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Ukraine

RUSSIAN troops abandoned their positions on a captured Ukrainian island this week, a move that weakens their blockade of Ukraine’s ports, defence officials said.

Snake Island became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance early in the war, when the rocky outcrop’s defenders told a Russian warship that called on them to surrender to “go f*** yourself”, an incident that spurred a defiant meme. It was also a strategic target, sitting aside shipping lanes near Ukraine’s port of Odessa.

The Russian defence ministry described the retreat as “a gesture of goodwill” meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine. But Kyiv claimed it as a win.

Meanwhile, Russia on Thursday began shipping grain from the occupied territory, with a vessel carrying 7 000 tons of cereal sailing from Ukraine’s port of Berdyansk.

Kyiv has accused Russia of stealing its grain from southern Ukraine, contributing to a global food shortage caused by grain exports blocked in Ukrainian ports. Until now shipments have been transported by land, Kyiv says. | AFP

Russia

RUSSIAN lawmakers have approved legislation that will make it easier to shut down foreign media amid Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

The law also makes it easier to temporarily suspend the work of Russian media accused of spreading “dangerous” information and discrediting the country’s armed forces.

The legislation gives the Prosecutor General’s office the right, “to promptly take a decision to ban or restrict the activities of media outlets of this country in Russia”, Russian parliament’s lower house said. | AFP

Israel

ISRAELI lawmakers dissolved parliament on Thursday, forcing the country’s fifth election in less than four years, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid set to take over as caretaker prime minister at midnight.

After the unanimous 92-0 vote, the centrist Lapid embraced outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose year in charge of an unwieldy, eight-party coalition was ultimately undone by its ideological divisions. The new election is set for November 1. | AFP

Belgium

PRODUCTION has been stopped in the world’s biggest chocolate plant, run by Swiss giant Barry Callebaut in the Belgian town of Wieze, after salmonella contaminations was found, the firm said this week.

The factory produces liquid chocolate in wholesale batches for 73 clients.

The scare comes a few weeks after a case of chocolates contaminated with salmonella in the Ferrero factory in Arlon in Belgium manufacturing Kinder chocolates.

Belgian health authorities announced on June 17 that they had given the green light to restart the Ferrero factory for a three-month test period. | AFP

Monkeypox

RESEARCHERS in Italy who were first to identify the presence of monkeypox in semen are broadening their testing, saying early results suggest sperm can be a vehicle for infection.

A team at Rome’s Spallanzani Hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases, revealed in a study published this month that the virus DNA was detected in semen of three out of four men diagnosed with monkeypox. | AFP