Oklahoma board approves nation's first state-funded Catholic school

Nuria Martinez-Keel
USA TODAY NETWORK

An Oklahoma school board on Monday approved what would be the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious school despite concerns over the decision’s constitutionality from state officials and advocacy groups.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, which oversees all virtual charter schools in the state, voted 3-2 in favor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma establishing St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The online public charter school would open in 2024, serving students in kindergarten through grade 12 across the state.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had warned the board that the decision was unconstitutional.

"The approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers," Drummond said in a statement shortly after the board’s vote. "It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated their oath in order to fund religious schools with our tax dollars. In doing so, these members have exposed themselves and the state to potential legal action that could be costly."

Archdiocese officials have been unequivocal that the school will promote the Catholic faith and operate according to church doctrine, including its views on sexual orientation and gender identity, raising questions of whether St. Isidore of Seville would abide by all federal non-discrimination requirements.

Despite Drummond’s opposition, the concept of a religious charter school has gained support from other Republican leaders in Oklahoma, including Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt.

"This is a win for religious liberty and education freedom in our great state, and I am encouraged by these efforts to give parents more options when it comes to their child’s education," Stitt said in a statement.

Approval could create 'slippery slope'

In April, the board rejected an application to create St. Isidore of Seville over concerns with the school's governance structure, its plan for special education students, and its ability to keep private and public funds separate. The archdiocese adjusted and resubmitted the application, prompting Monday's vote.

The board approved the school despite a state law requiring public schools to be free of control from any religious sect. Advocates for St. Isidore of Seville say recent Supreme Court rulings state a private entity can't be excluded from public programs, including a state's education system, on religious grounds.

Drummond warned the school would create a "slippery slope" toward state-funded religion. Drummond withdrew an opinion from his predecessor, John O’Connor, who in his final month in office said recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings compelled the state to accept religiously affiliated public charter schools.

O'Connor cited cases that had "little precedential value" to charter school law, Drummond said.

Despite Drummond’s opposition, the concept of a religious charter school has gained support from other Republican leaders in the state, including Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters.
Potential legal fight as groups denounce move

The vote kicks off a potential test case for the Supreme Court on the issue of religious public schools.

Church officials are committed to a yearslong legal effort, said Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, which represents both the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa.

"No matter what happens here, our intention is to see this through," Farley said at a previous board meeting. "We're prepared for that long road. This is a major priority to us."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized the board’s approval Monday.

The advocacy group’s president and CEO Rachel Laser said in a statement that the decision violates the religious freedom of Oklahoma taxpayers and public school communities. Laser said the group will work with state and national partners to pursue possible legal action against the decision.

"State and federal law are clear: Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and open to all students," Laser told USA TODAY in a statement. "No public-school family should fear that their child will be required by charter schools to take theology classes or be expelled for failing to conform to religious doctrines."

Contributing: The Associated Press

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

Governments Must Meet Their Biodiversity Pledges

KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images

Jun 5, 2023

ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF

PROJECT SYNDICATE

Six months ago, the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal reached a historic agreement to provide the financing needed to help developing countries, particularly in Africa, reach the ambitious target of preserving 30% of the world’s land and seas by 2030. Now is the time to hold rich countries’ feet to the fire.

MONROVIA – My work has taken me far and wide, across oceans and vast expanses of land, and I have been lucky enough to see firsthand some of the richest biodiversity hotspots on Earth. But at the end of the day, I always return home – to Liberia, to Africa, which offers the most extraordinary natural landscape and wildlife. The African continent is undoubtedly the planet’s biodiversity powerhouse.


Writing about Africa’s natural capital doesn’t do it justice. How can one describe a quarter of global biodiversity – including at least 50,000 plant species, some 1,000 different mammals, 2,500 types of bird, and up to 5,500 varieties of freshwater fish – in a few words? It’s the same with Liberia: my country is home to large swaths of the Upper Guinean Forests, which is among the world’s foremost regions for mammalian diversity. It includes hundreds of thousands of hectares of freshwater wetlands and over six million hectares of forests, which are vital for the survival of endangered fauna and flora, as well as for local communities’ well-being.

Given its abundance of natural capital, the continent stands to lose disproportionately from biodiversity collapse. When human activity pushes animal and plant species close to extinction and throws ecosystems out of balance, it also puts important valuable natural resources at risk: Africa’s diverse biomes play a crucial role in global pharmaceutical innovation, ecotourism, and crop pollination.

Moreover, despite contributing only 3% to global greenhouse-gas emissions, Africa suffers disproportionately from the effects of a warming planet, losing up to $15 billion per year to climate change. Biodiversity loss exacerbates the problem by threatening the continent’s rainforests, an important carbon sink. And, given African economies’ dependence on natural resources and ecosystem services, it also impedes growth and development.

That is why Africa has been at the forefront of biodiversity conservation efforts, and climate action more generally. The continent is increasingly calling attention to the issue and leading the charge at negotiations, most recently at December’s United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal. Several African states, including Liberia, have also held developed countries accountable for their existing commitments at these international summits.

The talks at COP15 were ultimately successful, culminating in the adoption of the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. One of its many ambitious targets is to protect 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. Also called “30x30,” it is a proposal that many in Liberia – including me, as a member of the Campaign for Nature’s Global Steering Committee – have long championed. Governments also committed to increase the annual biodiversity-related financing that developed countries provide to developing countries to at least $20 billion by 2025, and at least $30 billion by 2030.

Six months after this landmark agreement, we need to maintain momentum and make good on these pledges. As the staggering decline in nature and wildlife continues unabated, now is not the time to falter. The theme of this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity (celebrated each year on May 22), “From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity,” is a timely and powerful reminder of the urgent need to act quickly on the commitments made at COP15 and to shift our focus and energy from imagination to implementation. The recent G7 Summit in Hiroshima, where world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Kunming-Montreal framework, was a welcome step in the right direction.

But governments must deliver on their pledges to mobilize public finance if we want to achieve the “30x30” goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss. The funding will provide a lifeline for the world’s ecosystems and plant and animal species, as well as some of the world’s most vulnerable populations – particularly indigenous peoples and rural communities – whose livelihoods depend on their local natural capital.

The global community has a history of breaking its word and shifting the goalposts agreed to in past climate and biodiversity deals. But the promise to increase international financing to developing countries must be kept. As global warming intensifies, we can no longer tolerate the repercussions of another deal like the one reached at the 2009 UN climate summit, which turned out to be mostly hot air.

World leaders have an opportunity to be on the right side of history. But any delay in meeting the targets set at COP15 will undermine this landmark agreement. The resources are there. After rapidly mobilizing trillions of dollars in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, developed countries should be able to move with the same speed to finance biodiversity conservation efforts. Their investments would yield significant dividends in developing countries, from supporting millions of jobs and generating billions of dollars in GDP to significantly reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

The moment has come for decision-makers at all levels in developed countries to deliver their end of the bargain. Let us not waste this last chance to preserve the planet’s natural wealth. If we can get this right, Africa – and the world – will be better for it.


ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF
Writing for PS since 2007
7 Commentaries
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, is a member of the Campaign for Nature’s Global Steering Committee.

RIP

Girl From Ipanema singer Astrud Gilberto dies aged 83


Astrud Gilberto was married to Joao Gilberto, a pioneer of the bossa nova genre who died in 2019. 

BRASILIA - Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer whose soft, beguiling voice made The Girl From Ipanema a worldwide sensation in the 1960s and provided a huge boost to the budding bossa nova genre, has died at age 83, her family said.

“I come bearing the sad news that my grandmother became a star today and is next to my grandfather Joao Gilberto,” Sofia Gilberto wrote on social media early on Tuesday.

The singer died at home in Philadelphia, in the United States, where she had lived since the 1960s, according to Brazilian news site G1.

Gilberto was born in Salvador, capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, in 1940 and was married to Joao Gilberto, a pioneer of the bossa nova genre who died in 2019.

Astrud Gilberto recorded 19 albums in her career, but she had little professional music experience when she turned The Girl From Ipanema - the now-classic song by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes - into a global smash singing the English verses alongside American saxophonist Stan Getz and her guitar-playing then-husband.

The version made Astrud Gilberto the first Brazilian to be nominated for a Grammy – which she won, for song of the year, in 1965.

‘Queen of bossa nova’

The silky-smooth song changed Gilberto’s life, turning it upside down both personally and professionally.

As she told the story, she owed her popularity to an off-the-cuff suggestion by Joao Gilberto while they were recording it in New York to try singing in English.

“That song is going to make you famous,” Getz told her in the studio.

It was apparently not just her music that wowed the saxophonist - and vice versa.

She ended up leaving her husband for Getz and moving to the United States permanently.

But that turbulent period in her life produced some of the best-loved recordings of all time, including the live album of the three friends’ concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall in October 1964.

Aged just 24 at the time, Gilberto suffered from stage fright, which she overcame by taking theater classes at the Stella Adler acting academy.

The coy young brunette wowed audiences with her satin voice, which she took on tour with Getz. She earned the nickname “The Queen of Bossa Nova,” bringing the syncopated, relaxed Brazilian musical style to the world.

She remained in the US after separating from Getz, continuing her career with hits such as Fly Me To the Moon (1972) and Far Away (1977), and turning to songwriting with the albums Astrud Gilberto Now and That Girl From Ipanema.

After a career touring the world, she retired from the stage in 2001. She was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame the following year.

In 2008, she was awarded a Latin Grammy for lifetime achievement.

‘Incomparable swing’

The music world mourned the passing of one of its iconic voices.

“Farewell Astrud Gilberto,” English rocker Tim Burgess, frontman for alternative rock band the Charlatans, wrote on Twitter, alongside a black-and-white video of a shy-looking Gilberto performing “Girl from Ipanema” in a vintage 60s beehive.

“Her contribution to bring Brazilian music to the world was immeasurable. Her incomparable swing and good taste will remain with me always,” American musician Mark Lambert wrote on Instagram.

It was the latest loss for Brazilian music lovers, after rock icon Rita Lee died last month at age 75 and popular music legend Gal Costa, a leading figure in the “Tropicalia” movement, died in November at 77.

Bebel Gilberto, Joao Gilberto’s daughter and a singer-songwriter herself, called Astrid her “eternal Muse.”

“(May) you sing with birds and angels,” she wrote on Instagram. AFP

Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz - The Girl From Ipanema (1964) LIVE

Hacker steals luxury retailer Cortina Watch’s data, including customer details

The stolen data appears to have been gleaned from the contact form Cortina Watch uses on its website. 

PHOTO: ST FILE

David Sun
Crime Correspondent

SINGAPORE – Hackers have struck another company in Singapore just one week after the data of more than 40,000 Goldheart customers was leaked online.

The latest incident involves a hacker, who goes by the username Bassterlord, who claimed in a tweet that he had managed to steal 2GB worth of data from luxury retailer Cortina Watch.

He appears to be holding the company to ransom, and in the tweet said: “I don’t think very rich clients will want their addresses to be public.”

The hacker also shared on Twitter a sample of the data, which contains contact details of customers, including their names and e-mail addresses.

The stolen data appears to have been gleaned from the contact form the company uses on its website. The data was stored on Cortina Watch’s servers, which have been compromised.

Bassterlord is reportedly a man in his 20s from Ukraine, and is the head of the hacker group called the National Hazard Agency.

According to cyber-security firm Analyst1, Bassterlord deals mainly in ransomware, and is linked to at least four major ransomware gangs.

Cortina Watch was founded in 1972 as a small shop in Colombo Court, in North Bridge Road, by group executive chairman Anthony Lim.

Since then, the company has expanded to more than 40 stores across Asia.

According to its annual report, the group’s total revenue shot up 64.1 per cent to $716.9 million in 2022, with a net profit of $73.8 million.

The retailer carries more than 50 luxury brands, including Rolex and Patek Philippe.

The company’s website was down as at 5pm on Monday. When contacted by The Straits Times, a representative of the company’s head office said its IT team has been working on a solution.

She added that the e-mail servers were down.

The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) said it has reached out to Cortina

Watch for more information, while Cyber Security Agency said they have contacted the company to offer assistance.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Over 40,000 Goldheart customers’ data allegedly leaked online; PDPC investigating

Law Society, furniture store ordered to improve security after data breaches

The incident follows a number of security breaches involving companies in Singapore.

On May 24, Goldheart discovered that its e-commerce site was compromised.

The jeweller immediately suspended the site to prevent any further illegal access, said Mr Kean Ng, chief executive officer of Aspial Lifestyle, which owns Goldheart.

In a statement on Monday, Mr Ng said that Goldheart also notified its customers and the PDPC, and made a police report.

“Forensic analysis has, to date, identified that personal data was compromised due to illegal and suspicious activities from an external party who has targeted our e-commerce website,” he added.

The compromised data included customers’ names, addresses, e-mail addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers.

Mr Ng said that no financial data or passwords were accessed or retrieved by the hackers.

“Due to the nature of the compromised data, we believe there is limited risk of fraudulent activity for those affected,” he added.

“That said, we have asked all affected customers to take all necessary precautions, including ensuring that e-mails received are from legitimate senders and to review e-mail links carefully.”

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
WhizComms data breach: About 50% of customers affected, notified on May 10

OrangeTee & Tie fined $37k for data breach affecting over 250,000 customers, staff

In May, the PDPC noted in a written judgment that the Law Society had “negligently breached” its obligation to protect personal information, which resulted in a ransomware attack that compromised the information of 16,009 members in 2021.

Singapore’s privacy watchdog has also fined online furniture store FortyTwo $8,000 for a data breach which resulted in the personal particulars of 6,339 customers being leaked.

After The Flood: What We Know About The Destroyed Ukrainian Dam And Its Consequences
June 06, 2023 
By Mike Eckel

The roof of a house is seen in the Dnieper River, which flooded after Ukraine's Nova Kakhovka dam was breached on June 6.

The Nova Kakhovka dam, a decades-old, Soviet-era hydroelectric facility spanning the mighty Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, was breached sometime overnight on June 6. The breach sent torrents of water cascading downstream, inundating villages and towns, prompting evacuations of thousands, drowning fields, and swamping farmlands and marshlands.

Ukraine immediately lay the blame on Russia, which has controlled the facility since just after the February 2022 invasion. For their part, Russian officials in occupied territories on the Dnieper’s east bank accused Ukraine of destroying the dam to cover up for what they called a lack of battlefield successes. Neither side provided evidence.

The incident comes about six months after Ukraine seized back parts of the Kherson region on the west bank of the Dnieper River, including the city of Kherson. And it comes as Ukraine gears up for what is expected to be a major new counteroffensive against Russian forces, one that could change the course of the war.

SEE ALSO:
Has Ukraine's Long-Awaited Counteroffensive Finally Begun? Maybe.

One thing is certain: the flood is likely to end up being the worst environmental disaster since Russia launched its large-scale invasion nearly 16 months ago.
What Happened To The Dam?

It’s not clear exactly.

Built in 1954 to provide electricity to southern Ukraine, the 3-kilometer-long Nova Khakovka facility, also known simply as Kakhovka, is one of six hydro stations along the entire Dnieper, which stretches 980 kilometers -- from Belarus in the north to the Dniprovska Gulf and the Black Sea in the south.

The facility has been under the control of Russian forces since a few weeks after the February 24, 2022, invasion. It had been damaged previously; once in late October or early November. And sometime around November 11, an explosion likely caused by retreating Russian troops blew up part of the roadway over the structure.

That’s led some outside observers to warn of the possibility that the dam may have collapsed on its own – out of neglect, deliberate or not -- particularly given how swollen the upriver reservoir was, from spring melt of winter snows and runoff.

Since retreating from the western bank, Russian forces have dug in on the opposite bank, building fortifications and trenches and laying mine fields to deter any potential Ukrainian river crossing. They have also used the eastern bank to hammer Kherson city and surrounding districts, terrorizing the area and a providing a sobering counterpoint to the elation that followed Kherson’s liberation by Ukrainian forces in November.

Sometime around 3 a.m. on June 6, Ukrainian officials said, part of the dam gave way, and in the following hours, the upstream water pushed through until the breach widened.

Dnieper Dam Breach Unleashes Floods In Southern Ukraine


The national hydroelectric power company said the breach was caused by an explosion inside the engine room.

“The station cannot be restored,” it said.

Ukrainian officials blamed Russia.

“Russian terrorists,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a post to social media. “The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, meanwhile, warned last October that Russian forces had mined parts of the facility, including the locks and the buttresses.

Moscow-installed officials in the part of Kherson region still occupied by Russian forces accused Kyiv of striking the dam with missiles. Other Russian officials in the region, however, suggested the dam had burst on its own due to earlier damage.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of “sabotage” and warned of “very severe consequences” for residents. He also insinuated that Ukraine breached the dam in order to cover a lack of battlefield progress: “it’s withering away.”

How Bad Is The Flooding?

Bad.

Ukrainian emergency officials were evacuating thousands of people from districts on the river’s west bank, where the river waters rose throughout the day. Video shot by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and other footage circulating on Telegram and social media showed entire villages inundated.

The city of Nova Kakhokva, which had a pre-invasion population of 70,000, was partly underwater particularly in neighborhoods closest to the river.

City officials said animals at the city zoo were likely all dead.

Mass Evacuations Follow Breach Of Ukrainian Dam

About 70 kilometers downriver is Kherson city, the administrative center of the region, and by the afternoon of June 6, nearly 12 hours after the dam was reportedly breached, waters were already flowing into some low-lying districts, particularly those in the marshy delta further down river.

Flood waters were seen rushing over the debris and wrecked pylons of the Antonovskiy Bridge, a major river crossing that had been rendered all but impassable due to repeated shelling by Ukrainian and Russian forces.

"Evacuation has started. I ask you to do everything you can to save your life. Leave the dangerous areas immediately,” Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration, said in a video.

Water Rising To 'Critical' Levels, Says Ukrainian Official After Dam Break

Last October, the Swedish hydrological engineering company Damningsverket was commissioned to come up with a theoretical model based on what might happen if the Kakhovka dam was breached. It found that the swollen waters would reach not only the river mouth, but also push water up the Pivdenniy Buh River, to Mykolayiv, an important Ukrainian river port.

“Worst-case modeling,” the prediction read, found that “a 4-to-5-meter wave would hit the Antonovskiy Bridge east of Kherson city about 19 hours later, there would be a back swell flooding up the Inhulets River, and after four or five days there would be some flooding up the [Pivdenniy Buh] River to Mykolayiv.”

In Mykolayiv, an emergency train was dispatched midday on June 6 to the southeast to help evacuate people fleeing the rising waters in Kherson. The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Syenkevych, said there was no flooding as of midafternoon.

After the reports of the dam breach, Damningsverket CEO Henrik Oelander-Hjalmarsson said that water levels in the reservoir above the dam were at a 30-year high, most likely because the flood gates had not been left open during the conflict and during this spring’s melt.

“It’s a massive disaster and I’m deeply saddened the Russians have done this,” he told NBC News.

It Gets Worse

The reservoir formed by the dam stretches upriver, about 100 kilometers to the north, before widening into the Kakhovka Reservoir.

The reservoir is the main source of coolant for Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, the six-reactor Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, in the city of Enerhodar. The facility has been under Russian control since March 2022. Ukrainian engineers and operators have been working under Russian oversight since then.

The reactors have been shut down, not generating electricity, since September, after months of increasing alarm that fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces could lead to a catastrophic meltdown.

A Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which has been under Moscow's control since March 2022. (file photo)

Still, the dam breach endangers the plant because of dropping reservoir levels, which would harm the pools that cool radioactive fuel cores. The waters can be circulated, re-used, but if levels drop too much, the pools’ water temperature could climb. If they were to boil, or evaporate, the fuel cores would melt or explode.

By early afternoon on June 6, officials in the city of Nikopol, which is located to the north of the power plant, across the reservoir, said water levels had already dropped by 1.5 meters.

Enerhoatom, the Ukrainian state company that oversees the Zaporizhzhya plant, said as of mid-afternoon June 6 that the dropping water levels were so far not affecting the cooling pools.

“And even if there is no water in the Kakhovka Reservoir at all, the [facility] has measures to replenish, one of which is the use of underground well water” on the site,“ CEO Petro Kotin said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that it was monitoring the situation at the plant closely. There was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at plant,” the agency said in a post to Twitter.

The bigger question will come into the later summer and fall, when overall river levels will naturally drop, and Ukrainian officials will have to compensate in part with releases of more water further upriver.

What About Crimea?

Dropping water levels upriver from the Nova Kakhovka dam also endanger something else: Crimea.

The Black Sea peninsula, which has been under Russian control since March 2014, is hot and arid, and its indigenous water supplies are limited to ground water from rains. For that reason, Soviet authorities built the 402-kilometer canal in the early 1960s, beginning at the city of Tavriisk, along with branches into mainland agricultural area.

With changing climate making Crimea’s weather hotter, and rains more sporadic, the North Crimea Canal took on outsized importance.

After Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, Ukrainian officials dammed the canal, drastically throttling back supplies, leading to shortages in the region. Invading Russian troops then took control of the canal and restarted water flows.

In a statement on Telegram in the morning of June 6, Crimea’s Russian-appointed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said that the region had adequate reserves in its reservoirs – about 80 percent, he said -- but cautioned that water levels could drop, particularly as the region enters the hot summer season.

For agricultural regions under Russian control -- parts of the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions -- a lack of irrigation from a depleted Dnieper could also be disastrous.

Cui Bono: Who Benefits?

The destruction already under way downriver from the dam appears to be mainly hitting Ukrainian controlled districts, on the Dnieper’s west bank, though some settlements on the east bank, including the city of Nova Kakhovka are also affected.

That, plus the fact that the facility has been under Russian control for more than a year, has led many observers to lay the blame squarely on Russian authorities.

Add to that the looming Ukrainian counteroffensive, which is expected to occur in several locations along the nearly 1,000-kilometer front line that stretches roughly from the mouth of the Dnieper to the Russian border, northeast of the city of Kharkiv.

In recent months, Ukrainian commandos and sabotage units have been reported in a handful of locations and islands on the Russian-held east bank of the Dnieper. A flooded coastline would make the already difficult crossing even more problematic and provide Russian forces with yet another layer of defense.

The flooding and evacuations will also divert attention and resources from Ukrainian authorities who would otherwise be supporting the counteroffensive.

“They decided that now, in this way, they will be able to stop the counteroffensive of Ukrainian forces,” Natalya Humenyuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

Also, there’s precedent.

In 1941, with Nazi German troops pushing hard through Soviet-era Ukraine, Josef Stalin ordered the destruction of a dam in the city of Zaporizhzhya, about a two-hour drive northeast of Enerhodar, to slow the Nazi advance. The breach swamped villages along Dnieper banks, killing thousands of civilians.

SEE ALSO:
Ukrainian Activists Draw Attention To Little-Known WWII Tragedy

Overall, however, the destruction of the dam will have long-term ripple effects in how Ukraine stores and distributes water, not only for electricity generation but also agriculture, said Mykhaylo Yatsyuk, the director of the Institute of Water Problems and Reclamation of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences.

"It’s necessary to understand that two-thirds of Ukraine's economy is tied to the cascades of the Dnieper reservoirs,” he told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service

Mike Eckel is a senior correspondent reporting on political and economic developments in Russia, Ukraine, and around the former Soviet Union, as well as news involving cybercrime and espionage. He's reported on the ground on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the wars in Chechnya and Georgia, and the 2004 Beslan hostage crisis, as well as the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
EckelM@rferl.org

 

Dam Destruction Threatens Ukraine’s Largest Nuclear Plant

By RFE/RL staff - Jun 06, 2023

• Russia has been accused of blowing up a large Soviet-era dam on the Dnieper River, leading to mass evacuation in Ukraine due to rapid flooding.
• 
  
• The attack potentially threatens Europe's largest nuclear plant, the Zaporizhzhya plant, which uses water from the reservoir created by the dam for cooling purposes, leading to an emergency meeting of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.
• 
  
• International condemnation of the attack is swift, with NATO and European Council officials calling it an 'outrageous act' and 'war crime,' respectively, and Ukraine seeking a UN Security Council meeting to discuss what it labels a 'Russian terrorist attack.'
• 
  

Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up a huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnieper River in a Moscow-occupied area in the south, sending millions of liters of water cascading through the region in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called an act of "terror."

Ukrainian authorities said tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from areas threatened by massive flooding downstream in the Kherson region after the attack in the early hours of June 6. Within hours, water levels had already risen by 10 to 12 meters, they added.

The mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Volodymyr Kovalenko, told News of Azov, a project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, that the the lower part of the river's bank had already flooded the Kazkova Dibrova zoo, a summer cinema, a park area, and stadiums, while architecturally significant buildings were threatened by the rising water that is likely to remain for several days before receding.

"The Kakhovska [dam project] has actually been destroyed, it's hard for me to imagine whether it will be possible to do something with it once the war has ended. The destruction is of such a scale that a lot of water will come out and there will be flooding, especially in the old part of the city," Kovalenko said.

With the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant also in possible peril, Zelenskiy called an emergency meeting of the country's National Security and Defense Council to discuss the situation.

"Russian terrorists," Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter, where he posted a video of the broken dam and the water rapidly flowing through the huge breach.

"The destruction of the [Nova] Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land. Not a single meter should be left to them, because they use every meter for terror.... The terrorists will not be able to stop Ukraine with water, missiles or anything else," Zelenskiy wrote, adding that all services were working.

Russia denied it carried out the attack, with the Kremlin instead calling it "deliberate sabotage" by Kyiv.

Natalya Humenyuk, the spokeswoman for Ukraine's southern military command, said Russia blew up the dam to keep Ukrainian troops from being able to cross the Dnieper as it prepares to go on the counteroffensive to push Russian troops out of the region."They were aware that the movement of the (Ukrainian) defense forces would take place and in this way tried to influence the defense forces so that the crossing of the Dnieper, which they feared, would not happen." she told an online briefing, calling it a "hysterical reaction."While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was monitoring the situation, Ukraine's nuclear energy agency warned that the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam could pose a danger for the safety of the Zaporizhzhya plant -- Europe's biggest nuclear plant -- which uses water from the reservoir for the cooling process."Water from the Kakhovka reservoir is necessary for the station to receive power for turbine capacitors and safety systems. Now the station's cooling pond is full: as of 8 a.m., the water level is 16.6 meters high, which is enough for the station's needs," Enerhoatom, the plant's operator, said, adding later that the situation was "not critical."

The IAEA said the plant should have enough water to cool its reactors for "some months" from a pond located above the reservoir created by the dam."It is therefore vital that this cooling pond remains intact. Nothing must be done to potentially undermine its integrity. I call on all sides to ensure nothing is done to undermine that," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

The Nova Kakhovka dam -- which is 30 meters tall and 3.2 kilometers long -- is part a vital route for transport and irrigation, as well as supplying water to Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula as well as the Zaporizhzhya plant, which are both under Russian control.International condemnation of the attack was swift, with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg calling it "an outrageous act," while European Council President Charles Michel expressed “shock” saying Russia should be held accountable for the "war crime" of destroying civilian infrastructure."The destruction of the Kakhovka dam today puts thousands of civilians at risk and causes severe environmental damage. This is an outrageous act, which demonstrates once again the brutality of Russia's war in Ukraine," Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also put the blame squarely on Moscow for the destruction of the dam, saying that while it was "too early" to make any kind of meaningful assessment of the details, "it's worth remembering that the only reason this is an issue at all is because of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

Ukraine has called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what it called a "Russian terrorist attack" on the Kakhovka dam. It also said it wanted the IAEA's board of governors to discuss the incident and demanded new international sanctions on Russia, and in particular on the Russian missile industry and nuclear sector.

Officials continue to scramble to move residents out of the area, with Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of the Kherson region, saying water levels will reach a "critical level" in the early afternoon.

"I specifically appeal to the residents on the left bank [of the Dnieper]: do everything possible to protect yourself and save your life -- immediately leave the dangerous areas," Prokudin said earlier on Telegram.

"As of 7:30 a.m., the following settlements are completely or partially flooded: Tyahynka, Lviv, Odradokamyanka, Ivanivka, Mykilske Tokarivka, Ponyativka, Bilozerka, and the Ostriv microdistrict of the city of Kherson. Other settlements will be flooded, we're prepared," he told national television.

The evacuation of approximately 16,000 people from the threatened area on the right bank of the Dnieper was already under way, Prokudin added.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, accused Russia of "ecocide" in a message on Telegram."Another war crime by Russian terrorists. The president convenes the National Security Council. This is ecocide," Yermak wrote.

Presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak accused Russia of committing a "premeditated crime" in an attempt to delay any chance of ending the conflict."The purpose is obvious: to create insurmountable obstacles on the way of the advancing [Ukrainian forces]; to intercept the information initiative; to slow down the fair end of the war. On a vast territory, all life will be destroyed; many settlements will be ruined; colossal damage will be done to the environment," Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Officials in Russian-occupied parts of Kherson rejected the accusation, blaming the damage on Ukrainian strikes in the contested area.The Moscow-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said Ukrainian strikes on the dam destroyed its valves, and "water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to uncontrollably flow downstream."

By RFE/RL

Ukraine And Russia Trade Accusations Over Huge Hydropower Dam Blow-Up

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Jun 06, 2023, 

Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday blamed each other for blowing up a hydroelectric dam in Ukraine’s Kherson region, currently under Russian occupation, which prompted evacuation after flooding followed the collapse of the dam.

The collapse of the dam in Nova Kakhovka could affect the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.

Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear operator, said in a Telegram post, “On the night of June 6, 2023, the Russian occupationists blew up the Kakhovka dam.”

“Water from the Kakhovka reservoir is needed for the plant to receive power for ZNPP turbine capacitors and safety systems,” Energoatom said, adding that the Kakhovka dam collapse “may have negative consequences for ZNPP but the situation is under control.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Tuesday that “the Nova Kakhovka dam was severely damaged leading to a significant reduction in the level of the reservoir used to supply cooling water to the ZNPP.”

But the agency’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said, “Our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the plant.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “Russia has been controlling the dam and the entire Kakhovka HPP for more than a year. It is physically impossible to blow it up somehow from the outside, by shelling. It was mined by the Russian occupiers. And they blew it up.”

“This is the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades,” he added on Twitter.

The Kremlin blamed Ukraine for the sabotage, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, “We can state unequivocally that we are talking about deliberate sabotage by the Ukrainian side.”

“The Kyiv regime should bear full responsibility for all the consequences,” Peskov said, adding that Ukraine aims to cut off Crimea – controlled by Russia – from fresh water, and to distract from its “faltering” counter-offensive.   

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

IAEA: 'No immediate risk' to Zaporizhzhia from dam damage

06 June 2023

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says the impact of the damage to the dam on cooling water supplies to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is being monitored but alternative sources of water on-site should provide sufficient water for cooling "for some months" and means "our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the plant".

Water is essential for cooling functions. This picture was taken in March during an IAEA visit to the plant (Image: IAEA)

In an update to the IAEA board of governors on Tuesday morning, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam - which Ukraine says was caused by the Russian shelling, and Russia blames on Ukraine - had led to a "significant reduction in the level of the reservoir used to supply cooling water" to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The cooling water system at the plant is used for residual heat removal from the reactors (used or partially used fuel there), residual heat removal from the used fuel ponds and cooling of emergency diesel generators if and when they are running.

"Absence of cooling water in the essential cooling water systems for an extended period of time would cause fuel melt and inoperability of the emergency diesel generators," Grossi said.

IAEA staff at the plant have been told that at the moment there is a 5cm per hour reduction in the height of the reservoir, "the main line of cooling water is fed from the reservoir and pumped up through channels near the thermal power plant to the site. It is estimated that the water through this route should last for a few days".

The water level in the reservoir was about 16.4 metres at 08:00 local time - with the IAEA saying that if the level drops below 12.7 metres it can no longer be pumped. The damaged dam itself is about 140km downstream of the nuclear power plant.

There are also alternative sources of water, Grossi said: "A main one is the large cooling pond next to the site that by design is kept above the height of the reservoir. As the reactors have been shut down for many months it is estimated that this pond will be sufficient to provide water for cooling for some months. The agency will confirm this very shortly. It is therefore vital that this cooling pond remains intact. Nothing must be done to potentially undermine its integrity.

"I call on all sides to ensure nothing is done to undermine that."

The IAEA team at the site say that the nuclear power plant is "making all efforts to pump as much water into its cooling channels and related systems as possible" and non-essential consumption of water stopped.

He said that he already planned to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant next week "and now it is essential. I will go".

The damage to the dam, which is in a Russian-controlled region, has led to severe flooding and mass evacuations. According to the Russian Tass news agency as of 09:30 GMT on Tuesday, "14 settlements with a population of 22,000 people have come within the flooding area ... and a total of about 80 villages may be inundated". According to Ukrinform, at 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT) the water level in the reservoir had dropped by 1.5 metres.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the largest in Ukraine, and Europe, with six reactors. It has been under Russian military control since early March 2022. Five of its six reactors are in cold shutdown and one in warm shutdown - which allows it to provide heat for the plant and the nearby city of Energodar. As it is upstream of the reservoir it is not in the areas at risk of flooding.

A failure of the Nova Kakhovka dam caused by an earthquake was a scenario examined in post-Fukushima Daiichi safety checks of the Zaporizhzhia plant, in particular the possibility of water loss in the cooling pond, and concluded that "owing to the significant width of the cooling pond levee ... water losses because of filtering will remain actually unchanged in comparison with the design-basis conditions".

Sama Bilbao y León, director general of World Nuclear Association, welcomed the fact the nuclear power plant "remains in a safe, stable situation" despite the damage to the dam, adding: "The analysis and planning done in preparing the plant’s safety case, including revisions carried out as part of the plant’s stress tests, have ensured the plant is both robust and prepared to handle challenges, such as those resulting from the rupture of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam.

"I condemn outright the deliberate attack on the dam. Beyond the disruption to operations at Zaporizhzhia, the attack has caused a threat to life for the thousands of residents downstream of the dam, as well as the destruction of property and farmland, and environmental damage."

IAEA aims to expand team at Zaporizhzhia

05 June 2023

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has said he hopes to "reinforce" the agency's team of experts at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to reflect its expanded role which includes monitoring compliance with the five safety and security principles outlined at the United Nations last week.

(Photo: D. Calma/IAEA)

In his statement to the IAEA board of governors, Grossi said he had "respectfully and solemnly asked both sides to observe" the five principles - which include agreement not to fire from, or at, the nuclear power plant, or to use it as a base for military personnel or equipment that could be used for an attack.

He said: "They are to no-one’s detriment and to everyone's benefit ... the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ), will report to me, in my capacity as director general, on the observance of these principles, and I will report publicly on any violations of them."

At a news conference following his statement to the board, Grossi was asked when the team at the Zaporizhzhia plant was to be expanded. He said the precise timing was not the key thing, as the "wider mission" was now already in place but his aim was to reinforce the team, and enlarge it, perhaps at the next rotation of staff.

Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and Europe, and is on the frontline of Russian and Ukrainian forces. The wider site has been damaged by shelling at times over the past 16 months of war and it has also had to rely on emergency diesel generators on seven occasions when it has lost its external power supply.

Grossi said: "The site’s fragile power situation continues to be a source of deep concern and - as the newly-established IAEA principles indicate - there is a need for intensified efforts to ensure a more stable and predictable external electricity supply."

The plant currently relies on one 750 kilovolt power line for the external electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions, compared with the four off-site power lines available before the conflict.

The nearby Zaporizhzhia Thermal Power Plant operates the 330 kV open switchyard, through which back-up power has been supplied in the past and Russia told the IAEA in March that Rosatom was working to remove damaged equipment from the open switchyard, "with the aim of restoring three 330 kV lines to the grid system in currently Russian-controlled territory" but, the IAEA said, its experts have still not been granted access to assess the situation and "consultations are ongoing to secure the access".

In his broader update to the IAEA board of governors, Grossi said EUR5 million (USD5.35 million) of nuclear safety and security equipment had been delivered to Ukraine and so far 81 of its experts in 37 missions had been part of one of the rotations at the country's five nuclear sites.

On safeguards to avoid nuclear proliferation, he said that the AUKUS plan - involving the USA and UK - for Australia to get nuclear-powered submarines was "of considerable interest and, for some, concern" and he said the "Secretariat has engaged in consultations with the states concerned to consider the possible implications on the application of agency safeguards. Such arrangements must be in strict conformity with the existing legal framework and, once they are finalised, will be transmitted to the Board of Governors for appropriate action. This process will take some time and the agency will undertake it with its technical, impartial and objective approach."

On Iran, in response to questions from reporters, Grossi rejected the suggestion that safeguards had been "watered down" and insisted that the IAEA was "firm but fair". On North Korea, he said: "The reopening of the nuclear test site is deeply troubling. The conduct of a nuclear test would contravene UN Security Council resolutions and would be a cause for serious concern."

He said that his recent, first official, trip to China had led to the establishment in Beijing of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Centre. "The centre will be a place for Member States to cooperate and share knowledge on fundamental topics such as ensuring radiation safety, transporting nuclear waste and promoting capacity-building. This visit was of fundamental importance as we enhance our bilateral work in the context of China’s fast-growing civil nuclear programme," he said.

Meanwhile, he said, the Rays of Hope cancer initiative "is gaining momentum" raising approximately EUR37 million in the past year, but there were still funding gaps that need to be filled with 60 member states identifying additional estimated priority needs of EUR36 million.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News