The presidents of Spain’s regional soccer federations are calling for the resignation of Luis Rubiales, the suspended president of the National Football Association, in a statement published Monday following an emergency meeting.

Rubiales was suspended by FIFA, the world’s governing soccer body, on Saturday after he forcibly kissed a female player during the women’s team’s World Cup victory celebrations.

“After the recent events and the unacceptable behaviours that have seriously damaged the image of Spanish football, the presidents request that, immediately, Mr. Luis Rubiales submits his resignation as president of the RFEF [Royal Spanish Football Federation],” the RFEF said on behalf of the committee of regional presidents.

All 19 regional presidents are unanimously supporting the interim RFEF president, Pedro Rocha, “to lead a new stage of dialogue and reconciliation with all of the football institutions,” the statement read. Rocha replaced Rubiales after his FIFA suspension.

“We will urge the corresponding bodies to carry out a wholesale, immediate and organic restructuring process in strategic positions of the Federation in order to bring in a new management role in Spanish football,” the officials added in their statement.

Along with the mounting pressure to resign, Rubiales also faces an investigation that could end in sexual aggression charges from Spanish prosecutors.

Mother starts ‘hunger strike’ in church

Earlier, Rubiales’ mother locked herself in a church and went on hunger strike to protest the “inhumane, bloodthirsty hunt” of her 46-year-old son, Spanish media reported.

Ángeles Béjar reportedly said Monday that she would remain in the church in Motril, near Granada in southern Spain, “indefinitely, day and night” until justice was served toward Rubiales.

The soccer boss and the RFEF have been embroiled in controversy ever since he kissed 33-year-old attacker Hermoso on the lips after Spain won its first Women’s World Cup title with victory against England.

Rubiales said that he made a mistake but called the kiss consensual, while Hermoso said that she did not give her permission to be kissed and felt violated.

“I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out of place act without any consent on my part,” she said on social media. “Simply put I was not respected.”

In a defiant speech on Friday, Rubiales refused to resign from his position and vowed to “fight to the end” – a stance that prompted a wave of heavy criticism from teams, players, politicians, union officials and even the United Nations.

When asked to comment on the incident during a press conference Monday, the United Nations Secretary General’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said: “I mean how difficult is it not to kiss someone on the lips?”

“There’s a critical issue of sexism that remains in sports and we hope that Spanish authorities and the Spanish government deal with this in a manner that respects the rights of all female athletes,” he added.

Ongoing fallout

On Saturday, FIFA said it was suspending Rubiales from “all football-related activities at national and international level” for 90 days while disciplinary proceedings are underway.

In response to Rubiales’ refusal to step down, RFEF vice president Rafael del Amo and 11 members of the Spanish national women’s soccer program have resigned.

Hermoso and her World Cup teammates said that they would not play again for Spain until Rubiales has been removed from his position.

The RFEF, however, is standing behind its chief, accusing Hermoso of lying about the incident and threatening legal action against her and others.

The president of Spain’s High Council of Sport (CSD), Victor Francos, has expressed worry that the controversy will hurt Spain’s bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside Portugal and Morocco.

“I am worried about the World Cup,” Francos said in a press conference on Monday. “Two weeks ago we were in a better position for the 2030 World Cup than we are today. But we are a stubborn government.”

Francos said he has been in touch with the governing bodies to explain to them that “Spanish sport isn’t like what we’ve been seeing these days and Spanish football isn’t what you’ve seen these days,” referring to the Rubiales incident.

Protesters took to the street Monday to demand Rubiales’ resignation.

Among them was 27-year-old Ella from Northern Ireland, who told Reuters, “We cannot express our joy as women without having some man interrupt it and spoil it and take it for his own. This was meant to be a celebration of women’s sports, the improvements that we have made.”

Another protester, Guadaluper Martin told the news agency that the incident was “terribly disgusting.”

“First of all, before you could see up close the kiss he gave her without consent, all that hugging and touching was completely out of place. In front of all these international representatives at the World Cup, he was touching and rubbing the players.”

Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to strengthen into a hurricane Monday and could bring potentially catastrophic winds, heavy rain and flooding to Florida’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm later this week, prompting evacuations and school closures in parts of the state.

Idalia was packing 70 mph winds and was roughly 20 miles southwest of Cuba’s western tip, the National Hurricane Center said Monday evening.

And the storm is predicted to continue getting rapidly stronger until it makes landfall in Florida, turning into a “major hurricane” by late Tuesday, the center warned.

Idalia will likely make landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Big Bend – a natural, storm surge-prone divot along the coast stretching from Tampa to just south of Tallahassee. Up to 12 feet of storm surge is forecast there.

Mandatory and voluntary evacuations were issued for at least eight counties with less than 48 hours before the storm is expected to make landfall in the state. And more than 5,000 National Guard members were activated to help respond to the storm.

“This is going to be a major impact,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Monday news conference.

Follow live updates: Idalia forces evacuations as it heads toward Florida.

Key points:

Idalia could arrive as soon as Tuesday

Impacts from Idalia will be felt from the Florida Keys to portions of the state’s western coast as soon as Tuesday. Wind speeds will increase across the Florida Keys and the state’s southwestern coast as early as Tuesday morning. Gusty winds are likely across a large portion of Florida, including inland areas, by Tuesday night as Idalia’s outer bands lap inland.

A large swath of Florida is expected to experience impacts from Idalia, but the worst of what the storm has to offer will stretch from Tampa northward through the Big Bend region and into portions of the Panhandle.

Conditions will deteriorate rapidly in these areas Tuesday overnight into Wednesday morning as landfall draws closer.

Idalia’s life-threatening storm surge ‘our biggest concern’

Life-threatening storm surge up to 12 feet is possible in Florida’s Big Bend which will only be worsened by waves driven by hurricane-force winds in excess of 100 mph.

Storm surge, which is when a storm blows the ocean onshore, is one of the deadliest aspects of a hurricane and the reason behind most storm evacuations.

“It happens quickly and can endanger you, your family & your home,” the Florida Division of Emergency Management agency warned.

During Hurricane Ian, 10 to 15 feet of storm surge wiped buildings off their foundations in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. From Idalia, 8 to 12 feet of surge was predicted, something Michael Brennan, the National Hurricane Center’s director, called “our biggest concern.”

“These are areas you don’t want to be in if you’ve been asked to evacuate,” Brennan said.

A storm surge warning – which means there’s a life-threatening danger from rising waters – is in effect from Englewood, Florida, all the way north to Indian Pass, including Tampa Bay.

Evacuations ordered in Florida

Mandatory and voluntary evacuations were issued in multiple Florida counties Monday morning, which DeSantis warned would expand.

“There are going to be evacuation orders issued in all these Gulf Coast counties in the A and B zones (and) all the barrier islands places that are low-lying on the coast,” DeSantis said.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered Monday for Pasco, Manatee, Hernando, Taylor, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Sarasota and Citrus counties for low-lying coastal areas and vulnerable structures.

The evacuation orders in Hillsborough County include parts of the Tampa area.

“If and when the governor issues an evacuation order, that means your life is in danger,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw warned.

Tampa International Airport announced it would cease all commercial operations by 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. The airport announced it aimed to reopen Thursday morning, after taking stock of what damage the storm left behind.

DeSantis expanded an emergency declaration to 46 of 67 Florida counties on Monday morning.

Power companies will also start staging personnel on Monday, the governor said.

“If you are in the path of the storm, you should expect power outages so please prepare for that,” the governor told residents.

The University of Florida announced its campus will close and classes will be canceled starting at noon on Tuesday and through Wednesday.

Florida State University said its Tallahassee campuses will be closed Wednesday and classes will be canceled. Florida A&M University also announced its Tallahassee main campus will be closed Wednesday.

Schools across the region also canceled class in preparation for the severe weather. Hillsborough County Public Schools announced all classes and activities will be canceled Tuesday and Wednesday.

Georgia, too, was preparing for Idalia’s arrival. Gov. Brian Kemp activated the State Operations Center Monday.

“Georgia will be prepared for whatever Idalia will bring,” Kemp said. “Rest assured, though the system will likely weaken before crossing our border, we’re not taking anything for granted.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to “intensity efforts” to deescalate tensions at their contested border, in a rare face-to-face meeting since a deadly clash strained relations more than three years ago.

Modi and Xi, who are in Johannesburg for the BRICS economic group meeting, had a conversation on the sidelines of the summit, India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra told reporters Thursday, one day after the Chinese leader mysteriously skipped a key event.

Face-to-face meetings between the leaders of India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are rare.

The disputed border has long been a source of friction between New Delhi and Beijing, with the agitation spilling into a 1962 war that ended in a Chinese victory. In the ensuing years, an ill-defined de facto border called the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has split the two nuclear powers.

“(Modi) underlined that the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas, and observing and respecting the LAC are essential for the normalization of the India-China relationship,” Kwatra said.

In a statement Friday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two leaders “had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on current China-India relations” among other interests.

“President Xi stressed that improving China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and peoples,” it added. “The two sides should bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border region.”

The meeting, which will be seen as a step toward mending their fraught relationship, comes one week after India and China engaged in their 19th round of talks to resolve their border issue.

“The two sides had a positive, constructive and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in the Western Sector,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Modi and Xi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan in September last year, but did not engage diplomatically. They had a brief conversation weeks later on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

Tensions between the two countries soured significantly after a deadly clash in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in 2020, and escalated last December when a brawl between troops from both sides in the Tawang sector of India’s northeastern territory of Arunachal Pradesh resulted in minor injuries.

In April, India’s defense minister told his Chinese counterpart that violations of their shared border erode the “entire basis” of relations between the two neighbors.

Since the 2020 clash, India has taken several steps to push back against perceived threats from China, including banning social media platform TikTok and other well-known Chinese apps, saying they pose a “threat to sovereignty and integrity,” while also moving to block Chinese telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE from supplying its 5G network.

More recently, the two countries have seemingly cracked down on reporters and have few or no accredited journalists on the ground in each other’s territory.

Amid rising nationalism in both countries, concerns in New Delhi of Beijing’s increasing assertiveness has also bolstered India’s relationship with the United States, including via the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad – a grouping of Japan, the US, India and Australia widely seen as a counterweight to China.

China earlier this year boycotted a G20 tourism meeting hosted by India in the Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir, citing its opposition “to holding any kind of G20 meetings in disputed territory.” India and Pakistan both claim the disputed Kashmir region in its entirety.

India’s decision to host this year’s SCO virtually meant that Modi and Xi did not have an opportunity for a face-to-face meeting. Xi is also expected to attend the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi next month.

A surfer is fighting for his life in the hospital after he was attacked by a shark off Australia’s east coast, police said Friday.

The 44-year-old man was surfing near Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie when a shark launched a “sustained and prolonged attack,” New South Wales (NSW) police said in a statement.

Police said a bystander applied a tourniquet before paramedics transferred the surfer to Port Macquarie Hospital in critical condition.

“[He is in] a serious condition with life threatening injuries, sustained from the lower leg injuries, and also significant blood loss,” NSW Police Chief Inspector Martin Burke said.

A witness told 9News the scene was “really scary”.

“I have never seen anything like it,” the unnamed teenager said. “His foot ripped off and basically he was bleeding everywhere.”

Lighthouse Beach will remain closed for at least 24 hours, Port Macquarie Hastings ALS Lifeguards said on Facebook. Meanwhile, a drone will be used to conduct surveillance flights and monitor shark activity in the area, the group said.

Experts from the Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries) have begun an investigation into the incident, according to Surf Life Saving NSW.

Australia ranked behind only the United States in the number of unprovoked shark encounters with humans last year, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File.

The museum describes “unprovoked bites” as incidents in which a bite on a human takes place in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark. “Provoked bites” are classified as when a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way.

According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, there were 10 shark encounters in New South Wales in 2022, resulting in seven injuries and one death.

One year after catastrophic floods devastated swathes of Pakistan, some 4 million children in the South Asian nation remain without access to safe water, the United Nations children’s agency has warned.

In a news release Friday, UNICEF said it estimates that there are 8 million people in the country, around half of whom are children, who continue to live in flood-affected areas without clean water.

“Vulnerable children living in flood-affected areas have endured a horrific year,” Abdullah Fadil, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, said in the statement.

“They lost their loved ones, their homes and schools. As the monsoon rains return, the fear of another climate disaster looms large. Recovery efforts continue, but many remain unreached, and the children of Pakistan risk being forgotten.”

Flooding caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountain regions last year claimed the lives of nearly 1,600 people – more than a third whom were children – and impacted an estimated 33 million more.

The floods submerged a third of the country, with the force of the floodwater washing away homes, leaving tens of thousands stranded on the road without any food to eat or clean water to drink.

About 30,000 schools, 2,000 health facilities and 4,300 water systems were damaged or destroyed, UNICEF said.

“The climate-related disaster deepened pre-existing inequities for children and families in affected districts,” UNICEF said in the statement. “One third of children were already out of school before the floods, malnutrition was reaching emergency levels and access to safe drinking water and sanitation was worryingly low.”

As the floodwater began to recede, a plethora of water-related diseases began to infect thousands – many of whom were children. Parents desperately tried to seek help as their children became infected with diarrhea, dysentery, dengue fever and malaria.

The flooding came as Pakistan was already grappling with a severe economic crisis, further compounding the economic misery of millions, pushing families into poverty and leaving many unable to afford essentials such as food, fuel and medicines.

The country’s predicament has been further complicated by political turmoil that has engulfed the nation in recent months after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested on corruption charges, sparking deadly protests.

Khan was dramatically ousted from power in a no-confidence vote last year, after numerous accusations of bad governance, including economic mismanagement. He claims the allegations against him are political and being steered by the country’s powerful military.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $3 billion bailout for Pakistan, giving the cash-strapped country a moment of reprieve in what has been a tumultuous year.

Until recently, the government had imposed tight import and dollar outflow controls, which stifled private sector activity, according to an April report by the World Bank.

But one condition of the IMF loan was that Pakistan let the country return to a market-based exchange rate, “which suggests the authorities now have limited room or appetite for currency intervention,” according to Shivaan Tandon, emerging Asia economist at Capital Economics.

Analysts say this may have contributed to a crash in Pakistan’s rupee this week, with the currency currently trading at 301 to the US dollar.

“We see the unfortunate consequence of a panic run when IMF terms force the government to open up trade,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management.

Tandon also said the country was seeing higher imports, which was “likely to have put some pressure on the currency as demand for [US] dollars rose.”

“Several emerging market currencies have come under pressure as dollar-denominated assets became more attractive due to the jump in US bond yields. Pakistan’s rupee is particularly vulnerable to risk aversion among investors due to elevated inflation, unfavorable fiscal dynamics and a wide external financing gap.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s poverty rate has reached a staggering 21.9%, covering more than one fifth of the population, according to IMF data.

The crushing poverty has driven many to flee the nation. Widespread hunger and rising prices have caused stress, anxiety and despair. In April, during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, hundreds of people lined up on the streets for a single bag of free flour, leading to deadly stampedes and chaos.

UNICEF also warned earlier this month that the effects of the climate crisis and other extreme weather phenomenons are having a devastating impact on children in South Asia.

Nearly half a billion children in the region are exposed to extreme high temperatures as life-threatening heat waves caused by the climate crisis become stronger and more frequent, it said.

Its analysis of 2020 data showed an estimated 460 million children in countries including Afghanistan, India and Pakistan were exposed to temperatures where 83 or more days in a year exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) – making South Asia the hardest-hit region for those under age 18.

Fadil from UNICEF said the agency has called on the government of Pakistan and its partners to “increase and sustain investment in basic social services for children and families.”

He added: “We cannot forget the children of Pakistan. The flood waters have gone, but their troubles remain, in this climate volatile region.”

A top Ukrainian official has detailed for the first time how a Russian helicopter pilot defected by flying his Mi-8, along with unsuspecting crew members, to Ukraine.

In an interview with Radio Liberty, which is set to air later this week, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, described how the incident unfolded.

“We were able to find the right approach to the man,” he told the news outlet.

“We were able to create conditions to get his whole family out undetected, and eventually create the conditions so that he could take over this aircraft with a crew that did not know what was happening.

“Two more people were with him – a full crew of three persons in total. When they realized where they had landed, they tried to escape. Unfortunately, they were eliminated. We would prefer (to take) them alive, but it is what it is.”

Budanov added: “The pilot feels great, everything is fine. He has two options, but he is leaning towards staying here.”

“No one has done this before, but I hope we can now scale it up.”

One unofficial Russian Telegram channel had reported that an Mi-8 helicopter had flown into Ukraine and landed in the central region of Poltava by mistake.

Another said it had diverted to the Ukrainian town of Vovchansk just across the Russian border in Kharkiv, which would be more likely than flying all the way to central Ukraine.

The Russian Telegram Voenniy Osvedomitel said Ukrainian intelligence had lured the pilot to Ukrainian territory and that the helicopter was carrying spare parts for Su-30SM and Su-27 fighters. It also reported the deaths of the other two crew members as they tried to escape.

Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, who has well-established contacts in the Defense Ministry, said the Mi-8 had flown to a Ukrainian base. He reported that “the helicopter is fully intact and will be added to the Ukrainian Armed Forces after a detailed examination of its equipment.”

France will ban schoolchildren from wearing abayas ahead of the upcoming academic year, the government has said, the latest in a series of contentious restrictions in the country on clothing associated with Muslims.

French Education Minister Gabriel Attal said the long, robe-like garments often worn by Muslim women wouldn’t be permitted in the nation’s schools from the new term, which starts in September.

“Schools of the Republic are built on very strong values and principles, especially laïcité,” he told TV network TF1 on Sunday, using a French term referring to the separation of state institutions and religions, but which some argue has been hijacked to justify anti-Islam positions.

“For me, laïcité, when put in the framework of a school, is very clear: you enter a classroom and you must not be able to identify the religious identity of students just by looking at them,” Attal said.

But the move was criticized by a number of opposition lawmakers. Danièle Obono, a prominent opposition politician, attacked the move as a “new Islamophobic campaign” on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left firebrand, who placed third in France’s 2022 presidential election, described his “sadness to see the return to school politically polarized by a new absurd entirely artificial religious war about a woman’s dress.”

“When will there be civil peace and true secularism that unites instead of exasperating?” Mélenchon asked.

France has pursued a series of controversial bans and restrictions on items of customarily Islamic dress in recent years, which have frequently drawn the ire of Muslim countries and international agencies.

Last year lawmakers backed a ban on wearing the hijab and other “conspicuous religious symbols” in sports competitions. The amendment was proposed by the right-wing Les Républicains party, which argued the hijab could risk the safety of athletes wearing it while playing sports.

France’s earlier ban on the niqab – full-face veils worn by some Muslim women – violated the human rights of those who wore it, the United Nations Human Rights Committee said in 2018.

“This type of policy stands in opposition to the liberal core of the 1905 Law on Separation of Church & State – a law we’ve been distorting and weaponizing since the ’90s,” Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar and commentator, wrote of the latest abaya ban on X.

“Such policies fuel the nation’s fractures,” she added.

Attal was asked on TF1 whether guidelines on hijabs would be enforced in schools, but refrained from commenting on those garments, and instead continued to discuss abayas.

“During my meetings with (the school heads) this summer, I sensed their need for a clear rule on the national level on the issue of abayas, so the rule is now here,” the education minister said.

Even as Ukrainian forces have breached the first line of Russian defenses on part of the southern front, soldiers taking part in the counteroffensive have revealed just how difficult it is to make more than incremental gains in the face of complex and multi-layered fortifications.

Ukrainian units say they have take the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region, and are moving towards several others in a bid to bring the strategic hub of Tokmak within range of artillery.

One soldier, a communications specialist named Oleksandr Solonko, has written in detail about the challenges of making progress in the area, and his account is supported by others.

First, he says, the topography is important: fields, villages, relatively flat land.

“Whoever you are, an assault group…an evac[uation mission], an airborne or ground reconnaissance, your movement is visible from afar. The enemy has been preparing to meet you for a long time,” Solonko wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“There are a limited number of access roads and logistics routes. Everything has been shot at and shelled repeatedly every day. You are almost certainly being spotted. It is basically impossible to do the job while remaining completely invisible to the enemy.”

And Solonko says that Russian fortifications are elaborate.

“There is an entire system of trenches, dugouts, actual tunnels in some places … automatic grenade launchers, machine guns, anti-tank missile systems. Anti-tank ditches and minefields stretch across the fields,” he wrote. “What is not dug up is mined. We need to go through all this to move forward.”

In recent weeks, multiple accounts have told of Ukrainian sappers making slow progress as they try to remove a wide variety of mines, some set off by tripwires, that are intensively laid as a first line of defense by the Russians. It’s unclear whether minefields are as thick deeper into Russian lines, where they might interfere with Russian forces’ own ability to maneuver.

“Those who are very rosy-eyed and believe that the Ukrainian Armed Forces took a long time to knock the Russians out of Robotyne village have not seen the system of defenses that had to be overcome to push the Russians away from the Mariupol highway and approach the village, surround it and then enter. A tremendous amount of work has been done,” Solonko wrote.

“Our positions on the retaken territory are surrounded by mines and tripwires. Paths are being made to enter, sappers are gradually clearing the territory,” he added.

“Drones are hanging in the sky around the clock, both ours and theirs. So it is impossible to hide any movement of equipment, any maneuver immediately becomes known to the enemy and shelling begins either with artillery or drones,” he said.

The officer said that unlike in Bakhmut, an eastern city captured by the Russians in May after months of grueling fighting, there were no basements in which to shelter. “Here there are just open fields and bombed out forest plantations, of which there is practically nothing left.”

Analysts say there are deeply entrenched defenses further ahead. Satellite imagery of the village of Solodka Balka, seven kilometers south of Robotyne, show steel-reinforced communications trenches, vehicle shelters and dragons’ teeth aimed at obstructing Ukrainian armor.

OSINT analyst Emil Kastehelmi notes that “the Russians have built 100-350m long communication trenches, which helps them both reinforce or retreat from the fighting positions.”

“Heavy fortifications are built in order to block any potential advance on the main road towards Tokmak,” Kastehelmi said Sunday in a post on X.

In its latest front line assessment, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said: “Ukrainian forces are now within striking distance of the next series of Russian defensive positions, which appears to be comprised of a relatively more contiguous array of anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth anti-tank obstacles, with Russian fighting positions behind these obstacles similar to the previous layer of Russian defenses.”

“The highly interconnected systems of trenches and dugouts that the Ukrainian soldier described is the result of months of Russian preparation,” it said. “It is unclear if Russian forces extended that system throughout subsequent series of defensive positions further south.”

Solonko also acknowledged the loss of Ukrainian armor in the region “because of the enemy’s superiority in the air.”

“Guided aerial bombs are one of the biggest fears. The Russians use them on a massive scale. I can’t judge the accuracy, but the weapon is formidable in power,” he wrote in his posts on X.

The Russians are extensively using drones for surveillance and targeting Ukrainian positions, according to Solonko. “They identify targets and launch Lancets in swarms as well as guided bombs,” he added.

But he also writes that US-donated vehicles are saving lives: “We talked to a soldier who survived a direct attack twice in Bradley. Even the most hopelessly damaged equipment is pulled out and taken for repair.”

He also believes that the capture of Robotyne augurs well for the offensive, despite the many obstacles.

“I can understand why the Russians are so angry because of the loss of the village of 6 streets. They did a great job of not letting the Ukrainians through. It is easier to defend by all standards. We are doing a great job to break through. And when we succeed, it means our work is going better,” he wrote.

Libya’s internationally recognized government dismissed Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush on Sunday after a meeting she held with her Israeli counterpart sparked an uproar in the country.

Israel’s foreign ministry announced on Sunday night that the meeting had taken place in Rome last week.

The Libyan foreign ministry rejected reports that the meeting was officially sanctioned and said in a statement that it was “informal,” “unprepared” and “did not include negotiations or consultations.”

It added that Mangoush “reaffirmed Libya’s principles towards the Palestinian cause in a clear and unambiguous manner.”

Libya does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and normalization of ties remains a controversial issue in the country. Videos circulating on social media over the weekend showed Libyan protesters burning Israeli flags and attempting to enter the gates of a government building in Tripoli.

An Israeli source familiar with the situation appeared to dispute the Libyan account on Monday, saying the meeting with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was planned, and news that it had taken place was supposed to be made public at some point. The source requested anonymity to discuss diplomatic issues.

The source said there were discussions before the ministers met about publishing the fact of the meeting, but that “the timing of when it would be published wasn’t agreed on yet.”

The Israeli foreign ministry published its statement Sunday in response to questions from an Israeli journalist who got word of the meeting and asked the ministry about it, the source said. Israel told Mangoush that was what had happened, the source said.

Cohen earlier called the meeting “historic” and described it as “the first step in the connections between Israel and Libya.”

“I spoke with the foreign minister about the vast potential for the two countries from their relations, as well as the importance of preserving the heritage of Libyan Jewry, which includes renovating synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in the country,” Cohen was cited as saying by Israel’s foreign ministry.

Libya has fallen into chaos since a NATO-backed uprising overthrew former ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country has been split into two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in Benghazi, since 2014.

The parliament backing the eastern-based government denounced Mangoush’s meeting with Cohen and called for a “harsh punishment.”

Mangoush was Libya’s first female foreign minister.

The death earlier this year of former US swimming champion Jamie Cail has been ruled accidental and fentanyl related, according to a Facebook post from the US Virgin Islands Police Department.

An autopsy report from the US Virgin Islands Office of the Medical Examiner listed Cail’s cause of death as “fentanyl intoxication with aspiration of gastric content,” police said Friday.

Cail, 42, died in February on the island of St. John. Police said at the time that her boyfriend, who has not been identified, left a bar just after midnight to check on her and found her on the floor of their home.

The boyfriend and a friend took her to Myrah Keating-Smith Community Health Center where she was given CPR, authorities said.

Cail, who had previously lived in New Hampshire, ultimately “succumbed to her ailment,” officials added, saying she had died on arrival.

Fentanyl is a fully synthetic opioid, originally developed as a powerful anesthetic for surgery. It is also administered to alleviate severe pain associated with terminal illnesses like cancer.

The drug is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, and just a small dose can be deadly. Illicitly produced fentanyl has been a driving factor in the number of overdose deaths in recent years.

Cail won gold at the 1997 Pan Pacific Championships as a member of the US women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, according to FINA, the international governing body of swimming. She also won a silver medal in November 1998 at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Brazil in the women’s 800-meter freestyle.

USA Swimming said Cail was “a cherished teammate” in a February statement.

As a teenager, Cail spent some time at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, a private college-preparatory school known as a swimming and diving powerhouse.

“She was so tough… a serious competitor,” he said, noting she would push herself to total exhaustion during training. “But outside the pool, she was a very sweet and sensitive person.”

Cail was listed in the top 16 athletes nationwide in her age group in at least 10 events in US Swimming’s rankings for the 1996-97 season.

She swam briefly at the University of Southern California before transferring to the University of Maine where she earned a letter in her only season. She graduated in 2003.