Now wider confirmation from Russian sources that they have quickly withdrawn from izyum and possibly Lyman too. A rout if true.

Confirms what we were told yesterday by Kharkiv police in the 'de-occupied' town of Khrakove - an advance of ±60km in two days. If they continue at this rate, they could soon link up with Ukrainian forces in Sloviansk, isolating Izium.

The pictures and confirmed losses from the advances in the last few days on the Kharkiv front are just astounding, and a major source of morale for Ukrainians

Ukraine in kupyansk. The noose is tightening

'The one element in our collective life that stayed reliably the same has gone. We enter a new future now.' My piece on the passing of the Queen theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Truss should hire one of Macron's speechwriters

'What happens when the land dries up?
The world is facing this question; Iraq is already learning the answers.'

Great piece Louisa Loveluck
Mustafa Salim on the destabilizing effect of climate migration on #Iraq 's cities

washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/…

Four journalists including the founder and editor of Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s last independent news outlets, were charged with criminal offenses on Wednesday, in the government’s latest attempt to intimidate and punish the publication for its reporting. nytimes.com/2022/09/07/wor…

'Families consume bottled water like it is medicine: only drinking it when sick and on the advice of a doctor' - terrifying story on the water crisis in Syria, by Nazih Osseiran news.trust.org/item/202208301…

Spoke to Khodorkovsky about his new book and how Ukraine invasion has upended his views on what the opposition should be doing: he now advocates promoting a campaign of “sabotage” inside Russia theguardian.com/world/2022/sep…

'In the village remained only the obstinate, the outsiders, and those with nowhere else to go.' - banger of a story from John Beck about how an unlikely group of partisans helped stop the Russian advance on Kyiv