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Russia is plotting a “large-scale provocation” at a nuclear power station it occupies in the south-east of Ukraine to disrupt an imminent counteroffensive, Kyiv’s military intelligence has claimed. A statement from the intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed Russian forces will strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe. It will then report a radioactive leak in order to trigger an international probe that would pause the hostilities and give them the respite they need to regroup. In order to make that happen, Russia “disrupted the rotation of personnel of the permanent monitoring mission” of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was scheduled for Saturday, the statement said. It did not offer evidence to back up any of the claims. The IAEA said it did not have any immediate comment on the allegations and Russian officials did not immediately comment on the Ukrainian claims. The White House said it is watching the situation closely and has seen no indication radioactive material has been leaked. It comes as Moscow’s military in Ukraine braces for a looming counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces, which has not started yet but could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, told the BBC. He said the government in Kyiv had “no right to make a mistake” on the decision because this is a “historic opportunity” that “we cannot lose”. The Zaporizhzhia station is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world. It is in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine. The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features. Fighting near it repeatedly disrupted power supplies and has fuelled fears of a potential catastrophe like the one at Chernobyl, in northern Ukraine, where a reactor exploded in 1986 and spewed deadly radiation, contaminating a vast area. In other developments on Saturday, Russia reported more attacks on its territory, with drones crashing in its western regions and areas on the border with Ukraine coming under shelling. Two drones attacked an administrative building of an oil company in Russia’s western Pskov region that borders Belarus, Latvia and Estonia, Pskov governor Mikhail Vedernikov reported on Saturday. The building was damaged as the result of an explosion, Mr Vedernikov said. Another drone went down in the Tver region about 90 miles north of Moscow, local authorities said. Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine came under multiple rounds of shelling on Saturday, killing one person, according to its governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. In the neighbouring Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine, one person was killed by cross-border mortar fire, its governor Roman Starovoit said. And a 60-year-old man was killed by Russian shelling in the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, about 20 miles from the Russian border, Ukraine’s national police said. Meanwhile, Russia’s ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin warned his country was yet to “act very seriously” in the conflict. Mr Kelin told the BBC that Moscow had “enormous resources” and the country was “16 times bigger than Ukraine.” He said: “Sooner or later, of course, this escalation may get a new dimension which we do not need and we do not want. We can make peace tomorrow.” In addition, the British military said on Saturday that Russia’s private military force, Wagner, is withdrawing from areas around the eastern city of Bakhmut that Moscow claims to have captured earlier this month. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier this week announced the pullout, saying Wagner would hand control over the ruined city over to the Russian military. Some were sceptical, however. Mr Prigozhin is known for making unverifiable, headline-grabbing statements on which he later backtracks. But Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a series of tweets on Saturday that Wagner fighters “have likely started to withdraw from some of their positions” around Bakhmut. “The Ukrainian deputy defence minister also corroborated the rotation out of Wagner forces in the outskirts of the town,” it added. Additional reporting by agencies Read More Ukraine-Russia war – latest: Putin ‘plans nuclear radioactive leak to postpone counteroffensive’ Ukraine claims Russia is plotting 'a provocation' at nuclear plant, offers no evidence Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine facade is crumbling – this week proves it The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a game-ending single with one out in the 10th inning as the New York Yankees beat the San Diego Padres 3-2

Prosecutors in Mr Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan have shared a recording of the former president speaking to a witness with Mr Trump’s legal team, according to CBS News. The witness hasn’t been identified, a document made public by the prosecutorial office on Friday stated. The document is known as an automatic discovery form and outlines the charges that a defendant is facing and also provides an overview of the evidence gathered against Mr Trump that’s set to be put forward at trial or at a preliminary hearing. Meanwhile, as competition builds for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, Mr Trump’s other legal woes continue to mount as a maintenance worker has made a shocking claim about the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The worker recalled helping to move boxes into a storage room just one day before the Department of Justice visited Mar-a-Lago seeking the papers, reported The New York Times. The worker didn’t know what the boxes contained at the time. Read More DeSantis accuses Trump of ‘moving to the left’ as he tells ex-president: ‘You’ve changed’ Special counsel Durham to testify before Congress next month about his report on Trump-Russia probe Three more Oath Keepers sentenced for roles in January 6 attack: ‘I was just another idiot’ His 2024 launch was laughable but DeSantis could be more dangerous than Trump Donald Trump Jr says his father has the ‘charisma of a mortician’

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in a ceremony Saturday that handed the festival’s prestigious top prize to a twisty French Alps courtroom drama

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been accused of threatening colleagues with political blowback if they vote for his impeachment. State Representative Charlie Geren, who like Mr Paxton is a member of the Republican Party, said that “several members of this House while on the floor of this House, doing the state business, received telephone calls from general Paxton personally, threatening them with political consequences in their next election,” according to The Texas Tribune. Mr Geren made the claim during the opening remarks in the impeachment hearing in the Texas statehouse. The 73-year-old rejected Mr Paxton’s claims that the impeachment is a witch hunt and that the whistleblowers behind a lawsuit against him are “political” appointees. Mr Geren, who sits on the House General Investigative Committee, repeated what the panel said in the articles of impeachment filed against Mr Paxton, that the committee wouldn’t have probed the issue if he hadn’t made the request that the legislature greenlight a settlement worth $3.3m to the former members of staff. “We are here today because the attorney general asked the state Legislature to fund a multimillion-dollar settlement,” Mr Geren said. “There was no investigation prior to this time. We wanted to look further into the reasons behind that.” Mr Geren went on to say that the settlement was Mr Paxton trying to hide the possibility of wrongdoing. “This settlement served to stave off a trial, including a discovery process that could have brought new info to light,” he said. Mr Paxton has long been accused of violating the standards of his office, which he has held since 2015, before which he served in the Texas state senate between 2013 and 2015 and before that the Texas Statehouse from 2003 until 2013. On Saturday, members of the GOP in the Texas House started to present their case for impeaching Mr Paxton, arguing that he used his role to benefit himself and a donor to his campaign and that he should be put on trial in the state Senate for a range of violations. It’s the first vote on the impeachment of a statewide officeholder in Texas since 1917, The New York Times noted. Former President Donald Trump issued a statement of support for Mr Paxton on Truth Social, writing that “the RINO Speaker of the House of Texas, Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him”. “You would think that any issue would have been fully adjudicated by the voters of Texas, especially when that vote was so conclusive,” Mr Trump added. The Republican-controlled bipartisan statehouse committee that advanced the process against Mr Paxton filed 20 articles of impeachment this week, with the panel unanimously finding him unfit to hold office, sending the issue on to the full statehouse. Republican Representative David Spiller said that Mr Paxton used his office to help the donor, an Austin real estate investor, to his campaign as well as himself. “Attorney General Paxton continuously and blatantly violated laws and procedures,” Mr Spiller said, according to The New York Times. “Today is a very grim and difficult day for this House and for the State of Texas.” For the issue to head to a trial in the state Senate, 75 of the statehouse’s 85 Republicans and 64 Democrats would have to vote for impeachment, according to the House Speaker’s office. Mr Paxton, 60, has rejected all allegations of wrongdoing. He has been a vocal supporter of conservative legal issues and a main combatant of the Biden administration on issues such as the Affordable Care Act and immigration. He won a third term last year after beating George P Bush, the son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the nephew of former President George W Bush, in a Republican primary in May 2022. The allegations against him became a part of the campaign, and Mr Paxton accused the Republican House leadership of working with Democrats to remove him from office. If the impeachment vote succeeds, Mr Paxton would be temporarily removed from his office as the issue head to the state Senate for a trial, where a number of his main allies, such as his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, will be jurors. Read More Texas' GOP-held House set for impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton Texas’ extraordinary move to impeach scandal-plagued GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton A look at the 20 articles of impeachment against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

Iraq’s prime minister announced plans for a $17 billion regional transportation project intended to facilitate the flow of goods from Asia to Europe

French director Justine Triet became the third woman to win the top prize Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday with her gripping...

'We’re in development on three others, including five and including the television series,' confirmed Drake

A person familiar with the situation says the Milwaukee Bucks are finalizing a deal to make Adrian Griffin their head coach

By Rami Amichay TEL AVIV Amid a sea of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Israeli flags at an anti-government

Vocal Maga supporter Kimberly Guilfoyle on Saturday claimed that Ron DeSantis would “get hurt and damaged badly” by the Florida governor’s 2024 presidential bid against Donald Trump, the father of her boyfriend. Ms Guilfoyle, who was previously married to California governor and Democrat Gavin Newsom, made the comments on Newsmax TV’s America Right Now. “You’re gonna run against Donald Trump, you are going to get hurt and damaged badly,” said Ms Guilfoyle, who lives in Florida with Donald Trump, Jr. “That is the problem. So by the time Trump is done – we saw this before, 16 people, one after the next, fell off the stage – you’re gonna end up in the junkyard, and you’re not gonna be in good shape for 2028. “That’s just a fact,” she said. She claimed that it was “not time to go into Toys R Us, strap on the training wheels and take a spin around the aisle and see if it works out.” A former prosecutor, Ms Guilfoyle has been a staunch, visible and vocal Trump supporter for years, notably making a roaring speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention. On Saturday, she said Mr DeSantis “is doing a fine job in Florida”. “In my opinion, he should stay here and do the job,” she told NewsMax. “He made a commitment, when he was just re-elected, to do four years and serve. If you’re going to be on the road running for a campaign for president, that’s not going to happen, and he’s not ready for it.” The Florida governor officially announced his bid for the Republican nomination this week with a glitch-filled Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk. “American decline is not inevitable — it is a choice. And we should choose a new direction — a path that will lead to American revitalization,” Mr DeSantis said, outlining his conservative accomplishments. “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.” Following the Twitter Spaces event, a Trump spokeswoman said: “Ron DeSantis’ botched campaign announcement is another example of why he is just not ready for the job. The stakes are too high, and the fight to save America is too critical to gamble on a first-timer who is clearly not ready for prime time. President Trump is the proven leader that will be ready on day one to turn the country around.” Read More Trump spokeswoman appears to mock Pete Buttigieg’s military service over Memorial Day weekend DeSantis accuses Trump of ‘moving to the left’ as he tells ex-president: ‘You’ve changed’ DeSantis signed bill shielding SpaceX and other companies from liability day after Elon Musk 2024 launch Prosecutors have recording of Trump speaking to witness in hush money criminal case Kimberly Guilfoyle met by half empty auditorium at CPAC

Turks vote in a momentous presidential run-off to decide on their country's future path.