A Ukrainian drone strike has hit one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, killing 12 Russians in one of Kyiv‘s most deadly single attacks of the more than four-year war.

A further 39 were wounded in the strike on Nizhnekamsk in Russia‘s Tatarstan region, Radmir Belyayev, the city’s mayor, announced today.

The region’s oil refinery, understood to be one of Russia’s most technologically advanced, was hit in the long-range attack, according to state media.

Long-distance drones travelled almost 800 miles to strike the giant facility. 

Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into the country’s refining capacity, and unsettled the Russian public.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says it is a campaign to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than four-year-old invasion.

Nizhnekamsk is roughly 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000. 

The city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant.

Tatneft’s TANECO refinery, which was previously hit by Ukraine in early June, processed 17 million tons of crude oil in 2024, producing 2.7 million tons of gasoline and 8.5 million tons of diesel fuel. 

Nizhnekamsk is home to two oil refineries and a petrochemical plant, responsible for producing millions of tons of gasoline and diesel fuel

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A warehouse in occupied Makiivka, the outskirts of Donetsk, is on fire after a Ukrainian strike

Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the countries’ border.

‘We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia,’ Zelensky said late Sunday on social media.

‘The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.’

Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov has declared a period of mourning after the Ukrainian attack, Mr Belyayev said.

He added: ‘This morning, the republic was subjected to another brutal attack by enemy drones,’ said Radmir Belyayev, Nizhnekamsk city’s mayor.

‘A massive attack is ongoing in the city of Nizhnekamsk.’

Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Russian oil refineries in recent months in a campaign which has caused fuel shortages in many parts of Russia, though authorities say that most of those initial problems have since been resolved.

Meanwhile, parts of the city of Simferopol in Crimea were temporarily left without power amid a reported drone attack. 

It came as Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on land access routes to occupied Crimea.

Extraordinary images showed the bombardment on the ‘highways of hell’ linking the Black Sea peninsula to Russia as oil tanker trucks were bombed.

In another Ukrainian strike, there were claims that Russian forces stationed around a former Epicentr store in the occupied city of Makiivka, Donetsk region, were ‘reduced to ashes’.

Oil tanker trucks were bombed on Putin’s key land route to occupied Crimea

Vehicles burn on Putin’s ‘highways of hell’ linking the Black Sea peninsula to Russia

Burnt-out cars stay in the courtyard of a multi-storey apartment block after a Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine

A Russian missile hit a four-storey residential building in central Odessa, Ukraine on Saturday night

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Smoke was seen rising from the scene, but there was no immediate confirmation of casualties.

It comes after Russian attacks on Ukraine were accelerated over the weekend.

More than 200 missiles and drones rained down on Ukraine, in a blitz on Saturday night.

The coastal town of Odesa bore the brunt, with a dozen injured and the city’s largest sports arena, the Chornomorets Stadium, damaged. 

Missiles also struck a high-rise apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to reports.

Footage showed smoke rising from the 10-storey building as officials said three people had died and 37 were wounded in the eastern city.

The World Health Organization’s European office said on Monday that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine had been struck twice in less than 24 hours.

The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement.

No casualties were reported.

Jason Arday has cancelled a series of events promoting his forthcoming memoir after his resignation over a high-profile plagiarism row.

A bookshop event in Edinburgh and a conference speech featuring the former Cambridge University professor have been called off “on the request of the speaker”.

Prof Arday stepped down from his high-profile position on Wednesday after the prestigious institution launched a probe into his “academic qualifications and honorary appointments”.

The resignation follows a series of media reports alleging that Prof Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, plagiarised his PhD thesis, completed at Liverpool John Moores University, and other research.

In his open resignation letter, published on the Good Law Project’s website, Prof Arday said that the “only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away”.

“This decision should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge,” he said.

“Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me. It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.”

His memoir, Great And Unfortunate Things, is to be published in the UK on August 27.

Further questions were asked in the press about the truth of other claims he made, including saying he ran 600 miles in six days and that he had raised £5.5 million for charity.

At the start of the week, publishers Simon & Schuster said that Prof Arday’s memoir was to go ahead as planned.

Prof Arday was due to attend Topping and Company Booksellers in Edinburgh on September 18, but the event has now been cancelled.

He was also booked for a “fireside chat” at the Royal Geographical Society.

On their webpage, it says the conversation has been cancelled “on the request of the speaker”.

In a statement released on Friday, Cambridge confirmed: “As has been widely reported, Jason Arday has resigned from his post at the university with immediate effect. Regardless of this, and for clarification, the university will continue to investigate the circumstances around Jason Arday’s appointment and tenure.

“The findings will feed into a review of the process for the appointment of senior academic roles. In addition, and as previously stated, the university’s Research Policy Committee will review the misconduct in research policy.”

The broadcaster often moves its soap line-up to make room for football coverage, and Wednesday, August 12 will be no exception.

Here is the schedule soap fans need to know about for the week ahead.

Emmerdale and Coronation Street fans can’t watch new episode on Wednesday

On Wednesday, ITV will air the Manchester United v Leeds United pre-season friendly from 7pm, with the kick-off at 7.30pm.

Coverage of the game will run until 10pm on ITV1, meaning the usual Emmerdale and Coronation Street slots are replaced by it.

While both soaps will run as usual otherwise this week, there is no Sunday (August 16) episode scheduled at the time of writing.

This means, as things stand, soap fans will be down a 30-minute episode of each show compared to their usual schedules of five episodes per week, but this could change.

Emma Matthews to return to Corrie for third stint on ITV soap

Coronation Street is set to bring back an actress for the third time on the ITV soap, but in a new role, according to reports.

Bolton-born actress Emma Matthews will be making a return to the cobbles, nearly a decade after her last appearance on the long-running programme.

Matthews previously played social worker Fiona Crowley, who featured in two episodes in 2017 and was responsible for taking Abi Webster’s twins into care following a relapse.

Prior to that, she appeared as a nurse at Weatherfield General Hospital in episodes aired between 2012 and 2015.

While details of her new role remain under wraps, Matthews is expected to appear on-screen later in the year, according to The Sun.

This return comes as she balances her acting career with academic pursuits, as she is studying a master’s qualification in theatre directing.

She directed a production of Beautiful Thing as part of her final coursework.

How many of these emotional Coronation Street storylines do you remember?

In addition to her work on Coronation Street, Ms Matthews currently stars in the West End production of Billionaire Boy at the Garrick Theatre and has directed theatre in Manchester.

She has also appeared in a wide range of TV shows, including Emmerdale, Casualty, Call The Midwife, The Bay, Prisoners’ Wives, and Until I Kill You.

Newsquest has contacted ITV for comment.

Which actor would you like to see return to Emmerdale or Coronation Street? Tell us in the comments below.

Police told drivers to leave their cars ‘if you want to stay alive’ as a van fire sparked a heathland wildfire by a dual carriageway in the New Forest yesterday.

Traffic came to a halt and drivers were ordered to the side of the road after flames from the van ignited ‘tinderbox bracken’ by the westbound A31 in Hampshire.

A policewoman told motorists in the area near Ringwood to get out of their cars and move to the central reservation next to the road ‘if you want to stay alive’.

A firefighter was later overheard telling a police officer: ‘We want all the cars and people off the carriageway. Unattended cars are basically bombs when they go off.’

The van driver is thought to have escaped. A fire officer said: ‘We believe it was a van that caught fire on the road and that set alight to the shrubs at the side of the road.’

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed today that crews will be at the scene for the ‘foreseeable future’, with more than 20 fire engines tackling the blaze.

The fire service received more than 160 emergency calls reporting a vehicle on fire on the A31 at about 5.24pm yesterday. 

Some 26 fire engines, four water carriers, six off-road vehicles and several command vehicles were at the site.

A policewoman was filmed directing drivers to the central reservation after a van fire spread to the vegetation by the westbound carriageway near the New Forest

A fire officer said the fire was out of control

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The fire service said the fire spread from the vehicle to the central reservation before progressing into nearby heathland.

A spokesman said: ‘Firefighters continue to tackle the fire affecting heathland near the A31 and will remain on site for the foreseeable future. We continue to have a significant presence in the area as crews work to bring the fire under control.’

The fire service warned people living nearby that it may need to lay hoses across their property as it draws water from a nearby lake.

‘Fires in the countryside can be particularly challenging for firefighters, especially when it comes to getting sufficient water to the incident,’ it said.

It added: ‘At present, there is no need for any properties to be evacuated. Should this situation change, affected households will be contacted directly.’

Motorists have been urged to avoid the area and use alternative routes whenever possible.

A local resident said the fire was understood to have started in a lorry close to Picket Post services on the A31.

Sue Bassett, a worker at a Shell garage at the services, said the road and petrol station had been shut but the fire had moved away from the carriageway.

She said: ‘The smoke is visible from here, you can see smoke from miles around, it’s still going strong in the forest but not leaping on to the road.

‘There are lots of firefighters, they are pumping water up from the lakes, they are having to run out pipes over the carriageway so they can’t open up the road.’

She added: ‘It’s almost scary with the rivers running low on water, it’s a challenge.’

Hundreds of drivers remained stuck by the spreading fire while crews worked out how to evacuate them from the area.

Motorists told how flames spread across both sides of the dual carriageway about a mile from the Canadian War Memorial just north-east of Shobley.

One driver said: ‘It happened so fast. Some drivers just went straight through the flames. Others did emergency stops, turned around and tried to get back along the carriageway. It was sheer panic.’

Libbi Aldred, 36, said she had been driving on the dual carriageway when around 10 cars in front of her began slowing down and putting their hazards on.

Smoke billowed from the trees next to the road as motorists abandoned their cars

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Hundreds of drivers lined the dual carriageway as police worked out how to evacuate them

The fire spread across the ‘tinderbox bracken’ next to the road after a 30C day in Hampshire

She said there was a fire ‘in the middle’ of the road and there was ‘smoke’ and ‘billowing’ flames.

Ms Aldred, a dog trainer from Hightown, Hampshire, said another driver – a grandfather who had his grandchildren with him – saw two cars in front of him go through the blaze but that ‘the flames were hitting’ their cars.

He and other drivers turned around and began to head for the previous exit but Ms Aldred said police told them to stay in their cars.

‘We didn’t take that advice,’ she said, because ‘the flames started coming towards us’. 

As the fire spread, police arrived and ordered drivers out of their cars before fire engines were filmed racing towards the blaze.

Ms Aldred said the fire spread quickly and the wind carried it into the vegetation next to the road.

Temperatures in Hampshire rose above 30C as motorists gathered in the shade next to the road.

Some were filmed kicking a football on the road as the police were unable to say when they would be able to leave.

Meanwhile, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service declared a major incident yesterday as two large fires in woodland put a strain on resources.

Several wildfires have broken out in the UK over recent weeks, including large blazes at Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, Headon Warren on the Isle of Wight, Llanwonno in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.

According to the Fire Severity Index, any wildfires were likely to be exceptionally severe yesterday in almost all of the east and south-east of England. ‘Exceptional’ severity is the highest ranking.

The Met Office data includes rainfall, temperature and humidity, and agencies use the index to assess the severity of fire if it starts. It does not cover the chances of wildfires occurring.

Heatwave conditions will likely return later this week, with a high of 36C expected in parts of East Anglia and south-east England by Thursday, according to the Met Office.

So far the extreme weather of summer 2026 has included two record-breaking heatwaves in May and June that led to more than 2,800 excess deaths.

Two more heatwaves in July, the driest July in England and Wales since records began in 1836, have fuelled drought and wildfires. A fifth heatwave was confirmed last week.

Its history has been brought to light after 11 skeletons were discovered

For years, thousands of people have used a busy roundabout in a Cambridgeshire city without being aware of what lies hidden below. Now, its history has been brought to light as more than 10 skeletons have been discovered during digging as part of the City Link project in Peterborough.

Police were called following an initial discovery of one human skeleton within the Queensgate roundabout. The force were asked to establish whether it was a crime scene, which has now been confirmed not to be.

A total of 11 skeletons have been discovered so far within the roundabout. These remains are part of a cemetery which existed on the site in the Victorian era.

Records indicate that remains from this cemetery were cleared when subways were built at the roundabout during the 1970s. According to Discover Peterborough, the city’s main cemetery near the cathedral had become full by the early 1800s.

The churchwardens of St John the Baptist, the parish church that still stands in Cathedral Square, bought three acres of farmland at the western end of Cowgate for a new burial ground.

The first person buried there was Elizabeth Mone, in March 1805, according to Discover Peterborough. For the next 50 years, the walled and gated ground was where the city buried its dead.

In 1828, Peterborough’s first case of body snatching was recorded but it was not the last. The years from 1827 to 1830 were reportedly the peak of the trade in stolen corpses. A body snatcher is a person who stole the bodies of dead people and sold them.

By 1858, the site was declared full. A new cemetery opened between Eastfield Road and Broadway, and Broadway Cemetery has served the city ever since.

The skeletons, which were confirmed by Peterborough City Council to have been discovered within the Queensgate roundabout, will be reburied in Church of England burial grounds elsewhere in the city.

The City Link scheme aims to deliver a more direct route for pedestrians and cyclists from Peterborough Railway Station to the city centre (via Cowgate). The scheme will remove two of the three subways that run underneath the Queensgate roundabout, creating direct access to the city centre from Cowgate from the railway station.

Savills has established its Newcastle office as a core regional hub for its northern new homes operations, joining its existing bases in Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.

The move reinforces the firm’s commitment to the North East and brings dedicated sales, marketing and consultancy services to the region.

Jamie Adam, head of new homes for Savills in the North, said: “The North East represents a hugely exciting growth market, with increasing levels of investment, regeneration and demand for high-quality new homes across the region.

“Our latest research shows the North continuing to outperform many southern markets in terms of developer confidence and housing market activity, supported by strong fundamentals and relative affordability.”

The expansion follows the launch of six new developments in partnership with North East housebuilder Cussins (North East) Ltd.

These schemes include Riverside in South Shields, Debdon Falls in Rothbury, Burgham Park Gardens near Morpeth, Sycamore Place in Barrasford, Summerson Place in Darlington and Eccleston Park in Backworth.

The Cussins developments reflect the region’s diverse market, spanning rural Northumberland to suburban family communities.

Julia Burnett, sales director at Cussins (North East) Ltd, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with Savills on these six exceptional developments across the North East.

“Our brands align seamlessly in our shared commitment to quality, prestige and client care.

“Cussins has built its reputation on delivering high-end homes in the region’s most desirable locations, and it is clear that these developments are strongly appealing to discerning buyers.”

Sycamore Place in Barrasford has seen particular momentum, with a recently opened show home helping the development reach 50 per cent sold.

Comprising 12 five-bedroom sandstone houses, the scheme highlights sustained demand for premium family homes in rural areas of the North East.

Savills market research indicates that developer sentiment remains particularly strong across the North of England, with healthy competition for development land and optimism underpinned by relative affordability.

The consultancy has operated in Newcastle since 2018 and offers a multidisciplinary service covering development, planning, property management and more.

Mr Adam said: “By combining dedicated new homes expertise with the extensive capabilities already available through our Newcastle office, we can offer clients a fully integrated service from land acquisition and planning through to sales, marketing and successful delivery.”

He noted that Savills’ planning team in Newcastle secured planning permission on appeal for Cussins schemes.

These include Burgham Park Gardens and Eccleston Park, demonstrating the firm’s ability to support clients through the full development lifecycle.