BLOGONITY

Moscow — Kazakhstan’s state-controlled nuclear resources company said on Tuesday that Russia’s state Rosatom corporation was selling its stakes in vast uranium deposits that it had been developing with the world’s largest uranium producer.   Kazatomprom said that Rosatom unit, Uranium One Group, had sold its 49.979% stake in the Zarechnoye mine to SNURDC Astana Mining Company Limited, whose ultimate beneficiary is China’s State Nuclear Uranium Resources Development Company.  Uranium One Group is also expected to give up 30% in the Khorasan-U joint venture to China Uranium Development Company Limited, the ultimate beneficiary of which is China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN, China), Kazatomprom said.  Kazatomprom’s stakes will remain unchanged, it said.  Zarechnoye’s uranium reserves amounted to approximately 3,500 tons at the beginning of 2024, according to Kazatomprom.   Khorasan-U operates at the Kharasan-1 block of Severny Kharasan deposit in the Zhanakorgan district of the Kyzylorda region. Uranium reserves of the deposit amounted to about 33,000 tons at the beginning of 2024, with an expected maturity in 2038, Kazatomprom said.  Rosatom did not immediately comment. Uranium One produced 4,831 tons of uranium in Kazakhstan in 2023.   Kazatomprom is the world’s largest producer of uranium and has the largest reserve base. It accounted for approximately 20% of global primary uranium production in 2023.     …

Saint-Denis de la Reunion, France — France said it will impose a nighttime curfew on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte starting on Tuesday evening, after the French overseas territory was devastated by a cyclone feared to have killed hundreds.  According to the latest official toll, 21 people are confirmed to have been killed by Cyclone Chido when it barreled into the island and its surrounding archipelago at the weekend.  But authorities fear that hundreds, and possibly even thousands, were killed, once the true scale of the toll is revealed, after the rubble is cleared and roads unblocked.  The health services are in tatters, power and mobile phone services have been knocked out, the airport closed to civilian flights, and there is mounting concern about how to ensure supplies of drinking water.  Cyclone Chido is the latest in a string of storms worldwide fueled by climate change, according to experts.  The curfew from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am local time (1900 GMT to 0100 GMT) is being put in place as a security measure to prevent looting, the French interior ministry said.  ‘Completely devastated’   French President Emmanuel Macron, who chaired a crisis meeting on Monday night, has described the situation as a “tragedy” and promised to visit Mayotte in the coming days.  Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who on Monday was the first top Paris official to visit the island after the cyclone, said that Mayotte has been “completely devastated,” with 70 percent of inhabitants affected.  “The toll will be heavy; too heavy,” Retailleau warned.  He announced the arrival “in the coming days” of 400 additional gendarmes to reinforce the 1,600 gendarmes and police officers present on the archipelago, while specifying that there had “not really been any looting” so far.  The “exceptional” cyclone was super-charged by particularly warm Indian Ocean waters, meteorologist Francois Gourand of the Meteo France weather service told AFP.  Mayotte is France’s poorest region, with an estimated one third of the population living in shantytowns whose flimsy sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection against the storm.  “We’re starting to run out of water. In the south, there’s been no running water for five days,” said Antoy Abdallah, a resident of Tsoundzou in the territory’s capital Mamoudzou.  “We’re completely cut off from the world,” the 34-year-old lamented.  Most of Mayotte’s population is Muslim and religious tradition dictates bodies must be buried rapidly, meaning some may never be counted.  And … “France to impose nighttime curfew on ‘devastated’ Mayotte  “ →

TALLINN, estonia — Twelve Western countries have agreed to measures to “disrupt and deter” Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of vessels in order to prevent sanctions breaches and increase the cost to Moscow of the war in Ukraine, Estonia’s government said Monday.  The measures were agreed to by Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, the five Nordic nations and the three Baltic states, said Estonia, where leaders of the 10-nation Joint Expeditionary Force were due to meet Tuesday.  Western nations have slapped sanctions on a wide range of ships they say are used by Moscow to avoid restrictions on the export of Russian oil and other cargoes. Vessels in the shadow fleet are not regulated or insured by conventional Western providers.  “We are taking concerted steps to deter Russia’s shadow fleet and avoid attempts to evade sanctions,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said in a statement.  Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland and Estonia will begin to check insurance documents of ships under suspicion passing through the English Channel, Danish straits, the Gulf of Finland and the sound between Sweden and Denmark, he added. …

GENEVA  — Migrants play a crucial role in the global economy by filling essential jobs in foreign countries and sending much-needed remittances to their home countries, according to a report released Monday by the International Labour Organization. The report’s release comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States. During his presidential campaign, he accused them of draining economic resources and taking jobs from native-born Americans. The ILO report says migrants usually bring a net economic benefit to the countries they enter and those from which they depart. “Migrants drive economic growth in destination countries, and they support home countries through their remittances and skills transfer,” Sukti Dasgupta, director of the ILO’s conditions of work and equalities department, told journalists at a briefing in Geneva on Monday. Rafael Diez de Medina, chief statistician at ILO, said the report debunks the assertion by some that “migrants are taking away [the] jobs of nationals.” “I would like to say that migrant workers often fill specific roles in low-wage or specialized jobs, and often as seasonal workers, and that they complement, rather than displace, the national labor force. “There might be competition in specific contexts, but we do not really have evidence of migrants taking away jobs from nationals,” he said. “In this report, migrants in the labor force include all foreign-born persons in the labor force of a host country who are employed or unemployed regardless of their legal status in the country,” Diez de Medina added. “So, documented and undocumented, regardless of the employment permission to the host country, are included in our figures.” The report presents global and regional estimates of migrants in the labor force covering 189 countries and territories for 2022, representing 99% of the world population at that time. Migrant labor force increases The report says 167.7 million migrants were part of the international labor force as of 2022, accounting for 4.7% of the working force worldwide. The report finds that the migrant global labor force has increased by more than 30 million since 2013, but notes that from 2019 to 2022, “the rate of growth slowed down to less than one percent annually.” This is attributed largely to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. While migration patterns have changed in some regions of the world, the ILO said the overall composition of migrant workers has remained relatively stable, with … “Labor organization: International migrants play crucial role in global economy” →

BRUSSELS — The EU on Monday for the first time imposed fully fledged sanctions, including asset freezes and visa bans, on Chinese firms for supplying Russia’s military for the war on Ukraine. It has also added North Korea’s defense minister to its sanctions blacklist after the secretive state sent troops to Russia to reinforce its military. The move — part of the EU’s 15th round of sanctions over the conflict — represented a heightened effort to tackle the crucial role allegedly being played by China in keeping Russia’s war machine going. The EU said it was blacklisting four Chinese companies for “supplying sensitive drone components and microelectronic components” to the Russian military. Two other firms and one Chinese businesswoman were hit for circumventing EU sanctions aimed at stopping equipment flowing to Moscow. Among the companies was Xiamen Limbach, alleged to have supplied engines for long-range attack drones used by Russia against Ukraine. The EU has targeted Chinese firms before for supporting Russia’s military. But until now the bloc has imposed bans on European firms doing business with the Chinese companies — rather than the tougher sanctions now being applied. The EU also took aim at North Korea in the latest package, after Pyongyang dispatched troops to Russia to fight Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc added defense minister No Kwang Chol and deputy chief of the general staff Kim Yong Bok to a number of North Korean officials already blacklisted. Ukraine said Monday that its troops killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean soldiers who had been deployed in Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukraine has seized territory. In a bid to limit Russian revenues, the EU included around 50 oil tankers from Moscow’s “shadow fleet” used to help the Kremlin get around Western oil sanctions. …

Brussels — The European Union moved to impose visa restrictions on Georgian diplomats and government officials Monday over the police crackdown on opposition protesters demanding a rerun of October’s contested election. Tens of thousands of people have filled the streets regularly in recent weeks since the governing party decided to suspend negotiations on joining the EU. Police have increasingly used force in their attempts to break up the rallies. Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became Georgia’s president Saturday as the governing Georgian Dream party tightened its grip on power in the election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. After chairing what she described as a “very tense discussion” among the bloc’s foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said they had decided “to suspend the visa free regime for diplomatic passports and service passports.” The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, was tasked to prepare the measure. Kallas also tabled a list of Georgian officials for the ministers to weigh sanctions against them, but Hungary and Slovakia — considered the most Russia-friendly of the 27 EU countries — blocked the move. “With sanctions, we need 27 on board,” Kallas said. But she called the imposition of visa restrictions an important first step. Chairing her first meeting since taking office on Dec. 1, Kallas added: “It’s my first Hungarian veto but I can guarantee it’s not the last.” Hungary holds the EU’s rotating presidency until the end of the month, when Poland takes over. Over the past year it has routinely blocked joint moves against Russia or in support of Ukraine, complicating procedures. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told reporters that a visa ban is the “minimum we should do,” adding that “we have to send the message to Georgian people in the streets that Europe doesn’t abandon you.” The EU granted Georgia candidate status for membership in December 2023 but put the accession bid on hold and cut financial support in June after the passage of a “foreign influence” law that was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms. …

BERLIN — Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German parliament on Monday, putting the European Union’s most populous member and biggest economy on course to hold an early election in February. Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367 needed to win. Scholz leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on November 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy. Leaders of several major parties then agreed that a parliamentary election should be held on Feb. 23, seven months earlier than originally planned. The confidence vote was needed because post-World War II Germany’s constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself. Now President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. Steinmeier has 21 days to make that decision — and, because of the planned timing of the election, is expected to do so after Christmas. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days. In practice, the campaign is already well under way, and Monday’s three-hour debate reflected that. What did the contenders say? Scholz, a center-left Social Democrat, told lawmakers that the election will determine whether “we, as a strong country, dare to invest strongly in our future; do we have confidence in ourselves and our country, or do we put our future on the line? Do we risk our cohesion and our prosperity by delaying long-overdue investments?” Scholz’s pitch to voters includes pledges to “modernize” Germany’s strict self-imposed rules on running up debt, to increase the national minimum wage and to reduce value-added tax on food. Center-right challenger Friedrich Merz responded that “you’re leaving the country in one of its biggest economic crises in postwar history.” “You’re standing here and saying, business as usual, let’s run up debt at the expense of the younger generation, let’s spend money and … the word ‘competitiveness’ of the German economy didn’t come up once in the speech you gave today,” Merz said. The chancellor said Germany is Ukraine’s biggest military supplier in Europe and he wants to keep that up, but underlined his insistence that he won’t supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles, over concerns of escalating the war with Russia, or … “Germany’s Scholz loses confidence vote, setting up early election in February” →

Washington — Ten countries and the EU called North Korea’s growing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine a “dangerous expansion” on Monday, in a joint statement released by the United States. Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region where Ukraine reported Monday that its fighters had killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean soldiers. “Direct DPRK support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine marks a dangerous expansion of the conflict, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific security,” the statement said, referring to North Korea by its official acronym. The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and the high representative of the European Union signed the release. They also said that they were “deeply concerned about any political, military, or economic support that Russia may be providing to the DPRK’s illegal weapons programs, including weapons of mass destruction.” North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Experts say the nuclear-armed North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is keen to acquire advanced technology from Moscow and battle experience for his troops. The statement signatories said they “condemn in the strongest possible terms the increasing military cooperation” including the “deployment of DPRK troops to Russia for use on the battlefield against Ukraine.” They added that the export of ballistic missiles, artillery shells and other military materiel by Pyongyang to Russia as well as Moscow’s training of North Korean soldiers involving arms “represent flagrant violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions.” “We urge the DPRK to cease immediately all assistance for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including by withdrawing its troops,” the statement said. The United States and South Korea have accused the North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers. …

France’s latest prime minister, Francois Bayrou, gets to work this week to form a new cabinet, push a stopgap budget bill and — more precariously — scout for support for longer-term budget legislation to tackle the country’s fiscal woes — a move that led to his predecessor’s downfall. The task and stakes are enormous for the 73-year-old centrist, a veteran politician and longtime mayor of the southwestern town of Pau. Picked by French President Emmanuel Macron Friday, Bayrou is the country’s fourth prime minister this year — and he faces a squabbling, deeply divided lower house anchored by powerful leftist and far right blocks. Farmers, teachers, hospital staff and rail workers count among thousands who have taken to the streets in recent months over agricultural imports, labor issues, and other grievances. France’s disarray is also a worry for the European Union, facing Russian gains in Ukraine, and the risk of a more fractious transatlantic relationship with the incoming Trump administration. “Nothing suggests he’ll last longer or fare better than the others,” France’s leading Le Monde newspaper said in editorial of Bayrou. The most immediate emergency lies in France’s Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, where Cyclone Chido has wreaked widespread devastation, causing hundreds and possibly thousands of deaths, French authorities say. The acting interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, was heading to Mayotte on Monday. Head of the small MoDem or Democratic Freedom party that is part of Macron’s centrist alliance, Bayrou acknowledges he faces a “Himalaya” of difficulties ahead. France’s budget deficit is estimated at more than six percent of its GDP — double the EU limit — and the country shoulders a sizable debt. Hours after Bayrou’s nomination, Moody’s rating agency downgraded France’s credit rating to Aa3, citing “political fragmentation” as a reason. “My first mission is to be a builder or, failing that, a repairer,” Bayrou told La Tribune Dimanche weekly, in an interview published Sunday. The stakes are also high for Macron, who emerges severely weakened after a catastrophic political year. The French president gambled on snap legislative elections earlier this year, after the far-right National Rally party topped a June European Parliament vote. He saw his centrist coalition emerging as the weakest bloc in France’s National Assembly, behind a leftist alliance and the National Rally. Risk for Europe So far, Macron has resisted calls to step down, insisting he will serve out his term that ends in 2027. … “France’s new prime minister begins work amid a mountain of challenges  “ →

Saint-Denis de la Reunion, France — Rescuers raced against time Monday to reach survivors after a devastating cyclone ripped through the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, destroying homes across the islands, with hundreds feared dead. Images from Mayotte, which like other French overseas territories is an integral part of France and ruled from Paris, showed scenes of devastation, with homes reduced to piles of rubble. The crisis, which erupted at the weekend the day after President Emmanuel Macron appointed Francois Bayrou as the sixth prime minister of his mandate, poses a major challenge for a government still only operating in a caretaker capacity. The cyclone has left health services in tatters, with the hospital extremely damaged and health centers knocked out of operation, Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq told France 2. “The hospital has suffered major water damage and destruction, notably in the surgical, intensive care, maternity and emergency units,” she said, adding that “medical centres were also non-operational”. Macron was due to chair a crisis meeting in Paris, the Elysee said. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, whose super ministry is responsible for Mayotte, arrived on the island. Cyclone Chido caused major damage to Mayotte’s airport and cut off electricity, water and communication links when it barreled down Saturday on France’s poorest territory. Asked about the eventual death toll, Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville, the top Paris-appointed official on the territory, told broadcaster Mayotte la Premiere “I think there will definitely be several hundred, perhaps we will come close to a thousand or even several thousand.” With roads closed, officials fear that many could still be trapped under rubble in the inaccessible areas. The mayor of Mayotte’s capital Mamoudzou, Ambdilwahedou Soumaila, told AFP the storm “spared nothing”. “The hospital is hit. The schools are hit. Houses are totally devastated,” he said. Some 160 additional soldiers and firefighters arrived, to reinforce the 110 already deployed. The nearby French island of La Reunion was serving as a hub for the rescue operations.  ‘Apocalyptic scenes’ Chido was packing winds of at least 226 kilometers per hour when it slammed into Mayotte, which lies to the east of Mozambique. At least a third of the territory’s 320,000 residents live in shantytowns, where homes with sheet-metal roofs were flattened by the storm. One resident, Ibrahim, told AFP of “apocalyptic scenes” as he made his way through the main island, having to clear blocked roads himself. As authorities assessed the … “Race against time for rescuers as hundreds feared dead in Mayotte” →

Norway announced Monday $242 million in new military aid for Ukraine, including help securing access to the country’s vital Black Sea ports. “It is essential to protect the Ukrainian population and Ukrainian infrastructure from attacks by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement.  “It is also important to protect exports by sea of grain and other products, which generate crucial revenues for Ukraine.” The aid includes funding for training Ukrainian soldiers as well as mine clearance operations. Norway’s Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram said mines are a “significant threat” in the Black Sea and that the aid will help Ukrainian forces detect and defuse mines near the coast. Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down 27 of the 49 drones that Russian forces deployed in overnight attacks. The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions, the Ukrainian air force said. Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said debris from a destroyed drone damaged power lines, but caused no casualties. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday its forces destroyed three Ukrainian aerial drones over the Kursk region. Some information for this story was provided by Reuters …

Moscow — Two Russian tankers that spilled oil into the Kerch Strait after sustaining serious damage during a heavy storm on Sunday were carrying 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of oil products at the time, the state TASS news agency reported. How much of the fuel leaked is being determined, TASS said. It said the Volgoneft 212 was carrying roughly 4,900 tons of fuel oil at the time, and the Volgoneft 239 held 4,300 tons. Russia’s emergencies ministry said on Monday that all 14 crew members from the Volgoneft 239 had been rescued. The vessel ran aground 80 meters from the shore near the port of Taman. The Kerch Strait, which separates mainland Russia from Moscow-annexed Crimea, is a key route for exports of Russian grain and fuel products. The spill has the potential to be one of the largest environmental disasters to affect the region in recent years. On Sunday, one crew member was killed after the Volgoneft 212 split in half with its bow sinking. Eleven others were taken to a local hospital. President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered the government to set up a working group to deal with the rescue operation and mitigate the impact of the spill, Russian news agencies cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. …

VIENNA — Three years ago, Andrea Vanek was studying to be an arts and crafts teacher when spells of dizziness and heart palpitations suddenly started to make it impossible for her to even take short walks. After seeing a succession of doctors she was diagnosed with long COVID and even now spends most of her days in the small living room of her third-floor Vienna apartment, sitting on the windowsill to observe the world outside. “I can’t plan anything because I just don’t know how long this illness will last,” the 33-year-old Austrian told AFP. The first cases of COVID-19 were detected in China in December 2019, sparking a global pandemic and more than seven million reported deaths to date, according to the World Health Organization. But millions more have been affected by long COVID, in which some people struggle to recover from the acute phase of COVID-19, suffering symptoms including tiredness, brain fog and shortness of breath. Vanek tries to be careful not to exert herself to avoid another “crash”, which for her is marked by debilitating muscle weakness and can last for months, making it hard to even open a bottle of water. “We know that long COVID is a big problem,” said Anita Jain, from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme. About six percent of people infected by coronavirus develop long COVID, according to the global health body, which has recorded some 777 million COVID cases to date. Whereas the rates of long COVID after an initial infection are declining, reinfection increases the risk, Jain added. ‘Everything hurts’ Chantal Britt, who lives in Bern, Switzerland, contracted COVID in March 2020. Long COVID, she said, has turned her “life upside down” and forced her to “reinvent” herself.  “I was really an early bird…. Now I take two hours to get up in the morning at least because everything hurts,” the 56-year-old former marathon runner explained. “I’m not even hoping anymore that I’m well in the morning but I’m still kind of surprised how old and how broken I feel.” About 15 percent of those who have long COVID have persistent symptoms for more than one year, according to the WHO, while women tend to have a higher risk than men of developing the condition. Britt, who says she used to be a “workaholic”, now works part-time as a university researcher on long COVID and other topics.  She lost her job in … “Five years on from the pandemic, long COVID keeps lives on hold” →

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed over 30 people including several children.  The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state.  The Irish Cabinet last week decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies it.  “We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” Ireland’s deputy premier and foreign affairs minister, Micheal Martin, said in a statement.  Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s statement on the embassy closure said that “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”  Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the decision to close the embassy “deeply regrettable.” He added on X: “I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”  Israeli strikes in Gaza kill a journalist and children  Israeli forces continued Sunday to pound largely isolated northern Gaza, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.  One airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital where casualties were taken. The dead included two parents and their daughter and a father and his son, the hospital said.  In Gaza City, at least 17 people including six women and five children were killed in three airstrikes that hit houses sheltering displaced people, according to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.  “We woke up to the strike. I woke up with the rubble on top of me,” said a bandaged Yahia al-Yazji, who grieved for his wife and daughter. “I found my wife with her head and skull visible, and my daughter’s intestines were gone. My wife was three months pregnant.” His hand rested on a body wrapped in a blanket on the floor.  Israel’s military in a statement said it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun … “Israel will close its Ireland embassy over Gaza tensions” →