World

TOKYO — The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant said Monday it will send a probe inside a battered reactor this week for a trial removal of radioactive debris.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) aims to retrieve a tiny sample of the estimated 880 tons of radioactive debris that is believed to sit inside reactors at the tsunami-hit nuclear plant.

The sample will be studied for clues about the condition of the inside of the reactors and their hazardous contents, a crucial step towards decommissioning the plant.

"We will proceed carefully by putting safety as our highest priority," a Tepco official told a news conference Monday.

The debris has radiation levels so high that Tepco has had to develop specialised robots that can withstand them to function inside.

Removing it has long been dubbed the most daunting challenge in the decades-long project to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Three of Fukushima's six reactors were operating when the tsunami hit on March 11, 2011, knocking down cooling systems and sending them into meltdown in what became the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

In three units of the Fukushima plant, fuel and other material melted and then solidified into highly radioactive "fuel debris".

Tepco deployed in February two mini-drones and a "snake-shaped robot" into one of the three nuclear reactors, as part of the preparations for the removal task.

The latest probe, equipped with a robotic arm, is expected to take about a week to reach radioactive debris inside the reactor and should emerge again with the sample next month.

Japan began almost a year ago to release wastewater from the stricken plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The step has sparked a diplomatic row with China and Russia, both of which banned seafood imports, although Japan insists the discharge is safe, a view backed by the UN atomic agency.

MOSCOW — More than 40 Russian firefighters have been injured tackling a fire at an oil facility that has raged for two days after it was hit by a Ukrainian drone.

Authorities in the city of Proletarsk, in the southern Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, introduced a state of emergency Monday and called in extra medics to help treat the injured.

"At the moment, 41 firefighters have been seen to at the central district hospital," Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said in a post on Telegram.

"Eighteen of them were required to be hospitalised, including five who are now in intensive care," he added.

Russia said Kyiv struck a fuel storage warehouse in the city of 20,000 people on Sunday morning. 

"Firefighting units continue to extinguish the fire," Golubev said on Monday afternoon, almost 36 hours after the attack.

"Given the difficulty of the fire in the Proletarsk district, a high alert regime has been turned into a state of emergency," he said earlier Monday, adding that the "forces and means" to put out the fire had been increased.

Russian state media quoted a statement of the local city administration that said there was no threat of the fire spreading to residential areas and called on people "not to give in to panic". 

Videos on social media showed a huge cloud of smoke billowing into the air at night. 

Proletarsk lies some 200 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. 

Kyiv, which on August 6 launched a surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region, has been hitting Russia's oil infrastructure for over a year. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the strikes "fair" retaliation for Moscow's attacks on his country.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Sunday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported.

Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president’s plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening.

His visit to the Caucasus country, a close partner of both Moscow and Turkey but also a major energy supplier to Western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.

Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and “international and regional problems”, the Kremlin said.

The two leaders are dining Sunday evening at the Azerbaijani president’s official residence, local official news agency Asertac said.

On Monday, Aliyev and Putin will sign joint documents and make statements to the press, said Russian agency Ria Novosti.

Putin will also lay a wreath on the tomb of Heydar Aliyev, father of the current leader, who was president from 1993 to 2003.

Earlier, the Kremlin said they would also discuss “the question of settling [the conflict] between Azerbaijan and Armenia”.

Azerbaijan reconquered the mountainous enclave in September 2023 from the Armenian separatists who had held it for three decades.

Armenia accused Russia of inadequate support in its conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Since then, Armenia has sought to deepen its ties with Western countries, especially the United States, much to the annoyance of Moscow, which considers both former Soviet republics to be in its sphere of influence.

Azerbaijan is a major producer of natural gas, to whom many European countries turned to make up for the sharp reduction in Russian deliveries after the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.

It is also hosting the COP29 climate conference in November.

Putin’s last visit to Azerbaijan was in September 2018.

Putin has been under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) since March 2023 for the “deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia, an accusation the Kremlin denies.

While the threat of arrest has limited Putin’s travels abroad, Azerbaijan is not a signatory to the Rome Statute treaty that established the ICC.

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris will be crowned by jubilant Democrats in Chicago this week as the party's standard-bearer against Donald Trump after one of the most head-spinning turnarounds in US political history.

The 59-year-old vice president and her running mate Tim Walz will be the stars of the Democratic National Convention -- with President Joe Biden reduced to a warm-up act after his shock withdrawal from the White House race.

It will be a critical opportunity for Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to head a major US party ticket, to show Americans her credentials for the Oval Office and ride a wave of excitement into what remains a tight election.

In a remarkable show of unity in front of thousands of delegates, Harris will be backed by three presidents -- 81-year-old Biden plus former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- along with former nominee Hillary Clinton.

But there will also be heavy security in Chicago amid plans for mass protests against the Biden-Harris administration's continued support for Israel's devastating war in Gaza.

Just a few weeks ago, the prospect of Harris leading Democrats into the four-day meeting would have seemed far-fetched, but the US political landscape has been completely upended since then.

Instead of the convention being a grim, Biden-led slog towards near-certain defeat after his disastrous debate performance against Trump, the party has dared to hope again.

'All about excitement' 

Harris has wiped out Trump's lead in the polls, drawn huge crowds in a blitz of battleground states and raised record funds -- all while bringing what she calls a "joyful" message to the Democratic campaign.

Her televised speech on the final night of the convention on Thursday will now be a chance to define herself to voters and sell her story as America's first Black woman vice president.

"It is all about excitement, that she is the new generation," Casey Burgat of George Washington University told AFP.

 "This is about introducing herself as the nominee, what she stands for."

Harris, who won the nomination in a virtual roll call ahead of the convention but will formally accept it this week, will also finally be setting out her policies, having kept things vague until now.

She is expected to focus on cutting high prices that have hit Americans hard -- and which ate away at Biden's popularity -- and to hammer Trump on the issue of abortion. 

The Republican former president has been floundering since Harris took over, branding her remarkable rise as a "coup" against Biden and resorting to attacks on her race.

A month ago it was Trump making a triumphant appearance at his party's convention after surviving an assassination attempt, but now the tables are turned as the 78-year-old struggles to deal with a younger candidate. 

'Woman of colour' 

Everything has changed for Biden too, as he prepares to give a valedictory address as a lame-duck president on Monday instead of being the headliner.

Afterwards, he is expected to immediately depart for a holiday in California.

The Democrats have not unveiled their full lineup yet, but US media reported that Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, is also expected to speak on Monday while Obama will address the convention on Tuesday.

Bill Clinton will be the warm-up act on Wednesday for Minnesota Governor Walz.

The folksy Midwesterner has turned out to be a punchy crowd-pleaser who has led the Democrats' charge on branding Trump and his VP pick J.D. Vance as "weird".

While Harris can expect a further post-convention bump in the polls, the challenge then will be to keep up the momentum in the sprint to election day on November 5.

Polls show she remains vulnerable on key issues such as immigration and the economy.

But her dizzying rise so far shows that she could be the one to break some of the last glass ceilings in US politics.

Political scientist Regina Bateson of the University of Colorado Boulder said "people might have had doubts" about whether a major American party would coalesce around "someone who's a woman of colour."

"Actually, she rallied the party around her very quickly, and has been very successful."

CARACAS — Venezuela's opposition and regime supporters will vie for the streets of Caracas Saturday in competing demonstrations amid a political crisis sparked by a disputed election where both President Nicolas Maduro and his rivals have claimed victory.

"We have to remain firm and united," opposition leader Maria Corina Machado urged supporters in a post on social media platform X on Saturday.

She had called earlier for backers to take to the streets in hundreds of cities in Venezuela and abroad.

"They're trying to scare us, to divide us, to paralyze us, to demoralise us, but they can't because they are absolutely entrenched in their lies [and] violence," she said.

A heavy security presence was taking shape early Saturday. Access to Caracas's vast Petare neighborhood, a few miles from the opposition's announced gathering point, was being controlled by two National Guard armored vehicles backed by about 40 motorcycle-mounted troops.

Local media reported similar deployments in other key areas, where at least 25 people were killed during anti-Maduro protests a day after the July 28 vote that both Maduro and the opposition say they won.

At one of the first overseas demonstrations to get under way Saturday, more than 100 Venezuelans in Australia rallied in Sydney, waving national flags and balloons.

"This is a strong message to our people in Venezuela. We are with you, and we want the world to listen what we are saying," said protest organiser Rina Rivas.

Members of the Venezuelan community also rallied in Melbourne.

Machado, who had her presidential candidacy blocked by institutions loyal to Maduro, will be at the Caracas march despite having been largely in hiding since election day.

Maduro had called for Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who replaced her on the ballot, to be arrested. He accuses them of seeking to foment a "coup d'etat."

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of a third six-year term until 2031, giving him 52 percent of votes cast on July 28 but without providing a detailed breakdown of the results.

The opposition says polling station-level results show Gonzalez Urrutia took more than two-thirds of the vote.

'Lies, repression, violence' 

Maduro's victory claim has been rejected by the United States, European Union and several Latin American countries.

Neighbors Colombia and Brazil on Thursday called for fresh elections in Venezuela, but Machado said this would show "a lack of respect" for the popular will already expressed on July 28.

On Friday, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, traditionally a leftist ally of Maduro, described the regime in Caracas as "very unpleasant" and insisted on the release of a detailed vote breakdown.

In a radio interview, Lula declined to label the Maduro government a dictatorship, but said it had an "authoritarian bias."

The Organisation of American States approved a resolution in Washington on Friday urging Caracas to "expeditiously publish the presidential election records, including the voting results at the level of each polling station."

And in a joint statement on Friday, the European Union and 22 countries called for an "impartial verification" of the election outcome.

Cyber 'attack' 

The CNE says it has been unable to release the results due to a "cyber terrorist attack" on its systems, though the Carter Center observer mission has said there was no evidence for such a claim.

The opposition says it has access to 80 per cent of paper ballots cast, which show that Gonzalez Urrutia won easily.

The ruling "Chavista" movement, named after Maduro's socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez, has also called demonstrations for Saturday in Caracas "in support of the victory" of the president in office since 2013.

Maduro has asked the Supreme Court, also said to be loyal to him, to "certify" the election result.

"Venezuela's conflicts... are resolved among Venezuelans, with their institutions, with their law, with their Constitution," he said on Thursday.

Maduro's previous reelection in 2018 was also rejected by many countries, including the United States, and European and Latin American countries.

DHAKA — Mobs vowing to guard Bangladesh's student-led revolution roamed the site of a planned rally for ousted premier Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, beating up some of her suspected supporters with bamboo rods and pipes.

Hasina, 76, fled to neighbouring India by helicopter last week as student-led protests flooded Dhaka's streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

The interim government replacing her, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has invited UN investigators to probe the violent "atrocities" that accompanied her ouster, which saw hundreds killed by security forces.

Thursday is the anniversary of the 1975 assassination during a military coup of Hasina's father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a date her government had declared a national holiday.

Huge rallies around Bangladesh marked the occasion in previous years but those glad to see Hasina toppled were eager to ensure supporters of her Awami League Party did not have a chance to regroup.

"Fugitive and dictator Sheikh Hasina has ordered her goons and militia forces to come to the site so they can produce a counter-revolution," Imraul Hasan Kayes, 26, told AFP.

"We are here to guard our revolution so that it doesn't slip out of our hands."

With no police in sight, hundreds of men — most of them not students — formed a human barricade across the street leading to Hasina's old family home, where her father and many of her relatives were gunned down 49 years ago.

The landmark was a museum to her father until it was torched and vandalised by a mob hours after Hasina's fall.

Several people that the crowd suspected of being Awami League supporters were thrashed with sticks, while others were forcibly escorted away.

Hasina, in her first public statement since her abrupt departure, asked supporters this week to "pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying" outside the landmark.

Cult of personality 

She was accused while in office of establishing a cult of personality around her father, who appears on every banknote.

Hasina changed the constitution to require a portrait of him appeared in every school, government office and diplomatic mission.

"Her government even made it an offence to criticise him online, punishable with up to 10 years in prison," Tom Kean of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

"While many people still have great respect for Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his achievements... this had curtailed any real debate over his legacy."

Thousands of civil servants were required during her tenure to join public demonstrations on the anniversary of her father's death.

Awami League organisers would also set up temporary public address systems around Dhaka to blare out Mujib's old speeches as well as devotional songs praising his leadership.

The interim government cancelled observance of the politically charged holiday on Tuesday, requiring bureaucrats to remain in their offices.

And the prevailing sounds in the city of 20 million people on Thursday were the horns and engine hums of its perennially gridlocked traffic.

Arrests 

Hasina's statement on Tuesday came hours after a court in Dhaka opened a murder case against her, two senior Awami League allies and four police officers related to the unrest.

Several other top politicians from the party have been detained in unrelated probes, including former law minister Anisul Huq and business adviser Salman Rahman.

Both men were in court on Wednesday under heavy police guard, handcuffed and wearing helmets for their protection.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, formerly the telecoms minister and responsible for a nationwide internet blackout aimed at quelling anti-Hasina protests, was expected to be produced in court later Thursday according to local media reports.

'Atrocities'

Yunus, 84, returned from Europe last Thursday to head a temporary administration that faces the monumental challenge of steering democratic reforms.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.

He took office as "chief adviser" to a caretaker administration — all fellow civilians bar a retired brigadier general — and has said he wants to hold elections "within a few months".

Hasina's government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.

The interim Cabinet said that UN investigators would arrive next week to probe "atrocities" committed during the protests that ousted her.

A spokesperson for Volker Turk confirmed the fact-finding team and said the UN rights chief was "very committed" to supporting the interim government's "successful transition".

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine on Thursday claimed fresh advances in its cross-border offensive into Russia, where it said it had seized over a thousand square kilometres, the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.

Russia said it had recaptured a first village from Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region and announced it was sending "additional forces" to the neighbouring Belgorod region.

Ukraine said it now controlled dozens of settlements and Sudzha, a town eight kilometres from the border.

"We have taken control of 1,150 square kilometres of territory and 82 settlements," said top military commander Oleksandr Syrsky.

Syrsky's troops launched the offensive on August 6, breaking months of setbacks for the Ukrainian army that has been battling a Russian invasion for over two years.

The top general also told President Volodymyr Zelensky his army had set up an administrative office "to maintain law and order and meet the priority needs of the population in the controlled territories".

Zelensky announced "the completion of the liberation of the town of Sudzha from the Russian military".

120,000 Russians displaced 

At an Orthodox church in the centre of Sumy, the regional hub across the border from Kursk, dozens of mourners gathered Thursday to pay their final respects to six Ukrainian servicemen killed since Kyiv launched its offensive. 

Tearful family members of the victims received a steady stream of friends and relatives wearing black and clutching wreaths as the priest intoned a funeral mass and incense hung in the air. 

"It is hard to say goodbye to them, because we want them to live forever, to live among us as honoured sons of their homeland," the priest told mourners.

"Our task is to pray for our heroic fighters and their families." 

Pallbearers lifted the coffins one by one for burial as a choir sang hymns in harmony. Air raid sirens echoed over Sumy as the service ended.

In Kursk, AFP reporters saw around 500 evacuees from border areas queueing for food and clothes being distributed by the Russian Red Cross.

Russia says over 120,000 people have left or been evacuated.

 'Completed destruction' 

The assault took Russian troops by surprise and triggered the evacuation of tens of thousands.

The fighting killed at least 12 civilians and wounded 121 others according to Russian authorities, who have not released a toll since Monday.

Moscow scrambled reinforcement and announced the recapture of a first village in the Kursk region on Thursday.

The ministry said the army had "completed destruction of the enemy and restored control of the settlement of Krupets."

The Russian army also announced measures to prevent attacks on neighbouring regions, particularly Belgorod. 

The Russian army has prepared "concrete actions" to defend the Belgorod region from Ukrainian attacks, minister Andrei Belousov said at a meeting with officials including Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

They include "the allocation of additional forces."

Both Kursk and Belgorod regions have seen small incursions since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine had however never launched an assault of this scale. 

Intensity of attacks 

Kyiv officials have argued the offensive was a needed act of "self-defence" and experts suggest it could be aimed at alleviating pressure from the eastern front.

Ukrainian troops are however still struggling in the eastern Donbas region, a key prize for Moscow. 

"Most Russian attacks are taking place" in the eastern Donbas," Zelensky said, adding: "We are paying maximum defensive attention."

Russia said Thursday its forces had captured Ivanivka, a frontline village just 15 kilometres from the Kyiv-held transport hub of Pokrovsk in east Ukraine.

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for the Russian army.

In a daily briefing, the Russian defence ministry said its army units had "liberated the village of Ivanovka" in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, using the Russian name for the village.

Russian forces have been inching towards Pokrovsk for months, taking a string of tiny villages in recent months as they seek to reach the outskirts of the city.