What we know about Russia's Oreshnik missile

On Thursday, the Ukrainian city of Dnipro was hit by a Russian air strike which eyewitnesses described as unusual, triggering explosions that went on for three hours.

The attack included a strike by a missile so powerful that in the aftermath Ukrainian officials said it bore the characteristics of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Western officials were quick to deny this, saying that such a strike would have triggered a nuclear alert in the US.

Hours after the strike, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a TV address, said that Russia had launched a "new conventional intermediate-range" missile with the codename Oreshnik, meaning hazel tree in Russian.

Putin said that the weapon travelled at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3km per second (10 times the speed of sound), adding that "there are currently no ways of counteracting this weapon".

He said that a major military-industrial site in Dnipro, used to manufacture missiles and other armaments, had been hit. He described the attack as a test which was "successful" because the "target was reached".

Russian Spokesperson Told Not To Discuss ICBM Reports Mid-Briefing

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was interrupted in a press conference by a phone call where she was told not to comment on claims Moscow had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, it has been reported.

Social media users posted footage of Zakharova addressing reporters Thursday after Kyiv claimed Russia had launched an ICBM—which can carry nuclear payloads—at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

If confirmed, this would be the first-ever use of such a weapon in combat, although unnamed U.S. officials cited by ABC News and CBS have said that it was a ballistic missile rather than an ICBM.

Amid the uncertainty, Zakharova appeared to inadvertently reveal some details about the early morning strike in a hot microphone moment while taking a phone call.

US steps up campaign to transform Kenya-led force in Haiti to a UN peacekeeping force

The United States has stepped up its campaign to transform the Kenya-led multinational force in Haiti into a U.N. peacekeeping force, spurred by escalating gang violence that shut all air traffic to the capital of Port-au-Prince this week.

The U.S. proposed a U.N. peacekeeping mission in early September as one way to secure regular funding for the U.N.-backed multinational force that is trying to help Haiti’s national force control the gangs which faces a serious funding crisis.

Since then, the gangs have intensified their attacks, with violence exploding last Sunday in the capital when Haiti’s transitional council created to restore democratic order fired the interim prime minister amid political infighting. The gangs, now estimated by the U,N, to control 85% of the capital, shut down the country’s main airport there on Monday after shooting a number of planes, wounding one flight attendant.

The United States tried to get all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council to sign off on a draft resolution this week that would start the wheels rolling to transform the Kenya-led force. It asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “to undertake expeditiously contingency preparations and planning” tor a transformation, which would take many months to accomplish

Editor-in-chief of America’s oldest magazine resigns after calling Trump voters fascists


Laura Helmuth is resigning as editor-in-chief of Scientific American magazine following an expletive-filled rant about Donald Trump voters.

Posting on Bluesky, an X rival, Helmuth said Thursday that she’s “decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief” without mentioning her previous comments.

In a series of now-deleted posts on the same platform, she called Trump voters the “meanest, dumbest, most bigoted” group and “fascists” following the former president’s reelection last week. Her comments went viral on X and were criticized on the increasingly right-wing platform.

Helmuth had apologized in a separate post, calling them “offensive and inappropriate” and that they don’t “reflect the position” of Scientific American.

After suicide of nonbinary teen, DOE finds multiple Title IX violations at Oklahoma school district


After the suicide of a nonbinary student last February spurred a monthslong federal investigation, the US Department of Education found Title IX violations in an Oklahoma public school district including multiple failures to respond to notices of sexual harassment.

The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights announced a resolution Wednesday with the Owasso Public School District to remedy Title IX violations linked to sexual harassment in district schools.

The investigation found a pattern of inconsistent district responses to sexual harassment complaints that were, at times, “deliberately indifferent to students’ civil rights.”

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in federally funded education programs.

In this birthday party portrait, teenage girls celebrate in secret in Afghanistan

The photograph could have been taken at any birthday party: three girls in dresses standing side-by-side in a living room, balloons and streamers strung up around an entryway. The subjects could be friends or sisters, each with long brown hair that falls past their waists.

But with their faces turned away from the camera, there’s a reason for their anonymity, and a deeper significance to their unveiled hair. The girls live in Kabul under the increasingly watchful eyes of the Taliban, who returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 when US troops abruptly withdrew from the country. After initially pledging to honor women’s rights, the Taliban has nearly erased women from public life, sending girls behind closed doors, even to mark occasions such as these.

Taken earlier this year by Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri, the portrait is just one of many images from a six-month body of work showing the lives of Afghan women as the Taliban has continually stripped them of their basic rights, including requiring veiling in public and banning the sounds of their voices, as well as prohibiting them from secondary school, much of the workforce and many social spaces. Working with French researcher Mélissa Cornet, the pair’s collaborative report “No Woman’s Land” received funding from the Carmignac Photojournalism Award and is exhibiting in Paris this month as a mix of photographs, videos and collaborative art with Afghan girls.

Hayeri and Cornet traveled to seven provinces and met with more than 100 women during the first half of the year for the report. They met in 2018 in Kabul and have both lived in Afghanistan on and off for several years. Hayeri was present during the chaos of the US military’s withdrawal, and Cornet returned soon after.