More than 20,000 people gathered in Bunol, Spain, to throw 130 tons of rotten tomatoes at one another on Wednesday.
The "La Tomatina" festival is a 75-year tradition for the city, but it was forced to halt the practice for the past two years due to COVID-19. Photos show party-goers covered head-to-toe in mashed tomatoes, with many of them having the foresight to wear goggles.
The truckloads of rotten and otherwise undesirable fruit started arriving at midday, and attendees launched them at one another for more than an hour, according to Reuters.
The festival's origins are murky, but tradition says a similar fight spontaneously broke out between residents in 1945.
The world's largest food fight festival, La Tomatina, consists of throwing overripe and low-quality tomatoes at each other. (Zowy Voeten/Getty Images)
A truck arrives at the town hall square with tomatoes to throw at the participants of the Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain, on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Zowy Voeten/Getty Images)
La Tomatina is billed as the largest food fight in the world.
The world's largest food fight festival, La Tomatina, consists of throwing overripe and low-quality tomatoes at each other. (Zowy Voeten/Getty Images)
Revelers enjoy the atmosphere in tomato pulp while participating in the annual Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain, on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. ( Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images)
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TRIPOLI, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Rival factions battled across Libya's capital on Saturday in the worst fighting there in two years as a months-long political standoff burst into urban warfare that threatens to escalate into a wider conflict.
A health ministry source said 23 people were killed in Saturday's fighting including 17 civilians. The ministry earlier said 87 people had been injured.
Sustained fighting in the city over the control of government would likely plunge Libya back into full-blown war after two years of comparative peace that brought an abortive political process aimed at holding national elections.
The standoff for power in Libya has pitted the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) under Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah against a rival administration under Fathi Bashagha that is backed by the eastern-based parliament.
Forces aligned with Bashagha tried to take territory in Tripoli from several directions on Saturday, but his main military convoy turned back towards Misrata before reaching the capital, eyewitnesses said.
Dbeibah later posted a video online showing him visiting fighters in the city after clashes stopped.
Fighting had erupted overnight and intensified through the morning, with small-arms fire, heavy machine guns and mortars deployed in central areas. Columns of black smoke rose across the Tripoli skyline and shooting and blasts echoed in the air.
By the afternoon, forces aligned with Bashagha appeared to be converging on Tripoli from three directions. In Janzour in northwest Tripoli, a main access point for some pro-Bashagha forces, local people reported intense clashes.
To the south of Tripoli, witnesses in the Abu Salim district said there was heavy shooting after video circulating on social media, which Reuters could not authenticate, appeared to show a powerful pro-Bashagha commander launching an assault there.
Meanwhile, an eyewitness said a main convoy of more than 300 vehicles affiliated with Bashagha had set off towards Tripoli from the northeast along the coastal road. Eyewitnesses said it had returned to its base in Misrata.
Turkey, which has a military presence around Tripoli and helped forces in the city fight off an eastern assault in 2020 with drone strikes, called for an immediate ceasefire and said "we continue to stand by our Libyan brothers".
FIGHTING
"This is horrible. My family and I could not sleep because of the clashes. The sound was too loud and too frightening," said Abdulmenam Salem, a resident of central Tripoli "We stayed awake in case we had to leave quickly. It's a terrible feeling."
Large armed factions backing each side in Libya's political dispute have repeatedly mobilised around Tripoli in recent weeks, with convoys of military vehicles moving around the city and threatening force to obtain their goals.
Ali, a 23-year-old student who declined to give his surname, said he fled his apartment along with his family during the night after bullets struck their building. "We could not stay any longer and survive," he added.
Libya has had little peace since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi and it split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, dragging in regional powers. Libyan oil output, a main prize for the warring groups, has repeatedly been shut off during the years of chaos.
STALEMATE
An offensive in 2019 by eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, backed by the eastern-based parliament, collapsed in 2020 leading to a ceasefire and a U.N.-backed peace process.
The truce included setting up Dbeibah's GNU to govern all of Libya and oversee national elections that were scheduled for last December but were abandoned amid disputes over the vote.
The parliament said Dbeibah's mandate had expired and it appointed Bashagha to take over. Dbeibah said the parliament had no right to replace him and he would step down only after an election.
Bashagha attempted to enter Tripoli in May, leading to a shootout and his departure from the city.
Since then, however, a series of deals have brought realignments of some armed factions within the main coalitions facing off around Tripoli.
Haftar remains closely allied with the eastern-based parliament and after his 2019-20 offensive some Tripoli groups remain deeply opposed to any coalition in which he plays a role.
A GNU statement said the latest clashes in Tripoli were triggered by fighters aligned with Bashagha firing on a convoy in the capital while other pro-Bashagha units had massed outside the city. It accused Bashagha of backing out of talks to resolve the crisis.
Bashagha's administration said in a statement that it had never rejected talks and that its own overtures had been rejected by Dbeibah. It did not directly respond to the assertion that it was linked to the clashes.
Reporting by Ahmed Elumami Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfali, Hani Amara and Jonathan Spicer Writing by Angus McDowall Editing by Pravin Char and Frances Kerry
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Millions of people have been affected by floods in Pakistan, hundreds have been killed, and the government has declared a national emergency.
On Friday, the National Disaster Management Authority said more than 900 people had been killed since June - including 34 in the past 24 hours.
In the old town of Sukkur in southern Sindh province, worn tents line the streets, as people seek shelter.
Many sit with just beds - all their possessions lost to the water.
The streets are flooded, and plastic waste has spewed out of sewage pipes. Large pools of dirty water have collected, slowing down any drainage.
Residents are worried the standing water will bring waterborne diseases with it. It's been raining all week in Sindh province and there's been little respite for communities hoping to return home to see what can be salvaged.
A number of homes in the city centre have been damaged - left with just the walls.
In Sindh province alone, the floods have killed more than 300 people. Along the narrow streets, people use whatever patch of dry ground is still available to pitch tents, as more rain is expected.
Reuters
On Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said 33 million people had been hit by the floods - around 15% of the population.
The country has appealed for more international aid, and Mr Sharif has held a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Islamabad.
Earlier, climate minister Sherry Rehman said the country was going through its eighth monsoon cycle "while normally the country only has three to four cycles of rain".
"The percentages of super flood torrents are shocking," she said.
Since the summer season began, multiple monsoon cycles have lashed Pakistan, destroying more than 400,000 homes across the country.
At least 184,000 people have been displaced to relief camps, the UN's disaster relief agency, OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) said on Thursday.
Southern Pakistan has been hardest hit by the rains - particularly Sindh which has received nearly eight times its average August rainfall.
Ms Rehman on Thursday said local authorities there had asked for one million tents to house displaced people.
(CNN)Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently held by Russian forces, has been reconnected to Ukraine's electricity grid, the country's nuclear operator said in an updated statement on Friday, a day after the plant was disconnected for the first time in its history.
The statement from Energoatom said that at 2.04 p.m. local time on Friday one of two reactors "that was stopped yesterday was connected to the power grid, and capacity is being added."
In a later statement, the operator said a second reactor had been connected. "Despite numerous provocations by the (Russian) occupiers, [Zaporizhzhia plant] continues to work in the energy system of Ukraine and provide our country's electricity needs," Energoatom said in a statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated plant's workers on Friday for protecting it "from the worst-case scenario, which is constantly being provoked by Russian forces," he said during a daily address. "Currently, the station is connected to the network. Congratulations! It produces energy for Ukraine."
Fires at a nearby thermal power plant had caused the last remaining electricity power line, which powers the station, to disconnect twice on Thursday, according the nuclear operator at the time. The plant's three other lines had been "lost earlier during the conflict" it added.
The power supply was restored later on Thursday, but Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remained disconnected from the country's power grid until Friday. The two nuclear reactors which remain operational at the plant need an electricity source in order to function and feed power into the grid.
The nuclear plant, which is Europe's largest, has been under Russian control since March. Clashes around the complex have sparked widespread concern and fears of a disaster.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry inside the complex and using it as cover to launch attacks, knowing that Ukraine can't return fire without risking hitting one of the plant's six reactors.
Moscow, meanwhile, has claimed Ukrainian troops are targeting the site. Both sides have tried to point the finger at the other for threatening nuclear terrorism.
On Thursday, Zelensky said backup diesel generators were "immediately activated" at the plant to avert a "radiation disaster."
"The world must understand what a threat this is: If the diesel generators hadn't turned on, if the automation and our staff of the plant had not reacted after the blackout, then we would already be forced to overcome the consequences of the radiation accident," Zelensky said during his nightly address.
The generators are installed to supply power to cooling pumps to stop the fuel from overheating in the event of an electricity outage.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry inside the complex and using it as cover to launch attacks.
On Friday, Zelensky also emphasized that "the situation (at the plant) remains very risky and dangerous. Any repeat of yesterday's events, that is, any disconnection of the plant from the grid, any actions by Russia that could trigger the shutdown of the reactors, will again put the plant one step away from disaster."
He stressed that officials from the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, must be given urgent access to the site.
An administrative worker at the plant told CNN Friday that amid "shelling around the station and the city, smoke from fires, dust from the ash dump of a thermal power plant," the "situation sometimes looks like the end of the world."
"It's really tough when there are strong winds," the worker, who has spoken with CNN on previous occasions and whose identity is not being disclosed for their security, added.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant generates about 20% of Ukraine's electricity and a prolonged disconnection from the national grid would have been a huge challenge for Ukraine as colder weather approaches.
Russia on Friday said it was doing everything possible to make sure a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could access the nuclear power plant, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
The plant is located in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine. The IAEA has said it has not been able to visit the facility since before the conflict began six months ago.
CNN's Pierre Meilhan, Uliana Pavlova and Petro Zadorozhnyy contributed to this report
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Istanbul (CNN)Turkish pop star Gulsen Colakoglu has been jailed on charges of "inciting or insulting the public to hatred and enmity" after she made a joke about religious schools in Turkey, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The charges appear to be related to a video circulating on social media from a Gulsen concert in April, when she joked about one of the musicians.
He "graduated from Imam Hatip (religious schools). That's where his pervert side comes from," she said.
Several Twitter users could be seen sharing the video on Thursday with a hashtag calling for her arrest and saying it is offensive to associate the schools with perverts.
Gulsen denies that she has committed any crime and is appealing the arrest, according to her lawyer Emek Emre.
After her detention, Gulsen shared a message on her official Twitter and Instagram accounts, apologizing to "anyone who was offended" by the joke and saying it had been twisted by "malicious people who aim to polarize our country."
"I made a joke with my colleagues, with whom I have worked for many years in the business. It has been published by people who aim to polarize society," she said.
"In defending the freedom I believe in, I see myself thrown towards the radical end that I criticize. I apologize to anyone who was offended by my speech in the video," she said.
She later said in a testimony that it was an "unfortunate joke" and asked to be released, saying she had a child depending on her and that she would come to court or a police station when needed, according to Anadolu.
Gulsen has previously been targeted by Turkish conservative groups for her revealing stage outfits and support for the LGBTQ community.
The Muslim majority country is officially secular but highly polarized over issues surrounding secularism, religion, women's rights and LGBTQ rights.
Imam Hatip schools, which teach religious studies alongside the Turkish curriculum, have grown in the two decades that the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power. The schools are known for training young people to become imams or preachers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the school, as did many AKP party members.
Controversy in Turkey
Reactions to the arrest have come from ordinary Turks, celebrities, and even political parties.
After her arrest, social media posts showed Gulsen fans in a packed soccer stadium singing her songs in solidarity.
The award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak called for Gulsen's release, as did other cultural figures.
"I deeply regret the arrest of the artist @gulsen. She was targeted for boldly advocating for women's rights, LGBT+ rights, secularism, democracy, and pluralism. This is a lynching campaign. It is neither lawful nor conscientious. Free at once. #gulsenserbestbırakılsın," she tweeted.
Iconic Turkish pop star Tarkan also took to Twitter on Friday, writing that "this injustice to Gulsen must end and Gulsen must be released immediately."
"Those who prosecute the ones without arrest and sometimes even release them without trial who sexually abuse children, murder women, rape women, but when it comes to Gulsen, they take action quickly. Our legal system, which ignores those who are corrupt, steal, violate the law, slaughter nature, kill animals, use religion as a tool for their own bigotry ideas and polarize society, arrests Gulsen at one whack," he also wrote.
Members of the AKP defended the arrest, with AKP spokesperson Omer Celik saying "inciting hatred is not an art form" in a Twitter post.
Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance Dr. Nurettin Nebati tweeted, "Our Imam Hatip High Schools are our distinguished institutions that raise generations equipped with our national and moral values and have moral maturity. I strongly condemn this distorted language and the distorted mentality behind it, which targets our youth studying at our Imam Hatip Schools, and I find it unacceptable."
Meanwhile, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party described the backlash against Gulsen as a manufactured controversy intended to "set our young people against each other."
"The winds of peace have been blowing for a long time among young people with different lifestyles. The goal (of the arrest) is to take a joke that has exceeded its purpose and set our young people against each other. It is to stay more in power, and more to steal and snap," Kemal Kilicdaroglu wrote on Twitter.
The presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey are both scheduled to happen early next summer.
President Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday ordered a sharp increase in the size of his armed forces, a reversal of years of efforts by the Kremlin to slim down a bloated military and the latest sign that the Russian president, despite heavy battlefield losses, is bracing for a long war in Ukraine.
The decree, released by Mr. Putin’s office and posted on the Kremlin website, raised the target number of active-duty service members by about 137,000, to 1.15 million, as of January of next year, and ordered the government to set aside money to pay for the increase. Military analysts puzzled over how such a sharp increase could be managed.
It was the first time in five years that Mr. Putin had issued an order changing the overall head count of the Russian armed forces. Officials offered no explanation for the move, and there was little mention of it on state television. U.S. military officials estimate that Russia has suffered up to 80,000 casualties — including both deaths and injuries — during Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some analysts described the move as a clear signal that, after a full six months of fighting, Mr. Putin had no plans to relent.
“This is not a move that you make when you are anticipating a rapid end to your war,” said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. “This is something you do when you are making some kind of plan for a protracted conflict.”
There is mounting evidence that the war in Ukraine could stretch to next winter and beyond. Russia’s offensives in the east and south have slowed to a crawl. And neither side has shown any readiness to negotiate or compromise — not Russia, which had initially moved to topple the Kyiv government and now aims to seize large swaths of Ukraine’s territory, nor Ukraine, whose freedom and sovereignty are at stake.
While enjoying a significant superiority in artillery and in long-distance missiles, Russia’s forces have been unable to capture significant territory since the beginning of July, when the city of Lysychansk in the country’s Luhansk region fell.
Military analysts and reporters on the ground have been attributing the slowing pace of Russia’s offensive to a lack of manpower. Over the past months, Russia has been scrambling to recruit volunteers to serve in Ukraine in what some analysts called a “stealth mobilization.”
Currently, Russia requires men aged 18 to 27 to do one year of active military service, although the precise number called up at any given time fluctuates. But the army also has career soldiers who serve under contract, including women.
So far, Mr. Putin has avoided mass conscription to provide soldiers for the war in Ukraine. One reason is that declaring a national draft would destroy the veneer of normalcy that the Kremlin has been able to maintain despite economic sanctions and the continuing fighting.
Dmitri Lovetsky/Associated Press
Instead, the Russian authorities have been luring recruits to join combat by offering them hefty cash incentives and other perquisites. At the end of May, Mr. Putin also signed a law that scrapped the age limit of 40 for contract soldiers.
Pavel Luzin, a Russian military analyst, said that he was skeptical about Russia’s ability to increase its armed forces without major changes.
He said that Mr. Putin’s decree would only increase the number of troops “on paper against the reality on the ground,” unless Russia is forced to increase the duration of compulsory service from one year to 18 months. Another solution, he said, would be absorbing some of the country’s national guard forces into the army.
LONDON — Britain's energy regulator announced Friday it will raise its main cap on consumer energy bills to an average £3,549 from £1,971 a year, as campaign groups, think tanks and politicians call on the government to tackle a cost-of-living- crisis.
The price cap limits the standard charge energy suppliers can bill domestic customers for their combined electricity and gas bill in England, Scotland and Wales, but is recalculated by Ofgem throughout the year to reflect wholesale market prices and other industry costs.
It covers around 24 million households. The 4.5 million households on prepayment plans face an increase from £2,017 to £3,608.
The cap does not apply in Northern Ireland, where suppliers can increase prices at any point after getting approval from a different regulator.
Gas prices have soared to record levels over the last year as higher global demand has been intensified in Europe by low gas storage levels and a drop in pipeline imports from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. This has also increased electricity prices.
Earlier this month, Ofgem announced that it will recalculate the cap every three months rather than every six months to reflect current market volatility.
Consultancy Cornwall Insight forecasts the cap could rise to £4,649.72 in the first quarter of 2023 and to £5,341.08 in the second quarter before coming down slightly to £4,767.97 in the third quarter.
That is still up from an average £1,400 annual bill in October 2021, and the current £1,971 cap.
'A catastrophe'
In July, the government announced it would pay a £400 grant to all households over six months from October to help with bills, with an additional £650 one-off payment going to 8 million vulnerable households. Some suppliers have also announced support packages for customers.
However, this has been widely criticized for failing to address the scale of the problem, which has been compared with the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2008 financial crash in terms of its impact on the population.
"A catastrophe is coming this winter as soaring energy bills risk causing serious physical and financial damage to families across Britain," said Jonny Marshall, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, ahead of the announcement.
"We are on course for thousands to see their energy cut off entirely, while millions will be unable to pay bills and build up unmanageable arrears."
There are also concerns over the effect on U.K. businesses, which are not protected by the cap and may face a hit from the erosion in consumer spending power.
Leadership election
Several strategies for tackling the crisis have been put forward by politicians, consultancies and suppliers themselves, but the ongoing U.K. leadership election has meant no new policy announcements have been made despite the looming spike in bills.
The candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, have both spoken of the need to provide additional support for households and businesses but said no decision will be made until the new prime minister is elected on Sept. 5.
At a leadership hustings Thursday night, Sunak said he would provide further "direct financial support" for vulnerable groups.
Truss, the current favorite to win the contest, repeated previous comments about wanting to use tax cuts to reduce pressure on households, reversing the recent increase in national insurance tax and suspending the green energy levy on bills.
Plan needed
Options on the table are thought to include freezing the price cap at its current lower level — which energy suppliers argue would need to be financed through a government-overseen funding package in order to prevent destabilization of the industry — or allowing the price cap to rise and extending household support.
Consumer group Which? on Thursday said the government needed to extend household payments from £400 to £1,000, with an additional one-off minimum payment of £150 to the lowest income households, to prevent millions falling into financial distress.
The opposition Labour Party has said it would freeze the April to October cap through winter by extending the recently-introduced windfall tax on oil and gas companies, scrapping the universal £400 payout and finding other savings to freeze the cap over winter.
Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: "This rise must be cancelled, with the UK gov and energy companies then agreeing a package to fund the cost of a freeze over a longer period, coupled with fundamental reform of the energy market."
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commented: "As well as existing government support, the civil service is making appropriate preparations so that any new support or commitments on cost of living when the new Prime Minister is in place can be delivered as quickly as possible."
Massive impact
Jonathan Brearley, chief executive of Ofgem, said any response needed to "match the scale of the crisis we have before us" and involve the regulator, government, industry, NGOs and consumers working together.
"We know the massive impact this price cap increase will have on households across Britain and the difficult decisions consumers will now have to make," Brearley said.
"The Government support package is delivering help right now, but it's clear the new prime minister will need to act further to tackle the impact of the price rises that are coming in October and next year.
"We are working with ministers, consumer groups and industry on a set of options for the incoming prime minister that will require urgent action."
"The new prime minister will need to think the unthinkable in terms of the policies needed to get sufficient support to where it's needed most," said the Resolution Foundation's Marshall.
"An innovative social tariff could provide broader targeted support but involves huge delivery challenges, while freezing the price cap gives too much away to those least in need. This problem could be overcome with a solidary tax on high earners – an unthinkable policy in the context of the leadership debates, but a practical solution to the reality facing families this winter."
Cost of buying gas
Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of trade association for the energy industry Energy UK, told the BBC Friday morning that the industry would continue to call for government intervention to help both consumers and the impact on the wider economy.
"Most [suppliers] make a negative margin and have for the last few years, it's one of the reasons we've lost 29 suppliers from the market. So when you look at this and the scale of this crisis, we're talking about something far greater than the industry can meet, despite the help that's been put in place, despite charging the maximum they can for the cost of buying gas."
Pinchbeck said the industry favored a deficit tariff scheme that would allow suppliers to keep prices at their current level and have their costs met by a loan because it was the quickest to implement.
Wider challenge
Marco Alverà, chief executive of renewable energy firm TES-H2, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" that higher gas prices were a pan-European problem since gas moves freely between countries around the continent.
"Unless people are thinking of closing the borders of gas, which I haven't heard anyone say, we should really think about this as a European gas crisis that can only be met with European solutions. With price caps, with other measures that are being asked, which now need to be urgently implemented," Alverà said.
"We need to work now before the winter comes on solidarity mechanisms, because we cannot have consumers and households freeze in one country and factories open in another country. We really need to agree as soon as possible that households and retail consumers come first."
Facing soaring wholesale prices, European governments have been coming up with their own support packages for citizens.
France has fully nationalized energy supplier EDF at an estimated cost of 9.7 billion euros, and capped increases in electricity tariffs at 4%.
German households are set to pay around 500 euros ($509) more on their annual gas bills until April 2024 through a levy to help utilities cover the cost of replacing lost Russian supplies, with electricity prices also set to increase. The government is discussing a sales tax exemption on the levy and a relief package for poorer households, but has also been criticized for failing to announce adequate support.
Italy and Spain have both used windfall taxes to fund a combination of handouts for households in need and limits on bills rising to unaffordable levels.
Aug 25 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday to increase the size of Russia's armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh month.
Moscow has not revealed any losses in the conflict since its first weeks, but Western officials and the Kyiv government say they number in the thousands.
The increase includes a 137,000 boost in the number of combat personnel to 1.15 million. It comes into effect on Jan 1, according to the decree published on the government's legislative portal.
The last time Putin fixed the size of the Russian army was in November 2017, when the number of combat personnel was set at 1.01 million from a total armed forces headcount, including non-combatants, of 1.9 million.
Russia has not said how many casualties it has suffered in Ukraine since the first weeks of the campaign, when it said 1,351 of its soldiers had been killed.
Western estimates say the actual number could be at least 10 times that, while Ukraine says it has killed or wounded at least 45,000 Russian troops since the conlfict - which Moscow calls a special military operation - started on Feb. 24.
Kyiv has also been reluctant to publish information on how many of its soldiers have died in the war, but on Monday the head of Ukraine's armed forces said almost 9,000 service personnel had been killed in a rare update. read more
Putin's decree did not say how the increase in headcount was to be achieved but instructed the government to assign the corresponding budget.
According to an authoritative annual report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Russia had 900,000 active service personnel at the start of this year, and reserves of 2 million people with service within the past five years.
Reporting by Reuters; editing by John Stonestreet and Angus MacSwan
(CNN)The United States has sent its response to the European Union on a proposal to try to save the Iran nuclear deal, the US State Department confirmed Wednesday.
"As you know, we received Iran's comments on the EU's proposed final text through the EU. Our review of those comments has now concluded. We have responded to the EU today," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
He did not provide details on the response, but it is not expected that the US will accept what Iran put forward without seeking changes and further negotiations.
US officials had voiced some optimism around the latest efforts to revive the nuclear deal, which the US left in 2018 during the Trump administration and which Tehran has increasingly violated since then. However, they have stressed that gaps remain between the two sides.
It is also expected to face significant domestic opposition from US congressional lawmakers, and has been denounced by Israel, whose prime minister said "will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state." The negotiations over the nuclear deal are also set against a backdrop of continued concerns about threats from Iranian and Iranian-backed military groups.
EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali confirmed they "received the US response and have transmitted to Iran."
Earlier on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry said they had received the US response via the EU and "the careful study of the views of the American side has started."
"Iran will share its comments with the coordinator upon completion of the review," Nasser Kanaani said, according to a statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
The US answer was conveyed more than a week after Iran sent its response to what the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell called "a final text" to restore the nuclear deal. Borrell said Monday that the Iranian response was "reasonable."
Price on Monday said the US government had been working "as quickly as we can, as methodically as we can and as carefully as we can see to it that our response is complete," noting it "takes into account the Iranian feedback."
Biden administration officials have claimed that Tehran dropped a number of demands that were in previous drafts of the text meant to restore the 2015 agreement, including the demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be de-listed as a foreign terrorist organization.
Still issues to resolve
However, US officials have indicated that there are issues that still need to resolved before the US will agree to rejoin the deal -- formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran has increasingly violated its commitments to the agreement and grown its nuclear program in the wake of the US withdrawal.
"We've said all along that if Iran were prepared to re-enter the JCPOA and if it were willing to drop the demands that are extraneous to the JCPOA, that is to say the demands that Iran previously put forward that have nothing to do with the Iran deal, then we would be prepared on a mutual basis to re-enter the Iran deal," Price said Wednesday morning in an interview on CNN's "New Day."
"We're closer today, but we're still not there," he said.
The US sent its response to the EU a day after Israeli National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata met with his counterpart Jake Sullivan in Washington. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid reiterated his country's opposition to "this agreement, because it is a bad one."
Lapid called on the US and other parties to the deal to walk away from negotiations, and claimed the " negotiators are ready to make concessions."
"We have made it clear to everyone: if a deal is signed, it does not obligate Israel. We will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state," he said during a press conference in Jerusalem.
Biden administration officials have denied making any concessions to Tehran and have argued that the resumption of the deal is the best way to prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon.
A senior administration official said that in the event of a full mutual reimplementation of the deal, a number of constraints would go into effect. They include a prohibition on Iran "enriching and stockpiling uranium above very limited levels," the removal of "thousands of advanced centrifuges ... including all of the centrifuges enriching at the fortified underground facility at Fordow," and "a prohibition on reprocessing and the redesign of a reactor that could otherwise be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium."
"Strict limits on Iranian enrichment would mean that even if Iran left the deal to pursue a nuclear weapon, it would take at least six months to do so," the official said.
"In addition to the nuclear constraints Iran would have to implement, the IAEA would again be able to implement the most comprehensive inspections regime ever negotiated, allowing it to detect any Iranian effort to pursue a nuclear weapon covertly," they added. "Much of that international monitoring would remain in place for an unlimited amount of time."
CNN's Hadas Gold, Emmet Lyons and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting.
The Indian Air Force on Tuesday said at the end of its inquiry that the government had sacked three officers for accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan in March.
Pakistan has rejected India’s closure of the incident of the firing of a supersonic missile into Pakistani territory on March 9, and reiterated a demand for a joint probe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
The Indian Air Force on Tuesday said at the end of its inquiry that the government had sacked three officers for accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan in March.
The BrahMos missile, a nuclear-capable, land-attack cruise missile jointly developed by Russia and India – was fired on March 9, prompting Pakistan to seek answers from New Delhi on the safety mechanisms in place to prevent accidental launches.
“Pakistan categorically rejects India’s purported closure of the highly irresponsible incident and reiterates its demand for a joint probe,” a foreign office statement said.
The measures taken by India in the aftermath of the incident and the subsequent findings and punishments handed by the so-called “internal court of inquiry” are totally unsatisfactory, deficient and inadequate, it added.
“India has not only failed to respond to Pakistan’s demand for a joint inquiry but has also evaded the questions raised by Pakistan regarding the command-and-control system in place in India, the safety and security protocols and the reason for India’s delayed admission of the Missile launch,” statement went on to add.
The Indian Air Force said in a statement on Tuesday, “A Court of Inquiry, set up to establish the facts of the case, including fixing responsibility for the incident, found that deviation from the Standard Operating Procedures by three officers led to the accidental firing of the missile.”
It added the government had dismissed the three officers with immediate effect.
Safety concerns
The incident, which may have been the first of its kind, immediately raised questions about safety mechanisms in place to prevent accidental launches and raised worries as both countries possess nuclear weapons.
Pakistani officials said the missile was unarmed and had crashed near the country’s eastern city of Mian Channu, about 500km (310 miles) from the capital, Islamabad.
According to the US-based Arms Control Association, the missile’s range is between 300km (186 miles) and 500km (310 miles), making it capable of hitting Islamabad from a northern Indian launch pad.
After the incident, Pakistan’s foreign office summoned India’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad to lodge a protest against what it called an unprovoked violation of its airspace, saying the incident could have endangered passenger flights and civilian lives.
Pakistan warned India “to be mindful of the unpleasant consequences of such negligence and take effective measures to avoid the recurrence of such violations in future”.
Military experts have in the past warned of the risk of accidents or miscalculations by the neighbours, which have fought three wars and have engaged in numerous military clashes, most recently in 2019 which saw the air forces of the two engage in combat.
ZAPORIZHZHYA, Ukraine—Employees at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya power plant in Ukraine, one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the world, are facing an impossible decision. Do they hold on to their critical jobs and work under daily bombardment—or do they pack up their lives and flee to safety, despite the risk of an imminent nuclear catastrophe?
Escalating attacks on the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhya plant is located, have sparked global panic—and for good reason. Ukraine has accused Russia of shelling the city from the plant grounds. Ukrainian soldiers say they shoot at Russian positions in the town, but not the direction of the plant. In an alarming warning this month, the United Nations nuclear watchdog announced that the situation at the plant has reached a “grave hour.”
Meanwhile, the workers needed to keep the plant safe and operational are left caught in the crossfires of a Catch 22 for the ages.
A power plant specialist in his forties, who chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of his position at the facility, told The Daily Beast he feels duty-bound to remain in the city despite the danger, fearing a worse fate for his country and the world should Ukrainians abandon the city.
“I’m staying because I don’t want another Chernobyl,” he said from a humanitarian center in Enerhodar, referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine’s north, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time. “The difference is that Chernobyl was six times smaller than the power plant we now have. Should something happen to this one, it will be a disaster for the whole world. Work is work and I feel responsible. Ukrainians must do their job.”
Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as seen across the river from the city of Nikopol. The two cities have been receiving regular shelling recently from Russian forces who control the power plant city of Enerhodar.
Asmaa Waguih
That’s not to say he’s not afraid for himself and his family. “The place is becoming unsafe,” he said, adding that both Russian intelligence and Ukrainian intelligence forbid the plant’s workers from speaking openly. “We are sending our families to safer places, but the men must stay behind.”
But other Ukrainian workers are choosing to leave. Thirty-year-old Serhii, an engineer and electricity specialist at the plant, recently quit his job at the plant after eight years, choosing to take his wife and baby daughter to Kyiv. “The shelling has become much worse, and it is no longer safe to stay for me and my family,” Serhii told The Daily Beast.
“Some workers have worked in the plant for generations, like their fathers and grandfathers. They can’t imagine their lives without it. But I will not return unless the place is free from occupation.”
Residents visiting the humanitarian center said they believed the escalated bombardment was triggered a month ago—after Ukrainian forces used a drone to target Russian military locations in areas surrounding the plant, which caused some casualties on the Russian side.
Some residents have claimed that Russian forces at checkpoints of Enerhodar are trying to convince residents to stay, referring to areas taken by Russian forces as “liberated territories” previously under “Nazi control.”
Serhii, 30, (red shirt) an electrical engineer who used to work at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant, waiting with his wife and baby at a humanitarian center before he takes a bus with his family to Kyiv. He said he decided to leave his work for his family’s safety.
Asmaa Waguih
Any workers choosing to leave, including Serhii, must undergo a registration process and investigation by Russian forces into the reasons given—a process which takes up to five days of queuing at a Russian checkpoint.
The Zaporizhzhya power plant was built during the former regime of the Soviet Union. It was attacked and taken over by Russian military forces within days of the start of the war around six months ago, leaving Ukrainian staff to continue to operate the plant under Russian military guards ever since.
The town was mainly built for the power station, so the majority of the residents have connections to the plant. Most live in a complex of buildings specifically built for nuclear plant workers and their families.
A Ukrainian mother who was on her way out of the city with her daughter and granddaughter told The Daily Beast she was heading to Kyiv after almost 30 years in Enerhodar. Her husband and son-in-law, who work at the plant, are choosing to stay.
Ukrainian Security personnel check papers from Ukrainians as they register to enter Russian-occupied territories.
Asmaa Waguih
“It was a tough decision for us to leave after such a long time,” said the woman who worked as a teacher and requested anonymity. “I was always confident that the city would be protected because it has the nuclear plant… [but then] I saw the Russians from my window while they were shelling into the city from residential buildings. When artillery shells and bombardment became frequent, we became very scared,” she added.
At Vasylivka checkpoint, the last checkpoint controlled by Russian forces some 60 kilometers from Zaporizhzhya city, “the Russians were interrogating me about everything. They searched my laptop and our mobiles,” said the teacher.
One electric engineer, who wanted to go by the alias “Alexander,” still hopes that the latest bombardment of the strategic nuclear city is nothing more than a fear mongering ploy by Russia to gain the upper hand in the conflict. “There are very few strategic benefits of bombarding this place other than spreading fear,” he told The Daily Beast.
Ukrainians from different parts of the country who fled the southern parts of Ukraine at the epicenter of the city of Zaporizhzhya.
Asmaa Waguih
The 37-year-old, who has been working for the plant for 13 years, said he was on duty when the Russians came March 3 and seized control of the plant. As the shelling intensified this month, he decided to take an unpaid “vacation” from his position at the plant, but plans to return.
“It is risky now to go back. I’ve already sent my family away a while ago,” he told The Daily Beast. “But at least this is my home.”
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August 24, 2022 at 09:52PM
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Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant Workers Warn of 'Another Chernobyl' Under Vladimir Putin - The Daily Beast
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(CNN)The climate crisis is devastating the world's glaciers. As they melt, ecosystems are destroyed and local industries are ravaged — and perhaps most critically, a major source of fresh water vanishes.
For the first time, researchers have used historical imagery to reconstruct a visual timeline of Switzerland's glaciers, which they found lost half of their volume between 1931 and 2016. In the past six year's alone, they lost another 12% of their volume.
And in the 85 years ending in 2016, Switzerland's glaciers lost an area the size of Manhattan every ten years.
The before-and-after imagery is stunning.
The analysis, conducted by scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, resulted in a striking visual contrast between Switzerland's glaciers today and what they looked like nearly a century ago.
Given the record-high temperatures that enveloped vast swaths of the Northern Hemisphere this summer, Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist and co-author of the study, told CNN that he expects this year's glacier loss will be the worst.
"The year 2022 is extreme — not only have we had a very snow-poor winter, we also had an extremely warm summer, and this combination is truly the worst case," Farinotti said. "We expect this year's losses to be larger than the ones experienced in 2003, which so far was the 'record year,' in the negative sense, for glacier mass loss."
Glacier loss causes ecoystem loss across plants and animals. It also affects the landscape's appearance and impacts local tourism. And, importantly, glaciers are a critical source of fresh water for drinking and agriculture that disappears as the ice recedes.
"If glaciers were to disappear entirely, various regions might face issues related to water supplies — especially during summers such as we have had and are still having this year," said Farinotti.
Farinotti said researchers expect to see another 60% loss in glacier mass by the end of the century — even if the world meets the climate targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
"If climate change were to continue unabated, we might well find ourselves with European Alps that are virtually ice-free," Farinotti warned.
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August 23, 2022 at 02:26AM
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Before and after: These glaciers lost an area the size of Manhattan every 10 years since 1931 - CNN
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