Geneva — Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival opens on Wednesday with Shah Rukh Khan, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron and Irene Jacob set to be honored with special awards.

Founded in 1946, Locarno is one of the world’s longest-running annual film festivals and focuses on auteur cinema.

Held on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland, films are screened in Locarno’s central square, a feature of Swiss national life depicted on the country’s 20-franc banknotes.

The open-air Piazza Grande holds up to 8,000 moviegoers, and films are shown on one of the largest screens in the world.

Bollywood superstar Khan, 58, will on Saturday be given the Pardo alla Carriera award for people whose artistic contributions have redefined cinema.

“The wealth and breadth of his contribution to Indian cinema is unprecedented,” said the festival’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

“Khan is a king who has never lost touch with the audience that crowned him. This brave and daring artist has always been willing to challenge himself.”

The 77th festival, which runs until August 17, features 225 films, including 104 world premieres and 15 debut movies.

Locarno’s top prize is the Golden Leopard. Previous winning directors include Roberto Rossellini, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Mike Leigh and Jim Jarmusch.

Seventeen films, all world or international premieres, are vying for the award, including movies from Lithuania, France, Austria, Italy and South Korea.

The Golden Leopard comes with a prize fund of $87,400, shared between the director and the producer.

Switzerland’s largest film event will feature a retrospective dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures.

‘Tortured, fascinating characters’

New Zealand’s Campion will be recognized with the Leopard of Honor, given to outstanding personalities of world cinema.

She was the first woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar: first for “The Piano” (1993) and then for “The Power of the Dog” (2021), which secured her the Academy Award.

“Her work, peopled with tortured, fascinating characters and marked by an astonishing skill in grappling with the more disturbing side of the human condition, represents one of the undisputed pinnacles of contemporary filmmaking,” Nazzaro said.

Previous recipients include Ennio Morricone, Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Paul Verhoeven, Terry Gilliam and Werner Herzog.

Mexican filmmaker Cuaron, who won the best director Oscars for “Gravity” (2013) and “Roma” (2018), will receive the lifetime achievement award.

“Cuaron has reinvented himself as an artist with each new film,” said Nazzaro.

French-Swiss actress Jacob, who starred in “The Double Life of Veronique” (1991) and “Three Colours: Red” (1994), will receive the Leopard Club Award, given for film work touching the collective imagination.

Stacey Sher — the U.S. film producer behind “Pulp Fiction,” “Get Shorty,” “Gattaca,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight” — will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award for major achievements in international movie production.

Nearly 150,000 people attended last year’s festival.
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Paris — Rarely on the podium and barred from the opening ceremony, the 15 Russians competing at the Paris Olympics have an uneasy status as “Individual Neutral Athletes” following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Some in the Olympic Village opposed them taking part in the Summer Games, and Russian opinion is divided.

In Russia, the Olympics aren’t being shown on TV and some politicians and media figures have even described those willing to compete in Paris as traitors.

It’s a complex environment for the athletes, some of them teenagers, to navigate and they’re wary of talking about politics or the war. 

What do the Russian athletes think?

“My family is proud of me, that’s all that matters,” said tennis player Diana Shnaider. She and Mirra Andreeva became the first Russians to win a medal at the Paris Olympics, taking silver in women’s doubles Sunday.

The 20-year-old former college player for North Carolina State said it was “amazing” to be at her first Olympics.

“There are still a lot of people from my country in the stands and they are still putting in a lot of support. I heard words of encouragement today,” she said after winning in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Tennis players like Shnaider and 2021 U.S. Open winner Daniil Medvedev are used to dealing with the media and playing around the world without a Russian flag. Others seem a little overwhelmed.

Anzhela Bladtceva, a 19-year-old trampolinist, placed fifth in her event Friday and clutched a stuffed animal as she spoke with media afterward.

“There are so many emotions, so many people, everyone is so kind and happy and so helpful,” she said.

Bladtceva said she was spending time in the Olympic Village with a trampolinist friend from Azerbaijan and that she hadn’t been asked about the war. “No one asks at all, they ask if it was hard for us to get here, only positive questions. No one is saying bad things,” she said.

National delegations sailed down the Seine River on a flotilla of boats in the opening ceremony, but the neutral athletes weren’t included.

“It’s upsetting that they didn’t let us, but what can you do?” said Bladtceva, who was still in Russia for the ceremony. “I didn’t really watch it.”

Why are so few Russians competing in Paris?

Of the 32 “neutral” athletes in Paris, 17 previously represented Belarus and just 15 represented Russia. That’s compared to more than 300 Russians at the last Summer Games in Tokyo.

International Olympic Committee restrictions barred Russian athletes who are in the military or publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine. The IOC also blocked Russians from team sports. Track and field enforced its own blanket ban.

In gymnastics and weightlifting, Russia’s teams skipped qualifying events in protest of being forced to compete as neutrals or to undergo vetting, including checks of their social media.

Some athletes even qualified, accepted their IOC invitations, then withdrew weeks before the Olympics began. It wasn’t clear whether they made that decision under pressure at home. The IOC lists 10 Russians and one Belarusian who “initially accepted but subsequently declined.” 

Wrestler Shamil Mamedov briefly seemed to defy a Russian wrestling federation decision not to send athletes. The federation later told Russian state news agency Tass that Mamedov was out of the Olympics because an old injury flared up.

What happens when Russians win medals?

Shnaider and Andreeva’s silver in the tennis on Sunday was the first for Russian athletes.

They stood on the podium in matching green-and-white tracksuits as a green flag with the inscription AIN — the French acronym for Individual Neutral Athlete — was raised alongside the flags of Italy and Spain.

Neutral athletes from Belarus won gold and silver medals in the men’s and women’s trampoline competitions, respectively, on Friday, and Belarusian rower Yauheni Zalaty won a silver Saturday.

When a neutral athlete wins a gold medal, an “anthem” commissioned by the IOC plays. With stirring strings and a prominent drumbeat, it’s more like the soundtrack to an inspirational video than a national anthem. Their medals don’t count in Olympic organizers’ official medal table.

Russian athletes competed at the last Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, under the name “Russian Olympic Committee” and under less onerous restrictions in the aftermath of a doping scandal.

They were allowed to wear national colors and music by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky played for gold medalists.

Are Russians competing for other countries?

At least 82 athletes at the Paris Olympics were born in Russia, including the neutral athletes, according to statistics from Norwegian broadcaster NRK. That leaves more than 60 competing for other nations. 

Some have lived outside Russia for years or moved abroad as children. Others switched their sporting allegiance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova competed for ROC at the Tokyo Olympics. She trained in France for years before making her switch to the French team official last year. Kirpichnikova won a silver medal for France in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle behind Katie Ledecky on Wednesday.

What does Ukraine think?

Ukraine’s government and Olympic committee wanted Russian athletes excluded from all international sports and opposed IOC efforts to include them as neutrals. The limited Russian presence is like “nothing,” the head of Ukraine’s Olympic delegation told The Associated Press this week.

Ukraine briefly had a policy of boycotting Olympic qualifying competitions that allowed Russians to attend but dropped that last year because it risked not being represented at the Olympics at all. 

Ukrainian activists gathered information from Russian athletes’ social media in the months leading up to the Olympics, flagging posts to the IOC that they considered to support the war.

Some Ukrainians view changes of allegiance with suspicion, too. Fencing champion Olga Kharlan said last month that Russian athletes who switched allegiance to other countries’ teams after the invasion “should be checked more.” 
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Somewhere in Ukraine — Ukraine’s newly arrived F-16 fighter jets were put on display Sunday by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the planes will boost the country’s war effort against Russia.

“These jets are in our sky and today you see them,” said Zelenskyy, standing in front of two of the fighter jets as two others flew overhead in close formation. “It’s good that they are here and that we can put them to use.”

Ukraine is also trying to get neighboring countries to help defend it against Russian missiles, Zelenskyy said.

“This decision is probably a difficult one for our partners, as they are always afraid of unnecessary escalation,” said Ukraine’s president. “We will work on this … I think we have a good option of a NATO-Ukraine council … so that NATO countries could talk to Ukraine about the possibility of a small coalition of neighboring countries that would shoot down enemy missiles.”

Two F-16 jets, sporting Ukraine’s trident insignia on their tails and draped in camouflage netting, were a dramatic background for Zelenskyy’s address to Air Forces Day, an event held under tight security at an undisclosed location to protect the fighter jets from Russian attacks.

“Since the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to protect our Ukrainian skies from Russian missiles and Russian aircraft,” Zelenskyy said. “Now we have a new reality in our skies. The F-16s are in Ukraine. We made it happen. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our country. … Our combat aviation will bring us closer to victory.”

Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes, according to a senior Ukrainian military official. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could consider launching strikes at facilities in NATO countries if they host the warplanes used in Ukraine.

The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces around the world for 50 years.

Although new to Ukraine, the F-16s are older jets that have been donated by Western allies of Ukraine. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over the coming months in what could be a slow trickle of deliveries. Zelenskyy did not say how many F-16s have arrived in Ukraine or which countries they came from.

United States President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for used F-16s to be deployed to Ukraine, though the U.S. won’t be providing any of its own planes.

The F-16s will boost Ukraine’s military strength, especially by upgrading its air defenses. But analysts say they won’t turn the tide of the war on their own.

Russia is making small but steady battlefield gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and its steady forward movement is adding up as Ukraine gradually yields ground.
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London — Police in the north of England town of Rotherham were struggling to hold back a mob of far-right rioters Sunday who were seeking to break into a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers, as the latest bout of rioting following a stabbing rampage at a dance class last week that left three girls dead and several wounded showed few signs of abating. 

Footage from Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers, as they sought to prevent the rioters from entering the Holiday Inn Express hotel. A small fire was also visible while windows in the hotel were smashed. 

A police helicopter circled overhead, and at least one injured officer in riot gear was carried away as the atmosphere turned increasingly febrile. 

More demonstrations are expected to take place around the U.K., but mainly in England, with many counter-demonstrators also set to make their presence felt. In the northeast town of Middlesborough, riot police sought to hold back demonstrators and even used dogs to prevent them running ahead of the officers patrolling the march. 

On Saturday, far-right activists faced off with anti-racism protesters across the U.K., with violent scenes playing out in locations across the U.K., from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to Liverpool in the northwest of England and Bristol in the west. Around 100 people were arrested but more are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and footage from body-worn cameras. 

In just one incident on Saturday, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder in Liverpool, which saw a community facility set on fire. The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide support for one of the most deprived communities in the country, suffered severe damage to the ground floor. 

Police have also warned that widespread security measures, with thousands of officers deployed, mean that other crimes may not be investigated fully. 

“We’re seeing officers that are being pulled from day-to-day policing,” Tiffany Lynch from the Police Federation of England and Wales told the BBC. “But while that’s happening, the communities that are out there that are having incidents against them — victims of crime — unfortunately, their crimes are not being investigated.” 

The violence erupted earlier this week, ostensibly in protest of Monday’s stabbing attack in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested. 

False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters,. Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder. 

Police said many of the actions are being organized online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilizing support online with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.” They are tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the country, in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel. 

Calls for protests have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack. 

The group first appeared around 2009, leading a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often devolved into violence. Yaxley-Lennon was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers. 

The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years, and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has faced myriad legal issues. He has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the U.K. last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him. 

Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform U.K., has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days. While condemning the violence, he has criticized the government for blaming it on “a few far-right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people.” 

Far-right demonstrators have held several violent gatherings since the stabbing attack, clashing with police Tuesday outside a mosque in Southport — near the scene of the stabbing — and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day. Many in Southport have expressed their anger at the organized acts of violence in the wake of the tragedy. 

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has blamed the violence on “far-right hatred” and vowed to end the mayhem. He said police across the U.K. would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.” 

Policing minister Diana Johnson told the BBC that there is “no need” to bring in the army to help police in their efforts to confront the violence. 

“The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment,” she said. 
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Kyiv — Ukraine has sunk a Russian submarine and hit a Russian airfield in the past 24 hours, in line with a surge of long-range attacks against Russian targets, officials said. Russia said Ukrainian drones also hit an apartment building, killing one person. 

The uptick in attacks since July comes as Ukraine mounts pressure on allies to allow it to use long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia. Western allies, in particular the U.S., have so far resisted, fearing escalation from Moscow.

Ukraine struck a Russian Kilo-class submarine and an S-400 anti aircraft missile complex in the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula, according to a statement from the General Staff on Saturday. The air defense system was established to protect the Kerch Strait Bridge, an important logistics and transport hub supplying Russian forces.

Units of the missile forces, as well as the Navy, damaged four launchers of the Triumph air defense system, while in the port of Sevastopol, the “Rostov-on-Don” — a submarine of Russia’s Black Sea fleet — was attacked and sank, the statement said.

The General Staff also confirmed that Ukrainian forces struck the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region after launching a massive drone barrage on Russia. Hits were recorded in warehouses with ammunition, where guided aerial bombs were stored. The operation was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine, the Main Directorate of Intelligence and the Defense Ministry, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said that a woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on an apartment building in the town of Shebekino early Sunday. Ukrainian drones also damaged several other buildings in the town, he said.

Gladkov said eight civilians have been wounded in the region by Ukrainian shelling and dozens of drone strikes since the previous day. 

In the span of a month, Russia has experienced a surge in the tempo of Ukrainian drone barrages and long-range attacks, targeting Russian military infrastructure, including airfields and oil depots. Analysts say such an intensification is needed if Ukraine is to degrade Russian capabilities.

In other developments: 

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said he has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to investigate a photo that allegedly shows the body of a Ukrainian prisoner of war tortured and executed by Russian forces. He has also asked Ukrainian authorities to verify the identity of the deceased.

The photo, circulating on social media, shows the body of a person without a head or limbs. The Associated Press was unable to verify it. 

“This is not just a violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, this is the behavior of monsters,” Lubinets said in a statement on Telegram.

“We are aware of recent reports online and in the media. We take these reports extremely seriously. The way we work is to respond via relevant authorities directly and confidentially,” Pat Griffiths, ICRC Spokesperson in Ukraine, told the Associated Press on Sunday when asked about Lubinet’s request.

“Speaking generally, the law of armed conflict is clear. Prisoners of war must be treated humanely at all times,” he added.
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PARIS — Faith leaders gathered with Olympic officials Sunday morning in front of Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate how “faith and sport can complement each other,” in the words of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

The 2024 Paris Games got off to a rocky start with many religious groups around the world, including the Vatican. They criticized a scene in the opening ceremony seen as mocking Christianity by evoking “The Last Supper” and featuring drag queens, though the performers and the ceremony’s artistic director denied being inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting.

“We wanted to show that the most important thing is peace,” Catholic Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard said at the gathering. It was modeled after the first such interfaith meeting, organized by modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin in the 1924 Paris Games.

Far from the controversy, in an inconspicuous tent-like structure tucked away at the end of the athletes’ village in Paris, ordained and lay representatives from the five major global religions have taken up that mantle, providing spiritual comfort to Olympians.

Representatives of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism worked for months to set up a shared hall where the more than 10,500 athletes and their staff can find information about worship and speak with a chaplain.

For the first half of the Games, many seem to have found their way there to have a quiet moment away from the overwhelming pressure of competition.

“Some of the athletes who come to pray, I think they came to give up their pressure, to take some time to get out of their own heads,” said the Rev. Jason Nioka, a former judo champion who’s in charge of the largest contingent of Olympic chaplains, about 40 Catholic priests, nuns and lay faithful.

Each religion got 50 square meters (538 square feet) of the structure provided by the Paris Games organizing committee, with instructions to comply with France’s secularism laws that strictly prescribe the role of religion in public spaces.

What the faith leaders have done with the space is itself a wordless message of dialogue, tolerance and welcome — beginning with redistributing the size of the different rooms based on the expected number of faithful.

The door between the small Jewish room and the Muslim space, about twice its size but equally sparingly adorned, is often kept open.

“Here it’s very symbolic,” said Rabbi Moshe Lewin, vice president of the Conference of European Rabbis and one of the Jewish chaplains. “The conviviality, that’s the image that we should transmit.”

“People smile when they see an imam and a rabbi together,” added Najat Benali, president of the Coordination of Muslim Associations of Paris, who leads the Muslim chaplaincy. “We do ‘geo-fraternity,’ not geopolitics.”

The Hindu space also welcomes visitors with blessings by a small water fountain as chanting resounds from a volunteer’s cellphone. It’s the most exuberantly decorated space, with statues from India and a recreated temple structure in painted polyester foam.

In the middle is the Christian area, where Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox share an altar with a large Bible flanked by a cross and icons. Next to it hangs a poster with a quote about faith by U.S. star gymnast Simone Biles.

Last week, three athletics competitors from Australia, Finland and Jamaica walked in to pray, and faith leaders asked if they could join them.

“It was like a little Pentecost,” said Anne Schweitzer, who’s coordinating about three dozen Protestant chaplains.

She discovered one of the three athletes, a silver medalist, is also quoted in the Gospel edition called “More Precious than Gold,” created for the Games and available to visitors there and at churches across Olympic host cities.

Some Catholics, as well as volunteers in the village, have gone next door to meditate in the Buddhist space, said Luc Charles, a Zen monk with the Buddhist Union of France.

“It’s the occasion to get to know each other better,” he added.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces around the world for 50 years.

Western countries have pledged F-16s to Kyiv, and some have arrived in Ukraine, officials in Washington and Ukraine confirmed to The Associated Press. The fighter jets are expected to start flying sorties in Ukrainian skies soon and will be a much-needed boost to the country’s current fleet of Soviet-era jets that are laboring to counter Russia’s invasion.

United States President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for used F-16s to be deployed to Ukraine, though the U.S. won’t be providing any of its own planes. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over coming months in what could be a slow trickle of deliveries.

Though Russia’s recent battlefield gains have been incremental, its steady forward movement is adding up as Ukraine gradually yields ground.

The F-16s will enhance Ukraine’s military strength, especially by upgrading its air defenses. But analysts say they won’t turn the tide of the war on their own.

Here’s what to know:

What can F-16s bring to the Ukrainian war effort?

The F-16s will likely have three core missions, says Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.

They will seek to intercept Russian missiles and drones that have relentlessly bombarded Ukraine; suppress enemy air defense systems; and strike Russian troop positions and ammunition depots with air-to-ground missiles.

“They will be able to affect some of the dynamics (of the war),” Borsari says.

A lot of information about the F-16 deployment is classified, including what Western governments allow them to hit and what weapons they will send with the aircraft.

The F-16s could carry United Kingdom-supplied Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles with a range of more than 250 kilometers, potentially striking targets inside Russia. They might also get long-range air-to-air missiles that would threaten Russian bombers and fighter jets. The plane’s advanced radars will allow Ukrainian pilots to pinpoint targets further away than they can in their MiG-29s, Su-27s and Su-24s.

Commanding the skies is an essential part of a war’s ground campaign, as planes offer air cover to troops. But supporting Ukrainian troop movements on the front line with ground attacks may be too risky for the F-16s, given Russia’s sophisticated air defense systems.

At the very least, the fighter jets could have a psychological effect on Russian pilots, and offer a morale boost for Ukrainians toiling against the Kremlin’s forces.

What are the challenges for Ukraine?

Marina Miron of the Defense Studies Department at King’s College London ticks off a long list of challenges the F-16s will bring for Ukraine.

The roughly nine-month training in the U.S. and Europe for Ukrainian pilots amounted to a crash course compared with the usual three-year course for Western pilots in what Miron calls “a very complex piece of machinery.” That will mean limitations on their performance.

The F-16s also require a large number of support personnel, such as skilled maintenance engineers, munitions loaders, intelligence analysts and emergency crews.

Ukraine must also establish a network of radar stations, reinforced hangars, a supply of spare parts and refueling systems. Quality airfields are also a must as the F-16 air intake is close to the tarmac and runs the danger of sucking debris and dirt into the engine.

“So many associated issues need to be sorted out,” Miron says.

Ukrainian pilots with no combat experience in F-16s may shy away from engaging in dogfights.

How will Russia react?

Russian President Vladimir Putin would savor the image that destroying F-16s from NATO countries would bring.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday the F-16s will not be a “magic pill” that changes the course of the conflict. He added that Russian authorities have already offered rewards to servicemen who destroy F-16s.

The Kremlin’s forces will likely try to destroy the F-16s on the ground with long-range missiles. They have already been targeting Ukraine’s limited number of suitable airfields.

The Ukrainians will need to park the F-16s in hardened hangars, disperse them between various locations, station decoy model aircraft and be ready to take off quickly in the event of an air raid warning, analysts say.

Ukraine has said it might keep some of the fighter jets at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes. That prompted a harsh response from Putin, who warned that any Western air base hosting the Ukrainian fighter jets would be a “legitimate target” for the Kremlin’s forces.

U.S. officials said the F-16s would be based in Ukraine.

In the air, the Ukrainian F-16s will be up against Russia’s formidable S-300 and S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems that can target multiple aircraft at a time. Russia’s military also has what are estimated to be several hundred operational fighter jets, as well as sophisticated air surveillance radars.

Russia’s Su-35 fighter jet will be one of the biggest threats to the F-16, Borsari of CEPA says. It has a long-range radar that allows it to track and engage up to eight targets at a time across a wide area.

Even so, the Russians are aware that they’ll be up against a more formidable aircraft than they have met so far in the war and will likely adopt a more careful approach.

How will Ukraine protect the F-16s?

Although Russian forces will try to strike the F-16s at the airbases where they are kept, Ukraine has robust defenses to protect the fighter jets against such attacks, says Ukrainian aviation expert Anatolii Khrapchynskyi.

Ukraine has robust capabilities “to protect its airfields with anti-aircraft defenses to deflect (Russian) attacks,” Khrapchynskyi told The Associated Press. “During the entire time since Russia has invaded Ukraine, it has been actively trying to hit Ukrainian airfields, but they have been somewhat unsuccessful.”

Khrapchynskyi said the F-16s will significantly increase the capabilities of the Ukrainian Air Force to protect the country’s air space from Russian attacks and increase the range that Ukraine can strike strategic targets in Russia.

“With the acquisition of F-16 aircraft, we will be able to solve a number of problems that are currently hurting Ukraine. These include: Russia’s massive missile attacks, its use of guided aerial bombs, and the deployment of S-300 installations in the border regions of Sumy and Kharkiv,” says Khrapchynskyi. “We are talking about receiving F-16 aircraft, in my opinion, this will significantly help Ukraine to cope with the Russian aggression that is taking place now.”
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CAMMARATA, Italy — On a scorching July afternoon, a municipal water truck rolls up in a cloud of dust on Liborio Mangiapane’s farm in southern Sicily. Some of the precious liquid gets transferred to a smaller cistern on a tractor that Mangiapane’s son will use to fill troughs for 250 cattle and sheep, but by tomorrow, all 10,000 liters from the truck will be gone.

Crippling drought from a nearly rainless year, coupled with record-high temperatures, has burned out much of the region’s hay and is pushing farmers to the limit. For Mangiapane, every day is a struggle to find water, with frantic phone calls, long trips to faraway wells and long waits for municipal tankers.

If rain doesn’t come by the end of August, he’s afraid he’ll have to sell off his livestock.

“We are in a moment of extreme heat and therefore animals need a lot of water,” Mangiapane said. “It’s a constant anxiety to keep the animals from suffering, but also just to have a chance to wash ourselves.”

The worst year for rainfall in more than 20 years has sent fodder production down 70% across Sicily, according to Coldiretti, Italy’s primary farmers association. The main water basins are almost empty and authorities are strictly rationing water.

The region is one of Italy’s breadbaskets, producing 20% of the country’s durum wheat that goes into pasta. Coldiretti estimated that the drought could reduce production on the island by as much as 70%, leading to greater reliance on imports. In coming months, the dry year may hit olive oil and peach production. Hot weather has caused the grape harvest to start nearly four weeks early, though that crop is so far undamaged.

In May, the national government declared a state of emergency in Sicily and allocated 20 million euros ($21.7 million) to buy water tankers, dig new wells and fix leaky aqueducts. Coldiretti has donated 1.5 million tons of fodder and the regional government allocated subsidies for farmers forced to buy hay from third parties.

Parts of Sicily have had rainfall deficits of up to 60%, according to the meteorology department at Italy’s National Research Council. The regional meteorological service reported above-average temperatures throughout June, with highs frequently topping 40 degrees Celsius in many areas.

Farmers have seen basins, lakes and ponds that used to be reliable watering spots vanish.

Luca Cammarata watched as his sheep searched for water on his farm in the province of Caltanissetta, one of the hardest-hit parts of Sicily. The area has seen almost no rain for a year, reservoirs are all but empty, and wells and aquifers will have to be tapped at critical levels if it doesn’t rain soon.

“Here in this small basin, water has never been lacking,” Cammarata said, as his sheep’s bells tinkled as they searched for water in the place they used to find it. Soon, the animals would have to return to their barns to avoid the blazing sun.

Nearby Lake Pergusa used to be a haven for migratory birds — a natural basin with an area of 1.4 square kilometers and an average depth of about 2 meters. Now it looks like a puddle.

The story was the same on Mangiapane’s place, a little over an hour to the northwest near the municipality of Cammarata. He peered from his barn toward an area where rainwater usually collected in a large pond, providing water for his animals, but the pond was now “as dry as a football pitch.”

August typically brings the start of the winter rainy season, said Mangiapane, a longtime rancher who has gained a reputation as an outspoken supporter of natural grazing and small-scale cheese-making over industrial-scale agriculture.

“I wish it will be a bit better than the past season, because this year we had to make a huge effort, both economically and in terms of human resources, with zero profits,” he said. “We worked the whole year without profits. No wheat, nor fodder for the cows. And neither the regional government, nor the national one have taken strong measures.”

Local authorities have rushed to open new wells, fix desalination equipment and bring in water. In late July, the first Italian navy tanker ship docked in Licata to supply 12 million liters to the most affected areas.

The local water basin authority is tightly rationing water for almost a million residents, with water flowing as little as two to four hours a week in the most affected areas. While the taps are off, households and farms are being supplied by tankers since Sicily’s aqueducts lose up to 60% of the water they carry, according to local water company AICA.

As climate change has made rainfall more erratic and driven temperatures higher, there’s hope that aqueduct renovations, new reservoirs and deep wells will help Sicily adapt.

Giulio Boccaletti, scientific director of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, said Sicily is experiencing “the new normal” of climate change, and the region will have to examine whether its scarce water is used for the right things — including what farmers produce.
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DAKAR, Senegal — Two men claiming to be Russian nationals and saying they were taken captive in Niger by militants linked to al-Qaida appeared in a video published on a media platform affiliated to the extremist group.

The video, which appeared on the az-Zallaqa platform Friday night, showed two men who said they were seized by the militants while working in Baga in northeastern Niger.

The men, seated side by side and dressed in traditional local clothing, spoke into the camera. One identified himself as Yury, saying he is a geologist and was working for a Russian company when he was arrested by JNIM, the al-Qaida affiliated group in the region. The other man said his name, which was harder to make out, and said he’d been in Niger for a month.

The AP cannot independently verify the video or the date it was filmed. The men, who spoke in English, did not say when they had been detained.

A security source in Niger, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the pair were taken about a week ago while visiting gold mines.

This is the first known sighting of the men. If their account is confirmed, they would be the first Russians in the Sahel believed to be kidnapped by jihadis despite a strong and growing Russian presence across the region.

Russia has capitalized on the deteriorating relations between the West and coup-affected Sahel nations in West Africa to send fighters to the region and assert its influence. Wagner, Russia’s shadowy mercenary group, has been active in the Sahel — the vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert — as the mercenaries profit from seized mineral riches in exchange for their security services.

In recent months Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, notably France and the United States, turning instead to Russia for security. In April, Russian military trainers arrived in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses.

The video comes days after al-Qaida claimed and an attack that dealt Wagner its deadliest blow in recent years, when it ambushed and killed at least 50 fighters in Mali. At least two Russians were taken captive by rebels, who were also involved in the attack.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment about the hostages.

The abductions are a significant hit to Wagner’s efforts in Niger, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a security think tank, who first reported the Russians had been taken. The fact that al-Qaida used the word “captives” and not hostages, in the video, points to a potential desire for a prisoner swap with jihadis being held by military regimes in the Sahel, he said.

Nasr said the hostages were taken on July 19 during a battle between jihadis and Niger’s military in Baga.

He said this based on a photograph sent to him by JNIM in the aftermath of the attack and showing the men’s faces, which he identified as the Russian captives in the video.

The jihadis also confirmed to him the date the men were taken and their nationalities.

The Russians are the only known foreign non-African hostages currently believed to be held by jihadi groups in the Sahel, he said.

Jihadi groups have been abducting hostages for ransom to fund their operations and expand their presence. At least 25 foreigners and untold numbers of locals have been kidnapped in the Sahel since 2015, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

French journalist Olivier Dubois was released last year after being kidnapped from northern Mali in April 2021 and the last known Western hostages were three Italians freed in February, after being kidnapped by jihadis from Mali in 2022. 
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Ukrainian tennis player Alex Dolgopolov was once ranked 13th in the world. But shortly after Russia invaded his homeland in 2022, he volunteered to fight on the front lines. Anna Kosstutschenko met with the tennis star turned drone operator. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy.
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had attacked Russia’s Morozovsk airfield and several oil depots and fuel storage facilities in three Russian regions overnight.

The attack on the airfield hit an ammunition depot where Russian forces stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment, the military said.

“Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners — a security solution,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russian forces used over 600 guided aerial bombs to attack Ukraine in the past week. The attack on oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions set fire to at least two oil tanks, according to the Ukrainian military report.

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly called on his Western allies for permission to use their weapons for long-range attacks on Russia, in addition to striking military targets close to the border.

In Russia, local officials reported that tanks at a fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district of Rostov region caught fire as a result of a drone attack.

The regional governor of Belgorod also said Ukraine-launched drones caused a fire at an oil storage depot there, adding that the fire was extinguished and no one was injured.

Ukraine has dramatically stepped up its use of long-range drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities, attempting to damage sites fueling Russian forces and the country’s economy in Moscow’s 29-month-old invasion.
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RABAT, Morocco — France has thrown its support behind Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-old position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to align with Morocco as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled.

In a letter to King Mohammed VI, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the plan that Morocco proposed in 2007 to offer the region limited autonomy under its sovereignty the “only basis” to solve the conflict. The shift deals a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has for decades claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people.

“The present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” Macron wrote in a letter made public on Tuesday. “France intends to act consistently with this position at both national and international level.”

Macron’s move is unlikely to change the key tenets of the territorial dispute but could deepen France ties with Morocco, which has long blamed it for drawing the colonial borders it sees as the root of the conflict. France signaled earlier this year that it was open to investing in Moroccan projects in the disputed territory.

The move could strain diplomatic relations in North Africa, further alienating both France and Morocco from Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front’s claims and allows it to operate as a self-declared government in exile from refugee camps within its borders.

It follows similar shifts from the United States, Israel, Spain and a growing list of African nations that have established consulates in the territory.

In a statement, Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s Royal Cabinet called France’s shift “a significant development.” A high-ranking Moroccan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity noted France’s role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and called it “a game-changer” amid an international shift toward Morocco’s position.

The move was preemptively rebuked by both Algeria and the Polisario Front in the days leading up to the publication of letter, which Algeria said it was made aware of by France in the days prior.

The Polisario’s Mohamed Sidati accused France of acting at odds with international law and backing Moroccan expansionism as its influence wanes throughout Africa.

“Whatever hardships Morocco tries to impose on us with the support of France, the Sahrawi people will continue to stubbornly defend their rights until they obtain the definitive departure of the Moroccan aggressor from their territory and general recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination and independence,” Sidati, the Foreign Minister of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, said in a statement on Monday.

Algeria called Morocco and France “colonial powers, new and old” and announced it would withdraw its ambassador from Paris.

“The French decision is clearly the result of a dubious political calculation, a morally questionable judgement and legal interpretations that are neither supported nor justified,” Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last week.

Western Sahara is roughly the size of Colorado, encompassing a stretch of desert rich in phosphates and sitting along an Atlantic coastline rich in fish. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, sparking a regional conflict and putting it at odds with the pro-independence Polisario Front over the region that the United Nations considers a “non-self-governing territory.”

Morocco quickly moved to occupy the majority of the land, fighting off guerilla warfare from the Polisario until the U.N. brokered a 1991 cease-fire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future. Disagreements over who is eligible to vote prevented the referendum from taking place.

Morocco has long sought political recognition of its claim from its other nations, while the Polisario has prioritized fighting legal battles to assert the people of the region’s right to self-determination.

Sporadic violence has ensued since the Polisario renewed armed conflict in 2020, ending a 29-year truce. Morocco has since embarked on expansive economic development efforts, constructing ports, highways and hotels.
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london — Protesters attacked police and started fires in the northeast English city of Sunderland on Friday as violence spread to another northern city following Monday’s killing of three children in Southport. 

Anti-immigrant demonstrators threw stones at police in riot gear near a mosque in the city before overturning vehicles, setting a car on fire and starting a fire next to a police office, the BBC said. 

“The safety of the public is our utmost priority and when we became aware that a protest had been planned, we ensured there was an increased policing presence in the city,” Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Helena Barron said in a statement.  

“During the course of the evening those officers were met with serious and sustained levels of violence, which is utterly deplorable.” 

Three police officers were hospitalized for treatment, and eight people have so far been arrested for offenses such as violent disorder and burglary, Barron added. 

The protest in Sunderland was one of more than a dozen planned by anti-immigration activists across the U.K. this weekend, including in the vicinity of at least two mosques in Liverpool, the closest city to where the children were killed. 

Several anti-racism counterprotests were also planned. 

British police were out in force on Friday across the country and mosques were tightening security, officials said. 

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of the girls in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in the northwestern seaside town of Southport, a crime that has shocked the nation. 

Violent incidents erupted in the following days in Southport, the northeastern town of Hartlepool, and London in reaction to false information on social media claiming the suspect in the stabbings was a radical Islamist migrant. 

In an attempt to quash the misinformation, police have emphasized that the suspect  was born in Britain. 

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a second visit to Southport since the murders.  

“As a nation, we stand with those who tragically have lost loved ones in the heinous attack in Southport, which ripped through the very fabric of this community and left us all in shock,” he said in a statement. 

British police chiefs have agreed to deploy officers in large numbers over the weekend to deter violence. 

“We will have surge capacity in our intelligence, in our briefing, and in the resources that are out in local communities,” Gavin Stephens, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, told BBC Radio. 

“There will be additional prosecutors available to make swift decisions, so we see swift justice.” 

Mosques across the country are also on a heightened state of alert, the Muslim Council of Britain said. 

Zara Mohammed, the council’s secretary general, said representatives from hundreds of mosques agreed to strengthen security measures at a briefing on Thursday. Many at the meeting also reported concerns for the safety of their worshippers after receiving threatening and abusive phone calls. 

“I think there’s a sense within the community that we’re also not going to be afraid, but we will be careful and cautious,” Mohammed said. 

Police in Southport, where on Tuesday evening protesters attacked police, set vehicles alight and hurled bricks at a mosque, said they were aware of planned protests and had “extensive plans and considerable police resources” on hand to deal with any disorder. 

Police in Northern Ireland also said they were planning a “proportionate policing response” after learning of plans by various groups to block roads, stage protests and march to an Islamic Centre in Belfast over the weekend. 
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