分类： world

Nearly nine years after a car bomb killed one of Malta’s most fearless anti-corruption journalists, the final high-profile chapter of the case has begun in the capital city of Valletta, where 44-year-old Maltese entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech has stood trial on charges of orchestrating the 2017 assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative reporter whose work exposed deep-seated government-linked corruption networks across Malta and beyond, was killed instantly when a bomb detonated in her vehicle in October 2017. Her murder sparked widespread public outrage across the island nation and drew global condemnation from press freedom advocates and world leaders alike, shaking Malta’s political establishment to its core.

Fenech, the key remaining defendant in the case, has been charged with complicity in the intentional homicide of Caruana Galizia and participation in a criminal conspiracy formed to carry out her murder. He has formally denied all charges brought against him, rejecting any allegation of involvement in the journalist’s killing.

The trial opened on Wednesday with the swearing in of a jury for the public proceedings, a milestone that comes after years of prior legal action that has already secured convictions against four other co-conspirators. In 2022, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, who admitted to carrying out the car bombing, were sentenced to 40 years in prison for their role in the killing. Three years later, in 2025, Robert Agius and Jamie Vella received life sentences for supplying the explosive device used in the attack. A fifth co-defendant, Vincent Muscat, was granted a full pardon in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors and providing key testimony against the other co-accused.

Members of Caruana Galizia’s immediate family, including her three sons, were present in the Valletta courthouse to observe the opening of Fenech’s trial. As of the first day of proceedings, no on-the-record statements from Fenech have been released publicly. Legal observers project that the trial will stretch over multiple weeks as prosecutors present evidence and the defense builds its case.

Monaco, the tiny Mediterranean principality famed for its affluent population and low-profile luxury, is at the center of an escalating international investigation after a late-Monday explosion at a residential building entrance that authorities have labeled an attempted assassination. The blast wounded three members of a targeted family, including a high-profile Ukrainian construction tycoon with documented ties to Russia, leaving one victim in critical condition and prompting cross-border law enforcement cooperation.

In an official update Wednesday, Monaco’s prosecutor general’s office confirmed that one foreign national suspect had been taken into custody earlier that morning for additional investigative checks. The detainee was released by the afternoon, however, with authorities offering no further details on the individual’s identity or the specific grounds for their initial detention. The investigation itself remains active and progressing “very actively,” according to the official statement.

Monaco authorities have not publicly confirmed the identities of the three injured victims, but multiple independent media reports have named Vadym Yermolaiev as the adult male hurt in the blast. Yermolaiev, who renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly 10 years ago, was hit with new Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 over his ongoing business and political links to Russia. Alongside the tycoon, a woman and a young child were also wounded in the explosion.

As of Wednesday’s update, the child victim has already been questioned by investigators in neighboring France, where the child is receiving medical care. Both Yermolaiev and the second adult victim remain unfit for interview, with one victim in critical condition and still fighting for their life, authorities confirmed. French law enforcement agencies are already supporting the Monegasque investigation, with forensic experts currently conducting detailed analysis of the remaining explosive components to trace the device’s origin and manufacturer. The identity of the person who planned and carried out the attack remains undisclosed.

To date, there is no definitive information on what motivated the attack or which group or individual ordered the targeting of the family. The incident has however sparked global speculation, given the ongoing geopolitical fallout from Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Western intelligence officials have repeatedly warned that Russia has escalated a long-standing campaign of targeted killings and assassinations of its opponents outside Russian borders since the invasion began. While Ukraine has also carried out targeted attacks against pro-Russian figures during the war, most of these operations have been limited to territory controlled by either Russia or Ukraine.

The brazen attack has sent shockwaves through Monaco, a small sovereign state that has long prided itself on its safety and status as a haven for global high-net-worth individuals. Monaco’s ruling monarch, Prince Albert II, publicly condemned the incident, calling it “an odious act” and confirming that all of the principality’s public security and emergency services have been fully mobilized to prevent further incidents and support the investigation.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year, Kyiv has stepped up a sustained long-range drone campaign targeting critical Russian energy and military assets, carrying out a second strike on one of Russia’s largest oil processing facilities in just seven days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday.

In a social media statement, Zelenskyy noted the attacked facility — the Ufa oil refinery, a top producer of lubricants for the Russian market — sits more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the Ukrainian border, a range that underscores Kyiv’s growing ability to strike deep inside Russian territory. Alongside the refinery strike, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces also hit a missile component manufacturing plant in Russia’s Penza region, located roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Moscow and far from the front lines of the war.

Russian officials have not formally confirmed the strikes on the two industrial sites, which cannot be independently verified by third-party outlets as of Wednesday. The Russian Defense Ministry did announce that its air defense systems intercepted 179 Ukrainian drones across 16 Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, and the waters of the Azov and Black Seas. Oleg Melnichenko, governor of the Penza region, only acknowledged that debris from downed drones damaged a local power line and fell on an unfinished building, making no mention of the targeted missile facility.

This latest wave of strikes is part of a months-long, systematic campaign by Ukraine using domestically designed and produced drones and missiles to disrupt Russia’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s forces have targeted a wide range of sites including refineries, oil storage depots, pipeline pumping stations, and export terminals. The persistent attacks have had tangible ripple effects: even Russia, one of the world’s largest energy producers, has been forced to introduce fuel rationing in multiple regions, creating a growing domestic fuel crisis that amplifies political pressure on the Kremlin.

Western and Ukrainian officials say the stepped-up long-range strikes have already shifted battlefield momentum. Kyiv’s recent development of indigenous advanced weaponry has given Ukraine a new tactical edge, according to Western officials, with deep strikes cutting critical Russian supply lines and slowing the pace of Russian ground advances across the front.

“Russians now have great problems with delivering infantry to the front line and supplying it,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told reporters Wednesday.

Beyond its battlefield gains from the drone campaign, Ukraine is also emerging as a global supplier of sought-after military drone technology, attracting growing international interest as Western allies prepare for long-term security competition with Russia. During a visit to Kyiv this week, Swedish Defense Minister Paul Jonsson noted that many European nations view Ukraine as a critical bulwark against further Russian territorial expansion across the continent.

“Ukraine is becoming a security provider for the whole of Europe,” Jonsson said during talks with Fedorov. On Tuesday, the two nations signed an agreement for Sweden to supply Ukraine with Gripen fighter jets, which Fedorov said will help counter Russian aircraft deploying highly destructive glide bombs that have caused heavy casualties and damage across Ukrainian frontline regions.

Jonsson reaffirmed European support for Ukraine’s eventual integration into Euro-Atlantic defense structures, ahead of a key NATO summit set to take place in Turkey next week. While Ukraine’s membership bid remains a contentious issue among alliance members, Jonsson argued that accelerated accession would benefit all European stakeholders. “The sooner it happens, the better it is for you, the better it is for our security and prosperity as well,” he told a joint press conference.

Ukraine is also pushing for tangible progress on its European Union accession bid during Ireland’s current rotating EU Council presidency. Zelenskyy traveled to Ireland Wednesday to advance the membership process, stating that Kyiv has proven it deserves a place as an equal member of the European bloc. “Ukraine proves every day that it deserves to be an equal partner of our common European home. And we hope that during Ireland’s presidency of the EU Council, we will be able to achieve tangible progress on the path to membership and open all negotiation clusters,” he said.

As Ukraine’s deep strikes into Russian territory intensify, Russia has continued its own long-range bombardment of Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure, leaving three civilians dead across the country in fresh attacks Wednesday. In the southern Kherson region, a Russian drone struck a passenger bus, killing two people and wounding six others, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Overnight strikes targeting five gas stations in the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed a 43-year-old woman and injured three others, including a 35-year-old pregnant woman, regional authorities confirmed. Russian forces have increasingly targeted Ukrainian fuel retail sites in recent weeks as part of their own campaign to disrupt Ukrainian civilian and military logistics.

Authorities in Greece have confirmed that three coordinated early-morning firebomb attacks targeting residences of ruling New Democracy party members left five people hospitalized this Wednesday. The assaults unfolded between 4:00 a.m. and 4:45 a.m. outside multiple apartment buildings in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city located in the northern region of the country, according to official statements.

Investigators report the attackers used improvised explosive devices constructed from camping gas canisters to carry out the bombings. While the first two explosions caused no reported harm, the third and final blast ignited raging fires that destroyed multiple parked cars and motorcycles. All five injuries were sustained in this final attack, police confirmed.

Local law enforcement officials identified one of the destroyed vehicles as belonging to a New Democracy parliamentary candidate. The candidate herself suffered burn injuries, while her mother was admitted to the intensive care unit for treatment of severe burns. Three additional residents from the targeted apartment building were also taken to local hospitals to receive care for smoke inhalation, bringing the total number of people hospitalized to five.

The attacks mark the latest in a long-running pattern of low-level militant violence in Greece, where anonymous extremist groups have carried out repeated assaults against property associated with political figures, law enforcement agencies, and other symbols of state power. Most of these past incidents have resulted in only material damage, with few recorded casualties in recent years.

This attack is not an isolated incident. In July 2025, an explosive device detonated outside the Thessaloniki home of the president of Greece’s prison guards association. That blast left the official unharmed, but two bystanders suffered minor injuries from flying shattered glass. A year earlier in June 2024, a police officer assigned to guard the Athens residence of a senior Greek judge was wounded in a separate gasoline bomb attack. As of Wednesday, no group has claimed responsibility for the latest bombings, and law enforcement has launched a full investigation to identify and apprehend the perpetrators.