Heated plot experiments reveal link between warmer early winters and lower crop yields

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHN INNES CENTRE

 

IMAGE: INNOVATIVE EXPERIMENTS USING TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED FIELD PLOTS HAVE HELPED TO EXPLAIN THE LINK BETWEEN EARLY WINTER TEMPERATURES AND YIELD IN SOME OF OUR MOST MARKETABLE ARABLE CROPS. view more 

CREDIT: PHIL ROBINSON - JOHN INNES CENTRE

Innovative experiments using temperature-controlled field plots have helped to explain the link between early winter temperatures and yield in some of our most marketable arable crops. 

Laboratory and in-field technology enabled the team of researchers from the John Innes Centre to simulate full growing seasons and establish that chilling is important in late November/early December because it promotes growth during early floral development of the crop. 

They showed that oilseed rape plants can undergo a developmental phase known as flower bud dormancy if the winter temperature is too warm. This physiological process occurs as the microscopic, newly formed buds lie inactive waiting for low temperatures to signal growth and is well understood in perennial plants which grow year after year. 

This development stage was not known to exist in annual crops; those that complete their life cycle in one growing season.  

Oilseed rape plants that were chilled at this key developmental stage developed faster and were higher yielding, producing more seeds per pod. Conversely plants grown in warmer conditions grew slowly and were lower yielding. 

Professor Steve Penfield, a group leader at the John Innes Centre said: “It was surprising to find that winter annuals have this flower bud dormancy - no one has ever suggested that this mechanism is important to flowering time control in annual plants. Our experiments further show that if flower buds experience warmer than average temperatures then growth slows down and plants produce aberrant flowers and low yield. Conversely, we know that if plants get chilled at this stage this promotes faster growth and higher yield.” 

Previous studies have shown a strong correlation between late November-early December temperatures and yield in crops such as oilseed rape, which are winter annuals, planted in the autumn and harvested the following summer.  

Colder temperatures during this weather window are linked to higher yields, while warmer temperatures result in lower yields. The differences in conditions during this important weather window account for a variation of up to 25% of total yield. 

Understanding the reasons behind the statistical correlations between climate and yield is important for predicting the impact of climate change on crop production and could be used to develop strategies to adapt the crop to produce higher yields with warmer winters. 

First author of the paper Dr Carmel O’Neil said: “We want to understand the effect of climate change on the UK crop yields. To predict these effects and respond to them we must understand all the processes by which varying weather affects yield. And that is what we have done here in this study – proving experimentally what we have seen previously in correlated studies.” 

In what is believed to be a unique set of experiments, the researchers used indoor Controlled Environment Rooms programmed to simulate a winter annual growing season based on weather data collected from a farm.  

Following the indoor, laboratory-controlled trial the team moved the experiment to a field trial, using a heated field plot system outdoors at the John Innes Centre’s field trials and experimentation site, Church Farm. 

The results from both the laboratory and the field trials were the same, warmer conditions led to slower growth and reduced yield. 

Using molecular techniques, the team analysed the genes expressed in the bud tissues of the oilseed rape plants which were affected by temperature changes. This showed that a previously well-known chilling response gene called FLC was mediating plants’ bud dormancy response to winter temperatures. 

Professor Penfield added: “We had seen this correlation between chilling and yield in the data, but until now we could not say that chilling was linked to the physiology of the crop - it is not for example that chilling just kills some disease or pest - although it might do that as well. But we now know why chilling influences yields and it is down to physical effect on the growth rate of the plants.” 

Previous research has identified the importance of temperature on a plant biological developmental process called vernalisation which in oilseed rape occurs in October.  

By identifying that there is a second temperature sensitive process, bud dormancy, that occurs later in the growing season researchers and breeders can help us better respond to the challenge of climate change. One strategy under consideration is to identify varieties which are less temperature sensitive. 

Winter warming controls flowering time via bud dormancy activation and affects yield in a winter annual crop appears in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). 

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2204355119 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Winter warming controls flowering time via bud dormancy activation and affects yield in a winter annual crop

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Sep-2022

A better understanding of crop yields under climate change

Research solves long-standing mystery of how water impacts agricultural production

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD JOHN A. PAULSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES

You don’t need a PhD in agriculture to know that water is critical to crop production. But for years, people like Jonathan Proctor, who has a PhD in Agriculture and Resource Economics from the University of California Berkeley, have been trying to explain why the importance of water isn’t showing up in statistical models of crop yield. 

“Studies analyzing how crop yields respond to temperature and rainfall tend to find that temperature matters much more than water, even though we understand from plant physiology that temperature and water supply are both really important for crops,” said Proctor, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Peter Huybers’ group at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). “Solving this puzzle is critical for quantifying how climate change will affect global crop yields.”

The research team had a hypothesis: What if the models were measuring the wrong type of water? Rather than measuring precipitation, as previous studies had done, the Harvard team used satellites to measure soil moisture around the root zone for maize, soybeans, millet, and sorghum growing around the world. 

The team found that models using soil moisture explain 30% to 120% more of the year-to-year variation in yield across crops than models that rely on rainfall. 

“Rainfall and soil moisture can differ pretty dramatically due to evaporation, infiltration and runoff,” said Proctor. “What falls from the sky is not necessarily what’s in the soil for the crops to drink — and we find that what’s in the soil for the crops to drink is what actually matters for their yield.” 

Using satellite-derived observations of soil moisture together with a statistical approach, the team was able to better separate and understand the individual influences of temperature and water supply on yield, which are often confused because heat and dryness are strongly correlated. 

Specifically, the team found extreme heat to be less damaging to crop yields than previous models estimated, which lowered projected damages from warming. But the team also found heightened sensitivity to drought and flooding.  

“When it comes to predicting agricultural productivity in a changing climate, we need to consider how temperature and water availability will evolve together,” said Huybers, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at SEAS and Earth and Planetary Sciences.  

“In comparison to temperature, changes in water availability will be more regional and seasonal, such that regional planning and management strategies come more to the fore in coping with climate change.”  

The team plans to use this improved understanding of how soil moisture and temperature influence global agricultural productivity to explore how climate change may affect other aspects of human wellbeing, such as migration decisions or the stability of food supplies.

The paper was published in Nature Food. 

The research was co-authored by Angela Rigden and Duo Chan.

It was supported by the Harvard Google Data+Climate Project.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Food

ETHIOPIAN WAR OF AGGRESSION

Eritrea mobilizes its soldiers, raising Tigray fears

Associated Press
Sun, September 18, 2022 

Eritrea, which backed Ethiopia in the conflict in Tigray, makes moves after fighting reignited in the region

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Eritrea is mobilizing its armed forces and appears to be sending them to Ethiopia to aid its neighbor’s war in the Tigray region, according to activists and international authorities.

Britain and Canada issued travel advisories asking their citizens in Eritrea to be vigilant.

Eritrean rights activist Meron Estefanos told The Associated Press that her cousin was called up “and is somewhere in Ethiopia fighting and we don’t know if he is alive or not.”

People shop at Sholla Market, the day before the Ethiopian New Year,

 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. (AP Photo)

“It’s just a sad war, like our region has not seen enough blood for generations,” said Meron, director of the Eritrean Initiative on Refugee Rights.

Eyewitnesses in Eritrea said that people including students and public servants are being rounded up across the nation.

Eritrea, one of the most isolated countries in the world, mandates military service for all its citizens between the ages of 18 and 40. Rights groups say the practice, which lasts indefinitely in most cases, is driving thousands of Eritrean youths into exile. Eritreans make up a large number of the migrants attempting to cross to Europe, often dangerously by sea.

It was not possible to get comment from Eritrean authorities.

Eritrean forces fought on the side of Ethiopian federal troops in the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which shares a border with Eritrea, when that conflict broke out in November 2020. Eritrean forces were implicated in some of the worst atrocities committed in the war — charges they deny.

Tigray authorities now assert that Eritreans are again entering the war that reignited in August after a lull in fighting earlier this year.

The conflict is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people and left millions without basic services for well over a year.

Inside Tigray, millions of residents are still largely cut off from the world. Communications and banking services are severed, and their restoration has been a key demand in mediation efforts.

Eritrea's mass mobilisation amid Ethiopia civil war

BBC News Tigrinya - .
Mon, September 19, 2022 

Eritrea has been criticised for its compulsory and decades-long military service

 (file photo)

Eritrea is mobilising military reservists to bolster the army, which has been aiding neighbouring Ethiopia in its fight against rebel forces.

Security forces in many areas have been stopping people to check if they are exempt from military conscription.

Groups of men were crying as they bid farewell to relatives, witnesses say.

Many in the capital, Asmara, were given notice on Thursday and moved to the border with Ethiopia's Tigray region, within hours, sources told the BBC.

Reservists up to the age of 55 have been called up, they said.

Eritrea has compulsory, decades-long military service, which has been widely criticised by human-rights groups, but analysts say the latest mobilisation efforts are linked to the civil war in northern Ethiopia - a conflict that recently flared up again after five months of relative peace.

Eritrea: 'We won independence but still await freedom'

Witnesses told BBC News Tigrinya that mobilisation notices were distributed on Thursday in the capital, the second-largest city, Keren, the western town of Tessenai and other areas.

They called on reservists to report to their respective head offices, while also advising that they should carry their own supplies, including blankets and water containers.

Mothers, children and wives were crying as they bid farewell to their sons, fathers, brothers and husbands, sources told the BBC.

Those who do not heed the call-up have been warned of severe consequences, but some are reportedly ignoring it.

Eritrea has been fighting alongside Ethiopia's central government troops since the civil war broke out in Tigray in late 2020.

Hundreds of thousands have been killed and million displaced by the war and many more remain desperate for food, according to aid organisations.

Several human rights organisations have accused Eritrean soldiers of committing atrocities in Ethiopia, but these claims have been denied by Eritrean officials.

The US has imposed sanctions on the Eritrean Defence Forces and the ruling PFDJ party in response to their involvement in the conflict.

President Isaias Afwerki has ruled Eritrea since the country broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, but between 1998-2000 the two nations fought a brutal and costly war over a contested border area.

A 20-year military stalemate ensued until Abiy Ahmed became Ethiopia's prime minister in 2018. The peace deal won Mr Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize a year later.

President Isaias Afwerki (left) welcomed Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to Asmara in 2018

The two leaders later united against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a common foe, whose elites dominated Ethiopia for three decades before Mr Abiy came to power.

The Ethiopian government accuses TPLF leaders, who control the northern Tigray region, of plotting to destabilise the country, while Mr Isaias sees them as a sworn enemy.

Eritrea is isolated diplomatically and is a highly militarised state which controls almost all aspects of people's lives.

The repression has led to many young people fleeing the country.

During Mr Isaias' rule, apart from fighting Ethiopia, Eritrea has found itself at war with all its neighbours at some point - Yemen in 1995, Sudan in 1996 and Djibouti in 2008.

Update 19 September 2022: Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel has since said that a "tiny number" of reservists had been called up, denying that the entire population had been mobilised.

Map

Voices: It is time to put the Kohinoor diamond back where it belongs



Saurav Dutt
Mon, September 19, 2022

In the wake of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, audiences have been dazzled by images of the crown of the Queen Mother, which is on display in the Tower of London. But the imperial majestic crown isn’t entirely as it appears – for it contains within its bejewelled arches and ornate framework a 105-carat gemstone diamond that represents the brutality and callousness of the British empire.

The Queen’s passing marks an opportune moment to finally draw a line under the scars of the past and to signify truth and reconciliation between the ruler and the ruled.

That Queen Elizabeth comported herself with remarkable grace and admirable conduct while on the throne, devotion to the public and an almost tangible sense of serenity, good humour and compassion, is without question. But within hours of the announcement of her death, tens of thousands of tweets about the crown jewels had the term “Kohinoor” trending in India. There is good reason for that.

No Indian – no person of colour – could ever doubt her sincerity and indefatigability, but much like her reign itself, her actions remained largely ceremonial. She was reserved within her role, when she could have done much more. And now, the imperial crown will be worn once again, this time by the new Queen Consort – Camilla – as King Charles III undergoes his coronation. She shouldn’t.

That the Kohinoor still remains within that crown to my mind impugns the credibility, moral fibre and supposed benevolence of the royal family. And it will do in perpetuity until it rightly leaves British shores.

Keeping the jewel, which has been at the centre of political and legal controversy in India amid disputes over its ownership for years, represents a dehumanisation of the colonised; allowing for prejudice to manifest for generations to come. It acts as an apologia for the racial supremacy of a (thankfully) crumbled empire, allowing a wounded island post-Brexit to cling onto illusory victories and a misbegotten sense of nationalism.

That Queen Elizabeth II was shrewd enough to ensure her reign was always largely ceremonial permitted her to appear unimpeachable as former colonies extirpated themselves from the yolk of imperialism.

As far as the Kohinoor was concerned, the Queen steered clear of interfering with maintaining the optics of empire; and – by association – the reign that plucked it from a Sikh kingdom via the hands of an 11-year-old Maharajah.

If ever one solitary jewel could represent the exploitation, looting and slavery that the British empire participated in during its time in India, it would be the Kohinoor diamond. It represents the spoils of a bygone era. Of what use is it now in the hands or on the head of the Queen Consort?

Some of the most brutal acts of British colonialism occurred after the Queen had already ascended the throne, such as the concentration camps in Kenya where the Mau Mau freedom fighters were tortured. And any expressions of regret concerning the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 were negated by her husband querying the body count and thus too the depths of depravity of the brutality that galvanised the Indian nationalist movement.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

King Charles III, an individual not exactly circumspect in matters of political expediency or geopolitical influence and lobbying, could well be placed to address this elephant in the room (or the jewel in the crown, if you will): the return of the Kohinoor diamond.

This would go some way to addressing the crimes of empire and the systematic callous looting of a nation that was one of the wealthiest in the world at that time.

The royal family historically turned away from the egregious theft that typified the empire’s time in India and can only beg for forgiveness. History cannot be erased, but returning the diamond might erase the darkness that rises from the imperial crown every time it is wheeled out.

It is offensive. It is a rebuke to all people of colour who have been colonised. It is time to put the Kohinoor diamond back where it belongs.

Saurav Dutt is an author, political analyst and a script doctor

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/155/155-h/155-h.htm

PRISON NATION U$A

Black prisoners and children as young

as 12 enriched U.S. empires

Associated Press

Mon, September 19, 2022 

In a practice known all across the South as convict leasing, Black men arrested for minor offenses were put to dangerous, deadly work.

More than 150 years ago, a prison complex known as the Lone Rock stockade operated at one of the biggest coal mines in Tennessee.

It was powered largely by African American men who had been arrested for minor offenses — like stealing a hog — if they committed any crime at all. Women and children, some as young as 12, were sent there as well.

The work, dangerous and sometimes deadly, was their punishment.

Men convicted of a crime and leased to harvest timber in Florida, photographed in 1915. (Photo: Library of Congress via AP)

The state was leasing these prisoners out to private companies for a fee, in a practice known all across the South as convict leasing. In states like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Alabama, prisoners were also used to help build railroads, cut timber, make bricks, pick cotton and grow sugar on plantations.

In a joint investigation, reporters from the Associated Press and Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reporting spent months unearthing this history. They focused on Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad, which ran the stockade and coal mine, and the company that later bought it, U.S. Steel.

The team found someone living today whose ancestor was imprisoned in the Lone Rock stockade nearly 140 years ago. They also interviewed the descendent of a man who got rich from his role in pioneering Tennessee’s convict leasing system.

The reporters also heard from U.S. Steel. For the first time, it said it was willing to discuss its past with members of the affected community.

WHAT IS CONVICT LEASING?

Convict leasing was essentially a new form of slavery that started after the Civil War and went on for decades across the South. States — and companies — got rich by arresting mostly Black men and then forcing them to work for major companies.

The 13th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, banned slavery and involuntary servitude. But it made an exception for people convicted of a crime, offering legal cover for convict leasing.

Tennessee and many other states adopted similar language in their constitutions that still exists today.

WHAT WAS THE THE LONE ROCK STOCKADE?

The Lone Rock stockade operated in Tracy City, Tennessee for more than 25 years. The prisoners lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions. Built to hold 200 people at a time, the prison sometimes held 600.

The men risked their lives every day above ground too, manning fiery, dome-shaped coke ovens used in the iron-making process.

They were helping Tennessee, Coal, Iron and Railroad get rich. The company was an economic powerhouse, later bought by the world’s biggest company at the time: U.S. Steel Corporation.

HOW DID THE PRISON POPULATION CHANGE AFTER EMANCIPATION?

The racial makeup of prison populations changed almost overnight after the Civil War. In Tennessee, during slavery less than 5 percent of the prisoners were Black. In 1866, after emancipation, that number jumped to 52 percent. And by 1891 it had skyrocketed to 75 percent.

WHAT ARE BLACK CODES?

Black codes are laws passed by states that targeted African Americans for minor crimes such as vagrancy, jumping a ride on a train car or not having proof of employment.

In Tennessee, people were sentenced up to five years of hard labor in the coal mine for having interracial relationships.

WHAT DOES U.S. STEEL SAY NOW ABOUT THEIR USE OF CONVICT LEASING?

The United States Steel Corporation, also known as U.S. Steel, was founded by American business giants, which included J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. It has operations in the U.S. and Central Europe, and remains a leading steel producer.

The company used convict labor for at least five years in Alabama in the early 1900s, but has never spoken openly about this dark chapter of its history. It has misrepresented its use of prison labor and has not acknowledged the men who died in its mines.

After being contacted by the AP and Reveal reporters, the company agreed for the first time to sit down and talk with members of the affected community. U.S. Steel also confirmed it owns a cemetery located at the site of its former coal mine: “U. S. Steel does not condone the practices of a century ago,” it said in a statement. “Given the amount of time that has lapsed, we, unfortunately, do not have comprehensive records relative to this situation.”

“We would be pleased to consider a memorial plaque should members of the affected community express an interest. We would also be happy to meet with them and discuss these topics.”

DON'T TRUST HOLTEC
Radioactive water release from Oyster Creek nuclear plant concerns environmentalists

Amanda Oglesby, Asbury Park Press
Sun, September 18, 2022 

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said the plant and its trust fund were sold to two companies in 2019. The plant and trust fund were sold exclusively to Holtec International.

LACEY - Water with "low-level" amounts of radiation recently was discharged from the defunct Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees radiation-related activity at the plant.

Holtec International released about 24,000 gallons of water from the facility as part of its ongoing decommissioning activities, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said in an email. The water was slowly released starting Sept. 7 and took two days to complete, he said.

The water contains low levels of radiation and comes from the plant's nuclear fuel rod cooling pool, the reactor cavity and an equipment pit, Sheehan said.

The water releases are regulated by both the NRC and the federal Environmental Protection Agency in order to protect the public, he said.

The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating station in Lacey Township in shown Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Staff at the power plant have performed such releases of low-level radioactive water throughout the facility's operating life, said Sheehan and Holtec spokesman Joseph Delmar. The action is part of routine operations, not just at Oyster Creek, but at nuclear plants across the nation, Delmar said in an email to the Asbury Park Press.

Water was integral to the functioning and safety at Oyster Creek throughout the plant's nearly 50 years of generating electricity. Steam heated by nuclear energy was used to drive the plant's turbine, converting that energy into electricity. Water also was used to cool spent fuel rods inside a large pool.

Oyster Creek produced its last electricity in 2018. The facility's age coupled with competition from inexpensive natural gas made the nuclear plant too costly to operate. In 2019, its then-owner Exelon sold the plant and its nearly $1 billion decommissioning trust fund to Holtec International.

In May, Holtec announced that the last of the spent fuel rods from decades of power generation were removed from the cooling pool and transferred to dry cask storage. Now the company is draining water from the pool, the reactor and an equipment storage pit, Sheehan said.

Earlier this year: Lacey receives grant to plan for future without nuclear

"Our process for water use falls in step with our commitment to environmental stewardship," Delmar said.

The radioactive water is collected in 30,000-gallon batches and run through a series of filters and demineralizers, he said. Afterward, the water is thoroughly tested, and then reused inside the plant or diluted and discharged into canals, he said.

"Our sample results show that the canals around Oyster Creek have been, and remain, safe to swim, fish and boat in," he said.

Since decommissioning began three years ago, the plant has discharged, on average, about 64,000 gallons of treated, diluted water a month into the canals, Delmar said.

A spent fuel pool at the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y. shows uranium rods submerged in 23 feet of water. The stored rods came out of the nuclear reactor.

Holtec found discharging the water to be the best way to handle the material compared to the company's alternatives, he said.

"Evaporation releases higher levels of radioactive materials due to the concentration and lack of dilution when the water becomes a gas," Delmar said. "Shipping to another site for disposal creates a larger carbon footprint with hundreds of truck trips."

Local environmentalists say they are not reassured because plant officials did not share information about the release prior to taking action.

Janet Tauro, New Jersey chair of the environmental organization Clean Water Action, said the water release signaled a lack of transparency on the part of Holtec.

"The public was not alerted to when the releases would occur," said Tauro, who learned about the release while researching Holtec's decommissioning work at the defunct Pilgrim Power Station in Massachusetts. "They (Ocean County residents) weren’t given the opportunity to ask questions."

COVID in NJ: After a million deaths, COVID testing remains broken. These secret systems hide the fix

Britta Forsberg, executive director of the environmental group Save Barnegat Bay, said she was watching volunteers build oyster reefs near the mouth of the Forked River just days after the plant's radioactive water release. Oyster reefs help prevent shoreline erosion, filter the bay's water and provide crucial habitat for marine animals, but Forsberg said the effects of low-level radiation on the growing oysters remain unknown.

"If I was putting myself in the water, doing all this work (building oyster reefs), I might want to ask some questions and know what's in there (the bay water)."

Edwin Lyman, director of the nuclear power safety program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the radioactive water release raises questions about regulatory oversite of nuclear facilities.

Too little research is done on the impacts of the discharges, to know whether radiation from the releases accumulates in certain animals or concentrates into particular areas of the ecosystem over time, Lyman said.

"It's a difference between what's allowable and what's right," he said.

Delmar, of Holtec, said the company remained committed to environmental stewardship and was operating within the law and Nuclear Regulatory Commission's limits on radiation releases.

But Lyman questioned the science behind those limits.

He said, "The larger question is are the limits that the nuclear industry is allowed to adhere to, with regard to routine radioactive discharges, are those the right numbers?"

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ocean residents not notified of water release from Oyster Creek plant

Video shows a Russian missile striking less than 1,000 feet from a large Ukrainian nuclear plant, Ukraine's military says

A missile landed near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant on Sept. 19, 2022.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense

Jake Epstei Mon, September 19, 2022 

• Ukraine said a Russian missile strike landed less than 1,000 feet from a nuclear power plant on Monday.

• The facility was the country's second-largest plant, the defense ministry said.

• Ukrainian nuclear facilities have not been immune from fighting during the seven-month-long war.

A Russian missile landed less than 1,000 feet from Ukraine's second-largest nuclear power plant, the country's military and state energy operator said on Monday.

Ukraine's defense ministry shared a video of security footage near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, in the country's southern Mykolaiv region, with a timestamp of 12:19 a.m. local time.

The black-and-white video appeared to show the moment the Russian missile struck, illuminating a dark scene with a fireball that was immediately followed by larger second fireball.

"A missile fell 300 meters from the plant," Ukraine's defense ministry said, adding that the Kremlin's "nuclear terrorism continues" and arguing that Russia "is the threat to the whole world."

Energoatom, Ukraine's state nuclear operator, blamed the attack on "Russian terrorists" and said the strike landed close to the plant's reactors. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a top nuclear watchdog, did not immediately publish a statement or assessment of any potential damage. The New York Times, however, quoted Energoatom saying  there was damage to a hydroelectric power station near the nuclear plant but not to any of the plant's essential safety equipment.

Ukraine's nuclear facilities have not been immune to fighting throughout the nearly seven-month-long war. Fighting near the country's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — which is the largest in Europe and has been occupied by Russian forces since March — has raised the alarms at watchdog agencies like the IAEA.

International inspectors have said that reckless shelling could trigger a nuclear disaster and have urged hostilities to cease.

Monday's strike near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant comes after Western intelligence warned that Russian forces are increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure as President Vladimir Putin's forces continue suffer major battlefield defeats in the face of successful Ukrainian counteroffensive moves.

Last week, for example, Russian forces fired a volley of missiles at a local hydraulic structure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown — in what officials said was "revenge" for Ukraine's punishing military advances.

In areas from which Russian forces recently retreated, Ukrainian troops have discovered mass graves and other evidence of wartime atrocities reminiscent of scenes from the Kyiv suburbs that were liberated from Russian occupation during the spring.

Kyiv accuses Russia of strike on southern nuclear plant

Mon, September 19, 2022

Kyiv accused Russia on Monday of attacking Ukraine's second-largest nuclear plant in the south of the war-scarred country, the latest burst of fighting around atomic facilities that has raised fears of a radiation emergency.

The Kremlin meanwhile dismissed outright claims that their forces had been responsible for mass killings in recently captured areas of east Ukraine and said Ukraine's claims it had discovered mass graves were made up.

Ukraine's nuclear energy agency, Energoatom, said the Russian army "carried out a missile attack" on the industrial site of the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, with a "powerful explosion" just 300 metres (985 feet) from its reactors.

The strike damaged more than 100 windows of the power station's building, but the reactors were operating normally, according to the agency, which published photos of glass shattered around blown-out frames.

It also released images of what it said was a two-metre-deep crater from where the missile landed.

"Fortunately, no one among the power plant's staff was hurt," Energoatom said.

Attacks around nuclear facilities in Ukraine have spurred calls from Ukraine and its Western allies to de-militarise areas around the facilities.

Europe's largest atomic facility -- the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Russian-held territory in Ukraine -- has become a hot spot for concerns after tit-for-tat claims of attacks there.

- 'We have to stop' Russia -

Early in Russia's invasion in of Ukraine -- launched in late February -- there was fighting around Chernobyl in the the north, where an explosion in 1986 left swathes of the surrounding territory contaminated.

President Volodymyr blamed Russia for the attack in the southern Mykolaiv region on Monday, which he said resulted in a short power outage at the facility.

"Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it's too late," Zelensky said on Telegram.

The Zaporizhzhia plant was seized by Russian troops in March and shelling around the facility has spurred interventions from Western leaders. A monitoring team of the UN's atomic agency deployed there in early September.

French President Emmanuel Macron this month urged Vladimir Putin to withdraw Russian heavy weapons from the region, while the Russian president cautioned against potential "catastrophic" consequences of fighting there.

The Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, where the Pivdennoukrainsk plant is located, is the near frontline of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south against Russian forces.

Kyiv's forces have slowly but steadily been clawing back territory in the southern Kherson region, next to Mykolaiv, with the aim of capturing the strategically important hub, also called Kherson.

Ukraine's progress has been faster in the north, where a lightning grab this month has seen Kyiv's forces reconquer nearly the entire Kharkiv region.

Those gains have delt a serious blow to Moscow's ambitions of capturing and holding Donbas, a industrial region of eastern Ukraine that has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed rebels since 2014.

"It may seem to some of you that after a series of victories we have a certain lull," Zelensky said in an address to the nation on Sunday evening.

"But this is not a lull. This is preparation ... the whole Ukraine must be free," he said.

- Mass grave 'lies' -

The recapture of cities like Kupiansk and Izyum, which were key hub on Russian resupply routes mean Moscow will have greater difficulty supplying frontline positions elsewhere in east Ukraine.

They have also brought fresh claims of atrocities committed by Russian troops during their months-long hold of Kharkiv-region towns and settlements, particularly after the discovery of mass burial sites.

The Kremlin on Monday denied Russian forces were responsible for mass killings, dismissing the claims as fabricated.

"These are lies," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday. Moscow "will stand up for the truth in this story."

Civilians in towns and cities recaptured by Ukraine, however, have recounted Russia's brutal occupation.

In Kupiansk, a town in Kharkiv, Mykhailo Chindey, said he had been tortured by Russian troops who suspected him of supplying coordinates to Ukrainian forces.

"One person was holding my hand and another one was beating my arm with a metal stick. They were beating me up two hours almost every day," he told AFP.

"I lost consciousness at some point. I lost a lot of blood. They hit my heels, back, legs and kidneys," he said.

Russian forces have meanwhile continued shelling Ukrainian-held towns near the frontlines.

The Ukraine presidency said that Russian forces remaining in the Kharkiv region had fired on a civilian car on Sunday, killing two women.

In the Donetsk region, Russia shelling killed five civilians and injured another 18 people, Kyiv said.

burs-jbr/lth/jm

500 Russian soldiers stationed at occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP, says Zelenskyy

Sun, September 18, 2022 

The Russian occupier at Zaporizhzhya NPP

Read also: Russians attempting to strengthen front lines in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhya oblasts

The President also expressed gratitude to the International Atomic Energy Agency employees who, despite pressure, were able to publish an objective report after visiting the occupied nuclear power plant.

Read also: Russia plans further provocations at Zaporizhzhya NPP, Ukrainian intelligence warns

"By the way, I am very grateful to the IAEA for making fair conclusions despite everything,” Zelenskyy said.

“Despite the fact that Russia put pressure (on them). They called for complete demilitarization only. This is what we constantly reiterated and raised the issue — only complete demilitarization of the nuclear power plant will ensure safety. And even then, we understand that it is not a fact that everything will be safe. Because now it is completely out of operation. The nuclear power plant has six reactors.”


Read also: Backup power line restored at occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP, says IAEA

The ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and has been illegally occupied by Russian forces since March 4. The station’s Ukrainian employees are currently being held captive by invading Russian forces.

Russian troops are known to have set up firing positions at the ZNPP and have regularly shelled Ukrainian cities from them. Energoatom has reported that the Russian military placed more than a dozen pieces of military equipment, including ammunition, weapons, and explosives in the turbine hall of the first reactor of the plant.

Read also: Kyiv demands corridor for evacuation of population from territories surrounding occupied ZNPP, says deputy PM

The invaders also brought additional armored personnel carriers and special trucks to the repair area of the station on Aug. 22.

In total, more than 40 units of Russian military equipment have been placed on the grounds of the facility.

Read also: Zelenskyy agrees with IAEA report that Russian military should quit Zaporizhzhya NPP

On Aug. 25, Russian troops provoked the first temporary disconnection from the power grid in the history of the ZNPP. The ZNPP was against disconnected on Sept. 11, due to further Russian shelling that all power lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power grid.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine

UK
FBI interviews Liz Truss’s chief of staff as witness in alleged bribery case

Ben Riley-Smith
Sun, September 18, 2022 

Mark Fullbrook - Dominic Lipinski

Liz Truss’s chief of staff was interviewed by the FBI as a witness in connection to an alleged bribery case in Puerto Rico, it has emerged.

Mark Fullbrook, who helped run Ms Truss’s leadership campaign and before that was a political consultant, was contacted via the Metropolitan Police.

The allegations centre on Julio Herrera Velutini, an international banker and former Conservative Party donor, and his involvement in Puerto Rican politics.

Mr Fullbrook did some political work for Mr Velutini when he was at CT Group, the lobbying firm founded by Sir Lynton Crosby, the Australian political strategist nicknamed “the wizard of Oz”.

Mr Velutini has been accused of promising to help a governor in the US territory called Wanda Vázquez Garced get re-elected if a regulator investigating his bank was sacked.

Mr Velutini has pleaded not guilty to charges including bribery. Ms Vázquez Garced has been arrested and has declared her innocence. The case is on-going.
Mark Fullbrook’s links

The case and Mr Fullbrook’s links, which first emerged via the Sarawak Report website and Channel Four, were reported by The Sunday Times this weekend.

According to The Sunday Times, the FBI was interested in allegations that Mr Velutini offered to contribute $300,000 to Ms Vázquez Garced’s 2020 re-election campaign.

In return, it is alleged, Mr Velutini demanded that the head of the island’s financial regulator was sacked. The individual is later alleged to have resigned,

Mr Fullbrook was paid for opinion research on the Puerto Rico elections by Mr Velutini. However, the work was only for Mr Velutini, according to Mr Fullbrook’s spokesperson.

Mr Fullbook is understood to have bidded for work with Ms Vázquez Garced’s re-election effort. However, he was unsuccessful in this bid and this meant Mr Fullbook did not end up working directly with the candidate.

It is unusual for a UK political figure to be interviewed by the FBI in relation to a high-profile US investigation.
Only treated as a witness

Mr Fullbrook has only ever been treated as a witness in the matter by US investigators, according to his spokesperson, and has cooperated fully with inquiries.

The allegations, which surfaced during the Tory leadership campaign, have gained more media prominence in the UK since Ms Truss became Prime Minister.

Mr Fullbrook was deputy director of Conservative Campaign Headquarters during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and helped run Sir John Major’s 1992 election campaign.

Mr Fullbrook was more recently a senior figure in CT Group, founded by Sir Lynton and Mark Textor in Australia in 2002, but earlier this year he founded his own lobbying company.
Central role in Liz Truss’s campaign

He was first advising Nadhim Zahawi, now the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on a Tory leadership bid before later playing a central role in Ms Truss’s campaign.

There is no suggestion that Mr Fullbrook was aware of the alleged bribe or committed any wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for Mark Fullbrook said: “As has been made repeatedly clear, Mr Fullbrook is committed to and complies with all laws and regulations in any jurisdiction in which he works and is confident that he has done so in this matter.

“Indeed, Mark Fullbrook is a witness in this matter and has fully, completely and voluntarily engaged with the US authorities in this matter, as he would always do in any circumstance in which his assistance is sought by authorities.

“The work was engaged only by Mr Herrera [Julio Herrera Velutini] and only to conduct opinion research for him and no one else. Mr Fullbrook never did any work for, nor presented any research findings to, the governor or her campaign. There has been no engagement since.

“Mr Fullbrook understands that there are active legal proceedings against other individuals and entities. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment further.”

A Downing Street spokesperson declined to comment.

Witnesses: Myanmar air attack kills 13, including 7 children






A burnt vehicle stands within a monastery that houses a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an air strike hit the school. The attack killed a number of adults and children, according to a school administrator and volunteers assisting displaced people. (AP Photo)

GRANT PECK
Mon, September 19, 2022 

BANGKOK (AP) — Government helicopters have attacked a school and village in north-central Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children, a school administrator and an aid worker said Monday.

Civilian casualties often occur in attacks by the military government on pro-democracy insurgents and their allies. However, the number of children killed in the air attack last Friday in Tabayin township in Sagaing region appeared to be the highest since the army seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The army’s takeover triggered mass nonviolent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. Fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where the military has launched several offensives, in some cases burning villages, which displaced more than half a million people, according to a report issued by UNICEF this month.

Friday’s attack occurred in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin, also known as Depayin, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city.

School administrator Mar Mar said she was trying to get students to safe hiding places in ground floor classrooms when two of four Mi-35 helicopters hovering north of the village began attacking, firing machine guns and heavier weapons at the school, which is located in the compound of the village’s Buddhist monastery.

Mar Mar works at the school with 20 volunteers who teach 240 students from kindergarten to Grade 8. She has been hiding in the village with her three children since fleeing for safety to avoid the government crackdown after participating last year in a civil disobedience movement against the military takeover. She uses the pseudonym Mar Mar to protect herself and relatives from the military.

She said she had not expected trouble since the aircraft had been over the village before without any incident.

“Since the students had done nothing wrong, I never thought that they would be brutally shot by machine guns,” Mar Mar told The Associated Press by phone on Monday.

By the time she and the students and teachers were able to take shelter in the classrooms, one teacher and a 7-year-old student had already been shot in the neck and head and Mar Mar had to use pieces of clothing to try to stanch the bleeding.

“They kept shooting into the compound from the air for an hour,” Mar Mar said. ”They didn’t stop even for one minute. All we could do at that time was chant Buddhist mantras.”

When the air attack stopped, about 80 soldiers entered the monastery compound, firing their guns at the buildings.

The soldiers then ordered everyone in the compound to come out of the buildings. Mar Mar said she saw about 30 students with wounds on their backs, thighs, faces and other parts of the bodies. Some students had lost limbs.

“The children told me that their friends were dying,” she said. “I also heard a student yelling, ’It hurts so much. I can’t take it anymore. Kill me, please.' This voice still echoes in my ears,” Mar Mar said.

She said at least six students were killed in the school and a 13-year-old boy working at a fishery in a nearby village was also fatally shot. At least six adults were also killed in the air attack in other parts of the village, she said. The bodies of the dead children were taken away by the soldiers.

More than 20 people, including nine wounded children and three teachers, were also taken by the soldiers, she said. Two of those captured were accused of being members of the anti-government People's Defense Force, the armed wing of the resistance to the military.

Security forces also burned down a house in the village, causing residents to flee.

A volunteer in Tabayin assisting displaced people who asked not to be identified because of fear of government reprisals said the bodies of the dead children were cremated by the soldiers in nearby Ye U township.

“I am now telling the international community about this because I want redress for our children,” Mar Mar said. “Instead of humanitarian aid, what we really need is genuine democracy and human rights.”

Myanmar Now, an online news service, and other independent Myanmar media also reported the attack and the students’ deaths.

A day after the attack, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported that security forces had gone to check the village after receiving information that the members of the People's Defense Force were hiding there.

The report said members of the People's Defense Force and their allies from the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group, were hiding inside houses and the monastery and started shooting at the security forces, causing deaths and injuries among village residents. It said the injured were taken to hospitals, but did not mention the situation of the students.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors human rights in Myanmar, at least 2,298 civilians have been killed by the security forces since the army seized power last year.

The U.N. has documented 260 attacks on schools and education personnel since the coup, the U.N. Child Rights Committee said in June.