Brussels (AFP) – Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov arrives at a meeting of NATO defence minsters, following a rash of deadly Russian aerial attacks which has led to a call from President Volodymyr Zelensky for an air shield. IMAGES
Bakhmut (Ukraine) (AFP) – This week’s Russian missile attacks on power plants threaten cities across Ukraine with blackouts, but many frontline communities have been under shellfire and without power or water for months. The wine-making and salt-mining town of Bakhmut, is still held and grimly defended by Ukrainian forces, but its desperate residents have been under threat of Russian guns since May. One resident, Oleksandra Pylypenko, is tied to her house because her husband, sick with lung cancer, “can’t even make it to the basement” to hide from the shelling, let alone flee the town.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urges the UN’s cultural watchdog to add the historic port city of Odessa to its World Heritage List of protected sites. “Together with our partners, we prepared the nomination file of Odessa for inclusion in the World Heritage List,” he tells the Paris-based body via video link.
Fos-sur-Mer (France) (AFP) – Following a call to strike of the French hard-left CGT union, some 200 employees gather in front of the refineries of Fos-sur-Mer and La Mede, near Marseille. Strikers demand a wage increase to cover rising inflation as well as “a fair sharing of the wealth,” after Esso-ExxonMobil made hundreds of millions in profits.
Washington (AFP) – NASA says it has succeeded in deflecting an asteroid in a historic test of humanity’s ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on Earth. The fridge-sized Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor deliberately smashed into the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, pushing it into a smaller, faster orbit around its big brother Didymos, says NASA chief Bill Nelson in a press conference from Washington.
Unknown (AFP) – In the Pyrenees, 70 brown bears roam freely, under the monitoring of experts who, surveying steep forests, track down clues confirming the presence of the protected plantigrade, after having almost disappeared from these mountains between France and Spain.
Dubai (AFP) – Dubai’s Museum of the Future has added a new member to its staff – Ameca, “the world’s most advanced humanoid robot.” Ameca greets and interacts with visitors at the entrance of the “Tomorrow Today” exhibition in the Dubai Future Forum, which provides an international platform for 400 of the “world’s top futurists” to “shape the future”.
Mateka (Lesotho) (AFP) – In northwest Lesotho, residents of the Kome Caves say their home is sacred and that they plan on staying there for as long as they live, despite problems with the water supply and access roads. The caves became a hideout for members of the Basia and Bataung tribes in the 19th century, when conflict and a severe drought ravaged the region.
London (AFP) – Damien Hirst burns hundreds of his paintings in front of cameras at the Newport street gallery in London, as part of his project “The Currency”. The burnt works are those that buyers have chosen to keep in the form of NFTs, after a sale of 10,000 paintings by the artist.
Brussels (AFP) – NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says Russia was striking Ukraine’s infrastructure to make up for battlefield losses by its troops. “I think what we saw yesterday is actually a sign of weakness, because the reality is that they are not able to make progress on the battlefield. Russia is actually losing on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg tells journalists. SOUNDBITE
Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine) (AFP) – A Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia, a Ukraine-controlled city in southern Ukraine, leaves the building of a car dealership in ruins. Moscow has carried out a series of mass strikes across Ukraine since Monday. Ukraine’s emergency services said on Tuesday that the overall toll had risen to 19 dead and more than 100 people wounded.
Izyum (Ukraine) (AFP) – As Russia launched a huge wave of missile strikes against Ukrainian cities Monday, defiant rail workers in the east of the country managed to restore a severed rail link.
