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Authorities charged the defendant with carrying out a hate crime, with the murder of the embassy officials described as calculated and planned.
A man accused of shooting dead two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington, DC, has been indicted on federal hate crime and murder charges, as President Donald Trump suggested he may call on the National Guard to bring down crime rates in the United States capital.
Court documents filed in federal court in Washington and unsealed on Wednesday show that defendant Elias Rodriguez has been charged with nine counts, including a hate crime resulting in death.
The 30-year-old is accused of shooting dead Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple who were about to become engaged, as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in May.
Rodriguez, who witnesses described as pacing outside the museum before the attack, approached the couple and opened fire.
Surveillance footage then showed him advance on Lischinsky and Milgrim as they fell to the ground, firing additional shots as he stood over them. Rodriguez appeared to reload before jogging off, according to officials.
Two other people who were standing with the couple at the time of the attack escaped unharmed.
Rodriguez then entered the museum and confessed to the killings. He was heard shouting “Free Palestine” as he was led away. Rodriguez also told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza “, according to federal authorities.
Prosecutors described the killings as calculated and planned in court papers, alleging that Rodriguez flew to Washington from Chicago with a handgun in his checked luggage. Authorities also claimed Rodriguez purchased a ticket for the American Jewish Committee-organised event at the museum three hours before it started.
Rodriguez was previously charged with the murder of foreign officials and other crimes. Prosecutors added the hate crimes charges after bringing the case to a grand jury.
Also included in the indictment is a notice of special findings allowing the Department of Justice to potentially pursue the death penalty.
Prosecutors are now tasked with proving that Rodriguez was motivated by anti-Semitism when he opened fire on Lischinsky and Milgrim.
Lischinsky was a research assistant at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, while Milgrim organised trips to Israel for the embassy. Lischinsky, a German-Israeli citizen, had reportedly bought an engagement ring days before he and Milgrim, a Jewish US citizen, were killed.
Also on Wednesday, President Trump said he may deploy the National Guard to police Washington’s streets, telling reporters outside the White House that the capital is “very unsafe” and it “has to be the best-run place in the country”.
“We’re going to beautify the city. We’re going to make it beautiful. And what a shame, the rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings and everything else. We’re not going to let it,” Trump said.
“And that includes bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly, too,” he added.
Trump made his latest threat of a federal takeover of the US capital after a staffer who was part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was assaulted during a carjacking over the weekend.
According to records on the police department’s website, violent crime in Washington was down 26 percent in the first seven months of 2025 compared with last year, while overall crime was down some 7 percent.
US President Donald Trump said the tariff will not impact companies if they have already invested in US facilities.
United States President Donald Trump says he will impose a 100 percent tariff on foreign-made semiconductors, although exemptions will be made for companies that have invested in the US.
“We’ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100 percent on chips and semiconductors, but if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge, even though you’re building and you’re not producing yet,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Wednesday evening.
The news came after a separate announcement that Apple would invest $600bn in the US, but it was not unexpected by US observers.
Trump told CNBC on Tuesday that he planned to unveil a new tariff on semiconductors “within the next week or so” without offering further details.
Details were also scant at the Oval Office about how and when the tariffs will go into effect, but Asia’s semiconductor powerhouses were quick to respond about the potential impact.
Taiwan, home of the world’s largest chipmaker TSMC, said that the company would be exempt from the tariff due to its existing investments in the US.
“Because Taiwan’s main exporter is TSMC, which has factories in the United States, TSMC is exempt,” National Development Council chief Liu Chin-ching told the Taiwanese legislature.
In March, TSMC – which counts Apple and Nvidia as clients – said it would increase its US investment to $165bn to expand chip making and research centres in Arizona.
A semiconductor wafer displayed at Touch Taiwan, an annual display exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 16, 2025 [Ann Wang/Reuters]
South Korea was also quick to extinguish any concerns about its top chipmakers, Samsung and SK Hynix, which have also invested in facilities in Texas and Indiana.
Trade envoy Yeo Han-koo said South Korean companies would be exempt from the tariff and that Seoul already faced “favourable” tariffs after signing a trade deal with Washington earlier this year.
TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix are just some of the foreign tech companies that have invested in the US since 2022, when then-President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS Act offering billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits to re-shore investment and manufacturing.
Less lucky is the Philippines, said Dan Lachica, president of Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation.
He said the tariffs will be “devastating” because semiconductors make up 70 percent of the Philippines’ exports.
Trump’s latest round of blanket tariffs on US trade partners is due to go into effect on Thursday, but the White House has also targeted specific industries like steel, aluminium, automobiles and pharmaceuticals with separate tariffs.
Angela Rayner has given China two weeks to explain why parts of its plans for a new mega-embassy in London are redacted.
The deputy prime minister’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government sent a letter asking for further information and requested a response by 20 August, the BBC understands.
Beijing’s plans for the new embassy have sparked fears its location – very near London’s financial district – could pose an espionage risk. Residents nearby also fear it would pose a security risk to them and attract large protests.
The BBC has contacted the Chinese embassy in London for comment.
A final planning decision on the controversial plans will be made by 9 September, the BBC understands.
In a letter seen by the PA news agency, Rayner, who as housing secretary is responsible for overseeing planning matters, asks planning consultants representing the Chinese embassy to explain why drawings of the planned site are blacked out.
The Home Office and the Foreign Office also received copies of the letter.
It notes that the Home Office requested a new “hard perimeter” be placed around the embassy site, to prevent “unregulated public access”, and says this could require a further planning application.
Pro-democracy campaigners from Hong Kong also fear Beijing could use the huge embassy to harass political opponents and even detain them. Last month, the UK condemned cash offers from Hong Kong authorities for people who help in the arrest of pro-democracy activists living in Britain.
Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister, said: “No surprises here – Labour’s rush to appease Xi Jinping’s demands for a new embassy demonstrated a complacency when it came to keeping our people safe. Having deluded themselves for so long, they’ve recognised we were right to be vigilant.”
Responding to security concerns earlier this week, the Chinese embassy told the BBC it was “committed to promoting understanding and the friendship between the Chinese and British peoples and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Building the new embassy would help us better perform such responsibilities”.
China bought the old Royal Mint Court for £255m in 2018. At 20,000 square metres, the complex will be the biggest embassy in Europe if it goes ahead.
The plan involves a cultural centre and housing for 200 staff, but in the basement, behind security doors, there are also rooms with no identified use on the plans.
It resubmitted an identical application in August 2024, one month after Labour came to power.
On 23 August, Sir Keir Starmer phoned Chinese President Xi Jinping for their first talks. Sir Keir confirmed afterwards that Xi had raised the embassy issue.
Rayner has since exercised her power to take the matter out of the council’s hands amid attempts by the government to engage with China after a cooling of relations during the final years of Conservative Party rule.
Senior ministers have signalled they are in favour if minor adjustments are made to the plan.
Gaza’s already battered healthcare system is in a state of collapse as blood banks run dry and Israeli forces continue targeting clinics and facilities housing patients and displaced families while maintaining an aid blockade.
Healthcare officials in the besieged enclave reported on Wednesday that there is a severe shortage of blood as many would-be donors are too malnourished due to a severe Israeli-induced hunger crisis that has so far claimed the lives of 193 Palestinians, including five in the past 24 hours.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said blood donations are desperately needed across the remaining operational medical facilities in Gaza – al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Aqsa Hospital, and Nasser Hospital.
“We’ve seen at the blood banks many people who were begging doctors to allow them to give blood donations to save their loved ones, but they had to be turned away because they were not fit to donate blood due to the enforced dehydration and starvation,” Mahmoud said.
Amani Abu Ouda, head of the blood bank at al-Shifa Hospital, said most would-be donors who arrive are malnourished, which affects the safety and quality of blood donations.
As a result, she said, “when they donate blood they could lose consciousness within seconds, which not only endangers their health but also leads to the loss of a precious blood unit.”
More than 14,800 patients in Gaza are still in urgent need of specialised medical treatment, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, calling on the international community to act swiftly.
“We urge more countries to step forward to accept patients and for medical evacuations to be expedited through all possible routes,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement posted on X on Wednesday.
Israeli attacks have continued to pound Gaza, killing at least 44 people on Wednesday.
An overnight attack in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood injured dozens of people. The attack targeted the Sheikh Radwan Health Centre, previously run by the UN refugee agency for Palestinians.
“Last night, while we were having dinner, we suddenly heard people shouting, calling for evacuation. There was no time to take anything no food, no clothes, no bedding. We just ran,” Ghaleb Tafesh, a displaced Palestinian resident, told Al Jazeera.
Among those killed Wednesday were 18 hungry aid seekers, who were shot dead as they approached UN aid trucks and aid distribution sites operated by the United States and Israeli-backed GHF.
So far, more than 1,560 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to receive food since GHF began operating in late May.
This week, a group of UN special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is “an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law”.
Israel’s air and ground assault has also destroyed nearly all of Gaza’s food production capabilities, leaving its people reliant on aid.
A new report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN satellite centre found that just 8.6 percent of Gaza’s cropland is still accessible following sweeping Israeli forced evacuation orders in recent months. Just 1.5 percent is accessible and undamaged, it said.
Israel blockade extends to medical supplies and fuel
Hamas, meanwhile, called for protests across the world against the starvation in Gaza.
“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in the cities, capitals and squares on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and all the upcoming days with marches, protests and demonstrations in front of the Zionist and US embassies,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israel’s blockade extends to medical supplies and much-needed fuel – shortages that have forced several medical facilities to shut down in recent months.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, warned that Israel’s continued blockade on the entry of fuel into Gaza is affecting “lifesaving” operations.
“In the past two days, the UN collected some 300,000 litres from the Karem Abu Salem [Kerem Shalom] crossing,” Haq told reporters.
“This is far less than what is needed to sustain operations,” he said. “For example, our partners working in health warned today that the lives of more than 100 premature babies are in imminent danger due to the lack of fuel.”
Haq also said that, since March, more than 100 health workers, including surgeons and specialised staff, had been denied entry into the Strip.
Fears mount over possible plans for expanded military offensive in Gaza
The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announce further military action – and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel’s ongoing offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine.
The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming” if true.
Despite international pressure for a ceasefire, efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Hamas have collapsed.
An expansion of the military offensive in heavily populated areas would likely be devastating.
“Where will we go?” said Tamer al-Burai, a displaced Palestinian living at the edge of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
“Should people jump into the sea if the tanks rolled in, or wait to die under the rubble of their houses? We want an end to this war; it is enough, enough.”
More than 61,158 Palestinians, including at least 18,430 children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Forty-nine captives, including 27 who are believed to be dead, are still being held by Hamas, according to Israeli authorities.
To Governments, International Organisations, Media Institutions, and Civil Society:
We, the undersigned press freedom organisations, media organisations, journalists’ unions, and advocates of truth and transparency, demand an end to the forced starvation and targeting of journalists in Gaza by Israel.
Journalists in Gaza are being starved to death.
Not metaphorically. Not slowly. But deliberately, and in real time, while the world watches.
One in three people in Gaza now goes days without food. Among the starving are journalists, the last independent voices still reporting from inside Gaza. These are the individuals whose courage keeps the world informed of the sheer humanitarian impact of Israel’s war on Gaza. Now, they are being forced to die from hunger.
This is not incidental. This is a tactic.
The suffering of journalists is not an accident; Israel is employing deliberate tactics to silence the truth by starving them.
Since October 2023, over 230 journalists and media workers in Gaza have been killed. Those who remain, and their families, are subjected to constant targeting, intimidation, and denied their basic needs, and are now forced to choose between death by air strike or starvation. Their situation is dire and worsening day by day. Without immediate intervention by the international community, their lives are under serious threat, and they may not be able to continue reporting; their voices may fall silent.
The journalistic community and the world bear an immense responsibility; it is our duty to raise our voices and mobilise all available means to support our colleagues in this noble profession.
If the international community fails to act, the death of these journalists will not only be a moral catastrophe, but it will also be the death of truth itself in Gaza. Our inaction will be recorded in history as a monumental failure to protect our fellow journalists and a betrayal of the principles that every journalist strives to uphold.
We, the undersigned, demand:
Immediate Food and Medical access: Urgent delivery of food, clean water and medical supplies to all journalists in Gaza through protected humanitarian corridors.
International Media Access: End the blockade on foreign press entry into Gaza and allow global journalists to operate freely and independently.
Accountability: Investigate and prosecute those responsible for the starvation and killing of journalists in accordance with international law.
Sustained Protection and Aid: Commit to long-term protection mechanisms for journalists operating in conflict zones, with specific support for those reporting under siege.
We refuse to stand by while truth dies. We refuse to let our colleagues perish from hunger.
Signed:
Al Jazeera Media Network
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK
Aidan White, Founder, Ethical Journalism Network
Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Federation of African Journalists
Geneva Global Media Center (GGMC)
International Press Institute (IPI)
International Media Support (IMS)
Index on Censorship
James Foley Foundation
John Williams, Executive Director, The Rory Peck Trust
National Press Club (NPC) & NPC Media Freedom Center
A march has begun from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas northward to the central part of the country, in protest of policies that make legal immigration status difficult to achieve.
Wednesday’s march set out from the border city of Tapachula, near Guatemala, and nearly 300 migrants, asylum seekers and supporters took part.
But the demonstration was overshadowed by the arrest one day earlier of one of its leaders, prominent immigration activist Luis Garcia Villagran.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed the arrest in her morning news conference on Wednesday. She alleged that Garcia Villagran had been detained for taking part in human trafficking.
“That is the crime,” she said, adding that Garcia Villagran was “not an activist”.
She added that an arrest warrant had been pending for the activist for years. But it was unclear why his arrest was carried out now.
The nonprofit Pueblo Sin Fronteras, however, disputed Sheinbaum’s characterisation of Garcia Villagran.
“The detention of Luis Villagran, director and human rights defender, is an unacceptable assault,” the nonprofit’s head, Irineo Mujica, wrote in a post to social media.
“Luis Villagrán’s only ‘crime’ is to defend those who have no money or voice, and to tell the truth, which bothers the powerful. Stop criminalising human rights defenders!”
Luis Garcia Villagran, the coordinator for the Centre for Human Dignification AC, speaks to migrants through a megaphone at a shelter in Huixtla, Mexico, on June 8, 2022 [Marco Ugarte/AP Photo]
Mujica – who was detained himself in 2019 on similar charges, only to be released – argued that Garcia Villagran’s arrest was a political distraction.
“This is a smokescreen: dirty and corrupt politics to cover up the true networks of corruption,” he said.
Mujica and Garcia Villagran have both been prominent voices in a movement to make legal immigration pathways more accessible.
They have also been among the organisers associated with the trend of the migrant “caravans” that travel from southern Mexico to the United States border in recent years.
Some of those past caravans have involved thousands of people, many of whom banded together for protection against criminal networks, corrupt officials and other threats they may face as they migrate.
Migration northwards, however, has slowed, particularly since US President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January.
Trump quickly attempted to bar asylum claims at the border, a move that has spurred a legal backlash.
Last month, a court blocked his asylum ban on the basis that it created an “alternative immigration system” without deference to Congress’s laws.
But Trump’s policies have nevertheless had a dampening effect on immigration at the border. In June, US Customs and Border Protection recorded only 9,306 “encounters” with migrants and asylum seekers at the country’s southern border – a nearly 93 percent drop compared with the same period last year.
Migrants and asylum seekers march north from Tapachula to central Mexico on August 6 [Edgar H Clemente/AP Photo]
Wednesday’s march had a different objective than those past caravans, though, particularly as migrants and asylum seekers turn away from the US and seek other destinations.
Organisers of the march sought to draw attention to the slow processing time for asylum applications in Mexico and other hurdles to achieving legal immigration status.
It also served as a demonstration against Mexican policies that have sought to keep undocumented migrants and asylum seekers in the south of the country, away from the US border.
The Trump administration has pressured Mexico to crack down on immigration into the US, including through the threat of tariffs.
Garcia Villagran’s arrest in the hours leading up to the march, however, left some migrants and asylum seekers fearful of taking part in the march.
The news agency AFP obtained one message that was circulating among participants that read, “Hide, don’t let yourselves get caught.”
A Catholic priest who took part in Wednesday’s march, Heyman Vazquez, told The Associated Press news agency that Garcia Villagran’s arrest was “unjust”.
He added that the arrest revealed a sense of insecurity in the government over the question of migration. The solution, he explained, would be to make it easier for migrants and asylum seekers to obtain legal status, thereby removing the need for such protests.
Donald Trump has said there is a “good chance” he could meet the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, following what he described as “very good talks” between his envoy and Vladimir Putin earlier in the day.
Asked at the White House whether the two leaders had agreed to such a summit, the US president said there was a “very good prospect”, but did not give further details.
The Kremlin earlier issued a vague statement about the talks between Putin and Steve Witkoff, with a foreign policy aide saying the two sides had exchanged “signals” as part of “constructive” talks in Moscow.
The meeting came days before Trump’s deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, or face new sanctions.
Trump’s comments in the Oval Office on Wednesday come after he posted on his Truth Social platform that he had briefed some of America’s European allies following the talks.
“Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,” Trump said.
The White House also told the BBC that Russia had expressed a desire to meet the US president and that he was “open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said he had spoken to Trump about Witkoff’s visit, with European leaders also on the call.
Zelensky has been warning that Russia would only make serious moves towards peace if it began to run out of money.
Wednesday’s discussions between Putin and Witkoff appeared cordial despite Trump’s mounting irritation with the lack of progress in negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
Images shared by Russian outlets showed Putin and Witkoff – who have met several times previously – smiling and shaking hands in a gilded hall at the Kremlin.
Shortly after Witkoff’s departure from Moscow, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order imposing an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil. The tariff would come into force on 27 August.
The US president has accused India of not caring “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine”.
Expectations are muted for a settlement by Friday, and Russia has continued its large-scale air attacks on Ukraine despite Trump’s threats of sanctions.
Before taking office in January, Trump said he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. The conflict has raged on, and his rhetoric towards Moscow has since hardened.
“We thought we had [the war] settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” he said last month.
Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end, three-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-invasion.
Moscow’s military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kyiv and to its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly turned down Kyiv’s requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.
Meanwhile, the US administration approved $200m (£150m) of additional military sales to Ukraine on Tuesday following a phone call between Zelensky and Trump, in which the two leaders also discussed defence co-operation and drone production.
Ukraine has been using drones to hit Russia’s refineries and energy facilities, while Moscow has focused its air attacks on Ukraine’s cities.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said the toll of an attack on the city last week rose to 32 after a man died of his injuries. The strike was one of the deadliest on Kyiv since the start of the invasion.
Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday reported that a Russian attack on a holiday camp in the central region of Zaporizhzhia left two dead and 12 wounded.
“There’s no military sense in this attack. It’s just cruelty to scare people,” Zelensky said.
Administration says Russia expressed ‘desire to meet with President Trump’ and that the US wants war in Ukraine to end.
The White House has said that United States President Donald Trump is “open” to the idea of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In remarks on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Russian officials had expressed interest in meeting with Trump. Leavitt did not say when or where such a meeting could take place, but AP quoted an anonymous White House official saying the meeting could happen within a week.
“The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Leavitt told members of the press following reports in the New York Times that Trump could meet with Putin in Russia as soon as next week.
The US president has said that he is committed to helping bring the war in Ukraine to an end. He initially promised to stop the conflict on “day one” of his presidency, but has struggled to make progress. The statement comes after US envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow to speak with Russian officials earlier today.
In a social media post, Trump said Witkoff held a “highly productive” meeting with Putin and that “great progress was made!”
“Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,” he added.
The New York Times reported that Trump intends to meet first with Putin before later setting up a meeting that would also include Zelenskyy.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a TV interview that the US now has a better understanding of what conditions would be required for Russia to end the war.
“For the first time perhaps since this administration began, we have some concrete examples of the kinds of things that Russia would ask for in order to end the war,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” adding that questions of territory would be a key part of any deal.
The news agency AFP reported that Trump also discussed the possibility of such a meeting during a phone call with Zelenskyy, citing an anonymous Ukrainian source. That call is also said to have included NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the leaders of Britain, Germany and Finland.
Trump has recently mulled steps to further increase pressure on Russia, which he has accused of not being sincerely interested in ending the war. Such steps could include heightened US sanctions.
On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first and only country in history to carry out a nuclear attack when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
While the death toll of the bombing remains a subject of debate, at least 70,000 people were killed, though other figures are nearly twice as high.
Three days later, the US dropped another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing at least 40,000 people.
The stunning toll on Japanese civilians at first seemed to have little impact on public opinion in the US, where pollsters found approval for the bombing reached 85 percent in the days afterwards.
To this day, US politicians continue to credit the bombing with saving American lives and ending World War II.
But as the US marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, perceptions have become increasingly mixed. A Pew Research Center poll last month indicated that Americans are split almost evenly into three categories.
Nearly a third of respondents believe the use of the bomb was justified. Another third feels it was not. And the rest are uncertain about deciding either way.
“The trendline is that there is a steady decline in the share of Americans who believe these bombings were justified at the time,” Eileen Yam, the director of science and society research at Pew Research Center, told Al Jazeera in a recent phone call.
“This is something Americans have gotten less and less supportive of as time has gone by.”
Tumbling approval rates
Doubts about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the advent of nuclear weapons in general, did not take long to set in.
“From the beginning, it was understood that this was something different, a weapon that could destroy entire cities,” said Kai Bird, a US author who has written about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
His Pulitzer Prize-winning book, American Prometheus, served as the basis for director Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film, Oppenheimer.
Bird pointed out that, even in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, some key politicians and public figures denounced it as a war crime.
Early critics included physicist Albert Einstein and former President Herbert Hoover, who was quick to speak out against the civilian bloodshed.
“The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul,” Hoover wrote within days of the bombing.
Survivors of the atomic explosion at Hiroshima in 1945 suffered long-term effects from radiation [Universal History Archive/Getty Images]
Over time, historians have increasingly cast doubt on the most common justification for the atomic attacks: that they played a decisive role in ending World War II.
Some academics point out that other factors likely played a larger role in the Japanese decision to surrender, including the Soviet Union’s declaration of war against the island nation on August 8.
Others have speculated whether the bombings were meant mostly as a demonstration of strength as the US prepared for its confrontation with the Soviet Union in what would become the Cold War.
Accounts from Japanese survivors and media reports also played a role in changing public perceptions.
John Hersey’s 1946 profile of six victims, for instance, took up an entire edition of The New Yorker magazine. It chronicled, in harrowing detail, everything from the crushing power of the blast to the fever, nausea and death brought on by radiation sickness.
By 1990, a Pew poll found that a shrinking majority in the US approved of the atomic bomb’s use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Only 53 percent felt it was merited.
Rationalising US use of force
But even at the close of the 20th century, the legacy of the attacks remained contentious in the US.
For the 50th anniversary of the bombing in 1995, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, had planned a special exhibit.
But it was cancelled amid public furore over sections of the display that explored the experiences of Japanese civilians and the debate about the use of the atomic bomb. US veterans groups argued that the exhibit undermined their sacrifices, even after it underwent extensive revision.
“The exhibit still says in essence that we were the aggressors and the Japanese were the victims,” William Detweiler, a leader at the American Legion, a veterans group, told The Associated Press at the time.
Incensed members of Congress opened an investigation, and the museum’s director resigned.
The exhibit, meanwhile, never opened to the public. All that remained was a display of the Enola Gay, the aeroplane that dropped the first atomic bomb.
Erik Baker, a lecturer on the history of science at Harvard University, says that the debate over the atomic bomb often serves as a stand-in for larger questions about the way the US wields power in the world.
A pair of protesters march with a ‘Free Palestine’ banner past the Atomic Bomb Dome on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the US attack on Hiroshima on August 5 [Richard A Brooks / AFP]
“What’s at stake is the role of World War II in legitimising the subsequent history of the American empire, right up to the current day,” he told Al Jazeera.
Baker explained that the US narrative about its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan — the main “Axis Powers” in World War II — has been frequently referenced to assert the righteousness of US interventions around the world.
“If it was justifiable for the US to not just go to war but to do ‘whatever was necessary’ to defeat the Axis powers, by a similar token, there can’t be any objection to the US doing what is necessary to defeat the ‘bad guys’ today,” he added.
A resurgence of nuclear anxiety
But as the generations that lived through World War II grow older and pass away, cultural shifts are emerging in how different age groups approach US intervention — and use of force — abroad.
The scepticism is especially pronounced among young people, large numbers of whom have expressed dissatisfaction with policies such as US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
In an April 2024 poll, the Pew Research Center found a dramatic generational divide among Americans over the question of global engagement.
Approximately 74 percent of older respondents, aged 65 and up, expressed a strong belief that the US should play an active role on the world stage. But only 33 percent of younger respondents, aged 18 to 35, felt the same way.
Last month’s Pew poll on the atomic bomb also found stark differences in age. People over the age of 65 were more than twice as likely to believe that the bombings were justified than people between the ages of 18 and 29.
Yam, the Pew researcher, said that age was the “most pronounced factor” in the results, beating out other characteristics, such as party affiliation and veteran status.
The 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing also coincides with a period of renewed anxiety about nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump, for instance, repeatedly warned during his re-election campaign in 2024 that the globe was on the precipice of “World War III”.
“The threat is nuclear weapons,” Trump told a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia. “That can happen tomorrow.”
“We’re at a place where, for the first time in more than three decades, nuclear weapons are back at the forefront of international politics,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US-based think tank.
Panda says that such concerns are linked to geopolitical tensions between different states, pointing to the recent fighting between India and Pakistan in May as one example.
The war in Ukraine, meanwhile, has prompted Russia and the US, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, to exchange nuclear-tinged threats.
And in June, the US and Israel carried out attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities with the stated aim of setting back the country’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
But as the US marks the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings, advocates hope the shift in public opinion will encourage world leaders to turn away from nuclear sabre-rattling and work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Seth Shelden, the United Nations liaison for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, explained that countries with nuclear weapons argue that their arsenals discourage acts of aggression. But he said those arguments diminish the “civilisation-ending” dangers of nuclear warfare.
“As long as the nuclear-armed states prioritise nuclear weapons for their own security, they’re going to incentivise others to pursue them as well,” he said.
“The question shouldn’t be whether nuclear deterrence can work or whether it ever has worked,” he added. “It should be whether it will work in perpetuity.”
The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has petitioned the World Trade Organization for consultations to help alleviate the steep tariffs imposed on Brazil by the United States.
Sources within the Brazilian government confirmed the petition on Wednesday to news outlets like AFP and The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity.
The aim is to seek relief from the 50 percent tariff that US President Donald Trump slapped on Brazilian exports in response to the country’s prosecution of a former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.
That tariff — the highest Trump has imposed on any country in August — took effect on Wednesday. India, meanwhile, is expected to face 50 percent tariffs later this month, unless a deal is struck beforehand.
A request for consultations is usually the first step in the World Trade Organization’s trade dispute process. The organisation functions as an international arbiter in economic disputes, though its procedures for negotiating settlements can be lengthy and inconclusive.
Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin has estimated that 35.9 percent of the country’s exports to the US will be subject to the stiff taxes. That equals about 4 percent of Brazil’s total exports worldwide.
Retaliation over Bolsonaro prosecution
Trump unveiled the current tariff rate on July 9, in a letter addressed to Lula and published online.
Unlike other tariff-related letters at the time, Trump used the correspondence to launch into a barbed attack on the Brazilian government for its decision to prosecute Bolsonaro, an ally, over an alleged coup attempt.
“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote.
Just as Trump did after his 2020 electoral defeat, Bolsonaro had publicly cast doubt on the results of a 2022 presidential race that saw him lose to Lula.
But behind the scenes, police and prosecutors allege that Bolsonaro conspired with his associates to overturn the results of the election.
One possible scenario was to declare a “state of siege” during Bolsonaro’s final days as president, as a means of calling up the military and suspending civil rights. Then, a new election would have been called, according to prosecutors.
Another idea allegedly floated among Bolsonaro’s allies was to poison Lula.
But Trump, who likewise faced criminal charges in the past for allegedly attempting to subvert the outcome of a vote, has defended Bolsonaro, calling the prosecution politically biased.
“This trial should not be taking place,” he wrote in the July 9 letter. “It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
Several weeks later, on July 30, Trump followed up his tariff threat with an executive order that doubled down on his accusations.
Not only did Trump accuse Brazil of “politically persecuting” Bolsonaro, but he added that Brazil was guilty of “human rights abuses”, including the suppression of free speech, through its efforts to stem disinformation on social media.
“Recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Trump wrote.
“Members of the Government of Brazil have taken actions that interfere with the economy of the United States, infringe the free expression rights of United States persons, violate human rights, and undermine the interest the United States has in protecting its citizens and companies.”
Demonstrators rally in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro at the entrance to his residential complex in Brasília, Brazil, on August 5 [Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]
Lula speaks out
The executive order, however, included an annex that indicated certain products would not be subject to the new US tariffs. They included nuts, orange juice, coal, iron, tin and petroleum products.
Lula has claimed that Trump is impeding attempts to negotiate a trade deal between their two countries, a sentiment he repeated in an interview on Wednesday with the news agency Reuters.
“The day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won’t hesitate to call him,” Lula told Reuters. “But today my intuition says he doesn’t want to talk. And I’m not going to humiliate myself.”
The three-term, left-wing president explained that he saw Trump’s tariff threats as part of a long history of US intervention in Brazil and Latin America more broadly.
“We had already pardoned the US intervention in the 1964 coup,” Lula said, referencing the overthrow of a Brazilian president that sparked a two-decade-long military dictatorship
“But this now is not a small intervention. It’s the president of the United States thinking he can dictate rules for a sovereign country like Brazil. It’s unacceptable.”
Lula added that he plans to bolster Brazil’s “national sovereignty” by reforming its mineral extraction policy to boost the local economy.
With the US tariffs in play, Lula also explained that he would reach out to members of the BRICS economic trading bloc, named for its founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Trump, however, has threatened any BRICS-affiliated country with an additional 10-percent tariff.
Lula has been on an English-language media blitz since Trump announced the latest his latest slate of tariffs in July, warning that consumers across the world will be penalised.
Late last month, for instance, Lula gave his first interview to The New York Times newspaper in nearly 13 years.
When the Times asked what his reaction would be to the tariffs taking effect, Lula expressed ambivalence.
“I’m not going to cry over spilled milk,” he said. “If the United States doesn’t want to buy something of ours, we are going to look for someone who will.”
US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order hitting India with an additional 25% tariff over its purchases of Russian oil.
That will raise the total tariff on Indian imports to the United States to 50% – among the highest rates imposed by the US.
The new rate will come into effect in 21 days, so on 27 August, according to the executive order.
A response from India’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said Delhi had already made clear its stance on imports from Russia, and reiterated that the tariff is “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.
“It is therefore extremely unfortunate that the US should choose to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest,” the brief statement read.
“India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests,” it added.
The US president had earlier warned he would raise levies, saying India doesn’t “care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”.
On Wednesday, the White House said in a statement that the “Russian Federation’s actions in Ukraine pose an ongoing threat to US national security and foreign policy, necessitating stronger measures to address the national emergency”.
It said India’s imports of Russian oil undermine US efforts to counter Russia’s activities in Ukraine.
It added that the US will determine which other countries import oil from Russia, and will “recommend further actions to the President as needed”.
Oil and gas are Russia’s biggest exports, and Moscow’s biggest customers include China, India and Turkey.
The threatened tariff hike follows meetings on Wednesday by Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, aimed at securing peace between Russia and Ukraine.
The additional tariff would mean a steep 50% duty on key Indian exports like textiles, gems and jewellery, auto parts, and seafood, hitting major job-creating sectors.
Electronics, including iPhones, and pharma remain exempt for now.
Delhi has previously called Trump’s threat to raise tariffs over its purchase of oil from Russia “unjustified and unreasonable”.
In an earlier statement, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry said the US had encouraged India to import Russian gas at the start of the conflict, “for strengthening global energy markets stability”.
He said India “began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict”.
The latest threatened tariff demonstrates Trump’s willingness to impose sanctions related to the war in Ukraine even against nations that the US considers to be important allies or trading partners.
This could be a warning that other countries could feel a real bite if Trump ramps up those kind of sanctions once Friday’s deadline passes, when the US president has threatened new sanctions on Russia and to place 100% tariffs on countries that purchase its oil.
This would not be the first time the Trump administration has imposed secondary tariffs, which are also in place to punish buyers of Venezuelan oil.
India has previously criticised the US – its largest trading partner – for introducing the levies, when the US itself is still doing trade with Russia.
Last year, the US traded goods worth an estimated $3.5bn (£2.6bn) with Russia, despite tough sanctions and tariffs.
Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have in the past referred to each other as friends and, during Trump’s first term, attended political rallies in each others’ countries.
But that has not stopped Trump from hitting India with the levies, suggesting diverging interests between New Delhi and Washington.
The Federation of India Exports Organisations has called the decision to impose additional tariffs “extremely shocking”, adding that it will hit 55% of India’s exports to America.
The tariffs are expected to make Indian goods far costlier in the US, and could cut US-bound exports by 40–50%, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank.
“India should remain calm, avoid retaliation for at least six months, and recognise that meaningful trade negotiations with the US cannot proceed under threats or mistrust,” former Indian trade official and head of GTRI, Ajay Srivastava, said.
With additional analysis from BBC North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher.
UN rights chief Volker Turk says the violence resulted in ‘one of the largest documented death tolls’ despite a truce.
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels killed at least 319 civilians, including 48 women and 19 children, last month in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights, said, citing “first-hand accounts”.
The violence in the Rutshuru territory of North Kivu Province produced “one of the largest documented death tolls in such attacks since the M23’s resurgence in 2022,” Turk said in a statement on Wednesday.
With Rwanda’s support, the M23 has seized swaths of the mineral-rich Congolese east from the DRC’s army since its resurgence in 2021, triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis in a region already riven by three decades of conflict.
July’s violence came only weeks after the Congolese government and the M23 signed a declaration of principle on June 19 reaffirming their commitment to a permanent ceasefire, following months of broken truces.
[Al Jazeera]
“I am appalled by the attacks on civilians by the M23 and other armed groups in eastern DRC amid continued fighting, despite the ceasefire that was recently signed in Doha,” Turk said in a statement.
“All attacks against civilians must stop immediately, and all those responsible must be held to account,” he added.
Turk’s UN Human Rights Office said it had documented multiple attacks in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, in the conflict-ridden east of the country bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
In the agreement signed in Doha, the warring parties agreed to “uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire”, refraining from “hate propaganda” and “any attempt to seize by force new positions”.
The deal includes a roadmap for restoring state authority in eastern DRC, and an agreement for the two sides to open direct talks towards a comprehensive peace agreement.
It followed a separate agreement signed in Washington by the Congolese government and Rwanda, which has a history of intervention in the eastern DRC stretching back to the 1990s.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to meet in the coming months to firm up the Washington agreement, whose terms have not yet been implemented.
Last week, the two countries agreed to a US State Department-brokered economic framework outline as part of the peace deal.
“I urge the signatories and facilitators of both the Doha and Washington agreements to ensure that they rapidly translate into safety, security and real progress for civilians in the DRC, who continue to endure the devastating consequences of these conflicts,” said Turk.
Rich in key minerals such as gold and coltan, the Congolese east has been riven by fighting between rival armed groups and interference by foreign powers for more than 30 years.
Dozens of ceasefires and truces have been brokered and broken in recent years without providing a lasting end to the conflict.
The White House is expected to announce the new deal as early as Wednesday.
Apple will pledge $100bn for manufacturing in the United States that will focus on building more jobs across the country, the White House has said.
The investment is expected to be announced on Wednesday.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Apple was likely to make an investment announcement on Wednesday, as he discussed the financial pledges made by companies and countries under US President Donald Trump.
“They’re moving here in droves. This is trillions and trillions of dollars of commitments for people to build new factories here. In fact, you’re likely to see one today from Apple,” Hassett said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
Hassett did not elaborate further.
The investment will help move key parts of the Cupertino, California-based tech giant’s supply chain to the US, Bloomberg News reported, but details on the specifics were sparse.
“Today’s announcement with Apple is another win for our manufacturing industry that will simultaneously help reshore the production of critical components to protect America’s economic and national security,” Assistant White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement.
The president is slated to make an announcement at 4:30pm in Washington (20:30 GMT), according to the White House, which gave no specifics about the deal with the tech giant.
The latest investment
Apple said in February that it would spend $500bn in US investments in the next four years, which would include a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers and the addition of about 20,000 research and development jobs across the country.
Apple has many times pledged investments in the US in the last decade. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, the company pledged $350bn. In 2021, under former President Joe Biden, Apple announced a $430bn investment.
The investment comes after Trump warned that he would hit Apple with a 25 percent tariff if it did not move its manufacturing efforts to the US. Analysts have said such a shift is not realistic.
Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities said in a note that it would take at least five to 10 years to shift production to the US, meaning consumers would pay as much as $3,500 for an iPhone.
“We believe the concept of Apple producing iPhones in the US is a fairy tale that is not feasible,” Ives had previously said.
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In April, Apple had announced plans to move to India the assembly of the majority of the phones it sells to the US by the end of next year in an effort to reduce its reliance on China as the trade war between the US and China heats up. But Trump’s ire has now shifted to India and he has slapped the country with a 50 percent tariff over imports of Russian oil. It’s not clear if the latest developments will impact Apple’s India plans.
Apple’s stock surged on the looming US investment announcement. The company, which is traded under the ticker symbol APPL, is up more than 3.8 percent since the market opened as of 10:15am in New York (14:15 GMT) on Wednesday.
A helicopter crash has killed 8 people including the nation’s defence and environment ministers, according to Ghana’s government.
Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among the victims of the crash in the southern Ashanti region of the country, said Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff to President John Mahama, on Wednesday.
“The president and the government extend their condolences and solidarity to the families of our comrades and soldiers who fell in their service to the nation,” said Debrah.
Also among the victims were Alhaji Muniru Muhammad, Deputy National Security Coordinator and former Minister of Agriculture, and Samuel Sarpong, Vice Chairman of President Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) party.
The Ghanaian Air Force had reported earlier Wednesday that a military helicopter had disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Accra at around 09:00 (local time and GMT), bound for Obuasi, north-west of the capital.
Debrah announced that flags would be flown at half-mast.
The Presidency said that Mahama had suspended all his official activities for the day.
Actor Will Mellor (left) portrayed former sub-postmaster Lee Castleton in a TV drama about the Post Office scandal
Former sub-postmaster Lee Castleton is suing the Post Office and Fujitsu for more than £4m in damages over the Horizon IT scandal, court documents reveal.
Mr Castleton is one of the most high-profile of hundreds of sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted after faulty software said money was missing from their branch accounts.
He became the first individual to take legal action against both organisations and this is the first time full details of a complex compensation claim have been made public.
The Post Office said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings but was “engaging fully” in the process.
Mr Castleton was portrayed by actor Will Mellor in the hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office. The former sub-postmaster was awarded an OBE for services to justice in recognition of his tireless campaigning.
Speaking to the BBC about his £4,487m claim he said: “I want it to be made public. This is what they did to me and my family.
“It’s not about the money. What matters to me is that I get vindication from the court.”
In 2007, Mr Castleton lost a two-year legal battle against the Post Office after it pursued him to recover £25,000 of cash it alleged was missing from his branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire.
When his legal insurance ran out, Mr Castleton represented himself in court and was landed with a bill of £321,000 in legal costs which he couldn’t pay and declared bankruptcy.
His was the only civil claim the Post Office brought against a sub-postmaster.
The official inquiry into the scandal heard evidence that the Post Office knew Mr Castleton would likely be made bankrupt by the action but wanted to make an example of him to dissuade others from pursuing claims.
Claimed losses
The court documents reveal that in Mr Castleton’s case his quantifiable financial losses include:
£940,000 past lost earnings plus interest
£864,000 future loss of earnings
£933,000 past pension losses
£133,000 past property losses
£232,000 past losses of rental profits plus interest
£109,000 loss from sale of business plus interest
He’s also seeking general damages – these are losses that can’t be measured in pounds and pence. They include:
£30,000 for mental distress plus interest
£30,000 for stigma and damage to reputation plus interest
£45,000 for harassment
£50,000 for maliciously causing his bankruptcy
‘Startling’
“When your life, as well as your family’s, has literally been ruined it results in a substantial claim,” said his solicitor Simon Goldberg, from Simons Muirhead Burton.
“The reason it’s so startling is that it’s the first time that the forensic details of a sub-postmaster’s claim been made public. Like many others, Lee has a very complex case, and the figures have been calculated by experts who are leaders in their field,” he said.
Mr Castleton has never applied to the relevant compensation scheme after losing faith in the fairness of the process. He wants a judge to decide what he is owed and to have “justice” through the courts.
His legal team allege that the Post Office’s decision to pursue a civil claim against him was an “abuse of process of the court.” And that the eventual judgment against him was obtained by fraud.
They also all claim the state-run institution conspired with Fujitsu to pervert the course of justice by “deliberately and dishonestly” withholding evidence.
This included knowledge of bugs and errors as well as the issue of remote access – the ability of some Fujitsu employees to access sub-postmasters’ branch accounts without their knowledge.
The Japanese owned company developed the software and is responsible for operating and maintaining the Horizon IT system.
Mr Castleton was one of the 555 sub-postmasters who took part in the landmark court case against the Post Office and won.
Both sides agreed to end the legal dispute. But Mr Castleton claims the settlement doesn’t apply to his current claims as well as alleging it was obtained by fraud.
Specifically, he argues the Post Office concealed the true reason why the former Fujitsu software engineer, Gareth Jenkins, wasn’t called as a witness at the trial.
Mr Jenkins provided testimony in a number of prosecutions. But in 2013, the Post Office was warned that he had failed to disclose information “in plain breach of his duty as an expert witness”.
The sub-postmasters weren’t told about the concerns as they fought their case.
Mr Castleton is seeking both the civil judgement and the bankruptcy order against him to be set aside on these grounds.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We recognise the devastating impact of the Horizon IT Scandal on former postmasters like Mr Castleton. Post Office today is committed to doing all we can to help those affected get closure.
“We cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings but are engaging fully in the process.”
Gaza’s health system is in a state of collapse as Israel continues its attacks on medical facilities. A strike on Tuesday hit a UN clinic in Gaza City. The nearby Al Shifa Hospital reported a severe shortage of blood as many people in Gaza are too malnourished to make donations.
During a difficult week in Ukraine’s ground war, Russian troops completed their conquest of Chasiv Yar, a high ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, and claimed to have breached the outskirts of Kupiansk, a city with a pre-war population of more than 26,000, in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region.
Both conquests are the result of months-long efforts and have cost the Russians dearly in blood and weapons.
At the same time, Russian forces pushed into Dnipropetrovsk, a Ukrainian region whose borders they first breached over the weekend of June 7-8, capturing the village of Sichneve, which Russians call Yanvarskoye. It was the third claimed conquest in Dnipropetrovsk. Earlier, Russia captured Dachnoye and Malynivka.
Russia also began to launch jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles to deadly effect, killing 31 people in Kyiv on July 31.
Ukraine responded with deep strikes on Russian transport networks and energy hubs.
A serviceman of the 57th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine repairs a tank in the Kharkiv region, on August 1, 2025 [Inna Varenytsia/Reuters]
Chasiv Yar and the ‘fortress belt’
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its paratroopers overran Chasiv Yar on July 31.
Moscow’s forces began to besiege the city in March 2024, about a month after the fall of Avdiivka, 30km (20 miles) to the south freed up offensive troops.
Russia prioritised this line of attack after conquering the city of Bakhmut in May 2023, following months of battles led by Wagner Group mercenaries.
Since Bakhmut fell, Russian forces have conquered a salient running 27km (17 miles) west of it. Chasiv Yar presented a challenge and a prize – a challenge because it sat astride a canal that formed a natural defensive barrier, and a prize because it is a vantage point from which Russia can survey the remaining free areas of Donetsk.
“Chasiv Yar is a key height in terms of adjusting observation and conducting combat operations,” military expert Vitaly Kiselyov told the Soloviev Live television network in Russia.
“To all appearances, we will be outflanking from the south and the north, gradually puncturing the enemy forces and edging them out, all the more so as we now hold an advantageous height relative to all other settlements,” said Kiselyov.
Another Russian military expert said the capture of Chasiv Yar enabled Russian forces to advance towards the so-called “fortress belt” of heavily defended Ukrainian cities in Donetsk.
“Chasiv Yar is situated on a hilltop, and beyond it, there are very vast expanses of flat terrain. The nearest agglomeration – Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka – is well fortified,” Andrey Marochko told the Russian newswire TASS.
Chasiv Yar sits at the northern end of an attempted Russian encirclement of Konstiantynivka, and on Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed its forces had captured Aleksandro-Kalinovo, on the southern end of the crab’s claw enclosing Konstiantynivka.
Some analysts disagreed that the fall of Chasiv Yar was as important as Russian analysts made it sound.
“Tactical Russian advances westward in Chasiv Yar do not constitute an operationally significant development in this area,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.
“Russian forces have held most of northern and central Chasiv Yar since late January 2025 and began advancing in southwestern Chasiv Yar in mid-June 2025,” the ISW said.
It added that Ukrainian lines of communication were not further threatened, since “Russian forces have been within tube artillery range of Ukraine’s main logistics route through the fortress belt since late January 2025 and have held positions along the T-0504 Bakhmut-Kostyantynivka highway for several months, and have yet to significantly threaten Ukrainian positions in Kostiantynivka.”
Residents walk at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian military strike in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, July 31, 2025 [Yevhen Titov/Reuters]
The situation was different in Pokrovsk, some 35km (22 miles) southwest of Chasiv Yar, which Russia has also besieged.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the pro-Russian, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said Ukrainian lines of communication into Pokrovsk had been impaired.
“The enemy has been largely denied the possibility to deliver ammunition and carry out troop rotation,” Pushilin said.
Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Telegram, “The most difficult situation now is in the Pokrovsk, Dobropillia, and Novopavlivka directions,” naming two more settlements that lie behind Pokrovsk in unoccupied Donetsk.
“The enemy is increasing efforts to capture our key agglomerations, looking for vulnerable spots in our defence, and conducting active combat operations simultaneously on several fronts,” he said.
He said Russian forces were forming sabotage groups in the Ukrainian rear in an attempt at “total infiltration”, and that Ukraine was “using anti-sabotage reserves, whose task is to search for and destroy enemy sabotage groups”.
Kupiansk and the ‘buffer zone’
At the northern end of the front, Russia claimed to have entered Kupiansk in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
Russian troops were fighting street battles in Kupiansk, Russian military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS. He said troops were deploying small, mobile groups targeting Ukrainian positions with precise strikes.
Russia’s forays into Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv lie beyond Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, the four regions Russia formally annexed in September 2022.
Russia claims to be creating a buffer zone to protect those regions, but Ukraine believes that claim to be an excuse for further occupation.
Russian low-level officials have suggested that the buffer zone should be at least 30km (20 miles) deep, but the Russian leadership has placed no such limit.
Former pro-Russia service members gather to celebrate the Paratroopers’ Day, the annual holiday of Russia’s Airborne Troops, in Donetsk, Russian-controlled part of Ukraine, August 2, 2025 [Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]
Moscow also continued its long-range strikes against Ukraine.
An overnight drone attack on July 31 killed 31 people in Kyiv. The Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Russia used jet-powered Shahed drones, which travel much faster than the propeller-driven kind, and are difficult to intercept.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched eight Iskander-K cruise missiles from Kursk city and 309 Shahed-type and decoy drones. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it “an absolutely vile, brutal strike”.
The war of words
Even as he pressed on with these offensives, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Ukraine was not ready for peace talks.
During a news conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday, Putin said, “In principle, we can wait if the Ukrainian leadership believes that now is not the time,” adding that “all disappointments arise from excessive expectations.”
He was referring to the fact that three rounds of direct negotiations have yielded no ceasefire.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko visit the Valaam Monastery in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, August 1, 2025 [Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via Reuters]
United States President Donald Trump repeated last week that he was “disappointed” in Putin, and has in recent weeks allowed US weapons to flow to Ukraine.
On Friday, the US Pentagon said it would sell Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air (AMRAAM) missiles to Ukraine.
Trump also got into a social media spat with Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s National Security Council, after Medvedev objected to Trump’s August 9 deadline for Russia to seal a ceasefire deal.
On Saturday, Trump wrote on his TruthSocial service that he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that”.
On the same day, Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on India for buying Russian oil. On Tuesday, he told CNBC, “I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil, they’re fuelling the war machine, and if they’re going to do that, I’m not going to be happy.”
Ukraine’s strikes
Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up its interdiction campaign against Russian energy and transport infrastructure.
On July 31, Russia said it shot down 32 Ukrainian long-range UAVs in its western border regions. As a result of the Ukrainian attack, it said rail services in the Volgograd region were delayed.
Ukraine has been attacking the Russian railways connecting defence factories to the front, said open-source intelligence gatherer Frontelligence Insight.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said a radio factory in Penza, Russia was attacked, which made mobile command complexes and automated combat control systems.
On Saturday, Ukraine unleashed a wide-ranging set of strikes.
Kovalenko said the Radio Plant in Penza was attacked a second time, along with Electropribor, a manufacturer of encryptors, secure modems and switches for military and intelligence agencies.
Ukraine also hit a storage and launch site for Shahed drones at the Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield in Krasnodar.
But its biggest hits were against oil refineries.
Ukraine attacked the Ryazan Oil Refinery, one of Russia’s four largest, responsible for more than 6 percent of all refining in Russia, causing a fire. Also hit was the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery near Samara city, where explosions were filmed. Ukraine also struck the Annanafteproduct oil depot in the Voronezh region, setting it alight, and on Sunday, a Ukrainian long-range strike hit an oil depot in Sochi on the Black Sea.
Ukrainian media reported that explosions damaged the main Russian gas pipeline carrying gas from Turkmenistan to Russia, shutting it down indefinitely. The media outlets said it supplied military industries, including the Demikhov Machine-Building Plant, the MiG aircraft company, and the Magnum-K ammunition plant.
Service members of the 13th Operative Purpose Brigade ‘Khartiia’ of the National Guard of Ukraine rest as they return from a combat mission in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, August 2, 2025 [Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters]
Jemma Louise Gough had requested to stay at the Airbnb in Manchester ahead of her visit for a gig
Two women were left “gobsmacked” after an Airbnb host rejected a request from them because they are from Wales.
Jemma Louise Gough, 38, and Jamie Lee Watkins, 37, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, booked a stay in Manchester ahead of watching Australian DJ Sonny Fodera at the Co-op Live Arena in November.
In their booking the friends told the Airbnb host they were coming from Wales for the gig, before seeing their payment had been refunded and their booking request had been declined.
When they asked the host why, she replied: “Because you’re from Wales.”
Airbnb said the host, who did not respond further to the pair, had been suspended while it investigated, adding discrimination “has no place on Airbnb”.
“When I heard that my mouth hit the floor, utter shock,” said Jemma, adding they were “pretty much speechless”.
“It was pure discrimination of where we are from.
“I am so proud to be Welsh and that’s why I decided to speak out about what happened to us. I want to challenge these narrow views.”
Jemma said the interaction made her feel “instantly like an outsider” and not welcome in Manchester.
The pair said they were even more baffled as the message was from a verified Airbnb “superhost”, which requires maintaining a 4.8 or higher overall rating and a 90% or higher response rate.
Being a superhost also requires maintaining a less than 1% cancellation rate, with exceptions for cancellations due to “major disruptive events or other valid reasons”, according to Airbnb.
The host had a high rating and had been described as “friendly” and “lovely”, said Jemma, who added previous reviews were from people across the world including guests from Wales.
“I don’t know what the entire country has done to her but we’re so confused, we’ve had no answers.”
Jemma Louise Gough
The friends say the host did not respond after their comment
Reasons why a host can cancel
For home hosts, valid cancellation reasons include but are not limited to:
Circumstances beyond the host’s control, such as major damage to a home listing, emergency repairs or unexpected issues with the service or experience venue that prevent hosting
Serious personal illness that prevents hosting
Proof that a guest intends to break one of the house rules included in the home listing details, have an unauthorised party or otherwise violate the party and events policy
A major disruptive event, such as declared public health emergencies or government travel restrictions
Jemma said questions were still left unanswered as the pair continued to chase Airbnb.
“I firmly believe discrimination takes form in many, many ways, and it all warrants attention and are all equally unacceptable,” said Jemma.
She added she did not want others to be affected by such behaviour.
In a statement, Airbnb said: “As soon as this report was brought to our attention, we reached out to the guest to provide our support and suspended the host while we investigate this matter.”
Vehicle overturned after Israeli forces directed it down an ‘unsafe road’, local officials tell WAFA news agency.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and many injured after a truck carrying humanitarian aid overturned onto a crowd of people in central Gaza, according to the Government Media Office in the enclave.
The incident occurred on Wednesday as large numbers of Palestinians gathered in central Gaza in search of food and basic supplies, amid an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis.
Local officials quoted by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the vehicle overturned after Israeli forces directed it down what they described as an “unsafe road”.
Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the incident while hundreds of civilians were waiting for aid, the AFP news agency reported.
“Despite the recent limited allowance of a few aid trucks, the occupation deliberately obstructs the safe passage and distribution of this aid,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement.
“It forces drivers to navigate routes overcrowded with starving civilians who have been waiting for weeks for the most basic necessities. This often results in desperate crowds swarming the trucks and forcibly seizing their contents.”
The incident comes as humanitarian organisations warn of famine and disease spreading across the enclave, while deaths from starvation and malnutrition continue to rise.
At least three people died from malnutrition on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera. A source at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza confirmed that Hiba Yasser Abu Naji, a child, died from malnutrition. An infant also died from malnutrition, according to the source. An adult from Jabalia was also reported to have died as a result of malnutrition.
On Monday, the Israeli military permitted 95 aid trucks to enter Gaza – a figure far below the 600 trucks a day needed to meet basic requirements, according to UNRWA. The current daily average is 85 trucks.
Meanwhile, Palestinians approaching aid distribution sites run by the notorious GHF have frequently come under Israeli fire since the organisation launched operations in late May. Such shootings have become near-daily occurrences near its sites in central and southern Gaza.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, said that while some aid was entering the enclave, “there should be hundreds and hundreds of trucks entering Gaza every day for months or years to come.
“People are dying every day. This is a crisis on the brink of famine,” he said, adding that tonnes of life-saving aid remain stuck at border crossings due to bureaucratic delays and a lack of safe access.
Elsewhere in Gaza, several Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave.
Al-Awda Hospital reported that five people – including a woman and two children – were killed, and others wounded, in an Israeli raid on a house north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Four more people were killed in an Israeli raid on two homes in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.
