(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 17, 5:55 AM EDT
Zaporizhzhia plant disconnected from power grid
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling on Monday, Energoatom said.
The plant’s diesel generators were started after a “short-term voltage drop,” the energy company said.
“We once again appeal to the international community to urgently take measures for the demilitarization of the ZNPP as soon as possible,” Energoatom said in a statement.
Oct 17, 3:50 AM EDT
Two trapped under rubble after drone strikes, Kyiv mayor says
Eighteen people were rescued and two were trapped under rubble after a Russian drone struck central Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Air raid sirens started blaring in the capital at about 6:30 a.m. on Monday, accompanied by at least three explosions from drone strikes.
A non-residential building in the Shevchenkinskyi district of the city was on fire, Klitschko said. At least one residential building had also been struck, Kira Rudik, a member of Ukrainian Parliament, said on Twitter.
“Critical infrastructure severely damaged. Ruined buildings,” Rudik said. “We have no time for statements about support. We need air defense asap.”
Oct 17, 3:38 AM EDT
Ukraine shoots down 37 drones, military says
Ukrainian forces shot down 37 Russian drones and three cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
Oct 17, 1:39 AM EDT
Drones strike Kyiv, mayor says
Multiple blasts struck Kyiv on Monday morning, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Air raid sirens were sounding in the capital, he said. He asked people to shelter in place.
Klitschko shared a photo on Twitter of what he said was the wreckage of a Kamikaze drone.
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 17, 5:55 AM EDT
Zaporizhzhia plant disconnected from power grid
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling on Monday, Energoatom said.
The plant’s diesel generators were started after a “short-term voltage drop,” the energy company said.
“We once again appeal to the international community to urgently take measures for the demilitarization of the ZNPP as soon as possible,” Energoatom said in a statement.
Oct 17, 3:50 AM EDT
Two trapped under rubble after drone strikes, Kyiv mayor says
Eighteen people were rescued and two were trapped under rubble after a Russian drone struck central Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Air raid sirens started blaring in the capital at about 6:30 a.m. on Monday, accompanied by at least three explosions from drone strikes.
A non-residential building in the Shevchenkinskyi district of the city was on fire, Klitschko said. At least one residential building had also been struck, Kira Rudik, a member of Ukrainian Parliament, said on Twitter.
“Critical infrastructure severely damaged. Ruined buildings,” Rudik said. “We have no time for statements about support. We need air defense asap.”
Oct 17, 3:38 AM EDT
Ukraine shoots down 37 drones, military says
Ukrainian forces shot down 37 Russian drones and three cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
Oct 17, 1:39 AM EDT
Drones strike Kyiv, mayor says
Multiple blasts struck Kyiv on Monday morning, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Air raid sirens were sounding in the capital, he said. He asked people to shelter in place.
Klitschko shared a photo on Twitter of what he said was the wreckage of a Kamikaze drone.
(BEIJING) — In Beijing this Sunday, China’s most consequential political gathering in a generation will open: the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
This year Chinese leader Xi Jinping is tipped be given a norm-breaking third five-year-term as General Secretary of the Communist Party, a more powerful position than the title of president which he is associated with abroad. Equally crucial, a whole contingent of China’s most experienced leaders, especially in the areas of the economy and foreign policy, are slated to retire and a new generation will be ushered in. Will any of them be positioned as Xi’s successor or will the top circle around Xi be stacked with his loyalists, leaving him even more unchallenged?
This is first congress since the pandemic and Xi is expected to use his zero-COVID strategy to cement to authority.
Since the last congress, U.S.-China relations have cratered with the two countries remaining at odds over Xi’s “without limits” friendship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the western region of Xinjiang, the crackdown in Hong Kong, a tech competition over semiconductors and U.S. support for Taiwan.
What is the Party Congress?
The gathering, held every five years, brings together China’s top Communist Party members behind the closed doors of Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. This is the 20th nationwide congress since the party’s founding in 1921.
The Communist Party technically provides guidance and direction to China’s government, the State Council which is comprised almost completely of party members. The party uses these gatherings to discuss and approve the party’s long-term goals as well appoint the top leadership of the party and, by extension, the country.
This gathering will also drastically reshuffle the party’s leadership.
Out of 96 million Communist Party members, a select 2,296 delegates will converge on the Great Hall of The People to elect 205 of its members to the Central Committee and then the 25-seat Politburo. Due to an established retirement age limit of 68, the South China Morning Post tally found that nearly half of the Central Committee members are expected to be replaced.
These elite party members will also decide who gets to sit in the inner sanctum of party power, the Politburo Standing Committee — the top decision-making body in China. The current leadership has seven members with Xi at the very top.
This was the path Xi took himself. After much of his adult life in local-level politics, Xi was elevated to the national stage at the 16th Party Congress in 2002 and then was elected to the Standing Committee in 2007 during the 17th Party Congress, making him a viable successor. At the 18th Party Congress in 2012, he rose to the top in an opaque jockeying process.
While there was never a term limit for Xi’s position as General Secretary, there was a two-term limit for the presidency until 2018. The two positions are usually served concurrently along with a third position — the head of the military — so it became the norm in the 1980s to serve two terms as head of the party to fit the term limit for the presidency. This was put in place at the time to ensure collective leadership at the top of the party and prevent an extended cult of personality with one-man rule — as seen under Mao Zedong — along with an orderly transition of power. The previous congress in 2017 paved the way for the presidential term limit to be thrown out shortly afterwards.
Xi is 69 this year and the rules and norms are not expected to apply to him this time around.
What to expect this week
The Party Congress will run from Oct. 16 to roughly the 20th with much of the proceedings happening behind closed doors. Most of the media will be kept away in the media center in a separate part of town, ostensibly because of COVID protocols.
Xi will open the Congress on Sunday with a marathon speech recapping the achievements of the party under his leadership and his vision forward. Xi’s speech in 2017 lasted three-and-a-half hours.
State media this week say that the party will use Xi’s signature zero-COVID policy to bolster his rule.
“China has waged an all-out war against the COVID-19 pandemic which protected public health to the maximum extent,” the communique read, commending Xi for “putting people’s lives first.”
With only 5,226 official COVID deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, China’s death rate is far below many countries around the world. Xi often cites the low death rate as proof of China’s superiority over the West despite its impact this year on the economy. China remains the only major country still seeking to control the virus.
The communique also praised Xi on his Hong Kong crackdown and his strong response opposing “Taiwan Independence” alluding to the massive military drills Xi, as head of the PLA, unleashed around the island after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August visit there.
China’s economy will be the most critical issue, especially if the party wants China on track to overtake the United States as the world biggest economy by the end of the decade. Observers are watching to see if Xi offers a road-map out of China’s COVID isolation to rejoin much of the world.
Xi will also have to the contend with what to do about the spiraling relationship with the United States.
The most important event will take place at the end, on the morning of Oct. 21 when the new lineup of the Politburo Standing Committee will be unveiled. These will be China’s top leaders working with Xi for the next five years.
Members of the committee will be unveiled to the public one by one as walk onto a red-carpeted dais, in order of seniority, starting with Xi. As of right now only Xi is expected to stay on.
Who will be Premier? Will Xi elevate a potential successor? And other pressing questions
Arguably the most important position will be who walks in after Xi. The second-in-line will usually end up as premier eventually, overseeing the day-to-day government and traditionally steering the economy. The current number two, Li Keqiang, indicated that he will retire as premier this coming March but at 67, he is still technically “young” enough to stay on. A trained economist, Li returned to prominence in recent months as the country’s economy slowed under Xi’s zero-COVID policies.
If Li steps aside, will his place be filled with a Xi loyalist or someone nurtured under previous Chinese leaders who still hold some sway behind the scenes? If the person doesn’t end up being a Xi loyalist it could possibly mean that some in the party still want to reign in Xi’s more conservative economic tendencies.
Also, would there be a potential successor amongst those chosen?
Xi was seen as the next leader-in-waiting when he was elevated to the Standing Committee in 2007 at the age of 54, five years before he reached the top spot. If, by the end of the Congress, there is no clear rising star among the top ranks, it may signal that Xi intends to rule securely into a fourth term.
(LONDON) — Climate protesters threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting Friday to protest the extraction and use of fossil fuels.
Members of Just Stop Oil, wearing T-shirts bearing the name of the group, poured two cans of tomato soup over the famous painting located at the National Gallery in London, as seen in a video posted to Twitter by the group.
However, the painting was protected by glass and doesn’t appear to have suffered any damage.
Two women then glue their hands to the wall just under the work of art, the video shows.
“What is worth more: art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?” one of the activists yells, adding, “are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people?”
She continued, “The cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost of oil crisis. Fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup.”
A statement from the National Gallery said the incident occurred just after 11:00 a.m. local time.
“The room was cleared of visitors and police were called. Officers are now on the scene,” the statement read. “There is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed. Two people have been arrested.”
The National Gallery would not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. The Metropolitan Police has been reached out to for comment.
On Twitter, the group has called for roads across London to be blocked every day in October to protest fossil fuels.
Earlier this year, the group has attempted to draw attention to climate change by gluing their hands to other famous works of art.
In July, members of Just Stop Oil glued their hands to a frame holding a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at London’s Royal Academy of Art and to the frame of a J.M.W. Turner painting at Manchester Art Gallery
Also in July, a separate group of activists glued their hands to Sandro Botticelli’s “Primavera” in Florence to protest the use of gas and coal.
(NEW YORK) — Venezuelans who enter the U.S. illegally at ports of entry along the southern border will be returned to Mexico under the authority of Title 42, a public health statute invoked at the start of the pandemic by the Trump administration that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants, senior Biden administration officials said Wednesday.
The policy went into effect on Wednesday and, consistent with other Title 42 expulsion protocols, is expected to severely limit opportunities for migrants to apply for humanitarian relief and remain in the U.S. for an extended period.
DHS is currently under a court order to enforce Title 42.
The agency also announced it will bring 24,000 Venezuelan nationals to the U.S. as part of a new policy aimed at encouraging lawful entries through airports into the interior of the U.S.
Citing the large increase in Venezuelan nationals attempting to cross the southern border, the DHS says Venezuelans will need a sponsor in the United States to enter the country legally. That can be done online, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Wednesday night.
“This program is meant and is intended to address particular acute issues that we’re facing at the border and to provide an opportunity for vulnerable Venezuelans to seek means of entering the United States in a lawful way in the interior without showing up at the southern border,” a senior administration official said.
Venezuelans who are illegally in the United States currently will not be affected by this announcement, only those who are at the southern border after the announcement was made.
They did not go into specifics as to why they capped the program at 24,000.
The department says the actions were done in conjunction with the Mexican government and senior administration officials who said after the migrants are sent back to Mexico, it is up to the Mexican government what happens to them.
“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Those who attempt to cross the southern border of the United States illegally will be returned to Mexico and will be ineligible for this process in the future. Those who follow the lawful process will have the opportunity to travel safely to the United States and become eligible to work here.”
Advocates for migrants say the policy is “problematic” and “inhumane.”
“First, it creates an application process for ‘up to 24,000’ Venezuelan migrants to enter the United States by air to an interior port of entry. To be approved, an applicant must, among other things, have a financial supporter on U.S. soil,” Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in a statement. “Second, any Venezuelan migrant who attempts to enter the United States between ports of entry will now be: (1) returned to Mexico under the Trump-era Title 42 policy; and (2) made ineligible to apply for legal entry through the newly established process.”
A senior administration official did not say whether the policy will apply to other Central American Northern Triangle countries.
That official said Venezuelans will be able to fly from Mexico to the interior of the United States to be processed at an airport, in an effort to alleviate southern border congestion.
DHS is also launching a targeted human smuggling initiative with the government of Mexico.
Chad Wolf, the former acting secretary of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump, said the policy will do little to solve the “crisis along the border.”
“Yesterday’s announcement from DHS is an attempt to solve a problem that has been wholly self-inflicted by the Biden Admin’s open border policies. Venezuelans, as well as over a hundred other nationalities, have taken advantage of the lax border policies of this administration,” Wolf tweeted. “Now, after more than 21 months of ignoring reality, Biden’s DHS now recognizes the importance of implementing deterrence measures put in place by the Trump Admin. Unfortunately, this action applies to only one nationality and will do little to solve the crisis along the border.”
(NEW YORK) — When Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh were captured by Russians in Ukraine over the summer and later held in a “black site” for a month, where the two Alabama men said they endured daily torture and lived on spoiled bread and dirty water, they expected death at any moment.
“I am going to die from this situation, or they are going to kill me,” Drueke said he thought during that time.
“We prayed for death. We just wanted to die. We just wanted it to end,” Huynh added.
In their first broadcast interview together, the two U.S. military veterans told ABC News that, although they were from the same state, they did not know each other when they met in Ukraine, where they had traveled to offer their services, either in humanitarian work or training troops.
“I did not go over there to fight specifically. But I understood that that was a very real possibility,” Drueke said.
What he and Huynh shared, he said, was concern that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would be successful and then spread across Europe.
“We could see that there was a very good possibility this could grow into something much, much larger … We didn’t know how big this was going to get. So it was best to stop it early,” he said.
Drueke, 40, retired from the U.S. Army after 12 years, during which he served two tours of duty in Iraq and ended his career as a platoon sergeant.
Huynh, 27, a Marine who was living outside Huntsville with his girlfriend, was working as a delivery driver and going to school when he watched the invasion on television. Volunteering to fight was justified, he said, to prevent “World War III.”
“It felt wrong just to sit back and do nothing,” he said.
For the following month, the invasion “kept gnawing” at him until he was losing sleep.
“I didn’t want to do nothing. The situation in Ukraine was all I could really think about,” he said.
Both men arrived in Ukraine in early April. They entered the country separately through Poland and, through different circumstances, ended up serving in a unit for Ukraine’s foreign legion. Their capture two months later, on June 9, resulted from a mission gone wrong. Although both men said they would not offer specific details in order to not compromise Ukraine’s ongoing efforts, they said it did take place during a drone reconnaissance mission, which involved scouting areas for intelligence.
“What could go wrong went wrong,” Drueke said.
“It was very unfortunate how it played out, but just everything went wrong,” and the two men found themselves facing a battalion where a firefight broke out, he said.
They evaded capture for eight hours after running through thick woods where they dodged active drones and land mines they said. Eventually, they said they were surrounded, ordered to their knees, their hands bound, and bags thrust over their heads.
“We were pretty darn sure they were going to execute us right then and there,” Drueke said.
Both men were moved to outposts until they ended up in a “black site,” where they said they were interrogated, beaten, deprived of sleep and forced for hours to sit blindfolded, on their knees, and with their hands across their necks. Drueke’s ribs were forcibly cracked.
What kept them going was thinking of their families. Huynh got engaged days before leaving while Drueke, who is not married, left behind an extended family and his dog, Diesel. While imprisoned, they said their sole objective was to look out for the other person.
“We were bonded for life,” Drueke said. “My mission was to keep Andy alive, and his mission was to keep me alive. And that’s all it was.”
The men spent 105 days in captivity before their release in late September, along with eight other foreign-born volunteer fighters from England and Canada and more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers. During their captivity, Russians forced them to make propaganda videos, give interviews to journalists sympathetic to Russia and contact different government agencies in the U.S., including the State Department. Drueke, who his captors chose as the duo’s spokesperson, was allowed to make frequent calls to his family in Tallahatchie. Those calls, Drueke said, were made under duress.
“The guys beating me were in the room with me,” he said.
While being transported, their bodies were stacked on top of one another, they said, along with other prisoners, in the vehicle. In prison, they suffered solitary confinement. Their captors, they said, were wrongly convinced they were spies.
“They wanted to believe that we were something special,” Huynh said.
Now home, the men are inseparable, as are their families, who bonded in their absence. They said they have no regrets and are open to returning to Ukraine to help rebuild once the conflict ends. Drueke said he believes their capture helped the Biden administration open channels to Ukraine that hadn’t been opened yet.
“I hope that we had an impact,” he said.
Civilians remain imprisoned in the same locations they were kept for more than three months.
“We feel guilty that we got traded and they are still there … That’s one of the worst feelings you can have,” Huynh said.
While Ukrainians will need continued humanitarian help for years, they said they’re convinced the country will emerge victorious over Russia.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin underestimated them … They are very united as a people. They are not going to give up, no matter what,” Drueke said.
(LONDON) — Ukraine’s nuclear energy company has accused Russia of “kidnapping” a top official at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for the second time this month, amid growing concerns about the safety and security of the Russian-controlled facility.
Energoatom claimed that Russian forces kidnapped Valery Martynyuk, the deputy general director for human resources of the plant, on Monday and “are holding him in an unknown place.”
Earlier this month, Energoatom said that Russia had seized the director general of the plant, Ihor Murashov. He was released two days later and has not returned to the facility, officials said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has been caught in the crossfire of the war nearly from the start. Shortly after invading neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian troops stormed the plant, strategically located on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. Russian forces gained control of the plant, though it continues to be run by Ukrainian staff as it supplies electricity to the country.
Experts and workers have raised alarms about the potential for a catastrophic nuclear disaster as it continues to come under shelling, and staff have reported that the conditions can be intimidating and stressful.
The alleged kidnappings come amid renewed tensions at the plant and increased attacks on the Zaporizhzhia region, where the plant is located. Zaporizhzhia is one of the four regions where Russia held sham “referendums” to annex the territory in violation of international laws.
On Oct. 5, the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws claiming the annexation of the regions, the Kremlin announced plans for its own personnel to supervise operations of the Zaporizhzhia plant. Energoatom chief Petro Kotin rejected the plan and said Ukraine will continue to operate the plant.
The staff at the facility have faced “enormous pressure,” including recent demands to sign a new employment contract with the Russian nuclear company Rosatom while Energoatom urges them not to, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
With the latest incident, Energoatom claimed in a statement on Telegram that “the Russians are trying to get the much-needed information about the personal affairs of Zaporizhzhia NPP employees in order to force Ukrainian personnel to work at Rosatom as soon as possible,” accusing the Russians of torturing staff.
Kotin has previously said he believes that Russia intends to switch power to Russian-controlled areas. If Russia is able to switch the grid to Russian-controlled areas, Ukraine could also lose a significant source of power. In August, Kotin told ABC News that nuclear power generated at the Zaporizhzhya plant supplies around 20% of Ukraine’s energy.
In demanding the release of Murashov, Kotin called on Russia to “stop immediately the acts of nuclear terrorism towards the management and personnel.”
Russia has not publicly commented on the kidnapping allegations.
The IAEA, which has staff at the plant, has also not commented on the latest kidnapping allegations, though it said Murashov’s detention had “an immediate and serious impact on decision-making in ensuring the safety and security of the plant.”
The group has also raised concerns about the ability of the staff to “fulfill their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.”
The staff has been “subjected to unacceptable pressure, carrying out their crucial work tasks under increasingly difficult conditions with potentially severe consequences for nuclear safety and security,” the IAEA said.
The leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers condemned Russia’s actions at the plant “and the pressure exerted on the personnel of the facility” in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The conditions at the plant, which include reports of staff working at gunpoint, undermine morale and the safety of the facility, said Nickolas Roth, senior director of nuclear materials security for the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
“It’s essential that there’ll be strong leaders at Zaporizhzhia who are willing to prioritize the safety and security of the facility, and I worry that by essentially terrorizing the senior management of this facility, that that has been undermined,” he told ABC News.
Ongoing shelling near the facility has disrupted its power supply in recent days and weeks. The kidnapping reports only add to the challenging conditions at the plant, Roth said.
“We need to not just protect the physical facility itself — the reactors, the spent fuel pools, the off-site power lines — but we have to protect the people there, as well,” he said. “This is not sustainable. You can’t operate a nuclear facility safely under these conditions.”
The reported kidnappings come amid continued calls for a security protection zone around the Russian-occupied facility — the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Military attacks increase the risk of a nuclear accident if the plant’s external power lines are damaged, according to the IAEA.
“Now more than ever, during these extremely difficult times, a protection zone must be established around ZNPP,” Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s director general, said in a statement Wednesday, as he met with Putin to discuss a demilitarized zone around the plant. “We can’t afford to lose more time. We must do everything in our power to help ensure that a nuclear accident does not happen during this tragic conflict.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected any proposals to remove its troops, with a Russian Foreign Ministry official previously saying it would “make the plant even more vulnerable.”
(LONDON) — An American citizen has been killed fighting in Ukraine, a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
The State Department spokesperson did not confirm the man’s identity, but the sister of Dane Partridge confirmed he was the victim. The State Department only verified that a U.S. citizen had recently been killed in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
ABC News spoke with Dane’s sister Jenny Partridge Corry by phone who confirmed the death.
ABC News’ Amantha Cherry contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of pilot whales that beached on the Chatham Islands in the last week died of natural causes or were euthanized, according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.
Officials responded to two mass strandings of pilot whales. The first group of 240 pilot whales beached in the northwest of Chatham Island, also called Rēkohu or Wharekauri, on Oct. 7. Days after, the second stranding occurred at Waihere Bay on Pitt Island, also known as Rangihaute or Rangiāuria, on Oct. 10, also involving almost 240 pilot whales.
Some whales were dead on arrival and others were put down, said Dave Lundquist, DOC’s technical advisor marine species and threats. The whales will decompose, Lundquist added.
“We do not actively refloat whales on the Chatham Islands due to the risk of shark attack to humans and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the kindest option,” Lundquist said.
The remote Chatham Islands are a hotspot for cetacean graves. The largest recorded pilot whale stranding was 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918.
“This is a sad event for the team and the community, with many people being affected by it,” Lundquist said.
Pilot whales tend to be the most frequent causalities of mass strandings, said the DOC. Though the exact reason behind whale strandings remains unclear, a few traits unique to this species of aquatic mammal make them more likely to be beached.
Pilot whales utilize echolocation for directions. Navigation errors occur, including human intervention, meaning the whales can accidentally trap themselves in a shallow bay or beach bar.
Another reason for stranding could be a disease. When whales from a pod are infected by a virus or toxic algae, they may all become sick and unable to swim, beaching themselves in response.
Pilot whales, uniquely, are social creatures, moving in large groups, said Anaïs Remili, a Ph.D. candidate and whale researcher at McGill University. When something goes awry, like a mistake in echolocation or an illness, pilot whales tend to beach themselves altogether.
“As we’ve seen with COVID, it’s quite easy to transfer a virus when you’re living in close quarters,” Remili said. “That’s what happens with stranded whales.”
On the bright side, Remili said, pilot whales are not an endangered species. Plus, mass strandings can inform environmentalists about the impact of climate change. If mass strandings become more common, then scientists can sample the dead individuals to understand if there is an ecological link to pollution.
“This is an incredibly sad event but we can use it to understand how our world is changing,” Remili said.
(LONDON) — After President Vladimir Putin’s decree to mobilize Russia on Sept. 21, a secretive Russian protest group called Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) instructed women to wear black and hold white flowers as they march the nation’s streets, a striking demonstration of grief.
“Your son, your father, your brother can be in a warzone,” said FAR coordinator Lolja Nordic. “We want the Russian army weaker. We don’t need more ordinary civilians turned into dead soldiers.”
Russia has a history of women’s activism, both in Soviet and post-Soviet times, in spite of women’s chronic political underrepresentation, including FAR’s action on March 8 — International Women’s Day — organized in remembrance of Ukrainians killed in the war, which compelled peace campaigners to protest in 112 cities.
FAR originated on Feb. 25, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, and even though the number of members is not exact, the group has over 42,000 Telegram subscribers.
“We are the opposition to war, patriarchy, authoritarianism and militarism,” the organization’s manifesto, which has been translated into 13 languages, reads. “We are the future, and we will win.”
Due to her participation with FAR, Nordic notes that she has been surveilled, cyberattacked and arrested four times, her home has been raided twice and her devices were confiscated. After she was exiled to Tallinn, Estonia, she decided to forego her anonymity.
“All our participants are aware: none of what we do is 100% safe,” Nordic said.
FAR, though not exclusive to women, organizes online and street protests, posts strategies for avoiding conscription, disseminates anti-war messaging and volunteers with aiding Ukrainian refugees. The group also pays legal costs via crowdsourcing for residents who face illegal termination from their jobs for opposing the war.
Nearly eight months since the invasion, FAR is now active in over 40 Russian cities, says another FAR coordinator Julia, whose last name has been redacted for her security.
“Before the war, for most Russians, there was an illusion that politics won’t affect their lives,” Julia said. “Now, political decisions severely affect their lives.”
A former biochemistry student, activism now monopolizes Julia’s time and, in March, the 24-year-old fled her home in Russia to another European country.
“When Western journalists think of Russia, they think people here are super supportive of their, like, führer,” said Julia. “But that’s not the case.”
Putin has been threatening to use nuclear weapons since the beginning of his war in Ukraine. But in his Sept. 30 speech in which he formally and illegally proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, the Russian president intensified his rhetoric.
Julia described the notion of introducing nuclear weaponry to this war as, “horrible, horrible, absolutely horrible.”
“Putin and his political allies have lost any connection with the real world,” she added while noting she can’t predict what could possibly come next in the conflict.
At the latest count, more than 14,900 Russian people have been detained by security forces and police for protesting, according to OVD-Info, a Russian human rights organization.
FAR exists among a coalition of anti-war groups and dissenters in Russia. Founded in 2013, Vesna is a Russian youth organization working towards liberal democracy. Vesna has a core group of about a hundred members who have been thoroughly checked, said Vesna leader Maria Lakhina who handles finances and works in Vesna’s international cooperation team.
To eventually reach its goal of a liberal democratic state, Lakhina added, Vesna wants to topple the current Russian regime, promote the values of human rights and the rule of law.
“It may sound unrealistic, but we believe it is the only way our country may positively change,” Lakhina said.
Growing up in Siberia, 26-year-old Lakhina, lived in St. Petersburg for the past six years before emigrating to Yerevan, Armenia, in March. She participated in two rallies in St. Petersburg but was arrested during the last one.
After she left the country, Lakhina coordinated four more rallies, two of which were anti-war rallies in March and two anti-mobilization rallies in September. Lakhina now receives treatment for trauma symptoms, insomnia and panic attacks.
“I shut down emotions and bury them in work as much as possible,” said Lakhina. “That does not sound healthy, and it will probably have consequences in the future, but that is the only way to stay productive in our field in times like this.”
