Russia recorded more than 50,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for the second day running on Saturday, the government’s coronavirus task force said.
Over the last 24 hours, 51,699 cases were detected across Russia — the most in a single day since March 9.
On Friday, Russia’s caseload passed the 50,000 mark for the first time in almost six months.
Infections rose in July and August as new highly-transmissible variants of the coronavirus swept across the country.
The task force said 92 people had died with COVID-19 over the last 24 hours.
According to excess fatality statistics, Russia has been among the most severely affected countries by the pandemic, with vaccine uptake slow and the government reluctant to impose restrictions beyond a short lockdown in 2020.
Russia reports 50,000 COVID-19 cases for second day running
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Russia reports 50,000 COVID-19 cases for second day running
Afghans start fleeing Iran in fear of Israeli bombings
- Iran hosts the largest population of Afghan refugees and migrant workers
- Traffic at one of the main border crossings surges to 8,000 crossings per day
KABUL: Abdulsaboor Seddiqi was in the middle of his mid-term exams at a university in Tehran when Israeli bombardment started to wreak havoc in the city. He decided to leave as soon as classes were suspended, and traveled 1,200 km to cross to Afghanistan.
Israeli airstrikes on Iran began last week, when Tel Aviv hit more than a dozen Iranian sites — including key nuclear facilities and the residences of military leaders and scientists — claiming it was aiming to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Daily attacks have been ongoing for the past seven days after Iran retaliated with ballistic missile strikes against Israel. The Israeli military has since been increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure.
“During the last week, we didn’t have proper phone and internet connectivity. Power cuts were more frequent,” Seddiqi, a computer science student, told Arab News.
“My family back in Herat was worried for my safety. I decided to leave.”
He is one of the thousands of Afghans who are now crossing the border every day.
At the Islam Qala crossing alone — part of the main route connecting Herat and Iran’s Mashhad — the number of people crossing daily has surged from 1,500 to as high as 8,000.
“The number of Afghans returning from Iran has drastically increased during the last week. The majority of the returnees were individuals prior to the conflict, while a lot of families also returned in the last week,” said Naser Azimi, a health worker at the Islam Qala health center.
“The number of Afghans returning through Islam Qala every day increased to 3,000 and even reached 8,000 people in a day.”
Abdulbasit Qazizada, who has been working in Tehran for the past two years, arrived in Herat on Monday.
“There was an unusual rush at the Islam Qala border crossing when I was coming back,” he said. “There’s so much fear and anxiety across all cities of Iran, especially Tehran. Many Afghans also work or live there.”
Over decades of armed conflict at home, about 5 million Afghan refugees and migrant workers settled in neighboring Iran, according to official data. Iran is home to the largest Afghan diaspora in the world. Most of them live in Tehran.
Some Afghan families have lost contact with their relatives living in the Iranian capital since the outbreak of violence.
“My brother went to Iran a few months ago for work. We heard in the news on Friday that Israel attacked Iran and killed a lot of people,” said Mohammad Naser, a resident of Kabul, whose brother and two cousins were in Tehran.
“It’s been a week that we don’t know anything about them. My mother and my family members are very concerned. We don’t know if they are OK. We feel helpless because we can’t do anything.”
According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, at least 224 people have been killed and 1,481 wounded in Israeli attacks. Various media outlets have reported, however, that casualty numbers could be at least twice as high.
Russia, Ukraine say have completed fresh POW exchange
- “Our people are returning home from Russian captivity,” Zelensky said
KYIV: Russia and Ukraine said Thursday they had completed another exchange of captured soldiers, part of an agreement reached earlier in June at peace talks in Istanbul.
“Our people are returning home from Russian captivity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, as Russia’s defense ministry also confirmed the exchange. Neither side said how many soldiers had been freed.
SpaceX Starship explodes during routine test
- The Starship 36 suffered ‘catastrophic failure and exploded’ at the Starbase launch facility
- The previous two outings also ended poorly, with the upper stage disintegrating over the Caribbean
HOUSTON: One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starships exploded during a routine test in Texas late Wednesday, law enforcement officials said, in the latest setback to the billionaire’s dream of turning humanity into an interplanetary species.
The Starship 36 suffered “catastrophic failure and exploded” at the Starbase launch facility shortly after 11:00 p.m. (0400 GMT Thursday), a Facebook post by Cameron County authorities said.
A video shared with the post showed the megarocket attached to the launch arm and then a flash and a towering, fiery explosion.
Musk’s Space X said the rocket was preparing for the tenth flight test when it “experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase,” without elaborating on the nature of the complication.
“A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” Space X said on social media.
“There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.”
The Starship was not scheduled for launch on Wednesday evening when the explosion occurred during a “routine static fire test,” according to the Cameron County authorities.
During a static fire, part of the procedures preceding a launch, the Starship’s Super Heavy booster would be anchored to the ground to prevent it from lifting off during the test-firing.
Starbase, on the south Texas coast near the border with Mexico, is the headquarters for Musk’s space project.
Musk appeared to downplay the incident early on Thursday.
“Just a scratch,” he posted on his social media platform X, although without context it was unclear if he was referring to the fiery explosion of the rocket.
Standing 123 meters tall, Starship is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket and is central to Musk’s long-term vision of colonizing Mars.
The Starship is billed as a fully reusable rocket with a payload capacity of up to 150 metric tonnes.
The latest setback follows the explosion of a prototype Starship over the Indian Ocean in late May.
The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built had lifted off from the Starbase facility on May 27, but the first-stage Super Heavy booster blew up instead of executing its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The previous two outings also ended poorly, with the upper stage disintegrating over the Caribbean.
However, the failures will likely do little to dent Musk’s spacefaring ambitions.
SpaceX has been betting that its “fail fast, learn fast” ethos, which has helped it dominate commercial spaceflight, will eventually pay off.
The company has caught the Super Heavy booster in the launch tower’s giant robotic arms three times – a daring engineering feat it sees as key to rapid reusability and slashing costs.
NASA is also increasingly reliant on SpaceX, whose Dragon spacecraft is vital for ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved an increase in annual Starship rocket launches from five to 25 in early May, stating that the increased frequency would not adversely affect the environment.
The decision overruled objections from conservation groups that had warned the expansion could endanger sea turtles and shorebirds.
Air India says plane ‘well-maintained’ before crash
- Indian authorities are yet to detail what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to hurtle
- The airline said that no problems were detected with the jet before the disaster
NEW DELHI: Air India’s Boeing plane was “well-maintained” before it crashed a week ago, killing all but one of 242 people on board, the airline said Thursday.
Indian authorities are yet to detail what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to hurtle to the ground in the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 38 people were also left dead.
As investigators attempt to retrieve data from the plane’s black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder — the airline said that no problems were detected with the jet before the disaster.
“The plane was well-maintained, with its last major check in June 2023,” Air India said in a statement.
“Its right engine was overhauled in March 2025, and the left engine was inspected in April 2025. Both the aircraft and engines were regularly monitored, showing no issues before the flight,” the airline said.
The London-bound jet burst into a fireball when it smashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad moments after takeoff.
Initial checks since the crash on Air India’s Dreamliners “did not reveal any major safety concerns,” the country’s civil aviation regulator said Tuesday.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
The airline on Thursday said the pilots were accomplished flyers.
“The flight was led by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a highly experienced pilot and trainer with over 10,000 hours flying widebody aircraft,” it said.
“First Officer Clive Kunder, had over 3,400 hours of flying experience.”
While investigators try to piece together what went wrong, families of dozens of victims are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified.
As of Thursday, 210 victims have been identified through DNA testing, state health minister Rushikesh Patel said.
Massive security operation for NATO summit turns parts of The Hague into a fortress
- Parts of the usually laid-back city are turning into a military fortress
- The Hague markets itself as the global hub of peace and justice
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Locals, art lovers and diplomats like to meet over a meal and a drink in the historic Gastrobar Berlage behind a landmark art museum in The Hague.
But the usual stream of visitors turned into a trickle when fences started rising outside as part of super-tight security around a meeting of NATO leaders that is smothering the Dutch city in a massive military and police operation called Orange Shield.
Parts of the usually laid-back city, where NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte used to ride his bicycle to work while munching on an apple when he was prime minister of the Netherlands, are turning into a military fortress.
“It’s dead,” Berlage owner Bianca Veenhof said as she looked at an almost empty terrace at the start of what should have been Wednesday’s lunchtime rush.
Parking spots have been blocked off by freshly installed security fencing, workers in nearby offices have been told to stay home and public transit lines near the grounds have been diverted.
The city that markets itself as the global hub of peace and justice because of the international courts it hosts is turning into a city of security and inconvenience for the June 24-25 meeting that is scheduled to feature leaders of the 32-nation alliance, including US President Donald Trump.
The summit comes as global geopolitical tensions soar and conflict escalates in the Middle East.
About half of the Netherlands’ police force will be on duty
In what they are calling the biggest security operation ever staged in the Netherlands, authorities are locking down parts of the city, closing off roads, and shutting down airspace.
Temporary barricades and metal mesh fences surrounding the World Forum summit venue are just a fraction of the measures that radiate out from The Hague.
Some 27,000 police officers – about half of the country’s entire force – will be on duty around the summit along with more than 10,000 defense personnel.
Military police will protect delegations. Frigates will patrol the North Sea, F-35 fighter jets and Apache helicopters will take to the skies and air defense systems will be on alert. Bomb squads will comb the venue for explosives.
Convoys carrying leaders will be whisked with military police escorts along closed-off highways from airports to their accommodations. While civilian drones are banned from the airspace around the summit and other key locations, police and military drones will buzz around the skies over the summit venue and other locations where leaders gather.
Police and riot police also will be on hand for several protests that have already been announced, including an effort by demonstrators to shut down a major highway into the city.
Then there are the less visible but no less important measures being taken to provide cybersecurity. The country’s top counterterrorism official declined to go into details.
Boosting NATO spending and Ukraine are on the agenda
The leaders are scheduled to have dinner with Dutch King Willem-Alexander at his palace in a forest in the city Tuesday night before a meeting the next day where they are expected to agree a new defense spending target.
While the leaders are dining with the Dutch royals, foreign and defense ministers from NATO nations will hold meetings at the summit venue to discuss issues including the war in Ukraine.
When the government heads meet Wednesday, they will seek agreement on ramping up military spending as Trump insists Europe must look after its own security, while Washington focuses on China and its own borders.
The Hague is known for hosting international courts
The summit venue is a conference center and theater close to the building that once housed the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia where Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, his military chief Ratko Mladic, and others were convicted of war crimes.
The venue also is close to the headquarters of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the European Union’s law enforcement and judicial cooperation agencies.
Just down the road is the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor and four judges have been slapped with sanctions by Trump. Closer still is the top United Nations court, the International Court of Justice, whose judges settle disputes between nations.
Getting away from it all
Many residents near the summit are not sticking around to watch the event unfold.
At the end of the week, Berlage will close its doors and sunny terrace for a week, only reopening when the NATO bandwagon has moved on.
Veenhof estimates the enforced closure and weeks of plummeting bookings will cost the bistro up to €150,000 ($173,000) in lost earnings.
Veenhof and her partner Bauke van Schaik, who is the chef at Berlage, have had enough of the summit already and are fleeing the city for the duration.
“Good friends of ours live in Portugal, so we going there for a few days,” she said. “We’ll be a bit further away from all the misery and frustration.”
