Latvia’s government has been moving to phase out teaching in the Russian language in the country’s schools. It’s part of a bid to reduce Moscow’s influence in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But as Henry Wilkins reports from the Latvian capital’s largely Russian-speaking Daugavgriva neighborhood, some educators and security experts say the move could be playing into the hands of the Kremlin’s propagandists.
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Category: European Union
European Union news. The place name Euros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears the same name today. The principal river there – Euros (today’s Maritsa) – flows through the fertile valleys of Thrace, which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent
Mongolia finds ways to align with the West without alarming China, Russia
Washington — Landlocked between Russia and China, analysts say Mongolia is finding ways to balance its outreach to Western democratic nations without alarming it neighbors to the north or south.
Although Mongolia regards China and Russia as its top foreign and economic priorities, with most of its trade transiting the two, it has also committed to deepening and developing relations with the United States, Japan, the European Union and other democracies, calling these countries its “third neighbors.”
Sean King, senior vice president of Park Strategies, a New York-based political consultancy, tells VOA, “They’re smart to involve us as much as possible as a counterweight to Moscow and Beijing.”
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his latest trip to Asia earlier this month in Mongolia, where he emphasized the country is the United States’ “core partner” in the Indo-Pacific and that such partners are “reaching new levels every day.”
Blinken’s visit came after the two sides held their first comprehensive strategic dialogue in Washington.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was scheduled to visit Mongolia this week, but the trip was canceled as Japan braces for a rare major earthquake predicted for the coming week. Instead, the two sides spoke by phone on August 13.
Leaders of democracies who visited Mongolia the past few months include German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Mongolia for the first time last year.
The State Department said that including Mongolia as one of two countries in Campbell’s diplomatic debut “underscores the United States’ strong commitment to freedom and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.”
Charles Krusekopf, founder and executive director of the American Center of Mongolian Studies, told VOA, “Being able to have some regional presence by having a close relationship with Mongolia, having a friend in the region, I think, is important to the United States.”
The June 2019 edition of the U.S. Defense Department’s “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report” includes Mongolia, along with New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore, in the camp of Indo-Pacific democracies, positioning them as “reliable, competent and natural partners.”
Despite its geographical location, which limits its diplomatic space to maneuver, Mongolia has managed to maintain close relations with all parties, from the U.S., China, and Russia to North and South Korea, making it an exception in complex geopolitics.
At last month’s Mongolia Forum, government officials and strategic experts from eight countries, including Britain, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, gathered in Ulaanbaatar to discuss the most pressing strategic issues in Asia today, including tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“It’s one of the rare places in which people from all countries of the region can come together to meet, and it’s considered kind of a neutral ground,” Krusekopf tells VOA.
Mongolia abstained from U.N. resolutions in 2022 and 2023 that condemned Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian territory and demanded that Russian troops leave the country.
Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai also met with Chinese leaders Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, respectively, last year.
Oyun-Erdene visited China just a month before his state visit to the U.S., where the two countries issued the U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement on the Strategic Third Neighbor Partnership.
Shortly before Blinken’s visit this month, Mongolia held its annual military exercise called Khan Exploration, which, although it was a peacekeeping exercise, was attended not only by troops from the U.S. and Japan but also China.
Krusekopf says with most of Mongolia’s foreign trade being mining exports through China, Beijing doesn’t feel a threat from Western security interests there.
“Mongolia is friends with everyone in the region. It’s never been a threat to other countries, and they’re seen as a middle country. And it’s a broker in that region,” he said.
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Prosecutors investigate gender-based cyber harassment of Olympic boxer Imane Khelif
PARIS — French prosecutors opened an investigation into an online harassment complaint made by Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif after a torrent of criticism and false claims about her sex during the Summer Games, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.
The athlete’s lawyer Nabil Boudi filed a legal complaint Friday with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor’s office that combats online hate speech.
Boudi said the boxer was targeted by a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” as she won gold in the women’s welterweight division, becoming a hero in her native Algeria and bringing global attention to women’s boxing.
The prosecutor’s office said it had received the complaint and its Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crime had opened an investigation on charges of “cyber harassment based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults on the basis of origin.”
Khelif was thrust into a worldwide clash over gender identity and regulation in sports after her first fight in Paris, when Italian opponent Angela Carini pulled out just seconds into the match, citing pain from opening punches.
Claims that Khelif was transgender or a man erupted online. The International Olympic Committee defended her and denounced those peddling misinformation. Khelif said that the spread of misconceptions about her “harms human dignity.”
Among those who referred to Khelif as a man in critical online posts were Donald Trump and J. K. Rowling. Tech billionaire Elon Musk reposted a comment calling Khelif a man.
Khelif’s legal complaint was filed against “X,” instead of a specific perpetrator, a common formulation under French law that leaves it up to investigators to determine which person or organization may have been at fault.
The Paris prosecutor’s office didn’t name specific suspects.
The development came after Khelif returned to Algeria, where she met with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Wednesday and will be welcomed by family later this week in her hometown of Ain Mesbah.
In Algeria, Khelif’s former coach Mustapha Bensaou said the boxer’s complaint in France was initiated by the Algerian authorities and should “serve as a lesson in defending the rights and honor (of athletes) in Algeria and around the world.”
“All those involved will be prosecuted for violating Imane’s dignity and honor,” Bensaou said in an interview with The Associated Press. He added: “The attacks on Imane were designed to break her and undermine her morale. Thank God, she triumphed.”
The investigation is one of several underway by France’s hate crimes unit that are connected to the Olympics.
It is also investigating alleged death threats and cyberbullying against Kirsty Burrows, an official in charge of the IOC’s unit for safeguarding and mental health, after she defended Khelif during a news conference in Paris. Under French law, the crimes, if proven, carry prison sentences that range from two to five years and fines ranging from 30,000 to 45,000 euros.
The unit is also examining complaints over death threats, harassment or other abuse targeting six people involved in the Games’ opening ceremony, including its director Thomas Jolly.
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Russian family who fled Ukraine’s cross-border attack recalls panic, chaos
moscow — Marina and her family were used to hearing the distant boom of explosions from their village in Russia’s Kursk region, just a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
On the night of August 6, the explosions became so loud their beds began shaking.
“Nobody knew anything,” the 39-year-old hairdresser told Agence France-Presse at a humanitarian aid center run by the Orthodox Church in Moscow.
Ukrainian soldiers and armored vehicles began pouring into the region in the early hours of that morning, mounting the biggest cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.
The operation came almost 2½ years into Russia’s assault on Ukraine, which has seen Moscow capture large swaths of Ukrainian territory and strike Ukrainian cities.
But for many living in the border region, the attack came as a surprise.
“Drones started flying over the farms, over fields, over cars,” said Marina. “We couldn’t get through to anyone to find out how to leave, and where to go.”
‘Can’t get out’
When her village some 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from the border was cut off from electricity and water, Marina knew they had to leave.
“Some said maybe it’ll blow over, and so maybe they stayed till the last minute. Now, they can’t get out of there,” she said.
Despite the risks, Marina’s partner, Yevgeny, decided to take her and their two children to the region’s capital, Kursk, a place that was still safe “for a few days,” he thought.
They left their dog and cat behind.
As they saw the long line of cars on the road and deserted villages, they finally realized the scale of the attack under way.
The family reached Kursk in the early morning, where they found accommodation in a center for evacuees.
Their neighbors were not so lucky: They were injured by a drone as they fled.
“We hoped it would all be over soon,” Marina said.
But on Sunday, debris from a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a residential building in Kursk, injuring 15 people, according to the authorities.
At least 12 civilians have been killed and more than 100 injured since the incursion began, according to authorities.
‘There’s nothing left’
The family went to Moscow, where their friends were waiting for them — four of them already living in a tiny studio flat north of the capital.
Now living eight to a room, Marina and Yevgeny have been desperately trying to find out what’s happening in their home region.
Half an hour before meeting AFP at the Moscow aid center, Yevgeny managed to contact a neighbor, who confirmed the Ukrainian army was now occupying their village.
“They’ve moved into my father-in-law’s house, which he’d just renovated, right next to the shop that they’ve already emptied,” he said.
Ukraine has said it will open humanitarian corridors for civilians in the captured territory so they can evacuate toward Russia or Ukraine.
Russia says more than 120,000 people have fled fighting in the region, but Yevgeny said many of his neighbors were stuck.
“Honestly, it’s a tricky situation. Nobody’s going to kick them out in a day and a half,” Yevgeny told AFP of the Ukrainian army.
“The longer it goes on, the more time they have, the better their position is, and the harder it will be to drive them out.”
“In short, there’ll be nothing left to live in. There’s nothing left,” he said.
A neighbor managed to let Marina and Yevgeny’s cat and dog out of the house, where they had been locked for several days.
“Now, they’ll have to find their own food in the village,” he said sadly.
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Taiwan chipmaker breaking ground in Europe amid China threat
Helsinki, Finland — Next week, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC, the world’s top advanced computer chipmaker, is expected to break ground on its first European factory in Dresden, Germany, as it seeks to diversify production from Taiwan and threats from China.
TSMC is the biggest supplier of semiconductor chips used in everything from computers to cars and medical equipment. The company will run the nearly $11 billion plant, holding a 70% stake. The joint venture that includes minority investors Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies and NXP Semiconductors, will be called European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or ESMC.
Dresden’s mayor’s office confirmed to VOA that the ground-breaking ceremony will take place August 20 and that ESMC is the largest ever investment project in Germany’s Saxony region.
Analysts say Beijing’s threats against Taiwan have spurred TSMC to diversify from the self-governing island, which Beijing considers a breakaway province that must one day reunite with China, by force if necessary.
TSMC is already building a new factory in Arizona, with a total investment of $65 billion in the U.S., and constructing a nearly $9 billion plant in Japan.
Anna Rita Ferrara, an Italian political and international law adviser for research organizations, told VOA, “TSMC’s investment in Germany and the U.S.A. is a strategic move that allows the microchip industry to stay ahead in case China invades Taiwan. Relocating production to two major Western cities [Dresden and Phoenix] would help protect the Western IT sector from a dangerous supply reduction and a possible technological debacle.”
TSMC has a $3 billion Chinese mainland factory in Nanjing that has been producing less advanced chips since 2016.
TSMC has a 61.7% market share in the global semiconductor market, while second-place Samsung has an 11% market share, according to Statista, a European statistics platform.
The Dresden plant is scheduled to go into operation in 2027, with a monthly output of 40,000 chips, including 12-nanometer automotive chips, which are more advanced than those made in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese chip giant did not immediately respond to VOA’s requests for comment on the Dresden-based plant’s opening and importance to diversifying from Taiwan in the face of China’s threats.
According to Reuters, TSMC’s chairman, C. C. Wei, told reporters in June that the company had discussed moving factories outside of Taiwan, but called it impossible because up to 90% of its production is based in Taiwan. “Instability across the Taiwan Straits is indeed a consideration for supply chain,” he was quoted as saying, “but I want to say that we certainly do not want wars to happen.”
As China has repeated its threats to force Taiwan’s reunification, Europe and the U.S. have been working to attract domestic chip production to reduce their dependence on imports from Taiwan.
The U.S. passed the Chips Act in 2022 to invest $39 billion to support chip companies in building factories. The European Union’s Chips Act last year followed with its own plans to invest $47 billion to increase the share of European chip production to 20% of the world by 2030.
Stefan Uhlig, deputy director and senior consultant of Silicon Saxony, the German region’s semiconductor industry association, told VOA, “TSMC is coming to the EU because of the EU Chips Act, which is in place to attract technologies to the EU which are not here.”
Uhlig said one-third of European semiconductors come from Saxony. “The region is known as Silicon Saxony and recognized as such in Europe and around the globe. Many places around the globe are chip hot spots, some larger production-capacity-wise but none is larger in terms of different chip manufacturers in one place.”
Enrico Cau, an associate researcher at the Taiwan Centre for International Strategic Studies, told VOA having a factory in Europe is certainly part of TSMC’s global plan to improve the resilience of the supply chain and logistics, and it will also help bring the entire supply chain closer to where chips are needed.
“It is unclear how these new plants will affect Taiwan in the long term under certain conditions,” he said. “For example, in case of critical disruptions of supply chains due to war, natural disasters, or even energy shortages, (especially with the new AI industry developing as a second core sector on the island and requiring much more power), that force(s) TSMC to also relocate the cutting edge manufacturing out of the island, temporarily or for longer periods of time.”
TSMC’s electricity consumption currently accounts for about 8% of all power in Taiwan.
The company accounted for about 8% of Taiwan’s GDP in 2022, Bloomberg reported, while its market value was more than $800 billion, ranking ninth in the world and surpassing companies such as Tesla, JPMorgan Chase, and Walmart, and far exceeding semiconductor peers such as Intel and Samsung.
Analysts say TSMC’s diversifying production could also boost Taiwan’s soft power on the world stage, where Beijing has sought to squeeze Taipei.
Marcin Mateusz Jerzewski, director of the Taiwan office of the European Center for Values and Security Policy, told VOA that TSMC has undeniably enhanced Taiwan’s global standing.
“As the world’s leading dedicated semiconductor foundry, TSMC embodies technological excellence and innovation, significantly bolstering Taiwan’s soft power on the international stage,” he said. “However, the burgeoning reliance on TSMC poses a nuanced dilemma for Taiwan’s international standing, as the country’s global perception increasingly hinges on the success of this singular entity. This overdependence necessitates a strategic reassessment to ensure sustainable economic and diplomatic engagement.”
Jerzewski noted that while TSMC accounts for a large chunk of Taiwan’s economy, it mainly relies on small and medium-sized enterprises, which he said the government should help to invest in democratic countries to strengthen their ties and reduce the risk of over-reliance on a single corporate entity.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Germany asks Poland to arrest Ukrainian diver in Nord Stream probe, media reports
Berlin — Germany has asked Poland to arrest a Ukrainian diving instructor who was allegedly part of a team that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines two years ago, according to reports in German media published on Wednesday.
However, one media outlet said the man appeared to be no longer living in Poland.
The multi-billion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
German investigators believe the Ukrainian diver was part of a team that planted the explosives, the SZ and Die Zeit newspapers reported alongside the ARD broadcaster, citing unnamed sources.
The German prosecutor general’s office declined to comment on the reports, which said the German government had handed a European arrest warrant to Poland in June. The Polish National Public Prosecutor’s Office made no immediate comment.
The German interior ministry declined to comment and the justice ministry did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
Suspected accomplices
Another man and a woman — also Ukrainian diving instructors — have been identified in Germany’s investigation into the sabotage but so far no arrest warrants have been issued for them, according to SZ, Zeit and ARD.
The explosions destroyed three out of four Nord Stream pipelines, which had become a controversial symbol of German reliance on Russian gas in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine for the blasts, which largely cut Russian gas off from the lucrative European market. Those countries have denied involvement.
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden all opened investigations into the incident, and the Swedes found traces of explosives on several objects recovered from the explosion site, confirming the blasts were deliberate acts.
The Swedish and Danish probes were closed this February without identifying any suspect.
In January 2023, Germany raided a ship that it said may have been used to transport explosives and told the United Nations that it believed trained divers could have attached devices to the pipelines at a depth of about 70 to 80 meters (230-262 ft).
your ad hereMore than 1,000 arrested following UK riots, police say
LONDON — British authorities have arrested more than 1,000 people following days of rioting involving violence, arson and looting as well as racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants, a national policing body said Tuesday.
The riots, which followed the killings of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport, began after the July 29 attack was wrongly blamed on an Islamist migrant based on online misinformation.
Violence broke out in cities across England and also in Northern Ireland, but there have been fewer instances of unrest since last week after efforts to identify those involved were ramped up.
Many have been swiftly jailed, with some receiving long sentences.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said in its latest update that 1,024 had been arrested and 575 charged across the U.K.
Those arrested include a 69-year-old accused of vandalism in Liverpool and an 11-year-old boy in Belfast.
A 13-year-old girl pleaded guilty to violent disorder at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court, prosecutors said, having been seen on July 31 punching and kicking the entrance to a hotel for asylum-seekers.
“This alarming incident will have caused genuine fear amongst people who were being targeted by these thugs — and it is particularly distressing to learn that such a young girl participated in this violent disorder,” prosecutor Thomas Power said.
The last time Britain witnessed widespread rioting was in 2011, when the fatal shooting of a Black man by police triggered several days of street violence.
Fast and tough judicial action was viewed as helping quell the unrest in 2011, when around 4,000 people were arrested over several weeks.
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Poland signs $10 billion deal for US Apache attack helicopters
Warsaw, POLAND — Poland on Tuesday signed a $10 billion deal to buy 96 Apache attack helicopters from U.S. manufacturer Boeing in an upgrade to the country’s military capabilities.
Poland has sharply accelerated the modernization of its armed forces since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
“This is the landmark purchase by Poland for its armed forces of … 96 state-of-the-art AH-64E Apache attack helicopters,” Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters.
“Today we are taking a milestone in the transformation and equipping of the army,” he added, speaking at the Inowroclaw air base, where the Apaches are to be stationed.
The deal is the latest in a string of contracts signed by Poland with the United States in recent days.
On Friday, Warsaw announced a deal to buy hundreds of AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. On Monay there was a contract to build 48 launchers for the U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems.
Poland, a staunch ally of Ukraine, has announced it would spend more than 4% of its annual economic output on defense this year — twice NATO’s target of 2%.
The Ukraine war has also solidified the relationship between the United States and Poland, a country on NATO’s eastern flank that sees Washington as one of its main allies.
The Apache helicopter sale was approved last year by the U.S. State Department and Congress.
The deal “changes the face of the Polish army’s operations and complements” previous purchases, Kosiniak-Kamysz said, pointing notably at the Abrams tanks that Poland bought in the past years.
According to the Polish government, the Apaches are designed to work with the tanks.
“For the Abrams, the Apache is an essential element,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
In 2022, Poland bought 250 Abrams tanks in a modern M1A2 variant, which are expected to be delivered later this year. It will be the first country outside the United States with the tanks.
The attack helicopter agreement also envisages providing the Polish army with maintenance equipment, technical and training support, flight simulators and spare parts.
“Offset, purchase, leasing, pilot training, technology, armament — it was all negotiated together. It’s a historic day for helicopter aviation,” Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Bejda said.
“These $10 billion are the insurance of our country, the insurance of our freedom,” Bejda added, saying that the Apaches would serve the Polish efforts to “deter those who have evil intentions.”
The first U.S.-made helicopters are to be delivered in 2028, but some Polish pilots have already begun training on them.
The Apaches will replace outdated Russian Mi-24 helicopters.
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Ukraine’s surprise push into Russia sparks concerns of escalation
Ukraine took the fight to Russia in recent days, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Monday his army’s move to “push the war out into the aggressor’s territory” with attacks in Russia’s Kursk region. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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Media crackdown continues 4 years after contested Belarus election
San Diego, Calif. — Belarus sentenced two more journalists to prison last week in what media groups say is a continuation of a crackdown on media since the contested 2020 election and protest movement.
A court in the city of Mogilev sentenced freelance reporter Ales Sabaleuski to four years in prison and cameraman Yauhen Hlushkou to three years on extremism-related charges. Both were also ordered to pay fines of $2,450, according to media watchdogs.
The charges are linked to the journalists’ work with the independent news outlet 6TV Bielarus, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. Belarus had earlier labeled 6TV Bielarus as an extremist group.
Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, condemned the closed-door trial that took place last Wednesday, calling the Belarusian judicial system “rigged.”
The sentences are “yet another example of the Belarusian authorities’ relentless harassment of members of the press,” she said in a statement.
Belarus-based human rights groups, including Viasna, issued a statement calling on authorities to release the journalists, and to stop using prosecution to limit rights and freedoms.
Media and civil liberties groups say Belarusian authorities have used arrests and prison to target critics and opposition voices since the 2020 disputed presidential election. Mass protests spread across Belarus that year, after President Alexander Lukashenko was voted in for a sixth term.
The election had been widely seen as fraudulent, with opposition leaders imprisoned or threatened.
Belarus has since arrested dozens of journalists and labeled several media outlets as extremist organizations.
Data collected by Viasna show thousands of politically motivated arrests in the past four years, with at least 1,385 still imprisoned. CPJ additionally found 28 journalists imprisoned in Belarus for their work as of late 2023. That makes Belarus the third-worst jailer of journalists in the world, after China and Myanmar, the watchdog says.
The press office of the Belarus Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comment.
Among those detained are Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk, who worked for VOA sister network, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
On the four-year anniversary of the election on Friday, the Belarusian Association of Journalists issued a joint statement with other watchdogs, calling on authorities to release all jailed media workers.
“Lukashenko’s regime has been crushing free speech and stripping journalists of their freedom for too long,” the statement said.
“We demand the immediate and unconditional release of our unjustly imprisoned colleagues, and express our solidarity with those who were forced to flee their country and still have to live in fear abroad. Belarusian authorities must stop harassing and intimidating journalists.”
Belarus ranks 167 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index and is considered one of the most dangerous countries in Europe to be a journalist.
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Ancient Pompeii reveals 2 more victims of eruption, with coins, jewelry
ROME — Archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have discovered the remains of two more victims of the volcanic eruption almost 2,000 years ago.
The skeleton of a man and a woman were found in a small, makeshift bedroom in a villa which was being restructured when the eruption struck, the Pompeii archeological site said in a statement Monday.
The woman was lying on a bed with gold, silver and bronze coins around her, along with jewelry including gold and pearl earrings. The man lay at the foot of the bed.
The once-thriving city of Pompeii, near Naples, and the surrounding countryside was submerged by volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius exploded in 79 AD.
The eruption killed thousands of Romans who had no idea they were living beneath one of Europe’s biggest volcanoes which buried the city in a thick layer of ash, preserving many of its residents and buildings.
The latest victims discovered had chosen the small room as a refuge, waiting for the end of the rain of rock fragments which had blocked the door and prevented them from escaping.
They were eventually buried under the flow of lava and other boiling hot material from the volcano, the statement said.
“The opportunity to analyze the invaluable anthropological data on the two victims … allows us to recover a considerable amount of data on the daily life of ancient Pompeians,” site director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said.
Ancient Pompeii, rediscovered only in the 16th century, has in recent years seen a burst of archaeological activity aimed at halting decades of decay and neglect.
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Iran shows long-range drones at Russian event, state news reports
dubai, united arab emirates — Iran has put its long-range Mohajer-10 drones on display at a defense exhibit in Russia, Iran’s official news agency reported Monday.
U.S. officials have accused Iran of sending drones to Russia, including the Mohajer-10’s predecessor, the Mohajer-6, that Moscow had used in its invasion of Ukraine. Tehran denies this.
Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said the more advanced system was being shown at the Army 2024 International Military-Technical Forum, an event that runs from Monday to Wednesday in Patriot Park outside Russia’s capital.
The report came as the Middle East braces for Iran’s threatened retaliation against Israel after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
Iran released details of the Mohajer-10 system in August last year, saying it had an enhanced flight-range duration and could carry a greater payload.
A video accompanying that report showed the drone alongside other military hardware, with text saying “prepare your shelters” in both Hebrew and Persian.
According to Iranian media reports, the drone has an operational range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and can fly for up to 24 hours. Its payload can reach 300 kilograms (661 pounds), double the capacity of the Mohajer-6, the reports have added.
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London police say man arrested after child and adult stabbed in busy square
London — A man has been arrested after an 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman were stabbed in central London, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.
The attack occurred in Leicester Square, a magnet for tourists with its shops, theaters and cinemas. The square and surrounding area have an estimated 2.5 million visitors every week.
Police said the two victims were taken to a major trauma center. The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.
The stabbing occurred as Britain is on edge after violence for the past week as crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans clashed with police. The disturbances have been fueled by right-wing activists who used social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event.
It was not immediately clear whether the stabbing had any link to the unrest.
Police had been braced for further riots over the weekend, but no widespread unrest emerged. Ministers remained on high alert, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said, adding its work was not done in dealing with the fallout from the violence.
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Southport, England, mourns young stabbing victim, calls for end to unrest
London — The people of Southport, England, came together Sunday for the first of the funerals for three girls killed during a dance class, remembering 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar’s radiant smile and calling for an end to the unrest that has convulsed Britain since the attack two weeks ago.
Hundreds of mourners packed St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and spilled into the street outside, which had been decorated with pink ribbons and balloons in Alice’s honor. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy was among them, and she delivered the parents’ message that no one should commit acts of violence in their daughter’s name.
“I am ashamed and I’m so sorry that you had to even consider this in the planning of the funeral of your beautiful daughter, Alice,” said Kennedy, who heads the Merseyside Police force, which covers the area around Liverpool. “And I hope that anyone who has taken part in the violent disorder on our streets over the past 13 days is hanging their head in shame at the pain that they have caused you, a grieving family.”
Far-right activists have used misinformation about the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class that killed Alice as a pretext for anti-immigrant demonstrations. They descended into riots and looting as mobs attacked mosques, shops owned by immigrants and hotels housing asylum-seekers. The disturbances have been fueled by social media users who spread misinformation about the suspect in the July 29 stabbing rampage.
Rumors, later debunked, quickly circulated online that the suspect was an asylum-seeker, or a Muslim immigrant. The suspect was born in Wales and moved to the Southport area in 2013. His parents were originally from Rwanda.
The violence calmed Wednesday when far-right demonstrations anticipated in dozens of locations across Britain failed to materialize. Instead, peaceful anti-racism protesters showed up in force.
But on Sunday, the focus was on Alice.
Her parents, Sergio and Alexandra, described Alice as a “perfect dream child” who loved animals and moved through the world with confidence and empathy.
“We feel shocked, unimaginable pain, we miss you,” they said in a tribute read on their behalf. “From time to time, the pin drops. When mommy says, ‘Good night, Sergio, good night, Alice,’ and then it hits us all over again. We don’t hear you back.’’
Jinnie Payne, the headteacher at Churchtown Primary School, remembered that Alice once decorated a teacher’s classroom pointer as a magic wand and outlined the seven “Alice qualities” that she wished every student had.
Those included having a big smile, a genuine interest in others and treating everyone equally.
“This has to be my favorite, how a child at such a young age could not favor one friend over another,” she told the congregation. “Friends, she played equally with them all. That is so hard to do, and she mastered it.”
But she also loved to dance.
On Sunday, her parents released a photo of Alice standing next to a cardboard cutout of Swift as she waited for her last dance class to begin.
“The time has come to say, ‘there goes Alice,’” Payne said tearfully. “We are letting you go dancing now, Alice. Teach those angels a few dance moves.”
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Greek residents flee as wildfire rages uncontrolled near Athens
VARNAVA/ATHENS — Residents fled their homes Sunday in the village of Varnava near Athens as fire crews struggled to contain a fast-moving wildfire fueled by hot, windy weather that sent smoke clouds over the Greek capital.
More than 250 firefighters backed by 12 water-bombing planes and seven helicopters battled the blaze that broke out at 3 p.m. and quickly reached the village 35 km (20 miles) north of Athens.
“The village was surrounded in no time, in no time. It’s really windy,” resident Katerina Fylaktou told Reuters. “It started from one point and suddenly the whole village was surrounded,” she said.
Authorities sent evacuation alerts for five nearby areas. By early evening, thick brown smoke hung over much of Athens and reached the island of Aegina to its south.
Hundreds of wildfires have broken out across Greece this summer, which has recorded its hottest June and July after its warmest winter. Like elsewhere in the Mediterranean, scientists have linked the fires to increasingly hot, dry weather driven by global climate change.
A European Commission report in April said the 2023 wildfire season in Europe was among the worst this century. Just this month, fires burned amid extreme heat in Spain and the Balkans as well as Greece.
Greek fire brigade spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the Varnava blaze spread due to gale force winds.
Flames as high as 25 meters (82 feet) swallowed up trees and shrubland.
Another blaze in a forested area near the town of Megara, west of Athens, had been contained by Sunday afternoon, the fire brigade said.
Several other regions across Greece were on high alert for fire risk Sunday and Monday.
“We are expecting a very difficult week,” said Kostas Lagouvardos, research director of the Athens Observatory. “If the Varnava blaze is not contained during the night, we will have a problem tomorrow,” he said.
Fire-fighting aircraft ceased operations at dusk.
On Saturday, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said he had called for emergency measures involving the army, police and volunteers to deal with forest fires until Aug. 15.
“Extremely high temperatures and dangerous weather conditions will prevail,” he said. “Half of Greece will be in the red.”
In June and July, above-normal temperatures were registered on 57 out of 61 days, Lagouvardos said. Greece is forecast to record its hottest ever summer.
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Police arrest man climbing Eiffel Tower hours before Olympic closing ceremony
Paris — French police evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the Paris landmark hours before the Olympics closing ceremony Sunday.
The shirtless man was seen scaling the 330-meter (1,083-foot) tall tower in the afternoon. It’s unclear where he began his ascent, but he was spotted just above the Olympic rings adorning the second section of the monument, just above the first viewing deck.
Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3 p.m. Some visitors who were briefly locked on the second floor were allowed to exit around 30 minutes later.
“An individual started climbing the Eiffel Tower at 2:45 p.m., police intervened and the person was detained,” a Paris police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation into the incident.
The Eiffel Tower was a centerpiece of the opening ceremony, with Celine Dion serenading the city from one of its viewing areas. The Tower is not expected to be part of the closing ceremony, which was set to begin at Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis at 9 p.m.
The incident occurred as the Olympic competition winds down and security services in Paris and beyond are shifting their focus to the closing ceremony that will bring the curtain down on the Games.
More than 30,000 police officers have been deployed around Paris on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said about 3,000 police officers will be mobilized around the Stade de France, and 20,000 police troops and other security personnel in Paris and the Saint-Denis area will be mobilized late into Sunday night to ensure safety on the last day of the Olympics.
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Ukraine’s president indirectly confirms daring military incursion onto Russian soil
KYIV, Ukraine — Days after Ukraine began a surprise military incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke the government’s silence on it late Saturday by indirectly acknowledging ongoing military actions to “push the war out into the aggressor’s territory” in his nightly address.
Overnight into Sunday, a Russian drone and missile barrage on Kyiv killed two people including a 4-year-old boy, while in Russia, Kursk’s regional governor said 13 people were wounded when a Ukrainian missile shot down by Russian air defenses fell on a residential building.
The bodies of a 35-year-old man and his son were found under rubble after fragments of missiles fell on a residential area in Kyiv’s suburban Brovary district, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service on Sunday. Another three people in the district were also injured in the attack.
Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration said it was the second time this month Kyiv was targeted.
Popko said ballistic missiles did not reach the capital but that suburbs took the hit, while drones aiming for the capital were shot down.
Ukraine’s incursion continued for a sixth day on Sunday and is unprecedented for its use of Ukrainian military units on Russian soil. The exact aims of the operation remain unclear and Ukrainian military officials have adopted a policy of secrecy, presumably to ensure its success.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.
Ukraine has not commented on the Sunday drone attacks inside Russia. But it comes as Ukraine has increased the pace of similar drone attacks largely targeting military infrastructure and oil depots in recent weeks.
But in Saturday’s evening address, Zelenskyy referred to army chief Oleksandr Syrsky’s briefings “on the front line and our actions and pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory.”
Thanking the soldiers involved, he added: “Ukraine is proving that it can really bring justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed — pressure on the aggressor.”
Russia’s army on Saturday confirmed it was still fighting the Ukrainian incursion for a fifth day.
It said Kyiv’s forces had initially crossed the border with around 1,000 troops, 20 armored vehicles and 11 tanks, though it claimed on Saturday to have destroyed five times that much military hardware so far.
‘Unprecedented’
Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting counterterror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions to protect citizens.
The Belgorod and Bryansk regions bordering Ukraine have also been hit hard by shelling and aerial attacks since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022.
Security forces and the military have sweeping emergency powers during counterterror operations.
Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.
On the streets of Moscow Saturday, AFP journalists found support for tough measures to quell the response, but also some anger at how the incursion had been allowed to happen.
“We have to take all the steps that are possible in such a situation,” said Alexander Ilyin, a 42-year-old architect.
The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in a number of regions of our country.”
Russia on Friday appeared to hit back, launching a missile strike on a supermarket in the east Ukrainian town of Kostyantynivka that killed at least 14 people.
Another three were killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Saturday, local officials said.
Ukraine also said it had to evacuate 20,000 people from the Sumy region, just across the border from Kursk.
While neither side has provided precise details on Ukraine’s incursion, Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday said it had hit some Ukrainian positions as far as 10 kilometers inside Russia.
It also reported hitting Ukrainian troops in areas 30 kilometers apart, an indication as to the breadth, as well as depth of Ukraine’s advance.
Belarus, Russia’s close ally, on Saturday ordered military reinforcements — ground troops, air units, air defense and rocket systems — to be deployed closer to its border with Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s incursion, its defense ministry said.
‘Particularly effective’
Russia’s nuclear agency on Saturday warned of the threat to the nearby Kursk nuclear power station, less than 50 kilometers from the fighting.
“The actions of the Ukrainian army pose a direct threat” to the Kursk plant in western Russia, state news agencies cited its atomic energy agency Rosatom as saying.
On Friday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, expressing similar concerns, had called for “maximum restraint.”
Zelenskyy’s comments Saturday notwithstanding, Ukraine’s leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation.
The United States, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it had not been informed of the plans in advance.
Elsewhere on the front line, Ukraine on Saturday reported the lowest number of “combat engagements” on its territory since June 10.
That could be a sign its incursion is helping to relieve pressure on other parts of the sprawling front line where Moscow’s troops had been advancing.
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