ONE OF A NESTING PAIR

Colts safety's father identified as man who allegedly killed bald eagle with rifle

Rodney Thomas, 50, turned himself into police

By Ryan Morik | Fox News

Roughly two weeks after a man surrendered to police for allegedly killing a bald eagle, the identity of the suspect has been released.

The alleged poacher is 50-year-old Rodney Thomas, whose son, Rodney Thomas II, is a safety for the Indianapolis Colts.

The alleged shooting happened May 12 outside Pittsburgh when residents found one of two local mature bald eagles dead in a field.


"We're devastated that this would happen, and we don’t understand why somebody would do this," resident Linda Carnevali told Fox News Digital earlier this month.


Indianapolis Colt Rodney Thomas II warms up before a game against the Tennessee Titans Oct. 2, 2022, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

 (Jenna Watson/IndyStar/USA Today Network)

The eagle pair had been in the area nearly two decades, she said, almost always together except when they were protecting their clutches or newly hatched eaglets. Two eaglets recently hatched in the nest, residents said.

Within days of the poaching, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said in a statement tips had led investigators to the suspect, who "admitted to all aspects of the crime."

"We believe that the suspect will face any appropriate state and/or federal charges in due course upon the conclusion of the ongoing investigations," Mount Pleasant Township Police Chief Matthew Tharp said.

Two mature bald eagles in their nest in Mount Pleasant Township, Pa. One of them was allegedly killed by a poacher in May, shortly after two eaglets hatched. (Shannon Kuzio)

Bald eagles are considered one of the country's greatest wildlife preservation success stories, and populations have rebounded across the U.S. after they were first placed on the endangered species list.

When they were upgraded from endangered to protected, the state penalty for killing an eagle in Pennsylvania was downgraded to a summary violation fine of up to $200.

The Pennsylvania state Senate recently passed a bill to raise the fine to $2,000 in an effort to discourage poaching.

The federal penalty for poaching a bald eagle can include a fine of up to $100,000 and up to one year in prison for a first offense, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


Indianapolis Colts safety Rodney Thomas II intercepts a pass against the Minnesota Vikings during the fourth quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. (Matt Krohn/USA Today Sports)

Thomas was a seventh-round pick out of Yale last year to Indianapolis. He appeared in all 17 games last year, playing 63% of defensive snaps and intercepting four passes.

RIP

How Tony Bennett survived a near fatal drug overdose to create an 80-year career that knitted together the old and new Americas

BYJOSE VALENTINO RUIZ AND THE CONVERSATION
July 22, 2023

Tony Bennett.
JO HALE/GETTY IMAGES

In the history of American popular music, there have been few luminaries as enduring and innovative as Tony Bennett.

With a career that spanned almost 80 years, Bennett’s smooth tones, unique phrasing and visionary musical collaborations left an indelible mark on vocal jazz and the recording industry as a whole.

That his death at the age of 96 on July 21, 2023, was mourned by artists as varied as Keith Urban, Ozzy Osbourne and Harry Connick Jr. should come as no surprise. Yes, Bennett was a jazz crooner. But if his voice was always a constant – even late into his 80s, way past an age when most other singers have seen their vocal abilities diminish – then his embrace of the contemporary was every bit a facet of Bennett’s appeal.

Vocal innovator

Bennett’s journey is a testament to the power of daring innovation.

From the early days of his career in the 1950s to his final recordings in the early 2020s, he fearlessly explored new musical territories, revolutionizing vocal jazz and captivating audiences across generations.

His vocal style and phrasing were distinctive and set him apart from other artists of his time. He utilized a delayed or “laid-back” approach to falling on the note, a technique known as “rubato.” This created a sense of anticipation in his phrasing, adding an element of surprise to his performances. Through Bennett’s skilled use of rubato, he was able to play with the tempo and rhythm of a song, bending and stretching musical phrases to evoke a range of emotions. This subtle manipulation of timing gave his songs a natural and conversational quality, making listeners feel as though he was intimately sharing his stories with them.

Armed with this silky, playful voice, Bennett found fame fairly early on in his career, delivering jazz standards alongside the likes of Mel Tormé and Nat King Cole. By the mid-1960s, he was being touted by Frank Sinatra as “the best singer in the business.”

But his musical style fell out of fashion in the 1970s – a lean period during which Bennett almost succumbed to a drug overdose. Then, in the 1990s, Bennett found a new audience and set off a series of collaborations with contemporary musical stars that would become the standard for his later career.

No genre of artistry was deemed off-limits for Bennett. “Duets: An American Classic,” released to coincide with his 80th birthday in 2006, saw collaborations with country stars such as k.d. lang and the Dixie Chicks – now known as the Chicks – and soul legend Stevie Wonder, alongside kindred jazz spirits such as Diana Krall. “Duets II,” a 2011 follow-up, saw further explorations with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, Willie Nelson and Amy Winehouse, in what would become the British singer’s last recording.

But his cross-generational, cross-genre and cross-cultural appeal is perhaps best exemplified by his collaborations with Lady Gaga, first on the 2014 Grammy-winning album “Cheek to Cheek.” The recording brought together two artists from different generations, genres and backgrounds, uniting them in a harmonious celebration of jazz classics. The collaboration not only showcased each one’s vocal prowess, but also sent a powerful message about the unifying nature of music.

Lady Gaga, a pop artist with avant-garde leanings, might have seemed an unlikely partner for Bennett, the quintessential jazz crooner. Yet their musical chemistry and mutual admiration resulted in an album that mesmerized audiences worldwide. “Cheek to Cheek” effortlessly transcended musical boundaries, while the duo’s magnetic stage presence and undeniable talent enchanted listeners.

The successful fusion of jazz and pop encouraged artists to experiment beyond traditional boundaries, leading to more cross-genre projects across the industry – proving that such projects could go beyond one-off novelties, and be profitable at that.

Timeless artistry

Bennett’s embrace of contemporary artists did not mean that he abandoned his own musical self. By blending traditional jazz with contemporary elements, he managed to captivate audiences across generations, appealing to both longtime fans and new listeners.

One key aspect of Bennett’s success was his ability to embody the sentiment of old America, reminiscent of artists like Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, while infusing contemporary nuances that resonated with the human condition of a more modern era. His approach to music captured both the essence and struggle of America, giving his songs a timeless and universal appeal. Moreover, his voice conveyed familiarity and comfort, akin to listening to a beloved uncle.

Bennett’s albums stood out not only for his soulful voice and impeccable delivery but also for the way he drew others from varied musical backgrounds into his world of jazz sensibilities. As a producer, he recognized the importance of nurturing creativity and bringing out the best in artists.

Meanwhile, Bennett’s approach to evolving his own sound while preserving its essence sets him apart as an artist. Fearless in his pursuit of innovation, he delved into contemporary musical elements and collaborated with producers to infuse new sonic dimensions into his later albums. The result drew listeners into an intimate and immersive, concert-like acoustic journey.

Depth of emotion

The greats in music have an ability to speak to the human experience. And either in collaboration with others or on his own, Bennett was able to achieve this time and time again.

His albums were successful not only due to their technical brilliance and musicality but also because Bennett’s voice conveyed a depth of emotion that transcended barriers of time and culture, touching the hearts of listeners from various backgrounds. There was a universality in his music that made him a beloved and revered artist across the globe.

Bennett’s life spanned decades of societal upheavals in the United States. But in his music, listeners could always find beauty in challenging times. And as the 20th- and 21st-century American music industry went through its own revolutions, Bennett’s artistic evolution mirrored the changes, cementing his place as a music icon who defies the boundaries of time and trends.

Jose Valentino Ruiz is Program Director of Music Business & Entrepreneurship, University of Florida.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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WATCH: Why Haiti's Women's Soccer Team Qualifying For World Cup Gives Country Hope

By NowThis

Published on 7/20/2023 at 6:11 PM

For the first time, Haiti’s women's national soccer team qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, a victory that symbolizes hope for the country.

Climate activists try to block tree removal in Seattle

 

(21 Jul 2023) Climate activists in Seattle are taking residence in shifts on an old thick cedar tree to protest its removal. They're trying to save a tree they say could be 200 years old.

(AP Video: Manuel Valdes)

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Snoqualmie Tribe says Wedgwood protest is about more than one tree

• Paige Browning
• John O'Brien

July 21, 2023 /

1 OF 5 Cecile Hansen, chair of the Duwamish Tribal Council, attends a gratitude gathering for Luma, a roughly 200-year-old culturally modified cedar tree at risk of being cut down for a development project, on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, in the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle.

KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

Reports started circulating last Friday that an activist had climbed and camped out in a giant tree in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood. A developer planned to remove the approximately 150-year-old Western redcedar to make way for a multi-unit housing project.

Over the last week, crowds of tree-loving community members joined the protest. Jaime Martin is the executive director of governmental affairs and special projects for the Snoqualmie Tribe. She spoke to KUOW’s Paige Browning about the significance of this and other area trees.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Paige Browning: What is your understanding of why removal was approved for this tree, one of the relatively few left in the Seattle area of this stature?

Jaime Martin: Yeah, it's perplexing. Honestly, I've spoken with multiple tree service providers that are registered in the city. And they've also remarked that they were surprised that it was permitted for removal. It's healthy. It's a gorgeous tree. It's on the very edge of the lot, so it's not impeding building from happening in a responsible way.

A lot of folks are not familiar with Culturally Modified Trees, or CMTs. And really, the only way to become aware of them is to make sure that there's proper tribal consultation prior to a project being permitted so that tribes — Snoqualmie and others in the area — can make sure that something like a CMT is not being impacted. In this case, it appears the city did no assessments, and did not consult with any tribes on this issue. That has resulted in very unfortunate projects being permitted by the city.

Can you say more about what CMTs are?

CMTs are often in this area. They're redcedars and sometimes other tree species. They can be found all across the Pacific Northwest, all the way from Alaska to Northern California. In this region, there are a few characteristics that they tend to have. Sometimes you can see a spot where a tribe harvested cedar bark from the side of trees. This is done in a way that's very sustainable and is a traditional practice where the bark can be removed in a way that the tree still lives. And then the bark can be used for things like weaving.

Some of the other characteristics you see on culturally modified trees are bent branches that are indicating various types of information. Sometimes it's communicating something like a directional sense even, so kind of like a living signpost, if you will.

Was there knowledge ahead of time that this particular Western redcedar was culturally modified?

Not to my knowledge, although this area, the Wedgwood neighborhood of northeast Seattle, was only developed in the late 30s and 40s. The area was heavily used by tribes before that. So there were some sites in the area, there were trails, and so it's known as an area that is where CMTs are prevalent.

The developers in the area, in the 1940s, purposefully retained these trees because they saw their value. They're really beautiful. They provide so many ecological benefits, and they really make the neighborhood the neighborhood that it is. So it's not necessarily that this particular tree was known to be a CMT, but there are CMTs prevalent in the area.

More people are learning now about culturally modified significant trees because of this one redcedar in Wedgwood. Can you tell me what exactly the Snoqualmie Tribe is asking of the Seattle City Council and the mayor now?

We're asking the mayor to issue an executive order that would basically direct staff to halt the implementation of the new tree ordinance that goes into effect on July 30. This would give us time to make sure that there's proper and meaningful tribal consultation that occurs, and that CMTs and other cultural resources that would be impacted by that tree ordinance can be included in that language before it goes into effect.

City of Seattle officials told us today that the Department of Construction and Inspections does not have the legal authority to revoke the permit to cut down the tree, as it already approved the permit to construct three housing units on the site where the redcedar sits.

Why the U.S. sending cluster weapons to Ukraine is divisive

Fifty years after the last bombs were dropped on Laos, unexploded cluster munitions continue to be dangerous making the U.S. decision to send cluster weapons to Ukraine controversial. Read more: https://wapo.st/3rzUV83.

 

WATCH: Pink Dolphin Spotted in Louisiana Waters

By NowThis

Published on 7/20/2023 

 

A rare pink dolphin was caught on camera by a fisherman in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on July 12. Experts say the pink dolphin is likely an albino bottlenose dolphin

The Sea Otter Harassing Surfers off the California Coast Eludes Capture As Her Fan Club Grows

Jessica Fujii, Sea Otter Program Manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said the team has faced some challenges in its pursuit, including bad weather.

By NowThis

Published on 7/20/2023 

This image from video provided by TMX shows an encounter between a female otter and a surfer off the coast of Santa Cruz, Calif., on Sunday, July 9, 2023. California wildlife officials are trying to capture and rehome the otter. (Hefti Brunhold/Amazing Animals+/TMX via AP)

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A sea otter launched into the national spotlight after images of her aggressively wresting surfboards away from surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California circulated on social media is building a fan club as she continues to evade capture.

A team of wildlife experts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium have been trying to capture the 5-year-old animal, known as otter 841, since last week because they say she poses a public safety risk.

They say they want to examine her and relocate her at a zoo or aquarium —as yet to no avail.
She now has a growing fan club, with people showing up every day to get a glimpse of her spending time sunbathing on the rocky shore, diving in the water and chomping down on crabs.

Jessica Fujii, Sea Otter Program Manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said the team has faced some challenges in its pursuit, including bad weather.

“The main issue is more just her ability to evade. Because this has been an ongoing effort, she is wary of those nets," Fujii said.

Federal and state wildlife officials did not return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment Thursday on their effort to catch otter 841.

The mischievous mammal was made famous by a professional photographer who posted photos and videos on social media that show her aggressively approaching surfers and getting on top of surfboards — on at least one occasion biting and tearing chunks off a board.

“They can’t throw a net over her in the water. They can’t tranquilize her because of fear of her drowning. So they really need to get hands on her," said the Santa Cruz photographer, Mark Woodward.

The team trying to capture her has used a baited surfboard. She’s gotten on it multiple times in the past few days, according to Woodward. But as soon as a wildlife official towing the surfboard carrying her gets near the team's boat, she dives off, he said.

The otter’s aggressive behavior is highly unusual, and the reason is unknown, federal wildlife officials said.

“Aggressive behavior in female southern sea otters may be associated with hormonal surges or due to being fed by humans,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement last week.

Otter 841 was born in captivity and released into the wild in June 2020. She is tagged with her number and has a radio transmitter that officials have been monitoring to keep tabs on her.

They said it is not the first time the otter has been aggressive toward humans. She was observed approaching people in late 2021. In May 2022, she was spotted with a pup in the Santa Cruz area, and four months later exhibited similar aggressive behavior.

Meanwhile, her fans want her to be left alone.

“Just leave ‘em alone. Just let ’em have fun. Hasn’t bitten anybody. Roughs up the board. It’s like a dog with a chew, you know?” said Jackie Rundell, a Santa Cruz resident who on Wednesday visited the bay.

Southern sea otters, whose population dwindled to about 50 in 1938, are managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. They are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and are protected under the Marine Mammal Act and California state law.

Now with a population of about 3,000, sea otters play a fundamental role in maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems by preying on sea urchins that can multiply and eat their way through the kelp forests both marine creatures share, wildlife officials said.

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By HAVEN DALEY and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

Former Street-Food Salesgirl Shaking Up Mexico's Presidential Race

July 22, 2023
Associated Press

Senator Xochitl Galvez, an opposition presidential hopeful, speaks to the press after registering her name as a candidate in Mexico City, July 4, 2023.

A street-food salesgirl who became a tech entrepreneur and senator is shaking up the contest to succeed Mexico's popular president and offering many voters the first real alternative to her country's dominant party.

Xóchitl Gálvez, 60, helped her family as a girl by selling tamales on the street. Today the straight-talking opposition senator is a long shot against Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Morena party, which holds Congress and 22 of Mexico's 32 states.

Despite her slim chances, Gálvez seems to have shaken the president so badly that he's been insulting her almost daily during his morning briefings. The opposition senator comfortably sits in the national spotlight nearly a year ahead of the June 2, 2024 national election.

"She fills a space that was completely empty," said Roy Campos, president of polling firm Mitofsky Group. "All of the opposition population starts to see her and it generates hope."

Next year's election is López Obrador's chance to show if he has built a political movement that can outlast his charismatic leadership. Whoever his successor is, they will have to tackle persistently high levels of violence, heavily armed drug cartels and migration across the nearly 2,000-mile border with the United States.

Campos's group has not conducted an opposition candidate survey but that doesn't prevent him from feeling comfortable declaring Gálvez a "political phenomenon."

A political independent who initially set her sights on competing to be Mexico City mayor and often travels the sprawling capital on a bicycle, Gálvez entered the Senate chamber in December dressed as a dinosaur, an allusion to party leaders known known for their archaic, unmovable practices. At the time, López Obrador had proposed electoral reforms that critics said would weaken the country's National Electoral Institute. The Senate passed them earlier this year, but the Supreme Court later blocked them from taking effect.

A Mexican flag waves in front of The National Palace, the office of the president, in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, at sunrise, April 24, 2023.

Gálvez never shies from conflict with López Obrador. She went to a judge in December asking for an order to let her speak at the president's daily press briefing. She was granted the order, but the president rejected it.

Gálvez's fluid use of profanity, contrasting with her comfort moving in political circles, is an advantage with much of the working class, and with many young Mexicans. She registered this month to compete for the presidential nomination of a broad opposition coalition — the historically leftist PRD, the conservative PAN and the PRI that ruled Mexico for 70 years — joking that López Obrador was her campaign manager.

López Obrador remains highly popular, and while he cannot run for another six-year term, several high-profile members of his Morena party have been jockeying fiercely for months. They include Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and Interior Secretary Adan Augusto, who all agreed to resign their positions last month to campaign in earnest.

Their faces are plastered on billboards across the country, while Gálvez makes clever videos often shot with her own iPhone, some viewed millions of times.

Senator Xochitl Galvez, an opposition presidential hopeful, speaks to the press after registering her name as a candidate in Mexico City, July 4, 2023.

Mexican society is looking for someone new to believe in, Gálvez told The Associated Press.

"We'll have to see how much I manage to connect and how much I can convince," she recently told the AP.

Growing up poor in the central state of Hidalgo, her father was an Indigenous Otomi schoolteacher. He was also abusive, macho and alcoholic, Gálvez said. She learned to speak his native ñähñu as a child, holds her Indigenous roots close and favors wearing embroidered huipils.

As a girl, she sold gelatin and tamales to help her family. She worked as a scribe in a local civil registry office as a teen. At 16, she moved by herself to Mexico City and worked as a phone operator until earning a scholarship that allowed her to study computer science. Then she started a technology company, that, as López Obrador noted recently, has won government contracts.

Gálvez served as Indigenous affairs minister for President Vicente Fox, a plain-talking politician from the conservative National Action Party (PAN) who broke the Institutional Revolutionary Party's 70-year stranglehold on Mexican politics.

While she entered the Senate with the PAN, she has registered to compete for the nomination of the broad coalition of the country's traditional parties.

Galvez has assured PAN voters that she wants to keep advocating for them despite her moving to win over other parties with interests outside the traditional conservative base.

Her sense of humor and ability to speak comfortably, even at times profanely, with people in the street are characteristics she shares with López Obrador. They may be why he treats her as a threat.

The president accuses Gálvez of using her humble origins and speech to "trick" the poor, who make up much of his base of support. Instead, he paints her the candidate of the rich, the "oligarchs" and "conservatives."

She dismisses him as a fearful male chauvinist.

"He's going to try to deny my origins and deny my work, but there it is," she said.

"I had to face a very patriarchal culture, very macho, where as women we weren't seen as anything else but for work," she said.

Gálvez said she's not put off by the challenge posed by the favorites from the president's party.

"They're there because they want to continue doing the same as the president," she said. "They don't have their own identity."

Víctor Gordoa, president of Public Image Group, said Gálvez's life story is the kind that can reach people across social strata, resonating with the working class who see themselves in Gálvez, as well as the wealthy who see her as a potential weapon who has been untouchable so far.

 

Russia-Ukraine war: Drone hits Crimean ammunition depot as strikes kill, wound civilians and journalists in Ukraine

AP
By Felipe Dana
22 Jul, 2023 

Russian rockets are launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region, seen from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photo / AP

A Ukrainian drone strike Saturday caused a massive explosion at an ammunition depot in Russia-annexed Crimea, forcing the evacuation of nearby homes in the latest attack since Moscow cancelled a landmark grain deal amid Kyiv’s grinding efforts to retake its occupied territories.

The attack on the depot in central Crimea sent huge plumes of black smoke skyward and came five days after Ukraine struck a key bridge that links Russia to the peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014 and after Moscow suspended a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to safely export its grain through the Black Sea.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Kremlin-appointed head of Crimea, said in a Telegram post that there were no immediate reports of casualties from the strike, but that authorities were evacuating civilians within a 5km radius of the blast site.

The Ukrainian military took credit for the strike, saying it destroyed an oil depot and Russian military warehouses in Oktyabrske, in the Krasnohvardiiske region of Crimea, though without specifying which weapons it used.

A Crimean news channel posted videos Saturday showing plumes of smoke billowing above rooftops and fields near Oktyabrske, a small settlement next to an oil depot and a small military airport, as loud explosions rumbled in the background. In one video, a man can be heard saying the smoke and blast noises seemed to be coming from the direction of the airport.

The strike came during a week in which Ukraine attacked the Kerch Bridge and Russia, in what it described as “retribution” for the bridge attack, bombarded southern Ukrainian port cities, damaging critical infrastructure including grain and oil terminals.

A plume of smoke rises over an ammunition depot where explosions occurred at the facility in Kirovsky district in Crimea. Photo / AP

Ukraine also attacked the bridge in October, when a truck bomb blew up two of its sections, which took months to repair. Moscow decried that assault as an act of terrorism and retaliated by bombarding Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, targeting the country’s power grid over the winter

The Kerch Bridge is a conspicuous symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea and an essential land link to the peninsula. The US$3.6 billion, 19km bridge is the longest in Europe and is crucial for Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine.

As fierce fighting continues in Ukraine’s bid to retake territory from Russia, Russian shelling killed at least two civilians and wounded four others on Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported. A 52-year-old woman died in Kupiansk, a town in the northeastern Kharkiv region, while another person was killed in a cross-border Russian attack on a village in the neighbouring Sumy province.

Earlier Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian attacks on 11 regions across the country on Friday and overnight had killed at least eight civilians and wounded others.

A DW cameraman was injured on Saturday by shrapnel from Russian cluster munitions that also killed one Ukrainian soldier and wounded several others near the town of Druzhkivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, the German broadcaster said in a statement. Cameraman Ievgen Shylko was part of a team sent to report from the Ukrainian army training ground about 23km away from the frontline, it said.

“We were filming the Ukrainian army during target practice when suddenly we heard several explosions,” DW correspondent Mathias Bölinger said. “We lay down, more explosions followed, we saw people were wounded. Later, the Ukrainian army confirmed that we had been fired at with cluster munitions.”

Cluster munitions, which open in the air and release multiple small bomblets, are banned by more than 100 countries because of their threat to civilians, but they have been used extensively by both sides in the war.

The Pentagon has said the cluster munitions the US recently gave to Ukraine will give Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its counteroffensive.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that a group of Russian journalists came under artillery fire in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. In an online statement, it said four correspondents for pro-Kremlin media had been struck by cluster munitions and that one of them, Rostislav Zhuravlev of the state RIA Novosti news agency, later died from his injuries.

The Kremlin-installed head of the Russia-occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevhen Balitsky, claimed in a Telegram post that the journalists were travelling in a civilian vehicle that was hit by shelling. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the attack on journalists as a “heinous crime” in which the US and its allies were complicit.

The Ukrainian air force on Saturday morning said that overnight, it had brought down 14 Russian drones, including five Iranian-made ones, over the country’s southeast, where battles are raging. In a regular social media update, the air force said that all Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones launched by Russian troops during the night were brought down, pointing to Ukraine’s increasing success rate in neutralising them.