It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Bombardier vs. assassin: Mimetic interactions via a shared enemy
IMAGE: (A) AN ADULT BOMBARDIER BEETLE PHEROPSOPHUS OCCIPITALIS JESSOENSIS. (B) AN ADULT ASSASSIN BUG SIRTHENEA FLAVIPES. BOTH SPECIES ARE FOUND IN THE SAME GRASSLAND IN JAPAN.view more
CREDIT: SHINJI SUGIURA
Animals can defend themselves against their natural enemies in various ways. Well-defended species often share conspicuous body colors with other well-defended or undefended species, forming mimetic interactions. Bombardier beetles eject toxic chemicals at a temperature of 100°C to repel enemies such as frogs, and many have warning body colors that function to deter enemies. An assassin bug, Sirthenea flavipes, exhibits a conspicuous body color similar to the bombardier beetle Pheropsophus occipitalis jessoensis which coexist with the assassin bug in the same habitat in Japan (Fig. 1). The assassin bug can stab with its proboscis, causing severe pain in humans. Although both insects are well defended, the mimetic interaction between the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug remains unclear.
Japanese entomologists Shinji Sugiura (Kobe University) and Masakazu Hayashi (Hoshizaki Green Foundation) found that the bombardier beetle P. occipitalis jessoensis has a stronger defense against a shared predator compared to the assassin bug S. flavipes. They also showed that both the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug benefit from the mimetic interaction via the shared predator. Their research appears in the 6 June 2023 issue of PeerJ.
In central Japan, the pond frog Pelophylaxnigromaculatus coexists with the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug in the same habitat. The pond frog, which is well known as a predator of various insects, could potentially attack the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug under field conditions. The researchers observed the behavioral response of pond frogs to bombardier beetles and assassin bugs under laboratory conditions (see video). Among the frogs, 100% rejected bombardier beetles and 75% rejected assassin bugs (Fig. 2), suggesting that the bombardier beetle is better defended against frogs than the assassin bug. The researchers also provided a bombardier beetle or an assassin bug to a frog that had encountered the other insect. Frogs that had previously encountered one insect species were less likely to attack the other species (Fig. 3). Specifically, a history of encounter with assassin bugs reduced the rate of attack on bombardier beetles by frogs from 75.0% to 21.7% (Fig. 3). A history of encounter with bombardier beetles reduced the rate of attack on assassin bugs by frogs from 91.3% to 40.0% (Fig. 3). Therefore, the mimetic interaction between the bombardier beetle and the assassin bug may be mutualistic.
Journal article: Sugiura, S. & Hayashi, M. (2023) Bombardiers and assassins: mimetic interactions between unequally defended insects. PeerJ (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15380)
Frogs that had not encountered the bombardier beetle or assassin bug were used in this study. Ignore: frogs did not attack beetles (or bugs). Stop attack: frogs stopped their attacks immediately after their tongues had contacted beetles (or bugs). Spit out: frogs spat out beetles (or bugs) immediately after taking the indicated insects into their mouths.
Rates of attack on the bombardier beetle Pheropsophus occipitalis jessoensis and the assassin bug Sirthenea flavipes by the frog Pelophylax nigromaculatus before and after encounters with the other insect species.
Bombardiers and assassins: mimetic interactions between unequally defended insects.
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
6-Jun-2023
PORT WORKERS WOBBLE THE JOB
West Coast labor dispute threatens commerce, supply chain at nation's busiest port
Operations mostly back to normal but delays widespread after weekend walkout
Labor disruptions at several ports along the West Coast caused concerns for potential shipping delays that began to clear up by the start of the week. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
June 6 (UPI) -- Operations at multiple ports from Los Angeles to Seattle returned to normal Monday after a multi-state walkout that began late last week when unionized shipping employees in Oakland refused to show up for work.
The strike threatened to strangle commerce at the nation's busiest port -- the Port of Los Angeles -- which processes $440 billion in cargo per year even as a large portion of trade had transferred to the East Coast over the past year due to increasing labor issues.
The latest disruption caused a headache for ocean cargo deliveries, with incoming ships from China forced into irregular circling patterns in the Pacific as the worker dispute played out on shore.
Only one ocean cargo ship headed to Hawaii was expected to be delayed but was still scheduled to arrive in Honolulu on Thursday.
The walkout caught much of the industry off guard as it extended through the weekend before ports reopened for several hours Monday.
The strike disrupted the typically hot start of the peak shipping season in the United States and prompted the National Retail Federation to call on the Biden administration to step in and negotiate the growing dispute between labor unions and port officials.
Before the strike, supply chains along the West Coast were already struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels.
At least 52 Chinese shipping vessels were said to be making their way toward the Port of Los Angeles in a sign that shipping could soon be back to normal.
Truckers with ITS Logistics were halted at the gates of the Fenix Marine Services terminal at the Port of Los Angeles Monday, preventing the delivery of shipping containers owned by Maersk, COSCO and other corporate giants following several "extremely frustrating" encounters with port authority officials over the past several days.
By Tuesday, operations appeared to be fully running again, although wait times had increased at the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, and even more so at the Port of Oakland as work shifts were reshuffled, according to CNBC.
A day earlier, the Long Beach port shut down the day shift of two of its six container terminals.
"Navigating the ports on the entire West Coast over the last four days has been extremely frustrating for us and our clients," said Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage and intermodal at ITS Logistics. "If it were not for updates from our drivers and our visibility software applications, we would not have even known about terminal closures Friday, throughout the weekend, and into today."
Brashier also accused the International Longshore and Warehouse Union of misleading the public in its announcements about ongoing talks to reach a new contract with port managers.
Brashier also said port officials didn't give the trucking company any heads up about the work stoppage and that he first heard of the lockdown from truckers who had been turned back earlier at Fenix Marine terminal.
However, the terminal did send out a prior communication to companies that alerted to forthcoming cancellations the complex.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Port's Pacific Container Terminal announced a plan to shutter its Tuesday dayside shift following a scheduled closure by the facility on Monday that was announced last week.
EPA announces $115 million for Jackson, Miss., water infrastructure
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., leaves his seat after the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol met on December 19. He praised a decision to give Jackson, Miss., federal funds to deal with its water infrastructure. File Photo by Tom Brenner/UPI | License Photo
June 6 (UPI) -- Jackson, Miss. received a federal lifeline in its water crisis on Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency promising $115 million to support critical water infrastructure in Mississippi's capital city.
The funds, which are coming from the 2023 federal budget in money Congress set aside for infrastructure, come to a city plagued by water infrastructure issues that have left it without reliable clean drinking water at times
In October, the EPA opened an investigation into whether Mississippi state officials discriminated against Black residents in the state by declining to fund improvements to the state's water supply.
"These funds will help provide relief to Jackson residents, who have suffered decades of water insecurity," Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a statement. "This aid helps to restore dignity to our city."
In addition to this appropriation, the city of Jackson and the state of Mississippi are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in additional financial support to support water infrastructure upgrades.
"Last summer, the city's water system reached a crisis point when a major flood aggravated longstanding problems in the system and left tens of thousands of people without any running water for days on end," President Joe Biden said in a statement on Tuesday.
"All Americans deserve access to clean, safe drinking water. That's why I directed my administration to make sure the people of Jackson have the resources they need and deserve."
Last August, Mississippi and Biden declared a state of emergency due to the drinking water crisis in Jackson, which affected its population of 180,000. Biden ordered FEMA to organize relief efforts to help distribute water.
"This is an incredible milestone towards ensuring access to safe drinking water for the Jackson, Mississippi community," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. "It is a testament to the work Congress has done to provide this funding to Jackson through the bipartisan 2023 federal budget and is a first step in resolving the water crisis for the citizens of Jackson."
Quebec orders more evacuations as dozens of wildfires in Canada remain out of control
today 1 of 9 In this GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Monday, June 5, 2023 at 7 p.m. EDT and provided by CIRA/NOAA, smoke from wildfires burning in Quebec, Canada, top center, drifts southward. (CIRA/NOAA via AP)
MONTREAL (AP) — Northern Quebec’s largest town was being evacuated on Tuesday as firefighters worked to beat back threats from out-of-control blazes in remote communities in the northern and northwestern parts of the province.
According to the province’s forest fire prevention agency, more than 150 forest fires were burning in the province on Tuesday, including more than 110 deemed out of control. The intense Canadian wildfires are blanketing the northeastern U.S. and parts of Eastern Canada in a haze, turning the air acrid, the sky yellowish gray and prompting warnings for vulnerable populations to stay inside.
The effects of hundreds of wildfires burning in Quebec could be felt as far away as New York City and New England, blotting out skylines and irritating throats.
Late Tuesday, authorities issued an evacuation order for Chibougamau, Quebec, a town of about 7,500 in the remote region of the province. Authorities said the evacuation was underway and promised more details Wednesday.
“We’re following all of this from hour to hour, obviously,” Premier François Legault told reporters in Sept-Îles, Quebec. “If we look at the situation in Quebec as a whole, there are several places where it is still worrying.”
Legault said the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region in northwestern Quebec is an area of particular concern, with the communities of Normétal and Lebel-sur-Quévillon under threat.
The mayor of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, where about 2,100 people were forced from their homes on the weekend, said the fire is about 10 kilometers (six miles) outside of town, but its advance has been slower than expected.
“The fire started in an area where there were no trees, which slowed it down considerably,” Mayor Guy Lafrenière said.
Other northern communities at risk include Chibougamau the Cree village of Chisasibi on the eastern shore of James Bay. Firefighting resources have also been dispatched to Hydro-Québec’s Micoua substation near Baie-Comeau, Legault said.
On Monday, Legault said authorities had no choice but to leave the hamlet of Clova to burn, drawing the ire of local residents. Legault said Tuesday that he had simply repeated what fire prevention officials told him: the fire around the tiny community about 325 kilometers (201 miles) northwest of Montreal was too intense to send water bombers. That remained true Tuesday, he said, but he noted that no homes had burned.
Dominic Vincent, the owner of the Auberge Restaurant Clova, said that by Monday afternoon, the situation in the area had already improved, aided by cooler temperatures and a change in wind direction. While smoke remained visible, it was far less intense, he said.
Quebec Natural Resources Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina told reporters in Quebec City that evacuees across the province number just over 8,300, down from 10,000 to start the week, but the Abitibi region remains a concern.
“We are not expecting rain in the short term, which is what makes it more difficult to fight fires,” Blanchette Vézina said.
U$A FOR PROFIT MEDICINE Money woes can lead to devastating delays in cancer diagnoses By Alan Mozes, HealthDay News Patients diagnosed with cancer who had previously experienced at least one major money crisis were more likely to be identified with later-stage cancer than those without financial upheaval, a recent study found. Photo by leschgarth/Pixabay
Money woes have long been linked to worse healthcare. Now, a new study finds financially strapped patients often put off cancer screenings -- only to learn they have the disease when it's advanced and tougher to treat.
Researchers studied the financial background of nearly 102,000 patients diagnosed with cancer between 2014 and 2015. More than a third had previously experienced at least one major money crisis -- such as bankruptcy or eviction. And those people were more likely to be identified with later-stage cancer than those without financial upheaval.
Later stage disease meant stage 3 or stage 4 cancer.
"These findings are clinically relevant because survival following a cancer diagnosis is generally better for people diagnosed with earlier-stage disease compared with people diagnosed with later-stage disease," said study author Robin Yabroff, scientific vice president of health services research with the American Cancer Society.
"People who are financially vulnerable may be delaying or forgoing healthcare because they cannot afford it," she added.
Yabroff said much is known about the financial hardships that follow a cancer diagnosis, but researchers haven't studied the effects of financial upheaval prior to diagnosis.
She and her colleagues focused on a pool of newly diagnosed cancer patients residing in Seattle, Louisiana and Georgia. They were 21 to 69 years old.
Investigators reviewed consumer data compiled by LexisNexis, which revealed all financial "events" that had taken place in a courtroom setting, including liens, bankruptcies and evictions.
More than 36% of the patients had experienced such an event at least once before learning they had cancer.
Black, single or low-income patients were most likely to have endured a financial crisis, the study team observed. But wealthier folks were not immune: More than a quarter of the best-heeled patients also had a notable financial crisis in their background.
People who experienced major adverse financial events prior to a cancer diagnosis "were more likely to have later stage disease than people diagnosed with cancer but without these adverse financial events," said Yabroff.
According to KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) data from 2022, roughly half of American adults say they have trouble affording medical care. KFF adds that about 4 in 10 acknowledge having either delayed or skipped care altogether in the prior year, as a result of cost.
The Affordable Care Act enabled many Americans to obtain free preventive services, including breast, cervical, colon and lung cancer screenings. But Yabroff pointed out that this applies only to people who have health insurance. Many people still lack insurance, she added, "and even some people with health insurance have problems affording healthcare." High co-pays and high deductibles, for example, may cause people to delay screenings or treatment.
In addition, "not all cancers have effective screening tests, and some of these other cancers can be detected in earlier stages during routine medical care," she said. But that depends on patients continuing to access routine care, which may not be possible for those beset by debt.
Yabroff also cited recent KFF survey findings that found 1 in 7 patients with medical debt has been denied healthcare because of unpaid medical bills.
"These barriers can delay follow-up of abnormal screening test results, which can delay cancer diagnosis," she said.
Yet another reason financial stress may ultimately delay a cancer diagnosis is that "people have a limited capacity for dealing with more than one crisis at a time," said James Maddux, a senior scholar with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
"Whether it is due to lack of insurance coverage or lack of an emergency fund, any unexpected illness requiring major surgery, a lengthy hospital stay or long-term treatments can be a drain on people's finances," Maddux noted.
So, are there practical steps financially strapped folks could take?
"Routine medical care and cancer screening are lowest among people without health insurance coverage, so efforts to improve coverage for people without health insurance are critically important," said Yabroff.
But even for those who have insurance, "efforts to improve affordability are also important," she added.
Yabroff further pointed out that medical providers are often involved in connecting patients in need with relevant social services. Evaluation of the effectiveness of these efforts will be important, she said.
The findings were presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
More information
There's more on money trouble and healthcare at the KFF.
"Under President Biden's leadership, we are making the most significant direct investment in climate resilience in the nation's history," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
"As part of our more than $2.6 billion investment in regional coastal resiliency and conservation projects, we will be dedicating $390 million directly to Tribal priorities for habitat restoration and bolstering fish populations, and supplying crucial funding to ensure our coastal communities are better prepared for the effects of climate change," Raimondo continued. The NOAA noted the importance of working with Indigenous populations for coastline protection.
"The historic $2.6 billion investment in climate resilience and coastal communities will help ensure communities tribes and vulnerable populations, have the resources and support needed to prepare, adapt and build resilience to weather and climate events," the NOAA said.
"This massive investment will go a long way in helping NOAA prepare communities for natural disasters and more effectively address the environmental and economic impacts to help millions recover from these events," said Deputy Secretary Don Graves.
The round of funding follows a $562 million investment announced in April, which will fund almost 150 projects under NOAA's Climate-Ready Coasts Initiative through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Extremely rare orange lobster caught in Maine
June 6 (UPI) -- A fishing crew off the shore of Maine found an ultra-rare orange lobster and decided to donate the crustacean to the University of New England.
Capt. Gregg Turner and his crew, Sage Blake and Mandy Cyr, caught the lobster while fishing aboard the boat Deborah and Megan.
"This is the first time I've ever seen one and the second time Captain Gregg has," Cyr told the Portland Press-Herald. "It's pretty exciting."
Orange lobsters are believed to account for only about 1 in 30 million lobsters, making them 30 times more uncommon than blue lobsters.
The crew donated the lobster to the University of New England for study.
Researchers said the lobster is missing a claw, and studying how the claw grows back could offer them some answers as to the origins of the orange coloration.
"One of the things we're going to be able to see here is that is her color due to genetics or is it due to the environment. As she grows it back, is it going to be the gorgeous orange or is it going to be a different color," Charles Tilburg, academic director at the School of Marine and Environmental Programs, told WGME-TV.
Baseless anti-trans claims fuel adoption of harmful laws
By Henry F. Fradella & Alexis Rowland
June 7,2023
THE CONVERSATION New laws in states across the nation illustrate the increasingly hostile legislative landscape for LGBTQ+ people despite polls showing that most people in the United States want trans people to be protected from discrimination in public spaces on the basis of their gender.
June 6 (UPI) -- It has been seven years since North Carolina made headlines for enacting a "bathroom bill" -- legislation intended to prevent transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity.
Many of these anti-trans laws are writtenandfinanced by a group of far-right interest groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel and the American Principles Project.
These groups claim their proposed laws would protect cisgender women and girls -- those whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth -- from the sorts of violent trans people that are often depicted in moviesandothermedia.
But as criminologists, we know these claims are without merit. No reliable data supports the argument that transgender people commit violent crimes at higher rates than cisgender men and women. In fact, transgender people are more than four times as likely to be the victim of a crime as cisgender people. Expanding reach
As of the end of May, at least 18states had enacted laws within the preceding 12 months that limit medically age-appropriate gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors, with similar bills pending in 14 more states. And Florida's barrage of anti-LGBTQ+ regulations even prohibits the mere discussion of sexuality and gender identity in schools through the 12th grade. Journalist Adam Rhodes called these efforts a "centrally coordinated attack on transgender existence."
A variety of myths, false narratives, bad science, misconceptions and outrightmisrepresentations undergird anti-trans laws. The reality, however, is that trans-exclusionary laws do not protect cisgender women and girls from harassment or violence. Rather, they result in dramatic increases in violent victimization for transgender and gender-nonconforming adults and children.
Conversely, when trans people are forced by law to use sex-segregated spaces that align with the sex assigned to them at birth instead of their gender identity, two important facts should be noted.
First, no studies show that violent crime rates against cisgender women and girls in such spaces decrease. In other words, cisgender women and girls are no safer than they would be in the absence of anti-trans laws. Certainly, the possibility exists that a cisgender man might pose as a woman to go into certain spaces under false pretenses. But that same possibility remains regardless of whether transgender people are lawfully permitted in those spaces.
Second, trans people are significantly more likely to be victimized in sex-segregated spaces than are cisgender people. For instance, while incarcerated in facilities designated for men, trans women are nine to 13 times as likely to be sexually assaulted as the men with whom they are boarded.
In women's prisons, correctional staff are responsible for 41% of women's sexual victimization, with cisgender women committing the balance of nearly all prisoner-on-prisoner violence. Similarly, trans boys and girls who are barred from using the restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity are respectively between 26% to 149% more likely to be sexually victimized in the locations they are forced to use than cisgender youths.
In society at large, between 84% and 90% of all crimes of sexual violence are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, not a stranger lurking in the shadows -- or the showers or restroom stalls. But trans and nonbinary people feel very unsafe in bathrooms and locker rooms, though others experience relative safety there. In fact, the largest study of its kind found that upward of 75% of trans men and 64% of trans women reported that they routinely avoid public restrooms to minimize their chances of being harassed or assaulted.
For instance, one of us documented how isolated news stories, often from notoriously transphobic tabloids, conflate the actions of sexual predators with the "dangerousness" of trans women. Although there are undeniably examples of actual transgender people committing crimes, even deeply troubling ones, they are not evidence of any behavioral trends among the broader class of trans people. No suchdata exists.
Anti-trans laws are not just baseless. They're hurtful and damaging, especially to LGBTQ+ teenagers. Recent polls indicate that more than 60% of these people experience deteriorating mental health -- including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts -- as a result of laws and policies aimed at restricting their personhood.
The criminological research is clear that anti-trans laws do not help the people they are claimed to protect. In fact, these laws inflict harm on people who are even more vulnerable. Henry F. Fradella is a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and an affiliate professor in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Alexis Rowland is a Ph.D. student in criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine.
The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and the draining of the reservoir behind it does not pose an immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant further upstream, but will have long-term implications for its future, according to Ukrainian and UN experts.
The Ukrainian nuclear energy corporation, Energoatom, put out a statement on the Telegram social media platform saying the situation at the plant, the biggest nuclear power station in Europe, was “under control”.
But there are long-term concerns, both over safety and the possibility of the plant becoming operational again in the coming years. Oleksiy, a former reactor operator and shift supervisor at the plant, pointed out that all six reactors had been shut down since the plant found itself on the frontline after the Russian invasion.
Five of the reactors are in “cold shutdown”, turned off completely and being cooled, and one is in “hot shutdown”, kept at 200-250C so it would be easier to restart if conditions allowed, and to supply winter heating to the neighbouring town of Energodar.
Oleksiy, who left after Russian forces occupied the plant in March last year and is now elsewhere in Ukraine, said the last reactor should be shut down and that the plant had sufficient resources to keep all reactor cores cool.
“I think that the damage of the dam doesn’t impact the plant immediately, because they are being cooled by the safety systems located at the plant, which are spray systems,” he said. “The plant has a cooling lake, about two or three kilometres in diameter.”
The Energoatom statement said the cooling lake was filled and was at 16.6 metres (54.5ft), “which is sufficient for the power plant’s needs”.
Mariana Budjeryn, a Ukrainian nuclear scientist, said: “The fact that there’s an artificial pond next to the ZNPP [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant] where water can be maintained above the reservoir level, and the fact that the reactors are in cold shutdown, offers some reassurance and increased time to respond if ZNPP starts getting affected.”
But Budjeryn, who is a senior research associate on the project on managing the atom at Harvard University, added: “The bigger problem – who is going to do it? ZNPP is already down-staffed to bare bones.”
Oleksiy said that over time water would evaporate from the cooling lake and if it could not be filled from the vast reservoir created upstream of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the turbines and the power plant could not be operated.
In his statement, Grossi said that the cooling pond should last “for some months” but it was imperative it was not damaged in fighting. The water is used to cool not just the reactor cores, but also the spent fuel and the diesel generators used for safety systems.“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,” he warned.
Budjeryn pointed to another implication of the dam collapse regarding the future of the Russian occupied nuclear plant, which Russian occupying forces have allegedly mined. “If the Russians would do this with Kakhovka, there’s no guarantee they won’t blow up the reactor units at ZNPP that are also reportedly mined – three of the six,” she said. “It wouldn’t cause a Chornobyl, but massive disruption, local contamination and long-term damage to Ukraine.”
Does Russia’s attack on a Ukraine dam amount to a war crime? Experts pour in
aa/kb 06.06.2023, Photo: Lorena Sopena/Europa Press via Getty Images.
Ukraine accused Russia on Tuesday, June 6, of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, inundating a populated region of the war zone and forcing villagers to flee.
Kyiv on Tuesday accused Russia of blowing up a dam and causing widespread flooding in southern Ukraine. About 80 settlements are at risk of...see more
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said on Tuesday it was investigating the blast at the Nova Kakhovka dam, situated in Russian-occupied territory, as a war crime and as a possible act of environmental destruction, or “ecocide.”
Russia had conducted a winter campaign of air strikes on Ukrainian energy and utilities infrastructure, damaging up to 50 percent of the energy infrastructure. Kyiv said this constitutes a war crime, while Moscow said the targets were legitimate.
The Geneva Conventions and its protocols explicitly ban war-time attacks on “installations containing dangerous forces” such as dams due to the risk posed to civilians, a prohibition likely to come into focus after the destruction of the huge Ukrainian dam.
Attack on a dam: What kind of crime?
The 1949 Geneva Convention’s subsequent protocols specifically cover attacks on “installations containing dangerous forces”, such as hydroelectric dams. Such installations should not be attacked even if they are legitimate military objectives, “if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population”, the protocols, dating from 1977 say.
There is no mention of dams in the 1998 founding statute of the International Criminal Court. But the statute does criminalize “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated.”
In a blog for the European Journal of International law on Tuesday, international law professor Marko Milanović of the University of Reading said the dam’s destruction could amount to a war crime, or the graver offense of a crime against humanity, if it was carried out by Russia - “knowing of the harm that can befall the civilian population.”
What does International Law say?
The Geneva Conventions and additional protocols shaped by international courts say that parties involved in a military conflict must distinguish between “civilian objects and military objectives”, and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden.
This prohibition is also codified in the Rome Statute of the ICC, which opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine soon after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, and has been examining the attacks on infrastructure.
The prohibition seems clear-cut however some infrastructure owned and used by civilians can also be classified a military objective. Military objectives are defined as “those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action”, and whose destruction or capture “offers a definite military advantage”.
Referring to the recent attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam, Poland’s Foreign Ministry “absolutely” condemned “another unprecedented act of Russian...see more
Energy infrastructure: military or civilian?
Power infrastructure has long been considered a valid military objective as long as it supports an enemy army’s activities, even if the system also supports the civilian population, writes military law expert Michael Schmitt in the Articles of War blog run by the Lieber Institute for Law & Warfare at the United States Military Academy West Point.
Milanović said a dam “is not a military objective by its nature, but it may be such by its purpose or use.”
In his blog he added: “The real question here is whether the dam was making ‘an effective contribution to military action’.”
How military needs are balanced against civilian
But even if some targets could be considered military objectives, that is not the end of the story, says Katharine Fortin, associate professor of international law at Utrecht University.
The military must consider whether the damage and loss incurred by civilians in such attacks are excessive compared to the concrete and direct military advantage, she said.
Milanović makes a similar argument. He says that even if a dam could be seen as a military objective, an attack could be legally classified as disproportionate - for instance, if the incidental loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects is excessive when examining the direct military advantage expected.
source: REUTERS
Destroyed dam likely to hinder Ukraine before Russia Moscow and Kyiv traded blame for the damage to the Kakhovka dam
(Photo: AFP/STRINGER)
07 Jun 2023
PARIS: The gaping hole blasted into a key hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday (Jun 6) will severely impede Kyiv's efforts to reconquer territory lost to Russia, even if Moscow risks seeing its defensive lines submerged.
Moscow and Kyiv traded blame for the damage to the Kakhovka dam, which is designed to supply water to the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, which could now be facing serious water supply problems.
Kyiv shares the same view, having accused Russia of having "blown up" the dam in order to "slow down" its operation.
Floods have already forced thousands to evacuate and risks interrupting ongoing Ukrainian military operations.
The rising water in the Kherson region will make it very difficult for Ukraine forces to carry out any operation involving crossing the river to reclaim the eastern bank, in the direction of Crimea.
"Following the logic of cui bono (who benefits), Russia would be the obvious culprit, since by causing floods downstream of Nova Kakhovka, the Russians would complicate Ukraine's efforts to cross, winning time, which would allow them to focus on other sections of the front," said Sergey Radchenko, a history professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, in a Twitter post.
"I can't see anything near beneficial to Ukraine in this case. More destroyed infrastructure, more downed electricity production facilities, more suffering for Ukrainian civilians, a limitation of Ukrainian offensive and logistics options," said Stephane Audrand, an independent consultant on international risks.
FLOODS AS A WEAPON OF WAR
The risk of strikes on the strategic Kakhovka facility, located in the Russian-occupied areas of the Kherson region, has been brandished since October by both Ukrainians and Russians.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of having "undermined the dam", one of the largest in Ukraine. Russian authorities retorted: "lies".
Destruction of this magnitude, likely to cause considerable harm to civilians, is considered a war crime under the 1949 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention.
"Dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations, shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population," according to Article 56.
Contemporary history offers many examples of the destruction of dams and floods in Europe for defensive and offensive purposes.
In 1941, the Soviet Union blew up a huge dam in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia to slow the German advance.
In May 1943, the British Royal Air Force bombed German dams in the Ruhr valley, the country's industrial heartland.
Carried out by the RAF squadron 617 - which earned the nickname "Dambusters" -- this operation destroyed two of three dams and damaged the third.
The effort was immortalised in the 1955 film "The Dam Busters".
The flooding tactic was also practised in the First World War.
In the autumn of 1914, during the Battle of Yser, French and Belgian forces unleashed floods to slow the advance of German troops who were attempted in cross the Yser River toward Dunkirk.
The flooding was orchestrated by tampering with the system of locks in Nieuwpoort, which regulates the influx of seawater and drainage to flood plains.
Kremlin continues its ‘glorious Soviet tradition’ of blowing up dams on retreat
Michał Woźniak 06.06.2023 Dnipro HPP destroyed by Soviet forces while retreating from advancing Germans, late 1941.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam is not the first time that the Kremlin decided to blast an important piece of infrastructure to impede the opponent’s advance. A similar fate befell the dam in Dnipro (then Dniepropetrovsk) in late August 1941.
Russia predictably now claims that the Kakhovka dam has been destroyed due to a Ukrainian attack. But Russians packed the dam full of explosives months ago, and Ukraine raised alarm about it.
The initial Russian reporting on what happened included denying that any explosion had occurred at all, followed by several contradictory narratives floating around simultaneously, until, the expected Kyiv blaming started suggesting that the dam was destroyed deliberately but the Russians did not realize the scale of the damage they wrought.
Those parroting the Kremlin talking points immediately pointed out, that the destruction of the dam will result in Crimea losing its water supply. And after all, why would Russia willingly cut off the supply of water to Crimea if one of the reasons for launching the full-scale invasion was to unblock the supply of water flowing into the peninsula through the North Crimea Canal? Russians shell evacuees, no drinking water in Crimea, long-term effects expected
Such people, whether out of ignorance or willfully, ignore the fact that Crimea is within the internationally recognized border of Ukraine and Kyiv is dead set on reclaiming it. A deliberate destruction of the dam does not benefit Ukraine, either in the short or in the long term, in the least.
Russian invaders are facing an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive. The destruction of the dam might impede Ukrainian operations below the dam and serves as an added headache for Kyiv, now forced to deal with evacuating civilians.
The destruction of the dam by the Kremlin makes much more sense, not only because Russians have more to benefit from it, but also because, unlike Kyiv, Moscow does not care about civilian casualties.
Russian partisans that attacked Kremlin forces in the Belgorod Region from the territory of Ukraine reportedly have thousands of willing recruits...see more
It definitely does not care about Ukrainian civilians. As evidenced by the fact that Kherson began to be shelled by Russians immediately upon their withdrawal, it does not care about the people that live in areas that, according to the result of the “referendums” it conducted last year, are now Russians. Failure to react adequately to incursions by Russian partisans proves that Putin does not even care about Russian people living in Russian territory, which should not be surprising considering that mobilized men are sent into the Ukrainian meatgrinder with outdated equipment and with little to no training.
But first and foremost, the Kremlin does not care about people living in Ukraine. And it is not the first time it has shown so. Not only during this war. Not only when Stalin implemented his campaign of engineered starvation, the Holodomor.
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, the German forces rapidly advanced deep into the European parts of the Soviet Union. Hitler’s columns occupied large swathes of Belarus and Ukraine, as well as the recently annexed Baltic States.
In a desperate attempt to halt the invaders, on August 29, 1941, the Soviets deliberately destroyed the Dnieprostroi dam in Dniepropetrovsk (modern-day Dnipro) as part of their scorched earth policy and in an attempt to cause flooding that would hamper further German advances.
The destruction of the dam, which was a massive and costly engineering project that was the pride of the Soviet empire was touted as a great sacrifice and proof of the Soviet people’s determined resistance against fascism.
“We blew up the Dnieper dam so as not to allow this first child of the Soviet five-year Plan to fall into the hands of Hitler’s bandits. All measures were taken so as not to permit the Germans to make use of the dam and machinery,” said Solomon Lozovsky, the spokesman for the Kremlin at the time.
“The Observer”, a British Sunday newspaper further reported in its next issue that “The Soviet spokesman. Mr Lozovsky, announcing its destruction, said that not only the government but all Soviet citizens were determined to conduct the war in such a manner that German strength should grow weaker daily, contrary to what had happened in the west, where every new occupation had added to the German war potential.
‘Here the Germans will not get raw materials, food, or machinery,’ he said. Crops were destroyed or harvested and hidden, and much of the farm machinery was taken away.” What was not so loudly spoken about was that the flooding caused the deaths of between 20,000 and perhaps even more than 100,000 Ukrainians, Soviet citizens, who lived downriver from the dam. Although even that could perhaps be twisted into a narrative about sacrifice.
In this war, Ukraine has resorted to a similar move by opening a dam on the Irpin River, which may have helped stop the Russian advance on Kyiv early in the war. The difference is that decision did not result in the deaths of Ukrainians. And seeing how the Russians behave in the occupied territories, it possibly saved millions.
By contrast, the destruction of the dam in Dniepropetrovsk in 1941 did little to stop the Germans from further advancing and causing millions of deaths (in no small part due to how Stalin waged the war) but it did cause additional and pointless deaths of Soviet citizens who lives mattered little to the Kremlin.
But at least back in 1941, the despot in the Kremlin had the courage to make the decision to destroy the dam and present it as a determined action of a nation defending itself from Nazi invasion.
Today, the Kremlin also claims to be fighting “Nazis” in Ukraine. Why then, is the Kremlin not willing to claim the destruction of the dam as a necessary step taken in a fight against the “Nazi regime in Kyiv”?
Because in spite of the propaganda the Kremlin continues to spout, it knows very well that there is no Nazi regime in Kyiv.
Putin, his spokesman Peskov, FM Lavrov, Defense Minister Shoigu, all realize (and they also understand that everyone in the world knows it full well) that the only regime present in Ukraine that resembles the Nazis is represented by the Russian invasion forces.
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