World
Russia hits Ukraine for 2nd day with 'outrageous,' 'cowardly' missile attacks on civilian areas
![Russia hits Ukraine for 2nd day with 'outrageous,' 'cowardly' missile attacks on civilian areas Russia hits Ukraine for 2nd day with 'outrageous,' 'cowardly' missile attacks on civilian areas](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/Zelenskyy-Putin-Modi.jpg)
Ukraine continues to reel from Russia’s missile strike on Monday, which ranks as the largest attack since the start of the war, as Moscow is beginning to suggest that Ukraine could make desperate moves.
“Russia’s large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure on Monday are almost certainly in response to Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Oblast, breaching Russia’s border,” Rebekah Koffler, told Fox News Digital.
“Zelenskyy likely anticipated Russia’s retaliation and accepted the risk anyway,” Koffler explained. “Zelenskyy wants to stay in the fight – there’s no other path for him personally or professionally.”
“To stay in the fight, he needs more weapons and financing from the West,” she added. “Zelenskyy likely seeks from the Biden Administration the removal of restrictions for the employment of U.S.-provided weapons, so Ukrainian forces can strike targets deeper inside Russia that are currently within range.”
ON UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY, OVER 100 POWS SWAPPED WITH RUSSIA
On Monday, Russia launched 100 missiles and 100 drones as Ukraine continued its incursion into the Kursk region, which marked the first land invasion of Russia since World War II and the most significant setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin since his troops invaded Ukraine. The strikes knocked out key energy infrastructure in 15 regions across the country, killed five people and injured many others, French outlet Le Monde reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on his Telegram channel that Western allies had effectively hamstrung Ukraine with restrictions on weapon use, arguing that “We could do much more to protect lives if the air forces of our European neighbors worked together with our F-16 [fighters] and anti-aircraft defenses.”
A woman looks at a crater on a site following an air attack in the Odesa region of Ukraine on Aug. 26, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian drones and missiles targeted 15 regions across Ukraine in an overnight barrage aimed mainly at energy infrastructure, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said. (Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia followed up that massive strike with a second volley overnight Monday, which killed at least two people as missiles and drones rained down across the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, the BBC reported. Ukraine used newly-deployed F16s to help shoot down five missiles and 60 drones, limiting the second strike’s impact to a couple dozen projectiles overall.
President Biden blasted Russia for the “outrageous” attacks and promised to support Ukraine’s energy grid. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy ridiculed Russia for “cowardly missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure.”
DOGS OF WAR: BRITAIN’S NEW ROBOTS AIDING UKRAINE, TERRORIZING RUSSIA AS DRONES CONTINUE DOMINATING BATTLEFIELD
Ukraine has started compiling a list of long-range targets to hit should Western allies agree to Zelenskyy’s request and lift restrictions on defensive strike capabilities.
![Kursk Odesa strikes](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/GettyImages-2167828930-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
This photograph shows damaged houses on a site following an air attack in the Odesa region of Ukraine on Aug. 26, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP via Getty Images)
The Kursk invasion, which continues to take Moscow by surprise, aimed to divert attention away from other areas – specifically the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove sectors, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi in remarks broadcast on television argued that Russia had tried to disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines going into those two areas, but that following the Kursk invasion, Moscow had to redeploy around 30,000 servicemen to the Kursk front “and this figure is growing.”
![Ukrainian forces fight during military operations in Kursk region in Malaya Loknya, Kursk Region, Russia in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released on Aug. 20, 2024.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/kursk15.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Ukrainian forces fight during military operations in Kursk region in Malaya Loknya, Kursk Region, Russia in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released on Aug. 20, 2024. (95th Air Assault Brigade/Handout via REUTERS)
Syrskyi also reported that Ukraine had captured 594 Russian servicemen during the Kursk operation along with 100 settlements, and he claimed that Ukraine had rebuffed Russia’s efforts to counterattack their push.
RUSSIA LOOKS TO DOWNPLAY UKRAINE INVASION AS ‘NEW NORMAL’ WHILE PUTIN FAILS TO STOP WAR ON HOME TURF: REPORT
Koffler advised, however, that as significant as Ukraine’s effort has proven, it remains a double-edged sword that could end up hurting Kyiv in the long-run, with Russia looking to calibrate attacks to keep them “below the threshold of U.S./NATO deploying forces into the theater.”
“While Kyiv was trying to stretch the Russian forces, it stretched its own also,” Koffler explained. “And the manpower ratio overwhelmingly favors Russia and in the war of attrition.”
![India Kyiv diplomacy](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/GettyImages-2168053222-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, greets Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi during an official meeting on Aug. 23, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
“Putin, on the other hand, seeks to deter Ukraine from future strikes on Russia and to compel the West to stop assisting Kyiv,” she suggested. “His objective is not a decisive military victory but the degradation of Ukraine’s defensive and industrial capacity, to make it useless for NATO and the West.”
“Putin would rather end this war sooner rather than later, but only on his terms,” she said. “The key question now is whether the Biden-Harris Administration will change policy, allowing Ukraine to be more aggressive in eroding Russia’s red lines.”
Peace efforts continue to prove distant, but various world leaders have tried their hand at seeking a deal between Russia and Ukraine to bring the conflict to a close: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in his first week as the rotating chair of the European Union, immediately visited both Zelenskyy and Putin to seek a path forward for peace.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past week took a run at finding a peace deal, visiting Zelenskyy over the weekend before speaking with President Biden on Monday and with Putin on Tuesday.
Modi, who reached Kyiv via train from Poland, stressed to Zelenskyy that “both sides will have to sit together and to look for ways to come out of this crisis,” the BBC reported. Zelenskyy had expressed displeasure two months ago when Modi was photographed embracing Putin during a face-to-face meeting.
Modi circled back to Putin after both Ukraine and U.S. talks, speaking with his Russian counterpart over the phone on Tuesday. A readout of the call did not mention what the two leaders discussed.
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and Reuters contributed to this report.
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World
Gambit Lives! ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Deleted Scene Gives Channing Tatum a Way Out of the Void; Actor Says ‘I Pray to God’ About Making a Gambit Movie
![Gambit Lives! ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Deleted Scene Gives Channing Tatum a Way Out of the Void; Actor Says ‘I Pray to God’ About Making a Gambit Movie Gambit Lives! ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Deleted Scene Gives Channing Tatum a Way Out of the Void; Actor Says ‘I Pray to God’ About Making a Gambit Movie](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/gambit-2.png?w=1000&h=563&crop=1)
Ryan Reynolds is getting Marvel fans all worked up thanks to a deleted scene from “Deadpool & Wolverine” that he debuted on social media. The scene confirms that Channing Tatum‘s Gambit not only survived the battle in the Void but also has a way out of the wasteland as an inter-dimensional portal can be seen opening up in the reflection of Gambit’s eyes.
These portals are what Deadpool calls “Marvel spark circles” in the movie (which is what Reynolds wrote as the caption to the clip) and they allow characters to hop through the multiverse. Clearly the door is open for Tatum’s Gambit to return back to his home universe or to anywhere in the multiverse. While it’s not confirmed that Tatum’s Gambit will continue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is the biggest confirmation yet that at least it’s a possibility.
Tatum’s Gambit was one of the big surprise cameos in “Deadpool & Wolverine” along with Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Wesley Snipes’ Blade and Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm. The actor spent years during Fox’s Marvel era trying to get a Grambit movie off the ground but it never happened by the time Disney bought the studio. “Deadpool & Wolverine” finally gave Tatum the chance to realize his Gambit dreams on the big screen, and he’s fully on board with playing the superhero again.
In an interview with Variety, Tatum admitted that he still wants to make a standalone Gambit movie, adding: “I’ve been saying I want it for the last 10 years. It’s in Bob Iger and Kevin Feige’s hands. I pray to God.”
After “Deadpool & Wolverine” broke records at the box office during its opening weekend, Tatum took to social media to share an emotional statement on finally getting the chance to play Gambit on the big screen.
“I thought I had lost Gambit forever. But [Reynolds] fought for me and Gambit,” he wrote. “I will owe him probably forever. Cause I’m not sure how I could ever do something that would be equal to what this has meant to me. I love ya buddy…I’m so grateful to be in this movie. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion. And just pure bad ass joy. I was literally screaming in the theater.”
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters nationwide. Watch the Gambit deleted scene in the video below.
World
Border controls are 'last resort,' Brussels says after Solingen attack
![Border controls are 'last resort,' Brussels says after Solingen attack Border controls are 'last resort,' Brussels says after Solingen attack](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/68/15/40/1200x675_cmsv2_e6931f28-4f1a-5a32-ac95-5c88f073ba36-8681540.jpg)
The spectre of additional border controls looms over the Schengen Area after a deadly attack in Solingen, Germany.
The European Commission is treading a fine line following the mass stabbing that left three people dead in Solingen, Germany, balancing, on the one hand, the prerogative of national security, which member states zealously guard, and, on the other, the integrity of the Schengen Area, which the executive is compelled to preserve.
The passport-free zone of 450 million citizens, widely considered one of the most tangible achievements of European integration, has been under constant pressure since the 2015 migration crisis, when countries introduced temporary border checks that were, in certain cases, illegally prolonged.
Eight Schengen countries, including Germany, currently conduct checks.
Any border control should be “proportionate” and remain “exceptional, strictly limited in time and last resort,” a Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday, noting the measure should always be justified by a “serious threat to public policy or internal security.”
The knife attack in Solingen, claimed by the so-called Islamic State, was carried out by a Syrian national whose asylum application had been previously rejected and had been ordered to return to Bulgaria, the first EU country of entry.
The failure to carry out the deportation has triggered a blame game between German authorities and reignited the politically explosive debate on migration, which Brussels had hoped to have contained after completing an all-encompassing reform in May.
“We must do everything we can to ensure that such things will never happen again in our country,” Chancellor German Scholz said, promising to speed up the number of deportations. The EU has long struggled to address this thorny issue due to, among other factors, a lack of cooperation from countries of origin.
“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay here in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Scholz added.
Politicians on the right quickly seized the moment to excoriate Scholz and his deeply unpopular three-party coalition, demanding forceful action to curb irregular migration.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the centre-right Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), proposed a moratorium on the admission of Syrian and Afghan refugees, the two largest groups of nationalities who seek shelter in Germany, and the establishment of permanent checks on German borders. “Enough is enough!” Merz wrote.
Alice Weidel, co-chair of the far-right AfD party, has voiced similar ideas, saying the moratorium should last “at least” five years. “In addition, the borders must be closed and the groups of people with the highest crime rate – especially Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis who are staying in Germany illegally – must be deported,” Weidel told the ZDF channel.
Focus on the Pact
Asked about these ideas, which, if implemented, would collide with EU norms, the European Commission refused to comment and insisted its main focus was to implement the reform of migration and asylum policy, otherwise known as the New Pact.
The five laws under the Pact will take two years to enter into force.
The overhaul foresees that, when an asylum claim is rejected, the applicant will receive at the same time a return decision, closing the gap between the two procedures. Frontex, the bloc’s border guard agency, will support member states to carry out deportations successfully. The last word, however, will still lie with the country of origin or transit that is asked to take back the migrant – and can refuse to do so.
The EU’s return rate hovers around 30%.
Crucially, governments are, under international law, forbidden from sending back asylum seekers to countries where their lives and human rights would be at risk. A debate among member states on whether it would be appropriate to repatriate migrants to some parts of Syria has gained traction in recent months but without any resolution.
“This is an ongoing work. So far, the conditions (in Syria) have not been met yet,” a Commission spokesperson said.
The New Pact envisions the possibility of drafting an EU-wide list of “safe countries of origin” to ensure deportation orders are recognised uniformly across the bloc. As of today, each member state has its own list of “safe countries,” a fragmented landscape that has caused occasional disagreements between governments.
“Having such a list could possibly facilitate returning persons to countries of origin that are then defined as safe,” Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre (EPC), told Euronews.
But the fact that the catalogue was not put forward at the same time as the legislation, and therefore not included in the negotiations, hints at an uphill battle to get all 27 member states on the same page.
“It’s very unlikely that there will be a very strong consensus any time soon on what countries could be on that list,” Neidhardt said. “Particularly, if you look at countries that are at the center of the media attention at the moment, such as Syria or Afghanistan. There are very, very different positions among member states on this issue.”
The concept of “safe countries” has been challenged by NGOs who argue minority groups can still face persecution in war-free nations.
Still, the matter is expected to remain high on the agenda. In her guidelines for a second mandate, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised to table a “new common approach” on returns to ensure decisions “are mutually recognised across Europe.”
World
Oasis reunites for tour and ends a 15-year hiatus during Gallagher brothers' feud
LONDON (AP) — Oasis, the Britpop band known for timeless hits like “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” is reuniting for a tour of the British Isles next summer, ending a 15-year hiatus and, presumably, the long-held feud between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.
The guitar band will play 14 dates in Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland next July and August, Oasis said on Tuesday. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Saturday.
“This is it. This is happening,″ the band said.
Oasis split in 2009 after many years of infighting, with Noel Gallagher officially leaving the band just before a performance at a festival near Paris. Even before the dissolution, the brothers had long had an antagonistic relationship and reportedly did not speak to each other for years after the breakup.
“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” Noel Gallagher, the band’s guitarist and songwriter, wrote in a statement at the time.
While the Gallagher brothers haven’t performed together since, both regularly perform Oasis songs at their solo gigs. They’ve also each fired off criticisms of the other in the press.
Noel Gallagher accused his younger brother of having a hangover that forced them to cancel a 2009 concert. The frontman disputed the accusation and sued, later dropping the lawsuit.
But now the brothers are preparing to reunite, with the band saying fans would experience “the spark and intensity” that occurs only when they appear on stage together.
The tour will begin July 4 and 5 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Oasis will also perform at Heaton Park in Manchester, England, on July 11, 12, 19 and 20; Wembley Stadium in London on July 25 and 26 and Aug. 2 and 3; Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on Aug. 8 and 9; and Croke Park in Dublin on Aug. 16 and 17.
The band alluded to past tensions in the tour announcement.
“The guns have fallen silent,” Oasis said. “The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.”
In 2011, Noel Gallagher told The Associated Press in an interview that he left the band after an incident where Liam Gallagher started wielding a guitar “like an axe … and he’s swinging this guitar around and he kind of you know, he took my face off with it, you know?”
In 2019, Liam Gallagher told the AP he was ready to reconcile.
“The most important thing is about me and him being brothers,” he said. “He thinks I’m desperate to get the band back together for money. But I didn’t join the band to make money. I joined the band to have fun and to see the world.”
“I don’t know what his problem is,” he continued. “I think he just wanted to go away and do his solo career, get all the coin and be surrounded by all the yes men you can fire and hire whenever he wants. You can’t do that with me.”
With the announcement, the Britpop progenitors ended a few days of fan speculation. A short video on the band’s social media accounts Sunday night had revealed the date “27.08.24,” and time “8 a.m.,” written in the same font as the well-known Oasis logo. The brothers shared the same to their individual accounts.
Of course, fans have long theorized a reunion might be on the horizon: In the wake of the 2017 bombing that killed 22 at an Ariana Grande concert in Oasis’ hometown of Manchester, Liam Gallagher performed at a benefit concert that fueled speculation of a reunion. He criticized his brother’s absence, but a spokesperson said Noel Gallagher couldn’t attend because of a longstanding family trip. Benefit organizers said Noel Gallagher approved the use of Oasis’ music and donated royalties from “Don’t Look Back In Anger” to the British Red Cross’ One Love Manchester fund.
Later that year, Liam Gallagher tweeted at his brother, leading some to believe they made up: “I wanna say Happy Xmas to team NG it’s been a great year thanks for everything looking forward to seeing you tomorrow AS YOU WERE LG x”
Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, Oasis was already teed up to release a new collection, “Definitely Maybe – Deluxe 30th Anniversary Editions,” celebrating the anniversary of their debut album.
Rumors of a potential reunion were amplified this past weekend when Liam Gallagher responded on social media to unconfirmed reports of the band playing London’s Wembley Stadium and Manchester’s Heaton Park. When one social media user criticized Heaton Park, the Manchester native wrote, “See you down the front,” calling the user a vulgarity. In another stand-alone post on X, he teased, “I never did like that word FORMER.”
“You tell me man,” Liam Gallagher replied. He also responded to several negative tweets about the potential reunion with “Your attitude sucks” and “SHUTUP.” Noel Gallagher, on the other hand, remained silent other than posting the teasers.
___
AP Music Writer Maria Sherman reported from New York.
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