World news briefs: Russia, Ukraine in prisoner exchange

Russia launches biggest drone attack on Ukraine

Kyiv — Russia hit Ukraine overnight with its largest drone attack since the start of the war, causing some damage at a military airfield in the west of the country that was one of its main targets, the Ukrainian air force said on Monday.

It was the latest in Russian onslaughts since Ukraine destroyed a number of Russian bombers in drone attacks on airbases deep inside Russia earlier this month.

Ukraine’s air defence units downed 460 out of 479 drones and 19 out of 20 missiles launched by the Russian forces, the air force said in a statement. Reuters

Russia plans to boost ‘sensitive’ security ties in Africa

Moscow — Russia plans to step up co-operation with African countries including in “sensitive areas” such as defence and security, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Russian mercenary group Wagner said last week it was leaving Mali after helping the military junta in its fight against Islamist militants. The Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary force, said it would remain in the West African country.

Asked what this meant for Russia’s role in Africa, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “The Russian presence in Africa is growing. We intend to comprehensively develop our interaction with African countries, focusing primarily on economic and investment interaction. Reuters

Iran ‘actively collected IAEA’s nuclear documents’ 

Vienna — Iran’s acquisition of confidential UN nuclear watchdog documents is a “bad” step that goes against the spirit of co-operation that should exist between the agency and Tehran, its chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a confidential report on Iran to member states on May 31 that it had “conclusive evidence of highly confidential documents belonging to the agency having been actively collected and analysed by Iran”.

“Here, unfortunately, and this dates to a few years ago ... we could determine with all clarity that documents that belong to the agency were in the hands of Iranian authorities, which is bad,” Grossi told a press conference. “We believe that an action like this is not compatible with the spirit of co-operation.” Reuters

Colombian senator survives assassination attempt

Bogota — Colombian senator Miguel Uribe, a potential presidential contender, is in critical condition and has shown little response to treatment after being shot in Bogota on Saturday, the hospital treating him said in a statement on Monday.

On Sunday his wife, Maria, told local media: “Miguel came out of surgery, he made it. Every hour is a critical hour. He fought his first battle, and it went well.”

The couple are parents to a young son. Reuters

Read more: Colombian senator Uribe ‘fighting for his life’ after shooting

Zelensky announces exchange of prisoners of war

Kyiv — Ukraine has brought home a first group of prisoners from Russian captivity in the latest exchange between the two sides, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.

“Today’s exchange has begun. It will be done in several stages in the coming days,” he said on the Telegram app, adding that the severely wounded and those under 25 were part of this swap. It is the first group of prisoners of war to be exchanged after the second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul earlier this month. Reuters

Israeli takes control of Gaza freedom flotilla ship

Jerusalem/Ashdod — Israeli naval forces boarded and seized a charity vessel carrying Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, which had tried to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip on Monday.

The British-flagged yacht, Madleen, which is operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition, had aimed to deliver a symbolic amount of aid to Gaza later on Monday and raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis there.

The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed that the vessel was under Israeli control. Israel has called Thunberg an “anti-Semite” and dismissed the aid ship as a stunt. Reuters

Britain makes U-turn on winter fuel payments

London — Britain will make winter fuel payments to millions of older people this winter, in a major U-turn of deeply unpopular cuts after months of political pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

After taking office last July Starmer’s Labour government cut winter fuel payments for all but the poorest pensioners in England and Wales as part of wider spending reductions which it said were necessary to fix a hole in the public finances left by the previous Conservative administration.

The reversal announced on Monday will restore those payments to 9-million pensioners, excluding only 2-million who earn above £35,000 from the £200-£300 subsidy for heating bills in the colder months. Reuters

Poland’s new president seeks close ties with Orban

Warsaw — Hungary is an important partner for Poland, newly elected Polish president Karol Nawrocki, told a Hungarian magazine in his first foreign interview, adding he would be building co-operation within the regional Visegrad Group.

The Visegrad Group, comprising Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, took a back seat after Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s liberal coalition took power in 2023 from the nationalist Law and Justice party, which had close relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. 

Eurosceptic Nawrocki narrowly won the Polish presidential election this month, which Orban said was “fantastically good”.

Reuters 

States suing to stop Trump returning gun parts

Fifteen Democratic-led US states filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block Republican President Donald Trump’s administration from returning thousands of previously seized devices that can be used to convert semi-automatic rifles into weapons able to shoot as quickly as machine guns. 

The states filed the lawsuit in federal court in Baltimore in the wake of the administration’s May 16 settlement that resolved litigation involving a ban on certain “forced-reset triggers” imposed by the government under Joe Biden. The states in the lawsuit said such devices remain illegal to possess under federal law.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under Biden issued the ban after it determined that some of these devices should be classified as illegal machine guns under a federal law called the National Firearms Act. Reuters