Crews in Louisiana were still working to suppress flare-ups as an oil refinery fire burned for a second day along the banks of the Mississippi River

Crippling fuel shortages on the Caribbean island present opportunities for Russian companies.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Russia must not be allowed to “continue to take pieces of Ukraine” as he backed arming Kyiv to give it an upperhand during negotiations. “The stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the stronger they will be at the negotiating table. And when the war does end, we must ensure that history does not repeat itself. That Russia does not continue to take pieces of Ukraine,” the Nato chief said on Tuesday at the 75th Nordic Council in Oslo. “Russia has lost. It has lost tens of thousands of soldiers. It has lost large amounts of military material. And it has lost political influence and is increasingly isolated,” Mr Stoltenberg said. “The invasion of Ukraine is a strategic defeat for Russia.” He said the world feared Kyiv would fall in just a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. “Instead, the Ukrainians have liberated their land. Reclaiming half of the land that Russian forces took when they invaded last year,” he said. The war is now nearing its second winter as Ukraine launched a months-long counteroffensive. In a renewed confirmation of Kyiv’s place in the military alliance, Mr Stoltenberg said “all Nato countries agree that Ukraine should become a member of Nato”. The top official has constantly batted for Ukraine’s security and protection by means of military and financial aid during the war. Last month, Mr Stoltenberg said Russia’s invasion was a reminder of the important role Nato’s nuclear weapons played in deterring aggression. He had also clapped back against recent criticism of the “slow” counteroffensive action from Ukrainian troops and pointed out that the number of mines Ukraine has encountered on the battlefield are at a historic high. “The starting point is that the Russian army used to be the second strongest in the world. And now the Russian army is the second strongest in Ukraine. That’s quite impressive by Ukrainians,” he said. “No one ever said that this was going to be easy,” Mr Stoltenberg had told lawmakers at the European parliament earlier in August. “Hardly any time in history we have seen more mines on the battlefield than we are seeing in Ukraine today. So it was obvious that this was going to be extremely difficult.” The frontline in the 20-month-old war has remained largely unchanged, barring a few Ukrainian reclamations of villages and settlements after Kyiv’s counteroffensive went into action in June this year. Russian forces have geared up for fresh attacks in different sections of the front, but are suffering heavy losses. A majority of the fighting is concentrated in eastern and southern Ukraine, with Russian forces trying to reclaim Avdiivka town that was captured by Kyiv recently. Read More How much money does the US give to Israel, and is there more to come? Live updates | Gaza is plunged back into a communication blackout Family of nine shot dead as they slept in Russian-occupied Ukrainian town If Putin dies, this is what would happen in Russia Zelensky says Ukraine’s Black Sea assault ‘will go down in history’ Ukrainian troops advance as Putin air defences ‘struck in Crimea’ - latest

Time travel, or just an illusion? Eagle eyed art lovers have spotted what appears to be a satellite in a four-century old painting of Jesus Christ. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are depicted in the ‘Glorification of the Eucharist’, a painting by Ventura Salimbeni from 1595. But in the background is something surprising – a blue sphere with spikes sticking out of it, which some people have interpreted as Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Steve Mera, chairman of the Manchester Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training (MAPIT) and a paranormal specialist and lecturer, said at a conference: “You start to find a lot of religious connotation linked in with the UFO phenomenon. “This painting [the Eucharist] was painted in the 1600s and nobody ever really knew what that was a painting of, until we kind of looked at Sputnik, which was the first satellite to pass round the Earth,” he said. “What is really, really interesting is it is surprisingly similar to Sputnik, even to the point there is a little nodule there (on Sputnik) and the exact same nodule on the side there [on the object in the painting].” Clearly, Salimbeni wouldn’t have known about Sputnik. Or would he…? Mera added: "Did they somehow have knowledge of future events?" Well, we can probably assume not. Instead, experts think the ball is a representation of the so-called celestial sphere (or the universe), while the spikes indicate God’s power over it. But for conspiracy theorists, it’s yet another win for time travel. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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The internet and mobile phones may not have a “blanket negative effect” on wellbeing and mental health, researchers say. A large international study used data from two million people aged 15 to 89 in 168 countries, and found smaller associations than would be expected if the internet were causing widespread psychological harm. The researchers say that if the link between internet use and poor health were as universal and robust as many think they would have found it. We looked very hard for a ‘smoking gun’ linking technology and wellbeing and we didn’t find it Professor Andrew Przybylski, Oxford Internet Institute However, the study did not look at social media use, and although the data included some young people, the researchers did not analyse how long people spent online. Professor Andrew Przybylski, of the Oxford Internet Institute, and Assistant Professor Matti Vuorre, Tilburg University, and Research Associate, Oxford Internet Institute, carried out the research into home and mobile broadband use. Prof Przybylski said: “We looked very hard for a ‘smoking gun’ linking technology and wellbeing and we didn’t find it.” He added: “The popular idea that the internet and mobile phones have a blanket negative effect on wellbeing and mental health is not likely to be accurate. “It is indeed possible that there are smaller and more important things going on, but any sweeping claims about the negative impact of the internet globally should be treated with a very high level of scepticism.” Looking at the results by age group and gender did not reveal any specific patterns among internet users, including women and young girls. Instead, the study, which looked at data for the past two decades, found that for the average country, life satisfaction increased more for females over the period. Data from the United Kingdom was included in the study, but the researchers say there was nothing distinctive about the UK compared with other countries. Although the study included a lot of information, the researchers say technology companies need to provide more data, if there is to be conclusive evidence of the impacts of internet use. They explain: “Research on the effects of internet technologies is stalled because the data most urgently needed are collected and held behind closed doors by technology companies and online platforms. “It is crucial to study, in more detail and with more transparency from all stakeholders, data on individual adoption of and engagement with internet-based technologies. “These data exist and are continuously analysed by global technology firms for marketing and product improvement but unfortunately are not accessible for independent research.” For the study, published in the Clinical Psychological Science journal, the researchers looked at data on wellbeing and mental health against a country’s internet users and mobile broadband subscriptions and use, to see if internet adoption predicted psychological wellbeing. In the second study they used data on rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm from 2000-2019 in some 200 countries. Wellbeing was assessed using data from face-to-face and phone surveys by local interviewers, and mental health was assessed using statistical estimates of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and self-harm in some 200 countries from 2000 to 2019. Read More Young people the biggest users of generative AI, Ofcom study shows Software firm Cloudsmith announces £8.8m investment UK and South Korea issue warning over North Korea-linked cyber attacks Data protection watchdog warns websites over cookie consent alerts Employee data leaked during British Library cyber attack Half of adults who chat online with strangers do not check age – poll

A moose has been dubbed as "Jesus" and "Moses" (or "Mooses") after a resurfaced viral clip shows the animal running on water. In the video posted by Kristy Paniptchuk (@kristy_234) back in 2020, the video shows the scenery in Alaska as she cruised in a small boat up a river. She spotted the sizeable animal as it bolted across the river and managed to capture the moment as it make its way through the shallow waters at some speed. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The cow moose can then be seen crossing paths with the boats, determined to get to the other side of the water. Paniptchuk said at the time that the video is not fake and that the moose was moving across the shallow river that is just five meters deep in order to travel up stream, as per Metro.co.uk. @kristy_234 Cow moose #fyp #alaska To explain: The moose appears to seamlessly sprint through the water due to its shallow depths - it's so shallow in fact that the boat is believed to be a jet boat since a boat with propellers could cause damage if it hits the bottom. Since sharing the clip, the video has gone viral, as it received over 706,000 views, and plenty of comments from people who were fascinated by the video. One person joked: "Moses but a moose. Mooses" "Our lord and savior Jesus Moose," another person quipped. Someone else added: "Today I learned that I couldn't outrun a moose even if I wanted to." "I am so confused how is this possible," a fourth person commented. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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