A wholesale market during a sandstorm in Baghdad on Sunday. Reuters
The Iraqi government’s efforts to raise awareness on the dangers of narcotics and to curb drug trafficking are yet to yield effective solutions, as the country has been suffering from a wide spread of drug abuse and trafficking, since the ousting of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.
Well-informed officials said that almost 90 percent of narcotic substances (crystal, Captagon pills, and hashish) enter Iraq through its eastern border with Iran, given weak security measures and the exploitation of organized smuggling gangs of marshlands and unofficial crossings.
A relatively small percentage of smuggling comes through the desert province of Anbar (in the West), bordering Syria.
Gangs use various methods and means to smuggle drugs, including drones. In May, the Iraqi authorities shot down a glider transporting drugs across the border with Iran in the southern province of Basra.
According to the officials, the high rate of abuse is concentrated among young people and teenagers (15-35 years old), in Baghdad and the central and southern governorates of the country.
A former member of the Independent Human Rights Commission, Fadel Al-Ghrawi, warned of the spread of drugs in the country, and called on the authorities to establish specialized centers to treat addiction.
“The high rates of drug abuse in recent years have become a threat to the lives of young people,” he said, calling on the government to “issue a special amnesty to release all drug addicts and admit them to drug rehabilitation clinics.”
Specialists in judicial affairs and drug trafficking have been calling for years to amend the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law No. 20 of 2017 to tighten penalties and focus their implementation on traffickers, not drug users.
Asked about the main reasons for the spread of drugs in Iraq, Ghrawi pointed to “economic factors, unemployment, trauma, psychological crises, weak religious motives, lack of family, societal and educational control, and the misuse of communications.”
“We call on the government to expedite the establishment of addiction rehabilitation clinics, and to introduce a legislative amendment to consider drug users as patients who need care instead of imprisoning them along with drug dealers,” he stated.
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia, June 18, 2026, in this picture obtained from social media. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia, June 18, 2026, in this picture obtained from social media. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
Ukraine kept up its heavy drone assault on Russia, setting fire to a major oil refinery in the south and killing at least two people, Russian authorities said Sunday, as President Vladimir Putin acknowledged his country is going through a “difficult period.”
Ukraine has markedly stepped up its long-range attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities in recent months, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for its invasion — now in its fifth year — and make Russians feel the consequences.
The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries. According to Western analysts, it has also slowed Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield, heaping pressure on the Kremlin to come to the negotiating table.
“Our ‘long-range sanctions’ reached two oil refineries in Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. “Each (strike) means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace.”
Debris from downed Ukrainian drones sparked a blaze at the refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani, a town in Russia's Krasnodar region, east of occupied Crimea, according to Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev. The falling debris killed one person in Slavyansk and wounded another in a nearby village, local authorities said.
The Slavyansk site is one of southern Russia’s major refineries, processing close to 4 million tons of crude per year, according to its operator’s website. It is also a key source of petroleum products intended for export through Russia’s Black Sea ports, including fuel oil, naphtha and marine fuel.
Zelenskyy also claimed that a second Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region around 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was hit during the nighttime strikes.
There were no immediate reports from Russian authorities about the strike on the Yaroslavl refinery. Local Gov. Mikhail Evraev reported on Sunday morning that some roads between Moscow and the region's capital, Yaroslavl, were temporarily closed due to “an enemy attack by Ukrainian drones.”
Yaroslavl's airport also briefly closed overnight, along with others in southern and western Russia, according to the country's civil aviation agency.
Fuel shortages in Russia as Putin says plans will be ‘adjusted’ For months, Ukraine has been stepping up attacks on energy facilities deep inside Russia. Despite a raft of Western sanctions, Moscow remains among the world's top exporters of oil and natural gas.
More recently, Ukraine has attempted to choke off fuel deliveries to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in early 2014. Last weekend, Kremlin-installed officials in Crimea suspended gasoline sales to civilians, after Kyiv's targeting of supply routes triggered the worst energy crisis there since the annexation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on Sunday that the country was “going through a difficult period,” but insisted that Moscow would “honor all its social obligations” to citizens. He did not directly reference the Ukrainian strikes or fuel shortages.
“Naturally, we are adjusting certain plans in light of the current situation, but all strategically important (domestic) development programs will undoubtedly be implemented in full,” Putin said at a conference of his ruling United Russia party.
“We will continue to build housing and roads, create new, modern, high-paying jobs, and support domestic businesses,” he said. “We are going through a difficult period, but this has taught us a great deal, and allowed us to grasp the very essence of what it means to be a Russian citizen.”
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Moscow was actively reviewing fuel export agreements to avoid compromising domestic needs.
Fuel sales to civilians were also being restricted in Russia’s Irkutsk region in Siberia, thousands of kilometers (miles) from the Ukrainian border, local Gov. Igor Kobzev announced on Sunday.
Drivers will be barred from buying more than 50 liters (13 gallons) of fuel per vehicle per day at state-run Rosneft gas stations in the province, Kobzev said, adding that other gas stations may set lower limits.
At least two private gas station networks in Siberia — KreisNeft in the Irkutsk region and Elke Auto in the Tomsk region farther west — said earlier this month that they were limiting sales due to supply disruptions.
Drones, bombs and missiles target more regions Also on Sunday, a Russian aerial bomb killed two people in Zaporizhzhia — a city in southern Ukraine — and injured 16 others, including two children, said regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.
In Russia's border region of Belgorod, Ukrainian drone strikes killed one person and injured another earlier on Sunday, according to acting local Gov. Alexander Shuvayev.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 213 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russia, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 142 long-range strike drones and eight missiles overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Of those, 125 drones and seven missiles were struck down, the air force said.
More People Rescued, Thousands Still Missing after Venezuela Quakeshttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5289643-more-people-rescued-thousands-still-missing-after-venezuela-quakes
More People Rescued, Thousands Still Missing after Venezuela Quakes
A rescuer looks on as rescue operations continue after earthquakes hit the country, in La Guaira, Venezuela, June 27, 2026. REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno
Thirty-three people have been rescued so far this weekend after Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes, the country's interim president said, including several children, while tens of thousands remained unaccounted for with time for finding additional survivors running short.
The death toll from Wednesday's twin earthquakes rose above 1,400 as of Saturday as foreign rescue teams poured into coastal La Guaira, the hardest-hit state.
Families and volunteers spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble before the arrival of the more than 1,600 foreign rescue workers, often complaining of scant heavy equipment and a limited official presence, as hundreds of aftershocks deepened damage and kept residents on edge.
The government - headed by interim President Delcy Rodriguez since her predecessor was removed by the US in a January raid - had thanked civilian volunteers ferrying aid to La Guaira, but then heavily tightened access to the road, saying traffic was preventing efficient movement of emergency vehicles and that only accredited people could use the roadway.
Although the government has given a figure of hundreds missing or trapped, just under 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted for on a website promoted by the country's political opposition on Sunday.
The figure is a slight decline from Saturday, when 55,000 people were marked as missing.
The US Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, which would place them among Latin America's deadliest of the last century.
People line up to receive donations in La Guaira, Venezuela, 27 June 2026. EPA/Henry Chirinos
The clock is ticking for rescuing people still living amid the rubble.
"There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive," Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team, told Reuters on Saturday.
The 80-strong team had found multiple people alive in the rubble thanks to alerts from their eight search dogs, but had not been able to pull them out in time to save them, he added.
Saturday evening marked 72 hours since the quakes.
The Swiss team will jointly define with other teams and local authorities when rescue operations will end, Eugster said, but will remain on the ground to help with other aid work.
The US State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by US rescue crews on Saturday, posting a video on X showing helmet-clad rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped and wailing child from the rubble.
A boy sleeps outside earthquake-damaged homes in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
A Colombian rescue team saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been trapped some 3 meters (10 feet) deep in rubble, after identifying his location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported.
He was removed on a stretcher with a broken arm, his eyes covered by cloth to protect them from the shock of daylight. His mother and sister were killed.
Mexican rescuers working at a collapsed building in the town of Caraballeda rescued another 11-year-old boy, Rodriguez posted on X late on Saturday, showing crews carrying a small figure on a stretcher out of the rubble.
"In these hours each life is hope for Venezuela," Rodriguez said, as the government also shared a video of a young man being removed from ruins by rescuers.
The government also posted videos of Rodriguez meeting with international rescuers, where she gave the figure of people saved on Saturday.
The government has also said more than 3,000 people were injured and a similar figure was living in shelters.
In Caraballeda on Saturday, US rescuers worked alongside remaining civilian volunteers, some of whom were searching for their own family members.
Rescuers had originally spray-painted the rubble with the name of the apartment building that used to stand there. By Saturday evening they had marked debris with coding indicating they believed no living person remained in the ruins.
Pope Leo on Sunday told worshippers gathered for the Angelus prayer in Rome that he wanted "to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes" and expressed gratitude to rescue workers.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X that the EU had mobilized 5 million euros ($5.9 million) in emergency assistance and that its Copernicus satellite system is helping map the damage and direct assistance to the areas most in need.
A senior US official said on Saturday that a funding package worth hundreds of millions of dollars is expected to be announced within the next day or so, in addition to $150 million that the Trump administration had already committed.
The disaster could have political consequences for Rodriguez, who has portrayed herself as an agent of change even though she served as vice president under predecessor Nicolas Maduro.
Power throughout the region was gradually returning. Venezuela's power grid, crippled by years of underinvestment and economic sanctions, regularly experiences problems, leading to daily, hours-long blackouts in some regions.
Skydiving Plane Crash Kills 11 in Francehttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5289614-skydiving-plane-crash-kills-11-france
Emergency services at the scene of the crash near Nancy in north-eastern France. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
A skydiving plane crashed Sunday in eastern France, killing all 11 people on board, local authorities said, in one of the country's deadliest ever light aircraft accidents.
The crash in the town of Tomblaine killed five instructors, five students, and the pilot, said Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department.
The students were a group of nurses, according to a source close to the case and confirmed by the head of Meurthe-et-Moselle's nursing council, Thierry Pechey.
"They were colleagues who had decided to go on a first skydiving jump, no doubt to unwind, as we're going through a difficult time with the heatwave," he said.
Mayor of the nearby city of Nancy, Mathieu Klein, said the victims "died in full view of their loved ones, who were preparing to film the tandem skydives".
Medical and psychological support teams were caring for relatives of the victims who were present, as well as other witnesses, according to local authorities.
The aircraft, registered in Germany, crashed in a grassy area near the runway of the Nancy-Essey aerodrome, close to a residential area and two roads, an AFP journalist reported.
"It's tragic, but it could have been even worse," said Klein, noting the plane crashed "just a few metres from homes".
Tomblaine mayor Herve Feron said the plane fell "in a completely unexplained manner ...during the ascent", describing it as crashing "straight down".
The aircraft had been "chartered for the occasion, for the skydiving weekend, as is regularly done", he added.
The cause of the incident was not immediately clear and a technical investigation had been opened, said Amaury Lacote, deputy public prosecutor in the eastern city of Nancy.
Police urged people on the social media platform X to "strictly avoid" the area around the airport to allow emergency services access.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot are expected to visit the scene of the accident later this afternoon.
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