An undated image of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. — TASS/File
MOSCOW: A fire broke out Sunday at a Russian nuclear power plant after the country’s military downed a Ukrainian drone, the facility said after the blaze was put out.
The “device detonated” upon impact at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia, sparking a blaze which the facility said “was extinguished by fire crews”.
There were no casualties from the drone smashing down at the site, where capacity was reduced.
“The radiation background at the industrial site of the Kursk NPP and the surrounding area has not changed and corresponds to natural levels,” the plant wrote on Telegram.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the dangers of fighting around nuclear plants following Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
The plant is near the Russia-Ukraine border and sits to the west of Kursk city, the region’s capital, with a population of around 440,000.
Russia now controls around a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands, forced millions to flee their homes and destroyed cities and villages across the east and south of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rebuffed calls by Kyiv and the West for an unconditional and immediate ceasefire.
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The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) outside the town of Kurchatov, in the Kursk Region, Russia. — Reuters/File
Drone attacks slashes 50% operational capacity of plant’s unit three.
Radiation levels site, surrounding area remain within normal limits.
No injuries, blaze promptly extinguished, says plant’s press service.
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several of Russia’s power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said on Sunday.
A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to a 50% reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said.
There were no injuries, and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant’s press service said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding area have not exceeded normal limits, it added.
About 10 Ukrainian drones were downed over the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s northern Leningrad region, with debris sparking fire at the Novatek-operated terminal — a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex, the regional governor said.
“Firefighters and emergency services are currently working to extinguish the blaze,” Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia’s Leningrad region where the Ust-Luga port is located, said on the Telegram messaging app. There were no injuries, he added.
According to Novatek, the Ust-Luga complex, which opened in 2013, processes gas condensate into light and heavy naphtha, jet fuel, fuel oil and gasoil, and enables the company to ship oil products as well as gas condensate to international markets.
Russian units destroyed a total of 95 Ukrainian drones overnight over 13 regions, including Leningrad and Samara, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, the defence ministry said.
Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, said flights were halted for hours on end at several Russian airports overnight, including at the Pulkovo airport in the Leningrad region.
Ukrainian drones also attacked an industrial enterprise in the southern Russian city of Syzran, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of the Samara region where Syzran is located, posted on Telegram, adding there were no casualties.
He did not say what the targets were or whether there was any damage.
Earlier this month, the Ukrainian military said it had struck the Syzran oil refinery. The Rosneft-owned refinery was forced to suspend production and crude intake after the attack, sources told Reuters.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has said its strikes inside Russia are in response to Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine and are aimed at destroying infrastructure deemed crucial to Moscow’s overall military efforts.
Seoul, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test-firing of two types of new anti-air missiles, state media said on Sunday, displaying his expanding military capabilities as the South Korean and US militaries carry out joint drills.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the test on Saturday proved the missiles effective in countering aerial threats such as drones and cruise missiles, and that Kim assigned unspecified “important” tasks to defence scientists ahead of a major political conference expected early next year.
The report did not specify the missiles that were tested or where the event took place. It did not mention any remarks by Kim directed at Washington or Seoul.
Kim Jong-un supervising the latest test of anti-air missiles at an undisclosed location, in an image provided by the North Korean government.Credit: AP
The test coincided with new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where they vowed to strengthen bilateral co-operation and their trilateral partnership with the United States to address common challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Lee was to depart for Washington on Sunday for a summit with US President Donald Trump.
Kim’s government has repeatedly dismissed calls by Seoul and Washington to restart long-stalled negotiations aimed at winding down his nuclear weapons and missiles programs, as he continues to prioritise Russia as part of a foreign policy aimed at expanding ties with nations confronting the United States.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim has sent thousands of troops and large shipments of weapons, including artillery and ballistic missiles, to help fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
A photo provided by the North Korean government showing the test-firing of the new anti-air missile.Credit: AP
That has raised concerns Moscow could provide technology that strengthens Kim’s nuclear-armed military, with experts pointing to North Korea’s ageing anti-air and radar systems as a likely area of co-operation.
South Korea’s previous conservative government said in November that Russia supplied missiles and other equipment to help strengthen air defences of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, but did not specify which systems were provided.
(Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s jailed former president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was hospitalised on Saturday, local media reported, a day after his arrest on allegations that he misused public funds while in office.
Wickremesinghe, 76, who led the South Asian island nation during a devastating economic crisis, was arrested and taken into custody on Friday, police said.
The next day he was taken to the emergency care unit at Colombo National Hospital with complications from dehydration, diabetes and high blood pressure, the hospital director, Dr. Rukshan Bellana, told reporters. Wickremesinghe was later transferred to the intensive care unit where his condition was stable, Bellana was quoted as saying.
Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister who lost the presidency last year, had been investigated over a visit he made to Britain to attend a special graduation lunch to celebrate his wife’s honorary professorship at a university there, local media reported.
An ally from his United National Party said Wickremesinghe was innocent and suggested the case was politically motivated.
Russia says its forces have taken two villages in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, increasing the military pressure amid struggling international efforts to broker an end to the war. Moscow’s forces captured the villages of Sredneye and Kleban-Byk along the 1,000km (620 mile) frontline in Donetsk, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram on Saturday. The taking of Kleban-Byk would mark a further advance towards Kostiantynivka – a key fortified town on the road to Kramatorsk, the location of a major Ukrainian logistics base. Russia said on Friday its troops had captured three villages in Donetsk. Ukraine’s military did not acknowledge that any of the villages had changed hands. On Saturday, Ukrainian military officials said on Telegram its forces had stopped a Russian advance and recaptured the village of Zeleny Gai in Donetsk. The village was being subjected to new Russian attacks, a military statement said. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa added his voice to calls for a Russia-Ukraine summit during a phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “President Ramaphosa stressed the urgency of holding bilateral and trilateral meetings between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine and the United States as key to signal a firm commitment to ending the war,” a statement from Ramaphosa’s office said on Saturday. Zelenskyy said he told Ramaphosa he was ready for any kind of meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin. “However, we see that Moscow is once again trying to drag everything out even further,” he posted on X. Ramaphosa spoke last Monday with Putin, whom he has called a “dear ally”.
The Pentagon has been blocking Ukraine from using US-made long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia, limiting Kyiv’s ability to employ the weapons in its defence, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing US officials. The report could not immediately be verified. As the White House has sought to persuade Putin to meet Zelenskyy for peace talks, an approval process put in place at the Pentagon has kept Ukraine from using the army tactical missile systems (Atacms) to launch strikes deep into Russian territory, the WSJ reported on Saturday.
Russian air defences downed a drone headed for Moscow on Saturday and specialists were examining fragments on the ground, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. Several airports in central Russia suspended operations because of concerns over safe airspace, Russia’s air transport agency said. Officials at the airport in St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying dozens of flights had been delayed.
France has summoned the Italian ambassador after Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini challenged French president Emmanuel Macron for suggesting European soldiers be deployed in Ukraine in a postwar settlement, Reuters reported a French diplomatic source as saying on Saturday. Asked during the week to comment on Macron’s appeals to deploy European soldiers in Ukraine after any such deal with Russia, Salvini used a Milanese dialect phrase loosely translatable as “get lost”. “You go there if you want. Put your helmet on, your jacket, your rifle and you go to Ukraine,” he told reporters, referring to Macron.
The family of a British aid volunteer reportedly killed in a drone strike in Ukraine have said they are “very disappointed” by the response from authorities. Annie Lewis Marffy, 69, travelled from her home in Silverton in Devon, south-west England, in May to deliver a vehicle packed with supplies in a mission arranged by the non-profit Aid Ukraine UK. She was reportedly fatally injured in a Russian drone strike on 11 June, according to a police file, while Kramatorsk district police department said her body remained in an area of hostilities and could not be evacuated. Lewis Marffy’s relatives have asked for a death certificate to be issued for the “brave, capable and determined” mother-of-three. “All the family, the sisters and the sons, have been very disappointed at the reaction of the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office] and the lack of response from the police,” the relatives said, adding: “The family are desperate to get more information.”
Ukrainian flags will appear above Downing Street and several Whitehall buildings to mark 34 years since Ukraine left the Soviet Union, the British government said. The prime minister’s official residence at No 10 Downing Street is among the buildings where a flag will fly on Sunday. A government spokesperson said: “We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, including those who have made a second home here in the UK, in the face of continued Russian aggression.”
LONDON: Outside supermarkets or in festival crowds, millions are now having their features scanned by real-time facial-recognition systems in the UK — the only European country to deploy the technology on a large scale.
At London’s Notting Hill Carnival, where two million people are expected to celebrate Afro-Caribbean culture over Sunday and Monday, facial-recognition cameras are being deployed near entrances and exits.
The police said their objective was to identify and intercept wanted individuals by scanning faces in large crowds and comparing them with thousands of suspects already in the police database.
The technology is “an effective policing tool which has already been successfully used to locate offenders at crime hotspots resulting in well over 1,000 arrests since the start of 2024,” said Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley.
The technology was first tested in 2016 and its use has increased considerably over the past three years in the United Kingdom.
Some 4.7 million faces were scanned in 2024 alone, according to the NGO Liberty.
UK police have deployed the live facial-recognition system around 100 times since late January, compared to only 10 between 2016 and 2019.
Examples include before two Six Nations rugby games and outside two Oasis concerts in Cardiff in July.
When a person on a police “watchlist” passes near the cameras, the AI-powered system, often set up in a police van, triggers an alert.
The suspect can then be immediately detained once police checks confirm their identity.
“Nation of suspects”
But such mass data capture on the streets of London, also seen during the coronation of King Charles III in 2023, “treats us like a nation of suspects,” said the Big Brother Watch organization.
“There is no legislative basis, so we have no safeguards to protect our rights, and the police is left to write its own rules,” Rebecca Vincent, its interim director, told AFP.
Its private use by supermarkets and clothing stores to combat the sharp rise in shoplifting has also raised concerns, with “very little information” available about how the data is being used, she added.
Most use Facewatch, a service provider that compiles a list of suspected offenders in the stores it monitors and raises an alert if one of them enters the premises.
“It transforms what it is to live in a city, because it removes the possibility of living anonymously,” said Daragh Murray, a lecturer in human rights law at Queen Mary University of London.
“That can have really big implications for protests but also participation in political and cultural life,” he added.
Often, those using such stores do not know that they are being profiled.
“They should make people aware of it,” Abigail Bevon, a 26-year-old forensic scientist, told AFP by the entrance of a London store using Facewatch.
She said she was “very surprised” to find out how the technology was being used.
While acknowledging that it could be useful for the police, she complained that its deployment by retailers was “invasive.”
“Invasive tech”
Since February, EU legislation governing artificial intelligence has prohibited the use of real-time facial recognition technologies, with exceptions such as counterterrorism.
Apart from a few cases in the United States, “we do not see anything even close in European countries or other democracies,” stressed Vincent.
“The use of such invasive tech is more akin to what we see in authoritarian states such as China,” she added.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper recently promised that a “legal framework” governing its use would be drafted, focusing on “the most serious crimes.”
But her ministry this month authorized police forces to use the technology in seven new regions.
Usually placed in vans, permanent cameras are also scheduled to be installed for the first time in Croydon, south London, next month.
Police assure that they have “robust safeguards,” such as disabling the cameras when officers are not present and deleting the biometric data of those who are not suspects.
However, the UK’s human rights regulator said on Wednesday that the Metropolitan Police’s policy on using the technology was “unlawful” because it was “incompatible” with rights regulations.
Eleven organizations, including Human Rights Watch, wrote a letter to the Metropolitan Police chief, urging him not to use it during Notting Hill Carnival, accusing him of “unfairly targeting” the Afro-Caribbean community while highlighting the racial biases of AI.
Shaun Thompson, a 39-year-old black man living in London, said he was arrested after being wrongly identified as a criminal by one of these cameras and has filed an appeal against the police.
