Ukraine claims its drones hit a Russian oil facility, sparking a huge blaze
By: Hanna Arhirova
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine claimed responsibility Tuesday for an overnight drone attack on a Russian oil facility that started a massive blaze in the latest long-range strike by Kyiv’s forces on a border region.
Ukraine has in recent months stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine. Moscow’s army is pressing hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where a shortage of troops and ammunition in the third year of war has made defenders vulnerable.
The attack set fire to an oil reservoir in Russia’s Rostov region and more than 200 firefighters were at the scene, according to Rostov Gov. Vasily Golubev.
The blaze covered an area of 5,000 square meters (55,000 square feet) but there were no casualties, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said.
A Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give the information to the media, said the attack was a special operation of Ukraine’s Security Service, known as SBU. The drones targeted two Rostov oil depots that have 22 oil reservoirs, the official said.
Ukrainian drone developers have been extending the weapons’ range for months, as Kyiv attempts to compensate for its battlefield disadvantage.
More than 200 arrested in Kenya protests over proposed tax hikes in finance bill
By: Evelyne Musambi
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — More than 200 protesters have been arrested in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, in ongoing protests against proposed tax hikes in a finance bill that is due to be tabled in parliament.
Civil society groups said that demonstrations and a planned sit-down outside parliament buildings will continue despite the arrest of 210 protesters.
Nairobi Police Commander Adamson Bungei on Tuesday said that no group had been granted permission to protest in the capital. The right to peaceful protests is guaranteed in the Kenyan Constitution, but organizers are required to notify the police beforehand. Police generally give a go-ahead unless there are security concerns.
Police hurled tear gas canisters at hundreds of demonstrators on Tuesday, forcing businesses to temporarily close because of fears over looting.
Some major tax proposals in the bill were dropped after a Tuesday morning meeting between ruling party lawmakers and President William Ruto.
The chairperson of the finance committee, Kuria Kimani, said the proposal to introduce a 16 per cent value-added tax on bread had been dropped.
Other levies that had prompted debate and have been amended include a proposed 2.5 per cent motor vehicle annual tax that was to be placed on insurance.
A proposed tax on goods that degrade the environment will also be amended to apply only to imported goods to encourage local manufacturing.
Philippine officials say Chinese forces seized 2 navy boats in disputed shoal, injuring sailors
By: Jim Gomez
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Chinese forces seized two Philippine rubber boats that were delivering food and other supplies to a military outpost in a disputed South China Sea shoal in a tense confrontation in which some Filipino navy personnel were injured, Philippine security officials said Tuesday.
The United States renewed a warning Tuesday that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, a treaty ally, a day after the hours-long hostilities in Second Thomas Shoal. The shoal has been occupied by a small Philippine navy contingent aboard a long-grounded warship that has been closely monitored by China’s coast guard and navy in a years-long territorial standoff.
There is fear that territorial disputes in the South China Sea, long regarded as an Asian flashpoint, could escalate and pit the United States and China in a larger conflict. China and the Philippines blamed each other for Monday’s hostilities, the most serious in recent months, but provided few details.
A Philippine government task force overseeing the territorial disputes condemned what it said were “dangerous maneuvers, including ramming and towing” which disrupted an effort to transport food, water and other supplies to the Filipinos manning the territorial outpost on the grounded ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, at the shoal. It did not elaborate.
Two Philippine security officials, who had knowledge of the supply mission at the shoal, separately told The Associated Press that two rubber boats manned by Filipino navy personnel had approached the BRP Sierra Madre at the shoal to deliver fresh supplies when several Chinese coast guard personnel on speedboats arrived to disrupt the mission, sparking a scuffle and collisions.
Southern New Mexico wildfires lead to evacuation of village of 7,000
RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) — Residents of a village in southern New Mexico were ordered to flee their homes without taking time to grab any belongings due to fast-moving wildfires.
“GO NOW: Do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home. Evacuate immediately,” officials with Ruidoso, a village home to 7,000 people, said on its website and in social media posts at about 7 p.m. Monday.
Public Service Company of New Mexico shut off power to part of the village due to the fire, which was estimated at about 21.7 square miles (56 square kilometres) with zero percent containment, forestry and village officials said Tuesday morning. The state forestry division said multiple structures were threatened and a number have been lost. A portion of U.S. Highway 70 was closed south of the village.
“We were getting ready to sit down to a meal and the alert came on: Evacuate now, don’t take anything or plan to pack anything, just evacuate,” Mary Lou Minic told KOB-TV. “And within three to five minutes, we were in the car, leaving.”
The South Fork Fire started Monday on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, where the tribal president issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. It was burning on tribal and U.S. Forest Service land within areas surrounding Ruidoso.
A second fire, called the Salt Fire, also was burning on the Mescalero reservation and southwest of Ruidoso. It was over 7.6 square miles (19.6 square kilometres) as of Tuesday morning with no containment, the forestry division said.
South Korean soldiers fire warning shots after North Korean troops cross border, apparently in error
By: Kim Tong-hyung
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean troops fired warning shots to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the rivals’ heavily fortified land border Tuesday for the second time this month, the South’s military said. Both incursions were believed to be unintentional.
Around 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers who were doing construction work crossed the military demarcation line that serves as the border between the two countries in the Demilitarized Zone, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The soldiers retreated after the South broadcasted warnings and fired warning shots, and the South’s military didn’t spot any suspicious activity after that, the joint chiefs said.
The border area is dense with overgrown trees and plants, and the North Korean soldiers may have not known exactly where the border was, according to the South’s military, which said it doesn’t believe the soldiers deliberately crossed into the South. The North did not return fire.
The intrusion comes as tensions rise between the rivals, who in recent weeks have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare and made it clear they are no longer bound by their landmark military agreement in 2018 to reduce tensions.
Troops from the South also fired warning shots on June 11 after another group of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.
A fire at a hospital in Iran’s north kills 9 patients
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A fire broke out at a hospital in Iran’s north, killing nine patients, state media reported Tuesday.
The blaze started at 1:30 local time (22:00 GMT) at Qaem Hospital in the city of Rasht, some 330 kilometres (about 205 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran, state TV said, leaving six women and three men dead.
Chief of the city fire department, Shahram Momeni, said on state TV that an electric short circuit in the basement — which harbours the intensive care unit — malfunctioned, causing the fire.
Momeni said emergency workers rescued more than 140 people, patients and hospital staff, after being trapped because of the smoke, and that 120 of them were hospitalized in other medical facilities. He added that an investigation has been ordered.
A video posted online appeared to show smoke billowing from the hospital in the middle of the night.
In 2020, an explosion from a gas leak in a medical clinic in northern Tehran killed 19 people.
A top U.S. envoy visits Beirut after attacks across Israel-Lebanon border intensify
(AP) – Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, met with officials in Beirut on Tuesday in an effort to find a diplomatic solution to head off a larger war.
Cross-border attacks by Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have been taking place almost daily since the war in Gaza began in October and escalated dramatically a week ago, after Israel killed a high-ranking Hezbollah commander in a strike in south Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday about a law granting far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sweeping power over the police. Ben-Gvir was convicted eight times for offences that include racism and supporting a Jewish terrorist organization. As national security minister, he has encouraged police to take a tough line against anti-government protesters and has actively supported officers accused of using excessive force against Palestinians.
Critics say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s say his wartime decision-making has been influenced by ultranationalists in his government who oppose a deal with Hamas for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages.
The shooter who killed 5 at a Colorado LGBTQ+ club pleads guilty to 50 federal hate crimes
By: Colleen Slevin
DENVER (AP) — The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at a nightclub in Colorado Springs pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime charges on Tuesday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges in the 2022 shooting last year. Federal prosecutors have focused on proving that the attack at Club Q — a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ people in the mostly conservative city — was premeditated and fuelled by bias.
Aldrich entered the guilty pleas under a deal with prosecutors that allows the shooter to avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to more multiple life sentences for the hate crimes plus a total of 190 years on gun charges and other counts.
Defence attorneys in the state case, who said their client is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, argued that Aldrich was drugged up on cocaine and medication at the time. In phone calls from jail with The Associated Press last year, Aldrich didn’t answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only that it’s “completely off base,” and did not reveal a motivation to the AP or in state court.
“The admission that these were hate crimes is important to the government, and it’s important to the community of Club Q,” said prosecutor Alison Connaughty.
Club Q was more than just a bar, Connaughty said.
“It’s a special gathering place for anyone who needed community and anyone who needed that safe place,” she said. “We met people who said ‘this venue saved my life and I was able to feel normal again.’”
Defence lawyer David Kraut said there’s no singular explanation for why Aldrich carried out the shooting, but he mentioned childhood trauma, a sometimes abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to guns as contributing factors.
