The us topped the final Medal Table, after the womens us Basketball Team beat the hosts, france to win the final Gold Medal of the games. Great britain got 65 medals in total. My Colleague Maryam Moshiri has been in paris for all the excitement the past two weeks. So, the final day of the Paris Olympics 2024 comes to an end. The Closing Ceremony started with Leon Marchand in front of that beautiful cauldron, taking the olympic flame with him from there to the Stade De France. And the ceremony really marked an end to what has been a fantastic two and a half weeks of sport here in paris. The french have really taken these olympics to heart, and the Host Nation has done so well in terms of medals as well, and you could really feel that emotion during that Closing Ceremony. There was music, there was dancing, there were athletes who turned up, not only the flag bearers but also other athletes from nations around the world, and you can feel how relaxed, how happy they were now the job is do
In a russian Air Raid near kyiv, part of a series of attacks targeting six regions of ukraine. Meanwhile further south in the occupied region of zaporizhzhia a fire, at a nuclear plant has now extinguished. The Regions Kremlin installed governor said there was no spike in radiation before the fire was reportedly put out. Russia blamed a ukrainian drone attack while kyiv accused russian officials who control the plant of starting the fire. Ukraines nuclear Power Company said a Cooling Tower and other equipment were damaged. The uns nuclear agency said there was no reported impact on nuclear safety following the blaze. Joining me live is senior fellow at the council on foreign relations, charles kupchan. Welcome to the programme. Firstly i wanted to get your reaction on developments that are happening in kursk. The ukrainians have really caught the russians on guard here they did not see this coming and the ukrainians have advanced to somewhere ten and 20 miles into russian territory. A
It down or trying to present to the russian people that what is happening right now in Kursk Region is containable. And also, i think that suggests that President Putin right now doesnt want to take the next step, the next logical step, which would be, for example, a formal declaration of war against ukraine. We have this special military operation, as russia presents it, going on for the last two and a half years and i think the russian authorities want to keep it like that. They talk about special military operations, they talk about a Counterterrorism Operation now going on in three regions of southern russia. They dont officially want to call this a war. Thanks to steve for that. Our Ukraine Correspondent james waterhouse is near the border, in the Sumy Region in the North East of ukraine. If youve got evacuations announced in the belgorod region, if youve got clear advances to the North And North west. From where we are, this is clearly an Attack Ukraine is committed to. Weve seen
Predictable in ukraine, so we know towards the end of october, the last couple of weeks of october, movement will get much more difficult, the battlefield will settle into a different rhythm and both sides want to establish their positions before then. So if it works, it will have that effect but if it fails, my goodness, it will be a disaster because they may lose the units and the manpower that theyve committed to creating to this pocket in kursk and still lose Chasiv Yar and pokrovsk and other areas in the donbas. If that were the case, i doubt that zelensky would survive that, so its a big risky move. Interesting. And you said if it works, what does the strategic Win Look like here from a ukrainian point of view . Yeah, good point. The battle to come, and this battle has only just started, but the battle to come in this Kursk Pocket will be measured in days and weeks, not weeks and months, because the russians will not allow this to stand. They will put into this pocket whatever it
I think it depends how long it lasts, how long did iranians go and how vladimir putin deals with it. We cant underestimate the significance of such a huge incursion, the occupation of russian territory for the first time since the second World War. A second Border Region of russia is now being evacuated. It has the power to make some russians think, ithink has the power to make some russians think, i think that is clear. Looking at some of the reporting, even given the very controlled atmosphere there is in the russian press, it is clear that some people are questioning. There was an interesting report in a newspaper over the weekend talking to people who have been forced to leave their homes and they were angry, angry they were given notice. They talked about State Tv lying to them about what was happening and anger at the military, talking about corruption, the military S Failure to contain what had happened. It was interesting to look when the questioning went a bit deeper, that tho