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Russia sends rocket and drones at Ukrainian apartment building and dorm, killing students and other civilians

FOX News

Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Russia stepped up its missile and drone attacks against Ukraine on Wednesday, killing students and other civilians, in a violent follow-up to dueling high-level diplomatic missions aimed at bringing peace after 13 months of war. "Russia is shelling the city with bestial savagery," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post accompanying video showing what he said was a Russian missile striking a nine-story apartment building on a busy road in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. "Residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at." At least one person was killed in the attack shown in the Zaporizhzhia video, apparently recorded by closed circuit TV cameras.


Biggest science news stories of 2022 as chosen by New Scientist

New Scientist

War in Europe, a momentous volcanic eruption and a surprise finding that could rewrite our understanding of reality – 2022 really has been a busy year for science, technology, health and environment news, and all that happened in just the first few months. From stunning space imagery to pig heart transplants, here are the New Scientist news editors' picks of the biggest scientific developments, discoveries and events of the year. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has sparked devastation across the country and affected many areas of life around the world, as both nations play a key role in the global supply chains for energy, food and more. It has also raised the spectre of nuclear weapons, with Russian president Vladimir Putin making not-so veiled threats about deploying his atomic arsenal. Thankfully, Armageddon has been avoided, but Russia's offensive has sparked discussion of a new kind of nuclear war, as Ukraine's nuclear power plants became a battleground this year.


China to Cooperate With Gulf Nations on Nuclear Energy and Space, Xi Says

NYT > Middle East

China plans to cooperate with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries in the fields of nuclear energy, nuclear security and space exploration, President Xi Jinping said on Friday, showcasing his nation's strengthening ties with a region that was once firmly in the U.S. sphere of influence. Mr. Xi was speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, at a summit with rulers and officials from the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates -- during a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia. Later on Friday, he held his third and final summit of the visit with other Arab and African leaders. Both China and Saudi Arabia described Mr. Xi's visit this week as a historic event ushering in a new era of relations between Beijing and the Middle East, a region that once had a mainly oil-based relationship with China, a major consumer of the Gulf's fossil fuel exports. Arab states are increasingly building broader ties with China that extend into arms sales, technology transfers and infrastructure projects.


Will alleged drone sales to Russia impact Iran's nuclear deal?

Al Jazeera

Tehran, Iran – Iran and the West are clashing over Tehran's alleged drone sales to Russia for the war in Ukraine, an issue now being linked to a UN resolution backing the country's nuclear deal with world powers. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 was unanimously adopted in 2015 to endorse the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the accord that Iran signed with China, Russia, United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany to get sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. The US unilaterally abandoned the accord in 2018 and imposed harsh sanctions that remain in place today. Efforts since April 2021 to restore the deal have stalled. European powers are now trying to use a periodic reporting mechanism in the resolution.


Iran delivers European 'peace initiative' on Ukraine to Russia

Al Jazeera

Tehran, Iran – Iran has delivered a so-called "peace initiative" for ending the Ukraine war, proposed by a European leader, to Russia. Standing next to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian confirmed that he had handed over the European proposal that he said was given to Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi. "There are ideas to help establish peace and stop the fighting in Ukraine, and I shared these ideas with Mr Lavrov," Amirabdollahian said. He did not name the European leader behind the initiative or reveal any further details but said the proposal includes points on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and prisoners of war. Recent shelling around the plant in southeastern Ukraine has spurred fears of a possible nuclear disaster and prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency to deploy experts to visit the site.


Three killed in suspected Houthi drone attacks in UAE: Live

Al Jazeera

A suspected drone attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeting a key oil facility in Abu Dhabi killed three people and started a separate fire at Abu Dhabi's international airport, police said. Police in the United Arab Emirates identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. "Small flying objects" were found as three petrol tanks exploded in an industrial area and a fire was ignited at the airport, police said, as Houthi rebels announced "military operations" in the UAE. The UAE which had largely scaled down its military presence in Yemen in 2019, continues to hold sway through the Yemeni forces it armed and trained. Drone attacks are a hallmark of the Houthis' assaults on Saudi Arabia, the UAE ally that is leading the coalition fighting for Yemen's government in the grinding civil war.


Iran plans 20 percent uranium enrichment 'as soon as possible'

FOX News

Center for Security Policy CEO Fred Fleitz provides insight on'America's News HQ.' DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran said Saturday it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground Fordo nuclear facility "as soon as possible," pushing its program a technical step away from weapons-grade levels as it increases pressure on the West over the tattered atomic deal. The move comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. in the waning days of the administration of President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal in 2018. That set in motion an escalating series of incidents capped by a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad a year ago, an anniversary coming Sunday that has American officials now worried about possible retaliation by Iran. Iran's decision to begin enriching to 20% a decade ago nearly brought an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, tensions that only abated with the 2015 atomic deal. A resumption of 20% enrichment could see that brinksmanship return.


Iran nuclear site fire hit centrifuge facility, analysts say

FOX News

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seized on a U.N. report confirming Iranian weapons were used to attack Saudi Arabia in September and were part of an arms shipment seized months ago off Yemen's coast; State Department correspondent Rich Edson reports. A fire and an explosion struck a centrifuge production plant above Iran's underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility early Thursday, analysts said, one of the most-tightly guarded sites in all of the Islamic Republic after earlier acts of sabotage there. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to downplay the fire, calling it an "incident" that only affected an under-construction "industrial shed," spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. However, both Kamalvandi and Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi rushed after the fire to Natanz, a facility earlier targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus and built underground to withstand enemy airstrikes. The fire threatened to rekindle wider tensions across the Middle East, similar to the escalation in January after a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad and Tehran launched a retaliatory ballistic missile attack targeting American forces in Iraq. While offering no cause for Thursday's blaze, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency published a commentary addressing the possibility of sabotage by enemy nations such as Israel and the U.S. following other recent explosions in the country.


Japanese authorities urging foreign nationals to be aware of drone regulations

The Japan Times

Japanese authorities are introducing a variety of measures to prevent the wrongful use of drones, which has been increasing due to many people being unfamiliar with regulations, especially tourists from abroad. Under the civil aeronautics law, a drone of 200 grams or more cannot be operated in airspace around airports or residential areas without permission from the government. In addition, the law regulating the use of drones bans flights in airspace near designated important places such as the Prime Minister's Office, the Imperial Palace and nuclear power plants. Foreign tourists and others unfamiliar with the laws continue to violate them. In 2019, 14 foreign nationals had their cases sent to prosecutors, as of Nov. 20.


Fukushima farmland that became unusable in 2011 is being converted into wind and solar power plants

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Farmland in Fukushima that was rendered unusable after the disastrous 2011 nuclear meltdown is getting a second chance at productivity. A group of Japanese investors have created a new plan to use the abandoned land to build wind and solar power plants, to be used to send electricity to Tokyo. The plan calls for the construction of eleven solar power plants and ten wind power plants, at an estimated cost of $2.75 billion. Fukushima has been aggressively converting land damaged by the 2011 meltdown, such as this golf course (pictured above) into a source of renewable energy. A new $2.75 billion plan will add eleven new solar plants and ten wind power plants to former farmland The project is expected to be completed in March of 2024 and is backed by a group of investors, including Development Bank of Japan and Mizuho Bank.