A German intelligence document says the Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russia is not making “significant progress” because the army is under-trained and failing to take advantage of Western training being provided.

This has been confirmed by the German newspaper Bild, where they have had access to this confidential information that has been developed with the aim of evaluating Ukrainian soldiers. According to this newspaper, they are making “a great learning success”, but German intelligence is not so satisfied with the work of their superiors.

The German newspaper has explained that some of these leaders are showing “considerable deficiencies in leadership”, as well as in the application of management processes, which sometimes leads to “incorrect and dangerous decisions”.

In relation to this information, a senior official from the British army has assured The Daily Telegraph that this information only serves to “unduly criticize Ukraine”. They [Ukrainians] have a lot of problems, but I don't think this German accusation is one of them,” he said.

However, this is not the only one

An arsonist was recorded by a drone while causing fires in a cane field in southern Italy, in the Calabria region, where some thirty drones have been deployed as a form of deterrence and to identify the architects of some of the fires that burn these days in the country.

The video shows a man burning several plants until he realizes that he is being recorded by a drone and tries to bring down the device by throwing stones.

“Calabria is a civilized region but it also has some imbeciles who are going to start fires in the forest like this arsonist,” the regional president, Roberto Occhiuto, denounced today on his social networks after stating that the penalties for this crime can reach seven years in prison.

“He sets the fire, then he sees the drone and tries to knock it down with stones, but where does it come from? From the caves?” he questioned about the individual, whom he assured had already been identified and denounced.

Southern Italy is suffering devastating fires these days after a week with temperatures that have reached 46 degrees due to the Charonte heat wave.

One of the most affected areas is Sicily, where at least three people have died (two of them burned) and more than 2,000 citizens have had to be evicted. This Tuesday, the flames came so close to the city of Palermo that its airport had to be evacuated throughout the morning.

State of emergency

Also in the vicinity of Catania, the second most populous city in Sicily, the flames have reached inhabited areas and devastate palm trees in urbanized streets, gardens and homes, where there is also no water or electricity due to the intense heat that is causing overloads in services electrical.

The health authorities have asked people not to leave their homes because the air is unbreathable due to smoke and ash.

The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, advanced this Tuesday that Italy will declare a state of emergency not only because of the fires, but also because of the violent storms that the north has suffered, with cyclones, tornadoes and hailstorms that have resulted in two deaths, one 58-year-old woman and a 16-year-old adolescent, due to falling trees.

“The fires and weather catastrophes of recent days have put Italy to the test. I am sincerely close to the pain of those who have lost loved ones,” Meloni said, in a video.

At least six people have been injured after the articulated arm of a construction crane collapsed this Wednesday on the New York island of Manhattan, in the United States.

According to the assistant commissioner of the New York Fire Department, Joseph Pfeifer, all the victims – four civilians and two firefighters – have suffered minor injuries and their lives are not in danger.

According to city officials, the incident occurred at the intersection of 10th Avenue and 41st Street.. A tower in front of the building under construction has been affected after receiving the impact of the articulated arm of the crane.

Preliminary reports suggest that the crane caught fire when an operator tried to lift a load weighing 16 tons.. The operator managed to get out of the cabin unharmed, according to CNN.

Pfeifer has pointed out that the flames could have affected the crane wiring “to the point where it loses its strength, and that is where the collapse has occurred.”

The New York authorities have launched an investigation to clarify what happened and settle responsibilities. Engineers from the city's Housing Department will assess the structure of the building hit by the crane.

Polish authorities found human remains of victims of post-war communist repression on the land now occupied by a housing development in central Warsaw.

The exhumations will continue this Wednesday, according to what the vice-president of the Institute for Polish Historical Memory, Krzystof Szwagrzyk, told the press, who stated that, since the discovery of the first human remains last Monday, the conclusion has been reached that the total number “is very large”.

On the site of Calle 11 de Noviembre where several blocks of flats built in the 1990s now stand, was the detention and torture center known as “Toledo”, where political prisoners were interrogated and executed under the government. Polish communist between 1945 and 1956.

“Right under the windows of this beautiful and modern housing estate lies the evidence of Stalinist crimes.. History is alive in this place,” said Professor Szwagrzyk, who regretted that the investigations in that place have begun, in his opinion, “decades late.”

“30 years ago we found here the remains of more than 30 people who were murdered in that prison and buried in its vicinity.. Today, in just a few minutes of excavation, we have found more fragments of human remains,” said the researcher.

Professor Szwagrzyk stressed that “the prison that was here was one of the harshest in all of Poland, death sentences were carried out here against soldiers, members of the Resistance, many of them young people”, and in most cases they were buried outside the walls”.

Although, according to historians, it will be impossible to identify all the victims whose remains are found, “it is only a matter of time before the identity of some can be determined and then we will contact their relatives,” Szwagrzyk explained.

According to the Polish Institute for Historical Memory, at the end of World War II about 2,500 people were buried in mass graves throughout Warsaw and only about 400 have been exhumed so far.

At least one person has died and 16 others have been injured in a fire that broke out on a cargo ship in the North Sea, some thirty kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands, which was traveling from Germany to Egypt with thousands of cars. on board.

As reported by the Dutch Coast Guard, the cargo ship is still on fire almost 30 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands, although the 23 crew members on board have already been evacuated: some were brought ashore in a boat of the maritime rescue services and others have been flown in by helicopter.

The injured were taken by ambulance to hospitals near the coast with respiratory problems, although none of them are in danger, according to regional security services.

The ship Fremantle Highway sailed under the Panamanian flag and left the German port of Bremerhaven for Port Said, in Egypt. It had about 3,000 cars on board, of which 25 were electric cars. The fire could have started in one of those electric vehicles and quickly spread to the rest, the Coast Guard believes.

The crew themselves tried to control the fire, but due to its intensity, it was not possible, which led seven of them to jump off the ship in a controlled manner until the rescue services arrived and pulled them out of the water.

In addition to the official authorities, a fishing boat that was sailing in the area when the fire broke out also came to the rescue of the crew.

The fire continues out of control, especially at the front of the ship, while the Coast Guard is trying to control it from its own vessel because it is no longer safe to transfer firefighters aboard the freighter.

A tugboat managed to attach a cable to the Fremantle Highway to prevent it from drifting, thus ensuring that important shipping routes to and from Germany are not blocked as there is a strong wind current, although the Coast Guard stressed that consideration is being taken all scenarios, including that the freighter may already be sinking.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive has made advances in the last hours on the southern front, in the direction of the port of Berdiansk, and in the surroundings of Bakhmut, where it has forced the Russian army to withdraw from several nearby towns in what could be a first step to the reconquest of the city.

Zelensky's troops have penetrated several kilometers along the southern flank of the city and have caused the Russian withdrawal around the settlements of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, two small municipalities southwest of Bakhmut that are now under Kiev control.

The spokesman for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Andri Kovalov, already confirmed on Tuesday the capture of Andriivka and the latest reports from the combat zone indicate that the Russian forces have also withdrawn from Klishchiivka, just 10 kilometers from Bakhmut.

Likewise, Zelensky's army has positioned itself to the northwest of the city after advancing along the M03 highway until it is less than 20 kilometers away, in the surroundings of the town of Orekhovo-vasylivka.

These encircling movements from the west by the Ukrainian army, with advances to the north and south in the vicinity of Bakhmut, could be the prelude to a large-scale offensive to try to retake the city, which fell into the hands of the Russian army on last May after months of intense fighting that has caused the virtual destruction of the city.

But while few buildings remain standing, Bakhmut remains one of the main battlegrounds because it is a major logistics center just 50 miles from the regional capital, Donetsk, a metropolis that fell to pro-Russian separatists in the war. of Donbas, in 2014, and which remains under the control of the Kremlin.

The Russian army, with the support of Wagner's mercenaries, took months to take Bakhmut and its forces are not willing to easily abandon the positions they had won.. Indeed, despite the Ukrainian advances, Moscow troops have responded by artillery shelling the Kiev-controlled city of Toretsk, located 50 kilometers southwest of Bakhmut.

But beyond the intense fighting around this disputed city, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has also made progress on the southern front, regaining ground around Staromayorske, west of the Donetsk region; and in Robotine, in Zaporizhia.

Although on this southern front the counteroffensive is advancing more slowly than Kiev wanted, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces maintains that the advances are solid and that part of the efforts are also focused on consolidating the areas of land won from the enemy.

The ultimate goal of the counteroffensive on this southern front is to reach the port of Berdyansk and the Black Sea coast in order to cut Russia's land communications with Crimea, which would be limited to the vulnerable bridge over the Kerch Strait.

Russian diplomacy visits North Korea

Far from the front line, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed on Wednesday Russia's desire to strengthen military ties with North Korea.. During an official visit to Pyongyang, Shoigu has described the Asian country as an “important partner of Russia” and has advocated expanding that collaboration.

“I am convinced that our talks will help strengthen cooperation between our defense ministries,” said the Russian minister, who held a meeting with his counterpart, Kang Sun-nam.

Shoigu attends as a guest the celebrations on the occasion of the anniversary of the end of the Korean War (1950-1953) and has considered North Korea as a “friendly country”. The West, for its part, has repeatedly accused Pyongyang of supplying Moscow with weapons and ammunition in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Morocco has taken action against those responsible for exporting watermelons with excess methomyl traces to the European Union (EU) by suspending their sanitary and export licenses, sources from the National Office for Sanitary Security (ONSSA) reported.

The sources indicated that the ONSSA troops opened an investigation as soon as they received a notification from the community Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (Rasff) about the presence of traces of a pesticide, methomyl, above the permitted levels, in watermelons. from the North African country and exported to Spain.

“It has been possible to identify the field in question and trace the shipment of exported watermelons, and investigations have been carried out to determine the marketing channel for the pesticide,” the sources explained.

As a result of the investigations, measures were taken by suspending the health license of the watermelon packaging unit and the export license of the person responsible for sending this product to the EU.

A single load of watermelons

The sources specified that it is a single load of watermelons and “not all exports destined for this market.”

At the same time, ONSSA sources stressed that since the beginning of 2023, Morocco has only registered five Rasff notifications on fruits and vegetables from Morocco out of a total of 497 alerts issued by this system on vegetables and fruits imported into Europe since all regions.

The European Commission (EC) has recently warned about the presence of watermelons from Morocco with traces of methomyl, above the permitted levels, after receiving a notice from Spain through the Rasff system.

The notification occurred on the 14th, with an update on the 20th, through the Rasff system, through which Spain communicated the alert to the EC, which in turn sent the information to the rest of the EU countries.