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A snap election in September will choose a parliament after the resignation of Prime Minister Draghi, a technocrat whose strong international reputation did not help him stay in power.

Italys Mario Draghi, who, despite his July 21 resignation will remain as a caretaker prime minister until after a September 25 election chooses a new parliament, will have served longer as premier than Mario Monti, who similarly led a caretaker government while in office from 2011-2013.

Yet the two premiers left the countrys leadership in very different circumstances. Mr. Monti, who became prime minister when Italy was on the edge of default, largely succeeded in putting the countrys public finances in order. The main uncertainty after his tenure was whether the political right or left would win elections. Neither did, and another national unity government was formed, as the Democratic Party allied with Silvio Berlusconi, their former foe.

The outgoing prime minister took the countrys helm in February 2021 with two main goals. The first was to run an efficient vaccination campaign. Mission accomplished, largely thanks to army general Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, appointed as vaccine czar. The second was to secure largesse from the 806.9 billion-euro NextGenerationEU fund. Mr. Draghi, who had spent the previous eight years as president of the European Central Bank, used his prestige to shield Italy from criticism and win European funds. That was, however, only the first step: the resources need to be spent within a clearly defined schedule and with changes in the countrys legal and regulatory infrastructure (reforms).

As prime minister, Mr. Draghi had easier circumstances than Mr. Monti: he did not even have to attempt to reduce spending or raise taxes. Yet, paradoxically, he will leave a country mired in more fundamental uncertainty than when he took over.

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The newly elected parliament will open on October 12. The new government will have to rush to create a new budget law. The Draghi government in recent months has been quite generous with special aid and subsidies to families and businesses to soften the blow of inflation and high energy prices.

Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani recently insisted that the country can get through the next winter even if Russia completely stops providing gas. The question is how. The last two generations of Italians (and Western Europeans, more broadly) have no memory of double-digit inflation. But neither do they have any more experience with energy shortages and government seizing supplies. The Italian government has strongly backed the Ukrainian war effort but has maintained that it would limit the costs of supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Italian households. Yet it is not clear this will be the case: the government may force families to cut down on winter heating, despite its repeated assurances that the war in Ukraine will not limit their wallets or room temperatures. If this turns out to be untrue, the new government will face social unrest that may become radicalized if Italians believe the government has been telling them lies.

Inflation is another challenge. Italy has low salaries, which have been basically stagnant for over 20 years now. At the same time, taxes on labor in 2020 were the fifth highest in the 38-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: 46 percent vs. an average of 34.6 percent. Increasing salaries should be a priority of the new government. Yet the proposals on the table seem unlikely to achieve that goal: though it will be difficult this time, the right-wing Lega Party is flirting with lowering the retirement age, which tends to raise the social contribution tax on labor.

The left wants to introduce a national minimum wage, though the country traditionally has national bargaining agreements that achieve the same goal. The Brothers of Italy, currently placed by the polls as the leading party of a center-right coalition, wants to lighten the fiscal burden of businesses that hire more people. The attempt, similar to the lefts, is to hijack the distribution of business-provided resources.

Gross domestic product growth is projected to be a modest 0.9 percent in 2023.

Fiscal leeway will be limited, particularly if interest rates eventually cross into positive territory and the yield spread between German and Italian 10-year bonds begins to widen, signaling the growing unease in financial markets. The spread already widened during the Draghi premiership, from 103 to 200 basis points. It is now floating around 250 basis points, partly due to the election uncertainty and the European Central Bank (ECB) raising rates. The new Transmission Protection Instrument that the ECB hoped would bring spreads under control is apparently working. Yet the new government, whose head will not have the prestige of Mr. Draghi, will need to pay extra attention.

Though estimates have improved for 2022, with expected economic growth of 2.9 percent, the gross domestic product is projected to rise only a modest 0.9 percent in 2023. Any new government should strive to revive stronger growth, but this would require reforms. The very word reform is now confused with requirements that need to be fulfilled to access European funds. Whoever wins the elections will need both to keep up with the timetable set by the Draghi government and add perhaps some changes of its own making.

Given the Italian predicament, one would expect an electoral campaign passionately devoted to discussing economic reforms. That is, however, unlikely to happen. For one thing, Italians suffer from a sort of reform fatigue. From 1994 to 2018, they were constantly promised profound changes to put the country back on the growth path. Though reforms were implemented, Italys transition is still in the making, a sort of never-ending story that ultimately disappointed voters.

The populist triumph of 2018 was partly a reaction against the litany of promises that mostly failed to accomplish their declared goal. Nobody understands this better than ex-Prime Minister Berlusconi, the master pied piper, always promising an Italian catharsis. This time, Mr. Berlusconi in office from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2011 began his campaign by promising to plant one million trees and raise pensions. Though he may have pleased those most worried about climate change and the summer drought, Mr. Berlusconi also signaled that he was unwilling to trouble himself with labors such as economic deregulation, freeing the labor market or cutting taxes.

It is unlikely that any party will wage the next election campaign on a pro-growth agenda.

Mr. Berlusconi is not alone. Over the past few years, Italys political parties have highly invested in culture wars. They had the luxury to do so because they entrusted the prime ministers role to a seasoned technocrat like Mr. Draghi. Lega is going to campaign aggressively on immigration, though after Covid-19 and the subsequent reduction in international mobility, the issue is far less prominent. The left will rally around the flag of diversity and individual rights (LGBTQ+ causes, etcetera), which goes well with propaganda to shame fascist Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy and the most likely winner of the next election. In a desperate attempt to save something of their once huge following, the Five Star Movement will go for a mixture of environmentalism and social justice, to position itself at the extreme left.

It is unlikely that any party will wage the next election campaign on a pro-growth agenda. On a brighter note, no party will have a particularly dangerous economic agenda, certainly not one that would threaten the eurozone. In 2018, two parties (Lega and the Five Star Movement) were suspected of wanting to leave the euro. Nobody is flirting with the idea now. After NextGenerationEU, Brussels is no longer seen as the odious torchbearer of austerity but as a welcomed source of aid.

In many ways, Italian parties will do their best to mimic the peculiar mixture of policies offered by the Draghi government. The spendthrift technocrat leaves the country with a budget deficit three times the size of the government led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who served from July 2018 to February 2021, when populists from the right and the left allied for the first time.

Yet Italian politicians may be wrongly assuming that the spirit of the times has changed and that they will be allowed to continue with the status quo. They may be discounting how Mr. Draghis prestige helped Italy to receive a pass from the European Commission and benevolent attention from financial markets.

The course followed by the next Italian prime minister will be fraught with peril. While nobody can compete in international reputation with Prime Minister Draghi, his legacy has blemishes that will prove to be challenging from the first day of the new government.

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Italy parliamentary election will take place on September 25 - Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG

Pat Brothwell| OPINION COLUMNIST

On Aug. 2, Kansas voters rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that wouldve said there was no right to legal abortion in the state, the first of its kind since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Fifty eight percent of voters 534,134 individuals voted for abortion rights in a state thats traditionally been heavily red, echoing the sentiment of the American public. Pew Research reports that 62% of Americans believe abortions should be legal, and 57% of Americans disapproved of the courts decision to overturn what they thought was precedent.

On June 24, District-11 Republican congressional candidate Chuck Edwards tweeted, I have always been pro-life. Im pro-life today, and Ill be pro-life tomorrow. The Supreme Court has now decided that this is a state issue, and I will keep working with the North Carolina legislature to ensure that life is protected in our great state. Only, thats not what the people Edwards claims hes looking to serve want.

More North Carolinians believe in abortion rights than the national average a Public Policy Polling survey reports that 74% of North Carolina voters believe abortion should be legal.

So, if the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians are pro-choice, why do we keep electing politicians who choose to eschew the views of their constituents to push the current conservative agenda? An agenda thats morphed into a monolithic viewpoint that doesnt represent the average American? We did it with Madison Cawthorn. If we dont learn from our mistakes, well do it again with Chuck Edwards, who, despite campaigning as the anti-Cawthorn, shares his possible predecessor's penchant for putting his own needs and views over his constituents.

A 2022 ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that 70% of Americans think enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over protecting gun ownership rights a WRAL News poll finds 62% of North Carolinians want stronger gun control. Chuck Edwards is a staunch defender of gun owner rights, though one wonders if hes driven more by his strict adherence to the conservative culture wars or his wallet, since he advertised in an April 22tweet that hes a federally licensed firearms dealer. Madison Cawthorn used his position in Congressto try to enrich himself. Must we worry Edwards will do the same?

As reported by the Mountain Xpress, during the Republican primary debate in April, candidate Wendy Nevarez emphasized how serving constituents must be a congresspersons priority. Were not doing it for profit, she said, were doing it for people. … If a businessperson only has profit (in mind), theyre not going to be thinking about the American people.

In the same debate, Edwards praised the merits of former President Trump, going so far as to emulate his penchant for speaking in third person. Chuck Edwards is a businessman that loves this country, with conservative principles, that has a track record of getting things done, Edwards said. Thats exactly why we sent President Trump to the White House in 2016: Hes a businessman with conservative principles that loves this country. Once again, the people disagree. Another ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 60% of Americans believe the House select committee is conducting a fair and impartial investigation into the events of Jan. 6, and 58% feel Trump should be criminally charged.

A major Edwards campaign promise is cracking down on the elusive Critical Race Theory (CRT) in high schools, even though the reality is that education-wise, its a theory mainly relegated to law-school studies. Also, a reality? A Spectrum News/Ipsos poll found that only 33% of registered North Carolina voters support banning CRT 45% are against a ban, and 22% dont know enough to make a decision.

I was unable to find whether Edwards supports codifying gay marriage, but his tweeting on June 27that Christian Conservatives are on the cusp of taking back our country leads me to believe he doesnt, even though Gallup found that 71% of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage. In related news, Gallup also found that religious membership in the U.S. has fallen to an all-time low just 47%.

Ill go back to Nevarezs astute point that politicians should be working for people. Madison Cawthorn didnt. The Kansas vote shows the right-wing Washington establishment isnt. Lets not make the same mistake with Chuck Edwards this fall. He may not have Cawthorns jawline or Twitter following, but deep down, hes the same partisan hack.

Pat Brothwell is a former high school teacher, butcurrent writer and marketing professional living and working in Asheville.

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Opinion: Don't be fooled: Chuck Edwards is the same partisan hack that Madison Cawthorn is - Citizen Times

While his countrys economic crisis deepens not least due to his reckless policies Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and meddling in the Russian-Ukraine war. Hes spent the week trying to raise his international stature, restoring diplomatic relations with Israel and participating in high-level talks in Lviv which went nowhere. This is unlikely to end well for Erdogan at next years parliamentary elections.

With Thursdays surprise 100 basis-point Turkish interest-rate cut, one has to wonder whether Erdogan fits the definition of insanity by doing the same thing over again yet expecting a different result. Erdogan keeps pressuring the Turkish Central Bank to cut interest rates with a view to curbing inflation even as with each chop the Turkish lira plumbs new lows and inflation soars to new highs.

The latest interest-rate cut comes as Turkeys inflation is almost 80% and the lira has already lost a further 25% of its value this year. The countrys international reserves are depleted, and investors are increasingly concerned about Turkeys ability to service its external-debt obligation. This is reflected in a widening in Turkish credit-default swaps to their highest level in the past 20 years and to very high dollar-borrowing rates for Turkey.

Making Erdogans monetary policy all the more difficult to understand is that it flies in the face of basic economic theory and experience. If there is one thing on which almost all economists can agree, its that higher interest rates are needed to regain control over galloping inflation and a currency in freefall. This highlights how out of sync Erdogans monetary policy is with the tightening interest-rate cycle underway in the rest of the world. Most of the worlds major central banks, including most notably the Federal Reserve, are raising interest rates to regain control over inflation.

Again byaggressively cutting interest rates at a time of already very high inflation and external economic weakness, not only is Erdogan risking putting his country further on the path to hyperinflation; he also seems to be inviting a full-blown currency crisis by further incentivizing domestic residents to ship their capital abroad. Such a crisis would make it very difficult for the country to service its external-debt obligations, which could require the imposition of economically damaging capital controls.

Heightening the risk of a currency crisis is the Federal Reserves interest-rate hiking cycle, which is causing a generalized repatriation of capital from the emerging market economies. So too is Turkeys gaping external current-account deficit, which has been adversely affected by higher international oil prices and the European economic slowdown.

If Erdogans reckless monetary policy makes no economic sense, it also makes no political sense. In June 2023, Erdogan will face the electorate in scheduled parliamentary elections. One would have thought the last thing hed want is voters mad at him because of galloping inflation and a collapsing economy. Yet thats what hes setting himself up for by pursuing his highly idiosyncratic monetary policy.

Rudi Dornbusch, the late MIT economist, famously said that currency crises take a lot longer to occur than you might have thought likely. When they do occur, however, they do so at a much faster pace than you thought possible.

Erdogan would do well to heed Dornbuschs warning and make an early monetary-policy U-turn to regain control over inflation. He might thereby spare his country from yet another full-blown currency crisis in the run-up to next years election.

He might also spare us from a debt crisis in yet another medium-sized emerging market economy, which is the last thing an already-challenged global economy needs.

If theres a silver lining to Turkeys economic mess, it is that Erdogan will likely be forced to leave the political stage after next years election. If that happens, we might have a more reliable Turkish NATOpartner to help us in standing up to Russia in its war with Ukraine.

DesmondLachmanis a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He was a deputy director in the International Monetary Funds Policy Development and Review Department and the chief emerging market economic strategist at Salomon Smith Barney.

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Erdogan fiddles in Moscow as Istanbul burns - nypost.com

IRYNA BALACHUK FRIDAY,19 AUGUST 2022, 1:04 p.m.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan said that during the negotiations in Lviv, he offered Turkey as a host location for a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency, referencing Erdogan's comments to journalists on the plane after returning from Lviv

Quote from Erdoan: "Mr Zelenskyy and I discussed all aspects of our bilateral relations. I reiterated our support for Ukraines territorial integrity and sovereignty. Just as I told Mr Putin during my visit to Sochi. I reminded Mr Zelenskyy that we can host a meeting between them."

Details: The Turkish President said that he would like to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant with Putin and to ask him to take concrete actions.

Erdoan also said that during the tripartite meeting with Zelenskyy and UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, steps to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain had been discussed.

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Erdogan offers Zelensky opportunity to organise meeting with Putin

Following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and UN chief Antonio Guterres in Lviv on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of the dangers of "another Chernobyl"disaster erupting at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant held by invading Russian forces.Read our live blog to see how the day's events unfolded.

This live pageis no longer being updated. For more of our coverage of thewar in Ukraine, click here.

President Joe Biden's administration is readying about $800 million of additional military aid toUkraineand could announce it as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Biden would authorize the assistance using his Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to authorize the transfer of excess weapons from U.S. stocks, the sources told Reuters.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an announcement could slip into next week, cautioning that weapons packages can change in value before they are announced.

Two Russian villages were evacuated on Thursday after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot near the border with Ukraine, local authorities said.

"An ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo," less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Ukrainian border in Belgorod province, the region's governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement.

No casualties were reported, but residents of Timonovo and the nearby village of Soloti were "moved to a safe distance", he said, adding that authorities were investigating the cause of the fire.

Turkish PresidentErdogansaid he discussed possible ways of ending the war between Ukraine and Russia in a trilateral meeting with his Ukrainian counterpartZelensky and UNchief Guterres.

He also said they discussed the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia, and that he would later raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We attach great importance to this issue...of what happened to the exchange of these captives," Erdogan told reporters at a joint press conference in Lviv.

UNSecretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and said he was gravely concerned by the situation inside and around the facility.

Speaking to reporters in Lviv following talks with Ukrainian President Zelensky and Turkish President Erdogan, the UN chief called for the withdrawal of all military equipment and personnel from the plant.

"The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to reestablish Zaporizhzhia's purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area," said Guterres.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling the nuclear plant, which was captured by Russian forces in early March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyinvited UN chief Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks because he was impressed by their persuading (of) Russian President Vladimir Putin to set up the grain export operation, explains FRANCE 24s Turkey correspondent Jasper Mortimer, referring to the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Erdogan is known to have a certain influence with Putin, and I think Zelensky and Guterres will explore with Erdogan possible formulas for defusing the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Mortimer added.

Following talks with visiting UN chiefAntonio Guterres, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the UN must ensure the security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian forces.

"Particular attention was paid to the topic of Russia's nuclear blackmail at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. This deliberate terror on the part of the aggressor can have global catastrophic consequences for the whole world," Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The UN must therefore "ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarisation and complete liberation from Russian troops", Zelensky added.

The Russian foreign ministry has said it was engaged in "quiet diplomacy" with the US regarding a potential prisoner swap that would include basketball star Brittney Griner.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia on drug charges on August4 in a verdict that USPresident Joe Biden called "unacceptable".

Washington, which has argued that Griner was wrongfully detained, has offered to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US.

Russia's foreign ministry has dismissed a proposal by UNSecretary-General Antonio Guterres to demilitarise the area around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

During a press briefing, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Ivan Nechaev said the proposals were "unacceptable".

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was captured by Russia in March, shortly after the Ukraine invasion began. The nuclear plant, Europe's largest,is near the front lines, and has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster.

Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the plant.

Two Russian MiG-31 fighter jets are suspected of violating Finnish airspace on Thursday morning near the coastal city of Porvoo on the Gulf of Finland, the Finnish defence ministry said.

The suspected violation happened at 0640 GMT and the jets were westbound, communications chief Kristian Vakkuri told Reuters, adding that the aircraft were in Finnish airspace for two minutes.

"The depth of the suspected violation into Finnish airspace was one kilometre," he said, but would not elaborate on whether the planes were escorted out. The Finnish airforce identified the planes and the Border Guard had already launched an investigation into the violation, the ministry statement added.

Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday three MiG-31E warplanes equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles have been relocated to its Kaliningrad region, Interfax reported.

Russian state-owned news agency RIA cited the ministry as saying that the MiG jets would be on round-the-clock duty.

Kaliningrad, a Russian Baltic coast exclave located between NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania, became a flashpoint after Lithuania moved to limit goods transit to the region through its territory, with Russia promising retaliation.

The first wartime shipment of UN World Food Programme aid for Africa reached the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday under a deal backed by Russia restoring Ukrainian grain deliveries across the Black Sea.

Marine traffic sites indicatedthe MV BraveCommander andits cargo of 23,000 tonnes of wheat left Ukraine's Black Sea port of Pivdennyi on Tuesday.

Turkish coast guards expect the Lebanese-flagged cargo vessel to reach the Sea of Marmara on the strait's southern edge late on Wednesday before sailing to its final destination in Djibouti next week.

The grain will then be loaded onto lorries for delivery to war-and famine-stricken Ethiopia.

It is also hoped that the renewal of grain shipments will make room in Ukrainian silos for the incoming harvest.

Russia's defence ministry said Thursday that its forces did not have heavy weapons deployed at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing Kyiv of preparing a "provocation" at the station.

"Russian troops have no heavy weapons either on the territory of the station or in areas around it. There are only guard units," the ministry said in a statement.

Pointing to accusations that Russian forces have been shelling Ukrainian positions from the territory of the station, the ministry said Kyiv was planning a "provocation" during a visit to Ukraine by UN chief Antonio Guterres that would see Moscow "accused of creating a man-made disaster at the plant".

It said Ukraine was deploying forces in the area and planned to launch artillery strikes on the plant from the city of Nikopol on Friday, when Guterres is due to visit Odesa.

"The blame for the consequences (of the strikes) will be placed on the Russian armed forces," it said.

"I'm not sure [this meeting] is about breakthroughs, it's about progress on certain issues, in particular the grain export from Odesa through the Bosphorus and out into the Mediterranean",reports Rob Parsons, FRANCE 24's chief foreign editor. "Thanks in large part to the work of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, who used his influence to get a shift going on the export of grain via Odesa, a lot has already been achieved".

"The situation at theZaporizhzhia nuclear power plant [has brought about] a lot of concern internationally. The Ukrainians are accusing the Russians of basing artillery and other forces on the site of the nuclear power plant and using them to attack Ukrainian positions further to the west, [while] the Russians are saying 'no, it's not us, it's the Ukrainians attacking the power plant with their own artillery'", saysParsons.

One more ship carrying grain has left Ukraine's Chornomorsk port, Turkey's defence ministry said on Thursday, bringing the total number of vessels to leave Ukraine's Black Sea ports under a UN-brokered grain export deal to 25.

The Belize-flagged I Maria was loaded with corn, it said, adding that four other ships will arrive in Ukraine's ports on Thursday to be loaded with grain.

Russian strikes battered the northeast Ukraine region of Kharkiv Thursday, killing at least five people, hours ahead of the first face-to-face meeting since the start of the war between the Turkish and Ukrainian leaders.

The head of the Kharkiv region Oleg Synegubov said Moscow's forces had launched eight missiles from Russian territory at around 0430 local time (0130 GMT), striking across the city.

"Three people died, including a child. Eight people, including two children, were rescued," the emergency services said.

Synegubov posted images from the scene of one strike showing the smouldering remains of several burnt-out buildings and twisted wreckage of destroyed vehicles nearby.

In separate strikes on the town of Krasnograd southwest of Kharkiv, bombardments that damaged residential buildings left two dead and two more injured, he said.

"Kharkiv. 175 days of horror. Daily terror, missile strikes on residential areas and civilians," a senior presidential aide, Mykhaylo Podolyak, wrote on social media.

In the first weeks after the Russian invasion in February, thousands of volunteers from all over the world, not all of them with military experience, flooded into Ukraine to help repel the Russian army. However, Georgian soldiers serving in the Georgian Legion have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014. FRANCE 24s reporters met in Kyiv with some of the volunteers who are providing expertise and training to the Ukrainians.

About 30 percent of the Georgian Legion are foreign volunteers like Brad Mowery, a former police officer in the US who has come to Kyiv to help with the training. I have the skill-set to come over and help. I could not stay at home and do nothing...I find the Ukrainians incredibly easy to work with ... I can see them working through problems together. It is almost [as if] they are teaching themselves before I can get a chance to teach them. The morale is excellent among everyone. Obviously no-one is excited to go to war but theyre ready.

UN chief Antonio Guterres will meet the leaders of Ukraine and Turkey in Lviv on Thursday, following a deal reached last month that allowed the resumption of grain exports after Russia's invasion blocked essential global supplies.

The meeting also comes a day after the head of NATO said it was "urgent" that the UN's atomic watchdog be allowed to inspect Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where a Russian occupation has sparked concerns of a nuclear accident.

A spokesman for Guterres said that the UN chief, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss the grain deal, as well as "the need for a political solution to this conflict".

He added that he had "no doubt that the issue of the nuclear power plant" would be raised. In his regular nightly address on Wednesday, Zelensky said Guterres had arrived and that the two would "work to get the necessary results for Ukraine".

Guterres is slated to travel on Friday to Odesa, one of three ports involved in the grain exports deal -- hammered out in July under the aegis of the UN with Ankara's mediation. He will then head to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Centre, the body tasked with overseeing the accord.

According to the UN, the first half of August saw 21 freighters authorised to sail under the deal, carrying more than 563,000 tonnes of agricultural products, including more than 451,000 tonnes of corn.

The first wartime shipment of UN food aid for Africa reached the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday, carrying 23,000 tonnes of wheat.

A Russian strike killed at least six people and wounded 16others in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according tothe city's mayor.

The attack started a fire in an apartment block,Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on the Telegram app.

Unidentified remains of 21 victims of the Bucha massacre were buried Wednesday in a cemetery in the Kyiv satellite town that saw atrocities committed by retreating Russian forces in late March.

Reporting from Bucha, FRANCE 24s Rob Parsons said the bodies were brought from the Bucha morgue, where they were being held while investigators tried to match the victims DNA. But so far, for these ones at least, thats proved not possible. Meanwhile each grave is marked with a number, so if investigations into the DNA comeup with some kind of answers, the relatives will be notified and they can moved their loved ones to graveyards of their own choice, explained Parsons.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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Erdogan warns of another Chernobyl after talks with Zelensky, Guterres