Blunders see Ukrainian sausage dog reach UK before teen owner fleeing warzone

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefRappler, the independent news organization that earned its co-founder Maria Ressa a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, has been ordered to close down.The paper had been under siege for much of the past six years for its frequent criticism of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.The order to close came just two days before Duterte is due to end his term as president and hand over to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., heir to the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.It also came just days after the country’s National Security Council ordered the National Telecommunications Commission to block access to 28 news websites. They are accused of supporting terrorism through affiliation with the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Sunmi has released a music video for ‘Heart Burn’, the title track for her single album of the same name.In the alluring visual, Sunmi travels through time and woos several lovers. All of her romantic endeavors end in heartbreak, however, as she loses all of her lovers to a fever they contract after spending a night with her.“Summer heat doesn’t cool down all night / I keep dancing with dangerous moves / Burning sunlight with a mild breeze / I love these vibes,” Sunmi sings in the second verse.

AJ Tracey has joined the packed line-up for Open’er Festival 2022.The Polish festival, which is held at Gdynia-Kosakowo Airport in Gdynia, kicks off today (June 29) and will run until the early hours of Sunday (July 3).Headliners at the 2022 festival include A$AP Rocky, The Killers, Dua Lipa, Playboi Carti and Twenty One Pilots.AJ Tracey has now joined the line-up, with his performance at Open’er Festival set to take place on the Tent Stage at 1:15am on the final day of the festival.The likes of Måneskin, Imagine Dragons, Clairo, The Smile, Little Simz, Inhaler and Jehnny Beth are all set to perform at Open’er Festival later today, with A$AP Rocky topping the bill later this evening.A post shared by Open'er Festival (@opener_festival)Tomorrow at Open’er will feature live performances from Royal Blood, Glass Animals, Tove Lo, Years & Years, BadBadNotGood and Don Toliver.You can find out more information about this year’s Open’er Festival by heading here.Earlier this month, AJ Tracey officially released ‘Seoul’, a track he first debuted during a freestyle for the New York rap show On The Radar.You can see Tracey’s upcoming tour dates below and find UK tickets here.July1 – Wknd Fest, Helsinki, Finland2 – Forbidden Forest, East Midlands7 – Rolling Loud, Portimão, Portugal9 – Crystal Palace Park, London10 – Nass, Bath24 – Solnaro, Braga, Portugal31 – Loosefest, NewcastleAugust6 – Sunny Hill, Kosovo12 – Way Out West, Gothenburg, Sweden13 – Øya, Oslo, NorwaySeptember3 – Sundown, Norwich11 – Rolling Loud, Toronto, Canada

Striking Distance Studios founder and CEO Glen Schofield has talked about how Dead Space spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol will be even more intense than that title.Schofield talked about The Callisto Protocol in a new interview with Eurogamer yesterday (June 28), addressing how this year’s horror title will go a step behind his previous game in Dead Space.“It’s got some pretty horrific moments, it really does. We have a gore engine – we built Gore technology.

Overwatch 2’s community manager Andy Belford has taken to the official forums to defend the game’s “support a streamer” promotion after backlash from the community.To promote the launch of the second Overwatch 2 beta, Blizzard has partnered with 150 streamers to give away an exclusive Brigitte skin. Players will need to donate three subscriptions to any of the Twitch channels on the list, while they’re actively streaming Overwatch.

The National have announced the full line-up for their All Points East show in London later this summer, with Parcels, Tune-Yards and more joining the bill.The band will headline Victoria Park on August 26, with the likes of Fleet Foxes, Lucy Dacus, Kurt Vile and more already confirmed to support them.Other APE headline sets across two weekends in August will come from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Tame Impala, Kraftwerk, The Chemical Brothers, Disclosure and Gorillaz.The full bill has now been confirmed for The National’s show, with Parcels and Tune-Yards being joined by Villagers, Valerie June, Balthazar and Dehd.Others also on the line-up include Perfume Genius, Low and Rae Morris.See the full line-up below and pick up tickets here.We are so pleased to be headlining such a brilliant lineup for @allpointseastuk at Victoria Park in London this August. Tickets are on sale now at https://t.co/hkOWVSGvIL pic.twitter.com/SQl2oZsj8Q— The National (@TheNational) June 29, 2022The National returned to touring last month, giving live debuts to three new songs at the tour-opening show in Pamplona, Spain on Saturday, May 28.Footage of those songs – ‘Tropic Morning News (Haversham)’, ‘Grease In Your Hair (Birdie)’, and ‘Bathwater (Mount Auburn)’ – then appeared from a later gig in Paris.In a social media post shared last month (May 26), The National said that they have been working on new material.

Russia.Fatalities were reported on Friday (June 24) morning shortly after the IL-76 transport aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in a field near the city of Ryazan.Nine people in total were on board the plane at the time of the accident, according to the Moscow-based Interfax news agency.Footage posted on social media shows a line of fire engines and one ambulance positioned in front of large flames.The blaze can be seen billowing dark black smoke in front of a row of trees, while a small crowd of people can seen watching in front of the camera.One local report said the plane was attempting to land at the nearby Ryazan airport when it crashed. The city is located around 351 miles from the border with Ukraine.Earlier this week dramatic footage from the frontline showed the moment a Russian colonel crashed in his helicopter in a 'fireball' after being hit by a Ukrainian missile.The military helicopter carrying Lt-Col Sergey Gundorov, 51, was struck by a portable surface-to-air missile near Volnovakha in the Donbas.Vladimir Putin lost his 55th colonel in the Russia-Ukraine war as the stricken Mi-35 touched the ground before cartwheeling over a narrow strip of woodland, becoming a fireball and crashing in a field.This is a breaking news story and is being constantly updated.

Russian military expert has warned that Britain will be reduced to a nuclear wasteland.Lieutenant-General Evgeny Buzhinsky has said that Britain will “physically cease to exist” if tensions over Lithuania triggers a nuclear Third World War,Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally to Vladimir Putin, has threatened “serious consequences” if Lithuania continues to block the movement of good into the strategically important Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.READ MORE: SAS hero slams Brits fighting in Ukraine as 'they create mayhem and get away with it'While he did not specify what these consequences might be, many observers suspect that Putin is planning military action against Lithuania – which is protected by its membership of both the EU and NATO. Buzhinsky lashed out at British general Sir Patrick Sanders, who has already warned the British Army to prepare for a land war with Russia.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been shot at his home near Moscow.Vadim Zimin, the retired 53-year-old colonel, was shot at his home and is now gravely ill in intensive care, reports say.Colonel Zimin had been in charge of the nuclear briefcase during his time as an active member of the Federal Security Service, accompanying the Kremlin leader and carrying his nuclear warhead controls.READ MORE: Putin says 'we don't threaten anyone with nukes but we do have them and will use them'The colonel, alongside former President Boris Yeltsin, was said to have carried out the trusted role for the current Russian president, handling the world-ending suitcase for the 69-year-old Russian leader. Zimin had been a member of the FSS, rising through the ranks until he landed himself the position of colonel under his successor Vladimir Putin.But the precise role of the gravely ill colonel is as yet unknown, with the ex-KGB spy found with gunshot wounds in the kitchen of his flat located in Krasnogorsk, Moscow.The wife of Zimin, a medic, had been absent from the house as she is reportedly treating soldiers fighting in the invasion of Ukraine.The 53-year-old colonel was under house arrest over allegations of bribe-taking after joining the customs service in a senior role, with Zimin denying any wrongdoing.

Spending on funerals in Russia has increased by 17 per cent since the invasion of Ukraine, according to western officials in an update of Vladimir Putin’s advances in a “grinding, slow conflict” with mounting costs.

Glastonbury will play host to several Ukrainian acts this year to bring an anti-war message to the festival amid the Russian invasion of their country. Folk quartet DakhaBrakha, who hail from Ukraine's capital Kyiv, will perform on Sunday afternoon on the Pyramid stage.

Ukraine to help with the war effort after two Brits were sentenced to death.US citizens Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh - who are ex-army and ex-marines, respectively - ran into trouble after being separated from Ukrainian troops near Kharkiv, after which they were spotted and picked up by a Russian patrol.Now both face the possibility of being put to death, with a Kremlin spokesperson calling them "soldiers of fortune" who, pending the results of an investigation, "should be punished." According to Russian state broadcaster RT, both Americans are currently in the custody of Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, reports The Independent.In a video aired by the channel Alexander Drueke can reportedly be heard to say, "Mom, I just want to let you know that I’m alive and I hope to be back home as soon as I can be."Lois Drueke, Alexander Drueke’s mother, said that seeing the video gave her some hope that her son would be okay and may return home.“Just seeing him move, just hearing his voice, gives us great hope," she said.

Russia’s richest has said that “domestic problems” could force Vladimir Putin into a military confrontation with the west, if his Ukraine invasion succeeds. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a businessman-turned-philanthropist, has been living in the UK since 2015 after he made made his fortune in the 1990s through currency trading and in the oil industry.In an interview with the Financial Times, the outspoken Putin critic said that the threat of an escalation of the conflict to drag in NATO countries was serious if Putin achieved his goal of seizing the Donbas region in the southeast of Ukraine.

“You’re my hero,” Ben Stiller told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today on a visit to Kyiv. “You gave up a great acting career for this,” the Severance filmmaker joked with the former Servant of the People star.

Vladimir Putin has warned that political leaders in the West were clinging “to the shadows of the past” as he unveiled his new world order with his invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has accused Western leaders of clinging "to the shadows of the past" as he creates a new world order with his invasion of Ukraine. The world will not be as it was before the "special operation", Putin said in his speech at the plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Russian naval tugboat was blown up by two Harpoon missiles while in the middle of the Black Sea.In a video, which was filmed using a TB-2 drone, the Russian "Vasily Bekh" appears to show a low-flying missile approaching the target before detonating and sparking two huge explosions.Ukrainian officials have confirmed that its forces used an anti-ship missile system to strike the enemy vessel as it travelled to Snake Island loaded with weapons on June 17. It is said that the sea-skimming harpoon missiles can sink a ship over the horizon from a distance of over 80 miles, according to The Sun.The incident was the first time Ukraine has acknowledged launching the Harpoon missiles, which have been supplied by the UK, Denmark and the US.Head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Maxim Marchenko, said: "This morning, our naval forces struck the Black Sea Fleet support vessel Vasily Bekh, with the TOR anti-aircraft missile system on board.

Glastonbury Festival will play host to a number of Ukrainian acts this year amid the Russian invasion of their country.Kyiv folk quartet DakhaBrakha will perform on Sunday afternoon on the Pyramid stage.The group, who combine the musical styles of several local ethnic groups, have described themselves as ‘ambassadors of free Ukraine’ and have long used their performances to voice their opposition to war and the policies of Vladimir Putin.They have been donating money raised by their recent performances to the war effort.Meanwhile, Go_A will open the John Peel stage on Saturday with a performance of electronic folk music and soaring vocal melodies.The group, who formed in 2012, represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 with the anthemic dance track Shum, placing fifth.Band member Ihor Didenchuk is also a member of Kalush Orchestra, who triumphed during the contest this year after a symbolic show of public support saw them climb to first place with 631 points.Glastonbury will also host Jamala, who won Eurovision for Ukraine in 2016 with her song 1944, about the forced deportation in Crimea during the rule of Joseph Stalin.The singer was forced to flee her country following the invasion and played during a fundraising concert for Ukraine in March in Birmingham that also featured stars such as Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello and Emeli Sande.She will be playing a late-night set starting at 2am on Saturday night at the Toad Hall stage.Announcing the news in June, she wrote on Instagram: ‘I will be closing the Toad Hall stage of the legendary British festival on June 25.

Vladimir Putin threatened him 16 years ago – as he towered over him wearing stacked heels’. From his raised position the 5ft 7ins Russian president read out details of the ex-PM’s private life from a series of index cards as though he wanted to prove that "he knew more about me than I knew about myself". The extraordinary showdown happened during a 2006 visit to the Kremlin in Moscow while Brown – who is 3ins taller than the Russian ruler – was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

British troops must be ready "to fight in Europe once again" as the war in Ukraine continues, an army chief has warned.

Vladimir Putin's informers are working in the House of Commons, the civil service and top public schools, reports The Mirror.It is also understood that Putin has demanded that all his sleeper agents - operating under deep cover - remain on standby to jump into action as a response to Britain's support for Ukraine in their war with Russia.The Security Service have already been put on alert for potential cyber attacks by Russian spies in the UK.There are also concerns that the country's military secrets are being targeted, along with Ukrainian activists and Russian dissenters.A senior intelligence insider said: "We have to assume Russia is now active at all levels of British society. They scoop up all forms of intelligence and pass it back to the Kremlin through handlers."This could be anything from what sort of weaponry is being sent to the Ukraine – and how much of it – to the sexual antics of the country's political and military leaders."The disclosure comes after a suspected Russian spy was seized at Gatwick last week.The man in his 40s was held under the Official Secrets Act and remains in custody.Lt Col Philip Ingram, a former military intelligence officer, said: "It is impossible to accurately assess how many Russian agents there are in the UK.