Ukraine on Thursday accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians after 30 people were killed when two buses were blown up in the frontline city of Kramatorsk, in one of the deadliest single attacks for weeks.
Photos posted by local authorities showed the burnt-out metal shell of the vehicles, with the blurred-out images of bodies and debris strewn across the road.
Police said the buses were hit with a glide bomb.
The strikes come just a day after five children were among 22 killed when a Russian missile struck a five-storey apartment block in Pryluky, in the northern Chernigiv region.
"The Russians are deliberately targeting civilians," Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said, accusing Moscow of flouting "every conceivable rule of warfare and norm of international humanitarian law".

#targeting #civilians #Russia

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has exercised a hold on a $2.8 billion weapons sale to Israel, The Hill has learned, allying with her counterpart in the House and underscoring deep mistrust with the Trump administration and Israeli government.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) has expressed frustration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done nothing to address concerns from, specifically, Democratic lawmakers over the high civilian death tolls in Gaza, Israel’s bombing in Syria and escalating violence against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
The weapons package includes 40,000 one-ton bombs, munitions that the former Biden administration held back from sending to Israel for its indiscriminate destruction, contributing to the high death toll in the Gaza Strip.
An estimated 70,000 Palestinians were killed over the course of the three-year war between Israel and Hamas, according to Palestinian health officials, but that does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Shaheen, as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel, has authority to hold back the Trump administration from moving ahead on weapons sales over a certain dollar amount. It’s generally an informal consultative process, where the State Department works to address a lawmaker’s concerns and get the green light before moving ahead on the arms sale.

#Israel #israeli #weapons #democrat

GENEVA (AP) — Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.'s top human rights body say they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab.
The international fact-finding mission on Iran says the findings center on a pair of airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.
At the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one U.S. missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an ****** ociated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of what happened. Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.
"Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects," the fact-finding team said in a statement.
The Trump administration has yet to directly accept the blame or release findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing.

#school

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Wednesday that he's going to block a proposed sale of $2.8 billion in heavy weaponry to Israel over concerns that the powerful bombs may not be used in line with U.S. and international law.
Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York said he would withhold approval for the sale because of "grave, unresolved concerns" about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
"The Trump administration has not provided sufficient ****** urances that these weapons will be used by the Netanyahu government in accordance with U.S. law and with appropriate protections for civilians," Meeks said in a statement. "I therefore will not clear this sale at this time."
Meeks' objections, however, will not likely affect the sale, which was informally notified to lawmakers on Tuesday. Once it is formally notified to Congress, Secretary of State Marco Rubio can bypass the normal congressional review process by making an emergency determination that the transaction is an urgent national security interest.
Rubio has done so in the past, including bypassing a normal congressional review process to approve a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel last year. The administration then approved a new series of arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.

#used

A day at an air show turned fatal Saturday when a Greek air force jet crashed north of Athens as thousands of spectators watched.
Both pilots were killed in the crash at Tanagra Air Force Base, but no civilians were hurt.
The twin-seat Phantom F-4 jet flew into the ground during a low-altitude maneuver just meters above the ground.
Eight Believed Dead After B-52 Crashes Shortly After Takeoff From Edwards Air Force Base
Spectators watch as smoke rises after a **** enic Air Force F-4 Phantom fighter jet crashed during the Athens Flying Week airshow at Tanagra Air Force Base, north of Athens, Greece, Saturday.

#force #saturday #phantom #ground

American service members will now have access to military versions of ChatGPT and Grok as the Pentagon tries to incorporate more AI into its daily workflows.
The Department of War said in a pair of announcements on Monday that the two services will be incorporated into its bespoke AI platform GenAI.mil, which launched in December and originally offered access only to a specialized military version of Google's Gemini. The department said GenAI.mil already counts 1.7 million users among the Department of War's 3 million–strong workforce, which includes both military members and civilians.
The department's Monday announcement comes after it awarded OpenAI and Elon Musk's ******* eXAI, which runs Grok, defense contracts worth up to $200 million each to provide the department with AI tools. It also awarded contracts at the time to Google and Anthropic.
The military version of ChatGPT, dubbed ChatGPT Mil, is part of OpenAI for Government, an initiative launched last summer meant to bring the company's AI products to government workers.
"ChatGPT on GenAI.mil will make unclassified work throughout the Department more efficient, freeing up time and resources so DoW personnel can focus on the mission," said Joe Larson, vice president and head of government at OpenAI, in a statement to Fortune.

#department #openai #government #members

It has been touted by the manufacturer as the ballistic missile of the future: lethal, long-range and pinpoint. Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Missile has the U.S. military investing billions to update its **** nal.
But a close look at what is believed to be its first use in combat — on the first day of the Iran war — highlights the potential peril of deploying this weapon near population centers because it appears to spray pellets over a wide area, according to a review by the conflict monitor Airwars and interviews with weapons experts and former defense officials.
Three missiles that struck the southern city of Lamerd on Feb. 28 killed civilians as far as 50 meters (164 feet) from where they detonated, and caused damage more than three times farther away, Airwars found. The missiles detonated above a sports complex and two residential neighborhoods, Airwars found. The blasts killed at least 21 civilians, including seven children, according to Iranian officials.
Airwars is the first to map the damage radius of the strikes in Lamerd and estimate the lethal range of the weapon used.
The PrSM is designed to explode midair and propel tens of thousands of dense metal pellets at high speed in all directions. Photos, videos and satellite images of the Lamerd strikes' aftermath **** yzed by Airwars and verified by The **** ociated Press show buildings, streets and vehicles were heavily pockmarked in a blast pattern that experts say is consistent with the PrSM's capabilities.

#lamerd #first #three

MOSCOW, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Russia warned on Thursday that it could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine in ‌response to Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using long-range ‌British cruise missiles.
The warning, delivered by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a news briefing in Moscow, was the strongest of is kind yet from Russia to Britain, a NATO member state and a staunch ally of Ukraine.
Zakharova said London was "one step away" from becoming legally complicit in ‌what she called "terrorism" against Russian ⁠civilians, something she said would have "catastrophic consequences" unless Britain changed course.
"We have repeatedly warned that any British military ⁠installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons," she said.
"We propose that the British leadership once again carefully **** yse ‌the situation and immediately, in the most resolute and unequivocal manner, abandon the hostile, aggressive line, which can only ... create the risk of the conflict escalating to an entirely new level," she said.

#russian

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drones killed at least six civilians overnight in a wave of strikes on Russia overnight that also ‌hit a warehouse owned by online retailer Ozon and an ‌industrial facility in the Samara region, Russian regional officials said on Saturday.
In a post on Telegram, Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said that several people had been wounded in the strikes. He did not name the industrial facility struck, but Ukraine's military said it had struck the region's Novokuibyshevsk refinery, causing a fire.
Ozon, Russia's ‌second-largest online retailer, said ⁠in a statement on Telegram that work at its Samara region logistics centre in the town of Chapayevsk had ⁠been halted after the strike, which it said caused injuries.
The strike is the first on Ozon, after weeks of drone attacks on its larger rival Wildberries, which Ukraine has cast as part of a wider campaign against economic infrastructure underpinning ‌the Russian war in Ukraine.
Elsewhere, in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that two children had been killed and two adults wounded in a strike on the Sea of Azov port town of Yeysk. He said a fire had broken out at an unnamed ‌facility at the town's port.

#ukraine

For the second straight preseason contest, the Carolina Panthers decided to roll out their starters for a little action. But not all of the first-stringers got out on the field at EverBank Stadium on Friday.
Outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips, inside linebacker Devin Lloyd and wide receiver Xavier Legette were among the 12 Panthers who were ruled out prior to kickoff against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Head coach Dave Canales, following his team's 34-17 win, would explain why.
"There were a few guys who had some soreness. We were gonna be sensitive with some of those guys—particularly Jaelan Phillips, Devin Lloyd," Canales told reporters. "Felt great finishing after the [joint] practice, but had a couple of other things sore. We just decided to hold them out."
Canales was then asked about Legette—who, along with his civilians, was sporting a boot on his right foot.
"He got his ankle twisted up. He has some soreness in his foot," he replied. "So, we evaluated him. Right now, we're just gonna get him back going little by little. And hopefully, we'll see him at the end of this week.

#lloyd #legette

JERUSALEM — Fox News Digital gained rare access to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tzrifin Base in Central Israel, where a vast number of confiscated rockets, grenades, drones, sniper rifles, automated weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars and other military firepower used by Hezbollah and Hamas are stored.
The seized ***** nal of weapons, ranging in manufacturers from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Russia, China to homegrown producers in Lebanon and Gaza and even a ***** -era gun, were part of the war machinery used by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israeli civilians and the IDF since Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The IDF said Hezbollah also used weapons against Lebanese civilians.
Hezbollah and Hamas, members of Iran's so-called "axis of resistance," have killed over 300 American citizens, according to reports.
'We Want Land Invasion': Iran Mouthpiece Touts New Missile, Boasts Decades Of War Prep

#digital

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with missiles, drones and glide bombs Tuesday, killing at least 10 civilians, officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow is getting new military help from North Korea for its more than 4-year-old invasion.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in an overnight attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where a company said seven workers at its steel plant were killed and 21 injured.
Three more people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said.
In addition to the ballistic missiles, North Korea is preparing to deploy more of its troops to Russia, Zelenskyy said late Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2024, pledging mutual aid if either country faces aggression.

#russian #president #drones

Political commentator Bill O'Reilly on Monday said Trump is not "flailing" as he seeks to pressure Iran to accept a deal to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz while also addressing the regime's nuclear program.
When asked about Trump's policy, O'Reilly advised that the president needs to inflict "more pain on Iran than Iran is inflicting on the world." In response, NewsNation's Leland Vittert pressed the commentator on whether Trump was "flailing."
"I don't think he's flailing," O'Reilly told the "On Balance" host. "I don't think that's fair. He's got to make very difficult decisions. He didn't want to kill thousands of civilians. He told me that directly, all right? He didn't want to do it."
"But now there doesn't seem to be any other choice. So these mullahs aren't going to stop. And when somebody isn't going to stop, you have to stop them," he continued. "And the only way we can stop them is to destroy the infrastructure of their country, which includes the uranium at Pickaxe and the capital city. You do that, the equation changes."
O'Reilly added that if he were president, he would "take out" and "obliterate" Pickaxe Mountain and then tell citizens in Tehran to evacuate "because we're going to wreck your infrastructure."

#stop #going #pickaxe #president

CALI, Colombia (AP) — A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing at least 111 people, damaging hundreds of buildings and leaving many trapped under debris while their loved ones and rescue workers searched through rubble.
Search teams and civilians picked through the remains of destroyed buildings in the country's third-largest city, Cali, passing large pieces of concrete and other rubble down a long line of volunteers.
"Our building has basically been left in ruins, and the building next to ours? Completely collapsed," said Álvaro López, who cradled his dog as he watched the search. The desperate scene recalled the searches still ongoing in neighboring Venezuela weeks after that country was devastated by two powerful earthquakes.
Besides Cali, the quake ravaged cities across western Colombia, including Pereira, Quibdo and Manizales, and was felt in neighboring Ecuador and Panama. The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of about 4,800 people in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella said at least 87 people were injured and around 1,600 buildings were damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed. He declared an emergency to expedite funding for the quake recovery while saying he would visit the disaster zone.

#colombia #search #western

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine paid tribute on Saturday to Oleksiy Yukov, a volunteer who spent more than two decades recovering bodies of civilians and soldiers — many of them Russian — killed by war. He was 40.
An Orthodox Christian service was held at the Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr, in central Kyiv, where thousands of people gathered to pay their respects following his death in a landmine explosion during a recovery mission on Wednesday.
Mourners also gathered at Kyiv's main Maidan Square, many dropping to their knees as a sign of respect as his casket was brought to the site. Memorial services were also held in other cities.
Yukov founded the organization known as Platsdarm, or Bridgehead, because he believed that all the dead deserve a proper burial. He became known as a "collector of souls."
From the war-torn Donbas region, Yukov was a martial arts instructor. He began recovering the dead as a teenager after encountering the remains of Soviet and Russian soldiers from World War II.

#yukov #gathered

KYIV, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of committing a war crime after a video was released showing a drone chasing down and wounding a vegetable seller in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
Footage released by Ukrainian police ‌shows the drone pursuing a man around a van being used as a street stand before exploding as he dives for ‌cover behind the vehicle. Police said the man in his 50s survived but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries.
Ukrainian officials later identified him only as a 52-year-old called Yurii and released a video interview with him from a hospital ward.
"Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone 'safari' Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X, saying that "Russia has gone mad" and calling for more pressure on Moscow and strong security guarantees for Ukraine.
"We must act and support life in ways that force Russia to think seriously about peace rather than expanding the range of its drones."

#police #tuesday

Vacationers were sent scrambling for safety Monday after a projectile struck a crowded beach in a Russian Black Sea resort town, killing seven people, including four children, and injuring dozens more, officials said.
Video footage captured the incident in the village of Arkhipo-Osipovka near Gelendzhik, where the beach was packed with visitors at the time of the strike.
The Russian Mission in Geneva said in a post on X that the "bloody attack" was carried out by a drone launched by Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of targeting civilians.
Ukraine Launches What Appears To Be One Of Its Largest Drone Attacks Against Russia: Report
A projectile flies overhead near Arkhipo-Osipovka, Russia, on Monday.

#osipovka

MOSCOW, July 31 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian online retailer Wildberries amount to "acts of terrorism" against civilians, ‌affecting millions of people in Russia and other countries, ‌the company's founder and CEO, Tatyana Kim, said on Friday.
Ukraine has attacked more than a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 in a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a linchpin of Russia's consumer economy.
Kim said businesses across 10 countries had suffered ‌significant losses as ⁠a result of the attacks and that Wildberries was working with the Russian government to mitigate ⁠the impact on vendors using its platform.
"A comprehensive scheme is currently being developed to ensure that everyone receives **** istance. The details of these measures will be announced in the coming days," Kim said.
She ‌said the company was rapidly restructuring its logistics network and redistributing goods across various logistics facilities to maintain delivery times and inventory turnover despite the disruption.

#wildberries

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean authorities ordered civilians to evacuate on Tuesday after a suspected white phosphorus leak at a U.S. military base near the capital, Seoul.
Officials in the city of Pyeongtaek urged nearby residents to move to a safe location and avoid skin exposure after the leak at the Osan Air Base was detected at around 5 p.m. The alert was lifted several hours later following the completion of decontamination work, according to text messages sent out by the city.
The U.S. 51st Fighter Wing said it established a 300-meter cordon around the base "out of an abundance of caution" after experts conducting a routine inspection identified white phosphorus crystallization that left residue inside a munitions crate.
An explosive ordnance disposal unit was deployed and response plans were immediately activated to ensure the munitions remained fully contained, it said in a statement.
The cordon was lifted after emergency response personnel mitigated the situation, allowing the base to return to normal operations, it said. There were "no injuries resulting from this situation and no risk to personnel on or off installation."

#seoul #phosphorus

By Daphne Psaledakis and Olena Harmash
WASHINGTON/KYIV, July 10 (Reuters) - Four U.S. senators said on Friday that they had reached agreement with the Trump administration to move forward with updated legislation on Russia sanctions.
"We ‌are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement with the Trump Administration to move our updated ‌Russia sanctions legislation forward. We are very pleased with this significant progress and expect to roll out the legislation very soon," Senators Richard Blumenthal, Lindsey Graham, Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker said in a statement.
"As Russia intensifies its slaughter of civilians, it is imperative that the legislative and executive branches work together to create tools to exact a heavy price on those who buy Russian oil and natural gas, fueling the Putin war machine," the statement said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request ‌for comment.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has "concrete evidence" linking leaders of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to recent war crimes in the Sudanese region of Darfur, the ICC's deputy chief prosecutor says.
Nazhat Shameem Khan told the BBC the ICC had reached a "breakthrough" in its investigation into the massacres of civilians in the cities of el-Fasher and el-Geneina.
"It may take time for justice to develop, to be brought to the court, but we will get there," Khan said, adding that RSF leaders have also been linked to crimes against humanity.
The siege and takeover of el-Fasher marked one of the bloodiest episodes in the ongoing war between the RSF and Sudan's army.
More than 6,000 people were killed in el-Fasher as the RSF seized the city in October last year, the United Nations says, while the paramilitary group is accused of carrying out a similar massacre in el-Geneina.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles and drones killed at least 12 civilians and injured 40 others in Ukraine on Monday in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as "horrific attacks."
Since Russia launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, its forces have conducted bombing in an effort to destroy Ukraine's infrastructure and sap morale. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to the U.N.
A Russian missile targeting infrastructure struck the central city of Dnipro, killing six people and wounding 29, Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said. Russian drones also hit a passenger minibus in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three and wounding six, including a child, Zelenskyy said on social media.
Russian drones also killed a 69-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man in the northeastern Sumy region, National Police said. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a daytime Russian strike killed one person and wounded five others in the northeastern city.
Other deadly attacks occurred in at least six other regions of Ukraine, authorities said. No further details were immediately available.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said Tuesday its forces struck a railway bridge, a power plant and other key infrastructure targets in Crimea as Kyiv's military seeks to isolate the vital Russian-held peninsula in the latest stage of the 4-year-old war.
The drone attacks added to the woes on the Black Sea peninsula, where Russian authorities have had to suspend gasoline sales to civilians as Ukraine has intensified its recent campaign to disrupt supply lines and the electrical grid at the height of the summer tourist season.
The peninsula was seized by force and illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Ukraine's increasing use of long-range strikes has highlighted its ability to inflict painful damage on Russia and put added pressure on the Kremlin while Moscow's advances recently have ground to a near halt, Western ****** ysts and officials say.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last week that his forces are "isolating Crimea with drones."
"It looks like in the nearest time, Crimea will become an island. This could lead to some very unexpected consequences for Russians," Fedorov said on a blogger's YouTube channel.

June 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that a week should be enough for Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to remove equipment from his country used by Russia in its attacks on Ukraine, adding a threat of Ukrainian action if ‌Lukashenko did not do so.
Zelenskiy said signal relay stations were located in two Belarusian regions bordering Ukraine that were used by Russian ‌forces to help with steering during attacks on Ukrainian civilians. Reuters could not verify his claims independently.
"What's the point of saying he (Lukashenko) doesn't want to be in the war? Let him remove this equipment, let him switch it off. I think a week will be enough for him to do that," Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv.
"If he doesn't do it, we'll do it," he said, without elaborating.
Zelenskiy also alluded to Belarus's oil refining industry, saying it had become a major supplier for Moscow and that Lukashenko could put a stop to it.

MILAN, June 18 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors investigating accusations of "sniper tourism" in 1990s Sarajevo do not currently have enough evidence to seek a trial for any suspects, a source with direct ‌knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Milan prosecutors have placed five people under investigation over ‌allegations that Italians and other foreigners paid to shoot at civilians during the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo, the source said.
The investigation began last year after journalist and novelist Ezio Gavazzeni filed a legal complaint over claims that wealthy foreigners travelled to Bosnia to take part in shooting excursions during the war in the former Yugoslav republic.
The source said the five suspects included a Milan aristocrat who, according to testimony gathered by Gavazzeni, allegedly boasted at a dinner ‌with former schoolmates that he had gone ⁠to Sarajevo to shoot people.
The source said prosecutors currently had only circumstantial elements and no firm proof. "Very frankly, at this moment the prosecutors could never ask for ⁠any of the suspects to be sent to trial," the source said.

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles into Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities killing at least 16 civilians and wounding more than 100 others. Apartment buildings across the country have been reduced to rubble, leaving many residents trapped.