Ukrainian army maimed own civilians with banned mines – NGO

Kiev’s forces scattered thousands of antipersonnel landmines in the city of Izium, Human Rights Watch has said

The Ukrainian military injured scores of civilians when it fired thousands of illegal mines across the city of Izium last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged. The mines, similar to those allegedly used by Ukraine against civilians in Donetsk, were found near schools and kindergartens.

The mines were fired into the city by rocket while it was occupied by Russian forces between April and September of last year, the NGO said in a report published on Tuesday. Dispersed hundreds at a time, the Soviet-era PFM mines are distinctively butterfly- or petal-shaped devices and are designed to main rather than kill those unfortunate enough to step on them or pick them up.

The HRW team entered the city following Russia’s withdrawal in mid-September and found the mines in nine locations, including a school, and kindergarten, and a hospital.

Healthcare workers said that more than 50 civilians, including at least five children, were wounded by the mines. Around half of the injuries led to amputations of the foot or lower leg. At least one death was recorded, that of an elderly man who picked up one of the devices in his yard. However, investigators could not rule out other factors in the man’s death.

Some of the mines were fitted with timed fuses, and would explode without warning up to three days after being dispersed.

According to more than 100 residents, Russian forces attempted to warn locals of the danger posed by the Ukrainian mines, cleared some of the explosives, and transported victims to Russia for treatment. Once the Russians left Izium, demining duties were reportedly carried out by Ukrainian troops.

Use of such antipersonnel mines is prohibited under the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, to which Ukraine is a signatory. The US and Russia are not parties to the treaty.

Questioned by HRW, the Ukrainian government insisted that it abides by all of its international obligations, but refused to comment on the type of munitions it used in and around Izium.

“Any use of antipersonnel landmines is unlawful, and Ukraine should thoroughly investigate what happened and ensure its forces do not use them,” HRW arms division director Steve Goose stated in the report. Speaking to US news outlet NPR, Goose said that while HRW believes that Russia has also used these mines, Ukraine's "moral high ground has been compromised" by the latest findings.

Ukraine also used PFM mines in the cities of Kharkov and Donetsk last year, according to officials in both locations, though Kiev denied the claims. The mines were also found strewn across Russia’s Belgorod Region in large numbers after a Ukrainian bombardment last summer.

https://www.rt.com/russia/570773-ukraine-banned-landmines-civilians/

House Votes To End COVID-19 Emergency

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday along party lines to end the COVID-19 emergency, though the legislation is likely dead on arrival in the Senate.

All 220 voting Republicans supported the Pandemic is Over Act, ending the emergency, and all 210 voting Democrats opposed it. The White House has said that President Joe Biden will allow the public health emergency to expire in May, but that ending it via an act of Congress could eliminate pandemic-era programs like Title 42, student loan forgiveness, and a Medicaid expansion.

President Joe Biden said in September 2022 that the COVID-19 pandemic is “over,” but that “we’re still doing a lot of work on it.” The Biden administration has renewed the public health emergency twice since the president made the claim

“This action is long overdue. This week we are voting on several bills designed to do what we all in America have known for some time, that the emergency declaration should be gone away,” Republican Florida Rep. Kat Cammack said in a floor speech. “Why would the president declare that the pandemic is over but not rescind the emergency declaration? In fact, many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem more concerned with keeping the public health emergency in place rather than addressing the problems we are now being faced with.”

Despite keeping the public health emergency in place, the Biden administration has attempted to end Title 42, the Trump administration order that allows federal officials to more rapidly deport illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court temporarily ordered the Biden administration to maintain the policy, and will hear oral arguments in the full case in February.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/31/house-votes-end-covid-19-emergency/

Biden Says Global Warming Is ‘Most Existential Threat To Humanity’ In History, More Dangerous Than Nuclear War

Biden called global warming "the single most existential threat to humanity we have ever faced, including nuclear weapons."

President Joe Biden spoke with a group of Manhattan donors about the possibility of nuclear war Tuesday.

Biden called global warming “the single most existential threat to humanity we have ever faced, including nuclear weapons,” the New York Post reported.

“Reporters were only allowed to see part of Biden’s remarks, and video of the private event was not immediately available,” the New York Post added; it is unknown if Biden elaborated on his climate change comments.

This message comes just three months after the 46th president told other New York donors the world was at risk of nuclear “Armageddon” as the Russia-Ukraine conflict heightened.

In October, Biden warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming.”

President Biden said the current threat of nuclear weapons was historically unprecedented. “First time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have the threat of a nuclear weapon if, in fact, things continue down the path they are going.”

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” he added.

Late last month, the Democrat governor of New York fueled the fire behind the climate change agenda with comments blaming “climate change” for a blizzard that rocked the state.

“The conditions, the blinding snow, the zero visibility, absolute whiteouts. It may go down as one of the worst in history,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press conference.

“It’s very clear to me that the effects of climate change are wreaking havoc everywhere,” Hochul added.

https://nationalfile.com/biden-says-global-warming-is-most-existential-threat-to-humanity-in-history-more-dangerous-than-nuclear-war/

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Egyptian parliament approves agreement to join the BRICS bank

The vice-president of the Economic Committee of the House of Representatives, Mohamed Abdel-Hamid, affirmed that joining the institution benefits the country.

“We will benefit from the Bank’s financial and technical assistance in areas such as sustainable development, health, infrastructure, transportation, water, and telecommunications,” he said.

The addition of Egypt will also relieve the state budget of the pressure to find dollars to meet imports because members of that bank can use their national currencies in bilateral trade, he said.

Parliamentarian Ahmed El-Awadi, head of the House National Security and Defense Committee, also praised the decision: “It represents a step in the fight against the dollarization phenomenon and opens up new markets for Egypt’s agricultural and industrial products,” he said.

Legislator Mervat Mattar, stated that “the BRICS group is an important forum that can divert the course of the international economy from US and dollar dominance.” He also welcomed the Russian central bank’s decision a week ago to add the Egyptian pound to its list of foreign currencies exchangeable for rubles.

Last December, the Egyptian Council of Ministers announced its decision to join the BRICS, after a proposal by President Abdel Fatah El-Sissi.

https://www.plenglish.com/news/2023/01/30/egyptian-parliament-approves-agreement-to-join-the-brics-bank/