United News of Bangladesh

At least eight people died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said Sunday. The incident occurred Saturday just before midnight when authorities spotted a boat, carrying dozens, in distress near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse. A French rescue ship was deployed to the area, but could not offer assistance at sea. Once the vessel reached the beach, rescue services offered medical assistance to 53 migrants, a statement from the French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said. “Despite the emergency care provided, eight people have died,” the statement said. No people were discovered during the search at sea, it added. Six people were taken to hospitals in Boulogne and Calais “in relative emergency,” including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, Jacques Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect, told French media on Sunday. He said survivors of the accident come from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran. The deceased were all male adults, Billant said. Survivors of the tragedy have been taken to the sports hall in Ambleteuse, according to a statement from the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais region. Prosecutor's office in Boulogne-sur-mer has opened an investigation into the accident. The incident Saturday occurred nearly two weeks after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead. British officials were quick to express sadness over another English Channel incident. “It’s awful,’’ Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC. “It’s a further loss of life.” The new Labour Party government has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs plying the migrant boats trade in the channel and had discussed with European partners “how we go after those gangs, in co-operation upstream.’’ UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be in Italy on Monday for talks with counterpart Giorgia Meloni about her efforts to tackle the problem “and the work they have done, particularly, with Albania.’’ Starmer is interested in the policy, under which Tirana will accept asylum seekers on Italy’s behalf while their claims are processed. Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north. Before Saturday’s accident, at least 43 migrants had died or gone missing while trying to cross to the U.K. this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. Other surveillance and rescue operations are underway Sunday along the entire Pas-de-Calais coast amid stormy weather conditions and agitated sea, French maritime authorities said. They warned anyone who tries to cross the Channel on flimsy and overloaded boats and in often difficult weather conditions of “significant risks.” On Saturday, French coast guard and navy vessels rescued 200 people from the treacherous waters in the Pas-de-Calais area, according to a report sent by French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea. The French coast guard and other naval services have rescued people from four different boats, one carrying 61 and the other 55 people. The other two boats carried 48 and 36 people each, authorities said. They said they observed 18 attempts of boat departures from France to Britain on Saturday. In July, four migrants died while attempting the crossing on an inflatable boat that capsized and punctured. Five others, including a child, died in another attempt in April. Five dead were recovered from the sea or found washed up along a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the dark and winter cold of January.

The head of NATO's military committee said Saturday that Ukraine has the solid legal and military right to strike deep inside Russia to gain combat advantage — reflecting the beliefs of a number of U.S. allies — even as the Biden administration balks at allowing Kyiv to do so using American-made weapons. “Every nation that is attacked has the right to defend itself. And that right doesn’t stop at the border of your own nation,” said Adm. Rob Bauer, speaking at the close of the committee's annual meeting, also attended by U.S. Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bauer, of Netherlands, also added that nations have the sovereign right to put limits on the weapons they send to Ukraine. But, standing next to him at a press briefing, Lt. Gen. Karel Řehka, chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, made it clear his nation places no such weapons restrictions on Kyiv. “We believe that the Ukrainians should decide themselves how to use it,” Řehka said. Their comments came as U.S. President Joe Biden is weighing whether to allow Ukraine to use American-provided long-range weapons to hit deep into Russia. And they hint at the divisions over the issue. Biden met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday, after this week’s visit to Kyiv by their top diplomats, who came under fresh pressure to loosen weapons restrictions. U.S. officials familiar with discussions said they believed Starmer was seeking Biden’s approval to allow Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes in Russia. Biden’s approval may be needed because Storm Shadow components are made in the U.S. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share the status of private conversations, said they believed Biden would be amenable, but there has been no decision announced yet. Providing additional support and training for Ukraine was a key topic at the NATO chiefs’ meeting, but it wasn't clear Saturday if the debate over the U.S. restrictions was discussed. Many of the European nations have been vigorously supportive of Ukraine in part because they worry about being the next victim of an empowered Russia. At the opening of the meeting, Czech Republic President Petr Pavel broadly urged the military chiefs gathered in the room to be ”bold and open in articulating your assessments and recommendations. The rounder and the softer they are, the less they will be understood by the political level.” The allies, he said, must “take the right steps and the right decisions to protect our countries and our way of life.” The military leaders routinely develop plans and recommendations that are then sent to the civilian NATO defense secretaries for discussion and then on to the nations' leaders in the alliance. The U.S. allows Ukraine to use American-provided weapons in cross-border strikes to counter attacks by Russian forces. But it doesn’t allow Kyiv to fire long-range missiles, such as the ATACMS, deep into Russia. The U.S. has argued that Ukraine has drones that can strike far and should use ATACMS judiciously because they only have a limited number. Ukraine has increased its pleas with Washington to lift the restrictions, particularly as winter looms and Kyiv worries about Russian gains during the colder months. “You want to weaken the enemy that attacks you in order to not only fight the arrows that come your way, but also attack the archer that is, as we see, very often operating from Russia proper into Ukraine,” said Bauer. “So militarily, there’s a good reason to do that, to weaken the enemy, to weaken its logistic lines, fuel, ammunition that comes to the front. That is what you want to stop, if at all possible.” Brown, for his part, told reporters traveling with him to the meeting that the U.S. policy on long-range weapons remains in place. But, he added, “by the same token, what we want to do is — regardless of that policy — we want to continue to make Ukraine successful with the capabilities that have been provided” by the U.S. and other nations in the coalition, as well as the weapons Kyiv has been able to build itself. “They’ve proven themselves fairly effective in building out uncrewed aerial vehicles, in building out drones,” Brown told reporters traveling with him to meetings in Europe. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made similar points, arguing that one weapons system won't determine success in the war. “There are a number of things that go into the overall equation as to whether or not you know you want to provide one capability or another," Austin said Friday. “There is no silver bullet when it comes to things like this.” He also noted that Ukraine has already been able to strike inside Russia with its own internally produced systems, including drones.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced a battle of nerves with his Labour Party on Tuesday, winning a parliamentary vote on a contentious decision to cut a payment that helps millions of pensioners pay winter heating bills — but not ending unease about it among his lawmakers. Starmer says the decision to remove the winter fuel allowance, worth between 200 and 300 pounds ($262 and $393) a year, from all but the poorest retirees is needed because of the dire state of the public finances left by the previous Conservative government. But the decision to hit people on fixed incomes in one of the government’s first economic moves since winning a landslide election victory in July has caused disquiet in the center-left Labour Party. Seventeen Labour lawmakers backed a call to postpone the cut. “Tough decisions are unpopular decisions,” Starmer told his Cabinet on Monday, telling ministers that “we have to fix the foundations of our economy and that means tough choices.” A woman is killed near Moscow after more than 140 Ukrainian drones target Russia, officials say Labour’s large House of Commons majority meant the government easily voted down, by a margin of 348-228, an attempt to overturn the cut. Only one Labour lawmaker voted with the opposition, along with several legislators serving suspensions from the party over a previous rebellion. Many Labour MPs backed the move after expressing doubts, while 53 did not vote. Of these, some had authorized absences while others deliberately abstained. “It’s my conscience that I cannot vote for these measures," said one, Rachael Maskell. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Monday had urged unity, telling lawmakers, “We stand, we lead and we govern together.” Bangladeshi diaspora in UK join hands, urge to support flood response During the election campaign, Starmer vowed to get the country’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service. Since winning, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the previous government, and warning that “things will get worse” before they get better. The Conservatives accuse Labour of penalizing vulnerable older people. Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride said the cut would hit “millions of pensioners … who are on extremely low incomes.” The cut is expected to reduce the number of pensioners receiving the winter fuel allowance from 11.4 million to 1.5 million. The government argues that pensioners will be better off even with the cut because the state pension, which is indexed to wages and inflation, is due to rise by 460 pounds ($600) next year. Starmer is also facing criticism over the early release of more than 1,700 inmates to make space in Britain’s overcrowded prisons. Starting Tuesday, some prisoners are being freed after serving 40% of their sentences, rather than the usual 50%. Inmates convicted of serious violence or sexual offenses are not eligible. Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the government had no choice because “the bath was in danger of overflowing, and they either had to turn the taps off or they had to let some water out.” But he warned it was likely some of those freed would go on to commit new crimes. Space is needed partly to accommodate scores of people sentenced over anti-immigrant unrest in August. Starmer, a former public prosecutor, has vowed a tough response to the violence in which crowds attacked police, vandalized businesses and attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum-seekers.

The Russian military on Tuesday launched massive naval and air drills spanning across both hemispheres and including China in joint maneuvers. The “Ocean-24” exercise spans the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic Seas and involves over 400 warships, submarines and support vessels, more than 120 planes and helicopters and over 90,000 troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The maneuvers will continue through Sept. 16, the ministry said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments to military officials that the war games are the largest of their kind in three decades, and that China's warships and planes were taking part. China confirmed that on Monday, saying the two countries' navies would cruise together in Pacific, but gave no details. A total of 15 countries have been invited to observe the drills, Putin said, without naming them. “We pay special attention to strengthening military cooperation with friendly states. Today, in the context of growing geopolitical tensions in the world, this is especially important,” Putin said. The Russian leader accused the United States of “trying to maintain its global military and political dominance at any cost," seeking “to inflict a strategic defeat” on Russia in its war with Ukraine and to “break the established security architecture and balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region.” “Under the pretext of countering the allegedly existing Russian threat and containing the People’s Republic of China, the United States and its satellites are increasing their military presence near Russia’s western borders, in the Arctic and in the Asia-Pacific region,” Putin said, stressing that “Russia must be prepared for any development of the situation.” Russia and China, along with other U.S. critics such as Iran, have aligned their foreign policies to challenge and potentially overturn the Western-led liberal democratic order. With joint exercises, Russia has sought Chinese help in achieving its long-cherished aim of becoming a Pacific power, while Moscow has backed China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere. Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said the drills are aimed to train “repelling large-scale aggression of a potential enemy from ocean directions, combating unmanned boats, unmanned aerial vehicles, defending naval bases, conducting amphibious operations and escorting transports.”

Over 140 Ukrainian drones targeted multiple Russian regions overnight, including Moscow and surrounding areas, killing at least one person and injuring eight, officials said Tuesday, in one of the biggest drone attacks on Russian soil in the 2 1/2-year war. A woman died in the town of Ramenskoye, just outside Moscow, where drones hit two multistory residential buildings and started fires, Moscow region Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. Five residential buildings were evacuated due to falling drone debris, Vorobyov said. The attack also prompted the authorities to shut three airports just outside Moscow — Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky — forcing 48 flights to be diverted to other airports, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia. The first two airports, which are Russia's second- and third-busiest, reopened in the morning but Zhukovsky was still closed in the afternoon because law enforcement officers were dealing with drone debris there, an airport spokesperson told the Interfax news agency. It was the second massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia this month. On Sept. 1, the Russian military said it intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones over more than a dozen Russian regions in what Russian media described as the biggest Ukrainian drone barrage since the start of the war. Russia’s Investigative Committee announced a criminal investigation into what it described as a terror attack. Russia has pummeled Ukraine with missiles, glide bombs and its own drones, killing over 10,000 civilians since the war began in 2022, according to the United Nations. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 46 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine overnight. The air force said it downed 36 of the drones. Ukraine has invested a lot of effort in developing domestic drone production, extending drones’ range, payload and uses. It has increasingly utilized drone blitzes to slow Russia’s war machine, disrupt Russian society and provoke the Kremlin. Ukrainian officials have complained that weapons pledged by the country’s Western partners fall short of what their military needs and commonly arrive long after promised. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged defense companies to increase their output. On the battlefield's 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, Ukrainian troops are up against Russia's larger and better-equipped army. The two sides are especially contesting parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, fighting over towns and villages that are bombed-out wrecks, while Ukraine last month launched a bold incursion into Russia's Kursk border region. In Moscow on Monday night, drone debris fell on a private house on the outskirts of the city, but no one was hurt, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. He counted over a dozen drones heading toward Moscow that were shot down by air defenses as they were approaching the city. Overall, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it “intercepted and destroyed” 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions, including those on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia. Ukrainian officials declined to comment on the attack. As the war drags on, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been expanding his alliances: The Russian military on Tuesday began massive naval and air drills, involving over 90,000 troops and over 400 warships, that China will also take part in, the Defense Ministry said. Putin is also beefing up his military arsenal with Iranian ballistic missiles, the United States and Britain said Tuesday. Moscow and the surrounding region have often come under attack throughout the war. In May 2023, Russian officials said Ukraine tried to attack the Kremlin with drones which lightly damaged the roof of the palace that includes one of Putin’s official residences. In August 2023, a drone attack on Moscow’s prestigious business district blew out part of a section of windows on a high-rise building and sent glass cascading to the streets, unsettling Muscovites. The attacks exposed gaps in the city and region’s air defenses.

Kate, the Princess of Wales, has completed chemotherapy and will make some public appearances in the coming months, bolstering Britain’s royal family after it was rocked by the twin cancer diagnoses of the princess and King Charles III. The 42-year-old wife of Prince William released a video Monday in which she appeared alongside her husband and children as she described how difficult the past nine months have been for her family and expressed “relief” at completing her course of treatment. “Life as you know it can change in an instant, and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown,’’ she said in the video, which was shot in a woodland near the family’s summer home in Norfolk. “The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you. With humility, it also brings you face to face with your own vulnerabilities in a way you have never considered before, and with that, a new perspective on everything.” The royal family has been buffeted by health concerns this year, beginning with the announcement in January that the king would receive treatment for an enlarged prostate and Kate would undergo abdominal surgery. In February, Buckingham Palace announced Charles was receiving treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer. Six weeks later, Kate said she, too, was undergoing treatment for cancer, quieting the relentless speculation about her condition that had circulated on social media since her surgery. While the announcements triggered an outpouring of good wishes for the ailing royals, they also put the royal family under tremendous pressure. Queen Camilla and Princess Anne, the king’s sister, took on additional duties to cover the seemingly endless list of public events that make up the daily routine of the House of Windsor. William also took time off to support his wife and their three young children. Charles began his return to public duties in late April when he visited a cancer treatment center in London. He is scheduled to make the first long-haul trip since his diagnosis when he travels to Australia and Samoa in the fall. Kate said Monday that while she had completed her chemotherapy treatment, the path to full recovery would be long and she would “take each day as it comes.” “William and I are so grateful for the support we have received and have drawn great strength from all those who are helping us at this time,” she said. “Everyone’s kindness, empathy and compassion has been truly humbling.” In June, the princess acknowledged that she had good days and bad days while undergoing treatment. While she stepped away from most public duties during her treatment, Kate has made two appearances this year. First, during the king’s birthday parade in June, known as Trooping the Colour, and most recently during the men’s final at Wimbledon in July, where she received a standing ovation. “To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey — I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand,” Kate said Monday. “Out of darkness, can come light, so let that light shine bright.”

The heads of the British and American foreign intelligence agencies said Saturday that Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia is a significant achievement that could change the narrative of the grinding 2 1/2-year war, as they urged Kyiv's allies not to be held back by Russian threats of escalation. Richard Moore, the head of MI6, said Kyiv’s surprise August offensive to seize territory in Russia’s Kursk region was “typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians, to try and change the game.” He said the offensive — which Ukraine said has captured about 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory — had “brought the war home to ordinary Russians.” Speaking alongside Moore at an unprecedented joint public event in London, CIA Director William Burns said the offensive was a “significant tactical achievement” that had exposed vulnerabilities in the Russian military. It has yet to be seen whether Ukraine can turn the gains into a long-term advantage. So far the offensive has not drawn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s focus away from eastern Ukraine, where his forces are closing in on the strategically situated city of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly pressed allies to let Kyiv use Western-supplied missiles to strike deep inside Russia and hit sites from which Moscow launches aerial attacks. While some countries, including Britain, are thought to tacitly support the idea, others including Germany and the U.S. are reluctant. U.S. President Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to fire U.S.-provided missiles into Russia in self-defense, but the distance has been largely limited to cross-border targets deemed a direct threat, out of concerns about further escalating the conflict. Burns said the West should be “mindful” of the escalation risk but not be “unnecessarily intimidated” by Russian saber-rattling, revealing that there was a moment in late 2022 when there was a “genuine risk of the use of tactical nuclear weapons” by Moscow. He also warned of the growing and “troubling” defense relationship between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea that he said threatens both Ukraine and Western allies in the Middle East. North Korea has sent ammunition and missiles to Russia to use against Ukraine, while Iran supplies Moscow with attack drones. Burns said the CIA had yet to see evidence of China sending weapons to Russia, “but we see lot of things short of that.” And he warned Iran against supplying ballistic missiles to Moscow, saying “it would be a dramatic escalation” of the relationship. He did not say whether such missiles had already been sent. But two people familiar with the matter said the United States has told allies that it believes Tehran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been publicly disclosed. Ahead of their joint appearance at the FT Weekend Festival at London’s Kenwood House, the two spymasters wrote an opinion piece for the Financial Times, calling for a cease-fire in Israel’s war against Hamas and saying their agencies had “exploited our intelligence channels to push hard for restraint and de-escalation.” Burns has been heavily involved in efforts to broker an end to the fighting, traveling to Egypt in August for high-level talks aimed at bringing about a hostage deal and at least a temporary halt to the conflict. So far there has been no agreement, though United States officials insist a deal is close. Biden said recently that “just a couple more issues” remain unresolved. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has said reports of a breakthrough are “exactly inaccurate.” “I cannot tell you how close we are right now,” Burns told the London audience. He said negotiators are working on new, detailed proposals that would be presented within several days. Burns said that while 90% of the text has been agreed between the warring sides, “the last 10% is the last 10% for a reason, because it’s the hardest part to do.” Burns said ending the conflict would require “some hard choices and some difficult compromises” from both Israel and Hamas. The U.S. and the United Kingdom are both staunch allies of Israel, though London diverged from Washington on Monday by suspending some arms exports to Israel because of the risk they could be used to break international law. The intelligence chiefs' speech came ahead of a busy week of trans-Atlantic diplomacy that includes a meeting in Washington between Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The White House said the talks would touch on Ukraine, Gaza and other issues. In another sign of the intensification of the “special relationship,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also travel to London early next week for talks with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and other officials. The State Department said Blinken would participate in the U.S.-U.K. strategic dialogue on Monday and Tuesday that will cover Ukraine, the Middle East, China and the Indo-Pacific. In their article, Burns and Moore stressed the strength of the trans-Atlantic relationship in the face of “an unprecedented array of threats,” including an assertive Russia, an ever-more powerful China and the constant drumbeat of international terrorism — all complicated by rapid technological change. They highlighted Russia’s “reckless campaign of sabotage” across Europe and the “cynical use of technology to spread lies and disinformation designed to drive wedges between us.” U.S. officials have long accused Moscow of meddling in American elections, and this week the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged employees of Russian broadcaster RT with covertly funding social media campaigns to pump out pro-Kremlin messages and sow discord around November’s presidential contest. Russia has also been linked by Western officials to several planned attacks in Europe, including an alleged plot to burn down Ukrainian-owned businesses in London. Moore said Russia's spies were acting in an increasingly desperate and reckless way. The "Russian intelligence service has gone a bit feral," he said.

 Ukraine’s parliament approved the appointment of a new foreign minister Thursday, two lawmakers said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to breathe fresh life into his administration with the war against Russia poised for what could be a pivotal phase. Andrii Sybiha, a former ambassador to Turkey, is the country’s new chief diplomat. He replaced Dmytro Kuleba, who became one of Ukraine’s most recognizable faces on the international stage as he petitioned and pleaded with Western countries to support Ukraine’s war effort. Sybiha, 49, has been working as Kuleba’s deputy since April. Zelenskyy wants to replace almost a dozen top officials in his biggest government shake-up since Russia’s full-scale invasion started on Feb. 24, 2022. Other changes included the heads of strategic industries, justice, natural resources and farming. Parliament’s approval is required for the changes. Ukrainian lawmakers Yaroslav Zhelezniak and Oleksii Honcharenko confirmed the vote to The Associated Press. Zelenskyy said Wednesday of the reshuffle that Ukraine needs “new energy.” The war, more than 900 days long, is on the cusp of what could be a key period. A likely hard winter lies ahead, testing the country’s resolve. Ukraine’s power grid is under severe strain after Russian missiles and drones knocked out around 70% of the country’s generation capacity. That could mean going without heat and water. On the battlefield, Ukraine is waiting to see whether the military’s gamble with its surprise thrust into Russia’s Kursk border region a month ago pays dividends. Meanwhile, outgunned Ukrainian soldiers are gradually being pushed backward by Russia’s monthslong drive deeper into eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian civilians are at the mercy of Russia’s deadly long-range aerial strikes. The casualty list from a Russian missile strike Tuesday on a military training school in the Ukrainian city of Poltava grew to 55 dead and 328 wounded, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Thursday. A search and rescue operation was continuing. No major policy changes were expected under the new administration. Zelenskyy’s five-year mandate expired in May, but he remains in power under the provisions of martial law, and his leadership is largely unchallenged. Sybiha, the new foreign minister who also previously worked in the president’s office, takes on the role as Ukraine endeavors to prevent war fatigue from eroding the West’s commitment. Kyiv officials will also have to navigate the result of the U.S. election in November, which could produce important policy shifts in Washington. Top of Ukraine’s wish list at the moment are more Western air defense systems and permission from its Western partners to let it use their weapons to hit targets on Russian soil. Some Western leaders are reluctant to grant that request, because they fear an escalation that could drag them into the fighting. Top U.S. military leaders, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet in Germany on Friday to discuss those issues with European allies. Zelenskyy hasn’t shrunk from major decisions that risk alienating senior officials and perplexing the public. In February, he replaced his top general in a shake-up aimed at reigniting battlefield momentum, and the then defense minister Oleksii Reznikov quit a year ago, after Zelenskyy said that he would be replaced and named his successor.

President Emmanuel Macron named the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, as France’s new prime minister on Thursday after more than 50 days of caretaker government. The appointment of the 73-year-old Barnier follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who might be able to build loose groupings of backers in parliament and survive possible attempts by Macron’s opponents to quickly topple the new government that Barnier will now put together and lead. A statement from Macron's office announcing Barnier's appointment said he'd been tasked “with forming a unifying government to serve the country and the French people.” “This appointment comes after an unprecedented cycle of consultations during which, in accordance with his constitutional duty, the president ensured that the prime minister and the future government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chances of uniting as broadly as possible,” the statement said. Barnier, a career politician proud of his humble roots in France’s Alpine region of Haute-Savoie, is no stranger to complex and difficult tasks: He was the European Union’s chief negotiator in the difficult talks with Britain over its Brexit departure from the bloc. Barnier replaces Gabriel Attal, who resigned on July 16 following quick-fire legislative elections that produced a divided and hung parliament, plunging France into political turmoil. But Macron kept Attal and his ministers on in a caretaker capacity, handling day-to-day affairs, so political instability wouldn’t overshadow the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Olympics, when France was in the global spotlight. In political career over more than 50 years, Barnier has served as French foreign, European affairs, environment and agriculture minister — and twice as a European commissioner. Influential far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon immediately came out against Barnier’s appointment and predicted the new prime minister would not get a majority backing in the bitterly divided National Assembly. Melenchon said the appointment flew in the face of the July 7 legislative election results that left parliament’s lower house split between three main blocs — the left, including Melenchon’s party; the center where Macron has based his support, and the far right, converging around anti-immigration leader Marine Le Pen. “The election has been stolen,” Melenchon asserted.

A damning report on a deadly London high-rise fire said Wednesday that decades of failures by government, regulators and industry turned Grenfell Tower into a “death trap” where 72 people lost their lives. The years-long public inquiry into the 2017 blaze concluded that there was no “single cause” of the tragedy, but said a combination of dishonest companies, weak or incompetent regulators and complacent government led the building to be covered in combustible cladding that turned a small apartment fire into the deadliest blaze on British soil since World War II. “We conclude that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them,” said the inquiry, led by retired judge Martin Moore-Bick. While the report may give survivors some of the answers they have long sought, they face a wait to see whether anyone responsible will be prosecuted. Police will examine the inquiry’s conclusions before deciding on charges. The fire broke out in the early hours of June 14, 2017, in a fourth-floor apartment and spread up the 25-story building like a lit fuse, fueled by flammable cladding panels on the tower’s exterior walls. The tragedy horrified the nation and raised questions about lax safety regulations and other failings by officials and businesses that contributed to so many deaths. “How was it possible in 21st century London for a reinforced concrete building, itself structurally impervious to fire, to be turned into a death trap?” asked the report. It concluded: “There is no simple answer to that question.” Grenfell Tower, built from concrete in the 1970s, had been covered during a refurbishment in the years before the fire with aluminum and polyethylene cladding — a layer of foam insulation topped by two sheets of aluminum sandwiched around a layer of polyethylene, a combustible plastic polymer that melts and drips on exposure to heat. The report was highly critical of companies that made the building’s cladding. It said they engaged in “systematic dishonesty,” manipulating safety tests and misrepresenting the results to claim the material was safe. It said insulation manufacturer Celotex was unscrupulous, and another insulation firm, Kingspan, “cynically exploited the industry’s lack of detailed knowledge.” It said cladding panel maker Arconic “concealed from the market the true extent of the danger.” The combustible cladding was used on the building because it was cheap and because of “incompetence of the organizations and individuals involved in the refurbishment” – including architects, engineers and contractors — all of whom thought safety was someone else’s responsibility, the report said. The inquiry concluded the failures multiplied because bodies in charge of enforcing Britain’s building standards were weak, the local authority was uninterested and the “complacent” Conservative-led U.K. government ignored safety warnings because of a commitment to deregulation. The inquiry, announced by the government the morning after the blaze, has held more than 300 public hearings and examined around 1,600 witness statements. An initial report published in 2019, looking at what happened the night of the fire, criticized the fire department for telling residents to stay in their apartments and await rescue. The advice was changed almost two hours after the fire broke out, too late for many on the upper floors to escape. The Grenfell tragedy prompted soul-searching about inequality in Britain. Grenfell was a public housing building set in one of London’s richest neighborhoods — a stones’ throw from the pricey boutiques and elegant houses of Notting Hill — and many victims were working-class people with immigrant roots. The victims came from 23 countries and included taxi drivers and architects, a poet, an acclaimed young artist, retirees and 18 children. The report said the inquiry had “seen no evidence that any of the decisions that resulted in the creation of a dangerous building or the calamitous spread of fire were affected by racial or social prejudice.” In the wake of the fire, the U.K. government banned metal composite cladding panels for all new buildings and ordered similar combustible cladding to be removed from hundreds of tower blocks across the country. But it’s an expensive job and the work hasn’t been carried out on some apartment buildings because of wrangling over who should pay. The report made multiple recommendations, including tougher fire safety rules, a national fire and rescue college and a single independent regulator for the construction industry to replace the current mishmash of bodies. The ruined tower, which stood for months after the fire like a black tombstone on the west London skyline, still stands, now covered in white sheeting. A green heart and the words “Grenfell forever in our hearts” are emblazoned at the top. Police are investigating dozens of individuals and companies and considering charges, including corporate and individual manslaughter. But they say any prosecutions are unlikely to come before late 2026. Sandra Ruiz, whose 12-year-old niece, Jessica Urbano Ramirez, died in the fire, said that “for me, there’s no justice without people going behind bars.” “Our lives were shattered on that night. People need to be held accountable,” she said. “People who have made decisions putting profit above people’s safety need to be behind bars.”