World

Ukraine battled Friday to get water and power to millions of people cut off after Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles that battered the country’s already crippled electricity grid.

The energy system in Ukraine is on the brink of collapse and millions have endured emergency blackouts over recent weeks.

The World Health Organization has warned of “life-threatening” consequences and estimated that millions could leave their homes as a result.

“The situation with electricity remains difficult in almost all regions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday evening. “However, we are gradually moving away from blackouts — every hour we return power to new consumers.”

More than 24 hours after Russian strikes smashed Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said late Thursday that 60 percent of homes in the capital were still suffering emergency outages. Water services had been fully restored however, said city officials.

But the shelling had killed seven people at Vyshgorod, on the outskirts of the city, said Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration.

And a fresh round of strikes Thursday killed at least four people in the southern city of Kherson, recently recaptured by Ukraine, said a senior official there.

The latest attacks on the power grid come with winter setting in and temperatures in the capital hovering just above freezing.

The western region of Khmelnytsky was one of the worst affected by power outages, with just 35 percent of its normal capacity, but that was enough to connect critical infrastructure, according to Serhii Hamaliy, the head of the regional administration.

About 300,000 residents in the eastern Kharkiv region, near the border with Russia, were still without power on Thursday evening, but electricity supply had been restored for nearly 70 percent of consumers, said Oleh Synehubov of the regional military administration.

“We’ve restarted power supplies,” said Igor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv city, adding that water was being restored to homes and municipal workers were reconnecting public transport.

“Believe me, it was very difficult.”

Ukraine accused Russian forces of launching around 70 cruise missiles as well as drones in attacks that left 10 dead and around 50 wounded.

But Russia’s defence ministry denied striking any targets inside Kyiv, insisting that Ukrainian and foreign air defence systems had caused the damage.

“Not a single strike was made on targets within the city of Kyiv,” it said.

– ‘Scariest day’ –

Moscow is targeting power facilities in an apparent effort to force capitulation after nine months of war that has seen its forces fail in most of their stated territorial objectives.

“The way they fight and target civil infrastructure, it can cause nothing but fury,” said Oleksiy Yakovlenko, chief administrator at a hospital in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk.

Despite the increasingly frequent blackouts, Yakovlenko said his resolve was unwavering.

“If they expect us to fall on our knees and crawl to them it won’t happen,” Yakovlenko told AFP. 

Russian troops have suffered a string of battlefield defeats.

Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson meant a withdrawal from the only regional capital Russia had captured, Moscow’s troops destroying key infrastructure as they retreated.

On Thursday, Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of the Kherson military administration, said Russian strikes there had killed at least four people.

“The Russian invaders opened fire on a residential area with multiple rocket launchers. A large building caught fire,” he said on Telegram.

Ukraine prosecutors also said Thursday that the authorities had discovered a total of nine torture sites used by the Russians in Kherson, as well as “the bodies of 432 killed civilians”.

Wednesday’s attacks disconnected three Ukrainian nuclear plants automatically from the national grid and triggered blackouts in neighbouring Moldova, where the energy network is linked to Ukraine.

All three nuclear facilities had been reconnected by Thursday morning, said the energy ministry.

Power was nearly entirely back online in ex-Soviet Moldova, where its pro-European president Maia Sandu convened a special meeting of her security council.

– ‘Shutdowns’ –

The Kremlin said Ukraine was ultimately responsible for the fallout from the strikes and that Kyiv could end the strikes by acquiescing to Russian demands.

Ukraine “has every opportunity to settle the situation, to fulfil Russia’s demands and as a result, end all possible suffering of the civilian population,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Zelensky said Ukraine’s forces were “preparing to advance” in some areas.

“Almost every hour I receive reports of occupiers’ attacks on Kherson and other communities of the region,” he said. 

“Such terror began immediately after the Russian army was forced to flee from Kherson region. This is the revenge of those who lost.”

The Ukrainian leader struck an optimistic tone at the end of his nightly address.

“We have withstood nine months of full-scale war, and Russia has not found a way to break us.”

It may be one of the driest places on Earth — a brutal, alien landscape where life seems impossible. 

But Chile’s massive Atacama desert is a unique and fragile ecosystem that experts say is being threatened by piles of trash dumped there from around the world.

Mountains of discarded clothing, a graveyard of shoes, and rows upon rows of scrapped tires and cars blight at least three regions of the desert in northern Chile.

“We are no longer just the local backyard, but rather the world’s backyard, which is worse,” Patricio Ferreira, mayor of the desert town of Alto Hospicio, told AFP.

The Atacama, with its striking otherworldly beauty and expansive salt flats, has also been transformed by intensive mining for copper and lithium.

Carmen Serrano, head of the Endemic Roots environmental NGO, said that most people see the Atacama as nothing more than “bare hills” where they can “extract resources or fill their pockets.”

– ‘Lack of global awareness’-

Chile has long been a hub for secondhand and unsold clothing from Europe, Asia, and the United States, which is either sold on throughout Latin America, or ends up in rubbish dumps in the desert.

Spurred on by the world’s insatiable appetite for fast fashion, this chain last year saw over 46,000 tonnes of used clothing funneled into northern Chile’s Iquique free trade zone.

Full of chemicals and taking up to 200 years to biodegrade, activists say the clothing pollutes the soil, air and underground water.

The heaps of hand-me-downs are sometimes even set alight. 

“The material is highly flammable. The fires are toxic,” said lawyer and activist Paulin Silva, 34, who has filed a complaint at the country’s environmental court over the damage caused by the mountains of trash and clothing.

“It seems to me we need to find those responsible,” she said, standing amid the discarded items which she said were “dangerous, an environmental risk, a danger to people’s health.”

Used cars also flood into the country from the free trade zone. Many are exported to Peru, Bolivia or Paraguay, while others end up dumped in graveyards kilometers wide in the surrounding desert.

Piles of abandoned tires are also scattered across the desert.

The mayor Ferreira lamented a “lack of global awareness, a lack of ethical responsibility and environmental protection” from “the unscrupulous of the world.”

“We feel abandoned. We feel that our land has been sacrificed.”

– A ‘very fragile’ ecosystem’-

For more than eight million years, the 100,000 square kilometer expanse of the Atacama has been the most arid desert in the world. 

Rain is rare, and in some parts, non-existent.

The driest part is the Yungay district in the city of Antofagasta. Here, scientists have found extreme forms of life, microorganisms that have adapted to a practically waterless world, high levels of solar radiation, and barely any nutrients.

Scientists believe these microorganisms may harbor secrets to evolution and survival on Earth and other planets.

NASA considers the Yungay district to be Earth’s most similar landscape to Mars, and uses it to test its robotic vehicles.

While it doesn’t receive much rain, large banks of fog roll across the desert, allowing some plants — and some of the world’s hardiest lichens, fungi, and algae — to grow. 

Scores of brightly colored wildflower species bloom when it gets above average rain in a spectacular display that happens every five to seven years, most recently in 2021.

It is an ecosystem that is “very fragile, because any change or decrease in the pattern of precipitation and fog has immediate consequences for the species that live there,” said Pablo Guerrero, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and expert in desert cactus.

“There are cactus species which are considered extinct” as a result of pollution, climate change, and human settlement.

“Unfortunately, it is something we are seeing on a massive scale, with systematic deterioration in recent years.”

Delegates at a global summit on trade in endangered species have postponed until Friday a vote on whether to approve a proposal to protect sharks, a move that could drastically reduce the lucrative and often cruel shark fin trade.

The proposal would place dozens of species of the requiem shark and the hammerhead shark families on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The appendix lists species that may not yet be threatened with extinction but may become so unless trade in them is closely controlled.  

If the plenary meeting gives the green light, “it would be a historic decision,” Panamanian delegate Shirley Binder, who presided over the meeting, told AFP.

“For the first time CITES would be handling a very large number of shark species, which would be approximately 90 percent of the market,” she said.

Although a vote had been expected Thursday, Binder suspended the session late in the afternoon and pushed it to Friday, as debate over the hippo trade between the European Union and African countries dragged on.

Insatiable appetite in Asia for shark fins, which make their way onto dinner tables in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, has spurred their trade.

Despite being described as almost tasteless and gelatinous, shark fin soup is viewed as a delicacy and is enjoyed by the very wealthy, often at weddings and expensive banquets.

Shark fins, representing a market of about $500 million per year, can sell for about $1,000 a kilogram.

– From villain to darling –

Sharks have long been seen as the villain of the seas they have occupied for more than 400 million years, drawing horror with their depiction in films such as “Jaws,” and occasional attacks on humans.

However, these ancient predators have undergone an image makeover in recent years as conservationists have highlighted the crucial role they play in regulating the ocean ecosystem.

According to the Pew Environment Group, between 63 million and 273 million sharks are killed every year, mainly for their fins and other parts.

With many shark species taking more than 10 years to reach sexual maturity, and having a low fertility rate, the constant hunting of the species has decimated their numbers.

In many parts of the world, fisherman lop the shark’s fins off at sea, tossing the shark back into the ocean for a cruel death by suffocation or blood loss.

The efforts by conservationists led to a turning point in 2013, when CITES imposed the first trade restrictions on some shark species. 

“We are in the middle of a very large shark extinction crisis,” Luke Warwick, director of shark protection for the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told AFP at the beginning of the summit.

– Heated debate –

During hours-long fierce debate Thursday, Japan and Peru sought to reduce the number of shark species that would be protected. 

Japan had proposed that the trade restriction be reduced to 19 species of requiem sharks, and Peru called for the blue shark to be removed from the list. 

However, both suggestions were rejected.

“We hope that nothing extraordinary happens and that these entire families of sharks are ratified for inclusion in Annex II,” Chilean delegate Ricardo Saez told AFP. 

Several delegations, including hosts Panama, displayed stuffed toy sharks on their tables during the earlier Committee I debate.

The plenary will also vote Friday on ratifying a proposal to protect guitarfish, a species of ray.

The shark initiative was one of the most discussed at this year’s CITES summit in Panama, with the proposal co-sponsored by the European Union and 15 countries. 

Participants at the summit considered 52 proposals to change species’ protection levels.

All are up for ratification.

CITES, which came into force in 1975, has set international trade rules for more than 36,000 wild species. 

Its signatories include 183 countries and the European Union. 

Iran on Thursday arrested a former international football player of Kurdish origin who has strongly supported the protests that have rocked the country since September, news agencies said.

Voria Ghafouri, an outspoken figure who appeared 28 times for Iran up until 2019, was arrested after a club training session over accusations that he spread “propaganda” against the Islamic republic, the Fars news agency reported.

He is one of the most prominent figures arrested in a widescale crackdown on protests, amid intense scrutiny on the conduct of the national team at the World Cup in Qatar.

The team refrained from singing the national anthem at their first match against England on Monday.

But concern is also growing over the extent of the authorities’ crackdown in the western Kurdish areas of Iran from which Ghafouri hails, with rights groups saying dozens have been killed over the last week alone.

Ghafouri was detained after a training session with his club Foolad Khuzestan on charges of having “tarnished the reputation of the national team and spread propaganda against the state”, the Fars new agency said.

Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw, based in Norway, also said he had been arrested, posting a picture of the player in traditional Kurdish dress.

Former Iranian international footballer Ali Karimi, another outspoken supporter of the protests, also posted the same photo of Ghafouri on his Twitter account in support of the player.

“For the honourable Voria,” he wrote.

– ‘Stood behind his people’ –

Ghafouri, 35, was listed as a member of Iran’s 2018 World Cup squad but was not named in the final lineup playing at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

Originally from the Kurdish-populated city of Sanandaj in western Iran, Ghafouri had posted a photo of himself on Instagram in traditional Kurdish dress.

Iran has seen more than two months of demonstrations sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, herself of Kurdish origin, after she was arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women. 

The protests have swelled into a broad movement against the ruling theocracy.

Ghafouri had on his social media accounts strongly backed the protests and also reportedly visited the Kurdish-populated areas of Iran to express solidarity with families of the victims of the crackdown.

He won particular praise for visiting the young daughter of a woman who had been killed in the protests and giving her a tablet as a gift.

“Voria stood behind his people and paid for it. We should also stand behind him and not let him be alone,” tweeted US-based dissident Masih Alinejad.

– ‘Not our enemies’ –

Ghafouri was formerly the captain of Iran’s leading club Esteghlal before his contract was terminated and he moved to Foolad Khuzestan.

Many fans suggested the ending of his career with Esteghlal was revenge for speaking out in support of earlier protests that erupted this summer. Others argued that in his mid-30s Ghafouri was already too old for the Iranian top flight.

Ghafouri is not the first big sports name to have been caught up in the crackdown.

International footballer Hossein Mahini was arrested in October for supporting the protests but was later released.

The international side won plaudits abroad for their refusal to sing the anthem at the match on Monday.

But many Iranians have criticised the team for meeting President Ebrahim Raisi just before leaving for Qatar as the protests raged.

“They players out not our enemies,” Iran’s Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz this week wrote on Instagram in response to the anger.

After losing 6-2 to England, Team Melli’s next match is against Wales on Friday.

Elon Musk said Thursday many previously suspended Twitter accounts would be allowed back on the platform after a landslide of users responding to an informal poll by the  new owner voted in favor of the move.

The announcement comes as Musk faces pushback that his criteria for content moderation is subject to his personal whim, with reinstatements decided for certain accounts and not others.

“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,” Musk tweeted, responding to the poll. 

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage meaning “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” that he has used when talking about other Twitter polls.

Of 3.16 million respondents to Musk’s Wednesday poll question, 72.4 percent said Twitter should allow suspended accounts back on Twitter as long as they have not broken laws or engaged in “egregious spam,” Musk posted.

It was the same type of “yes/no” informal poll of Twitter users that Musk devised to decide in favor of reinstating former president Donald Trump on the platform.

Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated Saturday after a narrow majority of respondents supported the move.

Polls on Twitter are open to all users and are unscientific and potentially targeted by fake accounts and bots.

Moreover, while Musk has 118 million followers, many of Twitter’s 450 million monthly active users might never have seen the poll question.

A blanket amnesty for suspended accounts could potentially alarm government authorities that are keeping a close look at Musk’s handling of hateful speech since he bought the influential platform for $44 billion.

It could also spook Apple and Google, tech titans that have the power to ban Twitter from their mobile app stores over content concerns.

Trump was banned from the platform early last year for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

– ‘No mercy’ –

Musk’s reinstatement of Trump followed that of other banned accounts including a conservative parody site and a psychologist who had violated Twitter’s rules on language identifying transgender people.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has said that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will not be returning to Twitter and will remain banned from the platform.

Musk on Sunday said he had “no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame” due to his own experience with the death of his first child.

Jones has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 26 people, mostly children.

Musk, who closed his buyout of Twitter in late October, did not make clear whether the bans to be lifted by the poll were permanent suspensions or temporary ones.

The future of content moderation on Twitter has become an urgent concern, with major advertisers keeping away from the site after a failed relaunch earlier this month saw a proliferation of fake accounts, causing embarrassment. 

Meanwhile the teams in charge of keeping nefarious activity off the site have been gutted, victims of Musk-led layoffs that saw half of total employees leave the company.

John Wihbey, a media professor at Northeastern University, speculated that all the chaos might be because Musk is seeking to “buy himself time.”

“Regulators are certainly going to come after him, both in Europe and maybe the United States… and therefore a lot of what he’s doing is trying to frame those fights,” Wihbey said.