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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia’s military pounded residential areas across Ukraine overnight, claiming gains, as Ukrainian forces pressed a counteroffensive to try to take back an occupied southern region, striking the last working bridge over a river in the Russian-occupied Kherson region, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday. A Russian rocket attack on the city of Kramatorsk killed three people and wounded 13 others Friday night, according to the mayor. Kramatorsk is the headquarters for Ukrainian forces in the country’s war-torn east. The attack came less than a day after 11 other rockets were fired at the city, one of the two main Ukrainian-held ones in Donetsk province, the focus of an ongoing Russian offensive to capture eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed Saturday its forces had taken control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk, the provincial capital that pro-Moscow separatists have claimed since 2014. Russian … [Read more...] about Ukraine: Moscow Claims Success in East, Kyiv Claims Success in South

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on August 8 urged countries with nuclear weapons to stick to their no-first-use commitment of their atomic arsenals, warning that the nuclear arms race has returned amid growing international tension. “This is the moment … to ask the nuclear-armed countries to commit to the principle of non-first-use and to commit to not use and not threaten the non-nuclear countries,” Mr. Guterres said at a news conference in Tokyo, two days after he visited Hiroshima to commemorate victims of the August 6, 1945, atomic bombing. “I think that nobody, nobody can accept the idea that a new nuclear war would happen. This will be the destruction of the planet," Mr. Guterres said. "What is clear is if nobody uses for the first time then there will be no nuclear war.” Fears of a third atomic bombing have been on the rise amid Russia's threats of a nuclear attack since its war on Ukraine began in February. Explained: The seriousness of Putin’s … [Read more...] about United Nations chief urges nuclear powers to abide by no-first-use pledge

The US and Russia are discussing a prisoner exchange that would involve trading a notorious Russian arms trafficker for an American basketball star, a Russian diplomat said on Saturday. It marked the first time that Russia said that the talks concerned exchanging Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” for two-time Olympian Brittney Griner. “The discussions on the very sensitive topic of an exchange are proceeding via the channels chosen by our presidents,” Alexander Datchiev, the head the North America department at the Russian foreign ministry, was quoted as saying by the state news agency TASS. “Silent diplomacy continues and should bear fruit if Washington, of course, is careful not to fall into propaganda,” he said. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing vape cartridges with a small amount of cannabis oil. The 31-year-old, who was in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury, was … [Read more...] about Russia, US in Talks Over Trading ‘Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner

Tory leaders have ditched plans to house asylum seekers at a closed RAF base in Yorkshire. In a plan unveiled by Priti Patel and Boris Johnson , the Home Office claimed in April that it would “shortly open a new, bespoke, asylum reception centre in Linton-on-Ouse”. Up to 1,500 men were due to be housed there under the scheme, which was detailed as part of the bid to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Boris Johnson claimed the centre would be “like those in Greece” and the first tranche of 60 men were meant to have been moved there by the end of May. But there was a fierce local backlash, with local Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake branding the plan in a village of 600 people “absolutely disgraceful”. Now the site has been “withdrawn” for Home Office use - and both candidates for Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss , have said it will not go ahead. However, the door appeared to remain open to opening an accommodation centre or centres on a different site in future. … [Read more...] about Tories ditch Priti Patel’s plan to house asylum seekers on RAF base in Yorkshire

ROME — Plans for an alleged bank heist in Rome were thwarted this week when a tunnel being dug to the bank vault collapsed, leaving one of the would-be thieves buried for hours, Italian media report. On Thursday, Andrea Grassi, a 33-year-old bricklayer, was excavating in the tunnel under Via Innocenzo XI with a pickaxe and shovel when the roof of the tunnel gave way, leaving him buried under the rubble. Firefighters managed to free Grassi after some 8 hours underground by digging a parallel ten-meter tunnel to extract him alive. He was taken to the San Camillo hospital where he is considered to be in serious but not life-threatening condition. Grassi, along with accomplices collectively referred to by Italian media as the “hole gang” had rented a defunct laundromat on the street. The basement of the laundromat served as the starting point for the tunnel, believed to be directed to a nearby bank, of which there are three within a 200-meter range. The excavated passage … [Read more...] about Rome Bank Heist Thwarted by Tunnel Collapse

“We have to start off in Italian because it’s Italian vodka.” Mike Piazza expressed his gratitude in Italian, unprompted, by dropping a “grazie a tutti” four different times during a Friday night event promoting True Vodka, his latest business endeavor. “The Italian part is something that we’re very proud of,” said Piazza, who not long ago purchased an Italian soccer team only to sink them into bankruptcy. True Vodka, according to their own marketing material, is for rich people. They’ve identified their target demographic as people aged 30-50 with household income ranging from $125,000 to $350K, living in “aspirational urban venues and neighborhoods.” As one of the faces of the Mets, a team that’s always represented the city’s working class, Piazza is conveying a message that seems far more aligned with the yuppie Yankees. But, lest you forget, True Vodka is extremely Italian. This is not something that Piazza, who is from Pennsylvania, takes lightly. When asked about how … [Read more...] about Mets legend Mike Piazza wants you to buy his vodka … because it’s Italian

Alexander Darchiev, a Russian Foreign Ministry official, warned the United States on Friday that if it designates Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism it will have crossed a "point of no return." The comments from Darchiev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's North American Department, came in an interview with the Russian-state news agency TASS, and as some lawmakers from both sides of the aisle pressure the Biden administration to give Moscow such a label. Senator Lindsey Graham , a South Carolina Republican, and Senator Dick Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, told CNN last week that Biden or Congress should make such a designation amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine . "I hope the president will decide to adopt this stance voluntarily and he hasn't taken it off the table on the state-sponsored terrorism," Blumenthal said in an interview with the network earlier this month. Meanwhile, Graham said he'd "like to work" with the Biden administration to enact … [Read more...] about U.S. calling Russia terrorism sponsor would be “point of no return”: Moscow

If you've spent any length of time running, you know how expensive it can be. The more you run, the easier it is to open your wallet for clothes and gear that will make your runs more pleasant. I can't help but think of a meme of Kermit the Frog. On the left, he sits on a pile of money with the running text, "Buying running clothes and shoes." In an image on the right, he counts pennies above the words "Spending money on anything else." While premium gear usually equates to more expensive options, that's not always the case. Price does not dictate whether a product is premium or not. Its features, materials and attention to detail are what raise these products above the rest. In the case of premium running products, however, they usually aren't cheap. The goal here is to highlight products that ease the hurdle to get outside on those days when the weather isn't a perfect running temperature or your body is not feeling its best. As always, the prices listed may fluctuate over … [Read more...] about Tested: 9 premium running products that are actually worth it

As the country gears up for the 75th anniversary of its Independence, the venerable walls of the ‘Gadgil Wada’ sited in the heart of old Pune bears witness to a fascinating period of the freedom struggle. At first glance, the three-storey structure in the city’s Shaniwar Peth seems indistinguishable from the 1,200-odd ‘wadas’ which formed the pulsing heart of Peshwa-era Pune. Yet, it was in Gadgil Wada that Pune had its momentous tryst with the freedom struggle through the towering personality of Kakasaheb Gadgil, who bought this plot where the structure was built in the 1932. It was here that in 1942, after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) was released from Ahmednagar Jail that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Maulana Azad among others decamped to deliberate the future course of the freedom struggle. It was at Gadgil Wada that plans for the reconstitution of the socialist Rashtra Seva Dal took place in early 1940s with socialists like S.M. Joshi, N.G. … [Read more...] about India at 75 | Pune’s iconic ‘Gadgil Wada’ had a pride of place in Freedom Struggle

Tamil Nadu has thrown a surprise this monsoon season with surplus rainfall exceeding 95% of its long-period average, and a huge inflow into the reservoirs filling most of them to the brim. “Tamil Nadu has not received such a high amount of rain in June-July at least during the last three years. The last time when the southwest monsoon was surplus for the state was perhaps in 2018. This time, especially the interior districts, including those adjacent to the Western Ghats, have witnessed above-normal rains every day since mid-July, while it was still less for coastal areas,” the head of IMD’s Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, S Balachandran, told News18. While the southwest monsoon is known to exhibit such inter-annual variations, the senior meteorologist said, there are always the subsystems whose interplay decides how the monsoon performs. “The state mostly relies on northeast monsoon starting October onwards for rains, but it is good that the southwest monsoon too has been … [Read more...] about Monsoon Musings: Tamil Nadu Gets about 95% Excess Rains, But Indo-Gangetic Plains Still Parched