Nato jets scrambled as Putin launches one of war's biggest attacks in Ukraine with 700 drones and hypersonic missile
Some 30 ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 700 drones were launched in one of the most intense bombing raids since the start of the war.
2
More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
32 minutes ago
- Reuters
Britain's Moore handed four-year ban after CAS upholds ITIA appeal
July 15 (Reuters) - Britain's Tara Moore, who was previously cleared of an anti-doping rule violation, was handed a four-year ban on Tuesday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an appeal filed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. Moore, Britain's former number one-ranked doubles player, was provisionally suspended in June 2022 due to the presence of prohibited anabolic steroids Nandrolone and boldenone. Moore said she had never knowingly taken a banned substance in her career and an independent tribunal determined that contaminated meat consumed by her in the days before sample collection was the source of the prohibited substance. Moore lost 19 months in the process before she was cleared of the ADRV but CAS upheld the ITIA's appeal against the first instance "No Fault or Negligence" ruling with respect to nandrolone. "After reviewing the scientific and legal evidence, the majority of the CAS Panel considered that the player did not succeed in proving that the concentration of nandrolone in her sample was consistent with the ingestion of contaminated meat," CAS said in a statement. "The panel concluded that Ms Moore failed to establish that the ADRV was not intentional. The appeal by the ITIA is therefore upheld and the decision rendered by the Independent Tribunal is set aside." Moore had previously said how she saw her reputation, ranking and livelihood "slowly trickling away" for 19 months during her initial suspension. The 32-year-old had also filed a cross-appeal at CAS "seeking to dismiss the ITIA appeal, dismiss the nandrolone result in the ADRV or alternatively confirm that she bears no fault or negligence". However, CAS said the cross-appeal was declared inadmissible and her four-year period of ineligibility would start from July 15, with credit for any provisional suspension that has already been served. "Our bar for appealing a first instance decision is high, and the decision is not taken lightly," ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said in a statement. "In this case, our independent scientific advice was that the player did not adequately explain the high level of nandrolone present in their sample. Today's ruling is consistent with this position."
Daily Mail
38 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
STILL a turn off! Fewer than one in eight watched BBC Scotland...despite it costing £200m
Fewer than one in eight adults watched the BBC Scotland digital channel each week last year - despite it having cost licence-payers more than £200million since its launch. The channel reached only 13 per cent of the population, the same figure as the previous year, and was watched for only an hour and 33 minutes a week by the average viewer. According to the latest BBC annual accounts for 2024/25, the cost of the channel, paid for by the licence fee, rose from £40million a year to £42million in the past year - and the cost per 'user hour' for the BBC Scotland channel and BBC Scotland content on iPlayer was 45p. Earlier this year, BBC Scotland's flagship news show Reporting Scotland: News at Seven was launched on the digital channel, replacing The Nine, which was axed after a row over low viewer numbers and too many repeats, with the new show attracting fewer than 30,000 viewers for its first episode. Last night Scottish Tory culture spokesman Murdo Fraser said: 'BBC Scotland bosses must address why Scots are not getting value for money when it comes to this channel. 'Given the sums involved they must ensure that they are investing in high-quality content that resonates with and reaches a far wider audience in Scotland.' News at Seven, a 30-minute show airing every weeknight on the BBC Scotland channel, aims to complement Reporting Scotland, the BBC One news programme which is screened at 6.30pm. It is presented by Laura Maciver and Amy Irons, who take turns fronting the show. The total cost of the BBC Scotland channel since its launch in 2019 is £204million. The Nine - which at one point reached just 1,700 people - ended last year along with entertainment news programme The Edit and weekly news review Seven Days. Last year media commentator and former BBC editor Professor Tim Luckhurst said: 'The number paying the licence fee has declined and the BBC faces financial challenges that can only be met by making staff redundant. 'For BBC Scotland to spend millions of pounds on a channel that attracts a tiny minority of the population in these circumstances is unreasonable. 'The BBC Scotland channel should close immediately - it costs money the BBC cannot afford.' The BBC was contacted for comment on funding for the digital channel. Meanwhile, the annual report said the BBC as a whole had screened 'content reflecting all of Scotland', including dramas Shetland, starring Ashley Jensen, Rebus – with Richard Rankin in the title role - and Granite Harbour, as well as documentary series Murder Trial, Inside Barlinnie [prison], and Sir Alex, about Sir Alex Ferguson, Britain's most decorated football manager. Award-winning The Agency: Unfiltered returned for a third series searching for Scotland's top influencer and attracting younger audiences. The report said 'Scotland-produced audio content' performed well on BBC Sounds and BBC Sport with Sportsound at six million plays. BBC Radio nan Gàidheal launched a 'celebration of new Gaelic song and composition', Òran Ùr. The report said 56 per cent of adults in Scotland consume BBC Scotland content on average per week, down from 57 per cent the previous year. Muriel Gray, chairman of the Scotland committee of the BBC, said: 'During the year, the committee has discussed and reviewed a number of critical areas, including major news changes introduced by BBC Scotland in January, BBC Radio Scotland's audience performances, the role of television drama in driving iPlayer growth, and the renewal of the BBC's partnership with MG ALBA.' In January, the BBC's new boss in Scotland claimed people may not be paying for a TV licence because of the cost of living crisis and the wide choice of programmes across streaming services. Ms Valentine, who became Director of BBC Scotland in October, defended News at Seven when she appeared before MPs at the Scottish Affairs Committee in the Commons. A BBC spokesman said: 'Fluctuations in recorded spend can be due to several factors including variations in the transmission dates of scripted content and special content, for example related to the Euros. 'This is reflected in the accounts. 'The BBC Scotland channel is the top performer after the leading 5 channels - BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, C4 and C5 - and audiences also watch the channel's content on the iPlayer. 'The cost per user hour for the channel has fallen year on year and in 2024/25, and BBC Scotland content had 1million weekly active users on iPlayer..'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EUAN McCOLM: Ignore the urge to stick two fingers up to Trump, deploy some 'necessary hypocrisy' and welcome him to Scotland, Mr Swinney - it's your duty
John Swinney was perfectly clear. So far as the First Minister was concerned, the UK should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit from US President Donald Trump. Days after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met Mr Trump at the Whitehouse, Mr Swinney said the invitation should be revoked. The US President was not, said the SNP leader, a 'steadfast ally'. The nationalists' leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn MP, was even more direct, saying it was time for Mr Starmer to 'get back up of his knees' and withdraw the offer of bells-and-whistles visit. Both Mr Swinney and Mr Flynn lashed out after a meeting between Mr Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during which the US president harangued his counterpart. There is no question in my mind that Mr Trump and his Vice President JD Vance behaved disgracefully during that Oval Office summit. Their attempts to humiliate Mr Zelensky made them look the small men they are. And so the instinct to stick two fingers up to the American President is, I think, perfectly understandable. But what good would withdrawal of that invitation have done? How would that have advanced the cause of the Ukrainian people or benefitted the UK? (Those calling for the cancellation of a state visit might, had their demands been met, have enjoyed a dopamine-rush of self-righteousness, I suppose.) It now emerges that, in advance of the state visit in September, Mr Trump will be in the UK later this month. The President will meet both Sir Keir and Mr Swinney during a trip to his Aberdeenshire golf resort. While the First Minister greets Mr Trump, other Scottish MSPs will be protesting his presence in the country. During the launch, last week, of his bid to become one the Scottish Green Party's two co-leaders, Ross Greer said he doubted that Mr Swinney would agree to meet either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. 'What,' asked Mr Greer, 'is the distinction between them other than economic power and how do we think history will judge those who tried to treat him like just another world leader?' Leaving aside the far-left's obsession with the judgement of history, why shouldn't Mr Trump be treated, while in the UK, like any other world leader? It is - or certainly should be - possible for a politician to deprecate the actions of the petty and vindictive president while maintaining a clear-eyed view of the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is one in which - although the present occupant of the White House may not be to one's taste - the USA remains a key democratic ally to the UK. Some years ago, I attended an event in Edinburgh at which former US President Barack Obama delivered a speech in which he spoke of the complexity of political relationships and decision making. Sometimes, he said, leadership involved a degree of 'necessary hypocrisy'. To the rigid ideologue, such a concept is difficult to grasp. Armed with the certainty that he - and only those who agree with him - are in the right, he attacks those who do not share his worldview. From the moral high-ground, the view is not at all clear. Rather, it is clouded by the prejudices or, if one is feeling charitable, convictions of the person standing there. When John Swinney and Stephen Flynn spoke out against a state visit for President Trump, they gave voice to the instincts of many. The disgusting treatment of President Zelensky during his White House visit remains a stain on the USA's reputation. But politicians are not elected to give voice to our personal - or, indeed their own - prejudices but to advance the interests of the country. And, I do not see how it would benefit the UK - including Scotland - for either Sir Keir Starmer or Mr Swinney to pick an unnecessary fight with Mr Trump. The SNP has form when it comes to the childishly inept handling of international relations. Last August, Mr Swinney was invited to meet Israel's deputy ambassador to the UK, Daniela Grudsky. Unable to attend, the First Minister sent external affairs secretary Angus Robertson in his stead. Mr Robertson - as he should have - greeted Ms Grudsky warmly and happily posed for photographs with her. Then came the backlash from within the SNP. There were calls from nationalists for Mr Robertson to be suspended from the party. SNP backbencher Christine Grahame, said her constituents were shocked the meeting had happened, and described Robertson as 'a liability' while minister Ivan McKee told the BBC that his colleagues should reflect on what he had said during the meeting. As the backlash grew, Mr Robertson humiliated himself. With the benefit of hindsight, he said, the meeting - which included discussions about rising antisemitism, renewable energy cooperation, and culture - should have gone played out differently. 'No one,' said Mr Robertson, 'intended that this meeting be presented as legitimatising the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza. The Scottish government has been consistent in our unequivocal condemnation of the atrocities we have witnessed in Gaza.' The external affairs secretary went on to say that it 'would have been better' to ensure the meeting had been strictly limited to the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 'I apologise,' he said, 'for the fact this did not happen.' Mr Robertson is a rarity among senior SNP politicians in that he has some grasp of the complexity of international relations. He is, by nature, a pragmatist; he went to that meeting with Ms Grudsky, enthusiastically, because he understood it was the right thing to do. Mr Robertson's apology was an embarrassment to him and Scotland. It should hardly need stating that taking meetings with foreign presidents or ambassadors does not mean support for the positions they hold. Rather, it displays the necessary willingness to engage with the world as it is rather than as one might hope it to be. When Donald Trump visits the UK later this month, John Swinney should smile, shake his hand, and make the case for US investment in our country. That is his duty. It is not in the best of interests of either the UK - including Scotland - or Ukraine for posturing politicians at Holyrood to make the presidential visit about their personal feelings.
