Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies

Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies
Women hug near a damaged residential building following a drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine. (AFP)
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Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies

Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies
  • Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties
  • The exchange of prisoners of war and killed soldiers is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022

KYIV: Russia on Thursday returned 1,000 bodies to Ukraine, which Moscow said were the remains of Kyiv’s soldiers killed in battle, a Ukrainian government agency said.
The exchange of prisoners of war and killed soldiers is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Repatriation measures took place today,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced on social media.
“One thousand bodies, which according to the Russian side belong to Ukrainian servicemen, were returned to Ukraine,” the agency added.
Ukraine has said that Moscow handed over to Kyiv the bodies of killed Russian soldiers during previous repatriations.
Kyiv also announced in September, August and July that it had received the remains of 1,000 killed soldiers from Russia, illustrating the intensity of fighting across the sprawling front line.
The Coordination Headquarters said law enforcement would soon begin the process of identifying the repatriated remains and thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its role in the repatriation.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February this year told US media that Ukraine has lost more than 46,000 soldiers and that tens of thousands are considered missing in action.
The BBC and independent outlet Mediazona say they have documented more than 135,000 Russian soldiers killed in the three-and-a-half-year campaign, using open-source data, with the actual number likely higher.


EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia

Updated 3 sec ago

EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia

EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia
BRUSSELS: European Union leaders are seeking a more active role in Gaza and the occupied West Bank after being sidelined from the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
At a summit Thursday in Brussels largely focused on Ukraine and Russia, EU heads of state are also expected to discuss the shaky ceasefire in Gaza and potential EU support for stability in the war-torn coastal enclave. The EU has been the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians and is Israel’s top trading partner.
“It is important that Europe not only watches but plays an active role,” said Luc Frieden, the prime minister of Luxembourg, as he headed in to the meeting. “Gaza is not over; peace is not yet permanent,” he said.
Outrage over the war in Gaza has riven the 27-nation bloc and pushed relations between Israel and the EU to a historic low.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in September plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel, aimed to pressure it to reach a peace deal in Gaza.
Momentum driving the measures seemed to falter with the ceasefire deal mediated by US President Donald Trump, but European supporters say they should still be on the table as violence continues to flare up in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In the run-up to the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that “Europe has essentially become irrelevant and displayed enormous weakness.”
The deal came about with no visible input from the EU, and European leaders have since scrambled to join the diplomacy effort currently reshaping Gaza.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has said the EU should play a role in Gaza and not just pay to support stability and eventually reconstruction.
The EU has provided key support for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, pledged to help flood Gaza with humanitarian aid, and said it could bring a West Bank police support program to Gaza to buttress a stabilization force called for in the current 20-point ceasefire plan.
It has also sought membership in the plan’s “Board of Peace” transitional oversight body, Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, said this week.
The European Border Assistance Mission in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, began in 2005. In January, it deployed 20 security border police experts from Italy, Spain and France.
During the February-March ceasefire, the mission helped 4,176 individuals leave the Gaza Strip, including 1,683 medical patients. Those efforts were paused when fighting resumed.

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13
Updated 23 October 2025

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13
  • Hasina, 78, has defied court orders to return from India to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising

DHAKA: The verdict in the crimes against humanity case against ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina will be delivered on November 13, the attorney general said, as the trial ended on Thursday.
Hasina, 78, has defied court orders to return from India to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising.
“If she believed in the justice system, she should have returned,” Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman said in his closing speech of the nearly five-month-long trial in Dhaka.
“She was the prime minister but fled, leaving behind the entire nation — her fleeing corroborates the allegations.”
Her trial in absentia, which opened on June 1, heard months of testimony alleging Hasina ordered mass killings.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.
Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
They have demanded the death penalty if she is found guilty.
Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam has accused Hasina of being “the nucleus around whom all the crimes were committed” during the uprising.
Her co-accused are former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also a fugitive, and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty.

- ‘We want justice’ -

Witnesses included a man whose face was ripped apart by gunfire.
The prosecution also played audio tapes — verified by police — that suggested Hasina directly ordered security forces to “use lethal weapons” against protesters.
Hasina, assigned a state-appointed lawyer, has refused to recognize the court’s authority.
Defense lawyer Md Amir Hossain said she was “forced to flee” Bangladesh, claiming that she “preferred death and a burial within her residence compound.”
Her now-banned Awami League says she “categorically denies” all charges and has denounced the proceedings as “little more than a show trial.”
Asaduzzaman, the attorney general, said it had been a fair trial that sought justice for all victims.
“We want justice for both sides of the crimes against humanity case, that claimed 1,400 lives,” he said, listing several of those killed, including children.
The verdict will come three months ahead of elections expected in early February 2026, the first since Hasina’s overthrow.


Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat

Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat
Updated 23 October 2025

Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat

Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat
  • The news of the migrant’s return came as the number of arrivals so far this year comes close to surpassing the total of 36,816 for 2024

LONDON: One of the first migrants sent back to France under the British government’s flagship “one in, one out” deal has returned to Britain on a small boat, a minister confirmed, adding that he would be deported for a second time.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed a deal in July for Britain to deport some of the undocumented people arriving across the Channel back to France in return for accepting an equal number of asylum seekers with British family connections.
Starmer said the “ground-breaking” deal would act as a deterrent and help with his pledge to “smash the gangs” and reduce small boat arrivals.
The migrant, who was not named, told the Guardian newspaper he was a victim of modern slavery at the hands of people smugglers in Northern France.
The news of the migrant’s return came as the number of arrivals so far this year comes close to surpassing the total of 36,816 for 2024, which was the second highest on record after 2022.
Some 42 have been returned so far in the pilot stages of the “one in, one out” scheme, the government said on Sunday.
The man’s return 29 days after he was deported was on the front pages of British newspapers on Thursday, with the headlines of “One in, one out... and back in again” on four titles and “Le Farce” on the Daily Mail.
Junior minister Josh MacAlister said on Thursday the man would be removed again.
“This guy came across originally, shouldn’t have been coming across, was smuggled across and paid a lot of money to do so, was then returned to France,” he told Sky News.
“Has done the same again. He has paid again, and he will be returned again. We will make sure that happens.”


Indonesia, Brazil strike cooperation deals as leaders meet

Indonesia, Brazil strike cooperation deals as leaders meet
Updated 23 October 2025

Indonesia, Brazil strike cooperation deals as leaders meet

Indonesia, Brazil strike cooperation deals as leaders meet
  • Indonesia and Brazil agreed to boost ties and struck a series of agreements on Thursday as their leaders met in Jakarta

JAKARTA: Indonesia and Brazil agreed to boost ties and struck a series of agreements on Thursday as their leaders met in Jakarta, with Southeast Asia’s biggest economy looking to make further inroads into South American markets.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was greeted by a marching band and national anthems at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Jakarta before talks with Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto.
The pair witnessed the signing of agreements on oil, gas, electricity, technology, mining and agriculture, coming several months after US President Donald Trump imposed a tariff rate of 19 percent on imports from Indonesia under a new pact, and a 50-percent tariff on Brazilian products.
“How is it that two important countries in the world, such as Indonesia and Brazil, which together have a population of almost 500 million, only have a trade volume of $6 billion?” said Lula at a joint press conference after talks.
“This is not enough for Indonesia, and it is not enough for Brazil.”
The Indonesian leader said both countries were working to establish a free trade agreement between the Southeast Asian powerhouse and the South American bloc Mercosur, which consists of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.
“I believe this will strengthen our relations and will make both of our economies and the economies of Latin America grow rapidly,” Prabowo told Lula.
In the press conference Prabowo called both countries “two new economic powers that are rising” which must “increase trade.”
Brazil has deepened relations with Southeast Asia in recent years, and Lula’s participation at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia that starts on Sunday — the first by a Brazilian president — marks the country’s growing political engagement in the region.
Brazil is also one of Indonesia’s main trading partners in South America.
Total trade between the two nations between January and August was worth $4.3 billion, according to Statistics Indonesia data.
The Southeast Asian nation is looking to bolster ties in Latin America, and in August signed a trade agreement with Peru.
It also joined the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies, of which Brazil is a member, in January.


Victims of Valencia floods grapple with mental toll as rain returns

Victims of Valencia floods grapple with mental toll as rain returns
Updated 23 October 2025

Victims of Valencia floods grapple with mental toll as rain returns

Victims of Valencia floods grapple with mental toll as rain returns
  • Some parts of Europe experienced their wettest year on record in 2024, with storms and flooding affecting an estimated 413,000 people, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service
  • Governments must plan for not only the material but also the psychological damage floods inflict on victims, health experts say

ALFAFAR: The sound of rain still triggers panic in Jose Manuel Gonzalez, a year after he spent six hours clinging to a traffic light as floods in the Valencia region of Spain swept away everything in their path, killing more than 220 people including his brother.
Gonzalez, 58, said he often wakes up in a state of shock, unable to shake off memories of the night on that traffic light from where he watched his daughter hold on for her life to the awning of a nearby shop in the Valencia suburb of Alfafar, one of the worst-affected areas.
He feels responsible for his elderly mother, who is devastated after his brother was taken by a torrent of water as he tried to rescue a woman from a car that night.
Even just a drop of rain is “like an alarm, something that goes off in my head, like a flashing light, as if warning me about something,” he said.
Doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and he was prescribed tranquilizers, which he said help him collect his thoughts and remind himself he is safe when it rains.
Weather-related natural disasters, many exacerbated by climate change, are on the rise, according to the United Nations. Studies show the prolonged time it can take to clear up after floods can also place significant stress on its victims, leaving them with long-term mental health issues.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND FEAR OF THE RAIN
Governments must plan for not only the material but also the psychological damage floods inflict on victims, health experts say. Almost one in five people suffer from PTSD after flooding, according to a 2015 study in the Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal published by Cambridge University Press.
Some parts of Europe experienced their wettest year on record in 2024, with storms and flooding affecting an estimated 413,000 people, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. That resulted in the loss of at least 335 lives and caused at least 18 billion euros ($21 billion) of damage.
In the wake of the Valencia floods, the Spanish government created a special mental health emergency unit (USME), which along with other local mental health services has treated thousands of people in the worst-hit areas.
Almost 28 percent of adults affected by the floods suffered from PTSD, according to a poll of 2,275 people carried out by the regional government’s health department.
“We have people who don’t want to take a bath, or go to the sea, or be near water. There is a lot of aquaphobia,” said Julieta Mondo, a psychologist at USME.
“Trauma makes your brain constantly remind you that (the rain) is dangerous,” she added.
Treatment involves explaining to people that their reaction is normal and gradually exposing them to their fear of water, she said.
She said more women tend to suffer from the psychological effects of the floods because they are often the main caregivers in the home and struggle to balance looking after children with their own emotions, especially when it rains.
Eleven people died on Arantxa Ferrer’s street in La Torre, a suburb across the river from Valencia city. She escaped by climbing out through her terrace to a neighbor’s apartment after her ground floor flat began filling with water.

MEDICATION AND THERAPY TO ALLEVIATE PTSD
Immediately after the floods, she couldn’t sleep, she said. She would shut her eyes and all she could hear were noises of people shouting and of water. Today, with the help of medication and therapy to alleviate her PTSD she can endure the sight and sound of the rain and has even ventured out to see the river that broke its banks and that, along with the overflowing of several ravines, caused destruction and death in her neighborhood.
Ferrer, a 47-year-old marketing executive, said her doctor has told her, “go to the window, watch the rain fall, listen to it” to overcome her fear at the sound.
Her neighbor, Juan Benet, whose sister died in the floods, was more skeptical about therapy’s benefits. An army psychologist came to speak to him but he felt no connection with the therapist who hadn’t experienced what he had, he said.
“It didn’t do anything for me, nor will it ever do anything for me, because I have it here and here,” he said, pointing at his head and heart. “This will never go away.”
With the end of the summer, the rainy season is back in Valencia. Authorities have already issued several red alerts, warning of the possibility of torrential rain and flooding that ultimately didn’t transpire.
Gonzalez, who owns a business providing psychometric tests for drivers, said he’s struggling to go back to the light-hearted person he was before the floods. He and his partner have stopped traveling and he sometimes struggles to understand when asked questions, he said.
“I want to move forward, but it’s impossible to be who I was before without the help of anti-anxiety medication,” he said. “Everything scares me. I can’t help it, all because of post-traumatic stress.”