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Crimea 'sabotage' highlights Russia's woes in Ukraine war
Fires burned and ammunition exploded at a depot in Crimea on Wednesday, a day after the latest suspected Ukrainian attack on a military site in the Russia-annexed peninsula, highlighting the challenges facing Moscow.
The peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, was once a secure base that Moscow’s forces have used to launch attacks — and it was a staging ground for the start of the Feb. 24 invasion. But in recent days, explosions have destroyed several Russian planes at an air base in Crimea, and munitions blew up Tuesday.
Ukrainian authorities have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines after the most recent blasts Tuesday while Russia blamed “sabotage.”
The spate of attacks represented the latest setback for Moscow, which began its invasion with hopes of taking the capital of Kyiv and much of the country in a lightning blitz but soon became bogged down in the face of fiercer than expected resistance from Ukrainian forces.
As the war nears the half-year mark, the sides are now engaged in a war of attrition, fighting village to village, largely in the country's east. The attacks in Crimea could open a new front that would represent a significant escalation in the war and further stretch Russia's military resources.
“Russian commanders will highly likely be increasingly concerned with the apparent deterioration in security across Crimea, which functions as rear base area for the occupation," Britain's Defense ministry wrote on Twitter.
But it was not clear whether the attacks in Crimea would unblock the stalemate, as Ukrainian and Russian forces grind each other down in a war that has driven millions from their homes, disrupted food supplies worldwide and occasionally raised concerns about a nuclear accident.
Read:Ukrainians flee grim life in Russian-occupied Kherson
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to travel to Ukraine for a meeting with Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss getting out grain shipments that are critical to feeding the world's hungry. They are also expected to talk about a possible fact-finding mission to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling.
Tuesday's explosions and fires ripped through an ammunition depot near Dzhankoi in Crimea, leading to chaotic scenes when around 3,000 people had to be evacuated.
As a vivid reminder of Russia's vulnerability in Crimea, the peninsula's regional leader, Sergei Aksyonov, said that authorities were still fighting the fires Wednesday with a helicopter, as minutions continued to detonate. He said that a search for perpetrators of the attack was underway.
The Kommersant business paper also reported explosions Tuesday at a base in Gvardeyskoye. By Wednesday, there still was no comment from the Russian authorities.
The British intelligence report noted that Gvardeyskoye and Dzhankoi “are home to two of the most important Russian military airfields in Crimea.”
A week earlier, Russia's military came under pressure on the peninsula when Ukraine said nine Russian warplanes were destroyed following explosions at Crimea's Saki air base. The massive explosions sent plumes of smoke rising over nearby beaches and caused sunbathers to flee.
At the time, Moscow suggested that the blasts were accidental, perhaps caused by a careless smoker, an explanation that drew mockery from Ukrainian authorities who hinted at their involvement in the attack but didn't directly claim responsibility.
On the eastern front, the stalemate continued, with the shelling causing ever more death and destruction.
In the Donetsk region that is the current focus of the Russian offensive, two civilians were killed and seven others were wounded by recent Russian shelling of several towns and villages.
Meanwhile, in the south, Russian long-range bombers fired cruise missiles at the Odesa region overnight, leaving four people injured, according to regional administration spokesman Oleh Bratchuk.
In Mykolaiv, also in the south, two Russian missiles damaged a university building early Wednesday but injured no one.
The Russian forces also shelled Kharkiv in the northeast and various parts of the surrounding region overnight, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure but inflicting no casualties.
Spain: 10 injured while leaving stopped train near wildfire
An approaching wildfire in eastern Spain caused a train driver to stop and prepare to change directions to avoid the flames, and several passengers were injured when they got off rather than wait, authorities said.
The train was traveling in the Valencia region on Tuesday night when the driver decided to reverse course because of the wildfire advancing from around the town of Bejís, further east.
Some passengers got off the train when it stopped in the countryside, including ones who broke windows to escape, officials said. Ten people were injured, Spanish state news agency Efe reported.
The government of Castellón province on Wednesday tweeted a video of firefighters running for their lives as towering flames from the Bejís fire roared behind them.
Read: Wildfire in southwestern France: 8,000 people evacuated
The wildfire is one of two still raging out of control in eastern Spain. South of Valencia city, a bigger fire around the Val d’Ebo area has forced more than 1,500 people to evacuate towns and villages since the weekend.
Valencia regional President Ximo Puig said Wednesday that the Bejís fire had a perimeter of some 50 kilometers (30 miles) and had burned some 4,000 hectares (10,00 acres). He said the Val d'Ebo blaze had a perimeter of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and had scorched some 11,500 hectares (28,000 acres).
The European Forest Fire Information System says 275,000 hectares (679,000 acres) have burned in wildfires so far this year in Spain. That’s more than four times the country’s annual average of 67,000 hectares (165,000 acres) since 2006, when records began.
In neighboring Portugal, authorities said they hoped to bring under control a wildfire that has burned for 12 days and scorched large swaths of pine forest in the Serra da Estrela Natural Park.
However, officials warned a new heat wave forecast for the area could complicate the task.
Smoke from the Portugal fire reached Spain's capital, Madrid, about 400 kilometers (240 miles) to the east, on Tuesday.
India to offer shelter to Rohingyas in Delhi
In a complete U-turn from its stand on Rohingyas, India on Wednesday decided to offer shelter to the Muslim refugees who poured into this country in the wake of ethnic violence in neighbouring Myanmar.
Indian Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri took to Twitter to inform the government's decision. "India has always welcomed those who have sought refuge in the country," he wrote.
"In a landmark decision all #Rohingya #Refugees will be shifted to EWS (economically weaker section) flats in Bakkarwala area of Delhi. They will be provided basic amenities, UNHCR IDs & round-the-clock @DelhiPolice protection," the Minister said.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees are currently in India, most of them having fled Myanmar in 2017 when a military crackdown began against them there.
Read: Dhaka to reach out to global leaders at UNGA with Rohingya issue
In the absence of a clear refugee policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist BJP government has for long termed the Rohingya refugees as “illegal immigrants” and a “threat to national security.”
India had earlier given shelter to Tibetan refugees and Tamil refugees from the neighbouring island nation of Sri Lanka, despite not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
Ukrainians flee grim life in Russian-occupied Kherson
It was early one morning when life under Russian occupation became too much for Volodymyr Zhdanov: Rocket fire aimed at Ukrainian forces struck near his home in the city of Kherson, terrifying one of his two children.
His 8-year-old daughter “ran in panic to the basement. It was 2 o’clock in the morning and (she) was really scared,” said Zhdanov, who later fled the city on the Black Sea and has been living in Kyiv, the capital, for the past three weeks.
Kherson, located north of the Crimean Peninsula that was annexed by Moscow in 2014, was the first city to fall after Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24. The port remains at the heart of the conflict and Ukraine’s efforts to preserve its vital access to the sea. For Russia, Kherson is a key point along the land corridor from its border to the peninsula.
Zhdanov and others who made the hazardous journey to escape from the region describe increasingly grim conditions there, part of a heavy-handed effort by Russia to establish permanent control.
The streets in the city, which had a prewar population of about 300,000, are mostly deserted. Rumors swirl about acts of armed resistance and the sudden disappearance of officials who refuse to cooperate with the Russian authorities.
Occupation forces patrol in markets to warn those trying to use the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, in transactions. Pro-Moscow officials have been installed in local and regional governments, as well as on the police force. Workers at various municipal services face pressure to cooperate with Russian managers. Most schools have closed.
Supplies of essential goods are uneven, halting most commercial activity. There are shortages of medicines and spikes in the price of other commodities.
Many residents had been determined to hold out as long as possible for a promised Ukrainian counterattack that hasn’t materialized.
“There was physical danger in the city, because there were many soldiers,” Zhdanov said.
A referendum on the region becoming a part of Russia has been announced by Moscow-installed officials, although no date has been set. Meanwhile, officials are pressuring those remaining to take Russian citizenship.
Income from Zhdanov’s family flower business dried up after the currency change, although he kept growing plants anyway.
“It’s difficult to survive with no money and no food,” he said. “Who would want a Russian government if your life, business, and kids’ education are taken away from you? They’ve all gone.”
When he left Kherson with his family, Zhdanov risked arrest by hiding a Ukrainian flag in the bottom of his pack. He had kept the flag from a public protest of the Russian troop presence.
Read: Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle
Journalist Yevhenia Virlych also stayed for five months and kept working, writing about officials who had allegedly cooperated with the Russians. But she worked while in hiding and feared for her safety, frequently changing apartments and posting photos of Poland on social media to give the impression she had already fled.
“They have tied a knot around Kherson and it’s getting tighter,” Virlych said, adding that locals are being pressured to accept Russian passports. “Russia, which came under the banner of liberation, but came to torture and take us captive. How can anyone live that way?”
Last month, Virlych finally fled to Kyiv with her husband.
Those wanting to leave Kherson must pass a series of Russian military checkpoints. Soldiers search belongings, identity papers and mobile phones, with anyone suspected of supporting the resistance facing interrogation at so-called filtration camps.
As Kherson sinks into poverty, it’s getting harder to leave. A bus ticket to Zaporizhzhia, a city 300 kilometers (185 miles) to the northeast, now costs the equivalent of $160. Before the war, it was $10.
Virlych said she admired the bravery of those who are staying behind as well as of those who risked their lives to join anti-Russian protests in the early stages of the occupation.
She recalled a major demonstration on March 5 attended by more than 7,000 people.
“In all my life, I’ve never seen people take such action,” she said.
By April, the protests had stopped as occupying troops began responding to them with lethal force, Virlych added, saying, “The Russians were opening fire (at crowds) and people were getting wounded.”
Moscow wants to maintain its hold on Kherson, which is strategically located near the North Crimean Canal that provides water to the Russian-occupied peninsula. Ukraine had shut down the canal after the annexation eight years ago, but the Russians reopened it after they took control of the region.
Like Zhdanov, Virlych is still holding out hope for a Ukrainian counteroffensive to wrest the region away from Russia.
“I believe only in God and the Ukrainian armed forces,” she said. “I no longer have faith in anything else.”
Article on ‘fat’ Arab women sparks uproar over body-shaming
To Enas Taleb, the headline felt like a spiteful punch line.
“Why women are fatter than men in the Arab world,” it read in bold, above a photograph of the Iraqi actress waving onstage at an arts festival.
The Economist article ran through possible explanations of the obesity gap of 10 percentage points between men and women in the Middle East, then cited Iraqis who see Taleb’s curves as the ideal of beauty.
“Fat,” a word now considered taboo in much of Western media, was repeated six times.
The article triggered torrid criticism on social media. Twitter users blasted it as misogynistic. Local rights groups issued denunciations. Some writers were appalled by what they described as demeaning stereotypes about Arab women.
Taleb, 42, said she’s suing the London-based magazine for defamation.
While analysts acknowledge an epidemic of obesity in the Arab world and its connection to poverty and gender discrimination, Taleb’s case and the ensuing uproar have thrown a light on the issue of body-shaming that is deeply rooted yet rarely discussed in the region.
“If there’s a student who goes to school and hears mean comments and students bullying her for being fat, how would she feel?” Taleb told The Associated Press from Baghdad. “This article is an insult not only to me but a violation of the rights of all Iraqi and Arab women.”
The Economist did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Fat-shaming is offensive enough in the United States that when two sports commentators called some female athletes overweight on air earlier this year, they were swiftly fired.
In the Middle East, the report argued, the desirability of fleshy women may help explain why the region has experienced an explosion of obesity.
But the angry backlash over the article — and Taleb’s horror that her photo was used to illustrate growing waistlines of Arab women — contradicts the oft-repeated belief that being heavy is widely seen as sign of affluence and fertility in the region.
The globalization of Western beauty ideals through branding, TV and social media has long given rise to unrealistic body standards that skew women’s expectations of themselves and others in the Arab world, research shows.
In a forthcoming study on Egypt, Joan Costa-Font at the London School of Economics said he found that although some older women in rural areas still view rounder women as affluent, “it’s not true in Egypt that being overweight is a sign of beauty. ... Western standards are more relevant.”
Demand for cosmetic surgery has boomed in Lebanon. Some 75% of female Emirati students reported dissatisfaction with their bodies, and 25% are prone to eating disorders, according to a 2010 study at Dubai’s Zayed University.
And yet, many say, fat-shaming remains widespread and acceptable in the region, compared to the U.S. and Europe, where self-esteem movements have gained momentum and galvanized public discussions around inclusivity.
“Our politicians in Lebanon keep making these horrible, sexist comments about women’s bodies. If they come under fire that doesn’t necessarily lead to rising awareness,” said Joumana Haddad, a Lebanese author and human rights activist.
Read: 'Beautifully Me': Nabela Noor's book will teach you self-love
Haddad noted that new forays into female empowerment have provoked “reactionary discourse and anger” from Lebanon’s patriarchal society. Even cavalier public comments about weight can be deeply painful to young women who struggle with insecurity and a pathological will to alter their bodies in pursuit of beauty, she added.
“I’m a 51-year-old harsh, angry feminist and I still weigh myself every single morning,” Haddad said. “You can imagine how hard it is for people who have been less privileged.”
Ameni Esseibi, a Tunisian-born woman who overcame social stigma to become the Arab world’s first plus-sized model, said body positivity remains taboo in the Middle East even as populations have become more overweight.
“Kuwaitis are plus-sized, Saudis are plus-sized. But people are ashamed. They weren’t taught to be confident in this judgmental society,” Esseibi said. “We always want to be skinny, to look good, to get married to the most powerful guy.”
But, she said, there are signs of growing awareness. After years of ignoring vulgar comments about women’s bodies, Arabs are increasingly turning to social media to vent their anger.
The Economist article’s depiction of men “shutting women up at home” to keep them “Rubenesque” touched a nerve.
The Baghdad-based Heya, or “She,” Foundation, which advocates for women in media, denounced the report as “bullying” and demanded the magazine apologize to Taleb.
The Malaysia-based Musawah Foundation, which promotes equality in the Muslim world, said the backlash shows that “women in the region are building a collective discourse that rejects and calls out sexist, racist, and fat-phobic acts and their colonial legacies.”
Taleb, a talk show host and star in blockbuster Iraqi TV dramas, said she had no choice but to speak up.
“They used my photo in this context in a hurtful, negative way,” she said. “I am against using one’s body shape to determine the value of a human being.”
Her lawyer, Samantha Kane, said she has begun legal action, first sending a letter to The Economist demanding an apology for “serious harm caused to (Taleb) and her career.”
Kane declined further comment pending the magazine’s response.
Taleb said she hopes her defamation case serves as “a message” for women “to say, I love myself ... to be strong, to confront those difficulties.”
It’s a message that resonates in a region where women see the odds as stacked against them. Traditional attitudes, discriminatory legislation and pay disparities, on top of rigid beauty standards, hinder women’s advancement.
“Women don’t get equal salaries. They don’t get high-level positions. They are forced to keep silent when they are harassed. And in media, they have to be thin and beautiful,” said Zeina Tareq, Heya Foundation’s director.
In Taleb’s home country of Iraq, where safety is scarce after years of conflict, outspoken women also face the threat of targeted killings.
Iraqi journalist Manar al-Zubaidi said the fat-shaming of Arab women comes as no surprise in a world where “most media outlets commodify women and make them into objects of ridicule or temptation.”
“There is nothing to deter them,” she added, except ever-louder “campaigns and challenges on social media.”
Chinese factories close as drought hurts hydropower
Factories in China’s southwest have shut down after reservoirs used to generate hydropower ran low in a worsening drought, adding to economic strains at a time when President Xi Jinping is trying to extend his position in power.
Companies in Sichuan province including makers of solar panels, cement and urea closed or reduced production after they were ordered to ration power for up to five days, according to news reports Wednesday. That came after reservoir levels fell and power demand for air conditioning surged in scorching temperatures.
“Leave power for the people,” said an order from the provincial government dated Tuesday.
The shutdowns add to challenges for the ruling Communist Party as Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, prepares to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as leader at a meeting in October or November.
Growth in factory output and retail sales weakened in July, setting back China’s economic recovery after Shanghai and other industrial centers were shut down starting in late March to fight virus outbreaks.
The economy grew by just 2.5% over a year earlier in the first half of 2022, less than half the official annual goal of 5.5%.
Areas across central and northern China ordered emergency measures to ensure drinking water supplies after summer rain was as little as half normal levels. The official Xinhua News Agency said firetrucks carried water to two dry villages near Chongqing in the southwest.
Hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) of crops across central and northern China have wilted due to lack of water and high temperatures, according to the government. Some areas have reported the summer growing season a failure.
Read: China Focus: China promotes green development along Belt and Road
The weather agency has warned temperatures in some areas could spike to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
In Sichuan, which has 94 million people, water levels at hydropower reservoirs are down by as much as half this month, according to the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economics and Information Technology.
A subsidiary of Guoguang Co., Ltd. that makes pesticide and fertilizer closed from Monday through at least Saturday, according to a company announcement through the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Makers of solar power equipment in Sichuan including Tongwei Solar Co. Ltd. and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. said they received notices to ration power.
Tongwei said the “power cut and production shutdown have not had much impact,” the business news outlet East Money reported.
China faced similar strains last year when Guangdong province in the southeast, one of the world’s most important manufacturing centers, ordered factories to shut down after hydropower reservoirs ran low due to sparse rain.
The government has allocated 280 million yuan ($41 million) for drought relief in Hebei and Shanxi provinces and the Inner Mongolia region in the north and Liaoning province in the northeast, according to Xinhua.
“Some small and medium-size rivers are so dry that they have stopped flowing,” the report said.
Meanwhile, authorities on Tuesday warned some parts of the country face possible flooding from heavy rains forecast in areas from the northwest across Inner Mongolia to the northeast.
South Korean leader: Seoul won’t seek own nuclear deterrent
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday his government has no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent in the face of growing North Korean nuclear weapons capabilities, even as the North fired two suspected cruise missiles toward the sea in the latest display of an expanding arsenal.
Yoon’s call for Pyongyang to return to diplomacy aimed at exchanging denuclearization steps for economic benefits came hours after the South’s military detected that the North fired the missiles from the western coastal town of Onchon toward the sea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately release further details, including how far the weapons traveled.
Yoon’s office said his national security director, Kim Sung-han, discussed the launch with other officials before Yoon addressed reporters in a news conference and reviewed the South’s military readiness. Tensions could further rise as the United States and South Korea kick off their biggest combined training in years next week to counter the North Korean threat. The North describes such drills as invasion rehearsals and has often responded to them with missile tests or other provocations.
Yoon told reporters South Korea doesn’t desire political change in North Korea that’s brought by force and he called for diplomacy aimed at building sustainable peace between the rivals amid tensions over the North’s accelerating weapons program.
Yoon’s comments came days after he proposed an “audacious” economic assistance package to North Korea if it abandons its nuclear weapons program, while avoiding harsh criticism of the North after it threatened “deadly” retaliation over a COVID-19 outbreak it blames on the South.
Yoon’s proposal for large-scale aid in food and healthcare and modernizing power and port infrastructure resembled previous South Korean offers that were rejected by North Korea, which is speeding its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, seen by leader Kim Jong Un as his strongest guarantee of survival.
Still, Yoon expressed hope for “meaningful dialogue” with North Korea over his plan and stressed that Seoul is willing to provide corresponding economic rewards at each step of a phased denuclearization process if the North commits to a genuine “roadmap” toward fully abandoning its weapons program.
“We are not telling them to ‘denuclearize entirely first and then we will provide,’” Yoon said. “What we are saying is that we will provide the things we can in correspondence to their steps if they only show a firm determination (toward denuclearization).”
Inter-Korean ties have worsened amid a stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. that derailed in early 2019 because of disagreements over a relaxation of crippling U.S.-led sanctions on the North in exchange for disarmament steps.
North Korea has ramped up its missile testing to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons so far, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years.
The heighted testing activity underscores North Korea’s dual intent to advance its arsenal and force the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power so it can negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength, experts say. Kim could up the ante soon as there are indications that the North is preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since September 2017, when it claimed to have developed a thermonuclear weapon to fit on its ICBMs.
Read: S Korea sees brighter ties with Bangladesh with multifarious success stories: Envoy
While Kim’s ICBMs get much of the international attention, North Korea is also expanding its range of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea. Kim has punctuated his weapons development with threats to proactively use his nuclear weapons in conflicts against the South or the U.S., which experts say communicate an escalating nuclear doctrine that could increase concerns for its neighbors.
Yoon has vowed to strengthen the South’s defenses through its alliance with the United States by resuming large-scale military training that was canceled or downsized during the Trump years and boosting the South’s missile defenses. The Biden administration has also reaffirmed U.S. commitments to defending South Korea and Japan, including “extended deterrence,” referring to an assurance to defend its allies with its full military capabilities, including nuclear.
But some experts say it’s becoming clear South Korea has no clear way to counter the leverage North Korea has with its nukes, expressing concerns that Washington might hesitate to defend its ally in the event of war when Kim’s ICBMs would pose a potential threat to mainland American cities.
Some South Koreans have called for the reintroduction of tactical U.S. nuclear weapons that were removed from the South in the 1990s, or for Seoul to pursue its own deterrent.
Yoon dismissed the possibility of the latter during the news conference, saying that Seoul will stay committed to an international treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
“I believe the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) regime is a very important and necessary premise for permanent world peace,” Yoon said, expressing hope that the U.S. deterrence strategy for its allies could evolve to counter the North’s growing threat.
Yoon’s comments came after North Korea last week claimed a widely disputed victory over COVID-19 but also blamed South Korea for the outbreak. North Korea insists leaflets and other objects flown across the border by activists spread the virus, an unscientific claim Seoul describes as “ridiculous.”
North Korea has a history of dialing up pressure on South Korea when it doesn’t get what it wants from the United States, and there are concerns that North Korea’s threat portends a provocation, which could include a nuclear or missile test or even border skirmishes. Some experts say North Korea may stir up tensions around joint military exercises between the allies that start next week.
Trump foe Liz Cheney defeated in Wyoming GOP primary
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican adversary in Congress, was defeated in a GOP primary Tuesday, falling to a rival backed by the former president in a rout that reinforced his grip on the party’s base.
The third-term congresswoman and her allies entered the day downbeat about her prospects, aware that Trump’s backing gave Harriet Hageman considerable lift in the state where he won by the largest margin during the 2020 campaign. Cheney was already looking ahead to a political future beyond Capitol Hill that could include a 2024 presidential run, potentially putting her on another collision course with Trump.
Cheney described her loss as the beginning of a new chapter in her political career as she addressed a small collection of supporters, including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, on the edge of a vast field flanked by mountains and bales of hay.
“Our work is far from over,” she said Tuesday evening, evoking Abraham Lincoln, who also lost congressional elections before ascending to the presidency and preserving the union.
The results — and the roughly 30-point margin — were a powerful reminder of the GOP’s rapid shift to the right. A party once dominated by national security-oriented, business-friendly conservatives like her father now belongs to Trump, animated by his populist appeal and, above all, his denial of defeat in the 2020 election.
Such lies, which have been roundly rejected by federal and state election officials along with Trump’s own attorney general and judges he appointed, transformed Cheney from an occasional critic of the former president to the clearest voice inside the GOP warning that he represents a threat to democratic norms. She’s the top Republican on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, an attack she referenced in nodding to her political future.
“I have said since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office — and I mean it,” she said.
Four hundred miles to the east of Cheney’s concession speech, festive Hageman supporters gathered at a sprawling outdoor rodeo and Western culture festival in Cheyenne, many wearing cowboy boots, hats and blue jeans.
Also read: Trump’s bond with GOP deepens after primary wins, FBI search
“Obviously we’re all very grateful to President Trump, who recognizes that Wyoming has only one congressional representative and we have to make it count,” said Hageman, a ranching industry attorney who had finished third in a previous bid for governor.
Echoing Trump’s conspiracy theories, she falsely claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” as she courted his loyalists in the runup to the election.
Trump and his team celebrated Cheney’s loss, which may represent his biggest political victory in a primary season full of them. The former president called the results “a complete rebuke” of the Jan. 6 committee.
“Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others,” he wrote on his social media platform. “Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!”
The news offered a welcome break from Trump’s focus on his growing legal entanglements. Just eight days earlier, federal agents executing a search warrant recovered 11 sets of classified records from the former president’s Florida estate.
Cheney’s defeat would have been unthinkable just two years ago. The daughter of a former vice president, she hails from one of the most prominent political families in Wyoming. And in Washington, she was the No. 3 House Republican, an influential voice in GOP politics and policy with a sterling conservative voting record.
Cheney will now be forced from Congress at the end of her third and final term in January. She is not expected to leave Capitol Hill quietly.
She will continue in her leadership role on the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack until it dissolves at the end of the year. And she is actively considering a 2024 White House bid -- as a Republican or independent -- having vowed to do everything in her power to fight Trump’s influence in her party.
With Cheney’s loss, Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are going extinct.
In all, seven Republican senators and 10 Republican House members backed Trump’s impeachment in the days after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress tried to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. Just two of those 10 House members have won their primaries this year. After two Senate retirements, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is the only such Senate Republican on this year’s ballot.
Cheney was forced to seek assistance from the state’s tiny Democratic minority in her bid to pull off a victory. But Democrats across America, major donors among them, took notice. She raised at least $15 million for her election, a stunning figure for a Wyoming political contest.
Voters responded to the interest in the race. With a little more than half of the vote counted, turnout ran about 50% higher than in the 2018 Republican primary for governor.
If Cheney does ultimately run for president — either as a Republican or an independent — don’t expect her to win Wyoming’s three electoral votes.
“We like Trump. She tried to impeach Trump,” Cheyenne voter Chester Barkell said of Cheney on Tuesday. “I don’t trust Liz Cheney.”
And in Jackson, Republican voter Dan Winder said he felt betrayed by his congresswoman.
“Over 70% of the state of Wyoming voted Republican in the last presidential election and she turned right around and voted against us,” said Winder, a hotel manager. “She was our representative, not her own.”
Global Covid cases top 596 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now surged past 596 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 596,934,012 and the death toll reached 6,459,290 on Wednesday morning.
The US has recorded 94,869,936 cases so far and 1,063,087 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's daily Covid-19 caseload rose to 8,813 on Tuesday, officials said.
According to federal health ministry data released on Tuesday, 8,813 new cases of Covid were reported in 24 hours, taking the total tally to 44,277,194 in the country.
The cases reported on Tuesday marked a sharp decline in comparison to the daily caseload of 14,917 reported on Monday.
India's active caseload currently stands at 111,252, according to the ministry.
Read: Global Covid cases top 594 million
The country also logged 29 related deaths in 24 hours, pushing the overall death toll to 527,098 since the beginning of the pandemic, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese mainland on Tuesday reported 566 locally transmitted confirmed Covid cases, of which 482 were in Hainan Province, the National Health Commission said Wednesday.
Covid in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported zero Covid deaths and 93 new cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
The country last reported zero Covid-linked death on August 13.
With the latest numbers, Bangladesh's total fatalities remained static at 29,314 while the caseload rose to 2,009,222, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily case test positivity rate rose to 4.41 percent from Monday's 4.09 percent as 2,110 samples were tested.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.46 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.15 percent from Monday's 97.14 percent.
In July, the country reported 142 Covid-linked deaths and 31,422 cases, the highest monthly death toll and caseload since March this year.
Bangladesh registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Western states hit with more cuts to Colorado River water
For the second year in a row, Arizona and Nevada will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado River as the West endures more drought, federal officials announced Tuesday.
Though the cuts will not result in any immediate new restrictions — like banning lawn watering or car washing — they signal that unpopular decisions about how to reduce consumption are on the horizon, including whether to prioritize growing cities or agricultural areas. Mexico will also face cuts.
But those reductions represent just a fraction of the potential pain to come for the 40 million Americans in seven states that rely on the river. Because the states failed to meet a federal deadline to figure out how to cut their water use by at least 15%, they could see even deeper cuts that the government has said are needed to prevent reservoirs from falling so low they cannot be pumped.
“The states collectively have not identified and adopted specific actions of sufficient magnitude that would stabilize the system,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said.
Together, the missed deadline and the latest cuts put officials responsible for providing water to cities and farms under renewed pressure to plan for a hotter, drier future and a growing population.
Touton has said a 15% to 30% reduction is necessary to ensure that water deliveries and hydroelectric power production are not disrupted. She was noncommittal on Tuesday about whether she planned to impose those cuts unilaterally if the states cannot reach agreement.
She repeatedly declined to say how much time the states have to reach the deal she requested in June.
The inaction has stirred concerns throughout the region about the bureau’s willingness to act as states stubbornly cling to their water rights while acknowledging that a crisis looms.
“They have called the bureau’s bluff time and again,” Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said of the Colorado River basin states. “Nothing has changed with today’s news — except for the fact that the Colorado River system keeps crashing.”
Stephen Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community in central Arizona, said the tribe was “shocked and disappointed” by the lack of progress. The tribe, which is entitled to nearly one-fourth of Arizona’s Colorado River deliveries, no longer plans to save its unused water in Lake Mead, as it has in recent years, and instead plans to store it underground.
For years, cities and farms have diverted more water from the river than flows through it, depleting its reservoirs and raising questions about how it will be divided as water becomes more scarce.
After more than two decades of drought, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico were hit with mandatory cuts for the first time last year. Some of the region’s farmers have been paid to leave their fields fallow. Residents of growing cities have been subjected to conservation measures such as limits on grass lawns.
But those efforts thus far haven’t been enough. The water level at Lake Mead, the nation’s largest man-made reservoir, has plummeted so low that it’s currently less than a quarter full and inching dangerously close to a point where not enough water would flow to produce hydroelectric power at the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border.
Officials in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have been reluctant to propose more draconian water-rationing measures or limits on development.
The trade-offs are emerging most prominently in Arizona, which is among the nation’s fastest-growing states and has lower-priority water rights than water users to the west, in California.
Under Tuesday’s reductions, Arizona will lose an additional 80,000 acre-feet of water — 21% less than its total share but only 3% less than what it’s receiving this year.
An acre-foot is equivalent to an acre of land covered by 12 inches of water. An average household uses one-half to one acre-foot of water a year.
After putting last year’s burden on the agricultural industry, state officials said this year’s cuts would extend to tribes and growing cities that rely on the Colorado, including Scottsdale.
Rather than ration water, mandate conservation or limit development, the cities will likely shift reliance to other sources. Phoenix, for example, will rely more heavily on the in-state Salt and Verde rivers, while directing less of its supply to recharge its groundwater aquifers.
Arizona officials blasted neighboring states that haven’t proposed cuts even as Arizona implements its own.
Arizona and Nevada came up with a plan for cuts that would have been close to proportional to water use, but both California and the Bureau of Reclamation rejected that deal, state officials said.
“We need California to participate; we can’t do this alone with just Arizona and Nevada,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
The effect of the cuts on farmers remains unclear, but many fear more cuts will further inflame tensions between cities and agriculture, which uses more than 70% of the basin’s water.
Paco Ollerton, a Phoenix-area cotton farmer, worries that deeper cuts could jeopardize his water next year. Arizona farmers already lost much of their Colorado River water during prior cuts, but they were compensated with water through deals with cities like Phoenix and Tucson.
This year, Ollerton grew only half of what he had grown previously. The cuts announced Tuesday could further squeeze those cities, raising questions about whether they will share with farmers next year.
“It kind of changes my thinking about how much longer I’m going to continue to farm,” Ollerton said.
Nevada also will lose water — about 8% of its supply — but most residents will not feel the effects because the state recycles the majority of its water used indoors and doesn’t use its full allocation. Last year, the state lost 7%.
Scorching temperatures and less melting snow in the spring have reduced the amount of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the river originates before it snakes 1,450 miles (2,334 kilometers) southwest and into the Gulf of California.
Amid the changing climate, extraordinary steps are already being taken to keep water in Lake Powell, the other large Colorado River reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Utah border.
After the lake fell low enough to threaten hydroelectric power production, federal officials said they would hold back some water to ensure the dam could still produce energy. That water would normally flow to Lake Mead.
Mexico will lose 7% of the water it receives each year from the river. Last year, it lost about 5%. The water is a lifeline for northern desert cities, including Tijuana, and for a large farming industry in the Mexicali Valley, just south of the border from California’s Imperial Valley.
Historically, Mexico has been sidelined in discussions over how to share the river, but in recent years, efforts by countries have been important to keeping more water in the system, experts say.
“People have come to realize this is a really important relationship to maintain,” said Jennifer Pitt, who directs the Colorado River program at the Audubon Society.