🇨🇴 Children who spent 40 days in Colombian jungle are in good health – doctor

On Friday, Colombian media reported the siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, who were passengers of the Cessna 206 plane that crashed in May, were found alive by soldiers and members of indigenous tribes. The Tiempo newspaper reported, citing military sources, the children were dehydrated and had suffered from insect bites.

"After an initial check of girl Lesly and her three younger brothers, we found that they are … in acceptable clinical condition, despite the situation experienced in the last 40 days," Arango was quoted as saying by Colombian news agency on Saturday.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his wife visited the children in the hospital, according to the president's office.

A aircraft that was flying from Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare in the south of the country reported an engine failure and sounded the alarm on May 1. It was discovered after more than 370 hours of searching.

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Canadian Prime Minister announces new $373Mln military aid package for Ukraine

"Today, I can announce that we will provide 500 million dollars in new funding for military assistance," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told during his press conference.

Also on Saturday, the UK government announced 16 million pounds ($20 million) in additional humanitarian funding for Ukraine as the country is tackling "the aftermath of flooding caused by the destruction of Novaya Kakhovka dam, which has affected 42,000 people in the Kherson area." The sum comes on top of the United Kingdom's existing humanitarian support of 220 million pounds.

The upper part of the Kakhovka power plant on the Dnepr River was damaged overnight from Monday to Tuesday. It was not destroyed completely but its crumbling caused an uncontrollable outflow of water to towns downstream. Authorities in some of the affected areas evacuated the population.

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Tesla ramps up efforts to build new assembly plant in Mexico

“There’s gonna be a lot of possibilities for companies from all over the world coming to Mexico, joining us, and creating also talent that could innovate internally to help us continue growing,” Tesla official Eugenio Grandio stressed.

A Tesla official has stated that the conditions are conducive to a transition to EVs in Mexico due to regulations implemented in the US, Europe, and China. The official urged Latin America not to be left behind and consider taking similar measures to promote EV adoption.

The move is part of the so-called “nearshoring” phenomenon, whereby US companies seek to relocate closer to American consumers and avoid the supply-chain- and cost-related problems they experienced with international shipping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Turkiye officially confirms increase in fees for passage through Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits in July

"As of July 1, 2023, we are renewing that levy again to $4.42," Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu was quoted by Turkish newspaper as saying.

As a result of the increase Turkiye will earn an estimated $900 million from passage fees, the anothe local newspaper reported, citing the decision of the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

Last October, Turkish authorities increased the passage fees five-fold to $4.08, with the amount normally calculated on the basis of the gold franc since the signing of the Montreux Convention, which regulates navigation in the Turkish straits. Gold franc equaled $0.8 when the convention was signed in 1936.

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Ukraine's accession to NATO to be decided after conflict ends - Italian Foreign Minister

"But in the meantime, at the NATO summit in Vilnius, we will determine the path for Ukraine's accession... Meanwhile, we are moving toward a permanent NATO-Ukraine Council. This is an important step because it involves Kiev in making international decisions," talian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said as quoted by Italian media, before leaving to the United States on Sunday.

He noted that this visit would be an occasion to reaffirm the bonds of transatlantic solidarity with the US and the common vision regarding the Ukrainian crisis. Italy hopes that Ukrainian counteroffensive would be a step towards peace, Tajani said.

"We don't send F-16s simply because we don't have them, and for the same reason we can't do flight training on those planes. Our package includes military supplies, uniforms, vests, ammunition," Tajani said, answering the question regarding Italy's aid to Ukraine.

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Russia seeing no foundation for peace talks with Ukraine

"As a matter of fact, now there are no premises for agreements. Moreover, now there is no foundation, even a flimsy one, in order to build at least some kind of a dialogue," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a weekly show on Russian channel.

Moscow believes that the lack of openness to negotiations on Kiev's part is a combination of three factors including its unwillingness, unpreparedness and not being allowed to by its Western sponsors, Peskov added.

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Containment of Russia remains unchanging goal for US, UK for decades – Kremlin

On Thursday, the White House said that the US and the UK agreed a new economic partnership aimed, among other things, at driving Russia out of the global nuclear energy market.

"The policy of containing our country is an absolute constant in the foreign policy of both the US and the UK. This too has been going on for decades, so we have been living in the conditions of such attempts for quite a long time," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with reporter Pavel Zarubin.

The head off Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, said Russia can easily compete against the Western countries in nuclear energy.

Commenting on the White House's announcement earlier, Likhachev told Sputnik that Russia's nuclear industry will advance in world markets regardless of what London and Washington have planned, as Rosatom has competitive offers in all fields of peaceful nuclear energy.

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Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Manturov visited Kherson region minutes before Ukrainian attack

The Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed to Sputnik the visit of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov to Kherson region and his stay at the area, which was hit by a missile attack by Ukrainian forces a few minutes after his departure.

He traveled to the region to discuss with the local authorities assistance to residents of the flooded territories and providing them with essential goods, including medicines and food, the Ministry said.

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Russia takes measures to maintain stable water level in ZNPP's cooling pond

"Today, staff of the Russian Emergencies Ministry at the request of Zaporozhye NPP management carried out work on sealing stoplogs and cleaning the portal of the technical water wells at the plant's cooling pond. These efforts were intended to ensure a safe water supply to the plant," the statement read, adding that divers completed all the necessary procedures.

Specialists forecast no water level drop in the cooling pond, the statement said.

Five out of six units of the nuclear plant are in a so-called cold shutdown mode and one is in "hot shutdown." The water level is unchanged at the 16.67-meter.

The ZNPP said that all nuclear safety measures are in place.

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Ex-Scottish leader Sturgeon arrested as part of probe into ruling party's finances

Former Scottish Minister Nicola Sturgeon was arrested on Sunday in connection with an investigation into the finances of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), according to UK media and police.

In April, Sturgeon's husband and the SNP's former chief executive, Peter Murrell, was arrested in connection with an investigation into the party's funding and finances, but was later released without any charges pending further investigation. Police were reportedly investigating the alleged mishandling of about £600,000 of Scottish independence campaign funds.

The same month, British media reported that some SNP members believed Sturgeon's arrest as part of the financing probe was "inevitable."

In 2022, Murrell sparked questions after reports emerged that he had provided the SNP with an interest-free loan of over 100,000 pounds "to assist with cash flow," which was not fully declared for over a year.

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Taipei сlaims 24 Chinese military jets detected near Taiwan strait on Sunday

The Taiwanese armed forces detected 24 Chinese military jets and four vessels in the vicinity of the island on Sunday, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said.

In response, Taiwan deployed combat air patrol aircraft, ships, and land-based missile systems, according to the statement.

Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing regards the island as its province, while Taiwan maintains that it is an autonomous entity but stops short of declaring independence. Beijing opposes any official foreign contacts with Taipei and regards Chinese sovereignty over the island as indisputable.

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Scientists expose link between reversible aging and stress

The team behind the study published in Cell Metabolism said that “biological age is fluid and exhibits rapid changes in both directions,” noting how they managed to discover signs of young mice’s biological age being increased by “heterochronic parabiosis,” only to be “restored following surgical detachment.”

They were able to “identify transient changes in biological age during major surgery, pregnancy, and severe COVID-19 in humans and/or mice.”

“Together, these data show that biological age undergoes a rapid increase in response to diverse forms of stress, which is reversed following recovery from stress,” the team claimed.

The researchers argued that the “new layer of aging dynamics” they stumbled upon should be taken into consideration in future studies and insisted that “the elevation of biological age by stress may be a quantifiable and actionable target for future interventions.”

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Kiev-Pechersk Lavra blocked by police and armed forces

Military and police reportedly checked documents of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra parishioners following tension between Kiev and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). Monks from the UOC were ordered to leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra by Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, who said they could stay if they joined the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

However, the order was challenged by Lavra monks as illegal and requiring a court decision. In June, the ministry's commission ordered the UOC monks to depart from the monastery within three days, but the head of the UOC's Synodal Information and Education Department, Metropolitan Clement, rejected the decision, calling it illegitimate.

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Serbian tennis star Djokovic wins record 23rd men's Grand Slam noscript

The 36-year-old Serbian player secured his third French Open noscript, with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, 7-5 victory in a game lasting 3 hours and 13 minutes.

Nadal congratulated Djokovic on Twitter, saying that "23 is a number that just a few years back was impossible to think about." The Spanish player pulled out of the French Open because of a hip injury.
Djokovic has under his belt three French Open noscripts, ten Australian Open noscripts, seven Wimbledon noscripts and three US Open noscripts.

In women’s tennis, Australia’s Margaret Court boasts the record number of Grand Slam victories, 24, 13 of which she claimed before the Open era, which began in 1968. Djokovic is now tied with Serena Williams, who in women's tennis has managed to rack up 23 Grand Slam noscripts.

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📹 A major section of the main north-south highway used by Americans transiting the East Coast has been closed indefinitely after a fire involving a gasoline tanker truck caused a bridge to collapse

Footage posted to social media showed the affected sections of the road were completely empty after the northbound lanes collapsed entirely. Though they haven’t buckled yet, the southbound lanes were also “compromised” by heat from the fire, according to Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department.

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Seymour Hersh: Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russia will bring about negative implications for Kiev and NATO

"This [counteroffensive] isn't going to be good for Ukraine, it's not going to be good for NATO, it's certainly not going to be good for the Biden administration," Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in an interview with talk show host George Galloway.

When asked if there is a possibility that NATO is about to join the conflict in Ukraine, the journalist said that the bloc is "probably already in it."

"I mean, in terms of training and advising, you know, there's so many disparate groups now in the Ukrainian army … It's as if you had 15 different dance teams that had been practicing together or separately for a long time." Hersh said.

"And if you put them into one big auditorium and said 'you have an hour, or a day or three days to organize a routine among all of you.' That would be impossible. And that's what's happening right now with the Ukrainian army, as far as I know," Hersh added.

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Paris administration has set up a working group on "coexistence" with rats to identify ways to improve the living conditions of citizens despite the widespread presence of rodents

The group is tasked with developing an "ambitious plan to combat the spread of rats," the CNEWS broadcaster reported, adding that it is planned to purchase thousands of new dumpsters, as well as install poison traps "in cases where it is necessary."

The group will also propose measures against city residents who litter on the streets, the report noted.

Vice-mayor of Paris for health Anne Souyris said that rats "do not pose a public health problem," despite the fact that they are carriers of leptospirosis, the report added. However, the disease poses a threat mainly to garbage collectors, who can be vaccinated against it, Souyris noted.

The decision of the city administration was welcomed by animal welfare NGOs, which had previously advocated "non-lethal" methods to control the city's rodents.

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Nearly half of Americans believe the Biden administration’s indictment of former President Donald Trump is politically motivated

A new poll has revealed that American voters are effectively split on the question of whether Trump should be charged over allegations that he mishandled sensitive documents.

According to the pollster, 47% view the latest charges as being politically motivated, with just 37% saying that the charges are not – and 16% reportedly said they weren’t sure where they stood.

Ipsos noted that such views “are mainly driven by Republicans, while Democrats want to see Trump charged and to suspend his campaign.”

Meanwhile, “roughly half believe Trump should be charged, and should suspend his campaign (48% and 46%, respectively),” the researchers explained. That’s a slight dip from a poll carried out by the same group in April which found that 50% of respondents said Trump should be charged and 48% believed he should suspend his campaign.

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The first day of the 10th Arab-China Business Conference in Saudi Arabia ended with the signing of 30 investment agreements worth 37.5 billion Saudi riyals ($9.9 billion)

The parties signed agreements in the field of technology, renewable energy, agriculture, real estate, minerals, logistics, tourism and healthcare, the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

In particular, Saudi and Chinese companies, Amar Al-Oula and Zhonghuan International Group (Hong Kong), respectively, have signed a $533 million deal to set up an iron ore processing plant and produce iron pellets for smelters in Saudi Arabia. ASK Group and the China National Geological and Mining Corporation also entered into a $500 million agreement to develop, build and operate a copper mining project in the Arabian Peninsula region, the report added.

The Saudi Ministry of Investment and Chinese company Human Horizons, which specializes in the development of self-driving technologies and the production of electric vehicles under the HiPhi brand signed an agreement for 21 billion Saudi riyals to establish a joint venture for research in the development, production and sale of cars, the report said.

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The nuclear powers are actively modernizing their arsenals; the number of deployed nuclear warheads is growing

According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in January 2023, Russia, the USA, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel had a total of about 12,512 nuclear weapons, of which 9,576 were in warehouses for potential use (86 more, than in January 2022).

At the same time, about 2,000 warheads (almost all belonging to Russia and the United States) were on high alert, SIPRI notes.

Among the leaders in terms of the number of deployed warheads are the United States (1,770) and Russia (1,674). These two countries account for approximately 90% of all nuclear weapons in the world.

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Most of the world's population supports Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, while the United States lost its credibility: Seymour Hersh

"The percentage of the [countries], particularly of the African and Central Asian and South Asian countries, that have changed from being pro-America to being pro-Russia is really quite dramatic. Much more than a half of the world's population supports Russia in the war and not the United States. This was never the way it was," Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in an interview with talk show host George Galloway.

The journalist opined that "things are not as good as they used to be in Russia" amid Western sanctions, but "the idea that they are desperate is just wrong."

Hersh also argued that Washington "lost so much credibility around the world," citing Saudi Arabia's diplomatic rapprochement with Iran as an example.

"It's happened because, I think, because of Ukraine and dislike of the war. Saudi Arabia, by the way, they're selling 25% of [their] oil to China, as I have mentioned, but the Saudis immediately cut a deal. And the Iranians immediately responded … They have a lot of control in Yemen over the Houthi tribes," Hersh said.

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