Major dam collapse triggers evacuations as Russia's war in Ukraine rages on
By Tara Subramaniam, Jessie Yeung, Sana Noor Haq, Sebastian Shukla, Schams Elwazer, Caolán Magee, Aditi Sangal and Adrienne Vogt, CNN
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday that it's clear that the collapse of the dam in the southern Kherson region is "another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine."
He added that the UN doesn't have access to information to independently verify the cause.
"We have all seen the tragic images coming out today of the monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe in the Kherson region of Ukraine," Guterres told reporters.
"Today’s tragedy is yet another example of the horrific price of war on people. The floodgates of suffering have been overflowing for more than a year," he added. "That must stop. Attacks against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure must stop."
Iran’s claims to have created hypersonic missile alarm Israel
Tehran claims Fattah missile has 1,400km range and previously said it could hit Israel within 400 seconds
Iran has alarmed Israel by unveiling what it claims is its first domestically made hypersonic missile that it has previously said would be able to hit the country within 400 seconds.
The unveiling of the missile, named Fattah, or “conqueror” in Farsi, was attended by the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi. It is claimed to have a range of 1,400km (870 miles), that it can hit speeds of Mach 13-15 – or about 15,000 km/h – and that it has the ability to bypass air defence systems.
EU chief von der Leyen says she isn't interested in the top job at NATO
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, says she has no interest in becoming the new leader of NATO as the trans-Atlantic military alliance seeks a successor to Jens Stoltenberg
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, says she has no interest in becoming the new leader of NATO as the trans-Atlantic military alliance seeks a successor to Jens Stoltenberg.
Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO secretary general since 2014. His term was due to expire last year but was extended to provide stability after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
The leaders of NATO members are due to choose a successor when they meet for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12. No candidate has been proposed publicly and Stoltenberg appears unlikely to extend again.
South Korea scrambles jets after Russia, China incursion
South Korea says Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defense zone without advance notice. Moscow and Beijing are carrying out joint operations to coincide with an increase in drills by the US and its allies.
South Korea's military said it launched air force jets on Tuesday after four Chinese and four Russian military aircraft entered the country's Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ).
China's defense ministry said in a statement that the patrol was part of an annual cooperation plan with Russia, with the drills coming in the wake of US-South Korean joint exercises on the Korean Peninsula.
What we know so far
The South Korean military said the Russian and Chinese planes did not violate its airspace during the incursions to the south and east of the peninsula. According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, neither country gave notice that their planes were entering the zone.
Air defense zones are areas where countries demand that foreign aircraft take special measures to identify themselves before entering.
Climate: Battle lines harden over how to slash CO2
Banish fossil fuels, capture their emissions, pull CO2 from thin air -- diplomats in Bonn for UN-led climate talks agree there's too much planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but remain at loggerheads on the best way to reduce it.
At stake is nothing less than a liveable world: even if humanity caps global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius -- a huge 'if' -- hundreds of millions will still confront devastating heat, drought, flooding and sea level rise, recent studies have shown.
There are three ways to deal with the problem, intervening at different points in the CO2 "value chain" from source to tailpipe: stop burning fossil fuels, by far the main driver of warming; if you do burn them, stop carbon pollution from seeping into the air; and remove CO2 from the atmosphere once it's there.
"All technologies, all levers available need to be used," Simon Stiell, the head of UN Climate, told AFP as the talks in Bonn opened.
"But the science is very, very clear: the fastest and most effective way of getting us to where we need to is the phasing down and phasing out of all fossil fuels."
Inside the Taliban's war on drugs - opium poppy crops slashed
Balancing an AK-47 assault rifle slung around his left shoulder and with a large stick in his right hand, Abdul hits the heads of poppies as hard as he can. The stalks fly in the air, as does the sap from the poppy bulb, releasing the distinctive, pungent smell of opium in its most raw form.
Within a matter of minutes, Abdul and a dozen other men raze the poppy crop which covered the small field. Then the armed men, all wearing a shalwar kameez (a traditional Afghan tunic with loose fitting trousers), most with long beards and some with kohl-lined eyes, pile into the back of a pickup truck and move on to the next farm.
The men belong to a Taliban anti-narcotics unit in the eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, and we've been given rare access to join them on one of their patrols to eradicate poppy farming. Less than two years ago the men were insurgent fighters, part of a war to seize control of the country. Now they've won and are on the ruling side, enforcing the orders of their leader.
No comments:
Post a Comment