Author: web desk

The White House said Wednesday that North Korea is secretly supplying Russia with artillery for the war in Ukraine, another worrying sign, analysts say, that this conflict is getting more complex and dangerous for Ukrainian civilians.

“Our information indicates that the DPRK is covertly supplying Russia’s war in Ukraine with a significant number of artillery shells, while obfuscating the real destination of the arms shipments by trying to make it appear as though they’re being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa,” John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters.

Kirby added that the artillery shells North Korea is sending are “not going to change the course of the war,” and that U.S. security support for Ukraine will continue and adapt to new challenges.

Russia also has bought arms from Iran, in violation of a U.N. resolution that forbids weapons sales from the pariah nation, he said, adding that the U.S. would approach the U.N. to try to hold Russia accountable.

North Korea has denied sending weapons to Russia.

“We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before, and we will not plan to export them,” an official at the North Korean Defense Ministry’s General Bureau of Equipment said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on September 21.

Defense analysts agreed with Kirby’s assessment that the new munitions won’t lead to a Russian victory, but say they are nevertheless a threat in the hands of an army accused of targeting Ukrainian civilians.

“What North Korea is providing to Russia is older, unguided artillery shells,” said Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So, the kind that you essentially fire just based on the ballistic trajectory, and it will kind of land where it may. You need a lot of them to really have an impact. But if you’re just firing them indiscriminately into a civilian area, or you’re just trying to blanket a large area, it can suffice in certain circumstances.”

And, he said, the North Korean munitions aren’t as worrying as Iran’s decision to supply small, portable, hard-to-detect drones to Russia. Those were used last month to batter Kyiv, the capital.

“I’m actually more concerned with what the Iranians are doing than what the North Koreans are doing,” Williams said. “The Iranians are providing them with quite-long-range missiles and drones, and lots of them. And they are starting to really bear down using these things to really wear down Ukraine’s civil infrastructure, their electrical grid and water treatment plants, and the ability to deliver fresh water to urban areas. I have been somewhat alarmed by the persistence of the Russians in this effort.”

Kirby also said the transaction indicates that Russian President Vladimir Putin is struggling in the eight-month conflict. Analysts say the war is going poorly for Russia, with Ukraine’s government estimating that as many as 70,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.

“It’s a sign both of the isolation that he continues to feel economically,” Kirby said. “His own defense industrial base can’t keep up with the pace at which he is using armaments in Ukraine. But it’s also a sign of how much he’s doubling down on continuing this war, that he’s willing to go outside the lifelines, as it were, to find foreign suppliers.”

Williams added that it’s possible emotion is driving some of Russia’s military decisions.

“My belief is that Russia has lost this war, and they are just like the Germans in World War II, continuing to fire B1s and B2s at London,” he said. “By the end, it was not for any strategic purpose. It was just vengeance and trying to make the British people suffer.”

Putin has expressed his unhappiness about South Korea’s decision to support Ukraine. The two Koreas remain in a state of war, nearly 70 years after the formal cessation of hostilities.

On Wednesday, North Korea fired at least 23 missiles into the sea, some toward its southern neighbor.

“We have learned now that the Republic of Korea has decided to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine,” Putin said last week at a meeting of international policy experts in Moscow, using South Korea’s official name. “This will be destroying our relations. How would the Republic of Korea behave if we resumed cooperation with North Korea in this area? Would you feel happy about this?”

Source: Voice of America

The U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, starts in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, next week, and climate change activists are pushing major emitters in developed countries to make bigger commitments at the conference.

According to a recent report by the U.N. Environment Program, the international community is still falling far short of the 2015 Paris Agreement goals, with no credible pathway to keep the rise in global temperatures below the key threshold of 1.5 C.

Carbon cutting plans by governments are still inadequate and environmental leaders are asking developed countries to do more.

“Seventy-five percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are from the G20, the biggest twenty economies,” U.N. Environment Executive Director Inger Andersen told VOA in an exclusive interview. “They need to do more. And that is the conversation we need to have at the COP in Sharm el-Sheikh, Africa’s COP as we call it. They need to lean in, both with money but also with their own emissions reduction.”

The conference comes at a time when the Horn of Africa endures record drought and famine warnings in Somalia. Africa produces less than 4% of global emissions yet still suffers the effects of global warming, including food insecurity, increased conflict and more severe weather events.

Thandile Chinyavanhu, a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Africa in South Africa, says the effects can be seen all over the continent: “in the Horn of Africa where the fourth failed rainy season is driving famine in the country and similarly in the semi-arid regions of Kenya. We are seeing people in Mauritania and Nigeria affected by floods, where those floods have displaced something like 1.3 million people. And we’ve seen that in South Africa as well.”

As these disasters continue to affect millions, COP27 provides an opportunity for the international community to continue negotiations for global goals that would tackle climate change.

Muhtari Amiku Kano, the Africa Director for Policy and Government Relations at the Nature Conservancy in Nairobi, listed three important investments: technological transfers, capacity building, and in deploying adequate financial resources, “because without these three components, it will just be hot air and talk.”

According to Andersen, the path forward is also clear: “We are seeing that renewable energy; solar, electric vehicles, energy efficient buildings, smart infrastructure is becoming the thing. Let’s accelerate that, let’s just move it right ahead. That’s so obvious.”

Scientists say fighting climate change requires well-coordinated global action where everyone has a role to play. Many promises were made at last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow and discussions at the Sharm el-Shiekh conference will be followed closely by many.

Source: Voice of America

South Africa’s biggest science and industry gathering set to take place in Pretoria

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is celebrating 77 years of touching lives through innovation. As part of this milestone, the organisation will host its 8th Biennial Conference on Wednesday, 2 and Thursday, 3 November 2022.

The two-day conference will bring together scientific experts, academia and industry leaders from around the world, and members of the public to evaluate how research, development and innovation (RD&I) can be harnessed to build a robust South African economy. This year’s conference will be held under the theme: ‘Harnessing research, development and innovation for a robust South African economy’.

The conference, which is one of the flagship initiatives to celebrate the organisation’s contribution to RD&I in South Africa, will provide a platform to showcase the CSIR’s multiple research capabilities and the continued impact of its strategy in contributing to industrial development and supporting a capable state.

Challenges such as power outages, water cuts, climate change and the high unemployment rate in South Africa, have all added enormous pressure on an already volatile economy that is slowly recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, the CSIR and its stakeholders will use this gathering to deliberate on how R&D can play a role in co-building a capable state, an inclusive economy and competitive South African industries.

The conference will also look at South Africa’s opportunity to become a significant player in the hydrogen market. The programme will include a plenary session that will feature key industry speakers. Some of the topics that will be discussed include empowering the South African workforce to embrace the fourth industrial revolution; precision medicine in Africa; the role of small, medium, and micro enterprises in growing the cannabis and hemp industry; and creating a circular plastics economy in South Africa.

The conference will have an interactive exhibition covering technologies such as Cardiflo, a point-of-care screening technology designed to detect cardiovascular risk factors to advise patients on care and preventative lifestyle changes. Technologies for precision agriculture, point-of-care diagnostic technologies to detect human, animal and zoonotic diseases and more, will also be on display.

Source: Government of South Africa