MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains under Russian control, the Russia-installed administration of the occupied Enerhodar city said on Monday, after a senior Ukrainian official suggested Russian forces were preparing to leave. “The media are actively spreading fakes that Russia is allegedly planning to withdraw from Enerhodar and leave the (nuclear plant). This information is not true,” the Russian backed administration said on the Telegram messaging app. The head of Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm said on Sunday there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to vacate the vast Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which they seized in March. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Monday that Ukrainian forces late last week destroyed six units of Russian military equipment and about 30 Russian servicemen were injured in fighting near Enerhodar. Russian President Vladimir Putin moved in September to annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and the Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine where his forces claim partial control.

 

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LONDON (AFP) -- Brexit has compounded a shortage of doctors in Britain, with an estimated shortfall of 4,000 in major speciality areas from EU countries, a study published Sunday said. It comes as the crisis-hit NHS state-funded health service struggles after years of underfinancing, with record waiting lists for some hospital care due to the Covid pandemic but also a lack of doctors and nurses. The Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, focused on four fields of medicine -- anaesthesia, pediatrics, cardio-thoracic surgery and psychiatry -- where European doctors had been particularly relied upon before the UK left the European Union. It found that in the four areas -- where recruitment was already challenging -- “the increase in EU and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) staff slowed down, falling below the projected increase”. If the trend seen before Brexit had continued, there should have been more than 41,000 doctors from the EU or EFTA (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein) registered in 2021, or at least 4,000 more than the figures showed.

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that a BBC reporter did not identify himself as a journalist, after the BBC said he was detained by police during protest coverage in Shanghai. Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said they had noted the BBC statement about the incident, but it did not reflect what had happened. The BBC said on Sunday that Chinese police assaulted and detained one of its journalists covering a protest in Shanghai, before later releasing him after several hours.

 

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WASHINGTN (Reuters) -- A small plane crashed into high-voltage power lines about 30 miles north of Washington, D.C., causing mass outages, with rescue services working into the night to rescue two people on board the aircraft still entangled in the cables. The aircraft crashed in misty and wet conditions in Montgomery Village, Maryland, according to the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service. It became caught up in live power lines about 100 feet from the ground. The impact caused power outages to over 120,000 customers, according to Pepco, the Washington-area utility company. Roads were also closed and many traffic lights in the area were out. Fire officials said two people were alive but trapped inside the plane. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Mooney M20J aircraft was flying from Westchester, New York and had been due to land at Montgomery Airpark, close to the crash site.

 

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SYDNEY (AFP) -- Ousted Australian prime minister Scott Morrison will face censure in parliament for secretly appointing himself to several key ministerial posts during the Covid-19 pandemic, his successor Anthony Albanese said Monday. Morrison appointed himself minister for finance, home affairs, treasury, resources, agriculture and environment, without telling the public or existing ministers. A recent inquiry by a former high court judge found his actions had been “corrosive of trust in government” and recommended closing several loopholes that allowed the appointments to remain secret. Despite much outrage and scrutiny over the move however, Morrison’s actions were ultimately found to be legal. Albanese said parliament would now try to change the law to make sure ministerial appointments have to be made public. He also said his conservative predecessor -- who lost an election in May -- should be held politically accountable. 

 

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MADRID (AFP) -- Tens of thousands of supporters from Spain’s far-right Vox party demonstrated nationwide to protest Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s leftist government. Police said 25,000 people gathered in central Madrid’s Colon Square, where protesters unfurled flags and called on Sanchez to go, while demonstrations also took place in cities across Spain. Vox leader Santiago Abascal lambasted the planned abolition of the crime of sedition, of which nine separatist leaders were convicted over their role in the Catalonia region’s abortive secession bid in 2017. An offence carrying a lower prison sentence will replace it. The ruling left-wing coalition has long drawn the ire of the right and far right for initiating a dialogue with Catalonia’s pro-independence leaders, with large protests taking place in 2019 and 2021 over the talks. The coalition says sedition is an antiquated offence that should be replaced with one better aligned to European norms.