Spaniards erupted in joy after La Roja won the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, with some following coach Jorge Vilda’s call to take to the streets and celebrate Spain’s first major soccer title in more than a decade. 

Fans in Madrid, Barcelona and around the country cheered when the final whistle blew in Australia following Spain’s 1-0 win over England to clinch the women’s world title for the first time. 

The women’s triumph came 13 years after the men’s national team won its only World Cup title in South Africa. The men’s team also won the 2008 and 2012 European Championships. 

“They made it possible for people to watch women’s soccer the same way that they watch men’s soccer,” said 20-year-old Erika Macarro at a viewing party in Madrid. “This is great for young girls who are being able to experience this. We never expected this team to get this far and they did. It shows that you always have to believe.”

The match commentator on Spanish television lauded that “the dream of an entire country became reality and, 4,788 days later, Spain is a world champion again,” adding that “The women’s team has won a star just like the men’s team in 2010.” 

Xavi, a men’s World Cup winner with Spain and Barcelona’s current coach, said he was moved by the women’s team victory. 

“They played very well, we are very happy for all of them,” he said. “They have suffered a lot to be able to play soccer and deserve a lot of credit.” 

The celebrations were not comparable to those after the men’s World Cup title, but the gatherings to support the women’s team were still significant. 

There were viewing parties organized by local officials in more than 100 cities across Spain. In Madrid, fans watched the final in bars throughout the city and at an arena where a big screen was set up for nearly 7,000 people who signed up in advance for free tickets. 

Some went out to the nearby plaza to celebrate, sporting the nation’s red-and-yellow colors, waving flags and chanting despite the high temperatures in the Spanish capital. 

“It’s a historic moment, it shows that our women also have their worth in soccer,” said fan Esther Ros. “What they’ve done is amazing.” 

Spain’s Queen Letizia was in Sydney to cheer on La Roja and received a jersey from the players after the match. 

“You are the best soccer players in the world,” Spain’s royal family said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This is FOOTBALL and it is HISTORY!” 

After the final, Olga Carmona — who scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the first half — learned of her father’s death. The federation did not say when Carmona’s father died or give a cause of death. It also did not say exactly when Carmona was informed about the news or who told her. She had appeared to celebrate normally with her teammates after the final whistle. 

The federation said earlier that title celebrations were set to take place after the squad’s arrival in Madrid on Monday night, with a big screen and attractions set up for fans in the Spanish capital. 

Spain’s coach had said after the semifinals that the women’s team was making the entire nation proud and had called for fans to take to the streets on Sunday. 

“Now they can celebrate,” Vilda said. “I can only imagine what Spain looks like right now.” 

There was still mixed reaction about Vilda after some players rebelled against him less than a year ago. Fifteen players stepped away from the national team for their mental health and demanding a more professional environment. 

Many fans jeered Vilda at the viewing party in Madrid when his name was announced. 

“You feel that the issue hasn’t been fully resolved yet, but that doesn’t change what they’ve achieved,” Macarro said. “The credit has to go to the players, because they are the ones out there making it happen.” 

Spain’s women had never advanced past the round of 16 at a World Cup, and expectations were not too high this time following the problems involving Vilda and some of the players. 

Spain was playing in only its third Women’s World Cup. Four years ago, it advanced to the knockout rounds but lost to eventual champions the United States. 

 
…

The swimming leg of a triathlon test event ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in Paris was canceled on Sunday due to poor water quality in the River Seine, the third such decision this month. 

“Water quality tests … do not provide the necessary guarantees to properly hold the swimming event,” organizers said in a statement. 

The mixed relay triathlon test event was switched to a duathlon format as was the case on Saturday for the Para triathlon event. 

Organizers also canceled the Open Water Swimming World Cup in Paris this month after heavy rainfall caused the water quality in the river to dip below minimum health standards. 

The city has been working on clean-up efforts to make the Seine swimmable again, as it was during the 1900 Paris Olympics. 
…

The Netherlands and Denmark announced Sunday they will give F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

During a visit to the Netherlands, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the “historic” announcement making Denmark and the Netherlands the first countries to donate F-16 jets to Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia.

“It makes me proud that Denmark, together with the Netherlands, will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine’s fight for freedom against Russia and its senseless aggression,” Zelenskyy said after his visit to a Dutch air base with Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Zelenskyy said that the F-16s will be an important motivation for his country’s forces that are embroiled in a difficult counteroffensive against Russia.

After the announcement the Ukrainian president headed to Denmark for a visit with host Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Ukraine says these modern U.S. fighter jets are necessary to counter the air superiority of the Russians.

The delivery of the powerful U.S.-made fighter jets will depend on how soon Ukrainian crews and infrastructure will be ready for them, Rutte told Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that Ukraine would get 42 jets, but the Netherlands and Denmark, in a joint statement announcing the deliveries, did not specify numbers.

“The F-16s will not help immediately now with the war effort. It is anyway a long-term commitment from the Netherlands,” Rutte said. “We want them to be active and operational as soon as possible. … Not for the next month, that’s impossible, but hopefully soon afterward,” he said.

The Dutch and Danish governments are also involved in a coalition that is working to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the advanced fighter jets.

Zelenskyy declined to say how many Ukrainian pilots would undergo training in Denmark and later in Romania, citing security reasons.

Denmark, however, said Friday that the training is starting this month.

Officials have previously said that Ukrainian pilots will need six to eight months of training.

The training includes technical language training in English because most technical manuals are written in English.

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. Air Force General James Hecker told reporters Friday at a virtual meeting of the Defense Writers Group that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stays high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said, “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”

The British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Ukraine is striking deep inside Russia and the leadership of Russia’s Aerospace Forces is “highly likely” being pressured to improve its defenses over western Russia.

The ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin “almost certainly” invaded Ukraine believing that it “would have little direct effect on Russians.” Uncrewed aerial vehicles are regularly hitting Moscow, the ministry’s report said.

There have been “increasing reports” of SA-5 GAMMON missiles hitting Russia. The ministry said the 7.5-ton Soviet-era GAMMON had been retired from Ukraine’s defense inventory but has been apparently resurrected “as a ground attack ballistic missile.”

Russia’s defense ministry said Sunday it jammed a Ukrainian drone headed toward Moscow, causing it to crash. Afterward, flights at Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were temporarily suspended as a precaution.

Officials say a fire broke out when a Ukrainian drone hit a train station in the Russian city of Kursk. Five people were injured in the incident. Kursk borders Ukraine.

In his daily address, Zelenskyy vowed retaliation for a deadly Russian missile attack Saturday on the historic city of Chernihiv, about 145 kilometers north of Kyiv. The attack Saturday killed seven people, including a 6-year-old, and injured 144 others.

I am sure,” the president said, “our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack. Respond tangibly.”

The missile struck while people were heading to church to celebrate a religious holiday. Fifteen of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers, according to the interior ministry.

Zelenskyy posted a video on the Telegram messaging app showing images from the aftermath of the attack, including a body in a car surrounded by debris.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” Zelenskyy wrote while visiting Sweden to discuss a new military aid package of more than $313 million from the Nordic country.

During his visit to Stockholm, Zelenskyy asked Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets to help Ukraine boost its air defenses.

In June, the Swedish government said it would give Ukrainian pilots the opportunity to test its Saab-made jet, but it also has said it needs all its planes to defend Swedish territory.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukrainian pilots have begun training on the aircraft.

During a joint news briefing, Kristersson did not comment on the Gripens, but he condemned the Russian missile attack on Chernihiv.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

 
…

Greek authorities Sunday evacuated another five villages near the northeastern border with Turkey where a large summer wildfire that has already destroyed several homes over the weekend drew dangerously close.

There were no reports of serious injuries to firefighters or residents from the forest blaze near the town of Alexandroupolis, that forced the evacuation of another eight villages Saturday.

Strong winds whipped on the flames, and civil protection authorities warned of an “extreme” fire risk Monday in the region around the capital, Athens, and other parts of southern Greece.

Some 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping aircraft, volunteers and police, were battling the blaze near Alexandroupolis.

Local authorities said about half a dozen outlying houses and outbuildings were badly damaged in two of the evacuated villages, as well as a church. Sections of a major highway were closed for a second day as smoke reduced visibility, while Alexandroupolis residents were advised to keep their windows shut.

Greece’s minister for civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said Sunday that firefighters, police, army personnel and volunteers were “waging an intense battle” in the Alexandroupolis area, and called for extreme public vigilance throughout the country Monday.

“No outdoors work that could trigger a fire will be permitted,” he said. “We must all protect our country.”

Every summer, Greece suffers destructive wildfires which officials said have been exacerbated by climate change.

The deadliest Greek wildfire on record killed 104 people in 2018, in a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Since then, authorities have been erring on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

Last month a large wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.
…

The British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that Ukraine is striking deep inside Russia and the leadership of Russia’s Aerospace Forces is “highly likely” being pressured to improve its defenses over western Russia.   

The ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin “almost certainly” invaded Ukraine believing that it “would have little direct effect on Russians.”  Uncrewed aerial vehicles are regularly hitting Moscow, the ministry’s report said.   

There have been “increasing reports” of SA-5 GAMMON missiles hitting Russia. The ministry said the 7.5-ton Soviet-era GAMMON had been retired from Ukraine’s defense inventory but has been apparently resurrected “as a ground attack ballistic missile.”  

Russia’s defense ministry said Sunday it jammed a Ukrainian drone headed toward Moscow, causing it to crash. Afterward, flights at Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were temporarily suspended as a precaution.

Officials say a fire broke out when a Ukrainian drone hit a train station in the Russian city of Kursk. Five people were injured in the incident. Kursk borders Ukraine.  

In his daily address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed retaliation for a deadly Russian missile attack Saturday on the historic city of Chernihiv, about 145 kilometers north of Kyiv. The attack Saturday killed seven people, including a 6-year-old child, and injured 144 near the central square in Chernihiv.  

I am sure,” the president said, “our soldiers will respond to Russia for this terrorist attack. Respond tangibly.”  

The missile struck while people were heading to church to celebrate a religious holiday. Fifteen of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers, according to the interior ministry.   

Zelenskyy posted a video on the Telegram messaging app showing images from the aftermath of the attack, including a body in a car surrounded by debris.    

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” Zelenskyy wrote while visiting Sweden to discuss a new military aid package of more than $313 million from the Nordic country.  

During his first visit to Stockholm since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy asked Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets to help Ukraine boost its air defenses.   

In June, the Swedish government said it would give Ukrainian pilots the opportunity to test its Saab-made jet, but it also has said it needs all its planes to defend Swedish territory. 

Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukrainian pilots have begun training on the aircraft.  

During a joint news briefing, Kristersson did not comment on the Gripens, but he condemned the Russian missile attack on Chernihiv.   

Sweden changed its long-established policy of military nonalignment to back Ukraine with weapons and other support in the war against Russia. Sweden has applied for NATO membership and is in the process of joining the alliance.     

Ukrainian pilots also have begun training on U.S. F-16 fighter jets, a process that would take at least six months and possibly longer, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Saturday, two days after a U.S. official said F-16s would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained. 

Reznikov said in a TV interview that six months of training was considered the minimum for pilots, but it was not yet clear how long it would take to train engineers and mechanics. 

Ukraine says these modern U.S. fighter jets are necessary so it can counter the air superiority of the Russian invaders.

“Therefore, to build reasonable expectations, set a minimum of six months in your mind, but do not be disappointed if it is longer,” Reznikov said. 

Washington has approved sending F-16s to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands to defend against Russia as soon as pilot training is completed, a U.S. official said.  

Reznikov did not disclose where and when the training was taking place. 

The training included technical language training because most of the technical manuals are written in English.  

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.      

U.S. Air Force General James Hecker told reporters Friday at a virtual meeting of the Defense Writers Group that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.      

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stays high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.         

Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa, did note that if Ukraine runs out of its integrated air and missile defense ammunition, “then it becomes a problem.”       

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”      

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said, “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”    

Camp David   

At a trilateral summit Friday, the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea pledged to “stand with Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked and brutal war of aggression.”      

Meeting at Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat, President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said their countries would continue to help Ukraine.       

They also pledged to continue sanctions on Russia and accelerate their countries’ “reduction of dependency on Russian energy.”      

Kishida said, “The free and open international order based on the rule of law is in crisis,” and pointed the blame at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continuing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and a “unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas” — referring lastly to China.         

 VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer and VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

A wildfire on the Spanish island of Tenerife that has forced thousands of people to flee their homes remained out of control on Sunday, despite a slight improvement in weather conditions during the night.

Orange flames lit up the night sky from Saturday into Sunday on hillsides just above the lights of inhabited areas, while thick black smoke billowed high into the air.

Late on Saturday, emergency services said the fire was now affecting 10 towns, although 11 had been evacuated as a precaution. No major tourist areas have been affected.

It covered an area of over 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) with a perimeter of 70 km (40 miles), spreading from 5,000 hectares and a perimeter of 50 km early on Saturday.

Regional authorities said over 12,000 people had been evacuated, revising down their earlier provisional estimate of 26,000.

Weather conditions overnight were “better than expected” Tenerife’s fire brigade said on Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Fernando Clavijo, Canary Islands’ regional leader, said the largest firefighting deployment in the history of Tenerife had so-far prevented the loss of any homes.

Evacuations were ordered throughout Saturday due to worsening weather conditions. At a news conference late on Saturday, the head of Tenerife’s local government Rosa Davila described the fire as “devastating” and said it had forced new evacuations.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday in a mountainous national park around the Mount Teide volcano – Spain’s highest peak.

Popular tourist areas on Tenerife, part of the Canaries archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, have so far been unaffected and its two airports have been operating normally.

Scorching heat and dry weather this summer have contributed to unusually severe wildfires in Europe, including in Spain’s La Palma island in July, and Canada. Blazes on Hawaii’s Maui island earlier this month killed more than 110 people and wrecked the historic resort city of Lahaina.

Scientists say climate change has led to more frequent and more powerful extreme weather events.
…

Large wildfires are ravaging northeastern Greece near the border with Turkey. Local authorities have evacuated residents from eight villages where out-of-control flames have reportedly damaged homes and other property. So far, no deaths or injuries have been reported.  

Strong winds have fueled the fires by the village of Melia east of the city of Alexandroupolis, scorching farmland.  

More than 130 firefighters, 14 water-dropping planes and three helicopters are struggling to contain the blaze while reinforcements arrived from other parts of Greece. 

Earlier, Greek Fire Service spokesperson Yiannis Artopoios said the wildfires, that broke out Saturday, were “strong, aggressive and difficult to contain” as strong winds blowing from different directions intensified the flames and fueled new outbreaks.  

Difficult night ahead

Thick smoke from the fires is reducing visibility in the area, making it even harder for the firefighters to bring the wildfires under control.  

Local authorities are advising the residents of Alexandroupolis to stay indoors and keep their windows shut to avoid respiratory issues from the smoke from the forest land burning nearby. 

Officials of the Greek Fire Service are anticipating a difficult night ahead of them and said, they are expecting equally difficult weather conditions with continuing high winds Sunday.  

The fire service has issued a high wildfire alert for the weekend. 

“We have not seen such large wildfires in the area for years,” said the regional governor of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Christos Metios. He stressed that authorities are doing all they can to protect human life and, if possible, people’s homes and livelihoods.  

The mayor of Alexandroupolis said that so far authorities have evacuated people from residential areas where the flames in some instances reached yards and houses.  

Another smaller wildfire was burning outside Thessaloniki, in the north, the second-largest city in Greece. Earlier, firefighters brought under control a blaze on the western island of Cephalonia. 

Last month, deadly wildfires in central Greece forced the evacuation of about 20,000 tourists on the resort island of Rhodes. Shortly after, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. 

European Union officials have attributed climate change as the main cause for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe. 
…

Firefighters battling a vast wildfire on Tenerife are facing another difficult night after severe weather conditions worsened the blaze, forcing thousands to flee their homes on the Spanish holiday island, regional officials said. 

The huge blaze that broke out late Tuesday in a mountainous northeastern area of the island quickly morphed into the Canary Islands’ biggest-ever fire. 

“It is a devastating fire … a fire on a completely different scale, a scale that the Canary Islands has never experienced before,” said Rosa Davila, head of the government of Tenerife. 

So far the blaze, which now has a perimeter of 70 kilometers (43 miles), has burned through 8,400 hectares (20,800 acres), the equivalent of just more than 4% of Tenerife’s overall surface area of 203,400 hectares. 

In an update late Saturday, Fernando Clavijo, Canary Islands regional president, said the wildfire had so far displaced nearly 12,300 people, citing figures provided by the Guardia Civil police. 

Earlier, regional officials had given a figure twice as high, with emergency services officials saying, “provisional estimates suggest that more than 26,000 people may have been evacuated,” which government officials later clarified was a number “based on census figures” from the areas subjected to evacuation orders. 

And they did not rule out further evacuations, warning of a difficult night ahead.  

“Last night was very complicated and tonight is likely to be just as bad, if not worse,” said Clavijo of an overnight battle with “severe weather” characterized by strong winds and higher-than-expected temperatures that saw the flames spreading to the north, forcing a fresh wave of evacuations.  

“Tonight’s work is going to be very difficult but it will be vital for containing the fire,” he said. 

As the fire spread down the mountainside toward the northern town of La Matanza de Acentejo, Candelaria Bencomo Betancor, a farmer in her 70s, looked on in anguish. 

“The fire is close to our farm, we’ve got trucks, vans, chickens, everything. … It’s a business that is going well but if the fire comes, it will totally ruin us,” she told AFPTV, on the verge of tears. “They have to do something because the fire is right there.” 

 

So far the blaze has affected 11 municipalities on Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands.  

Pedro Martinez, who is in charge of firefighting efforts, told reporters the blaze was “behaving like a sixth-generation wildfire,” a term that refers to a mega forest fire. 

“The fire is beyond our capacity to extinguish it, maybe not in all sectors, but in a large part of them,” he admitted, saying efforts to tackle the flames were being hampered by the huge clouds of smoke and the wind. 

Maria del Pilar Rodriguez Padron, another resident of Matanza, said she was sleeping in her car by the house.  

“They offered us a place to stay but we prefer to stay in the car because we can watch the house and see whether it burns or not. Being elsewhere we just wouldn’t be able to sleep,” she told AFPTV.   

The blaze has generated a vast pillar of smoke that now stretches about 8 kilometers into the air, rising far above the summit of Mount Teide, the volcano that towers over the island. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is expected to visit the island on Monday.  

Last year Spain suffered more than 500 blazes that destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, making it the worst-hit country in Europe, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). 

So far this year, it has had 340 fires, which have ravaged almost 76,000 hectares, EFFIS figures show.   
…

From a hospital bed, her legs still covered in blood, Diana Kazakova described the horror of a Russian missile hitting the heart of Chernihiv city in northern Ukraine on Saturday. 

She was inside a fabric store when the strike happened around 11:30 a.m. local time, moments after warning sirens sounded across the city. 

“The window completely fell on me, and I fell,” she told AFP from the hospital where she is being treated for a concussion and leg injuries. “Then I woke up later and was completely stunned and shocked.” 

In the street outside, “people were crying, shouting … it was scary,” she said. 

 

The strike came during the Orthodox holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord, with some attending morning church services in the city, which sits about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital, Kyiv. 

The roof of Chernihiv’s theater in the central square was badly damaged by the strike, with windows blown out, although the exterior walls of the building were still standing. 

The historic city center is a candidate for nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List, according to Ukraine’s culture ministry. 

The powerful blast shattered all the windows of restaurants, cafes, shops and apartments in two surrounding streets.  

AFP saw a vehicle that had been thrown four meters through the air against the wall of a restaurant. 

Cafe manager Viktoria Zakharchenko, 29, said she had just arrived at work, near the fabric shop, when the missile hit. 

“When I came out, it was terrible. I didn’t know if the people who were lying on the ground were still alive or already dead,” she told AFP. 

The strike killed at least seven people and wounded more than 100. 

AFP saw a man nearby in military uniform inspecting a pile of scrap metal and colored wires, believed to be parts of the missile. 

Nearby, 24-year-old restaurant worker, Lioudmila, who only wanted to give her first name, was helping to remove debris. 

She said she was 200 meters from the restaurant when she heard a very loud whistle and an explosion. 

“I fell to the ground,” she told AFP. 

There were “screams, there were a lot of dead and wounded, and ambulances,” she said, her hands still shaking with shock. 

The streets around were covered with debris, glass and felled trees. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the missile had turned “an ordinary Saturday … into a day of pain and loss.” 
…

This year’s World Humanitarian Day is being commemorated at a time of increased risk for the thousands of aid workers who put their lives on the line every day to help millions of people affected by conflict and natural and human-made disasters.

The United Nations says humanitarian workers are in far greater danger today than 20 years ago, when the U.N.’s headquarters in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, was bombed. The attack killed 22 staffers, including Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, and injuring some 150 others.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, says so far this year, 62 humanitarian workers have been killed in crises around the world, a 40% increase from the same period in 2022. Another 84 aid workers have been wounded and 34 kidnapped.

“The statistics are grim,” said Ramesh Rajasingham, head of OCHA’s office in Geneva. “Every year, nearly six times more aid workers are killed in the line of duty than were killed in Baghdad on that dark day.”

“International law is clear,” he said. “Aid workers are not targets. Perpetrators must be held to account. Impunity for these crimes is a scar on our collective conscience.”

OCHA says the highest number of attacks against aid workers is in South Sudan, followed closely by Sudan. Aid worker casualties also have been recorded in the Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia and Ukraine.

World Humanitarian Day was established in response to the attack in Iraq 20 years ago on Aug. 19, 2003. Survivors and family members of victims, as well as U.N. senior officials, diplomats and members of the public, attended a ceremony Friday at U.N. headquarters in Geneva to pay tribute to the workers who have lost their lives in humanitarian service.

“Far from the spotlight and out of the headlines, humanitarians work around the clock to make our world a better place,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Against incredible odds, often at great personal risk, they ease suffering in some of the most dangerous circumstances imaginable.”

Personal stories

Ahmad Fawzi, who acted as master of ceremonies at the event, was spokesman for Sergio Vieiro di Mello when the terrorist attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad occurred. He escaped death because he was away on mission. However, the scars remain to this day.

“It has been said time heals all wounds. I do not agree,” said Fawzi.

Quoting Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who lost two of her children to assassins’ bullets, he said that while “the pain lessens, it is never gone.”

With his voice breaking, Fawzi shared a painful memory of accompanying the remains of his lifelong friend Nadia Younus, who was killed in the Baghdad terrorist attack, to her final resting place in Cairo.

“It seems like only yesterday that Nadia and I shared our last dinner together in Baghdad,” he said.

Another emotion-filled memory was conveyed by Mujahed Mohammed Hasan, a survivor of the Canal Hotel bombing. He said he was happily planning his wedding on the day he was injured. He recounted years of painful treatment, of shattered dreams, of fighting for survival.

He told the room full of dignitaries that the support of his family gave him the strength and empowered him “to stand before you now, proudly reflecting on a 20-year journey of my life that has changed me into an ambitious, happy, proud individual determined to make a difference in the lives of those in need.”

“My journey is ongoing, and I continue to heal and grow every single day as I choose not to be a victim,” he said.

The United Nations says 362 million people in the world need humanitarian assistance.

In the face of skyrocketing humanitarian needs and despite security and other challenges, OCHA has vowed that “the U.N. and its partners aim to help almost 250 million people in crises around the world — 10 times more than in 2003.”
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting Sweden on Saturday — his first visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the Swedish government said.

It said Zelenskyy will meet Swedish government officials in Harpsund, about 120 kilometers west of Stockholm. He will also meet Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at a palace in the area.

Sweden abandoned its longstanding policy of military nonalignment to support Ukraine with weapons and other aid in the war against Russia. It also applied for NATO membership but is still waiting to join the alliance.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited top military officials in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border.

The Kremlin said that Putin listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the commander in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military brass at the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District.

The exact timings of his visit were not confirmed, but state media published video footage that appeared to be filmed at night, showing Gerasimov greeting Putin and leading him into a building. The meeting itself was held behind closed doors.

Putin’s visit was the first since the Wagner mercenary group ‘s attempted mutiny in June, which saw the group’s fighters briefly take control of Rostov-on-Don.

During June’s short-lived revolt, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly denounced Gerasimov, who serves as chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for denying supplies to his fighters in Ukraine.

Prigozhin claimed that the uprising was not aimed at Putin but at removing Gerasimov and other top brass who he claimed were mismanaging the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine this week has claimed counteroffensive gains on the southeastern front, regaining control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region Wednesday.

The leader of the Russian battalion fighting to maintain control of Urozhaine called for “freezing the front” on Thursday, claiming his troops “cannot win” against Ukraine.

“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Alexander Khodakovsky said in a video posted to Telegram.

Overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said, it shot down 15 out of 17 Russian drones targeting Ukraine’s northern, central and western regions.

The deputy governor of the western Khmelnytskyi region, Serhii Tiurin, said two people were wounded and dozens of buildings damaged by an attack.

In the northwestern Zhytomyr region, a Russian drone attack targeted an infrastructure facility and caused a fire, but no casualties were reported, said Gov. Vitalii Bunechko.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Sweden on Saturday, where he is scheduled to meet with government officials and King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia.

It is the Ukrainian leader’s first trip to Sweden since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden changed its long-established policy of military nonalignment to back Ukraine with weapons and other support in the war against Russia. Sweden has applied for NATO membership and is in progress to join the alliance.

Also Saturday, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Rostov on Don, the headquarters for Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine. The Russian leader is reported to have received an update on that campaign from Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, who is overseeing Russia’s operations in Ukraine.

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Ukraine, with 17 of the unmanned vehicles directed to locations in northern, central and western Ukraine, Ukraine’s air force said Saturday.

The Ukrainian air force said it was able to shoot down 15 of the 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones. It was not clear what happened to the two drones that were not shot down.

Ukraine meanwhile hailed a U.S. decision to allow allies Denmark and the Netherlands to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called the development Friday “great news from our friends in the United States.”

It was not immediately clear when Ukraine might receive the jets, and Ukrainian pilots will need extensive training before they can fly them.

The fighter jets are not likely to affect the trajectory of the war anytime soon, according to U.S. officials.

Air Force Gen. James Hecker told reporters at a virtual meeting with the Defense Writers Group on Friday that there are no prospects currently for either Ukraine or Russia to gain the upper hand in the air.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to get air superiority as long as the number of surface-to-air missiles stay high enough,” Hecker said, responding to a question from VOA.

Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa, did note that if Ukraine runs out of its integrated air and missile defense ammo, “then it becomes a problem.”

“Both Ukraine and Russia have very good integrated air and missile defense systems,” he said. “That alone is what has prevented [Russia or Ukraine] from getting air superiority.”

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said: “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”

Camp David

At a trilateral summit Friday, the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea pledged to “stand with Ukraine against Russia’s unprovoked and brutal war of aggression.”

Meeting at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said their countries would continue to provide assistance to Ukraine.

They also pledged to continue their sanctions on Russia and to accelerate their countries’ “reduction of dependency on Russian energy.”

Kishida said “the free and open international order based on the rule of law is in crisis,” and pointed the blame at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continuing North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and a “unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas” — referring lastly to China.

Ukraine grain

Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as the best shipping route for Ukraine’s grain exports since Russia left the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal, leaving ships traveling the Black Sea corridor vulnerable to Russian attacks.

“We hope that over 60% of the total volume of Ukrainian grain exports will transit Romania,” Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said after meeting Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Bucharest.

Constanta has been one of the best alternative seaports for Ukrainian grain shipping even before the Black Sea grain deal was canceled.

Ukraine exported 8.1 million metric tons of grain through Constanta in the first seven months of this year, and 8.6 million metric tons throughout 2022.

While Romania is looking at boosting the transit of Ukrainian grain through Constanta to international markets, it is also looking at ways to protect local farmers from a surge of Ukrainian grain that could depress local grain prices.

Protests from farmers in Romania and four other eastern EU countries prompted the EU to approve temporary trade restrictions of Ukrainian grain imports to the nations.

The import ban expires Sept. 15, and the five states have asked for it to be extended, at least until the end of the year.

Climbing casualties

The number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is nearing 500,000, The New York Times reported Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The officials cautioned that casualty numbers are not accurate because Moscow is believed to routinely underreport its war dead and injured, and Kyiv does not provide official figures, the newspaper said.

However, the newspaper estimated that Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000, including as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injuries. Ukrainian deaths were close to 70,000, with 100,000 to 120,000 wounded, it said.

The Times cited the officials as saying the casualty count had risen after Ukraine began its counterattack earlier this year.

The Ukrainian military on Thursday claimed gains in its counteroffensive against Russian forces on the southeastern front. Kyiv said its forces had liberated the village of Urozhaine, about 90 kilometers north of the Sea of Azov and about 100 kilometers west of Russian-held Donetsk city.

The advance is part of a drive toward the Sea of Azov and an effort to split Russia’s occupying forces in half.

However, Kyiv says its counteroffensive is advancing more slowly than it had hoped for because of vast Russian minefields and heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.

“Nothing ever goes as well as you would hope. They put mines everywhere. In a square meter, they’re [Ukrainian soldiers] finding five and six mines,” U.S. Air Force General James Hecker said Friday.

U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

RIVNE, Ukraine (AP) — Along a bustling street in a western Ukrainian city, Denys Abdulin takes his first independent strides since he was severely wounded and blinded while fighting invading Russian troops more than a year ago.

The 34-year-old former soldier, wearing black glasses and gripping a white mobility cane, steps onto a more crowded stretch of sidewalk. His movements become tentative and tense. He accidentally blocks the path of a woman approaching an ATM to withdraw cash.

Like many other pedestrians, she responds with a compassionate smile and gracefully moves aside. Gradually, Abdulin covers 600 meters (almost 3/10 of a mile), guided by a trainer walking ahead of him with a bracelet of small metal bells.

Five other Ukrainian military veterans conquered similar challenges while attending a rehabilitation camp for ex-soldiers who lost their vision in combat. Over several weeks, the men would learn to navigate the city of Rivne, to prepare their own meals and to use public transportation while traveling solo.

Price of freedom

Daily tasks they previously performed without thinking now demand focus, strength and dedication.

“Everyone pays their price for freedom in Ukraine,” Abdulin, who spent months confined to a hospital bed and rarely takes off his dark shades, said.

The war Russia launched in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, has killed tens of thousands of fighters on both sides. Countless others, both Ukrainian military personnel and civilians who took up arms to defend their country, have been maimed or suffered other injuries that irreversibly reshaped their lives.

No statistics currently exist for how many service members have lost their sight due to severe wounds sustained in the war, according to Olesia Perepechenko, executive director of Modern Sight, the non-governmental organization that puts on the camp. But demand for the program is growing as the war nears its year and a half point.

Over the course of several weeks, the veterans, accompanied by their families, reside at a rehabilitation center outside of Rivne. Most receive their first canes here, take their first walks around urban and natural environments without assistance, and learn to operate sound-based programs for using cellphones and computers.

“Our goal isn’t to retrain them, not to change them, but simply to give them a chance to become independent and self-reliant,” Perepechenko, who is herself blind, said.

Wounded in battle

Abdulin voluntarily joined the military when Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 18 months ago. Completing the 600-meter walk marked a new phase in his recovery following the wounds he sustained when a mine detonated a few meters (yards) behind him in Sieverodontesk, a city in eastern Ukraine now occupied by Russians.

“It seemed to me that a flame flew out of my eyes,” he said of that day in May 2022. “I immediately realized that I had lost my eyes.”

“Of course, I expected everything, but becoming blind, I couldn’t even imagine,” Abdulin continued. “I thought that I could lose an arm or a leg, and I didn’t want to die at all. I never even thought that I would become blind. Therefore, at first, it was very difficult”.

In 2014, when Russia unlawfully annexed Crimea and armed conflict erupted in Ukraine’s Donbas region, Perepechenko yearned to be on the front lines helping in some way. Her request to join the army was declined, so she decided to embrace a new mission: helping soldiers who lost their sight to reclaim a sense of autonomy.

Modern Sight held its first rehabilitation camp in 2019 and organized around 10 more since then. However, only two camps have taken place during the war. Although there is a waiting list of 30 people for the next session, the non-profit’s primary hurdle is funding: each camp costs about 15,000 euros ($16,400) to put on.

Family care

Abdulin spent almost a year receiving treatment for his injuries, which included a shattered jaw from the shrapnel that also stole his vision and left him with breathing and balance problems. His wife, Olesia Abdulina, returned with their two children from Lithuania, where the three of them sought refuge after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“His eyes were still so swollen, with bandages over them, covered in cotton pads,” Abdulina said of seeing her husband at the hospital for the first time after their months of separation.

“The main thing is that you’re alive,” she said she responded when he told her he would never see again.

During the months after that, she fed him with a spoon and rarely left his side.

At the Modern Sight camp, the two of them were learning how to integrate his impairment into their family life.

While Denys attended physiotherapy or cooking classes, Abdulina and other women with husbands or boyfriends in the program go through their own training exercises. One purpose of the camp is reminding the spouses they are not “nannies” but life partners to their men, Perepechenko said.

During one such session, Abdulina is blindfolded and given a long cane. She tentatively probes the floor while another participant holds her hand. The purpose of the exercise is to help the women better understand what their partners experience and need.

“We remain the same people. We have the same capabilities,” Ivan Soroka, 27, who joined the Ukrainian army on the day Russia invaded and was attending the camp for a second time. “We need to stand up, take control and work on improving ourself.”

Wedding plans

A projectile wounded Soroka near Bakhmut in August 2022, when the longest battle of the war so far was just beginning. Russian forces ended up taking the city in eastern Ukraine in May after more than eight months of intense combat.

“I lost my sight immediately, thrown by the blast wave. I felt that I was dying,” Soroka said. “I lay there for about two minutes. Then I realized that no, someone isn’t letting me go there.” As he recalls those moments, he implies it was his fiancee, Vlada, now sitting beside him, who kept him alive.

The couple met when Soroka was participating in the defense of the Kyiv region in the spring of last year. Their love blossomed swiftly against the backdrop of war. Prior to Soroka’s summer deployment to the Donetsk region, he proposed to Vlada. She agreed to marry him.

But soon after, the two were spending days and nights in a hospital instead of preparing for a wedding. The happy occasion that was postponed because of Soroka’s injury is now planned for early September; after months of rehabilitation, he feels both physically and psychologically strong.

“I’ve realized that unless I rise on my own and start doing something, nothing will change,” he said.

The men and their partners spend camp breaks and evenings in a gazebo on the rehabilitation center’s grounds. An atmosphere of tranquility prevails, occasionally interrupted by hearty laughter and jokes from their time as soldiers.

By the time they leave the center, the men will know they have the tools to get around a city and gained something equally vital – a sense of community forged through shared experiences and a common trauma.

Time to celebrate

One evening, when the day’s activities were completed, the camp participants gathered in a courtyard to celebrate Oleksandr Zhylchenko’s birthday. He lost his sight late last year, though did not share details about the circumstances.

“I’m drawing you into a circle, into your family’s circle. There are about 50 of us here,” Perepechenko said, handing Zhylchenko a heart-shaped balloon in the yellow and blue of Ukraine’s national flag. “This is our collective heart.”

The trainers and trainees stood in a circle and, one by one, shared their birthday wishes for the man of the moment. Careless days. A bright future. Patience, confidence, faithfulness. A peaceful sky. The final wish was for “victory for all of us and for Ukraine.”

Moved, Zhylchenko held the balloon a moment longer, silently conjuring his own wish.

Then, he released it, without seeing it swiftly ascend into the sky.
…

German authorities have said they are investigating an apparent poisoning of an exiled Russian journalist in Munich.

Elena Kostyuchenko, who had worked for the independent Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta, fell ill with symptoms of being poisoned while traveling from Munich to Berlin last October.

Authorities reopened the investigation into the case in July, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. The inquiry comes as details emerged that two other female journalists or critics experienced similar symptoms.

The independent Russian media outlet The Insider this week revealed that at least three exiled Russians, including Kostyuchenko, appear to have been targeted with poisonings.

About a week after Kostyuchenko reported symptoms, Ekho Moskvy journalist Irina Babloyan had a similar experience while in Georgia, and Natalia Arno, head of the Free Russia Foundation, was affected by what The Insider described as a neurotoxic substance while she was in Prague.

In an interview this week with VOA’s Russian Service, Roman Dobrokhotov, founder and editor in chief of The Insider, said his team’s work on the case was just the beginning.

“Our publication is dictated by the desire to warn [exiled] Russian journalists and activists so that they realize that they need to think about their safety, that there is a real threat to their life and health,” Dobrokhotov said.

Reporters covered war in Ukraine

Kostyuchenko had reported on Russia’s war in Ukraine, including in Kherson, until one of her sources in the Ukraine military warned her of a possible assassination attempt, according to media reports.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in Georgia and Germany to treat the suspected attacks “with the utmost seriousness.”

“Reports that Russian journalists Elena Kostyuchenko and Irina Babloyan may have been poisoned in Germany and Georgia are extremely alarming, and must be investigated at once,” CPJ’s Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a statement.

He called on both countries to “do all they can to safeguard the lives of journalists living in exile.”

Russian journalists fled after edicts

Many independent Russian journalists have fled since the war in Ukraine began, after Moscow imposed heavy sanctions and edicts on how media can report the war.

Moscow has also targeted foreign journalists. American reporter Evan Gershkovich marked his 20th week in prison this week.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested while on assignment on March 29 and was accused of espionage — a charge he and his media outlet denied.

And this week, Russia declined to renew media accreditation for two foreign journalists: Eva Hartog, who works for Politico and a Dutch weekly news publication, and Anna-Lena Lauren, a Finnish reporter who had worked in Russia for 16 years.

In Hartog’s case, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on social media that its decision to not extend a visa for someone from the Netherlands should not raise questions “given the harassment of Russian journalists and media outlets by the EU.”

Moscow has also previously cited treatment of Russian journalists, including for media accreditation, for its decision to limit U.S. consular visits to Gershkovich.

VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
…

The city where Anne Frank wrote her World War II diary while hiding with her family from the brutal Nazi occupation is hosting an exhibition about the Ukraine war with grim echoes of her plight more than three-quarters of a century later.

The exhibition that opened Thursday at Amsterdam City Hall offers a vision of the war in Ukraine as experienced by children caught in the devastating conflict.

“This exhibition is about the pain through the children’s eyes,” Khrystyna Khranovska, who developed the idea, said at the opening. “It strikes into the very heart of every adult to be aware of the suffering and grief that the Russian war has brought our children.”

“War Diaries” includes writings like those that Anne Frank penned in the hidden annex behind an Amsterdam canal-side house, but also modern ways Ukrainian children have recorded and processed the traumatic experience of life during wartime, including photos and video.

Among them is the artwork of Mykola Kostenko, now 15, who spent 21 days under siege in the port city of Mariupol.

The relentless attack on the southern port city became a symbol of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to crush Ukraine soon after Russia invaded its neighbor in February last year, but also of resistance and resilience of its 430,000 population.

His pictures from that time are in blue ballpoint pen on pieces of paper torn out of notebooks — that’s all Kostenko had. One of them shows the tiny basement where he and his family sheltered from the Russian shells before finally managing to flee the city.

“I put my soul into all of these pictures because this is what I lived through in Mariupol. What I saw, what I heard. So this is my experience, and this is my hope,” Kostenko said through an interpreter.

A way to cope

Curator Katya Taylor said the diaries and art are useful coping mechanisms for the children.

“We talk so much about mental health and therapy, but they know better than us what they have to do with themselves,” she said. She called the diaries, art, photos and videos on display in Amsterdam “a kind of therapeutic work for many of them.”

The plight of children caught in the war in Ukraine has already attracted widespread international condemnation. More than 500 have been killed, according to Ukrainian officials.

Meanwhile, UNICEF says an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian children are at risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, with potentially lasting effects.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in March for Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, holding them personally responsible for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

A way to remember

For Kostenko, drawing and painting is also therapeutic — a way of processing the traumatic events and recording them so they are never forgotten.

“It also was an instrument to save the emotions that I lived through. For me to remember them in the future, because it’s important,” he said.

The youngest diarist, 10-year-old Yehor Kravtsov, also lived in besieged Mariupol. In text on display next to his diary, he writes that he used to dream of becoming a builder. But his experience living through the city’s siege changed his mind.

 

“When we got out from the basement during the occupation and I was very hungry, I decided to become a chef to feed the whole world,” he wrote. “So that all the people would be happy and there would be no war.”
…

A British nurse who described herself as a “horrible evil person” was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked.

Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the Countess of Chester hospital and attacking other newborns, often while working night shifts, in 2015 and 2016.

The verdict, following a harrowing 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, makes Letby Britain’s most prolific serial child killer in modern history, local media said.

She was found not guilty of two attempted murders while the jury, who spent 110 hours deliberating, were unable to agree on six other suspected attacks.

“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb, we may never truly know why this happened,” the families of Letby’s victims said in a statement.

Prosecutors told the jury Letby poisoned some of her infant victims by injecting them with insulin, while others were injected with air or force-fed milk, sometimes involving multiple attacks before they died.

“I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” said a handwritten note found by police officers who searched her home after she was arrested. “I am a horrible evil person,” she wrote. “I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”

Some of those she attacked were twins — in one case she murdered both siblings, in two instances she killed one but failed in her attempts to murder the other.

The youngest victim was just 1 day old.

‘Malevolent presence’

Letby will be sentenced on Monday and faces a lengthy prison term, possibly a rare full life sentence.

Her actions came to light when senior doctors became concerned at the number of unexplained deaths and collapses at the neonatal unit, where premature or sick babies are treated, over 18 months from January 2015.

With doctors unable to find a medical reason, police were called in. After a lengthy investigation, Letby, who had been involved in the care of the babies, was pinpointed as the “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse,” said prosecutor Nick Johnson.

Pictures of Letby on social media portrayed a happy and smiling woman with a busy social life, and in one photo she was seen cradling a baby. But, during months of often distressing evidence, her trial heard she was a determined killer.

The jury was told how Letby had tried on four occasions to murder one baby girl before she finally succeeded. When another of the victim’s mothers walked in on her attacking twin babies, she said “Trust me, I’m a nurse.”

At her home after her arrest, detectives found paperwork and medical notes with references to the children involved in the case. She had also carried out social media searches for the parents and families of the murdered babies.

Letby wept when she gave evidence over 14 days, saying she had never tried to hurt the babies and had only ever wanted to care for them, blaming unsafe staffing levels on the hospital ward and its dirty conditions.

She also claimed four doctors had conspired to pin the blame on her for the unit’s failings and said she had written the “I am evil” message because she had felt overwhelmed.

‘They could have stopped it’

But the prosecution said she was a cold, cruel, calculating liar who had repeatedly changed her account of events and said her notes should be treated as a confession.

Detectives said they had found nothing unusual about Letby’s life and could not determine any motive.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know unless she just chooses to tell us,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation.

One senior doctor at the neonatal unit, Stephen Brearey, told the BBC that hospital bosses had failed to investigate allegations against Letby and failed to act on his and his colleagues’ concerns.

“Our staff are devastated by what has happened, and we are committed to ensuring that lessons continue to be learned,” said Nigel Scawn, medical director at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The government said it had ordered an independent inquiry, which would include how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with.

The father of twins who survived Letby’s attempts to kill the children demanded answers from the hospital.

“They could have stopped it,” said the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Police are carrying out further investigations into all the time Letby had worked as a nurse at the hospital and at another hospital in Liverpool where she had trained, to identify if there were any more victims.

“There is a number of cases that are active investigations that parents have been informed of,” Hughes said.
…

The World Health Organization and U.S. health authorities said Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.

The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance “due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries,” it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.

So far, the variant has been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a message on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

There are four known sequences of the variant, the WHO has said.

“The potential impact of the BA.2.86 mutations are presently unknown and undergoing careful assessment,” the WHO said.

Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology at University College London, said the attention attracted by the new variant was warranted.

“BA.2.86 is the most striking SARS-CoV-2 strain the world has witnessed since the emergence of Omicron,” he said in a comment published Friday, referring to the variant that exploded onto the global stage in the winter of 2022, causing a surge in COVID cases.

“Over the coming weeks we will see how well BA.2.86 will be faring relative to other Omicron subvariants,” he said.

He stressed, though, that even if BA.2.86 caused a major spike in infections, “we are not expecting to witness comparable levels of severe disease and death than we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants spread.”

“Most people on earth have now been vaccinated and/or infected by the virus,” he said, pointing out that even if people were reinfected with the new variant, “immune memory will still allow their immune system to kick in and control the infection far more effectively.”

The WHO is currently monitoring upwards of 10 variants and their descent lineages.

Most countries that had established surveillance systems for the virus have since dismantled operations, determining it is no longer as severe and therefore could not justify the expense — a move the WHO has denounced, calling instead for stronger monitoring.

In the last reporting period between July 17 and Aug. 13, more than 1.4 million new cases of COVID-19 were detected and more than 2,300 deaths were reported, according to a WHO statement.

The case load represents a rise of 63% from the previous 28-day period, while deaths were down by 56%. 

As of Aug. 13, there were more than 769 million cases of COVID-19 confirmed and more than 6.9 million deaths worldwide, although the real toll is thought to be much higher because many cases went undetected.
…

Firefighters battled overnight to try to bring under control the worst wildfire in decades on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, a major tourist destination, officials said Friday.

The fire in the north of the island, which started late Tuesday, has forced the evacuation or confinement of nearly 8,000 people in eight municipalities.

Television images and videos posted on social media showed the flames coming down the hill close to houses in small neighborhoods and a massive cloud of smoke rising from the area.

The fire is located up in a pine wooded mountain area with several municipalities on its flanks, including Arafo and Candelaria to the east, and La Orotava to the west.

Army captain Rafael San José told Spanish National Television that some progress had been made overnight in stopping the fire’s spread but that rising temperatures during the day would increase difficulties.

The Canary Islands have been in drought for most of the past few years, just like most of mainland Spain. The islands have recorded below-average rainfall in recent years, because of changing weather patterns impacted by climate change.

Canary Islands regional President Fernando Clavijo said late Thursday the blaze, which has scorched 3,200 hectares, was still very virulent but that fortunately there had been no injuries so far.

He said Friday’s efforts would be crucial to containing the fire.

The north of the island was forecast to have a maximum temperature of 84 F Friday with light winds of 20 kph, though temperatures were set to rise further over the weekend.

The flames cover a perimeter of 40 kilometers encircling some 4,000 hectares of land.

Nearly 300 firefighters and Spanish army soldiers are in the area, which is in the northeast of the island, some 20 kilometers away from its main town, Santa Cruz.

Tenerife is one of Europe’s main tourist destinations. Its tourism office stressed Thursday that the most important tourist areas are far from the fire. Business continues as usual in accommodation establishments, beaches and other tourist sites near the coast and in the midlands, the office said.

But access to the Teide National Park, the most important tourist attraction in Tenerife after the beaches, was closed Thursday evening and all tourist facilities around the Teide volcano area, including accommodation, were to be evacuated.

Clavijo claimed the fire was the worst in 40 years. He said the combination of extreme temperatures and the fire had turned the area into a virtual oven.

The seven-island archipelago is located off the northwest coast of Africa and southwest of mainland Spain.

More than 2,000 people were evacuated in a wildfire on the nearby La Palma Island last month that affected some 4,500 hectares.

Wildfires have burned almost 64,000 hectares in Spain in the first seven months of the year, according to Spanish government data. That’s the third highest figure in the last decade.

Spain accounted for almost 40% of the nearly 800,00 hectares burned in the European Union in 2022, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
…

The United States has given the nod to allies Denmark and the Netherlands to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, according to officials. It was not immediately clear when Ukraine might receive the jets, which it has been seeking for a long time to counter Russia’s air superiority.

In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said: “We welcome Washington’s decision to pave the way for sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.”

The U.S. must approve F-16 transactions because the jets are made in the United States. Despite the news, it was not immediately clear when Ukraine would receive the jets.  Pilots must undergo extensive training before Ukraine can receive the jets.

Earlier Friday, Ukraine attempted to launch a drone attack on Moscow, but Russian forces downed the unmanned aerial vehicle.

After Russia shot down the drone, debris from the attack fell on Moscow’s Expo Center, a massive exhibitions space, located less than 7 kilometers from the Kremlin.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that the wreckage from the drone fell near the Expo Center but “did not cause significant damage.”

The British Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily update on Ukraine that Russia has published a new Russian history textbook for schools “in the occupied regions of Ukraine and throughout the Russian Federation,” beginning in September.  The ministry posted on X, that “Russia’s aim is to create a pro-Kremlin information space in the occupied regions in order to erode Ukrainian national identity.”

Ukraine claimed Thursday that its counteroffensive had retaken parts of Russian-controlled land in the southeastern part of the country in a push beyond the newly liberated village of Urozhaine.

The advance is an attempted drive toward the Sea of Azov, an effort to split Russia’s occupying forces in half.

“In the direction south of Urozhaine, [Ukrainian troops] had success,” military spokesman Andriy Kovaliov said on national television. He gave no more details.

Urozhaine, in the eastern Donetsk region, was the first village Kyiv said it had retaken since July 27 in what has proved to be a difficult, grinding warfare in heavily mined Russian-controlled territory.

Urozhaine lies just over 90 kilometers north of the Sea of Azov and about 100 kilometers west of Russian-held Donetsk city.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in parts of Zaporizhzhia controlled by Moscow, said Urozhaine and the neighboring village of Staromaiorske were not under Ukrainian control.

Drone footage, however, of the intense fight for Urozhaine, has emerged in which dozens of Russian troops can be seen fleeing to the village’s south.

Russia controls nearly one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula it annexed in 2014, most of Luhansk region and large tracts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Kyiv says its counteroffensive is advancing more slowly than it had hoped for because of vast Russian minefields and heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.

Russian attacks on Ukrainian grain facilities

Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that Russia damaged grain infrastructure at a port in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine as part of an overnight drone attack.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Telegram that the attack targeted the port of Reni on the Danube River. 

Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that the attack damaged warehouses and grain storage facilities at the port.

Kiper said there were no reported casualties from the attack, and that Ukraine’s air force had downed 11 Russian drones over Odesa. The Ukrainian military said its air defenses destroyed 13 drones overnight and that Russia had used Iranian-made Shahed drones to target Odesa and Mykolaiv.

Black Sea shipping

The Hong-Kong-flagged container ship Joseph Schulte left Ukraine’s port of Odesa on Wednesday.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the vessel was the first to set off down a temporary Black Sea corridor that Ukraine established for civilian ships following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The Joseph Schulte was carrying 30,000 metric tons of cargo, Kubrakov said. The vessel had been stuck in Odesa since Russian launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has not said whether it will respect Ukraine’s shipping corridor. On Sunday, a Russian patrol ship fired warning shots at a vessel after what Russia said was a failure by the captain to respond to a request for an inspection.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Ukraine attempted to launch a drone attack on Moscow early Friday, but Russian forces downed the unmanned aerial vehicle.

After Russia shot down the drone, debris from the attack fell on Moscow’s Expo Center, a massive exhibitions space, located less than 7 kilometers from the Kremlin.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that the wreckage from the drone fell near the Expo Center but “did not cause significant damage.”

Ukraine claimed Thursday that its counteroffensive had retaken parts of Russian-controlled land in the southeastern part of the country in a push beyond the newly liberated village of Urozhaine.

The advance is an attempted drive toward the Sea of Azov, an effort to split Russia’s occupying forces in half.

“In the direction south of Urozhaine, [Ukrainian troops] had success,” military spokesman Andriy Kovaliov said on national television. He gave no more details.

Urozhaine, in the eastern Donetsk region, was the first village Kyiv said it had retaken since July 27 in what has proved to be a difficult, grinding warfare in heavily mined Russian-controlled territory.

Urozhaine lies just over 90 kilometers north of the Sea of Azov and about 100 kilometers west of Russian-held Donetsk city.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-installed official in parts of Zaporizhzhia controlled by Moscow, said Urozhaine and the neighboring village of Staromaiorske were not under Ukrainian control.

Drone footage, however, of the intense fight for Urozhaine, has emerged in which dozens of Russian troops can be seen fleeing to the village’s south.

Russia controls nearly one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula it annexed in 2014, most of Luhansk region and large tracts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Kyiv says its counteroffensive is advancing more slowly than it had hoped for because of vast Russian minefields and heavily fortified Russian defensive lines.

Russian attacks on Ukrainian grain facilities

Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that Russia damaged grain infrastructure at a port in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine as part of an overnight drone attack. 

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Telegram that the attack targeted the port of Reni on the Danube River. 

Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that the attack damaged warehouses and grain storage facilities at the port.

Kiper said there were no reported casualties from the attack, and that Ukraine’s air force had downed 11 Russian drones over Odesa. The Ukrainian military said its air defenses destroyed 13 drones overnight and that Russia had used Iranian-made Shahed drones to target Odesa and Mykolaiv.

Black Sea shipping

The Hong-Kong-flagged container ship Joseph Schulte left Ukraine’s port of Odesa on Wednesday.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the vessel was the first to set off down a temporary Black Sea corridor that Ukraine established for civilian ships following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The Joseph Schulte was carrying 30,000 metric tons of cargo, Kubrakov said. The vessel had been stuck in Odesa since Russian launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has not said whether it will respect Ukraine’s shipping corridor. On Sunday, a Russian patrol ship fired warning shots at a vessel after what Russia said was a failure by the captain to respond to a request for an inspection.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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