On Thursday, tensions escalated as Russia issued a stark warning to the United Kingdom, threatening to target British military sites both within Ukraine and beyond. This warning follows concerns that Kyiv might launch British-supplied long-range cruise missiles to attack Russian territory, according to various reports.

The announcement came the day after Moscow asserted that Ukraine had struck a shopping center in the Russian-occupied region of Donetsk. The attack, allegedly using British-made Storm Shadow missiles, reportedly caused injuries to civilians, including children. This accusation has further strained the already tense relations.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, speaking on Thursday, delivered a stern message: Britain is on the brink of being deemed legally involved in acts she labeled as terrorism targeting civilians. She warned that continuing on this path could lead to dire repercussions, describing the potential fallout as “catastrophic.” This report was highlighted by Reuters.

Zakharova reiterated at a Moscow briefing, “We have consistently warned that any British military facilities and their equipment, whether located in Ukraine or elsewhere, may become targets. This would be in direct response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian regions facilitated by British arms.”

She urged British leaders to “immediately, in the most resolute and unequivocal manner, abandon the hostile, aggressive line” to prevent the conflict from escalating to an “entirely new level.”

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited Ukraine Aug. 24 for Independence Day, when he announced that a defense contractor could release classified information about British components used in the long-range SCALP cruise missile as Ukraine and France seek to establish assembly lines in Ukraine, according to the U.K. government.

The SCALP missile, the French version of Britain’s Storm Shadow, can strike targets more than 155 miles away.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the U.K. was “participating in the war” and “pouring fuel on the fire.”

A spokesperson for Britain’s Ministry of Defense told Reuters London stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine and was committed to providing the equipment that Kyiv needed “to defend itself against (President Vladimir) Putin’s illegal invasion.”

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“Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government to stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine and against the U.K. and our allies,” the spokesperson said.

During his Kyiv visit, Burnham also hit back at Moscow, condemning Russia’s “outrageous threats” and asserting that Britain’s support for Ukraine would not waver.

Russia also warned Britain Aug. 17 that it would pay a “price” after The Times reported Aug. 15 that British-made drones supplied to Ukraine were used to strike military and industrial targets inside Russia for the very first time.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense did not confirm whether British drones had been used in the strikes.

Zakharova made the remarks as President Donald Trump downplayed concerns about a broader war, telling Axios in a phone interview Thursday he was not concerned Russia would attack a NATO member.

Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known as the SVR, confirmed Thursday that he met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Moscow earlier this week, Reuters reported.

Naryshkin characterized the meeting as routine, saying they discussed issues within the scope of their intelligence services, according to Reuters.

Trump similarly described Ratcliffe’s trip as “semi-routine,” according to Axios.

News Media has reached out to 10 Downing Street for comment.

The intrigue of sewer exploration continues to capture attention this summer.

In an adventurous overnight escapade on Thursday, five individuals, often referred to as “mole people,” descended through a manhole, exploring the drainage systems of Long Island. This incident comes hot on the heels of a similar escapade in New York City involving another group last week.

These mystery explorers made their way into the underbelly of Wantagh at around 1 a.m., choosing the storm drain located at the junction of Wantagh Avenue and Jerusalem Avenue, as reported by WABC.

Security footage unveiled their coordinated effort as they pried open the manhole cover, with precision and speed, in order to slide into the subterranean passageways below, all within moments.

Clad in black attire, the group slipped into the narrow entrance and secured the cover behind them, disappearing into the intricate network beneath the streets, which is surrounded by various shopping centers.

Two witnesses had watched the night crawlers and called the Nassau County Police, the outlet reported.

Investigators went down into the sewer but came up empty-handed in their search for the wannabe Ninja Turtles.

Residents of the Long Island neighborhood questioned the potential motives behind the midnight adventures.

“It’s kind of dangerous; I don’t know what they have in mind,” one resident told the outlet.

“There’s a level of concern, but you can’t stop people from doing what they want to do,” a man said.

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“It’s kind of crazy to be honest with you. I have seen it on the news recently,” a third added.

Thursday’s sewer break-in comes a week after a trio was seen climbing up from a manhole outside Penn Station and Madison Square Garden in Manhattan around 4:20 a.m. on Aug. 18.

The viral TikTok video captured the headlamp-wearing men emerging from underground near the intersection of 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue — just feet from the main entrance to Penn Station.

The trio has not been captured, officials said.

NYPD detectives were using surveillance footage and facial recognition technology to try to identify and track the men down.

The Big Apple has had several reports of large groups of men entering or emerging from the city’s sewage systems, including in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, back in May.

Authorities cautioned against the bizarre adventure, warning potential divers of the dangers in the sewage system.

“Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces,” the DEP said in a statement. “For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall.”

Officials believe the NYC incidents may have involved migrants searching for valuables lost underneath the big city, WABC reported.

Norwegian King Harald, a cousin to King Charles III, has passed away at 89, following a brief hospitalization.

The late monarch held the title of Europe’s longest-serving ruler since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, having ascended the throne on January 17, 1991.

During his hospital stay at Oslo University Hospital, King Harald was receiving treatment for haemolytic anaemia, a condition characterized by an accelerated destruction of red blood cells.

Sadly, his health took a turn for the worse when he contracted an infection, prompting the Norwegian Royal Family to gather by his side on Thursday.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce His Majesty King Harald has passed away,” the Norwegian Royal Court stated.

‘King Harald died peacefully at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet Friday, August 28 at 6.35am.’

Crown Prince Haakon will now ascend the throne and is expected to take the name King Haakon VIII. 

On Friday, King Charles said he has extended his ‘deepest and most heartfelt condolences’ to the Norwegian royal family following the death of his ‘dear cousin’. 

The pair were second cousins once removed, sharing great-great-grandparents Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark. 

‘As Norway mourns the loss of so towering a figure, my whole family join in remembering a much-loved kinsman and friend whose kindness, compassion and deep sense of duty echoed from across the sea and across the decades,’ King Charles III said.

‘The Queen and I extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to Queen Sonja and all her family, as Britain shares in Norway’s grief at this time of such heartbreaking loss.’ 

Born on February 21, 1937, Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Martha of Sweden.

He is a great-grandson of Edward VII and his godparents included Queen Mary and her son George VI (grandmother and father respectively of the late Queen Elizabeth).

His early life was marked by the vicissitudes of the Second World War. In April 1940, when Harald was just three, Nazi Germany invaded Norway.

Harald and his two older sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid, were swept up by their mother and taken first to Sweden.

Whilst Harald’s father and grandfather – the reigning King Haakon VII – held out in Norway as their heroic countrymen battled the German invasion, they too finally fled in June and headed to London with the Norwegian government-in-exile.

In August that year, Harald and his mother and sisters then went to the United States, where they spent the rest of the war, living in Washington.

Then Crown Prince Olav and King Haakon – whose wife Queen Maud (sister of George V) had died in 1938 – were initially guests at Buckingham Palace.

A young Princess Elizabeth at one point found them ‘both snoring away’ on the floor of the royal air raid shelter.

‘Though we love having them,’ she told her grandmother ‘it is rather a bore never to be alone’.

In June 1945, Prince Harald – now aged seven – returned with his family to Norway, after Nazi Germany’s defeat in the war.

During five years of occupation, the royal palace had been turned into a prison, whilst ordinary Norwegians had been starved.

In 1954, nine years after the family’s return, they were hit by tragedy when Harald’s mother died of cancer.

The prince, then just 17, would go on to name his firstborn Märtha in honour of her memory.

Three years later, King Haakon VII died at the age of 85, after nearly 52 years on the throne.

Harald, now the heir, went on to study at the University of Oslo and also enrolled in the Norwegian Military Academy, graduating in 1959.

It was at his graduation ball that he brought along the woman who would become his wife.

Harald had met Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of an Oslo draper, earlier that year. It was her status as a commoner that ruffled royal feathers.

The pair initially kept their relationship a secret but when it did become public knowledge, the Palace repeatedly insisted that the pair would not marry.

But when Harald threatened to remain a bachelor forever if he did not get his way, his father relented and let him wed the woman he loved.

Their 1968 wedding at Oslo Cathedral came after both had studied in England.

Whilst Sonja read English at Cambridge, Harald went to Oxford to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Balliol College.

Harald became Norway’s Crown Prince in 1957 after the death of his grandfather. 

After attending high school in Oslo, Harald went to Balliol College, Oxford from 1960 to 1962, where he studied history, economics and politics. 

The Anglophile became a keen rower, having been taught by renowned coach Nick Bevan, who was studying at the same college.

But sailing was his sport: he went on to represent Norway at the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964, Mexico City in 1968 and Munich in 1972.

His and Sonja’s first child, Princess Märtha Louise, was born in 1971, with her brother, Crown Prince Haakon, arriving the following year.

But Prince Haakon would have a long wait before he became first in line to the throne.

His father did not become king until January 1991, when he was 53.

Harald’s closeness to King Charles was demonstrated five years later, when he went to Sandringham for a shooting weekend.

The monarch was also at Charles’s 50th birthday party in 1998, when 250 guests descended on Highgrove.

In 2011, Harald was among the dozens of European royals who attended the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales and was a guest at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Lunch the following year.

In another demonstration of the closeness between the Norwegian and English royal families, Her Late Majesty was the only head of state to make three state visits to Norway, in 1955, 1981 and 2001.

In 1955, they arrived on the Royal Yacht Britannia, having sailed up the Oslo Fjord between what was described at the time as a ‘lane of fire’.

‘Every few miles along this island-dotted coastline, flames and sparks from midsummer bonfires shot skyward with red, white and blue rockets,’ the Daily Mail reported.

Like some of his British cousins, King Harald’s family have had their own controversies. 

He has presided over a difficult few months for the Norwegian Royal Family amid a scandal involving his daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Mette-Marit faced intense scrutiny when a tranche from the Epstein Files revealed she stayed at the paedophile financier’s Palm Beach mansion in 2013 – after his conviction for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.

One email suggested she was still in contact with Epstein just months before his death.

Mette-Marit, 53, who was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, later issued a grovelling apology in which she claimed the emails ‘do not represent the person who I want to be’.

Harald defended his daughter-in-law during a public appearance that month in which he insisted: ‘We must remember that the Crown Princess has not done anything illegal.

‘Unlike some others in Norway, she broke the connection very early. So I think we should give her credit for that.’

Harald’s later life had been marked by a series of health problems that have left him unable to fulfil his royal duties during certain periods. 

King Harald was rushed to hospital on Monday, August 17 with haemolytic anaemia – a disorder which sees red blood cells destroyed at an abnormally fast rate and leads to fatigue, paleness and breathing difficulties.

It came just two years after the Norwegian suffered a similar problem while on holiday in Malaysia. That ordeal resulted in him having a pacemaker fitted.

The monarch had, however, insisted that he would never abdicate from his position due to poor health, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before ascending to the throne in 1991.

‘I stick by what I’ve always said, that I swore an oath to the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) and it is for life,’ he said previously.

In a statement on Sunday, August 23, the palace said: ‘His Majesty the King’s health deteriorated over the weekend. 

‘The King is receiving antibiotics for a bacterial infection in his blood, and has responded to this treatment.’ 

The head of state was admitted to hospital in Oslo and will be on sick leave for the next two weeks, it was reported on Monday. 

The palace said in a statement: ‘The King has been treated with cortisone for the blood disease haemolytic anaemia in recent weeks. 

‘This has led to fluid accumulation in the body that requires treatment in hospital.’

In February, the 89-year-old was rushed to hospital while spending time with his wife, Norwegian Queen Sonja, 89, in Tenerife.

The monarch’s condition at the time was said to have been ‘satisfactory’ after he received treatment for an infection and dehydration at Hospital Universitario Hospiten Sur. 

It came just two years after he suffered a similar problem while on holiday in Malaysia. That ordeal resulted in him having a pacemaker fitted.