Europe
Zelenskyy visits area flooded by destroyed dam as five reported dead in Russian-occupied town
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the flood-hit region of Kherson on Thursday to evaluate response to damage caused by a dam breach.
The Ukrainian leader wrote on his Telegram account that he was helping assess efforts to evacuate civilians, provide them with drinking water and other support, and try to stanch vast environmental damage.
Also read: Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of ecological disaster
Zelenskyy also raised the prospect of funding allocations to help compensate residents and businesses driven from their homes and offices by rising waters.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, a Russian-occupied town 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the collapsed Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric plant, reported on Russian state TV Thursday that five of seven local residents who had been declared missing following the dam breach have died. The two remaining people have been found and efforts were being made to evacuate them, Vladimir Leontyev added.
Also read: Ukrainian dam breach: What is happening and what's at stake
At least 4,000 people have been evacuated from both the Russian and Ukrainian-controlled sides of the Dnieper river, which has become part of the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the more than 15-month-old war, officials said.
The true scale of the disaster is yet to emerge in an area that was home to more than 60,000 people.
Turkish lira declines to record lows following start of Erdogan's new presidential term
The Turkish lira tumbled to a fresh record low Wednesday, extending its slide against the U.S. dollar since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started his third term.
The lira weakened by around 7% on Wednesday, hitting 23.18 against the dollar. The decline took the currency's loss since the appointment of Erdogan's new government to more than 8%. The currency has weakened by around 20% since the start of the year.
The lira also weakened by more than 7% against the euro on Wednesday.
The Turkish currency has declined in value since 2021 due to what economists say is Erdogan's insistence on keeping borrowing costs low to stimulate growth despite skyrocketing inflation. The policy runs contrary to conventional economic approaches that call for higher interest rates to tame inflation.
Analysts say Erdogan's government propped up the lira in the run-up to Turkey's presidential and parliamentary elections last month, using foreign currency reserves to keep the exchange rate under control. The lira's weakening suggests that the government is slackening its control of the currency.
On Saturday, Erdogan reappointed Mehmet Simsek, an internationally respected former banker, as treasury and finance minister in his new Cabinet. The appointment was viewed as a sign that Erdogan's new administration might pursue more conventional economic policies.
Simsek, a former Merrill Lynch banker who previously served as finance minister and deputy prime minister under Erdogan, returned to the Cabinet after a five-year break from politics. At a ceremony at his ministry on Sunday, Simsek said Turkey had no other option than to return to a "rational ground."
Inflation in Turkey peaked to a staggering 85% in October before easing to 39.59% in May.
Ukrainian dam breach: What is happening and what's at stake
The fallout from the breach of a river dam along a frontline of Russia's war in Ukraine continued to wreak havoc on lives, livelihoods and the environment on Wednesday.
The dramatic rupture of the Kakhovka dam that upheld Ukraine's largest reservoir began releasing a torrent of water a day earlier in areas where tens of thousands of people live along the Dnieper River. The river's southernmost portion has become a makeshift dividing line between the fighting sides.
Read more: Rishi Sunak goes to Washington with Ukraine, economy and AI on agenda for Biden meeting
It's not clear what caused the breach on the dam, which was already damaged in the war. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the facility, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military strikes.
What Are The Latest Developments?
Authorities and rescue workers on both sides stepped up efforts Wednesday to pull beleaguered residents to higher and drier ground, a day after torrential flooding from the dam breach inundated their homes, villages and cities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that hundreds of thousands of people were without normal access to drinking water.
The Russia-appointed mayor of the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said seven people were missing. The city sits near the dam.
In Ukrainian-controlled areas on the western side, Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson Regional Military administration, said water levels were expected to rise by another meter (about 3 feet) over the next 20 hours.
Read more: Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of ecological disaster
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that at least 16,000 people have already lost their homes, and the U.N's humanitarian aid coordinator said efforts are underway to provide water, money, and legal and emotional support to those affected.
The head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, tweeted about "concerning developments" in the wake of the dam breach and said he will travel next week to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which sits upstream. IAEA said Tuesday there was "no immediate risk" to the safety of the plant," whose six reactors have been shut down for months but still need water for cooling.
Why Is The Dam Important?
The 30-meter-high (98-foot-high) dam and associated hydroelectric power station are located about 70 kilometers (44 miles) east of the city of Kherson — a flashpoint of the conflict in a region that Russia has claimed to have annexed but does not fully control.
Together with the power station, the dam helps provide electricity, irrigation and drinking water to a wide swath of southern Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Ukraine's vast agricultural heartland, which is partially fed by the Dnieper river, is crucial to worldwide supplies of grain, sunflower oil and other foodstuffs. Global wheat and corn prices rose Tuesday on concerns that production might be disrupted.
Read more: Ukraine brands Russia ‘terrorist state’ to open hearings in case against Russia at top UN court
The dam — one of the world's biggest in terms of reservoir capacity — retained a volume of water nearly equivalent to that of the Great Salt Lake in the United States.
What Has Happened To The Dam During The War?
Russia has controlled the dam since the early days of the war, and Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling it. Ukraine said the troops occupying it detonated explosives last fall that damaged three sluice gates, which help regulate water levels. Signs of damage to the gates were evident in late May.
Even before the devastation wrought by Tuesday's breach, hydropower generation was at a fraction of peak levels. Ukrainian officials and independent experts say Russian forces have failed to maintain the dam — built in the 1950s — either deliberately or through neglect.
Earlier this year, water levels in the reservoir were so low that many across Ukraine and beyond feared a meltdown at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Since mid-February, the water level has steadily increased, according to data from Theia, a French provider of geospatial analysis.
The Ukrainian company that manages the dam and power plant estimates that it will take about four days for the reservoir to reach equilibrium and stop discharging massive amounts of water.
Who And What Is At Risk?
As floodwaters swelled, both Russian and Ukrainian authorities ordered evacuations from among at least 80 towns and villages at risk on both sides of the river, though neither side reported any deaths.
Officials said about 22,000 people live in areas at risk of flooding in Russian-controlled areas, while 16,000 live in the most critical zone in Ukrainian-held territory.
Ukraine's Energy Ministry said there is a risk of flooding at energy facilities in the Kherson region. Nearly 12,000 customers in the city of Kherson have already been left without electricity, and water supplies are also at risk.
Experts warned about the possibility of an environmental disaster for wildlife and ecosystems — in Ukraine and beyond.
The biggest impact of the breach is likely to be upstream, said Mark Mulligan, a professor of physical and environmental geography at King's College London and co-leader of the Global Dam Watch, a project that monitors dams and reservoirs.
"This huge reservoir is going to drain down and the shallows upstream are going to dry out," causing ecological damage to aquatic vegetation and wildlife that have relied on the water for seven decades, he said. The rapid flow of freshwater into the Black Sea could also damage fisheries and the wider ecology of the northwest part of the sea.
What Does It Mean For The War?
Ukrainian officials said the Russians destroyed the dam to prevent Ukraine from launching a counteroffensive in the area, while Russian officials claimed that Ukraine destroyed the dam to prevent a potential Russian attack on the western bank.
Either way, the destruction of the dam severs a key crossing of the country's most important river. The dam served as a bridge, enabling vehicles to pass over; its destruction also unleashed torrents of water, making it harder to cross the river by other means.
Since last fall, the lower portion of the Dnieper has made up an important part of the front line that stretches more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
The crossing repeatedly came under rocket fire as Ukrainian forces led a successful counteroffensive in November that drove Russian forces back across the Dnieper.
Ukraine's military has used groups of scouts to try to gain control of small islands near the Russia-controlled eastern bank and areas in the river's delta. But experts say a broader offensive would involve major risks and logistical challenges.
Crossing the wide river was always seen as a daunting task for the Ukrainian military. Most observers expected it to launch a counteroffensive elsewhere.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that the flooding would make crossing the river even more difficult, noting that it would impact the minefields on the Russia-controlled eastern bank. "Minefields were flooded, mines will be washed off and no one knows where they will surface," he said.
Rishi Sunak goes to Washington with Ukraine, economy and AI on agenda for Biden meeting
Sunak has floated an idea that the U.K. could be a center for regulating the fast-moving technology, though no major news on that front is expected during his trip.
The prime minister’s spokesman, Max Blain, said Britain’s approach to regulation, “agile and able to adapt with the fast pace of this technology, makes the U.K. well placed to take a leading role here.”
Read more: Rishi Sunak praises Bangladesh’s economic growth, calls PM Hasina a great inspiration
Sunak is also likely to lobby for U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace to become the next head of NATO after Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg steps down in September. The prime minister is expected to stress that the next secretary-general should be someone who “carries on Stoltenberg’s good work of modernization but also understands the importance of defense spending at this critical time.”
The comment could be seen as a subtle dig at another possible contender for the post, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who met with Biden in Washington earlier this week. Denmark has lagged behind NATO’s target for members to spend 2% of gross domestic product on military budgets by 2030.
Sunak is also due to meet U.S. business executives and hold talks with congressional leaders, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday evening he’ll attend a Washington Nationals baseball game – though he won’t throw out the opening pitch, to the disappointment of the British media.
Read more: UK PM Rishi Sunak fined for not using a seat belt
Sunak stressed he was never meant to throw out the pitch at the game, which includes military bands and a flyover to celebrate of U.S.-U.K. ties.
“My sport is more cricket than baseball, in any case,” he said.
Russia claims Ukraine is launching major attacks; Kyiv accuses Moscow of misinformation
Moscow officials claimed that Ukrainian forces were making a major effort to punch through Russian defensive lines in southeast Ukraine for a second day Monday. Kyiv authorities didn't confirm the attacks and suggested the claim was a Russian misinformation ruse.
Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-installed official in southeast Ukraine’s partly-occupied Zaporizhzhia province, said fighting resumed there early Monday after Russian defenses beat back a Ukrainian advance the previous day.
Rogov claimed that “the enemy threw an even bigger force into the attack than yesterday.” The new attempt to break through the front line was “more large-scale and organized,” he said, adding: “A battle is underway.”
Rogov's comments came after Moscow also claimed to have thwarted large Ukrainian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, another of the four regions that President Vladimir Putin claimed as Russian territory last fall and partially controls.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it had pushed back a “large-scale” assault Sunday at five points in Donetsk province.
The claims could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials did not confirm any assaults, but the reports fueled speculation that a major Ukrainian ground operation could be underway as part of an anticipated counteroffensive.
A video published by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry showed soldiers putting a finger to their lips in a sign to keep quiet. “Plans love silence,” it said on the screen. “There will be no announcement of the start.”
Read: Impact of Russia-Ukraine War on Asia’s climate goals
The Center for Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram that Russian forces were “stepping up their information and psychological operations.”
“In order to demoralize Ukrainians and mislead the community (including their own population), Russian propagandists will spread false information about the counteroffensive, its directions and the losses of the Ukrainian army. Even if there is no counteroffensive,” a statement on Telegram read.
Ukrainian officials have kept Russia guessing about when and where it might launch a counteroffensive, or even whether it had already started. A possible counteroffensive, using advanced weapons supplied by Western allies, could provide a major morale boost for Ukrainians 15 months after Russia's full-scale invasion.
Recent military activity, including drone attacks on Moscow, cross-border raids into Russia and sabotage and drone attacks on infrastructure behind Russian lines, has unnerved Russians. Analysts say those actions may represent the start of the counteroffensive.
Driving out the Kremlin's forces is a daunting challenge. Russia has built extensive defensive lines, including trenches, minefields and anti-tank defenses. The front line stretches for 1,100 kilometers (684 miles).
Ukraine could launch simultaneous pushes in different areas, analysts say.
Michael Clark, the former head of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the “increased tempo” of activity in recent weeks likely marked the start of the counteroffensive and that June is likely to see the start of Ukraine’s ground operation.
“There’s something going on,” he told the BBC.
Read more: Russia invades Ukraine on many fronts in 'brutal act of war'
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that 250 Ukrainian personnel were killed in the fighting in Donetsk province, and 16 Ukrainian tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armored combat vehicles were destroyed.
“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defenses in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” Konashenkov said. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said the alleged Donetsk attack started Sunday morning. It was unclear why it waited until early Monday to announce it.
Ukraine often waits until the completion of its military operations to confirm its actions, imposing news blackouts in the interim.
For months, Ukrainian officials have spoken of plans to launch a counteroffensive to reclaim territory Russia has occupied since invading the country on Feb. 24, 2022, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014.
At least two factors have been at play in the timing: better ground conditions for the movement of troops and equipment after the winter, and the deployment of more advanced Western weapons and training of Ukrainian troops to use them.
The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Ukraine used six mechanized and two tank battalions in the Donetsk attacks. The ministry released a video claiming to show destruction of some of the equipment in a field.
In a rare specific mention of the presence of Russia’s top military leaders in battlefield operations, Konashenkov said the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, “was at one of the forward command posts.”
Read more: Russia strikes Kyiv in daylight after hitting Ukraine's capital with series of nighttime barrages
Announcing Gerasimov’s direct involvement could be a response to criticism by some Russian military bloggers and by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner, that Russia’s military brass hasn’t been visible enough at the front or taken sufficient control or responsibility for their country’s military operations in Ukraine.
Ukraine keeps up pressure following Russian declaration of victory in Bakhmut
Watching imagery from a drone camera overhead, Ukrainian battalion commander Oleg Shiryaev warned his men in nearby trenches that Russian forces were advancing across a field toward a patch of trees outside the city of Bakhmut.
The leader of the 228th Battalion of the 127th Kharkiv Territorial Defense Brigade then ordered a mortar team to get ready. A target was locked. A mortar tube popped out a loud orange blast, and an explosion cut a new crater in an already pockmarked hillside.
“We are moving forward,” Shiryaev said after at least one drone image showed a Russian fighter struck down. “We fight for every tree, every trench, every dugout."
Russian forces declared victory in the eastern city last month after the longest, deadliest battle since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 15 months ago. But Ukrainian defenders like Shiryaev aren't retreating. Instead, they are keeping up the pressure and continuing the fight from positions on the western fringes of Bakhmut.
The pushback gives commanders in Moscow another thing to think about ahead of a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive that appears to be taking shape.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Russia sought to create the impression of calm around Bakhmut, but in fact, artillery shelling still goes on at levels similar to those at the height of the battle to take the city. The fight, she said, is evolving into a new phase.
“The battle for the Bakhmut area hasn't stopped; it is ongoing, just taking different forms,” said Maliar, dressed in her characteristic fatigues in an interview from a military media center in Kyiv. Russian forces are now trying — but failing — to oust Ukrainian fighters from the “dominant heights” overlooking Bakhmut.
“We are holding them very firmly,” she said.
From the Kremlin's perspective, the area around Bakhmut is just part of the more than 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) front line that the Russian military must hold. That task could be made more difficult by the withdrawal of the mercenaries from private military contractor Wagner Group who helped take control of the city. They will be replaced with Russian soldiers.
For Ukrainian forces, recent work has been opportunistic — trying to wrest small gains from the enemy and taking strategic positions, notably from two flanks on the northwest and southwest, where the Ukrainian 3rd Separate Assault Brigade has been active, officials said.
Russia had envisioned the capture of Bakhmut as partial fulfillment of its ambition to seize control of the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland. Now, its forces have been compelled to regroup, rotate fighters and rearm just to hold the city. Wagner’s owner announced a pullout after acknowledging the loss of more than 20,000 of his men.
Maliar described the nine-month struggle against Wagner forces in nearly existential terms: “If they had not been destroyed during the defense of Bakhmut, one can imagine that all these tens of thousands would have advanced deeper into Ukrainian territory.”
The fate of Bakhmut, which lays largely in ruins, has been overshadowed in recent days by near-nightly attacks on Kyiv, a series of unclaimed drone strikes near Moscow and the growing anticipation that Ukraine's government will try to regain ground.
But the battle for the city could still have a lingering impact. Moscow has made the most of its capture, epitomized by triumphalism in Russian media. Any slippage of Russia’s grip would be a political embarrassment for President Vladimir Putin.
Michael Kofman of the Center for Naval Analyses, a U.S. research group, noted in a podcast this week that the victory brings new challenges in holding Bakhmut.
With Wagner fighters withdrawing, Russian forces are “going to be increasingly fixed to Bakhmut ... and will find it difficult to defend,” Kofman told “War on the Rocks" in an interview posted Tuesday.
“And so they may not hold on to Bakhmut, and the whole thing may have ended up being for nothing for them down the line,” he added.
A Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Russian airborne forces are heavily involved in replacing the departing Wagner troops — a step that is "likely to antagonize” the airborne leadership, who see the duty as a further erosion of their “previously elite status" in the military.
Ukrainian forces have clawed back slivers of territory on the flanks — a few hundred meters (yards) per day — to solidify defensive lines and seek opportunities to retake some urban parts of the city, said one Ukrainian analyst.
“The goal in Bakhmut is not Bakhmut itself, which has been turned into ruins,” military analyst Roman Svitan said by phone. The goal for the Ukrainians is to hold on to the western heights and maintain a defensive arc outside the city.
More broadly, Ukraine wants to weigh down Russian forces and capture the initiative ahead of the counteroffensive — part of what military analysts call “shaping operations” to set the terms of the battle environment and put an enemy in a defensive, reactive posture.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces in the east, said the strategic goal in the Bakhmut area was “to restrain the enemy and destroy as much personnel and equipment as possible” while preventing a Russian breakthrough or outflanking maneuver.
Analyst Mathieu Boulègue questioned whether Bakhmut would hold lessons or importance for the war ahead.
Military superiority matters, he said, but so does “information superiority” — the ability “to create subterfuge, to create obfuscation of your force, to be able to move in the shadows."
Boulègue, a consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia program at the Chatham House think tank in London, said those tactics “could determine which side gains an advantage that catches the other side by surprise, and turns the tide of the war.”
Ukrainian president says at least 500 children killed by war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia's war, now in its 16th month, has killed at least 500 Ukrainian children.
Zelenskyy provided the number hours after rescue workers found the body of a 2-year-old girl who died in one of the latest Russian strikes.
The president said in a statement that “Russian weapons and hatred, which continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day," killed the hundreds who had perished since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24, 2022.
“Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine’s history,” he said.
Zelenskyy said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children who were casualties due to the ongoing hostilities and because some areas are under Russian occupation.
“We must hold out and win this war!” the Ukrainian president said. “All of Ukraine, all our people, all our children, must be free from the Russian terror!”
Rescuers found the 2-year-old's body early Sunday while combing through the rubble of an apartment building in the suburbs of the central city of Dnipro.
The regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said five children were among 22 people injured by Saturday's attack, which damaged two residential buildings.
The Russians launched more strikes with drones and cruise missiles Sunday, targeting multiple areas of the country, including the capital, Kyiv.
The Ukrainian air force said the country's air defenses downed three of the five Shahed self-exploding drones and four of the six cruise missiles fired.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said two missiles struck a military air base in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine's Kyrovohrad province. He did not report what damage they caused.
The Russian military said it has conducted a series of strikes in recent days on Ukrainian air defense batteries, air bases and troops depots. The long-range strikes come as Ukraine prepares for a long-expected counteroffensive in which it hopes to reclaim more ground.
Concerns over civilian safety were exacerbated after officials announced that nearly a quarter of the 4,800 air raid shelters they inspected were locked or unusable.
The acknowledgment on Saturday came after a 33-year-old woman in Kyiv reportedly died while waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage on Thursday.
Prosecutors in the capital said four people were detained as part of a criminal probe into the woman's death as she and others waited to enter a locked shelter. A security guard who allegedly failed to unlock the doors remained in custody. Three others, including a local official, were placed under house arrest.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday that city authorities received “more than a thousand” complaints regarding locked, dilapidated or insufficient air-raid shelters within a day of launching an online feedback service.
Turkey's Erdogan takes oath of office, ushering in his third presidential term
Turkey’s longtime leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took the oath of office on Saturday, ushering in his third presidential term that followed three stints as prime minister.
Erdogan, 69, won a new five-year term in a runoff presidential race last week that could stretch his 20-year rule in the key NATO country that straddles Europe and Asia into a quarter-century. The country of 85 million controls NATO’s second-largest army, hosts millions of refugees and played a crucial role in brokering a deal that allowed the shipment of Ukraine grain, averting a global food crisis.
Also read: What 5 more years of Erdogan's rule means for Turkey
Erdogan was sworn in during a session in parliament before an inauguration ceremony at his sprawling palace complex. Supporters waited outside parliament despite the heavy rain, covering his car with red carnations as he arrived.
All eyes are on the announcement of his new Cabinet later on Saturday. Its lineup should indicate whether there will be a continuation of unorthodox economic policies or a return to more conventional ones amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Dozens of foreign dignitaries are traveling to attend the ceremony, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Carl Bildt, a high-profile former Swedish prime minister. They are expected to press Erdogan to lift his country’s objections to Sweden’s membership in the military alliance — which requires unanimous approval by all allies.
Also read: Turkey’s Erdogan turns away reform-minded challenger to win another term
Turkey accuses Sweden of being too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Turkey considers to be terrorists. NATO wants to bring Sweden into the alliance by the time allied leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to endorse the bid. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will also be attending the ceremony.
According to state-run Anadolu Agency, other leaders in attendance include Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan, Pakistan’s Shahbaz Sharif, and Libya’s Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
Erdogan was sworn in amid a host of domestic challenges ahead, including a battered economy, pressure for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees and the need to rebuild after a devastating earthquake in February that killed 50,000 and leveled entire cities in the south of the country.
Turkey is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis fueled by inflation that peaked at a staggering 85% in October before easing to 44% last month. The Turkish currency has lost more than 10% of its value against the dollar since the start of the year.
Critics blame the turmoil on Erdogan’s policy of lowering interest rates to promote growth, which runs contrary to conventional economic thinking that calls for raising rates to combat inflation.
Unconfirmed media reports say Erdogan plans to reappoint Mehmet Simsek, a respected former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the helm of the economy. The move would signify a return by the country — which is the world’s 19th largest economy according to the World Bank — to more orthodox economic policies.
In power as prime minister and then as president since 2003, Erdogan is already Turkey’s longest-serving leader. He has solidified his rule through constitutional changes that transformed Turkey’s presidency from a largely ceremonial role to a powerful office. Critics say his second decade in office was marred by sharp democratic backsliding including the erosion of institutions such as the media and judiciary and the jailing of opponents and critics.
Erdogan defeated opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a runoff vote held on May 28, after he narrowly failed to secure an outright victory in a first round of voting on May 14. Kilicdaroglu had promised to put Turkey on a more democratic path and improve relations with the West. International observers deemed the elections to be free but not fair.
Sweden close to becoming first 'smoke free' country in Europe as daily use of cigarettes dwindles
Summer is in the air, cigarette smoke is not, in Sweden's outdoor bars and restaurants.
As the World Health Organization marks “World No Tobacco Day” on Wednesday, Sweden, which has the lowest rate of smoking in the Europe Union, is close to declaring itself “smoke free” — defined as having fewer than 5% daily smokers in the population.
Many experts give credit to decades of anti-smoking campaigns and legislation, while others point to the prevalence of “snus,” a smokeless tobacco product that is banned elsewhere in the EU but is marketed in Sweden as an alternative to cigarettes.
Whatever the reason, the 5% milestone is now within reach. Only 6.4% of Swedes over 15 were daily smokers in 2019, the lowest in the EU and far below the average of 18.5% across the 27-nation bloc, according to the Eurostat statistics agency.
Figures from the Public Health Agency of Sweden show the smoking rate has continued to fall since then, reaching 5.6% last year.
“We like a healthy way to live, I think that’s the reason,” said Carina Astorsson, a Stockholm resident. Smoking never interested her, she added, because “I don’t like the smell; I want to take care of my body.”
The risks of smoking appear well understood among health-conscious Swedes, including younger generations. Twenty years ago, almost 20% of the population were smokers — which was a low rate globally at the time. Since then, measures to discourage smoking have brought down smoking rates across Europe, including bans on smoking in restaurants.
France saw record drops in smoking rates from 2014 to 2019 but that success hit a plateau during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — blamed in part for causing stresses that drove people to light up. About one-third of people aged 18 to 75 in France professed to having smoked in 2021 — a slight increase on 2019. About a quarter smoke daily.
Sweden has gone further than most to stamp out cigarettes, and says it’s resulted in a range of health benefits, including a relatively low rate of lung cancer.
“We were early in restricting smoking in public spaces, first in school playgrounds and after-school centers, and later in restaurants, outdoor cafes and public places such as bus stations,” said Ulrika Årehed, secretary-general of the Swedish Cancer Society. “In parallel, taxes on cigarettes and strict restrictions on the marketing of these products have played an important role.”
She added that “Sweden is not there yet,” noting that the proportion of smokers is higher in disadvantaged socio-economic groups.
The sight of people lighting up is becoming increasingly rare in the country of 10.5 million. Smoking is prohibited at bus stops and train platforms and outside the entrances of hospitals and other public buildings. Like in most of Europe, smoking isn’t allowed inside bars and restaurants, but since 2019 Sweden’s smoking ban also applies to their outdoor seating areas.
On Tuesday night, the terraces of Stockholm were full of people enjoying food and drinks in the late-setting sun. There was no sign of cigarettes, but cans of snus could be spotted on some tables. Between beers, some patrons stuffed small pouches of the moist tobacco under their upper lips.
Swedish snus makers have long held up their product as a less harmful alternative to smoking and claim credit for the country’s declining smoking rates. But Swedish health authorities are reluctant to advise smokers to switch to snus, another highly addictive nicotine product.
“I don’t see any reason to put two harmful products up against each other,” Årehed said. “It is true that smoking is more harmful than most things you can do, including snus. But that said, there are many health risks even with snus.”
Some studies have linked snus to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and premature births if used during pregnancy.
Swedes are so fond of their snus, a distant cousin of dipping tobacco in the United States, that they demanded an exemption to the EU’s ban on smokeless tobacco when they joined the bloc in 1995.
“It’s part of the Swedish culture, it’s like the Swedish equivalent of Italian Parma ham or any other cultural habit,” said Patrik Hildingsson, a spokesman for Swedish Match, Sweden’s top snus maker, which was acquired by tobacco giant Philip Morris last year.
He said policymakers should encourage the tobacco industry to develop less harmful alternatives to smoking such as snus and e-cigarettes.
“I mean, 1.2 billion smokers are still out there in the world. Some 100 million people smoke daily in the EU. And I think we can (only) go so far with policymaking regulations,” he said. “You will need to give the smokers other less harmful alternatives, and a range of them.”
WHO, the U.N. health agency, says Turkmenistan, with a rate of tobacco use below 5%, is ahead of Sweden when it comes to phasing out smoking, but notes that’s largely due to smoking being almost nonexistent among women. For men the rate is 7%.
WHO attributes Sweden’s declining smoking rate to a combination of tobacco control measures, including information campaigns, advertising bans and “cessation support” for those wishing to quit tobacco. However, the agency noted that Sweden’s tobacco use is at more than 20% of the adult population, similar to the global average, when you include snus and similar products.
“Switching from one harmful product to another is not a solution,” WHO said in an email. “Promoting a so-called ‘harm reduction approach’ to smoking is another way the tobacco industry is trying to mislead people about the inherently dangerous nature of these products.”
Tove Marina Sohlberg, a researcher at Stockholm University’s Department of Public Health Sciences, said Sweden’s anti-smoking policies have had the effect of stigmatizing smoking and smokers, pushing them away from public spaces into backyards and designated smoking areas.
“We are sending signals to the smokers that this is not accepted by society,” she said.
Paul Monja, one of Stockholm’s few remaining smokers, reflected on his habit while getting ready to light up.
“It’s an addiction, one that I aim to stop at some point,” he said. “Maybe not today, perhaps tomorrow.”
Fresh Russian bombardment of Ukraine's capital kills at least 3 people, wounds others
Russian forces began June with a fresh aerial bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding others, authorities said.
Following up on a reported 17 attacks on the Ukrainian capital in May, mostly using drones, Russian forces hit the capital in the early morning with ground-launched missiles, damaging apartment buildings, a medical clinic, a water pipeline and a car.
Kyiv City Administration reported three people were killed, two children among them, and 10 people were wounded. The casualty toll was the most from one attack on Kyiv in the past month.
After a woman was killed watching an aerial attack from her balcony earlier this week, Kyiv authorities urged residents to heed warning sirens and stay in shelters or other safe locations.
Ukraine's air defenses have become increasingly effective at intercepting Russian drones and missiles, but the resulting debris sometimes causes fires and injuries in buildings and on the ground. Preliminary indications were that Kyiv's air defenses intercepted all incoming weapons early Thursday, and that the latest deaths and injuries were caused by falling debris.
In Desnianskyi district, the debris fell on a hospital and a nearby multistory building. In another district, Dniprovskyi, a residential building was damaged by debris, parked cars caught fire, and debris fell onto the roadway.
On Wednesday, Russian forces carried out three aerial attacks over the south of Kherson region, along with missile and heavy artillery strikes on other parts of the region.
In earlier developments:
—Russian troops around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant attacked the city of Nikopol and surrounding villages on the bank of Dnieper River with drones and heavy artillery, damaging several residences.
—Authorities in Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar, which borders the annexed Crimean Peninsula, reported that drones crashed into two oil refineries. One briefly caught fire and another didn’t sustain damage, officials said. They didn’t explicitly blame Ukraine.
—The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced the evacuation of children from two areas that have often come under Ukrainian shelling.
—Russian-installed authorities of the partially occupied Luhansk region said Ukrainian armed forces shelled the village of Karpaty, killing five people and wounding 19.
—In another apparent cross-border attack, two construction workers in Russia’s Kursk region were injured during shelling from Ukraine, the regional governor, Roman Starovoit, reported. He said on Telegram channel the two were working in the Korenevsky district “on a defensive line along the state border.”
—The Russian Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian Navy’s landing ship Yurii Olefirenko was destroyed in a strike Monday on the Odesa harbor. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said the Yurii Olefirenko was the last Ukrainian Navy ship that remained in service, but this claim couldn’t be independently verified.