World

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine's military said Sunday its forces repelled an attack near Blahodatne in the eastern Donetsk region after Wagner mercenary group claimed it took control of the village.

Kyiv's forces "repelled attacks near... Blahodatne" and 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said in its daily report.

Earlier, private military group Wagner said its units had taken control of the village.

"Units of Wagner PMC have taken Blahodatne. Blahodatne is under our control," Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said as quoted by his press service.

There was no immediate confirmation from Russia's defence ministry.

Moscow has made capturing the eastern Donetsk region, which it has already declared a part of Russia, its primary goal in Ukraine.

Kyiv recently said that Russian troops had stepped up their attacks in the east, particularly on the towns of Vugledar and Bakhmut.

Earlier this month, Russia said it wrested control of Soledar, a salt-mining town near Bakhmut, Moscow's first claim of victory after months of battlefield setbacks.

Blahodatne is located to the north of Bakhmut.

Russian forces have been seeking to seize Bakhmut for months in some of the heaviest fighting since Russia invaded in February last year.

Separately, five civilians were killed in attacks on the Donetsk region over the past day, local Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Sunday, including one person in Bakhmut.

WASHINGTON — Mass shootings in the United States have become agonisingly common, but the two recent tragedies in California stand out for their difference: The alleged attackers were men of Asian descent, both elderly.

The typical profile for a shooting in a public space with a large number of casualties is a white male under 40, and white men under 21 have featured particularly in some of the most recent.

But the man who is suspected of killing 11 people at a suburban Los Angeles dance hall on Saturday was 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, with apparent roots in Vietnam and China.

And the man accused of two days later shooting dead another seven people in Half Moon Bay south of San Francisco, Zhao Chunli, is ethnic Chinese and 66 years old.

The suspects’ demographic details meant the two attacks drew more attention than usual in a country where mass shootings are now relatively common. 

Both took place as many of the 20 million in the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community in the United States were celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The nonpartisan Violence Project says 79 percent of mass shooters from 1966 to 2020 were under the age of 45, and just 6.4 per cent were Asian — roughly equivalent to their proportion of the US population.

A new report by the US Secret Service, which studied 173 violent attacks in public spaces from 2016 to 2020, said the average attacker age was 34, and that only four percent were Asian.

“Lunar New Year marks an important cultural holiday for many Asian Americans and to have a day of celebration be upended by staggering violence leaves us heartbroken,” said the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans after the assaults.

In both attacks, the suspected perpetrators were familiar with the location and the victims, most of whom were fellow members of California’s Asian community.

Tran is alleged to have attacked a popular ballroom dance hall he had long attended, and Zhao is accused of targeting two farm businesses where he had reportedly worked.

After being confronted by police, Tran shot himself dead, while Zhao — arrested without serious injury and charged with multiple murders — could face the death penalty.

Lina Alathari, head of the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Centre, would not comment specifically on the two California attacks.

But neither stood out as especially unusual when weighed against the centre’s study released on Wednesday. 

“Across the five-year timeframe and every year we’ve studied, by far grievances were the top motive for these attacks,” Alathari told reporters.

“These were attackers retaliating for some sort of perceived wrongs that may have been related to either personal issues, domestic situations with partners, as well as workplace issues,” she said of those in the study.

Attacks against workplaces and community halls are highly common, and in nearly half, attackers had an affiliation with the target.

And whatever ethnic group they are, generally they were lone actors, male, and armed with high-powered firearms.

“There is no community that’s immune from this,” Alathari told reporters.

“There’s no profile of the type of community. It’s occurred in communities [of] just a few hundred residents, as well as major metropolitan areas,” she said.

The deadliest mass shooting in US history, the October 2017 attack on an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, Nevada that left 61 dead and hundreds injured, remains mostly unexplained, and the shooter there was also older than average: he was white, 64, and his motives remain unknown.

The second most deadly, the massacre of 49 at an Orlando, Florida gay nightclub in 2016, is better understood.

The 29-year-old alleged killer was supposedly radicalised by ideology from the so-called Islamic State group and specifically targeted the LGBTQ community.

But some of the most horrific recent attacks have been by very young white men, driven by racist ideologies.

The man who killed 23 in an El Paso, Texas supermarket parking lot in 2019 was 21 and espoused anti-Hispanic hate.

An 18-year-old white man who killed 10 at a Buffalo, New York supermarket in May 2022 specifically targeted African Americans.

Alathari said that the only way to prevent such attacks is for communities, workplaces, schools and other groups to take note of people with worrisome behaviour and for them to be willing to investigate further. 

A large percentage of mass attackers have already had previous run-ins with law enforcement, and half have histories of physical aggression and violence, including many who are domestic abusers, according to Alathari.

“We see a lot of the same warning signs and behaviours that we really should be looking at when someone is eliciting concern,” she said.

To prevent attacks, she added, “we really should set a low threshold for concerning behaviour, to make sure we’re asking the right questions, to see if that individual is escalating towards violence.”

BERLIN — Berlin on Wednesday approved the delivery of powerful German-made Leopard tanks to help Ukraine repel Russia's invasion, after weeks of pressure from Kyiv and many allies.

Germany will provide a company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from the Bundeswehr stocks, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.

It also granting approval for other European countries to send tanks from their own stocks to Ukraine, with the aim of quickly assembling "two tank battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine", he said.Russia's ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechaev on Wednesday criticised Berlin's decision to approve deliveries of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

"This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation, and contradicts statements by German politicians about the unwillingness of the German Federation to get involved in it," Nechaev was cited as saying in a statement released by the embassy.

While scores of nations have pledged military hardware for Ukraine, Kyiv has been clamouring for the more sophisticated Leopard tanks, seen as key to punching through enemy lines.

The package agreed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz would also offer training of Ukrainian forces on using the tanks in Germany, as well as logistics, ammunition and maintenance for the battle tanks.

Scholz, who had faced fierce accusations of dithering over whether to send the tanks, will take questions in the Bundestag German parliament from 1 pm (12:00 GMT).

Several other European countries, including Finland and Poland, have said they are ready to provide their stocks.

The Wall Street Journal has meanwhile reported that Washington was leaning towards sending a significant number of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine.

The Kremlin warned on Wednesday that if Western countries supply Ukraine with heavy tanks they will be destroyed on the battlefield.

“These tanks burn like all the rest. They are just very expensive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin’s warning came as a Moscow-backed official said Russian forces had advanced in Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine that Russia has been trying to capture for months.

The Ukrainian military also conceded to AFP that its troops had pulled out of battle-scarred Soledar, to the northeast of Bakhmut.

Russian forces had claimed control of Soledar earlier this month.

And Denis Pushilin, Moscow’s top official responsible for Donetsk, said its capture “has now made it possible to block the enemy’s supply routes and, in part, take under operational control areas” from which Ukrainians struck Russian positions.

Amid the fierce fighting eastern Ukraine, Kyiv and several of its allies have been urging Germany for weeks to allow the delivery of the Leopards, but a US-led meeting of Kyiv’s allies in Germany last week failed to yield a decision.

‘Blatant provocation’ 

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused the Germans on Tuesday of “dragging their feet, dithering and behaving in a manner that is difficult to understand”.

However, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he had “expressly encouraged partner countries that have Leopard tanks that are ready for deployment to train Ukrainian forces on these tanks”.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, responded to reports about Washington potentially sending battle tanks by saying such a move would show “the real aggressor in the current conflict”.

“If the United States decides to supply tanks, it will be impossible to justify such step using arguments about ‘defensive weapons’,” he said, according to a post on the Russian Embassy’s official Facebook page.

“This would be another blatant provocation against the Russian Federation.”

Under Berlin’s war weapons control rules, countries using German-made armaments are required to seek Berlin’s permission if they wish to transfer them to a third party.

Corruption scandal 

In a further show of international support for Ukraine, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he is considering visiting Ukraine, after an invitation from Zelensky.

“I will consider this in light of various circumstances and conditions,” said Kushida, whose country is hosting this year’s Group of Seven meeting.

However, back home Zelensky is battling a widening corruption scandal, with his defence ministry shaken by allegations of food procurement fraud.

Local media reports last week accused the ministry of having signed a deal at prices “two to three times higher” than current rates for basic foodstuffs.

Several officials have resigned over the allegations, including a deputy defence minister, two deputy ministers of development of communities and territories and a deputy minister of social policy.

Ukraine has a history of endemic corruption, including among the political elite, but efforts to stamp out graft have been overshadowed by the war.

VENICE — As rising waters fuel fears that Venice may one day be entirely submerged, local children are being educated on how to protect the lagoon, a fragile ecosystem threatened by climate change.

On Torcello, an island located in the northern part of the lagoon, around 40 five-year-olds this week attended an outdoor lesson on the shores damaged by the waves from motorboats speeding to and from Venice.

As part of an initiative from UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, they splashed in the mud, made fish from recycled papier mache, took samples of sea water and drew pictures of the nature around them.

“We want the children to learn to observe nature and the lagoon, to learn to understand it, to love it and learn how better protect it,” said programme coordinator Francesca Santoro.

Venice is one of the world’s most extraordinary cities, a UNESCO heritage site that draws millions of tourists each year.

But it is slowly drowning.

The landmark St Mark’s Square is regularly flood by “acqua alta”, high water events caused by abnormally high tides, providing good photos for visitors but threatening the city’s foundations.

UNESCO warned in 2021 that it might place Venice on its endangered list, saying there was a need to manage tourist numbers. The city avoided that indignity by agreeing to ban large cruise ships in the lagoon.

With the education initiative, UNESCO hopes to encourage the next generation to think more deeply about how Venice can be preserved — and take action.

Raising the barriers 

The project is part of a wider UNESCO educational programme launched in 2019, sponsored by luxury fashion brand Prada. Dubbed “Sea Beyond”, it is dedicated to the preservation of the sea and involves school children across the world.

The Venice scheme is backed by Georg Umgiesser, director of research at Venice’s ISMAR-CNR institute of marine science, who believes this kind of hands-on experience with the lagoon will help people understand the impact of rising water levels.

“As a result of subsidence in Venice and rising waters, the average sea level has risen by 30 centimetres  in the last 150 years and is expected to rise by another 50 centimetres by the end of the century,” he told AFP.

St Mark’s Square, located in the lowest part of the city, is always first to flood, said the German oceanographer, who has lived in the Italian city for 40 years. “In 2100, half of Venice risks being under water,” he warned.

The long-awaited MOSE flood defence system has been in place since October 2020, raising sluice gates to protect the lagoon when the waters in the Adriatic Sea reach 110cm above normal levels.

But this system was developed in the 1980s, before the acceleration of global warming. There are questions as to whether it will be enough to protect Venice in the decades to come.

“The MOSE was designed to close a maximum of 50 times a year,” said Umgiesser. “If sea levels continue to rise at this rate, from 2100, it would need to be triggered 300 to 400 times a year.”

‘Act now’ 

At that point, the lagoon would essentially be closed off, preventing the exchange of water with the sea, which is essential for biodiversity.

Another solution would be to raise Venice above the waves by 30 to 50cm by injecting sea water into the foundations of the city, but for now this idea remains entirely theoretical.

In the meantime, Jane da Mosto, head of environmental non-profit We Are Here Venice, is relying on salt marshes in the lagoon to slow the acqua alta and ease the currents.

Restoring these wetlands, decimated by climate change and urbanisation, could be a natural solution to Venice’s problems, she argues.

“The salt marshes act as a sponge, so they can slow down the way the water flows into the lagoon,” da Mosto said.

But she added: “It’s a race against time. We need to act now — it’s what we do today what matters.

“We are in the climate emergency, the catastrophe is already happening.”

HALF MOON BAY, United States — A suspected gunman was in custody Monday over the killing of seven people in a rural community in northern California, just two days after a mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration near Los Angeles.

The latest bloodshed occurred at two farms around Half Moon Bay, a coastal community south of San Francisco.

San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said seven people were killed and one wounded in the twin shootings, and that a 67-year-old Half Moon Bay resident named Chunli Zhao had been taken into custody.

Reports said the dead were Chinese farmworkers, and that Zhao had worked at one of the farms.

Corpus said deputies had been dispatched to two nurseries around Half Moon Bay, a rural spot known for surfing contests and a pumpkin festival, around mid-afternoon on Monday.

Four people were dead at one of them and one was critically wounded, while three more fatally wounded victims were found at a second location.

Corpus said children were present at one of the sites.

"It was in the afternoon when kids were out of school and for children to witness it is unspeakable," she said.

Corpus said Zhou then drove to a sheriff's substation in Half Moon Bay, where ABC7 crews captured dramatic footage of him being pulled to the ground by armed officers.

"Zhao was taken into custody without incident and a semi-automatic handgun was located in his vehicle," Corpus said.

At the second shooting location, a short distance from the mushroom farm where four people were killed, sheriff's deputies' cars packed a roadside business plaza, home to shops offering party rentals, landscaping supplies and other services.

Probing the motive 

As the new tragedy unfolded, detectives in southern California were still probing what drove an elderly Asian man to shoot dead 11 people gathered for Lunar New Year at a suburban dance hall on Saturday night — before taking his own life as police closed in.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Huu Can Tran, who had been arrested in 1994 for unlawful possession of a firearm, fired 42 rounds in the attack in Monterey Park.

"What drove a madman to do this?" he said.

Luna confirmed officers had been told Tran may have been known to some of his victims.

News of a second mass shooting in California in less than 48 hours spread ripples of shock through the state, which has some of the strictest firearm laws in the US.

“At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay. Tragedy upon tragedy,” tweeted Governor Gavin Newsom.

Saturday night’s mass shooting was the worst in the United States since a teenage gunman in Uvalde, Texas killed 21 people at an elementary school last May.

‘Hostile’ 

On Monday, a picture began to emerge of the culprit in Monterey Park, a man who, according to his marriage license, had immigrated from China, and who had been a regular at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in the past.

Tran’s ex-wife told CNN the couple had met there two decades ago when he offered to give her informal lessons.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said they married a short time later, but the relationship did not last, with the divorce finalised in 2006.

She said Tran, who sometimes worked as a truck driver, was not violent, but could be impatient.

A man who said he had previously known Tran said he would complain about dance teachers, who, he claimed, would say “evil things about him”, CNN reported.

He was “hostile to a lot of people there,” the man told the broadcaster.

Detectives who searched a mobile home where Tran had been living in Hemet, 140 kilometres east of Los Angeles, recovered a rifle, electronics and ammunition, Luna said.

Police in the city said earlier this month Tran had made “fraud, theft, and poisoning allegations involving his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago”.

‘Her last dance’ 

The family of 65-year-old My Nhan said the tragedy was “still sinking in”.

“She spent so many years going to the dance studio in Monterey Park on weekends,” a statement said.

“It’s what she loved to do. But unfairly, Saturday was her last dance.”

Amid the grief, one tale of heroism emerged.

Brandon Tsay, 26, revealed how he grappled with Tran as the elderly man arrived at another dance studio, in what police believe was a planned second attack.

“He was hitting me across the face, bashing me in the back of my head, I was trying to use my elbows to get the gun away from him,” Tsay told ABC.

“Finally, at one point I was able to pull the gun away from him, shove him aside, create some distance, point the gun at him... shouting, ‘Get the hell out here’.”

Chile is the world’s second largest lithium producer after Australia and holds approximately 45 per cent of global reserves of this mineral, which means that new business opportunities will undoubtedly emerge over the coming years.  

This lightweight metal is essential for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, and is garnering the most interest these days of all Chile’s minerals, except for copper of course. The country is also a major producer of iodine and potassium. 

Lithium production in Chile is concentrated around the Atacama Salt Flat, which holds one of the most highly disputed reserves of this mineral on the planet and is the production center for the country’s two lithium-producing companies, Albemarle and SQM.  

Sustainable lithium extraction 

A study conducted by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the engineering firm Dictuc calculated the carbon footprint—meaning greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—of the two operations in the Atacama Salt Flat in order to compare it with the footprint of lithium production in Argentina and Australia, the country’s two main competitors.  

The study found that the per unit GHG emissions of lithium produced from brine extraction in the Atacama Salt Flat in 2020 amounted to 4,022kg CO2 equivalent per tonne of lithium carbonate. Of that total, the unit emissions of the Atacama Salt Flat operation represent 12 per cent, while chemical plant processes account for the remaining 88 per cent.  

Those emissions depend mainly on two distinguishing factors: The quantity of fossil fuel used to generate electricity on the national power grid, and factors intrinsic to the processes, inputs and reagents used.  

According to other studies cited by the authors, in the Oroz Salt Flat in Argentina the same indicator is much higher, amounting to 6,650 kg of CO2 equivalent per ton of lithium carbonate produced from brine, while measurements for Australia range from 15,690 to 24,200 kg of CO2 equivalent per tonne.  

“The advantage of having a small carbon footprint is that car and battery producers are requiring low-carbon footprint inputs even today, and that is only going to increase in the future. And the idea is that those inputs will be rewarded, or rather, high carbon footprint inputs will be punished; that is the main reason for mining companies to purchase renewable energy,” explains one of the study’s authors, Universidad Católica academic, Gustavo Lagos.  

The expert also anticipates that this trend will only accelerate in the short term, and that could even cut the local carbon footprint indicator in half in five years.  

Chile produced 162,477 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2021. Future demand forecasts for lithium, along with the development of electricity storage infrastructure and electromobility solutions, have attracted investor attention to this mineral.  

Chile has deposits of many different minerals, from copper to rare earth elements.