Signal up for CNN’s Wonder Principle science publication. Discover the universe with news on intriguing discoveries, scientific enhancements and far more.
CNN
—
Neanderthals living 90,000 several years in the past in a seafront cave, in what is now Portugal, often caught crabs, roasted them on coals and ate the cooked flesh, in accordance to a new examine.
The acquiringis important for the reason that it builds upon proof that overturns the prolonged-standing idea that a taste for seafood — loaded in omega-3 fatty acids that are essential for mind advancement — was one particular of the one of a kind variables that created our very own species, Homo sapiens, smarter than other, now-extinct prehistoric humans, this kind of as Neanderthals.
“Our benefits increase an additional nail to the coffin of the obsolete idea that Neanderthals ended up primitive cave dwellers who could scarcely scrape a living off scavenged major-video game carcasses,” mentioned study creator Dr. Mariana Nabais, a postdoctoral researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain, in a information launch.
Archaeologists excavating the web site at Gruta daFigueira Brava, around 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Lisbon, experienced also discovered the remains of shellfish. There were being limpets, mussels and clams, but shell and pincer scraps from the brown crab had been especially numerous.
Scientifically acknowledged asMost cancers pagurus, the brown crab is a species crab nevertheless typically eaten nowadays in Portugal, Spain, Italy and France.
This latest examine identified the Neanderthals hunted primarily larger grownup crabs, suggesting they had been chosen for the dimensions, with a shell or carapace about 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) broad. Just about every crab would havepresented close to 200 grams (7 ounces) of crabmeat.
Patterns of problems to the crab shells and pincers dominated out the involvement of other predators these types of as birds or rodents, the review reported. And crack marks viewed on specimens found at the archaeological website ended up quite comparable to those developed when taking in the crabs right now, the review reported, even though Neanderthals would have employed stone tools rather than contemporary-working day steel hammers and cutlery to crack open the shellfish.
Black burn off marks the researchers discovered on the shells recommended that the crabs ended up roasted on warm coals to temperatures of among 300 and 500 degrees Celsius (572 and 932 levels Fahrenheit) then cracked open up to obtain the cooked flesh.
“Whether these types of foodstuff had been perceived as tasteful, mirrored some type of festivity, extra social worth to whoever harvested them, or had other intake-linked meanings is over and above our grasp,” the review that printed Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology claimed.
Whilst crabs are not straightforward to capture by hand, the review said it was very likely they were being caught in shallow lower-tide rock swimming pools close to the cave, maybe aided by spears to stun them. The review pointed out that Indigenous groups throughout North The usa have been documented harvesting crabs in this way.
Neanderthals have been capable to adapt to diverse environments, hunt a huge array of animals and make use of different types of food stuff, the research underscored.
Urgent rescue mission underway in Turkey and Syria for survivors
‘These are not quick recoveries,’ Doctors Without Borders director says of Syria
Getting aid to devastated parts of Syria damaged by Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake will be a major effort, with the situation complicated by large numbers of people displaced by war, the director of Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.
“This is going to be a major, major lift for the international aid community,” Avril Benoît said on MSNBC.
At least 2,150 of the more than 7,000 people killed by the earthquakes were in Syria, which has suffered more than a decade of civil war. United Nations officials said that even before the earthquakes, nearly 70{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of the population needed humanitarian assistance.
Millions have been displaced and are living outside, which raises the chance of infection, and the hospital system needs to be rebuilt, Benoît said.
“Already, we are concerned that it will be in the news today and forgotten in a short number of days,” Benoît said.
“These are not quick recoveries, and we know from all our experience of being on the ground that the management of the medical needs will be quite important,” she said.
State Department: ‘Many nationalities’ likely affected by earthquakes
Residents of many different countries are likely to be among those affected by the devastating earthquakes that have killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria, a State Department official said Tuesday.
No Americans are confirmed to have been killed, but State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that could change as more becomes known.
“I think we’re all realistic,” Price said. “We’re all very sober about the implications of this and the fact that many countries, many nationalities are likely to be implicated, just given the massive toll and destruction.”
U.S. consular officials have been in touch with the American citizen community in the region.
More than 7,000 people in Turkey and Syria have been killed, officials in the two countries have said, and the number could grow.
U.N. pledges $25 million to ‘kick start’ humanitarian effort
The United Nations’ office of humanitarian affairs released $25 million Tuesday in what it said was an effort to help “kick start” the response in the wake of powerful earthquakes that have killed thousands in Turkey and Syria.
The money is being released as more than 7,000 people have been confirmed dead in the two countries after Monday’s early-morning 7.8-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Turkey, followed by a 7.5-magnitude aftershock.
“As the people in the region deal with the devastating consequences of this tragedy, we want to tell them that they are not alone,” Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement.
Other countries have also pledged aid, including $10 million by Australia. Countries around the world have sent rescue teams.
In Syria, where at least 2,150 people have died, according to officials and aid groups, the situation was already dire after more than a decade of civil war.
Nearly 70{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of the population needed humanitarian assistance before the earthquakes, U.N. humanitarian coordinators for Syria and the Syrian crisis said in a joint statement.
Satellite images appear to show extent of damage in Turkey
Satellite photos taken Tuesday of areas in southwest Turkey appear to show the level of damage the earthquakes inflicted.
The photos, collected by Maxar Technologies, are compared against images of the same area from October.
“While clouds and poor weather continue to affect some of the area, our images today of the Turkish cities of Islahiye, Nurdagi and Duzici reveal significant damage to many buildings and infrastructure,” Maxar said in a statement.
Satellite images of Islahiye, Turkey, on Oct. 4 and on Tuesday. Maxar
The company said it will continue to monitor the region for more information and images.
King Charles says he’s ‘profoundly saddened’ over damage
King Charles said Tuesday that he and his wife, Camilla, are “profoundly saddened” by the devastation.
“I can only begin to imagine the scale of suffering and loss as a result of these dreadful tragedies and I particularly wanted to convey our deepest and most heartfelt sympathy to the families of all those who have lost their loved ones,” he said in a statement on behalf of both of them.
The monarchy does not control the United Kingdom’s governmental response. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has spoken directly with the Turkish president to coordinate support. Sunak confirmed that a search and rescue team of 77 people has been deployed to Turkey to assist in recovery efforts.
Erdoğan speaks with leaders in U.K. and Germany about support
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had calls Tuesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Scholz offered condolences to Erdoğan over the tragic circumstances after the quakes, his office said in a release. He also pledged “extensive support” to Erdoğan.
A spokesperson for Sunak said he and Erdoğan spoke about the concerning humanitarian situation. Sunak pledged his “steadfast support” to Turkey and immediate assistance Tuesday.
“The Prime Minister confirmed that a 77-strong British search and rescue team arrived in Gaziantep today with specialist equipment and dogs, in response to a request from the Turkish government, and will immediately start work assisting with the rescue effort,” the spokesperson said.
Earthquake death toll soars to 7,266
The death toll in Monday’s massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to 7,266 Tuesday, according to officials in both countries.
In Turkey, at least 5,434 people were killed and 22,168 others were injured, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. About 8,000 people have been rescued from the rubble.
In Syria, at least 812 people were killed and 1,832 more were injured, the Health Ministry said.
At least 1,020 people have died and 2,400 were injured in Syria’s rebel-held areas, according to the White Helmets.
A woman weeps Tuesday as she stands beside the body of a victim in Hatay, Turkey.Bulent Kilic / AFP – Getty Images
Newborn with umbilical cord intact is rescued from Syria rubble, but mother dies, a relative says
A newborn was rescued in Syria after a woman reportedly gave birth and became trapped in rubble following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
Monday’s quake flattened the family’s home in Aleppo, a cousin told Agence France-Presse.
“We heard a voice while we were digging,” said the cousin, Khalil al-Suwadi. “We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord, so we cut it, and my cousin took her to hospital.”
NBC News has not been able to independently verify the information.
The baby’s mother and father, four siblings and an aunt were killed, the cousin said, according to AFP.
Read the full story here.
Death toll rises to at least 6,376
Julianne McShane and Lawahez Jabari
The death toll has risen to at least 6,376 people.
This includes 4,544 dead in Turkey, where at least 22,168 are injured; 812 dead in Syria, where at least 1,832 are injured; and 1,020 dead in Syria’s rebel-held territories, where more than 2,400 are injured.
Members of the Syria Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, transport a casualty Tuesday from the rubble of buildings in Azmarin in Syria’s rebel-held northwestern Idlib province. Omar Haj Kadour / AFP – Getty Images
Turkish malls, mosques and stadiums offer shelter
Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey have taken refuge in government shelters and private businesses.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said Tuesday that an estimated 338,000 people have gone to government shelters or hotels in the earthquake aftermath. People have also gathered at shopping malls, mosques, stadiums and community centers for shelter and basic needs.
Photo: Trapped man waits for rescue in Turkey
A man trapped in rubble reacts Tuesday as debris is removed to rescue him in Hatay, Turkey.Bulent Kilic / AFP – Getty Images
Earthquake damage suspends U.N. aid to Syria
Roads used to bring aid across the Turkish border into northern Syria have been damaged badly enough to pause United Nations aid to the region, according to Sanjana Quazi, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ regional office for the Syrian crisis.
“Hatay province, where the border and the U.N. hub are, is very badly affected,” she said. “We are looking at alternative routes.”
Earthquakes damage historic sites and antiquities in Turkey and Syria
From a castle in Gaziantep to a citadel in Aleppo, as rescuers search desperately for survivors after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, concerns were also growing Tuesday for some of the region’s most cherished historic sites.
UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, said in a statement that it was carrying out a survey of the affected areas and discovered many of the sites had either been damaged or collapsed completely.
The ancient Syrian city of Aleppo, where towers and walls have survived ancient and modern wars, has been badly affected. The city’s famous Citadel, a World Heritage Site, was damaged; it had only recently been repaired following the fierce street fighting of the battle for Aleppo in 2012, part of the long-running and still ongoing civil war in the country.
In Turkey, UNESCO said several buildings in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakır in the country’s southeast had collapsed, raising fears for the Diyarbakır Fortress and the Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, another World Heritage Site.
Aleppo’s ancient Citadel on Monday. AFP – Getty Images
Read the full story here.
Ukraine to send search and rescue team of 87 people to Turkey
The Associated Press and Julianne McShane
War-ravaged Ukraine will send an 87-strong search and rescue team to Turkey to “help eliminate the consequences” of the earthquake.
“Ukrainian specialists have relevant experience in overcoming the consequences of natural disasters and will arrive in the affected regions as soon as possible. They will help with the whole range of work on the recovery from the earthquake,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement.
In a tweet, he said Ukraine was also sending equipment to affected regions in Turkey.
Death tolls rises to 5,261
The total number of those killed in the natural disaster has climbed to 5,261, according to updated information provided by both Turkish and Syrian authorities.
The total number of those dead in Syria comes to 1,712, according to the Syrian Health Ministry and the White Helmets. More than 3,700 have been injured in the country.
In Turkey, 3,549 people were killed and 22,168 injured as search and rescue teams continue their work, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. More than 8,000 people have been rescued so far.
A soldier sits near a collapsed building Tuesday in Hatay, Turkey. Burak Kara / Getty Images
How to help those impacted by the earthquakes
As many as 23 million people, including around 1.4 million children, are likely to have been impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, according to the World Health Organization.
For those who want to help the survivors of the disaster, which has left more than 5,000 people dead, there are several international humanitarian organizations seeking donations to fund their aid efforts.
Read more about how you can help here.
57 Palestinian refugees among those killed, officials say
The Palestinian Authority says 57 Palestinian refugees have died in the powerful quake in Turkey and Syria.
Officials said 14 were killed in Turkey and 43 in Syria, which for decades has hosted nearly half a million Palestinians in large refugee camps and remains one of the few Arab states to offer them almost full civil rights.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said several Palestinians are reported missing under collapsed buildings in the hard-hit al-Raml camp in western Syria.
Families sheltering in cars in freezing temperatures, survivor says
While aid efforts focused on rescuing those trapped under collapsed buildings, those who survived found themselves sheltering in cars, struggling to keep themselves fed, hydrated and warm in the freezing conditions.
“We have been on the streets since two days,” a distraught 31-year-old factory worker, Mesut Demir, told NBC News.
Demir said he has been staying inside his car with his wife and sons, ages 4 and 6, in the city of Gaziantep, not far from the epicenter of the first earthquake. He said other families in the area were doing the same.
When night falls, the parents let the two children sleep in the car while they take shelter outside and light a bonfire.
“We need tent, blankets, food, water but no one came to help us because the priority was the ones under the rubble,” he said.
Search and rescue efforts Tuesday in Gaziantep, Turkey.Adsiz Gunebakan / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Photo: Efforts to find survivors in Adana, Turkey
Emergency workers search for people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, on Tuesday.
Francisco Seco / AP
Thousands of emergency personnel and volunteers involved in aid work, Erdogan says
Thousands of emergency personnel from all over Turkey, as well as additional teams sent from abroad, have been mobilized to aid in the 10 provinces worst hit by the earthquakes, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.
“Our 53,317 car, recovery personnel and support personnel are working in the wreckage area, with additional teams coming from Turkey and abroad,” he said in a speech.
“This number is increasing with each passing hour,” he said. “Many more public officials, nongovernmental organizations and volunteers are also involved in aid works.”
An emergency rescue team member is comforted Tuesday by teammates after they found two bodies in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey.Francisco Seco / AP
All flags at NATO headquarters flown at half-staff
All flags at NATO headquarters are being flown at half-staff Tuesday, the alliance announced.
NATO shared a photo of the scene, saying it was being done “in solidarity with our Ally #Türkiye.”
Breaking down Turkey’s aid delivery by numbers
As Turkey reeled from the devastating earthquakes, the country’s disaster agency said Tuesday that it sent hundreds of thousands of humanitarian aid items from across the country to the severely affected areas.
This included:
300,000 blankets
41,504 family living tents
101,738 beds
148,482 pillow sheets
4,602 kitchen sets
3,761 heaters
Photos: Grieving father holds dead daughter’s hand amid wreckage
Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey.
Civilians searched for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings close to the quake’s epicenter, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast, followed by a 7.5-magnitude quake.
Turkey’s neighbors offer aid despite strained ties
Armenia’s foreign minister says his country has offered to help Syria and Turkey in their response to the deadly quake, despite difficult relations between Yerevan and Ankara.
Ararat Mirzoyan told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that Armenia is prepared to send aid and rescue teams to both countries, but didn’t immediately say whether the offers had been accepted. He recalled that Armenia experienced a devastating earthquake in 1988 and required international assistance at the time.
Greece, which also has strained ties with neighbor Turkey, sent a team of rescuers and aid equipment Monday, and promised to provide more. “I believe I speak for all my colleagues in the Greek Parliament in expressing my deepest sorrow for the many victims of the very powerful earthquakes that have been hitting Turkey since yesterday morning,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Tuesday, addressing lawmakers who clapped when he announced that additional assistance was being prepared.
Pope Francis: ‘I continue to pray for those who have lost their lives’
Pope Francis shared condolences again Tuesday for the victims of the earthquakes, along with a hope that aid from the international community will help the people of Turkey and Syria.
“I continue to pray for those who have lost their lives, as well as the injured, family members, and rescuers,” he tweeted. “May our concrete aid sustain them in the midst of this appalling tragedy.”
U.N. aid to Syria hampered by earthquake damage, logistical issues
Mithil Aggarwal and Reuters
The supply of critical United Nations cross-border aid from Turkey to northwest Syria has been temporarily halted due to logistical issues, the world body said Tuesday.
“Some roads are broken, some are inaccessible. There are logistical issues that need to be worked through,” Madevi Sun-Suon, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters.
“We don’t have a clear picture of when it will resume,” she said.
Photo: Syrian women weep over bodies of earthquake victims
Syrian women mourn next to bodies lying on the back of a truck Tuesday in the town of Jandaris, as a search operation continues following a deadly earthquake.
Mohammed Al-Rifai / AFP – Getty Images
Israeli response team lands in Turkey
An Israeli response team arrived in Turkey on Tuesday, launching search and rescue operations in the country.
The team consists of almost 150 personnel, who will be aiding in rescue and medical operations, as well as delivery of aid, the Israeli military said in a tweet Monday.
Death toll rises to 5,151 as thousands rescued
The death toll has risen to at least 5,151, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announcing more deaths in affected areas across Turkey.
At least 3,549 people have now been confirmed dead in the country since Monday’s earthquakes, with at least 22,168 injured, he said Tuesday. At least 8,000 have been rescued from the rubble alive, he said in a speech.
In Syria, at least 812 people were dead, with at least 1,449 injured, according to the Ministry of Health. In Syrian rebel-held territories, more than 790 were killed and more than 2,200 injured, according to the White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense and medical group that operates in opposition-held areas.
Photo: Plumes of smoke rise over Turkish port city
A large fire that broke out in a section of a port was raging for a second day in the earthquake-stricken town of Iskenderun, southern Turkey, on Tuesday.
Serdar Ozsoy / AP
Iranian aircraft carrying critical humanitarian aid arrives in Syria
Mithil Aggarwal and Lawahez Jabari
An Iranian aircraft carrying tons of emergency aid arrived in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.
“This plane carries the first batches of humanitarian aid provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran, with 45 tons of humanitarian aid on board,” said the Iranian ambassador to Syria, Mahdi Sobhani, according to the state news agency SANA.
The supplies included blankets, tents, medicines, food items and other critical supplies, he said.
Beyond magnitude: A shallow earthquake hammered Turkey
Monday morning’s earthquake ruptured on a shallow fault line just over 11 miles beneath the Earth’s surface, making it one of the most consequential and damaging earthquakes in recent history.
Earthquakes can originate at various depths beneath the Earth’s surface — even hundreds of miles deep. Consequences on the surface can depend on how close the shaking is.
“Turkey is extremely earthquake-prone, but this is probably the largest earthquake in Turkey in several hundred years,” said Harold Tobin, the director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and a professor in the University of Washington department of Earth and space sciences.
Read the full story here.
Turkey declares a state of emergency in the affected areas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in the affected areas after quakes that left more than 5,000 dead and thousands more injured.
“We are declaring 10 cities impacted by the earthquake zone,” he said in statement Tuesday, adding that the emergency will last for three months.
Photo: A devastated Turkish woman sits near a collapsed building
A woman sits on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings on the outskirts of Osmaniye city in southern Turkey, on Tuesday.
Khalil Hamra / AP
Baby and mother reportedly rescued after 29 hours under a collapsed building
A woman and her baby were rescued in the southern Turkish region of Hatay after being stuck for around 29 hours in the rubble of a collapsed building, the state news agency Anadolu reported.
The video posted by the Anadolu Agency showed rescuers pulling out the crying baby followed by the mother. They were then attended to by medics.
An ancient Turkish city contends with rubble and terror
Gaziantep, an ancient Turkish city badly damaged by the massive earthquake, was paralyzed Monday by widespread destruction — and by panic, survivors told NBC News.
While rescue teams were pulling the living and the dead from the wreckage, government tourism official Resat Taman was trying to beat back unfounded and rapidly spreading rumors that yet another quake was about to strike, as the city continued to be rocked by aftershocks.
“Everybody says next earthquake is coming and it will be so bad,” Taman said. “And this is really horrifying. Because it is not safe information and everybody is in a panic now because of this stupid information.”
Read the full story here.
Photo: Watching and waiting amid Aleppo’s ruined buildings
People watch as rescue teams search for victims and survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in the government-held northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday.
Louai Beshara / AFP – Getty Images
Missing soccer star rescued from rubble
Christian Atsu, a Ghanaian national soccer star who was believed to be trapped under the rubble in Turkey, has been pulled out alive, according to Ghana’s national soccer federation.
“We’ve received some positive news that Christian Atsu has been successfully rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building and is receiving treatment,” it said in a tweet. “Let’s continue to pray for Christian.”
Atsu, who formerly played for the English soccer clubs Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle United, now plays for Turkish club Hatayspor. His condition is unknown.
Photo: Woman distraught during search for survivors in Turkey
A woman cries during the search for survivors in the rubble of buildings in Kahramanmaras, Turkey on Tuesday.
Ilyas Akengin / AFP – Getty Images
‘The city is flat, there is no solid building’, Hatay volunteer says
Hatay, a southern Turkish region a few miles away from the epicenter of the first earthquake, was in complete ruins with snow-covered roads blocking key aid supplies and thousands still stuck in the rubble, a volunteer who was in central Hatay told NBC News.
“God damn it, there are tens of thousands of buildings that haven’t been reached yet,” said the 25-year-old university student, Tugay Khraman. “The city is flat, there is no solid building,” he said.
Earthquake survivors wait for news of their loved ones, believed to be trapped under collapsed building in Iskenderun, Turkey, on Tuesday. Burak Kara / Getty Images
Volunteers from across the country like Khraman, who traveled from western Turkey on Monday, were distributing food supplies, and aiding in search and rescue operations. But even those who survived were far from safe, he said, as there was no electricity or water supply.
“People who survived the earthquake will also die from hypothermia,” he added.
Thousands of children and families at risk, UNICEF warns
With many homes destroyed in the earthquakes, families will be displaced and exposed to the elements at a time of the year when temperatures regularly drop below freezing and snow and freezing rain are common, UNICEF has warned.
It warned that schools, hospitals and other educational and medical facilities are likely to have been damaged or destroyed by the quakes, further impacting children. “Potential damage to roads and critical infrastructure will also complicate search and rescue efforts and the wider humanitarian response,” it said.
“The images we’re seeing out of Syria and Türkiye are heart-wrenching,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “That the initial earthquake happened so early in the morning, when many children were fast asleep, made it even more dangerous, and the aftershocks bring continuing risks.”
Photo: Four children from the same family die in Syria quake
The bodies of four children from one Syrian family lie wrapped in sheets Monday in the town of Jandaris, following a deadly earthquake.
Rami Al Sayed / AFP – Getty Images
South Korea and Japan extend their condolences to Turkey
Japanese and South Korean leaders expressed their condolences to Turkey, drawing historical links to tragedies in their own nations.
“Like Turkey, Japan has also experienced serious damage from earthquakes many times, and in past disasters as well, Japan and Turkey have provided support for each other,” Prime Minister Kishida Fumio told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, according to a statement.
“We stand ready to assist Turkiye, a brotherhood forged in blood during the Korean War, in any way possible.” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol wrote on Twitter.
Pakistan PM to visit Turkey and offer support
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Turkey’s capital, Ankara, on Wednesday, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said Tuesday on Twitter.
“24 hours after the devastating earthquake hit Turkiye & Syria, scenes of death & destruction are mind numbing,” Sharif said in a separate tweet Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the South Asian country also sent dozens of disaster relief personnel and aid equipment which arrived in Turkey on Tuesday, the Pakistani air force said in a tweet.
Photo: Woman pulled from the rubble in southern Turkey
Rescue workers carry a woman out of the debris of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, on Tuesday.
Ismsail Coskun / AP
White Helmets ‘unable to respond to the full scale of the disaster’ in Syria
Mithil Aggarwal and Lawahez Jabari
In Syria, members of the White Helmets are struggling to cope with the sheer scale of the disaster, the organization said in a statement Tuesday.
“Great efforts are being made by our teams, but they are unable to respond to the full scale of the disaster. Hundreds remain trapped under the rubble,” the team of search and rescue responders officially known as Syria Civil Defence said in a statement.
In a separate statement, it said that more than 200 buildings had been completely destroyed, with tens of thousands cracked.
Some 23 million people likely affected by quakes, WHO warns
Some 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, across Turkey and Syria were likely affected by Monday’s earthquake and its aftershocks, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO said it was dispatching emergency supplies, including trauma and emergency surgical kits, to the region as it activated a network of emergency medical teams.
“It’s now a race against time,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes.”
Photo: L.A. County firefighters deployed to Turkey
Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department prepare for deployment in Pacoima, California, on Monday after being activated by USAID, the U.S. government aid agency, to go to Turkey to assist with earthquake recovery efforts.
Allison Dinner / EPA via Shutterstock
China offers almost $6 million in aid to Turkey and Syria
Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said late Monday.
“Xi Jinping expressed his shock learning of the strong earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, which caused heavy casualties and property losses,” the ministry said in a statement.
China will also provide 40 million yuan ($5.9 million) in relief aid to Turkey, the state news agency Xinhua said Tuesday, adding that an additional aid of $200,000 will be provided to Turkey and Syria each by China’s Red Cross.
Photo: Turkish mosque destroyed by earthquake
The Yeni mosque destroyed by an earthquake in Malatya, Turkey, on Monday.
APThe Yeni Mosque in 2016.Alamy Stock Photo
Freezing weather complicates search for survivors
As search and rescue teams race to pull survivors from the rubble amid continuing aftershocks, freezing weather and snow have been further complicating the search.
In Malatya, a city in the eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, rescue teams searched for survivors in below-freezing weather Tuesday.
Hakan Burak Altunoz / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Photo: Dust rises from the rubble as search intensifies in Turkey
Emergency teams search for people in the rubble of a destroyed building in Adana, southern Turkey, on Tuesday.
Hussein Malla / AP
India’s aid team and relief equipment arrive in Turkey
India’s first dispatch of its aid team arrived in Turkey on Tuesday morning, with a second supply en route, officials said.
More than 50 search and rescue personnel, as well as dog squads, relief equipment and medicines had been sent, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar wrote on Twitter.
“India continues to support the people of Türkiye in their hour of need,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter.
Photo: Search continues amid port fire in Iskenderun, Turkey
A woman searches for victims at the site of a collapsed building as plumes of black smoke rise in the Turkish port city of Iskenderun on Tuesday.
Erdem Sahin / EPA via Shutterstock
Search and rescue efforts continue as death toll soars past 5,000
Search and rescue efforts continued in Turkey and Syria on Tuesday following Monday’s devastating earthquakes as the death toll continued to climb, soaring past 5,000.
In Turkey, at least 3,419 people were killed, the country’s vice president said in an update. In Syria, the death toll in government-held areas climbed to 812, according to the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, at least 790 died in the country’s rebel-held territories, according to the White Helmets.
That takes the total to at least 5,021 killed across Turkey and Syria, with thousands more injured and many still buried beneath the rubble.
More than 1,300 people have died and rescuers are racing to pull survivors from beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake ripped through Turkey and Syria, leaving destruction and debris on each side of the border.
One of the strongest earthquakes to hit the region in a century shook residents from their beds at around 4 a.m. on Monday morning, sending tremors as far away as Lebanon and Israel.
The epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake was 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Video from the scene in Turkey showed day breaking over rows of collapsed buildings, some with apartments exposed to the elements as people huddled in the freezing cold beside them, waiting for help.
In Turkey, at least 912 people have died and 5,385 are injured, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address Monday. In neighboring Syria, at least 476 people have died, including 326 mostly in the regions of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus, according to Syrian state news agency, which also reported at least 1,042 injuries.
The “White Helmets” group, officially known as the Syria Civil Defense, also reported at least 150 deaths and 350 injuries in opposition-controlled areas of northwestern Syria. Much of northwestern Syria, which borders Turkey, is controlled by anti-government forces amid a bloody civil war that began in 2011.
Monday’s quake is believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, when an earthquake of the same magnitude killed 30,000 people, according to the USGS. Earthquakes of this magnitude are rare, with fewer than five occurring each year on average, anywhere in the world. Seven quakes with magnitude 7.0 or greater have struck Turkey in the past 25 years – but Monday’s is the most powerful.
Karl Lang, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech University’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told CNN the area hit by the quake Monday is prone to seismic activity. “It’s a very large fault zone, but this is a larger earthquake than they’ve experienced any time in recent memory,” Lang said.
Journalist Eyad Kourdi, who lives in Gaziantep and was staying with his parents when the earthquake struck early Monday, said “it felt like it would never be over.”
When the shaking stopped, Kourdi and his parents walked out of their home still wearing their pajamas, he said.
With several inches of snow on the ground, they waited outside in the rain for about 30 minutes before he could go back inside to grab coats and boots.
Strong aftershocks have been felt in southern and central Turkey. About 11 minutes after the main quake hit, the strongest aftershock of 6.7 magnitude hit about 32 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the main quake’s epicenter. Another intense aftershock with a magnitude of 5.6 then occurred 19 minutes after the main quake.
Kourdi said there were up to eight “very strong” aftershocks in under a minute after the 7.8 magnitude quake struck, causing belongings in his home to fall to the ground. Many of his neighbors had left their homes following the quake, he said.
Photos showing the true scale of the disaster emerged as day broke in Turkey. Entire buildings have been flattened, with metal rods scattered across the streets. Cars have toppled over, while bulldozers work to clear the debris.
Gaziantep Castle has been heavily damaged in the powerful quake.
A winter storm in the region is exacerbating the disaster, according to CNN meteorologists.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are impacted by this. It is cold. It is rainy. Roads could be impacted, that means your food, your livelihood, the care for your children, the care for your family,” CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said.
“Anything as far as crops or anything growing across this region will be impacted as well. The ramifications of this are broad and will impact this region for weeks, and months.”
Search and rescue teams have been dispatched to the south of the country, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said. AFAD, the disaster agency, said it had requested international help through the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), the European Union’s humanitarian program.
Nearly 1,000 search and rescue volunteers have been deployed from Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, along with dogs, trucks and aid, according to its governor, Ali Yerlikaya.
“Sorry for our loss. I wish our injured a speedy recovery,” Yerlikaya wrote on Twitter.
The governor of Gaziantep, Davut Gul, said on Twitter that “the earthquake was felt strongly in our city,” and advised the public to wait outside their homes and stay calm.
“Please let’s wait outside without panic. Let’s not use our cars. Let’s not crowd the main roads. Let’s not keep the phones busy,” he said.
Gaziantep province has a number of small- and medium-sized cities, with a sizable refugee population, according to Brookings Institute fellow Asli Aydintasbas.
“Some of these areas are rather poor. Some are more richer, urban areas … but other parts that we’re talking about that seem to have been devastated, are relatively lower income areas,” she said.
Video from the city of Diyarbakir, to the northeast of Gaziantep, shows rescue workers frantically trying to pull survivors out of the rubble.
Erdogan said the quake was felt in many parts of the country.
“I convey my best wishes to all our citizens who were affected by the earthquake that occurred in Kahramanmaraş and was felt in many parts of our country. All our relevant units are on alert under the coordination of AFAD,” Erdogan wrote on Twitter.
Messages of condolences and support started pouring in Monday morning as world leaders woke to the news of the deadly earthquake.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was “profoundly concerned” about the destruction in Syria and Turkey.
“I have been in touch with Turkish officials to relay that we stand ready to provide any & all needed assistance. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with Turkiye,” Sullivan wrote on Twitter.
Arming Ukraine ‘only path to peace’, says UK foreign secretary
Helping to arm Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russia is the swiftest path to achieving peace, British foreign secretary James Cleverly said in an article published on Sunday.
Writing in the Times of Malta ahead of a visit on Tuesday to the Mediterranean island, which assumed the presidency of the U.N. Security Council at the start of February, Cleverly wrote:
Like all authoritarian rulers, Putin responds only to strength in his opponents. He rejected Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan for peace last December. That is why the UK and Ukraine’s friends are doing all they can to bring Ukraine success on the battlefield. And it’s why I’m delighted that Germany and the US are joining the UK in sending tanks to the Ukrainians. Giving the Ukrainians the tools they need to finish the job is the swiftest – indeed the only – path to peace.
The war in Ukraine is expected to dominate the talks between Britain and Malta, a European Union member.
Key events
On speculation over the future of Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh has tweeted this:
Ukrainian defence sources saying Oleksii Reznikov is not resigning despite swirl of speculation. Press conference due in Kyiv at 3pm
Russia is concentrating troops and military equipment to stage a decisive offensive around Bakhmut and the Luhansk region, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said, in a Feb 4 report.
ISW analysts said the sustained military effort to encircle Bakhmut has prevented Russia from assembling the troops needed to attack Zaporizhzhia from the east.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov is likely to be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported today citing government and military sources.
His likely replacement is understood to be Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR, sources reportedly said.
“I have not had any conversations about my resignation from this position,” Reznikov reportedly told Ukrainska Pravda in a soon-to-be-published interview.
An unnamed source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Reznikov was very likely to be replaced in the very near future.
Reznikov could be appointed to a new post as justice minister, as “no one in the Presidential Office has any doubt” that Reznikov should stay in the government, according to the Ukrainska Pravda article.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov will likely be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported on Feb. 5, citing government and military sources.https://t.co/B1n2aFvP57
According to the report, Denys Maliuska, the current justice minister, could be appointed as an ambassador to a Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Europe.
The report hasn’t provided information on who will head Ukraine’s military intelligence agency if Budanov is appointed as defence minister.
Reznikov, 56, has served as defence minister since Nov. 4, 2021, and has played an important role in the campaigning for and securing of Western military aid.
Arming Ukraine ‘only path to peace’, says UK foreign secretary
Helping to arm Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russia is the swiftest path to achieving peace, British foreign secretary James Cleverly said in an article published on Sunday.
Writing in the Times of Malta ahead of a visit on Tuesday to the Mediterranean island, which assumed the presidency of the U.N. Security Council at the start of February, Cleverly wrote:
Like all authoritarian rulers, Putin responds only to strength in his opponents. He rejected Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan for peace last December. That is why the UK and Ukraine’s friends are doing all they can to bring Ukraine success on the battlefield. And it’s why I’m delighted that Germany and the US are joining the UK in sending tanks to the Ukrainians. Giving the Ukrainians the tools they need to finish the job is the swiftest – indeed the only – path to peace.
The war in Ukraine is expected to dominate the talks between Britain and Malta, a European Union member.
Russian attacks were reported in seven out of Ukraine’s 25 regions over Feb. 4, hitting Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts with artillery and missiles.
According to the regional governors and officials, at least five civilians were killed and 12 injured, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians.
“Today, I signed the relevant documents to take another step to protect and cleanse our state from those on the side of the aggressor,” Zelenskiy said during his nightly video address on Saturday.
He would not list the names but said they had dual Russian citizenship.
According to Ukrainian state media, the list includes several top politicians from the office of Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukraine’s pro-Russian president from 2010 until he was removed from office in 2014.
The list included Dmytro Tabachnyk, a former minister of education and science, Andriy Klyuyev, a former deputy prime minister and head of Yanukovych’s administration, and Vitaliy Zakharchenko, a former interior minister, the RBC-Ukraine news agency reported.
Ukraine has stripped a number of people of their Ukrainian citizenship and has sanctioned hundreds of Russian and Belarusian individuals and firms since the start of the Russian invasion a year ago.
The head of Russia’s private Wagner militia said on Sunday that fierce fighting was ongoing in the northern parts of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been the focus of Russian forces’ attention for weeks.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the founder and head of the Wagner group, said Ukrainian forces were not retreating. Reuters reports.
Russian forces have been attempting to encircle and capture Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donbas region, for weeks.
Prigozhin rejected reports in Russian media outlets that Ukrainian troops were abandoning Bakhmut. “Ukrainian forces are not retreating anywhere. They are fighting to the last,” he said in a statement published on his Telegram channel.
“Fierce battles are going on in the northern quarters for every street, every house, every stairwell,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said repeatedly in recent days that the situation around the city is tough.
Bakhmut has become “increasingly isolated”, according to the latest assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence.
On Friday, Zelenskiy vowed that his forces will fight for Bakhmut “for as long as we can”, but the situation there is becoming increasingly dire for Ukrainian forces.
If Russian forces manage to capture the city, which has been decimated by months of artillery shelling, it would be their most important strategic advance since last summer.
A formerIsraeli prime minister who served briefly as a mediator at the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine says he drew a promise from the Russian president not to kill his Ukrainian counterpart
Associated Press agency reports:
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett became an unlikely intermediary in the war’s first weeks, becoming one of the few Western leaders to meet President Vladimir Putin during the war in a snap trip to Moscow last March.
While Bennett’s mediation efforts appear to have done little to end the bloodshed that continues until today, his remarks, in an interview posted online late Saturday, shed light on the backroom diplomacy and urgent efforts that were underway to try to bring the conflict to a speedy conclusion in its early days.
In the five-hour interview, which touched on numerous other subjects, Bennett says he asked Putin about whether he intended to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
“I asked ‘what’s up with this? Are you planning to kill Zelenskiy?’ He said ‘I won’t kill Zelenskiy.’ I then said to him ‘I have to understand that you’re giving me your word that you won’t kill Zelenskiy.’ He said ‘I’m not going to kill Zelenskiy.’”
Bennett said he then called Zelenskiy to inform him of Putin’s pledge.
“‘Listen, I came out of a meeting, he’s not going to kill you.’ He asks, ‘are you sure?’ I said ’100{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} he won’t kill you.’”
Bennett said that during his mediation, Putin dropped his vow to seek Ukraine’s disarmament and Zelenskiy promised not to join NATO.
Bennet’s peacemaking efforts did not appear to take off and his time in power was short-lived, reports AP.
‘Putin did not threaten me or Germany,’ says Scholz
In the interview with Bild am Sonntag, Olaf Scholz said Vladimir Putin “has not made any threats against me or Germany” in his telephone conversations with the Russian president.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, speaking to the BBC for a documentary early this week, said the Russian leader had threatened him with a missile strike that would “only take a minute.” The Kremlin said Johnson was lying.
The German chancellor said the conversations he had with Putin made it clear they had very different views of the war in Ukraine, which Russia calls a “special military operation”.
“I make it very clear to Putin that Russia has sole responsibility for the war,” Scholz said.
“Russia has invaded its neighbour for no reason, in order to take parts of Ukraine or the whole country under its control.”
Because it was Germany’s view that Russia’s actions violated Europe’s peace framework, it was providing Ukraine with financial, humanitarian and military help, he said.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said Ukraine’s president agreed that weapons supplied by the west will not be used to attack Russian territory.
“There is a consensus on this point,” Scholz said in an interview with the weekly Bild am Sonntag.
Ukraine’s western allies have pledged to arm it with precision rockets and missile systems, as well as tanks, as it tries to push back Russian troops in its east.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has compared the intervention of countries such as Germany with his nation’s struggle during the second world war.
But Scholz rejected the comparison.
“[Putin’s] words are part of a series of absurd historical comparisons that he uses to justify his attack on Ukraine,” he said. “But nothing justifies this war.
“Together with our allies, we are supplying battle tanks to Ukraine so that it can defend itself. We have carefully weighed each delivery of weapons, in close coordination with our allies, starting with America.”
Scholz said that such a consensus-based approach “avoids an escalation”.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photograph: Christian Mang/Reuters
Ukrainian forces remained in control of the village of Bilohorivka, the Luhansk region governor, Serhiy Haidai, has said, adding that the situation there is tense, but under control.
“Information is being spread in the Russian Federation about the alleged capture of Bilohorivka and the removal of our people from there,” Haidai told the national broadcaster on Sunday.
“Our troops remain in their positions, nobody has captured Bilohorivka, nobody has entered there, there is no enemy there.”
Some Moscow-installed officials and pro-Russian military bloggers have recently claimed Russian advances in the direction of Bilohorivka, the last part of Luhansk – the northern part of the Donbas – held by Ukrainian forces.
“The situation at the front is tense, but controlled by Ukrainian forces,” Haidai said.
“The number of Russian attacks has … increased, but all of them have been repulsed by our troops, who remain in their positions.”
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
The embattled eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut has become “increasingly isolated”, according to the latest assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence.
“Over the last week, Russia has continued to make small advances in its attempt to encircle the Donbas town of Bakhmut,” the MoD tweeted on Sunday.
“The M03 and the H32 – the two main roads into the city for Ukrainian defenders – are likely now both threatened by direct fire, following the Russian advances.
“Earlier in the week, Wagner paramilitary forces highly likely seized a subordinate route which links Bakhmut to the town of Siversk.
“While multiple alternative cross-country supply routes remain available to Ukrainian forces, Bakhmut is increasingly isolated.”
Russian missile hits residential building in Kharkiv
Two Russian missiles hit the centre of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s north-east, with one of the missiles striking a residential building, Reuters reported the city’s mayor saying on Sunday.
“At this time, it’s known that there is a fire in one of the residential buildings and one injured person,” Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging platform.
The Kharkiv governor, Oleh Synehubov, said: ““A residential building in the city centre was hit. A fire broke out. So far, three victims are known: a 54-year-old woman and two men aged 51 and 55.”
He said the woman was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
Situation on eastern frontlines ‘very difficult now’, Zelenskiy says
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday the situation on the frontlines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle.
The Kremlin has been pushing for a significant battlefield victory after months of setbacks, with Russian forces trying to close grip on the town of Bakhmut and fighting for control of a nearby major supply route for Ukrainian forces.
Russian troops are also trying to capture the coal mining city of Vuhledar, about 75 miles (120km) south-west of Bakhmut, in the eastern region of Donetsk.
“I’ve often had to say the situation at the front is tough, and is getting tougher, and it’s that time again … The invader is putting more and more of his forces into breaking down our defences,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“It is very difficult now in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Lyman and other directions,” he continued.
Ukrainian soldiers fire an anti-aircraft gun at a position near Bakhmut. Photograph: Sergey Shestak/EPA
Earlier in the day, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, wrote on Telegram that Russian efforts to break the defences in Bakhmut and Lyman had failed.
Lyman, which lies just to the north of Bakhmut, was liberated by Ukrainian forces in October.
“This week, the Russian occupation forces threw all their efforts into breaking through our defence and encircling Bakhmut, and launched a powerful offensive in the Lyman sector,” Malyar said. “But thanks to the resilience of our soldiers, they did not succeed.”
On Friday, Zelenskiy vowed that his forces will fight for Bakhmut “for as long as we can”, but the situation there is becoming increasingly dire for Ukrainian forces.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has been reporting daily numerous combat clashes in the area and Moscow military bloggers have claimed a number of unverified Russian successes along the frontline.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the situation on the frontlines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle.
“I’ve often had to say the situation at the front is tough, and is getting tougher, and it’s that time again … The invader is putting more and more of his forces into breaking down our defences,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday.
“It is very difficult now in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Lyman and other directions,” he continued.
The Kremlin has been pushing for a significant battlefield victory after months of setbacks, with Russian forces trying to close grip on the town of Bakhmut and fighting for control of a nearby major supply route for Ukrainian forces.
More on that story soon.
In other developments:
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Zelenskiy has agreed that weapons supplied by the west will not be used to attack Russian territory. “There is a consensus on this point,” Scholz told Bild am Sonntag. Scholz rejected Vladimir Putin’s comparison of the intervention of the west with Russia’s struggle during the second world war as “absurd”. “We have carefully weighed each delivery of weapons, in close coordination with our allies, starting with America,” he said, adding that such a consensus-based approach “avoids an escalation”.
The Ukrainian president has revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians, in what he said was another step to “cleanse” the country of pro-Russian influences. Zelenskiy would not list the names, but said they had dual Russian citizenship. According to Ukrainian state media, the list includes several top politicians from the office of Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukraine’s pro-Russian president from 2010 until he was removed from office in 2014.
Portugal has become the latest country to say it will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the prime minister, António Costa, said. An inventory has been done of its stocks, with Lisbon asking Germany for parts to help repair them so they can be deployed to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy spoke to UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Saturday. The president said he had thanked Sunak for the training of Ukrainian troops so they will be able to use British Challenger tanks.
The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has authorised the country to begin using seized Russian money to aid Ukraine, according to US media. The money would come from assets confiscated from Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev after his April indictment for alleged sanctions evasions, he added.
Ukraine has introduced emergency energy shutdowns in Odesa after a “technological accident” at a high-voltage electricity substation, which has previously been damaged by Russian attacks. Half a million people are without power and officials have warned repairs could take weeks. The government said it would appeal to Turkey for help and ordered the energy ministry’s stocks of high-power generators to be sent to the city.
Germany has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, adding that he saw a need for a judicial process at international level. He said the amount of evidence was in the “three-digit” range.
More than 18.1m border crossings have taken place out of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022, according to data from the UN.
The bodies of killed British volunteers Christopher Parry and Andrew Bagshaw have been returned by Russian troops in a prisoner exchange. They were both killed in Ukraine last month. A total of 116 Ukrainian troops have come home after being captured, with 63 being sent back to Russia.
The number of Russian soldiers around the southern city of Mariupol has increased by about 10,000 to 15,000, according to an adviser to the city’s mayor. Petro Andriushchenko wrote on Telegram that it means the total amount of troops is now about 30,000. They are stationed in villages in the district.
A hospice facility in Iowa has been fined $10,000 right after it mistakenly presumed a girl dead hours ahead of she was uncovered gasping for air inside a human body bag at a funeral dwelling, officers stated.
A nurse at Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Particular Care Centre in Urbandale established that the 66-12 months-old girl experienced died on Jan. 3, and the resident was transferred to a funeral house, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals said in a report issued Wednesday.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, was admitted to hospice care Dec. 28 due to the fact of “senile degeneration of the mind,” the report says.
At 6 a.m. Jan. 3, a nurse checked on the individual and found no symptoms of life, in accordance to the report.
Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Unique Care Middle in Urbandale, Iowa.Google Maps
Her “mouth was open up, her eyes had been fastened, and there had been no breath appears,” the report says, including that a nurse was not able to find the woman’s pulse applying her stethoscope.
The nurse set her hand on the woman’s abdomen and “famous no motion,” the report states. The nurse presumed the resident had died and notified a relatives member and the on-connect with hospice nurse, according to the report.
“Hospice agreed to phone the funeral residence and did so,” it states.
Approximately an hour and 40 minutes later, a funeral director put the woman’s overall body on a gurney “inside a cloth bag and zipped it shut,” the report says. The director left with the lady about 10 minutes later on, the report claims. Shortly ahead of 8:30 a.m., staff members at the funeral dwelling learned that the woman was still alive, the report claims.
“Funeral property staff members unzipped the bag and observed Resident #1’s upper body was shifting and she was gasping for air. The funeral household then known as 911 and hospice,” the report states.
When EMS staff arrived, they recorded the woman’s pulse and mentioned she experienced no eye movement or verbal, vocal or motor response, in accordance to the report.
The lady was taken to the emergency home. She was returned to the hospice facility and died with her household at her facet two days later on, in accordance to the state report.
The state fined the facility $10,000, the highest permitted underneath Iowa law, reported a spokesperson for the state Division of Inspections and Appeals.
A point out quotation dated Wednesday said that the facility “unsuccessful to give satisfactory way to assure correct cares and solutions were being provided” and that it failed to guarantee she acquired “dignified treatment and care at stop of life.”
The hospice facility’s executive director claimed reps have been in contact with the resident’s spouse and children.
“We treatment deeply for our inhabitants and continue being entirely fully commited to supporting their end-of-existence treatment,” Executive Director Lisa Eastman said in a assertion. “All staff members undertake standard coaching so they can ideal guidance finish-of-existence care and the loss of life of our inhabitants.”
MAINZ, Germany — A family members dispute, a lacking female, and a body that experienced been stabbed to dying uncovered in the woman’s automobile by her dad and mom: These items, authorities in Germany now say, are not as they the moment appeared.
Significantly from remaining the sufferer, the female who had been missing had in its place uncovered a lookalike on Instagram and killed her with a pal in buy to phase her individual demise and “commence a new lifestyle,” prosecutors and law enforcement in Bavaria now say. The scenario has been dubbed the “doppelganger murder” by area media.
Arrest warrants on suspicion of murder have now been issued for the girl and her mate, law enforcement in the southern metropolis of Ingolstadt, all-around 50 miles north of the regional capital, Munich, declared Monday. The pair have been in custody due to the fact days soon after the physique was found out.
“I can validate that the accused 23-calendar year-outdated female of course planned to start out a new daily life due to loved ones issues,” police spokesperson Andreas Aichele told NBC Information. She experienced established up many social media accounts “to obtain any persons searching as equivalent to her as attainable,”Aichele said.
“Investigations revealed speak to to a number of younger women throughout a interval of handful of weeks. Investigators think that underneath a pretext she managed to arrange a conference with the later on victim. With each other with the 23-yr-aged male she traveled to the Heilbronn region to select her up and carry out the planned murder,” Aichele included.
Below German privacy laws, the entire names of victims or suspects are not publicly unveiled.
The thriller began last Aug. 16, when the physique of a girl who had been stabbed to demise was located by the dad and mom of the 23-year-previous German-Iraqi female in her parked vehicle in Ingolstadt, according to a assertion from police in upper Bavaria north.
But a subsequent autopsy “raised major uncertainties about the id of the female,” they stated in a assertion two days afterwards.
Tributes lie by a tree around which a female overall body was found in a passenger motor vehicle in Ingolstadt, Germany, in August. Peter Kneffel / Photograph Alliance by means of Getty Visuals file
It brought reduction to the father of the 23-calendar year-previous, but not underneath the situation he anticipated. “The law enforcement came to us … and reported, ‘Good information, your daughter is alive.’ We ended up so delighted. We thought she was dead,” German newspaper Bild quoted the woman’s father as declaring.
Rather, two days later on, law enforcement explained they experienced arrested the woman and yet another 23-year-outdated of Kosovan descent under suspicion of manslaughter.The two suspects have been in custody considering that, and the arrest warrants on suspicion of murder were issued late final 7 days.
The lifeless lady, it turns out, was a different 23-year-previous lady who police mentioned “looked strikingly comparable” to the suspect.
“The suspects arrived up with the system to research on line for a lady who seemed related to the German-Iraqi, eliminate her and spot her in these a way that the corpse would be mistaken for the suspect,” police mentioned in a statement Monday.
“She presented them various positive aspects in get to reach a assembly. However, it did not occur to a meeting with those girls,”prosecutor Dr. Veronika Grieserclaimed.
In accordance to the Bavarian police, the main suspect contacted the sufferer through social media in early August and arranged a assembly on Aug. 16. She traveled with her mate in her car to the greater Heilbronn place, all-around 150 miles west of Ingolstadt, to decide up the sufferer at home, law enforcement reported.
The victim was lured out of the automobile and stabbed to demise in a wooded location “insidiously and for foundation motives,” the statement additional.
Fiona Brookman, a professor of criminology at the College of South Wales, referred to as the scenario “very strange,” not least mainly because women make up 10{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} or fewer of murder instances. Woman-on-female conditions are even rarer, she additional.
Ultimately, “committing a murder in buy to bogus one’s possess death — I have by no means come throughout a homicide of this sort in advance of,” she added.
Andy Eckardt documented from Mainz, Germany, and Aina J. Khan from London.
