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U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for foreign inspectors to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia exchanged fees for the bombing of Europe’s largest nuclear plant over the weekend.
“Any attack on a nuclear power plant is suicidal,” Guterres told a news conference in Japan, where he attended the Rite of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on Saturday to mark the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.
Russian forces captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex in southeastern Ukraine in early March, shortly after Moscow invaded its neighbor, but it is still run by Ukrainian technicians.
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Ukraine accused Russia of being guilty for the resumption of bombings on Saturday that broke 3 radiation sensors and injured a factory employee in what hit the moment on several consecutive days at the site.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a televised speech on Sunday, said Russia was engaged in a “nuclear terror” that justified more foreign sanctions, this time against Moscow’s nuclear industry.
The Russian-installed authority in the region said Ukrainian forces attacked the site with a rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and a domain near a garage.
The Russian embassy in Washington also detailed the damage, saying artillery fire from “Ukrainian nationalists” broke two high-voltage power lines and a water pipe, but critical infrastructure was not affected.
Reuters can simply determine the edition of what happened from either party.
Events in Zaporizhzhia, where Kyiv alleged Russia hit a line of force on Friday, alarmed the world.
Guterres said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed access to the plant. “We fully support the IAEA in all its efforts to create the conditions to stabilize the plant,” he said.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned Saturday that the latest attack “underscores the genuineness of a nuclear catastrophe. “
Separately, a deal to unlock Ukraine’s food exports and ease global shortages accelerated when two grain shipments departed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Monday, bringing the total to 12 since the first shipment departed a week ago.
Four ships that left Ukraine on Sunday are expected to drop anchor near Istanbul on Monday night, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, and would be inspected on Tuesday, while the first ship to set sail since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24 docked.
The last two ships to depart were carrying some 59,000 tonnes of corn and soybeans and were heading to Italy and southeastern Turkey after inspections. The four who left on Sunday were carrying about 170,000 tons of corn and other food.
The July 22 grain export pact negotiated through Turkey and the United Nations represents a rare diplomatic triumph as fighting in Ukraine continues and aims to mitigate rising global food costs as a result of the war.
Before Moscow’s invasion, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports. Unrest since then has raised the specter of famine in some parts of the world.
Russia says it is conducting a “special army operation” in Ukraine to get rid of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West describe Russia’s moves as an unprovoked imperial-style war to win back a pro-Western neighbor lost in the war. Disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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He has displaced millions, killed thousands of civilians and left cities, towns and villages in ruins.
It turned into a war of attrition concentrated in southern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are seeking to take over the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists seized the territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea to the south in 2014.
“Ukrainian infantrymen are firmly defending themselves, causing casualties to the enemy and are in a position to replace them in the operational situation,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in an operational update on Monday.
Russian forces on Sunday intensified their attacks north and northwest of the Russian city of Donetsk in Donbass, the Ukrainian military said. He said the Russians attacked Ukrainian positions near the heavily fortified settlements of Piski and Avdiivka, as well as shelled other posts in Donetsk province.
In addition to tightening its grip on Donbass, Russia is strengthening its position in southern Ukraine, where it has amassed troops in an effort to save it from an imagined counteroffensive near Kherson, Kyiv said.
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Russian news firm Interfax quoted a Russian-appointed official in the southeastern city of Kherson as saying on Monday that Ukrainian forces had bombed the Antonivskyi Bridge, damaging the structure and delaying its reopening.
The bridge is one of two problems of crossing of the Russian forces into the territory they occupied on the west bank of the main Dnipro River, to the south.
It has been a key target of Ukraine in recent weeks, with Kyiv employing high-precision rockets provided by the US. The U. S. department of the U. S. to try to destroy it in preparation for a possible counterattack.
The government of Chilean President Gabriel Boric said On Tuesday it had reactivated efforts to pass a bill that would reduce operating hours in the country and fulfill a crusade promise. The bill, which aims to reduce the workweek from 45 to 40 hours within five years, has stalled in Congress since it was introduced in 2017 through then-lawmaker and current government spokeswoman Camila Vallejo.
An Islamabad court on Tuesday summoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan to face contempt charges next week for his verbal threats instead of sentencing at a rally over the weekend. Pakistani capital overnight and they took him handcuffed for questioning. This is the moment when Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician, faces contempt charges.
Photos of Elon Musk from his school years and with his school friend have appeared, courtesy of Jennifer Gwynne, who has now put those never-before-seen photos on sale to raise money for her son-in-law’s tuition. Gwynne reportedly dated Elon Musk in 1994 while they were reading at the University of Pennsylvania and the relationship lasted a year.
As terrorist incidents continue unabated, ongoing talks between the Pakistani government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan detained in Afghanistan are heading for collapse. In July, Pakistan recorded 99 terrorism-related deaths against 102 in June. The rift within the ruling alliance, the bitterness between Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf of Pakistan and the government, and the dire economic situation are preparing to further destabilize the system.
The United States won a sufficient number of programs needed to meet the 65,000 H1-B visa cap imposed by Congress for fiscal year 2023, the country’s federal immigration firm announced Tuesday. The H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa that allows U. S. corporations to employ foreign personnel in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Tech corporations are counting on this to hire thousands of employees each year in countries like India and China.
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