Month: August 2022

TOKYO -- Hiroshima on Saturday remembered the atomic bombing 77 years ago as officials, including the head of the United Nations, warned against nuclear weapons buildup and as fears grow of another such attack amid Russia's war on Ukraine. “Nuclear weapons are nonsense. They guarantee no safety — only death and destruction," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who joined the prayer at the Hiroshima Peace Park. “Three quarters of a century later, we must ask what we’ve learned from the mushroom cloud that swelled above this city in 1945," he said. The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on ...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli jets pounded militant targets in Gaza early Saturday as rockets rained on southern Israel, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave killed at least 11 people, including a senior militant and a 5-year-old girl. The fighting that began Friday with Israel's dramatic targeted killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued throughout the night, drawing the sides closer to an all-out war. But the territory's Hamas rulers appeared to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat contained, for now. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years at a staggering cost to the territory’s 2 million Palestinian residents. The latest round of Israel-Gaza...

BEIRUT -- A ship bringing corn to Lebanon’s northern port of Tripoli normally would not cause a stir. But it's getting attention because of where it came from: Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa. The Razoni, loaded with more than 26,000 tons of corn for chicken feed, is emerging from the edges of a Russian war that has threatened food supplies in countries like Lebanon, which has the world's highest rate of food inflation — a staggering 122% — and depends on the Black Sea region for nearly all of its wheat. The fighting has trapped 20 million tons of grains inside Ukraine, and the Razoni's departure Monday marked a first major step toward extracting those food supplies and getting them to farms and bakeries to feed millions of impoverished people who are going hungry in Africa, the Middle...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenyans vote Tuesday to choose a successor to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The race is close and could go to a runoff for the first time. One top candidate is Raila Odinga, an opposition leader in his fifth run for the presidency who is being supported by former rival Kenyatta. The other is William Ruto, Kenyatta’s deputy who fell out with the president earlier in their decade in power. Both tend to focus far more on domestic issues, raising the question of how either will follow up on Kenyatta's diplomatic efforts for calm in neighboring Ethiopia or in the tensions between Rwanda and Congo. WHAT’S AT STAKE? Kenya is East Africa’s economic hub and home to about 56 million people. The country has a recent history of turbulent elections. Even then, it stands out for its re...

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine -- Ukrainian military personnel are fortifying their positions around the eastern city of Sloviansk in expectation of a fresh Russian attempt to seize the strategic point in the fiercely fought-over Donetsk region. As heavy ground fighting continues on the front line only miles to the east, southeast and north of Sloviansk, members of the Dnipro-1 Regiment are digging in after a week of relative calm. The last Russian strike on the city occurred on July 30. While the lull provided Sloviansk's remaining residents a reprieve after regular shellings between April and July, some unit members say it could be a prelude to renewed attacks. “I think it won’t be calm for long. Eventually, there will be an assault,” Col. Yurii Bereza, the head of the volunteer national guard re...

Beyoncé has updated her latest album, Renaissance, in response to criticism from fans and the pop star Kelis. The song Heated has received a lyrical update, removing a slur that is often used to demean people with spastic cerebral palsy. In place of the so-called "s-word", Beyoncé now sings "blast". Meanwhile, a reference to Kelis's hit Milkshake has also disappeared from the album, after the singer complained she had not given permission for its use. The "la la la" hook from Milkshake was originally used in the background of Beyoncé's song Energy. Those vocals have now been erased from the mix. A drum sample - based either on Milkshake or an earlier Kelis track called Get Along With You - remains integral to the song. ...