A firefighter looks at a partially destroyed residential house in Kyiv, following a Russian drone attack
At least two people have been killed and 11 injured in a new Russian overnight drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, local officials have said.
One of the victims was a one-year-old baby, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Kyiv's military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Sunday. A young woman is also believed to have been killed.
Russian strikes were also targeted at Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown in central Ukraine, where three infrastructure facilities were hit. Air raid warnings were activated overnight for all of the country's regions.
Overnight, several multi-storey residential buildings were partially destroyed and continued to be ablaze after direct hits.
"The Russians are deliberately hitting civilian facilities," Tkachenko said, urging Kyiv residents to remain in shelters.
City authorities said residential buildings were hit in the western Svyatoshynkyi and south-eastern Darnytskyi districts.
There were multiple explosions in Kyiv in the early morning, including at least one in the city centre, seen by the BBC. Several cruise missiles also targeted the capital.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported drone strikes.
French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 of Ukraine's allies had formally committed to deploying troops "by land, sea or air" to help provide security the moment fighting was brought to a halt. He gave no further details.
Putin sought to quash the allies' initiative, warning that any troops deployed to Ukraine would be "legitimate targets".
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory - including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.
Daniel Andreas San Diego was arrested in November 2024, 21 years after the bombings in San Francisco
A suspected double bomber on the FBI's most wanted list who vanished for 21 years is due in court this week to decide if he will be sent back to the United States to face trial.
The FBI believe Daniel Andreas San Diego has links to animal rights extremist groups and is their prime suspect for a series of bombings in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003.
Former FBI agents have said there were "missed opportunities" to arrest the 47-year-old before he vanished and claim they found a suspected "bomb-making factory" in his abandoned car after what detectives called a 65-mile (104km) rush-hour chase in California.
Mr San Diego, who had a $250,000 (£199,000) bounty on his head, faces a five-day extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Monday to find out if the UK will hand him over to the United States to answer a federal arrest warrant.
The former fugitive, the first born-and-raised American on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list, has been indicted by US prosecutors for maliciously damaging and destroying by means of an explosive after two separate attacks in 2003.
Getty Images
Daniel Andreas San Diego (top right) was featured on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list, alongside the likes of Osama Bin Laden
Animal rights extremist group Revolutionary Cells - Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the attacks on firms they believed had links with organisations that tested products on animals.
Former FBI Special Agent David Smith was part of a special operations group that had been watching Mr San Diego.
"He was remarkable by being unremarkable," Mr Smith, one of the bureau's top surveillance experts, told the BBC.
"He was relatively young and normal, there was nothing to suggest this guy was starting to look violent. We never got any indication he was aware of us."
Chrion Security
CCTV footage captures the silhouette of a man who the FBI believe is Daniel Andreas San Diego walking around the Chiron Life Science Center in Emeryville around the time of an explosion at the biotechnology firm
The FBI felt it had enough intelligence to suggest Mr San Diego was its prime suspect and thought it was him that planted the devices that detonated a month apart.
But supervisory special agent Andrew Black, part of the FBI's counter-terrorism media team, recalled: "The US Attorney's Office and case agents were making a decision whether to arrest him now or develop more information.
"The hope was he'd lead us to other members of this animal rights group that were using violence to promote their agenda."
Two bombs exploded at a biotechnology corporation in Emeryville, near Oakland, USA, on 28 August 2003, with investigators believing the second bomb was planted to target first responders.
Then a bomb strapped with nails exploded at a nutritional products company in Pleasanton, 30 miles (48km) east of the first blast, on 26 September 2003. No-one was injured in either bombing.
Getty Images
Police and FBI officers at the scene of two explosions at the old Chiron biotechnology research center in Emeryville in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003
The FBI's former surveillance specialists were told Mr San Diego was developed as a firm suspect and were asked to watch him with an "arrest being imminent".
"We were looking at someone who we think has done multiple bombings and a domestic terrorist," recalled Mr Smith.
Mr Smith and his former colleague Clyde Foreman, a former supervisory special agent, recall urging their colleagues to make the arrest once he had been identified as the main suspect.
Mr Black, an agent of 27 years, added: "As good as you can be, the longer you maintain surveillance eventually they're going to notice something unusual and get spooked.
"There was frustration they weren't given the green light to arrest him as they said there is potential if he leaves, he's going to be able to detonate additional bombs."
Chrion Security
CCTV footage of the explosion from the inside of the Chiron Life Science Center in Emeryville, and the FBI believe Daniel Andreas San Diego is the prime suspect
The day before Mr San Diego went off the FBI's radar, Mr Smith was hiding in camouflage outside his home.
Hours after Mr Smith and the FBI's surveillance specialists went off shift, he said Mr San Diego made a run for it with detectives in pursuit.
"Almost from the time he came out of his house, he was acting frantically," recalled Mr Smith.
"His driving patterns changed. Where he was going, he was driving erratically which is typical of someone trying to evade surveillance."
Agents said he drove south from his home in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, weaved past commuters, through tunnels and over toll bridges in an hour-long motorway chase that ended in downtown San Francisco.
Getty Images
FBI agents at the site of the second device they suspect Daniel Andreas San Diego planted at the Shaklee Corporate Headquarters in Pleasanton in September 2003
Not even the FBI's spy planes could keep eyes on their target as San Francisco's infamous fog blocked their view as Mr San Diego slipped the net.
Mr San Diego left his car with the engine still running, at a busy city centre junction next to a subway station, and wasn't seen again.
"The team that followed him were thinking he parked the car and went a few blocks up the street to a location nearby, either known to the animal rights group or he had a connection with," recalled Mr Smith, an FBI agent of 33 years.
"I asked 'did anyone see him go in or is anyone watching that place right now?' They didn't.
"The car was parked in a bus zone next to the subway and we said 'we think he's gone'."
A map of the key locations in the FBI's pursuit of Daniel Andreas San Diego in 2003
Mr Foreman felt the same.
"We knew he was in the wind and it'll be really difficult to find him," he recalled.
"The case squad was operating under the assumption that San Diego was using a residence for his bomb making.
"When he abandoned his car, we found out his bomb-making lab was in the trunk of his car."
Getty Images
The FBI's assistant director of counter-terrorism Michael J. Heimbach tells a press conference why Daniel Andreas San Diego was being placed on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list
Mr Smith watched as the boot opened and admitted for a detective, it was "everything you ever wanted".
"Had we known that, he'd have certainly been arrested days prior," he added.
"It was validating to say there it was. We felt confident that this was the guy right away. We were very experienced agents and knew a suspect when we saw one.
"It was definitely a missed opportunity."
FBI
Mr San Diego was the first suspected domestic terrorist placed on the FBI's most wanted list
The double bombing came two years after the 9/11 attacks and the US was on high alert, so department chief Mr Foreman was of the view: "Once you have somebody identified, arrest him."
Mr San Diego was a computer network specialist born in Berkeley, California, and brought up in an upper middle-class area of the San Francisco Bay Area. His father was a city manager.
Former Scotland Yard undercover detective and Hunted TV show expert Peter Bleksley feels that fugitive Daniel Andreas San Diego must have had help to get to the UK
The FBI worked on tracking Mr San Diego for years after his disappearance, watching family and friends to see if they could lead agents to him. But the scent went cold. They believed he had probably fled to central or South America.
Mr San Diego was indicted in the US District Court in 2004 and the FBI considered him armed and dangerous.
Then, after 21 years of nothing and both Mr Smith and Mr Foreman retiring from the bureau, they heard one of their most notorious fugitives had been detained in the UK after being found in an isolated cottage on a north Wales hillside.
Aled Evans
Daniel Andreas San Diego lived at Llidiart y Coed, a remote cottage near the village of Maenan in the Conwy valley, which is the only house up a narrow woodland trail
The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and counter-terror police swooped in November 2024, arresting Mr San Diego who had been using the alias Danny Webb in the Conwy valley, near the market town of Llanrwst.
"I believe he had some support - you're not chasing Jason Bourne," said Mr Foreman.
"He was not a skilled intelligence officer. He had to have support."
PA Media
Daniel Andreas San Diego was arrested in north Wales on 21 November 2024
The FBI said it would not comment about the possible missed opportunities to arrest Mr San Diego.
But at the time of his arrest, FBI Director Christopher Wray said: "Daniel San Diego's arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable."
Mr San Diego, who is being held at the high security Belmarsh Prison in London, has declined to comment.
A firefighter looks at a partially destroyed residential house in Kyiv, following a Russian drone attack
At least two people have been killed and 11 injured in a new Russian overnight drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, local officials have said.
One of the victims was a one-year-old baby, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Kyiv's military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Sunday. A young woman is also believed to have been killed.
Russian strikes were also targeted at Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown in central Ukraine, where three infrastructure facilities were hit. Air raid warnings were activated overnight for all of the country's regions.
Overnight, several multi-storey residential buildings were partially destroyed and continued to be ablaze after direct hits.
"The Russians are deliberately hitting civilian facilities," Tkachenko said, urging Kyiv residents to remain in shelters.
City authorities said residential buildings were hit in the western Svyatoshynkyi and south-eastern Darnytskyi districts.
There were multiple explosions in Kyiv in the early morning, including at least one in the city centre, seen by the BBC. Several cruise missiles also targeted the capital.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported drone strikes.
French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 of Ukraine's allies had formally committed to deploying troops "by land, sea or air" to help provide security the moment fighting was brought to a halt. He gave no further details.
Putin sought to quash the allies' initiative, warning that any troops deployed to Ukraine would be "legitimate targets".
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory - including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.
The 6th Century St Catherine's is the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery
For years visitors would venture up Mount Sinai with a Bedouin guide to watch the sunrise over the pristine, rocky landscape or go on other Bedouin-led hikes.
Now one of Egypt's most sacred places - revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims - is at the heart of an unholy row over plans to turn it into a new tourism mega-project.
Known locally as Jabal Musa, Mount Sinai is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments. Many also believe that this is the place where, according to the Bible and the Quran, God spoke to the prophet from the burning bush.
The 6th century St Catherine's Monastery, run by the Greek Orthodox Church, is also there - and seemingly its monks will stay on now that Egyptian authorities, under Greek pressure, have denied wanting to close it
However, there is still deep concern about how the long-isolated, desert location - a Unesco World Heritage site comprising the monastery, town and mountain - is being transformed. Luxury hotels, villas and shopping bazaars are under construction there.
The long-isolated desert location is being transformed
It is also home to a traditional Bedouin community, the Jebeleya tribe. Already the tribe, known as the Guardians of St Catherine, have had their homes and tourist eco-camps demolished with little or no compensation. They have even been forced to take bodies out of their graves in the local cemetery to make way for a new car park.
The project may have been presented as desperately needed sustainable development which will boost tourism, but it has also been imposed on the Bedouin against their will, says Ben Hoffler, a British travel writer who has worked closely with Sinai tribes.
"This is not development as the Jebeleya see it or asked for it, but how it looks when imposed top-down to serve the interests of outsiders over those of the local community," he told the BBC.
"A new urban world is being built around a Bedouin tribe of nomadic heritage," he added. "It's a world they have always chosen to remain detached from, to whose construction they did not consent, and one that will change their place in their homeland forever."
Locals, who number about 4,000, are unwilling to speak directly about the changes.
Ben Hoffler
Construction in the Plain of el-Raha in 2024
So far, Greece is the foreign power which has been most vocal about the Egyptian plans, because of its connection to the monastery.
Tensions between Athens and Cairo flared up after an Egyptian court ruled in May that St Catherine's - the world's oldest continuously used Christian monastery - lies on state land.
After a decades-long dispute, judges said that the monastery was only "entitled to use" the land it sits on and the archaeological religious sites which dot its surroundings.
Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, head of the Church of Greece, was quick to denounce the ruling.
"The monastery's property is being seized and expropriated. This spiritual beacon of Orthodoxy and Hellenism is now facing an existential threat," he said in a statement.
In a rare interview, St Catherine's longtime Archbishop Damianos told a Greek newspaper the decision was a "grave blow for us... and a disgrace". His handling of the affair led to bitter divisions between the monks and his recent decision to step down.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem pointed out that the holy site - over which it has ecclesiastical jurisdiction - had been granted a letter of protection by the Prophet Muhammad himself.
It said that the Byzantine monastery - which unusually also houses a small mosque built in the Fatimid era - was "an enshrinement of peace between Christians and Muslims and a refuge of hope for a world mired by conflict".
While the controversial court ruling remains in place, a flurry of diplomacy ultimately culminated in a joint declaration between Greece and Egypt ensuring the protection of St Catherine's Greek Orthodox identity and cultural heritage.
Ben Hoffler
Mount Sinai, known locally as Jabal Musa, is where Moses is said to have been given the Ten Commandments
'Special gift' or insensitive interference?
Egypt began its state-sponsored Great Transfiguration Project for tourists in 2021. The plan includes opening hotels, eco-lodges and a large visitor centre, as well as expanding the small nearby airport and a cable car to Mount Moses.
The government is promoting the development as "Egypt's gift to the entire world and all religions".
"The project will provide all tourism and recreational services for visitors, promote the development of the town [of St Catherine] and its surrounding areas while preserving the environmental, visual, and heritage character of the pristine nature, and provide accommodation for those working on St Catherine's projects," Housing Minister Sherif el-Sherbiny said last year.
While work does appear to have stalled, at least temporarily, due to funding issues, the Plain of el-Raha - in view of St Catherine's Monastery - has already been transformed. Construction is continuing on new roads.
This is where the followers of Moses, the Israelites, are said to have waited for him during his time on Mount Sinai. And critics say the special natural characteristics of the area are being destroyed.
Detailing the outstanding universal value of the site, Unesco notes how "the rugged mountainous landscape around... forms a perfect backdrop for the Monastery".
It says: "Its siting demonstrates a deliberate attempt to establish an intimate bond between natural beauty and remoteness on the one hand and human spiritual commitment on the other."
Ben Hoffler
The area is known for its natural beauty and rugged mountainous landscape
Back in 2023, Unesco highlighted its concerns and called on Egypt to stop developments, check their impact and produce a conservation plan.
This has not happened.
In July, World Heritage Watch sent an open letter calling on Unesco's World Heritage Committee to place the St Catherine's area on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
Campaigners have also approached King Charles as patron of the St Catherine Foundation, which raises funds to help conserve and study the monastery's heritage with its collection of valuable ancient Christian manuscripts. The King has described the site as "a great spiritual treasure that should be maintained for future generations".
The mega-project is not the first in Egypt to draw criticism for a lack of sensitivity to the country's unique history.
But the government sees its series of grandiose schemes as key to reinvigorating the flagging economy.
Egypt's once-thriving tourism sector had begun to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic when it was hit by the brutal war in Gaza and a new wave of regional instability. The government has declared an aim of reaching 30 million visitors by 2028.
Under successive Egyptian governments, commercial development of the Sinai has been carried out without consulting the indigenous Bedouin communities.
The peninsula was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War and only returned to Egypt after the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979. The Bedouin have since complained of being treated like second-class citizens.
The construction of Egypt's popular Red Sea destinations, including Sharm el-Sheikh, began in South Sinai in the 1980s. Many see similarities with what is happening at St Catherine's now.
"The Bedouin were the people of the region, and they were the guides, the workers, the people to rent from," says Egyptian journalist Mohannad Sabry.
"Then industrial tourism came in and they were pushed out - not just pushed out of the business but physically pushed back from the sea into the background."
Ben Hoffler
A hotel under construction in the Plain of el-Raha in 2024
As with the Red Sea locations, it is expected that Egyptians from elsewhere in the country will be brought in to work at the new St Catherine's development. However, the government says it is also "upgrading" Bedouin residential areas.
St Catherine's Monastery has endured many upheavals through the past millennium and a half but, when the oldest of the monks at the site originally moved there, it was still a remote retreat.
That began to change as the expansion of the Red Sea resorts brought thousands of pilgrims on day trips at peak times.
In recent years, large crowds would often be seen filing past what is said to be the remnants of the burning bush or visiting a museum displaying pages from the Codex Sinaiticus - the world's oldest surviving, nearly complete, handwritten copy of the New Testament.
Now, even though the monastery and the deep religious significance of the site will remain, its surroundings and centuries-long ways of life look set to be irreversibly changed.
In a few weeks the government’s funding will run out. If Democrats vote for a new spending bill, they will be funding Trump’s autocratic takeover — and I don’t see how they can.
A firefighter looks at a partially destroyed residential house in Kyiv, following a Russian drone attack
At least two people have been killed and 11 injured in a new Russian overnight drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, local officials have said.
One of the victims was a one-year-old baby, whose body was pulled from the rubble, Kyiv's military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said Sunday. A young woman is also believed to have been killed.
Russian strikes were also targeted at Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown in central Ukraine, where three infrastructure facilities were hit. Air raid warnings were activated overnight for all of the country's regions.
Overnight, several multi-storey residential buildings were partially destroyed and continued to be ablaze after direct hits.
"The Russians are deliberately hitting civilian facilities," Tkachenko said, urging Kyiv residents to remain in shelters.
City authorities said residential buildings were hit in the western Svyatoshynkyi and south-eastern Darnytskyi districts.
There were multiple explosions in Kyiv in the early morning, including at least one in the city centre, seen by the BBC. Several cruise missiles also targeted the capital.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported drone strikes.
French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 of Ukraine's allies had formally committed to deploying troops "by land, sea or air" to help provide security the moment fighting was brought to a halt. He gave no further details.
Putin sought to quash the allies' initiative, warning that any troops deployed to Ukraine would be "legitimate targets".
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory - including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.
On national security, spending and oversight, the president continues to undercut the legislative branch, and Republicans in charge have done little to stop him.
Israel’s war in Gaza has displaced most of the 2.2 million Palestinian residents from their homes. Many of them fear it will be permanent, a reprise of the Nakba.