The Ukrainian army has launched a new drone attack this morning against the Crimean peninsula and has destroyed an ammunition depot north of that territory annexed by Russia. The attacks against Crimea have multiplied in the last seven days, especially since the attack last Monday with surface aquatic drones against the Kerch bridge, which links the peninsula with mainland Russia.. The Kremlin, for its part, maintains its policy of closing Ukraine's Black Sea ports and has again attacked the coast of the Odessa region, destroying several grain warehouses.

A magnitude 6 earthquake has shaken the waters south of Fiji, in the South Pacific, on Monday, without any damage being reported or a tsunami alert being activated.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which records seismic activity around the world, located the tremor at a depth of 553 kilometers and about 670 kilometers south of Suva, the Fijian capital.

This region regularly suffers earthquakes of magnitude greater than five, which generally do not cause material damage due to the distance from inhabited areas.

The North Lau Basin, located between Fiji, Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific, has dozens of active submarine volcanoes located between 1,000 and 1,500 meters deep.

This area is also part of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the areas on the planet with the greatest seismic activity and where tremors of different intensity occur daily.

A US nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Annapolis, arrived on Monday on the South Korean island of Jeju (southwest) just three days after another Washington submersible left the port of Busan (southeast) at a time marked by the escalation of regional tension and the upcoming celebration of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War (1950-53).

The USS Annapolis has arrived in Jeju to reload supplies, South Korean Navy spokesman Jang Do-yeong explained at a press conference.

The arrival of the submersible occurs at a time marked by recent North Korean weapons tests and the also recent visit of the USS Kentucky (which, unlike the USS Annapolis, has the capacity to fire nuclear missiles) which departed on July 21.

Jang added that “the defense authorities of the Republic of Korea (official name of South Korea) and the US are holding consultations” about the possibility that the navies of both countries carry out a joint exercise taking advantage of the visit of the USS Annapolis.

The arrival of the submarine also occurs three days before the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, an anniversary that is celebrated with special pomp in North Korea, where a large military parade has been preparing for months in the capital, Pyongyang.

An editorial in the country's main newspaper, Rodong, has assured, ahead of the important anniversary, that “there can be no limit when it comes to strengthening military power” to guarantee the country's self-defense.

Following the failure of 2019 denuclearization talks, tensions have soared again on the Korean peninsula, with Pyongyang rejecting any offer of dialogue and conducting a record number of missile tests, and Seoul and Washington resuming their grand joint exercises and regularly deploying US strategic assets in the region.

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has assured this Sunday that the grain agreement has only benefited “big American and European companies” and that countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan have received less than 3 percent of exports, which would be equivalent to less than one million tons.

“But this grain pact, which the West presented in public as a manifestation of its willingness to act for the good of Africa, was actually used openly only to enrich the big American and European companies that exported and resold grain from Ukraine.. The facts speak for themselves,” Putin declared during a speech published by the Presidency.

“In almost a year of the grain pact, a total of 32.8 million tons of cargo was exported from Ukraine, more than 70 percent of which went to high- and upper-middle-income countries, including the European Union, while countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, and also Yemen and Afghanistan, received less than 3 percent of the total volume, that is, less than one million tons,” the Russian president added.

Putin has explained that Russia promised to participate in the grain agreement to “guarantee world food security, reduce the threat of famine and help the poorest countries”, but that he has opposed prolonging the pact because “none of the conditions were met” regarding the lifting of sanctions on the export of grain and fertilizer.

“We face obstacles when we deliver free mineral fertilizers to needy and poorest countries. Of the 262,000 tons of products blocked in European ports, only two batches were managed to be shipped: 20,000 tons to Malawi and 34,000 to Kenya,” the president said.

The Russian president has stressed that the rest of the Russian exports affected by the sanctions “remained in the hands of the dishonest Europeans”.

In addition, he has asserted that, despite the sanctions, Russia is “prepared” to replace Ukrainian grain “both on a commercial and free basis” because “another record harvest is expected this year”, and that the country will continue to supply grain, food, fertilizers and other goods to Africa.

Putin explained that Russia managed to export 11.5 million tons of cereal in 2022 to Africa, a figure that has reached 10 million so far this year both “contractually” and “free of charge”, even “through the UN World Food Program”.

The president has reiterated that the sanctions imposed on Russia hinder the shipment of food to the countries that suffer the most from global problems, with the African continent being the one that “feels the burden the most.”

“We are confident that the new multipolar world order, whose contours have begun to be drawn, will be more just and democratic,” Putin said.

Russia has assured this Monday that it has thwarted a new attack by Ukraine with 28 drones against objects in the annexed Crimean peninsula, just one day after the attack carried out with unmanned naval vehicles against the Kerch bridge.

“Tonight an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack involving twenty-eight UAVs against objects on the territory of the Crimean peninsula was thwarted,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Kremlin has indicated that 17 drones were destroyed by Russian anti-aircraft defense and another 11 were suppressed using electronic warfare.

Defense has ensured that none of the drones reached its objective.

According to the department headed by Sergei Shoigu, there were no victims or material damage.

The Russian-imposed governor of Crimea, Sergei Axiónov, has again asked the locals and the thousands of tourists who come to the peninsula for the summer to remain calm and only trust reliable sources of information.

The attack came 24 hours after the “terrorist” attack with two Ukrainian surface maritime drones against the Kerch Bridge, better known as the Crimean Bridge, as it links the Ukrainian peninsula with mainland Russia over the Kerch Strait.

Russia has accused the Ukrainian secret services and “armed formations” of the attack, which has left two people dead, a couple from the Russian region of Belgorod, and a minor, their daughter, has been moderately injured.

A part of the roadway of the automobile section of the bridge, which runs parallel to the railway segment, has been completely destroyed in the direction of Taman, in the Krasnodar Territory, on the Russian mainland, while in the opposite direction the asphalt was displaced between 70 and 80 centimeters.

However, after the pertinent structural analyzes and load tests on this last section, which goes in the opposite direction from Taman to Kerch, traffic resumed this morning.

At least ten people have died and one more is trapped when the roof of a high school gym collapsed in the city of Qiqihar, in China's far northwest.

As reported by the CCTV channel, the incident took place this Sunday around 3:00 p.m. (local time).. Several fire departments were transferred to the scene of the event.

The authorities have indicated that there were 19 people, of whom four were able to flee by their own means, while 15 were trapped.. Of these, the agents found the lifeless bodies of four people, while six died after being rescued from the rubble.

While the rescue efforts are ongoing, the Firefighters have rescued four people who are injured, but whose lives are not in danger.

The authorities have launched an investigation, although according to preliminary investigations they suggest that regulations were violated during the construction of the complex. When the roof has been affected by the rains, the collapse has taken place. Therefore, the manager of the construction unit has been arrested.

Ecuadorian prisons are once again the scene of clashes between organized crime groups. At least six inmates have died and another 11 have been injured in a prison in the coastal province of Guayas (southwestern Ecuador), according to the National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI).

The injured people have been evacuated in a timely manner to hospital centers and are out of danger, the SNAI has specified.

According to the SNAI, in view of the clashes between criminal gangs, security protocols were activated in all detention centers nationwide.

It has also been reported that prison security agents are being held by criminal groups in four prisons in other provinces: Cotopaxi number 1, Azuay number 1, Cañar number 2 and El Oro number 1.

“The corresponding actions are being carried out by the security institutions to release them and return to normality”, the entity pointed out and added that “at the moment, the retained servers are in good condition”.

Recurring massacres in Ecuador's prisons

Ecuador's prisons have been the scene of a series of massacres since 2020 in which more than 450 prisoners have been murdered, as a result of clashes between rival gangs that dispute internal control of the detention centers.

To this is added the prison conditions, with overcrowding that can reach 50% of the prison's capacity in some cases.

The situation of violence has also spread to the streets, with organized crime groups fighting for control of drug trafficking routes, especially in the coastal area, where the ports that have made Ecuador one of the main springboards for cocaine reaching North America and Europe are located.

recent hangings

In a recent event, the SNAI reported last Thursday the discovery of the bodies of three inmates, with indications of hanging in two prisons in the coastal zone of Ecuador.

All the deaths were registered in the province of Manabí, located in the center of the continental coast of Ecuador.

The SNAI indicated that, during the cellblock inspection, servers from the Penitentiary Security and Surveillance Corps identified on Wednesday “a suspended body” in the Jipijapa prison, officially known as the Manabí Social Detention Center number 2.

Similarly, in the El Rodeo prison, near the city of Portoviejo and officially called the Manabí Social Detention Center number 4, two other suspended bodies were found.

Given these facts, the prison authorities immediately coordinated with the Prosecutor's Office, the Police and Criminal Investigations for the respective investigations and the removal of the bodies.

In the El Rodeo prison, four other prisoners were already found hanged on July 10, which led the authorities to carry out a general search days later in which 150 weapons, 60 bullet casings and drugs were found in the prisoners' possession.

The President of Belarus, Alexandr Lukashenko, today expressed his concern that the Wagner Group mercenaries who are stationed in his country want to advance to Warsaw due to Poland's support for the Ukrainian Army.

“Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I will.. The Wagnerites have begun to worry us. 'Let us go from the West, give us permission'. 'To go on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow,'” Lukashenko said at the start of the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg.

Lukashenko assured his colleague that Minsk will keep the Wagnerites at the Mogilev base as agreed after the failed armed rebellion led by the group a month ago and that it will not allow them to move, since their “state of mind is bad.”

“(Although) It must be recognized that they know what is happening around the State Union,” he said.

He stressed that Russian mercenaries fought in the city of Bakhmut against Ukrainian units equipped with Western weapons that arrived by plane at the Polish airfield in Rzeszow.

In turn, he denounced that Poland has deployed a brigade about 40 kilometers from the city of Brest and another about a hundred kilometers from Grodno, when before these units were about 500 kilometers from Belarusian territory.

Lukashenko was also opposed to the alleged Warsaw plans denounced by Moscow regarding the occupation of western Ukraine, an option he considered “unacceptable”.

Wagner's boss Yevgeny Prigozhin agreed to go to Belarus

Under the agreement that put an end to the uprising of June 23-24, Wagner's boss Yevgeny Prigozhin agreed to move to Belarus, while the mercenaries had two options: return home, accompany him or subordinate themselves to the Ministry of Defense.

After several weeks of uncertainty, on July 14 the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced the arrival of the first Wagner columns.

This week, on July 19, Prigozhin posted a video from Belarus welcoming the mercenaries, assuring them that they will return to Africa, although he did not rule out a future return to the battlefield in Ukraine.

During their stay, the Russian mercenaries will turn the Belarusian Army into the “second in the world,” Prigozhin predicted, and “if necessary and necessary, we will come out in their defense,” he added.

The next day, the Belarusian Armed Forces reported joint training with the Wagnerites on the border with Poland, which immediately announced the dispatch of two military units to the area.

In total, there are now a few thousand mercenaries in the former Soviet republic, although Wagner estimates that that number will soon reach 10,000.

Wagner maintains that there are currently 25,000 mercenaries “alive and healthy”, to which are added the wounded who are recovering.

The Polish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to the country after Putin's remarks during the meeting of the Russian Security Council on Friday.

Then, Putin assured that the Polish western regions had been “a gift from Stalin” and warned Warsaw that an attack on Minsk would mean aggression against Russia.

Wagner's Russian mercenaries are threatening Poland with an armed incursion from Belarus, while the Russian military has again targeted historic Odessa, shelling apartment blocks, port facilities and the city's largest Orthodox cathedral.

“Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I will.. The Wagnerites have begun to worry us. 'We will ask to go from the West, give us permission'. And I tell them, why do you want to go to the West?. It is the only way to defeat Russian missile terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.

Wagner looks to the West

Lukashenko assured Putin that Minsk will keep the Wagnerites under control at the Moguiliov base, as agreed after the failed armed rebellion led by the group just a month ago, and that it will not allow them to move, since their “state of mind is bad”.

This Sunday was precisely the first meeting between the two leaders since the uprising, in which the Belarusian interceded and managed to convince Wagner's boss, Yevgueni Prigozhin, to withdraw to Belarus.

While Lukashenko was sympathetic to the mercenaries' desires, Putin – who first called his boss Prigozhin a traitor and then invited him to the Kremlin – looked on impassively.

According to Wagner, several thousand Wagnerites are currently deployed in Belarus, which will soon reach 10,000, out of a total of 25,000 who are still “healthy and alive.”

A tenth column of Russian mercenaries arrived in the former Soviet republic on Sunday aboard trucks and minibuses, said the Gayun research team, which monitors military activity on Belarusian territory.

This week Minsk reported joint training with the Wagnerites on the border with Poland, which immediately announced the dispatch of two military units to the area.

Putin and Lukashenko, thick and thin

Lukashenko thanked Putin for saying what no Russian leader has ever said and that is to consider an attack on Belarus as an attack on Russia.

“You are the first person in Russia to say it in an open, clear and understandable way,” said the Belarusian, who recalled that “the war is being waged against the entire NATO bloc.”

And he showed Putin a map with the deployment of Polish troops near the Belarusian borders.

Poland has deployed a brigade about 40 kilometers from the city of Brest and another about 100 kilometers from Grodno, when previously those units were about 500 kilometers away, he explained.

“The Poles have opened (a factory for) the repair of (tank) Leopard on their territory. And the Rzeszow airfield is activated, where the Americans send their equipment,” he said.

Lukashenko denounced that the rumors about Ukraine's entry into NATO are a “smoke screen” behind which are hidden the alleged Warsaw plans denounced by Moscow on the occupation of western Ukraine, an option that he considered “unacceptable”.

odesa hell

Odesa once again focused all the anger of Moscow on Sunday, whose cruise missiles launched from the air, sea and land (the annexed Crimean peninsula) hit civil infrastructure, apartment blocks and churches, leaving one dead and twenty injured.

Partially damaged was the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral, the city's main Orthodox temple and still dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate.

“Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral…. There can be no excuse for Russian wickedness. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be reprisals for Russian terrorists for Odessa. They will feel these reprisals,” said Zelensky, who called for the convening of the Ukraine-NATO council due to the massive Russian attacks in the Black Sea.

The largest attack on the city since the beginning of the war caused damage to 25 architectural monuments in the city's historic center, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Russia denied attacking the cathedral and stressed that its target had been the aquatic drones used to carry out terrorist attacks in Crimea.

In addition, both sides continue to accuse each other of using cluster bombs as in the Russian attack on Sunday against the city of Chasiv Yar (Donetsk), which destroyed a humanitarian and medical aid center, according to the authorities.