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A committee of British lawmakers said Sunday that the U.K. will break its international human rights commitments if it goes through with government plans to detain and deport people who cross the English Channel in small boats. Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights said the Illegal Migration Bill "breaches a number of the U.K.'s international human rights obligations and risks breaching others." Also Read: UK’s Sunak vows to halve inflation, tackle illegal migration Scottish National Party lawmaker Joanna Cherry, who chairs the committee, said the law would leave most refugees and victims of modern slavery with no way of seeking asylum in Britain. "By treating victims of modern slavery as 'illegal migrants' subject to detention and removal, this bill would breach our legal obligations to such victims and would risk increasing trafficking of vulnerable people," she said. The committee urged the government to make sweeping amendments to the bill, including exempting trafficking victims and curbing the government's power to detain people indefinitely. The government, which had pledged to "stop the boats," is unlikely to heed the recommendations. The legislation bars asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means, and compels officials to detain and then deport refugees and migrants "to their home country or a safe third country," such as Rwanda. Once deported, they would be banned from ever re-entering the U.K. Also Read: Asylum seeker accommodation in UK ‘racialised segregation and de facto detention’: Report Britain's Conservative government says the law will deter tens of thousands of people from making perilous journeys across the Channel and break the business model of the criminal gangs behind the trips. Critics, including the United Nations' refugee agency, have described the legislation as unethical and unworkable. The parliamentary committee questioned whether the law would act as a deterrent and said it "could lead to people taking other, potentially more dangerous, routes into the UK." The bill has been approved by the House of Commons, where the governing Conservatives have a majority, but is facing opposition in Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords. The Lords can amend the legislation but not block it. Also Read: EU+ saw 1 million asylum applications, including record 34,000 from Bangladeshis, in 2022 More than 45,000 people, including many fleeing countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, arrived in Britain in small boats last year, up from 8,500 in 2020. The government has housed many of those awaiting asylum decisions in hotels, which officials say costs taxpayers millions of pounds (dollars) a day. Authorities have said they plan to place new arrivals in disused military camps and a barge docked on the southern English coast.

The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam was a fast-moving disaster that is swiftly evolving into a long-term environmental catastrophe affecting drinking water, food supplies and ecosystems reaching into the Black Sea. The short-term dangers can be seen from outer space — tens of thousands of parcels of land flooded, and more to come. Experts say the long-term consequences will be generational. Also read: UN aid chief says Ukraine faces `hugely worse' humanitarian situation after the dam rupture For every flooded home and farm, there are fields upon fields of newly planted grains, fruits and vegetables whose irrigation canals are drying up. Thousands of fish were left gasping on mud flats. Fledgling water birds lost their nests and their food sources. Countless trees and plants were drowned. If water is life, then the draining of the Kakhovka reservoir creates an uncertain future for the region of southern Ukraine that was an arid plain until the damming of the Dnieper River 70 years ago. The Kakhovka Dam was the last in a system of six Soviet-era dams on the river, which flows from Belarus to the Black Sea. Then the Dnieper became part of the front line after Russia's invasion last year. "All this territory formed its own particular ecosystem, with the reservoir included," said Kateryna Filiuta, an expert in protected habitats for the Ukraine Nature Conservation Group. The short term Ihor Medunov is very much part of that ecosystem. His work as a hunting and fishing guide effectively ended with the start of the war, but he stayed on his little island compound with his four dogs because it seemed safer than the alternative. Still, for months the knowledge that Russian forces controlled the dam downstream worried him. Also read: A dam collapses and thousands face the deluge — often with no help — in Russian-occupied Ukraine The six dams along the Dnieper were designed to operate in tandem, adjusting to each other as water levels rose and fell from one season to the next. When Russian forces seized the Kakhovka Dam, the whole system fell into neglect. Whether deliberately or simply carelessly, the Russian forces allowed water levels to fluctuate uncontrollably. They dropped dangerously low in winter and then rose to historic peaks when snowmelt and spring rains pooled in the reservoir. Until Monday, the waters were lapping into Medunov's living room. Now, with the destruction of the dam, he is watching his livelihood literally ebb away. The waves that stood at his doorstep a week ago are now a muddy walk away. "The water is leaving before our eyes," he told The Associated Press. "Everything that was in my house, what we worked for all our lives, it's all gone. First it drowned, then, when the water left, it rotted." Also read: Ukraine brands Russia ‘terrorist state’ to open hearings in case against Russia at top UN court Since the dam's collapse Tuesday, the rushing waters have uprooted landmines, torn through caches of weapons and ammunition, and carried 150 tons of machine oil to the Black Sea. Entire towns were submerged to the rooflines, and thousands of animals died in a large national park now under Russian occupation. Rainbow-colored slicks already coat the murky, placid waters around flooded Kherson, the capital of southern Ukraine's province of the same name. Abandoned homes reek from rot as cars, first-floor rooms and basements remain submerged. Enormous slicks seen in aerial footage stretch across the river from the city's port and industrial facilities, demonstrating the scale of the Dnieper's new pollution problem. Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry estimated 10,000 hectares (24,000 acres) of farmland were underwater in the territory of Kherson province controlled by Ukraine, and "many times more than that" in territory occupied by Russia. Farmers are already feeling the pain of the disappearing reservoir. Dmytro Neveselyi, mayor of the village of Maryinske, said everyone in the community of 18,000 people will be affected within days. Also read: Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of ecological disaster "Today and tomorrow, we'll be able to provide the population with drinking water," he said. After that, who knows. "The canal that supplied our water reservoir has also stopped flowing." The long term The waters slowly began to recede on Friday, only to reveal the environmental catastrophe looming. The reservoir, which had a capacity of 18 cubic kilometers (14.5 million acre-feet), was the last stop along hundreds of kilometers of river that passed through Ukraine's industrial and agricultural heartlands. For decades, its flow carried the runoff of chemicals and pesticides that settled in the mud at the bottom. Ukrainian authorities are testing the level of toxins in the muck, which risks turning into poisonous dust with the arrival of summer, said Eugene Simonov, an environmental scientist with the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Working Group, a non-profit organization of activists and researchers. Also read: Drone footage of collapsed dam shows ruined structure, devastation and no sign of life The extent of the long-term damage depends on the movement of the front lines in an unpredictable war. Can the dam and reservoir be restored if fighting continues there? Should the region be allowed to become arid plain once again? Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrij Melnyk called the destruction of the dam "the worst environmental catastrophe in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster." The fish and waterfowl that had come to depend on the reservoir "will lose the majority of their spawning grounds and feeding grounds," Simonov said. Also read: Ukrainian dam breach: What is happening and what's at stake Downstream from the dam are about 50 protected areas, including three national parks, said Simonov, who co-authored a paper in October warning of the potentially disastrous consequences, both upstream and downstream, if the Kakhovka Dam came to harm. It will take a decade for the flora and fauna populations to return and adjust to their new reality, according to Filiuta. And possibly longer for the millions of Ukrainians who lived there. In Maryinske, the farming community, they are combing archives for records of old wells, which they'll unearth, clean and analyze to see if the water is still potable. "Because a territory without water will become a desert," the mayor said. Also read: Zelenskyy visits area flooded by destroyed dam as five reported dead in Russian-occupied town Further afield, all of Ukraine will have to grapple with whether to restore the reservoir or think differently about the region's future, its water supply, and a large swath of territory that is suddenly vulnerable to invasive species — just as it was vulnerable to the invasion that caused the disaster to begin with. "The worst consequences will probably not affect us directly, not me, not you, but rather our future generations, because this man-made disaster is not transparent," Filiuta said. "The consequences to come will be for our children or grandchildren, just as we are the ones now experiencing the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, not our ancestors."    

Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson left chaos in his wake Saturday after quitting Parliament with a blast at fellow lawmakers he accused of ousting him in a “witch hunt.” As opponents jeered, the Conservative government absorbed the shock of yet another Johnson earthquake, while a band of loyal supporters insisted Britain’s divisive ex-leader could still make a comeback. Less than a year after he was forced out as prime minister by his own Conservative Party, Johnson unexpectedly stepped down as a lawmaker late Friday — “at least for now,” he said in a self-justifying resignation statement. Read: Biden and Sunak to focus on Ukraine and economic security in British PM's first White House visit Johnson quit after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament over “partygate,” a series of rule-breaking gatherings in the prime minister’s office during the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson was among scores of people fined by police over late-night soirees, boozy parties and “wine time Fridays” that broke restrictions the government had imposed on the country. Johnson has acknowledged misleading Parliament when he assured lawmakers that no rules had been broken, but he said he didn’t do so deliberately, genuinely believing the gatherings were legitimate work events. A standards committee investigating him appears to see things differently. Johnson quit after receiving the report of the Privileges Committee, which has not yet been made public. Johnson faced suspension from the House of Commons if the committee found he had lied deliberately. Read: UK to host global AI Summit to assess 'most significant risks' Johnson, 58, called the committee “a kangaroo court” that was determined to “drive me out of Parliament.” “Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts,” Johnson said. The committee, which has a majority Conservative membership, said Johnson had “impugned the integrity” of the House of Commons with his attack. It said it would meet Monday “to conclude the inquiry and to publish its report promptly.” Johnson is a charismatic and erratic figure whose career has seen a series of scandals and comebacks. The rumpled, Latin-spouting populist with a mop of blond hair has held major offices but also spent periods on the political sidelines before Britain’s exit from the European Union propelled him to the top. Read: BBC chief quits amid furor over role in Boris Johnson loan A champion of Brexit, Johnson led the Conservatives to a landslide victory in 2019 and took Britain out of the EU the following year. But he became mired in scandals over his ethics and judgment, and was forced out as prime minister by his own party in mid-2022. By quitting Parliament, he avoids a suspension that could have seen him ousted from his Commons seat by his constituents, leaving him free to run for Parliament again in future. His resignation statement suggested he was mulling that option. It was highly critical of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who served as Treasury chief in Johnson’s government before jumping ship with many other colleagues in July 2022 — resignations that forced Johnson out as prime minister. Conservative poll ratings went into decline during the turbulent final months of Johnson’s term and have not recovered. Opinion polls regularly put the opposition Labour Party 20 points or more ahead. A national election must be held by the end of 2024. Read: Boris Johnson says 'partygate' untruths were honest mistake “Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk,” Johnson said in a statement that sounded like a leadership pitch. “Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.” Johnson allies expressed hope that the former prime minister was not finished. Conservative lawmaker John Redwood said Johnson “has made it very clear that he doesn’t regard this as the end of his involvement in British politics.” But many others questioned whether a politician who has often seemed to defy political gravity could make yet another comeback. Will Walden, who worked for Johnson when he was mayor of London and U.K. foreign secretary, said the former prime minister quit because he had “seen the writing on the wall.” Read: Britain’s Boris Johnson battles to stay as PM amid revolt “I think the most important thing that people need to understand this morning is there is only one thing driving Boris and that is that he likes to win, or at least not to lose,” Walden told the BBC. “This report clearly threatened to change all that.” Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Johnson often drew inspiration from his political hero, Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory in World War II only to be ousted from power in 1945 — and then to return to office several years later. “I believe that he thinks that he can spend some time in … the wilderness before the Conservative Party and the country calls upon him once again in its hour of need,” Bale said. “Frankly, I think that is unlikely. I think partygate has ensured that he is toxic as far as many voters are concerned. And I think the way he has behaved over the last two or three days — and some people will say over the last two or three years — probably means that most of his colleagues would rather he disappeared in a puff of smoke.”         

Exclusive drone footage of the collapsed Ukrainian dam and surrounding villages under Russian occupation show the ruined structure falling into the flooded river and hundreds of submerged homes, greenhouses and even a church — and no sign of life. An Associated Press team flew a drone over the devastation on Wednesday, a day after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River. The buildings that remain visible above the rushing waters did not show damage typical of a bomb dropped from above, such as scorch marks or shrapnel scars. Read more: Russia says top UN court should dismiss Ukraine's case over Crimea and terrorism funding Russia accused Ukraine of bombarding the structure, which was under Moscow's control, while Ukraine alleged that Russia blew it up from within. The collapse of the dam in an area that Moscow has controlled for over a year and the emptying of its reservoir has irrevocably changed the landscape downstream, and shifted the dynamic of the 15-month-old war. In the images captured by the AP, most of the dam was submerged by the rushing water. Two nearby villages under occupation, Dnipryany and Korsunka, were also underwater up to the rooftops of homes and a bright blue church. The rounded shape of dozens of greenhouses was visible over the waterline. The images were devoid of people, but AP journalists could hear the screaming howls of dogs trapped by the flooding. The nearby town of Nova Kakhovka, also under occupation, was less touched by the flooding but equally devoid of people and animals. Its Ferris wheel was stopped and water lapped up a main street. Read more: Zelenskyy visits area flooded by destroyed dam as five reported dead in Russian-occupied town Ukraine has warned since last October that the hydroelectric dam was mined by Russian forces, and accused them of touching off an explosion that has turned the downstream areas into a waterlogged wasteland. Russia said Ukraine hit the dam with a missile. Experts have said the structure was in disrepair, which could also have led to its collapse. There were no signs typical of a missile attack in the few remaining buildings.  

Russia urged judges at the United Nations' highest court on Thursday to throw out a case brought by Ukraine against Moscow over the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the arming of rebels in eastern Ukraine before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. “We appear before you today in order to demonstrate that Ukraine’s application must be dismissed because it is without any legal foundation. Nor does it have any factual evidence to back it,” Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin told judges at the International Court of Justice. Read: Ukraine brands Russia ‘terrorist state’ to open hearings in case against Russia at top UN court Lawyers for Ukraine said as hearings in the case opened Tuesday that Russia bankrolled a “campaign of intimidation and terror” by rebels in eastern Ukraine starting in 2014 and sought to replace Crimea’s multiethnic community with “discriminatory Russian nationalism.” Ukraine filed the case in 2017, asking the world court to order Moscow to pay reparations for attacks and crimes such as the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by a Russian missile fired from territory controlled by Moscow-backed rebels on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew. The Ukrainian government alleges that Russia breached two treaties: the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Addressing the terrorism funding allegation, Michael Swainston, a British lawyer representing Russia, said Ukraine's legal team failed to establish that actions by pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine could be considered terrorism. “It is imperative to distinguish between terrorists who deliberately target civilians and soldiers who foresee that civilians will be killed as collateral damage while striking a military target," Swainston said. "The former is a war crime, while the latter represents lawful conduct. And of course, soldiers also make mistakes.” Read: UN chief, representatives of the West berate Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov over Ukraine war He also disputed that the downing of MH17 could be considered an act of terrorism and sought to undermine findings by a Dutch court that last year convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian of multiple murders for their roles in downing the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight. The Hague District Court ruled after months of hearings and years of international investigations that the Boeing 777 was shot down by a Buk surface-to-air missile system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base and later returned to the base. “There was no Russian Buk. No Buk came from Russia. No crew for a Buk came from Russia," Swainston said, calling evidence that the Dutch court relied on in its verdicts "unsourced digital nonsense.” After the hearings expected to wrap up next week, judges will take months to reach a decision in the case. The court's rulings are final and legally binding. Read more: UN approves resolution calling for Russia to leave Ukraine

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.