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Exam Code: CTAL-TM-UK ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level - Test Manager (CTAL-TM_UK) information hunger June 2023 by Killexams.com team
ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level - Test Manager (CTAL-TM_UK)
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iSQI
CTAL-TM-UK
ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level - Test Manager
(CTAL-TM_UK)
https://killexams.com/pass4sure/exam-detail/CTAL-TM-UK
Answer: B
Question: 58
Which of the following is NOT a typical key challenge for testing in a RAD based
development approach? 1 credit
A. Re-usable test scripts for (automated) regression testing
B. Project management and control
C. No complete requirements specification
D. Time-boxing
Answer: B
Question: 59
As a result of the RAD based development approach, the test manager has decided to
change the risk mitigation approach. Which test technique might be most appropriate
to use? 2 credits
A. Decision Table Testing
B. Boundary Value Analysis
C. Error Guessing
D. Exploratory Testing
Answer: D
Question: 60
The business has asked for a weekly progress report. Which of the following would
be appropriate as a measure of test coverage? 2 credits
A. Percentage of business requirements exercised
B. Percentage of planned hours worked this week
C. Percentage of countries that have test scenarios
D. Percentage of test iterations completed
Answer: A
Section 11: Sec Eleven (61 to 61)
Details: subject 11, Scenario 11 "Incident Management"
The following is the current incident handling process in used at the company.
23
Step 1: Incident is documented in the incident Tile with the following information:
- Software module or area where the fault occurred
- Who has reported the fault
- Hardware configuration used for the test that found the fault
- The sequential incident number (1 greater than the last one recorded)
Step 2: Developer assigned to fix the fault
Step 3: Developer fixes the fault
Step 4: Developer signs off the incident as closed, and it is then removed from the
incident file
Question: 61
Regarding the process described above, what is the most important recommendation
you would make using IEEE 1044 as a guide? 2 credits
A. No priority or severity assigned
B. Incident numbering is manual rather than automated
C. No mentioning of reproduceability
D. No classification on type of incident
Answer: A
Section 12: Sec Twelve (62 to 65)
Details: subject 12, Scenario 12 Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)
You are a test manager in charge of integration, system and acceptance testing for a
bank. You are working on a project to upgrade an existing ATM to allow customers
to obtain cash advances from supported credit cards. The system should allow cash
advances from 20 to 500, inclusively, for all supported credit cards. The supported
credit cards are American Express, VISA, Eurocard and Mastercard. In the master
test plan the following items are listed in the section named items and/or features to
be tested:
I All supported credit cards
II Language localization
II Valid and invalid advances
IV Usability
V Response time
Question: 62
Relying only on the information provided in the scenario, select the TWO items
and/or features for which sufficient information is available to proceed with test
design. 2 credits
A. All supported credit cards
B. Language localization
C. Valid and invalid advances
24
D. Usability
E. Response time
Answer: A, C
Question: 63
Continuing with the Scenario described in the previous question, which of the
following subjects would you need to address in detail in the master test plan? 3 credits
A. An approach to regression testing
B. A list of boundary values for advance amount
C. A description of dependencies between test cases
D. A logical collection of test cases
Answer: A
Question: 64
Given the following figures for the testing on a project, and assuming the failure rate
for initial tests remains constant and that all retests pass, what number of tests remain
to be run? 3 credits
A. 700
B. 720
C. 784
D. 570
Answer: B
Question: 65
Given is the following defect removal chart reported at the end of system testing -
showing total defects detected and closed defects (fixed and successfully retested). A
number of open defects are classified as critical. All tests have been executed.
25
Based on the chart above, what is the most appropriate next test phase? 1 credit
A. Acceptance testing to verify the business process
B. Acceptance testing to verify operational requirements
C. Requirements testing as part of testing regulatory compliance
D. Another system test cycle to verify defect resolution
Answer: D
26
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iSQI (CTAL-TM_UK) information hunger - BingNews https://killexams.com/pass4sure/exam-detail/CTAL-TM-UK Search results iSQI (CTAL-TM_UK) information hunger - BingNews https://killexams.com/pass4sure/exam-detail/CTAL-TM-UK https://killexams.com/exam_list/iSQI US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict – as it happened

US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict

The UK foreign secretary and US secretary of state have urged Russia not to use global hunger as a tool of war in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as discussions continue about the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, James Cleverly and Antony Blinken spoke about the war, as well as relations with China and the recent evacuation of nationals in Sudan amid the country falling into civil war.

Speaking first, Blinken said: “We are urging Russia to extend and expand the Black Sea grain initiative. In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukrainian ports to pick up grain. A cynical action, that directly results in less food getting to global food markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East and around the world who need that food.

“While we are grateful for the tireless efforts of [UN] general secretary Guterres, our colleagues in Turkey, working to break this impasse, the world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.”

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will visit the US in June, where he will meet Joe Biden in Washington. London will host the Ukraine rebuilding conference in the same month, in an attempt to examine how cities, towns and infrastructure will recover post-conflict.

Cleverly struck the same tone. After thanking Blinken for his remarks, including congratulations sent to King Charles III on his coronation, the foreign secretary said: “Just as we did with Sudan, we remain focused on the needs of some of the poorest people in the world. I echo your comments on the Black Sea grain initiative.

“It is completely wrong that Russia uses the hunger of some of the poorest people in the world to pursue leverage in this conflict. They should resign the Black Sea grain initiative and do so immediately, they should unlock the supply of food to go to those people around the world who need it most and it is perverse that they are using hunger in the developing world as leverage in their conflict in Ukraine.”

Key events

Summary

The time is approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Here’s a roundup of today’s news.

  • Vladimir Putin has told Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine that the “whole country is praying for them”, as he used his Victory Day speech to defend his invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Russian president drew historical parallels between the second world war and fighting in Ukraine “Today, civilisation is again at a decisive, turning point, a real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said in a speech that was laced with anger.

  • “We are proud of the participants of the special military operation. The future of our people depends on you,” Putin said. He accused the west of “destroying traditional values” and propagandising a “system of robbery and violence.”

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force, which is fighting Russia’s battle in Bakhmut, has said he was told he and his mercenaries would be regarded as “traitors” if they abandoned their positions. Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops from the city in east Ukraine, which has been the site of a long-running battle since 2022 to try to capture it, because of a lack of ammunition. He then rowed back on it, but has again threatened to do so.

  • The UK foreign secretary James Cleverly and US secretary of state Antony Blinken have urged Russia not to use hunger as a weapon of war, as discussions over the Black Sea grain deal continue.

  • Blinken said: “In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukrainian ports to pick up grain. A cynical action, that directly results in less food getting to global food markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East and around the world who need that food.The world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.”

  • Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country. “As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.

  • Popko said that according to preliminary information there were no casualties in the attack, which was carried out with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said debris fell on a house in the Holosiivskyi district in the south-west of Kyiv, but there were no casualties and not much damage.

  • Ukraine is planning a “very important” counteroffensive against Russian forces that must “demonstrate success”, the country’s prime minister has said. Denys Shmyhal told Sky News that the operation would be launched when the time was right.

  • Cleverly warned that people should not get too carried away with their hopes for Ukraine’s counter offensive. “We have to be realistic. This is the real world; this is not a Hollywood movie,” he said.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he discussed European integration, defence matters and sanctions against Russia at a meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv. He said he expected the EU to soon approve more sanctions on Russia.

  • The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said there is currently no prospect of peace between Russia and Ukraine because “both sides are convinced that they can win”. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País on Tuesday, Guterres was pessimistic about the EU and the UN’s ability to broker an end to the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion last year. “Unfortunately, I don’t think peace negotiations are possible at the moment,” he said.

  • The US has announced a “new security assistance package” to help bolster Ukraine’s air defences and artillery ammunition needs. This package, confirmed by the Department of Defense on Tuesday, totals up to $1.2bn and is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

  • A UK-led group of European countries has asked for expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles. The call for responses from companies who could provide the munitions with range of up to 300km (190 miles) was included in a notice posted last week by the International Fund for Ukraine.

  • MEPs voted to speed up consideration of a law to boost ammunition production in Europe to the tune of €500m ($550m), due to efforts to supply Ukraine. The decision should see the new legislation – snappily termed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (Asap) – in place by the end of the year, MEPs and European Commission officials said, Agence France-Presse reports.

  • Ukraine has received Israeli-made radar defence systems, which have already been deployed in Kyiv as of Monday, according to Israeli media reports. A Lithuanian volunteer organisation known as Blue/Yellow delivered 16 ieMHR models made by Israel’s RADA Electronic Industries last week and three are already in use in the Ukrainian capital, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz said. The systems are designed to detect aerial threats including missiles, rockets, mortar shells, helicopters and drones within up to a 10km (6.2-mile) radius.

  • The EU must not be intimidated by Moscow’s showcasing of military power but continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Tuesday as Russia marked Victory Day with a parade. “Two thousand two hundred kilometres north-east from here, Putin is parading his soldiers, tanks and missiles today,” Scholz told lawmakers in a speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

  • Germany’s foreign minister has said China could play a decisive role in ending the war in Ukraine. Speaking alongside her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock said that as a permanent member of the UN security council, China had the power to be influential in the conflict and bring it to an end.

  • The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said Russia “will prevail” in its fight against what he described as “imperialists”, the state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday, in remarks seen to be aimed at Ukraine and its western supporters such as the US. North Korea has forged closer ties with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, including its proclamation later of having annexed parts of Ukraine, which most UN members condemned as illegal.

That’s all for today. Thank you for following along.

The situation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, is deteriorating, Funke Media Group has reported.

According to Ukraine’s state-owned operating company Energoatom, Russia is bringing more troops and military vehicles to the site of the nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.

“The situation of equipment and personnel is deteriorating,” the Energoatom president, Petro Kotin, told Funke.

US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict

The UK foreign secretary and US secretary of state have urged Russia not to use global hunger as a tool of war in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as discussions continue about the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, James Cleverly and Antony Blinken spoke about the war, as well as relations with China and the recent evacuation of nationals in Sudan amid the country falling into civil war.

Speaking first, Blinken said: “We are urging Russia to extend and expand the Black Sea grain initiative. In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukrainian ports to pick up grain. A cynical action, that directly results in less food getting to global food markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East and around the world who need that food.

“While we are grateful for the tireless efforts of [UN] general secretary Guterres, our colleagues in Turkey, working to break this impasse, the world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.”

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will visit the US in June, where he will meet Joe Biden in Washington. London will host the Ukraine rebuilding conference in the same month, in an attempt to examine how cities, towns and infrastructure will recover post-conflict.

Cleverly struck the same tone. After thanking Blinken for his remarks, including congratulations sent to King Charles III on his coronation, the foreign secretary said: “Just as we did with Sudan, we remain focused on the needs of some of the poorest people in the world. I echo your comments on the Black Sea grain initiative.

“It is completely wrong that Russia uses the hunger of some of the poorest people in the world to pursue leverage in this conflict. They should resign the Black Sea grain initiative and do so immediately, they should unlock the supply of food to go to those people around the world who need it most and it is perverse that they are using hunger in the developing world as leverage in their conflict in Ukraine.”

Some more on the comments by James Cleverly in the US.

The UK foreign secretary said that Ukraine’s offensive may not be “decisive” in an attempt to play down expectations of a “Hollywood” style sweep to retake occupied areas of the country.

On a visit to Washington he said that more aid must be delivered, but added: “They have demonstrated themselves to be very, very effective defenders of their country, but we need to recognise that there might not be a simple, quick, decisive breakthrough,” Cleverly said at the Atlantic Council, Agence France-Presse reports.

“I hope and expect they will do very, very well, because whenever I’ve seen the Ukrainians they have outperformed expectations.

“But we have to be realistic. This is the real world; this is not a Hollywood movie,” he said.

Cleverly called for western powers “to have the resolve to continue to do the right thing” no matter how the offensive progresses, including the prospect of “escalatory words” from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“If we don’t, what’s at stake is of immeasurable importance,” he said.

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has told a US audience at the Atlantic Council that he would welcome China’s involvement in helping bring the war in Ukraine to an end.

He said: “I don’t think we should be ‘dog in the manger’ about this. We know that Xi enjoys a significant degree of influence with Vladimir Putin. If he can use that influence to deliver on what he has publicly stated he feels strongly about, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the non-use of nuclear weapons, the non-threat of nuclear weapons, then why would we be critical of that intervention, if it is meaningful and if he actually delivers upon it. Two big ifs.

“If through his intervention he can help restore the sovereignty of Ukraine, and get Russian troops out of that country, I’m not going to be critical of that.”

Cleverly: UK won't be 'critical' of China's involvement to restore Ukrainian sovereignty – video

A UK-led group of European countries has asked for expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles in what would be another step-up in military support for Kyiv against Russia’s invasion.

The call for responses from companies who could provide the munitions with range of up to 300km (190 miles) was included in a notice posted last week by the International Fund for Ukraine – a group of countries including Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden – set up to send weapons to Kyiv, Reuters reports.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence, which runs the fund, asked companies to get in touch if they could provide missiles that can be launched from land, sea or air with a payload of between 20 and 490kg (44 and 1,078lbs).

The notice asked for other desirable requirements including a “low probability of intercept”, “mission planning capability”, and “air defence penetration methods to increase probability of successful strike”. The notice said companies that responded would be contacted from 5 June.

A British official said no final decision had been made to send missiles with these capabilities to Ukraine.

US announces $1.2bn 'security assistance package' to bolster Ukrainian defences

The US has announced a “new security assistance package” to help bolster Ukraine’s air defences and artillery ammunition needs.

This package, confirmed by the Department of Defense on Tuesday, totals up to $1.2bn and is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

In a statement this afternoon, the DoD said:

This USAI package underscores the continued US commitment to meeting Ukraine’s most urgent requirements by committing critical near-term capabilities, such as air defence systems and munitions, while also building the capacity of Ukraine’s armed forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term.

This includes committing additional 155mm artillery rounds and sustainment support to enable Ukraine to better maintain its on-hand systems and equipment.

The package includes funding for additional air defence systems and munitions; equipment to integrate western air defence launchers, missiles and radars with Ukraine’s air defence systems; ammunition for counter-unmanned aerial systems; 155mm artillery rounds; commercial satellite imagery services; and support for training, maintenance and sustainment activities.

A large installation representing Russian atrocities in Ukraine blocked the path of Russia’s ambassador to Poland as he sought to place a wreath at a Warsaw memorial to Soviet soldiers on Russia’s Victory Day holiday.

The installation included hundreds of fluttering blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and crosses serving as symbolic grave markers for Ukrainians killed by Russians during the full-scale war launched by Moscow last year.

A pool of fake blood below the crosses underlined the stark message of the protest, which was created by Euromaidan-Warszawa, a citizens’ initiative that supports Ukraine.

One organiser, Viktoria Pogrebniak, said the installation, set up for the day at the entrance to the Red Army memorial site, was meant to fight back against Russian propaganda and “show the real picture to the world”.

“We are bombed, we are killed, we are raped,” she said. “We are killed just because we are Ukrainians.”

A tumultuous year of fighting has passed since Vladimir Putin last addressed Russian soldiers on Red Square in Moscow to mark the country’s victory over the Nazis.

But the Russian leader’s Victory Day message to the nation on Tuesday was nearly identical to that of last year, as he cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against an aggressive, Russophobic and woke west.

“Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said as he delivered an angry yet somewhat routine speech in which he drew false parallels between today’s fight with Ukraine’s “criminal regime” and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin also recycled some of his other go-to grievances, blaming “western globalist elites” for “destroying the family” and “traditional values”.

What was left unspoken by the Russian president was the battering his army had received over the last 12 months in Ukraine, the impact of which was revealed by the scaled-down military parade that followed his speech.

Afternoon summary

It’s 4.20pm in Kyiv. Here’s a summary of the day’s news so far:

  • Vladimir Putin has told Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine that the “whole country is praying for them”, as he used his Victory Day speech to defend his invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Russian president drew historical parallels between the second world war and fighting in Ukraine “Today, civilisation is again at a decisive, turning point, a real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said in a speech that was laced with anger.

  • “We are proud of the participants of the special military operation. The future of our people depends on you,” Putin said. He accused the west of “destroying traditional values” and propagandising a “system of robbery and violence.”

  • Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country. “As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.

  • Popko said that according to preliminary information there were no casualties in the attack, which was carried out with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said debris fell on a house in the Holosiivskyi district in the south-west of Kyiv, but there were no casualties and not much damage.

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force which is fighting Russia’s battle in Bakhmut, has said he was told that he and his mercenaries would be regarded as “traitors” if they abandoned their positions. Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops from the city in east Ukraine, which has been the site of a long-running battle since 2022 to try to capture it, because of a lack of ammunition. He then rowed back on it, but has again threatened to do so.

  • Ukraine is planning a “very important” counteroffensive against Russian forces that must “demonstrate success”, the country’s prime minister has said. Denys Shmyhal told Sky News that the operation would be launched when the time was right.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he discussed European integration, defence matters and sanctions against Russia at a meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv. He said he expected the EU to soon approve more sanctions on Russia.

  • The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said there is currently no prospect of peace between Russia and Ukraine because “both sides are convinced that they can win”. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País on Tuesday, Guterres was pessimistic about the EU and the UN’s ability to broker an end to the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion last year. “Unfortunately, I don’t think peace negotiations are possible at the moment,” he said.

  • Russia may be building a water pipeline in an attempt to address a water shortage affecting the occupied city of Donetsk. The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily update that water had been a growing issue for Donetsk since the invasion in February 2022. On 28 April, the Russian-installed head of Donetsk said regional supplies were running “dangerously low”. The Siversky-Donets canal that supplies the area is mainly under Ukrainian control, despite Russian attempts to take command of it.

  • MEPs voted to speed up consideration of a law to boost ammunition production in Europe to the tune of €500m ($550m), due to efforts to supply Ukraine. The decision should see the new legislation – snappily termed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (Asap) – in place by the end of the year, MEPs and European Commission officials said, Agence France-Presse reports.

  • Ukraine has received Israeli-made radar defence systems, which have already been deployed in Kyiv as of Monday, according to Israeli media reports. A Lithuanian volunteer organisation known as Blue/Yellow delivered 16 ieMHR models made by Israel’s RADA Electronic Industries last week and three are already in use in the Ukrainian capital, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz said. The systems are designed to detect aerial threats including missiles, rockets, mortar shells, helicopters and drones within up to a 10km (6.2-mile) radius.

  • The EU must not be intimidated by Moscow’s showcasing of military power but continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Tuesday as Russia marked Victory Day with a parade. “Two thousand two hundred kilometres north-east from here, Putin is parading his soldiers, tanks and missiles today,” Scholz told lawmakers in a speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

  • Germany’s foreign minister has said China could play a decisive role in ending the war in Ukraine. Speaking alongside her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock said that as a permanent member of the UN security council, China had the power to be influential in the conflict and bring it to an end.

  • The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said Russia “will prevail” in its fight against what he described as “imperialists”, the state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday, in remarks seen to be aimed at Ukraine and its western supporters such as the US. North Korea has forged closer ties with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, including its proclamation later of having annexed parts of Ukraine, which most UN members condemned as illegal.

  • The leaders of the G7 nations must condemn any threat to use nuclear weapons and vow “decisive action” against such a move when they hold a summit next week in the city of Hiroshima, Ukraine’s envoy to Japan said. Nuclear tension has surged since the start of the conflict with Ukraine as Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that Russia is ready to use its nuclear arsenal if necessary to defend its “territorial integrity”.

Russia may be building a water pipeline in an attempt to address a water shortage affecting the occupied city of Donetsk.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily update that water had been a growing issue for Donetsk since the invasion in February 2022.

On 28 April, the Russian-installed head of Donetsk said regional supplies were running “dangerously low”. The Siversky-Donets canal that supplies the area is mainly under Ukrainian control, despite Russian attempts to take command of it. It runs near the city of Bakhmut, which has seen heavy fighting from both sides as Russia tries to take it.

The MoD said: “Russia’s heavy use of indirect artillery to support the capture of Bakhmut … has likely inflicted collateral damage to the canal and other regional water infrastructure, undermining Russia’s efforts to remedy the lack of water that its invasion originally created.

“To compensate for its lack of success in capture and retaining the canal, Russia is likely constructing a water pipeline to mitigate the water shortage within Donetsk city. However, this is unlikely to fully compensate for the occupied region’s reduced access to water.”

Germany’s foreign minister has said China could play a decisive role in ending the war in Ukraine.

Speaking alongside her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock said that as a permanent member of the UN security council, China had the power to be influential in the conflict and bring it to an end.

Her comments were rebuffed by Qin, who said China would neither “watch the fire from the other bank” nor “add fuel to the fire”.

Baerbock said the EU was still working on ways to stop sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals being circumvented, including by using indirect companies in other countries.

She was asked whether the measures would include a proposed blacklisting of several Chinese companies. In response she said negotiations were ongoing but that generally it was important to stop restrictions from being bypassed.

Prigozhin says he has been told Wagner will be deemed 'traitors' if they abandon Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force which is fighting Russia’s battle in Bakhmut, has said he was told that he and his mercenaries would be regarded as “traitors” if they abandoned their positions.

Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops from the city in east Ukraine, which has been the site of a long-running battle since 2022 to try to capture it, because of a lack of ammunition. He since rowed back on it, but again threatened to do so unless he got it.

His latest comments were released on Russia’s Victory Day, as a military parade took place in the capital, Moscow.

He said: “A combat order came yesterday which clearly stated that if we leave our positions it will be regarded as treason against the motherland. That was the message to us.

“[But] if there is no ammunition, then we will leave our positions and be the ones asking who is really betraying the motherland. Apparently, the one [betraying Russia] is the person who signed it [the order to supply too little ammunition].”

He said his forces would stay in Bakhmut and keep insisting they get their ammo “for a few more days”.

Prigozhin has previously accused the defence ministry of deliberately starving his forces of ammunition. The ministry has said it is working to ensure all battlefield units have what they need.

Late on Monday, Prigozhin said there were signs the ammunition problem was being solved, but on Tuesday he said the size of the shipment had been slashed. “They’ve given us only 10% of what we asked for. We’ve been deceived,” he said.

Zelenskiy: EU grain restrictions are 'completely unacceptable'

More details from Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s press conference alongside the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He was heavily critical of restrictions on the import of grain into the EU imposed after complaints by a group of five central and eastern European countries. He said the ban was helping Russia.

He said: “All restrictions on our exports are completely unacceptable right now. They only reinforce the abilities of the aggressor. We are waiting for the EU to stop all restrictions as fast as possible.”

Agence France-Presse said he called the measures “severe, even cruel” and “disappointing” in a time of war.

The EU members involved – Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – have sparred with Ukraine in recent weeks over the issue of grain.

Russia’s invasion last year severely limited the traditional export channel of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, necessitating export overland via Ukraine’s neighbours.

Member states agreed to allow the import of certain products from Ukraine without quantitative restrictions, and without customs and official inspections.

But farmers in some of the EU countries protested after a slump in prices, prompting a raft of restrictions and bans on Ukraine’s food exports in response.

Brussels called the bans on imports of grain and other food from Ukraine “unacceptable” while Kyiv is at war with Russia.

Last month, the European Commission reached an agreement with all the parties concerned to ensure the transit of Ukrainian grain exports through EU countries, but with restrictions.

Speaking alongside Zelenskiy, Von der Leyen on Tuesday described the grain situation as “difficult”.

“The immediate priority now is that the grain transit goes seamlessly and at the lowest possible cost outside from Ukraine towards the European Union,” she said.

“This requires a very close cooperation of the different stakeholders. Therefore, we will jointly set up a coordination platform.”

MEPs voted to speed up consideration of a law to boost ammunition production in Europe to the tune of €500m ($550m), due to efforts to supply Ukraine.

The decision should see the new legislation – snappily termed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (Asap) – in place by the end of the year, MEPs and European Commission officials said, Agence France-Presse reports.

The spending proposal, initiated by the commission, comes as the bloc seeks to supply 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next 12 months, adding to a stream of military deliveries.

But shifting such quantities of munitions to Ukraine has severely depleted stocks in EU member countries’ arsenals, creating the need for the new ammunition-production act.

The Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, in a joint news conference in Kyiv with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Asap law would “help member states to ramp up the production … and speed up the delivery of ammunition to meet Ukraine’s and member states’ needs”.

The draft legislation calls for tapping the EU’s European defence fund and another mechanism the commission has suggested creating under a July 2022 proposal, called the European Defence Industrial Reinforcement Through Common Procurement Act.

Tue, 09 May 2023 06:57:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/may/09/russia-ukraine-war-live-15-missiles-shot-down-over-kyiv-as-victory-day-begins-in-russia
US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict – as it happened

US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict

The UK foreign secretary and US secretary of state have urged Russia not to use global hunger as a tool of war in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as discussions continue about the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, James Cleverly and Antony Blinken spoke about the war, as well as relations with China and the recent evacuation of nationals in Sudan amid the country falling into civil war.

Speaking first, Blinken said: “We are urging Russia to extend and expand the Black Sea grain initiative. In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukrainian ports to pick up grain. A cynical action, that directly results in less food getting to global food markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East and around the world who need that food.

“While we are grateful for the tireless efforts of [UN] general secretary Guterres, our colleagues in Turkey, working to break this impasse, the world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.”

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will visit the US in June, where he will meet Joe Biden in Washington. London will host the Ukraine rebuilding conference in the same month, in an attempt to examine how cities, towns and infrastructure will recover post-conflict.

Cleverly struck the same tone. After thanking Blinken for his remarks, including congratulations sent to King Charles III on his coronation, the foreign secretary said: “Just as we did with Sudan, we remain focused on the needs of some of the poorest people in the world. I echo your comments on the Black Sea grain initiative.

“It is completely wrong that Russia uses the hunger of some of the poorest people in the world to pursue leverage in this conflict. They should resign the Black Sea grain initiative and do so immediately, they should unlock the supply of food to go to those people around the world who need it most and it is perverse that they are using hunger in the developing world as leverage in their conflict in Ukraine.”

Key events

Summary

The time is approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Here’s a roundup of today’s news.

  • Vladimir Putin has told Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine that the “whole country is praying for them”, as he used his Victory Day speech to defend his invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Russian president drew historical parallels between the second world war and fighting in Ukraine “Today, civilisation is again at a decisive, turning point, a real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said in a speech that was laced with anger.

  • “We are proud of the participants of the special military operation. The future of our people depends on you,” Putin said. He accused the west of “destroying traditional values” and propagandising a “system of robbery and violence.”

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force, which is fighting Russia’s battle in Bakhmut, has said he was told he and his mercenaries would be regarded as “traitors” if they abandoned their positions. Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops from the city in east Ukraine, which has been the site of a long-running battle since 2022 to try to capture it, because of a lack of ammunition. He then rowed back on it, but has again threatened to do so.

  • The UK foreign secretary James Cleverly and US secretary of state Antony Blinken have urged Russia not to use hunger as a weapon of war, as discussions over the Black Sea grain deal continue.

  • Blinken said: “In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukrainian ports to pick up grain. A cynical action, that directly results in less food getting to global food markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East and around the world who need that food.The world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.”

  • Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country. “As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.

  • Popko said that according to preliminary information there were no casualties in the attack, which was carried out with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said debris fell on a house in the Holosiivskyi district in the south-west of Kyiv, but there were no casualties and not much damage.

  • Ukraine is planning a “very important” counteroffensive against Russian forces that must “demonstrate success”, the country’s prime minister has said. Denys Shmyhal told Sky News that the operation would be launched when the time was right.

  • Cleverly warned that people should not get too carried away with their hopes for Ukraine’s counter offensive. “We have to be realistic. This is the real world; this is not a Hollywood movie,” he said.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he discussed European integration, defence matters and sanctions against Russia at a meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv. He said he expected the EU to soon approve more sanctions on Russia.

  • The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said there is currently no prospect of peace between Russia and Ukraine because “both sides are convinced that they can win”. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País on Tuesday, Guterres was pessimistic about the EU and the UN’s ability to broker an end to the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion last year. “Unfortunately, I don’t think peace negotiations are possible at the moment,” he said.

  • The US has announced a “new security assistance package” to help bolster Ukraine’s air defences and artillery ammunition needs. This package, confirmed by the Department of Defense on Tuesday, totals up to $1.2bn and is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

  • A UK-led group of European countries has asked for expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles. The call for responses from companies who could provide the munitions with range of up to 300km (190 miles) was included in a notice posted last week by the International Fund for Ukraine.

  • MEPs voted to speed up consideration of a law to boost ammunition production in Europe to the tune of €500m ($550m), due to efforts to supply Ukraine. The decision should see the new legislation – snappily termed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (Asap) – in place by the end of the year, MEPs and European Commission officials said, Agence France-Presse reports.

  • Ukraine has received Israeli-made radar defence systems, which have already been deployed in Kyiv as of Monday, according to Israeli media reports. A Lithuanian volunteer organisation known as Blue/Yellow delivered 16 ieMHR models made by Israel’s RADA Electronic Industries last week and three are already in use in the Ukrainian capital, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz said. The systems are designed to detect aerial threats including missiles, rockets, mortar shells, helicopters and drones within up to a 10km (6.2-mile) radius.

  • The EU must not be intimidated by Moscow’s showcasing of military power but continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Tuesday as Russia marked Victory Day with a parade. “Two thousand two hundred kilometres north-east from here, Putin is parading his soldiers, tanks and missiles today,” Scholz told lawmakers in a speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

  • Germany’s foreign minister has said China could play a decisive role in ending the war in Ukraine. Speaking alongside her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock said that as a permanent member of the UN security council, China had the power to be influential in the conflict and bring it to an end.

  • The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said Russia “will prevail” in its fight against what he described as “imperialists”, the state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday, in remarks seen to be aimed at Ukraine and its western supporters such as the US. North Korea has forged closer ties with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, including its proclamation later of having annexed parts of Ukraine, which most UN members condemned as illegal.

That’s all for today. Thank you for following along.

The situation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, is deteriorating, Funke Media Group has reported.

According to Ukraine’s state-owned operating company Energoatom, Russia is bringing more troops and military vehicles to the site of the nuclear power plant, Reuters reports.

“The situation of equipment and personnel is deteriorating,” the Energoatom president, Petro Kotin, told Funke.

US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict

The UK foreign secretary and US secretary of state have urged Russia not to use global hunger as a tool of war in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as discussions continue about the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, James Cleverly and Antony Blinken spoke about the war, as well as relations with China and the recent evacuation of nationals in Sudan amid the country falling into civil war.

Speaking first, Blinken said: “We are urging Russia to extend and expand the Black Sea grain initiative. In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukrainian ports to pick up grain. A cynical action, that directly results in less food getting to global food markets and to human beings in Africa, in the Middle East and around the world who need that food.

“While we are grateful for the tireless efforts of [UN] general secretary Guterres, our colleagues in Turkey, working to break this impasse, the world shouldn’t need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people’s hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine.”

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will visit the US in June, where he will meet Joe Biden in Washington. London will host the Ukraine rebuilding conference in the same month, in an attempt to examine how cities, towns and infrastructure will recover post-conflict.

Cleverly struck the same tone. After thanking Blinken for his remarks, including congratulations sent to King Charles III on his coronation, the foreign secretary said: “Just as we did with Sudan, we remain focused on the needs of some of the poorest people in the world. I echo your comments on the Black Sea grain initiative.

“It is completely wrong that Russia uses the hunger of some of the poorest people in the world to pursue leverage in this conflict. They should resign the Black Sea grain initiative and do so immediately, they should unlock the supply of food to go to those people around the world who need it most and it is perverse that they are using hunger in the developing world as leverage in their conflict in Ukraine.”

Some more on the comments by James Cleverly in the US.

The UK foreign secretary said that Ukraine’s offensive may not be “decisive” in an attempt to play down expectations of a “Hollywood” style sweep to retake occupied areas of the country.

On a visit to Washington he said that more aid must be delivered, but added: “They have demonstrated themselves to be very, very effective defenders of their country, but we need to recognise that there might not be a simple, quick, decisive breakthrough,” Cleverly said at the Atlantic Council, Agence France-Presse reports.

“I hope and expect they will do very, very well, because whenever I’ve seen the Ukrainians they have outperformed expectations.

“But we have to be realistic. This is the real world; this is not a Hollywood movie,” he said.

Cleverly called for western powers “to have the resolve to continue to do the right thing” no matter how the offensive progresses, including the prospect of “escalatory words” from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“If we don’t, what’s at stake is of immeasurable importance,” he said.

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has told a US audience at the Atlantic Council that he would welcome China’s involvement in helping bring the war in Ukraine to an end.

He said: “I don’t think we should be ‘dog in the manger’ about this. We know that Xi enjoys a significant degree of influence with Vladimir Putin. If he can use that influence to deliver on what he has publicly stated he feels strongly about, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the non-use of nuclear weapons, the non-threat of nuclear weapons, then why would we be critical of that intervention, if it is meaningful and if he actually delivers upon it. Two big ifs.

“If through his intervention he can help restore the sovereignty of Ukraine, and get Russian troops out of that country, I’m not going to be critical of that.”

Cleverly: UK won't be 'critical' of China's involvement to restore Ukrainian sovereignty – video

A UK-led group of European countries has asked for expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles in what would be another step-up in military support for Kyiv against Russia’s invasion.

The call for responses from companies who could provide the munitions with range of up to 300km (190 miles) was included in a notice posted last week by the International Fund for Ukraine – a group of countries including Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden – set up to send weapons to Kyiv, Reuters reports.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence, which runs the fund, asked companies to get in touch if they could provide missiles that can be launched from land, sea or air with a payload of between 20 and 490kg (44 and 1,078lbs).

The notice asked for other desirable requirements including a “low probability of intercept”, “mission planning capability”, and “air defence penetration methods to increase probability of successful strike”. The notice said companies that responded would be contacted from 5 June.

A British official said no final decision had been made to send missiles with these capabilities to Ukraine.

US announces $1.2bn 'security assistance package' to bolster Ukrainian defences

The US has announced a “new security assistance package” to help bolster Ukraine’s air defences and artillery ammunition needs.

This package, confirmed by the Department of Defense on Tuesday, totals up to $1.2bn and is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

In a statement this afternoon, the DoD said:

This USAI package underscores the continued US commitment to meeting Ukraine’s most urgent requirements by committing critical near-term capabilities, such as air defence systems and munitions, while also building the capacity of Ukraine’s armed forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term.

This includes committing additional 155mm artillery rounds and sustainment support to enable Ukraine to better maintain its on-hand systems and equipment.

The package includes funding for additional air defence systems and munitions; equipment to integrate western air defence launchers, missiles and radars with Ukraine’s air defence systems; ammunition for counter-unmanned aerial systems; 155mm artillery rounds; commercial satellite imagery services; and support for training, maintenance and sustainment activities.

A large installation representing Russian atrocities in Ukraine blocked the path of Russia’s ambassador to Poland as he sought to place a wreath at a Warsaw memorial to Soviet soldiers on Russia’s Victory Day holiday.

The installation included hundreds of fluttering blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and crosses serving as symbolic grave markers for Ukrainians killed by Russians during the full-scale war launched by Moscow last year.

A pool of fake blood below the crosses underlined the stark message of the protest, which was created by Euromaidan-Warszawa, a citizens’ initiative that supports Ukraine.

One organiser, Viktoria Pogrebniak, said the installation, set up for the day at the entrance to the Red Army memorial site, was meant to fight back against Russian propaganda and “show the real picture to the world”.

“We are bombed, we are killed, we are raped,” she said. “We are killed just because we are Ukrainians.”

A tumultuous year of fighting has passed since Vladimir Putin last addressed Russian soldiers on Red Square in Moscow to mark the country’s victory over the Nazis.

But the Russian leader’s Victory Day message to the nation on Tuesday was nearly identical to that of last year, as he cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against an aggressive, Russophobic and woke west.

“Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said as he delivered an angry yet somewhat routine speech in which he drew false parallels between today’s fight with Ukraine’s “criminal regime” and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin also recycled some of his other go-to grievances, blaming “western globalist elites” for “destroying the family” and “traditional values”.

What was left unspoken by the Russian president was the battering his army had received over the last 12 months in Ukraine, the impact of which was revealed by the scaled-down military parade that followed his speech.

Afternoon summary

It’s 4.20pm in Kyiv. Here’s a summary of the day’s news so far:

  • Vladimir Putin has told Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine that the “whole country is praying for them”, as he used his Victory Day speech to defend his invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Russian president drew historical parallels between the second world war and fighting in Ukraine “Today, civilisation is again at a decisive, turning point, a real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said in a speech that was laced with anger.

  • “We are proud of the participants of the special military operation. The future of our people depends on you,” Putin said. He accused the west of “destroying traditional values” and propagandising a “system of robbery and violence.”

  • Russia launched about 15 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, the second attack in as many days, with air defence systems shooting all of them down, officials said, after air raid alerts blared over most of the country. “As at the front, the plans of the aggressor failed,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.

  • Popko said that according to preliminary information there were no casualties in the attack, which was carried out with cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said debris fell on a house in the Holosiivskyi district in the south-west of Kyiv, but there were no casualties and not much damage.

  • Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force which is fighting Russia’s battle in Bakhmut, has said he was told that he and his mercenaries would be regarded as “traitors” if they abandoned their positions. Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops from the city in east Ukraine, which has been the site of a long-running battle since 2022 to try to capture it, because of a lack of ammunition. He then rowed back on it, but has again threatened to do so.

  • Ukraine is planning a “very important” counteroffensive against Russian forces that must “demonstrate success”, the country’s prime minister has said. Denys Shmyhal told Sky News that the operation would be launched when the time was right.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he discussed European integration, defence matters and sanctions against Russia at a meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv. He said he expected the EU to soon approve more sanctions on Russia.

  • The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said there is currently no prospect of peace between Russia and Ukraine because “both sides are convinced that they can win”. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País on Tuesday, Guterres was pessimistic about the EU and the UN’s ability to broker an end to the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion last year. “Unfortunately, I don’t think peace negotiations are possible at the moment,” he said.

  • Russia may be building a water pipeline in an attempt to address a water shortage affecting the occupied city of Donetsk. The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily update that water had been a growing issue for Donetsk since the invasion in February 2022. On 28 April, the Russian-installed head of Donetsk said regional supplies were running “dangerously low”. The Siversky-Donets canal that supplies the area is mainly under Ukrainian control, despite Russian attempts to take command of it.

  • MEPs voted to speed up consideration of a law to boost ammunition production in Europe to the tune of €500m ($550m), due to efforts to supply Ukraine. The decision should see the new legislation – snappily termed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (Asap) – in place by the end of the year, MEPs and European Commission officials said, Agence France-Presse reports.

  • Ukraine has received Israeli-made radar defence systems, which have already been deployed in Kyiv as of Monday, according to Israeli media reports. A Lithuanian volunteer organisation known as Blue/Yellow delivered 16 ieMHR models made by Israel’s RADA Electronic Industries last week and three are already in use in the Ukrainian capital, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz said. The systems are designed to detect aerial threats including missiles, rockets, mortar shells, helicopters and drones within up to a 10km (6.2-mile) radius.

  • The EU must not be intimidated by Moscow’s showcasing of military power but continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Tuesday as Russia marked Victory Day with a parade. “Two thousand two hundred kilometres north-east from here, Putin is parading his soldiers, tanks and missiles today,” Scholz told lawmakers in a speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

  • Germany’s foreign minister has said China could play a decisive role in ending the war in Ukraine. Speaking alongside her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock said that as a permanent member of the UN security council, China had the power to be influential in the conflict and bring it to an end.

  • The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said Russia “will prevail” in its fight against what he described as “imperialists”, the state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday, in remarks seen to be aimed at Ukraine and its western supporters such as the US. North Korea has forged closer ties with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, including its proclamation later of having annexed parts of Ukraine, which most UN members condemned as illegal.

  • The leaders of the G7 nations must condemn any threat to use nuclear weapons and vow “decisive action” against such a move when they hold a summit next week in the city of Hiroshima, Ukraine’s envoy to Japan said. Nuclear tension has surged since the start of the conflict with Ukraine as Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that Russia is ready to use its nuclear arsenal if necessary to defend its “territorial integrity”.

Russia may be building a water pipeline in an attempt to address a water shortage affecting the occupied city of Donetsk.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily update that water had been a growing issue for Donetsk since the invasion in February 2022.

On 28 April, the Russian-installed head of Donetsk said regional supplies were running “dangerously low”. The Siversky-Donets canal that supplies the area is mainly under Ukrainian control, despite Russian attempts to take command of it. It runs near the city of Bakhmut, which has seen heavy fighting from both sides as Russia tries to take it.

The MoD said: “Russia’s heavy use of indirect artillery to support the capture of Bakhmut … has likely inflicted collateral damage to the canal and other regional water infrastructure, undermining Russia’s efforts to remedy the lack of water that its invasion originally created.

“To compensate for its lack of success in capture and retaining the canal, Russia is likely constructing a water pipeline to mitigate the water shortage within Donetsk city. However, this is unlikely to fully compensate for the occupied region’s reduced access to water.”

Germany’s foreign minister has said China could play a decisive role in ending the war in Ukraine.

Speaking alongside her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock said that as a permanent member of the UN security council, China had the power to be influential in the conflict and bring it to an end.

Her comments were rebuffed by Qin, who said China would neither “watch the fire from the other bank” nor “add fuel to the fire”.

Baerbock said the EU was still working on ways to stop sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals being circumvented, including by using indirect companies in other countries.

She was asked whether the measures would include a proposed blacklisting of several Chinese companies. In response she said negotiations were ongoing but that generally it was important to stop restrictions from being bypassed.

Prigozhin says he has been told Wagner will be deemed 'traitors' if they abandon Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force which is fighting Russia’s battle in Bakhmut, has said he was told that he and his mercenaries would be regarded as “traitors” if they abandoned their positions.

Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his troops from the city in east Ukraine, which has been the site of a long-running battle since 2022 to try to capture it, because of a lack of ammunition. He since rowed back on it, but again threatened to do so unless he got it.

His latest comments were released on Russia’s Victory Day, as a military parade took place in the capital, Moscow.

He said: “A combat order came yesterday which clearly stated that if we leave our positions it will be regarded as treason against the motherland. That was the message to us.

“[But] if there is no ammunition, then we will leave our positions and be the ones asking who is really betraying the motherland. Apparently, the one [betraying Russia] is the person who signed it [the order to supply too little ammunition].”

He said his forces would stay in Bakhmut and keep insisting they get their ammo “for a few more days”.

Prigozhin has previously accused the defence ministry of deliberately starving his forces of ammunition. The ministry has said it is working to ensure all battlefield units have what they need.

Late on Monday, Prigozhin said there were signs the ammunition problem was being solved, but on Tuesday he said the size of the shipment had been slashed. “They’ve given us only 10% of what we asked for. We’ve been deceived,” he said.

Zelenskiy: EU grain restrictions are 'completely unacceptable'

More details from Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s press conference alongside the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He was heavily critical of restrictions on the import of grain into the EU imposed after complaints by a group of five central and eastern European countries. He said the ban was helping Russia.

He said: “All restrictions on our exports are completely unacceptable right now. They only reinforce the abilities of the aggressor. We are waiting for the EU to stop all restrictions as fast as possible.”

Agence France-Presse said he called the measures “severe, even cruel” and “disappointing” in a time of war.

The EU members involved – Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – have sparred with Ukraine in recent weeks over the issue of grain.

Russia’s invasion last year severely limited the traditional export channel of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, necessitating export overland via Ukraine’s neighbours.

Member states agreed to allow the import of certain products from Ukraine without quantitative restrictions, and without customs and official inspections.

But farmers in some of the EU countries protested after a slump in prices, prompting a raft of restrictions and bans on Ukraine’s food exports in response.

Brussels called the bans on imports of grain and other food from Ukraine “unacceptable” while Kyiv is at war with Russia.

Last month, the European Commission reached an agreement with all the parties concerned to ensure the transit of Ukrainian grain exports through EU countries, but with restrictions.

Speaking alongside Zelenskiy, Von der Leyen on Tuesday described the grain situation as “difficult”.

“The immediate priority now is that the grain transit goes seamlessly and at the lowest possible cost outside from Ukraine towards the European Union,” she said.

“This requires a very close cooperation of the different stakeholders. Therefore, we will jointly set up a coordination platform.”

MEPs voted to speed up consideration of a law to boost ammunition production in Europe to the tune of €500m ($550m), due to efforts to supply Ukraine.

The decision should see the new legislation – snappily termed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (Asap) – in place by the end of the year, MEPs and European Commission officials said, Agence France-Presse reports.

The spending proposal, initiated by the commission, comes as the bloc seeks to supply 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next 12 months, adding to a stream of military deliveries.

But shifting such quantities of munitions to Ukraine has severely depleted stocks in EU member countries’ arsenals, creating the need for the new ammunition-production act.

The Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, in a joint news conference in Kyiv with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Asap law would “help member states to ramp up the production … and speed up the delivery of ammunition to meet Ukraine’s and member states’ needs”.

The draft legislation calls for tapping the EU’s European defence fund and another mechanism the commission has suggested creating under a July 2022 proposal, called the European Defence Industrial Reinforcement Through Common Procurement Act.

Tue, 09 May 2023 06:57:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/may/09/russia-ukraine-war-live-15-missiles-shot-down-over-kyiv-as-victory-day-begins-in-russia?filterKeyEvents=false
Hunger expected to kill one person every 28 seconds as East Africa food crisis hits new high

Despite this, the WFP said it had recently been forced to cut food rations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Palestine, with more cuts looming in Somalia and Chad. 

Conflict, climate shocks, and subsequent displacement remain the main drivers of global hunger. Soaring food prices – driven by the war in Ukraine – have continued to push up the cost of living, with food inflation averaging at 25.2 percent in Eastern Africa in March 2023.

The WFP has called for a renewed focus on social protection, such as insurance schemes and labour market regulations, and for all children to receive a nutritious meal in school daily.

“We need to step-up assistance, especially when it comes to making our food systems more resilient,” said Cindy McCain, WFP’s executive director. “If we can prepare at-risk communities to handle future climate shocks, they won’t need emergency support the next time there’s a drought or flood.”

Oxfam also said it fears the UK government will reduce its funding for the East Africa food crisis, just two years after it brokered a deal to prevent famine at the G7 summit in Cornwall. The next G7 summit will start in Japan on Friday.

“The UK has gone from being a world leader in the fight against hunger to a laggard which is failing to live up to its own commitments,” said Magnus Corfixen, Oxfam’s humanitarian lead.

“People are dying not because the world lacks food or money but because of political failure and injustice. G7 countries are among those chiefly responsible for climate change, so the UK and others have a clear moral responsibility to support people in East Africa whose lives are being destroyed by a climate crisis they did not cause.”

The UK government is expected to announce its humanitarian aid allocation for East Africa at a high-level pledging event taking place next week in New York. Last year, the UK provided £156 million in humanitarian aid for East Africa, less than a fifth of the £861m provided in 2017-8 during the region’s last major hunger crisis.

“Every day that goes by without action means more avoidable deaths. More than 250 people are likely to die of hunger in East Africa in the time it takes G7 leaders to tuck into their dinner on Friday,” Mr Corfixen said.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security

Fri, 19 May 2023 05:44:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/horn-of-africa-drought-food-crisis-hunger-famine/
Republican hunger strikes in the Maze prison

In May 1972, Provisional IRA prisoners in Crumlin Road Jail, Northern Ireland, started a hunger strike for the right to be treated as 'prisoners of war'. At the time, the British government of Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath was in ceasefire talks with the Provisional IRA. Northern Ireland secretary William Whitelaw acceded to the prisoners' demands, conferring 'special category' status on those convicted of terrorism-related offences.

In 1976, the new Labour government ended Special Category Status amid concerns that it was undermining prison discipline. Anyone convicted of terrorism-related offences after 1 March that year would be treated as an ordinary criminal. They would be imprisoned in the new, purpose-built 'H-Blocks' of the Maze prison and would have to wear prison uniform and do prison work.

HM Prison Maze was built on the disused Long Kesh RAF base, south-west of Belfast. Paramilitary prisoners had been held in 'long huts' there during 'internment' (imprisonment without trial) from 1971 to 1975. The new, distinctively-shaped 'H-Blocks' were to become the centre of protest over 'special category' status.

Protests began in September 1976 when Kieran Nugent, a Provisional IRA member, entered the Maze and refused to wear prison clothes. He was not provided with an alternative so dressed in a blanket, starting what became known as the 'blanket protest'. By Christmas, there were more than forty so-called 'blanketmen'.

In 1978, republican prisoners began a 'no-wash' or 'dirty' protest after disagreements with prison authorities over sanitary facilities and accusations of brutality. The situation escalated, with prisoners smashing their furniture, refusing to wash or to leave their cells and ultimately smearing cell walls with their own excrement.

When a hunger strike was proposed, the external leadership of the Provisional IRA was opposed, fearing it would divert attention away from its campaign of violence. With republican prisoners determined to act, the Provisional IRA leadership gave way. On 27 October 1980, seven prisoners at the Maze refused food.

Prisoners in the first hunger strike made five demands: the right to wear their own clothes; the right not to do prison work; the right to freedom of association; the right to organise their own leisure activities; and the right to restoration of lost remission (reduction of sentence).

The seven hunger strikers called off their strike 53 days later, mistakenly believing their demands had been met by the British government, by now a Conservative one led by Margaret Thatcher.

When it became clear their demands hadn't been met, a second hunger strike was organised, beginning on 1 March 1981. It was led by Bobby Sands, leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze. Sands made the strategic decision to organise the new strike with a staggered start. A new prisoner would join each week, thereby creating sustained pressure on the British government. The dirty protest was called off so attention could be focused on the second hunger strike.

Four days after the strike began, the MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone died suddenly. Sinn Fein, a republican political party associated with the Provisional IRA, nominated Sands for the vacant seat. On 9 April, he was elected. Sands' new status as an MP created huge media interest, but the British government made no concessions and Sands died on 5 May 1981, 66 days after he first refused food.

Within two weeks of Sands' funeral, three more strikers had died: Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara. The position of the British government remained unchanged.

In June, negotiations with the hunger strikers began when the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace approached the British government's Northern Ireland Office with a series of proposals. At the same time, parallel discussions were being held between the British Foreign Office and the external leadership of the Provisional IRA. By the end of July, the British government had made concessions on everything except freedom of association, but there was still no agreement and two more hunger strikers, Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson, had now died.

With further concessions unlikely, many prisoners' families, local Catholic clergy and the external leadership of the Provisional IRA supported an end to the protest. On 31 July 1981, Paddy Quinn's family took him off the strike, but this was followed by the deaths of three more prisoners - Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty and Thomas McElwee. On 20 August, Michael Devine died. On the same day, the wife of another striker, Pat McGeown, agreed to him receiving medical attention. By 6 September, four more hunger strikers were being given medical attention. On 3 October 1981, the remaining hunger strikers ended their protest.

The new Northern Ireland secretary, James Prior, welcomed the prisoners' decision. Three days later he announced that prisoners in the Maze could wear their own clothes. Other privileges were restored and over time the hunger strikers' demands were substantially met, but the British government never made formal recognition of the prisoners' right to political status.

During the 217 days of the protest, ten strikers died; seven from the Provisional IRA and three from the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). Outside the prison, the death toll was considerably worse, with 61 people killed in sectarian violence during the seven months of the strike.

Despite the failure to win all the concessions sought, many republicans viewed the strike as a success. It had attracted massive attention to their cause and led directly to the rebirth of Sinn Fein as a political movement. When Bobby Sands' parliamentary seat was held with an increased majority by his election agent, Owen Carron, it did much to convince key republicans that they should re-enter the political process, using a twin strategy of the "Armalite [a type of gun] and the ballot box" to achieve their aims.

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 10:59:00 -0600 en-GB text/html https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/republican_hunger_strikes_maze
Tackling hunger and food insecurity in the UK

We all have a right to food, yet household food insecurity persists in the UK. How can organisations, politicians and the public work together to find a solution?

Pioneering research from the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute into hunger and food insecurity is transforming the way in which we understand the UK’s increasing rates of food insecurity and the food charity response. Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford has been undertaking  research on household food insecurity, the rise of food aid and the right to food in the UK and Europe. 

Support from food charities has become the prevailing response to modern food insecurity, after changes to welfare provision and austerity policies  increased the need for support, placing increased pressure on charities. However, from a human rights perspective charitable responses are neither sustainable nor acceptable ways of addressing hunger.” 

Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford

Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield

In order to address these challenges, Hannah’s research has highlighted the need for a wider range of actors to work together to address food insecurity. The research findings have since been used as the basis for a number of NGO and public-led campaigns against food insecurity. 

The pivotal ‘End Hunger UK’ campaign launched in 2016, came to fruition through a collaboration between Church Action on Poverty (CAP), Oxfam and Save the Children, parliamentarians and the Feeding Britain campaign group. The campaign has been far reaching in its impact: since its launch, more than 18,000 individuals and 140 groups have signed petitions, written to their MPs and attended conferences and events in order to combat food insecurity. The Church Action on Poverty ‘Right to Food Sunday’ in February 2016 included  worship and reflection materials that CAP and Hannah put together on the right to food. These were used in churches across the country, taking the message about the right to food to an audience of 42,000 people. 

“NGOs have been front and centre of this issue for the last decade, the calls they have made for justice, fairness and upstream solutions to poverty have shifted the nature of the national conversation over access to food in the UK.” says Hannah

Although food insecurity remains a pervasive issue in the UK, Hannah’s research has produced evidence for the Government to address the issue. Working with CAP led to the production of the ‘Step up to the Plate’ report which was discussed at a parliamentary roundtable hosted by Emma Lewell Buck MP the then Shadow Minister for Education, Children and Families in 2018. The report recommended the Government  adopt a household food insecurity measure, which would facilitate a better understanding of the scale of the UK’s food insecurity, and was cited in  Emma Lewell Buck MP’s  Food Insecurity Bill recommending such a measurement. This was a key outcome for  the ‘End Hunger UK’ campaign.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the number of people facing food insecurity in the UK soared. Hannah and her team set out to map and monitor responses to risks of household food insecurity during the pandemic. The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the UKRI Ideas to Address COVID-19 grant call and ran from July 2020 to January 2022. The research team is led by Hannah and Dr Rachel Loopstra (King’s College London) alongside colleagues from Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and Church Action on Poverty. 

The research mapped and monitored responses from national policy through to local community level. Integral to the project was a participatory policy panel facilitated in coordination with Church Action on Poverty. The panel shared their experience of accessing food during the pandemic for both themselves and for their communities. Having shared their experiences and ideas, the panel developed five overarching lessons on how policy-makers, at all levels, could deliver better for those most at risk, in crises and at all times. 

“Through this project we have worked directly with people who have lived experience of food access issues, as well as policy makers and practitioners, to generate research that can inform evidence-based policy solutions.” explains Hannah.

The research highlighted the unprecedented nature of the response to food access issues during the pandemic. At a national level, responses varied across the different nations of the UK, but emergency food aid provision, emergency finance schemes, school food replacements and a grocery box scheme for people who were shielding were some of the biggest interventions covered in the research. Local case studies revealed that partnership working and working together was a key enabler of responses. Voluntary food aid was a key feature of local responses across areas and was provided by both new and existing initiatives. The research also found that rural and urban areas faced distinct food access challenges during the pandemic. 

The take away lessons for policy makers from the participatory policy panel were that (1) decision makers should hear from those that know, (2) food security is a fundamental human right, (3) we should rethink social security  so it truly offers sufficient support, at all times, (4) Crisis responses must be comprehensive, without compromising on dignity and choice (5) Individual households, communities, businesses and the state each have different strengths and roles, in a crisis and longer-term. 

Fri, 06 May 2022 09:28:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/research/features/tackling-hunger-and-food-insecurity-uk
Hunger and Livelihoods

Save the Children’s research suggests that income shortages in poorer households, when combined with shocks such as natural disasters or conflict, reinforce poor health and nutrition and thereby lead to higher rates of child deaths.

Hunger also keeps children out of school and limits their ability to concentrate once in school. Studies conducted by Save the Children indicate that learning achievement among children from poor families is systemically lower than their peers.

An increasing number of young people live in a state of poverty, unemployment and/or underemployment. Over one-fourth of young people in the world cannot find a job paying more than $1.25 per day, the international threshold of extreme poverty. Three quarters of young workers ages 15-29 are employed in the informal sector, increasing the possibility of exploitative or hazardous working conditions.

Save the Children’s Household Economy Approach (HEA) outcome analyses have found that the cycle of vulnerability due to chronic hunger and a lack of livelihoods security may lead poorer households and children to pursue unsustainable and dangerous livelihoods opportunities, to withdraw children from school, or to encourage early child marriage or harmful child labor.

Food security, livelihoods protection and strengthening, and poverty alleviation programs are an essential underpinning to ensuring the survival, education and protection of children, such that the intergenerational cycle of poverty can be broken.

To address this, Save the Children:

  • Provides food assistance to families following a natural disaster or emergency.
  • Builds household and community resilience to food security and economic shocks and stresses.
  • Strengthens socio-economic conditions to Improve standards of living and the ability of families to provide for their children.
  • Provides youth with the skills and linkages they need to earn and manage a decent income.
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 19:14:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/hunger-and-livelihoods
UK-Iranian on day 72 of hunger strike calls on PM to be a 'man of his word'

Yoghurt thrown over women in Iran

Vahid Beheshti, 45, is a British- journalist and human rights activist. For 72 days he had been camped outside the Foreign Office subsisting only on water, coffee and sugar pills, advocating for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be added to the UK’s list of terrorist organisations.

Last Saturday, upwards of 3,000 people rallied in central London to support him. Emaciated, he delivered remarks from a wheelchair. The day of the demonstration was selected to reference Bobby Sands, who, back in 1981, died on the 66th day of a hunger strike campaigning against the removal of Special Category Status for IRA prisoners in Northern Ireland.

His words echoing the length of Whitehall from a soundstage just opposite Downing Street, he said: “UK politicians, UK Government, now I am glad you see today with your own eyes: this is not only my demand.”

Mr Beheshti left the platform on his own two feet that day, but his condition deteriorated dramatically over the next week. On Saturday, after concerns were raised over the condition of his heart and liver, he was taken to hospital by ambulance, forced to temporarily suspend his hunger strike. On Twitter he wrote: “As soon as I have recovered, I will be back opposite the Foreign Office, to continue this fight among my dear brothers and sisters who have fought alongside me.”

The IRGC has had a hand in countless barbaric acts over the 44 years since its inception – but recent months have seen a dangerous escalation amid Iran's increasingly unstable climate.

READ MORE: Russia and Iran 'learning from each other' after Western sanctions

The US added the IRGC to its list under Donald Trump back in 2019. Labour has been calling for the Government to do the same since January. On day 56 of Mr Beheshti’s hunger strike, a cross-party alliance of 125 MPs and peers signed a letter urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to take action.

Speaking to that day, Mr Beheshti said: “Even Rishi Sunak, before he was elected as our Prime Minister, in his first battle with Liz Truss, stated: ‘If I become Prime Minister we have to proscribe the IRGC.’

“I’m just asking for him to be a man of his word. He said it before he became Prime Minister, what happens now? He’s trying to pretend I don’t exist."

Just over 100,000 people in Britain were of Iranian ethnicity at the time of the most recent census. Flanked by people of all backgrounds supporting their cause, thousands of them joined the march from the London Eye to the gates of Downing Street on April 29, paced by chants of: “IRGC terrorists, UK put them on the list!”

IRGC protest in London

The march to proscribe the IRGC began at the foot of the London Eye (Image: Express)

Mr Beheshti had lost 17.5 percent of his body mass by day 56. He said: “This is my physics – getting weaker and weaker day by day, of course – but mentally I become more certain and more determined to continue.” By the time he was forced to pause on day 72, he was down 21.5 percent.

“The Government has to stand strong, that’s why I’ve put myself in this critical situation," he said. "They think that by appeasing them and by leaving the door open to these terrorists they can change their mind. They [the IRGC] know exactly what they are doing.”

Mr Beheshti described them as “state hostage takers” brazenly operating in the UK. He said: “Two days after Iran International was forced to relocate from London to D.C., the head of the IRGC, Hossein Salami, said ‘Yes it was because of our threat’ publicly and 'We are capable of doing more and we will if necessary.'”

Determining factors as to whether an organisation ought to be proscribed uner the Terrorism Act 2000 include “the specific threat that it poses to the UK” and “the extent of the organisation’s presence in the UK”.

IRGC protest in Whitehall

The demonstration brought Whitehall to a standstill on Saturday afternoon (Image: Express)

On September 16, 2022, 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini died shortly after her arrest by the country’s so-called “morality police” on a charge of improperly wearing her hijab. Unprecedented mass protests erupted across the country.

The suppression by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s regime was brutal. In the first four months of demonstrations, more than 19,600 people were arrested and at least 527 were confirmed to have been killed, according to the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

A desire to keep this under wraps also led to a crackdown on the media operating in Iran. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claims more than 71 journalists have been arrested, detained or called in for questioning since the protests began – 25 of whom remain imprisoned to this day.

Among them are Niloufar Hamedi, who broke the news of Mahsa Amini's death, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who reported on her funeral. Last Wednesday, World Press Freedom day, the pair were awarded the UN's top prize alongside fellow detainee Narges Mohammadi.

Iran International is a Persian-language independent news broadcaster with a large base in London. Despite an Iranian state sanction back in October, the station continued to expose the violence of the authorities and became one of the primary sources of information about the protests.

Their journalists in the UK have been paying the price. With an imminent threat picked up by the Metropolitan Police, Iran International was forced to abandon their Chiswick offices in February. Undeterred, they were out reporting on the rally for Mr Beheshti.

Vahid Beheshti's camp

Vahid Beheshti's tent outside the Foreign Office, where he has been for 68 days now (Image: GETTY)

The IRGC’s actions have hardly gone unnoticed. On April 24, in concert with the US and EU, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced sanctions were being put in place against “the IRGC in its entirety.” This, according to Mr Beheshti, is not enough. He said: “They manipulate us, they laugh at us. They laugh at you when you put sanctions.”

According to the latest estimates by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the IRGC counts at least 190,000 troops under its command. Although separate from the Iranian government, Mr Beheshti knows the IRGC have a hand in "everything". He said: “They are involved in the economy, politics, the day-to-day life of people in Iran, in the region, and now here.”

Some of their funding comes from Mr Khamenei’s regime, but a large part flows from international drug dealing and human trafficking, he claimed. “That’s why we need to put them on the terrorist list, so that we can put proper limitations on their financial sector outside Iran. They have so many different companies which are active outside the country. If we proscribe them those companies become disabled.”

The Government is yet to provide a clear response to this specific request, but last month, Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, penned a note providing some clue. He warned that “proscribing a state entity under the Terrorism Act 2000 would depart from consistent and decades-long UK policy, and calls into question the definition of terrorism which, to date, has proven practical and effective”.

Mr Beheshti is not convinced by this. “I am willing to pay the price, whatever it is, even my life, to defend our freedom, defend our democracy, preserve and defend our British values here, our safety and security,” he said.

His wife, Mattie Heaven, is a Coventry councillor. She described her husband's decision to suspend his hunger strike as "the most relief that I have felt in a long time." His friends continue to camp ouside the FCDO entrance on King Charles Street awaiting his return.

Mon, 08 May 2023 06:00:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1765163/uk-iranian-hunger-strike-vahid-veheshti-spt
Food, farming, and hunger

Of the 5.9 million children who die each year, poor nutrition plays a role in at least half these deaths. That’s wrong. Hunger isn’t about too many people and too little food. It’s about power, and its roots lie in inequalities in access to resources and opportunities.

Mon, 30 Dec 2013 06:21:00 -0600 en-US text/html https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/food-farming-and-hunger/
The devastating impact of drought on mothers and children in Somalia

Mothers with their children have been photographed from the epicentre of the crippling drought in Southern Somalia, with one explaining how her young family has been forced to survive on tea with some sugar in it as their main meal of the day.

The powerful series has been newly released by The Independent to illustrate the devastating impact of the crisis as World Hunger Day approaches and Oxfam calls on the G7 to take “life-saving action” over famine in East Africa ahead of the summit on Friday.

The award-winning photographer Fredrik Lerneryd has captured mothers with their children, suffering from extreme hunger and malnutrition-induced sickness, after five consecutive failed rainy seasons have put food out of reach for millions of people.

Thu, 18 May 2023 20:15:00 -0500 en text/html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/drought-somalia-hunger-mothers-children-photo-b2341321.html
Will Poulter looks swoon-worthy as he poses shirtless for HUNGER magazine

Will Poulter looked swoon-worthy as he posed shirtless for the latest edition of HUNGER magazine. 

The Maze Runner actor, 30, showed off a glimpse of his very toned torso - the result of much hard work to transform into superhero Adam Warlock for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. 

The heartthrob donned a black blazer as he went shirtless to display his defined muscles. 

Will's hair was tousled for a ruggedly handsome look with strands effortlessly falling down onto his forehead as he smouldered for the camera. 

He looked stylish in another snap in a black-and-white blazer and white tailored trousers as he once more pierced the camera with his blue eyes.  

Hunk: Will Poulter, 30, looked swoon-worthy as he posed shirtless for HUNGER magazine

Star: The actor looked effortlessly handsome with tousled hair as he smouldered for the camera

It comes after Will opened up about body image as he discussed his physical transformation for Guardians Of The Galaxy.

He has joined the Marvel franchise for the third film as Adam Warlock, where he stars alongside Chris Pratt

The film was released in cinemas on May 3 to much critical acclaim. 

The role required Will to add a lot of muscle to his naturally slight frame - a process that has been rigorous and demanding for the actor. 

In a new interview with GQ Hype, he discussed his transformation into the superhero and the fact he doesn't consider himself 'conventionally attractive'. 

Will told the magazine: 'All I know is I worked as hard as I could, safely and naturally, to conceivably pass as a superhero.'

Scrutiny of his appearance is something he has not been able to avoid in the film industry - as he admitted he doesn't think he is 'conventionally attractive'.  

He continued: 'It was weird when people started to debate my physical appearance online as to whether it was deemed attractive or unattractive. 

New look: The Maze Runner star put on a lot of muscle to star as Adam Warlock in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3

Throwback: Taking to Twitter, the star stumbled across a message from someone asking why he dressed as the character Sid Phillips from Toy Story back in 2017

Back then: Will rose to fame while filming for the Maze Runner (pictured in 2014)

'I am very comfortable and secure in the knowledge that I'm not conventionally attractive as I've always had remarks about looking unusual – whether it's my eyebrows or whatever else, people have made a thing of that.'

Will also recently powerfully hit back at body shamers as he revealed the true reason behind why he once dressed as Toy Story character Sid Phillips for Halloween. 

Back in 2017, Will dressed up as the character, after trolls compared his appearance to the cartoon for years. 

Fans were initially left confused as they thought the actor hated the comparison - but he revealed there was a much more serious reason behind his decision.

'I did do it in light of some of the comparisons between me and Sid from Toy Story that were going around on the internet,' he explained.

'I work with Anti-Bullying Pro and the Diana Award, I did it during anti-bullying week to raise awareness of that organisation. 

'So, that was that.'

HUNGER magazine’s next issue, Timeslice, out on global newsstands on the 24th May is a standalone collector’s edition, championing the past work and continuing legacy of its editor-in-chief, the globally renowned photographer, Rankin. 

This will accompany his upcoming exhibition in Hamburg at the Ernst Leitz Museum (running between May 26th to September 27th, 2023), which will feature a mix of archival and contemporary work. 

HUNGER magazine's next issue is out May 24th. 

Mon, 15 May 2023 23:01:00 -0500 text/html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12088923/Will-Poulter-looks-swoon-worthy-poses-shirtless-HUNGER-magazine.html




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