Given their ubiquity — and the enjoyment many people get from seeing and cataloging them — birds offer something that sets them apart from other creatures: an abundance of data. Birds are active year-round, they come in many shapes and colors, and they are relatively simple to identify and appealing to observe. Every year around the world, amateur birdwatchers record millions of sightings in databases that are available for analysis.

All that monitoring has revealed some sobering trends. Over the last 50 years, North America has lost a third of its birds, studies suggest, and most bird species are in decline. Because birds are indicators of environmental integrity and of how other, less scrutinized species are doing, data like these should be a call to action, says Peter Marra, a conservation biologist and dean of Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Institute. “If our birds are disappearing, then we’re cutting the legs off beneath us,” he says. “We’re destroying the environment that we depend on.”

It’s not all bad news for birds: Some species are increasing in number, data show, and dozens have been saved from extinction. Understanding both the steep declines and the success stories, experts say, could help to inform efforts to protect birds as well as other species.

The bad news

On his daily walks at dawn along a trail that snakes by several reservoirs near his home in central England, Alexander Lees typically sees a variety of common waterfowl: Canada geese, mallards, an occasional goosander, a type of diving duck. Every once in a while, he spots something rare: a northern gannet, a kittiwake, or a black tern. Lees, a conservation biologist at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, records each sighting in eBird, an online checklist and growing, global bird database.

Lees studies birds for a living, but the vast majority of those who track the world’s 11,000 or so bird species, either on their own or as part of organized events, do not. Hundreds of thousands of them participate each year in the Great Backyard Bird Count, launched by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society in 1998: For four days each February, people tally their sightings and the data are entered into eBird or a related identification app for beginners called Merlin.

The North American Breeding Bird Survey, organized by the US Geological Survey and Environment Canada, has enlisted thousands of participants to observe birds along roadsides each June since 1966. Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900, encourages people to join a one-day bird tally scheduled in a three-week window during the holiday season. There are shorebird censuses and waterfowl surveys, all powered by citizen scientists.

This wealth of longitudinal recordings started to turn up signs of distress as far back as 1989, Marra says, when researchers analyzed data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey and concluded that declines were occurring among most of the species that breed in forests of the eastern United States and Canada, then migrate to the tropics.

Thirty years later, Marra and colleagues reassessed the situation using multiple bird-monitoring datasets from North America along with data on nocturnal bird migrations from weather radars. They found stunning losses. Since 1970, the team reported in Science in 2019, the number of birds in North America has declined by nearly 3 billion: a 29 percent loss of abundance. The paper used several methods for estimating changes in population sizes, Marra says, and “they all told us the same thing, which was that we’re watching the process of extinction happen.”

More than half of the 529 bird species assessed by the study have declined, the team reported, with the steepest drops in grassland birds, which have suffered from habitat loss and our use of pesticides. Declines are widespread among many common and abundant species that play important roles in food webs, Marra adds.

And it’s not just North America. In the European Union, a 2021 study of 378 species estimated that bird numbers fell by as much as 19 percent from 1980 to 2017. Data are scarcer on other continents, but reports are starting to chronicle concerns elsewhere, too. At least half of the birds that depend on South Africa’s forests have experienced shrinking ranges (with population trends yet to be assessed).

In Costa Rica’s agricultural areas, an assessment of 112 bird populations found more are declining than are increasing or remaining stable, according to a 12-year study of coffee plantations and forest fragments that was published in 2019. Meanwhile, at 55 sites in the Amazon, 11 percent of surveyed insect-eating birds have experienced shrinking ranks, some of them dramatically, over more than 35 years of tracking. Of 79 species on which there were enough data to compare historical and recent numbers in primary forests, eight have dwindled by at least 50 percent.

And in India, using citizen science data from eBird, a 2020 report estimated shrinking numbers in 80 percent of the 146 species examined — nearly half with declines of more than 50 percent. Overall, 13 percent of birds worldwide are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, a comprehensive source of information on the extinction risk of the world’s plant, animal and fungus species.

Recently, Lees and colleagues pulled together all the data they could find on the state of the world’s birds, publishing in the 2022 Annual Review of Environment and Resources. It was an attempt to, for the first time, synthesize research from across the world to create a comprehensive picture of global changes in bird abundance. “Looking across all taxa, there are big signals for declines everywhere,” Lees says. “There are some species that are increasing, but more species are declining than are increasing. In our attempts to halt the loss of global bird biodiversity, we’re currently not succeeding.”

Silver linings

Even as they reveal a downward slide, bird surveys offer some hopeful signs. Wetland species in North America have grown by 13 percent since 1970, according to the 2019 Science study, led by a 56 percent rise in waterfowl numbers. The paper credits billions of dollars allocated to the protection and restoration of wetlands, often for the sake of hunting. In India, 14 percent of assessed bird species have been growing in abundance. Those successes, scientists say, show that it is possible to reverse population declines.

There are plenty of examples of birds that have been saved from extinction by people, adds Philip McGowan, a conservation scientist at Newcastle University in the UK. To assess the impacts of conservation actions, he and colleagues made a list of bird and mammal species that were listed as endangered or extinct in the wild on the IUCN Red List at any point since 1993.

For each species, they collected as much information as they could about population trends, pressures driving the species to extinction, and key decisions or actions taken to protect them. Over daylong Zoom calls, small groups of researchers hashed out the details before everyone assigned each species a score indicating how confident they were that conservation actions had influenced the species’ status.

For some birds, the researchers were able to definitively link conservation efforts with species survival. The Spix’s macaw, for example, has continued to exist only because it has been kept in captivity. And the California condor clearly benefited from the ban of lead ammunition, as well as captive breeding programs and reintroductions, among other measures.

But for other species, there was less certainty. The red-billed curassow of eastern Brazil, for one, faces threats of habitat fragmentation and hunting. Protected areas intended to safeguard it aren’t always well enforced, making it probable but less clear that conservation has helped the species.

Overall, the researchers reported in 2020, as many as 48 species of birds and mammals were saved from extinction between 1993 and 2020 (McGowan says that is likely to be an underestimate). The number of extinctions, the calculations showed, would have been three or four times higher or more without human intervention.

Those findings should offer hope and motivation to help more species, McGowan says. “If we look at what has worked, we know that we can avoid extinctions,” he says. “We just need to scale that up.”

Forging ahead

In 2020, the year after Marra and colleagues reported a loss of nearly a third of North American birds, they partnered with several conservation groups to launch the Road to Recovery Initiative. The project has identified 104 species of birds in the United States and Canada that need immediate help and, of those, 30 that are highly vulnerable to extinction because of extremely small population sizes or precipitous declines.

For each species, Marra says, it will be important to learn what’s behind their shrinking populations. Currently, he says, “we’re not approaching conservation from a species perspective. And people are nervous about doing that … they view it as being just too difficult. But I maintain that we can figure it out, just like we’ve done with … all the species that almost disappeared because of DDT. We have the power and the understanding with new science and with new quantitative skills to identify the causes of decline and to figure out how we can eliminate those.”

It will take political will to set aside resources and enact widescale changes, such as reducing chemical use on farms, Lees says. Saving more birds, he adds, would ideally entail focusing as much energy on woodlands and agricultural areas as governments have allocated to wetlands, as well as implementing conservation measures well before the point where a species is about to disappear. “What we’re not succeeding at doing,” he says, “is stopping lots of species from getting rarer.”

Policies need to acknowledge the interests of local communities, adds McGowan. That’s a key focus of a new international agreement that was forged at the end of 2022 when representatives from 188 governments met in Montreal for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and adopted a set of measures to stop biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect Indigenous rights.

Involving local people can benefit biodiversity while respecting communities, McGowan says. In South America, for example, the yellow-eared parrot nearly went extinct, in part because people decimated palm groves, which are prime nesting habitats for the birds, to use the fronds in Palm Sunday processions. Successful conservation actions have included a community outreach campaign that encouraged people to stop cutting down wax palms and cease hunting the parrots. In 2003, the head of Colombia’s Catholic church halted a 200-year-old Palm Sunday tradition involving wax palms, and parrot numbers have since increased. “Working with local people meant that threat could be reduced,” McGowan says. Conservation, he says, should target the species that need action most urgently while ensuring that local people are not disenfranchised.

Better population estimates would help to inform conservation efforts, says Corey Callaghan, a global ecologist at the University of Florida in Davie. As it stands, wide margins of error are a problem, in part because estimating abundance is challenging and the sampling data are full of biases. Large birds are overrepresented in some types of citizen science data, Callaghan found in a 2021 study. And since contributors to the North American Breeding Bird Survey stand on the sides of roads in the daytime, Marra says, they miss nocturnal birds, marshland birds and birds that live in untouched landscapes.

Understanding and accounting for these biases could lead to better estimates, says Callaghan. In one example of how far-off counts can be, total estimates of shorebirds called Asian dowitchers ranged from 14,000 to 23,000 — until a survey in 2019 tallied more than 22,000 of the birds on a single wetland in eastern China. Researchers can’t assess changes if they don’t have accurate baseline estimates, says Callaghan. To that end, he argues for more open sharing of databases and more integration of observations collected by researchers and citizen scientists. “If we want to preserve what we have around us,” he says, “we need to understand how much there is and how much we’re losing.”

As more data emerge, researchers urge optimism. “It’s really important not to have a doomsayer sort of position,” Lees says. Conservation has saved very rare species from extinction, he notes and reversed declines in once-common species.

“Conservation,” he says, “does work.”

The post A shocking number of birds are in trouble appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Here are all the latest updates:

(11:47 GMT)

Navalny calls for anti-war protests across Russia on Sunday

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny has called for anti-war protests to be held in Russia’s capital, Moscow, and other cities across the country on Sunday.

“Mad maniac [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will most quickly be stopped by the people of Russia now if they oppose the war,” a message on Navalny’s Instagram account said.

“You need to go to anti-war rallies every weekend, even if it seems that everyone has either left or got scared…You are the backbone of the movement against war and death,” it added.

More than 13,900 people have been arrested for taking part in a string of anti-war demonstrations held in dozens of cities throughout Russia since it began its offensive, according to protest monitoring group OVD-Info.

(11:46 GMT)

Putin sees “certain positive shifts” in talks with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there has been some progress in Moscow’s talks with Ukraine, without providing details.

“There are certain positive shifts, negotiators on our side tell me,” Putin said in a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, adding that talks continued “practically on a daily basis”.

Putin did not elaborate further, but said in the televised remarks that he would go into more detail with Lukashenko.

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia have met for three rounds of talks so far, while the two countries’ top diplomats met for face-to-face talks in Turkey on Thursday.

(11:38 GMT)

No real Russians ashamed of Ukraine conflict, Kremlin claims

Russians who say they are ashamed of the country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine are not real Russians, the Kremlin has said.

“A real Russian is never ashamed to be Russian,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a news briefing when asked about a slogan – ‘ashamed to be Russian’ – that emerged in the wake of Moscow’s incursion in Ukraine.

“If someone says such things then they are just not Russian,” Peskov said.

(11:33 GMT)

Finland mulls joining NATO as Russia wages war in Ukraine

As the war in Ukraine rages on, another country with a storied history and long border with Russia is growing concerned.

(11:28 GMT)

UK sanctions Russian lawmakers over recognition of Ukraine’s breakaway regions

The United Kingdom has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 386 members of the Russian Duma who voted in favour of recognising the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion.

“Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has today sanctioned 386 members of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, for their support for the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk,” the UK’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The new sanctions will ban those listed from travelling to the UK, accessing assets held within the UK and doing business here.”

(11:16 GMT)

NATO chief says humanitarian corridors a ‘bare minimum’ need

NATO’s secretary-general has said establishing humanitarian corridors in Ukraine is the “bare minimum” that must be done now as Russia’s offensive intensifies.

“I continue to believe it is important that we work hard for a political, diplomatic solution,” Stoltenberg told the Reuters news agency on the sidelines of the  a diplomacy forum in Antalya, Turkey, a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba held talks in the city.

“[But] the bare minimum is to establish humanitarian corridors where people can get out and humanitarian aid can get in,” he added.

Stoltenberg also reiterated that NATO will not send troops or jets into Ukraine amid fears such a move could lead to a full-fledged war between the alliance’s 30 member states and Russia.

(Al Jazeera)

(11:01 GMT)

UN rights office has ‘credible reports’ of Russia using cluster munitions

The UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) says it has received “credible reports” of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine, adding that indiscriminate use of such weapons might amount to war crimes.

“Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities,” OHCHR spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

“We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”

(10:50 GMT)

No casualties in eastern Ukraine psychiatric hospital strike, emergency service says

An alleged Russian air raid on a psychiatric hospital in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region has caused no casualties, according to the country’s State Emergency Service.

“All 30 staff and 330 patients were in a bomb shelter at the time of the strike,” the service said in a statement.

(10:47 GMT)

Kremlin warns Meta will have to cease work in Russia if Reuters report is true

Moscow will end the activities of Meta Platforms in Russia if a report that it will allow users of its social media sites in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers proves true, the Kremlin has said.

Citing leaked internal emails, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that Meta will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, signalling a temporary change to its hate speech policy.

“We don’t want to believe the Reuters report – it is just too difficult to believe,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“We hope it is not true because if it is true then it will mean that there will have to be the most decisive measures to end the activities of this company,” he added.

Meta is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram 
[File: Dado Ruvic/Reuters]

(10:32 GMT)

What do we know about Ukraine’s use of Turkish Bayraktar drones?

Ankara, which has good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, has sold dozens of its combat drones to Ukraine since 2019.

(10:17 GMT)

Capture of Volnovakha will ‘increase pressure’ on Mariupol: AJE correspondent

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Moscow, says Russian-backed separatists’ reported seizure of the southeastern city of Volnovakha is of significant strategic importance.

Volnovakha, he said, sits halfway between Donetsk and Mariupol and its capture would give rebel forces a straight line to Mariupol, allowing them to “increase the already intense pressure on … [the] port city”.

(10:14 GMT)

Izyum psychiatric hospital hit by Russian strike, regional governor says

Russian forces have struck a psychiatric hospital near the eastern Ukrainian town of Izyum, according to a regional official who described the alleged attack as a “war crime”.

Oleh Synegubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said 330 people had been at the hospital at the time of the attack. He added that 73 people had been evacuated and that the number of casualties was being established.

“This is a war crime against civilians,” Synegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify Synegubov’s claim.

(10:00 GMT)

Kharkiv mayor says city under ‘non-stop bombardment’

The mayor of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv says it is under “non-stop bombardment” from Russian forces.

Ihor Terekhov said in a televised interview that at least 48 of Kharkiv’s schools had been destroyed amid the attacks.

Terekhov’s remarks came as Synegubov claimed Russian forces had shelled residential areas of the city – Ukraine’s second-largest – 89 times in one day.

It was not immediately clear which day Synegubov was referring to.

(09:58 GMT)

State nuclear company says Ukrainian plants stable

All of Ukraine’s nuclear power stations are operating stably and radiation levels at the sites remain unchanged, the country’s state operator has said.

But Energoatom warned staff at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which was captured by Russian troops last week, are now facing psychological pressure from Moscow’s forces which negatively affects their work and “endangers nuclear and radiation safety”.

“Employees of the station are under strong psychological pressure from the occupiers, all staff on arrival at the station are carefully checked by armed terrorists,” the company said.

(09:42 GMT)

Two Ukrainian servicemen killed in Lutsk airfield strike, local official says

Russian air raids on an airfield in Lutsk airfield killed two Ukrainian servicemen and wounded six other people, the head of the surrounding Volyn region, Yuriy Pohulyayko, has said.

Pohulyayko said on the Telegram messaging app that four rockets had been fired at the site by a Russian bomber at about 5:45am local time (03:45 GMT).

(09:38 GMT)

European Commission aims to double military aid for Ukraine, Borrell says

The European Union’s executive arm aims to double the bloc’s military aid to Ukraine and has proposed earmarking another 500 million euros ($550m) for this purpose, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.

“Everybody was completely aware that we have to increase our military support to Ukraine,” Josep Borrell told reporters as he arrived for the second day of a meeting of EU leaders in Versailles. “I am sure the leaders will approve this money.”

The EU is also considering imposing more sanctions on Russian oligarchs and the Russian economy, Borrell added.

(09:29 GMT)

‘What are you doing here?’: Ukrainians recount Russian occupation

As Russian forces push closer to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Al Jazeera has spoken to civilians forced to flee their homes in the nearby city of Bucha.

(09:18 GMT)

More than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine, UN says

More than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, according to the UN’s migration agency.

“The number of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance is increasing by the hour,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) tweeted.

Separately, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least 1.85 million people were displaced within Ukraine.

(09:15 GMT)

Dnipro attack ‘to have ripple effect’

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid said the aerial attack on Dnipro took place at about 6:15am local time (04:15 GMT), targeting an industrial complex in Ukraine’s third-largest city.

Reporting from near the site, she said police had blocked access to it as a search for unexploded ordnance was ongoing.

“We do know that a heavy machinery factory was hit, along with what was described as a coal-enhancing factory and a third location next to the kindergarten,” Abdel-Hamid added.

“This is the first time this city is targeted since the beginning of the war. Many people were expecting this to happen, saying it was not a matter of if but when,” she said, noting that the attack was “certainly going to have a ripple effect on the people living here.”

(09:07 GMT)

Where are the Russian forces near Kyiv now?

A huge Russian military convoy that had been stationed outside Kyiv since last week appears to have dispersed, according to a United States-based company, as the city braces for a possible ground assault.

Maxar Technologies said satellite images taken on Thursday showed that the 64km (40-mile) line of vehicles, tanks and artillery has broken up and been redeployed.

The assessment came as a senior US defence official said on Thursday that Russian forces advancing on Kyiv from the northwest had edged 5km (three miles) closer to the city in the previous 24 hours, placing them just 15km (nine miles) from its centre.

A separate tranche of troops advancing on the capital from the northeast were meanwhile about 40km (25 miles) from the city, the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, added at a Pentagon news briefing.

The official said the “multiple lines of advance towards Kyiv” indicate Moscow aims to encircle the city.

Some Russian vehicles have moved into forests amid Moscow’s apparent redeployment of its forces near
 Kyiv, Maxar reported [Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]

(08:51 GMT)

Putin says Russia must welcome volunteer fighters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia must allow volunteers who are willing to fight in Ukraine to take part in Moscow’s offensive.

Speaking to the Russian security council, Putin said he also supported giving arms captured from Ukrainian forces to Russian-backed separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told the meeting there were 16,000 volunteers – mostly from the Middle East – who were ready to head to Ukraine to fight alongside the rebel forces in the self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.

(08:27 GMT)

Ukraine civilian deaths higher than military losses, defence minister says

Ukraine’s defence minister says Russian forces have killed more Ukrainian civilians than soldiers.

“I want this to be heard not only in Kyiv but all over the world,” Oleksii Reznikov said.

He did not provide death tolls. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify Reznikov’s claims, or the number of losses on the Russian side.

(08:21 GMT)

Attacks target cities across Ukraine: AJE Correspondent

Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, says Russian attacks have taken place in major urban centres across Ukraine.

“In Kharkiv, to the east … the institute of physics and technology was narrowly missed by air strikes – it houses an experimental nuclear reactor,” Hull said.

“In Chernihiv, in the north, critical infrastructure came under attack … a water pipeline was said to have been hit there and in Lutsk, to the northeast of Kyiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk, pretty close to where I am here … military airfields have been struck by air strikes as part of an ongoing effort by the Russians to impede the ability of Ukraine’s air force and air defences to operate,” he added.

(07:50 GMT)

Russian gas flows on key pipelines to Europe remain steady

Russia continued to send pipeline gas into Germany via Nord Stream 1 and Poland and into Slovakia via Ukraine at broadly unchanged levels, pipeline operator data has shown.

The pipeline usually accounts for about 15 percent of Russia’s supply of gas to Europe but had been operating in reverse mode at Mallnow from December 21, which helped drive up European gas prices.

(07:47 GMT)

UK’s Sunak says Ukraine invasion creating ‘significant uncertainty’

The UK’s economy faces significant uncertainty due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UK finance minister Rishi Sunak has said after the release of stronger-than-expected growth data for January.

“We know that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is creating significant economic uncertainty and we will continue to monitor its impact on the UK, but it is vital that we stand with the people of Ukraine to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy and ensure Putin fails,” Sunak said.

Sunak is due to give a half-yearly update of economic growth and borrowing forecasts on March 23.

(07:38 GMT)

Board of steelmaker Evraz quits after Abramovich sanction

Russian steelmaker Evraz has said that 10 members of its board had quit following the British sanction of largest shareholder Roman Abramovich and the suspension of its shares, with only the chief executive remaining.

It said it is waiting for further clarifications from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.

(07:30 GMT)

Potential buyers for Chelsea can approach UK government: Minister

Anyone interested in buying Chelsea Football Club can approach the British government and make a proposal, the government has said after it sanctioned current owner Roman Abramovich.

“As the license conditions are written today, the sale would not be allowed. However, if a buyer emerged it would be open to that buyer or to that football club to approach the government and ask for the conditions to be varied in a way that allows that sale to take place,” the UK’s technology minister Chris Philp told Sky News.

(07:19 GMT)

Air raid sirens west of Kyiv

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Kyiv, says air raid sirens have been going off from what it was believed to be the west of the capital.

“We did hear that early in the morning there were some strikes in the west of the city.”

(07:18 GMT)

Ukraine hopes ‘humanitarian corridor’ from Mariupol will open on Friday: Deputy PM

Ukraine hopes a humanitarian corridor will be opened successfully for civilians to leave the besieged southern port city of Mariupol on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

Residents have been cowering under fire, and without power or water, in the city of over 400,000 people for more than a week and attempts to arrange a local ceasefire and safe passage out have failed repeatedly.

(06:54 GMT)

Russia to lose ‘most favoured nation status’ over Ukraine: Sources

The US, together with the Group of Seven nations and the EU, will move to revoke Russia’s “most favoured nation” status, multiple people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Stripping Russia of its favoured nation status paves the way for the US and its allies to impose tariffs on a wide range of Russian goods, which would ratchet up pressure on an economy already heading into a recession.

(06:49 GMT)

Ukraine says it will no longer buy Russian nuclear fuel

Ukrainian state nuclear power firm Energoatom will no longer buy Russian nuclear fuel, the company has said.

Ukraine operates Soviet-era nuclear reactors, importing its fuel from Russia and the US.

(06:38 GMT)

VP Harris heads to Romania

US Vice President Kamala Harris will head to Romania and discuss the growing refugee crisis in the region.

Harris will meet President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest, her second stop on a three-day trip through eastern Europe.

She met Polish leaders and Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw on Thursday and offered US support to calls for an international war crimes investigation against Russia.

(06:20 GMT)

Hungary PM Orban says EU will not sanction Russian gas or oil

The EU will not impose sanctions on Russian gas or oil, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said in a video posted on his Facebook page, amid a summit of EU leaders in France.

“The most important issue for us has been settled in a favourable way: there won’t be sanctions that would apply to gas or oil, so Hungary’s energy supply is secure in the upcoming period,” Orban added.

(06:19 GMT)

Russia says military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk taken out: Reports

Russian troops have launched a high-precision, long-range attack on two military airfields in the Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk and have taken them out of action, Russian news agencies have quoted Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying.

The mayor of Ivano-Frankiivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, ordered residents in the neighbouring areas to head to shelters after an air raid alert. The mayor of Lutsk also announced an air raid near the airport.

The strikes were far to the west from the main Russian offensive.

(06:17 GMT)

About 222,000 evacuated to Russia from Ukraine: TASS

About 222,000 people have been evacuated to Russia from Ukraine and its two Russian-backed rebel regions, the TASS news agency has said, citing an unidentified source.

(06:14 GMT)

Russian-backed separatists capture Ukraine’s Volnovakha: RIA

Russian-backed separatists have captured the Ukrainian city of  Volnovakha north of the besieged Azov Sea port of Mariupol, the RIA news agency has quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying.

Volnovakha is strategically important as the northern gateway to Mariupol.

(06:12 GMT)

Air strikes in Ukraine’s Dnipro kill one: Emergency services

Three air strikes in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro have killed at least one person, state emergency services have said, in what appeared to be the first direct attack on the city.

“There were three air strikes on the city, namely hitting a kindergarten, an apartment building and a two-story shoe factory, starting a fire. One person died,” the emergency services said in a statement.

Firefighters work next to a heavily damaged building following an airstrike in Dnipro, Ukraine [State Emergency
 Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters]

(04:04 GMT)

Russia demands that US stop Meta’s ‘extremist activities’

Russia’s embassy in the United States has demanded that Washington stop the “extremist activities” of Facebook owner Meta Platforms, which has temporarily lifted a ban on calls for violence against the Russian military and leadership.

“Meta’s aggressive and criminal policy leading to incitement of hatred and hostility towards Russians is outrageous,” the Russian embassy said in a statement. “The company’s actions are yet another evidence of the information war without rules declared on our country.”

The embassy said it wanted the US authorities to “stop the extremist activities of Meta and take measures to bring the perpetrators to justice”.

(03:51 GMT)

Biden looks forward to signing US spending bill, White House says

The White House has welcomed the Senate’s passage of legislation providing $1.5 trillion to keep the federal government operating beyond this week and $13.6bn to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

“The bipartisan funding bill proves once more that members of both parties can come together to deliver results for the American people,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “It will reduce costs for families and businesses, support our economic recovery, and advance American leadership abroad.”

She said President Joe Biden looked forward to signing the legislation, and its “historic support for the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and democracy”.

(03:48 GMT)

Kazakh airline suspends flights to Russia over insurance issues

Kazakhstan’s flagship carrier, Air Astana, has suspended all flights to Russia and over Russian territory because such flights can no longer be insured, the company has said.

Air Astana, in which Britain’s BAE Systems owns a 49 percent stake, said it was working with the government of Kazakhstan, Russia’s neighbour and close ally, on resolving the issue.

(03:45 GMT)

US Congress passes budget including $14bn for Ukraine

The US Congress has passed a huge omnibus 2022 spending bill including almost $14bn in humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.

Lawmakers had been facing the latest in a series of shutdown showdowns, with government funding due to expire at midnight on Friday into Saturday, meaning thousands of workers would have been sent home without pay.

With the deadline fast approaching, senators in the legislative body’s upper chamber followed their House of Representatives colleagues, who approved the $1.5 trillion package on Wednesday.

(03:11 GMT)

Biden to call for an end of normal trade relations with Russia

US President Joe Biden on Friday will call for an end of normal trade relations with Russia and clear the way for increased tariffs on Russian imports, a source familiar with the situation has told Reuters news agency.

(02:58 GMT)

China Premier calls Ukraine situation ‘disconcerting’

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has said the Ukraine situation was “disconcerting” and that it is important to support Russia and Ukraine in ceasefire talks.

Speaking at a news conference at the close of an annual parliamentary session, Li did not directly answer Reuters’ news agency questions about whether China will refrain from condemning Russia no matter what that country does, or whether China is prepared to provide further economic and financial support for Russia as it faces sanctions.

(02:49 GMT)

WHO says it advised Ukraine to destroy pathogens in health labs to prevent disease spread

The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country’s public health laboratories to prevent “any potential spills” that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters news agency.

In response to questions from Reuters about its work with Ukraine ahead of and during Russia’s invasion, the WHO said in an email that it has collaborated with Ukrainian public health labs for several years to promote security practices that help prevent “accidental or deliberate release of pathogens”.

“As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills,” the WHO, a UN agency, said.

(00:52 GMT)

Besieged city of Mariupol enduring bombardment ‘every 30 minutes’

Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko has said 400,000 people were trapped in the port city which had gone through “two days of hell”.

“Every 30 minutes planes arrived over the city of Mariupol and worked on residential areas, killing civilians – the elderly, women, children,” he said in an online post.

Petro Andrushenko, an adviser to the mayor, said the Russians wanted to “delete our people”.

“They want to stop any evacuation,” he said.

(00:36 GMT)

Satellite photos show break-up of Russian convoy outside Kyiv

Satellite photos have shown that a massive Russian convoy that had been mired outside the Ukrainian capital since last week appeared to have dispersed.

Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed the 64-kilometre (40-mile) line of vehicles, tanks and artillery has broken up and been redeployed, with armoured units seen in towns near the Antonov airport north of the city. Some of the vehicles have moved into forests, Maxar reported.

The convoy had massed outside the city early last week, but its advance appeared to have stalled amid reports of food and fuel shortages. US officials said Ukrainian troops also targeted the convoy with anti-tank missiles.

A satellite image shows troops and equipment deployed amid Russia’s continuing invasion of Ukraine in Ozera, 
northeast of Antonov airport, Ukraine [Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]

(00:27 GMT)

Moscow to open humanitarian corridors from five Ukrainian cities

The Russian defence ministry will declare a ceasefire on Friday and open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of Ukrainians from five cities, the RIA and Interfax news agencies have reported.

The agencies quoted Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre, as saying people could either travel to Russia or other cities in Ukraine.

“From 10:00am Moscow time [07:00 GMT] on March 11, 2022, the Russian Federation will declare a ‘regime of silence’ and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors,” Interfax said, citing a statement from Mizintsev.

The five cities are Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv. So far, no civilians have been able to leave the besieged port city of Mariupol.

(00:14 GMT)

Ukraine says more than 280 schools attacked since start of invasion

Ukraine’s minister of education has said more than 280 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed by “bombing and shelling”.

“The enemy ruthlessly destroys kindergartens, schools, vocational schools, colleges, universities,” Serhiy Shkarlet said. “But the most brutal and painful losses are hundreds of lives lost at the hands of the aggressor.”

(23:54 GMT)

Situation in besieged city of Mariupol ‘a total horror’

Maria Moskaleno, who managed to get out of the besieged city of Mariupol last week, says her parents remain trapped there.

“It’s a total horror, it’s a humanitarian catastrophe,” Moskaleno told Al Jazeera. “They don’t know, will they have food till the end of the blockade.”

According to Moskaleno, her parents have been cooking food “on the streets”, with branches of wood from surrounding trees.

“It’s a disaster, it’s really scary … Russians are constantly bombing … constantly, rockets are flying around them, they’re really scared, they just don’t have hope of salvation,” she added.

(23:29 GMT)

UN Security Council to convene at Russia’s request

The United Nations Security Council will convene on Friday at Russia’s request, diplomats have said, to discuss Moscow’s claims, presented without evidence, of US biological activities in Ukraine.

The United States has dismissed Russian claims as “laughable”, warning Moscow may be preparing to use chemical or biological weapons.

(23:11 GMT)

Ukraine says civilians unable to leave Mariupol; Zelenskyy blames Russian ‘terror’

Not a single civilian was able to leave the encircled Ukrainian city of Mariupol as Russian forces failed to respect a temporary ceasefire to allow evacuations, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

Meanwhile, efforts to send food, water and medicine into the city failed when Russian tanks attacked a humanitarian corridor, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“This is outright terror … from experienced terrorists,” he said. “The world needs to know this. I have to admit it – we are all dealing with a terrorist state.”

(22:28 GMT)

Top US aid official hails ‘solidarity’ of Ukraine’s neighbours

The head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has praised countries neighbouring Ukraine for their “solidarity and generosity” in welcoming more than two million refugees amid the war.

“The unity of these frontline states — Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Poland & Hungary — has taken Putin by surprise,” Samantha Power said on Twitter.

(22:05 GMT)

Russian forces shell Ukraine institute that has experimental reactor, parliament says

Russian forces shelled an institute in the city of Kharkiv that is home to an experimental nuclear reactor and a neighbouring hostel is on fire, the Ukrainian parliament has said.

In a tweet, the parliament’s official website said fighting close to the Institute of Physics and Technology was continuing.

(22:03 GMT)

Ukraine banking leader calls for stiffer financial sanctions on Russia

Valeria Gontareva, a former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, says seized Russian assets should be used to help rebuild Ukraine.

The sanctions imposed by Western nations against Moscow are having “seismic negative affects to the Russian economy”, Gontareva told Al Jazeera.

She said that is not enough, however, because revenue from Russian oil and gas sales will be sufficient to continue financing the continuing war.

(21:58 GMT)

UN and partners boost presence and aid supplies inside Ukraine

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said humanitarian organisations are “deploying additional staff across Ukraine and are working to move supplies to warehouses in different hubs” within the country and outside.

He added that an estimated 1.9 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced, while more than 2.3 million have now crossed the western border in search of safety.

Dujarric also said the World Food Programme was “deeply concerned about the impact of conflict on Ukraine’s food security and the waning ability of families in embattled areas, to feed themselves”.

(21:45 GMT)

US urges Russia to allow civilians to safely depart Ukrainian cities

Washington has urged Moscow to allow civilians to safely depart Ukrainian cities and towns besieged by Russian troops, saying the forces now encircle multiple cities after having destroyed much of the critical infrastructure.

“Putin’s military plan to quickly capture Ukraine, it is clear now, has failed. So he’s now turning to a strategy of laying waste to population centres to try to break the will of the people of Ukraine, something he will not be able to do,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

(21:28 GMT)

Ukraine tells IAEA it has lost all contact with Chernobyl after power cut

Ukraine has told the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that it has lost all contact with the radioactive waste facilities at Chernobyl next to the defunct power plant, which is now held by Russian forces.

“Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] that it had lost today all communications with the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant [NPP], the day after the Russian-controlled site lost all external power supplies,” the IAEA said in a statement, adding that before, there was contact by email.

(21:28 GMT)

Hungary intervenes to stabilise fuel supply amid surge in demand

Hungary’s government has ordered a truck stoppage for four days starting on Saturday and cut the excise tax on fuel as part of efforts to stabilise fuel supplies after a surge in demand in recent days, a government official said.

“Supply is ensured, there is no reason for panic and the government maintains the cap on fuel prices,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said during a news conference.

(21:28 GMT)

Facebook, Instagram to temporarily allow calls for violence against Russians

Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by the Reuters news agency, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.

The social media company is also temporarily allowing posts that call for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to a series of internal emails to its content moderators.

Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The post Russia-Ukraine live news: Moscow widens attacks on cities appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

The researchers computed air conditioning requirements in 60 of the world’s most populous cities—with the additional ventilation required due to COVID-19. Then, they compared the energy costs with their cooling method, using the chilled panels and natural ventilation.

The results, published in the COVID-19 edition of Applied Energy, showed that the alternative solution can save up to 45 percent of the required energy while ensuring building occupants are comfortable and rooms are adequately refreshed.

Dr. Adam Rysanek, a professor in the school of architecture and landscape architecture at UBC and co-author of the paper, notes that many public health guidelines, as well as building industry bodies, recommend increasing the flow of fresh, outdoor air into buildings in order to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 and other diseases.

“However, if we continue to rely on conventional HVAC systems to increase indoor fresh air rates, we may actually double energy consumption. That’s the nature of conventional HVAC.”

“Alternatively, we can encourage people to install new types of radiant cooling systems, which allow them to keep their windows open even when it’s hot outside. These alternative systems can provide a sufficient level of thermal comfort, increase protection against disease while lessening the impact on the environment,” noted Rysanek, director of the Building Decisions Research Group at UBC’s faculty of applied science.

Rysanek and his colleagues earlier demonstrated their cooling system in the hot and humid climate of Singapore. They built a public pavilion featuring a system of chilled tubes enclosed within a condensation-preventing membrane. This allowed occupants to feel comfortable, and even cold, without changing the air temperature surrounding the human body.

“You can think of it as lean A/C—or, even better, as a green alternative to energy-guzzling air conditioning,” said Rysanek.

Toronto is one of the cities included in the latest analysis, as are Beijing, Miami, Mumbai, New York and Paris. In all these regions, peak summer temperatures can soar past 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

“A key impact of climate change is the accelerating rise in average and peak temperatures, particularly in urban areas. We are expecting the appetite for indoor cooling will ramp up in the years ahead. Yet, if we want to mitigate urban heat and ensure people are healthy and comfortable while reducing our energy use, we need to seriously consider revolutionizing our historical approach to air-conditioning,” adds Rysanek.

Rysanek notes that, though chilled panel systems have been around for decades, adding the special membrane devised by the research team could be the key to making it a commercially viable alternative to traditional HVAC systems in all climates.

The post Cool and COVID-safe: How radiant cooling could keep our cities comfortable and healthy appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Saxo Bank says universal basic income could become a permanent reality next year, triggering a “seismic rebalancing” of society as workers wave “bye-bye” to big city life.

In a report entitled “Outrageous Predictions,” the Danish bank on Tuesday outlined 10 “outlandish forecasts” for 2021, although it did stress these are not its “official” views.

Among the predictions, the bank said that measures implemented by governments to support lost wages in response to the coronavirus pandemic could become permanent, and this new era of free money would crush commercial real estate.

“The risk that societies are entirely torn apart results in the realisation that the Covid-19 measures weren’t a mere panic response, but the start of a permanent new universal basic income (UBI) reality,” Kay Van-Petersen, global macro strategist at Saxo Bank, said in the report.

“UBI leads to a seismic rebalancing of the forces and structures within society, and how they apply geographically.”

He flagged that Covid-19 pandemic has “only accelerated the K-shaped recovery that was driving inequality and tearing at the social fabric before the outbreak.”

A K-shaped recovery refers to one in which the performance of the economy sharply diverges like the arms of the letter K, with some parts of the economy benefitting from strong growth while others lag.

Van-Petersen also said the younger generation had come to realize that “even a solid education and the right attitude” were not enough to move up the socio-economic ladder in the same way that was possible through most of the 20th century. And the growing wage deflationary forces of software, artificial intelligence and automation were “eroding a widening swath of jobs across industries.”

Big city exodus

A couple wearing face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus 
(COVID-19) sitting on a bench maintaining social distance in the Retiro 
Park in Madrid, Spain.Marcos del Mazo | LightRocket | Getty Images

The post Universal basic income could decimate cities next year, one bank says in its ‘outlandish forecasts’ appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.