gershkovich appeared slightly pale and with longer hair after almost three months’ detention in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, which is reserved for targets of FSB investigations. He was smiling in some photos.
Continue reading...UK defence secretary had earlier shown interest in the role, but the US is believed to want Jens Stoltenberg to stay in post
The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said he does not expect to be the next head of Nato, amid claims that the US wants the current leader to stay.
In an interview with the Economist, the Conservative MP said “it’s not going to happen”, adding that he thinks the United States wants the current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to remain in post for another year.
Continue reading...Child among the dead and 24 people rescued in Moroccan-led operation, say Spanish maritime sources
At least 35 people are feared to have drowned after an inflatable boat carrying up to 60 migrants and refugees sank while en route to the Canary Islands early on Wednesday morning.
The Spanish migration NGO Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said 60 people were on the boat, of whom 39 were missing. Another migration NGO, Alarm Phone, put the number of people onboard at 59 and said 35 were missing.
Continue reading...Police tell people to avoid Val-de-Grâce area after several buildings catch fire in fifth arrondissement
At least 37 people have been injured, four of whom are in a critical condition, after a gas explosion sparked a blaze in buildings in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
The blast happened in the fifth arrondissement at about 5pm on Wednesday and resulted in several buildings catching fire, local officials said.
Continue reading...Hundreds of faint stripes, dots and wavy lines at Loire valley site were created more than 57,000 years ago, say scientists
Hundreds of faint stripes, dots and wavy lines that adorn a cave wall in central France are the oldest known engravings made by Neanderthals, according to scientists who analysed the ancient markings.
The patterns, called finger flutings, appear on sections of the longest and most even wall of the cave in La Roche-Cotard in the Loire valley, and were created more than 57,000 years ago, before modern humans arrived in the region, the researchers say.
Continue reading...EU members agree new sanctions against Russia; Russian president says warheads can soon be deployed for duty. This live blog is closed
Ukrainian forces are gaining some ground towards Melitopol and Berdiansk in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Andriy Kovalev, a spokesman for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, has said according to Reuters.
“They had partial success, they are gaining ground,” Kovalev was quoted as saying in a post on the Ukraine Military Media Center’s Telegram channel, adding that the gains were near the settlements of Mala Tokmachka and Robotyne, among others.
Continue reading...