Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric dam, the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), is in “critical condition” after it was hit in a Russian strike on Ukraine’s key energy facilities, authorities say.

The head of the Zaporizhzhia region military administration, Ivan Fedorov, told Ukrainian television that the power plant can no longer produce electricity.

Traffic around the plant is “completely blocked,” he said, with residents being forced to drive over bridges to get around, he said.

Russia has continued its tactic of striking key energy facilities this week, with the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy warning Sunday of a “significant power shortage” as a knock-on effect of the strikes.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16404113

China surpasses US to become top export market for Korea

Nearly 1,000 people attended a ceremony Sunday honoring the memory of Ukrainian journalist Iryna Tsybukh, who was killed in action while serving as a volunteer combat medic a few days before her 26th birthday.

Tsybukh was killed while on rotation in the Kharkiv area, where Russia started its offensive nearly a month ago.

She had left a note describing how she wished the ceremony to be held, asking people to sing Ukrainian songs and attend in vyshyvankas — traditional embroidered shirts — instead of black clothes.

“I want everyone to sing at the farewell, to learn at least 10 meaningful songs and sing them in unison, to extinguish sorrow with native songs,” she wrote. And instead of flowers, she said, she asked people to make donations to the Hospitallers Volunteer Medical Batallion, in which she served.

European countries are getting increasingly frustrated with Budapest’s obstructions on Ukraine military aid and Russia sanctions.

Belgium, current holder of the rotating Council of the EU presidency, is taking the extraordinary step of urging EU governments to move ahead with the procedure to deprive Hungary — which takes over the presidency next month — of voting rights.

“We have a Europe that is making difficult headway, with unfortunately some states — one state in particular — increasingly adopting a transactional, blocking and veto attitude,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told POLITICO in an interview. 

She advocated advancing the EU’s Article 7 censure procedure against Budapest — an extreme move that can result in a country having its voting rights suspended.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16260179

Nikki Haley writes ‘Finish Them!’ on Israeli bomb bound for Gaza

The impact of an engorged Russia would unfurl over decades, touching every corner of the earth, and wreaking havoc on the global economy

Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to quit and collapse the governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to a Gaza ceasefire proposal unveiled by US President Joe Biden on Friday.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said they were opposed to striking any deal before Hamas was destroyed.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has pledged to back the government if Mr Netanyahu supported the plan.

The prime minister himself insisted there would be no permanent truce until Hamas's military and governing capabilities were destroyed and all hostages released.

Theconversation.com

Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny.

All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci” but also goodbye.

The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last.

Ukrainian president unleashes on Beijing, saying it’s helping Moscow threaten countries with higher food and fuel prices to convince them not to attend June 15-16 meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit out at China, accusing the country of helping Russia derail a peace summit this month in Switzerland.

"Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit," Zelenskyy said Sunday during a press conference after delivering an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

In a rare public rebuke of China — after years of careful attempts to court Beijing and peel it away from its "no limits" friendship with Russia — Zelenskyy's frustration appeared to boil over in Singapore. He said Ukraine had evidence that China was assisting Moscow's war efforts, despite the fact that Chinese President Xi Jinping had promised him in a phone call a year ago that Beijing would not get involved.

Two Lebanese shepherds were killed in an Israeli strike that hit their house in the town of Houla near the Lebanon-Israel border on Sunday, state media reported.

Lebanon’s National News agency said the men were civilians who used to sell sheep milk to neighboring villages.

Lebanese Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan said in a statement that a separate Israeli strike Sunday morning had damaged his ministry’s office in the town of Bint Jbeil, as well as the city’s commercial market and local government headquarters.

“Last night, we received a reminder of what a real leader looks like, who cares for Israel’s future and not his own. Thank you President Biden,” said Shaul Meridor, the former head of the Finance Ministry’s budget department, referring to the US president’s speech on Friday in which he outlined Israel’s proposal for a deal leading to a ceasefire and release of hostages, urged the Israeli government to stand behind it and called on Hamas to accept it.

Throughout its grinding seven-month war against Hamas, Israel has pledged to investigate a series of deadly events in which its military forces are suspected of wrongdoing. The commitment comes in the face of mounting claims — from human rights groups and the International Criminal Court ‘s chief prosecutor — that the country’s leaders are committing war crimes in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

In one of the highest-profile cases, an attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed five foreign aid workers, the Israeli army promptly published its findings, acknowledged misconduct by its forces and dismissed two soldiers. But other investigations remain open, and admissions of guilt are rare.

Israel’s Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, said this week that the military is investigating about 70 cases of alleged wrongdoing. She gave few details. The military refused to disclose the full list of investigations and told The Associated Press it could only respond to queries about specific probes.