Seven killed in Kyiv in new Russian aerial attack

Rescuers from Ukraine's emergencies service DSNS tackle fire in a residential building destroyed in the latest Russian attack on Kyiv

At least seven people have been killed and several injured in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack in the Kyiv region, the interior minister has said.

In a post on social media, Ihor Klymenko said residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure had been hit.

At least six of those who died were in the high-rise building in the capital, Kyiv's mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said, adding that 19 others were injured in the city.

In recent weeks, Russia has been carrying out massive aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Russia's economy is down but not out

28 minutes ago Share Save Daniel Thomas Business reporter Share Save

Getty Images Russia has significantly ramped up its military production to support the war in Ukraine

Since its illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has become the most sanctioned nation on Earth, and yet its economy has been remarkably resilient. In 2024, if Russian official figures are to believed, its economy outgrew those of all the G7 nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US. The Russian economy expanded by 4.3% last year, compared with 1.1% in the UK, and 2.8% in the US. This growth in Russia was led by the Kremlin's record military spending. The country's oil exports, by volume, have also remained relatively stable, as supplies once destined for Europe have been diverted to China and India. And a "shadow fleet" of tankers, whose ownership and movements could be obscured, has helped Moscow circumvent sanctions elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Russian rouble has recovered to become the best-performing world currency this year, with gains of more than 40%, according to Bank of America. Yet, as we move towards 2026, the mood music is changing.

Inside the country inflation has been persistently high, interest rates have soared to 20%, and companies can't find the workers they need. And globally, oil prices had fallen back this year before the current conflict between Israel and Iran caused a spike. Russia's economy minister warned on Thursday that the country was "on the verge" of recession after a period of "overheating". And some Russia watchers have even suggested the economy could be headed for collapse. But how likely is that really? And how does it affect the course of the war? Yevgeny Nadorshin, an economist based in Moscow, tells BBC News: "Overall, it will be a pretty uncomfortable situation until late 2026, and definitely there will be defaults and bankruptcies." But he predicts the downturn will be "mild" and calls any suggestion of a meltdown a "total lie". "Without any single doubt, the Russian economy has experienced a number of recessions deeper than this." Mr Nadorshin points out that Russia's unemployment rate is currently at a record low of 2.3%, and will probably peak at just 3.5% next year. By contrast, the UK's unemployment rate was 4.6% in April.

Getty Images Russia's military spending, such as on new tanks, is reliant upon its overseas oil sales

Still, he and others see reasons for concern, and that's because Russia appears to have entered a period of stagnation. Its inflation rate was 9.9% in the year to April, partly due to Western sanctions pushing up the price of imports, but also because of worker shortages which have driven up wages. The country lacked around 2.6 million workers at the end of 2024, according to Russia's Higher School of Economics, largely due to men going to war or fleeing abroad to avoid it. The central bank put interest rates up to record levels this year to try and tame the rising prices - but it's making it more costly for companies to raise the capital they need to invest. Meanwhile, Russia's oil and gas revenues have fallen due to sanctions and weaker pricing, and were down by 35% year-on-year in May, according to official figures. It has contributed to a widening budget shortfall that has left the country with less to spend on infrastructure and public services. "They have this large pot of expenditure for the military that can't be touched," says András Tóth-Czifra, a political analyst and Russia watcher. "So it means money is starting to be reallocated from vital investment projects in road, rail and utilities. "The quality of provision is really suffering." Russia may have coped better than expected with Western sanctions, but they continue to drag on the economy, he adds.

Russian companies are struggling to import the technology they need, and it has badly damaged the car industry. The EU has also banned imports of Russian coal and diversified away from its gas with a view to phasing out imports by 2027. "None of this is likely to seriously impede Russia's ability to wage war in the short-term," says Mr Tóth-Czifra. "But it could affect the economy's ability to grow or diversify in years to come." So far the Kremlin has brushed off the concerns. In early June, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the "macroeconomic stability" and "underlying strength" of the Russian economy were plain to see. In April, meanwhile, he said the economy was "developing quite successfully" thanks to government policies.

Getty Images Russia's currency, the rouble, has been surprisingly resilient

Caught in the crossfire - the victims of Cape Town's gang warfare

7 hours ago Share Save Nick Ericsson BBC Africa Eye Share Save

Africa family Davin was shot dead four months' ago - an unwitting casualty of Cape Flats' gang problem

The distraught father lies on the narrow, single bed and points to two small bullet holes in the wall of his house. This is stark evidence of a moment that shattered his family's life forever. Devon Africa's four-year-old son Davin was shot dead in February, caught in the crossfire of a shoot-out between criminals. He was a victim of the gang warfare that has plagued the Cape Flats, the townships around Cape Town - a legacy of apartheid, when the non-white population was forcibly moved from the centre of the wealthy city to the under-resourced outskirts. "This is the bullet hole here," he says. "This is where he slept." The family had already endured unspeakable horror. Davin's older sister, Kelly Amber, was killed two years earlier, also shot as rivals fired at each other. She was 12. Now Devon and his wife, Undean, have only their youngest daughter left. "She asks me: 'Where's my brother?'" says Undean. "So I told her he's with Jesus in daddy's heart and in my heart."

Three decades after the end of apartheid the legacy of the system, which kept people who were not white separate and poor, lives on in the Cape Flats

These murders took place in an area known as Wesbank, but many other families across the wider Cape Flats area have had to endure similar nightmares, despite assurances by the police of increased patrols. The numbers tell a horrifying story. The Western Cape province - in which the Cape Flats sit - consistently sees the overwhelming majority of gang-related murders in South Africa, according to the police. Officially, this is a policing priority for the government. President Cyril Ramaphosa set up a special unit to combat gang violence in 2018, he also briefly deployed the army to the area the following year, but the problem has persisted, and the killings have continued. "There's a whole history and generations of people who have been born into these gangs," says Gareth Newham, head of the Justice and Violence Prevention programme at the Institute for Security Studies in Johannesburg. "[They] flourish in areas that have largely been neglected or underdeveloped by the state. The gangs provide a form of social structure that actually provides services to the communities that the state doesn't. They provide food for homes. Money for electricity. Money for transport or funerals. These gangs even pay school fees." They are embedded in the community and "that's why it's so difficult for the police to tackle them… it means that they can use non-gang members' houses to store drugs and store weapons".

Pastor Craven Engel is prepared to meet anyone at any time in an effort to broker peace

But there are people trying to tackle the issue. Fifteen kilometres (nine miles) away from Wesbank is Hanover Park where Pastor Craven Engel is glued to his mobile phone almost all day, every day in his quest for peace. His mission is to mediate in gang conflicts to stop this violence and the killings, fuelled by the lucrative trade in drugs. He and his team try to follow a basic formula: detection, interruption and changing mindsets. "Hanover Park doesn't really have an economy to speak of," says Pastor Engel. "The bulk of the economy comes out of the drug culture. That's the biggest economy." Pastor Engel says that apartheid's impact on the area can't be overlooked but neither can generational trauma - manifested as drug addiction and then family breakdown. "The substance [drug] creates unemployment, the substance creates robbery, it creates gang fights because of turfs. So, the substance sits in the middle of so many of the atrocities within the community," says Pastor Engel, who estimates that around 70% of local children are living with some kind of addiction. This community of around 50,000 people has to endure shootings and stabbings almost daily. And it's often young people who are doing the killing and being killed.

A newspaper cutting pinned to the wall of Pastor Engel's office is a reminder of the killing of one notorious gang leader in 2019

"The policing approach alone is unlikely to solve the problem because you might arrest people for being gang members, for having guns and for shootings and murders. They will go to prison, but then they get replaced by younger members. And that creates a whole different set of problems. They're more likely to get into fights over territory and turf," says Mr Newham. "How does a kid get shot seven times in his head or three times in his back? How does a stray bullet hit a kid?" asks Pastor Engel. Cape Town safety fears force parents to seek former white-only schools On his phone, he calls up community leaders and gang kingpins, constantly cajoling to try and head off the violence. When BBC Africa Eye visits him he is trying to broker a ceasefire between two warring gangs - and manages to reach the jailed leader of one of them. "If I want something to happen then it still happens. Do you understand pastor?" the gang boss shouts down the line. "But I can tell you one thing. I'm a guy that likes to counter if I come under fire." Threats. Even from behind bars. But Pastor Engel is relentless. He is highly visible in his community, whether in the home of a parishioner or before his large and loud congregation in the pulpit on a Sunday. "I think that what makes it very, very terrible now is there are more children involved in the gangs, because gangs are recruiting between the ages of eight and 15 years old," he says.

The programme he runs used to get government money, but that has dried up. To cut off the supply lines and protect the innocent, he will meet victims and perpetrators anywhere and at any time. He also sends rehabilitated gang members to negotiate directly with warring factions. Those who lived a life on the edge of death know how critical it is to push for peace instead. Glenn Hans is one such person. He is meeting rival gangs to convince them to honour a ceasefire. "I was also in this game. As long as you make a decision that you want to be a better person. That's all," he tells a group of gang members. One has a chilling response: "The more we kill, the more ground we seize and the more ground we have, the more we can build. So, for me to speak about peace - I cannot make that decision because it's not my decision to ensure peace." The ceasefire that is eventually agreed lasts just a few days, shattered by the killing of two people in a drive-by shooting. But some in the thick of the conflict have had enough.

Nando Johnston says he wants to find a way out of the gang life

Fernando - or Nando - Johnston is in a gang called the Mongrels, and he wants to try and find a way out with the help of Pastor Engel. The pastor describes Mr Johnston as being young and "born into the gang" since his whole family was involved. "In this game there are only two options - it is either you go to jail or you die, " says Mr Johnston. "I really do want to change direction and I believe there is always a way. That is the reason I approached the pastor - to ask him if there is a plan or way to take me." He will join a six- to 12-week programme of rehabilitation run by the pastor and funded by charitable donations designed to get people off drugs and into work. "The thing is you can now start building yourself up again," Pastor Engel tells him. "You'll be able to get yourself a job and make money for yourself. Then you won't have to hustle and scavenge around here any more." "I'm ready to go, pastor," says Mr Johnston, poised to leave his battered and scarred community in search of a new path. Those closest to him have gathered to wish him well. His mother, Angeline April, holds back the tears, desperate that, this time, her son will choose life. "Please just make the best of this opportunity, Nando," she says. "Yes mummy, I always make the best of a situation." But that has never been easy. "Fernando's dad was a gangster but my other children's father was a gentleman," says Mr Johnston's mother. "But because he was a gangster, the children also got involved in gangsterism despite me constantly warning them. It wasn't easy raising four boys on my own, you know. I'm always encouraging him to make a change, because I love him very much." And so far so good for Mr Johnston. Two weeks on from starting the programme, he is still there. "Nando is stabilising. He's in a works programme. He's busy seeing his family, seeing his kids. He did a house visit yesterday. We let him loose and he came back and tested clear with no drugs in his system," says Pastor Engel.

Hope is a rare commodity here, but it does sometimes spring through the cracks in the streets that have seen so much trauma. Not all streets, though. Very little hope is found at Devon Africa and Undean Koopman's house, which sits in the middle of a battlefield. The cycle of killings and retaliation that hit the areas being fought over on the very edges of this beautiful South African city is overwhelming for many of those just struggling to survive. And those caught in the middle often have to make impossible choices. "Community members, even if they are opposed to the gangs, are not necessarily pro-police for two reasons," says Mr Newham. "One is that they just don't know the police will actually come if called. And if they do call the police, they have no idea if the police officers are corrupt. People don't understand the scale of the challenge in South Africa." Sentiments reflected by the peacemakers on the frontlines in this war. "Nobody is going to come from anywhere to help or save us. Not from overseas. Not from our local government. No-one is going to come with a magic wand to cure the Cape Flats," says Pastor Engel. "As individuals we need to be so determined to build up resilience, create hope for our people and to grow. Because politics has clearly failed us."

More from BBC Africa Eye:

Getty Images/BBC

'E-bike crash ruined my life - rules need to change'

2 hours ago Share Save Anna O'Neill BBC News Share Save

BBC Chef Aldo Zilli, left, and his wife Nichola, right, are calling for tighter e-bike regulations after Nikki's mother Maureen, centre, was seriously injured while crossing the road

When 83-year-old Maureen Welch set off for her weekly aqua aerobics class in October, she had no idea that her life was about to drastically change. As she stepped into the road at a pedestrian crossing in Lewisham, south-east London, a cyclist on a Lime bike failed to stop at the red light and hit her with full force, before riding away. "All of a sudden this bike came in between the buses and went straight into me and knocked me over," she explains. Maureen spent five weeks in hospital with a broken leg. Still recovering, she now walks with a stick. There's a commode in her living room until she can get a downstairs toilet, and wall rails have had to be fitted to help her move about. "It's ruined my life," she says.

Aldo Zilli Before the accident Maureen regularly visited Italy with her son-in-law but is no longer able to travel

Maureen's son-in-law, Italian celebrity chef Aldo Zilli, was among the first called, along with her daughter Nikki. "It was absolute devastation," says Aldo. "We are very close as a family. Maureen is a big part of our life, she helps with the business, we take her to Italy every year. "We have had to adapt to a new life. I had to refuse work, Nichola my wife had to refuse work. It's been life-changing for the whole family." "The fact that she was safe to cross the road and this happened, is unacceptable," Nichola says.

'No rules and regulations'

The Zilli family is now calling for tighter regulation of e-bikes. "Me and my husband are both very keen cyclists," says Nichola. "But there are no rules and regulations in place for these electric bikes. They can speed, jump red lights, use their mobile phones, swerve onto pavements. "No-one is really taking responsibility for rules and regulations to be put into place." Her husband agrees. "I see it every day, people chucking them all over the pavement outside my restaurant in Kingsway," he says. "It's atrocious. I'm upset and I want to take it further to be honest. I want go and meet the mayor of London and speak to him about it."

But responsibility for managing dockless e-bikes in London such as Lime does not rest with the mayor of London, or any devolved mayor in England. Some local councils have limited powers to manage designated no-parking zones and work with operators through voluntary agreements, but they can not regulate schemes; that falls to the Department of Transport. A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: "The mayor and Transport for London continue to lobby government about the dangers of unregulated e-bikes. "The government has announced plans to provide cities with the powers to manage dockless e-bikes, and improved safety should be at the centre of better regulation in the future."

'Tiny minority'

The government is looking at ways of updating the decades-old cycling legislation, with new offences of causing death or serious injury by dangerous cycling to be debated soon in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. Mandatory sentences of five years for serious injury and life in prison for causing death are being proposed for those found guilty. A Department for Transport spokesperson told the BBC: "Dangerous cycling is completely unacceptable, and the safety of our roads is a key priority for this government. "That's why the government is proposing new offences and penalties for dangerous cycling, updating legislation that is over 160 years old, to ensure that the tiny minority who recklessly disregard others face the full force of the law."

Personal injury solicitor Ronnie Hutcheon has written about the rise in the number of e-bike incidents in London. He believes the law has fallen behind the technology. "When the original legislation was being drafted, e-bikes weren't invented," he said. "What we have now is a debate about what constitutes a motorised vehicle in accordance with laws and in accordance with Motor Insurance Bureau scheme." He has his own ideas about how this sort of collision might be prevented in the future. "Maybe one way might be for the riders to undergo some sort of highway code training and proficiency test. "But you can have all the tests in the world but if someone is inclined to fail to stop at a pedestrian crossing, then there is not a lot anyone can do."

Spike in injuries

The rise in the number of e-bike accidents is something trauma surgeons across London are also witnessing. Jaison Patel, a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, said he saw a lot of patients injured from the powered bikes. "There's definitely been a spike, we see quite frequently that people have e-bike injuries," he said. Mr Patel added injuries were more severe when compared with conventional bikes. "We're seeing things like broken collar bones, arm fractures, wrist fractures as people are falling awkwardly on their sides. We're also seeing head injuries - that's a life-changing injury for sure." He added the majority of patients were users of e-bikes, rather than pedestrians. Despite the trauma they cause, e-bikes were "good for London" Mr Patel added, but said they needed better regulations to make them safer. He also said more needed to be done to maintain the bikes as he has had patients whose brakes had failed while others have used bikes where the wheels had not been aligned. Mr Patel added that the British Orthopaedic association had begun collecting data from hospitals to monitor injuries from e-bikes, with a view to the data being used to inform regulations around e-bike use.

'Rare' incidents

Maureen and the Zilli family have found getting in touch with the right department at Lime to be a frustrating experience. Despite repeated attempts to contact Lime for information, the Metropolitan Police has also been unable to establish who was riding the bike at the time. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said officers were called to the incident in Molesworth Road at 11:15 BST on 2 October. They said the pedestrian suffered "life-changing injuries" but "after extensive inquiries there was insufficient evidence to progress the case, and the investigation was filed". A Lime spokesperson told the BBC that they were "deeply shocked and saddened" and that their thoughts were with the individual involved and her loved ones. "The majority of Lime riders use our service responsibly and incidents like this are rare, however individual rider behaviour is not always within our control." The spokesperson added: "Lime takes incidents of this nature very seriously and has well-established systems to help us work closely with the police. "In this case, the incident was not reported via our dedicated law enforcement reporting portal, which exists to help us share customer data with the police in a way that's compliant with UK law. "We will continue to work alongside law enforcement bodies in London to ensure these types of incidents are dealt with quickly and appropriately."

Nikki Zilli Maureen spent five weeks in hospital after the collision

For Maureen, now 84, it will be a long road back to recovery. She said she used to be a social butterfly, regularly out meeting friends and going to fitness classes, but now she is mainly confined to moving around slowly in the downstairs of her home. "It's made me slow down. I used to go out on the buses and trains but I can't do that now. "I'm just trying to get my confidence back."

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Dozens of soldiers seized in Colombian mountains

Colombia's military says 57 soldiers have been kidnapped by civilians in the country's south-western Micay Canyon area.

It says 31 soldiers were seized on Saturday while the rest were abducted on Sunday by a group of more than 200 people.

The military says the civilians are acting under pressure from dissidents of the Farc rebel group which agreed a peace deal with the government in 2016.

The mountainous region is a key zone for cocaine production and remains one of the most tense in the country's ongoing conflict with rebel groups.

New police appeal 10 years after Goldfinger murder

1 hour ago Share Save Peter Walker BBC News, Essex Share Save

PA Media John Palmer was convicted at the Old Bailey in 2001 of a timeshare fraud that had about 16,000 victims

Detectives have renewed their appeal for information 10 years after the murder of notorious and once wealthy criminal John "Goldfinger" Palmer. The 65-year-old was shot six times in the garden of his woodland mansion in South Weald near Brentwood at about 17:30 BST on 24 June 2015. Palmer earned his nickname after being accused of melting gold from the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery and he scammed thousands of timeshare owners out of millions of pounds in Tenerife in the 1990s. Essex Police says his family still "rightly want answers" and believes loyalties in the "criminal fraternity" have changed.

"His killing was a brutal, planned execution," said Det Supt Stephen Jennings of the Essex and Kent Serious Crime Directorate. "Over the years there has been much commentary, media coverage and even television programmes speculating about his connections to the underworld, high profile crimes and his past. "But whatever someone's past, John was a father, partner and much-loved by his family."

Essex Police The 65-year-old could be seen pottering about his home on the garden CCTV in the hours leading up to his death

In 1983, armed robbers stumbled upon £26m worth of gold, diamonds and cash in the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow Airport. Palmer was found not guilty of conspiring to handle the stolen bullion at an Old Bailey trial in 1987, but the Met Police continued to investigate him.

He amassed an estimated fortune of £300m in the 1990s, with a portfolio including mansions, helicopters, restaurants, a £750,000 yacht and classic cars. But in 2001, he was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey for conspiracy to defraud, having scammed about 16,000 couples out of millions on Tenerife.

Essex Police Essex Police believes the professional hitman used this hole in a fence of the property to spy on Palmer in the days leading up to his murder

In May 2015 - a month before his murder - Spanish prosecutors charged him with fraud, firearms possession and money laundering in relation to his timeshare scam. Police believe a contract killer watched him through a spyhole in his fence at his property, before scaling the fence and shooting him at the only spot not covered by CCTV. Remarkably however, two police officers assessed his death as non-suspicious, owing to his wound from gall bladder surgery which took place a week earlier. A post-mortem examination on 30 June revealed he was actually shot in the chest, abdomen, arm, elbow, back and kidneys. The two officers later faced disciplinary action and Det Supt Jennings has previously admitted the force failed to carry out "background checks on John" and did not "really check the body well enough".

PA Media John Palmer was found unconscious by his son and his son's girlfriend

In 2019, other individuals were found guilty as part of the same Spanish fraud indictment that Palmer had been charged with. "We know the key to solving John's murder lies within the underworld and we have always suspected it may have been linked to the fraud trial," said Det Supt Jennings. "A lot has changed within the criminal fraternity, including loyalties, and people may now feel able to come forward." A 43-year-old man from Rugby, Warwickshire, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in 2015, but was released without charge. In February 2017, detectives said a 50-year-old man from Tyneside, who lived in southern Spain, was questioned on suspicion of murder in what was a voluntary interview. He faced no further action. Anyone with information can call Essex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via its website crimestoppers-uk.org.

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The second leg of the Serie B relegation playoff between hosts Salernitana and Sampdoria was abandoned on Sunday after home fans threw smoke bombs and seats onto the pitch.

The former Serie A champions were leading 2-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate when players were ordered off the field after 65 minutes because of unrest from Salernitana supporters in the stands.

According to Italian media, Sampdoria are likely to be awarded a 3-0 win, which would secure a 5-0 aggregate victory and guarantee their escape from what had seemed certain relegation to the third tier.

Sampdoria, Italian champions in 1991, were initially relegated to Serie C for the first time in their 78-year history, only to be handed a lifeline after the season ended when Brescia were docked eight points, dropping them below Sampdoria and granting the Genoa club a place in the relegation playoff.

Anger began early on in the match when Gian Marco Ferrari thought he had given Salernitana the lead midway through the first half, only for his goal to be ruled out for handball.

Four minutes later Massimo Coda scored for Sampdoria before Giuseppe Sibilli made it 4-0 on aggregate just after the break.

The home fans in Salerno immediately turned on their team following the second goal, with relegation to Serie C looking all but certain.

Flares, firecrackers and chairs were thrown on to the field and the game was halted numerous times before the players were taken off the field with 65 minutes on the clock.

With players of both sides in the dressing room, riot police tried to restore order to the situation.

Referee Daniele Doveri attempted to get the game restarted 10 minutes later but objects began to rain down once again and the match was abandoned.

Salernitana only needed an aggregate draw to stay up because of their higher placing in the table.

The second leg of the play-off, which was originally scheduled for Friday, took place on Sunday following a severe food poisoning outbreak in the Salernitana camp.

A formal request to reschedule the match was accepted after 21 of their travelling party became ill following last week's 2-0 first-leg defeat.