Putin says Russia will take more land in Ukraine if Europe sinks peace moves
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Russia would take more land in Ukraine by force if Kyiv and European politicians whom he cast as "young pigs" did not engage over U.S. proposals for a peace settlement, Reuters reported.
The United States has held talks with Russia, and separately with Kyiv and European leaders, on proposals for ending the war in Ukraine but no deal has been reached. Kyiv and its European allies are concerned by demands for Ukrainian territorial concessions and Ukraine wants stronger security guarantees.
At an annual Defence Ministry meeting, Putin said Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, was advancing on all fronts and would achieve its aims by force or through diplomacy, according to Reuters.
Spain to open network of climate shelters
Spain is to set up a national network of climate shelters in public buildings to offer people refuge from intense heat before next summer, its prime minister has announced, BBC reported.
The move was announced as Pedro Sanchez laid out a plan to address the impact of climate change during a conference in Madrid on Wednesday.
"Devastating droughts and heatwaves are no longer rare. Some summers, it's not separate waves we face, but one long heatwave stretching from June through August. This is now the new normal," he said, according to BBC.
Venezuela denounces Trump's order for ship blockade as 'warmongering threats'
US President Donald Trump has ordered "a total and complete" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela - a move denounced by Caracas as "warmongering threats", BBC reported.
Trump wrote that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government had been designated a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO), which had also engaged in "Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking".
His remarks come after the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, a significant action in light of the South American nation's reliance on oil, according to BBC.
Heavy rains worsen conditions for displaced Gazans, UN warns
Heavy rains over the past week have compounded the already dire living conditions of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies say, BBC reported.
Unicef spokesman Jonathan Crickx told the BBC that the weather overnight had been "horrendous", with the rain so intense that he had seen up to 15cm (6in) of water on the ground near his office.
He said he was extremely concerned that children living in tents and makeshift shelters in wet clothing would succumb to hypothermia and other illnesses, according to BBC.
