Ukrainian forces fired more than 30 drones in a renewed assault over the weekend as Russian forces lost at least an entire brigade in their push for the eastern town of Avdiivka, officials said. The Russian air defence systems destroyed 36 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the Black Sea and the northwestern part of the Crimean peninsula, its defence ministry wrote on Telegram on Sunday, accusing Kyiv of carrying out a “terrorist attack”. In a separate incident, local officials in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region near the Black Sea said an oil refinery was hit and set ablaze in the early hours of Sunday but did not explain what caused the fire. Several local media outlets said that the fire was caused by a drone strike or a crashed drone’s debris. Officials in Kyiv have not issued a comment on the Russian defence ministry’s claims. The war-hit nation rarely acknowledges responsibility for attacks on Russia and Russian-occupied territories but has admitted that striking targets there helps its counteroffensive. The recent months have seen drone strikes and shelling on the Russian border regions and illegally annexed Crimea peninsula as a regular part of the continuing military offensive. This comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin has lost “at least a brigade” of troops in his offensive push towards the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka. “The invaders made several attempts to surround Avdiivka, but each time our soldiers stopped them and threw them back, causing painful losses. In these cases, the enemy lost at least a brigade,” Mr Zelensky said. Avdiivka, about 25km (16 miles) from Russian-occupied Donetsk, is surrounded by Russian-held territory to the north, east and south, leaving only its west for Kyiv’s troops to resupply and evacuate people. In its latest push for the coke town, Ukraine claimed that Russia is pouring a huge number of forces. The offensive from Russia was renewed in mid-October as tanks and heavy military vehicles were seen heading for the town. Russian forces have since tried to shell Ukrainian positions with constant barrages of artillery, waves of troops and fighting vehicles. But these losses being borne by Mr Putin are likely among some of the highest Russia has seen this year, the British Ministry of Defence said in its intelligence update on the war, claiming that Moscow has probably committed elements of up to eight brigades to the fighting which is “heavy but inconclusive”. The British intelligence claimed that the Russian military bloggers have been “harshly critical” of the tactics Russia has deployed in the Avdiivka operation. Elsewhere on the war front, the Ukraine’s Air Force said its forces shot down five Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones fired by Russia overnight. Another four police officers were wounded when a shell fired by Russian troops exploded near their car in the city of Siversk, located in the partly occupied Donetsk province close to the front line in the country’s east where Ukrainian and Russian forces were locked in a battle for control. Read More Russia-Ukraine war: Putin ally Lukashenko warns of ‘serious stalemate’ If Putin dies, this is what would happen in Russia War-weary mothers, wives and children of Ukrainian soldiers demand a cap on military service time

Kemal Kilicdaroglu has mounted the strongest election challenge to Turkey's leader so far.

WASHINGTON A key Senate Republican said Thursday he plans to support the White House nominee to head the

Northern Ireland had a stoppage-time equaliser ruled out by VAR as a battling display went unrewarded in a 1-0 Euro 2024 qualifying loss to Denmark. Jonas Wind’s goal early in the second half made the difference in Copenhagen as debutant Callum Marshall saw a dream goal ruled out for offside after a review which took almost five minutes. The West Ham youngster flicked the ball in after Jonny Evans headed on a free-kick, but there was despair when referee Daniel Stefanski eventually signalled for offside after his colleague Tomasz Kwiatkowski took an age to review the footage. Michael O’Neill’s men defended doggedly away to the top seeds in Group H, but a mistake just two minutes after the break proved decisive as Denmark bounced back from March’s shock defeat to Kazakhstan and put the pressure on Northern Ireland to deliver when the Kazakhs visit Windsor Park on Monday. Wind pounced when Ciaron Brown got it all wrong trying to deal with Joakim Maehle’s short cross in from the left, slamming the ball home from close range. But O’Neill will take encouragement from how a youthful line-up dealt with the hardest fixture in Group H. Before kick-off came news that Craig Cathcart had suffered a back injury, taking the number of first-team regulars missing to 10, a figure threatening to derail this qualifying campaign even before the halfway stage. Trai Hume made his first start at left wing-back, with Evans between Brown and Paddy McNair at the back. Also making his first start was Isaac Price, one of three teenagers in the side along with Conor Bradley and Shea Charles. O’Neill was well aware of what he was asking of such inexperienced players in the raucous atmosphere of the Parken Stadium, and watched on as they soaked up huge amounts of pressure before the break as Denmark grew frustrated. Andreas Skov Olsen’s early cross was slightly behind Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who twisted acrobatically to make contact but could not find the target. Christian Eriksen sent a free-kick from long range wide, while the clearest chance came to Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen just before the half hour as space opened up in front of him, but his powerful shot was straight at Bailey Peacock-Farrell. Shayne Lavery, selected ahead of Dion Charles in attack, worked tirelessly to offer an outlet as he and the slender figure of Price, asked to play in an advanced role, faced up to Denmark’s imposing back three of Simon Kjaer, Andreas Christensen and Andersen. It was Lavery who had Northern Ireland’s only first-half opportunity when Price laid the ball off on the edge of the area. Lavery looked up to see three defenders closing in, but got off a deflected strike which Kasper Schmeichel was able to gather. But after all that hard work in the first half, Denmark needed only two minutes of the second to find the breakthrough thanks to a mistake at the back. Northern Ireland did not recover their shape after Bradley lost the ball, and when Brown stumbled to the floor, Wind accepted the gift. A set-piece offered Northern Ireland an opportunity but Price and Lavery got their wires crossed trying to play it short and Denmark broke, with Peacock-Farrell saving smartly from the in-demand Rasmus Hojlund, scorer of five goals in the first two qualifiers. Quick distribution from Peacock-Farrell set Price free down the right as the hour mark approached, but with no support the teenager had to test Schmeichel from a tight angle, forcing a corner. It looked as though there was a late twist when Marshall, on for Ali McCann with five minutes left, turned the ball home from close range, but VAR would kill the celebrations. Just three games into the qualifying campaign, it feels as though Northern Ireland must now deliver a result at home on Monday to keep themselves in the mix.

FIFA has banned ousted former Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales from the sport for three years

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 23, 2023--

WASHINGTON The Pentagon has deployed two aircraft carriers -- and their supporting ships -- to the eastern Mediterranean

SpaceX has broken its own record for the number of launches in a single year with its 62nd rocket sent into space on Sunday. A Falcon 9 carrying Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 10.47pm local time, surpassing the previous milestone of 61 launches set in 2022. It was the 10th flight for the first stage booster rocket, with SpaceX also breaking a separate record earlier this year for launching reused rockets. The Falcon 9 rocket landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after delivering the Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. SpaceX boss Elon Musk said SpaceX could complete up to 100 rocket launches this year, making the private space firm by far the most prolific company or space agency to send payloads into space. “SpaceX has delivered ~80 per cent of all Earth payload mass to orbit in 2023. China is ~10 per cent and rest of world other ~10 per cent,” Mr Musk posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Based on the Falcon launch plan for next year, SpaceX will deliver ~90 per cent of all Earth payload to orbit. Starship will take that to >99 per cent in future years. These magnitudes are madness to consider, but necessary to make consciousness multiplanetary.” SpaceX’s Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built – measuring 121 metres in height and with a thrust of 5,000 metric tons – but is yet to successfully complete an orbital flight. Following a successful high-altitude flight test in 2021, SpaceX attempted a 90 minute orbital flight earlier this year but it exploded just three minutes into the flight. The next attempt is expected to take place this month, though no exact date has been set. More than 1,000 design changes have been made to the craft since the first failed attempt, including new venting systems and heat shields to improve the stage separation of the upper and lower stages of the rocket. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is yet to grant a launch licence for the latest mission amid concerns about issues revealed in the first orbital launch attempt. SpaceX has already secured a multi-billion dollar deal with Nasa to keep developing Starship for use on the US space agency’s Artemis mission, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade. Mr Musk has previously said that Starship is integral to his plans to turn humanity into a multi-planetary species, with the aim of deploying a fleet of Starships to establish a permanent colony on Mars before 2050. Read More ‘It’s like an airport’: How SpaceX normalised rocket launches SpaceX crew streak across sky before splashing down off Florida coast Watch live: SpaceX launches satellites for US Space Development Agency Elon Musk’s SpaceX sued over allegations of hiring discrimination

Australian police said Saturday that debris had been found from an Australian military helicopter that crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but there was still no sign of four missing crew...

Greece's ruling New Democracy party scored a crushing victory in parliamentary elections Sunday but fell short of winning an outright majority in a vote dominated by the cost-of-living crisis, a wiretapping scandal and anger over the country's deadliest-ever train crash.

Journalists at two dozen local newspapers across the U.S. walked off the job Monday to demand an end to painful cost-cutting measures and a change of leadership at Gannett, the country’s biggest newspaper chain

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee It has been a tough week