At least 6 killed and dozens injured in Russian attacks on Kyiv: Ukrainian officials
A general view of the aftermath following an overnight wave of Russian strikes on November 14, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Kyiv was attacked by a wave of Russian drones and missiles on the night of November 14, with the Ukrainian president alleging that Russia had launched 430 drones and 18 missiles, damaging dozens of high-rise buildings. Search and rescue operations are ongoing as damage is reported across nine districts of the capital. (Photo by Maksym Kishka/Frontliner/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least six people have been killed and 35 injured, including a pregnant woman, from ongoing Russian attacks in the Kyiv region early Friday morning, Ukrainian officials said.
Sections of certain heating networks in the region were damaged from the attack, and some buildings were without heat supply, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.
At least 15 buildings have been damaged in Kyiv so far from the attacks, the Kyiv City State Administration said in a post on Telegram.
Ukrainian officials said that 430 drones and 18 missiles were launched as debris from the strike rained down on Kyiv.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Ukrainian forces were forced to withdraw from several positions in the Zaporizhzhia region, the southeastern front, due to intense Russian assaults, according to a spokesperson for the army.
Russian forces have launched more than 400 artillery strikes per day and Ukrainian troops faced the destruction of defensive fortifications, Southern Defense Forces spokesman Vladyslav Voloshyn told ABC News.
The withdrawal affected the areas around Novouspenivske, Nove, Okhotnyche, Uspenivka and Novomykolaivka, according to Voloshyn.
“The situation there remains difficult, in part because of weather conditions that favor the attacks. But we continue to destroy the occupier, and I thank every one of our units, every warrior involved in defending Ukraine’s positions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.
Ukraine is also facing the potential fall of Pokrovsk — a city home to around 60,000 people at the time of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine — to Russia after an 18-month battle of attrition. This could be one of the most serious defeats of the war for Ukraine.
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City, as Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, continue without interruption and military activity in the region persists, in Gaza City, Gaza on October 08, 2025. (Photo by Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — As U.S. officials and leaders in the Middle East are celebrating the proposed Gaza ceasefire deal between the Israeli government and Hamas but there are still many questions over the timeline and challenges to end the fighting and return the hostages that lie ahead before a deal to completely end the war is in place.
These include details of the deal’s timeline, and challenges to end the fighting and return the hostages.
The first phase of the deal, which is slated to be approved by the Israeli government on Thursday, will see all remaining hostages returned from Gaza, a number of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons and the partial withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces inside the Gaza Strip.
It is expected that humanitarian aid will move quickly into Gaza once land crossings are opened back up.
A senior Israeli official told ABC News on Thursday that the 72-hour window for Hamas to release all hostages will begin after the Israeli government ratifies the deal.
The 20 hostages believed to still be alive are expected to be released all in one group on Sunday or Monday, the official said. President Donald Trump, speaking at a cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday, said that the release of the hostages could be Monday or Tuesday.
Then, negotiators will move to the next phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which was unveiled in late September.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told ABC News agreements still need to be reached on some of the most difficult points of the plan.
These include the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Hamas ceding control of Gaza, disarming and decommissioning the militant group’s weapons, and turning Gaza’s governance over to an international trusteeship overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies.
The challenges to implementing these terms are immense, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations.
European and Arab allies plan to convene in Paris on Thursday for a Gaza “day after” meeting.
The meeting will focus on three main areas: security, governance and reconstruction. Conversations on Palestinian statehood will also be discussed, a French diplomatic source said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was initially considering participating in the Paris meeting, but he told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that he is not expected to attend the meeting due to the rapidly moving situation in the Middle East. Rubio made the statement before it was announced that the first phase of a ceasefire deal had been reached.
An administration official told ABC News that if President Trump heads to the Middle East this weekend, Rubio will be traveling with him.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
Tourist boats on the River Thames in London, UK, on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. UK businesses ended 2025 feeling more upbeat about the economy’s prospects after they were spared much of the tax pain at last month’s budget. (Carlos Jasso/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The River Thames winds 215 miles through England, carving out the curves and bends that define much of the geography, including London’s. For centuries, the river has been called “monster soup” and the “dirty old river.”
For thirty years, Lubos Grajciarik, known online as Urban Angler Lou, has stood on its banks with a fishing rod in hand.
“Originally, I came from Slovakia… and I have fished most of my life,” he told ABC News.
He has witnessed firsthand the river’s slow transformation, from Canary Wharf’s rise to the quieter stretches upstream at Richmond and at the weir Teddington Lock.
“Yes, there is improvement,” he said. “Water is still polluted. But it is significantly lower than in previous years.”
Further improvement, and the hope for an even cleaner future, now rests on a monumental infrastructure project beneath London: the £4.5 billion, or about $6 billion, Tideway Tunnel, also known as the “super sewer.” The 25-km tunnel — the largest upgrade to London’s sewers in 150 years — is, according to its designers, intended to intercept overflows and capture waste before it reaches the river.
Four of the tunnel’s 21 gates, which are valves that are designed to stop the waste before it enters the Thames, are operational, with more to open in the coming months.
“The newly completed Tideway Tunnel will reduce the volume of discharges entering the tidal Thames in a typical year by 95%,” said a spokesperson for Thames Water, the company responsible for London’s wastewater.
Optimism from those along the riverbank appears to be supported by science. For more than half a century, the City of London Corporation has collaborated with anglers and ecologists in a citizen science project to track fish populations.
Scientists estimate that more than 100 species now inhabit the Thames, a river once declared biologically dead. In 2024, volunteers caught 122 fish across five species — bass, flounder, eel, pouting and dab.
Grajciarik said his catches reflect that resurgence. “There is a mixture of both species,” he said. “Freshwater pike and perch coexist with occasional mullets, sea bus, sea route.” The Thames, where saltwater meets fresh, has become a rare brackish habitat — alive again, yet still fragile.
But beneath the river’s revival, a darker current still runs.
“In many ways, the Thames is a much healthier ecosystem than it was. Though there are other pressures, like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, [micro]plastics, in the sewage now, against heavy metals several decades ago,” said Dr. Alexander Lipp, an Earth and environmental scientist who created Sewage Map, a platform that tracks sewage overflows in real time.
“Only 6% of the rivers and streams in the Thames basin are classed as in ‘good ecological health’ by the Environment Agency,” a spokesperson for Thames21, an environmental charity working to revive rivers in the Thames Basin, told ABC News. “The primary culprit is physical modifications (straightening, deepening or even paving over rivers), followed by sewage pollution.”
Thames Water saw serious pollution incidents more than double in 2024 — to 33 from 14 a year earlier — according to the Environment Agency’s latest report, which was released before the new “super sewer” began opening. Out of nine water companies assessed, Thames Water alone earned a one-star rating, the lowest possible.
Officials at the Environment Agency — a government agency responsible to protect and improve the environment in the U.K. — attributed the decline in the rating to a mix of factors: unusually wet and stormy weather, years of underinvestment, poor infrastructure maintenance and more rigorous monitoring.
Thames Water said that “all discharges of untreated sewage are unacceptable” in a 2023 statement.
Addressing the low ratings, a company spokesperson said in an emailed response to ABC News, that “in 2024-25, Thames Water also made a record capital investment of £2.225 billion. We know we need to further improve for our customers, community, and the environment, which is why we have embarked on the largest ever investment programme, delivering the biggest upgrade to our network in 150 years.”
Yet those promises are shadowed by debt — nearly £17 billion, or about $22.3 billion, as of March 2025 — amid the growing pressure of climate change. The company said this month that its debt had grown to nearly £20 billion and that it was negotiating with its creditors.
“Any sewage discharged into the Thames negatively affects the river, increasing nutrient loading, bacteria, and plastic pollution,” the Thames21 spokesperson said.
“Climate change is something that’s going to make this worse,” Lipp said. He explained that London’s combined sewage system, where stormwater and wastewater share the same pipes, is easily overwhelmed by heavy rain. With more intense downpours expected, spills will likely become even more frequent.
Still, Lipp noted, “I would say that Thames is better than other companies when it comes to data transparency.”
The company says long-term recovery will take patience. “Transforming Thames is a major programme of work that will take time; it will take at least a decade to achieve the scale of change required,” a spokesperson said.
“I can see the people taking more responsibility for our waters,” said Grajciarik, the fisherman. He often reports oil from nearby boats or sewage spills to the U.K.’s Environment Agency’s hotline number.
But whether the massive investments and new infrastructure will be enough remains uncertain.
(LONDON) — Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III, will no longer use his royal titles.
In a statement Friday, Andrew said, “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family. I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first.”
“I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” he continued. “With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
