Russian drone attack on Kyiv kills two, injures several, Ukrainian officials say

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a site of a Russian airstrike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in a location given as Kyiv, Ukraine in this handout picture released on March 23, 2025.
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Updated 23 March 2025
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Russian drone attack on Kyiv kills two, injures several, Ukrainian officials say

  • The state emergency service posted photos showing firefighters fighting blazes at night, including high in an apartment building

KYIV: A Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed at least two people and injured several, sparking fires in high-rise apartment buildings and throughout the capital, Ukrainian officials said early on Sunday.
“A massive enemy drone attack on Kyiv,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The scale of the overnight attack was not immediately clear. Reuters witnesses heard several blasts in what sounded like air defense systems in operation.
The state emergency service posted photos showing firefighters fighting blazes at night, including high in an apartment building.
A woman died after drone debris sparked a fire in a high-rise residential building in Dniprovskyi district, the emergency service said on Telegram, while at least 27 people were evacuated from the building.
Another person died in the Holosiivskyi district, the service said.
The United States is pushing for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, and hoping to agree on a partial ceasefire that would halt strikes on energy infrastructure. But both sides have been reporting continued strikes.
At least seven people were injured throughout Kyiv and emergency services were dispatched to several districts of the city where fires were reported, Klitschko said.
Two were injured and several houses damaged in the region surrounding the capital, regional Governor Mykola Kalashnik said on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the three-year-long war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for more than five hours, starting late on Saturday, according to Ukraine’s Air Force maps.


North Korea detains 3 shipyard officials over the failed launch of a naval destroyer

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North Korea detains 3 shipyard officials over the failed launch of a naval destroyer

  • Satellite imagery on the site showed the vessel lying on its side and draped in blue covers, with parts of the ship submerged
  • The failed launch was subsequently an embarrassment to Kim Jong Un, who is eager to build greater naval forces to deal with what he calls US-led military threats
SEOUL: North Korea authorities have detained three shipyard officials over the recent failed launch of a naval destroyer, an incident that leader Kim Jong Un said was caused by criminal negligence, state media said Sunday.
The 5,000-tonne-class destroyer was damaged Wednesday when a transport cradle on the ship’s stern detached early during a launch ceremony attended by Kim at the northeastern port of Chongjin. Satellite imagery on the site showed the vessel lying on its side and draped in blue covers, with parts of the ship submerged.
The vessel is North Korea’s second known destroyer. The failed launch was subsequently an embarrassment to Kim, who is eager to build greater naval forces to deal with what he calls US-led military threats.
North Korea launched its first destroyer, also a 5,000-ton-class ship, with massive fanfare last month. The ship is North Korea’s largest and most advanced warship and state media reported it is designed to carry various weapons including nuclear missiles.
Law enforcement authorities detained the chief engineer, head of the hull construction workshop and deputy manager for administrative affairs at Chongjin Shipyard, who they said were responsible for Wednesday’s failed launch, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
Hong Kil Ho, the shipyard manager, also was summoned for questioning, KCNA previously reported.
Kim blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for what he called a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism.”
In an instruction to investigators Thursday, North Korea’s powerful Central Miliary Commission echoed Kim’s position, saying those responsible “can never evade their responsibility for the crime.”
North Korea denied the warship suffered major damage, saying the hull on the starboard side was scratched and some seawater flowed into the stern section.
North Korea said Friday it needed about 10 days to make repairs, but many outside observers said the country likely understated the damage.

George Floyd’s uncertain legacy is marked five years on

Updated 25 May 2025
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George Floyd’s uncertain legacy is marked five years on

  • An anniversary event is taking place in what has been named George Floyd Square

MINNEAPOLIS: Americans on Sunday mark five years since George Floyd was killed by a US police officer, as President Donald Trump backtracks on reforms designed to tackle racism.
Floyd’s deadly arrest on May 25, 2020 helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement into a powerful force that sought to resolve America’s deeply rooted racial issues, from police violence to systemic inequality.
But since Trump’s return to power in January — he was serving his first term when Floyd died — his administration has axed civil rights investigations and cracked down on diversity hiring initiatives.
BLM, meanwhile, finds itself lacking the support it enjoyed when protesters sprawled across US cities during the Covid pandemic — with many now agreeing the movement achieved little of substance.
An anniversary event is taking place in what has been named George Floyd Square, the area of Minneapolis where the 46-year-old took his final breath as police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck during an arrest.
A small junction in a residential part of the northern US city, the square is covered with protest art including a purple mural that reads “You Changed the World, George.”
That optimistic message painted in 2020 is now, however, at odds with a president whose more extreme allies have suggested he pardon Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
Some experts believe Trump’s re-election was partly a backlash to BLM activism, which included protests that turned to riots in some cities and calls to defund the police.
Floyd’s family members told AFP in Minneapolis on Friday that they wanted people to continue pushing for reform despite the hostile political climate.
“We don’t need an executive order to tell us that Black lives matter,” said his aunt Angela Harrelson, who wore a dark T-shirt depicting Floyd’s face.
“We cannot let a setback be a holdback for the great comeback. Donald Trump just didn’t get the memo,” she added to nods from other relatives standing beside her.
Paris Stevens, a Floyd cousin, agreed: “No one can silence us anymore.”
The Floyd relatives, with around 50 other people, held a moment of silence on Friday afternoon before placing yellow roses on the roadside spot where Floyd’s fatal arrest was filmed and shared around the world.
It was a moment of reflection — others include a candlelight vigil on Sunday night — during a weekend otherwise devoted to music, arts and dancing.
Memorial events have been held annually since Floyd’s death and the theme for this one — “The People Have Spoken” — was suggested by Nelson Mandela’s grandson Nkosi when he visited the square, according to Harrelson.
She said the defiant title was meant to reflect five years of protesting, adding that “even though it’s tiresome, we go on.”
Visitors are expected to pay their respects through the weekend.
Jill Foster, a physician from Minneapolis, told AFP at the square on Friday that she felt honoring Floyd’s legacy was partly a form of political resistance.
“Under the Trump administration, everything is trying to be rewritten and a new reality created,” the 66-year-old said.
“We have to keep the memory going and keep the information flowing.”
Meanwhile, for Courteney Ross, Floyd’s girlfriend when he died, the anniversary weekend brings up powerful feelings of personal loss.
“I miss him so much, I miss him by my side,” Ross, 49, told AFP, dressed in black and holding a bunch of yellow roses.
“It’s beautiful to see all the people come out and celebrate him,” she added.
“You see a unification that you don’t get a lot in this country lately, and people are celebrating a man who, you know, gave his life for us.”


UK renationalizes first train operator under Labour reforms

Updated 25 May 2025
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UK renationalizes first train operator under Labour reforms

  • Train passengers in Britain suffer from frequent cancelations

LONDON: Britain’s South Western Railways on Sunday becomes the first private train operator to be returned to public ownership under the Labour government’s plans to renationalize the country’s much-maligned railways.
Renationalizing all of the UK’s rail operators is among the key policies launched by Prime Minister Keir Starmer since his party’s return to government last July following 14 years in opposition.
“Today is a watershed moment in our work to return the railways to the service of passengers,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said in a statement.
Train passengers in Britain suffer from frequent cancelations, in addition to high ticket prices and regular confusion over which services they can be used on.
The privatization of rail operations took place in the mid-1990s under the then Conservative prime minister John Major, but the rail network remained public, run by Network Rail.
Four of the 14 operators in England are already run by the state owing to poor performance in recent years, but this was originally meant to be a temporary fix before a return to the private sector.
Labour triumphed over the Conservative party in elections last year, re-entering Downing Street with promises to fix the country’s ailing transport services.
Legislation was approved in November to bring rail operators into public ownership when the private companies’ contracts expire — or sooner in the event of poor management — and be managed by “Great British Railways.”
Alexander said this will end “30 years of fragmentation,” but she warned that “change isn’t going to happen overnight.”
“We’ve always been clear that public ownership isn’t a silver bullet, but we are really firing this starting gun in that race for a truly 21st-century railway, and that does mean refocusing away from private profit and toward the public good,” she added.
In an example of how passengers might not immediately notice much difference, South Western’s first service under public ownership on Sunday was set to be a rail replacement bus.
Government figures show that the equivalent of four percent of train services in Britain were canceled in the year to April 26.
Rail unions — which have staged a stream of strikes in recent years over pay and conditions due to a cost-of-living crisis — welcomed the state takeover.
“We’re delighted that Britain’s railways are being brought back where they belong — into the public sector,” said Mick Whelan, general secretary of union Aslef.
“Everyone in the rail industry knows that privatization... didn’t, and doesn’t, work,” he added.
Two operators serving towns and cities in southeastern and eastern England are next to be brought back into public ownership by late 2025.
All the current contracts are set to expire by 2027.
The government has said renationalization will save up to £150 million ($203 million) per year because it will no longer have to pay compensation fees to rail operators.
The main rail operators in Scotland and Wales, where transport policy is handled by the devolved administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff, are also state-owned. 


Trump hails US as ‘hottest country in the world’, takes credit for America’s military might

Updated 16 min 38 sec ago
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Trump hails US as ‘hottest country in the world’, takes credit for America’s military might

  • Addressing US Military Academy graduates, Trump said the military needs to focus on core mission
  • Says "I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term”

WEST POINT, New York: President Donald Trump used the first service academy commencement address of his second term Saturday to congratulate graduating West Point cadets on their accomplishments while also veering sharply into politics, taking credit for America’s military might and boasting about the “mandate” he says he earned in the 2024 election.
“In a few moments, you’ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history,” Trump said at the ceremony at Michie Stadium. “And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.”
Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, the Republican president told the 1,002 members of the class of 2025 at the US Military Academy that the United States is the “hottest country in the world” and underscored an “America First” ethos for the military.
“We’re getting rid of distractions and we’re focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before,” Trump said. He later said that “the job of the US armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,” a reference to drag shows on military bases that Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration halted after Republican criticism.

 

Trump said the cadets were graduating at a “defining moment” in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending soldiers into “nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.” He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, “critical race theory” and types of training he called divisive and political.
Past administrations, he said, “subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries’ wars.”
At times, his remarks were indistinguishable from those heard in a political speech, from his assessment of the country when he left office in January 2021 to his review of last November’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, arguing that voters gave him a “great mandate” and “it gives us the right to do what we want to do.”
But Trump also took time to acknowledge the achievements of individual graduates.
He summoned Chris Verdugo to the stage and noted that he completed an 18.5-mile march on a freezing night in January in just two hours and 30 minutes. Trump had the nationally ranked men’s lacrosse team, which held the No. 1 spot for a time in the 2024 season, stand and be recognized. Trump also brought Army’s star quarterback, Bryson Daily, to the lectern, where the president praised Daily’s “steel”-like shoulder. Trump later used Daily as an example to make a case against transgender women participating in women’s athletics.

United States Military Academy graduating cadets throw their hats in the air at the end of commencement ceremonies in West Point, New York, on May 24, 2025. (AP Photo)

In a nod to presidential tradition, Trump also pardoned about half a dozen cadets who had faced disciplinary infractions.
He told graduates that “you could have done anything you wanted, you could have gone anywhere.” and that “writing your own ticket to top jobs on Wall Street or Silicon Valley wouldn’t be bad. But I think what you’re doing is better.”
His advice to them included doing what they love, thinking big, working hard, holding on to their culture, keeping faith in America and taking risks.
“This is a time of incredible change and we do not need an officer corps of careerists and yes men,” Trump said. “We need patriots with guts and vision and backbone.”
Just outside campus, about three dozen demonstrators gathered before the ceremony and were waving miniature American flags. One in the crowd carried a sign that said “Support Our Veterans” and “Stop the Cuts,” while others held up plastic buckets with the message: “Go Army Beat Fascism.”
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance spoke to the graduating class at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Vance said in his remarks that Trump was working to ensure US soldiers are deployed with clear goals, rather than the “undefined missions” and “open-ended conflicts” of the past.
Trump gave the commencement address at West Point in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the school forced cadets spread out across the country to travel, risking exposure on public transportation, and then land in New York, a coronavirus hot spot.
 


After brief X outage, Musk says refocusing on businesses

Updated 24 May 2025
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After brief X outage, Musk says refocusing on businesses

  • As a backlash to job cuts grew and Tesla share prices slipped, Musk began drawing away from the government role and returning to his original work

WASHINGTON: Social media platform X was hit by a two-hour outage Saturday, prompting owner Elon Musk to say he needs to spend more time focusing on his companies.
The billionaire has an extraordinarily full plate as owner/CEO of X, xAI (developer of the AI-powered chatbot Grok), electric-car maker Tesla and rocket builder SpaceX — not to mention his recent polarizing efforts to help Donald Trump slash thousands of US government jobs.
As a backlash to those job cuts grew and Tesla share prices slipped, Musk began drawing away from the government role and returning to his original work.
On Saturday, following the X outage, he suggested that he might have been away too long.
“As evidenced by the X uptime issues this week, major operational improvements need to be made,” he said.
“Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,” the South African-born businessman posted on X.
“I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.”
Of the X outage, he said: “The failover redundancy should have worked, but did not.”
X had largely returned to normal service by 11:00 am Saturday (1500 GMT).
Contacted by AFP for comment, the company did not immediately reply.
SpaceX announced Friday that it plans to attempt a new launch of its mega-rocket Starship next week. Still under development, Starship exploded in flight during two previous launches.
Musk acknowledged early this month that his ambitious effort to slash US federal spending, led by his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), did not fully reach its goals despite tens of thousands of job cuts and drastic budget reductions.