Parks and restoration: Climate change forces US policy shift

Can America's national parks remain 'unimpaired' forever, with their majestic scenery and wildlife unaltered? Global warming makes that impossible, says Wylie Carr, a climate change specialist at the National Park Service.According to Carr, who works on environmental protection at the agency's climate change response team, hotter temperatures are the main threat to the parks.With some species vanishing and the natural habitats of others destroyed, park service workers sometimes have no other choice but to defy their mission as stated in a 1916 law: preserving the parks in their original state.The Organic Act asked the National Park Service 'to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and... leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.'But the NPS is developing innovative strategies to fulfill the goal as best they can.Carr talked to AFP about some of those new ideas:- What is the new NPS philosophy? - 'Often, because our policies focus on maintaining historical or natural conditions, our default mode is to resist change. What the 'Resist, Accept, Direct' (RAD) framework helps us to do is recognize that we have to be managing for persistence, but we also have to be managing for transformation.'And so where it's no longer possible or feasible to resist change, then what do we do?'The RAD framework helps us lay out the other possibilities. One is to just accept change. And a lot of times, that's what we're going to have to do. Because we don't have the resources, we don't have the ability to resist the change.'Then when we are directing change, we're thinking about: how would we intentionally move the system in a different direction, working with the trajectory that we're on, to arrive at maybe a more desirable endpoint?'- Examples of 'directed changes'? - 'That's where we might be thinking about: are there opportunities for maybe assisting migration of species in a way that helps us to maintain key species on a landscape, even if they're not in the same place?'Are there ways that we could start to bring in species that are going to be better adapted to the future climate of the park, that are not invasive species? Maybe it's a species that is a native species, but it occurs further south.'And so when we have a big forest fire, we're replanting with that tree species that's going to be better adapted to hotter and drier conditions.'- Does this contradict mission to preserve? - 'Everyone in the Park Service is very committed to the Organic Act. And so it's not that we want to manage differently, it's that climate change is forcing us to make unavoidable choices as strategically as possible.'I think what's important to keep in mind is that no one wants to do things differently. We're being forced to. And so we're trying to do that in a thoughtful and intentional way.'A lot of times, we are going to have to accept change, and be clear that that's a management decision and approach that we're taking.'And so we're not going to deny the impacts of climate change. It is transforming ecosystems. In a lot of cases, we're just going to have to accept those changes.'But we're going to call it out and say that's what we're doing, and not act like we're just going to be able to continue to resist everywhere all the time.'

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682387/international/parks-and-restoration-climate-change-forces-us-policy-shift

US, Europe ‘not doing enough to pressure Israel into Gaza truce’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) said yesterday that the United States and European countries were not doing enough to pressure Israel to agree a ceasefire in Gaza, after Palestinian militant group Hamas’ move to accept a truce proposal.Turkiye has denounced Israel’s attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire, and criticised what it calls unconditional support for Israel by the West.Ankara has halted all trade with Israel and said it had decided to join South Africa’s initiative to have Israel tried for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).Speaking to Muslim scholars in Istanbul, Erdogan said Hamas had accepted a ceasefire proposal by Qatar and Egypt in a “step in the path toward a lasting ceasefire”, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government did not want the war to end.“The response of the Netanyahu government was to attack the innocent people in Rafah,” he said, referring to the Gazan city that Israel is targeting. “It has become clear who sides with peace and dialogue, and who wants clashes continuing and more bloodshed.“And did Netanyahu see any serious reaction for his spoiled behaviour?” he asked. “No. Neither Europe nor America showed a reaction that would force Israel into a ceasefire.”Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, as the civilian death toll and devastation in the enclave mount.Its planned assault on Rafah, hosting some 1.4mn Palestinians mostly displaced in the war, has helped fuel the deepest tensions in relations between Israel and its main ally Washington in generations.Ankara on Friday welcomed the United Nations General Assembly’s backing for a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member.Yesterday Erdogan called on countries not recognising a Palestinian sovereign state to do so after the vote, but slammed Washington and others who voted against.“We saw that countries who lecture us on human rights and freedoms at every opportunity openly support those who massacred 35,000 Gazans,” he said, citing figures from Gaza’s health ministry. “We saw that those who said the right to protest was sacred until yesterday can’t tolerate demonstrations that support Palestine.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682385/international/us-europe-not-doing-enough-to-pressure-israel-into-gaza-truce

Third time could prove lucky for aurora viewers around the world

Anyone who missed the dazzling auroras dancing across night skies earlier this weekend will get another chance, as the powerful geomagnetic storm hitting the Earth is expected to intensify yet again.“Several intense Coronal Mass Ejections are still anticipated to reach the Earth’s outer atmosphere by later today,” the US National Weather Service said yesterday.Those ejections – expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun, known as CMEs – have since Friday produced spectacular celestial shows across swaths of the Earth, far from the extreme latitudes where the auroras are normally seen.However, while many viewers have been disappointed – at times because of overcast skies – the latest prediction suggests their third time might just prove lucky.The latest CMEs are expected to reach Earth late yesterday or early today, “causing severe or extreme geomagnetic storms once again and (offering) a very good chance to see magnificent aurorae much further south than normal”, said Keith Ryden, who heads the Surrey Space Centre in England.Or, as one self-described “lighthunter” suggested on social media platform X, “keep ... coffee thermoses filled to the brim and fingers crossed!”However, scientists said the intensity of anything still to be seen might not reach the level of Friday’s show.“This is likely the last of the Earth-directed CMEs from this particular monster sunspot,” Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, in England, told AFP.Still, overall, he added, “the intensity of it has taken all of us by surprise”.The first of several CMEs came just after 1600 GMT on Friday, according to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC).It was later upgraded to an “extreme” geomagnetic storm – the first since the “Halloween Storms” of October 2003 that caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa.Late on Saturday evening, pictures again trickled onto social media as people in the United States reported sightings, though not as strong as Friday night’s.Friday’s storm was listed as hitting level five geomagnetic (G5) conditions – the highest on the scale.Saturday saw G3 to G5 conditions, with G4 or higher conditions predicted yesterday and G3 conditions possible into today.No major disruptions to power or communications networks appear to have been reported this time around.However, China’s National Centre for Space Weather issued a “red alert” on Saturday, warning that communications and navigation could be affected in much of the country, state news agency Xinhua reported.Excitement over the phenomenon – and otherworldly photos of pink, green and purple night skies – popped up across the world, from Mont Saint-Michel on the French coast to Australia’s island state of Tasmania.Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at about 800km (500 miles) per second.People with eclipse glasses can look for the sunspot cluster during the day.The NOAA’s Brent Gordon encouraged the public to try to capture the night sky with phone cameras even if they couldn’t see auroras with their naked eyes.“You’d be amazed at what you see in that picture,” he said.Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can lead to blackouts. Long pipelines can also become electrified.Spacecraft are at risk from high doses of radiation, although the atmosphere prevents this from reaching Earth.The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) can ask astronauts on the International Space Station to move to better-shielded places within the outpost.Even pigeons and other species that have internal biological compasses can be affected.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682384/international/third-time-could-prove-lucky-for-aurora-viewers-around-the-world

Eurovision in Gaza’s shadow as Israel competes in final

The Eurovision Song Contest final got underway in Sweden’s Malmo yesterday, as tensions mount around Israel’s participation during the Gaza war.Israel is one of 25 nations competing in a contest watched around the world by millions of lovers of the pop sounds – and kitschy shows.However, Israel’s presence has sparked fierce debate.A large crowd of protesters gathered on the central square of the Swedish host city before marching towards the contest venue, waving Palestinian flags and shouting “Eurovision united by genocide” – a twist on the contest’s official slogan United by Music.“It’s important to show, like, we are going to stand on the right side for everyone. This could be any other country and we would still be standing here because this is about children, men and women who have been occupied for so many years,” said protester Maryam, who gave only her first name.Police estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 people joined the demonstration.“We’re not against Eurovision, we’re against that Israel is taking part. We don’t want its representative in Malmo...because of what’s happening in Gaza,” Ingemar Gustavsson, a Swedish pensioner, told AFP.Diverse Malmo is home to the country’s largest community of Palestinian origin.The city is also expecting up to 100,000 fans from 90 countries, on the 50th anniversary of iconic pop group ABBA’s Eurovision win with Waterloo.Although police have said no direct threats have been made at the competition, they have bolstered their numbers with reinforcements from Norway and Denmark.To gain access to the Malmo Arena, the some 9,000 spectators have to pass through a reinforced security system designed in particular to discourage protesters from approaching.Meanwhile, the contest was rattled earlier yesterday by the disqualification of Dutch contestant Joost Klein.“Swedish police have investigated a complaint made by a female member of the production crew after an incident following his performance in Thursday night’s Semi Final,” the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the event, said in a statement. “While the legal process takes its course, it would not be appropriate for him to continue in the Contest.”Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said the incident had involved Klein being filmed directly after coming off stage “against clearly made agreements”.According to an AVROTROS statement, Klein then repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be filmed after which he made a “threatening movement” toward the camera, but did not touch the camera woman.“We stand for good manners – let there be no misunderstanding about that – but in our view, an exclusion order is not proportional to this incident,” AVROTROS said.Klein had already courted controversy at Thursday’s press conference when he repeatedly covered his face with a Dutch flag, seemingly signifying he didn’t agree with being placed next to Israel’s contestant, Eden Golan.The EBU confirmed in March that Golan would take part, despite calls for her exclusion from thousands of musicians around the world.The Gaza war started with the events of October 7 in Israel.Israel’s offensive has killed at least 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.Israel ranks with Croatia and Switzerland as one of the bookmakers’ favourites in the singing extravaganza, which 162mn television viewers watched last year.Golan’s song is an adaptation of an earlier version named October Rain, which she modified after organisers deemed it too political because of its apparent allusions to the Hamas attack.Israel has been taking part in Eurovision since 1973, most recently winning it for the fourth time in 2018.However, the country’s participation this year has caused bitter divisions.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished Golan good luck and said she had “already won” by enduring the protests that he called a “horrible wave of anti-Semitism”.In Spain, the far-left Sumar party on Friday launched a petition calling for Israel to be excluded from the competition while “its army is exterminating the Palestinian people and razing its land”.Meanwhile German Culture Minister Claudia Roth denounced as “absolutely unacceptable” calls to boycott Israeli artists.The EBU has insisted that it does not play politics.This neutrality was challenged on Tuesday by Swedish singer Eric Saade, who took part in the opening number of the competition wearing a keffiyeh around his arm.Two days later, unions at Belgian broadcaster VRT briefly interrupted transmission of the second semi-final to broadcast a message condemning “the violations of human rights by the state of Israel”.During rehearsals yesterday, Slimane, France’s candidate, briefly interrupted his performance for a short speech on peace, his team confirmed to AFP.“We need to be united by music, yes, but with love for peace,” he said, referring to the Eurovision slogan United by Music.More than 10,000 pro-Palestinian campaigners, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, staged a non-violent protest ahead of the semi-final on Thursday.A smaller group of pro-Israeli supporters, including members of Malmo’s Jewish community, also staged a peaceful demonstration on Thursday, defending Israeli solo artist Golan and her right to take part in the contest.Pro-Palestinian protesters have complained of double standards as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that organises the contest banned Russia from Eurovision in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682294/international/eurovision-in-gazas-shadow-as-israel-competes-in-final

First ‘extreme’ solar storm in 20 years brings spectacular auroras

The biggest geomagnetic storm in two decades, sparked by solar flares, caused dazzling lights displays in parts of Latin America overnight on Friday, including a rare appearance in Mexico.In Mexicali, a desert city on Mexico’s northern border thousands of miles from the Arctic regions where the northern lights are common, gradients of pink and purple illuminated the night sky.The civil protection agency in Mexicali’s state of Baja California said more auroras could be visible this evening.In Chile, where the lights are known as Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, local media and social media users shared photos of the sky in the city of Punta Arenas painted with reds and magentas.Local media in Argentina reported similar hues illuminating the sky in the Patagonian city of Ushuaia.Geomagnetic storms are caused when explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s corona are directed at Earth, where they can trigger such aurora displays, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).The geomagnetic storm is likely to continue through the weekend, the agency said.More powerful solar storms are expected over the weekend, threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids.Social media lit up with people posting pictures of auroras from northern Europe (where it is called Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights) and Australasia.“We’ve just woken the kids to go watch the Northern Lights in the back garden! Clearly visible with the naked eye,” Iain Mansfield in Hertford, England, told AFP.That sense of wonder was shared in Australia’s island state of Tasmania.“Absolutely biblical skies in Tasmania at 4am this morning. I’m leaving today and knew I could not pass up this opportunity,” photographer Sean O’Riordan posted alongside a photo on social media platform X.The excitement spread across Europe and North America, from Mont Saint-Michel on the French coast to Payette, Idaho, where the sky shimmered with green light above the western US states.The NOAA, in an update yesterday, said that “storming of varying intensity” will persist through at least today.“The threat of additional strong flares and CMEs will remain until the large and magnetically complex sunspot cluster rotates out of view over the next several days,” it said. “There have been reports of power grid irregularities and degradation to high-frequency communications and GPS (Global Positioning System).”Authorities notified satellite operators, airlines and the power grid to take precautionary steps for potential disruptions caused by changes to Earth’s magnetic field.Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellite internet operator has some 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, described the solar storm as the “biggest in a long time”.“Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far,” Musk posted on his X platform.China’s National Centre for Space Weather issued a “red alert” yesterday morning warning the storm is expected to continue throughout the weekend and will impact communications and navigation in most areas of the country, state news agency Xinhua reported.Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800km (500 miles) per second.The CMEs emanated from a massive sunspot cluster that is 17 times wider than our planet.The Sun is approaching the peak of an 11-year cycle that brings heightened activity.Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told AFP that how far the effects would be felt over the planet’s northern and southern latitudes would depend on the storm’s final strength.“Go outside tonight and look would be my advice because if you see the aurora, it’s quite a spectacular thing,” he said.People with eclipse glasses can also look for the sunspot cluster during the day.The NOAA’s Brent Gordon encouraged the public to try to capture the night sky with phone cameras even if they couldn’t see auroras with their naked eyes.“Just go out your back door and take a picture with the newer cell phones and you’d be amazed at what you see in that picture versus what you see with your eyes.”Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can potentially lead to blackouts.Long pipelines can also become electrified, leading to engineering problems.Spacecraft are also at risk from high doses of radiation, although the atmosphere prevents this from reaching Earth.Nasa has a dedicated team looking into astronaut safety and can ask astronauts on the International Space Station to move to places within the outpost that are better shielded.Following one particularly strong flare peak, the US Space Weather Prediction Centre said users of high-frequency radio signals “may experience temporary degradation or complete loss of signal on much of the sunlit side of Earth”.Even pigeons and other species that have internal biological compasses could be affected.Pigeon handlers have noted a reduction in birds coming home during geomagnetic storms, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa)’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history, known as the Carrington Event after British astronomer Richard Carrington, occurred in September 1859.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682293/international/first-extreme-solar-storm-in-20-years-brings-spectacular-auroras

More than 300 dead in Afghanistan flash floods

More than 300 people were killed in flash floods that ripped through multiple Afghan provinces, the UN’s World Food Programme said yesterday, as authorities declared a state of emergency and rushed to rescue the injured.Heavy rains on Friday sent roaring rivers of water and mud crashing through villages and across agricultural land in several provinces.Survivors yesterday picked through muddy, debris-littered streets and damaged buildings, an AFP journalist saw, as authorities and non-governmental groups deployed rescue workers and aid, warning that some areas had been cut off by the flooding.Northern Baghlan province was one of the hardest hit, with more than 300 people killed there alone, and thousands of houses destroyed or damaged, according to WFP.“On current information: in Baghlan province there are 311 fatalities, 2,011 houses destroyed and 2,800 houses damaged,” said Rana Deraz, a communications officer for the UN agency in Afghanistan.There were disparities between the death tolls provided by the government and humanitarian agencies.The UN’s International Organisation for Migration said there were 218 deaths in Baghlan.Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the interior ministry, said that 131 people had been killed in Baghlan, but that the government toll could rise.“Many people are still missing,” he said.Another 20 people were reported dead in northern Takhar province and two in neighbouring Badakhshan, he added.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: “Hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods”, in a statement posted to social media site X earlier yesterday.“Moreover, the deluge has wrought extensive devastation upon residential properties, resulting in significant financial losses,” he added.Rains on Friday caused heavy damage in Baghlan, Takhar and Badakhshan, as well as western Ghor and Herat provinces, officials said, in a country wracked by poverty and heavily dependent on agriculture.“My house and my whole life was swept away by the flood,” said Jan Mohamed Din Mohamed, a resident of Baghlan provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri.His family had managed to flee to higher ground but when the weather cleared and they returned home, “there was nothing left, all my belongings and my house had been destroyed”, he said.“I don’t know where to take my family...I don’t know what to do.” Emergency personnel were rushing to rescue injured and stranded people, according to the defence ministry.The ministry ordered multiple branches of the military “to provide any kind of assistance to the victims of this incident with all available resources”.The air force said it had started evacuation operations as the weather cleared yesterday, adding that more than 100 injured people had been transferred to hospital, without specifying from which provinces.“By announcing the state of emergency in (affected) areas, the Ministry of National Defense has started distributing food, medicine and first aid to the impacted people,” it said.An AFP journalist saw a vehicle laden with food and water in Baghlan’s Baghlan-e-Markazi district, as well as others carrying the dead to be buried.Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods had left about 100 people dead in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, with no region entirely spared, according to authorities.Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80% of the more than 40mn people depend on agriculture to survive.Afghanistan — which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall — is highly vulnerable to climate change.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682291/international/more-than-300-dead-in-afghanistan-flash-floods

Solar storm could bring auroras, power and telecoms disruptions

A huge solar storm is heading for Earth, supercharging auroras and bringing possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as early as evening today, US officials say.Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – large expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun – are predicted to arrive early today US time, the Space Weather Prediction Centre of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.The new storm, which is expected to persist through the weekend, comes with the Sun approaching the peak of an 11-year cycle that brings heightened activity.“We have notified all of our infrastructure operators that we coordinate with, such as satellite operators, communication folks...and of course, the power grid here in North America,” space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl told reporters.The US Federal Aviation administration, however, said on Friday in a social media post that “we do not anticipate any significant impacts to the national airspace system due to the potential geomagnetic storm”.Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a relatively more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800km (500 miles).There are at least seven CMEs in transit, emanating from a sunspot cluster that is about 16 times wider than our own planet.Forecasters expect to have a better idea of just how impactful they will be once they are around a million miles away.Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can potentially lead to blackouts.In October 2003, geomagnetic storms rated as “extreme” led to blackouts in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.Impacts are also possible on high-frequency radio communication, GPS, spacecraft and satellites.They could also bring auroras – also known as “Northern lights” or “Southern lights”, depending on the hemisphere – to night skies where such phenomena aren’t normally visible.In the United States, this could be as far south as Northern California and Alabama.The NOAA’s Brent Gordon encouraged the public to try to capture the night sky with their cell phone cameras even if they can’t see auroras with their naked eyes.“Just go out your back door and take a picture with the newer cellphones and you’d be amazed at what you see in that picture versus what you see with your eyes,” he said.Officials said people should have the normal backup plans in place for power outages, such as having flashlights, batteries and weather radios at hand.The most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history, known as the Carrington Event, occurred in September 1859, named after British astronomer Richard Carrington.Excess currents on telegraph lines at that time caused electrical shocks to technicians and even set some telegraph equipment ablaze.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682218/international/solar-storm-could-bring-auroras-power-and-telecoms-disruptions

Deaths in Brazil floods rise to 107, horse rescued from rooftop

The death toll from flooding in southern Brazil has risen to 107, civil defence said yesterday, as rescue operations continued and authorities began to see the cost of recovering from the devastation in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.In a dramatic symbol of the disaster, rescuers saved a horse that had been trapped precariously for two days on a rooftop in a badly flooded town.More rains are forecast in the coming days, raising fears that water levels will rise further in the inundated state capital of Porto Alegre and nearby town where streets have turned into rivers.At least 136 people are still missing and more than 165,000 have been displaced from flooded homes and rescued by boats and helicopters.Television images showed the horse straddling the roof of a farmhouse on the outskirts of Canoas, a town north of Porto Alegre.The animal was secured by firemen and loaded into a Zodiac inflatable boat to take it to safety.The floods have destroyed infrastructure and bridges, blocking access to Porto Alegre, where supermarket shelves are empty and looting has been reported at night.Governor Eduardo Leite said initial calculations indicate that Rio Grande do Sul will need at least 19bn reais ($3.68bn) to rebuild from the damage, which has extended into farm areas around the capital.“The effect of the floods and the extent of the tragedy are devastating,” he said on social media.In Brasilia, the federal government estimated the fiscal impact of the flooding at 7.7bn reais ($1.49bn), mostly due to the injection of funds into a support programme for small businesses hit by the floods.“This doesn’t end here,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at an event announcing steps to help the stricken state.Lula said the full extent of Rio Grande do Sul’s needs would be known only when the water recedes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682196/international/deaths-in-brazil-floods-rise-to-107-horse-rescued-from-rooftop

Biden sets conditions for supplying weapons to Israeli entity

US President Joe Biden said that he would stop sending US weapons to the Israeli entity, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.In an interview with CNN, Biden said, in reference to the bombs that he temporarily stopped sending to the Israeli entity, 'civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers'.'I made it clear that if they go into Rafah they havent gone in Rafah yet if they go into Rafah, Im not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities.', Biden added.President Biden's announcement of his willingness to condition sending US weapons to the actions of the Israeli entity represents a turning point in the conflict that has been ongoing since last Oct. 7, due to the Israeli aggression on Gaza.The United States has already stopped sending a shipment of munitions, due to Israels possible operations in Rafah without a plan for the civilians there, CNN said.According to the Pentagon, although it said that no final decision has been made regarding that shipment, the US administration said it is reviewing the potential sale or transfer of other munitions.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682136/international/biden-sets-conditions-for-supplying-weapons-to-israeli-entity

Children in Rafah at ‘edge of survival’ as Israeli military keeps border crossing closed

Israel’s continued closure of the Rafah border crossing is “choking off the entry of life-saving aid into Gaza”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest rapid assessment report.

Up until Israeli tanks took over the Palestinian border crossing on Tuesday, there was a daily average of 48 relief trucks and 166,000 litres of diesel entering Gaza, the UN report notes.

“The continued block on the entry of critical humanitarian items via [the] Rafah Crossing and continued hostilities would have serious consequences on access to food and nutrition services,” the UN report states.

The report also includes an earlier warning from the UN’s children agency, UNICEF, which notes that many of the more than 600,000 children “crammed” into Rafah are already “highly vulnerable and at the edge of survival”, and warns that an Israeli “ground incursion would expose them to catastrophic risks”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682130/international/children-in-rafah-at-edge-of-survival-as-israeli-military-keeps-border-crossing-closed

Russian leader starts his new 6-year term

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that it is up the West to choose between confrontation and co-operation as he was sworn in for a new six-year term at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and many of its allies.More than two years into the war in Ukraine, Putin said yesterday that he wanted to “bow” before Russia’s soldiers there and declared in his inauguration speech that his landslide re-election in March was proof the country was united and on the right track.“You, citizens of Russia, have confirmed the correctness of the country’s course. This is of great importance right now, when we are faced with serious challenges,” he told dignitaries in a gilded Kremlin hall where a trumpet fanfare sounded to greet his arrival. “I see in this a deep understanding of our common historical goals, a determination to adamantly defend our choice, our values, freedom and the national interests of Russia.”“We are a united and great nation, and together we will overcome all obstacles, realise everything we have planned, and together, we will win,” the Russian leader said after being sworn in to office.At 71, Putin dominates the domestic political landscape.Leading opposition figures are in prison or exile, and his best known critic, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February.Yulia Navalnaya, the late dissident’s wife, urged supporters in a video yesterday to keep up the struggle against Putin.“With each of his terms, everything only gets worse, and it’s frightening to imagine what else will happen while Putin remains in power,” she said.On the international stage, Putin is locked in a confrontation with Western countries he accuses of using Ukraine as a vehicle to try to defeat and dismember Russia.Putin told Russia’s political elite after being sworn in that he is not rejecting dialogue with the West, including on nuclear weapons.“The choice is theirs: do they intend to continue trying to restrain the development of Russia, continue the policy of aggression, incessant pressure on our country for years, or look for a path to co-operation and peace?” he said.With Russia’s troops advancing gradually in eastern Ukraine, the top US intelligence official said last week that Putin appeared to see domestic and international developments trending in his favour and that the conflict was unlikely to end anytime soon.It remains unclear how far the Russian president will seek to press the war and on what terms he might discuss ending it – decisions that will depend in part on whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November.Ukraine says peace can only come with a full withdrawal of Russia’s troops, who control nearly 20% of its territory.Putin, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, will surpass Soviet leader Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving ruler since 18th century Empress Catherine the Great if he completes a new six-year term.He would then be eligible to seek re-election again.He won victory by a record margin in a tightly controlled election from which two anti-war candidates were barred on technical grounds.The opposition called it a sham.Ukraine said the swearing-in ceremony sought to create “the illusion of legality for the nearly lifelong stay in power of a person who has turned the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship”.Sergei Chemezov, a Putin ally, told Reuters before the ceremony that Putin brought stability, something which even his critics should welcome.“For Russia, this is the continuation of our path, this is stability – you can ask any citizen on the street,” he said.Russia’s relations with the United States and its allies are at their lowest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world came to the brink of nuclear war.The West has provided Ukraine with artillery, tanks and long-range missiles, but North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops have not joined the conflict directly, something that both Putin and Biden have warned could lead to World War III.Underscoring the rise in nuclear tensions, Russia said on Monday that it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise, after what it said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.In line with the constitution, the government resigned at the start of the new presidential term.Putin ordered it to remain in office while he appoints a new one which is expected to include many of the same faces.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682040/international/russian-leader-starts-his-new-6-year-term