In 2005 I was handed a DVD smuggled out of a village called Dingzhou in Hebei province. It showed a pitched battle between local farmers and dozens of armed thugs, hired by a state-owned power company, to force them off their land. The farmers had dug deep trenches in their fields. The thugs attacked at dawn opening fire with shotguns and beating the farmers with steel bars. Six were killed. "I think the party elders must have had a touch of buyer's remorse," Mr McGregor says. To the right, piles of dug earth stretch for miles next to the road - a Ukrainian defensive measure to force Russian forces up a single route. irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru Everybody is a bit nervous about going to the front, he says. "Your heart beats differently at times. But we signed up for this. We gave a pledge. There is still no power, water, and the locals rely on volunteers for food. Our journey to him took us along poorly surfaced roads, which only deteriorated as we continued south towards the front line. Turkey accuses US of ‘bullying’ Saudi Arabia over OPEC+ oil cuts Prof Mandane-Ortiz said her initial request had been for students to make a "simple" design out of paper. Conservative MP George Freeman, who earlier pledged his support for Penny Mordaunt, says he will now be voting for Rishi Sunak to be the next prime minister. The leadership of the United States frames support for Ukraine as a matter of defending a “rules-based international order” that is under attack by rogue authoritarians.