Ukraine has blown up a Russian ammunition dump, triggering an explosion so powerful it was picked up by earthquake monitors.

A huge explosion and mushroom cloud was seen coming from a warehouse complex in the city of Toropets, about 300 miles over the border with Ukraine.

It is believed that the depot is used to house North Korean missiles and some of Russia’s most advanced weaponry, including guided bombs, artillery and S-400 air defence systems.

Plumes of smoke rising from the fires were so large that they could be seen from space. The explosions also triggered seismic activity measuring 2.8 points on the Richter scale.

Video footage shot near the depot showed a fireball lifting into the sky so bright it could be seen for miles around, with shockwaves emanating from the blast area.

Russian social media channels showed significant damage to buildings in Toropets, with windows blown from their frames and scorch marks on the walls.

Residents on local online chat groups described villages closer to the ammunition dump being completely destroyed.

One picture appeared to show a house with window frames blown from their fittings into a house overlooking the blast site.

A source in Ukraine’s SBU state security service said its drones had caused an “extremely powerful detonation”. It is not clear exactly which weapons were being stored at the warehouses at the time of the explosion, but Ukraine said they included missiles intended for tactical launch systems and guided bombs.

Russian sources have previously described the storage location of an area of significant importance for Moscow’s armed forces. The site covers an area around two square miles in size, while its outside perimeter is roughly seven miles.

In 2018, Dmitry Bulgakov, a Russian general, said: “The arsenal in Toropets allows us to shelter reserves of missiles and ammunition from external influences and ensure their safety and fire and explosion safety.”

The military site has been targeted by Ukraine twice before, in May and June, according to Astra, the Russian Telegram news channel.

Russian officials attempted to downplay the scale of the strike, claiming air defence crews had repelled a Ukrainian drone attack.

The country’s defence ministry reported that its forces had destroyed 54 Ukrainian drones overnight without mentioning the attack on the storage site.

Local authorities were carrying out evacuations of the civilian population living near the base in Toropets. Schools and nurseries were also cancelled on Wednesday in parts of Russia’s Tver region.

On Wednesday morning, Igor Rudenya, the region’s governor, delivered a speech to camera while explosions were still ringing out in the distance.

Russia’s emergency text message broadcast system pinged mobile phones near the military base, asking people not to publish images of explosions and drones on social media.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, acknowledged the attack by sharing a video of the explosion, commenting: “The demilitarisation of Russia is necessary to end terror.”

Ukraine has been calling on its Western partners to allow Kyiv’s forces to use Western-provided Storm Shadow and Atacms missiles for such strikes.

But with resistance to relaxing the restrictions in the White House, Ukrainian troops are forced to rely on homemade one-way-attack drones.

Power outages were announced on Wednesday in parts of the Tver region, local administration said in a statement that followed reports of the drone attack.

Meanwhile, Russian drones attacked energy facilities in Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Sumy, the regional authorities said on Wednesday.

It has been reported that nobody was injured in the attack, but repeated strikes on the region’s energy facilities have strained the system.

Regional authorities said that air defences shot down 16 drones over the Sumy region during the overnight attack.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russia’s Tuesday attacks had caused a fire at a power substation in the Sumy region and cut power to more than 281,000 consumers. Power was later partially restored, it said.

finallybusy:
Last last, we may find out that she is a South African girl who engineered the whole issue for fifteen minutes of fame.

The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.

Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time.

To set expectations correctly, the vision will be at first be low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.

Much appreciated, @US_FDA!

After Chidimma Adetshina suffered xenophobic abuse online, young Nigerians say they feel unwelcome living in South Africa.

Johannesburg, South Africa – Anita Odunyao Solarin, a 21-year-old Nigerian who has spent her entire life in South Africa, finds it safer not to disclose her West African roots.

She does her best to assimilate with her peers and rarely volunteers her origins. This, she says, shields her from persistent bullying – a phenomenon she’s faced since childhood after moving to South Africa as a baby.

“I try not to show where I am from or look Nigerian. I hide my identity socially,” Solarin told Al Jazeera. “Because I’ve had to do it for so long, it has become normal.”

Her earliest memories of the tensions between South Africans and Nigerians date back to kindergarten, where she was mistreated by a peer.

“It was disheartening. A child, just four years old, hated me even though we were in the same school, looked the same, and did the same things,” Solarin shared.

“My school life was tough because I was bullied for my background. I was called names, especially the derogatory term, makwerekwere [a local slur for foreigner]. South Africans have this idea that if you’re not one of them, you don’t deserve to be here,” she added, her frustration still palpable.

Solarin was brought up in Pretoria, but she doesn’t feel like she belongs in South Africa. Even decades on, she says it’s still easier for her – and other young Nigerians – not to disclose their heritage.

“Not many Nigerian children here will say ‘I am Nigerian’ because they are scared of the backlash and the hate. It’s just not safe for them,” she said.

South Africa has a long history of simmering anti-foreigner sentiment, and social tensions directed at other Black Africans in the country have turned violent over the years.

However, it’s recent events that have deepened Solarin’s disappointment with South Africa when, last month, 23-year-old beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina faced such severe xenophobic harassment as a finalist in the Miss South Africa (Miss SA) pageant that she eventually exited the competition.

Many insisted she had no right to represent South Africa in the competition.

When the controversy around Adetshina began, Solarin said she raised the matter for discussion with some of her international relations professors at the University of Pretoria, but was largely ignored. Her peers, on the other hand, tried to justify their belief that Adetshina should be disqualified based on unfounded rumours that her father may have been linked to criminality.

“[Adetshina] was bullied online because her father was Nigerian. If it had been any other nationality, there wouldn’t have been a problem,” Solarin said. “People even said her father was a drug dealer. Where does that come from? It’s the assumption that all Nigerians are criminals – it’s annoying.”

For weeks, Adetshina endured trolling and abuse, with the online vitriol amplifying existing South African-Nigerian tensions that are fuelled by economic frustrations and stereotypes about foreigners.

South Africa suffers from widespread unemployment and sluggish economic growth.

While the government does little to improve the situation, many find it easier to turn on migrant African communities, accusing them of taking jobs and increasing criminality. These tensions inevitably spill into social media debates, where xenophobic rhetoric soars.

Adetshina’s situation came to a head when a video went viral of her celebrating her Miss SA qualification with her father, who was dressed in traditional Nigerian attire. The backlash was swift and relentless.

South Africa’s Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Gayton McKenzie – known for his xenophobic rhetoric – only added fuel to the fire.

“We truly cannot have Nigerians compete in our Miss SA competition. I wanna get all the facts before I comment, but it gives funny vibes already,” McKenzie posted on social media.

This statement set off a barrage of online abuse, escalating into manifest threats – despite the fact that Adetshina was born in South Africa and therefore qualified to compete.

The South African Department of Home Affairs launched a formal investigation. Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber alleged that Adetshina’s mother had committed identity theft when registering her as a South African citizen.

While the government admitted Adetshina had committed no crime, her mother – who claims South African and Mozambican descent – became the subject of a criminal investigation. Both women denied any wrongdoing, but the pressure eventually forced Adetshina to withdraw from the Miss SA pageant.

“I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the competition for the safety and well-being of my family and me,” she announced on Instagram in August, days before the Miss SA final.

The abuse had become too much to bear, leading her to quit social media platform and limit her Instagram engagement. Adetshina later went on to compete in and win the Miss Universe Nigeria contest, representing her father’s homeland on the basis that she carries dual citizenship.

In interviews, Adetshina shared how the ordeal left her questioning whether she would ever return to South Africa. The emotional scars were so deep that she admitted she would seek therapy to cope.

Disappointed in South Africa’

For Solarin, Adetshina’s withdrawal was disheartening.

“I was very disappointed in South Africa,” she said, her voice filled with regret. Solarin, who dreams of one day becoming a public figure in the political arena, hopes to educate people about the consequences of the social tensions between South Africans and Nigerians.

However, “I don’t see a future for myself in South Africa”, she confessed.

Solarin’s mother, Doris Ikeri-Solarin, who is the head of the civic group Nigerian Union South Africa, says Adetshina was unfairly targeted by anti-Nigerian sentiment.

“This young lady was born, raised, and educated in South Africa. Whatever happened before she was born, she had no control over it. She grew up with the ambition of becoming a beauty queen, and suddenly, because of this tension, she has fallen victim. Even if it turns out her mother was involved in identity fraud, Chidimma shouldn’t have to bear the consequences,” she said.

She views the bullying of Adetshina as a symptom of a deeper rivalry.

“This goes beyond Chidimma. You see it in sport, in school competitions – any time there’s a Nigerian involved, there’s this underlying envy. South Africans don’t want Nigerians to outshine them,” she said.

Ikeri-Solarin compares the experiences of her two daughters: 21-year-old Anita, who studies in South Africa, and 23-year-old Esther, who studies in the United States.

“There’s a stark difference. In South Africa, they see foreigners as threats,” she said, adding that the government should do more to educate citizens. “People migrate all over the world. There are South Africans living abroad, and they’re not treated the way Nigerians are here.”

South Africa witnessed outbreaks of severe xenophobic violence in 2008 and 2015 in which dozens of people were killed. NGO Xenowatch also reported 170 incidents of xenophobia in 2022 and 2023 and 18 incidents in the first quarter of 2024.

South African foreign relations analyst Sanusha Naidu explained that anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa is Afrophobic. However, she cautioned against interpreting the Adetshina debacle as South Africans targeting Nigerians more.

“Let me put it this way, Nigerians give as they get,” she said of the online social rivalry between both states.

Naidu said tensions between large African countries were political, economic and social.

“I think the challenge is not about South Africa and Nigeria and whether we [are] Afrophobic towards them … There are many competing factors and drives and push and pull issues that informed the way we react,” she said.

“In person, I haven’t faced xenophobia. My interactions have been pretty normal. Online, though, that’s where the confrontations happen,” he said.

Obadire believes the root of the social tension is frustration on both sides.

“Everyday South Africans feel like their needs aren’t being met, and then they see someone who’s different from them seemingly getting ahead. On the other side, Nigerians are open about their success, which creates friction,” he explained.

Unlike Solarin, Obadire found university life in Johannesburg welcoming and even secured employment after graduation. However, when asked about the Adetshina controversy, he admits both sides could have handled it better.

Meanwhile, Joseph (not his real name), a South African security guard working at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto – where Adetshina was born – claims that many foreign nationals give birth at the hospital and attempt to register their children as South Africans through illicit means.

“Money talks here,” Joseph said, alluding to corruption in government services.

In Soweto, 22-year-old Patience Dlamini harbours negative views about Nigerians, echoing widespread stereotypes.

“Nigerians commit a lot of crimes,” she said, though she admits she has no proof. “I don’t think the government would lie about her [Adetshina’s] mother stealing someone’s identity. They need to get to the bottom of it.”

Dlamini’s sentiment is shared by other young South Africans who believe that Nigerian immigrants dominate sectors like hospitality and retail while contributing to unemployment and crime.

The social media storm around Adetshina even spurred pranks between South Africans and Nigerians on the e-hailing platform Bolt – which is big in both countries. The taxi app allows users to book “intercountry” requests. People in both countries took advantage of this last month, with Nigerians requesting rides in South Africa and South Africans requesting rides in Nigeria before cancelling them. The so-called ‘Bolt war’ caused prices to surge, left some riders stranded, and led to Bolt restricting intercountry requests.

Alex Asakitikpi, a Nigerian sociologist based in Johannesburg, warns that online tensions can have real-life consequences. He attributes the conflict to economic rivalry between South Africa and Nigeria.

“The comments made by some South African ministers about Chidimma certainly escalated the issue,” he said.

Asakitikpi, who moved to Johannesburg in 2012, acknowledges that while he has experienced xenophobia, most of his South African colleagues have been supportive.

“I overlook the subtle hostility. But I’ve taken precautions, like stopping communication with certain individuals. I don’t visit them anymore, nor do I invite them to visit me,” he admitted.

He argues that politics and media narratives often fuel xenophobia towards Nigerians.

“It’s unfortunate. Just recently, the South African government denied a Nigerian sports team visas. Such actions institutionalise antagonism,” he said.

Olorunfemi Adeleke, a migrant rights activist, agrees.

“In South Africa, it’s almost like being a successful migrant is a crime. The moment you succeed, you face a barrage of investigations,” he said.

Adetshina’s experience, while tragic, underscores the complexities of South African-[quote]Nigerian relations, analysts say.

These tensions, though most visible online, reflect deeper issues that both countries must confront if they hope to foster peace and mutual understanding.

Both South African and Nigerian social analysts agree that the rivalry doesn’t benefit either country or its people.

Starvation in war-stricken Sudan "is almost everywhere", the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has told the BBC's Today programme after visiting the country.

"The situation in Sudan is very alarming, the massive displacement - it's now the largest in the world, and, of course, famine," director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He said 12 million people were already displaced, adding that attention in the global community to Sudan was "really low" and race was a factor.

Thousands of people have been killed since a civil war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

He said he had recently visited a camp for the internally displaced people and a hospital in Sudan.

"You see there many children skin and bone, emaciated."

Close to 25 million people - half of Sudan's population - "need support", Dr Tedros said.

He stressed that Sudan "is not getting the attention it deserves", and that was the case with other recent conflicts in Africa.

"I think race is in the play here. That's what I feel now. We see the pattern now."

Dr Tedros - who grew up during war in Ethiopia - said: “Especially in Africa, I think the attention is really, really low.”

“That’s the sad part, because you see it repeatedly, not just in Sudan,” he added.

“I know the smell of war, the image of war, the sound of war," the WHO chief said.

"From that, I can understand how it impacts others, and I remember my mother praying I survive a day at a time - growing up, survival of the day was a big thing, I see the same thing is Sudan and Gaza."

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Dr Tedros said the world did not give “equal attention to black and white lives".

At the time, he elaborated by saying only a fraction of the aid given to Ukraine was given to other humanitarian crises, with Tigray in Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria not receiving the same treatment.

Dr Tedros urged mainstream media to give more attention to Sudan, describing the situation there as a "tragedy".

In August, a UN-backed committee of experts declared a famine at a camp housing about 500,000 displaced people near the besieged city of el-Fasher in Darfur, one of the regions worst affected by the conflict.

The leader of Sudan's army, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the head of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, had jointly staged a coup in 2021, but then fell out eventually plunging Sudan into a civil war last year.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is accused of supporting the RSF with money and guns - which it denies - while Saudi Arabia is said to have close ties with the Sudanese government.

Various mediation efforts, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US, have failed to end the conflict.

The technology allows a vehicle to move laterally and diagonally, as well as perform stationary 360-degree pivot turns.

Uganda's Rebecca Cheptegei has been buried in her ancestral home in Kapsiywo village, Muimet Parish, Bukwo district, Kongasis County in Eastern Uganda

Rebecca Cheptegei's boyfriend allegedly attacked her as she returned from church in the village of Kinyoro, Kenya, sparking anger over the high levels of violence against women.