Residents have been told to leave Ukraine’s eastern city of Slovyansk, a day after two people were killed in a Russian attack on a market. Civilians boarded minibuses on Wednesday morning as Russian forces advanced from the north and east. UK defence intelligence said there was a “realistic possibility” the battle for Slovyansk would be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas. Russian forces were likely to be 16km (10 miles) north of the city, it said. Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the Russians had turned the entire Donetsk region into a hotspot where it was dangerous for a civilian to remain. “I call on everyone to evacuate, evacuation saves lives,” he said on his social media feed. Russia switched its focus to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in March, after a failed bid to capture the capital Kyiv.(BBC)…[+]

More than 400 prisoners are missing following a raid on a prison in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, officials say. Four inmates, a security guard and several attackers were killed after the prison was targeted on Tuesday night, according to officials. Islamist militant group Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out the attack, and dozens of its members are on the run, the defence minister said. Over 5,000 inmates have escaped in jailbreaks in Nigeria since 2020. Loud explosions and gunfire were heard near the Kuje medium-security prison, just outside the capital, on Tuesday night when the attack happened. “We heard shooting on my street. We thought it was armed robbers,” a local resident told AFP news agency. “The first explosion came after the shooting. Then a second one sounded and then a third.”(BBC)…[+]

Police in Nicaragua have raided five town halls governed by the opposition Citizens for Freedom party in the latest crackdown on opponents of President Daniel Ortega. Citizens for Freedom was stripped of its legal status in the run-up to presidential elections last year but its mayors had continued to govern. The democratically elected mayors have now been replaced with allies of President Daniel Ortega’s party. One official called it a “local coup”. Locals described how armed police officers surrounded the town halls of four municipalities on Monday and ordered their mayors to stand down. A fifth Citizens for Freedom mayor had already been deposed on Saturday. The red-and-black flag of President Ortega’s Sandinista party has been raised outside the offices.(BBC)…[+]

British Airways has cancelled a further 1,500 flights, mostly for July. The wave of cancellations made over the past weeks will affect tens of thousands hoping to jet off this summer from Heathrow and Gatwick. The industry has been struggling with staff shortages as demand for air travel rebounds. British Airways had already removed 10% of scheduled flights between April and October, but said that “regrettably” more reductions were needed. A spokesperson from the airline, which is the UK’s largest, said: “We took pre-emptive action earlier this year to reduce our summer schedule to provide customers with as much notice as possible about any changes to their travel plans. “As the entire aviation industry continues to face into the most challenging period in its history, regrettably it has become necessary to make some further reductions.”(BBC)…[+]

Twelve members of a religious group have been arrested over the death of an eight-year-old girl in Australia. Elizabeth Struhs died on 7 January at a home south of Brisbane, after the type one diabetic was allegedly denied insulin for almost a week. Earlier this year, her parents were charged with murder, torture and failing to provide necessities of life. Police now say they will charge another 12 people – aged between 19 and 64 – over the girl’s death. The group had been aware of Elizabeth’s deteriorating medical condition, but did not seek help, Queensland Police said in a statement. Her parents – Jason and Kerrie Struhs – are members of a small, tight-knit religious group in the city of Toowoomba that is not associated with any mainstream church, according to local media. Police allege the pair and others prayed for Elizabeth’s recovery as she became gravely ill, the news outlets said.(BBC)…[+]

Prices in Turkey are rising at their fastest rate in 24 years, according to the latest official figures. The annual rate of inflation, the pace at which prices rise, hit 78.62% in June, which was slightly higher than expectations. Transport costs and housing saw some of the sharpest price rises, worsened by the Ukraine war. Inflation has surged since last year, when the Turkish president cut interest rates to try to boost the economy. Usually countries would increase interest rates in an attempt to cool inflation. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described interest rates as “the mother and father of all evil”, and has used more unorthodox policy to try to dampen prices including intervening in foreign exchange markets. Last year’s cut in interest rates from 19% to 14% has led to a fall in the value of the Turkish lira, which means it costs more for the country to import goods from abroad.(BBC)…[+]

At least seven people have been killed after being caught in an avalanche sparked by the collapse of a glacier in the northern Italian Alps. Emergency officials said eight others were injured in the collapse, with two people suffering serious injuries. Rescue teams using helicopters and drones have resumed searching for 15 still missing. Four of the seven killed have been identified by rescuers, three of them Italian, including two mountain guides. Video of the incident showed an ice mass collapsing down the slopes of Marmolada, the area’s highest mountain. “An avalanche of snow, ice and rock which in its path hit the access road when there were several roped parties, some of which were swept away,” emergency services spokeswoman Michela Canova said. “The definitive number of mountaineers involved is not yet known,” she added.(BBC)…[+]

At least five people have been killed as Tropical Storm Bonnie swept through Central America. Four died in Nicaragua and one in El Salvador, officials said. Bonnie, which has since strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to move parallel to the coasts of southern Mexico in the coming days, according to the US National Hurricane Center. Meteorologists have warned of life-threatening surf and rip currents. Bonnie made landfall late on Friday on the Caribbean coast in southern Nicaragua and swept north-west across the country to El Salvador’s Pacific coast. All four of those who died in Nicaragua were swept away by rivers which had been turned into raging torrents by the heavy rains. One of victims, 43-year-old Juan Carlos Alemán Mendoza, had been rescuing passengers from a local bus which had been washed away by flooding, local media reported.(BBC)…[+]

Russia has moved to take over a major oil and gas project in which Shell has a 27.5% stake.  Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday to take charge of the Sakhalin-2 project. The move could force Shell and Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi to abandon their investments as the economic fallout of the Ukraine war spreads. Oil giant Shell said: “We are aware of the decree and are assessing its implications.” The decree said a new firm would take over all rights and obligations of Sakhalin Energy Investment. Shell said in February that it would sell its Russian investments due to the conflict in Ukraine, including the flagship Sakhalin 2 facility in Russia’s far east.(BBC)…[+]