- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
- Argentina's Milei vetoes university budget after huge protests
- TotalEnergies plans to grow oil and gas production until 2030
- 2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong reverses after surge
- Tunisia readies for vote as incumbent Saied eyes victory
- High childcare costs in US weigh on women's employment
- US voters seek help with crushing childcare costs
- Taiwan shuts down for second day as Typhoon Krathon to land
- Supercharged storms: how climate change amplifies cyclones
IAEA team heads to Ukraine nuclear plant, as offensive launched in south
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday he was en route to inspect Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Kyiv's forces launched a counteroffensive to retake the occupied southern region of Kherson.
The coastal region of Kherson and its capital city of the same name have been contested by Russian troops since the war broke out six months ago.
"Today there was a powerful artillery attack on enemy positions in... the occupied Kherson region," local government official Sergey Khlan told Ukraine's Pryamyi TV channel.
"This is what we have been waiting for since the spring -- it is the beginning of the de-occupation of Kherson region."
Kherson city lies some 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant -- Europe's largest atomic facility -- which has also been occupied by Russian troops since early March.
The plant was targeted over the weekend by fresh shelling, its operator said, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame for attacks around the complex of six nuclear reactors in Energodar, a town on the banks of the Dnipro River.
Ukraine's nuclear agency Energoatom has warned of the risk of a radiation leak.
Russian troops "continued to fire at Energodar and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant" on Sunday, injuring 10, among them four plant workers, it said in an update early on Monday.
As of 10:00 am (0700 GMT), the plant was operating "with the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards".
But Russia's defence ministry accused Ukrainian troops of shelling near the plant on Sunday, claiming it had shot down a "Ukrainian strike drone" approaching a nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage area.
And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged the international community "to put pressure on the Ukrainian side so it stops endangering the European continent by shelling".
Peskov said Russia saw the IAEA visit as "necessary" and had been "waiting for this mission for a long time", insisting it would ensure its safety in the face of "constant" risks.
- 'Radiation blackmail' -
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky on Monday called for sanctions against Russia's state nuclear energy agency Rosatom over the occupation of the plant.
"It's not normal that there are no sanctions against Rosatom for its radiation blackmail at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant," he said.
"The Russians are the only terrorists in the world that have managed to turn a nuclear plant into a battlefield."
The UN's nuclear watchdog has for months been asking to visit the site, warning of "the very real risk of a nuclear disaster".
Writing on Twitter, Grossi on Monday said an IAEA support and assistance mission was "now on its way" with the team due to arrive "later this week".
The United Nations has called for an end to all military activity in the area surrounding the complex.
Ukraine initially feared an IAEA visit would legitimise the Russian occupation of the site before finally supporting the idea of a mission.
In its Monday update, Energoatom said the Russians had "increased pressure on the personnel of the plant to prevent them from disclosing (to the IAEA) evidence of the occupiers' crimes at the plant and its use as a military base".
The G7 industrial powers on Monday demanded free access for the IAEA team to "engage directly, and without interference, with the Ukrainian personnel responsible for operating these facilities".
And in Stockholm, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the team's mission was "the hardest in the history of the IAEA, given the active combat activities undertaken by the Russian federation on the ground."
Ukraine was the site of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe in 1986, when a reactor at the northern Chernobyl plant exploded and spewed radiation into the atmosphere.
Experts say any leak at Zaporizhzhia would more likely be on the scale of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Energoatom on Monday warned any leak would scatter radiation over swathes of southern Ukraine and southwestern regions of Russia.
- Handing out iodine pills -
On the ground, at least two people were killed when Russian shells ploughed into the centre of the southern city of Mykolaiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram.
"For now, we know about two dead and five wounded," he wrote, saying residential buildings had been hit.
With tensions high around the plant, Ukraine's rescue services have been holding training sessions on managing the risk of nuclear accidents.
"The tablet is taken in case of danger, when the alarm is raised," said Elena Karpenko, a nurse at the Zaporizhzhia Children's Hospital.
burs-hmw/jts/kjm
H.Cho--CPN