Iran on Saturday slammed the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi after the agency in a report raised concerns over substantial covert changes to equipment at its Fordo uranium enrichment plant without prior notice, state media reported.
The criticism of Grossi comes after the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general said he plans to visit Tehran in February for talks on getting it to increase cooperation over its activities, amid stalled negotiations to revive a landmark deal over Iran’s nuclear program.
The IAEA said in a confidential report seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday that Iran had substantially modified an interconnection between two centrifuge clusters enriching uranium to up to 60% at Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), without giving prior notice.
Iran said later an inspector had “inadvertently” reported the changes, and that Grossi had issued the report despite the matter being resolved – a response that the United States and its allies criticized as “inadequate.”
“We gave a letter to the agency that an inspector… made a mistake and gave an incorrect report,” Mohamad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
“But yet again the director-general of the agency released this issue to the media,” he said, labelling it “unprofessional and unacceptable” behavior. “We hope that this practice will not be continued… because this is not acceptable for his reputation and the agency.”
The IAEA had said that during an unannounced Fordo inspection on Jan. 21 it found “two IR-6 centrifuge cascades… were interconnected in a way that was substantially different from the mode of operation declared by Iran to the agency.”
Since late last year, the two cascades had been used to produce uranium enriched to up to 60%, the report to member states added.
In the report, Grossi expressed concern that Iran had “implemented a substantial change in the design information of FFEP in relation to the production of high enriched uranium without informing the agency in advance.”
In a statement on Friday, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany said Iran’s response to the report was “inadequate.”
“Iranian claims that this action was carried out in error are inadequate,” they said. “We judge Iran’s actions based on the impartial and objective reports of the IAEA, not Iran’s purported intent.”
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Grossi told the European Parliament on Jan. 24 that he plans to visit Tehran this month “for a much-needed political dialogue, or reestablishment thereof, with Iran.” The IAEA chief noted the “big, big impasse” on the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The deal with world powers collapsed after the U.S. withdrew from it in 2018 under former president Donald Trump.
Israel’s decision to expand firearms licensing for Israelis will only escalate tensions and further violence with Palestinians, Volker Türk – the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – has warned.
“Plans by the Government of Israel to expedite and expand the licensing of firearms, with the stated intention of adding thousands of (Israeli) civilians carrying firearms – coupled with hateful rhetoric – can only lead to further violence and bloodshed,” Türk said in a statement.
“We know from experience that the proliferation of firearms will lead to increased risks of killings and injuries of both Israelis and Palestinians. Therefore, the Israeli authorities must work to reduce the availability of firearms in society,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that more Israelis would be permitted firearms licenses last week.
The move comes amid rising tension in the Palestinian territories following an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin last week that left 10 Palestinians dead. Seven Israelis were also killed in a shooting attack in occupied East Jerusalem.
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“Rather than fueling a worsening spiral of violence, I urge all those holding public office or other positions of authority – indeed everyone – to stop using language that incites hatred of the other,” Türk said. “Such fomenting hatred is corrosive for all Israelis, Palestinians, and society.”
The U.N. commissioner noted that 32 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli army fire since the start of the year, while seven Israelis have also been killed.
“The people of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory need their leaders to work – urgently – to create conditions conducive to a political solution to this protracted, untenable situation,” he added.
The United Nations on Wednesday called out inefficiencies in the operation of a deal allowing Ukraine Black Sea grain exports, but did not lay blame for a backlog of more than 100 ships in Turkish waters waiting on travel approval and inspections.
Under the deal agreed by Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the United Nations in July, ships are inspected in Turkish waters on their way to and from Ukraine. The four parties work together to approve and inspect ships traveling under the agreement.
“The United Nations urges all parties to work to remove obstacles for the reduction of the backlog and improve operational efficiencies,” it said in a statement.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield last week accused Russia of a “deliberate slowdown of inspections,” saying that 5 million tons of food a month should be moving under the agreement.
The Russian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thomas-Greenfield’s remark.
“We have been pushing to get more inspections. We’ve been pushing to make sure that the inspections proceed quickly and thoroughly,” deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said. “Everything has to be done with the cooperation of all the parties, and we’re trying to do everything we can to move it faster.”
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Since November, three inspection teams have been deployed daily and so far this month have concluded 5.3 inspections a day, said the United Nations, adding: “In the last two weeks, the average waiting time of vessels between application and inspection is 21 days.”
It said some 3.7 million metric tons in Ukrainian exports moved under the deal in December, up from 2.6 million in November, while during the past two weeks nearly 1.2 million metric tons of exports shipped.
The package deal also includes facilitating Russia food and fertilizer exports, including ammonia, and the United Nations has been trying to negotiate a restart of Russian ammonia shipments via a pipeline to a Ukrainian Black Sea port.
“The parties negotiating on how to get ammonia to the market through the Togliatti/Yuzhny pipeline are still in discussions and are yet to reach an agreement,” the United Nations said.
Ammonia is a key ingredient in nitrate fertilizer. Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbor had stalled Ukraine’s Black Sea exports of foodstuffs and also shut down the ammonia pipeline.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed Friday that at least 10 people were killed in a suicide bombing near the Foreign Ministry earlier this week.
On Wednesday a bomber blew himself up near the ministry in central Kabul, in an attack claimed by the local chapter of the Daesh terrorist group.
“We are continuing to look into the incident,” it said.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, who have often tried to play down attacks challenging their regime, have said five people were killed in the attack.
The Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 brought an end to a two-decade war against U.S.-led forces, leading to a significant reduction in violence, but security has begun to deteriorate in recent months.
At least five Chinese nationals were wounded last month when gunmen stormed a hotel popular with Chinese business people in Kabul.
That raid was claimed by Daesh, as was an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul in December that Islamabad denounced as an “assassination attempt” against its ambassador.
Two Russian embassy staff members were killed in a suicide bombing outside their mission in September in another attack claimed by Daesh.
Azerbaijan has appealed to the International Court of Justice to stop its neighbor Armenia from planting land mines in the Karabakh territory it once occupied and hand over information about the location of existing mines, booby traps and other explosives, according to a statement from the U.N. body Thursday.
Azerbaijan said “new evidence” had emerged that Armenia deliberately continued to lay land mines in “civilian zones in which displaced Azerbaijanis are slated to return” in its request for provisional measures in a case that has lasted years.
The court said Azerbaijan had asked it to order Armenia to take all necessary steps for the safe demining of towns and to “immediately cease to plant or to support the planting of land mines and booby traps.”
Karabakh is a source of a decadeslong conflict between the South Caucasus neighbors. The territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but was illegally occupied by Armenia for three decades until 2020.
Baku and Yerevan fought two wars over the territory in the 1990s and again in the autumn of 2020 when six weeks of particularly intense clashes claimed over 6,500 lives before a Russian-brokered truce ended the hostilities.
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Under the 2020 deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory, and Russia stationed a force of 2,000 peacekeepers in the region to oversee a fragile truce.
Baku has since been leading a reconstruction push in the region where dozens of Azerbaijani cultural and religious monuments, mosques and homes had been destroyed by Armenia. President Ilham Aliyev previously revealed that clearing the mines planted by Armenia, nearing 1 million according to preliminary estimates, would take nearly 30 years and would cost $25 billion.
The request by Azerbaijan is part of tit-for-tat cases filed at the World Court in 2021, where both Armenia and Azerbaijan have claimed the other country had violated the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which both states are signatories.
In emergency measures, the World Court in that year ordered both countries to prevent the incitement of racial hatred against each other’s nationals and to not do anything to aggravate the dispute while the court considered the case.
It was not clear if the court would hear the request for new provisional measures.
The World Court in The Hague, formally known as the International Court of Justice, is the U.N. court for resolving disputes between countries.
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At the end of 2022, tensions flared up again between the rival nations, this time involving the blockade of the Lachin Corridor in Karabakh where since mid-December, a group of Azerbaijani activists has been protesting illegal mining that has been causing environmental damage in the region. The protests erupted after representatives of Azerbaijan attempting to visit the areas where mineral resources are being illegally exploited were barred access to the area.
Yerevan has been accusing Azerbaijan of creating a “humanitarian catastrophe” by purposefully blocking the only road linking Armenia to the region, which houses thousands of Armenians. It also slammed the Russian peacekeeping contingent for “failing to fulfill its purpose of clearing the corridor.”
Baku has consistently rejected Yerevan’s accusations, with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stressing that obstacles to the use of the road are created by people who introduced themselves as “the leaders of local Armenians” and claims that the protests on the Lachin road posed the threat of a humanitarian crisis to the local Armenian population are baseless.
“Movement of citizens, vehicles and goods along the road remains unchanged. Furthermore, there are no obstructions to the supply of goods for the use of local residents or the necessary medical services,” his office informed.
According to the trilateral memorandum of January 2021, Armenia must remove its forces from liberated lands in Karabakh where Baku says Yerevan is “abusing the Lachin road for military provocations and obstructing the opening of all transport communications” in the region.
Kremlin, as a longtime mediator, also expressed concern over the situation in the disputed corridor, urging the sides to “strictly comply with all the provisions of the Statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia dated Nov. 9, 2020.”
Noting that “provocations” against Russian peacekeepers were “unacceptable” and would “harm” the process of Azerbaijani-Armenian normalization, Moscow assured it would continue taking “consistent steps to resolve the situation.”
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed ongoing regional developments in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the grain in a phone call on Wednesday.
Çavuşoğlu and Guterres also spoke about “cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria and the ‘Zero Waste’ initiative adopted by the U.N. General Assembly under the leadership of Türkiye,” according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement. (Watch Video Here)
Launched by Turkish first lady Emine Erdoğan, the Zero Waste project has received widespread international acclaim, including from the U.N. chief.
The U.N. General Assembly also recently unanimously adopted a resolution on the initiative presented by Türkiye, declaring March 30 as the International Day of Zero Waste.
Türkiye was one of the mediators of the Ukraine grain deal and also (Watch Video Here) facilitated its resumption after Russia announced it would pull out of it after its expiration in late October.
Banished from public consciousness for decades, the nightmare of nuclear warfare has surged back to prominence with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the erosion of the Cold War global security architecture.
With Moscow on the back foot in its offensive, the military stalemate has raised fears Russia could resort to its nuclear arsenal to achieve a breakthrough.
Russia, along with Britain, China, France and the United States, are the five recognised nuclear weapons powers and permanent UN Security Council members.
“It’s the first time a nuclear power has used its status to wage a conventional war under the shadow cast by nuclear weapons,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO deputy secretary-general.
“One might have imagined that rogue states would adopt such an attitude, but suddenly it’s one of the two major nuclear powers, a member of the UN Security Council,” he told AFP, insisting the actual use of the weapons remains “improbable”.
For now, the moral and strategic nuclear “taboo” that emerged after the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II in 1945 still holds.
But rhetoric has escalated massively.
Russian TV broadcasts since the invasion of Ukraine have repeatedly discussed nuclear strikes on Western cities like Paris or New York.
One former Russian diplomat, asking not to be named, warned that if President Vladimir Putin felt Russia’s existence threatened, “he will press the button”.
The year’s events have been a harsh wake-up call for Europe, which spent decades in a state of relative ease in terms of nuclear security, enjoying the so-called Cold War “peace dividend”.
Across the Atlantic, US President Joe Biden warned in October of a potential “Armageddon” hanging over the world.
Disarmament ‘in ruins’ “The most spectacular event of the past half century is one that did not occur,” Nobel-winning economist and strategy expert Thomas Schelling wrote in 2007.
But the framework that kept world leaders’ fingers off the button after 1945 had been crumbling for years before Putin’s order to invade.
In 2002, the United States quit the critical Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty it had signed with the Soviet Union in 1972, which maintained the nuclear balance of power.
Other important agreements fell away in the years that followed, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that Washington dropped in 2019, blaming Russia for not complying.
“Regarding disarmament, it’s all in ruins, apart from New Start,” Grand said, referring to the Barack Obama-era agreement with Russia to reduce numbers of warheads, missiles, bombers and launchers.
‘Very dangerous crisis’ India, North Korea and Pakistan, along with the five recognised powers, also have nuclear weapons, while Israel is widely assumed to do so while having never officially acknowledged it.
North Korea sharply stepped up missile testing this year, continuing its pursuit of an independent nuclear deterrent that began when it quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo all believe a seventh nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang is imminent.
The isolated dictatorship announced in September a new nuclear doctrine, making clear that it would never give up the weapons and that they could be used pre-emptively.
“We’re going to see a very dangerous crisis in Asia,” Chung Min Lee, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently told a Paris conference.
Non-nuclear countries in the region fear that the protection provided by the US nuclear umbrella is fraying.
“If you imagine extended deterrence as a water balloon, today the water balloon has some critical holes and water is seeping out,” he added.
China’s nuclear arsenal is also growing, with Pentagon estimates putting it at 1,000 warheads — roughly on par with US bombs — within a decade.
And in the Middle East, the struggle to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, hobbled by its brutal repression of recent protests at home, has revived fears that Tehran could soon be a “threshold state” on the brink of building a bomb.
Proliferation fears In August, a UN conference on the future of the NPT saw a joint declaration by 191 countries blocked at the last moment by Russia.
One French diplomat reported “extraordinarily aggressive nuclear rhetoric” from Moscow and “disdain” for the treaty.
“We saw a break in Russia’s attitude, which had historically been in support of the NPT,” the diplomat added.
China was “very vocal”, offering a “very crude denunciation” of the US-UK-Australia AUKUS Pacific alliance that will deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra, the diplomat said.
Beijing claimed that the alliance risked further nuclear proliferation, while failing to “lift doubts about the opacity of its own nuclear doctrine or the speed at which its arsenal is growing”.
The invasion of a state that willingly gave up nuclear weapons, Ukraine, by its nuclear-armed neighbour has increased fears of proliferation.
“Today, countries like Japan or South Korea might legitimately ask whether” they need a bomb of their own, said Jean-Louis Lozier, a former head of France’s nuclear forces.
“The same is true in the Middle East of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt,” he added.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling on Myanmar’s military junta to free ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all other arbitrarily detained prisoners.
Twelve members of the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of the resolution demanding an immediate end to violence in Myanmar, while China, Russia and India abstained. The 15-member council has long been divided over the Myanmar crisis due to China and Russia’s stance.
On Feb. 1, 2021, Suu Kyi’s government was deposed in a military coup after her National League for Democracy party’s victory in national elections the previous November.
The coup was met with widespread civic unrest as people denounced her removal and the introduction of military rule. The junta detained Suu Kyi and other officials and repressed protests violently, with the UN warning that the country had descended into civil war.
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U.S. envoy to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said this resolution only represents a step toward ending the bloodshed, adding that ”much more must be done.”
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Carlo Ancelotti’s team successfully added to their four cups from 2014 to 2018, and their triumph meant European teams have won the past 10 editions of the tournament.
Given the threatening climatic changes, U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said to convene a “no-nonsense” climate ambition summit in September next year. He urged leaders from government, business, civil society and finance to step up with “new, tangible and credible” action.
Guterres also said he “will not relent in persuading peace in Ukraine in line with international law and the United Nations Charter.” A key principle of the founding U.N. Charter is respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Speaking at his year-end news conference, Guterres said he is “not optimistic” about the possibility of effective Ukraine peace talks in the immediate future and believes the military confrontation will go on, but added that he “strongly hopes” peace can be reached in Ukraine in 2023.
He also said he will keep pushing for a climate solidarity pact that would require big emitters to reduce emissions this decade and ensure support for those who need it.
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Countries are under pressure to ensure emissions are cut in half by 2030 and down to net zero by 2050 – the only path to hold global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“I will convene a climate ambition summit in September 2023. I call on every leader to step up,” he said.
“The invitation is open. But the price of entry is non-negotiable U.N. chief calls ‘no-nonsense’ climate summit in 2023 U.N. chief calls ‘no-nonsense’ climate summit in 2023 – credible, serious and new climate action and nature-based solutions that will move the needle forward and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. It will be a no-nonsense summit,” Guterres said.
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This was disclosed by the Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State Command, Ahmed Wakil, a Superintendent of Police, in a terse Whatsapp message on Sunday.
During the meeting held at the presidential complex as part of the International Children’s Forum organized by UNICEF, Dominicis signed a goodwill document on the Zero Waste project launched in Türkiye by the first lady in 2017.
The UN agency was inspired by Emine Erdoğan’s work on combating climate change and the environment, Dominicis said, adding that they wanted to collaborate in this area.
In September, Türkiye’s first lady and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres signed a goodwill document to extend the country’s Zero Waste project around the world.
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The project aims to contain waste under sustainable development principles and reduce pollution.
Also, the education campaigns under the auspices of Emine Erdoğan have made “great gains” in enhancing the participation of girls in education in Türkiye, Dominicis said.
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Buhari, according to a statement issued on Saturday night by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, will unveil the equipment at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday said he believed that a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea that is set to expire this weekend would remain in place.
“I am of the opinion that it will continue. There’s no problem there,” Erdoğan told a press conference at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers, and Russia’s invasion of the country blocked 20 million tonnes of grain in its ports before the United Nations and Türkiye brokered the deal in July.
The pact is due to expire on Nov. 19 and Erdoğan said Ankara is making efforts to extend it by a year.
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Erdoğan said he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as he returned to Türkiye.
“Because the path to peace passes through dialogue,” he said.
A separate agreement brokered by the U.N. and Türkiye also signed in July allows the export of Russian food and fertilizers despite Western sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
Erdoğan said the export of fertilizers and ammonia “is important.”
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Ukraine announced plans to feed at least 5 million people facing acute hunger by the end of spring 2023, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We have launched the initiative – ‘Grain From Ukraine’,” said Zelenskyy in a video address to this week’s G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. “And the first vessel – Nordwind – leaves for Ethiopia with 27,000 tons of wheat on board. This is the amount that can feed almost 100,000 people per year.”
He added: “There can be many such ships from Ukraine, and therefore there will be many people in poor countries who are saved from starvation.”
Zelenskyy announced the program as part of a set of 10 solutions he proposed in order to end the war with Russia, which started this February.
Zelenskyy also told the summit that a U.N.-brokered deal that has eased a Russian blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports should be extended indefinitely and include two more ports – Mykolaiv and Olvia.
Three ports are already included in the U.N.-brokered deal, which Zelenskyy said had enabled Ukraine to export more than 10 million tons of food products since July. The deal is set to expire on Nov. 19 and talks are under way on extending it.
Giving more details on the program, Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram: “Its essence is the direct purchase of agricultural products by the countries participating in the project from Ukrainian producers and their transfer to countries on the brink of famine.”
Stating that the program will be conducted in partnership with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), Yermak underlined that the Nordwind vessel left for Ethiopia with the support of the WFP and the German government.
“The program envisages providing grain to at least 5 million people by the end of spring 2023,” Yermak said.
He added that he will ensure coordination and implementation of the program, which seems in part designed to address criticisms that most of the Ukrainian grain exported under a deal reached this July went to Western nations, not needy countries.
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That deal is set to expire on Saturday, though many global actors, from the U.N. to Türkiye — which helped broker the landmark deal — are pushing for its renewal.
Yermak also said a global group to fight hunger is being created under Ukraine’s initiative.
“The International Coordination Group for the Prevention of Hunger includes representatives of the governments of countries, corporations, patrons who can directly influence the provision of food needs of millions of people in the world,” said Yermak.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters and the sea blockade following Russia’s invasion of the country in February contributed to a global food crisis.
Andriy Yermak, the chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, said on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine would set aside a portion of harvested wheat for partner countries to purchase on behalf of African countries on the brink of famine.
“The programme envisages providing grain to at least 5 million people by the end of spring 2023,” he wrote, adding that it would be implemented in partnership with the World Food Programme.
“We will not give the Russians any opportunity to create a Holodomor 2.0,” Yermak added, referring to the death by starvation of millions of people in what was then Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.
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The president, represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, also called on all Nigerians to work for the success of the elections to help…
Greece, the United States and some EU members protect terrorists, including the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ) members, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in remarks published Saturday.
“Who protects them now? Mainly Greece. They run away to Greece, they run away to Europe. They always fled there. They live in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, England and America.
“And America is hiding this man (FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen). Who is hiding? (U.S. President Joe) Biden is hiding. They gave them a huge mansion in Pennsylvania, where this man lives. If you ask me where is the center of terrorists, that’s what I’m telling you right now,” Erdoğan told Turkish press members after his visit to Uzbekistan, where he attended the ninth summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).
FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup in Türkiye on July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 wounded. FETO was also behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
An unknown number of Gülenists, mostly high-ranking figures, fled Türkiye when the coup attempt was thwarted. A large number of Gülenists had already left the country prior to the coup attempt after Turkish prosecutors launched investigations into other crimes of the terrorist group. Despite Türkiye’s extradition requests and bilateral legal agreements, many FETÖ members still freely enjoy their lives in different countries around the world. In the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, Türkiye has sped up extradition processes for members of FETÖ abroad.
The U.S., where FETÖ’s fugitive head Gülen resides, is the target of most extradition requests. Türkiye has sent several extradition requests for Gülen to Washington so far, but unfortunately, has seen little progress in his extradition. Gülen, who arrived in the U.S. in 1999, currently lives in a luxurious retreat in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, in self-imposed exile. He never leaves the well-guarded compound but often gives interviews with foreign media. Ankara formally requested Gülen’s extradition on July 19, 2016, and has been pressing the U.S. ever since, sending hundreds of folders full of evidence implicating Gülen and FETÖ in the coup attempt. The issue has been raised in bilateral meetings between Turkish and American officials in phone calls, letters and other exchanges.
Asked about Greece’s situation after the recent defense talks between Türkiye and the United States, Erdoğan said: “Of course, at the moment, Greece is seriously disturbed by these latest steps.”
Earlier this week, the Türkiye-U.S. High-Level Defense Group meeting was held in the Turkish capital Ankara, where regional and global defense and security issues were discussed.
“Of course, we are disturbed by the attitudes of the West, and especially the U.S., in Greece. Alexandroupolis is one of them. Apart from this, there are some disturbances that Greece inflicts on us in the fight against terrorism. Especially, this Lavrion Camp issue is not something that we can stomach,” Erdoğan said.
Greece has long been accused of being a favorite hideout for terrorists from the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) and PKK. Those fleeing Türkiye have taken shelter in refugee camps in Lavrion near Athens under the guise of being asylum-seekers, especially in the 1980s. Despite the closure of Lavrion in 2013 amid pressure from Türkiye, Greece continues to be the primary destination for DHKP-C terrorists.
Footage from the camp shows that it has turned into a base for PKK terrorists. The camp scene resembles a terrorist base, with terrorist symbols and pictures of its imprisoned ringleader Abdullah Öcalan adorning its walls.
The president has repeatedly warned Greece also about the militarization of the islands, in violation of longstanding international treaties, saying: “We may come suddenly one night,” without giving a timeframe.
Türkiye and Greece are at odds over a number of issues, including competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, airspace, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants.
Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, has complained of repeated provocative actions and rhetoric by Greece in the region in recent months, including arming islands near Turkish shores that are demilitarized under treaties, saying that such moves frustrate its good faith efforts for peace. Ankara accuses Athens of illegally militarizing Greek islands in the East Aegean and questions Greece’s sovereignty over them. There is also a dispute over the exploitation of mineral resources in the Aegean.
Turkish military drones recently recorded the deployment of Greek armored vehicles on the islands of Lesbos and Samos, which Ankara maintains is in violation of international law. Following the incident, Ankara lodged a protest with the United States and Greece over the unlawful deployment of armored vehicles on Aegean islands with nonmilitary status.
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Türkiye summoned the Greek ambassador and called for an end to violations on Aegean islands and restoring their nonmilitary status, according to the Foreign Ministry. In the note, the ministry stated that the deployment was another violation of Greece’s obligations under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris. These islands were required to be demilitarized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Treaty of Paris, so any troops or weapons on the islands are strictly forbidden.
Also, Türkiye has ramped up the criticism of its NATO ally United States for abandoning a balanced policy and escalating tensions on the issues of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, reiterating that it will protect its rights and interests against the Greek side.
Efforts to introduce Turkish Cyprus to world About the admission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to the Organization of Turkic States as an observer member, Erdoğan said: “We showed that the Turkish Cypriots, who are an integral part of the Turkic world, are not alone.”
Erdoğan added that it would be wrong to consider this as a “recognition.”
“It means that the speech we made at the United Nations General Assembly gave a voice. … We need to create a spiral about introducing Northern Cyprus to the world as a state,” he added.
Erdoğan said the TRNC case is not as easy as the recognition of Kosovo, adding: “But we will do our best. We’re going to get to work. I believe that we will have the opportunity to introduce Northern Cyprus to the world.”
Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N. Annan Plan to end the longstanding dispute.
Today, the Turkish side supports a solution based on the equal sovereignty of the two states on the island. On the other hand, the Greek side wants a federal solution based on the hegemony of the Greeks.
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A former top official of the CBN, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH anonymously, echoed a similar sentiment that the Mint might not have the capacity to print more naira notes…
Catherine Namakula, the chair of the working group on people of African descent, has appealed to the relevant stakeholders to desist from portraying African children in undignified circumstances.
Ms Namakula made the call in New York. She was reacting to a report published and presented to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
“We made an appeal to the United Nations and other stakeholders to desist from using images of African children and children of African descent in undignified circumstances of dire poverty for marketing and fundraising,’’ she said.
In the report, UN human rights experts outlined how discrimination affects black boys and girls worldwide to the extent that they are not considered children, even in the eyes of the law.
They said unresolved legacies of trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans, as well as colonialism, post-colonial apartheid and segregation, continue to harm these children today.
The report by the Working Group on people of African descent highlights discrimination in areas that include the administration of justice, law enforcement, education, and health.
“Due to racial discrimination, racial stereotypes, systemic racial discrimination and xenophobia, children of African descent are not considered as children at all,” Ms Namakula stated.
The report found that throughout the diaspora, children of African descent face heavier policing, including more arrests, police surveillance, racial profiling, strip searches and excessive use of force.
In short, “law enforcement is in conflict with children of African descent,” said the report.
The study detailed how false racial stereotypes of criminality, culpability and dangerousness influence decision-making by police officers, prosecutors, lawyers and judges globally.
“The childhoods of people of African descent are stolen by persistent racial disparities in policing and family interventions, including removal of children and termination of parental rights, and racialised decision-making and outcomes,” they said.
The Working Group stated that it was time to take action to end excessive use of force, extra-judicial killings, disparities, racial profiling, racial stereotypes and stereotyping, systemic racial discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes.
They called for the creation of a racial justice index to measure progress.
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“We must dismantle discriminatory structures and create political space for a dialogue on reparations at the international, regional, national and local levels. Only the truth, accountability and justice can eliminate racial discrimination,” Ms Namakula said.
The experts also emphasised that the UN and other stakeholders should stop using images of African children and children of African descent in undignified circumstances for marketing and fundraising purposes.
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As global leaders commence discussions on climate change-related issues at this year’s Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, African leaders and stakeholders are championing a cause for the continuous exploration of fossil fuels to enable countries like Nigeria to finance development projects.
Unlike COP26, where global leaders were mostly unanimous in their decision on carbon emission goals, the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine has tilted the precarious balance of the energy ‘trilemma’ — sustainability, affordability and security, towards the latter.
For many countries globally, tackling inflation remains the greatest concern, considering that high energy prices form a major trigger of spiking prices, leaving many leaders restless. The main sources of global energy are still fossil fuels: oil, natural gas and coal.
With Europe scrambling to line up enough oil, gas and coal for the winter while looking to Africa for supplies, the argument for African stakeholders remains the justification for the continent not to give up its fossil fuels, even when such fuels represent solutions to some of its most pressing needs and even that of Europe.
Indeed, stakeholders are insisting that Africa will not embrace the world’s timetable for transitioning to renewable fuels at the expense of the continent’s own energy security and economic well-being.
Already, United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has said the global body will be holding world leaders and people to account, to make their policies align with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Convention.
The UNFCCC official disclosed this while delivering his remarks at the opening plenary of COP 27 in Egypt, yesterday.
Stiell said: “We will be holding people to account, be they presidents, prime ministers or CEOs; accountability is chief to make our policies work, our businesses and actions, either personal or the public must be aligned with the Paris agreements and with the Convention.”
He emphasised that the heart of the implementation of climate pledges lies with everybody everywhere in the world, doing everything they possibly can to address the climate crisis.
“With the Paris Rulebook essentially concluded, thanks to COP26 in Glasgow last year, the litmus test of this and every future COP is how far deliberations are accompanied by action. Everybody, every single day, everywhere in the world, needs to do everything they possibly can to avert the climate crisis,” Stiell said.
He added: “COP27 sets out the direction for a new era of implementation: where outcomes from the formal and informal process truly begin to come together to drive greater climate progress — and accountability for that progress.”
Stiell asked governments to focus on three critical areas at COP27. He explained that the first is a transformational shift to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and putting negotiations into concrete actions.
“The second is cementing progress on the critical workstreams of mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage while stepping up finance notably to tackle the impacts of climate change.”
Stiell said the third focus of governments across the world is to enhance the delivery of the principles of transparency and accountability throughout the UN Climate Change process.
On his part, the Egyptian COP27 President, who doubles as the country’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, said the presidency intends to focus the world’s attention on key elements that address the most fundamental needs of people everywhere, including water security, food security, health and energy security.
He said: “We’re gathering this year at a time when global climate action is at a watershed moment. Multilateralism is being challenged by geopolitics, spiralling prices, and growing financial crises, while several countries battered by the pandemic have barely recovered, and severe and depleting climate change-induced disasters are becoming more frequent.”
The Egyptian minister asserted that the host country made sure that COP27 would provide the optimum setting to align and converge multiple views, as well as facilitate transparent, inclusive and fruitful discussion, to ensure the most positive outcome achievable.
He acknowledged the challenging economic and geopolitical factors, but noted, however, that external circumstances should not be allowed to negatively affect the negotiating process.
The President added that as a COP hosted in Africa, it must consider the needs of the developing countries and ensure climate justice by availing the appropriate finance and other means of implementation. This, he said, was necessary as African countries were the most affected by climate change.
COP27 is also holding against the backdrop of inadequate ambition to curb greenhouse gas emissions. According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), CO2 emissions need to be cut 45 per cent by 2030, compared to 2010 levels to meet the central Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. This is crucial to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.
Essentially, in COP26, countries agreed to deliver stronger commitments this year, including updated national plans with more ambitious targets. However, only 29 out of the 193 countries have submitted their plans against a backdrop of extreme weather events worldwide, an energy crisis propelled by the war in Ukraine and scientific data released by UN agencies that shows emissions are still growing at a record pace, as well as temperatures are on course to rise to dangerous levels by the end of the century.
For instance, the African Energy Chamber (AEC) warned African leaders to push for the continuous exploration of crude oil instead of joining the West on the need to ban fossil fuels.
Chairman of AEC, N.J. Ayuk, said Africa must oppose measures that prevent Africa from making full use of its fossil fuels.
“The world’s wealthy nations’ green agenda ignores Africa – or at least, it dismisses our unique needs, priorities and challenges.
“The green agenda of wealthy nations ignores those of us who point out that natural gas has the potential to bring life-changing prosperity to the continent in the form of jobs, business opportunities, capacity building and monetisation.
“It ignores the sustainable, logical path we’re proposing, which is using our resources, natural gas in particular, to help us meet current needs and to generate revenue that can help pay for our transition to renewables.
“The wealthy nations’ green agenda does not consider how much Africa needs natural gas to bring electricity to the growing number of Africans living without it. They do not understand that we, as Africans, are focused on growing Africa’s energy mix to include fossil fuels and renewables, instead of insisting on an all-or-nothing approach to our energy transition,” he said.
Chief Operating Officer of Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd, Ewariezi Use, in a chat with The Guardian, in Abuja, said Nigeria and other African countries must intensify efforts in harnessing their hydrocarbon resources.
“Renewable is good but let’s take it to step by step. We need to enjoy the benefits of our hydrocarbons. We will get there. I believe in going green but at what cost to us as a country? We need development, we need infrastructure and the oil sector as one of the major ways we can earn money,” Use said.
He noted that the country must harness its oil reserves and focus on building capacity that would gradually translate into a greener economy.
Speaking shortly after being conferred a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Use said the rate at which international oil companies are leaving Nigeria should not create concerns, as ingenious companies as well as Nigerian experts are capable of achieving projected goals in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
He disclosed that the local content laws in the oil sector as well as the Petroleum Industry Act are game changers, which have enabled Nigeria to have a human capacity footprint in all oil-producing countries in the world.
Use, who noted that he has been committed to serving across the different segments of the oil sector, noted that his company believes in the Nigerian dream and the capacity the country has to independently handle its oil sector.
According to him, most of his contemporaries operating, who were trained in Nigeria now operate across different continents even as over 99 per cent of the engineers operating under him are Nigerians.
Useh noted that meeting 70 per cent local content in the oil and gas sector as set by the Federal Government remained a realistic goal.
He disclosed that most of the assets taken over by indigenous companies and operated by Nigerian engineers are performing far better than they were acquired.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, warned in a message at the launch of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), titled ‘Provisional State of the Global Climate Report 2022’ at the weekend that: “The last eight years have been the warmest on record, making every heatwave more intense and life-threatening, especially for vulnerable populations. Sea levels are rising at twice the speed of the 1990s – posing an existential threat to low-lying island states and threatening billions of people in coastal regions.
“People and communities everywhere must be protected from the immediate and ever-growing risks of the climate emergency. That is why we are pushing so hard for universal early warning systems within five years. We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action — ambitious, credible climate action,” Guterres said.
Another report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, said: “Nations must dramatically increase funding and implementation of actions designed to help vulnerable nations and communities adapt to the climate storm.”
The Adaptation Gap Report 2022: Too, Too slow- Climate adaptation failures puts the world at risk, finds that global efforts in adaptation planning, financing and implementation are not keeping pace with the growing risks.
“Adaptation needs in the developing world are set to skyrocket to as much as $340 billion a year by 2030. Yet adaptation support today stands at less than one-tenth of that amount. The most vulnerable people and communities are paying the price. This is unacceptable,” UN Secretary-General said in a statement on the release of the report.
Programme Manager at Power Shift Africa and Lead Negotiator, Fatuma Hussein, said the common draft position, which focuses on the importance of implementation at COP27, called for the delivery and implementation of pledges and initiatives on finance and adaptation, mitigation, technology and capacity building.
Specifically, the Chair of the AGN, Ephraim Shitima, said: “COP27 should be about implementation, delivering on financial pledges and commitments by developed countries and the advancing of the implementation of nationally determined contributions.”
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In a statement by the Communications, Advocacy, Media and External Relations, Safiya Yoba Akau, in Abuja, on Monday, said the agency will ensure that the released abducted 21 children recover from the trauma and reintegrate them into the society.
While commending the authorities for their actions to rescue the children, they condemned the act decrying that no individual should be a target of violence or abduction.
The statement read in part: “UNICEF welcomes with relief, news of the release of 21 children abducted at a farm in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State, north-west Nigeria, on Sunday, 30 November.
“We commend the authorities for the action taken to release the kidnapped children who were rescued last Saturday.
“The release of all the abducted 21 children – 17 girls and four boys – is pleasant news to us all parents, caregivers, community leaders, everyone.
“These children shouldn’t have been kidnapped in the first place because no one, especially children, should be a target for abduction or violence of any kind.
“UNICEF will support the Katsina State Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development to provide psycho-social support to the rescued children to help them recover from the trauma and reintegrate into society.”
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The ASUU president added that in order to adequately assess the extent of the harm caused by the crisis brought on by the country’s currency redesign, developmental economists would need…
About 10 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs have left Ukraine since a U.N. and Türkiye-brokered deal in July restarted shipments stalled by Russia’s invasion, the U.N. chief said on Thursday, as he pushed Moscow and Kyiv to extend the pact that is vital to “reducing the risk of hunger” worldwide.
“The Black Sea Grain Initiative is making a difference,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters. “As of today, 10 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been shipped through the Black Sea corridor. It has taken just three months to reach this milestone.”
“I appeal to all parties to concentrate efforts in two areas. First, renewal and full implementation of the Black Sea Initiative. Second, removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer,” Gutteres said.
The deal could expire on Nov. 19 if Russia or Ukraine object to its extension. Russia suspended participation for several days this week after accusing Ukraine of using the pact as cover to target Russian ships in Crimea. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the attack.
Russia restarted its cooperation on Wednesday, but President Vladimir Putin said he reserved Moscow’s right to withdraw again. If Russia did so, however, Putin said it would not impede shipments of grain from Ukraine to Türkiye.
“Over the past few days, I believe the world has come to understand and appreciate the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” Guterres said. “For stemming the food crisis. For easing prices and pressures on people around the world. For reducing the risks of hunger, poverty and instability.”
The 120-day grain deal was signed between Moscow, Kyiv, the U.N., and Türkiye on July 22 in an effort to combat the global food crisis sparked by the war, which had stalled all agricultural exports from one of the world’s breadbaskets.
The deal also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertilizer exports. Guterres said on Thursday that concerted efforts were needed to urgently address the global fertilizer market crunch, urging the full use of Russian export capacity essential for that purpose.
“High fertilizer prices are already affecting farmers around the world. We cannot allow global fertilizer accessibility problems to morph into a global food shortage,” he said.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the necessity of extending the Ukraine grain deal in a phone call with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday.
According to a statement released by the Presidential Communications Directorate, Erdoğan and the U.N. chief discussed developments regarding the Russia-Ukraine War and the grain corridor.
The president said he welcomes the resumption of the deal as a result of his busy senior-level diplomatic traffic with Russia and Ukraine.
He continued by saying that it is now necessary to focus on extending the deal, which is set to expire in 20 days.
For his part, Guterres thanked Erdoğan for his contributions and efforts.
Russia had pulled out of the grain deal over the weekend, citing allegations of a Ukrainian drone attack against its Black Sea fleet.
Erdoğan on Wednesday said that after his call with Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar that the deal for a humanitarian grain corridor would “continue in the same way as before” as of noon Wednesday.
Shortly after Erdoğan’s remarks, the Russian Defense Ministry said Russia agreed to continue carrying out its role in the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the sea corridor for military actions against Moscow.
Meanwhile, Erdoğan also said he expects strong support for the U.N. Security Council Resolution regarding cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria, which is set to expire on Jan. 10.
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Western governments are calling on Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of a UN-brokered grain deal, a move that undermines efforts to ease a global food crisis, with Ukraine saying Moscow had planned the move well in advance.
The Turkey and UN-brokered deal was signed between Russia and Ukraine in July under which Moscow allowed the grain ships to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports. The agreement has already allowed more than 9 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to be exported and was due to be renewed on November 19.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday expressed “deep concern” as Ukraine’s maritime grain exports were halted.
“The Secretary-General continues to engage in intense contacts aiming at the end of the Russian suspension of its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” Guterres’ spokesman said.
“The same engagement also aims at the renewal and full implementation of the initiative to facilitate exports of food and fertilizer from Ukraine, as well as removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer.”
Currently, some 176 ships loaded with grain are being prevented from sailing from Ukraine’s ports, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding it was destined for seven million people in need.
Moscow suspended its participation in the deal on Saturday, effectively blocking shipments from Ukraine, one of the world’s top grain exporters, in response to what it called a major Ukrainian drone attack earlier in the day on its Black Sea Fleet headquarters near the port of Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea.
“Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risk the main export route of much needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter on Sunday.
“The EU urges Russia to [reverse] its decision.”
Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risks the main export route of much needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine.
The centre coordinating the deal’s logistics said in a statement that no traffic was planned for Sunday.
“A joint agreement has not been reached at the JCC for the movement of inbound and outbound vessels on 30 October,” it said in a statement. “There are more than ten vessels both outbound and inbound waiting to enter the corridor.”
On Sunday, Russia’s ambassador to Washington responded, saying the US response was “outrageous” and made false assertions about Moscow’s move.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine attacked the Black Sea Fleet near Sevastopol with 16 drones early on Saturday, and British navy “specialists” helped coordinate what it called a terrorist attack.
Russia said it had repelled the attack but that the ships targeted were involved in securing the grain corridor out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow was using the explosions 220km (137 miles) away from the grain corridor as a “false pretext” for a long-intended move.
“Russia has planned this well in advance,” Kuleba said on Twitter.
“Russia took the decision to resume its hunger games long ago and now tries to justify it,” he said, without providing any evidence.
‘Threat of famine’ Russia’s departure from the grain deal marks a new development in an eight-month war that began with Russia invading its neighbour in February and has recently been dominated by a Ukrainian counteroffensive and Russian drone and missile attacks that have destroyed more than 30 percent of Ukraine’s power generating capacity and hit populated areas.
Each side has accused the other of being prepared to detonate radioactive bombs.
Zelenskyy called for a strong response from the United Nations and Group of 20 (G20) major economies to what he called Russia’s nonsensical move on the grain deal.
“This is a completely transparent attempt by Russia to return to the threat of large-scale famine for Africa, for Asia,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on Saturday, adding Russia should be kicked out of the G20.
“This is food for more than 7 million consumers … Why is it that some handful of people somewhere in the Kremlin can decide whether there will be food on the tables of people in Egypt or Bangladesh?” he said
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Russia on Saturday suspended its participation in a landmark agreement that allowed vital grain exports from Ukraine, blaming drone attacks on Russian ships in Crimea.
The Turkey and UN-brokered deal to unlock grain exports signed between Russia and Ukraine in July is critical to easing the global food crisis caused by the conflict.
The agreement already allowed more than nine million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to be exported and was due to be renewed on November 19.
A Turkish security source told AFP that Ankara had not been “officially notified” of Russia’s suspension, while Ukraine and the UN pushed for the agreement to remain in force.
“I call on all states to demand that Russia stop its hunger games and recommit to fulfilling its obligations,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said: “It is vital that all parties refrain from any action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative which is a critical humanitarian effort.”
‘Peddling false claims’ Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea has been targeted several times in recent months and serves as the headquarters for the Black Sea fleet and a logistical hub for operations in Ukraine.
The Russian army claimed to have “destroyed” nine aerial drones and seven maritime ones, in an attack in the port early Saturday.
“In light of the terrorist act carried out by the Kyiv regime with the participation of British experts against ships of the Black Sea fleet and civilian vessels involved in the security of grain corridors, Russia suspends its participation in the implementation of the agreement on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.
Moscow’s forces alleged British “specialists”, whom they said were based in the southern Ukrainian city of Ochakiv, had helped prepare and train Kyiv to carry out the strike.
In a further singling out of the UK — which Moscow sees as one of the most unfriendly Western countries — Russia said the same British unit was involved in explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month.
Britain strongly rebutted both claims, saying “the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale.”
The British defence ministry said this “invented story says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the West”.
Moscow’s military said ships targeted at their Crimean base were involved in the grain deal.
Russia had recently criticised the deal, saying its own grain exports have suffered due to Western sanctions.
‘Massive’ attack Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, said Saturday’s drone attack was the “most massive” the peninsula had seen.
The city’s services were on “alert”, but he claimed no “civilian infrastructure” had been damaged.
City authorities said the harbour was “temporarily” closed to boats and ferries and urged people “not to panic”.
Moscow-installed authorities in Kherson, just north of Crimea, have vowed to turn the city into a fortress, preparing for an inevitable assault.
On Thursday, Razvozhayev said a thermal power station had been attacked in Balaklava, in the Sevastopol area.
He claimed there was only minor damage and no casualties.
In early October, Moscow’s bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland — personally inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin in 2018 — was damaged by a blast that Putin blamed on Ukraine.
The Russian fleet stationed in the port had also been attacked by a drone in August.
Pro-Russian separatists fighting alongside Moscow also announced a new prisoner exchange with Kyiv, saying 50 will return home from each side.
Both sides were gearing up for the battle for the city of Kherson, the regional capital that fell to Moscow’s forces in the first days of their offensive.
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UN says while plans submitted by most signatories of the Paris Agreement will reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, they still need to be ambitious enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century
The UN gave the warning in a report published by the UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Wednesday.
The current combined National Determined Contributions (NDCs)—the countries’ national efforts to tackle emissions and mitigate climate change—are leading our planet to at least 2.5 degrees warming, a level deemed catastrophic by scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In 2019, the IPCC indicated that to curb global warming, CO2 emissions needed to be cut by 43 per cent by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, but current climate plans show a 10.6 per cent increase instead.
However, this is an improvement compared to last year’s report, which showed a 13.7 per cent increase by 2030 and a continued rise of emissions after 2030.
“The downward trend in emissions expected by 2030 shows that nations have made some progress in 2022,” Simon Stiell, executive secretary of UN Climate Change, said.
“But the science is clear, and so are our climate goals under the Paris Agreement. We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world,” he warned.
Mr Stiell underscored that national governments needed to strengthen their climate action plans and implement them in the next eight years.
Fossil fuel power plants are one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
In 2021, all countries agreed to revisit and strengthen their climate plans during the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. However, only 24 out of 193 nations submitted updated plans to the UN.
“…It’s disappointing. Government decisions and actions must reflect the level of urgency, the gravity of the threats we are facing, and the shortness of the time we have remaining to avoid the devastating consequences of runaway climate change,” he said.
(NAN)
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Russia has told the United Nations Security Council that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” laced with radioactive material on its own territory, an assertion dismissed by Western and Ukrainian officials as a pretext for escalating the war.
Moscow sent a letter detailing the allegations to the UN on Monday and raised the issue at a closed meeting with the UNSC on Tuesday.
“We’re quite satisfied because we raised the awareness,” Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters.
“I don’t mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn’t happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday repeated Russia’s allegations and said the West was foolish to dismiss them.
It follows hints from Moscow that it might be forced to use a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the dirty bomb allegation showed Moscow was planning such an attack and seeking to blame Kyiv.
With Ukrainian forces advancing into Russian-occupied Kherson province, threatening a considerable defeat for Moscow, Russian officials phoned their Western counterparts on Sunday and Monday to air their suspicions.
Russia has alleged that Kyiv ordered two organisations to create a dirty bomb, an explosive device laced with radioactive material, without giving any evidence.
France, the United Kingdom and the United States said the allegations were “transparently false” and Washington warned Russia there would be “severe consequences” for any use of nuclear weapons.
“We’ve seen and heard no new evidence,” Britain’s Deputy UN Ambassador James Kariuki told reporters on Tuesday, referring to Russia’s “transparently false allegations”.
He added: “This is pure Russian misinformation of the kind of we’ve seen many times before and it should stop.”
Russia’s defence ministry said the aim of a dirty bomb attack by Ukraine would be to blame Moscow for the radioactive contamination, which it said Russia had begun preparing for.
In an apparent response to Moscow’s allegation, the UN nuclear watchdog said it was preparing to send inspectors to two unidentified Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, both already subject to its inspections.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters the inspectors would receive full access, and he called on Moscow to demonstrate the same transparency as Ukraine.
Russia’s state news agency RIA has identified what it said were the two sites involved – the Eastern Mineral Enrichment Plant in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv.
President Vladimir Putin has not spoken publicly about the dirty bomb allegations but on Tuesday said Russia needed to streamline decision-making in relation to what it calls its “special military operation”.
Speaking at the first meeting of a new coordination council to manage the government’s work on the home front, Putin said increased coordination of government structures and regions was necessary.
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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday told former United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon that Nigeria is “experiencing the negative fallout of climate change seen in the flooding in different parts of the country” as well as encroaching desertification and drought in northern Nigeria.
Buhari made the comment at an audience he granted the former UN scribe on the sidelines of the First World Bio Summit 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.
“The Nigerian leader expressed delight with the cooperation existing between his country and the Republic of Korea, especially in the area of energy supply, citing gas exports to the Asian country,” presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Describing education as a key investment in addressing unemployment and underdevelopment, the President also noted that health challenges must be equally addressed.
“On his part, the former Secretary-General, who is the Chair of Ban Ki-Moon Foundation for Better Future and strong advocate for Climate Change remediation, sympathized with President Buhari over the flooding, while calling for more investment to improve education, avert environmental degradation and preventive diseases in order to meet the core Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“He thanked President Buhari for attending the World Bio Summit, adding that his presence would highlight the importance of global action and cooperation in the development of vaccines and technology to meet the huge threat and challenges of pandemics.
“Speaking on his pet project, the ex-UN Scribe said his Global Centre on Adaptation is trying to mobilize resources to help developing countries fight climate change as he urged donor countries to fulfil their financial commitments to the Global Climate Fund.
“President Buhari and his guest also discussed the role of gender equality towards attaining a prosperous society while calling for an end to the war in Ukraine,” the statement added
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Tawfik Jelassi, the assistant director-general Communication and Information UNESCO, made the call at a dinner on Monday night in Abuja to welcome participants to the ‘Global Media and Information Literacy Week’.
Speaking at the dinner, Mr Jelassi said he was wowed by the amazing cuisines, particularly the traditional menu and traditional dances that complement it.
According to him, some Nigerian traditional cuisines are qualified for inscription into UNESCO list of intangible heritage and a step should be taken to achieve that. Learn How To Relocate to Canada!!
Though not on the menu list, Mr Jelassi particularly referred to Itsekiri soup, ‘Egbele Koko miyo’, noting that it is an irresistible delicacy prepared to stop a man from cheating on his wife.
Mr Jelassi called on Nigerian permanent representative to UNESCO, Hajo Sanni, to submit a list of traditional cuisines for consideration for listing as intangible cultural heritage. Learn How To Relocate to Canada!! On his view about Nigeria, Mr Jelassi said just a day in the country, he had seen Nigeria at its best and “its diversity is the source of its enrichment.’’
Intangible cultural heritage according to UNESCO is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered to be part of a place’s cultural heritage. Learn How To Relocate to Canada!!
Examples include community gatherings, oral traditions, songs, knowledge of natural spaces, healing traditions, and foods. Others are holidays, beliefs, cultural practices, and skills of making handicrafts, methods of agriculture and cattle breeding, traditional navigation skills, as well as cooking skills.
(NAN)
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Ankara wants the Ukraine grain deal, which was mediated jointly by Türkiye and the United Nations and is set to expire next month, to be extended, the presidential spokesperson said Friday.
“We discussed this issue with the Ukrainian side. They have a positive view about this idea. We are also discussing the issue with the Russians,” Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın told American news channel CNN on Friday.
“They have some concerns about sending their own crops, ammonia and fertilizers. They had an agreement with the U.N. So, they are trying to work out some details. These were some of the problems,” he explained.
The landmark deal was signed by Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye, and the U.N. in Istanbul on July 22 to resume grain exports from Ukrainian ports that were halted since the start of the war in late February.
The initial agreement was for 120 days and expires in November.
The Joint Coordination Centre with officials from the three countries and the U.N. was set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.
Since the first vessel sailed under the deal on Aug. 1, more than 260 ships have passed through the grain corridor with over 6 million tons of products.
Putin seeking ‘grand bargain’ with West Kalın said Türkiye is doing its best to bring both sides back to the negotiating table, adding that talks are expected to resume at some point.
“The question is: When we will come back to it and how much damage will have been done by then?” he said.
Prospects of renewed negotiations have grown particularly bleak following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Kalın said he had discussed the issue with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who was in Istanbul last week.
“Our understanding is that Mr. Putin wants to have a new grand bargain, a new deal with the West. It’s partly about Ukraine, no doubt. But the larger issue is really a new deal between Russia and the Western world,” he said.
“There is a new Russia, there is a new world, there is a new reality, and they want to have a new bargain,” he said.
This, according to Kalın, means that the “entire global liberal order is facing a big test,” read a CNN report
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