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The commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, has announced his resignation, publicly accepting responsibility for failings that contributed to the deadly 7 October attacks.

Yossi Sariel said on Tuesday that he had informed his superiors of his intention to step down after the completion of an initial investigation into Unit 8200’s role in failures surrounding the Hamas-led assault last year.

In an emotional four-page letter to staff, Sariel said: “I did not fulfil the task I expected of myself, as expected of me by my subordinates and commanders and as expected of me by the citizens of the country that I love so much.”

He added: “The responsibility for 8200’s part in the intelligence and operational failure falls squarely on me.”

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Vladimir Putin has said that a western move to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow.

Putin spoke as US and UK top diplomats discussed easing rules on firing western weapons into Russia, which Kyiv has been pressing for, more than two and a half years into Moscow’s offensive.

“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin told a state television reporter.

“It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” he added. “If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.”

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President Biden has refused to allow Ukraine to use long-range Western missiles on Russian military targets, but he appears to be wavering.

A deadly uptick of Russian guided glide bombs slamming into Ukrainian cities — as many as 800 in a single week this summer — has injected new urgency into a long-running debate over whether Ukraine should be allowed to launch missiles supplied by the West at military targets deep in Russian territory.

Amid signs that President Biden is wavering, the issue will be on the table when he meets in Washington on Friday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, after the two leaders dispatched their top diplomats to Kyiv on Wednesday to hear out the latest pleas from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine has for months asked to use Western long-range weapons to attack more of the military sites that Russia uses to launch missiles and house the warplanes that drop the large, free-fall glide bombs that are wreaking havoc on Ukrainian forces and cities.

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The missile production facility was destroyed in the attack, according to Western officials. Syrian state media reported that 18 people were killed in the strike.

Israel carried out a commando raid in Syria on Sunday that obliterated a Hezbollah missile production facility near the Lebanese border, killing a number of people at the site, according to American and other Western officials.

The operation included a daring raid by Israeli special forces, who rappelled down from helicopters and apparently seized materials from the missile facility, the officials said. Ground forces were used in the attack because of its complexity and to recover information from the secret weapons site, the officials said, adding that there were no Israeli casualties.

The officials said the raid included airstrikes on the sprawling site, the Scientific Studies and Research Center, which is near Masyaf, in the country’s northwest.

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Russia says its forces have recaptured 10 settlements after it launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region to push out Ukrainian troops who stormed across the border five weeks ago.

With fierce fighting continuing, Russia’s defence ministry listed the names of 10 settlements it said it had retaken, in a significant blow to Kyiv. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, acknowledged a Russian counteroffensive had begun.

It follows Ukraine’s surprise cross-border attack last month into western Russia. Zelenskiy said his armed forces had anticipated Russia’s assault this week and the operation was still going to plan.

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The U.S. will provide Ukraine with $700 million in humanitarian aid to support displaced Ukrainians, the energy grid in Ukraine, and demining efforts, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in Kyiv on Sept. 11.

Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrived in Ukraine on Sept. 11 to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials.

. . .

Lammy also announced a similar 600-million-pound ($781 million) aid package while in Kyiv.

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Joe Biden has described the Israel Defense Force’s fatal shooting of the Turkish American protester Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi as “totally unacceptable” in his first extensive comments on her death.

In a statement on Wednesday, Biden said that Israel had “acknowledged responsibility” for Eygi’s death, but he stopped short of backing the demands put out by Eygi’s family and other human rights advocates for an independent inquiry into the fatal shooting of the American activist at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last week.

“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi,” Biden said in the statement. “Israel has acknowledged its responsibility for Aysenur’s death, and a preliminary investigation has indicated that it was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation.”

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Russia is closing in on a key city in Ukraine’s East in one of the fastest advances for its military since the early days of the war. If Russia captures the city, Pokrovsk, it would gain a big strategic advantage in seizing the rest of the Donbas region.

Pokrovsk is at the center of many of the rail and road lines for the whole of the Donbas. A successful Russian assault would cut the main supply lines for troops in the remaining Ukrainian strongholds across the region, and would position Moscow’s forces to menace Ukrainian positions to the south of the city.

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Two dense lines of Ukrainian fortifications remain between the frontline and the city, with anti-tank ditches to slow advancing Russian vehicles and dozens of circular trenches to protect infantry and mortar units.

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia, with a decision understood to have already been made in private.

Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, Blinken said the US had “from day one” been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed. “We will continue to do this,” he emphasised.

Blinken said he and Lammy would report back to their “bosses” – Joe Biden and Keir Starmer – after their talks on Wednesday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

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Israeli soldiers halted a UN convoy involved in the recent polio vaccination drive in Gaza and detained two staff members for questioning, in an incident during which live shots were fired and vehicles damaged by a bulldozer, the UN has said.

Details of the incident, which occurred at the Al Rashid checkpoint, were revealed in a statement by the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator for Palestine, Muhannad Hadi, who said the lives of UN staff in the vehicles had been endangered.

He said a convoy of 12 UN staff members “whose movement was fully coordinated with Israel Defense Forces, and whose details were shared with them in advance, was stopped on its way to North Gaza to support the third phase of the Gaza Strip-wide polio vaccination campaign” on Monday.

According to the statement: “While at the checkpoint the team was informed that the IDF wanted to hold two of the UN staff members in the convoy for further questioning.

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Paying attention to beauty may seem a trivial concern when the very fate of Ukraine is at stake, with Russia stepping up its bombardment of Ukraine’s cities and Moscow’s troops grinding forward on the eastern front. But for many women, it is an important ritual of daily life.

The act of keeping up appearances has also become a small way for Ukrainians to show Russia that this war has not broken them.

Even a simple act of pampering can be difficult to carry out. Power outages and air-raid sirens can make it difficult for women to have their nails done — yet many clearly make the effort. Cases in point: a surly bank teller with polished tan fingernails punctuated by glittery pale swirls, a friendly waitress with fingernails painted like blue crocodile skin, a government worker in a Kyiv suburb who once attended up to a dozen funerals a day and helped supervise the digging of mass graves but who still sports a perfect French manicure.

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The U.K., France, and Germany will impose further sanctions on Iran due to confirmation that Moscow has received ballistic missiles from Tehran, the three countries said in a joint statement on Sept. 10.

Washington confirmed on Sept. 10 earlier media reports that Russia had received shipments of Iranian ballistic missiles.

The confirmation of the deliveries marks a "further escalation of Iran's military support to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," the U.K., France, and Germany said.

The three countries said that they have "privately and publicly been clear that we would take new and significant measures against Iran if the transfers took place."

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