Romania summons Russian ambassador after shooting down three drones; Zelenskyy to meet Andy Burnham in UK. What we know on day 1,615

Ukrainian and US officials have discussed a proposal to offer Russia an air ceasefire, the Reuters news agency has reported, citing a Ukrainian source. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to meet Donald Trump, the US president, in Washington on Tuesday. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on ⁠Sunday that Russia considered it premature to comment on any such ceasefire proposal. “We do not know how credible these reports are or where they come from. These are newspaper reports and nothing more. Therefore, it is premature to comment on them at this stage,” the Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying. “We have heard statements that some new formulas may be possible. We still need to learn ​more about them … What happens next will depend on how closely they correspond to our interests.”

Romania said it was summoning Russia’s ambassador after the Nato member’s military shot down a third drone in as many days. A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down the drone over the Black Sea, five minutes after it entered the country’s airspace, said Romania’s defence minister, Radu Miruță. The foreign minister, Oana Țoiu, condemned “repeated violations”. The Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, said that according to an investigation, a drone shot down on Friday was a “Shahed model used by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine”. Investigations into drones shot down on Saturday and Sunday continued, he said.

The Golden Leo, an international cargo vessel, sank off the coast of ⁠Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Sunday, a week after Ukrainian ⁠officials said ⁠it ​had been struck by Russian forces. Nine ⁠crew members were killed in the ​attack while eight ‌were evacuated to safety. The ‌ship had left the ‌port of Chornomorsk with a cargo of corn when it was shelled by Russian forces on 19 July. Russia’s defence ministry ⁠said on Sunday that its forces had ⁠struck Ukrainian ⁠ports ​and shipping. Russia claimed the container terminal ‌at Chornomorsk, near ‌Odesa, handled “military cargoes”.

Russia launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said. In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, a Russian drone hit ⁠a supermarket, killing two people – including a nine-year-old child – and wounding 25, emergency services said. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention ‌after a daytime drone attack, said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov. A glide bomb attack killed one person and wounded six in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, said the regional governor, Ivan Fedorov.

In Kyiv, a fire broke out on the seventh and eighth floors of a multi-storey apartment block in a central district after ‌a missile attack, said the mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Three people were wounded. In Sloviansk, Donetsk region, the national oil and gas company Naftogaz said two of its employees died in a Russian attack while trying to help residents affected by an earlier strike.

Russia said ⁠areas of Ukraine ​under Moscow’s control had also come under attack, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Horlivka. Twelve ⁠people, including two children, were ⁠injured ⁠in drone ​attack on ⁠the Russian city of Belgorod, close ⁠to ​Ukraine’s ‌border, regional authorities ‌said early on Monday. Ukraine denies targeting civilians.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will become Andy Burnham’s first overseas visitor as prime minister, in a visit that Burnham said underlined Britain’s “unwavering” backing for Ukraine, Peter Walker writes. Less than two weeks after Keir Starmer travelled to Kyiv for the final foreign visit of his prime ministership, Zelenskyy will on Monday join Burnham at a naval base where Ukrainian forces have been receiving training. According to statistics released by No 10, since Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, total UK support for the country has totalled £25bn, including £16bn in military assistance.

Burnham and Zelenskyy are due to discuss joint projects including Stone Cloak, an electronic jammer for which the UK has shared the intellectual property, allowing Ukraine to use the system immediately to prevent Russia shooting down Ukrainian drones. Since being proven on the Ukrainian frontline, the jammers are due to be fitted to new UK weaponry, including cruise missiles.

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Southern and central states from California to Mississippi face heat indexes above 100F amid another heat dome

At least 40 million people were under extreme heat warnings across central and southern parts of the United States on Sunday as high temperatures and severe humidity gripped large swaths of the country for a second straight day.

Heat indexes well above 100F (38C) stretched from Minnesota down to Mississippi, extending west into southern California and Nevada. Parts of the south-west were expected to see highs of 120F (49C), according to the National Weather Service.

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iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

GY?R ? OFFICIAL CITY IDENTITY (2025) The identity of Gy?r is built on a simple yet meaningful emblem, inspired by the form of a shield and a heart. It represents both structure and emotion, a city that is grounded, yet deeply human. The four waves integrated into the shape reference the four rivers of Gy?r, embedding movement directly into the symbol. The emblem functions as a window into the city. It frames and reveals different layers of Gy?r, allowing its stories, places, and people to appear within a consistent visual system. The brand extends through a flexible visual language where key local symbols, objects, and cultural references become part of the identity. These elements help translate the city's character into recognizable and relatable visuals across all applications. At the core of the concept lies one defining quality: momentum. Whether in its industry, sports culture, or flowing rivers, Gy?r is a city driven by continuous movement and energy.

LONDEN (ANP) - De olieprijzen zijn maandag flink gedaald nadat de Verenigde Staten dit weekend hun luchtaanvallen op Iran pauzeerden. Brentolie, de belangrijkste indicator voor olie uit het Midden-Oosten, daalde met ongeveer 6 procent tot rond de 91 dollar per vat. Vorige week kwam de prijs van Brentolie kort boven de 100 dollar per vat uit.

Dertien dagen achter elkaar voerden de VS aanvallen uit op Iran, dat reageerde met vergeldingsacties. Ook Teheran heeft aangekondigd de vergeldingsacties op te schorten.

De prijs van West Texas Intermediate zakte onder de 84 dollar per vat en de Europese aardgasprijs daalde met 7,8 procent.

SAPPEMEER (ANP) - In het Groningse Sappemeer heeft zondagavond om 19.08 uur een aardbeving plaatsgevonden. De beving had een magnitude van 1,6 en zat op 3 kilometer diepte. Dat meldt het KNMI.

RTV Noord meldt dat er tientallen meldingen zijn binnengekomen van mensen die een klap, knal of dreun hebben waargenomen. Ook werden er trillingen gevoeld. Op de website van het KNMI is te lezen dat het om een "geïnduceerde aardbeving" gaat. Dat betekent dat de beving werd veroorzaakt door menselijk handelen, bijvoorbeeld gaswinning.

There's been a change to NASA's launch of six satellites for solar storms research. Space.com reports that those satellites "were originally slated to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket but have now been assigned a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, according to a NASA mission update."




[NASA's Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment mision — or SunRISE] will fly to space as part of a rideshare mission sponsored by the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command. Though it's not stated specifically in the NASA release, that may be a hint as to why the mission's rocket was changed. On its most recent launch [U.S. Space Force mission USSF-87], Vulcan experienced an anomaly in one of its solid rocket boosters — the second such incident to occur during the rocket's four launches to date. Vulcan succeeded in delivering the USSF-87 payload to its designated orbit on that launch, but the recurrence of the booster issue during ascent prompted the Space Force to pause national security launches on Vulcan until it could be addressed. Which mission SunRISE will be manifested on has not yet been released, but Space Force's Space Systems Command [SSC] has already shifted other launches between Vulcan and SpaceX's Falcon 9...

Falcon Heavy is SpaceX's heavy-lift launch vehicle... that consists of three modified Falcon 9 first stages, and has launched 12 times since it debuted in 2018. Four of those have delivered national security payloads to orbit, with the most recent of those, USSF-52, launching in December 2023. Falcon Heavy's most recent flight overall occurred this past April, when it sent the Viasat-3 F3 telecom satellite to orbit. Falcon Heavy's next mission will lift off with NASA's Nancy Roman Space Telescope, currently set for no earlier than Aug. 30. SunRISE is scheduled to launch later this year...



Sientists will use data collected by the satellites "to improve prediction models for impending space weather, which in turn could lead to mitigation plans to better thwart the effects of such solar events on orbital infrastructure."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zoonlief studeert sinds vorige zomer met veel plezier natuurkunde in Leiden. „Hoe ging je deeltentamen?”, vraagt zijn moeder in de appgroep van ons gezin.

Als je wel zin hebt om te sudokuen, maar het liever bij een gridje van 5x5 houdt.

Een kruiswoordpuzzel, maar dan heel klein (en snel).

Wie of wat staat er midden in het nieuws? Een actuele puzzel, die makkelijker is als je het nieuws een beetje volgt.