Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of starting blaze at Zaporizhzhia plant; Russia evacuates parts of Belogrod. What we know on day 901

The main fire at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine has been extinguished, Russia’s Tass state news agency reported early on Monday, citing Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom. Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that one of the cooling towers and other equipment was damaged. Tass also reported, citing Rosatom’s statement, that a cooling tower was damaged. Citing local Russian emergency ministry representatives, Tass said that it was a non-functioning tower.

Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of starting the fire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of lighting the fire while Evgeny Balitsky, a Russian-installed official in the occupied south, accused Kyiv’s forces of causing it by shelling the nearby city of Enerhodar.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, which has a presence at the vast six-reactor facility, said its experts had seen strong, dark smoke coming from the northern area of the plant in southern Ukraine after multiple explosions. It said there had been no reported impact on nuclear safety at the site. “Team was told by [the nuclear plant] of an alleged drone attack today on one of the cooling towers located at the site,” it wrote on X.

Zelenskiy published grainy video showing belching black smoke that appeared to be coming out of a cooling tower with a blaze burning at its foot and said radiation indicators were “normal”. He added: “But as long as Russian terrorists retain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal.”

Russia said on Monday it had evacuated parts of Belgorod, another region next to Ukraine, after Kyiv sharply increased military activity near the border. Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that evacuations had begun from the Krasnaya Yaruga District due to “enemy activity on the border” that was a “threat”. “I am sure that our servicemen will do everything to cope with the threat that has arisen,” Gladkov said. “We are starting to move people who live in the Krasnaya Yaruga district to safer places.”

Ukrainian sources have indicated that thousands of troops have been committed to its incursion into Russia’s Kursk province. A Ukrainian security official told the news agency Agence France-Presse that the aim of the incursion was to destabilise Russia and string out Russian forces with light, fast-moving attacks. It remains unclear how sustainable the operation will be in the medium term amid Kremlin threats that it will be snuffed out using Russian reserves.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday it had thwarted attacks by Ukrainian “mobile groups” in three villages north and east of Korenevo – Tolpino, Zhuravli, Obshchiy Kolodez – all 15 to 18 miles from the border, the farthest points at which Moscow has acknowledged the incursion to have reached. A pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel released a video of soldiers raising a flag over a building in the Russian village of Guevo, a couple of miles inside the border and seven miles south of Sudzha, one of the first towns reached during the incursion.

Commenting on the incursion in his nightly address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said that Russia had launched nearly 2,000 cross-border strikes from its western Kursk region at Ukraine’s Sumy region over the summer, which deserved a “fair” response. “Artillery, mortars, drones. We also record missile strikes, and each such strike deserves a fair response,” he said.

A Russian drone and missile barrage on Kyiv overnight into Sunday killed a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son. Russia attacked Ukraine with four ballistic missiles and 57 Shahed drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defences shot down 53 of the drones.

Zelenskiy said the missile that killed the pair was North Korean. “Our experts have precisely identified the type of missile, and we know the exact area of Russian territory from which it was launched,” he said in his nightly address on Sunday.

In Russia, Kursk’s regional governor said that a Ukrainian missile shot down by Russian air defenses fell on a residential building, wounding 15 people. The Russian Defense Ministry said that 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.

Secretary of defence also announces deployment of guided missile submarine, as Hamas appears to push back against resuming ceasefire negotiations

The US has ordered a strike group of fighter jets and navy warships to accelerate its deployment to the Middle East, as the region braces for possible attacks by Iran and its allies after the killing of senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, ordered the Abraham Lincoln strike group to accelerate its deployment to the region, while at the same time announcing the deployment of a guided missile submarine, after speaking with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.

Kursk governor orders officials to ‘speed up’ civilian exodus; Russian defence ministry claims Ukrainian advance halted. What we know on day 900

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Warren Luther Alexander, 73, was arrested for the decades-old killings of three women in southern California

A 73-year-old man has been charged in the strangulation deaths of three southern California women in 1977, after cold case detectives obtained a DNA match. Authorities said they believe there could be more victims.

Warren Luther Alexander of Diamondhead, Mississippi, made his first court appearance on Thursday but his arraignment on three counts of first-degree murder was postponed until later in August, the Ventura county district attorney’s office said. Alexander remained jailed without bail.

Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would attend negotiations after joint statement calls on ceasefire talks to resume with Hamas

The leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar have called on Israel and Hamas to resume urgent negotiations in order to finalise a ceasefire and hostage release deal, saying there were no excuses “from any party for further delay”.

The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal, said in a joint statement the talks could take place in either Doha or Cairo on 15 August, adding that it was “time to bring immediate relief both to the longsuffering people of Gaza as well as the longsuffering hostages and their families.”

Comments come on third day of Ukrainian attack on southern Russian region, with troops advancing about 10km over the border. What we know on day 898

Governor declares the day California Panda Day as ‘gentle and lovable’ Yun Chuan and Xin Bao make San Diego debut

California’s governor flew in for the young bears’ debut. Throngs of media gathered inside the zoo, while the city of San Diego warned of traffic jams ahead of the much-anticipated event on Thursday.

The San Diego zoo rolled out the red carpet for the first public showing of its newest residents: two giant pandas, the first to enter the US in two decades.

Thousands took to the streets to take part in anti-racism protests in London, Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, thanked “police officers working tonight to protect and support local communities” after large-scale far-right riots failed to materialise, while thousands of anti-racism protesters took to the streets in several English cities on Wednesday to oppose days of far-right violence.

In many towns and cities shops were boarded up over fears of further rioting after a week of violent disorder which started in Southport on 30 July, but in most places, planned anti-immigration protests did not take place.

EU, UK and France urge Israel’s government to distance itself from comments by its finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich

The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”

Main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian, said to have pledged oath of allegiance to Islamic State group ‘in recent weeks’

The Vienna leg of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras tour been cancelled after two people were arrested over an apparent plot to launch an attack on a public event in the Austrian capital.

The announcement was made by concert organisers Barracuda Music late on Wednesday, after Austrian authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly planning an Islamist attack in the Vienna region and suggested that Swift’s shows had been the “focus” of the plot.