International
Russia strikes again at grain depots in Ukraine
August 16|
Russia resumed its attacks on grain infrastructure in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, officials said Wednesday. Several drones attacked warehouses and ports along the Danube River overnight, which Kiev has increasingly used to transport its grain to Europe after Moscow broke a crucial wartime deal to export it via the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, a full cargo ship that had been stuck in the port of Odessa since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than 17 months ago set sail and was heading for the Bosporus via the Black Sea using a temporary corridor set up by Ukraine for merchant traffic.
The Ukrainian economy, strained by the war, is heavily dependent on agriculture. Its agricultural exports, like Russia’s, are also crucial to global supplies of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other foodstuffs on which developing countries depend.
After the Kremlin last month tore up an agreement negotiated last summer by the United Nations and Turkey to ensure the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, Kiev has tried to reroute goods via the Danube and road and rail links to Europe. But transport costs are much higher along those routes, some European countries have expressed misgivings about the consequences for local grain prices, and Danube ports cannot handle as much volume as sea ports.
The main target of the night’s drone bombing was port terminals and grain silos, Odessa Governor Oleh Kiper said. That included ports in the Danube delta. Anti-aircraft defenses managed to intercept 13 drones, Kiper noted.
In attacks in recent weeks, Russia has hit ports in the Danube delta, which are just 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Romanian border. The Danube is Europe’s second longest river and a crucial transport route.
Meanwhile, the container ship leaving Odessa was the first ship to sail since July 16, according to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister. It had been in Odessa since February 2022.
The Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte was sailing through a temporary corridor that Ukraine had asked the International Maritime Organization to ratify. The United States has warned that the Russian military is preparing possible attacks against civilian cargo ships in the Black Sea.
Underwater mines also make travel dangerous and insurance costs are likely to be high for ship operators. Ukraine told the IMO it would offer “guarantees of compensation for damages.”
A Russian ship fired warning shots last Sunday at a Palau-flagged cargo ship in the southern Black Sea. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Sukru Okan was sailing north to the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube.
Tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press confirmed that the Joseph Schulte was heading south.
The Joseph Schulte was carrying more than 30,000 tons of goods in 2,114 containers, including foodstuffs, according to Kubrakov.
The corridor, he said, will be used primarily to evacuate ships trapped in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odessa and Pivdennyi since the outbreak of the war.
On the front, Ukrainian authorities announced another milestone in the tough Ukrainian counteroffensive. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops had retaken a village in the eastern Donetsk region.
The village of Urozhaine is near Staromaiorske, a village that Ukraine also claimed to have recaptured recently. It was not possible to independently verify these claims.
Ukraine appears to be breaking through Russian forces in the south, but it faces tight defensive lines and is advancing without air support.
Also on Wednesday, the Russian military said it had shot down three drones in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow and attributed the attack to Ukraine. No deaths or injuries were reported.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction