In a coordinated attack timed to overshadow Russia’s flagship international economic gathering, Ukraine launched a wave of drone strikes on the outskirts of St Petersburg early Wednesday, just hours before the opening of the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event designed to draw foreign direct investment back to Russia amid sweeping Western sanctions. As dawn broke over Russia’s second-largest city, thick plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky from a burning oil terminal, a visible marker of the attack that disrupted operations across the region. Local Russian authorities confirmed that air defense systems intercepted 59 drones launched overnight, but debris from the downed unmanned vehicles hit three separate districts of St Petersburg. Remarkably, no fatalities were reported in the strikes, though critical infrastructure was impacted: mobile internet connectivity was disrupted across parts of the city, and St Petersburg’s Pulkovo International Airport was temporarily shut down to all air traffic as a security precaution. The ripple effects of the attack extended beyond Russia’s borders, with neighboring Latvia and Estonia both issuing temporary air raid alerts for their northern border regions. Hours after the initial attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly confirmed responsibility for the strikes, confirming that targets included the burning St Petersburg oil terminal and a key Russian naval outpost in Kronstadt, a coastal town just off St Petersburg’s shoreline. In a post on his official social media channels, Zelensky framed the attack as part of what he called Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions plan” — a widely understood euphemism for long-distance strikes against Russian infrastructure that supports its invasion of Ukraine. “The Ukrainian plan of long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as it is needed to bring peace closer,” Zelensky wrote. Kronstadt holds major strategic significance for Russia, as it serves as the primary forward base for the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet. Unverified footage posted to social media by Ukrainian military personnel showed drones approaching docked Russian naval vessels at the base, with the video cutting out moments before expected impact. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, later claimed via Telegram that the Russian corvette Boikiy had sustained direct damage in the attack. The timing of the strike carries significant symbolic weight, as the St Petersburg International Economic Forum — long nicknamed the “Russian Davos” — is the cornerstone event on Russia’s annual political and economic calendar. Prior to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the forum regularly drew high-profile Western delegations, including Fortune 500 CEOs and sitting heads of state. This year, for the first time in nearly 10 years, a low-profile unofficial delegation from the United States is scheduled to attend, led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the official overseeing former President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom renovation project. Controversial U.S. right-wing commentator Candace Owens and pro-Putin American actor Steven Seagal are also listed as attendees. A senior official with Ukrainian defense technology firm Fire Point, Denys Shrilierman, leaned into the timing of the attack in a playful post on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “Due to such distinguished guests and the importance of the event itself, we couldn’t ignore it – and urgently flew to [St Petersburg].” The post was paired with drone footage of unmanned vehicles crossing the Baltic sky followed by clips of thick black smoke rising from unnamed locations along St Petersburg’s seafront. The St Petersburg strikes mark a notable milestone in Ukraine’s evolving strike capabilities: in the more than four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Kyiv has built a rapidly expanding domestic defense sector, allowing it to regularly produce and deploy long-range drones that can strike targets deep inside Russian territory. Ukraine has focused most of these long-range attacks on energy and oil infrastructure, framing these facilities as critical components of Russia’s war machine that fund its military operations. The strikes on St Petersburg came amid continued tit-for-tat attacks across the front lines and behind enemy lines. On the same Wednesday as the St Petersburg attack, a Russian-installed official in the Moscow-controlled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine reported that seven civilians were killed when a drone struck a passenger bus traveling along a regional highway. For its part, Russia continues to launch large-scale combined missile and drone strikes across major Ukrainian cities, resulting in consistent civilian casualties. Just two days before the St Petersburg attack, Russian strikes across multiple Ukrainian regions killed at least 22 civilians and injured dozens more, according to Ukrainian emergency officials. In the wake of the St Petersburg strikes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Moscow planned a coordinated response to the Ukrainian attack. “Our responses will be systemic in nature,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday, offering no additional details on what form the retaliation would take.
分类： world
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Ukrainian drones set fire to a St. Petersburg oil terminal ahead of Putin visit
On Wednesday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to open his country’s flagship annual international economic forum in St. Petersburg, Ukrainian forces launched a wave of long-range drone attacks that penetrated hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory, striking multiple key targets including a coastal oil terminal in the city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the attack in a social media statement, noting that the drones successfully traveled more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to reach their target. Footage and on-the-ground reports showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the oil terminal near St. Petersburg’s port area following the strike.
Russian official confirmation of the attack was limited, with authorities only acknowledging that the strike targeted civilian infrastructure in the city. In response to the incursion, St. Petersburg’s main airport temporarily halted all flight operations overnight, and local mobile internet services were temporarily shut down as a security precaution.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which Putin is scheduled to address on Friday, has long been framed by the Kremlin as a major prestige event designed to showcase Russia’s global economic standing amid mounting international isolation. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, however, all major Western business leaders and government officials have boycotted the gathering. This year, Saudi Arabia holds the position of special guest and is set to dispatch a large business delegation to the event.
The brazen attack on St. Petersburg marks a fresh political embarrassment for Putin, coming just weeks after he was forced to drastically scale back Moscow’s annual Victory Day military parade over widespread security concerns about potential Ukrainian drone strikes on the capital.
Wednesday’s wave of Ukrainian strikes was launched just 24 hours after Russian forces carried out a massive, widespread assault across Ukraine using a combination of drones and cruise missiles. That attack killed at least 22 civilians and left 138 others injured, carrying out Moscow’s stated threat to ramp up regular long-range barrages against Ukrainian targets.
After more than four years of full-scale conflict, the front line across eastern and southern Ukraine has remained largely static, with both sides relying heavily on swarms of drones that have slowed large-scale troop movements and stalled major offensives. To break the stalemate, both Moscow and Kyiv have increasingly turned to long-range strike operations to gain strategic leverage over their opponent.
For Ukraine, these strikes on Russian energy and industrial infrastructure serve two core strategic goals: cutting into revenue from Russian oil production, which remains the single largest source of funding for Moscow’s war machine, and disrupting Russian manufacturing facilities that produce weapons and military equipment. Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil and port facilities in the St. Petersburg region and surrounding coastal areas in recent months.
Beyond the St. Petersburg oil terminal, Zelenskyy confirmed that overnight strikes also hit two additional high-value targets: the Kronstadt naval base, a historic installation that serves the Russian Baltic Fleet, and a weapons manufacturing plant located in Russia’s Tambov region, roughly 600 kilometers (370 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian border.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its air defense systems intercepted and downed a total of 354 Ukrainian drones launched during the overnight wave of attacks across multiple Russian regions.
The cross escalation of strikes also resulted in civilian casualties on both sides. In Russia-occupied portions of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a civilian bus traveling from Moscow to Crimea. Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed head of the occupation administration, reported that the attack killed seven people and injured 11 others. In Russia’s western Smolensk region, regional governor Vasily Anokhin said a Ukrainian drone strike killed two responding firefighters and wounded two other firefighters plus one local civilian.
On the Ukrainian side, Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia launched 198 long-range attack drones at Ukrainian targets overnight, with Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercepting and neutralizing 189 of the incoming weapons. In Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, local authorities confirmed that Russian strikes over the preceding 24 hours killed one civilian and injured 15 more, including three children. In the southern Kherson region, overnight Russian shelling and drone attacks killed an 86-year-old civilian woman and wounded five other residents, according to regional officials.
With both sides continuing to escalate long-range attacks and no diplomatic negotiations underway to end the conflict, the war now stretching into its fifth year shows no sign of a near-term resolution.
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Australian judges weigh Indigenous activist’s bid to prosecute King Charles for genocide
MELBOURNE, Australia — A landmark legal bid by a senior Indigenous Australian activist to pursue a private genocide prosecution against Britain’s King Charles III, who also serves as Australia’s ceremonial head of state, moved to the state’s highest appeals court Wednesday, where three judges deferred their decision to a later date.
The 68-year-old claimant, widely known by his community honorific Uncle Robbie Thorpe, brought the appeal to Victoria’s Supreme Court of Appeal after two lower courts dismissed his original filing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Thorpe’s legal argument centers on the claim that King Charles, alongside the Australian federal government and its national institutions, perpetuates ongoing genocide against Indigenous Australians through entrenched systemic disadvantage across socioeconomic sectors, a status that has left Indigenous communities the most marginalized demographic group in the country.
Official Australian demographic data bears out the stark inequalities Thorpe highlights: Indigenous people make up just 4% of the national population, yet have significantly lower life expectancies, higher rates of chronic health conditions, disproportionate rates of incarceration and double the unemployment rate of non-Indigenous Australians.
Speaking to reporters from The Associated Press ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Thorpe signaled that if his domestic legal challenges are exhausted without success, he will escalate the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, invoking the UN Genocide Convention to pursue the claim.
“It’s clear that they’re unwilling, unable, reluctant to deal with these international legal issues like genocide,” Thorpe told the AP, referencing Australian judicial institutions. During his address to the appellate panel, Thorpe emphasized that compounding systemic disadvantage is resulting in preventable deaths of Indigenous people across the country. “The Crown is responsible for all this mess,” he said. “Australia’s got away with genocide of Aboriginal people since [British colonizers] arrived here.”
The legal roots of the claim stretch back to 1788, when the British Empire began its colonization of the Australian continent, seizing traditional Indigenous lands without any formal treaty with the native peoples. Colonial policies systematically targeted Indigenous culture: native languages were banned, traditional cultural practices were criminalized as part of a forced assimilation campaign to convert Indigenous people to Christianity and Western social norms, and an estimated 100,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families over more than a century in policies that have since been universally discredited as genocide.
For Wednesday’s hearing, Thorpe wore a traditional possum-skin coat and carried a feather from a wedge-tailed eagle, a sacred totem for many Indigenous Australian communities. He asked the court to address him as Uncle Robbie, or by his traditional tribal name Djuran Bunjileenee — a request granted by presiding Justice Karin Emerton. Court documents formally name the defendant as Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor.
Thorpe’s legal team bases the prosecution on three overlapping legal frameworks: Indigenous law that has operated on the Australian continent for more than 65,000 years, Victorian state common law, and Australian federal criminal law. When lower courts dismissed the case last year, judges ruled that local magistrates lack jurisdiction to consider Indigenous law, that genocide is not codified as an offense under Australian common law, and that any federal genocide prosecution requires formal approval from the federal attorney-general, which has not been granted.
After a two-hour hearing Wednesday, Justice Emerton confirmed the three-judge panel would issue its ruling at an unspecified future date. If Thorpe’s appeal fails here, his last domestic legal recourse is to bring the case before Australia’s High Court. If that effort also fails, he will move forward with his plan to file the prosecution with the ICC in The Hague.
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Drone strikes close Kuwait airport as Iran and US clash in Gulf
Fresh cross-hostilities between Iranian and American forces across the Persian Gulf spilled into civilian infrastructure Wednesday, as a reported drone attack on the main passenger terminal at Kuwait International Airport left multiple people wounded and forced an immediate suspension of all air traffic.
The incident represents one of the most serious breaches of the fragile ceasefire agreement reached between the United States and Iran on April 8, a truce that has held largely despite intermittent skirmishes since a month-long full-scale war broke out following a joint US-Israeli strike on Iran in late February that killed the country’s supreme leader.
Kuwaiti defense officials have formally pinned responsibility for the airport attack on Tehran, but Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pushed back on the narrative, saying the entire sequence of overnight clashes was triggered by a US strike on an Iranian communications tower on Qeshm Island, a strategic territory in the Gulf that left Tehran with no choice but to respond.
The escalation also saw Bahrain confirm it faced a separate wave of drone attacks launched from Iranian territory overnight, prompting the United Arab Emirates to move quickly to rally Gulf Arab states behind a unified front opposing Tehran. “In light of Iran’s repeated aggression against the sisterly states of Kuwait and Bahrain, a firm, unified, and cohesive Gulf stance is imperative,” UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash wrote in a social media post Wednesday. “This aggression does not just target one country, it targets us all.”
Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Atwan, spokesman for Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense, characterized the airport strike as “criminal Iranian aggression which resulted in significant material damage to the building and injuries.” While Al-Atwan did not disclose the exact number of casualties, he confirmed all injured people had received urgent medical care. Kuwait’s state-owned news agency Kuna added that the country’s civil aviation authority halted all flights and diverted incoming planes to alternate airports after the attack hit Terminal 1, causing casualties and structural damage.
The IRGC has not explicitly confirmed it targeted the Kuwaiti airport, but released a statement acknowledging it launched retaliatory strikes in response to US actions. The statement said IRGC Aerospace Force units hit a US air base, US military helicopters hosted in a regional country, and the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet with a combination of missiles and drones.
Kuwait International Airport, which has been hit multiple times since the wider war began, only fully resumed normal commercial operations on June 1. The oil-rich Gulf monarchy, a longstanding US ally, has faced repeated Iranian accusations of allowing American forces to launch offensive strikes from its territory, a charge that has made it a recurring target for Tehran’s attacks since the war began in late February.
US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed in a statement Wednesday that it had “successfully defeated” a wave of Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting both Kuwait and Bahrain, and acknowledged it had conducted preemptive strikes on Qeshm Island. “Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart en route, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by US and Bahrain air defense forces,” Centcom said. Bahraini authorities separately confirmed they intercepted three Iranian missiles and an unspecified number of drones.
The sudden escalation in Gulf tensions comes as senior officials from the US, Israel and Lebanon gathered in Washington for rare direct negotiations aimed at ending the parallel conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah, which opened a second front when it attacked northern Israel on March 2 to support Iran amid the US-Israeli invasion.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Hezbollah remains the only barrier to reaching a ceasefire agreement. The Lebanese embassy in Washington outlined that any initial deal would only pause Israeli strikes on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory, with broader negotiations to follow once a preliminary truce takes hold. To date, neither side has publicly accepted the US-backed framework. Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati told AFP in a written statement that the group “will not accept a partial ceasefire.”
Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes on roughly 30 locations across southern Lebanon Tuesday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. Hezbollah confirmed it had targeted Israeli troops in the occupied border areas of southern Lebanon but did not claim any strikes inside Israeli territory. Since the conflict began in March, Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,465 Lebanese people, according to the Lebanese health ministry, while at least 26 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.
On Wednesday, a medical source told AFP six additional people were killed in Israeli strikes near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
Rubio emphasized that the Washington talks on Lebanon remain separate from ceasefire negotiations with Iran over the broader Gulf war, but Tehran has repeatedly linked the two conflicts. Earlier this week, Iranian officials warned that Israel’s expanding ground campaign in Lebanon could lead to the full collapse of the April 8 ceasefire between Iran and the US. In recent days, Israeli forces launched their deepest ground incursion into Lebanese territory in two decades, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on the dense Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut, citing what he called repeated violations of an April 17 ceasefire that has never been respected by either side.
However, reporting from US news outlet Axios revealed that President Donald Trump pressured Netanyahu to reverse course on the expanded offensive, calling the Israeli prime minister “crazy” during a private phone call. Following the call, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a new, US-backed understanding: Israel will only target southern Beirut if Hezbollah continues to launch cross-border attacks into Israel.
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Seven killed in drone attack on bus in Russia-controlled part of Ukraine
A fatal drone strike targeting a passenger bus traveling through a Russia-occupied portion of Ukraine has left seven people dead and 11 others wounded, according to a Moscow-appointed regional official. The attack unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday, when the bus—en route from Moscow to Simferopol, the main city in Russian-annexed Crimea—was hit, stated Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-installed head of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The bus strike comes just 24 hours after a large-scale Russian air offensive against multiple cities across Ukraine claimed at least 22 lives, among them several women and children. In simultaneous overnight developments, Russian defense officials claimed that air defense systems downed more than 350 Ukrainian drones launched across multiple occupied and Russian territories.
Among the intercepted drones, at least 50 were shot down over Leningrad Oblast, a region in northwest Russia that includes St. Petersburg, according to regional governor Alexander Drozdenko. This interception comes as St. Petersburg prepares to open the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Wednesday, a flagship event designed to project Russia’s global standing and economic openness to the international community.
Event organizers confirm that delegations from over 130 countries and territories are scheduled to attend the forum, including high-profile attendees such as Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, and the sitting presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania. The exchange of cross-border attacks comes amid an ongoing stalemate in the Russia-Ukraine war, with both sides ramping up drone and missile strikes on each other’s territory in recent months. A photo of a Ukrainian-manufactured Vampire heavy bomber drone, taken last month, accompanies this report, distributed via Getty Images.
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Shell pumped oil through Nigeria pipeline for years despite pollution evidence, documents show
For decades, the oil-rich wetlands of Nigeria’s Niger Delta have borne the brutal cost of international fossil fuel extraction, leaving local communities grappling with poisoned ecosystems and collapsed livelihoods. Now, newly uncovered internal company documents obtained by the BBC have laid bare that energy giant Shell, a major operator in the region for more than 60 years, was fully aware of the catastrophic risks posed by its infrastructure decades ago — and chose to continue pumping oil anyway, even against the warnings of its own senior executives. At the center of the ongoing controversy is the 96.5-kilometer Nembe Creek Trunk Line, once one of Shell’s largest and most profitable crude transportation routes in Nigeria. Capable of moving 150,000 barrels of oil per day from inland fields to coastal export facilities, the pipeline passes directly through the waterways of Bille, a 45-island riverine community that has borne the brunt of repeated spills over more than a decade.
Decades of unchecked extraction and spillage have left the Niger Delta’s mangroves, creeks, and riverbeds caked in crude oil, contaminating sediment and turning once-thriving fishing and harvesting grounds into toxic wastelands. The documents, released as part of ongoing UK legal proceedings brought by Bille and surrounding Niger Delta communities, expose a decades-long pattern of corporate negligence that dates back to at least 2008. That year, a senior Shell technical executive, Markus Droll, then the company’s technical vice president, raised urgent alarm about the decision to keep the pipeline running when it was already plagued by rampant illegal oil theft, known locally as bunkering, and systemic infrastructure failure. In an internal October 2008 email, Droll explicitly questioned the company’s choice to operate the pipeline outside of its own official safety and technical standards, warning that a major attack or failure could force a total shutdown and expose the firm to massive liability. “I don’t agree that funding can be an issue. Sorry if I sound like a broken record on this — but the approach makes me, as your Technical VP, pretty uncomfortable,” Droll wrote. His warning was met not with action, but with criticism from Ann Pickard, then Shell’s regional executive vice president, who reprimanded him for failing to label the discussion legally privileged, which would have hidden the correspondence from future court disclosure. “You have just exposed us significantly in your official disagreement as technical manager without legal privilege,” Pickard wrote, while acknowledging that continuing operations was “not an easy decision” but claiming it represented the “lower risk to both people and environment.”
That pattern of ignoring internal red flags continued for years. A 2012 confidential document, released amid the peak of spills alleged by the Bille community, confirms that Shell leadership knew large sections of the pipeline were rated “red” — the company’s highest risk classification — because of dozens of illegal taps drilled by oil theft gangs. Under Shell’s own internal rules, a red rating required either an immediate full shutdown or urgent corrective repairs. Instead, executives argued that shutting down the pipeline would only lead thieves to install new illegal taps in other locations, and granted permission to keep pumping crude.
Bille residents, who rely on the region’s waterways for food and income, have already seen their way of life destroyed by the pollution. When BBC reporters visited the community last week, local fishermen and harvesters described a total collapse of the ecosystem that once sustained them. Balafama Augustus Bruce, a 64-year-old fisherman and one of the claimants in the lawsuit against Shell, recalled that before the 2011-2013 spill period at the center of the case, the waters around Bille teemed with sardines, catfish, tilapia, and oysters. Today, most native species are gone, and any that are caught are often deformed. “Before 2011, here was a beautiful area. People play here and go into the river,” Bruce told the BBC. “We used to fish around here. But because of the damage the spills have caused, nobody is fishing here again. Because of that I’ve become poor. I eat from hand to mouth.” For Taminoibitein Philip, a 49-year-old periwinkle harvester, the pollution has wiped out the local harvest of the sea snails, a staple regional delicacy. Even when snails can be found, they no longer grow to full adult size. “And the odour is killing us… some places have crude, some places have gas. We don’t benefit. We are suffering,” Philip said. Like other residents, she argues that Shell, which sold its remaining onshore Nigerian assets including the pipeline to Renaissance Africa Energy last year, still owes the community redress after decades of profiting from the region’s resources. “Let them come and flush the river for us,” she said.
The legal case against Shell, being brought by Leigh Day law firm on behalf of the communities, seeks a total of $1 billion in resolution: $250 million in direct compensation for lost livelihoods and health harms, and $750 million to fund a full cleanup of the contaminated environment. Since Shell began commercial oil extraction in Nigeria in 1958, the United Nations estimates that at least 13 million barrels of crude have been spilled across the Niger Delta in more than 7,000 separate incidents — a legacy of pollution that has existed for generations. The region has a long history of activism to hold oil companies accountable, most famously led by Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by Nigeria’s military government in 1995 after leading protests against oil pollution in Ogoniland.
The documents also reveal internal concerns about the potential for public and legal scrutiny of Shell’s practices as early as 2013. When executives proposed an internal audit of pipeline integrity and oil theft management between 2009 and 2012, then-Nigerian subsidiary onshore assets general manager Vincent Holtam warned the audit could expose the company to massive liability. “I have no doubt that this will come out as UNACCEPTABLE, in which case we may be very exposed in disputing any oil loss claims from the Government or compensation claims from the community,” Holtam wrote in an email. The documents do not confirm whether the audit was ever completed. Just one month later, Shell launched a top-secret initiative codenamed Project Madrid to assess the full scale of spill damage around the pipeline. A 36-page internal presentation for the project estimated that 100 illegal refineries were operating along the route, contaminating 9,000 hectares of water and an equal area of land, and that the company was already responding to 18 active spills from 60 known illegal bunkering points. Shell opted to continue operations after a series of temporary shutdowns for repairs, though the documents do not detail which long-term strategy executives ultimately approved.
In its response to the BBC’s reporting, Shell has pushed back against the claims, arguing that the documents released lack critical context about the challenging operating environment in the Niger Delta at the time. The company blames nearly all of the pollution on large-scale criminal oil theft, sabotage, and illegal refining, noting that its Nigerian subsidiary invested heavily in spill prevention and response over the years, and that pervasive systemic criminality made full prevention impossible. A company spokesperson added that Shell “strongly believes in the merits of our case and will vigorously defend the claims at trial next year.” Shell also confirmed that it had contacted the three former executives named in the documents, and none chose to issue a direct public response. The law firm representing the communities countered that Shell’s London headquarters made the key decisions that led to the environmental destruction, and that communities are determined to hold the company accountable for damage that continues to blight their lives today. Local Bille leaders acknowledge that oil theft was widespread in the region, but argue that Shell still bears legal and moral responsibility for failing to maintain its infrastructure and address the pollution it enabled. “They are not concerned about what happens to you. Their concern is to continue to make profit,” said Chief Boma Renner Dappa, spokesperson for the Bille local leaders’ council. “All that has happened in this environment is as a result of negligence.” The BBC requested comment from the Nigerian government on Shell’s claims that local authorities could not address the organized criminal activity fueling oil theft, but has not yet received a response.
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Heavy rain from tropical storm raises flood risks in the Tokyo region
A severe weather event is unfolding across east-central Japan, where Tropical Storm Jangmi has brought torrential downpours, life-threatening flood risks, and widespread disruption to critical infrastructure just as it reached the densely populated Tokyo metropolitan region on Wednesday.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) confirmed that mid-morning Wednesday, the storm was positioned east of Shima City, tracking northeastward with maximum sustained winds reaching 90 kilometers per hour (55 miles per hour). This downgrade in strength came after Jangmi made landfall in Wakayama Prefecture earlier as a typhoon, packing winds of 126 kph (78 mph), before moving inland and weakening rapidly. Forecasters projected the system would hold tropical storm intensity through most of Wednesday. Before reaching Japan’s main islands, the storm passed over the southern island of Okinawa, leaving 15 people with minor injuries in its wake.
Over a 24-hour period, the storm dumped as much as 50 centimeters (20 inches) of rain on the central Japanese Owase region. Heading into Thursday morning, the JMA warns that additional accumulations of up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) are possible across multiple areas, including the Japanese capital. In response to the rapidly deteriorating conditions, the agency has issued its highest-level flood alerts for numerous regions across central and eastern Japan, issuing urgent calls for residents in low-lying communities and along riverbanks to evacuate immediately to higher, safer ground.
Local authorities have already activated emergency protocols. In downtown Tokyo, residents living adjacent to the Zenpukuji River received mandatory evacuation advisories. Broadcast footage from local networks shows the river’s muddy, swollen banks approaching capacity, with water on the cusp of spilling over into surrounding neighborhoods.
The severe rainfall has already paralyzed daily life across the affected region. Surface street traffic has ground to a halt in Tokyo, hundreds of domestic and international flights have been grounded, and regional and commuter rail services have either been suspended entirely or face significant delays. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, the primary utility provider for the capital region, reports that more than 5,000 residential properties have lost power amid the stormy conditions.
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Women say they were raped and ransomed by fighters in Sudan’s ongoing war
As Sudan’s brutal civil war stretches into its fourth year, survivors are breaking a long-standing cultural taboo to expose a horrific pattern of widespread sexual violence, abduction, and extortion being carried out by the country’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group blamed for the majority of these abuses. In on-the-record interviews with the Associated Press, three survivors shared graphic, harrowing accounts of their captivity, shining a new light on a crisis the United Nations has labeled one of the most defining characteristics of Sudan’s ongoing conflict.
The first survivor, a 38-year-old woman whose identity is being protected in line with standard reporting practice for sexual assault victims, fled her besieged home in el-Fasher, Darfur, in September 2024, just weeks before RSF forces captured the city in an assault the UN has confirmed bears the hallmarks of genocide. Her husband, a soldier, had already been killed in fighting, and her brother had been shot and critically wounded, requiring urgent medical care that could not be accessed in the embattled city. As the pair traveled to seek safety, RSF fighters ambushed their convoy.
Fighters separated women and children from male passengers, searching all men for shoulder marks that would indicate past military service. Everyone was forced to strip completely. When fighters moved to execute her wounded brother, the woman volunteered herself to take his place. She was bound, beaten, and thrown into the back of a truck alongside four other abducted women and teenage girls, who were then driven to an isolated, abandoned desert village.
For two days, the 38-year-old and the other captives were held naked, unfed, and bound in an open shelter, unable to move and forced to lie in their own waste. Multiple RSF fighters repeatedly raped the women, entering the shelter to select victims, assault them, and rebind them afterwards. “I was thinking about ending my life,” the survivor recalled, wiping away tears during the interview.
On the second day of captivity, her captors demanded a $1,500 ransom for her release. They gave her a mobile phone, ordering her to drain her bank account and contact relatives for additional funds. She transferred all she had, roughly $200, before being forced to reach out to her cousin on Facebook. After the cousin sent a second payment, fighters tortured the woman in front of him over a call, pressing a heated metal object into her fingernails to force more money. By the time she was released, her family had paid a total of roughly $700. Today, she remains haunted by the fates of the other women who could not raise their ransoms. Rights activists confirm most captives who cannot pay simply disappear in captivity.
Her account is not an isolated case. A second survivor, 30, was abducted from a Khartoum market in 2024 after the RSF seized control of the capital. She was held in a remote compound for two weeks, forced to cook, clean, tend cattle and bathe fighters, and raped every single night. Even after her relative in the United States paid a $1,250 ransom, her captors initially refused to release her. Only the unexpected compassion of one fighter, who smuggled her out under cover of night, secured her freedom. “They never missed a day … I have nightmares,” she told the AP.
The third survivor, abducted near Dilling in South Kordofan, was held for nine days, beaten and raped, before her family paid for her release in September 2024.
International bodies and conflict analysts have confirmed these individual stories reflect a growing national crisis. The United Nations has documented that sexual assault rates have skyrocketed since the war between the RSF and Sudan’s regular military began in 2023, and that most documented abuses are linked to the RSF, with hotspots including Khartoum, Darfur, Gezira state, and increasingly, expanding conflict zones in South Kordofan. While all warring parties have been accused of sexual violence by the UN and human rights groups, the RSF has been linked to the vast majority of incidents. The RSF has not responded to repeated requests for comment on allegations of abduction, sexual assault, and ransom demands.
The UN has also confirmed that the abduction of women for sexual slavery, followed by ransom demands for their release, has become systemic. Ransoms can reach as high as $10,000 per captive. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit conflict monitoring organization, shows reported incidents of ransom-linked abductions, including those involving sexual violence, have jumped nearly 195% since the war began through May 2025, with the RSF identified as the perpetrator in most cases. Sudanese conflict analyst Mohamed Younis predicts these crimes will only become more common as the RSF fragments following a series of high-level defections from the paramilitary group’s leadership.
For survivors and their families, the harm extends far beyond the physical and psychological trauma of assault. Local aid workers say raising ransom money pushes already vulnerable families into crushing poverty, forcing them to sell gold reserves, vehicles, and even homes to secure the release of their loved ones. Local support organizations like Bait Al Mohaba, which works with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, report they lack the funding to provide critical support, including life-saving medical treatment for survivors.
Aid funding gaps have been exacerbated by policy changes from the U.S. government: the previous Trump administration cut all $370 million in funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provided critical support for survivors of gender-based violence in more than 25 countries including Sudan. The cut was based on unsubstantiated claims of coercive abortion ties in China that UNFPA has repeatedly rejected. While Sudan still receives more than $220 million in U.S. humanitarian funding for other needs this year, no replacement funding has filled the gap left by the UNFPA cut.
Today, the 38-year-old survivor lives in a Khartoum displaced persons camp, reunited with her wounded brother, but still struggling to rebuild her life. She sustained internal bleeding and fluid buildup from her assault, but cannot afford the life-saving surgery she needs. She carries heavy debts to the relatives who helped pay her ransom, some of whom have since been killed in the war; she says she vows to repay the money to their children, or donate it to charity in their names, just to find peace. She has turned to supporting other survivors in the camp, mentoring women and girls who have endured similar trauma, and holds onto the hope that the graphic photos she took of her battered body after her release will one day serve as evidence to hold her attackers accountable. “I thought about seeking justice one day,” she said.
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Sailors stressed and exhausted after months trapped by Strait of Hormuz blockade
For Pakistani captain Hassan Khan, who asked to keep his real identity hidden for safety, the glassy calm of the Gulf waters can often lull him into a fleeting moment of normalcy — before the weight of his situation crashes back. Three months have passed since his vessel, along with roughly 1,600 other commercial ships, became trapped in or near the Strait of Hormuz after the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran in late February.
Once the beating heart of global energy trade, carrying one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and gas supplies, this vital chokepoint has been reduced to a deadly no-man’s-land. Missiles streak across the sky above while uncharted mines drift beneath the surface, bringing all commercial transit to a grinding halt. An estimated 20,000 sailors remain stuck on vessels stranded on the wrong side of the strait, cut off from the open ocean and facing a daily battle against fear, exhaustion, and growing resource scarcity.
On Khan’s ship, the crew has attempted to cling to familiar routines to maintain some semblance of normalcy. But the old dynamic has vanished entirely. Rarely do any crew members volunteer for the infrequent, tightly restricted shore leave. Lighthearted crew banter has been replaced by tense, anxious silence, broken only by the constant vibration of mobile phones as sailors check in with frantic family members back home. Even in their sleep, crew members startle awake at the smallest unexpected noise. “The stress never leaves our minds,” Khan explained. “Everyone is worn out, completely drained both physically and mentally.”
The logjam of trapped vessels began days after the war started, when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz — the only navigable exit from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean — and barred all commercial traffic from passing without explicit government approval. “It’s like being stuck in a pond with only one drain, and that drain is Hormuz,” described Shafiqul Islam, captain of the Bangladesh-owned bulk carrier *Banglar Joyjatra*, which is carrying 37,000 tonnes of fertiliser bound for South Africa.
Islam has made two attempts to exit the Gulf over the past three months, and both have ended in disappointment. Following an April 8 ceasefire announcement, Islam learned that another commercial vessel had secured passage approval from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He steered *Banglar Joyjatra* toward the strait alongside four other trapped ships, only to be turned away by Iranian military warnings before they could reach the waterway.
Nine days later, a second opportunity appeared to open up when Iranian officials announced the strait would be “fully open” to all commercial traffic in compliance with the ceasefire terms. But Iran abruptly reversed its decision after the United States refused to lift its ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports. By that time, Islam’s ship was already within 30 nautical miles of the strait, and he was forced to turn back amid repeated radio warnings of imminent attacks. Islam counts himself lucky, however: just two days into the conflict, his ship was anchored only 200 meters from Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, a facility that was targeted in an Iranian retaliatory strike. Since then, he and his 30-member crew have witnessed dozens of attacks firsthand. “Sometimes missiles pass right over a nearby ship, and other times falling debris lands on the deck of the next vessel,” Islam said. “When attacks run all through the night, none of us can even close our eyes to sleep.”
“ We have seen horror and destruction with our own eyes,” added Rashedul Hasan, the *Banglar Joyjatra*’s chief engineer. Their fear is well-founded: the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) confirms that at least 11 sailors have been killed and one more remains missing across 39 verified violent incidents in the area.
While the April ceasefire has reduced large-scale hostilities, the region remains on edge. Military activity continues to be a daily sight: sailors regularly spot drones, fighter jets, naval warships and submarines patrolling the waters. “The military vessels use bright searchlights and broadcast warnings over loudspeakers. They do this to deter any ship from trying to cross,” explained Sajid Masood, a Pakistani cook working on a stranded oil tanker who also requested a pseudonym for security.
Beyond the constant threat of violence, trapped crews are facing a growing humanitarian crisis as critical supplies run short and prices skyrocket. While the Gulf’s major hubs, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, maintain established ship supply networks, delivery schedules have become completely unpredictable. For vessels that have shifted to safe anchorage off UAE ports, the cost of basic provisions has jumped exponentially. Hasan told reporters that a recent 180-tonne water delivery that would have normally cost between $1,500 and $2,000 wound up costing the crew $11,000. An anonymous South Korean sailor trapped on a different vessel accused some suppliers of price gouging, saying “it feels like many vendors are deliberately exploiting this crisis to charge inflated prices and make excessive profits.”
The situation is set to worsen as summer approaches. Regional air temperatures already topped 30 degrees Celsius in May, and are expected to climb as high as 45 degrees Celsius in the coming months, increasing ships’ daily water demand for cooling and crew use. On Khan’s vessel, the crew still has enough staples to get by, but fresh produce and legumes have become almost impossible to source. “We can still get beef and chicken, but the easy access to fresh foods we had before is gone,” Khan said.
For shipping companies, the crisis has already resulted in billions of dollars in lost revenue and cargo delays, and many are already planning to cut staffing costs to offset losses. For the trapped sailors, the human cost is far higher: most sailors’ employment contracts are expiring, and large-scale crew rotations have been put on hold indefinitely. Many seafarers are now rethinking their decision to work in the industry, saying the crisis has exposed just how quickly access to international waterways can become a weapon in future conflicts.
Masood, whose contract ends in just one month, says he is now reconsidering his decades-long career at sea. But for now, his only focus is getting home to his family in Pakistan, where he planned to bring back gifts: Barbie dolls for his two daughters and a toy airplane for his young son. “I thought I would be home weeks ago, but we’re still stuck here,” he said. “Every single day my family messages asking when I’ll come home, and I have no answer to give them.”
A small number of vessels — roughly 750 since late February, according to maritime analytics firm Kpler — have managed to secure passage through the strait. Jonathan Schroden, a researcher at Washington DC-based non-profit think tank CNA, noted that most of these successful transits are for vessels owned by companies from China, India, or Pakistan, and rely on direct government diplomacy with Tehran. “On top of diplomatic support, it appears ship owners have also paid a transit fee running into millions of dollars per vessel,” Schroden added.
For the *Banglar Joyjatra*, diplomatic negotiations with Iran are the crew’s only path out. The Bangladeshi government has been working alongside the ship’s owner, state-run Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), to secure exit approval. Initially, BSC and the government agreed to pay the transit fee Iran demanded, but the plan collapsed after the United States threatened to impose sanctions on any entity that complied with Iran’s terms. “We are caught between two sides now,” said BSC managing director Commodore Mahmudul Hasan. “We are facing a double crisis that we can’t seem to escape.”
Even for crew members who have managed to hold onto hope, the uncertainty of each passing day wears on. Hasan, the *Banglar Joyjatra*’s chief engineer, says he still believes the crew will get through this “critical moment” — but for thousands of trapped sailors across the Gulf, every day stuck at anchor is another day of fear, uncertainty, and waiting for a way home.
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Putin remains uncompromising on Ukraine, but is public discourse on war changing in Russia?
Five years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian state remains unapologetic in its prosecution of the war, with President Vladimir Putin doubling down on his commitment to achieve Moscow’s stated aims even as the originally planned short operation has devolved into a grinding, costly stalemate.
The defining posture of modern Russia in 2026 is best captured by a blunt remark from popular folk singer Nadezhda Babkina, who, after receiving a state honor from Putin at the Kremlin, declared that Russia’s multi-ethnic national unity would never allow surrender, adding “Anyone who doesn’t like that can go and poison themselves.” That uncompromising tone echoes longstanding messaging from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who once framed Russia as unashamed of its identity and actions on the global stage – a description that fits Putin himself, who has never expressed remorse for ordering the 2022 invasion and shows no intention of halting military operations.
Just ahead of this year’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s flagship event designed to attract global investment and showcase the country to international audiences, Moscow launched another massive wave of missile and drone strikes across Ukrainian territory. While high-profile Western investors and political figures abandoned the forum years ago, organizers claim delegations from more than 130 countries and territories are still set to attend. Even so, a years-long active war on a neighboring country is hardly an ideal selling point for a nation courting foreign capital – a contradiction that does little to shift Moscow’s behavior.
Putin’s public demands remain unchanged: he continues to insist Ukraine cede full control of the entire Donbas region to Russia. What has shifted, however, is Moscow’s earlier high hopes for a favorable peace deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump. Last year, following the Anchorage summit between Trump and Putin, senior Russian officials repeatedly praised the so-called “spirit of Anchorage”, suggesting the two leaders had reached a mutually beneficial understanding that would force Kyiv to accept Moscow’s maximalist terms. Today, that optimism has faded: Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov recently told Russian state television he has never used the phrase, a quiet signal that the once-touted diplomatic breakthrough has all but evaporated.
That dashed hope is one of many factors fueling Putin’s growing frustration. What was planned as a quick, short-term “special military operation” has become a bloody war of attrition entering its fifth year, leaving Russia with massive battlefield casualties, deep economic damage from sweeping international sanctions, and eroded technological capacity. The conflict has increasingly moved into Russian territory as well: Ukrainian drones now regularly strike deep inside the country, targeting key energy infrastructure including oil refineries. A large-scale drone attack on the Moscow region last month exposed gaps in the capital’s air defense network, prompting officials to scale back the iconic annual 9 May Victory Day parade on Red Square amid security fears. Sanctions and prolonged war have also strained Russia’s public finances, with a growing budget deficit and stagnant economic output becoming persistent problems.
Rather than drawing down military operations to address these challenges, the Kremlin has opted for escalation, as demonstrated by the recent large-scale air raids on Ukrainian cities. Moscow frames the escalation as a response to a Ukrainian strike on a building in Starobilsk, a city in occupied eastern Ukraine, which Russia says was a student dormitory that left 21 dead. Ukraine confirms it targeted the headquarters of Russia’s elite Rubicon drone unit in the area but has not confirmed whether the building matched the one Russia identified.
As Putin prepares to address delegates at the St Petersburg forum – a traditional venue for him to lay out his worldview and criticize the West – there is no indication he will use the speech to signal any shift in Russia’s position on the war. That said, faint signs of a growing domestic debate over the future of the conflict have begun to emerge, even within Russia’s tightly controlled media ecosystem.
Writing in *Russia In Global Affairs*, a journal closely tied to Russia’s foreign policy establishment, prominent political scientist Vasily Kashin recently concluded that the core goal of removing the current Ukrainian government is fundamentally unachievable at this stage without a long-term full military occupation of the entire country – a step that is technically out of Russia’s reach. Other Russian commentators have echoed similar uncertainty: pro-Kremlin tabloid *Moskovsky Komsomolets* quoted political analyst Alexander Nosovich noting that the expert community is split, with one camp pushing to continue the war until all stated goals are met and the other arguing it is time to end the conflict, warning that the worst outcome is not defeat, but an endless open-ended war.
In a striking break from the dominant narrative that frames Russia as a nation defined by victory, lawyer Dmitry Krasnov argued in the same outlet that throughout Russian history, lost wars and humiliating truces have often paved the way for critical reforms, breakthroughs and eventual future victories, suggesting major geopolitical setbacks can sometimes be more useful than military triumphs. When reporters attempted to access the article online days later, it had been removed, with a 404 access denied error appearing. While a limited public discourse over the war is emerging, it still operates within clear, strict boundaries set by the Kremlin.
With no shift in Putin’s position and no diplomatic breakthrough on the horizon, an end to the devastating conflict remains as distant as ever.