International

King Charles III and his oldest son Prince William were yesterday greeted by cheers as they shook hands with people queueing for hours through London to see Queen Elizabeth’s coffin as it lies in state ahead of her funeral.  Cries of “God Save the King” came from the crowd as the new monarch and heir to the throne thanked members of the public before attention turns to the stream of world leaders arriving for the grand state send-off on Monday. “I’m so happy. He was so calm, and friendly and he was so gentle,” said Geraldine Potts-Ahmad, a secretary in her late 50s, as she struggled to contain her emotions after shaking hands with Charles. “He is going to make the best king. That gentleness and that tenderness, I saw the queen in that.” The queen’s death on September 8 aged 96, after a record-breaking 70 years on the throne, has sparked an outpouring of emotion. Members of the public are braving waits that have stretched to more than 25 hours, and chilly night-time temperatures, to view her flag-shrouded coffin. Princes William and Harry were later set to lead a vigil of Queen Elizabeth II’s eight grandchildren at her coffin, joining tens of thousands of members of the public who have been queueing round the clock for days. Lines have snaked for miles along the River Thames since Wednesday, when her coffin was brought to the UK parliament complex. Those inside parliament’s Westminster Hall for the lying-in-state received a shock late on Friday when a man burst out of the line and approached the coffin, which sits topped with the Imperial State Crown. A live television feed of the mourners briefly cut away around 10pm as police detained the man, two hours after Charles and his three siblings had held their own vigil in the cavernous hall. “He was arrested for an offence under the Public Order Act and is currently in custody,” London’s Metropolitan Police said. Some 435 people have needed medical treatment, often for head injuries after fainting in the queue, the London Ambulance Service said. But Jenna O’Sullivan, a charity worker from Pontypridd in Wales, said her 14-hour wait was well worth it after paying her final respects at the coffin. “It was so emotional, with such a nice atmosphere of peace and calm,” the 36-year-old said. “The queue was long but it felt like a celebration. We made some lovely friends.” Police are mounting Britain’s biggest-ever security operation for Monday’s funeral, as hundreds of dignitaries including US President Joe Biden are set to jet in.   Less than two weeks into her premiership, British Prime Minister Liz Truss was on Saturday beginning a packed weekend of meetings with world leaders including her counterparts from New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and Australia, Anthony Albanese, at the government’s Chevening country residence. On Sunday she was due to meet Biden, Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau and Polish leader Andrzej Duda in Downing Street. Charles, meanwhile, was on Saturday scheduled to meet the prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms -- the 14 former colonies over which he now reigns in addition to the United Kingdom — including those of Australia, The Bahamas, Canada, Jamaica and New Zealand. From Australia and Canada to Jamaica and Papua New Guinea, they have formally proclaimed him their new sovereign. But republican movements are gaining ground in many of the countries, and efforts to keep them all in the royal fold will likely be a feature of his reign. Charles on Friday wrapped up his maiden tour as monarch to the four UK nations with a visit to Wales, part of an operation dubbed “Spring Tide” to launch him in his new role. Back in London, Charles joined the 15-minute vigil with his siblings — Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward -- around their mother’s casket on Friday night. They stood, silent and eyes lowered, while members of the public filed past. The vigil will be repeated on Saturday evening by the eight grandchildren, including the new heir to the throne Prince William and his estranged brother Harry. Harry — who served two tours with the British army in Afghanistan — has been given special permission by his father to wear military uniform despite no longer being a working royal. The move appeared to be the latest olive branch offered to Harry by Charles after the prince and his wife Meghan, now living in California, accused the royal family of racism. The personal sorrow of the queen’s family has been playing out in the glare of intense international attention. But the queen’s youngest son Edward said: “We have been overwhelmed by the tide of emotion that has engulfed us and the sheer number of people who have gone out of their way to express their own love, admiration and respect.” The public have until early Monday to view the coffin before the queen is honoured with Britain’s first state funeral in nearly six decades. The spectacular ceremony at Westminster Abbey — expected to be watched by billions around the globe — will see 142 sailors pulling the gun-carriage bearing her lead-lined coffin.

* Queen Elizabeth's grandchildren to hold vigil * Line to see queen's coffin stretches to 16.5 hours * World leaders start arriving in London for funeral King Charles and his son William shook hands and greeted well-wishers who had queued for hours in central London on Saturday to file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, asking people how long they had been there and whether they were warm enough. To cheers of "hip, hip, hurrah" and shouts of "God save the King", Charles and William spoke to mourners near Lambeth Bridge, as they neared the end of the mammoth line to see the lying-in-state in the historic Westminster Hall. On Friday night, Charles had joined his three siblings -- Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward -- in a silent vigil at the coffin while their eight children, including William and Harry, will form their own ceremonial guard later on Saturday. "She wouldn't believe all this, she really wouldn't," William was heard telling one man of the late monarch who died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96. "It's amazing." One woman told Charles it had been "worth the wait" and others wished him well when he asked how long they had been standing there. People continued to flock to central London, adding to the hundreds of thousands who have filed past the coffin in a solemn stream to honour Britain's longest-reigning monarch - a testimony to the affection in which she was held. Ahead of the state funeral on Monday, world leaders also starting arriving in the British capital. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were among the dignitaries to pay their respects on Saturday while New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was seen curtsying to the coffin on Friday. US President Joe Biden was expected to go on Sunday to see Elizabeth lying in state in an oak coffin on a purple-clad catafalque, draped in the Royal Standard and with the bejewelled Imperial State Crown on top. London's police force has described the funeral as the biggest security operation it has ever undertaken as prime ministers, presidents and royals come together, and the king visited police headquarters to thank emergency services workers involved in the planning on Saturday. Underscoring the risks, police said one man had been detained and arrested after a witness told Sky News he "ran up to the queen's coffin". Footage showed a man being pinned to the ground by police officers and taken away. Charles was also due to greet leaders of the 14 countries where he is head of state such as Canada, Australia, and Jamaica after meeting the governors-general - the people who represent the monarch in overseas realms - at Buckingham Palace. By 2 p.m. (1300 GMT), Britain's culture ministry said the waiting time to reach Westminster Hall was up to 16.5 hours. Inside the silent hall, some mourners wept, many were tearful while current soldiers and veterans saluted their former commander-in-chief. Others fell to their knees. At one point the government had warned it would pause entry to the queue if demand became too high, adding at 1 a.m. (0000 GMT): "Please do not travel." New friendships, acts of kindness and the struggles of standing in line for hours, sometimes overnight, have come to define what has become known as just "the queue". Film-maker Matthew West described how a military man was offered the chance to get to the front but declined. "That was the highlight. The lowlight was when we stood still for two hours and I lost the will to live." The death of the queen at her summer estate in the Scottish highlands has sparked an outpouring of emotion across the country and 10 days of choreographed events. Having laid at rest in the Scottish capital the coffin was flown south to London, where tens of thousands of people crowded onto a normally busy road in driving rain to observe the flag-draped casket being driven to Buckingham Palace. FUNERAL PLANS The queen's children have described being overwhelmed by the reaction to their mother's death. The state funeral, to be attended by nearly 100 presidents and heads of government is likely to be one of the biggest ceremonial events ever held in Britain. Soldiers took part in early morning rehearsals in Windsor, where the queen's coffin will be taken after the funeral at Westminster Abbey. Marching bands playing music and Grenadier Guards, who wear a tall bearskin hat on ceremonial duties, were seen marching down the High Street in preparation. Later on Saturday, the focus will switch to the younger royals and their vigil. William and his brother Harry, who have grown apart in recent years after Harry moved to the United States, will both stand guard at the coffin in military uniform. Harry served two tours of duty with the British Army in Afghanistan but so far has appeared in processions in morning suits after he lost his honorary military titles when he stepped back from public royal duties. The two brothers will be joined by their cousins - Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, the children of Princess Anne, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the children of Prince Andrew, and Louise and James, the children of Prince Edward.

London’s police force said the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth will be the biggest security operation it has ever undertaken as prime ministers, presidents and royals come together on Monday to pay their respects to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. The queen’s funeral is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets, echoing other important events in Britain’s history, including her coronation in 1953, the funeral of former prime minister Winston Churchill in 1965 and the death of Princess Diana in 1997. Stuart Cundy, London’s Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner, said the force was preparing for events ranging from terrorism threats to protests and crowd crushes. He said his force would be deploying the largest ever number of officers on the city’s streets and the largest protection operation for world leaders and royals in the police’s almost 200 year history, with officers from almost every force in the country deployed. Among the specialist officers on duty will be divers, dog handlers, police on horses, motorcycle outriders, firearms officers and close protection officers, who will guard leaders and members of the royal family from around the world. US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are among the most high-profile guests from overseas who have confirmed they will be attending. Cundy said the massive policing operation would surpass other major policing events in London, including the 2012 Olympics and the celebrations in June for the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which celebrated her 70 years on the British throne. To give an idea of the scale of the operation, Cundy said 36km of barriers had been deployed in central London to help control the crowds.   Beckham waits in queue to pay respects Former England football captain David Beckham has joined the huge queues in London to file past the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II. The ex-Manchester United and Real Madrid star told Sky News he had joined tens of thousands of people snaking towards Westminster Hall to celebrate Britain’s “special” queen. The queue was temporarily paused yesterday after a park at the end of the line along the River Thames reached capacity, the government said. Beckham, 47, was seen wearing a dark flat cap, suit and tie as he waited in line.

Ukrainian officials said they had found a mass burial site with hundreds of bodies in territory recaptured from Russian forces, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called proof of war crimes by the invaders. Zelensky told Reuters in an interview many Ukrainians were also buried in other sites in the northeast and appealed for foreign powers to step up weapons supplies, saying the outcome of the war hinged on their swift delivery. “As of today, there are 450 dead people, buried. But there are others, separate burials of many people. Tortured people. Entire families in certain territories,” Zelensky said in his presidential office yesterday. The head of the pro-Russian administration which abandoned the area last week dismissed the accounts of the burials outside the city of Izium and accused Ukrainians of stage-managing atrocities. “I have not heard anything about burials in Izium,” Vitaly Ganchev told Rossiya-24 state television. Outside the city yesterday, men in white overalls were digging out bodies at the site in a forest where around 200 makeshift wooden crosses were scattered among trees. Some 20 white body bags could be seen. “We are at the site of the mass burial of people, civilians who were buried here, and now according to our information they all have the signs of violent death,” Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said at the site. “There are bodies with hands tied behind (their backs). Each fact will be investigated and will be properly and legally evaluated,” Synehubov said. If the numbers of bodies are confirmed, the site in Izium, a former Russian front-line stronghold, would be the biggest mass burial found in Europe since the aftermath of the 1990s Balkan wars. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not immediately respond to the accusations, and has yet to comment on the battlefield setback suffered by his forces this month. Ukrainian officials say 9,000sq km have been retaken, about the size of the island of Cyprus. But Putin defended his operations in Ukraine, saying yesterday he had sent his troops into Ukraine to prevent Western plans to break up Russia. Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, and discussing the war publicly for the first time since Ukraine routed Russian troops in the Kharkiv region last week, Putin threatened strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, and said: “We will see how (Ukraine’s counteroffensive) ends.” Russia regularly denies targeting civilians during what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine and has said in the past that accusations of human rights abuses are a smear campaign. In Kupiansk, a northeastern railway junction city whose partial capture by Kyiv’s forces on Saturday cut Russia’s supply lines and led to the swift collapse at the front, small units of Ukrainian troops were securing a nearly deserted ghost town. A formerly Russian-occupied police station had been hastily abandoned. Russian flags and a portrait of Putin lay on the floor amid broken glass. Records had been torched. Behind the steel doors of the station’s jail cells there was blood on the floor and stains on the mattresses. Serhiy, a middle-aged man in a thin jacket, was hungry for news. “There’s no electricity, no phones. If there were electricity, at least we could have watched TV. If there were phones, we could have called our relatives,” he said. After a week of rapid gains in the northeast, Ukrainian officials have sought to dampen expectations that they could continue to advance at that pace. They say Russian troops that fled the Kharkiv region are now digging in and planning to defend territory in neighbouring Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. “It is of course extremely encouraging to see that Ukrainian armed forces have been able to take back territory and also strike behind Russian lines,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told BBC radio. “At the same time, we need to understand that this is not the beginning of the end of the war. We need to be prepared for the long haul.” Ukraine has also launched a major offensive to recapture territory in the south, where it aims to trap thousands of Russian troops cut off from supplies on the west bank of the Dnipro river, and retake Kherson, the only large Ukrainian city Russia has captured intact since the start of the war. Russia’s state-run RIA news agency released video showing smoke billowing from Kherson’s Russian-occupied administration building after apparent Ukrainian rocket attacks.

At least nine people were killed by torrential overnight rains and floods in the central Italian region of Marche, authorities said yesterday, as rescuers continued to search for four still missing. In Cantiano, a village close to the neighbouring Umbria region, residents were clearing mud from the streets, Reuters footage showed, after torrents had swept through several towns leaving a trail of trapped and damaged cars. “My fruit shop has been turned upside down,” Luciana Agostinelli, a local resident, said. Around 15.75 inches of rain fell within two to three hours, the civil protection agency said, a third of the amount usually received in a year. “It was like an earthquake,” Ludovico Caverni, the mayor of Serra Sant’Abbondio, another village hit by the floods, told RAI state radio. The head of the national civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, met local authorities in Marche’s capital city of Ancona to assess the damage, while party chiefs campaigning for Italy’s September 25 election expressed their solidarity. Footage released by fire brigades showed rescuers on rafts trying to evacuate people in the seaside town of Senigallia, while others attempted to clear an underpass of debris. Paola Pino d’Astore, an expert at the Italian Society of Environmental Geology (SIGEA), said the floods were due to climate change and were not easy to predict. “It is an irreversible phenomenon, a taste of what our future will be,” she said. Some 300 firefighters are currently operating in the area and have rescued dozens of people who had climbed on roofs and trees overnight to escape the floods, the fire brigade said. Stefano Aguzzi, head of civil protection at Marche’s regional government, said the downpour was far stronger than had been forecast.

* Zelenskiy blames Russia, says it must be held responsible * Moscow has denied its troops carried out atrocities * Blood in police cells abandoned by Russians * Kyiv's advance encouraging but war not near end -NATO head Ukrainian officials said they found a mass burial site with 440 bodies, mainly of civilians, in a northeastern city recaptured from Russian forces, calling it proof of war crimes carried out by the invaders in territory they had occupied for months. "Russia is leaving death behind it everywhere and must be held responsible," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address overnight. The site in the former Russian front-line stronghold of Izium would be the biggest mass burial found in Europe since the aftermath of the 1990s Balkan wars. Ukrainian forces retook Izium after thousands of Russian troops fled the area, abandoning weapons and ammunition. Ukrainian police chief Ihor Klymenko told a news conference all of the bodies recovered so far at the site appeared to be of civilians, although there was information that some soldiers might have been buried there too. "For months a rampant terror, violence, torture and mass murders were in the occupied territories," Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted in English, above photos of a forest scattered with wooden crosses in fresh muddy ground. A huge pit was taped off with red-and-white crime-scene tape. "Anyone else wants to 'freeze the war' instead of sending tanks? We have no right to leave people alone with the Evil." Russia did not immediately comment on the reports of the mass burial site. In the past it has denied its troops commit atrocities in the conflict. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" to disarm its neighbour. In Kupiansk, a northeastern railway junction city whose partial capture by Kyiv's forces on Saturday cut Russia's supply lines and led to the swift collapse at the front, small units of Ukrainian troops were securing a nearly deserted ghost town. A formerly Russian-occupied police station had been hastily abandoned in Kupiansk, about 60 km north of Izium. Russian flags and a portrait of President Vladimir Putin lay on the floor of the station amid broken glass. Records had been torched. Behind the steel doors of the station's jail cells there was blood on the floor and stains on the mattresses. Three piglets on the loose from an abandoned sty were foraging in the city street. Serhiy, a middle-aged man in a thin jacket, was hungry for news. "There’s no electricity, no phones. If there were electricity, at least we could have watched TV. If there were phones, we could have called our relatives," he said. "If only there hadn't been all this bombing with everyone in their basements.” After a week of rapid gains in the northeast, Ukrainian officials have sought to dampen expectations that they could continue to advance at that pace. They say Russian troops that fled the Kharkiv region are now digging in and planning to defend territory in neighbouring Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. "It is of course extremely encouraging to see that Ukrainian armed forces have been able to take back territory and also strike behind Russian lines," Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told BBC radio. "At the same time, we need to understand that this is not the beginning of the end of the war. We need to be prepared for the long haul." Putin has yet to comment publicly on the battlefield setback suffered by his forces this month. Ukrainian officials say 9,000 sq km have been retaken, about the size of the island of Cyprus. Ukraine has also launched a major offensive to recapture territory in the south, where it aims to trap thousands of Russian troops cut off from supplies on the west bank of the Dnipro river, and retake Kherson, the only large city Russia has captured intact since the start of the war. Russia's state-run RIA news agency released video showing smoke billowing from Kherson's Russian-occupied administration building after apparent Ukrainian rocket attacks. Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the region, told Russian state TV that one wing of the building had been practically destroyed, and there were dead and wounded though it was too soon to say how many. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment. In the east, the chief prosecutor of the pro-Russian separatist administration in Luhansk was killed by an explosion in his office, along with his deputy, according to Russian news agencies. Russia also reported strikes across the border in its Belgorod region. The war and sanctions on Russia have caused a surge in energy prices especially in Europe, which relies on Russian oil and gas. Germany announced on Friday a regulator was seizing the German arm of Russian oil company Rosneft, including a giant refinery supplying most fuel for the capital Berlin. The Schwedt refinery depends on oil pumped from Russia through the "Friendship" pipeline to formerly Communist eastern Europe. German officials have said they expect the country will no longer receive Russian oil. The speed of Ukraine's advance has boosted its morale and bolstered its case for more weapons from Western allies. In Washington, US President Joe Biden announced a new $600 million arms package for Ukraine, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and artillery rounds. The United States has sent about $15.1 billion in security assistance to Kyiv since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.

King Charles and his siblings will keep a silent vigil at the coffin of his late mother Queen Elizabeth on Friday night, while thousands of people are standing in line for miles to pay their last respects to the monarch during her lying-in-state. Charles, his sister Princess Anne, and brothers Princes Andrew and Edward will join the ceremonial guard for the 15-minute vigil at Westminster Hall in central London, where their mother's coffin has rested since Wednesday. On Saturday evening, Queen Elizabeth's eight grandchildren, including Princes William and Harry, will also stand vigil beside her coffin, a royal spokesman said. The coffin will lie in state at Westminster Hall in London until the state funeral on Monday to allow members of the public to pay their respects to the late monarch. Already tens of thousands of people from all walks of life from Britain and around the world have patiently queued for the opportunity to pass by the coffin. By Friday morning, the line stretched back almost 8 km and people were facing a 14-hour wait to reach the hall. The government said the queue, which snakes along the south side of the River Thames, was close to capacity and that entry may need to be paused. Officials expect about 750,000 people to view the coffin before the lying-in-state ends at 6.30am on Monday. Malcolm Keyte, 78, from Surrey in southern England, queued for nearly 10 hours with his two daughters. "We just want to pay our respects and our thanks," he told Reuters near the front of the queue just after 7am "She was a wonderful lady who served the country very well, very loyally, for very many years and we should all be very grateful," he said. Before the 7.30pm vigil, Charles and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, will travel to Wales. The trip will mark the end of a tour of the United Kingdom where he has performed ceremonial duties to acknowledge his status as the new monarch and head of state, and to greet the public mourning the loss of Elizabeth, who reigned for 70 years and died last Thursday at the age of 96. The royal couple will be greeted with a 21-gun salute, attend a cathedral service, and travel to the Welsh parliament. Charles will meet the Welsh first minister and other politicians. Wales has a particular significance for the new king, who for five decades preceding last week's accession had the title Prince of Wales. "His passion and affection for Wales has been clear," his spokesman said. "He has shown a life-long commitment to the country's people." Meanwhile William - Charles' son and the new Prince of Wales - will visit troops from New Zealand, Canada and Australia who are in Britain to take part in events around the state funeral. He will be accompanied by his wife Kate, the new Princess of Wales. The title was previously held by William's mother Diana, killed in a car crash in 1997. Diana's death likewise prompted a national outpouring of grief, and William spoke on Thursday of how the solemn events of the last week had revived memories of the funeral procession for Diana. On Wednesday, William, alongside Charles and his younger brother Harry, walked in a procession behind a gun carriage carrying the queen's coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, a scene reminiscent of when, as boys 25 years ago, the princes had followed Diana's casket. "The walk yesterday was challenging... brought back a few memories," William said as he and Kate spoke to well-wishers and viewed the sea of floral tributes outside the royal residence of Sandringham in eastern England. In an adjustment to protocol, both Prince Harry and his uncle Prince Andrew will be allowed to wear military uniform when they take their turns standing vigil at the queen's coffin. The two - though both war veterans - have so far appeared at events in morning suit as they lost their honorary military titles when they stepped back from public royal duties. Elizabeth's eight grandchildren will keep vigil beside her coffin for 15 minutes on Saturday evening, with William at the head and Harry at the foot, a Kensington Palace spokesman said. "At the King's request, they will both be in uniform." Their spouses will not attend the vigil, the spokesman said. Presidents, prime ministers and royalty from around the world are coming to London for the funeral, which is likely to be one of the grandest ceremonies ever seen in the British capital, involving thousands of military personnel. "It is our aim and belief that the state funeral and events of the next few days will unite people across the globe," said the Earl Marshal, Edward Fitzalan-Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, who is England's most senior peer and is in charge of state occasions. London's Heathrow Airport has said it will cancel 15% of its flight schedule on Monday to reduce noise over the British capital and guarantee that the skies will be quiet during a two-minute silence at the end of the funeral. Monday has been declared a national holiday. Many shops and supermarkets will be closed and a range of other economic activities will grind to a halt. Thousands of people face cancelled doctor appointments or operations.

* German energy industry reeling since war in Ukraine * German regulator now has control of Schwedt refinery * Schwedt refinery is a main fuel source for Berlin * PKN interested in controlling stake in refinery - sources Germany took control of a major Russian-owned oil refinery on Friday, risking retaliation from Moscow as Berlin strives to shore up energy supplies and meet its European Union commitment to eliminate Russian oil imports by the end of the year. The economy ministry said it was putting a unit of Russian oil firm Rosneft under the trusteeship of the industry regulator and taking over the business' Schwedt refinery, which supplies 90% of Berlin's fuel. "With the trusteeship, the threat to the security of energy supply is countered and an essential foundation stone is set for the preservation and future of the Schwedt site," the ministry said in a statement. Governments across Europe have been racing to prop up their power providers and secure fuel deliveries as they ratchet up sanctions on major supplier Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has retaliated by reducing gas flows and has threatened to shut off all the taps, sending prices soaring and raising the prospect of energy rationing in Europe this winter. Rosneft Deutschland, which was majority owned by the Russian oil group and accounts for about 12% of German oil processing capacity, is being placed under the trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency regulator. The regulator said the original owner no longer had authority to issue instructions. Rosneft Deutschland and Rosneft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Polish refiner PKN Orlen is interested in taking a controlling stake in the Schwedt refinery, which is Germany's fourth-largest and also supplies parts of western Poland, sources in Berlin and Warsaw familiar with the matter told Reuters. Shell, which owns a 37.5% stake in Schwedt, has wanted to sell that for some time. Shell said on Friday it was "unaffected" by the German move to take control of the refinery. The Schwedt refinery has posed a dilemma for Berlin for several weeks, as it has received all of its crude from Russia, but Germany is resolved to eliminate imports of oil from Russia by the end of the year under European Union sanctions. Taking over Schwedt, however, risks retaliatory measures from Moscow. Poland said earlier this year that ending Russian ownership of the refinery was a condition for potentially supplying it with seaborne oil via a terminal in Gdansk and via Polish pipelines to replace Russian crude. Germany's economy ministry said Friday's move included a package to ensure the refinery could receive oil from alternative routes, without providing details. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Brandenburg's state premier are due to announce more details at 1130 GMT. Germany's move on Rosneft Deutschland is its latest attempt to stabilise the energy market. The government said this week it would step up lending to companies at risk of being crushed by soaring gas prices, and power utility Uniper said the state could take a controlling stake, adding a government rescue package worth 19 billion euros ($19 billion) was no longer enough. The government has also put SEFE, formerly known as Gazprom Germania, under trusteeship after Russian energy giant Gazprom ditched it in April. Berlin is grappling with Russia's move to halt flows of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which had been the biggest gas supply route powering Europe's biggest economy. As a result of Friday's decision, the Federal Network Agency will take Rosneft Deutschland's shares in the MiRo refinery in Karlsruhe and Bayernoil refinery in Vohburg.

Heavy rains and floods hit the central Italian region of Marche from the late hours of Thursday, killing at least seven people, while three others were still missing, Italian media reported on Friday. Local authorities said they did not expect such a sudden "water bomb", as around 400 millimetres of rain fell within two to three hours, inundating the streets of several towns in the Ancona and Pesaro-Urbino provinces. Footage released by fire brigades showed operators navigating the streets of seaside town Sinigallia on rafters to rescue people and evacuate them, while others attempted to clear an underpass of debris. Rescue services were still searching for survivors, authorities were quoted as saying. Meanwhile, the leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) wrote on Twitter that it would stop its campaign in the region ahead of the Sept. 25 national election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday he understood China’s Xi Jinping had concerns about the situation in Ukraine, a surprise acknowledgement of friction with Beijing over the war after a week of stunning Russian losses on the ground. Since Russia’s invasion, China has trod a careful line, criticising Western sanctions against Russia but stopping short of endorsing or assisting in the military campaign. “We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis,” Putin told Xi at their first meeting since the war began. “We understand your questions and concern about this. During today’s meeting, we will of course explain our position.” Xi did not mention Ukraine in his public remarks, nor was it mentioned in a Chinese readout of their meeting, which took place in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of a regional summit. Beijing’s support is widely seen as essential for Moscow, which needs markets for its energy exports and sources to import high tech goods as it faces sanctions imposed by the West. The last time the two men met they signed a “no limits” friendship agreement between their two countries. Three weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian president’s comments suggested a Chinese shift towards a more critical stance, in private at least. Ian Bremmer, political science professor at Columbia University, said they were the “first public sign of Putin recognising pressure to back down”. “Russia has become a pariah to the G7 because of their invasion. China wants no part of that,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations. White House spokesman John Kirby said China should reject Russia’s invasion: “The whole world should be lined up against what Putin is doing,” Kirby told CNN. “This is not the time for any kind of business as usual with Putin.” In Kyiv, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, held talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky where she told him Ukraine’s accession process to the European Union was well on track. “It’s impressive to see the speed, the determination with which you are progressing,” she said. “We will never be able to match the sacrifice that the Ukrainians are giving when they lose their homes or they cry for their beloved ones... We will never be able to compensate what you do with your fight for democracy, for humanity, for the respect of the international rule of law. But... you have your European friends by your side as long as it takes,” she said. After a week of the fastest Ukrainian gains since the war’s early weeks, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were now fortifying defences and it would be hard for Kyiv’s troops to maintain the pace of their advance. Putin has yet to publicly comment on the setback suffered by his forces after Ukrainian troops made a rapid armoured thrust through the front line last week. Russian troops have abandoned dozens of tanks and other armoured vehicles in haste. Kyiv says it recaptured more than 8,000sq km, nearly equivalent to the size of the island of Cyprus. The speed of the advance has lifted Ukrainian morale, pleased Western backers who have provided arms, intelligence and training, and raised hopes of further significant gains before the winter sets in. Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, said it would still be a tough fight to wrest control of his region back from Russia, which recognises it as an independent state controlled by separatists. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said in an online post: “We should avoid euphoria. There is still a lot of work to be done to liberate our lands, and Russia has a large number of weapons.” There was no let-up either in Russia’s daily missiles strikes on Ukraine, a day after it fired cruise missiles at a reservoir dam near Kryvyi Rih, President’s Zelensky’s hometown. Authorities in the city of Kharkiv said Russian shells had hit a high-pressure gas pipeline, while a rescue operation was underway in the city of Bakhmut with four people suspected to be trapped under rubble after a strike, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Donetsk regional governor, said. Russian forces had launched attacks on several settlements on the Kharkiv frontline in the past 24 hours, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said yesterday. But Britain’s defence ministry said in an update that Ukraine’s forces were continuing to consolidate their control of newly liberated land in the region.

King Charles III leads a procession of the coffin of his mother Queen Elizabeth II through London on Wednesday before hundreds of thousands of people pay their final respects. Six days after her death in Scotland, Queen Elizabeth's body will be borne on a horse-drawn gun carriage from her Buckingham Palace home to Westminster Hall where she will remain for four days until her funeral Monday. The king and other senior royals are expected to walk in silence behind the hearse as it winds through the capital's streets and then hold a vigil upon its arrival at the cavernous 12th-century hall in the Westminster parliament complex. The public will be let in from 5pm (1600 GMT), with mourners already warned they will face an endurance test in round-the-clock queues. "It's going to be emotional and I don't know how I'll feel going in there as the first one," said Vanessa Nanthakumaran, a 56-year-old administration assistant originally from Sri Lanka, who took her place at the head of the queue on Monday evening. "It's our duty to say thank you. It's going to be prayers from the heart. It's going to be very sombre, quiet and overwhelming." The government on Wednesday released the map of the full route for the queue, which could snake back up to eight kilometres along the river Thames, terminating in Southwark Park. Strict rules and airport-style security measures have been put in place, with "far more" people expected than the 200,000 who filed past the coffin of the queen's mother when she died in 2002, according to Prime Minister Liz Truss's spokesman. The government has advised people to wear "suitable clothing" and to bring portable battery packs to keep their mobile phones charged -- an indication that some people will need to wait overnight for a glimpse of the casket. Hotel rooms in the capital are increasingly hard to find, with even budget rooms going for £300 per night, while transport bosses and police are under pressure to keep the city moving and safe in exceptional circumstances. "It's a massive challenge for the Metropolitan Police and for me personally, but we have been preparing for many, many years," the newly appointed head of the London police force, Mark Rowley, told Sky News on Tuesday. The body of the late 96-year-old monarch, who died "peacefully" at her Balmoral estate in Scotland last Thursday, was flown to London aboard an RAF plane on Tuesday evening from the Scottish capital Edinburgh. It was then driven to Buckingham Palace, with images of her coffin arriving for one last night at home splashed across Wednesday's newspapers. "Welcome Home Ma'am," read the headline of The Sun, while the Times ran with the headline "Home to Rest" and the Daily Mail "Home to her Family". The procession on Wednesday will mirror a similar ceremony in Edinburgh on Monday when her casket was driven through the hushed streets of the city to St Giles' Cathedral. There, some 33,000 people filed past the coffin overnight to Tuesday afternoon, the Scottish government said. "Scotland has now bid our Queen of Scots a sad, but fond farewell. We will not see her like again," said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. After Scotland and England, Charles continued his tour of the four nations of the United Kingdom on Tuesday by visiting Northern Ireland for the first time as king. A trip to Wales is expected on Friday. The 73-year-old new head of state has won wide praise in the British media for his dignified and often heartfelt reaction to his mother's death, which has led to a rare moment of public unity in Britain. He has seen his popularity recover since the death of his former wife Diana in a 1997 car crash -- and his ratings have surged in recent days, according to a new survey on Tuesday. The mourning has also obscured -- albeit briefly -- the broader country's sharp political divisions and a severe cost-of-living crisis that is expected to cause a major increase in poverty over the winter. The procession of the queen's coffin will begin at precisely 2:22 pm (1322 GMT) and will be attended by all of the queen's siblings. Big Ben will toll and artillery guns will fire salutes in Hyde Park. The ceremony will also mean another prominent role for the queen's scandal-hit son Andrew, who settled a case in the US earlier this year in which he was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old. Over the last week, he has made what is expected to be a brief return to the public eye during national mourning. Not everyone shares the public mood of sadness and remembrance sparked by the queen's death, with royal fatigue increasingly evident on social media in the face of blanket media coverage. British police have also faced criticism from civil liberties groups over their treatment of anti-monarchy protesters who have publicly challenged Charles' accession to the throne. Video footage and witnesses have drawn attention to police arresting or intimidating people who shouted slogans against the monarchy or held up placards reading "Not My King". The queen's funeral will take place in Westminster Abbey in front of 2,000 VIP guests, with the day declared a public holiday in Britain. Hundreds of heads of state and government, as well as global royalty, are expected, but Russia, Belarus, Myanmar and North Korea have not been invited to send representatives. US President Joe Biden has confirmed he will attend, as will French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

South Korea has fined Google and Meta more than $71 million collectively for gathering users' personal information without consent for tailored ads, regulators said Wednesday, the country's highest-ever data protection fines. Investigations into the two US tech giants found they had been "collecting and analysing" data on their users, and monitoring their use of websites and applications, the Personal Information Protection Commission said. The data was used to "infer the users' interests or used for customised online advertisements", it said, adding that neither Google nor Meta had clearly informed South Korean users of this practice or obtained their consent in advance. As a result, Google was fined 69.2 billion won ($49.7 million) and Meta 30.8 billion won ($22.1 million). "It is the largest fine for the violation of the Personal Information Protection Act," the commission said in a statement. Regulators said the majority of the users in South Korea -- 82 percent for Google and 98 percent for Meta -- had unknowingly allowed them to collect data on their online use. "It can be said that the possibility and the risk of infringement of the rights of the users are high," the statement said. Last year, South Korea fined Google nearly $180 million for abusing its dominance in the mobile operating systems and app markets, saying it was hampering market competition. Giant US tech companies are regularly criticised for dominating markets by elbowing out rivals, with multiple governments globally seeking to rein them in. The European Union has slammed Google with record antitrust penalties, and also gone after Apple and Microsoft.

The late Queen Elizabeth II was patron of numerous good causes, as is her son King Charles III, but he will now look to redistribute them among the Royal Family. The queen, who will lie in state from Wednesday until her funeral Monday, was patron of 600 causes including the British Red Cross humanitarian group and the Royal Society science academy. Lesser-known yet peculiarly British patronages included the Royal Pigeon Racing Association and Bowls England, the national governing body for outdoor flat green bowls. Charles, a lifelong champion of the environment with some 500 patronages, indicated that he will delegate some duties after her death last week. "My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities," Charles said in his first address as king last Friday, one day after his mother's death. "It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. "But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others." British royals lend their support to a combined 3,000 groups to highlight good causes, secure publicity and raise valuable funds. Patronages -- links with charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations -- represent about one quarter of the royal family's activities. The queen had already been winding down activities since her 90th birthday in 2016, when she made her grandson William's wife, Kate, patron of Wimbledon's All England Lawn Tennis Club. "In the last few years, the queen was passing on patronages to other members of the royal family; the process had already begun," said Majesty Magazine managing editor Joe Little told AFP. "Nothing will happen immediately, but (they) will be distributed among the family." Charles' environmental credentials include campaigning for better conservation, organic farming and tackling climate change. He has been president of the WWF-UK animal charity since 2011 and about 80 of his patronages are green causes -- including Surfers Against Sewage. The new king, 73, may therefore decide to keep supporting causes that are closest to his heart or hand over their running to foundations, according to Little. Yet the queen's former patronages will be shared among other royals in a process that could take several years, he added. Charles might decide to curb the number of patronages as part of a possible plan to pursue a slimmed-down monarchy under his reign. The royal family's historic patronages date back to the 18th century, when King George II decided to lend his support to the Society of Antiquaries charity -- of which the late queen remained a fellow. In the same way, many patronages have been passed from sovereign to sovereign. Since her death, organisations have lined up to praise the queen's active support during her 70-year reign. Vocal groups include the Chatham House think-tank and Fields in Trust, a charity protecting green spaces that was founded by her father George VI in 1925 -- one year before Elizabeth was born. Each Christmas, the queen would visit the Women's Institute (WI) near her Sandringham estate in eastern England. Yet royal patronages are not without their critics. Research group Giving Evidence concluded in a 2020 study that there was "no evidence" that royal links helped the income of charities. "I have heard some charities say that the royal patrons are fantastic, and they help a lot," Giving Evidence founder Caroline Fiennes told AFP. "If you can go to a meeting particularly abroad and you can take a princess with you, then you can get meetings that you wouldn't get normally. But she said she'd heard "other charities say it's a complete nightmare." "They don't like the royal they've got (but) they can't get rid of them. They can't upgrade them for a better royal," she added without naming any particular member.

* Ukraine now on offensive in both south and east * New US military aid for Ukraine likely, White House says * Residents in northeast greet Ukrainian forces with cheers, hugs * Russia likely using Iranian UAVs in Ukraine - UK Defence Ukraine worked on Wednesday to secure territory reclaimed from occupying Russian forces in a swift counter-offensive and reiterated plans to win back all occupied regions, as US President Joe Biden predicted "a long haul" ahead. In a Tuesday evening address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said around 8,000 square km have been liberated by Ukrainian forces so far this month, apparently all in the northeastern region of Kharkiv. "Stabilisation measures" had been completed in about half of that territory, Zelenskiy said, "and across a liberated area of about the same size, stabilisation measures are still ongoing". Reuters was not able to immediately verify the full scope of battlefield successes claimed by Ukraine. The total area cited by Zelenskiy is roughly the size of the Greek island of Crete. Asked whether Ukraine has reached a turning point in the six-month war, Biden said it was hard to tell. "It's clear the Ukrainians have made significant progress. But I think it's going to be a long haul." The White House, which has provided billions of dollars of weapons and support to Ukraine, has said the United States is likely to announce a new military aid package in "coming days". Since Moscow abandoned its main bastion in the northeast on Saturday, marking its worst defeat since the early days of the war, Ukrainian troops have recaptured dozens of towns in a stunning shift in battleground momentum. Speaking in the central square of Balakliia, a crucial military supply hub taken by Ukrainian forces late last week, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said 150,000 people had been liberated from Russian rule in the area. "The aim is to liberate the Kharkiv region and beyond - all the territories occupied by the Russian Federation," Malyar said on the road to Balakliia, which lies 74 km (46 miles) southeast of Kharkiv. Groups of Ukrainian soldiers smoked, grinned and chatted beside the road to Balakliia, which was littered with charred vehicles and destroyed military hardware. One soldier was stretched out on the top of a tank like it was his living room sofa. With Ukraine's flag flying in the city once again, people clamoured for supplies, and spoke of all they endured. "I was walking away ... when I saw an armoured personnel carrier coming onto the square with a Ukrainian flag: my heart just tightened up and I began to sob," Mariya Tymofiyeva, a 43-year-old resident said, her voice trembling with emotion. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syehubov said authorities were trying to record crimes committed by Russians during their occupation of the area, and recover the bodies of victims. "We're asking everyone around about all the places of burial which can be found," he said. Moscow denies its forces have committed atrocities in areas they have controlled since President Vladimir Putin ordered what he calls a "special military operation" on Feb. 24. Meanwhile, repair crews have restored the two main power lines supplying Kharkiv city and its surrounds, power firm Ukrenergo said after Russian shelling caused blackouts. Kyiv fears Moscow will step up attacks on its energy networks as winter approaches and is pleading for anti-aircraft technology from the West to protect infrastructure. Russia has likely used Iranian-made uncrewed aerial vehicles in Ukraine for the first time, Britian's defence intelligence said on Wednesday, after Kyiv reported downing one of the UAVs on Tuesday. "Russia is almost certainly increasingly sourcing weaponry from other heavily sanctioned states like Iran and North Korea as its own stocks dwindle," it said in a regular update. The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Wednesday that Russian forces had launched three missile strikes, 33 air strikes and fired 58 rocket artillery strikes at military and civilian targets over the past 24 hours. Russian forces still control about a fifth of Ukraine in the south and east, but Kyiv is now on the offensive in both areas. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych held out the prospects of moving on the eastern province of Luhansk, which together with Donetsk is known as the Donbas, a major industrial region close to the border with Russia. "There is now an assault on Lyman and there could be an advance on Siversk," Arestovych said in a video posted on YouTube. He predicted a fight for the town of Svatovo, where he said the Russians have storage depots. "And that is what they fear most - that we take Lyman and then advance on Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk," he said, referring to the twin cities taken by Russia after fierce fighting in June and July. On top of the setbacks in Ukraine, Russian authorities are also facing challenges in other former Soviet republics. About 100 people have been killed this week in the deadliest fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia since a 2020 war, prompting Putin to appeal for calm. On Wednesday, shooting broke out between guards patrolling the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Russian news agencies said, citing the Kyrgyz border service.

Crowds of well-wishers greeted King Charles with handshakes and warm words when he visited Northern Ireland yesterday as part of a tour of the United Kingdom to lead mourning for his mother Queen Elizabeth. Enthusiasm for the new monarch and fond memories of the queen were evident during a visit laden with symbolism and significance given Britain’s historical record in Ireland and the more recent years of violence in Northern Ireland. “For Northern Ireland, she (the queen) meant a lot here. As you know we are quite a split country unfortunately, but the queen always stood by us,” said Joey McPolin, 77, from Dramore. “Our friends here in Northern Ireland, we all want to live together, we really do. I think people with different religions recognise the wonderful job she did. I really hope we all go forward and support our king,” she said. In Scotland, Queen Elizabeth’s flag-draped coffin laid at rest in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, where thousands of people filed past it to pay their final respects. The casket was later flown to London for four days of lying in state before a state funeral on Monday. Elizabeth died on Thursday in her holiday home at Balmoral Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, at the age of 96, plunging the nation into mourning for a monarch who had reigned for 70 years and was a principal part of the fabric of British life. Charles, 73, who automatically became king of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and Jamaica, is travelling to the four parts of the United Kingdom before the funeral. In Northern Ireland, thousands of people lined the streets outside Hillsborough Castle, the monarch’s official residence, to welcome him. He stepped out of his car to shake hands with well-wishers to chants of “God Save the King”. Joy Hutchinson, 34, said she hoped Charles would keep the United Kingdom together after some have blamed Brexit, Britain’s departure from the European Union, among other things for loosening Britain’s ties with Northern Ireland. Later Charles met senior politicians and faith leaders at the castle, telling them in a speech he would seek the welfare of the people of Northern Ireland. He also paid tribute to his mother. “My mother saw Northern Ireland pass through momentous and historic changes. Through all those years, she never ceased to pray for the best of times for this place and for its people, whose stories she knew, whose sorrows our family had felt, and for whom she had a great affection and regard.”

Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century and the father of the French New Wave, died “peacefully at home” yesterday aged 91, his family said. His legal counsel later confirmed he died by assisted suicide. The legendary maverick blew up the conventions of cinema in the 1960s, shooting his gangster romance Breathless on the streets of Paris with a hand-held camera, using a shopping trolley for panning shots. He continued to thumb his nose at Hollywood and an older generation of French filmmakers by breaking all the rules again in Contempt (1963) with Brigitte Bardot and Pierrot le Fou in 1965. “No official (funeral) ceremony will take place,” his family said. “He will be cremated...And it really must happen in private.” Godard’s legal counsel Patrick Jeanneret confirmed a report in French daily Liberation that he had resorted to assisted suicide. The practice is regulated in Switzerland and permitted if offered without a selfish motive to a person with decision-making capacity to end their own suffering. “Godard had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure as he was stricken with ‘multiple invalidating illnesses’, according to the medical report,” said Jeanneret. Godard has lived as a virtual recluse for decades in the Swiss village of Rolle. It was there that he died “peacefully at home”, his wife Anne-Marie Mieville at his side, his producers said. Godard’s influence is hard to overestimate, with directors from Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson to Robert Altman, the maker of M*A*S*H and The Player, often speaking of their debt to him. French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the director’s talent and mourned the loss of a “national treasure”. “Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic filmmaker of the New Wave, invented a resolutely modern, intensely free art. We have lost a national treasure, a genius,” Macron tweeted. Godard’s house, with green shutters and a green bench out front, looked empty on Tuesday, its shades drawn, with an abandoned ashtray and teapot on the windowsill, an AFP reporter said. Despite the filmmaker’s often difficult relationship with critics, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw heaped praise on Godard, saying, “The last great 20th-century modernist is dead”. He compared him to other 1960s rebels like John Lennon and Che Guevara. “Or maybe Godard was the medium’s Socrates, believing that an unexamined cinema was not worth having,” he added. Guy Lodge, of Variety, tweeted that it was “glib to say ‘he changed everything’, but he sure changed a hell of a lot of things”.  Indeed, Godard became a “god” to many 1960s political and artistic radicals who would hang on every word of his often contradictory — and tongue-in-cheek — declarations on the state of cinema and the world. “All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl,” he once proclaimed, in a nod to US actress Jean Seberg, the star of  Breathless. The movie was a fashion as well as a film landmark, her pixie haircut copied by millions bowled over by her effortless Parisian cool. “A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end — but not necessarily in that order,” Godard later famously declared, and “every edit is a lie”. As he grew older, Godard would occasionally emerge from his Swiss bolthole to make low-budget films well into his 80s. He never, however, regained the capacity to shock or move more mainstream audiences as he had in the 1960s, though a small band of disciples remained doggedly loyal to the master. His periodic appearances at the Cannes film festival — often via FaceTime — still drew crowds, though he no longer held the sway he did when he had managed to shut down the festival entirely in 1968 in solidarity with the student protests in Paris. Cannes also saw the premiere in 2017 of Redoubtable, a tragi-comic film about Godard’s doomed romance with the French actress Anne Wiazemsky, directed by the Oscar-winning director of The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius.

Film director Jean-Luc Godard, the godfather of France's New Wave cinema, died on Tuesday aged 91, newspaper Liberation and other French media said. Godard was among the world's most acclaimed directors, known for such classics as "Breathless" and "Contempt", which pushed cinematic boundaries and inspired iconoclastic directors decades after his 1960s heyday. His movies broke with the established conventions of French cinema and helped kickstart a new way of filmmaking, complete with handheld camera work, jump cuts and existential dialogue. For many movie buffs, no praise is high enough: Godard, with his tousled black hair and heavy-rimmed glasses, was a veritable revolutionary who made artists of movie-makers, putting them on a par with master painters and icons of literature. "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to," Godard once said. Godard was not alone in creating France's New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), a credit he shares with at least a dozen peers including Francois Truffaut and Eric Rohmer, most of them pals from the trendy, bohemian Left Bank of Paris in the late 1950s. However, he became the poster child of the movement, which spawned offshoots in Japan, Hollywood and, more improbably, in what was then Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia as well as in Brazil. "We owe him a lot," former French culture minister Jack Lang wrote in an emailed statement. "He filled cinema with poetry and philosophy. His sharp and unique eye made us see the imperceptible." Quentin Tarantino, director of 1990s cult films "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs", is among a more recent generation of film makers who took up the mantle of the boundary-bending tradition initiated by Godard and his Paris Left Bank cohorts. Earlier came Martin Scorsese in 1976 with "Taxi Driver", the disturbing neon-lit psychological thriller of a Vietnam veteran turned cabbie who steers through the streets all night with a growing obsession for the need to clean up seedy New York. Godard was not everyone's idol. Wild-child Canadian director Xavier Dolan, who at 25 shared an award with an octogenarian Godard at the Cannes film festival in 2014, courted controversy every bit as much as Godard did but called him "the grinchy old man" and "no hero of mine". Godard was born into a wealthy Franco-Swiss family on December 3, 1930 in Paris's plush Seventh Arrondissement. His father was a doctor, his mother the daughter of a Swiss man who founded Banque Paribas, then an illustrious investment bank. This upbringing contrasted with his later pioneering ways. Godard fell in with like-minded folk whose dissatisfaction with humdrum movies that never strayed from convention sowed the seeds of a breakaway movement which came to be called the Nouvelle Vague. With its more forthright, offbeat approach to sex, violence and its explorations of the counter-culture, anti-war politics and other changing mores, the New Wave was about innovation in the making of movies. Godard was one of the most prolific of his peers, producing dozens of short- and full-length films over more than half a century from the late 1950s. "Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form," Godard said. Most of his most influential and commercially successful films came in the 1960s, including "Vivre Sa Vie" (My Life to Live), "Pierrot le Fou", "Two or Three Things I Know About Her" and "Weekend". He switched to directing films steeped in leftist, anti-war politics through the 1970s before returning to a more commercial mainstream. Recent works, however - among them "Goodbye to Language" in 2014 and "The Image Book" in 2018 - were more experimental and slimmed the audience largely to Godard geeks.

* People queue for hours to pay respects * King Charles to visit Northern Ireland * London prepared for lying in state Queen Elizabeth's coffin will be flown to London on Tuesday at the end of 24 hours of lying at rest in Edinburgh's historic cathedral, where her son King Charles and his three siblings held a silent vigil. Charles was joined by his sister Anne and brothers Andrew and Edward for the 10-minute vigil on Monday at St Giles' Cathedral, where they stood, heads bowed, at the four sides of the coffin while members of the public filed past to pay their respects. While a bagpipe lament had been the only sound as kilted soldiers bore the casket earlier in the day, the four royals left the vigil in darkness to the sound of applause from mourners lining the street. Frances Thain, 63, said she had been surprised to see the queen's four children as she entered the cathedral. "I was just overwhelmed because there were so much to take in," she said. People queued overnight to pay their respects, with some arriving with sleeping children and many wearing winter jackets, scarves and woollen hats to keep out the cold. "We were desperate to be here to show our respects." said Will Brehme, an engineer from Edinburgh, who arrived in the early hours of the morning with his partner and 20-month-old daughter sleeping in a baby carrier. "It is a moment that will live with us forever. When you think that she worked all of her life for us it is the least we could do." Elizabeth died on Thursday in her holiday home at Balmoral Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, at the age of 96 after a 70-year reign, plunging the nation into mourning. Her funeral will be held on Sept. 19. Charles, 73, who automatically became king of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and Jamaica, is travelling to the four parts of the United Kingdom before the funeral, and will visit Northern Ireland on Tuesday. In Belfast, he will meet senior politicians and faith leaders and attend a service at the city's St Anne's Cathedral before returning to London. Tens of thousands of mourners have turned out in Scotland, with deep crowds gathering from the early hours to observe the processions along the historic Royal Mile. In London, huge numbers of people have left flowers and messages in the grounds of royal parks. The queen's coffin will leave Scotland for the first time since her death when it is flown to London in the early evening and then driven to Buckingham Palace. On Wednesday, it will be taken on a gun carriage as part of a grand military procession to Westminster Hall where a period of lying in state will begin until Sept. 19. Members of the public will be allowed to process past the coffin, which will be covered by the Royal Standard flag with the sovereign's Orb and Sceptre placed on top, for 24 hours a day until the morning of the funeral. The death of Britain's longest-reigning monarch has drawn tears and warm tributes, not just from the queen's own close family and across Britain, but also from around the globe - a reflection of her presence on the world stage for seven decades.

Ukraine said Monday that its forces regained yet more ground in the past 24 hours and retook an area seven times the size of Kyiv this month, as Russia responded with strikes on some recaptured areas. The territorial shifts marked one of Russia's biggest reversals since its troops were turned back from Kyiv in the earliest days of the nearly seven months of fighting, yet Moscow signalled it was no closer to agreeing to a negotiated peace. The retreat of Russian troops in recent days has drawn weeping and relieved locals into bomb-cratered streets, including on Sunday in the strategic but heavily damaged town of Izyum. "It's not enough to say I'm happy. I just don't have enough words to express myself," said Yuriy Kurochka, 64. Yet by Monday, Moscow had announced air, rocket and artillery attacks on reclaimed areas in the Kharkiv region, a day after Kyiv said Russian strikes on electricity infrastructure had caused power failures. The retaliatory fire came as Ukraine said forces had retaken more than 20 additional settlements, claiming "Russian troops are hastily abandoning their positions and fleeing". Kyiv had already announced the recapture of Izyum in the country's east, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine's forces retook a total of 6,000 square kilometres from Russian control in September. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said Ukrainian forces had made "significant progress", due to their resilience as well as US support. "It's too early to tell exactly where this is going. The Russians maintain very significant forces in Ukraine as well as equipment and arms and munitions. They continue to use it indiscriminately against not just the Ukrainian armed forces but civilians and civilian infrastructure as we've seen," Blinken said. A US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, tweeted: "Ukraine has turned the tide in its favour, but the current counter-offensive will not end the war." Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told French daily Le Monde in a Monday interview that the war has entered a new phase with the help of Western weapons. Moscow conceded having lost territory -- which experts saw as a serious blow to its war ambitions -- but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no prospect of negotiations. "The special military operation continues and will continue until the objectives that were originally set are achieved," he added, using Russia's terminology for the internationally condemned war. The Russian strikes hit 15 locations on Sunday, from Kramatorsk in the east to Mykolaiv in the south and Dnipro in between, Ukraine's military said. Ukraine had already lost all power from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, threatened by shelling since February's invasion. The country's nuclear energy agency said the final reactor at the plant -- Europe's largest nuclear power station -- had been shut off as a safety measure. Kyiv and Moscow have shown "signs that they are interested" in creating a security zone around the plant, the UN atomic watchdog said Monday. "What we need here really is Ukraine and Russia to agree on a very simple principle of not attacking or not shelling the plant," IAEA director general Rafael Grossi told reporters. But later Monday, Ukraine foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the only way to "ensure the nuclear safety and security of the Zaporizhzhia power plant is its de-occupation, demilitarisation and return to Ukrainian control". "All IAEA efforts must be focused on achieving this goal," he wrote on Twitter. The speed of Ukraine's fightback has seemingly caught Russia's military off guard, bringing swathes of territory Moscow had controlled for months back into Kyiv's fold. Images posted by the Ukrainian military showed crates of munitions and military hardware scattered across territory abandoned by Russian forces. Around the town of Balakliya, AFP journalists saw evidence of fierce battles, with buildings destroyed or damaged and streets mostly deserted. Ukrainian authorities also claimed to have found four bodies of civilians with "signs of torture" in the recaptured village of Zaliznychne. Residents reported that Russian troops had killed villagers, the regional prosecutor's office said. Ukraine's foreign minister used the momentum of the country's fightback to appeal to Western allies for more stockpiles of sophisticated weapons. "Weapons, weapons, weapons have been on our agenda since spring. I am grateful to partners who have answered our call: Ukraine's battlefield successes are our shared ones," Dmytro Kuleba said.

Sweden yesterday began a days-long wait for the final results of a too-close-to-call general election, with an unprecedented right-wing and far-right bloc in position to wrest power from Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats. The Scandinavian country has seen mounting political instability in recent years as the gradual rise of the far right has upset the traditional balance of power in parliament. Sweden again found itself in a delicate parliamentary situation after Sunday’s legislative election, with the right seen holding a razor-thin lead over Andersson’s outgoing left bloc. “The close result in parliament suggests Sweden is heading for yet another messy mandate”, newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter wrote yesterday. Election authorities said a final result would be ready at the earliest tomorrow, once the last ballots from abroad and from advance voting had been counted. Editorialist Anders Lindberg of daily Aftonbladet told AFP it appeared “impossible for the left to win because the votes from abroad are... usually in favour of the right”. With 95% of votes counted yesterday, the right led by conservative Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson was credited with an absolute majority of 175 of 349 seats in parliament. Andersson’s left bloc trailed with 174. If confirmed, the Social Democrats would be out after eight years in power. Kristersson, who vowed during the campaign to crack down on law and order amid soaring crime rates, said he was “ready to build a new and strong government”. The election’s big winner was, however, the anti-immigration, nationalist Sweden Democrats party, led by Jimmie Akesson. It was credited with 20.6% of votes, making it the biggest party on the right and the second biggest in the country behind the Social Democrats. “It’s looking pretty damn good now”, 43-year-old Akesson told cheering supporters late Sunday. The right bloc — made up of the Sweden Democrats, Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals — were seen winning 49.7%. The left, comprised of the Social Democrats, the Left, the Greens and the Centre parties, were meanwhile credited with 48.9%. Prime Minister Andersson, 55, has refused to throw in the towel just yet. “We’re not going to have a final result tonight,” she told supporters late Sunday as her party was seen posting a strong result of around 30% of votes. She called on Swedes to “have patience” and “let democracy run its course”. The election marked a major shift in Swedish politics. For the first time, the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals tied up with the far right, long treated as “pariahs” by other political parties. Kristersson orchestrated the change, initiating exploratory talks in 2019 with the Sweden Democrats and then deepening their cooperation. The Christian Democrats, and to a lesser extent the Liberals, later followed suit. “Our goal is to sit in government. Our goal is a majority government,” Akesson said late Sunday. Even before the final results were in, the right began their first meetings yesterday, with both Akesson and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson seen arriving at the Moderates offices for separate talks. The right-wing bloc is, however, rife with internal divisions, and Kristersson could struggle to form a stable coalition government. The Liberals have opposed the idea of the Sweden Democrats being given cabinet posts — a position they reiterated yesterday — and would prefer for them to remain in the background providing informal support in parliament. Akesson has insisted his party be in government or he will present a litany of demands in exchange for his support. That could be too much for the Liberals to stomach. “It would suffice for one of the Liberal party’s far-right-critical MPs to dissent for Ulf Kristersson’s government to find itself in serious trouble,” Dagens Nyheter wrote yesterday. Political analyst Ulf Bjereld agreed. A Kristersson-led government “will have to deal with very strong internal tensions and some Liberals will demand that they start to co-operate with the Social Democrats instead”, he told AFP. The Sweden Democrats “have their roots in neo-Nazism and on the other side the Liberals stand for everything the Sweden Democrats don’t”, he added. Analysts stressed Sweden was in need of political stability amid a busy docket in the coming months. The country faces a looming economic crisis, is in the midst of a historic and delicate Nato application process and is due to take over the EU presidency in 2023.