World News

By Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters) -Heavy fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky on Thursday as Russia pressed its campaign to seize all of the industrialised Donbas region, while to the west Kyiv accused Moscow of using a nuclear plant to shield its artillery.

An official with the Russia-backed Donetsk People’s Republic said Pisky, on the frontlines just 10 km (6 miles) northwest of provincial capital Donetsk, was under control of Russian and separatist forces.

“It’s hot in Pisky. The town is ours but there remain scattered pockets of resistance in its north and west,” the official, Danil Bezsonov, said on Telegram.

Ukrainian officials denied that the heavily fortified town, a key to the defence of Donetsk, had fallen. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield accounts.

The Donbas region comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces became Moscow’s main objective after it failed to seize the capital Kyiv at the start of the war in February. Luhansk is now almost completely under Russian control but Donetsk is still holding out.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said in an interview posted on YouTube that Russian “movement into Pisky” had been “without success”.

Luhansk regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai, interviewed on Ukrainian TV, said Russia had sent increasing numbers of mercenaries into the region, including from the Wagner private security firm.

“We once had peaceful Ukrainian towns. Now we have been thrust into the Middle Ages … People are now leaving because they are afraid of freezing in the coming winter,” he said.

NUCLEAR PLANT

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of killing at least 13 people and wounding 10 with rockets fired from around a captured nuclear power plant in the centre of the country, in the knowledge it would be risky for Ukraine to return fire.

“The cowardly Russians can’t do anything more so they strike towns ignobly hiding at the Zaporizhzhia atomic power station,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said on social media on Wednesday.

Ukraine says around 500 Russian troops with heavy vehicles and weapons are at the plant, where Ukrainian technicians continue to work.

The town Ukraine says Russia targeted – Marhanets – is one Moscow says its foes have used in the past to shell Russian soldiers at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which they seized in March.

Ukraine’s military said Russia also bombarded several other areas in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russia has not commented on the Ukrainian allegations and Reuters could not independently verify Kyiv’s version.

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of imperilling the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear complex, with attacks nearby.

The Group of Seven leading industrialised countries on Wednesday told Russia to hand back the plant to Ukraine, after the United Nations atomic energy watchdog sounded the alarm over a potential nuclear disaster.

CHINA BACKS RUSSIA

Russia on Wednesday received powerful endorsement from China of its rationale for the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing’s ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, accused Washington of pushing Russia into a corner with repeated expansions of the NATO military alliance and support for Ukraine’s alignment with the European Union.

Washington’s “ultimate goal is to exhaust and crush Russia with a protracted war and the cudgel of sanctions,” Zhang was quoted as saying.

Ukraine’s military reported Russian forces shelled some 28 towns in the northeast, southwest and south including the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions on Wednesday. Ukraine’s general staff said counterattacks forced Russian troops to retreat in most of them.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Arestovych said dozens of civilians had been killed by Russian shelling on Wednesday.

Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians in what it calls its “special military operation” aimed at safeguarding its security against NATO expansion.

Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of waging an unprovoked imperial-style war of aggression.

The war has crushed Ukraine’s economy, but there was some relief on Wednesday when overseas creditors backed Kyiv’s request for a two-year freeze on payments on almost $20 billion in international bonds. That should avert a messy default.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the deal would save his country almost $6 billion.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Michael Perry)

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SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s presidential office said on Thursday the U.S. THAAD missile defence system stationed in the country is a means of self-defence, News1 reported, after Beijing demanded Seoul not deploy additional batteries and limit the use of the existing ones.

The THAAD missile defence system has for years been a source of contention as Beijing argues the equipment’s powerful radar could peer into its airspace and sharply cut trade and cultural imports after Seoul announced its deployment in 2016, dealing a major blow to relations.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish the crumbling ice, doubling previous estimates of losses from the world’s largest ice sheet over the past 25 years, a satellite analysis showed on Wednesday.

The first-of-its-kind study, led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles and published in the journal Nature, raises new concern about how fast climate change is weakening Antarctica’s floating ice shelves and accelerating the rise of global sea levels.

The study’s key finding was that the net loss of Antarctic ice from coastal glacier chunks “calving” off into the ocean is nearly as great as the net amount of ice that scientists already knew was being lost due to thinning caused by the melting of ice shelves from below by warming seas.

Taken together, thinning and calving have reduced the mass of Antarctica’s ice shelves by 12 trillion tons since 1997, double the previous estimate, the analysis concluded.

The net loss of the continent’s ice sheet from calving alone in the past quarter-century spans nearly 37,000 sq km (14,300 sq miles), an area almost the size of Switzerland, according to JPL scientist Chad Greene, the study’s lead author.

“Antarctica is crumbling at its edges,” Greene said in a NASA announcement of the findings. “And when ice shelves dwindle and weaken, the continent’s massive glaciers tend to speed up and increase the rate of global sea level rise.”

The consequences could be enormous. Antarctica holds 88% of the sea level potential of all the world’s ice, he said.

Ice shelves, permanent floating sheets of frozen freshwater attached to land, take thousands of years to form and act like buttresses holding back glaciers that would otherwise easily slide off into the ocean, causing seas to rise.

When ice shelves are stable, the long-term natural cycle of calving and re-growth keeps their size fairly constant.

In recent decades, though, warming oceans have weakened the shelves from underneath, a phenomenon previously documented by satellite altimeters measuring the changing height of the ice and showing losses averaging 149 million tons a year from 2002 to 2020, according to NASA.

IMAGERY FROM SPACE

For their analysis, Greene’s team synthesized satellite imagery from visible, thermal-infrared and radar wavelengths to chart glacial flow and calving since 1997 more accurately than ever over 30,000 miles (50,000 km) of Antarctic coastline.

The losses measured from calving outpaced natural ice shelf replenishment so greatly that researchers found it unlikely Antarctica can return to pre-2000 glacier levels by the end of this century.

The accelerated glacial calving, like ice thinning, was most pronounced in West Antarctica, an area hit harder by warming ocean currents. But even in East Antarctica, a region whose ice shelves were long considered less vulnerable, “we’re seeing more losses than gains,” Greene said.

One East Antarctic calving event that took the world by surprise was the collapse and disintegration of the massive Conger-Glenzer ice shelf in March, possibly a sign of greater weakening to come, Greene said.

Eric Wolff, a Royal Society research professor at the University of Cambridge, pointed to the study’s analysis of how the East Antarctic ice sheet behaved during warm periods of the past and models for what may happen in the future.

“The good news is that if we keep to the 2 degrees of global warming that the Paris agreement promises, the sea level rise due to the East Antarctic ice sheet should be modest,” Wolff wrote in a commentary on the JPL study.

Failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, however, would risk contributing “many meters of sea level rise over the next few centuries,” he said.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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By Fatos Bytyci

PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo is prepared to stand against a possible attack by Serbia as worsening strife with minority Serbs could result in a new armed conflict, Prime Minister Albin Kurti told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared again earlier this month when Pristina said it would oblige Serbs living in the north, who are backed by Belgrade and do not recognise Kosovo institutions, to start using license plates issued in Pristina.

The situation calmed after Kurti, under U.S. and European Union pressure, agreed to postpone the car number plates rule until Sept. 1 and NATO peacekeepers supervised the removal of roadblocks set up by Serbs.

“We should not exclude that these aggressive policies of Belgrade could also turn into an assault against Kosovo in one way or the other,” Kurti told Reuters, speaking in English. “We are vigilant, but not afraid.

He added: “I am not saying they are going to attack us this week or next, but it would be totally irresponsible to exclude…the possibility of rising tensions and new conflicts.”

The tiny landlocked Balkan country gained independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising against repressive Belgrade rule.

Ethnic Serbs account for 5 percent of Kosovo’s 1.8 million population, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.

Some 50,000 of them live in north Kosovo, near the border with Serbia. The remaining 40,000 live south of the River Ibar and are using Kosovo government-issued license plates.

Serbia denies whipping up tensions and conflict in Kosovo, accusing Pristina of trampling on the rights of minority Serbs.

KURTI CRITICISES RUSSIA’S ROLE

Opposition parties in Pristina have accused Kurti of scaring investors by openly speaking of possible new conflict with Belgrade.

Kurti rejects those accusations. He accused Russia, which is Serbia’s main ally and has vetoed Kosovo’s bid for United Nations membership, of a role in stirring up fresh ethnic tensions in the former southern province of Serbia.

“Despotic (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin is a man of war and he would have interest in spreading war because he wants to normalise war,” Kurti said, alluding to Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February.

“We have our institutions and organs of security and defence, Kosovo is a state now, this is not the year 1998,” Kurti said. “This is 2022 so we are much more prepared to defend our sovereignty, territorial integrity, to defend our democracy, rule of law, constitutionality, and to defend our progress.” Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are expected to meet in Brussels for more talks on Aug. 18. Belgrade and Pristina are publicly committed to an EU-sponsored dialogue to resolve outstanding issues, but little progress has been made.Kosovo has joined EU and U.S. condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and joined sanctions against Moscow. Serbia has not introduced sanctions against Russia despite its goal of joining the EU and harmonising foreign policy with the bloc.

Kosovo threw off Serbian domination in 1999 after NATO air strikes ended a brutal counter-insurgency by Serbian security forces. But Serbia legally still considers Kosovo an integral part of its territory and, with Moscow’s help, has blocked Kosovo from membership in various international institutions.

NATO has around 3,700 troops stationed in Kosovo to maintain its fragile peace and last week it said it would intervene in line with its mandate if stability were jeopardised.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian police arrested 22 people, seized 27 handguns and drugs worth C$1.3 million ($1 million) during a 10-month investigation into a gun- and drug-trafficking network operating in Canada and the United States, authorities said on Wednesday.

The seized guns were obtained illegally and with criminal intent, Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Paul Mackey told reporters. He said Canadian authorities worked with U.S. law enforcement officials on the crackdown.

With gun crime on the rise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has proposed freezing handgun purchases as part of a broader gun control package under consideration in parliament.

Last week Canada announced a temporary ban on the import of handguns until the legislation is implemented. Canada has much stricter gun laws than the United States.

Police brought more than 400 charges by the time the investigation concluded in late July, according to York Regional Police in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. The drugs included cocaine, fentanyl and heroin.

($1 = 1.2763 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Howard Goller)

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(Reuters) – Estonia on Wednesday summoned the Russian ambassador and formally protested about the violation of its airspace by a Russian helicopter on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said.

“Estonia considers this an extremely serious and regrettable incident that is completely unacceptable,” the ministry said in a release, saying the helicopter had flown over a point in the southeast of the small Baltic nation without permission. Estonia made an identical complaint to Moscow in June.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday created a new territorial parks system that protects more than 30 areas from commercial development and reserves them for activities including hiking and beaching.

Properties that total hundreds of acres were identified in St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas, including Great Salt Pond, Oppenheimer Beach, Cas Cay and Bovoni Cay.

Gov. Albert Bryan also signed legislation that revises a trust fund board whose seven members will be responsible for managing and acquiring land.

The government also expects to implement a Maroon sanctuary zone in St. Croix’s West End to honor the legacy of Caribbean descendants of West African slaves who escaped slavery using guerrilla warfare. The area is home to Maroon Ridge, which served as a refuge for runaway slaves.

“Given growing concerns regarding beach access, environmental degradation and the loss of significant historic and other sensitive sites, all those involved in advancing this measure should be proud,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Sen. Samuel Carrion.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) -James Marape, who was sworn in as prime minister of Papua New Guinea on Tuesday after a national election, vowed to reform electoral processes and “get more from our resources” without scaring away investors.

Voting in PNG’s general election, held every five years, ran across three weeks in July but counting was extended until Monday because of special circumstances including security issues, attacks on ballot boxes and logistical challenges, the electoral commission said.

The election in the Pacific nation is among the world’s most challenging due in part to difficult terrain, extreme weather, poor transport infrastructure, and linguistic and cultural diversity.

International observers said the poll was plagued by violence, delays, fraud allegations and large numbers of voters missing from the electoral roll.

By Tuesday, the deadline for parliament to sit, 105 out of 118 seats had been declared. Two women were among those elected.

Marape, leader of the Pangu Party that clinched 36 seats, was elected unopposed on the floor of parliament to become prime minister, and will form a coalition government with over a dozen minor parties and independents.

Marape, who first became prime minister in 2019, said the coalition had a collective mandate and called for the nation to unite.

In an address to parliament, Marape said his government would update the electoral roll and possibly introduce electronic voting to strengthen democratic processes and “make sure one citizen gets one vote”.

He also flagged moves to return greater revenue from the mining and resource sectors to the economy.

“We went to the election to fight to get more from our natural resources,” he said.

“My generation, my type of people come from places where resources are abundant yet development is almost nil,” he added, pointing to scarce education and job opportunities.

PNG had oil, gas, gold, fish and timber, and he wanted companies and licence holders to work with his “new regime”.

“Your profit margin will be maintained but Papua New Guinea too must get a little bit more,” he said in comments directed at resource companies.

He also flagged more local processing of fish, timber, gold and metals to support the economy.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Bernadette Baum)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in both houses of U.S. Congress to establish a path to American citizenship for thousands of Afghan evacuees admitted to the United States on temporary immigration status, the sponsors announced on Tuesday.

The bill also would expand eligibility for Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) beyond Afghans who worked for the U.S. government to those who fought alongside U.S. forces as commandoes and air force personnel, and to women who served in special counterterrorism teams.

Identical versions of the bill were introduced days before the first anniversary of the final U.S. troop withdrawal and the chaotic evacuation operation that ended America’s longest war and saw the Taliban overrun Kabul.

“We must keep our commitment to provide safe, legal refuge to those who willingly put their lives on the line to support the U.S. mission in Afghanistan,” Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer, co-sponsor of the House bill with Republican Peter Meijer, said in a statement.

Three minority Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham, joined three majority Democrats in introducing an identical version of the Afghanistan Adjustment Act in the thinly divided Senate, enhancing its chances of passage.

Even so, a congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the measure likely will face “resistance” from anti-immigration Republicans.

Many of the 76,000 Afghans flown out in last year’s evacuation operation entered the United States on humanitarian parole, a temporary immigration status that typically only lasts up to two years.

The legislation would allow those evacuees to apply for permanent legal status if they submit to additional background checks.

Generally, those Afghans only can gain permanent legal status in the United States by applying for asylum or through SIVs, programs beset by major backlogs.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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By Ayenat Mersie

KIAMBAA, Kenya (Reuters) – One inked fingernail and old burn scars: the story of Kenya’s past election traumas and current hopes is written on the skin of Philip Wangoi’s hands. 

    At 16, he was badly burned in a church set aflame during the post-election violence that rocked Kenya after the disputed 2007 elections. More than 1,200 people were killed. 

    Today, he cast his ballot peacefully in a poll still haunted by the ghosts of previous elections. Like millions of citizens, he prays politicians take disputes to the Supreme Court, instead of the streets.

    “I’m scared. Whenever it nears the election period, I get scared,” said Wangoi, clasping his scarred hands as his two young children played next to a puppy. 

    President Uhuru Kenyatta must step down due to term limits. The two frontrunners to succeed him are veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga and the current Deputy President, William Ruto. Kenyatta fell out with Ruto and has endorsed Odinga. 

    All three men were involved in the 2007 election, but back then Ruto backed Odinga against Kenyatta’s then-boss. Kenyatta and Ruto faced charges at the International Criminal Court over their alleged role in the violence; the cases were later dropped. 

    Many citizens are too discouraged to vote, saying they are being crushed by soaring food prices and corruption. Others, like Wangoi, are bitter that wealthy leaders find it so easy to forget the past for their own expediency. 

    “These politicians need these positions for their own personal benefits and interests … they don’t do anything for regular people,” said Wangoi from outside his home in Kiambaa, on the outskirts of Eldoret.

    After the disputed 2007 election, Wangoi’s family were targeted because they were from the same Kikuyu ethnic group as the winner. Fleeing angry mobs, Wangoi, his mother, and others sought refuge in a church. The building was set alight. 

    Wangoi dove through a window, burning his hands and legs. He stripped off his melting clothes and ran about 10 km (6 miles) to a hospital. Thirty people burned to death, including children.

    Wangoi is lukewarm about politicians, but says Kenyans must find better leaders. That’s why he’s voted every election he could. 

    “It is up to us Kenyans to ensure a peaceful election,” he said steadily. But even if most people want peace, a small mob paid to cause chaos can derail the process, he warned.

    For the sake of his family and others like them, he said, whoever loses must accept the results.

(Reporting by Ayenat Mersie; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Raissa Kasolowsky)

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