Mexico police find 45 bags with human body parts in ravine Media: US spies saw signs of Wagner revolt IN BRIEF

LONDON—United Kingdom’s fighter jets have been scrambled to respond to Russian aircraft 21 times in the last three weeks, under NATO’s air policing operations in Europe’s Baltic region, Britain said late Saturday.

The Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters, currently operating out of Estonia, are part of so-called “quick reaction alert” aircraft used by the Western alliance to secure its eastern European flank.

Their response comes amid heightened tensions with Moscow over its ongoing war in Ukraine, which has been temporarily overshadowed this weekend by a mutiny within Russia by the Wagner paramilitary group.

The UK Typhoons, which have been operating out of an Estonian air base since March, were launched to monitor the Russian aircraft when they failed to respond to air traffic agencies, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement.

They are policing the skies above the Baltics alongside Portuguese and Romanian air forces based in Lithuania, it noted.

The Russian aircraft intercepted included Su-27 fighter jets as well as longrange bombers, and transport and intelligence collection aircraft.

Quick reaction alert missions see NATO air force crews maintain “constant high readiness to ensure they can get airborne at a moment’s notice,” according to Britain’s defence ministry.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the intercepts were “a stark reminder of the value of collective defence and deterrence provided by NATO”. AFP

JERUSALEM—Violence in the occupied West Bank persisted Saturday with Israelis attacking Palestinian residents and a Palestinian shooter killed by Israeli forces at a checkpoint, officials on both sides said.

The latest incidents add to a mounting toll which has cost four Israeli and 16 Palestinian lives across the territory since Monday.

Palestinians have described hundreds of Israelis attacking their villages in recent days, after Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis near a West Bank settlement on Tuesday.

The heads of the Israeli military, police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency on Saturday described as “nationalist terrorism” the series of attacks by Israelis targeting Palestinians in the West Bank.

“This violence increases Palestinian terrorism and harms the state of Israel and the international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism,” a joint statement said.

In the latest such incident, Israel’s army said “rocks were hurled and reports were received of Israeli citizens setting fire to Palestinian property” in the northern village of Umm Safa. A soldier was wounded and one Israeli was arrested, the army said. AFP

WASHINGTON—US spy agencies picked up signs days ago that mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to rise up against Russia’s defense establishment, US media reported on Saturday.

Intelligence officials conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill about the potential for unrest in nuclear-armed Russia a full day before it unfolded, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.

Spy agencies first began tracking indications that Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary force intended to move against the Russian military leadership in mid-June, the Post said.

The Times said the information was

WASHINGTON—A year after the US Supreme Court scrapped the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, President Joe Biden on Saturday vowed to fight against the “extreme and dangerous” effort by Republicans to curb access to the procedure nationwide.

The high court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision passed the regulation of abortion back to individual states—some of which have since moved to drastically restrict the procedure.

“State bans are just the beginning,”

Biden said in a statement on the anniversary of the ruling. “Their agenda is extreme, dangerous, and out-of-step with the vast majority of Americans.”

Pro- and anti-abortion groups were holding rival events in the American capital on Saturday, and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about the health care “crisis” regarding reproductive rights in a speech in the southern state of North Carolina.

Some 20 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, have prohibited abortion outright or severely restricted access both solid and alarming by mid-week, leading to the flurry of briefings.

In an uprising that played out with dizzying speed, Prigozhin’s forces moved from their camps in Ukraine into Russia Friday and took over a regional military command in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, before advancing toward Moscow.

Just as suddenly, the advance was called off on Saturday, and Russian state media said the Wagner troops would return to Ukraine while Prigozhin would flee to neighboring Belarus.