MOSCOW (Reuters) -- One of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies said on Monday that the United States and Britain were sowing deceptions that a pro-Ukrainian group blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines on the bed of the Baltic Sea last year. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev cast doubt on that report, questioning if such a group would have the capability to carry out such a daring act of sabotage on Russia’s most important energy corridors to Europe. “In an attempt to cover up the true people behind the crime, pro-government Anglo-Saxon media - on orders from above - have named a culprit - a group of Ukrainian terrorists,” Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper. Russia, Patrushev said, still did not know for certain who was behind the attack because it had not been included in an investigation of the blasts. The United States and Britain, Patrushev said, do have the capabilities to blow up such a pipeline.  

 

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LONDON (AFP) -- Gary Lineker will return as presenter of the flagship BBC football show Match of the Day, the broadcaster said on Monday, ending a crisis sparked by his outspoken criticism of the UK government’s new asylum policy. The former England footballer was suspended on Friday after using Twitter last week to compare the language used to launch the new policy to the rhetoric of Nazi-era Germany. His comments and removal sparked frenzied media coverage which escalated after fellow presenters, pundits and commentators backed Lineker by refusing to work over the weekend. That threw the publicly funded broadcaster’s sports coverage into disarray, curtailing its popular highlights package to just 20 minutes, without commentary or analysis.

 

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HERMANN, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri police officer has been killed and a second officer is badly wounded after a shooting at a small-town convenience store. The shooting about 9:30 p.m. Sunday killed Detective Sgt. Mason Griffith of the Hermann Police Department. Authorities have not released the name of the injured officer. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the injured officer was in serious but stable condition at a hospital. The patrol has not released information about what led to the shooting. It wasn’t clear if the officers returned fire. The patrol identified the suspect as 35-year-old Kenneth Lee Simpson of St. Louis County, who got away. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday that police are focusing their search for Simpson on a home along Highway 19 near Hermann, not far from where the shooting happened.

 

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BLANTYRE, Malawi — (AP) — An unrelenting Cyclone Freddy that is currently battering southern Africa has killed more than 70 people in Malawi and Mozambique since it struck the continent for a second time on Saturday night, authorities in both countries have confirmed. Local police said 66 people in Malawi, including 36 in Chilobwe in the financial hub of Blantyre in the center of the country have died, with several others missing or injured. Authorities in Mozambique reported that five people were killed in the country since Saturday. The deaths in Malawi include five members of a single family who died in Blantyre’s Ndirande township after Freddy’s destructive winds and heavy rains demolished their house, according to a police report. A three-year-old child who was “trapped in the debris” is also among the victims, with her parents among those reported missing, authorities also said. 

 

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 WASHINGTON (CBNC) -- The Biden administration approved a major and controversial oil drilling plan in Alaska, known as Willow, just one day after unveiling protections for more than 16 million acres of land and water in the region. The approval of Willow is one of the president’s most consequential climate decisions. Environmental groups have long condemned the plan, arguing it undermines the administration’s pledge to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The project’s emissions would be about equivalent to what 66 new coal-fired power plants produce in a year.

 

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — At least eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats capsized in shallow but treacherous surf amid heavy fog, authorities said Sunday, marking one of the deadliest maritime human smuggling operations ever off of U.S. shores.  A Spanish-speaking woman on one of the panga-style boats called 911 Saturday night to report the other vessel overturned in waves at Black’s Beach, authorities said. She said there were 15 people on the capsized vessel and eight on hers. Coast Guard and San Diego Fire-Rescue crews pulled bodies of eight adults from the water, but fog hampered the search for additional victims. 

 

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FORT MAGSAYSAY, Philippines (Reuters) -- The Philippines and United States launched army-to-army exercises on Monday. The drills come on the heels of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s decision last month to expand the United States’ access to his country’s military bases - a move that has infuriated China since the Philippines is seen as a fulcrum of geopolitical rivalry between the two major powers. More than 3,000 Filipino and U.S. soldiers will participate in the three-week long annual exercises called Salaknib, which involve multiple small-arms live-fire exercises, artillery and mortar live-fire events, and construction projects.