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Ukraine war briefing: Russian oil refinery burns again in drone attack
Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:29:29 GMT
Ukraine rations power as generation falls far short of needs; US to reportedly release $225m more in weapons, France to sign €650m deal. What we know on day 834
A Ukrainian drone attack set fire to the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, forcing it to halt operations, the regional governor said early on Thursday. The plant is considered one of the most important oil refineries in southern Russia. Located around 10km (six miles) east of the border, it has been targeted by Ukrainian attacks several times. “Work was suspended due to a repeated attack, and personnel were withdrawn to a safe distance,” said Vasily Golubev, the governor.
Another drone strike in Russia overnight destroyed an oil tank at a depot in Stary Oskol, north of the Ukrainian border, said the Belgorod regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. Ukraine suffers regular attacks on its energy systems and hits back at sites in Russia, both in retaliation and to hinder the Russian war effort.
Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrenergo, ordered cuts in 12 regions on Wednesday evening due to critical shortages. Ukrainians have been warned to limit consumption after Russian airstrikes in recent weeks inflicted serious damage on generating capacity. “In view of repairs to units and the latest destruction, we are catastrophically short of electricity for our needs,” said Serhii Kovalenko, head of Yasno, the largest private power company in Ukraine. Russia has either destroyed or captured 50% of Ukraine’s power generation, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The United States is expected to announce a new $225m weapons package for Ukraine this week, sources have told Reuters. The US president, Joe Biden, was due to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, on Thursday in Normandy at the 80th anniversary commemoration of the D-day invasion.
France is to provide Ukraine with €650m in loans and grants to support local authorities and critical infrastructure, particularly energy facilities, targeted by Russia. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will attend the Swiss conference on Russia’s war against Ukraine on 15-16 June, his office said on Wednesday. Macron and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, are due to sign the loans and grants deal in Paris on Friday.
A Moscow court has sentenced Russian blogger Anna Bazhutova to five and a half years in jail for livestreaming witness testimony about alleged Russian atrocities during the occupation of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. “It’s disgusting and vile. It’s messed up,” the 30-year-old defendant said from the dock said in reaction to the ruling. Her lawyer promised an appeal. In April 2022, Bazhutova did a live broadcast including witnesses directly accusing the Russian military of carrying out killings. Vladimir Putin’s regime has made criticism of the military illegal.
Vladimir Putin has said Russia could supply arms to other countries to attack western targets, Pjotr Sauer writes. His comments came after a US senator and a western official confirmed that Ukraine has recently used US weapons to strike inside Russia. The weapons were used under recently approved guidance from Joe Biden allowing American arms to be used to strike inside Russia for the defence of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The Republican senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a member of the Senate armed services committee, confirmed strikes with US weapons inside Russia but did not say how he was briefed. According to a 3 June report from the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defence battery in Russia’s Belgorod region, probably with a high mobility artillery rocket system, or Himars, on 1 or 2 June.
French prosecutors launched an terrorism investigation after a Ukrainian-Russian man detonated explosive materials in a hotel room north of Paris. The suspected was reportedly from the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, part of which has been occupied by pro-Russian and Russian forces since 2014. A source at the French anti-terrorism prosecutors office (PNAT) said that on Monday night the 26-year-old man received “significant burns after an explosion” in a hotel in the Val-d’Oise, north of Paris. A search uncovered “products and materials intended for the manufacture of explosive devices”.
Continue reading...Clash between Iran and west over nuclear programme looms as US drops objections and joins European states condemning Tehran
A fresh confrontation between Tehran and the west is looming over Iran’s nuclear programme after the board of the UN nuclear watchdog voted heavily to censure the country for its repeated failure to cooperate with UN nuclear inspectors.
The vote by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) members was passed with 20 represented countries in favour, two against, and 12 abstentions. The two countries to vote against were Russia and China.
Continue reading...The draconian restrictions on asylum-seekers owe a lot to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, but the path was paved by Democrats.
The post Joe Biden’s Cruel Border Shutdown Follows in Clinton and Obama’s Footsteps Too appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Rivals from two forces fighting to control Darfur region would be subject to asset freezes and travel bans
The EU intends to impose sanctions on six Sudanese military figures who are fuelling the conflict that has led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, European diplomats have said.
EU foreign ministers meeting later this month are expected to approve sanctions against six individuals from the rival forces who have been fighting for control of Darfur, the vast, largely arid region of western and south-western Sudan.
Continue reading...Israel claimed the targeted school contained a militant compound, an allegation rejected by Hamas. Plus, UN urges global ban on fossil fuel ads
Good morning.
At least 30 people, including five children, were killed by an Israeli strike on a UN school on Thursday in the central Gaza Strip, according to health officials in the territory.
Here’s the latest with the impending famine in Gaza: Two UN organizations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.
And the latest from Jerusalem: Violent clashes broke out during the annual Jerusalem Flag Day march, which commemorates the anniversary of Israel taking control and occupying East Jerusalem in 1967.
Which case is this one again? Trump was charged alongside more than a dozen associates last year with racketeering over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the state, after Georgia voted for Joe Biden to become US president. The charges stem in part from the phone call Trump made to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”.
Continue reading...Low-carbon electricity investment driven by solar projects but oil and gas spending still too high to meet climate goals
Global investment in low-carbon electricity will rise to 10 times as much as fossil fuel power this year due to an increase in spending on solar projects, according to the International Energy Agency.
The global energy watchdog has predicted that investment in clean energy including renewables and nuclear power as well as electric vehicles, power grids, energy storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency improvements and heat pumps will reach $2tn this year.
Continue reading...Party has put state-owned power company at centre of its plans for decarbonisation, security and energy bills
Labour is to put a government-owned power company at the heart of the UK’s energy system for the first time since the privatisation of the industry in 1990, in one of Keir Starmer’s boldest pledges so far.
Great British Energy, with £8bn of investment, forms the centrepiece of Labour’s promise to decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030. This would stop well short of any form of renationalisation: GB Energy would be a state-owned investment vehicle and company working alongside and often in partnership with the existing private sector suppliers. The plan is for it to be largely invisible to households, not offering electricity directly to consumers but financing and helping to build low-carbon infrastructure, from windfarms to – potentially – nuclear reactors.
Continue reading...New York City police department to revoke Trump’s license after suspending permit to carry a concealed weapon in April 2023
Donald Trump’s license to carry a gun is expected to be revoked by the New York City police department now that he has been convicted of a felony, according to reports on Wednesday evening.
The former president once boasted that he was so popular with the electorate, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” He made the claim in January 2016 during the Iowa caucuses campaign.
Continue reading...As club’s powerful owners rail against ‘the elites’ in legal battle with Premier League, there is a looming danger to the game
Here we are then, at last. The chrysalis has finally hatched. The thing that was always going to be the thing has now become the thing. Welcome to a very Premier League kind of coup.
As news emerged of Manchester City’s potentially devastating legal case against English football’s top tier it was tempting to see a kind of parable. Here we have a league founded out of greed, for the future benefit of greed, which now finds itself threatened with internal detonation by – yes – greed. Invite a tiger in for tea and the tiger might be fun. But it’s also still a tiger. And in the end it’s going to eat you too.
Continue reading...Activists suing the Biden administration over Gaza policy are demanding the judge recuse himself over the sponsored trip.
The post A Federal Judge Visited Israel on a Junket Designed to Sway Public Opinion. Now He’s Hearing a Gaza Case. appeared first on The Intercept.
With high levels of people seeking asylum, and after failed attempts to pass reforms, Biden has presented his most aggressive restrictions yet
Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an aggressive new immigration order suspending asylum rights, signalling that “securing the border” was a central tenet of his re-election bid.
At the southern US border, the policy is set to cause chaos and hardship for those seeking the protection of the United States.
Continue reading...Trump fans say his conviction is an overreach. But a close look at another recent fraud trial shows his case was run-of-the-mill.
The post To Understand the Trump Verdict, Look at the Case Against Shukhratjon Mirsaidov appeared first on The Intercept.
Once predicted to rival Berghain, wartime has seen the queer-friendly club find new purposes as a bomb shelter and frontline fundraiser. But can it survive Ukraine’s new mobilisation drive?
As Anastasiia Syradoieva awoke to the sound of air raid sirens and missile strikes in Kyiv on 24 February 2022, the first place she thought to seek shelter was ∄, the techno club housed in a former brewery she has run since its opening in 2019. “This building has survived two world wars,” the 28-year-old says over two years later almost proudly, pointing to the half-metre thick walls of the 19th century factory.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv was well on its way to becoming a major clubbing destination to rival Berlin or Tbilisi, with venues such as ∄ putting it on the map. The club’s name is an unpronounceable mathematical symbol that stands for a value that doesn’t exist, Syradoieva explains. Locals just call it Kyrylivska 41, after the street in Kyiv’s alternative Podil neighbourhood in which it resides, or K41 for short.
Continue reading...With 50 days to go before the Paris Olympics start, the Ukrainian high jumper on preparation amid the turmoil of Russia’s invasion
Yuliya Levchenko arrives full of apologies, although they are not at all necessary. She has crossed Kyiv after watching her younger sister Polina, a fellow high jumper, compete at a local event and the reason for her half-hour delay was wearyingly familiar. An air raid warning disrupted proceedings midway through and, as usual, the athletes had to shelter until the skies were deemed sufficiently safe. She beams when recounting that Polina, who has accompanied her to this quiet cafe on the city’s left bank, still recorded a personal best.
It is an everyday snapshot of the challenges Ukraine’s athletes must surmount, and so often do with astonishing results, in trying to make a career. Gorgeous late-spring days such as this one contain an undercurrent of horror. “You know, it looks like we’ve adapted to this situation,” Levchenko says. “It’s horrible, because it’s nonsense really, but now we adapt to it. Here in Kyiv it’s safer now than in Dnipro or Kharkiv. It’s safety, but it’s not safety.”
Continue reading...Houria – a riotously flavoured mashed carrot salad with eggs and coriander salsa – and spicy Tunisian savoury pastries
Its location on the very northern tip of Africa, right on the Mediterranean and close to Italy, means Tunisian cuisine is a wonderfully unique fusion of flavours. Take harissa, for example, which is traditionally made with wood-smoked sun-dried chillies that are pounded with caraway and plenty of other spices, then steeped in oil to make a quite brilliant hot condiment. I love it stirred into Tunisian fricassee, which is a sandwich made with deep-fried bread stuffed with tuna, olives, boiled eggs and potato. Though harissa is perhaps the Tunisian ingredient I turn to the most, the country’s food encompasses so much more, and is a world of flavour I can’t get enough of exploring.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: After pollsters and pundits predicted a sweeping victory that never came, is India’s prime minister entering his final act in politics?
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning.
For months, the consensus was that India’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) was going to win a thumping majority in the general election. A few days ago, exit polls indicated the BJP was going to secure a sweeping victory, and could even gain seats to win a two-thirds majority in parliament. The party’s confidence came through most clearly in its highly publicised goal of winning 400 seats.
Israel-Gaza war | At least 30 Palestinians including five children have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a UN school housing displaced people in al-Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, medical officials have said, with dozens more wounded. The Israeli military confirmed it had targeted a UN school in al-Nuseirat, saying it had been housing Hamas terrorists from the 7 October attack on Israel who were planning further attacks.
Wales | The Welsh first minister, Vaughan Gething, has lost a no-confidence vote less than 12 weeks after taking office, following a series of scandals that have called into question his judgment and transparency.
General election 2024 | The UK Statistics Authority has opened an investigation into remarks made by Rishi Sunak about the economy “going gangbusters” amid concerns that politicians could misuse economic data in the run-up to the election. The watchdog’s intervention came soon after the chair of the organisation began a review of Sunak’s claim that the Treasury calculated that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000 for everyone if it won the election.
Climate crisis | Fossil fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising akin to restrictions on big tobacco, the secretary general of the United Nations has said while delivering dire new scientific warnings of global heating.
NHS | A cyber-attack thought to have been carried out by a Russian group has forced London NHS hospitals to resurrect long-discarded paper records systems in which porters hand-deliver blood test results because IT networks are disrupted.
Continue reading...As grim memory of world war fades, many people are anxious amid rise of nationalist, country-first rhetoric
Twenty-two British D-day veterans, the youngest nearly 100, crossed the Channel on Tuesday to mark this week’s 80th anniversary of the landings in Normandy, representing a thinning thread to the heroics of two or three generations ago when about 150,000 allied soldiers began a seaborne invasion of western Europe that helped end the second world war.
Ron Hayward, a tank trooper who lost his legs fighting in France three weeks after D-day, told crowds assembled in Portsmouth on Wednesday why he and other soldiers were there: “I represent the men and women who put their lives on hold to go and fight for democracy and this country. I am here to honour their memory and their legacy, and to ensure that their story is never forgotten.”
Continue reading...Balloons filled with US dollars, K-pop and leaflets critical of Kim Jong-un have been sent over the border by a group of a North Korean defectors
The “balloon wars” between the two Koreas have intensified after activists in the South said they had sent balloons carrying anti-North Korean propaganda over the countries’ heavily armed border.
A group of North Korean defectors called the Free North Korea Movement on Thursday said it had sent 10 large balloons filled with 200,000 leaflets critical of the regime of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as well as US dollar bills and flash drives loaded with K-pop, according to South Korean media.
Continue reading...Naval exercises spurred by US support for Ukraine are likely to include port calls in Cuba and Venezuela, says official
Russia plans to send combat vessels into the Caribbean region this summer as part of naval exercises that will probably include port calls in Cuba and possibly stops in Venezuela, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
“As part of Russia’s regular military exercises, we anticipate that this summer, Russia will conduct heightened naval and air activity near the United States. These actions will culminate in a global Russian naval exercise this fall,” the official said.
Continue reading...Disruption has affected wider range of health providers than first thought, including GPs and community and mental health services
A cyber-attack thought to have been carried out by a Russian group has forced London NHS hospitals to resurrect long-discarded paper records systems in which porters hand-deliver blood test results because IT networks are disrupted.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust (GSTT) has gone back to using paper, rather than computers, to receive the outcome of patients’ blood tests.
Continue reading...Microsoft recently caught state-backed hackers using its generative AI tools to help with their attacks. In the security community, the immediate questions weren’t about how hackers were using the tools (that was utterly predictable), but about how Microsoft figured it out. The natural conclusion was that Microsoft was spying on its AI users, looking for harmful hackers at work.
Some pushed back at characterizing Microsoft’s actions as “spying.” Of course cloud service providers monitor what users are doing. And because we expect Microsoft to be doing something like this, it’s not fair to call it spying...
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, revealed the tactics and traits that help him face the daily frustrations of leading a country at war for more than two years.
Within a ceremonial room inside Kyiv’s presidential compound, Zelenskiy spoke for nearly an hour with a Guardian team, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. The interview took place during perhaps the toughest time for Ukraine since the early days of the war. Russia is on the offensive in Kharkiv, an advance that follows months of delay in the US Congress over the passing of a major support package, limiting Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities
Continue reading...The charge of an illegitimate marriage is all that’s left after a court acquitted Khan over his handling of a classified cypher.
The post Imran Khan Remains Imprisoned Over His Wife’s Menstrual Cycles. State Department Says That’s “Something For the Pakistani Courts to Decide.” appeared first on The Intercept.
Biden's plan to cozy up to Arab dictators is right out of Donald Trump's playbook — but even worse.
The post Joe Biden’s Terrible Israel Policy Is Really About Getting in Bed With Saudi Arabia appeared first on The Intercept.
This blog is now closed
Going fully electric would save households more than $600 a year for next four decades, report says
Households would save an average of $608 a year for the next 40 years if new residential buildings in New South Wales were required to be fully electric, according to a report commissioned by climate organisation 350 Australia.
It cuts energy bills for local residents and small businesses during a cost of living crisis and reduces climate pollution, at almost no cost to councils. It will be low-income people and renters who will benefit most from council-led electrification.
Continue reading...Reconstructing buildings destroyed in first four months of Israeli assault will generate nearly 60m tonnes of CO2 equivalent – study
The carbon cost of rebuilding Gaza will be greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions generated individually by 135 countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the unprecedented death toll, new research reveals.
Reconstructing the estimated 200,000 apartment buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, bakeries, water and sewage plants damaged and destroyed by Israel in the first four months of the war on Gaza will generate as much as 60m tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e), according to new analysis by researchers in the UK and US. This is on a par with the total 2022 emissions generated by countries such as Portugal and Sweden – and more than twice the annual emissions of Afghanistan.
The planet-warming emissions generated by aerial and ground attacks during the first 120 days of the war on Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of 26 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations including Vanuatu and Greenland, according to the research, which is yet to be peer-reviewed.
More than 99% of the estimated 652,552 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 equivalent/CO2e) estimated to have been generated in the first four months after the Hamas attack on 7 October are linked to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza.
Almost 30% of the total CO2e emissions were generated by the 244 American cargo planes known to have flown bombs, munitions and other military supplies to Israel in the first 120 days.
According to the calculation, which is almost certainly a significant underestimate due to missing military emissions data, the carbon cost of the first 120 days of Israel’s assault on Gaza was equivalent to the combined annual energy use of 77,200 American households.
Hamas rockets fired into Israel between October 2023 and February 2024 generated an estimated 1,140 tCO2e. Another 2,700 tCO2e were attributed to the fuel stored by the group prior to 7 October. Combined, the Hamas carbon footprint over the first 120 days was equivalent to the annual energy use of 454 American homes.
Continue reading...Equipment being trialled in Scotland extracts warmth from nearby water sources to provide homes with heating
Scientists in Edinburgh have developed a home heating system that draws its energy from the world’s most abundant resource: water.
The equipment can use sea water, rivers, ponds and even mine water to heat radiators and water for baths and showers, using the same technology as in air source heat pumps.
Continue reading...Andrew Bailey’s office has a losing record of fighting against exonerations recommended by local prosecutors — but it’s not giving up.
The post Missouri’s Attorney General Is Waging War to Keep the Wrongly Convicted Locked Up appeared first on The Intercept.
Richard Tice made some eye-opening statements on the climate, and the manifesto is packed with even more falsehoods
Despite 40C record heat in 2022 and the wettest 18 months on record this winter, this general election seems set to test the UK’s political consensus on climate change like never before.
Reform UK, the rightwing party that describes itself as offering “commonsense” policies on immigration and energy, has eschewed the consensus in favour of outright climate scepticism. So what exactly does the party have to say about global heating and the UK’s net zero target?
Continue reading...Twelve jurors in New York have presented their fellow Americans with a simple question: are you willing to elect a convicted criminal to the White House?
On Thursday, Donald Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The verdict makes him the first president, current or former, to be found guilty of felony crimes in the US's near 250-year history. Regardless, the conviction does not disqualify Trump as a presidential candidate or bar him from again sitting in the Oval Office.
Trump, who opted not to take the stand during the trial, has denied wrongdoing, railed against the proceedings and ahead of the verdict compared himself to a saint: “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. The charges are rigged,” he said on Wednesday. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is expected to appeal the verdict.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has been in court over the last several weeks covering all the developments – here are three testimonies he found most memorable.
Could Trump go to prison? Here’s what happens next after the guilty verdict
Found guilty on 34 counts by a New York jury, Trump might find himself campaigning behind bars.
The post These Convictions Thwart Trump’s Plan to Pardon Himself appeared first on The Intercept.
The megadonor’s plan for a $25 million research center at Cornell fell apart. So he took his money to Texas A&M.
The post Leonard Leo Built the Conservative Court. Now He’s Funneling Dark Money Into Law Schools. appeared first on The Intercept.
Is this what the “pro-life” movement wanted?
The post Sterilization, Murders, Suicides: Bans Haven’t Slowed Abortions, and They’re Costing Lives appeared first on The Intercept.
Brian Krebs reports on research into geolocating routers:
Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geolocate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available data from Apple to track the location of billions of devices globally—including non-Apple devices like Starlink systems—and found they could use this data to monitor the destruction of Gaza, as well as the movements and in many cases identities of Russian and Ukrainian troops...
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