By Boldizsar Gyori BUDAPEST The United States is concerned about Hungary's relationship with Russia, and finds Prime Minister

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Russians are “united as never before,” Vladimir Putin said at his first international summit since an armed revolt that briefly triggered fears of a coup. “Solidarity and responsibility for the fate of the fatherland was clearly shown,” he said, “by the entire society by standing as a united front against the attempted armed rebellion.” He was speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, hosted via videoconference by India and one of the few remaining global platforms where he can get a sympathetic hearing. It was founded by Russia and China to counter western alliances, and also welcomed Iran as a new member, bringing its membership to nine. On a video link from the Kremlin, Mr Putin thanked the SCO for supporting Moscow during the short-lived mutiny mounted by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, and said the West has turned Ukraine into “a virtually hostile state - anti-Russia.” It came as Russia's military claimed to have fended off a Ukrainian drone attack that briefly forced the closure of one of Moscow’s airports. Four out of the five drones were downed by air defences and the fifth was jammed and forced down, the defence ministry said. Flights were disrupted at Moscow's Vnukovo airport and arrivals diverted to others in the city. Ukrainian forces continue to probe Russian defences in the south and the east of the country in the initial stages of a counteroffensive. They are up against minefields, anti-tank ditches and other obstacles, as well as layered defensive lines reportedly up to 12 miles deep in some places as they try to dislodge Russian occupiers. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's Security and Defence Council, claimed that the last few days of fighting have been particularly “fruitful,” though he provided no evidence for his claim. Western analysts say the counteroffensive, even if it prospers, will not end the war which started with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia, meanwhile, has continued its missile and drone barrage deep behind the frontline. Shelling of Pervomaiskyi, in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, wounded 31 civilians. Nine children, including two babies, were among the wounded. Meanwhile, tearful mourners filled one of Kyiv's main cathedrals to honour a prominent Ukrainian writer and war-crimes researcher killed in a Russian missile strike on a cafe. Victoria Amelina, 37, died from injuries in a 27 June attack on a restaurant packed with civilians in Kramatorsk. "She was a real crusader for truth. She was extraordinarily persistent," Roman Avramenko, executive director of Truth Hounds, an NGO that documents Russian war crimes, told reporters after the service. A wide array of writers, journalists and other public intellectuals streamed into the golden-domed St. Michael's Cathedral to pay tribute. Relatives and friends broke down as they filed past Amelina's coffin. It came as armed masked men attacked and seriously injured a prominent female Russian journalist. Yelena Milashina, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta, was travelling to Grozny, Chechnya from the local airport with a lawyer when they were attacked. "It was a classic kidnapping... They pinned (our driver) down, threw him out of his car, got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, knelt me down there, and put a gun to my head," Milashina told Mansur Soltayev, a Chechen human rights official. Memorial, a rights group outlawed in Russia, said the pair had been “brutally kicked, including in the face, threatened with death, had a gun held to their heads, and had their equipment taken away and smashed.” Separately, the Kremlin has opened the door for talks with the US over a possible prisoner exchange that could potentially involve jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich - but said they must be held away from the public eye. “We have said that there have been certain contacts on the subject but we don't want them to be discussed in public,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Mr Gershkovich, 31, was arrested in Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip and is being held at Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary He was the CIA whiz kid in 'Charlie Wilson's War.' His new book offers advice for the US in Ukraine. Putin claims Russia more united than ever just days after Wagner’s failed mutiny AP News Digest 7 am

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Bats could hold the key to unlocking new ways to combat cancer, a new study suggests. A paper published by Oxford University Press, looks at the rapid evolution of bats for their abilities to both host and survive infections such as Covid-19 as well as cancer. The animals are known to have a strong immune system which helps fight off many viruses and diseases. These mammals are also thought to have played a role in the emergence of Covid-19 and scientists say such characteristics are interesting to investigate due to the implications it might have on human health. According to the research, understanding the mechanisms of the bat’s immune system that allows these animals to fight off viral infections – may pave the way to understanding how to prevent disease outbreaks from animals to people. To conduct the study, researchers sequenced the genomes of two bat species - the Jamaican fruit bat and the Mesoamerican mustached bat. The team used advanced technology from Oxford Nanopore Technologies and bat samples collected by the American Museum of Natural History in Belize. They then compared the bat genomes to those of other mammals. The results revealed that bats possessed genetic adaptations in proteins which are related to DNA repair and cancer suppression. It was found that bats had adaptations in six DNA repair-related proteins and 46 cancer-related proteins. The study also found that bats had more than double the number of altered cancer-related genes compared to other mammals, which provided further evidence that they have the ability to suppress cancer. “By generating these new bat genomes and comparing them to other mammals we continue to find extraordinary new adaptations in antiviral and anticancer genes,” said the paper’s lead author, Armin Scheben. “These investigations are the first step towards translating research on the unique biology of bats into insights relevant to understanding and treating ageing and diseases, such as cancer, in humans.” The results open up new paths for understanding and studying the links between cancer and immunity, which offers hope that these insights from bats might possibly lead to new treatments for human illnesses. According to the United States Department of the Interior, there are over 1,400 species of bats worldwide and are mostly found in extreme deserts and polar regions. In the US and Canada, there are about 45 species of bats. Read More British bats ‘can help identify coronaviruses with potential to infect humans’ Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic Groundbreaking migraine treatment offers ‘new hope’ for patients World Sepsis Day: What is the condition and its symptoms? Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor says he’s ‘asymptomatic’ after end-of-life diagnosis

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US Federal Reserve economists still expected a "mild recession" at the most recent interest-rate meeting earlier this month, according to minutes...