A 19-year-old Korean man tried to open a plane door mid-flight after complaining that he felt “pressure” on his chest, but luckily, the cabin crew stopped him.

The passenger, who was on a red-eye flight from Cebu in the Philippines to Seoul, South Korea, was “acting strangely” about an hour into the flight, so he was moved to the front row of the plane close to the exit door where staff could monitor him, officials from Jeju Airlines said.

After moving seats, the man suddenly ran towards the emergency door and tried to open, but he was “immediately subdued by the crew, who used a lasso rope and tie wraps to keep him controlled for the rest of the flight,” a Jeju Airlines official said.

The door stayed closed and the plane was left undamaged, and none of the 180 passengers on board were harmed in the incident, the airline added.

The passenger was handed over to police at Seoul’s Incheon Airport at 7:30 a.m. local after the plane landed on Monday, June 19.

While the passenger’s attempt was foiled this time, the incident comes barely a month since someone actually opened a plane door on a Korean carrier.

Last month, a man in his 30s managed to open an aircraft’s emergency door just before landing at Daegu, sending strong gusts of wind through the plane’s cabin as terrified passengers on the Asiana Airlines flight gripped their armrests.

In 2016, low-cost Korean Air subsidiary Jin Air was forced to turn back 40 minutes into the flight after discovering one of the plane’s doors wasn’t completely shut.

American golfer Gordon Sargent was the victim of a freak incident at the US Open on Sunday as he watched his two-and-a-half-foot putt bounce out of the hole.

Sargent, who has just finished his sophomore year at Vanderbilt University, ended the tournament on four-over-par to claim low amateur honors – a medal awarded to the amateur with the best performance at the US Open.

His impressive one-under final round included a bizarre moment on the 18th when his seemingly perfect putt somehow ended outside the hole.

“I had like a two-and-a-half footer straight up the hill that hit the back of the hole and just bounced right back to me,” Sargent told reporters.

“Haven’t seen that happen in a while, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”

Tournament organizers later explained that the hole had been damaged by the group playing in front of the 20-year-old.

Although the issue with the hole cost him a shot, Sargent still took low amateur honors by nine strokes at Los Angeles Country Club.

Having made his first appearance at the Masters earlier this year, the US Open was the first time that Sargent has made the cut at a major.

“I think it just gives you confidence and also kind of shows what you need to work on,” he said. “I know that [with] my good golf, I can compete with the best and just need to limit the mistakes a little bit.”

Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler are among the past winners of the low amateur medal at the US Open.

Monitoring software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) found almost 20,000 abusive social media posts were aimed at players, officials and coaches during the Qatar World Cup, according to a new report released by FIFA.

In total, 20 million posts and comments were analyzed across all major social media platforms, successfully verifying the identity of 306 account owners that sent abusive messages.

The report – carried out in conjunction with global players’ union FIFPro – says FIFA will work with law enforcement “to submit evidence packs to build cases where abusive messages have passed criminal thresholds.”

The system, called the social media protection service (SMPS), monitors and hides abuse from players and will also be available for teams, players and coaches to use at the Women’s World Cup, which begins on July 20.

The software also analyzed the accounts of national teams, former players and media members. In total, 434,000 posts were flagged by AI and reviewed by humans, the report said, with the abusive messages coming from 12,600 different accounts.

Additionally, the software also hid 287,000 abusive comments before they were seen by the intended recipient.

“Players don’t speak out much about how online abuse affects us,” Canada Men’s National Team defender Mark-Anthony Kaye said.

“There’s stigma. As professional athletes, we don’t want to admit this could hurt us, or that we even notice it. But we’re all human. It’s not as easy as “just tuning it out.” It hurts. It hurts our families.”

Of the abusive messages, 38% came from Europe, 36% from South America, 10% from Asia, 8% from Africa and 8% from North and Central America. Sexism made up 13.7% of the abuse, homophobia 12.16% and racism 10.7%.

When grouped together by country – all players, teams and official member association social media handles – France received the most abuse, with England in second and Brazil third.

England’s quarterfinal clash against France, in which England striker Harry Kane missed a crucial penalty, had the biggest spike in abusive messages of any match at the World Cup, registering a combined 13,000 reported and moderated posts and comments across all social platforms.

“I know there’s a competitive edge in the game, but I think the things that have been said online go far beyond that, especially when you’re talking about families or something that cuts a little bit deeper than just actual play,” US Men’s National Team player Kellyn Acosta said.

“I think it needs to stop and our voice needs to be heard that we’re people as well.”

Wyndham Clark won the 2023 US Open to claim his first major title on Sunday, edging Rory McIlroy in a nail-biting finale at Los Angeles Country Club.

The American, boasting just one prior win on the PGA Tour and having never previously made the cut at the tournament, held off the challenge of Northern Ireland’s four-time major champion to win the 123rd edition of the major by a single stroke.

Clark, 29, carded a closing round even-par 70 to finish 10-under overall and earn a $3.6 million winner’s cut of a record $20 million prize purse, the largest ever awarded in major history.

And while the win fell on Father’s Day, Clark dedicated the win to his mother, Lise Clark, who died of breast cancer in 2013.

The Denver-born golfer had spoken at length about her inspiration earlier in the tournament, explaining how she had left him with the instruction to “play big.” Mission emphatically accomplished, Clark teared up while discussing her in his winner’s interview.

“I just felt like my mom was watching over me today and you know she can’t be here. Miss you mom,” said an emotional Clark.

“I’ve worked so hard and I’ve dreamed about this moment for so long. There’s been so many times I’ve visualized being here in front of you guys and winning this championship.

“I just feel like it was my time.”

For McIlroy, US Open champion in 2011, a nine year wait for a fifth major title continues. The 34-year-old has now finished inside the top-five at 10 major tournaments since winning The Open and PGA Championship in 2014.

“When I do finally win this next major, it’s going to be really, really sweet,” McIlroy told reporters.

“I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”

An even longer wait endures for Rickie Fowler, who – having begun the final round tied for the lead with Clark – saw his dreams of an elusive first major evaporate in a painful final day slide.

The 34-year-old had made a historic start, shooting 62 to join American compatriot Xander Schauffele in breaking the record for the lowest single round score ever shot at a US Open, but closed with a 75, the fourth highest score of the final round, to fall to tied-fifth.

Three times a runner-up, eight times in the top-10: the bittersweet tag of being one of the best golfers to never win a major remains stuck to the fan-favorite Californian.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished third, three shots behind Clark at seven-under and one ahead of Australian Cameron Smith in fourth.

Level in fifth with Fowler were Australian Min Woo Lee and England’s Tommy Fleetwood, who was mere inches away from leveling Fowler and Schauffele’s historic record following a blistering final round.

Fleetwood shot two eagles and four birdies to soar 32 places up the leaderboard, but saw his closing seven-foot birdie effort roll agonizingly wide to end on a 63.

Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick finished tied-17th at one-under overall, as did last month’s PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka.

The fourth and final men’s major of the year, The Open Championship, gets underway at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on July 20.

Early changes

After an agonizing bogey finish to his third round, any hopes Fowler had of wiping the slate clean were quickly dashed. The world No. 45 made a nightmare start as his first ever share of a 54-hole major lead evaporated, a string of errant tee shots compounding two bogeys across his first six holes.

Again, Clark capitalized, rattling three quick birdies across the same stretch. Having trailed Fowler by two strokes after 53 holes, by the end of the 60th he led his playing partner by three.

Unfortunately for Clark however, up ahead McIlroy was showing the sort of final round composure befitting of his glittering résumé. The Northern Irishman was hardly setting the North Course alight, birdieing just once by the turn and squandering an easy birdie opportunity at the eighth, but just one bogey in his previous 23 holes was keeping him within striking distance.

As Fowler continued to tumble, a two-horse race was taking shape, and there could be no doubts as to who held the pedigree. Heading into the week, McIlroy had twice as many major titles as Clark had made major cuts – yet the world No. 32 looked unflappable amid uncharted waters.

Then, disaster struck. Finding himself in a grisly-looking position among the fescue at the side of the eighth green, Clark swung and looked up to track a sailing ball that never materialized. To the American’s visible horror, his ball remained buried in the long grass.

It was the sort of nightmarish moment that has ended the major dreams of players far more decorated than Clark, reminiscent of the failed bunker escape that shot down Viktor Hovland’s dreams at the PGA Championship last month, but Clark responded admirably. A brilliantly executed effort at the next attempt left him with a simple putt for a bogey six.

As Clark made the turn, he led McIlroy by a single stroke.

One-on-one

The prospect of a one-on-one shootout was soon all but confirmed, as Fowler made back-to-back bogeys to sink two below eight-under overall, the score he had held after just 18 holes of the tournament.

Drama ensued at McIlroy’s 14th hole when his approach, caught by the wind, sunk into the face of a bunker. The Northern Irishman dropped to his knees in anguish, but received a boost when rules officials deemed his ball broke the surface, granting him a drop in the rough ahead of the bunker.

It was short-lived relief however, as his subsequent nine-foot putt for par rolled wide. At long last, McIlroy bogeyed, and Clark punished him, promptly birdieing the same hole to take a three shot cushion into his final five holes.

But the first sign of nerves quickly followed for Clark. As McIlroy, going aggressive, applied immediate pressure with a birdie at the 16th, the American made back-to-back bogeys. Suddenly, the lead was back to just one.

Clark steadied the ship with a par to take a one shot advantage with him on his walk to the par-four 18th tee. Up ahead, McIlroy’s long-range birdie effort rolled narrowly wide, putting the American a par away from the US Open title.

Onto the green in two, hundreds of fans poured onto the fairway to follow Clark on what surely felt like the longest walk of his life. Knocking his approach to within a foot, Clark allowed himself a fist pump before striding over and converting for the championship.

After a long embrace with caddie John Ellis, an overcome Clark held his cap to his face before looking skywards.

Played big indeed.

Spain celebrated its first international trophy in 11 years after beating Croatia on penalties in the UEFA Nations League final on Sunday.

Dani Carvajal’s cheeky ‘Panenka’ penalty settled the shootout after the game had finished 0-0 after extra-time inside the De Kuip stadium, Netherlands.

The Real Madrid defender showed nerves of steel to send the goalkeeper the wrong way before chipping the ball down the middle of the goal – a technique named after Czech football great Antonin Panenka.

“I saw that he [the goalkeeper] threw himself on every penalty kick and just as I was going to hit the ball, I saw that he dived,” Carvajal told reporters after the game.

“I slowed down my kick to not give him time to react. The most important thing is it went in and we’re champions.”

Aymeric Laporte missed the chance to win the title for Spain moments before after goalkeeper Unai Simon had saved from Lovro Majer.

The Manchester City defender sent his penalty smashing against the crossbar but Simon was on hand again to save from Croatia’s Bruno Petkovic, handing Carvajal the decisive kick.

Carvajal’s goal sent the Spanish fans into a frenzy, as they celebrated the team’s first international trophy since it won the European Championships in 2012.

Croatian heartbreak

The jubilant scenes followed a rather dour, goalless game with neither side playing particularly well.

Croatia certainly had the most backing inside the stadium but its fans looked heartbroken at the final whistle.

It was also arguably the last chance for Croatia captain Luka Modric to cap off his brilliant international career with a trophy.

Modric inspired his country to the World Cup final in 2018 and to third place at Qatar 2022, but has fallen short of lifting silverware.

It remains to be seen whether the 37-year-old will retire from international duty before having another chance in an international final.

About 43 million people across the southern United States are at risk for severe weather Sunday night as storms batter the Lower Mississippi Valley and central Gulf Coast states, bringing the threat of heavy rain, hail and damaging winds.

There is an enhanced risk of severe weather, considered Level 3 of 5, for an area across the lower Mississippi River Valley, including Arkansas, northern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

A tornado watch was issued Sunday for 4 million people across much of Mississippi, eastern Arkansas, northeastern Louisiana and western Tennessee, including Memphis, until 2 a.m. ET.

Storms over Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the far western Florida Panhandle were also expected to bring showers and severe thunderstorms, as well as an increased threat of severe wind gusts of 75 mph or greater, according to the National Weather Service.

Overnight, there were 220 reports of severe weather, including eight tornadoes, across parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and along the Gulf Coast.

As of Sunday evening, more than 470,000 customers were without power in the South, including more than 220,000 in Oklahoma and more than 70,000 in Texas and another 98,000 in Louisiana, according to PowerOutage.us.

The Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s outage map indicated there are about 200,000 customer outages in the region, particularly in and around Tulsa.

“Due to the level of damage and hazards, this will be a multi-day recovery event,” the company said in a Facebook post. “Estimated times of restoration for customers who can accept power will be available Monday morning.”

The City of Tulsa said nearly 250 power poles/lines were down and said 911 received more than 4,500 calls about those lines between midnight and 5 a.m. City officials urged residents to stay off the roads and stay home on Sunday if possible.

The Tulsa Police Department has activated the Incident Management Team and officers were prioritizing storm-related injury and emergency calls, the department posted on Facebook.

“More than 35 City of Tulsa crews are clearing Tulsa’s main streets, with others working to assess storm conditions neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Work will occur during daylight hours throughout the next few days,” the post said.

Near-record heat hits south

The risk of severe weather is just one of a number of weather issues facing the Southeast.

Showers and thunderstorms may also produce flooding from the mid-South to the Gulf Coast, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rainfall could lead to isolated flash flooding, especially across portions of the Florida Panhandle and northern and central Florida.

Meanwhile, as the South sees hail and heavy rainfall, parts of the Gulf Coast are under excessive heat warnings. A total of 32 million people across central and southern Texas, Louisiana and southern Mississippi are under heat alerts today, which will likely continue for several days.

Temperatures will soar into the triple digits with heat index values in some areas close to 120 degrees. The heat is 10-15 degrees above normal for this time of year, and a handful of records could be either set or tied.

Cities across the south are preparing for hot weather by opening cooling centers, as some are still cleaning up from storms that have left thousands without power.

The City of Houston is opening cooling centers from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. CT on Sunday and Monday as the city braces for high temperatures. Caddo Parish in Louisiana has also opened additional cooling centers as the parish still grapples with power outages and storm cleanup.

“Parish officials will continue to monitor the power restoration with SWEPCO and Homeland Security to determine how long centers will be open,” the parish said in a release.

Storms left several dead in south

The severe weather comes days after storms tore a deadly path across Texas, Florida and Mississippi.

The tornado, packing estimated peak winds of 140 mph, damaged homes and businesses in the town of some 8,000 residents, including the local fire department and EMS, as well as multiple mobile homes, Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher said, noting many of the department’s trucks were damaged.

In Mississippi, one person died after severe weather swept through the state overnight, the Mississippi Department of Emergency Management said in a release. Preliminary reports showed more than 70 homes have been damaged.

A person in Florida died after being trapped when a tree fell on their home, Escambia County officials said. The county, which includes Pensacola, was hit with flash flooding emergencies overnight as water inundated roadways entered several structures.

Many of the areas hit with severe conditions Thursday could see storms return.

Large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes are possible in Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Tallahassee, Florida.

A marginal, Level 1 of 5 risk is in place from South Dakota to Florida and for parts of the mid-Atlantic. Cities in the marginal risk area, which could see large hail and damaging winds, include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Denver and Jacksonville, Florida.

More than 50 million people across the Southeast face the threat of severe storms on Monday as widespread power outages have left nearly half a million across the South in the dark, including some sweltering under record-breaking temperatures.

A level 2 of 5 slight risk of severe weather is in place across parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast, including the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge in Louisiana, Jacksonville, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Savannah, Georgia. The main threats are damaging wind gusts, large hail and isolated tornadoes.

A level 1 of 5 marginal risk stretches from central Texas to southern Florida and north to western North Carolina, leaving cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; and Tampa, Orlando and Miami in Florida under the threat of large hail and damaging wind gusts.

The same system spawned a reported tornado in Mississippi late Sunday, leaving multiple injuries and structural damage around Bay Springs and Louin, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service.

A shelter “for all those displaced from the recent destruction of tornado activity,” was set to open Monday morning, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said in a Facebook post.

Meanwhile, around 35 million people are under heat alerts from a blistering heat wave that has settled across much of Texas, Louisiana and southern New Mexico and Mississippi, according to the National Weather Service.

Many are facing the heat without air conditioning as nearly 500,000 customers were without power in the South as of Monday morning – including more than 200,000 in Oklahoma and more than 90,000 in Texas and another 85,000 in Louisiana, according to PowerOutage.us.

The National Weather Service is advising residents to stay inside during the hottest part of the day, drink plenty of water and not leave children or pets in vehicles.

“In case we haven’t said it enough,” the National Weather Service Midland, Texas, tweeted, it’s going to be “HOT. Try to spend as little time as possible outdoors, but if you must be outside, take frequent breaks in the AC, drink plenty of water & spend as much time as possible in the shade.”

As the heat wave continues, over 40 daily records could be tied or broken across Texas this week. The worst of the heat is expected from Monday through Wednesday.

The combination of temperature and humidity – or the heat index – could climb to 113 to 122 degrees in cities like Houston, San Antonio, Brownsville and Dallas.

Several daily heat records were already broken on Sunday. Del Rio, Texas, recorded a temperature of 111 degrees Sunday, breaking a previous daily record of 106 degrees set in 2011. Austin Camp Mabry, Texas, tied its record of 106 degrees set a dozen years ago and McAllen, Texas, reported a record-breaking 105 degrees.

“Temperatures in the 100s will not only rival daily high temperature marks for the nation but may tie or break existing records,” the National Weather Service said. “There will be little relief overnight with lows in the upper 70s and 80s.”

Cities across the south – some still cleaning up from last week’s storms – are preparing for hot weather by opening cooling centers.

The City of Houston will have cooling centers open again from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday as the city braces for high temperatures. Caddo Parish in Louisiana has opened additional cooling centers as the parish still grapples with power outages and storm cleanup.

New Orleans’ emergency preparedness campaign is working with the New Orleans Fire Department to set up hydration stations to provide water and sunscreen Sunday and Monday.

Meanwhile, there were more than 70 storm reports across the Southeast on Sunday, including six tornado reports, mostly in central Mississippi, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

Hail 2 inches wide or larger was also reported Sunday in Hunt, Texas, and Kerrville, Texas.

On Monday, the threat of excessive rainfall moves eastward to the southeastern parts of the country, bringing the threat of thunderstorms and flooding over parts of the Southeast, southern Mid-Atlantic, and Southern Appalachians.

When this year’s all-woman team arrived on Antarctica’s Goudier Island to run the world’s most remote post office, it was shovels they needed rather than stamps.

They’d traveled some 8,000 miles from the UK, by plane and boat, and Britain’s Royal Navy were already on hand to help them dig out their new home at the Port Lockroy scientific base, which was buried up to four meters deep under several tonnes of December snow.

It wasn’t just the frozen wastes that first struck postmaster Clare Ballantyne, who at 23 years old was the baby of the four-woman group. It was that “there’s penguins everywhere.”

More than a thousand Gentoo penguins live on this tiny island on the western side of the Antarctic peninsula, around the size of a soccer field. Since 1944, when the UK’s first permanent Antarctic base was established here, it’s also become a haven for explorers, scientists and – in recent years – tourists.

As well as the post office, there’s a museum and gift shop. In the 2022/23 season, nearly 16,000 visitors from more than 200 ships passed through, making this one of the busiest places in the “frozen continent.”

Each year, a team is selected to run and maintain the site from November to March, or summertime in the southern hemisphere. Around 4,000 people applied for this, the first post-Covid season, but just four made the cut: Ballantyne, base leader Lucy Bruzzone, wildlife monitor Mairi Hilton and shop manager Natalie Corbett.

The job also involves counting penguins: The scientific data they gather on the Gentoos’ breeding patterns is part of a decades-long study of the colony.

‘Living on top of each other’

The chosen candidates beat out odds of one in a thousand – but this is not a cozy posting. For five months, they share a single bedroom. There’s no running water, no internet and very little leisure time: just one day off every two weeks.

“It’s a very intense experience,” says Vicky Inglis, field operations coordinator for the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, “living on top of each other, nowhere you can escape.”

And then, of course, there’s the pungent pong of penguins. “At a certain point in the season, the snow goes and it’s not mud – it’s all guano,” says Inglis. Guano, in layman’s terms, is seabird poop – and there’s a lot of it.

Food is largely canned or dried, other than what comes off the cruise ships that visit. These expedition ships – typically small 200-passenger craft, rather than the behemoths you might see down in the Med – also offer the chance to have a luxurious hot shower.

In their snatches of leisure time, the 2023 team say on their blog, “We spend quite a bit of the day sleeping! Then we’ll go for a walk around the island, very slowly to absorb everything – the smaller things you wouldn’t usually notice in particular – limpets, moss, starfish and krill. We also take photos, read books and chat – much like the original men who lived on base.”

‘Cheeriness goes a long way’

When it comes to choosing candidates, “there is no recipe we can follow,” says Camilla Nichol,CEO of the trust. “It’s about your ability to work together as a team. Cheeriness goes a long way, being able to see the light in life and resolve problems quickly.”

What the posting lacks in creature comforts, it makes up for in sublime wonder. “Antarctica is like nowhere else on Earth,” says Nichol. “The scale of it is so vast, it’s so pristine, the air is so clear. Suddenly you feel very small as a member of the human race. There are forces, there is nature; the environment is so much more vast than we are.”

Going to a continent so little touched by humans made Nichol realize the human responsibility to look after it. “I came away very much with a sense of purpose.”

Recruitment recently closed for the 2023/24 season and the newest batch of recruits will set off at the end of this year. They’ll be continuing an important scientific legacy, says Nichol. “We’re representing and telling a story of a period of Antarctic history that is little told,” but “it speaks to everything we worry about today.

“It’s the birthplace of climate science in Antarctica. It’s the place where discoveries are made, which we can act on here.” The hole in the ozone layer was discovered in Antarctica in 1985 by a junior researcher for the British Antarctic Survey. It led to the Montreal Protocol and the banning of CFCs – proof that environmental disasters can be halted when nations work together.

The tourism boom

Nichol notes that there has been “a bit of a decline in recent years in the breeding success” of the Gentoo penguins, but says “the causal connection is the tricky bit.” While climate change is probably “the biggest driver,” they also need to carefully examine if there’s a “human element” as well.

Antarctica tourism has boomed significantly in the past couple of decades, but Nichol is quick to point out that the Antarctic plains are still a big area – larger than the UK. There aren’t legally enforced limits on tourism, she says, but it’s very strictly managed through the IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) and also by the Antarctic Treaty permitting system.

There are legal codes for everything from the polar worthiness of the ships, to waste and water management to biosecurity. Says Nichol, “It’s a regulated industry, it is growing and we’re expecting a bumper year this year.”

Drone footage from a unit of Ukraine’s 92nd mechanized brigade, published by the Wall Street Journal, shows the surrender taking place in a trench in the eastern city of Bakhmut in May.

“When he realized that he was going to die, he threw his machine gun aside, raised his hands and said that he would not continue to fight,” Fedorenko said.

“At that time, we had a ‘copter with explosives ready to eliminate him. But since the enemy threw away his weapon and gestured that he was going to surrender, it was decided to give him an order to surrender.”

The video appears to show a Russian soldier running from Ukrainian assault drones in the trenches of the Bakhmut battlefield. The soldier then stops and attempts to communicate with the drone through hand gestures.

Following the surrender, reporters at the Wall Street Journal interviewed the Russian soldier at a detention facility in the Kharkiv region on May 19, under the supervision of a guard.

The reporters also spoke with the Ukrainian drone pilot, according to the paper, who said he decided to spare his life after watching his pleas.

“Despite that he is an enemy […] I still felt sorry for him,” he reportedly said.

The pilot dropped a note to the soldier telling him to follow the drone if he wanted to surrender, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Footage appears to show the soldier following the drone, dodging a mortar along the way.

Upon arriving at a Ukrainian position, the soldier reportedly dropped to his knees and removed his helmet and flak jacket.

Ukrainian forces took him into their custody, loaded him into a Humvee truck, and he was later brought to a detention facility in the Kharkiv region, the paper reported.

“This is probably an unprecedented case when, through the coordinated work of the brigade and the aerial reconnaissance component, we managed to capture the occupier,” Ukrainian commander Fedorenko said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Russian soldier and former prison marshal was working as a liquor-store manager before he was drafted in September last year.

Before being sent to Bakhmut, he said he had performed guard duties and built fortified positions in Luhansk.

The eastern city of Bakhmut, toward the northeast of the Donetsk region, has seen some of the fiercest fighting of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and is a key part of Kyiv’s counteroffensive.

The months-long battle has been compared to the kind of fighting seen in World War I, with soldiers fighting in muddy trenches dodging artillery fire, and has been described by the head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group as a “meat grinder.”

Cheap commercial drones have become a crucial tool in the Ukraine war, both as surveillance platforms and offensive weapons.

Ukrainian soldiers have become deft at jerry-rigging off the shelf drones to drop explosives on enemy troops and vehicles.

Drones have also saved lives.

Footage of that attack, which critically wounded the woman’s husband, was also captured on the same drone’s camera and, along with intercepted phone calls, has been used by Ukrainian prosecutors to build an in absentia war crimes probe against a Russian commander.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled lawmakers over breaches of his own Covid-19 lockdown rules, a parliamentary committee has found, in a devastating and unprecedented report that lambasts Johnson’s conduct and recommends he is refused a pass to enter the parliamentary estate.

The committee’s report found that Johnson “committed a serious contempt” of parliament when, after the so-called “Partygate” scandal which revealed that illegal gatherings took place at Downing Street, Johnson told parliament that rules were followed at all times.

The findings amount to a historic admonishment of a former prime minister, who won a landslide electoral victory less than four years ago but saw his political career collapse amid a series of scandals.

“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the Prime Minister, the most senior member of the government,” the Privileges Committee wrote in its report, published Thursday. “There is no precedent for a Prime Minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House.”

“He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public, and did so repeatedly,” the members wrote, adding that Johnson also misled the committee when he presented evidence in his defense.

Johnson resigned as an MP in fury on Friday, days before the report’s publication, nullifying the committee’s recommendation that he be suspended for long enough to force a by-election in his constituency.

But the report added a further, damning recommendation in light of his resignation: that Johnson is denied a former member’s pass to enter parliament, a longstanding convention for ex-MPs.

“We came to the view that some of Mr Johnson’s denials and explanations were so disingenuous that they were by their very nature deliberate attempts to mislead the Committee and the House, while others demonstrated deliberation because of the frequency with which he closed his mind to the truth,” the report found.

It marks the end of a lengthy investigation by the committee – the majority of whom represent Johnson’s Conservative Party – that Johnson and some of his allies attacked as a “kangaroo court.”

But it may not end the Partygate saga. MPs must now vote to accept the report’s findings, a potentially embarrassing exercise certain to expose divisions between Johnson’s supporters in parliament and the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Committee lambasts Johnson’s ‘vitriol’

The investigation’s focus was on Johnson’s conduct during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was prime minister and found by police to have breached his own rules limiting gatherings.

One contemporary Downing Street staffer, in a piece of written evidence submitted to the committee, described the prime minister’s residence as “an island oasis of normality” during lockdown.

“This was all part of a wider culture of not adhering to any rules,” the staffer wrote. “Birthday parties, leaving parties and end of week gatherings all continued as normal. Those responsible for the leadership of No. 10 failed to keep it a safe space.”

Unlike a police investigation and a separate parliamentary probe into the parties themselves, this inquest looked at whether Johnson knowingly misled lawmakers in the House of Commons when he reassured them that he was unaware of the parties.

Its findings were unanimous and unambiguous. “We think it highly unlikely on the balance of probabilities that Mr Johnson … could have genuinely believed at the time of his statements to the House that the Rules or Guidance were being complied with,” the report said.

The report also rebukes Johnson for his attacks on the committee’s impartiality, finding that he committed contempt of parliament on several more occasions when giving evidence and when he resigned as MP.

“This attack on a committee carrying out its remit from the democratically elected House itself amounts to an attack on our democratic institutions,” the committee wrote in its report, calling Johnson’s language “vitriolic” and “completely unacceptable.”

Had Johnson stayed on as a parliamentarian, the committee would have recommended a 90-day suspension from the Commons – a ban nine times the threshold that would force a sitting member of parliament to hold a by-election to reclaim their seat.

Johnson, in his own response to the report, called its publication a “dreadful day for democracy.”

“This report is a charade. I was wrong to believe in the committee or its good. faith. The terrible truth is that it is not I who has twisted the truth to suit my purposes,” he said.

‘A pound shop Trump’

Johnson’s reputation is steeped even deeper in disgrace following the publication, despite his furious attempts to discredit the committee in recent days.

He was condemned by Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, as “not only a law-breaker but a liar.”

“He’s not fit for public office and he’s disgraced himself and continues to act like a pound-shop Trump in the way in which he tries to discredit anybody who criticizes his actions,” Rayner told broadcasters on Thursday.

“A decent public servant would have done the honorable thing, would have had a little bit of humility and would have apologized to the British public for what they put them through.”

As well as being the first PM ever to be fined by police while in office, Johnson’s entire premiership was dogged by scandal, ranging from financial irregularities to members of his team being accused of sexual misconduct.

His popularity plummeted toward the end of his time in office – both among the British public and his own MPs. His attempt to come back after his successor Liz Truss was forced to resign fell short after it became apparent that a majority of Conservative MPs would block it.

Johnson has been in a war of words with Sunak, his former finance minister and eventual successor, in recent days – and Sunak has now sought to put distance between Johnson and himself.

Sunak’s spokesperson told reporters Thursday that the committee Johnson has repeatedly attacked is “a properly constituted committee carrying out work at the behest of Parliament.”

Over the weekend, Johnson and two of his allies said they would quit as MPs immediately, forcing three difficult by-elections for a government that is languishing in opinion polls.

The former PM’s departure from the House of Commons is not necessarily good news for Sunak, whom Johnson criticized in his resignation statement.

Johnson and his allies still largely hold Sunak responsible for his predecessor’s political downfall. Johnson has always been an influential figure among Conservative voters, whether inside or outside of parliament.

The prospect of Johnson outside of parliament, writing columns and giving speeches aimed at the voters Sunak needs to win the next election will no doubt cause yet more anxiety in Downing Street.