logo
Ukraine says Russian strikes kills three in the east

Ukraine says Russian strikes kills three in the east

RNZ News5 days ago
Ukrainian fire-fighters deal with damage caused by a Russian drone attack earlier this week.
Photo:
AFP / MYKOLA MIAKSHYKOV
A combined Russian strike has killed three people in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said, after US President Donald Trump gave Moscow 50 days to reach a peace deal with Ukraine.
Russia has been stepping up its summer offensive campaign as Washington-mediated ceasefire talks stall, claiming more ground in eastern Ukraine while pounding it with combined drone, artillery and missile strikes.
"Two dead and two injured: law enforcement officers recorded the consequences of another enemy attack in the Kupiansk district," the Kharkiv region prosecutor office said on social media, adding that the victims were 67 and 69 years old.
"The enemy fired artillery at the outskirts of the Velykopysarivska community. Unfortunately, a 50-year-old local resident was killed," said Sumy regional authorities.
Elsewhere on the front line, Russian forces claimed two more villages in the Donetsk region, increasing the pace of their advance.
A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's western city of Voronezh wounded 27 people, local officials said Tuesday.
Trump said he had struck a deal with NATO to supply American air defence systems and weapons to Ukraine and threatened Russia with tariffs and sanctions, as he grows frustrated with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for rejecting a ceasefire and instead intensifying attacks.
- AFP
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Major Ukrainian drone attacks sow chaos at Moscow's airports
Major Ukrainian drone attacks sow chaos at Moscow's airports

RNZ News

time5 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Major Ukrainian drone attacks sow chaos at Moscow's airports

Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport (file image). Photo: AFP / Natalia Kolesnikova Major Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia sowed chaos at major airports serving Moscow on Monday, with thousands of passengers waiting in lines or sleeping on the floor after flights were cancelled or delayed, Russian media reported. Videos published by Russian media showed people sleeping on the floor of Sheremetyevo, Russia's busiest airport by passenger numbers, amid long queues. Russia's defence ministry said it had downed 117 drones overnight, including 30 over the Moscow region, after downing 172 drones, including 30 over the Moscow region, the previous day. Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, briefly imposed restrictions on flights overnight at Moscow's main airports - Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy. Several thousand people were stranded in the far east of Russia due to the cancellation of flights in European Russia, while extra trains were put on to bring passengers back to Moscow from the northern Russian city of St Petersburg, Russian media said. Moscow and its surrounding region has a population of at least 21.5 million. - Reuters

Trump tells NFL team to restore Redskins name or he'll pull stadium
Trump tells NFL team to restore Redskins name or he'll pull stadium

1News

time6 hours ago

  • 1News

Trump tells NFL team to restore Redskins name or he'll pull stadium

US President Donald Trump is threatening to hold up a new stadium deal for Washington's NFL team if it does not restore its old name of the Redskins that was considered offensive to Native Americans. Trump also said on Sunday that he wants Cleveland's baseball team to revert to its former name, the Indians, saying there was a "big clamouring for this" as well. The Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians have had their current names since the 2022 seasons, and both have said they have no plans to change them back. Trump said the Washington football team would be "much more valuable" if it restored its old name. "I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,'' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington," Trump said on his social media site. ADVERTISEMENT His latest interest in changing the name reflects his broader effort to roll back changes that followed a national debate on cultural sensitivity and racial justice. The team announced it would drop the Redskins name and the Indian head logo in 2020 during a broader reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality. The Commanders and the District of Columbia government announced a deal earlier this year to build a new home for the football team at the site the old RFK Stadium, the place the franchise called home for more than three decades. Trump's ability to hold up the deal remains to be seen. President Joe Biden signed a bill in January that transferred the land from the federal government to the District of Columbia. The provision was part of a short-term spending bill passed by Congress in December. While DC residents elect a mayor, a city council and commissioners to run day-to-day operations, Congress maintains control of the city's budget. Josh Harris, whose group bought the Commanders from former owner Dan Snyder in 2023, said earlier this year the name was here to stay. Not long after taking over, Harris quieted speculation about going back to Redskins, saying that would not happen. The team did not immediately respond to a request for comment following Trump's statement. The Washington team started in Boston as the Redskins in 1933 before moving to the nation's capital four years later. The Cleveland Guardians' president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, indicated before Sunday's game against the Athletics that there weren't any plans to revisit the name change. ADVERTISEMENT "We understand there are different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago, but obviously it's a decision we made. We've got the opportunity to build a brand as the Guardians over the last four years and are excited about the future that's in front of us," he said. Cleveland announced in December 2020 it would drop Indians. It announced the switch to Guardians in July 2021. In 2018, the team phased out "Chief Wahoo' as its primary logo. The name changes had their share of supporters and critics as part of the national discussions about logos and names considered racist. Trump posted Sunday afternoon that "The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he doesn't understand is that if he changed the name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election. Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!" Matt Dolan, the son of the late Larry Dolan, no longer has a role with the Guardians. He ran the team's charity endeavours until 2016. Matt Dolan was a candidate in the Ohio US Senate elections in 2022 and 2024 but lost. Washington and Cleveland had another thing in common — David Blitzer was a member of Harris' ownership group with the Commanders and held a minority stake in the Guardians.

Under threat of a ‘snapback' of sanctions, Iran has agreed to talks with Britain, France and Germany
Under threat of a ‘snapback' of sanctions, Iran has agreed to talks with Britain, France and Germany

NZ Herald

time7 hours ago

  • NZ Herald

Under threat of a ‘snapback' of sanctions, Iran has agreed to talks with Britain, France and Germany

A German diplomatic source had told AFP earlier that the E3 were in contact with Tehran and said: 'Iran must never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon'. 'That is why Germany, France and the United Kingdom are continuing to work intensively in the E3 format to find a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme,' the source said. Israel launched on June 13 a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis, targeting key military and nuclear facilities. The US launched its own set of strikes against Iran's nuclear programme on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz. Kremlin meeting Iran and the US had held several rounds of nuclear negotiations through Omani mediators before Israel launched its 12-day war against Iran. However, US President Donald Trump's decision to join Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities effectively ended the talks. The E3 countries last met Iranian representatives in Geneva on June 21 - just one day before the US strikes. Also today, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a surprise meeting in the Kremlin with Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader on nuclear issues. Larijani 'conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear programme', Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the unannounced meeting. Putin had expressed Russia's 'well-known positions on how to stabilise the situation in the region and on the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear programme', he added. Moscow has a cordial relationship with Iran's clerical leadership and provides crucial backing for Tehran but did not swing forcefully behind its partner even after the US joined Israel's bombing campaign. Snapback mechanism Iran and world powers struck a deal in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed significant restrictions on Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. But the hard-won deal began to unravel in 2018, during Trump's first presidency, when the US walked away from it and reimposed sanctions on Iran. European countries have in recent days threatened to trigger the deal's 'snapback' mechanism, which allows the reimposition of sanctions in the event of non-compliance by Iran. After a call with his European counterparts on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Western allies had 'absolutely no moral [or] legal grounds' for reactivating the snapback sanctions. He elaborated in a post to social media. 'Through their actions and statements, including providing political and material support to the recent unprovoked and illegal military aggression of the Israeli regime and the US ... the E3 have relinquished their role as 'Participants' in the JCPOA,' said Araghchi. That made any attempt to reinstate the terminated UN Security Council resolutions 'null and void', he added. 'Iran has shown that it is capable of defeating any delusional 'dirty work' but has always been prepared to reciprocate meaningful diplomacy in good faith,' Araghchi wrote. However, the German source said that 'if no solution is reached over the summer, snapback remains an option for the E3'. Ali Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week there would be no new nuclear talks with the US if they were conditioned on Tehran abandoning its uranium enrichment activities. -Agence France-Presse

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store