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Russia Drones Smash Power Network in Ukraine’s Odesa, Leaving 1.5 Million without Power

A local resident stands at a transport stop near a stopped trolleybus during a power outage after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Odesa, Ukraine December 5, 2022. (Reuters)
A local resident stands at a transport stop near a stopped trolleybus during a power outage after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Odesa, Ukraine December 5, 2022. (Reuters)
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Russia Drones Smash Power Network in Ukraine’s Odesa, Leaving 1.5 Million without Power

A local resident stands at a transport stop near a stopped trolleybus during a power outage after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Odesa, Ukraine December 5, 2022. (Reuters)
A local resident stands at a transport stop near a stopped trolleybus during a power outage after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Odesa, Ukraine December 5, 2022. (Reuters)

All non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people without power, officials said on Saturday. 

"The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. 

"Unfortunately, the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity... It doesn't take hours, but a few days, unfortunately." 

Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes. 

Norway was sending $100 million to help restore Ukraine's energy system, Zelenskiy said. 

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for Odesa's regional administration, said electricity for the city's population will be restored "in the coming days," while complete restoration of the networks may take two to three months. 

Bratchuk said an earlier Facebook post by the region's administration, advising some people to consider evacuating, was being investigated by Ukraine's security services as "an element of the hybrid war" by Russia. 

That post has since been deleted. 

"Not a single representative of the authorities in the region made any calls for the evacuation of the inhabitants of Odesa and the region," Bratchuk said. 

Odesa had more than 1 million residents before the Feb. 24 invasion that Russia calls a "special military operation" to "denazify" its smaller neighbor. 

Kyiv says Russia has launched hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at targets in Ukraine, describing the attacks as war crimes due to their devastating effect on civilian life. Moscow says its attacks are militarily legitimate and that it does not target civilians. 

Ukraine's prosecutor general's office said two power facilities in Odesa region were hit by Shahed-136 drones. 

Ukraine's armed forces said on Facebook that 15 drones had been launched against targets in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and 10 had been shot down. 

Tehran denies supplying the drones to Moscow. Kyiv and its Western allies say that is a lie. 

Britain's defense ministry said on Saturday that it believed Iran's military support for Russia was likely to increase in the coming months, including possible deliveries of ballistic missiles. 

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World

Schools Closed as Indonesia Battles Wildfires

Smoke billows over an area affected by wildfire at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, which was closed for all tourist activities for an undetermined duration, in Probolinggo, East Java province, Indonesia, August 9, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over an area affected by wildfire at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, which was closed for all tourist activities for an undetermined duration, in Probolinggo, East Java province, Indonesia, August 9, 2026. (Reuters)
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Schools Closed as Indonesia Battles Wildfires

Smoke billows over an area affected by wildfire at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, which was closed for all tourist activities for an undetermined duration, in Probolinggo, East Java province, Indonesia, August 9, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over an area affected by wildfire at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, which was closed for all tourist activities for an undetermined duration, in Probolinggo, East Java province, Indonesia, August 9, 2026. (Reuters)

Dozens of Indonesian schools were shuttered for a second day Tuesday against the spreading haze of wildfires plaguing the archipelago at the start of a long and intense dry season worsened by El Nino.

In West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo that Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei, the mayor of Pontianak ordered schools closed due to the smoke wafting over the city from fires elsewhere, reported AFP.

Public records show Pontianak has tens of thousands of public school pupils.

Children will learn from home for as long as air quality remains poor, mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said in a statement Monday, without stating how many schools were affected.

"We have started to feel it, especially at night and in the morning, as haze has already blanketed the city of Pontianak," he said.

On the island of Java, firefighters battled flames for a ninth day at a national park that has lost 900 hectares to an inferno that broke out on Monday last week.

The blaze at the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, a major tourist attraction closed to visitors since Saturday, is one of several wildfires that have drawn in nearly 50,000 firefighters countrywide.

Indonesia is forecast to experience an unusually tough dry season this year with high risk for drought and wildfires due in part to the El Nino weather phenomenon, the BMKG weather agency has said.

More than 107,000 hectares of land have burnt countrywide so far this year.

Authorities insist that food stocks remain adequate.

- Hot July -

The fire at the Bromo park in East Java has consumed nearly 900 hectares, or more than 2,200 acres, by Tuesday morning.

This is equivalent to over 1,200 football fields and nearly two percent of the total park area.

"We're making our best effort and mobilizing everything... to extinguish and wet-down the area," local disaster official Satriyo Nurseno told AFP.

"We hope that today we can put out the fire in all areas, then carry out soaking so that the fire does not reignite."

Three water-bombing helicopters and fire trucks were providing support to about 200 firefighters, forest rangers, police and soldiers helping to put out the blaze.

According to the BNPB disaster agency, more than 48,000 personnel have been deployed to fight fires in six provinces.

And Security Minister Djamari Chaniago said Monday Indonesia has deployed 43 helicopters and up to 15 fixed-wing planes for cloud seeding where needed.

The process involves spraying particles such as silver iodide and salt from aircraft to produce rainfall, but depends on clouds being present.

As Indonesia braces for the worst effects of El Nino, the BMKG said the average air temperature in July was 27C -- higher than the 26.2C average.

It was the highest such jump for July since 1991.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure and rainfall patterns.

In India and Southeast Asia, it typically causes drier conditions.

The last El Nino helped make 2023 and 2024 the two hottest years globally on record.

The land lost to wildfires in Indonesia so far this year is double the area burnt in 2023.

World

Türkiye MPs Back Historic Law on Reintegrating Kurdish Militants

Lawmakers take part in a voting session on a bill offering limited amnesty for Kurdish PKK militants at Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in Ankara on August 10, 2026. (AFP)
Lawmakers take part in a voting session on a bill offering limited amnesty for Kurdish PKK militants at Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in Ankara on August 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Türkiye MPs Back Historic Law on Reintegrating Kurdish Militants

Lawmakers take part in a voting session on a bill offering limited amnesty for Kurdish PKK militants at Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in Ankara on August 10, 2026. (AFP)
Lawmakers take part in a voting session on a bill offering limited amnesty for Kurdish PKK militants at Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in Ankara on August 10, 2026. (AFP)

Turkish lawmakers on Monday voted through a bill offering limited amnesty for Kurdish PKK militants, a key step in the peace process that seeks to end decades of deadly violence.

The law is Türkiye's first legislative step towards ending the conflict and comes 18 months after Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), urged his followers to disarm.

After 12 hours of debate, lawmakers voted by 468 in favor to 88 against, with six abstentions, for the so-called "terror-free Türkiye law" which envisages a return to civilian life for some of the PKK fighters who lay down their weapons without granting a total amnesty.

But crucially, the text does not specify what will become of Ocalan, 77, who has spent the past 27 years being held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

Ocalan has played a key role in efforts to end the conflict, issuing a historic call in February 2025 for his fighters to disarm and embrace democratic means to defend the rights of Türkiye's Kurdish minority.

Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish DEM party, the bill suspends prosecutions and prison sentences for some offences for between five and 10 years.

The move is expected to involve the release of around 3,500 PKK-linked detainees in an initial phase, lawmakers said -- around a third of the number held in Turkish prisons.

If those covered by the measure do not reoffend during that period, investigations would be dropped and sentences considered served.

But those involved in serious crimes such as murder would be excluded -- with the text making no mention of Ocalan.

Last week, Türkiye's vice president Cevdet Yilmaz told CNN Turk Ocalan's case "does not fall within the scope of this law" but said he would be "in a position to contribute to the peace process" without giving further details.

Following the vote, Yilmaz hailed the new law as a "historic step", saying "the 468 'yes' votes are of the utmost importance in terms of political consensus".

"We expect the disarmament and dissolution processes to be implemented as quickly as possible.. and subsequently for the relevant articles of the law to come into effect," he wrote on X.

- 'Crossing a historic threshold' -

Devlet Bahceli, a close Erdogan ally and head of the hardline nationalist MHP whose unexpected olive branch to Ocalan kickstarted the process in October 2024, also hailed the vote.

"May it bring good luck and success," he said, shaking hands with pro-Kurdish MPs from DEM -- which also played a key role in the process, with its lawmakers regularly visiting Ocalan on Imrali island to pass messages back and forth.

With the vote, Türkiye was "crossing a historic threshold", DEM MP Ceylan Akca told AFP.

"This is the first step of a long walk towards absolute and authentic equality. I choose to be optimistic," she said, admitting the vote had made her "more hopeful."

Ahead of the vote, the government had been keen to stress that the text was not a general amnesty law, aware of the misgivings of the Turkish public which has been scarred by decades of bloody conflict.

And the tension was evident as lawmakers held a heated debate in a session broadcast live on TRT public television.

"How can you negotiate with terrorists? ... You said they would be laying down their weapons unconditionally," said Turhan Comez, a lawmaker with the nationalist opposition Iyi party.

In May last year, the PKK announced it was disbanding following Ocalan's call and two months later, its militants took part in a historic disarmament ceremony in the mountains of northern Iraq where they began symbolically destroying their weapons.

But the PKK leadership has said excluding Ocalan from the legislation would be a red line, warning on Sunday that many of the bill's provisions would remain a "dead letter" if he were not freed.

World

Report: Trump Left NATO Summit on Secret Flight Due to Iranian Threat

US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
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Report: Trump Left NATO Summit on Secret Flight Due to Iranian Threat

US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks during the signing of an executive order reviewing childhood vaccine recommendations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2026. EPA/BONNIE CASH / POOL

President Donald Trump secretly flew out of last month's NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on an alternate military aircraft while the White House made it appear that the Republican president was flying on Air Force One, according to a report published by The Washington Post on Monday.

The Post said the operation was prompted by an Iranian assassination threat against Trump. The ruse was carried out as journalists and some White House staff members were led to believe they were on the same plane as the president as he began his journey back to Washington from the annual gathering of NATO country leaders.

The Post cited material reviewed by the newspaper, a US official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the president’s travel. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the report.

Trump had flown to the summit in a white and navy-blue jet. But ahead of departing Türkiye, he said he would fly partway home on an older-model baby blue Air Force One plane instead.

The president at the time said the new luxury jet was being flown out ahead of his departure from Ankara to give some US troops based in eastern England a chance to check out the new Air Force One.

In Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras ahead of the plane flying to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom.

However, according to the Post report, after boarding the legacy Air Force One jet, he was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane — an Air Force C-32A — via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies. Trump flew to Mildenhall on that smaller jet.

The White House did not respond directly to questions about the Post report of the secret operation to whisk Trump out of the country on a third aircraft, or the reported elaborate ruse to make it appear he was on the baby blue Air Force One jet flying to Mildenhall.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The US Secret Service declined to comment. The Air Force, which maintains the fleet of executive travel aircraft, referred questions to the White House.