Paris explosion: More than 30 injured after blast - BBC

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By Alex Therrien

BBC News

Thirty-seven people have been injured, four of them seriously, after a large explosion in central Paris.

The blast took place in a building that housed a design school and the Catholic education system headquarters in Rue Saint-Jacques, in the fifth arrondissement of the French capital.

Emergency workers are searching through the wreckage of the building, with one person still thought to be missing.

According to witnesses, there was a strong smell of gas before the blast.

Local deputy mayor, Edouard Civel, said on social media the cause was a "gas explosion".

But authorities said the cause of the blast had not yet been determined.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said after arriving at the scene that initial checks of camera footage suggested the explosion occurred within the building, which was next to the Val de Grâce church.

The building was initially engulfed by fire, but the blaze was later brought under control, said Paris police chief Laurent Nunez.

The area has been cordoned off and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has been to the scene.

One of two missing people has been found in a hospital, Paris's first deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said on Thursday. Rescuers are still looking for one other person.

The area where the explosion took place runs south from the Latin Quarter in Paris's Left Bank area that is popular with tourists and known for its student population.

AFP

Reuters

Reuters

A student at Ecole des Mines on Boulevard Saint-Michel told Le Parisien: "I was in front of the Val de Grâce, I heard a huge boom and I saw a ball of fire 20 or 30m high. And the building collapsed with a huge noise. I smelled gas, but took several minutes to come to my senses."

Another witness, Antoine Brouchot, told the BBC he was at home when he heard a "big explosion".

"I stuck my head out of the window and looked towards Cochin [hospital], then I saw a big cloud of smoke and as I got closer, there was a building that had collapsed and for the moment, there is a fire."

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Related Topics

• Paris

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2023-06-22 08:15:52Z
2169435964

Ukraine updates: Ukraine 'damages' key Crimea bridge - DW (English)

Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile attack on a bridge connecting Ukraine's Kherson region and Crimea, Russia-appointed officials in both regions said on Thursday.

The Chongar bridge, which connects Russian-held parts of the Kherson region with the Crimean peninsula, was struck, the officials said, adding that traffic was diverted to another route. 

Russia's Investigative Committee said four missiles had been fired at the bridge by Ukrainian forces.

The Russia-appointed governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said the bridge was likely to have been attacked by Storm Shadow missiles that damaged the road. He added that no casualties were reported. 

Crimea's governor, Sergey Aksenov, said specialists were probing the site to see when traffic over the bridge could resume.

Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, years ahead of the full-scale invasion it launched in 2022. 

Here are some of the other developments concerning Russia's war in Ukraine on Thursday, June 22:

Scholz urges NATO summit to focus on boosting Ukraine fighting strength

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius in July to focus on bolstering Ukraine's fighting capacity during its ongoing counteroffensive against Russia.

"We should look soberly at the current situation," Scholz told lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday, adding that Kyiv "has itself said that a NATO membership is not in the question while Russia is carrying out its war against Ukraine."

"That's why I am putting forward that we focus in Vilnius on what is now an absolute priority — that is, to strengthen the fighting power of Ukraine."

NATO's member nations are wrangling over what to offer Kyiv when the alliance's leaders hold a meeting in Vilnius on July 11-12.

Zelenskyy thanks allies for fresh support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked allies, including the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, for pledging support packages on the first day of a London-hosted donor conference on Ukrainian recovery.

In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said the conference, which continues Thursday, aimed to garner international business support for Ukraine's transformation. 

"Ukraine's task is to transform the moral leadership of our people into the economic leadership of our country," Zelenskyy said. "All the prerequisites for this exist, first of all, in our people, in our beautiful strong nation."

Day one of the two-day conference saw the UK announcing a $3 billion (approximately €2.75 billion) package over the next three years. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recapped the EU executive's support package for Ukraine of €50 billion over the next four years. 

Germany pledged €381 million in humanitarian assistance this year, and France €40 million. The United States will provide more than $1.3 billion in additional aid.

The conference, the second to be held since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is attended by leaders and representatives from over 60 countries.

Addressing matters on the ground, Zelenskyy also expressed his gratitude to Ukrainian troops for "every shot down Russian helicopter."

He said forces were "advancing in the South," and defenses "firming in the East."

Gas explosion rocks Kyiv residential building

A gas explosion demolished a number of apartments in a high-rise building in the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Thursday, the Kyiv City Military Administration said.

Serhii Popko, head of the administration, said the explosion was preliminarily believed to be due to a gas leak. The search for the victims was underway, Popko said.

Four apartments were destroyed, with six more damaged.

The administration shared photos on Telegram purportedly showing the affected building, with a number of middle floors clearly ablaze. It said there was one victim and 18 people rescued.

More DW coverage on Russia's war in Ukraine

War reporting in the digital age: DW looks at how the flood of video footage from frontline trenches in Ukraine makes covering the war for journalists even more complex.

Rebuilding Ukraine is a gargantuan task and the final cost is anyone's guess, not least because Russian forces continue to strike Ukrainian towns and cities. Sonia Phalnikar went to the village of Moshchun and the town of Irpin outside Kyiv to get a picture of rebuilding efforts. Watch the report below.

Ukraine: Rebuilding in a war zone

rmt,dvv/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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2023-06-22 06:46:59Z
2171452600

Russia gas flows through Ukraine could stop next year, Kyiv says - Financial Times

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2023-06-22 04:00:10Z
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China hits out at US after Joe Biden calls Xi Jinping a 'dictator' - Financial Times

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Four Israelis killed by Palestinian gunmen near West Bank settlement - BBC

Reuters

By David Gritten

BBC News

Four Israelis, including a teenage boy, have been shot dead in an attack near a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Four others were wounded, one of them seriously, when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a restaurant and petrol station outside Eli on Tuesday.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said the gunmen were its members.

One was shot dead at the scene by an armed civilian, while the second fled in a stolen car and was later killed by Israeli forces in the town of Tubas.

Israel's prime minister said "all options are open" in response to what he called the "shocking and abhorrent terrorist attack", which followed heightened violence across the West Bank in recent days.

A spokesman for Hamas said the shooting was a response to an Israeli military raid in Jenin on Monday in which seven Palestinians were killed.

Tuesday's shooting took place just to the south of Eli on Highway 60, the main road between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement that the two gunmen arrived in a car from the village of Urif, about 10km (6 miles) to the north.

They opened fire at a roadside hummus restaurant first, killing three civilians, then shot dead another civilian in the forecourt of the petrol station, he added.

One of the gunmen was shot and killed by an armed civilian, but the other was able to flee the scene in a stolen car.

Adm Hagari said IDF soldiers and officers from the Shin Bet security service later found the vehicle near Tubas, 29km to the north-east, and shot and killed the second gunman.

A paramedic with the Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service, Motty Dahan, said that he and his colleagues saw a "complex site" when they arrived at the scene of the attack. He added that there were seven victims suffering from gunshot wounds.

"We performed medical checks and began providing medical treatment, three of the victims were evacuated in MDA MICUs [Mobile Intensive Care Units] to hospital, and unfortunately four of the victims were pronounced dead."

Those killed were identified by Israeli media as 18-year-old Elisha Antman and 63-year-old Ofer Fairman from Eli; 17-year-old Nachman Mordoff from the Ahiya settler outpost east of Eli; and 21-year-old Harel Masoud from Yad Binyamin, a town in central Israel.

The number of Israelis killed was the highest since an attack by a Palestinian outside a synagogue in occupied East Jerusalem in January, when seven died.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "From the depths of my heart, I send condolences to the families of those who were murdered, may God avenge them, and on behalf of the entire people, I send my best wishes for a swift recovery to the wounded."

"I would like to remind all those who seek to harm us: All options are open. We will continue to fight terrorism with full force and we will defeat it," he added.

A spokesman for Hamas, Hazem Qassem, described the shooting as a "response to the crimes of the occupation [Israel] in Jenin refugee camp yesterday".

Seven Palestinians were killed - including a 15-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl named Sadil Ghassan Turkman, who died of her wounds on Wednesday morning - and more than 90 wounded during a raid into the camp by Israeli forces. Several Israeli soldiers were also wounded during the incursion.

Hours after the shooting in Eli, groups of Israeli settlers attacked several nearby Palestinian towns and villages, throwing rocks and setting fire to vehicles, properties and olive groves.

A Palestinian official in the Nablus region, Ghassan Daghlas, told Wafa news agency that a total of 140 cars were damaged or torched, and that 34 Palestinian civilians were injured by rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters fired by Israeli troops as they tried to defend themselves from the settlers.

Meanwhile, far-right parties in Israel's coalition government put pressure on Mr Netanyahu to launch a major military operation in the northern West Bank to counter the wave of Palestinian attacks.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told reporters in Eli that it was time to "return to targeted assassinations from the air, to bring down buildings, to erect roadblocks, to expel terrorists, and to finish passing the death penalty for terrorists law".

Since the start of the year, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The figures include militants as well as civilians.

In addition, 27 people on the Israeli side have been killed - including two foreigners and a Palestinian worker - in attacks or apparent attacks by Palestinians. All were civilians except one off-duty serving soldier and a member of the Israeli security forces.

Related Topics

• Israel & the Palestinians
• Israel
• Palestinian territories
• West Bank

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2023-06-21 09:38:24Z
2113769170

Ukraine war live: Drones 'intercepted near Moscow military base' - The Telegraph

Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that progress in the counteroffensive has been “slower than desired” as his forces struggle to make a major breakthrough.

The Ukrainian president said his forces “will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best”, as he sought to manage expectations, adding that some people were guilty of thinking the war was like a “Hollywood movie”.

Ukraine has managed to recapture eight small villages as part of its counter-offensive operations in the south over the past couple of weeks. In the past day, forces have had “partial success” as they continue attacking on the southern front while weathering a major assault in the east, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Wednesday.

Mr Zelensky said that operations were not moving forward easily because 200,000 square kilometres of territory had been mined by Russian forces.

He added: “Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best.”

Follow all the latest updates below.

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2023-06-21 06:57:30Z
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Russian drone strikes target Kyiv and western city of Lviv - Financial Times

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During your trial you will have complete digital access to FT.com with everything in both of our Standard Digital and Premium Digital packages.

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2023-06-20 12:14:42Z
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