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.”
World - Latest - Google News
August 24, 2022 at 09:52PM
https://ift.tt/Ts1BnLU
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant Workers Warn of 'Another Chernobyl' Under Vladimir Putin - The Daily Beast
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/iFBZmou
(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.
World - Latest - Google News
August 23, 2022 at 02:26AM
https://ift.tt/6crOVg4
Before and after: These glaciers lost an area the size of Manhattan every 10 years since 1931 - CNN
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/MvNY4tc
Operation continues to save people trapped under the rubble with at least four dead at the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine in Karbala province.
Iraqi rescue workers desperately searched for survivors buried under rubble after a landslide hit a Shia shrine, killing at least four people.
The official Iraqi news agency INA, citing the civil defence service, said on Sunday that four bodies were recovered from the debris at the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine in Karbala province, central Iraq.
“We have found four bodies, including of a woman,” civil defence official Abdelrahman Jawdat said.
Between six and eight pilgrims are trapped in the shrine, civil defence spokesman Nawas Sabah Shaker said.
Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from the capital Baghdad, said many worshippers had gathered at the shrine during the Shia Muslim holy month of Muharram.
“Heavy machinery was brought to the scene including bulldozers and diggers,” he said. “Family members are standing by, waiting for any news about their loved ones.”
Three children were rescued following Saturday’s disaster, emergency services said, adding they were in “good condition” and being monitored at a hospital.
‘Mobilise all efforts’
Rescue teams working through the night were able to provide oxygen supplies as well as food and water to some of those trapped through gaps in the rubble, INA reported.
Iraq’s President Barham Saleh called on the “heroic” rescue workers to “mobilise all efforts to save the trapped people”.
Emergency responders said earlier that they were maintaining verbal contact with the victims “to reassure them”.
The landslide on Saturday afternoon hit the shrine located in a natural depression about 25km (15 miles) west of the Shia holy city of Karbala.
The rocks and sand started sliding because of the “saturation of the earthen embankment adjacent to the shrine”, the civil defence service said.
“This led to the collapse of about 30 percent of the area of the building, which measures about 100 square metres.”
People wait as Iraqi rescue workers search for survivors after the deadly landslide [Mohammed Sawaf/AFP]
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/TFZXFBVFMNOCRKM62WBAPC3D6A.jpg)
