European leaders vowed to remain united in the face of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and Moldova on Thursday, staging a strategy summit on the continent's political frontline. As another deadly missile barrage hit Kyiv, and Moscow claimed to have repulsed a Ukrainian attempt to «invade» Russian soil, 45 leaders met in vulnerable Moldova. The venue for the European Political Community summit, the Castle Mimi wine estate in the east of the country, lies only 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with war-torn Ukraine, adding to the symbolism of the talks. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived first, making the short journey to his smaller neighbour while his own capital Kyiv counted the cost of another night of Russian strikes: three dead, including a child. President Maia Sandu welcomed the leaders one by one under a clear blue sky patrolled by NATO early warning aircraft, hoping to boost Moldova's stature as a small pro-Western democracy seeking European support and protection. «Ukrainians are fighting for freedom, European values and the future of our continent,» she said. And she dubbed the summit, «a clear expression of our unity, strength and determination to act together as a single family.» Zelensky, however, warned that the ongoing debate over how and how quickly to follow up on Ukraine's ambitions to join both the EU and NATO would embolden Russia. «We must remember that every doubt we show here in Europe is a trench that Russia will definitely try to occupy,» he said, calling for Europe to extend immediate security guarantees and «clear invitations» to NATO membership. Both Kyiv and Chisinau hope to start EU membership talks this year, despite Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and alleged attempts to undermine Moldova's sovereignty. - 'Security guarantees' - The EPC summit was also being held less than 10 kilometres from the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, which is occupied by Russian «peacekeepers». It was held under tight security, with NATO's AWACS surveillance planes flying over neighbouring Romania extending cover over the tiny former Soviet republic's air space. The European Political Community groups 47 European countries from inside and outside the EU -- and excludes Russia and Belarus. Only tiny San Marino and Turkey, whose newly-elected president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing for his inauguration, failed to send a leader to the talks. It is a forum for strategic debate and addressing regional crises and -- for some members -- a potential steppingstone to full EU and or NATO membership. «We must also think of a wider Europe,» France's President Emmanuel Macron, who first promoted the idea of forming the EPC, told reporters in Bratislava on the eve of the summit. «We must think of our Europe not simply from a security point of view within the framework of NATO and not simply within the framework of the European Union.» The Moldova summit also came as NATO ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met to discuss the agenda of the alliance's next summit. The NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 will debate how formal a promise to give Kyiv on how and when to join the alliance, but in the interim Europe is keen to show support. - 'Rocket barrage' - Macron said the allies should find a way to offer «tangible and credible security guarantees to Ukraine» while the eventual questions of EU and NATO membership are pending. Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas went further. «In the long term, the only security guarantee that really works is to end the grey zones in Europe, which means that the only security guarantee really is NATO,» she said. During the summit, Macron and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. Yerevan and Baku have fought for decades over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, but have both been invited to the EPC as Washington and Brussels push for a peace deal. Another long-standing European conflict, the standoff between Serbia and Kosovo, will be on the agenda, with leaders from Pristina and Belgrade under pressure to dial down tensions. While the talks took place, fighting continued in Ukraine, and the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod said rockets fired across the border had wounded eight people. Moscow's defence ministry, meanwhile, said it had «thwarted» an attempted incursion into southwestern Russia by what it said was two Ukrainian motorised infantry companies reinforced with tanks. © Agence France-Presse

Firefighters on Wednesday faced a grueling uphill battle against wildfires in Canada's Nova Scotia province, including one threatening suburbs of Halifax. Federal help was coming, officials said, along with firefighters from the United States. «We're in a crisis in the province and we want and we need and we will take all the support we can get,» Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told a news conference. «These fires are unprecedented.» Already, additional kit have been shipped in from Ontario, and a dozen water bombers from neighboring regions and the Coast Guard joined efforts to douse the flames and assist with evacuations. Houston said he has also asked for the military to help out. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the wildfires «heartbreaking,» and vowed unlimited support. As of Wednesday, 14 wildfires were burning in Nova Scotia, including three out of control. They've so far destroyed or damaged more than 200 homes and other structures including a wooden bridge, but no injuries have been reported. One couple described to public broadcaster CBC having lost both their home and their childcare business. «That's my life,» a tearful Terri Kottwitz said. Others said they saw trees on fire in their backyard as they fled with just a moment's notice. Evacuee Janis Churchill-Moher told CBC that she didn't know if her home in the picturesque rural south of the province was still standing. «Our neighbors have working farms and they just had to pack up their kids, pack up as many animals as fast as they could and run,» she said. More than 2,000 residents of the area were ordered to evacuate earlier in the week as fires swept through the area. «It's a devastating situation for everybody,» she said. - 'Frustrated and frightened' - Smoke from the wildfires blew down the Atlantic coast, prompting air quality alerts for the US state of New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia area. David Meldrum of the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency, pointing to record-high temperatures forecast this week, warned of «a prolonged operation» to bring under control a large fire northwest of the port city that has displaced more than 16,000 residents. «People are understandably tired, frustrated and frightened,» said Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, adding that «some have no home to return to.» Houston announced a ban on all activities in Nova Scotia forests, including hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, the use of off-road vehicles and logging. «For God's sake, stop burning. Stop flicking cigarette butts out of the car window. Just stop it. Our resources are stretched incredibly thin right now fighting existing fires,» he pleaded after several illegal burns were reported by conservation officers. Government data shows a decline in the number of wildfires in Canada since the 1980s, likely due to improved fire prevention. But the past decade also saw more disastrous wildfires scorching a lot more land and displacing many more people -- problems set to worsen with climate change. In recent years western Canada has been hit repeatedly by extreme weather, including floods and mudslides, forest fires that destroyed an entire town, and record-high summer temperatures that killed more than 500 people in 2021. On Tuesday, 800 residents of Fort Chiepwyan in northern Alberta had to be airlifted to safety as fires beared down on the remote hamlet. Earlier this month, wildfires in Alberta burned nearly one million hectares of forests and grasslands, and at one point displaced 30,000 people. © Agence France-Presse

Iceland has joined a UK-led training programme for Ukrainian soldiers. The programme aims to train trainers in combat medicine so that they can pass on their knowledge to other soldiers in the field.

Members from the Kuki-Hmar-Zomi-Mizo tribes held a protest at the Jantar Mantar here demanding that Chief Minister Biren Singh be sacked and President's rule implemented in the state.

A lopsided trade relationship with India is forcing Russia to accumulate up to $1 billion each month in rupee assets that remain stranded outside the country, swelling the stockpile of capital it’s amassed abroad since the invasion of Ukraine.

Cites GDP, PLFS data to reject Rahul’s claims on economy.

The 99-page legislation brokered by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden cleared the House on Wednesday night on a 314-117 bipartisan vote.

Survivors of the deadly attack on a UPDF forward operating base in Somalia by Al Shabaab militants are steadily recovering, authorities have said.

The 12-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy had jumped off the pier before being dragged out to sea by a riptide, MailOnline revealed today.

Tesla shares have surged more than 60% this year, boosting CEO Elon Musk’s wealth, Bloomberg reports Read Full Article at RT.com

Concerns about the US banking system’s health are growing after the latest report on deposit outflows Read Full Article at RT.com

Two civilians also shot dead after regime soldiers acting on a tip-off stopped their truck in Minhla Township.

Around 29 villagers were killed by regime soldiers in the Sagaing Region village of Mon Taing Pin in 2022.

It was the latest in a series of meetings between junta and Chinese officials on efforts to stem the activities of Chinese gangs operating near the Thai border.

During his speech, the Ukrainian president also thanked Moldova’s people for supporting Ukrainian refugees

Currently, the BRICS countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa

According to General Alexander Syrsky, the command of the Ukrainian group was taking measures «aimed at restoring the combat effectiveness of its units and disrupting the enemy's intentions»

The biggest decline was observed on May 30, when the price of gas fell below $260 for the first time in more than two years

«Ukrainian terrorist formations with a strength of up to two motorized infantry companies reinforced by tanks attempted to make an incursion into Russian territory,» Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported

A running list comparing the policies of former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on major issues.

Trump is trying to cut into DeSantis’s electability argument with his usual trifecta of wrong, utterly misleading and frequently stated.

Energy is a major cost item in EU fisheries and aquaculture. The recent energy crisis has hit the seafood sector hard, notably because of increased marine diesel prices, exposing one of the sector's major vulnerabilities: its high dependency on fossil fuels. A move towards alternative energy sources would not only address this vulnerability but also contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the EU's ambition to become climate neutral. On 21 February 2023, the European Commission published a 'fisheries and oceans' package, which includes an action plan on decarbonising EU fisheries and aquaculture. The plan outlines two directions of change: it aims to increase energy efficiency in the short to medium term, while making a gradual switch from fossil fuels to renewable and low-carbon energy sources. An indicative target has been set for fisheries, namely to reduce fossil fuel intensity (in litres per kilogram of landed product) by at least 15 % in the years from 2019 to 2030. The final goal is to achieve a CO2-neutral footprint by 2050. To accelerate this energy transition, the action plan includes initiatives to stimulate research and innovation, develop the required labour skills, and improve the business environment, including funding opportunities. The Commission will launch an 'energy transition partnership for EU fisheries and aquaculture' on 16 June 2023 to steer the process, involving all stakeholders. The Commission presented the action plan to the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries (PECH) on 1 March 2023, and the EU Commissioner responsible provided additional clarifications at the PECH meeting of 26 April 2023. A recurring point of discussion is the capacity definition in the common fisheries policy, in particular fleet capacity ceilings. New technologies typically require more weight than conventional diesel engines, which would increase a vessel's capacity and could lead to a ceiling being exceeded. As a solution, the Commission refers to the possibility of redistributing available (inactive) capacity in the Member States' fleets. This issue would be discussed with Member States and stakeholders in the context of the energy transition partnership. Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Road safety has improved significantly in the EU, with the number of road fatalities falling by more than 60 % in the last 20 years. However, improvements in road safety have fallen short of the EU goals of decreasing the number of road deaths by 50 % between 2001 and 2010, and by an additional 50 % between 2011 and 2020. Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road safety-related traffic offences – the Cross-border Enforcement (CBE) Directive – is one of the pillars of the policy framework to improve road safety in the EU. It aims to help improve road safety by tackling the relative impunity of non-resident drivers. The revision, announced in the European Commission's sustainable and smart mobility strategy in 2020, seeks to address key shortcomings in existing rules. According to Commission estimates, 40 % of cross-border offences were committed with impunity, either because the offender was not identified or because the payment was not enforced. The Commission tabled its proposal to revise the CBE Directive as part of the road safety package on 1 March 2023. In the European Parliament, the file was assigned to the Committee on Transport and Tourism, with Kosma Złotowski (ECR, Poland) as rapporteur. First edition. The 'EU Legislation in Progress' briefings are updated at key stages throughout the legislative procedure. Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

In a major reshuffle in the police leadership in the violence-hit Manipur, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Tripura cadre, Rajiv Singh, has been appointed as the new Director General of Police (DGP) for the northeastern state. He replaced P Doungel, who has been transferred to the post of OSD (Home), according to an official order by the order from the Governor of Manipur.

It was stressed that Su-34 frontline bombers are a major part of the Russian frontline aviation’s strike power

The BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting will be held late Thursday in Cape Town

In this context, Mikhail Galuzin noted that by analogy with Moscow's latest initiative to denounce the treaty on the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, the treaty with Ukraine on the stay of the Black Sea Fleet was denounced in 2014 after Crimea’s reunification with Russia

«The information obtained by the Russian special services confirms that Apple’s declared policy of ensuring the privacy of the personal data of users of Apple devices does not correspond to reality,» the service stressed

Alexey Likhachev described a remark by Rafael Grossi as emotional in nature after the IAEA head rejoiced earlier this week, saying, «we are fortunate that a nuclear accident has not yet happened»