International

Ukraine advances deeper into Russia

Published

1 month ago

August 15, 2024

Ukraine advances deeper into Russia

Ukraine said yesterday its forces had advanced further into Russia’s Kursk region in the biggest foreign incursion into Russia since World War Two, posing a dilemma for President Vladimir Putin according to U.S. President Joe Biden.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops rammed through the Russian border in the early hours of Aug. 6 into Russia’s western Kursk region in what Putin called a major provocation aimed at gaining a stronger hand in possible future ceasefire talks.

Ukraine has carved out a slice of the Russian border region of Kursk and though Putin said the Russian army would push out the Ukrainian troops, more than a week of intense battles have so far failed to oust them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s forces were continuing to gain ground in the Kursk region and that they had taken another one to two kilometres yesterday. He has said the incursion is meant to pressure Russian forces and “restore justice” after Russia’s invasion.

“We continue to advance further in the Kursk region,” Zelenskiy wrote in a statement on Telegram, “from one to two kilometres in various areas since the start of the day. And more than 100 Russian prisoners of war in the same period.”

Russia’s defence ministry said 117 Ukrainian drones had been shot down within its territory overnight, mostly in the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions. It said missiles had also been downed, and showed Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.

Later, the ministry said Russian forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks inside the Kursk region, including at Russkoye Porechnoye 18 km (11 miles) from the border, and pro-Russian war bloggers said the front has been stabilised.

But Ukraine’s unprecedented incursion also comes with major risks for Russia, Ukraine and the West, which is keen to avoid a direct confrontation between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance that has helped arm Kyiv against Moscow.

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Biden said U.S. officials were in constant touch with Ukraine over the incursion, which he said had “created a real dilemma” for Putin, who ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

The White House said Ukraine gave no advance notice of its incursion and the United States had no involvement. Russian officials have suggested Ukraine’s Western backers must have known of the attack.

“Of course they are involved,” Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters. “It looks even worse when they say they don’t know anything and put all the responsibility on Ukraine.”

Russian state television said Russian forces were turning the tide on the Ukrainian forces, showed footage of successful attacks on Ukrainian positions and gave wide coverage of the evacuations of Russian civilians from the border zone.

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that the Russian town of Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian natural gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was fully under Ukrainian control. Natural gas was still pumping on Wednesday.

By bringing the war to Russia, Ukraine has forced nearly 200,000 Russians to evacuate border regions near the site where during World War Two in 1943 the Red Army defeated Nazi forces in one of the world’s biggest ever tank battles.

Putin said on Monday that Ukraine “with the help of its Western masters” was aiming to improve Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks. But he questioned what negotiations there could be with an enemy he accused of firing indiscriminately at Russian civilians and nuclear facilities.

The Russian rouble weakened against the dollar on Wednesday, and has lost 8.5% since the start of the Ukrainian incursion. Russian officials say Ukraine is trying to show its Western supporters that it can still muster major military operations as pressure mounts on both Kyiv and Moscow to agree to talk about halting the conflict, Europe’s biggest since World War Two.

The offensive brings risks for Kyiv: Ukraine may leave other parts of the front on home soil exposed by dedicating forces to fighting in Russian sovereign territory. Russia controls 18% of Ukrainian territory and has been gradually advancing recently.

Ukraine advances deeper into Russia

International

Woman’s dog digs up infant body reportedly buried alive by 22-year-old granddaughter in garden

Published

10 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Chiara Petrolini and the garden

Woman’s dog digs up infant body reportedly buried alive by 22-year-old granddaughter in garden

A local babysitter had two newborn babies buried in her garden, an investigation into infanticide revealed.

Chiara Petrolini, 22, was arrested after DNA tests allegedly confirmed she was the mother of one of the infants, a boy, found buried in her garden.

Petrolini, who lived with her parents, was described as a “model university student” and was holidaying in New York when the grim discovery was made by authorities. The investigation into the garden in the quiet commune of Vignale di Traversetolo near Parmer in Italy began last month, August, when Petrolini’s grandmother’s dog unearthed a body.

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The baby had been buried alive, as indicated by “soil found in the lungs” according to a leaked autopsy report.

Last week, a second body was discovered, but no details about that infant’s de@th have been disclosed yet.

The autopsy of the first baby revealed that the father was Petrolini’s 22 year old boyfriend, named locally as Emanuele.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the second body was found after Petrolini confessed to the police.

She is currently in custody on suspicion of infanticide and has reportedly claimed that she acted alone without anyone else’s knowledge.

Woman’s dog digs up infant body reportedly buried alive by 22-year-old granddaughter in garden

International

UK invests £1.9m in West African economies

Published

10 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Trends Admin

UK Minister for Africa, Lord Collins

UK invests £1.9m in West African economies

The UK government’s West Africa Research and Innovation Hub (WARIH) has launched ‘Sankore’ to support economic growth by strengthening technology and innovation across West Africa, in close partnership with country governments.

UK Minister for Africa, Lord Collins, announced the call for creative proposals for the project from non-profit organisations (including UN Agencies) at a press conference on Tuesday in Accra.

The Sankore call for proposals will support the UK government’s partnership with the Government in Nigeria and Ghana on science, technology and innovation, facilitate commercialisation of innovative solutions, improve innovation policy and enhance government digital service delivery.

Named after a West African medieval center of learning, Sankore will establish new partnerships worth up to £1.9 Million with non-profit organisations (including UN agencies) in Ghana or Nigeria.

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At the launch of the call for proposals, the UK Minister for Africa said: “This initiative is all about how we can work together to strengthen the global technology sector, creating opportunities for rapidly growing economies with lots of potential to compete on the world stage.

“The Sankore grant fosters partnerships at its heart, with a strong message that we go far when we go together.”

Nigeria’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, said: “Sankore project is a pivotal opportunity for Nigeria to enhance its innovation landscape, by strengthening industry-science linkages and developing an enabling policy environment.

“This partnership underscores our shared commitment to developing practical solutions that lead to sustainable and inclusive growth.”

Also commenting, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Jonny Baxter, said: “Sankore exemplifies the UK’s commitment to driving innovation and sustainable development in Nigeria.

“The project will strengthen partnerships between businesses and innovators as well as drive the development of innovative solutions that address critical gaps in priority economic sectors.

UK invests £1.9m in West African economies

International

Hamas chief says they’re ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza

Published

2 days ago

September 17, 2024

Trends Admin

Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar

Hamas chief says they’re ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza

Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said Monday the Palestinian group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.
Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.”
Deadly fighting raged on in the besieged Gaza Strip, where medics and rescuers said Monday that Israeli strikes — which the military has not commented on — killed at least two dozen people.
The latest strikes came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP at the weekend the group “has a high ability to continue” fighting despite losses, noting “the recruitment of new generations” to replace killed militants.
Gallant last week said Hamas, whose October 7 attack triggered the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.
Sinwar, in his letter to Yemen’s Houthis, threatened that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza and elsewhere in the region including Lebanon and Iraq would “break the enemy’s political will” after more than 11 months of war.
“Our combined efforts with you” and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq “will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it,” Sinwar said.
Independent UN rights experts meanwhile warned that Israel risked international isolation over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability.
Spain, which recently joined several European countries in formally recognizing the State of Palestine, is due to host Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, an official in his office told AFP.
Abbas, who is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and holds little sway in Gaza, is set to meet Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, before heading to New York for the UN General Assembly.

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The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Tensions have surged along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, amid fears the violence could explode into an all-out war.
“The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” Gallant told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein, a defense ministry statement said.
Israeli media outlets said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering firing Gallant, one of several officials who have been at odds with the veteran leader on war policy. Netanyahu’s office denied the reports.
Netanyahu told Hochstein later Monday he seeks a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October in stated support of ally Hamas.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Saturday his group has “no intention of going to war,” but if Israel does “unleash” one “there will be large losses on both sides.”
The violence has killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.

In central Gaza, survivors scoured debris Monday after a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Ten people were killed and 15 were wounded when an air strike hit the Al-Qassas family home in Nuseirat in the morning, said a medic at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
“My house was hit while we were sleeping without any prior warning,” said survivor Rashed Al-Qassas.
Gaza’s civil defense said six Palestinians were killed in a similar strike at night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood.
Emergency services later reported six more deaths, with Al-Awda Hospital saying it received the bodies of three people killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat.
The Gaza war has drawn in Iran-backed Hamas allies across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis, whose maritime attacks have disrupted global shipping through vital waterways off Yemen.
On Sunday the rebels claimed a rare missile attack on central Israel which caused no casualties, prompting Netanyahu to warn that they would pay “a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”
In a televised speech, the Houthis’ leader said the rebels and their regional allies were “preparing to do even more.”
“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza continue,” Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said.