Month: September 2022

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are used to risky missions — from the radioactive aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in Japan to the politically charged Iranian nuclear program. But their deployment amid the war in Ukraine to Zaporizhzhia takes the threat to a new level and underscores the lengths to which the organization will go in attempts to avert a potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster. The 6-month war sparked by Russia’s invasion of its western neighbor is forcing international organizations, not just the IAEA, to deploy teams during active hostilities in their efforts to impose order around Ukraine’s nuclear …

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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has sent a special envoy to attend this weekend’s beatification of former Pope John Paul I, saying it demonstrates the close relations between the island and the Vatican, which has been courting China. The Vatican is Chinese-claimed Taiwan’s sole European diplomatic ally, and Taipei has watched with concern as Pope Francis has moved to improve relations with China. The democratically governed island has formal ties with only 14 countries, largely due to Chinese pressure. In a statement late Friday, Taiwan’s presidential office said former Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a devout Catholic, would attend Sunday’s ceremony as …

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An energy battle between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine revved up Friday with Moscow delaying the reopening of its main gas pipeline to Germany and G-7 nations announcing a price cap on Russian oil exports. Russian energy giant Gazprom said it could not resume the supply of natural gas to Germany, just hours before it was set to restart deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia blamed a technical fault in the pipeline for the move, which is likely to worsen Europe’s energy crisis. European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said Friday on Twitter that Gazprom …

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A new hormone treatment improved the cognitive function of six men with Down syndrome by 10% to 30%, scientists said this week, adding the “promising” results may raise hopes of improving patients’ quality of life. However, the scientists emphasized the small study did not point toward a cure for the cognitive disorders of people with Down syndrome and that far more research is needed. “The experiment is very satisfactory, even if we remain cautious,” Nelly Pitteloud of Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital, co-author of a new study in the journal Science, said Thursday. Down syndrome is the most common genetic form …

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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. IAEA team visits Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi led a team of inspectors to Ukraine this week on a support and assistance mission. He met in Kyiv with President Volodoymr Zelenskyy on Tuesday and then traveled through Ukrainian-held territory to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is in a Russian-controlled area. Grossi has been appealing to the parties for months to let his team inspect the plant to avert …

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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that he and his team saw everything they asked to see at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, were not surprised by anything, and he will issue a report early next week on his findings. “My concern would be the physical integrity — would be the power supply and of course the staff,” Rafael Mariano Grossi told reporters at the airport in Vienna moments after landing. He said it is very important for the IAEA to have a physical presence at the facility. “What we are doing there is …

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U.N. agencies are quickly mobilizing resources and staff to assess the damage and provide aid needed to assist millions of people made homeless and destitute by flooding in Pakistan. Extensive rains, which have pummeled Pakistan since June, have inundated the country, putting a third of it under water. The United Nations said more than 1,100 people are known to have died, over 6,000 have been injured, 33 million have been left homeless and hundreds of thousands of buildings and infrastructure damaged or destroyed. Aid agencies said bridges have been destroyed and roads turned into mud, cutting off access to many …

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Group of Seven finance ministers agreed Friday to impose a price cap on Russian oil aimed at slashing revenues for Moscow’s war in Ukraine while keeping crude flowing to avoid price spikes, but their statement left out key details of the plan. The ministers from the group of wealthy industrial democracies confirmed their commitment to the plan after a virtual meeting. They said, however, that the per-barrel level of the price cap would be determined later “based on a range of technical inputs” to be agreed by the coalition of countries implementing it. “Today we confirm our joint political intention …

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Germany and the families of Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics have agreed on a compensation offer totaling $28 million, according to an interior ministry spokesperson on Friday. Last month, the families had said they were unhappy with the latest German compensation offers and that they planned to boycott a ceremony on Monday in Munich marking the 50th anniversary of the attack in protest. The federal government will contribute $22.5 million, while $5 million will come from the state of Bavaria, and $500,000 will come from Munich, said the spokesperson. On September 5, 1972, members of the Israeli …

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