Suspect charged after 3-year-old boy wound up in crocodile enclosure released on bail
Stock image of handcuffs. (Westend61/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The man arrested and charged after a 3-year-old boy wound up in a crocodile enclosure at a British zoo was released on bail Friday as the investigation continues, police said.
The unidentified 30-year-old suspect from Norfolk was released after investigators said he “was assessed as unfit for police interview,” according to the Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a family-run farm and zoo located in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, when the unidentified boy “ended up in the crocodile enclosure,” police said.
The boy sustained “serious injuries” while in the enclosure and was pulled out by staff from the zoo. He received medical treatment at the scene before being taken to the hospital, according to the police.
He was listed in critical but stable condition as of Friday. The suspect, who will remain on bail until September, is not known to the victim, according to police.
The suspect was arrested under suspicion of attempted murder.
Johnsons of Old Hurst said its tropical house, which is home to multiple species of crocodiles and other reptiles, will remain closed until further notice “out of respect to the family.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the boy and his family following the incident that occurred today,” Johnsons of Old Hurst said in a statement on social media Thursday.
-ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
This handout photograph taken and released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on July 16, 2026, shows Ukrainian firefighters working to extinguish a fire at the site of a Russian air attack in Kyiv. (Handout/State Emergency Service of Ukrai)
(LONDON) — At least 200 Ukrainian drones were launched toward Moscow overnight into Thursday morning, the city’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, as Kyiv continued its nightly long-range strike campaign deep into Russia.
From Wednesday evening until 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, “More than 200 drones were flying towards the Moscow region. Most of them were neutralized by air defense systems at a distance,” Sobyanin wrote in a post to Telegram. Ten drones “were destroyed as they approached Moscow,” the mayor said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 375 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry said in a post to Telegram that drones were intercepted over 18 Russian regions — including Moscow — as well as Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Ukraine has been significantly expanding its drone campaign — referred to in Kyiv as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, targeting major Russian cities, Russian oil infrastructure, military and logistics targets.
Ukraine has been significantly expanding its drone campaign — referred to in Kyiv as “long-range sanctions” — in recent months, targeting major Russian cities, Russian oil infrastructure, military and logistics targets.
The Russian Defense Ministry publishes only the number of Ukrainian drones and other projectiles it claims to have intercepted. Sobyanin releases real time statements when Ukrainian drones are reported shot down while heading toward the capital.
ABC News cannot independently verify the figures from either the ministry or the mayor. But the increasing scale and rate of such reports could be seen as indicative of Ukraine’s growing ability and willingness to target sites within Russia.
So far this year, Sobyanin has reported the downing of 1,420 Ukrainian drones on approach to Moscow, according to his Telegram posts, collated and analyzed by ABC News. Across all of 2025, Sobyanin only reported the downing of 734 Ukrainian drones near the city.
More than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made clear Kyiv’s intentions to return the war back to Russian soil. Key targets have included Moscow and the so-called “second capital” St. Petersburg.
“Our responses to Russia’s prolonging of the war and strikes on our cities and communities are completely fair,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram in May. “The Moscow region has Russia’s densest concentration of air defenses. But we are getting through,” he added.
Ukraine’s Wednesday night attacks also reportedly targeted the Engels-2 airbase in Saratov — a key hub for Russian long-range aviation, including strategic bombers. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post to Telegram, “Engels is on fire.”
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, meanwhile, announced that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at Saratov airport during the overnight attacks. Restrictions were also put in place at airports in Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Cherepovets and Gelendzhik.
Flights operating from all four of Moscow’s international airports were also put under temporary flight restrictions overnight, Rosaviatsiya said.
Russia continued its own long-range strike campaign against Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 18 missiles and 146 drones into the country overnight into Thursday morning, of which 12 missiles and 129 drones were intercepted, suppressed or failed to reach their targets.
Six missiles and 16 drones impacted across 15 locations, the air force said.
Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that at least two people were killed by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, with five other people injured. Other targeted regions included Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv and Donetsk, Zelenskyy said.
“Moscow is relying on terror through ballistic missiles and continues its attacks,” Zelenskyy wrote.
U.S. President Donald at the NATO Summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(ANKARA and LONDON) — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday morning that he believes that the interim agreement reached with Iran last month is “over,” following an intense exchange of fire between the two sides on Tuesday into Wednesday morning.
Trump huddled with top advisers on Tuesday while attending the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss the U.S. response to several fresh attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz early this week, multiple people familiar with the discussions told ABC News.
The U.S., Qatar and Saudi Arabia attributed the attacks to Iranian forces, allegations denied by Tehran.
Speaking with reporters in Ankara on Wednesday during a press conference alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will continue, but said of the agreement, “For me, I think it’s over.”
“I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people,” Trump said of Iran’s leadership in response to a question from ABC News.
“And they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” the president continued. “There’s something wrong with them, they’re cuckoo,” Trump added.
The president did, however, suggest that U.S.-Iranian negotiations over a final peace deal could continue.
The 14-point MOU committed the signatories to the reopening Strait of Hormuz for commercial traffic, with the U.S. lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran also committed not to pursue nuclear weapons — a commitment Tehran has previously made — while the U.S. agreed to allow Iranian oil sales and to begin work on a $300 million reconstruction fund for the country.
Under the MOU, fighting — including between Israel and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon — would stop for 60 days while the U.S. and Iran negotiate the terms of a final deal, which would cover issues including Iran’s nuclear material.
“I’ll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate. They’re good people. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” Trump said on Wednesday.
“I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it,” Trump said later in the press conference, adding that he did not care whether talks continued after funeral proceedings for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei concluded.
When the MOU was signed last month, Trump said the deal “achieves everything we set out to accomplish, everything and much more.” But key issues, including the status of Iran’s nuclear program, remained unaddressed.
The White House has demanded an end to all Iranian enrichment of uranium, a proposal repeatedly rebuffed by Tehran, which says it needs to enrich uranium to power its civil nuclear power network.
On Wednesday, the president again said his administration would accomplish the “denuclearization of Iran.”
“We’re going to de-nuke it. We’re not going to let them, because they’re crazy, and they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Intermittent exchanges of fire have continued between the U.S. and Iran despite the signing of the MOU in June.
Since Monday, U.S. Central Command said Iran had attacked three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM said it then launched retaliatory strikes on more than 80 Iranian targets, including air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities and small boats.
The U.S. also revoked a license that authorized the sale of Iran oil under the MOU in response to the tanker attacks, with one U.S. official telling ABC News that the incidents were “wholly unacceptable.”
Iran’s military said on Wednesday that it responded to the renewed American strikes by attacking 85 U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Trump on Wednesday lauded what he called the “powerful” U.S. strikes, adding, “We hit them very hard.”
“I told them every time you hit, we hit, and of course they’re dirty players, so they go after everyone, probably including me,” the president continued, referring to alleged Iranian assassination plots in which Trump said he remains a target.
“They want to take out the U.S. leader — me. I’m on every list. I saw things this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists, and so far I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long, because that’s the way it goes,” Trump said.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament who has been serving as Tehran’s chief peace negotiator, said in a post to X early on Wednesday that the U.S. had violated the MOU with its latest strikes.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold,” Ghalibaf wrote.
Oil prices spiked on Wednesday after Trump’s comments, with U.S. oil trading at $74.62, up around 6%, and global oil at $78.70, up more than 6%. The price of global oil is still significantly down on a high of nearly $120 last month before the MOU was announced.
Traffic has been moving through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, including through Tuesday despite the latest attacks on ships. Data from Kpler, a global energy analytics firm, showed more than 100 transits of ships through the Strait between July 5 and July 7, including 41 crossings on July 7.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Karen Travers, Justine Fishel, Isabelle Murray, Sarah Kolinovsky and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on May 20, 2026 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov – China Pool/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, with the two leaders releasing a joint statement urging an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a matter of “utmost urgency.”
“The sides agree that military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran breach international law and fundamental norms of international relations and seriously undermine stability in the Middle East,” the joint statement published on the Kremlin website said.
The statement stressed “the need for a return as soon as possible of the conflicting parties to dialogue and negotiations aimed to prevent the conflict zone from spreading and urged the international community to maintain an objective and impartial position, to assist de-escalation, and to defend the fundamental norms of international relations together.”
The two leaders also condemned what they called “treacherous military strikes against other countries, the hypocritical use of negotiations as cover for preparing such strikes, the assassination of leaders of sovereign states, the destabilization of the domestic political situation in these states and the provocation of regime change, and the brazen kidnapping of national leaders for trial.”
Moscow and Beijing have both been key partners for Tehran in recent years, as the U.S. and its European allies have sought to weaken the Islamic Republic through international sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022 prompted the fostering of deeper military and economic ties between Moscow and Tehran, with Iranian munitions — in particular Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones — playing a key role in Russia’s ongoing campaign.
China, meanwhile, remains a key customer of Iranian oil, with some analysts estimating that Beijing accounts for up to 90% of Tehran’s crude exports.
China has been pushing for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Iran, which began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes all across the country on Feb. 28. Beijing says it has been coordinating closely with Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator in as-yet unsuccessful peace talks between Washington and Tehran.
Following the meeting between Xi and Putin, both sides expressed support for the other’s “territorial integrity.”
Russia, Putin said — according to the Kremlin readout — “reaffirms its commitment to the One China principle and recognizes the existence of only one China. Taiwan is its integral part, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing all of China.”
China, the readout said, “supports Russia’s efforts towards the provision of security, stability, national development, prosperity, sovereignty and territorial integrity and ‘opposes external interference in Russian internal affairs.'”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
