NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has hit back against “any suggestion” countries within the alliance would not defend one another after former US President Donald Trump said he would not abide by the collective defense clause at the heart of the alliance if reelected.

In what would be a stunning abandonment of a decades-long core US commitment, Trump, who is running for re-election in November, said during a campaign event Saturday he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines and would not offer such a country US protection.

In a statement Sunday, Stoltenberg said such comments put European and American soldiers at an increased risk.

“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk,” Stoltenberg said.

“I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election the US will remain a strong and committed NATO Ally,” he said, while also stressing that any attack on a NATO country would be “met with a united and forceful response.”

Trump’s comments — which come amid an on-going war in Europe and rising concerns about Chinese activity in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan — will likely raise fresh questions among allies in Europe and Asia over the strength of US commitments.

During his time in office, Trump repeatedly railed against spending disparities within NATO and accused some countries of not meeting their obligations. He also criticized American defense pacts with Asian allies Japan and South Korea.

But the latest comments – the most direct indication he does not intend to defend NATO allies from Russian attack if he is elected – land at a time of starkly different circumstances compared to his time in office.

NATO is now heavily involved in supporting Ukraine’s defense following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, which has sparked a mass humanitarian crisis, plunged Europe into its largest conflict since the Second World War and seen Russian leader Vladimir Putin accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

The US and its allies have supported Ukraine with crucial weaponry, training and economic support, though they have not sent troops to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. The conflict has raised concerns Putin may have further expansionist ambitions, which the leader denies, or that a NATO country may become directly embroiled.

Russia’s invasion of its neighbor prompted Sweden and Finland to seek NATO membership and the collective protection it affords. Finland joined NATO in April 2023, doubling the alliance’s border with Russia. Sweden has faced numerous delays in its path to accession, notably from Turkey but has since made progress towards joining.

The NATO bloc has also moved to deepen collaboration with countries in the Indo-Pacific amid concerns about an increasingly assertive China. Separately, Washington has strengthened coordination with Japan and Korea, which are also warily monitoring ramped-up aggression from North Korea.

Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are all treaty allies with the United States in partnerships that date back decades and have been crucial to Washington’s military influence in the Pacific since the end of the Second World War.

The White House on Saturday slammed Trump’s comments as “appalling and unhinged” and contrasted them with President Joe Biden’s efforts to bolster American alliances for its national security.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that “NATO cannot be an ‘a la carte’ military alliance… depending on the humor of the president of the US.”

European Council President Charles Michel also hit back against the comments and said they reemphasize the need to keep the alliance strong.

“Reckless statements on NATO’s security and Art 5 solidarity serve only Putin’s interest. They do not bring more security or peace to the world,” Michel said in a post on X, referring to the collective defense clause.

First created to provide European and North American nations collective security against the Soviet Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization now includes 31 countries throughout the wider region.

Enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty is the promise of collective defense — that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all the nations in the alliance.

Trump has for years inaccurately described how the bloc’s funding works.

NATO has a target that each member country spends a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense, and most countries are not meeting that target. But the figure is a guideline and not a binding contract. Member countries haven’t been failing to pay their share of NATO’s common budget to run the organization.  
 
As of 2022, seven countries were meeting the 2% target, up from three in 2014, with European allies and Canada increasing spending for eight consecutive years, according to NATO.

At the Saturday event, Trump claimed “one of the presidents of a big country” at one point asked him whether the US would still defend the country if they were invaded by Russia even if they “don’t pay.”

“No, I would not protect you,” Trump claimed to recall telling that president. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”

Biden said Sunday that Trump “is making it clear that he will abandon our NATO allies” and outlined the potential consequences of Trump’s comments.

“Trump’s admission that he intends to give Putin a greenlight for more war and violence, to continue his brutal assault against a free Ukraine, and to expand his aggression to the people of Poland and the Baltic States are appalling and dangerous,” Biden said in a statement via his campaign.

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US leader has repeatedly said NATO is more united than ever before. Even prior to the war, he sought to bolster and repair American alliances following the Trump-era years of “America First.”

Trump’s comments also come as US lawmakers are deciding the direction of US support for Ukraine. The US Senate on Sunday took a step closer to passing a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill with crucial assistance for Ukraine and Israel following a key vote to move the package forward.

As the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches, and with a new armed forces leadership team in place in Kyiv, Ukraine’s soldiers find themselves on the defensive across the eastern front line.

A series of reports on social media and on national television over the weekend paint a picture of Russians continuing to throw large numbers of men into battle, and stepping up further their use of drones, which it is now clear are one of the key weapons on the battlefield.

Avdiivka, to the northwest of Donetsk city, remains the scene of some of the heaviest fighting as Russian forces continue their push from the north into the center of town.

The DeepState mapping site has shown a series of Russian advances in recent days and now puts Moscow’s fighters in control of part of the railway line just north of the town’s station.

Ukraine’s commander of southern forces, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, said Saturday that his logistics teams were still able to get supplies into the town and that he was rotating fresh fighters into the battle as well as setting up additional firing positions.

Even so, the DeepState mapping site suggests Russian forces are perhaps no more than several hundred meters away from the main supply route into town.

Serhii Tsekhotskyi, an officer with the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, told Ukrainian television that Russia was deploying large numbers of troop into the battle for Avdiivka. Many were being killed, he insisted.

“They do not spare their people, so we have a lot of work to do,” he said.

He also drew attention once again to the prevalence of drones, reporting some 70 bombs dropped from Russian UAVs on brigade positions in the town in one day alone.

“Their stock [of drones] is being replenished, they are constantly improving their UAVs, and are also using electronic warfare,” he said.

Both sides are locked in a technology competition with each other, developing ever more sophisticated drones, as well as refining the jamming capabilities designed to disable incoming UAVs.

Reports from Russian military bloggers paint a similar picture of slow but steady gain for Russia’s forces inside Avdiivka, though they stress some of the town’s key locations, not least the massive coke plant on the northwestern edge of town, remain in Ukrainian hands.

“Military officers on the ground report there is no need to rush with victory speeches,” one such blogger, Boris Rozhin, wrote.

In much the same way that Bakhmut acquired huge symbolic importance a year ago, as Russian forces closed in on the city, destroying it in the process, so Avdiivka appears to have adopted a similar significance.

Lying just a few kilometers north of Donetsk airport, captured by Russian forces in early 2015 after months of periodically heavy fighting, Avdiivka has been firmly in Moscow’s crosshairs ever since. With Russia’s presidential election just a few weeks away, its possible capture has taken on even greater value.

A challenge for the new chief

What to do about Avdiivka is arguably the most pressing challenge facing Ukraine’s new army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, appointed Thursday to give the war a new focus.

As Commander of Land Forces, Syrskyi was seen as the key driver behind Ukraine’s decision to defend Bakhmut to the last, rather than execute an earlier withdrawal, as the US and other allies had reportedly been urging. The decision to keep fighting in the face of overwhelming Russian firepower earned him a reputation as a man willing to take high losses among his soldiers.

In his first statement since being appointed Commander-in-Chief, he appeared, at least in part, to acknowledge a need to address that, saying, “The lives and health of servicemen have always been and remain the main value of the Ukrainian army. Therefore, maintaining a balance between combat missions and the restoration of units and subunits with intensified education and training of personnel remains as relevant as ever.”

However, Syrskyi is under pressure from Ukraine’s political leadership to come up with a new plan that avoids “stagnation” on the battlefield, while at the same time not pushing for too many new conscripts, as a new mobilization bill makes its way through parliament.

His predecessor, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, was dismissed in part for describing the war as being in a “stalemate” situation after the much-anticipated counteroffensive last year failed to deliver gains of any note.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was also irritated by Zaluzhnyi’s suggestions he needed a huge mobilization drive to turn things around. Though the army chief has said he did not put a number on it, he became associated with an idea that half a million new soldiers were needed.

Regardless of how many draftees Syrskyi ends up requesting, evidence from multiple frontline locations continues to suggest Russia’s superior troop numbers are making a difference.

East of Kupiansk and the Oskil river, along the northernmost stretch of the battle, an army spokesman told Ukrainian television on Saturday that Russian forces were pressing.

“The enemy continues to move its reserves to replace those previously lost … The enemy is deploying Storm Z units [soldiers recruited from prison] and motorized infantry units, supported by artillery and drones. They are trying to move forward,” the spokesman said.

Altogether, Russia had 42,000 men stationed in the area – though not all at the frontline – along with 500 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, he added.

Also under heavy pressure is Chasiv Yar, a town about 15 kilometers west of Bakhmut. Again, a local Ukrainian commander reported Russians attacking with “a huge force of personnel.”

The army spokesmen also said the other big Ukrainian shortcoming at present – low ammunition stocks – was being keenly felt.

Russia’s forces attacking Chasiv Yar from the flanks enjoyed a “several-fold advantage in the number of shellings. We need more shells, thousands and thousands of shells, especially 155mm ones,” he told national television.

Hungarian President Katalin Novak has announced that she is resigning from office following mounting public criticism over her decision to pardon a man implicated in a child sexual abuse case.

“I decided to grant a pardon last April, believing that the convict did not exploit the vulnerability of the children whom he had overseen,” Novak said in her speech during a national televised address on Saturday.

“I made a mistake, as the pardon and the lack of reasoning were conducive to triggering doubts about the zero tolerance that applies to pedophilia,” she said.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the country’s capital Budapest on Friday, calling for Novak to step down.

In April 2023, Novak had pardoned some two dozen people ahead of a visit by Pope Francis – among them the deputy director of a children’s home who had helped the former director hide his crimes. The director was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing underaged boys between 2004 and 2016, Reuters reported.

The deputy director received a three-year sentence.

Novak was away on an official visit to Doha when protesters arrived at her office, according to Reuters.

Hungarian opposition parties have demanded Novak’s resignation.

Novak is a close ally of Hungary’s hardline nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán and was the former family minister. In 2022, she became the first woman to hold the largely ceremonial role of Hungarian president.

Saturday’s address was her final one as president, less than two years after she took office.

She apologized to victims and their families in her televised speech on Saturday, saying she had “made a mistake.”

Her apology was “to those whom I may have offended and to all the victims who might have felt that I did not stand up for them,” Novak said, adding that she had always “consistently advocated for the protection of children and families.”

Ramchandra Khadka stood in front of a temple in the middle of Kathmandu, Nepal, praying for his fellow countrymen who are fighting for Russia in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

As the ceremonial bells rang and the sweet smell of incense filled the air, he lit candles and offered flowers to a deity. All he wants is for his Nepali friends to survive the brutal war.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is not the first battle Khadka has fought. He was among Nepal’s Maoist rebels, who fought a bloody war with the country’s forces for 10 years from the mid-1990s. He then went to Afghanistan after being hired by a private military contractor to assist NATO forces in the country. He thought he had experienced it all in his lifetime – bloodshed, death and pain. But, some 17 years after the Maoist war ended, with no hope of a job in Nepal, he decided to fly to Russia to join the country’s military for money.

“I didn’t join the Russian military for pleasure. I didn’t have any job opportunities in Nepal. But in hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision. We didn’t realize we would be sent to the frontlines that quickly and how horrible the situation would be,” Khadka said.

He arrived in Moscow in September last year. After only two weeks of training, he said, he was sent to the front lines in Bakhmut – a town in eastern Ukraine that saw some of the heaviest fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces – with a gun and a basic kit.

“There isn’t an inch of land in Bakhmut that’s not affected by bombs. All the trees, shrubs, and greenery… they are all gone. Most of the houses have been destroyed. The situation there is so gruesome that it makes you want to cry,” he recalled.

Khadka was deployed to Bakhmut twice and spent a total of one month there. During his second deployment, he was struck by a bullet in his hip. After he was rescued and taken a few hundred meters back from the front line, he was hit by shrapnel from a cluster bomb.

“I still get a headache when I think about the terrible scenes I saw in the war zone,” he said.

The package included at least $2,000 salary a month and a fast-tracked process to obtain a Russian passport. Nepal’s passport is ranked one of the worst in the world for global mobility, below North Korea, according to an index created by global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, and the Himalayan nation is among the world’s poorest, with a per capita GDP of $1,336 for 2022, according to World Bank data.

The Nepali government says about 200 of its citizens are fighting for the Russian army and that at least 13 Nepalis have been killed in the war zone. But lawmakers and rights’ campaigners in Nepal say those official estimates vastly underestimate the real numbers.

A prominent opposition Nepali lawmaker and former foreign minister, Bimala Rai Paudyal, told the upper house of the county’s parliament on Thursday that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis are fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from the war zone, and called on the Russian authorities to provide the figures.

“The Russian government must have the data of how many foreign fighters have joined the Russian army and how many Nepalis are fighting for Russia,” she said.

Four Nepali fighters are currently being held as prisoners of war (POWs) by Ukraine, according to Nepal’s foreign ministry.

Kritu Bhandari, a Kathmandu-based politician and social campaigner, has become the leader of a group of family members of Nepali men fighting in Russia. She says around 2,000 families have approached her in recent weeks asking for help either to get in touch with their missing loved ones or to bring those who are still in contact home to the small South Asian nation.

Hundreds of families say their relatives in Russia haven’t been in contact for many weeks or months, according to Bhandari.

‘I try not to think of the worst’

Januka Sunar’s husband went to Russia three months ago to join the military. He hasn’t been in touch with his family in Nepal for two-and-a-half months.

“I’m very worried. I don’t know what happened to him. He may be injured… and I wonder if they will return his phone eventually. I’m scared. I try not to think of the worst,” she said.

Sunar said her husband, the sole breadwinner in the house, who used to work making silver jewelry and utensils, had joined the Russian army solely for money – to build a better life for the family. She has two children who live with her in a town on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

“If the worst has happened to him, it’ll be worse than going to hell for us. We don’t have a future for the rest of our lives,” she said.

Sunar burst into tears as she shared how she was unable to explain to her children where their father is.

“They say: ‘Where is our dad, mummy? All of our friend’s dads who went abroad for work have returned… when is our dad coming back? We want to talk to our dad just for once.’”

Sunar is desperate for help from the authorities. “We just want information – from our government or the Russian government. Just tell us about his condition. Please see if you can rescue him. If they want to keep him there… .at least we want to know how he is… and speak to him,” she said.

Buddhi Maya Tamang, who was also at the gathering, received a call at the end of January from a Russian number after midnight. She thought her husband, Shukra Tamang – a retired Nepali army soldier fighting for Russia – was the person calling.

It was someone else. A Nepali commander who was leading a unit on the front lines told her that her husband had been killed during the fighting.

“I was then speechless and senseless… I was hoping it was a prank call,” she said.

She hasn’t received confirmation of his death from either the Nepali or the Russian government.

“I just need an official proof of his condition – regardless of whether it’s good news or bad news.”

Recruits ‘from global south’

The academy was designed as a youth military academy and describes itself as a “patriotic education” center. It has been re-outfitted into a training academy for foreign mercenaries entering the ranks of the Russian army. This was where Khadka received his brief training.

“Over here they teach you how to assemble and fire guns,” explained Shishir Bishwokarma, a Nepali soldier who has documented his journey to Russia and life at the training camp on YouTube.

The geolocated social media video shows an indoor wrestling gym converted into a training area for familiarization with small arms such as AK-47s, while the gym’s old Moscow Oblast flag appears to have been switched out for the colors of the Russian defense ministry.

The soldier described his fellow academy cadets as coming from across the global south. He cited Afghan, Indian, Congolese and Egyptian classmates, among others. Class photos from Avangard posted on social media show dozens of what appear to be South Asian soldiers with native Russian instructors.

At this mechanized infantry training compound, which was geolocated with the help of the Bellingcat Discord community, a handful of South Asian soldiers in full combat gear appear to be familiarizing themselves with operating alongside armored vehicles and heavy weaponry, as well as packing gear bags and organizing into larger units among Russian soldiers.

One of Bishwokarma’s videos shows drones flying over the center of the Avangard academy complex, while he narrates “now guys, we have come to a drone class.”

“We don’t understand Russian, but they have turned on Russian movies in our waiting room so that we can watch,” he explains.

Multiple Nepalis enlisting in the Russian army have stated that they don’t speak Russian but explain that instructors at Avangard seek to accommodate this by training the men in English.

That language barrier has played a large part in the deaths of many Nepalis on the front lines, said Khadka, the former fighter.

“Sometimes you can’t even understand where you’re supposed to be going or how to get there,” he said.

Khadka said he used to communicate with Russian officers by using a voice-translating app – and many times, just hand signals.

“It’s the Nepalis and other foreign fighters that are actually fighting in the front of war zones. The Russians position themselves a few hundred meters back as support,” said Suman Tamang, who returned from Russia last week.

“Some of my friends were mistreated by the Russian commander when they tried to voice their concerns,” Tamang recalled.

The 39-year-old also said that the Ukrainians were attacking their position with drones, something his unit didn’t have. He blamed the lack of modern fighting machinery for their losses.

Some fighters claim that while they signed up for the money, they do not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s not right to invade another country. Everyone has the right to live. All countries should respect the sovereignty of another country. It’s not right for people of any country to be killed in such a hideous way. It’s not right for tens of thousands of people to die for the interest of a few,” Khadka said.

Each year, around 400,000 people are estimated to enter the Nepali job market with limited skills and opportunities. A staggering 19.2% youth unemployment rate among individuals aged 15 to 29 underscores the hurdle the younger demographic faces in the pursuit of employment.

Bonuses paid

“The recruiters get very happy when Nepalis show up,” a former fighter said.

A one-year contract is signed and the men get a Russian bank account, where at least $2,000 monthly salary is deposited. Many fighters say bonuses were also given – and the longer they stay on the front lines, the more bonuses they receive. Some say they made up to $4,000 a month.

Several of the Nepalis who fought for Russia said they had received only brief training before being sent into combat.

Such a short training period before sending Nepali soldiers to fight “shows the desperation of the Russian government and their need for human resources on the frontline,” said Binoj Basnyat, a retired major general from the Nepali army, who now works as a strategic analyst.

Like many Nepalis who fled Russia without being discharged from their contracts, Sharma has no idea how to withdraw the money he still has in a Russian bank account.

“After I escaped from the military camp, it took me three days to get to Moscow. I was worried that by going to a bank to withdraw the money, I would risk getting caught,” he said. “I can access my bank account on my phone, but I don’t know if it’s possible to transfer that money overseas.”

Sharma, a retired Nepali police officer, was working as a security guard in a Dubai hotel when a Nepali agent in Kathmandu contacted him about the terms Russia was offering for foreigners to join its military. Sharma was making around $450 a month in Dubai and was immediately lured by the offer.

“After seeing gruesome images on the frontlines, seeing your friends die next to you, realizing chances of survival is very slim…. you then realize the money is not worth it. That’s why I escaped,” he said.

Agents in Nepal charge between $5,000 and $7,000 to arrange a tourist visa for an individual through a third country, according to the police.

‘I’m done with fighting wars’

The Nepali government has now banned its citizens from traveling to Russia for work and has implemented stricter requirements for people trying to go to countries such as the UAE on a visit visa.

Nepal’s foreign ministry in December urged Russia to stop recruiting Nepali citizens and send home the remains of those killed in the war.

The minister said that Russia’s deputy foreign minister had last month assured him that “they will sort it out” with regard to Nepal’s concerns but acknowledged that Moscow hasn’t taken any steps so far.

“We don’t have any information that Russia is doing anything,” he said, stressing that Moscow should “respect Nepal’s point of view.”

“We have a traditional treaty with a few countries for the recruitment of our citizens in the military of those countries,” he explained. “But we don’t have such treaty with Russia for such type of military or security recruitment.”

The minister said he had asked to travel to Moscow to discuss the issue but was waiting for an invitation from the Russian government.

Saud also said Nepal was talking to Ukrainian officials about releasing the four Nepali POWs taken by Ukraine from the front lines. He said Ukraine had some “reservations” and “legal questions” which the Nepali government was working to address.

It’s unclear if there will be any legal consequences against individuals who either defy the Nepali government’s ban to travel to Russia for work or who take part in combat operations against Ukraine.

Kathmandu police said they broke up a racket last month, leading to the arrest of 18 people allegedly involved in sending Nepali men to join the Russian army.

They raided several hotels where those arrested were staying and confiscated dozens of passports and several hundred thousand Nepali rupees, the police said.

But Nepalis haven’t stopped flying to Russia.

Sharma, the man who recently returned, said he had met a few Nepalis in Moscow who had just arrived and were looking to get into the army.

Kathmandu police chief Bhupendra Bahadur Khatri said the number of Nepalis going to a third country on a visit visa to eventually fly to Russia had slowed but hadn’t completely stopped.

“We are getting some intelligence that some of these agents are still active in recruiting Nepal men. We have gathered some undercurrent of their activities, and our investigation continues,” Khatri said.

Basnyat, the analyst, blames political instability and rising unemployment in Nepal as a major factor driving Nepalis to seek out dangerous employment in Russia.

More than 15% of its people live below the poverty line. The estimated unemployment rate in 2022 was 11.1%, according to the World Bank, compared with 10.6% in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Tens of thousands of Nepalis travel to Gulf countries for work every year, with international remittances amounting to nearly 23% of the country’s GDP. An overwhelming 70% of the country’s workforce is employed in the informal sector, exposing them to heightened job insecurity and limited protections.

Khadka is also planning to go to the Middle East as a migrant worker once he recovers from his conflict injuries.

“I want to do commercial farming in Nepal but it’s proving next to impossible for me to take a loan. I’m looking to go to one of the Gulf countries. I’m done with fighting wars,” he said.

Myanmar’s government has enforced a compulsory military service law as the junta continues to battle armed ethnic militias and resistance forces on multiple fronts across the nation.

All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 are required to serve for up to two years under military command and specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years, state media said Saturday, according to Reuters.

The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10, 2024,” televised state media reported Saturday.

The law was enacted in 2010 by a previous military government but had never been enforced before.

The introduction of the People’s Military Service Law maintains citizens have a duty to protect “non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty,” state media said, adding the law has been enacted “in order to serve this duty.”

State media said the defense ministry would release details and instructions at a further date.

Myanmar’s military regime recently extended its state of emergency for another six months as it marked three years on February 1 since its deadly coup which ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fighting escalated last October, when powerful armed ethnic militias joined with resistance forces to mount major new offensives against the military.

Myanmar’s government has enforced a compulsory military service law as the junta continues to battle armed ethnic militias and resistance forces on multiple fronts across the nation.

All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 are required to serve for up to two years under military command and specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years, state media said Saturday, according to Reuters.

The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10, 2024,” televised state media reported Saturday.

The law was enacted in 2010 by a previous military government but had never been enforced before.

The introduction of the People’s Military Service Law maintains citizens have a duty to protect “non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty,” state media said, adding the law has been enacted “in order to serve this duty.”

State media said the defense ministry would release details and instructions at a further date.

Myanmar’s military regime recently extended its state of emergency for another six months as it marked three years on February 1 since its deadly coup which ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fighting escalated last October, when powerful armed ethnic militias joined with resistance forces to mount major new offensives against the military.

Fourteen people were injured, including two seriously, after a tree fell onto the tracks of a children’s roller coaster at an amusement park in the Spanish region of Catalonia Sunday.

Strong winds caused the tree to fall on the “Tomahawk” children’s roller coaster at the “PortAventura World” park in Vila-Seca, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Barcelona on Sunday morning, according to the park.

Catalan emergency services said they had treated the 14 injured people, two of whom were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Another three people were hospitalized with less severe injuries.

The emergency services did not provide any information on the ages of those injured.

“This Sunday morning, due to strong winds… there was an incident caused by a tree falling close to the Tomahawk ride,” the theme park said in a statement, per Reuters.

“Some of the branches hit visitors who were on the ride,” the statement added.

The PortAventura World park is the most visited amusement park in Spain and the sixth most visited in Europe, according to PortAventura.

The park said it would cooperate with authorities.

For the first time since his death in 1882, Charles Darwin’s impressive library has been virtually reassembled to reveal the multitude of books, pamphlets and journals cited and read by the influential naturalist.

The author of numerous works, Darwin is perhaps best known for his 1859 book, “On the Origin of Species,” which introduced the fundamental scientific concept of evolution to the world.

In honor of the 215th anniversary of Darwin’s birthday on February 12, the research team behind the Darwin Online project has released a 300-page catalog that compiles the original 7,400 titles and 13,000 volumes originally owned by Darwin. The catalog includes 9,300 links to copies of the library contents that are available for free online, inviting the public to peruse what Darwin read.

“This unprecedentedly detailed view of Darwin’s complete library allows one to appreciate more than ever that he was not an isolated figure working alone but an expert of his time building on the sophisticated science and studies and other knowledge of thousands of people. Indeed, the size and range of works in the library makes manifest the extraordinary extent of Darwin’s research into the work of others,” said project leader Dr. John van Wyhe, historian of science at the National University of Singapore.

Piecing together a lost library

When Darwin was alive, he kept meticulous records of his library, including a 426-page handwritten “Catalogue of the Library of Charles Darwin” compiled in 1875. Initially after Darwin died, his library was preserved and recorded. But over time, much of its contents were lost or ended up elsewhere.

Two main collections featuring 1,480 books were kept at the University of Cambridge and Down House, Darwin’s family home in Downe, England, that remains open to the public. But the collections only included an estimated 15% of the original library.

After receiving letters from researchers and the public asking about specific titles from Darwin’s library, van Wyhe and his colleagues began their project to recreate it virtually in 2007.

“Scholars have been researching Darwin’s life and works for over a century,” van Wyhe said. “One of the most important elements in understanding Darwin’s theories is his sources — the publications by others that he used in his research.”

Institutions such as the Down House museum, the Cambridge University Library and Christ’s College Cambridge, as well as private collections, were used to track down the materials during the painstaking 18-year process.

Despite his disciplined recordkeeping, Darwin used abbreviated or vague ways to refer to journals and pamphlets in his collection, with many entries missing authors, dates or sources.

The project team combed over each piece of paper turned up during its search, sifting through handwritten family documents and letters, Darwin’s reading notebooks, his wife’s diaries and lists from scholars written a century ago. By comparing all the documents, the researchers found thousands of previously unknown titles, including bound books and unbound volumes and pamphlets, and traced the journey of titles sold at auction over the past 100 years.

“It has been like 5,000 little detective stories — trying to find out which author or article Darwin noted having — it is a joy to strike gold and find the exact source he was referring to,” van Wyhe said. “We can now show that originally he had far more in his impressive library.”

A surprising collection

Darwin naturally had a wealth of titles concerned with his main scientific interests, such as biology and geology. He owned a copy of an article authored by the ornithologist John James Audubon called “Account of the habits of the Turkey Buzzard (Vultura aura), particularly with the view of exploding the opinion generally entertained of its extraordinary power of smelling.”

The article, sold at auction in 1975, served as the inspiration behind one of Darwin’s investigations while sailing on the HMS Beagle. He was hired in 1831 as a naturalist aboard the ship and voyaged around South America and the surrounding islands, including the Galápagos, to study and collect plants and animals.

He owned a copy of “Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa,” authored by Paul Du Chaillu after the zoologist became the first European to describe gorillas in the wild during expeditions to Africa in the 1850s. Darwin’s collection also included a German periodical that revealed the first published photographs of bacteria in 1877.

But the naturalist’s library contained multitudes, showcasing his thirst for knowledge, van Wyhe said. Darwin also read philosophers, such as John Stuart Mill and Auguste Comte, and had a number of works about psychology, religion, art, history, travel, farming and animal breeding and behavior.

Nearly half the books were written in French, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Latin, Spanish and Swedish — a surprising revelation given that Darwin was known as a poor linguist with a bad ear for languages, van Wyhe said.

“He was a very highly educated person who learned ancient Greek and Latin in school as well as French,” van Wyhe said. “He later learned Spanish and some Portuguese for the voyage of the Beagle and he taught himself (with dictionaries) to read German and Italian and he somehow got through other languages in the same way. This shows how determined he was to find out what other men of science had published and to extract information relevant for his theories.”

There is also evidence that Darwin read travelogues from explorers and missionaries to understand the gestures used by different ethnic groups.

And Darwin enjoyed reading novels as well. In 2019, a copy of Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Wives and Daughters,” a serial published as a book in 1866, appeared at auction, bearing a note that said, “This book was a great favourite of Charles Darwin’s and the last book to be read aloud to him.”

Exploring Darwin’s eclectic library showcases different sides of the scientist and will allow people to gain insights into who he was as a person, van Wyhe said.

“This is exactly what the library can show,” he said. “Instead of basing one’s understanding on the authors Darwin read that are mentioned in biographies, etc., anyone can now scroll through his whole library. The impression this gives is that he was a voracious reader and he got through an astonishing number of works.”

When Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago, volcanic debris buried Pompeii and created a city forever frozen in time.

Researchers consider the doomed metropolis to be one of the world’s most poignant archaeological sites.

Pompeii’s well-preserved expanse holds a multitude of finds that continue to surprise archaeologists as they unearth more of the lost city.

Intact items such as chariots, frescoes and even graffiti have shed light on what ancient Roman life was like in the prosperous resort before the cataclysmic event — and provided evidence of when the eruption occurred.

And now, researchers investigating artifacts from the neighboring city of Herculaneum are using new technology to peek beneath Vesuvius’ blanket of ash and mud to uncover more of history’s best kept secrets.

The wonder

Artificial intelligence has revealed the first nearly complete passages to be decoded from the charred, brittle Herculaneum scrolls.

The hundreds of burnt papyrus scrolls, which managed to survive Vesuvius’ eruption inside what experts believe was likely the house of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, appear as though they could crumble at any moment.

But technological advances are making it possible to virtually unwrap the scrolls for the first time since AD 79, allowing papyrologists to translate the words of the philosopher Philodemus.

“(In these passages) he’s persuading the people who are listening to him to sort of relax, find good friendships, spend your time living in the moment and enjoying pleasures,” said Roger Macfarlane, a professor of classical studies at Brigham Young University.

Ocean secrets

It’s known as the most dangerous and terrifying part of the ocean.

The Drake Passage, spanning 600 miles (965 kilometers) wide, is squeezed between South America and Antarctica.

Landmasses help to slow storms that gather strength across oceans. But there is nothing to stop screaming winds, towering waves and the world’s strongest storms that whip up in the deep waters of the Drake.

The marine region’s underwater mountains intrigue scientists, and it’s a crossing that ship captains ferrying tourists must make — and they do it with a healthy dose of fear.

Fantastic creatures

A serene image of a polar bear napping on an iceberg off Norway’s Svalbard archipelago has received the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award.

“Whilst climate change is the biggest challenge we face, I hope that this photograph also inspires hope; there is still time to fix the mess we have caused,” said British amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani, who took the image.

The winning photo will be on display until June 30 at London’s Natural History Museum, along with finalist images showcasing a sweet moment of lion parenting and glowing moon jellyfish beneath the northern lights.

Curiosities

Australian scientists have discovered an unlikely ally in their quest to track endangered species: spiders.

Not only do the fine webs spun by the eight-legged critters trap prey such as flies, the silken structures also are capturing environmental DNA.

When researchers collected spiderwebs from Western Australia’s Perth Zoo and the Karakamia woodland sanctuary, they were able to identify genetic material from 93 animals.

“With only trace amounts of DNA needed to identify animals, this cheap and non-invasive method could be a game-changer in how we explore and protect our terrestrial biodiversity,” said Joshua Newton, a doctoral student at Curtin University’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences.

Meanwhile, a new finding could explain why insects cluster beneath bright artificial lights at night — and it’s not because they’re drawn to the glow like “moths to a flame.”

Other worlds

Mimas, one of Saturn’s tiniest moons, is known for a giant crater that gives the satellite an uncanny resemblance to the Death Star from the “Star Wars” films.

Now, astronomers think the cratered chunk of ice orbiting Saturn has a deep secret: a hidden ocean.

An international team of researchers analyzed data collected from NASA’s Cassini mission and noticed that Mimas’ spin and orbital motion have changed over time likely due to the presence of a global ocean beneath its icy crust.

The study team was surprised to discover that the ocean is relatively young, astronomically speaking, at only 5 million to 15 million years old. Mimas could change the way scientists understand ocean worlds across our solar system, which may harbor life beyond Earth.

Explorations

Share these fascinating reads with your friends:

— Archaeologists unearthed an ancient burial site, including a rare wooden bed used in a Roman funeral, during excavations in the heart of London.

— The PACE mission launched this week to study the “invisible universe” of Earth’s microscopic marine life and atmospheric particles from space.

— A “super-Earth”— plus evidence of a second Earth-size planet — has been spotted orbiting in the habitable zone of a star 137 light-years away.

— Researchers found a fresh clue that sheds light on how microscopic tardigrades, also called water bears, are able to survive in some of Earth’s most challenging environments.

— Curious about what April’s total solar eclipse will look like in your city? Check out our interactive map to see how much of the sun’s face will be blocked, based on your location.

Lengthy inspections, rejected humanitarian aid and Israeli bombs raining down. Those are some of the hurdles to relief reaching the 2.2 million Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.

The United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Martin Griffiths, has described the process as “in all practical terms, impossible.”

Gaza was placed under a complete Israeli siege on October 9, when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel to the enclave after Hamas attacked his country, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel has since begun allowing some aid to enter.

Some four months since Israel began its retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, it is yet to complete its objective of destroying Hamas and the war rages on, leaving most of Gaza’s civilian population at the mercy of aid that must be approved by Israel.

While aid reaching the Gaza Strip was insufficient even before October 7, according to the UN, the humanitarian situation has been greatly hit by the conflict, which has killed more than 27,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave, and displaced more than 1.9 million others.

Getting any form of relief into Gaza is a long and arduous process, aid workers and the UN say.

An average of 95 aid trucks per day entered Gaza between October 10 and February 1, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, down from 500 commercial and aid trucks a day before the war, when Palestinians weren’t facing mass displacement and starvation. Some 2 million Gazans are dependent on UN aid now.

Relief operations are expected to be further hampered after the United States and other top donors suspend funding for UNRWA, the main agency responsible for aid distribution in Gaza. The donors pulled their funding over allegations by Israel that some of its staff were involved in the Hamas attacks.

UNRWA has warned it may be forced to halt its operations by the end of the month due to lack of funds. And on Thursday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the agency has not been able to deliver food into Gaza since January 23, adding that since the beginning of the year, “half of UN’s aid mission requests to the north were denied.”

“The UN has identified deep pockets of starvation and hunger in northern Gaza where people are believed to be on the verge of famine,” Lazzarini said on X.

Israel has also been accused of deliberately obstructing aid. Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, has charged that the policy is “systematic, and aimed at pushing Palestinians to leave Gaza under the continued bombing and siege,” an Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson said in November.

Israel maintains that it is working to respond to the needs on the ground in Gaza, saying that “it is at war with Hamas and not the people of Gaza.” Last month, it told the International Court of Justice that “there is no limit on the amount of food, water, shelter or medical supplies that can be brought into Gaza.”

Here’s why aid is slow to get into Gaza:

Limited entry points

Before the war started, Israel restricted all access to and from Gaza by sea and air and had land crossings under tight control. It had two functional crossings with the enclave: Erez, which was for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods.

Movement through all three crossings was already heavily restricted before the war, as Israel imposed a blockade of the territory with Egypt 17 years ago. After the current war began, Erez and Kerem Shalom were shut for several weeks. On October 21, Rafah began allowing aid to trickle in.

In mid-December, Israel began conducting security checks on aid for Gaza at its own crossings before it was sent to Rafah. It said at the time that the move would double the volume of aid delivered through Rafah, but aid workers have said the additional inspection points were insufficient, according to the UN. Egypt criticized the measures as unreasonable, saying it hinders the flow of aid. Following pressure from the US, Israel began allowing aid trucks to pass through Kerem Shalom in late December.

Aid delivery through Egypt is also hampered by the fact that the Rafah crossing is designed as an entry point for people, not goods, making it difficult for large convoys to pass through.

Long inspections, rejected items

The war has prompted Israel to conduct more stringent checks on aid as it seeks to prevent the entry of what it calls “dual-use equipment,” products it says are “intended for civilian use but liable to serve military needs for the strengthening of Hamas.”

Trucks carrying aid must pass through three layers of inspection before they can enter the enclave, Griffiths, the UN under-secretary-general, has said.

The long queues for inspection have led to bottlenecks at the Rafah crossing, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said last month, adding that among items deemed “dual use” by Israel are power generators, crutches, field hospital kits, inflatable water tanks, wooden boxes of children’s toys and, “perhaps most depressingly, 600 oxygen tanks.”

The list of rejected items is only growing, Griffiths said.

Protesters blocking trucks

Israeli protesters have more than once blocked trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza via Israeli crossings. They have demanded that the aid only be delivered in exchange for the release of the hostages. The protesters are with the “Tsav 9’” movement, a grouping of families of hostages, fallen soldiers, demobilized reservists, and displaced Israeli civilians.

Israel says more than 100 hostages are still held captive in Gaza.

Some of the protests have caused aid disruptions lasting days, UNRWA said.

Following the protests, Israel declared Kerem Shalom and the Nitzana crossing with Egypt military zones, a move that led to some arrests, according to Israeli media.

Disruptions were renewed this week as hundreds of Israeli protesters returned to Kerem Shalom Tuesday.

Risk of bombardment

Once relief enters Gaza, Israeli bombardment, damage to roads from airstrikes, communications blackouts and mass displacement impede distribution within the enclave.

“It becomes very difficult to make phone calls to coordinate, to organize the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Touma, the UNRWA spokesperson, said. In the wake of the war, Israel cut electricity to Gaza and service providers said airstrikes destroyed vital communications network infrastructure. The territory has since experienced multiple communication blackouts, leaving Palestinians unable to contact each other or the outside world.

“It is extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance under fire,” Touma said on Monday. “We fear for (workers’) lives because no place is safe in Gaza.”

In recent days, Israel has pressed its military offensive further into central, southern and in neighborhoods across northern Gaza – where UN agencies have struggled to reach displaced civilians facing starvation, dehydration and deadly disease.

On Friday, the World Food Programme said it had been unable to reach northern Gaza City for the third time in a week, as a  full-scale famine looms. Touma says Israeli authorities must approve humanitarian convoys waiting to enter the north at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint that separates the north and south of the strip. Beyond that, she said, there are around 300,000 people “living in desperate conditions.”

“Then you have overwhelming needs on the ground that are way, way beyond the capacity of humanitarian agencies because not much aid is coming in,” Touma said, adding that Gazans are “absolutely tired, fatigued, desperate and so quite often what happens is that people come to the humanitarian convoys, and they help themselves to the convoys.”