List of All Articles with Tag 'eu'

Russia claims Ukraine has targeted a critical bridge that links the country to annexed Crimea, as Kyiv says its counteroffensive has broken through on the southern front. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had destroyed three Ukrainian drones attempting to attack the Kerch bridge – forcing closure for the third time in a year – with one drone intercepted late on Friday and two others early on Saturday. Serving as a key supply route for Kremlin forces during its war in Ukraine, the bridge has been attacked repeatedly, Russian authorities claim. In October, an explosion involving a truck bomb purportedly killed three people, with a subsequent attack in July killing a couple and seriously injuring their daughter. A part of the road was further left hanging in a precarious position. Meanwhile, a civilian was killed and two were wounded during shelling in the Belgorod region in Russia, which borders Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Two Ukrainian drones attacked the region’s Valuysky district, damaging a home and a car as another was intercepted in the Grayvoronsky district. Another four people were wounded following attacks on the eastern city of Donetsk, Moscow-installed mayor Aleksei Kulemzin alleged. It comes as UK military officials now believe that Russia risks having to split its forces in an attempt to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in the south of the country. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian troops were progressing in the Zaporizhzhia region, with forces taking offensive action on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine. The White House confirmed Ms Maliar’s statements as it noted “notable success” in the Zaporizhzhia area, though she warned that Ukrainian troops had pushed through to heavily fortified lines of Russian defence following the breakthrough. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s troops were “moving forward” as part of their long-anticipated counteroffensive, appearing to rebuff Western officials who have suggested that Ukraine has been too slow to recapture ground from Moscow. Ukraine’s military forces further reported a total of 45 combat clashes on front lines in the 24 hours between Friday and Saturday evening. The counteroffensive has successfully reclaimed more than a dozen villages. However, Ukrainian soldiers have been impeded by extensive Russian minefields and defensive lines, the gains do not encompass any major settlement. Moscow has labelled the Ukrainian counteroffensive a failure, with Kyiv asserting that it has purposefully advanced slowly to minimise losses on the battlefield. "Ukrainian forces are moving forward. Despite everything, and no matter what anyone says, we are advancing, and that is the most important thing. We are on the move," Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Ukrainian military confirmed further advances towards Melitopol, a major Russian-occupied urban centre inthe Zaporizhzhia region. Elsewhere, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, warned that drone strikes on Russian soil were only set to increase, adding that Ukraine has ramped up attacks on Russian-occupied areas. Mr Podolyak noted that Ukraine would also escalate attacks in Russia itself. However, Kyiv does not generally directly claim attacks outside of Ukraine, with Mr Podolyak saying such strikes would be carried out by “agents” or “partisans”. “As for Russia ... there is an increasing number of attacks by unidentified drones launched from the territory of the Russian Federation, and the number of these attacks will increase,” Mr Podolyak told Reuters news agency. “This is the stage of the war when hostilities are gradually being transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation.” Read More More cargo ships from Ukraine use a civilian corridor despite Russian threats Dodging a constant assault of Russian missiles – the war-weary keep fighting in Ukraine’s blood-soaked east Drone attacks inside Putin’s Russia will only increase, says senior Ukraine official Russia declares Nobel-winning editor Dmitry Muratov to be a foreign agent Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s defences fail as Kyiv counteroffensive ‘breaks through on southern front’ The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said lower spending is “not necessarily” the answer to the country’s fiscal challenges,

First minister will tell rally that Scotland could get "back on the right track" by re-joining the EU.

Ukraine has claimed to have broken through the first line of Russia’s defences in several locations and made gains in the Zaporizhzhia region. “There is an offensive in several directions and in certain areas. And in some places, in certain areas, this first line was broken through,” Hanna Maliar, deputy defence minister, told local TV last night. Her comments were backed up the United States, which said on Friday that Kyiv had made notable progress on the southern front in the last 72 hours. Earlier the Russian defence ministry claimed that its forces have destroyed three unmanned boats “being used in an attempt to target the Crimea Bridge”. The ministry alleged Ukraine was behind the attack, the Kyiv Independent reported. Read More Putin’s forces pushed back in southern Ukraine – as Zelensky claims new long-range weapon The ‘Vampire’ rocket system helping Ukraine shoot down Russia’s kamikaze drones Ukraine pilot films moment drone flies into Russian truck

Ireland's first Hate Speech Bill is causing serious debate at home and abroad.

UK opposition leader Keir Starmer likes to put his Labour Party front and center in his social media

China President Xi Jinping said the country would continue to open up while pursuing its own development path,

A 98-year-old man has been charged as an accessory to murder at a Nazi concentration camp in Germany. The man, who has not been named, is alleged to have “supported the cruel and malicious killing of thousands of prisoners as a member of the SS guard detail” at Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1943 and 1945. In operation from 1936 until April 1945, Sachsenhausen – also known as Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg – was a labour camp known for its medical experimentation area. After the end of the Second World War, when the area was Sovient-occupied, it was used by the secret police agency the NKVD, later renamed the KGB, as a special camp. More than 200,000 prisoners were held at Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945, where tens of thousands died of starvation, disease and forced labour alongside medical experiments and SS extermination operations, including shootings, hangings and gassing. Though the exact figures vary, upper estimates suggest 100,000 people died at Sachsenhausen. The accused man is a resident of the county of Main-Kinzig, near Frankfurt, and is charged with over 3,300 counts of being an accessory to murder between July 1943 and February 1945. Filed at the state court in Hanau, prosecutors will now decide whether to send the case to trial. Should the case move forward, the man will be tried under juvenile law to take into account his age at the time of his alleged crimes, with a psychiatric expert adding that the suspect is fit to stand trial at least on a “limited basis”. In recent years, German prosecutors have brought several cases to allow for those that helped Nazi camps to function to be prosecuted as an accessory to murder. In 2021, 96-year-old Irmgard Furchner was caught shortly after going on the run ahead of a court hearing on charges of committing war crimes during World War Two. The next year, Furchner was handed a two-year-old suspended sentence for aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 people and for the attempted murder of five people during her time working as a stenographer and typist at Stutthof concentration camp. She was accused of being part of the accessory to the function of the camp, where she was alleged to have “aided and abetted those in charge in the systematic killing of those imprisoned there”. In July 2020, a court in Hamburg convicted 93-year-old Nazi camp guard Bruno Dey of being an accessory to murder over his time spent at Stutthof concentration camp during the final months of the Second World War. He was handed a two-year suspended sentence after being convicted of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder - equal to the number of people believed to have been killed at Stutthof during his time there in 1944 and 1945. Read More Teenage neo-Nazi defaced Windrush mural and had ‘race war’ fantasies, court told Former RAF cadet defaced Windrush mural with Nazi symbols ‘Neo-Nazi’ ex-prison officer jailed for possessing terrorist handbook Footage of Holocaust miracle rescue unearthed for the first time Putin puts ‘Satan II’ nuclear missile ‘on combat duty’ as Kyiv launches drone strikes Drone attacks inside Putin’s Russia will only increase, says senior Ukraine official Billionaires want to build a new city in rural California. They must convince voters first

Drone strikes on Russian soil are only set to increase as Ukraine brings Moscow's invasion home, a senior Kyiv official has said. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said that it has increased strikes on Russian-occupied areas and would also ramp up attacks within Russia itself. Kyiv does not generally directly claim attacks outside of Ukraine, with Mr Podolyak saying such strikes would be carried out by "agents" or "partisans". "As for Russia... there is an increasing number of attacks by unidentified drones launched from the territory of the Russian Federation, and the number of these attacks will increase," Mr Podolyak told Reuters. "This is the stage of the war when hostilities are gradually being transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation". Drone attacks on Russia have increased sharply recently, with the largest such strikes hitting six regions on one night this week. That assault included two Russian military transport planes being destroyed – and two more damaged – at an airbase in the city of Pskov. Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the drones were launched from inside Russia. However, in speaking to the War Zone website, Mr Budanov did not say whether the attack – about 400 miles (700 kilometres) from the Ukraine border – was carried out by Ukrainian or Russian operatives. "We are working from the territory of Russia," he said. President Zelensky had suggested earlier this week that a new long-range Ukrainian weapon had hit a target 700 kilometres away, without saying what the weapon was or where it struck. The drone strikes continued into Thursday, with attacks on three regions. Russia's Defence Ministry also claimed to have destroyed a total of 281 Ukrainian drones over the past week, including 29 over the western regions of Russia – indicating the scale of the role drones are now playing in the 18-month war. On the ground in Ukraine, where Kyiv is trying to break through Russian lines in a counteroffensive that started in June, The US said on Thursday that it has seen solid progress by Ukrainian forces in the southern Zaporizhzhia region in the last 72 hours. "We have noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces ...in that southern line of advance coming out of the Zaporizhzhia area, and they have achieved some success against that second line of Russian defenses," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. "That is not to say... that they aren't mindful that they've still got some tough fighting ahead of them as they try to push further south" or that Russia could launch a counter effort, he added. Mr Podolyak said Kyiv's forces were continuing to advance and hoped that Western military aid would continue to come in the months ahead. He added that he believed allies, who have poured in billions of pounds of weaponry, understood that there could be no kind of "compromise" with Moscow. "At the moment, the partners understand that this war will no longer end in a compromise solution - that is, either we destroy Russia's capabilities by military means, and to do this we need the appropriate tools, or this war with such level of aggression will continue for some time." The Kremlin will not like the pressure Kyiv is exerting with its drones strikes. That may have been behind the state-run RIA news agency quoting the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos as sayng that the country's Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying ten or more nuclear warheads, had been put on combat duty. Mr Kirby said that the White House was not in a position to confirm the reports. In June, Vladimir Putin said that Sarmat missiles would be deployed for combat duty "soon". The Russian president has constantly sought to talk up the advanced nature of the missiles in recent years. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The ‘Vampire’ rocket system helping Ukraine shoot down Russia’s kamikaze drones Ukraine-Russia – live: Putin puts ‘Satan II’ nuclear missile ‘on combat duty’ as Kyiv launches drone strikes Ukraine launches ‘massive’ drone strikes on six regions of Russia – destroying war planes The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

By Manas Mishra and David Shepardson (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has allowed Amgen to go ahead with its

The coach of Spain's men's national soccer team asked for forgiveness Friday for applauding the claim by Luis Rubiales that he was the victim of a smear campaign from “false feminists” following an uproar after he kissed a player on the lips at the Women’s World Cup. “I don’t think I have to resign, I think I have to ask for forgiveness," Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said in Madrid in his first public appearance since Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso on Aug. 20 after the final in Sydney, Australia. “I made a human error. It was inexcusable.” De la Fuente was speaking one week after he clapped several times during an emergency general assembly of the Spanish soccer federation when Rubiales, the organization's president, refused to step down as was expected. Rubiales’ speech included claims that Hermoso had consented to his kiss during the awards ceremony — a claim she has denied — and against what he called the “scourge” of feminism in Spain. “I have received harsh criticism, and it is completely deserved,” De la Fuente said Friday. “If I could go back in time, I would not do that again. We all have to do more for equality. Me too. And I am working on that.” De la Fuente said he was caught off guard by Rubiales' speech and that his applause happened in a “situation of maximum stress and tension.” He said he was convinced Rubiales was going to announce he was stepping down, as was widely reported in local media. FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, provisionally suspend Rubiales for 90 days a day after his speech. Hours after his boss was suspended, De la Fuente issued a statement condemning Rubiales’ behavior after Spain beat England to win the Women’s World Cup final. Interim federation president Pedro Rocha, who Rubiales arranged to be his provisional successor, has said that the federation completely backs De la Fuente. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

The European Central Bank hasn’t yet decided what to do this month but the end of its interest-rate