Beam, bolt flaws caused Mexico metro crash, probe finds

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

An altar with candles and flowers is seen near the section of an elevated track that collapsed bringing a train crashing down on May 3 in Mexico City

 Alfredo ESTRELLA AFP


Mexico City (AFP)

An investigation into the Mexico City metro disaster that left 26 people dead concluded Tuesday that the buckling of beams and problems with bolts caused the elevated track to collapse.

The accident, in which an overpass gave way on May 3, bringing a passenger train crashing down, has prompted angry demands for justice from relatives of the victims.

Norwegian engineering company DNV, which was hired by the authorities to investigate the causes, blamed the crash on a structural failure in an initial report published in June.

In its final technical report released Tuesday, the firm said the collapse "occurred as a result of buckling of the north and south beams" and inadequate bolts that "caused part of the elevated section to lose its composite structure."

This led to cracks "that further reduced the structure's ability to carry the load," it added.

The investigation identified poorly welded, missing and misplaced bolts.

Possible reasons for the collapse of the beams include mechanical and design deficiencies, according to the report.

The metro line, the city's newest, has been plagued by problems since it was opened in 2012.

An independent report with analysis of the root causes of the accident will be released at some point in the future, said Mexico City works chief Jesus Esteva.

The fallout of the crash has engulfed two of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's close political allies -- Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and one of her predecessors, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men, also faces scrutiny over the disaster as one of his companies was involved in the construction of the section that collapsed.

Slim has agreed to pay for its reconstruction, according to Lopez Obrador, but rejected suggestions that the line had flaws in its original construction.

© 2021 AFP

Report: Covid-19 disrupted fight against HIV, TB, malaria

Issued on: 08/09/2021

A man walks beneath a mural depicting a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Soweto, South Africa

 © REUTERS - Siphiwe Sibeko

Text by :NEWS WIRES


The Covid-19 pandemic had a "devastating" impact on the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in 2020, according to a report released by the Global Fund on Wednesday.

"To mark our 20th anniversary, we had hoped to focus this year's report on the extraordinary stories of courage and resilience that made possible the progress we have achieved against HIV, TB and malaria over the last two decades," said Peter Sands, the Global Fund's executive director.

"But the 2020 numbers force a different focus. They confirm what we feared might happen when Covid-19 struck," he said.

"The impact of Covid-19 on the fight against HIV, TB and malaria and the communities we support has been devastating. For the first time in the history of the global fund, key programmatic results have gone backwards."

There were "significant" declines in HIV testing and prevention services, the fund said.

Compared with 2019, the number of people reached with HIV prevention and treatment dropped by 11 percent last year, while HIV testing dropped by 22 percent, holding back new treatment in most countries.

Nevertheless, the number of people who received life-saving antiretroviral therapy for HIV in 2020, rose by 8.8 percent to 21.9 million "despite Covid-19".

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the fight against TB worldwide had similarly been "catastrophic", the report said.

The number of people treated for drug-resistant TB in the countries where the Global Fund invests dropped by "a staggering" 19 percent, with those on treatment for extensively drug-resistant TB registering an even bigger drop of 37 percent, it said.

The fund calculated that around 4.7 million people were treated for TB in 2020, around one million fewer than in 2019.

Interventions to combat malaria "appear to have been less badly affected by Covid-19 than the other two diseases," the report found.

"Thanks to adaptation measures and the diligence and innovation of community health workers, prevention activities remained stable or increased compared to 2019."

The number of mosquito nets distributed increased by 17 percent to 188 million and structures covered by indoor residual spraying increased by three percent.

Nevertheless, the Global Fund -- which brings together governments, multi-lateral agencies, bilateral partners, civil society groups, people affected by the diseases and the private sector -- said that its "rapid and determined response to Covid-19 prevented an even worse outcome".

In 2020, the fund disbursed $4.2 billion to continue the fight against HIV, TB and malaria and approved an additional $980 million in funding to respond to Covid-19.

The Global Fund said that since it was set up in 2002, it has saved 44 million lives and the number of deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria decreased by 46 percent in countries where it invests.

(AFP)

Stranded dolphin rescued from Louisiana pond after Hurricane Ida


A team of rescuers led by a SeaWorld crew removed a stranded dolphin from a Louisiana pond after Hurricane Ida and returned the marine mammal to the wild. 

Photo courtesy of SeaWorld

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A dolphin that became stranded in a Louisiana neighborhood by Hurricane Ida's floodwaters was rescued and returned to the wild.

SeaWorld Rescue said in a news release that a crew worked together with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Audubon Aquarium's Coastal Wildlife Network, the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the National Marine Mammal Foundation to rescue a dolphin stranded in a small Slidell pond.

The dolphin was first spotted by residents last week after Hurricane Ida's floodwaters swept through the area.

SeaWorld said the rescue team was able to remove the dolphin from the pond and take it to a facility to be examined by a veterinarian.

The dolphin was found to be uninjured and was returned to the wild Sunday, SeaWorld said.

Climate change expected to intensify summertime droughts across Europe

Even small decreases in summertime precipitation could trigger extreme drought across already dry regions of Europe, including southern Spain and other parts of the Mediterranean. 

File Photo by nito/Shutterstock

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- The planet is getting hotter, that's for certain, but studies suggest large portions of the planet are also getting variably wetter and drier.

Over the last few decades, intense droughts have stressed water resources across the planet. Now, new findings -- published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Water -- suggest Europe is likely to experience longer more frequent droughts in the decades ahead.

"Summer droughts are a highly relevant topic in Europe," study co-first author Magdalena Mittermeier said in a press release.

"We find a clear trend towards more, longer and more intense summer droughts, in terms of a precipitation deficit, towards the end of the century under a high-emission carbon scenario," said Mittermeier, climate scientist at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in Germany.

RELATED Study links polar vortex disruption with extreme winter weather

Because they can have so many different impacts -- economic, social and environmental -- there are various definitions of drought. However, all droughts, whether hydrological, agricultural or socio-economic, begin as meteorological droughts.

The latest climate models suggest precipitation levels across Europe are likely to decrease during the summer and increase during the winter through the end of the century.

Throughout Europe's middle latitudes, summertime drought conditions are predicted to increase by 25 percent. In France, the frequency of extreme droughts is expected to increase by 60 percent by 2100.

RELATED Study: Political violence, not climate change, to blame for rising hunger in Africa

In places that are already dry, such as the Iberian Peninsula, small decreases in summertime precipitation could have oversized consequences, leading to extreme drought conditions across large portions of the Mediterranean.

For the study, scientists used historical averages to calculate the normal range of precipitation for different parts of Europe. Then, using the most up-to-date climate model, scientists simulated future precipitation totals under a high-emission carbon scenario.

The analysis revealed the largest differences in France, the Alps, the Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula.

RELATED To prepare for future climate change, scientists turn to past 'tipping points'

"Unmitigated climate change ... will drastically increase the frequency, duration and intensity of summer droughts in many European regions," Mittermeier said.

"Such extreme effects can be avoided by climate mitigation. This is why consistent mitigation of climate change as agreed on under the Paris Agreement is highly relevant in terms of droughts in Europe," Mittermeier said.

Biden warns of climate change 'code red' in visit to storm damage

Issued on: 08/09/2021

US President Joe Biden says the world is in 'peril' from climate change 

MANDEL NGAN AFP

New York (AFP)

President Joe Biden said Tuesday the world faces a "code red" on climate change danger as he visited damage from the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in New York and New Jersey.

"We've got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national security experts. They all tell us this is code red," Biden said in the hard-hit New York borough of Queens, which he toured after visiting Manville, New Jersey.

"The nation and the world are in peril. That's not hyperbole. That is a fact," he said

Biden -- who is pushing a giant infrastructure spending bill, including major funding for the green economy -- argues that extreme weather across the United States this summer is a harbinger of worse to come.

"This is everybody's crisis," he said in the speech. "These disasters aren't going to stop. They're only going to come with more frequency and ferocity."

Systemic upgrading and hardening of the nation's infrastructure is an urgent need, he asserted, pointing to proposed changes such as flood-proofing power stations, raising up buildings and burying electrical lines.

"You can't just build back to what it was before, because another tornado, another 10 inches of rain is going produce the same kind of results," Biden said in earlier remarks in New Jersey.

US President Joe Biden takes part in a briefing with local leaders in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey

 MANDEL NGAN AFP

"I think we're at one of those inflection points where we're going to act or we're going to be in real, real trouble. Our kids are going to be in real trouble."

Ida struck the US Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing major flooding and knocking out power to large parts of the heavily populated region, which is also a main hub for the oil industry. Just last week, Biden made a similar tour to Louisiana, where Ida had originally mand landfall.

However, the departing remnants of the hurricane then caught authorities in the New York region by surprise, with ferocious rainfall triggering flash flooding.

The final blast of the storm killed at least 47 people in the US Northeast as it turned streets into raging rivers, inundated basements and shut down the New York subway.

And while one part of the country buckles under hurricane fallout, California and other parts of the western region are struggling to combat ever-fiercer wildfires.

The clean up from storm Ida, including pumping out flooded houses, continues in the New York area, as President Joe Biden visits to inspect damage 

KENA BETANCUR AFP/File

With his presidency straining from the aftermath of the Afghanistan pullout and surging Covid infections at home, Biden faces a difficult coming few weeks, including a struggle to get his infrastructure plans through the narrowly divided Congress.

The White House hopes that the dramatic impact from Hurricane Ida in two different parts of the country will galvanize action on the spending bills.

"It's so imperative that we act on addressing the climate crisis and investing... through his 'Build Back Better' agenda, which is working its way through Congress," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

© 2021 AFP

Biden says 'climate change is here' while touring Ida damage in NYC, N.J.


Flooded vehicles are seen in New York City last Thursday after severe flooding swamped the area from remnants of Hurricane Ida. Photo courtesy FDNY/Twitter

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden warned of the impacts of climate change on Tuesday as he visited areas in the Northeast that were heavily damaged by flooding and rains that killed dozens of people last week.

Biden declared that "climate change is here" after meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, state officials and members of Congress at the Somerset County Emergency Management Training Center and surveying damage from Hurricane Ida in Manville, N.J.


"We're living through it now. I think we're at one of those inflection points where we either act or we're going to be in real, real trouble, our kids are going to be in real trouble," he said.

On Tuesday Biden also toured a neighborhood in Queens in New York City that was damaged by flash flooding Wednesday, stopping by locations where several people were killed in flooded basement apartments. Most of those who died in New York City were living in units that quickly became swamped with water and they could not escape, officials said.

RELATEDMore flooding likely in Ida-ravaged Northeast this week

"Walking these neighborhoods, meeting the families and the first responders, seeing how folks are doing after this destruction and pain and another devastating storm is an eye opener," he said. "The people who stand on the other side of the fences who don't live there who are yelling that we are talking about and interfering with free enterprise by doing something about climate change, they don't live there ... They don't understand."

During the visit, Biden also pushed for Congress to pass his $1 trillion infrastructure plan and a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation including measures to improve infrastructure and combat the effects of climate change.

"I'm hoping to be able to see the things we are going to be able to fix permanently with the bill that we have in for infrastructure," Biden said.

RELATED Ida's record rainfall in NYC, Northeast driven by climate change

Biden added that "climate change poses an existential threat" to U.S. lives and the economy but offered hope for the possibility of restoration.

"When I talk about building back better I mean you can't build it what it was before this last storm. You've got to build better so that if the storm occurred again, there would be no damage ... we've got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national security exprts. They all tell us this is code red," said Biden.

Ahead of his visit, Biden approved federal emergency funds to the New York counties of Bronx, Kings, Queens, Richmond and Westchester and the New Jersey counties of Bergen, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Passaic and Somerset.

RELATED Nearly 50 dead in Northeast after floods; high waters to last into weekend

The heavy rains and severe flooding were produced by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which devastated parts of Louisiana a week ago. More than 40 deaths in the Northeast were linked to the floods.

"We will now have access to essential federal support to help New Jerseyans recover from Tropical Storm Ida," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted Monday.

Biden visited storm-ravaged areas in Louisiana on Friday. By early Tuesday, there were still more than 400,000 customers in the state without electricity, according to poweroutage.us.

Samoa PM issues climate warning ahead of crunch UN talks

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa said rising seas were already swamping tiny atoll states in the Pacific 

Vaitogi Asuisui MATAFEO SAMOA OBSERVER/AFP

Apia (Samoa) (AFP)

The world must take urgent action on climate change at upcoming UN talks in Glasgow or low-lying Pacific nations will face a "dire" future, Samoa's new leader has told AFP in an interview.

Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, who took office as Samoa's first female prime minister in late July, gave a stark assessment of the Pacific's prospects if efforts to tackle global warming continue to stall.

Mata'afa said rising seas were already swamping the region's tiny atoll states -- which include nations such as Tokelau, Tuvalu and Kiribati.

"With them, it's a real and present circumstance -- the water is gaining ground on them," she said Monday, adding that violent cyclones were becoming more common across the South Pacific.

Major storms "used to be every 50 to 60 years, now it's becoming every two to three years", she said.

"For us, we've noticed the impact on our coastal areas, and about 70 percent of our country is settled on the coast."

In a wide-ranging interview, Mata'afa also discussed the geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States in the Pacific, her disappointment at neighbouring Australia's climate stance and the implications of her ground-breaking election victory.

But front of mind was the 26th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties -- COP26 -- scheduled to start in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November.

The summit will involve negotiators from 196 countries in the biggest climate conference since landmark talks in Paris in 2015.

Mata'afa said it was crucial that participants honour the ambitious goal set in Paris to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

To do that, she said carbon-emitting countries needed to prioritise saving the planet over economic growth, adding: "It's not rocket science."

"The Pacific was sort of a lone voice in the debate for a very long time, but I think the science advisers have now brought the world's thinking towards that."

- 'Mature' China relations -

The 64-year-old admitted her frustration at regional heavyweight Australia, which refuses to adopt a net-zero emissions target while remaining one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters.

"When you're working as a collective as we do in the Pacific, Australia is a part of that," she said.

"It is a frustrating element but that's the reality of our lives, you can't always agree."

She also bristled at suggestions by some in Australia that Samoa did not understand the risks posed by forging close relations with China, which is seeking to expand its influence in the Pacific.

"What they were saying was we weren't as well nuanced about how you have relationships with these big countries," she said.

"We've been independent since 1962, so we've been around the block. I think we understand quite well what our relationships are, just as Australia has its own relationships."

Mata'afa said the new government had no intention of changing its diplomatic recognition of Beijing and recognised the "One China" policy, although she remained open to trade with Taiwan.

She played down the impact of cancelling a Beijing-bankrolled port project agreed to by her predecessor, saying it was only at the feasibility stage when canned and would have no bearing on Samoa's "mature" relationship with China.

Quizzed on rivalries between China and the United States in the region, Mata'afa said she was comfortable dealing with both superpowers to pursue Samoa's best interests.

"In the geopolitical context, the reality of small countries is that we have to navigate our way through these larger countries and the issues they prioritise," she said.

Mata'afa has been a long-time advocate for women's rights and expressed hope her ground-breaking election win would signal a change of attitudes in the Pacific, which has one of the lowest rates of female parliamentary representation in the world.

"For gender role modelling, I've always believed that any women who achieved in whatever sector, once that happens other girls and women see that it can be done," she said.

"It's significant in that sense."

© 2021 AFP

Sea of plastic: Med pollution under spotlight at conservation meet

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

A turtle in Ajaccio on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica with the plastic pieces it has eaten, before having surgery to remove a hook from its throat

 Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP/File

Marseille (AFP)

Plastic packaging and discarded fishing nets bob in the tranquil waters of the Mediterranean, signs of the choking pollution that has stirred strong feelings at the world conservation congress in the French port city Marseille this week.

"The Mediterranean is the most beautiful sea in the world... and one of the most polluted," said Danielle Milon, vice-president of the Calanques National Park on the edge of the city, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature is holding its congress.

While the quantity of rubbish in the sea is well documented -- the IUCN released a report on the issue last year entitled "Mare plasticum" -- it is driving growing alarm among countries whose economies rely on tourism drawn to pristine beaches and sparkling waters.

At the opening of the IUCN Congress, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to greatly increase the size of conservation areas off their Mediterranean coasts -- as well as the rigour with which they are preserved.

"Marine protected areas must no longer be paper parks but must have defined conservation measures," Mitsotakis said at the opening ceremony.

"We must promote sustainable tourism (and) put biodiversity at the heart of tourist coastal planning."

- 'Noah's Ark' -

Near the coasts the main types of plastic pollution in the almost closed sea are packaging and fishing debris, said Francois Galgani, a specialist on maritime waste at Ifremer, a top marine research centre in France.

"Turtles confuse the packaging with jellyfish and in some areas in the Mediterranean 80 percent of turtles have ingested plastic," he said.

Meanwhile, nets can kill long after the fishing boats leaves them behind.

Plastic waste can alter life cycles and the floating debris can even transport some species far from their habitats.

"A Noah's ark", said Galgani, adding there are "no other examples of species transport of this magnitude".

To change the situation, everyone needs to play their part, Philippos Drousiotis head of the Cyprus sustainable tourism initiative.

"I was in the tourism trade and very much liked the idea of being sustainable (but) environmentalists didn't care about people," he said, adding that he was driven by economic realism.

With initiatives like the "keep our sand and sea plastic free" project, his organisation tries to steer tour organisers, boat rental firms and hotels to stop using single use plastics.

It has also installed water fountains on beaches to make it easier for holidaymakers to give up their plastic bottles.

"The solutions are on land and not at sea," said Romy Hentinger of the Tara Ocean Foundation.

It is also necessary to increase knowledge of the sources of pollution and how it circulates.

The Tara Oceans schooner led an expedition in 2019 to trace plastic pollution in the major European rivers.

According to Nathalie Van Den Broeck, oceanographer and vice-president of Surfrider Europe, some "80 percent of waste on beaches and in the seas comes from rivers".

The French NGO has also launched a study using artificial intelligence to find waste in images taken on mobile phones by citizen scientists.

Volunteers have recently travelled along the banks of the Rhine, in the six countries crossed by the river.

There are a host of initiatives looking to use the Marseille congress to develop networks and partnerships.

Although Middle Eastern and North African countries from the southern shores of the Mediterranean -- which often have far fewer resources -- are conspicuous by their absence.

But more needs to be done, said Mercedes Munoz Canas, from the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, who wants to bring in business interests.

We must "build a community", she said.

© 2021 AFP

PUTIN 💓GLOBAL WARMING

On thin ice: Near North Pole, a warning on climate change

Issued on: 08/09/2021 -

'The bears are the bosses here, this is their home,' says Dmitry Lobusov

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

North Pole (AFP)

A massive icebreaker cuts its way through the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean, clearing a path to the North Pole, all white as far as the eye can see. But even here, the impact of climate change can be felt.

Dmitry Lobusov has seen it. For 13 years he has captained the "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory"), part of a growing fleet of icebreakers that Russia is using to assert its power in Arctic waters.

The vast, nuclear-powered ships clear paths through the ice for commercial vessels, helping Russia to deliver its oil, gas and minerals to the rest of world, and eventually to set up an Arctic shipping route between Asia and Europe that Moscow has touted as a rival to the Suez Canal.


Lobusov, a 57-year-old with a grey beard who often has a pipe in hand, stares out from the bridge as the red-and-black ship ploughs forward, so silent you can hear the ice cracking under its hull.

The melting of the Arctic ice pack Simon MALFATTO AFP

After nearly 30 years at sea, much of it in the Arctic, Lobusov has seen first hand the changes wrought by global warming.

"In the 1990s and early 2000s the ice was more difficult and thicker," says the sailor, his blue uniform immaculate.

"There used to be a lot of perennial ice," he says, referring to ice that forms on the surface of polar oceans and survives for multiple melting seasons.

"We hardly see that kind of ice anymore."

Perennial ice is thicker and stronger because it forms over several years and loses salt, Lobusov explains, making it harder for the icebreaker to cut a path. But today, most of the ice cover is formed during the year and quickly melts in the summer.

- Melting ice cover -

Scientists say there is no doubt that this is climate change at work.

Russia's Rosgidromet meteorological service said in a report in March that the Arctic ice cover is now five to seven times thinner than in the 1980s, and in the summer months the waters are becoming increasingly free of ice.

In September 2020, the ice cover in the Russian Arctic hit a low of 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 square miles) -- a record for that time of year -- the report said.

Vladimir Putin has moved away from climate scepticism and ordered his government to develop a plan to cut carbon emissions

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Russia, a third of which is within the Arctic circle, is warming faster than the global average, it said, with temperatures having risen by half a degree per decade since 1976.

Long a sceptic of climate change, President Vladimir Putin has changed course in recent years, ordering his government to develop a plan to cut carbon emissions to below the level of the European Union by 2050.

As wildfires raged in Siberia this summer, Putin said he was alarmed by a series of "absolutely unprecedented" natural disasters in Russia.

Viktor Boyarsky, a 70-year-old seasoned Polar explorer who was travelling aboard the icebreaker, admits that global warming exists. But he says human activity "does not play a key role" and that its effects are not irreversible, despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary.

The former director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Museum, Boyarsky says the region is stuck in a vicious circle as retreating ice cover allows the warmer waters of the Atlantic to enter the Arctic basin.

After nearly 30 years at sea, much of it in the Arctic, Dmitry Lobusov has seen first hand the changes wrought by global warming 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"It's a chain reaction process. Less ice means more water and more heat," he says, standing in the mist that envelopes the ice shelves of the North Pole.

- 'We are just guests' -

After his many years at sea, icebreaker captain Lobusov says the changes in the Arctic are undeniable.

Along with the thinner Arctic ice, he says the North Pole is now covered in fog in the summer.

Russia, a third of which is within the Arctic circle, is warming faster than the global average, according to the Rosgidromet meteorological service

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"I think it's also the effect of warming, there is more humidity in the air," he says.

He has also seen glaciers shrinking in the Arctic, like on the Franz Josef Land archipelago of more than 190 islands.

"Many glaciers are receding towards the centre of the islands from where they are on the map," he says.

"There are no questions here, without a doubt this is the effect of the heat."

Lobusov's "50 Years of Victory" -- part of a fleet of icebreakers operated by state atomic energy corporation Rosatom -- has reached the North Pole 59 times and on this trip is carrying a group of teenagers who won a contest to travel aboard.

As the 160-metre (525-foot) ship passes off the coast of Prince George Land -- an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago -- a polar bear wanders across the ice, watching the vessel.

"The bears are the bosses here, this is their home," Lobusov says. "We are just guests."

© 2021 AFP

Moscow vies for Arctic clout with nuclear icebreaker fleet


Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Moscow sees the development of the Arctic as a historic mission 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Aboard the '50 Years of Victory' (Russia) (AFP)

As Arctic ice cover recedes with climate change, Russia is pinning its hopes for supremacy in the warming region on a fleet of giant nuclear-powered icebreakers.

Moscow sees the development of the Arctic as a historic mission and already has huge projects to exploit its natural resources.

Its next big plan is for year-round use of the Northern Sea Route, a shipping lane through Arctic waters Russia hopes could rival the Suez Canal.

Here are some key facts about Russia's plans for the Arctic:

- Historic ambitions -

As an icebreaker called the "50 Years of Victory" left the port of Murmansk for the North Pole this summer, its captain told an AFP journalist on board that Russia has a special role to play in the Arctic.

"A third of our territory lies above the Arctic Circle. Our ancestors have long mastered frozen waters. We are continuing this successfully," Dmitry Lobusov said.

President Vladimir Putin has made the development of the Arctic a strategic priority and state companies such as Gazprom Neft, Norilsk Nickel and Rosneft already have major projects in the Arctic to extract oil, gas and minerals.

"The Arctic region has enormous potential," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this month.

"In terms of resources, we're talking about 15 billion tonnes of oil and 100 trillion cubic metres of gas. Enough for tens if not hundreds of years," he said.

- Suez alternative -

The Northern Sea Route links the Pacific to the Atlantic through Russian Arctic waters.

It is not currently navigable year-round without the help of icebreakers, though in summer some specialised classes of ships can pass through.

With the ice cover receding, Moscow is aiming for year-round navigation by 2030.

The route between east Asia and Europe is considerably shorter than through the Suez Canal.

When a huge container ship blocked the busy Suez shipping lane in March, Moscow touted the Northern Sea passage as a "viable alternative".

Russia hopes to boost traffic through the route from nearly 33 million tonnes of cargo in 2020 to 80 million tonnes by 2024 and 160 million by 2035 -- still a long way off from the billion tonnes that pass through the Suez Canal every year.

Russia hopes to boost traffic through the Northern Sea Route over the coming years Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, which is developing the route and icebreaker fleet, says 735 billion rubles ($10 billion/8.5 billion euros) will be invested by 2024, including 274 billion rubles in state money.

- Growing fleet -

Rosatom, which already has a fleet of five icebreakers and a container ship, is building four more nuclear-powered vessels within the next five years.

Each ship costs more than $400 million (340 million euros) to build. Construction requires more than 1,000 people and takes five to seven years.

Russia has a fleet of five icebreakers and a container ship and is building four more nuclear-powered vessels within the next five years 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

The ships are designed to resist extreme weather conditions, towering 52 metres (170 feet) high with a length of 173 metres (568 feet) and able to smash through ice up to 2.8 metres (9.2 feet) thick.

No other country operates a comparable fleet, with the United States and China mostly using diesel-electric icebreakers.

- Environmental worries -

Environmental groups have slammed the race for hydrocarbons and the increased presence of nuclear reactors in the Arctic -- an already fragile ecosystem dramatically affected by climate change.

Greenpeace has said that "the incident-ridden history of Russian nuclear icebreakers and submarines" should cause alarm.

Environmental groups have slammed the race for hydrocarbons and the increased presence of nuclear reactors in the already fragile

 Arctic Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"Of course, risks arise when implementing projects in such a fragile ecosystem," Rosatom told AFP in a statement in response to environmental concerns.

But, it said, the "economic opportunities for both the local population and global economy" of the Northern Sea Route exceed environmental risks.

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© 2021 AFP

When a nuclear icebreaker stops at the North Pole

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Passengers, including a gaggle of high school students who won places on the trip in a competition, stepped onto the ice at the North Pole 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

North Pole (AFP)

Smoking a pipe and looking out over the vast, icy Arctic, captain Dmitry Lobusov sounds his ship's horn to signal to passengers they are near their destination: the North Pole.

The Arctic Ocean is too deep to drop anchor, but a thick ice embankment offers a dock for Lobusov's giant vessel -- one among Russia's growing fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.

The 160-metre (525-foot) ship called "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory") reduces speed.

"Take a left, we'll stop here," Lobusov tells Diana Kidzhi, his second in command and the most senior woman in Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet.

Thirty minutes later, the giant red-and-black ship is stopped within short walking distance of Earth's most northerly point.

"Well done," Lobusov says, shaking Kidzhi's hand and disembarking from the deck.

The passengers, including a gaggle of high school students who won places on the trip in a competition, step onto the slippery ice to take photos.

The ice they're standing on -- directly above the ocean floor marking the North Pole -- is shifting in Arctic currents, slowly taking them away from the Pole.

"You always find your own North Pole," says Viktor Boyarsky, a 70-year-old Russian explorer returning to the Arctic.

It has taken the icebreaker three and a half days to traverse the 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) to the North Pole from Murmansk, the base of Russia's Northern Fleet.

Dmitry Lobusov captains the Russian "50 Years of Victory" nuclear-powered icebreaker Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

The journey is only possible in summer, when ice cover is at its lowest. Climate change is making the trip gradually easier year by year.

Still, the 95-strong crew is alert for masses of ice that could impede the ship's progress.

The bridge is in constant contact with the crew controlling the ship's nuclear reactor.

Vladimir Yudin, the ship's chief mechanical engineer, is in charge of its 75,000-horsepower engine, the equivalent of about 75 Formula 1 racecars.

"We have 1,144 settings to manage and just as many sensors that need to be checked regularly," Yudin says.

The engine propels forward the ship's body, which is designed to cut through ice. The front is spoon-shaped, Lobusov explains.

"This allows us to get stuck in ice less often and to better penetrate it," says the 57-year-old, who has spent close to half his life in the Arctic.

© 2021 AFP

Breaking barriers: Russian woman leads the way on Arctic ship

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Diana Kidzhi, 27, is the most senior woman in Russia's growing nuclear icebreaker fleet

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Aboard the '50 Years of Victory' (Russia) (AFP)

Peering through her binoculars at icebergs ahead, Diana Kidzhi shouts at the helmsman of a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker approaching the North Pole: "Ten degrees left!"

At just 27, Kidzhi is a chief mate -- second in command to the captain -- and sets the path the giant vessel will take through the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Standing on the bridge of the ship, she is surrounded by screens relaying information from dozens of sensors. One tells her the thickness of the ice several kilometres away.

A tiny white spot appears in her binoculars. Kidzhi immediately identifies a polar bear and tells the bridge crew -- all men and many much older -- to slow down so the ship does not disturb its hunting.

They follow her command and the sound of ice cracking beneath the ship begins to fade.

Kidzhi is the most senior woman in Russia's growing nuclear icebreaker fleet -- owned by state atomic energy corporation Rosatom -- which Moscow hopes will secure its supremacy over the Arctic as climate change makes it more navigable.

One of three chief mates aboard the "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory"), Kidzhi is breaking stereotypes in a country where many male-dominated professions are still off limits to women.

There are nine other women on the ship, working in the kitchen, the infirmary and as cleaners.

Kidzhi is breaking stereotypes in a country where many male-dominated professions are still off-limits to women 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

The rest of the 95-strong crew are men, several of whom said they were not very happy taking orders from a woman.

But Kidzhi is reluctant to talk about sexism, focusing instead on her determination to excel at her job.

- 'Knocking on a closed door' -

During four-hour shifts in the morning and evening, Kidzhi is in charge of the ship's heading as it sails through the Arctic for four months at a time.

Like most of the crew, Kidzhi is from Russia's second city and naval stronghold of Saint Petersburg.

As a child, she dreamed of working at sea.

Initially, she wanted to join the Russian navy. But while Saint Petersburg's Naval Institute was closed to women, another maritime university specialising in commercial shipping opened a course to women students just as she finished school.

One of Kidzhi's fellow chief mates says she is setting a precedent 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"I took it as a sign. What's the point of knocking on a closed door when a path opens up in front of you," she says.

Shortly after graduating, she was invited to join an icebreaker fleet, "immediately falling in love".

In 2018, she joined the "50 Years of Victory" -- her first nuclear-powered ship.

She thrives on the "force you can feel" while operating the ship, which she says is incomparable to a diesel-powered vessel.

She quickly rose through the ranks on the icebreakers and has since sailed around the Arctic dozens of times and made nine voyages to the North Pole.

Kidzhi admits that when she first joined the ship, the crew looked at her with suspicion.

One of her fellow chief mates, 45-year-old Dmitry Nikitin, says she is setting a precedent.

"There are strong opponents of having a woman as part of the fleet. There is a feeling that a woman on a ship is bad luck," he says.

While Saint Petersburg's Naval Institute was closed to women, another maritime university specialising in commercial shipping opened a course to female students just as Kidzhi finished school

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"But we are slowly coming out of this belief."

Sergei Barinov, a 56-year-old deck officer on the icebreaker, says it's Kidzhi's age -- not her gender -- that is exceptional.

He hopes new icebreakers currently being built by Moscow will employ more young Russians.

Rosatomflot told AFP that a woman is serving on another one of its vessels, the "Yamal", but as a deck officer so in a lower-ranked position than Kidzhi.

"I aim to become captain one day," Kidzhi says.

video-ea-oc/mm/kjm

© 2021 AFP

Slovak Roma hope pope's visit will challenge stereotypes

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Poverty and overcrowding are chronic issues at the Lunik IX estate, where 4,500 residents are squeezed into a space meant to accommodate half that number

 VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP

Kosice (Slovakia) (AFP)

Crunching on sunflower seeds, a group of Roma children watch excitedly as builders work on the final preparations for a visit by Pope Francis to one of Europe's poorest regions in Slovakia.

The workers are erecting a power line in Lunik IX, a dilapidated housing estate in the eastern city of Kosice where people from the Roma minority have lived in abject poverty and faced stigma for decades.

"In Kosice, when an employer found out that I am Roma and live at Lunik IX, they refused to give me the job we agreed on over the phone," Maria Horvathova, 45, a mother of 12, told AFP.

"There is racism everywhere and people do not want to give us a chance," she said.

Poverty and overcrowding are chronic issues at Lunik IX, where 4,500 residents are squeezed into a space meant to accommodate half that number.

Many blocks have no electricity, heat, gas or running water as utilities were cut due to unpaid bills.

- 'Spiritual support' -

The Roma have big communities in Central and Eastern Europe and are considered the largest ethnic minority in Europe as a whole.

They have faced discrimination for centuries -- historians estimate that half a million Roma were killed by the Nazis, wiping out about a quarter of their population.

Horvathova has since found work at the local Salesian church that is helping to organise the papal visit and is now one of the few local inhabitants to have a job.

"People say that Lunik IX is the poorest and dirtiest place of all. I hope that the pope does not think so and that he will give us some spiritual support," she said, while cooking eggs on a gas canister-powered stove.

Maria Horvathova, 45, is one of the few locals to have a job

 VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP

Pope Francis will visit Hungary and Slovakia next week and the trip to Lunik IX on September 14 will be a key moment, reflecting his message of closeness to impoverished communities.

The eastern part of Slovakia, an EU member state of 5.4 million people, ranks among one of the places in Europe with the lowest GDP per capita, along with parts of Bulgaria and Romania.

Despite the difficulties, Marcel Sana, the mayor of Lunik IX, is hoping to create a good first impression for the pope and is busy sprucing up the area ahead of the visit.

"We are fixing the road leading to the district, getting rid of potholes, renovating facades, revitalising the greenery," he said.

- 'Not some kind of trash' -

When the pope visits, a 35-member children's choir will sing for him in Romani.

"I hope his visit will make people understand that we are not some kind of trash and that also decent and fine people live here," said 19-year-old Monika Gulasova, one of the performers.

Gulasova is a member of the local Salesian community led by Peter Besenyei, who is responsible for the pastoral care of the Roma in the Kosice Archdiocese.

During his visit, Pope Francis will say some words in Romani

 VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP

"The Roma are believers by their nature," Besenyei told AFP. "They do not have the slightest doubt about the existence of God."

The priest said that during his visit, Pope Francis would say some words in the Romani language and the Our Father prayer would also be recited in Romani.

"He will bring the hope to the Lunik IX Roma that if you want to change your life, you can," he said.

© 2021 AFP

‘An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe’: The siege of Leningrad, 80 years on

Issued on: 08/09/2021 

Leningrad residents dig up water from a broken main in the winter of 1942.

 © AP archive

Text by: Stéphanie TROUILLARD

The Nazis began their siege of Leningrad on September 8, 1941 – trying to starve the USSR's second-largest city into submission just a few months after launching their invasion of the country in Operation Barbarossa. For 872 days, the inhabitants of this industrial centre (now known by its original name, Saint Petersburg), went through hell as hunger, cold and bombardments killed nearly a million people. FRANCE 24 looks back at the siege, 80 years on.

The simple statements of the extraordinary 11-year-old diarist Tania Savitcheva capture best the helplessness in Leningrad: “Jenia died on December 28 at midnight. Grandma died on January 25 at three in the afternoon. Leka died on March 5 at five in the morning. The Savichevs are dead. Everyone is dead. Tania is all alone.”

Evacuated before the end of the siege, Savitcheva died of exhaustion on July 1, 1944. She became a symbol of this 872-day siege – the longest in modern history until that of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996 – after her elder sister Nina, who had managed to escape the surrounded city, discovered and published the diary.

A portrait of Tania Savitcheva with notes from her wartime diary. 

© Wikimedia creative commons

A symbol of Russia

Leningrad was a major target when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

Peter the Great founded the city as St Petersburg (the original name returned in 1991 after the collapse of the USSR) in 1703 – as a “Window to the West”, where the Neva River’s swampy bank meets the Gulf of Finland.

As the capital of Tsarist Russia, the site of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and as an incarnation of the Russian nation in the eyes of many, Leningrad carried clear significance for Adolf Hitler as he attempted to destroy the Soviet Union. “The city was first and foremost a symbol,” noted French historian Pierre Vallaud, author of L’Étau, le siège de Leningrad (“The Vice: The Siege of Leningrad”).

“Besieging Leningrad also cut the USSR off from the Baltic,” Vallaud continued. “It was a very important strategic location for Hitler as he tried to conquer the Soviet Union and carve out Lebensraum (living space) for Germany there,” he said.

The Wehrmacht surged through Soviet territory after the start of Operation Barbarossa – taking two and a half months to arrive at the gates of Leningrad, with their Finnish allies cutting the city off from the north (Finland backed Nazi Germany against the USSR after successfully repulsing Joseph Stalin’s invasion in the 1939-40 Winter War).

German troops pictured during their advance on Leningrad in September 1941. 

© AP file photo

>> Hitler’s ‘war of annihilation’: Operation Barbarossa, 80 years on

The Nazis besieged Leningrad because capturing it would be more difficult. As the Wehrmacht advanced, the city “had time to set up barricades and prepare itself to resist the occupiers, so Hitler ordered the military to destroy it by either sea or land, without entering it”, Vallaud explained.

The siege’s slow torture began as the Nazis cut off the last road to Leningrad on September 8. Intense bombardments ravaged the city. Supplies were blocked – except for the “Road of Life”, an unreliable transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga.

‘So easy to die’

Leningrad only had a month’s food reserves. It was an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”, said Sarah Gruszka, who recently completed a PhD thesis on the wartime diaries of Leningrad residents, collecting hundreds of testimonies.

“Rations became as meagre as 125 grams of bread per day for most Leningrad residents during the winter of 1941-42,” Gruszka said. “Bread was generally the only food allowed, and it was often made from ersatz substances like cellulose – hardly nutritious fare.”

“The rations the Soviet system managed to allocate were barely enough to survive on, so the people of Leningrad had to do everything they could to avoid starvation,” Gruszka continued.

>> Harrowing destruction, limited military impact: The Blitz, 80 years on

The bodies of dead Leningraders are carried to Volkovo cemetery in October 1942. 

© Wikimedia, RIA Novosti archive

Cannibalism was perhaps the siege’s most notorious feature. Some 2,000 people were arrested for eating human flesh in the first half of 1942, Vallaud pointed out in his book. Hunger became the all-pervading obession. Pets were eaten, cosmetics were eaten, then wallpaper paste; leather was boiled to make soup. Many people succumbed to starvation. Others just gave up trying to live. Dead bodies were lying on the streets.

“It’s so easy to die right now,” wrote one diarist, Elena Skriabina. “You start by losing interest in everything, then you just lie down in bed and never get up again.”

>> The smile at Auschwitz: The extraordinary story of a young girl in the French Resistance

“Famine was the main cause of death,” Gruszka observed. “It’s difficult to establish a precise figure, but historians agree that nearly a million people, mostly civilians, died during the siege – mainly of hunger, in the first winter – in a city that had over 3 million inhabitants on the eve of the Second World War.

Hunger was far from the only form of hardship the citizens of Leningrad faced, Gruszka added: “There was also the isolation, the cold, the German shelling, the Stalinist repression that preceded it all, the lack of running water, the need to go out and get water by tapping ice in the sub-zero Neva, various forms of disease, the miles and miles people had to walk because there were no other means of transport – et cetera.”

Resistance through culture

Yet daily life and even cultural life persisted in the face of these unspeakable conditions. Libraries, theatres and concert halls still managed to open intermittently.

Exhibiting remarkable pertinacity, iconic composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his 7th symphony, a tour de force, in besieged Leningrad. Musicians weakened by hunger performed it at the Grand Philharmonia Hall in August 1942. “I wanted to compose a piece about the men of our region, who became heroes in the fight against our enemy,” Shostakovich wrote in Pravda.

A Soviet press release of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich composing his 7th Symphony during the siege of Leningrad. © AFP file photo

The Soviet authorities soon started using Leningrad’s musicians and artists as propaganda tools. “The Soviet regime put a lot of emphasis on the cultural dimension of life under the siege of Leningrad,” Gruszka said. “The local authorities tried to hide the extent of the crisis, because the USSR didn’t want to sow panic among the rest of its population or demotivate them during a fight for national survival – and above all because the Stalinist regime didn’t want to call into question its capacity to protect and provide for its own citizens.”

The USSR’s totalitarian state apparatus maintained its repression in besieged Leningrad. The NKVD, the secret police, carried on in the same way. Its executions of supposed traitors continued.

‘No one has been forgotten’

Hope re-emerged for the people of Leningrad as a Soviet counter-offensive in January 1943 allowed the situation to ease somewhat. The tide had turned in the Second World War; the USSR was inching towards its February 1943 triumph in the Battle of Stalingrad amid inhuman conditions – while the British smashed Erwin Rommel’s forces at El Alamein in Egypt in November 1942.

The Red Army’s progress around Leningrad facilitated the opening of a land corridor to bring in supplies. But it took until January 27, 1944 for the Soviets to push the Nazis back and lift the blockade.

The Soviet regime hailed the heroism of the people of Leningrad – before it soon started to hide it. Stalin did not want to be overshadowed.

“Leningrad was the city of the Bolshevik revolution; Stalin was nevertheless not terribly popular there,” Vallaud said. “It was inconvenient for him that a million people died there and that the city owed its resistance in the face of the Nazis’ siege to its residents’ heroism.”

Thus Soviet historiography failed to give them their due until the late 1970s – when testimonies from besieged Leningrad entered the public sphere and illuminated the suffering and courage of its people.

In contemporary Russia’s collective memory, there is a contrast between public and private forms of remembrance, Gruszka observed – between the “militaristic tone” of President Vladimir Putin’s “revival of the Great Patriotic War cult”, on the one hand, and a “more nuanced” understanding of the siege amongst many Russians, “often focused on its traumatic qualities”.

A 2016 memorial ceremony at St. Petersburg's Piskaryovskoye Cemetery, where most victims of the siege were buried during the war. © Dmitry Lovetsky, AP

Private commemorations of the victims and heroes of the Leningrad siege often take place in the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, where 470,000 civilians and 50,000 combatants who died in the blockade lie buried, watched over by the cold grandeur of Saint Petersburg’s Avenue of the Unvanquished.

Behind the cemetery’s statue of Mother Russia, the words of the poet Olga Bergoltts – who survived the siege – are inscribed in granite:

Here lie Leningraders

Here are the city’s people – men, women, and children

And next to them, Red Army soldiers.

They defended you, Leningrad,

The cradle of the Revolution

With all their lives.


We cannot list their noble names here,

There are so many of them under the granite’s eternal protection.

But everyone who comes to look at these stones – you should know this:

No one has been forgotten, nothing has been forgotten.

This article was translated from the original in French.