World News
War in Ukraine: hitting Ukraine’s infrastructure is inevitable, says Vladimir Putin
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Steph Deschamps / December 3, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday that Russia’s massive strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were “necessary and inevitable ».
It was stressed that the Russian armed forces have long avoided high-precision missile strikes on certain targets in Ukraine, but such measures have become necessary and unavoidable in the face of Kiev’s provocative attacks,” the Kremlin said in a statement, summarizing Vladimir Putin’s remarks to Olaf Scholz during their first meeting since mid-September.
According to Putin, Kiev is responsible for the explosions that partly destroyed the Russian Crimean bridge and Russian energy facilities, and therefore Moscow is within its rights in bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions of civilians in the cold and dark.
Putin, who launched his assault on February 24, has again complained about Western financial and military support for Ukraine, supplies that have enabled Kiev to inflict humiliating defeats on Russia.
Therefore, for the Russian president, the position of the West is “destructive”, because with the political, financial and military support of the West, “Kiev rejects the idea of any negotiation” and “incites radical nationalist Ukrainians to commit bloody crimes”.
Vladimir Putin called on Mr. Scholz “to review his approach in the context of Ukrainian events.
The Russian president had decreed the annexation in late September of four regions of Ukraine, although he does not control them, in addition to the Crimea annexed in 2014.
Kiev, for its part, rejects any negotiation with Putin, without respect for its territorial integrity, including Crimea.
Militarily, the Russian army has suffered several defeats, having been forced to withdraw from the north of the country in April, then from part of the northeast in September and finally from part of the south in November.
Since October, Russian forces have therefore adopted the tactic of bombing facilities providing electricity and heat to the country, even as winter is settling in Ukraine.
Finally, earlier on Friday, the Kremlin had rejected the conditions mentioned the day before by U.S. President Joe Biden, who said he was “ready” to discuss with Vladimir Putin if the latter “seeks a way to end the war” in Ukraine, setting as a first condition a withdrawal of Russian troops.
The U.S. president “said de facto that negotiations would be possible only after Putin leaves Ukraine,” which Moscow rejects “obviously,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“The military operation continues,” he insisted.
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Eva Deschamps / October 31, 2023
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 63 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have already lost their lives in the Gaza Strip. Ten aid workers have been killed in the last 72 hours, according to this new toll released by the agency on its website on Monday.
At least 22 UNRWA staff were also injured. Since October 7, 44 UNRWA facilities have also been destroyed. Of its 22 health centers, only nine are still operational, the UN agency said, warning that the provision of health care is made even more difficult by the very low fuel supply.
The UN agency had previously reported that several of its warehouses had been looted. “Due to the very limited aid available and overcrowded shelters, growing tensions are being reported within the displaced communities,” it stressed. Some 672,000 refugees are living in 149 UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, “in increasingly difficult conditions”. “The ability to provide vital assistance was further hampered by the 36-hour communications blackout between October 27 and 29”, UNRWA added.
In all, an estimated 1.4 million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip. Over 120,000 of them have taken refuge in public buildings such as hospitals and schools.
“The aid currently available is insufficient to meet the most basic needs of displaced people and the communities hosting them”, warns the UN agency.
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Sylvie Claire / October 31, 2023
This research into mammal reproduction in space could prove crucial for future solar system exploration missions.
Mouse embryos were grown on board the International Space Station (ISS) and developed normally, according to a Japanese study published in the scientific journal “iScience” on Saturday, October 28.
This is “the very first study to show that mammals might be able to thrive in space”, claim Yamanashi University and the Riken National Research Institute.
The researchers, including Teruhiko Wakayama, a professor at Yamanashi University’s Center for Advanced Biotechnology, and a team from the Japanese space agency Jaxa, sent frozen mouse embryos aboard a rocket to the ISS in August 2021. The astronauts thawed the embryos at an early stage, using a specially designed device, and cultured them on board the station for four days.
The experiment “clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect”, noted the researchers. After analyzing the blastocysts (cells that develop into fetuses and placentas) that were returned to their laboratories on Earth, they observed no particular changes in the state of DNA and genes.
“In the future, it will be necessary to transplant blastocysts grown in microgravity on the ISS into mice to see if the mice can give birth,” in order to confirm that the blastocysts are normal, say Yamanashi University and the Riken Institute.
This research could prove crucial for future space exploration and colonization missions. As part of its Artemis program, NASA plans to send humans back to the Moon to learn how to live there in the long term, and to prepare for a trip to Mars in the late 2030s.
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Steph Deschamps / October 25, 2023
The world’s oldest dog died last weekend in Portugal. Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro de l’Alentejo, was 31 years and 165 days old, reports the British public broadcaster BBC on Monday.
Last February, Bobi entered the Guinness Book of Records as not only the oldest living dog, but also the oldest dog of all time.
The old record had been held for almost 100 years by Bluey from Australia. He died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
Bobi has spent his entire life with the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros, near the west coast of Portugal.
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