World
Iceland's PM dissolves ruling coalition, citing infighting
Benediktsson said fresh parliamentary elections are expected to take place on 30 November, if President Halla Tómasdóttir accepts his motion to dissolve parliament.
The Prime Minister of Iceland, Bjarni Benediktsson, has announced the dissolution of the country’s governing coalition at a surprise press conference in the capital Reykjavik.
Benediktsson cited growing disagreements between the three political parties that make up the ruling coalition as his reason for ending it.
“There are disagreements about policy regarding asylum seekers that have been public. The government has disagreed for quite a while on a vision for the future of energy efficiency. Motions from the Minister of Environment and Energy have been stuck within the government for a while,” he told reporters.
He said fresh parliamentary elections are slated to take place on 30 November, if President Halla Tómasdóttir accepts the motion to dissolve parliament.
National broadcaster RUV said elections must take place no later than 45 days after the dissolution of parliament.
Benediktsson is scheduled to meet Tómasdóttir on Monday.
Iceland’s coalition government is made up of Benediktsson’s conservative Independence Party, the centre-right Progressive Party and the leftist Greens.
Surprise announcement
Svandis Svavarsdottir, the infrastructure minister and chairman of the Greens, said the decision to dissolve parliament came as a surprise and had not been mooted in talks she had had with Benediktsson on Saturday.
“I assumed that the meeting was convened with integrity and we were discussing the situation and perhaps we could come back and see if there is a chance in specific issues,” she said.
“I thought that was our mutual understanding that the most important issue was the economy. Housing and issues regular people are facing like making ends meet. I thought that was our most pressing issue but now we can see that other issues are more important for the prime minister.”
The ruling coalition, in power since November 2021, has faltered under a raft of problems, particularly after a series of volcanic eruptions in the country forced thousands to evacuate their homes, putting more pressure on an economy already dealing with high inflation and rising interest rates.
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World
Russia unleashes major drone, missile attack on Ukraine as US diplomatic talks continue
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Russia launched a major attack against Ukraine overnight as talks between Ukraine and the U.S. continued in Florida this week.
Moscow sent 653 drones and 51 missiles across Ukraine, leaving eight people injured, Ukrainian officials said.
French president Emmanuel Macron condemned the attacks, writing on X “We must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it towards peace.”
Macron said he plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and their British and German counterparts in London on Monday.
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Ukrainian Fire Point’s Flamingo missiles are inspected in the Ukraine on Thursday. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Zelenskyy said on Saturday that he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials involved in the talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Miami.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday shared a readout of the talks, which also included President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The readout called the talks “constructive discussions on advancing a credible pathway toward a durable and just peace in Ukraine.”
“American and Ukrainian parties underscored that an end to the war and credible steps toward ceasefire and de-escalation are necessary to prevent renewed aggression and to enable Ukraine’s comprehensive redevelopment plan, designed to make the nation stronger and more prosperous than before the war.”
People gather in Kyiv on Saturday during a blackout caused by Russia’s ongoing strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Following Russia’s Friday night barrage, Ukraine’s air force said 29 locations were hit, and the military was able to shoot down 585 drones and 30 missiles.
Three of the eight wounded were hurt in the Kyiv region, local officials reported.
The “massive’ attack also targeted power stations in the country and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost power overnight, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant seen in 2022. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
Zaporizhzhia is under Russian control and not in use, but it needs power to cool its shutdown reactors to prevent a catastrophic incident.
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Zelenskyy said that a drone strike had also “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, near Kyiv.
In retaliatory strikes, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces said its military hit Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery.
World
Ukraine peace talks stall as Russia unleashes huge waves of attacks
Negotiations fail to yield progress, while Moscow launches over 700 drones and missiles across Ukrainian territory
Three days of negotiations between Ukrainian and United States officials have ended without a breakthrough, as Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
The talks in Florida concluded on Saturday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describing a phone call with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as “substantive”, though both sides acknowledged that meaningful progress hinged entirely on Moscow’s willingness to pursue genuine peace.
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The impasse underscores the gulf between diplomatic efforts and the grinding reality on the ground, where Russian forces continue advancing in eastern Ukraine.
Russia deployed 653 drones and 51 missiles in the overnight barrage that began on Friday, striking energy facilities and critical infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, which Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko confirmed hit 29 separate locations.
The assault temporarily severed power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, raising new concerns about reactor safety.
The facility, which has been under Russian occupation since early in Moscow’s invasion, requires continuous electricity to cool its six shutdown reactors and prevent catastrophic failure, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Energy facilities were the main targets,” Zelenskyy said of the latest assault, noting that one drone strike destroyed a railway station in Fastiv, near Kyiv. Ukrainian air defences intercepted 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force reported.
Moscow claimed its strikes targeted “military-industrial complex enterprises and the energy facilities that support them”, asserting that all designated targets were hit.
The diplomatic push comes as battlefield dynamics increasingly favour Russia.
Moscow’s forces are closing in on Pokrovsk, a former logistics hub in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and have nearly surrounded the neighbouring city of Myrnohrad.
Russian troops captured roughly 505 sq km (195 sq miles) in November alone, nearly double October’s territorial gains.
Russia now controls almost the entirety of the neighbouring Luhansk region and holds the majority of coastal territories stretching to Kherson. The front lines have largely stabilised along these positions, though Moscow continues to make incremental advances.
French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Zelenskyy alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday to assess the US-mediated negotiations.
Macron condemned Russia’s “escalatory path” and insisted that “we must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it to make peace”.
The talks in Miami followed a Tuesday meeting between Witkoff, Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, which failed to produce an agreement.
A joint statement released on Friday acknowledged that “real progress towards any agreement” depends on Russia demonstrating “serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps towards de-escalation”.
Adding another layer of complexity, the International Criminal Court’s deputy prosecutor said on Friday that the arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine cannot be halted by peace negotiations.
The warrant could only be temporarily deferred by United Nations Security Council action, prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told reporters, emphasising that “there must be the possibility of accountability in order for peace to be enduring”.
Putin has signalled he will not soften his territorial demands, ordering Russian forces to prepare for continued winter combat operations.
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