Ukraine says forces holding out against Russia in battle for Soledar

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A Ukrainian BM-21'Grad' MLRS 122mm rocket launcher fires on the outskirts of Soledar on Jan.11, 2023. (Arman Soldin/ AFP)
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Updated 13 January 2023
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Ukraine says forces holding out against Russia in battle for Soledar

  • 15 children among those trapped in Soledar’s ruins
  • Russian mercenaries claim to have captured mining town, Moscow has not claimed victory

KYIV/NEAR SOLEDAR, Ukraine: Ukraine said its troops were holding out against pro-Moscow forces in the eastern salt mining town of Soledar as more than 500 civilians including children were trapped there.
In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday thanked two units in Soledar that he said “are holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy.” He did not give more details.
Zelensky said he and senior Ukrainian commanders analyzed the need for reinforcements in Soledar and nearby towns in the eastern industrial area known as the Donbas and next steps for the coming days.
Russia’s ultra-nationalist contract militia Wagner Group, run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, claimed to have taken Soledar after intense fighting that it said left the town strewn with Ukrainian dead.
Moscow however, has held off officially proclaiming a victory, which would be its first significant gain in six months.
“At the moment, there are still some small pockets of resistance in Soledar,” Andrei Bayevsky, a Russian-installed local politician, said in an online broadcast.




A Ukrainian serviceman man his position at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region on Jan. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation.
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian state TV that 559 civilians remained in Soledar, including 15 children, and could not be evacuated from the community that had a pre-war population of about 10,000.
Deserted streets
Drone footage obtained by Reuters of a medical evacuation from Soledar by Ukrainian soldiers showed deserted streets where just a few ruined buildings remained standing, amid blasted trees and smoldering rubble.
A 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier, positioned outside Soledar, said: “The situation is difficult but stable. We’re holding back the enemy ... we’re fighting back.”

 

US officials questioned the importance of a Russian victory in Soledar even if that were true.
Soledar lies less than 10 km (6 miles) northeast of the city of Bakhmut where fighting has raged for months in one of the war’s bloodiest battles — dubbed the “meat grinder.”
“Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House, “and it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”
If Russia captured Soledar, it would likely use that position to intensify its assault on Bakhmut. Soledar is also home to cavernous salt mines, which could be a commercially lucrative asset.
 

Leadership change 
Kremlin-watchers were examining Russia’s latest switch of battlefield leadership, a day after Valery Gerasimov, chief of the military’s general staff, was unexpectedly given direct command of the invasion.
The previous commander of three months’ standing, Army General Sergei Surovikin, was effectively demoted to become one of Gerasimov’s three deputies.
Moscow explained the decision — at least the third abrupt change of top commander in the 11-month conflict — as a response to the campaign’s growing importance.
Across Ukraine, the front lines have barely budged since Russia’s last big retreat in the south two months ago. Kyiv hopes heavy armor from Western allies will allow it to resume advances.
Western countries have started to offer Kyiv advanced weaponry like the sophisticated US Patriot missile system. The United States, Germany and France last week pledged armored fighting vehicles and Ukraine’s latest requests have focused on battle tanks.
Polish President Andrzej Duda promised Ukraine 14 German-made Leopard battle tanks. Zelensky told Polish state-run broadcaster TVP Info that this could pave the way for other countries to do the same. Britain is considering sending tanks.
Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24, saying Kyiv’s ties with the West threatened Russia’s security. Ukraine and its allies call it an unprovoked war to seize territory.


Ukraine harvests first 34,800 tons of new grain crop, ministry says

Updated 13 sec ago
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Ukraine harvests first 34,800 tons of new grain crop, ministry says

KYIV: Ukraine’s farmers have started the 2025 grain harvest, threshing the first 34,800 metric tons of early grains as of June 19, the farm ministry said on Friday.
Ukraine traditionally starts the harvest in the second part of June with barley and peas.
Farmers had harvested 33,900 tons of barley with the average yield of 2.49 metric tons per hectare, the ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian agriculture minister Vitaliy Koval said on Thursday three southern regions, Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv, had started the grain harvest.
Koval told Reuters this month that poor weather can cut Ukrainian grain harvest by 10 percent this year to around 51 million tons.

Two dead in Mexico as Hurricane Erick moves on from Mexican coast

Updated 14 min 23 sec ago
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Two dead in Mexico as Hurricane Erick moves on from Mexican coast

  • Hurricane Erick killed at least two people as it swept through southern Mexico causing significant damage to coastal communities before weakening to a low-pressure system Thursday night

PUERTO ESCONDIDO: Hurricane Erick killed at least two people as it swept through southern Mexico causing significant damage to coastal communities before weakening to a low-pressure system Thursday night, authorities said.
A man was electrocuted while helping with debris removal in the southern Oaxaca state, where Erick made landfall, after handling high-voltage cables near a stream, the state government said.
A child died in neighboring Guerrero state after being swept away by a swollen stream as his mother tried to carry him across in the town of San Marcos, civil protection authorities reported.
The US National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory at 0300 GMT said Erick had weakened overnight to a tropical storm located 95 miles (155 kilometers) from Acapulco port, with sustained winds of 30 mph (50 kmh) as it moved across southern Mexico on Thursday.
Coastal communities in Oaxaca including Lagunas de Chacahua, home to around 2,800 people, were directly hit by the storm, which destroyed thatched roofs and flooded streets.
“It was very strong, very ugly... the entire town is homeless, without clothes, we have no help,” Francisca Avila, a 45-year-old housewife, told AFP, as she surveyed the loss of most of her belongings.
In the tourist town of Puerto Escondido, residents and emergency personnel worked to drain flooded streets and clear debris left behind as the storm knocked over trees and street signs and buried boats under sand on the beach.
Much of the town of about 30,000 people was left without electricity or cellphone coverage.
The water “had never hit with this magnitude” in Puerto Escondido, 44-year-old merchant Luis Alberto Gil, whose shop was among those flooded, told AFP.
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced during her morning briefing that heavy rains are still expected in the southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas, as well as Veracruz and Puebla.
She thanked the population for following the authorities’ recommendations “very responsibly,” in a message shared on her social media. The president reported 15 road sections closed in the state of Oaxaca, as well as more than 123,000 users affected by power outages.
Mexico sees major storms every year, usually between May and November, on both its Pacific and Caribbean coasts.
In October 2023, Acapulco, a major port and beach resort in Guerrero, was pummeled by Hurricane Otis, a powerful Category 5 storm that killed dozens of people.
Hurricane John, another Category 3 storm that hit in September last year, caused about 15 deaths.
Sheinbaum had urged people to avoid going out and advised those living in low-lying areas or near rivers to move to shelters — some 2,000 of which had been set up in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca in anticipation.
“Since (Erick) just made landfall, we are in contact with the Defense (department) and the Navy, who are in the area, and we will be able to inform in a few hours what the effects are on these populations,” she said at her daily press conference Thursday morning.
Restaurants remained shuttered in Puerto Escondido even though some tourists insisted on staying and riding out the storm.
Around 250 miles (400 kilometers) north along the Pacific coast, Acapulco — a major port and resort city famous for its nightlife — was largely deserted Thursday as residents heeded calls to hunker down, with shops boarded up and tourist boats grounded.
Many had stocked up the day before on food, water and gasoline.


Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests

Updated 50 min 21 sec ago
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Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests

  • Chad has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking

N’DJAMENA: As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot.
But the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation.
Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert.
It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say.
“Green charcoal” aims to protect what forest is left.
Made from discarded plant waste such as millet and sesame stalks or palm fronds, it is meant to save trees from being chopped down for cooking.
The product “releases less emissions than traditional charcoal, it doesn’t blacken your pots, it has high energy content and lasts up to three times longer than ordinary charcoal,” said Ousmane Alhadj Oumarou, technical director of the Raikina Association for Socioeconomic Development (Adser).
“Using one kilogramme of green charcoal saves six kilogrammes of wood.”
The group has installed a production facility in Pont Belile, just north of the capital, N’Djamena.
There, workers grind up burnt plant waste, then mix it with gum arabic, which helps it ignite, and clay, which makes it burn more slowly.
The resulting black nuggets look like ordinary charcoal.
Like the traditional kind, it emits CO2 when it burns — but less, said Souleymane Adam Adey, an ecologist at the University of N’Djamena.
And “it contributes to fighting deforestation, by ensuring the trees that aren’t cut down continue to capture and store carbon,” he said.


The conflict in neighboring Sudan, which is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, is adding to pressure on Chad, which has become home to more than 800,000 Sudanese refugees since 2023 — double the 400,000 it already hosted.
“Desertification has progressed in the regions that have been hosting Sudanese refugees for the past two years,” said Adser’s director, 45-year-old businessman Ismael Hamid.
Adser invested 200 million CFA francs (about $350,000) to launch the project, then won backing from the World Bank, which buys the charcoal for 750 CFA francs per kilogramme.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, distributes the charcoal in refugee camps in eastern Chad.
But Hamid said he hoped to expand production and slash prices to 350 to 500 CFA francs per kilo to make “green charcoal” available and affordable nationwide.
The plant currently produces seven to nine tons per day.
“If we want to meet the country’s needs, we have to increase our output by at least a factor of 10,” said Hamid, calling for subsidies to support the budding sector.
Environment Minister Hassan Bakhit Djamous told AFP the government was working on a policy to promote such projects.
“We need to bet on green charcoal as an energy source for the future of our country,” he said.
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Philippine Navy seizes $175 million meth haul at sea

Updated 20 June 2025
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Philippine Navy seizes $175 million meth haul at sea

  • A pair of naval gunboats intercepted a fishing vessel carrying 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine hydrochloride off the coast of main island Luzon just before dawn

MANILA: The Philippine Navy seized an illegal drug shipment worth $175 million (10 billion pesos) on Friday in one of the country’s biggest narcotics hauls on record, officials said.

A pair of naval gunboats intercepted a fishing vessel carrying 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine hydrochloride off the coast of main island Luzon just before dawn, Commodore Edward de Sagon told a press conference.

Four people, including one foreigner, were arrested in the joint operation with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, according to de Sagon.

“We still don’t have the details of where (the drugs originated),” he said, saying they believed the haul had been transferred from a larger vessel to the fishing ship.

“That was when it was intercepted. There was information and (maneuvers) that made us suspicious,” de Sagon said.

Meth, known locally as shabu, is the most prevalent illegal drug in the Philippines.

“This is one of the largest illegal drug apprehensions in the history of the Philippine Navy,” navy spokesman John Percie Alcos said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a large volume of drugs was found adrift just north of the area where Wednesday’s arrests were made.

The Philippines’ biggest-ever drug seizure came in April last year when more than two tonnes of meth was seized at a police checkpoint on a road in Batangas province south of the capital, according to the presidential palace.


Rwanda arrests opposition leader, says investigative body

Updated 20 June 2025
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Rwanda arrests opposition leader, says investigative body

  • Ingabire is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organization and engaging in acts that incite public disorder” according to the Rwanda Investigations Bureau

KIGALI: Rwanda has arrested prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who is being held at a detention facility in the capital Kigali on charges of inciting the public and creating a criminal organization, a state investigative agency said.
Ingabire was freed in 2018 after serving six years of a 15-year jail sentence handed to her in 2012 following her conviction on charges related to conspiring to form an armed group and seeking to minimize the 1994 genocide.
She is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organization and engaging in acts that incite public disorder,” the Rwanda Investigations Bureau said in a statement late on Thursday.
It did not say when she would be charged in court.
Ingabire, who heads unregistered opposition party DALFA–Umurinzi, returned from exile in the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010, but was barred from standing after being accused of genocide denial.
Last year President Paul Kagame, in power for a quarter of a century, won re-election after securing 99.18 percent of the vote, according to the electoral body.
Kagame is lauded for transforming Rwanda from the ruins of the 1994 genocide to a thriving economy but his reputation has also been tainted by longstanding accusations of rights abuses and supporting rebels in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
He denies the allegations.