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MOSCOW: Russian forces have captured the settlement of Nova Poltavka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said on Thursday.
Russian news agencies, citing the defense ministry, separately reported that air defenses had shot down 317 Ukrainian drones over the territory of Russia in the past 24 hours and 485 drones in total since the evening of May 20.
LONDON: Palestinian scholars in Gaza who had been granted places at British universities arrived in the UK on Monday, The Guardian reported.
One British researcher who had supported the 34 students — who have fully funded scholarships — said they had taken a “surreal journey from devastation to opportunity.”
The group arrived in London and Manchester on three flights from Jordan’s Queen Alia Airport.
Several took connecting flights to Northern Ireland and Scotland, where they will attend universities and complete their studies.
The arrival follows months of hard campaigning by academics, politicians and human rights organizations, which have lobbied on behalf of more than 100 Palestinian students in Gaza who were offered British university places.
The Palestinians were awarded spots beginning in the autumn, but have had no way to safely leave the besieged territory amid Israel’s military campaign. Supporters of the students hope that the initial arrival will precede further flights.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The flight time from Amman to England is only around six hours, but this was a journey that was months in the planning and years in the making.
“These students have lived through the most appalling ordeal. After almost two years of war, many have lost loved ones, and all have had their lives and their education thrown into chaos.
“Yet despite all the death and destruction they’ve witnessed, they’ve not given up. Instead, they’ve chosen to answer loss with learning, despair with determination and war with hope.” She added that the students are an “inspiration to us all.”
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who is in New York City for the 80th UN General Assembly, said the government campaign to bring them to the UK reflects its “commitment to the future of post-war Gaza and its reconstruction, where educating the next generation will play a vital role.”
Some of the Palestinians who arrived in the UK have been awarded spots in elite programs such as the Chevening scholarship, Britain’s top international talent scheme. It enables recipients to complete one-year-long master’s degrees in the UK.
Two Palestinian women who were set to depart on the UK-bound flights reportedly declined after being told that their young children and spouses would be barred from leaving Gaza with them.
The two PhD candidates were informed that though their families were eligible for UK visas, they could not be placed on the buses that were set to leave Gaza for Jordan.
Nora Parr, a researcher at the University of Birmingham who has organized efforts to support the students, said the scholars “are beginning a new chapter of what has for all been a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity.”
She added: “Of course, the logistics and parameters of the new UK scheme for students are still being worked out.
“We hope that mothers and fathers will not be asked to choose between education and family survival, that post-doctoral scholars will be included and that mechanisms toward a permanent pathway for education in the UK will be established, as a political solution is created for Palestine, allowing these scholars to use what they have learned in the UK to rebuild their communities.”
KYIV: Ukraine’s military struck two Russian oil distribution facilities in the Bryansk and Samara regions overnight, Kyiv’s general staff said on Tuesday.
In Samara, the military hit a line production station that mixes Russian oil for its flagship Urals oil grade for export, the general staff said on Telegram.
In Bryansk, it hit a line production station of a pipeline critical for Russian army supplies, it said.
“The extent of the damage is being determined,” it added.
Ukraine has in recent weeks renewed its campaign of long-range drone attacks on Russian oil production sites, systematically targeting key facilities to try to reduce Moscow’s export revenues and frontline supplies.
The Russian defense ministry said on Telegram that its units destroyed Ukrainian drones over Bryansk and Samara. There was no immediate comment from Russia issued publicly.
Kyiv’s troops also hit a military airfield in Russia-occupied Crimea, Ukraine’s general staff said, adding that two planes were hit.
NEW YORK: The US Secret Service said on Tuesday it had dismantled a network of sophisticated electronic devices in the New York area that had been used to threaten US government officials as foreign leaders gather this week for the UN General Assembly.
The agency said the devices were concentrated within 35 miles (56 km) of the global meeting of the 193-member assembly, where US President Donald Trump was due to deliver a speech on Tuesday.
“Early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Authorities seized more than 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across multiple sites in an operation the agency said represented an imminent threat to its protective operations.
The hardware was used to “conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed toward senior US government officials,” the Secret Service said.
It said the devices discovered could be used to conduct a range of telecommunications attacks including “disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.”
The tri-state area where the network was located includes New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.
MBABANE: A Jamaican man deported from the United States to the southern African country of Eswatini two months ago has been repatriated to Jamaica, Eswatini’s government said.
The man, named in the government statement as Orville Isaac Etoria, was one of five third-country nationals deported to Eswatini in July by the Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration.
The other four — from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen — are still being held in detention there while efforts to repatriate them are ongoing, Eswatini’s government said.
“Mr Etoria has safely returned to Jamaica, where he was warmly welcomed by members of his family,” said the Eswatini government statement issued on Monday.
He was repatriated on Sunday of his own volition, it said. President Donald Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally and his administration has sought to ramp up removals to third countries, including South Sudan and Ghana.
The US Department of Homeland Security said in July that the five individuals sent to Eswatini, who were all convicted criminals, were “so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won’t take them back.” Etoria had been convicted of murder, it said.
But Eswatini’s government said shortly after that some of the countries had reached out to say it was not true that they had rejected their citizens. Critics say the US removals to third countries aim to stoke fear among migrants and encourage them to “self deport” to their home countries rather than be sent to distant places they have no connection with.
Etoria, who arrived in the US as a child, had already served a 25-year sentence for his crime and been released when he was deported and imprisoned again in Eswatini without due process, according to the New York-based Legal Aid Society.
MOSCOW: Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin said on Tuesday that further restrictions on fuel exports are possible if needed, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russia has extended a gasoline exports ban until the end of September, and the authorities have said the restrictions could be extended into October if the shortages persist.
The country has faced a deficit of certain types of gasoline due to Ukraine’s strikes on refineries as well as supply chain disruptions exacerbated by high borrowing costs that made it hard for fuel stations to stockpile.
“All necessary measures will be taken to ensure the market is fully supplied. If this requires additional export restrictions, these restrictions may also be imposed,” Interfax quoted Sorokin as saying.
Russian news agencies have also said, citing unnamed sources, that the government discussed possible exports ban on diesel as well until the end of the year.
