IMPORTANT | | |  | Ukraine Nuclear Blaze | Russia Seizes Nuclear Plant After Fire Extinguished Russian shelling early Friday caused a fire inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex in southern Ukraine. The fire, which was confined to a training building and has not led to an increase in radiation levels, has since been extinguished. Europe’s largest nuclear plant is now under Russian control. Ukraine’s nuclear authorities said that one of the six units was operating, another was in “outage,” two were being cooled down, and two others had been disconnected from the grid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that an explosion at the complex would be “the end for everybody, the end of Europe.” (Sources: NYT, BBC) |
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|  | Iron Fist | No Respite for Ukraine as War Enters Ninth Day If anything, the bombardment is intensifying. The southern city of Mariupol remains under Ukrainian control, according to the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense, “but has likely been encircled by Russian forces” and is being continually shelled. To the north, 47 people were killed in Russian airstrikes on the city of Chernihiv on Thursday. Kyiv suffered only intermittent shelling overnight, but reports that more Russian troops are being sent to join the massive Russian military convoy on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital don’t bode well. Western foreign ministers meet in Brussels today, but talking is unlikely to solve Ukraine’s problems. (Sources: BBC, DW, Reuters) |
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|  | Progress on Plastics | 175 Nations Agree to End Plastic Pollution At a meeting of the U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, 175 countries agreed to a legally binding global treaty to combat plastic waste. Hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic end up in oceans every year. Delegates met to discuss two potential deals, but the more ambitious one — which advocated tackling the material’s entire supply chain — won out. While the details still have to be ironed out, it’s hoped the deal will take effect within three years. Inger Anderson, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, says it’s the “biggest multilateral environmental deal” since the 2015 Paris climate agreement. (Source: New Scientist) |
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|  | Oz Under Water | Floods in Eastern Australia Kill at Least 17 A week of torrential rain in northern New South Wales and southeast Queensland has left thousands of homes underwater and claimed the lives of at least 17 people. A “rain bomb” dumped 27.5 inches on the town of Lismore in just 30 hours, leading one official to describe the floods as a “one-in-1,000-year” event. As the long cleanup begins, regions to the south — including Sydney — are bracing themselves for a wave of water. “We won’t be reopening here,” said Mark Bailey, who owns a collectibles store in Lismore. “And I would be surprised if half of the street ever does.” (Source: The Guardian) |
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|  | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: Stocks tumble further. Stock markets extended their losses in early trading as investors shifted to safe havens like gold and government bonds following the Ukraine nuclear plant fire. (Source: Reuters). Mine collapses. At least 18 people have been killed after an informal gold mine in western Guinea collapsed. The search for survivors continues. (Source: Al Jazeera) Suspended sentence. Greg Kelly, the American former deputy boss of Nissan, has been sentenced to six months in jail by a Japanese court for concealing Carlos Ghosn’s pay. The sentence was suspended for three years so Kelly can walk free. (Source: NYT) |
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| INTRIGUING | | | | | Let Them Go Extinct | Report Proposes Radical Response to Abalone Poaching in South Africa Abalone poaching, controlled by criminal gangs and tied to the illegal drug trade, has been decimating coastal communities in South Africa since the 1990s. A new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime details the many harms associated with the trade — resource collapse, turf wars, corruption, the erosion of state institutions — before proposing a radical solution: Let abalone go locally extinct. While this would create a spike in harvesting it would eventually kill the market and the social damage caused by it, the report argues. Since abalone is commercially farmed, it could be reintroduced at a later stage. (Source: Daily Maverick) |
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| | | Education Nation | 76,000 Foreign Students Were Studying in Ukraine Reports of harsh treatment toward Black refugees fleeing the Russian invasion have proved that racism has no limits. But why were so many young Africans and Asians in Ukraine? The country’s universities are respected and affordable, with simple visa terms — and are seen as a gateway to the European job market and the possibility of permanent residency. When Russia invaded, the country was home to more than 20,000 Indian students and about the same number from African countries. Mamady Doumbouya, a computer science student from Guinea, said, “I want to go back to my country, we can’t study in war.” (Source: BBC) |
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| | | The Day the Music Died | Ukrainian Musicians Are Using Social Media to Change Russian Minds Rock star turned war reporter. Metalcore bassist turned aid worker. Folk singer turned trauma counselor. Since the Russian invasion, music stars in Ukraine have been forced to carve new careers for themselves. Many are also using their public profiles to educate Russian fans about what’s really going on in their country. Svyatoslav Vakarchuk — possibly Ukraine’s most popular singer as frontman for rock band Okean Elzy — has been posting regular updates to his fans, many of whom are Russian. In one, he’s visiting wounded soldiers in a hospital; in another he’s in a bulletproof vest, making a speech on the streets of Kharkiv. (Source: BBC) |
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| | | Martian Marigold | Curiosity Rover Discovers Tiny, Flower-Like Rock Formation Every flower blooms in its own time. Now into its 10th year of exploring the red planet, the Curiosity rover has discovered a tiny rock formation resembling a flower or piece of coral. This follows the discovery of Martian “blueberries” in 2015. Such finds help scientists to understand the chronology of water’s presence in Gale Crater. NASA said the “flower” was probably “made in the ancient past when minerals carried by water cemented the rock.” It is hoped that the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers and the Ingenuity helicopter will eventually help us work out whether life ever existed on Mars. (Source: CNN) |
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| | | Curve Ball | Max Scherzer Is Baseball’s Unlikely Labor Broker The Mets ace should be the last person to argue with MLB’s wage structure. In a glittering career he’s signed deals worth a combined $340 million and he earns around $233,000 a day. So why did Scherzer spend nine days, including 16 hours on Monday as the deadline approached, passionately negotiating between team owners and the players’ union? “It’s not about me,” he explained, but for the 60% of players paid the MLB-minimum of $570,500 a year and the minor leaguers earning much less. The first two series of the season have been canceled while the union and the league continue negotiations. (Sources: NYT, ESPN) |
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