Russian mining giant Nornickel is facing significant logistics issues but has managed to secure alternative routes for its palladium deliveries, its biggest shareholder, Vladimir Potanin, told Russian RBC TV in a pre-recorded interview aired on March 12.
Potanin said airspace closures had made supplying palladium, particularly challenging and the task was to find new routes to bring down surging demand and price hikes as much as possible.
“Consumers do not like them,” he said in an interview with RBC. “Many of them are even looking at the possibility of canceling their contracts.”
Potanin said this week that Russia should try to preserve its economic position in markets that are now shunning Moscow over events in Ukraine, warning that confiscating the assets of companies that have fled
Russia would shatter investor confidence for decades and take Russia back to the calamitous days of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
“The recovery of the Russian economy will depend on the depth of the crisis we enter,” Potanin said. “The sooner this situation is resolved and the sooner normal dialog with partners resumes, the softer the consequences for our country will be.”
He said Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and refined nickel, was not yet considering moving to new markets from its traditional ones but does have plans in place.
As sanctions bite, another issue facing Russian companies is how to service their foreign debt amid foreign exchange limits imposed by the Russian government.
– U.S. President Joe Biden and the other G7 leaders “will announce new economic actions” to “further isolate Russia from the global financial system,” the White House said in a statement. – Leaders of the European Union agreed on imposing new sanctions against Russia in an informal summit in Versailles, France.
The U.S. government will revoke Russia’s most-favored nation trade status amid the Ukraine crisis, the White House said Friday, noting that it will work with Group of Seven (G7) countries and the European Union to roll out new sanctions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the other G7 leaders “will announce new economic actions” to “further isolate Russia from the global financial system,” the White House said in a statement.
The sanction followed an energy embargo on Russia announced by Washington on Tuesday, among a series of moves against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, even though analysts have warned of huge potential consequences and spillovers.
EU leaders pose for a group photo ahead of the informal European Council meeting in the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, France, March 10, 2022. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
On the same day, leaders of the European Union agreed on imposing new sanctions against Russia in an informal summit in Versailles, France.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the new sanctions aim to further isolate Russia from the global economic system. She also announced a plan to find alternatives to Russian fuels by 2027 in order to reduce EU’s dependence on Russia.
“There’s the law of unintended consequences,” U.S.-China Business Council President Craig Allen told Xinhua earlier this week, commenting on the potential economic impact of Western sanctions on Russia.
“What you intend to do, perhaps is punish Russia, but there are unintended consequences to every action. And it’s too early to be able to say, what are the unintended consequences of this,” Allen said.
Chinese scientists bred a live rodent offspring derived from a single unfertilized oocyte, and the mouse grew into a fertile adult.
Anew life usually starts with sexual reproduction or the fusion of an oocyte and a sperm cell in mammals. They cannot reproduce without fertilization because of “genomic imprinting,” a phenomenon that causes genes to be expressed or not, depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father.
A previous study found that imprinting is realized via the methylation of DNA sequence in the process of fertilization.
In 2015, Chinese zoologists managed to breed a mouse with two mothers by modifying the genomic imprinting, taking the first step towards asexual reproduction.
A group of scientists from Renji Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University used the gene-editing tool to rewrite seven imprinting control regions of multiple unfertilized mouse oocytes.
They added two methylations in imprinting control regions from the paternal line, by dint of the DNA methylase, an enzyme that adds a methyl group to a molecule, while demethylating five imprinting control regions from the maternal line by dint of demethylase.
The researchers acquired 389 mouse embryos from single oocytes and 192 ones developed into blastosphere in vitro.
Afterward, they transplanted them into 14 female mice, with three of them being born, according to the study published earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Among the three viable offspring, two underweight ones died within a day, and another one, weighing 1.101 grams that approximates the wild-type mice, survived into adulthood and can give birth to offspring.
According to the researchers, the success of asexual reproduction in mammals opens many opportunities in agriculture, research, and medicine.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues on Saturday as relevant parties are working to broker a peaceful solution. Following are the latest developments of the situation:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not ruled out.
“Yes, it is indeed possible in theory,” Peskov told reporters. “But first, both delegations and ministers must do their part so that the presidents do not meet for the process and for the sake of conversation, but meet for the result.”
Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of social networks Facebook and Instagram, said on Thursday that it has allowed posts with violent speeches towards Russians in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Instagram has distributed materials which call for committing violent acts against Russian citizens, including military personnel, Russia’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor said Friday in a brief statement.
Peskov said Friday that Russia will investigate if the social media platforms allowed publications of calls for violence against Russians, and it will be necessary to ban the applications if they allow hate speech.
The U.S. government will revoke Russia’s most-favored nation trade status amid the Ukraine crisis, the White House said Friday, noting that it will work with Group of Seven (G7) countries and the European Union to roll out new sanctions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the other G7 leaders “will announce new economic actions” to “further isolate Russia from the global financial system,” the White House said in a statement.
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Donetsk on March 6, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)
In a meeting on Friday with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said as the West imposed restrictions on Russia, “this is indeed a time of opportunity when we must strengthen our technological and economic sovereignty.”
“The Soviet Union indeed always lived in conditions of sanctions but developed and achieved enormous success,” Putin said, stressing that “we have of course become stronger in this respect.”
– – – –
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Donetsk on March 6, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)
Putin said Friday that he supported the idea of allowing volunteers from abroad to provide military assistance to Donbass.
Western countries and Ukraine do not disguise the fact that they are gathering mercenaries and sending them to Ukraine, Putin said at a meeting with permanent members of Russia’s Security Council.
– Since the end of 2011, No. 1 to No. 3 units have been in a stable state of low temperature cooling, but the internal radiation is still very high, making it difficult for personnel to work in close proximity. – Relevant work has to rely on remote tools, but not a single piece of nuclear residue has been removed so far. Eleven years after the quake-induced Fukushima disaster, the aftermath of the nuclear meltdown, not least a large amount of contaminated water, remains a grave challenge for Japan as well as for the rest of the world.
amagnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. An earthquake-triggered tsunami engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing core meltdowns in units one to three and leading to the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Little progress has been made over the past year on the most pivotal and hardest work of decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi power plant — how to remove the nuclear residue from the meltdown. Japan’s International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning estimated that the total weight of nuclear waste mix from melted fuel rods and other materials in pressure vessels that melted during the accident could be 880 tons.
Since the end of 2011, No. 1 to No. 3 units have been in a stable state of low temperature cooling, but the internal radiation is still very high, making it difficult for personnel to work in close proximity. Relevant work has to rely on remote tools such as remotely controlled robots and mechanical arms, but not a single piece of nuclear residue has been removed so far. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said it plans to first try to remove the nuclear residue from unit 2 this year.
Hiroaki Koide, a retired researcher at Kyoto University, said the Japanese government and TEPCO’s 30-40 year “roadmap” for decommissioning the reactors was an “illusion” that could not be achieved because it would be “impossible even in 100 years” to remove the large amount of scattered nuclear debris, which would have to be sealed in a “sarcophagus.”
File photo taken on Nov. 12, 2011 shows the exterior of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. (Xinhua)
In April last year, the Japanese government officially decided to discharge the nuclear contaminated water into the sea starting in the spring of 2023. The contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant contains radioactive cesium, strontium, tritium and other radioactive substances.
The Japanese government and TEPCO said the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), a multi-nuclide removal system, can remove 62 radioactive substances except tritium, which is difficult to remove from water.
Japanese fishing groups strongly oppose the plan to discharge contaminated water into the sea. Opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, also criticized the Japanese government’s plan and demanded its withdrawal.
About 60 percent of the 42 mayors in the disaster-stricken Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures opposed the decision. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations submitted a statement opposing the plan to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and others, urging the government to consider other measures, such as mixing contaminated water with cement and sand.
At the invitation of Japan, an investigation team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited Japan on Feb. 14-18 to complete its first field investigation.
Lydie Evrard, deputy director general of the IAEA, said Japan had studied several options for treating the contaminated water, but ultimately chose the option of discharging it into the sea, and the Japanese government invited the IAEA to conduct a safety review, hoping that the agency would give basic policy support to the treatment plan. What she pointed out was that it was up to the host country to decide how to deal with the contaminated water, and that the agency provides only technical assessments, not options.
China is seriously concerned about and firmly opposes Japan’s unilateral decision to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea and its proceeding with the preparatory work, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian has said.
People rally to protest against the Japanese government
He stressed that the handling of the nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima is never Japan’s private matter. Instead, it bears on the marine environment and public health of the whole world.
Japan should heed and respond to the appeals of neighboring countries and the international community, and rescind the wrong decision of dumping the water into the sea. “It mustn’t wantonly start the ocean discharge before reaching consensus with stakeholders and relevant international institutions through full consultations,” Zhao said.
A Lithuania-based project is urging Russian speakers worldwide to make random phone calls to people in Russia and speak openly about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, an effort to offset the Kremlin’s tightening grip on domestic media.
The Kremlin calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbour and dislodge leaders it calls neo-Nazis. Ukraine and its Western allies say this is a baseless pretext for an invasion of a country of 44 million people in which thousands have died, over two million made refugees and thousands have cowered in besieged cities under bombardment.
In Lithuania this week, a network of IT, advertising and communications professionals said it launched the #CallRussia project with a database of 40 million numbers of Russian individuals and a guide on what to say during a conversation.
Russian independent news outlets and various foreign media were forced to halt operations in Russia last week after the State Duma (parliament) passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for anyone found to be intentionally spreading “fake” news.
The Call Russia project said volunteers placed 32,000 calls to Russians on Tuesday (March 8) and Wednesday (March 9) from Lithuania, the United States, Germany, Britain, Poland and other countries.
Tomas, a volunteer-based in Vilnius who made around 50 calls in an evening, said that all but one Russian hung up on him or refused to speak at any length.
As for the one who did speak at length, Tomas said, the caller kept “repeating the Russian propaganda to me … that Ukrainians are shooting civilians and bombing their own cities and Russians are saving them from the Nazis. It was weird for me.”
A large proportion of Russians, especially older people, get their news exclusively from state media and many independent media outlets have closed since the invasion began.
“Call Russia could be the only option for people in Russia to get any alternative information that they used to have in Russia,” Co-Founder of the initiative, Edmundas Jakilaitis, told Reuters.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry says that the Western media offer a partial – and often anti-Russian – view of the world while failing to hold their own leaders to account for corruption or devastating foreign wars like Iraq.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on March 10 the West should look at how it can help countries that are particularly dependent on Russian energy.
The United States on Tuesday announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports, and Britain said it would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.
European Union leaders are set to agree on Thursday to cut their reliance on Russian fossil fuels. But there is discord among the 27 countries as the EU is far more dependent on Russian energy than Britain or the United States.
Truss said in a speech at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington that Europe was heavily dependent on Russian energy, providing a vital source of revenue for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It must end,” she said. “We are working with our G-7 partners to cut this dependence once and for all, to put a ceiling on the percentage of Russian energy imports and committing to bring it down over time.”
“And we need to look at how we can help those countries especially dependent on Russian energy, and how we can increase supplies elsewhere.”
European Union leaders on March 11 refused Ukraine’s appeal for rapid accession to the bloc and differed over the reach of sanctions against Moscow.
The Russian invasion – the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two – has upended Europe’s security order and spurred EU capitals into rethinking what the bloc should stand for, its economic, defence and energy policies.
The EU was swift in imposing sweeping sanctions and offering political and humanitarian support to Ukraine, as well as some arms supplies, in the days after Russia attacked on Feb. 24.
However, cracks have appeared in the bloc’s united front, from its reaction to Kyiv’s demand for an accelerated membership of the wealthy club to how fast it can wean itself off Russian fossil fuels and how best to shape an economic response.
“Nobody entered the European Union overnight,” Croatia Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said as talks among the 27 national leaders ended at wee hours on Friday.
The leaders’ chairman, Charles Michel said in a show of sympathy and moral support: “Ukraine belongs to the European family.”
But others made clear Ukraine would not be allowed to join hastily, something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sought and which has some support from Ukraine’s neighbours on the EU’s eastern flank.
“It will take time, months, maybe years before you get to anything,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a prominent opponent of EU enlargement, while adding the bloc would continue deepening ties with Kyiv.
Joining the EU is a process that usually takes years and requires meeting strict criteria from economic stability to rooting out corruption to respecting liberal human rights.
The leaders resume at 0900 GMT on Friday to consider the policy to tackle defence and energy spending related to the war in Ukraine. Divisions have emerged over the possibility of a new joint EU debt issuance, advocated by countries like France and Italy but opposed by Germany, the Netherlands and others.
Israel has made tremendous efforts in reaching gender equality, writes Israeli Ambassador Orna Sagiv on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
On International Women’s Day, we join people around the world to celebrate the remarkable achievements by women and girls. At the same time, we recognise the challenges and biases that women face, and recommit ourselves to raise awareness and take action for gender equality and equal opportunities in all aspects of life.
As a woman myself, I have faced my fair share of challenges – from my early school years, through military service, higher education and finally in my career in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
To be clear, I am referring to challenges based just on the fact that I am a woman. From natural assumption of what I can or cannot do, to pointing me towards what “suits” me better, to outright denial of certain jobs.
Hence, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment are one of my top priorities as ambassador of Israel to Thailand.
Since its establishment, Israel has made tremendous efforts towards reaching gender equality. The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 laid the fundamental foundation to ensure complete equality of social and political rights without discrimination based on sex. This was followed by the 1951 Women’s Equal Rights Law, which ensures full equality between men and women. Since then, Israel has adopted a wide range of legislation, policy framework and advocacy campaigns.
Perhaps most importantly, the country developed a series of education programmes focused on advancing equal opportunities, reducing the gender gap and eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and girls. Furthermore, Israel has developed various programmes and institutional mechanisms to encourage young girls and women to become an active and essential part of Israeli society.
One such mechanism is Israel’s Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women. Established in 1998, the authority’s mandate is to coordinate and review the government’s activities concerning women’s status. It also provides a comprehensive guide on women’s rights ranging from employment and education to health, violence and more.
Nowadays, women are prevalent in every aspect of Israel’s leadership – politics, business, law, science & technology and more. With nine female ministers, the current Israeli cabinet has the largest female representatives in its history. A woman, Judge Ester Hayut, also holds the prestigious and powerful position of the president of Israel’s Supreme Court.
This progress is even more obvious in the business sector.
The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs ranked Israel the best country for women entrepreneurs in 2020.
On the international front, Israel is delighted to exchange experiences and best practices with many countries across the globe. Through Mashav – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation – Israel has promoted the empowerment of women through multiple training courses, both in Israel and abroad. Golda Meir, the country’s first female prime minister and the third woman to become head of government in the world, established the Mashav Carmel Training Centre (MCTC) in 1961. The centre was the first of its kind in the domain of women’s empowerment by conducting training activities to advance women’s participation in public life. Over the past six decades, more than 29,000 women and men from more than 147 countries, including numerous leading officials and entrepreneurs from Thailand, have benefited from MCTC’s capacity building programmes and training activities.
Despite our tremendous achievements towards gender equality and promoting the empowerment of women, there is still much work to be done.
Women around the globe are still under-represented in nearly every area and face endless obstacles rising to the top of their fields. This is not only unjust but also harmful to the development of our cultures and economies.
I call upon governments and organisations to put this issue high on their agendas, and to fight the biases and discriminations against women, for the benefit of all.
Russia demanded on Wednesday that the United States explain to the world why it had supported what Moscow cast as a military biological programme in Ukraine involving deadly pathogens including plague and anthrax.
Kremlin said on Wednesday (March 9) that the world would be very much interested to know what was going on in the alleged biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine run by US specialists. Russian President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, referred to them as “facilities.”
On the same day Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova demanded transparency from Washington over the allegation, which is denied by Kyiv and which a Pentagon spokesman has described as absurd.
Zakharova said Russia had documents showing that the Ukrainian health ministry had ordered the destruction of samples of plague, cholera, anthrax and other pathogens after Feb. 24.
It was not possible to independently confirm the authenticity of any such documents.
Both Ukraine and United States dismiss Russian allegations.
Speaking about Crimea and Russian-backed self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donbass, Peskov said that the peninsula is a Russian region, and the DPR and LPR are sovereign, independent states.
He added that usage of certain airfields by (Ukrainian) combat jets would be an “undesirable and dangerous scenario”.
Peskov also alleged that the United States declared an economic war against Russia.
EU leaders pose for a group photo ahead of the informal European Council meeting in the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, France, March 10, 2022. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Donetsk on March 6, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Donetsk on March 6, 2022. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua)
File photo taken on Nov. 12, 2011 shows the exterior of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. (Xinhua)
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