World News Roundup: Blasts at Russian base in Crimea show possible Ukrainian fightback; Ukrainian president condemns 'Russia's nuclear terrorism' in call with Macron and more

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has carried out military exercises around the island this month after a visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was followed by five U.S. lawmakers on Sunday and Monday. Ukrainian president condemns 'Russia's nuclear terrorism' in call with Macron Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he had discussed "Russia's nuclear terrorism" at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 16-08-2022 18:38 IST | Created: 16-08-2022 18:31 IST
World News Roundup: Blasts at Russian base in Crimea show possible Ukrainian fightback; Ukrainian president condemns 'Russia's nuclear terrorism' in call with Macron and more
Volodymyr Zelensky (Image source: Twitter) Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Blasts at Russian base in Crimea show possible Ukrainian fightback

Moscow denounced sabotage and Ukraine hinted at responsibility for new explosions on Tuesday at a military base in the Russian-annexed Crimea region that is an important war supply line. The blasts engulfed an ammunition depot at a Russian military base in the north of the peninsula, disrupting trains and forcing 2,000 people to be evacuated from a nearby village, according to Russian officials and news agencies.

Ukrainian president condemns 'Russia's nuclear terrorism' in call with Macron

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he had discussed "Russia's nuclear terrorism" at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron. Zelenskiy, writing on Twitter, gave no further details of their discussions on the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized in March following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. In recent days, there has been shelling in the vicinity of the plant.

Taiwan accuses China of exaggeration with islands footage

Taiwan accused China of exaggeration on Tuesday after the Chinese military published footage of the strategically located Penghu islands, where there is a major Taiwanese air base, saying it was not true Chinese forces had come near the islands. China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has carried out military exercises around the island this month after a visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was followed by five U.S. lawmakers on Sunday and Monday.

First post-blockade food aid ship leaves Ukraine for Africa

The ship Brave Commander has left the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, carrying the first cargo of humanitarian food aid bound for Africa from Ukraine since Russia's invasion, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Tuesday. Ukraine's grain exports have slumped since the start of the war because of the closure of its Black Sea ports, driving up global food prices and sparking fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.

China sanctions seven Taiwanese 'independence diehard' officials

China on Tuesday imposed sanctions including an entry ban on seven Taiwanese officials and lawmakers it accused of being "independence diehards", drawing condemnation from the democratically governed island. The sanctions come after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan this month, a trip that China said had sent a wrong signal to what it views as pro-independence forces.

EU says studying Iran's response to nuclear proposal, consulting with U.S

The European Union is assessing Iran's response to what the bloc has called its "final" proposal to save a 2015 nuclear deal, and consulting with the United States, an EU spokesperson said on Tuesday. "For the moment, we are studying it and we are consulting with the other JCPOA participants and the U.S. on the way forward," the spokesperson told reporters in Brussels, referring to the nuclear deal by the official abbreviation JCPOA.

Kenya's election commissioners stand by their disavowal of presidential vote

Four of Kenya's seven election commissioners said on Tuesday they stood by their decision a day earlier to disown the result of the Aug. 9 presidential election, saying the final tallying process had been "opaque". Speaking for the group, electoral commission deputy chairperson Juliana Cherera said the results that gave current deputy president William Ruto a wafer-thin victory over Raila Odinga were erroneously aggregated.

Twenty killed in Pakistan when speeding bus hits oil tanker

A speeding bus collided with an oil tanker in Pakistan, killing 20 people in a fiery crash overnight, police and rescue officials said on Tuesday. "Three buses were racing. One of them rammed into an oil tanker," police official Imran Shaukat told Reuters, describing the incident on a motorway near the central city of Multan.

Kenya's Odinga rejects election results, will launch legal challenge

Kenya's losing presidential candidate Raila Odinga said on Tuesday his coalition totally rejects the election results that saw Deputy President William Ruto win the presidential vote, and vowed to pursue legal means to challenge the decision.

The veteran opposition leader, who lost his fifth bid for the presidency, urged his supporters to maintain peace and not take the law on their own hands, at a media briefing in the capital.

After 10 years, widows of victims of 'Marikana massacre' left with no answers

Nosihle Ngweyi and Zameka Nongu complete a laborious climb up a small hill in South Africa's Marikana town and look forlornly at the site where their husbands were killed on Aug. 16, 2012. Ten painstaking years have passed and they still seek answers. Their husbands were among the 34 striking miners gunned down by the police in the infamous "Marikana massacre" outside a platinum mine in the North West province town, the worst such incident since the end of apartheid.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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