Arcangelo finished first at the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes in New York, a historic triumph that marked the first time a female horse trainer won a race in the coveted Triple Crown.

With Arcangelo’s Saturday victory, Jena Antonucci became the first female trainer in history to train a winner of any Triple Crown race, according to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Antonucci is only the 11th woman to train a contender for the Belmont, the third jewel in the Triple Crown, in the race’s history.

Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure led for most of the race, before Arcangelo made a late push inside and held off Forte to capture the historic victory. Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano tallied his first victory at the Belmont. Castellano previously rode Mage to victory at the Kentucky Derby.

“I don’t know that we have words right now, we’re going to need a minute,” said an emotional Antonucci after the race. “We’re trying to soak all this in, just so proud of this horse right now. It’s amazing.”

Arcangelo has “got the heart of a champion,” she added.

“Never give up and if you can’t find a seat at the table, make your own table and build your team and never give up,” Antonucci said after asked what message she wanted to send. “You are seen, people see you, just keep working your butt off.”

Antonucci’s historic accomplishment falls on the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s win at Belmont Park for owner Penny Chenery. Chenery is regarded as one of the most successful women in horse racing.

The odds for Arcangelo to win the race were 7-1 as of Saturday morning, according to the Belmont’s official website.

Pre-race favorite Forte finished in second place, while Tapit Trice finished in third and National Treasure came in sixth.

Race comes as horse deaths trigger scrutiny

Arcangelo’s win comes in the wake of a series of unexpected deaths at prestigious racetracks that have shaken the world of horse racing.

The owner of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, announced last week that it would suspend racing operations to conduct a “top-to-bottom” review of all safety and surface protocols following the death of 12 horses at the racetrack. The racetrack said it was “troubled” by the deaths. There is no clear cause linking the deaths, according to Churchill Downs.

And at Belmont Park, four horses have died while racing or training since May 13th. The New York Racing Association said each incident would be “closely reviewed and analyzed” to ensure the organization is “providing the safest possible environment for racing and training.”

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told employees in a meeting on Thursday that it couldn’t “conduct a lengthy spending war against Saudi Arabia,” according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, Monahan during a meeting at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida told employees that the Tour’s financial model was “unsustainable” while fighting Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a government-controlled fund that has $650 billion in assets under management, according to its most recent filing.

“We cannot compete with a foreign government with unlimited money,” Monahan told employees, according to the Wall Street Journal. “This was the time … We waited to be in the strongest possible position to get this deal in place.”

The meeting came days after the PGA Tour declared a partnership with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, as well as the DP World Tour, unifying the trio under a new, yet-to-be-named, commercial entity.

According to the Journal, Monahan told employees that the Tour had already spent $50 million in legal fees and had dipped into its reserves for $100 million to help pay increased purses in elevated events and other bonuses to players.

“Additionally, this transaction will make professional golf more competitive with other professional sports and sports leagues,” the Tour continued.

The path of totality. That’s where you’ll want to be on April 8, 2024, to take advantage of the last opportunity for decades to see a total solar eclipse over the contiguous United States.

The path, which will be about 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide, will make its way across northern Mexico, cross 13 US states and eastern Canada. The celestial event is bound to inspire an influx of travelers to points falling within that zone.

Just under seven years after the American eclipse in August 2017, next year’s total solar eclipse will provide the last easy access to such an event for most US residents until August 23, 2044.

And while it’s still 10 months away, it’s definitely time to start planning.

Study the path of totality

April is unlikely to yield the kind of weather that most US viewers enjoyed for the 2017 eclipse in August. The best bet, climate-wise, isn’t in the United States at all.

Mexico, where the eclipse track reaches landfall near Mazatlán on the Pacific Coast, offers the best odds of favorable weather, according to Jay Anderson, a retired meteorologist with Canada’s weather service and an amateur astronomer who created the website Eclipsophile.com.

Parts of Texas look pretty good as well, although not as favorable as spots in Mexico. See Eclipsophile and this analysis from Space.com for more details.

The path enters the US in Texas, traverses that state and travels through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Farther north near the Canadian border, there’s a lot of potential for cloudiness, Anderson said.

“The city I sort of identified as the most likely to have good skies [in the United States] is a place called Junction, Texas, which is a little bit toward the edge of the eclipse track in the Texas Hill Country,” said Anderson. “But they statistically are in one of the areas most likely to have clear skies, but having said that, it still means that they only have about a 55% chance of clear skies on that day. So, you know, it’s no guarantee anywhere.”

Some parts of Mexico in the path historically see 30% average cloud cover, Anderson said, whereas Junction is in the 40% range and San Antonio about 60%.

“Climate is the average of everything, but what actually happens on eclipse day will be something different,” Anderson said.

Decide how determined you are to see the eclipse

Are you willing to drive eight hours and take a day or two off work? The eclipse is on a Monday, but traffic late in the day could be fierce. Are you ready to change your plans days before if the weather looks better elsewhere?

Some eclipse viewers will go to great lengths.

Anderson said most of the people from Europe who participate in an eclipse message group he’s part of are heading to Texas to see the 2024 event.

And he knows of a number of travelers who have made motel bookings in several places along the path so that they have options just before the eclipse to seek out the best weather conditions and cancel the extra rooms.

“But you’re dealing with a hard-core eclipse chaser when you start making three or four motel bookings to have a number of different places to go,” Anderson said.

Iffy April weather certainly could present visibility problems.

“So somebody who really was determined to see that eclipse should be flexible and be prepared to move,” Anderson said.

It’s time to book lodging

Now is the time to reserve rooms, says Dave Clark, who runs the website NationalEclipse.com.

In some places along the path, hotels are already booking up and rates for remaining rooms in those spots are high.

Take Russellville, Arkansas. This week, a search on Booking.com showed 87% of places to stay were unavailable on April 7-9, 2024, in the city of about 30,000. Two hotels that had available rooms, Motel 6 and American Inn & Suites, had rates for that period of $500 and $699 per night, respectively.

But many larger cities have more rooms to work with and more availability.

Vacation rentals are another option. A look at Airbnb pricing in several locations along the eclipse’s path suggests that while some property owners are well aware ($1,000-plus a night aware) of the significance of April 8, 2024, others haven’t hiked up their rates for the coveted dates. At least not yet.

Carla Pendergraft, assistant director of tourism at the Waco Convention Center & Visitors Bureau, said that very few hotels show availability right now. “However, some hotels may not have opened up their reservation system as of yet, so additional rooms may come onto the market.”

Airline tickets can wait

While you’ll want to lock in your lodging sooner rather than later, that’s not the case for airline tickets, says Scott Keyes, founder of airfare tracking site Going.com.

There’s such a thing as too early for airline tickets, and we’re still in that window. ““The early bird gets the worm but not the earliest bird,” he said.

And because the path of totality stretches across 13 states as well as parts of Mexico and Canada, there are plenty of places to fly into.

“Because it’s really spread out, I think that’s going to limit the amount of airfare inflation that you might otherwise see,” if it was only going through a small area, Keyes said.

What he calls the “Goldilocks window” –  the just-right time – is generally one to three months in advance for domestic flights at an off-peak time such as April.

“That would be booking somewhere between January and March. You know, maybe if there’s a lot of media attention and excitement coming up, just maybe you could start to find some good deals in December, a little bit earlier.”

And the good news about post-pandemic air travel is that most US airlines have permanently adopted penalty-free changes for most fare classes.

So if the weather looks bad and you decide to change course and fly to another city, you can cancel your flight and take the credit from that one to book a new flight to another city. You’ll just have to pay the fare difference.

You could buy multiple airline tickets, but Keyes said the problem with that is that most credits must be used within a year. But if you have frequent flyer miles, you can easily cancel miles trips, and the miles will go right back into your account, he said.

Driving offers flexibility

If you’re within driving distance, going by car gives you a lot of flexibility, particularly if you’re more interested in a remote location than a group-watch event.

Pendergraft, the assistant tourism director from Waco, advises travelers to decide what kind of experience they’re seeking: a big festival like the one Waco is putting on or “do they want to rough it in a self-contained RV out in a field?”

Links to eclipse festivals, campouts and other events in states across the path are available on NationalEclipse.com.

Be aware that congestion is likely, Pendergraft said. “The eclipse tourist should look for a city with adequate services and traffic control, because there will be cars and private planes chasing the eclipse all the way along its path.”

Traffic was a major problem for the 2017 total solar eclipse, Clark said, “and the same problem will certainly occur in 2024. So, having a place to stay inside the eclipse path, and staying for at least an extra day after the eclipse, is ideal to avoid traffic.”

Ultimately, travelers have to decide just how far – and how flexibly – they’re able to travel for a chance to spot the celestial marvel, said Anderson.

“They’re worth seeing,” he said. “ ‘Worth the trip’ as they would say in the travel industry.”

Nadejda Chernishova breathes a sigh of relief as she steps off a rubber dinghy, moments after being rescued from her flooded home in Kherson.

“I’m not afraid now, but it was scary in my home,” the 65-year-old retiree said. “You don’t know where the water is going, and it was coming from all sides.”

Her house in one of the lower lying districts of Kherson was flooded after the Nova Kakhovka dam, 58 kilometers (36 miles) up the Dnipro river in Russian-occupied Ukraine, was destroyed earlier on Tuesday.

“[The water] went up in an instant,” she added. “In the morning there was nothing.”

Chernishova left most of her small world behind, bringing only what she was able to muster: two suitcases and her most prized possession.

“This is my cat Sonechka, a beauty,” she said, lifting the lid of a small her pet carrier and revealing a frightened animal. “She is scared, she is a domestic cat who has never been outside.”

Chernishova is one of hundreds being evacuated by Ukrainian authorities in Kherson, where the water has spread across several blocks and into the center of the city, cutting off some areas entirely.

Prokudin, who has been overseeing rescue efforts in towns and cities downstream from Nova Kakhovka, said the operation has become more difficult with time as flood waters continue to rise.

“If in the morning we could do it with cars, then with trucks, now we see that big cars can no longer pass,” he explained. “The water has risen so much that we are now using boats. About eight boats of various types are currently working to evacuate people from the area.”

The search and rescue operation in Kherson remained in full swing on Wednesday.

The people coming off the boats were visibly shaken by the ordeal, with some breaking down into tears as they finally reached dry land. The animals also seemed distressed, constantly howling and meowing as operations were ongoing.

Several areas that were accessible on foot on Tuesday became submerged underwater, with some locations flooded up to four meters deep. There is, however, a sense from authorities that water levels, although still rising, are now doing so at a slower pace.

The war is ever present and Kherson remains very much a frontline city.

Outgoing and incoming artillery including rockets and mortars could be heard every hour throughout the day on Tuesday, and then through the night into Wednesday morning.

The Ukrainian government nonetheless promised the rumbles of war would not affect search and rescue operations.

“We have to keep going even if the shelling is ongoing as you can hear,” interim interior minister Ihor Klymenko told journalists at the scene, as artillery fired of in the distance. “Our people have the necessary protective equipment.”

“It is always very dangerous here. This checkpoint is usually under shelling,” Produkin said. “You see a crowd of people and I think the hit will happen soon.”

Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the destruction of the dam but neither side has provided concrete proof that the other is culpable. But while responsibility for the incident remains as murky as the debris-filled waters now flowing down the Dnipro, its impact is much clearer.

Before the dam collapsed, a potential Ukrainian offensive across the Dnipro to the Russian-held side of the river was unlikely due to difficulty of crossing the river. That seems almost impossible now. Both sides have been severely impacted by the collapse — even more so on the Russian side — leaving the terrain in very difficult condition.

And as she packs her belongings into a car, Chernishova is perfectly clear on who she blames – even if Russia denies it.

The Russians “flooded us,” she said. “Everything is drowning.”

Three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian policeman have been killed in a rare border crossing incident.

Details of the incident – the first of its kind in more than a decade – remain disputed.

Egypt claims its policeman crossed the border between the two countries in pursuit of drug smugglers on Saturday and that he was then killed alongside the three Israelis in an ensuing gun battle.

But the Israel Defense Forces described the events differently. They say the Egyptian policeman shot two Israeli border guards – and that when Israeli back-up arrived later, a firefight ensued that killed both the policeman and a third Israeli.

On Saturday, the IDF’s international spokesperson described the event as the first of its kind in at least a decade — since an Islamic State gunman crossed from Sinai into Egypt and killed a police officer and members of a family.

The first two IDF soldiers killed were discovered dead by their lieutenant when they did not answer their radio, according to the spokesman.

They had been on a 12-hour guard duty shift since 9pm on Friday night and were found dead some time after 6am on Saturday morning, he told reporters.

The gunman who was later killed by the IDF did not have a sniper rifle, so the soldiers who were killed in the guard post were probably shot at close range, the spokesman said.

Israel has named the three soldiers killed as Staff Sgt. Ohad Danan, 20, who was killed in the gun battle; and Staff Sgt. Ori Izhad Iluz and Sgt. Lia Ben nun, 19, who were killed in their guard post.

Different accounts but ‘working together’

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Israel was investigating the incident in conjunction with the Egyptian armed forces.

He did not directly address the Egyptian contention that the Egyptian policeman had entered Israel in pursuit of drug smugglers and that the three IDF troops were killed in a gunfight resulting from chasing the drug smugglers.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Twitter that Israeli and Egyptian defense ministers have agreed to work together to prevent attacks along their shared border following the incident.

“I spoke this evening with my Egyptian counterpart, Minister Mohamed Zaki. I emphasized the importance of our cooperation in the investigation of the severe attack in which three IDF troops were killed. We agreed to work together to prevent terrorism along our border and to further strengthen defense ties between our countries,” Gallant tweeted.

The Egyptian military said Zaki called Gallant “to discuss the circumstances” of Saturday’s accident and “to offer condolences to the victims of the accident from both sides.”

During their phone call, the ministers also discussed their intention to “jointly coordinate to take the necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of such events in the future,” the Egyptian military said via Twitter.

Egypt and Israel have officially been at peace since 1979, when Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel.

The war in Ukraine has brought an enormous human toll: Thousands of civilians have been killed, millions have been forced to flee overseas, it has destroyed homes, schools and hospitals. But beyond the immediate, visceral impacts, the conflict is also causing a climate disaster at a time when the world is already struggling to meet climate goals, according to a new report.

A team of carbon accounting experts has evaluated the climate impact of the first year of the conflict, which started in February 2022.

They found that a total of 120 million metric tons of planet-heating pollution can be attributed to the first 12 months of the war, according to the report published Wednesday. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of Belgium, or those produced by nearly 27 million gas-powered cars on the road for a year.

The report, titled Climate Damage Caused by Russia’s War in Ukraine, follows on from a first interim assessment presented at the UN COP27 climate conference in November 2022.

Data was drawn from a wide range of sources, including satellites, scientific papers, expert interviews, industry reports and open-source intelligence.

The team of researchers looked at the climate impact of the planet-heating pollution produced directly from warfare, including fuel use for tanks, planes and other equipment, construction of fortifications and production of weapons. They also examined impacts from the consequences of the war, such as fires, destruction – and required reconstruction – of infrastructure and changes to the European energy mix.

Nearly 22 million metric tons of planet-heating pollution came from warfare, almost 20% of the total emissions attributable to the conflict, the report found.

“We probably will only be able to really get a more accurate estimate once the war is over,” de Klerk said.

Others were easier to calculate, especially the amount of planet-warming pollution from fires caused by shelling, bombing and explosions. Using remote monitoring tools based on satellite data, the researchers concluded that these fires produced nearly 18 million metric tons, accounting for 15% of the total war emissions

The number of fires burning over an area larger than one hectare (2.5 acres) increased 36-fold in the first year of the war compared to the 12 months before it started, according to the report. While the winter months saw fire activity dip, it is expected to pick up again as summer approaches, de Klerk said.

The biggest climate impact, however, accounting for almost half the pollution from the war, will come from the post-war reconstruction of damaged and destroyed buildings and infrastructure, the report found.

Rebuilding will require vast amounts of materials such as cement and concrete, which produce very high levels of carbon pollution.

Over the course of the conflict, increasing Russian attacks on and destruction of energy infrastructure has pushed up the planet-heating pollution estimated to be produced during reconstruction, the report found.

“The biggest chunk of the emissions are still in the future reconstruction of Ukraine,” de Klerk said.

The report also looked at impacts outside of Ukraine, including the methane pollution released after the sabotage of the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 in September 2022. “We had an enormous release of methane emissions… that was really a surprise,” de Klerk said.

Changes to Europe’s energy mix were also analyzed but found a mixed outcome.

Very high prices for gas and oil following Russia’s invasion caused Europe to make some decisions, including burning more coal, which increased levels of planet-heating pollution. But the conflict also helped usher in a faster transition to renewables, as countries looked to lessen their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

The report authors even calculated the extra planet-warming pollution created by airlines rerouting flights to avoid Russian and Ukrainian airspace.

“If you look at the environmental costs of what’s happening in Ukraine, that war is a catastrophe when it comes to carbon emissions,” James Appathurai, NATO’s deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, told Reuters.

As the war continues to unfold in Ukraine, “the human catastrophe and the damage that’s being done to the country is overwhelming,” de Klerk said. Climate considerations will not be what’s occupying Ukrainians at the moment, he acknowledged, adding: “It’s a matter of survival.”

But it is still important to analyze and document the often overlooked, longer-term climate impacts of the conflict, he said.

“We want to show the world that the damage that Russia is doing with these acts of aggression is not only within Ukraine, but impacts the whole world through the additional emissions of greenhouse gases, which is everyone’s problem,” he said.

Global commitments to keep warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels are already slipping out of reach.

Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, who was not involved in the research, said the report highlighted the crucial impact of war on the world’s ability to tackle climate change

The war in Ukraine has shown the importance of understanding the climate impact of warfare, de Klerk said, adding: “It’s something that we simply cannot continue to ignore.”

The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has sparked fears of an ecological catastrophe, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describing the situation as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction.”

Water levels on Wednesday continued to rise after the Russian-occupied dam and hydro-electric power plant was destroyed early Tuesday, forcing more than 1,400 people to flee their homes and threatening vital water supplies as flooding inundated towns, cities and farmland.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the dam’s destruction, without providing concrete proof that the other is culpable. It is not yet clear whether the dam was deliberately attacked or whether the breach was the result of structural failure. 

Zelensky, however, said Russia bears “criminal liability” and Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam incident as a case of “ecocide.”

“The consequences of the tragedy will be clear in a week. When the water goes away, it will become clear what is left and what will happen next,” he said.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said Wednesday that it is investigating the incident as a war crime and as possible “ecocide,” or criminal environmental destruction.

“Ukraine has initiated proceedings over this crime, qualifying it as a violation of the laws and customs of war and ecocide. It has caused severe long-term damage to people and the environment,” Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said in a meeting Wednesday, according to a readout from his office.

“The consequences are catastrophic. More than 40,000 people have been affected. Homes and infrastructure have been destroyed, land has become unsuitable for agriculture, and water supply has been disrupted in a number of regions, both in the government-controlled areas and in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia,” the readout added.

Concerns are now turning to the dangers to wildlife, farmlands, settlements and water supplies from the floodwaters and possible contamination from industrial chemicals and oil leaked from the hydropower plant into the Dnipro River.

“First of all, the Kakhovka reservoir is likely to be drained to zero, and we understand that the number of fish will gradually go down,” said Ihor Syrota, the CEO of Ukrhydroenergo.

“Four-hundred tons of turbine oil is always there, in the units and in the block transformers that are usually installed on this equipment,” Syrota said. “It all depends on the level of destruction of the units and this equipment… If the damage is extensive, then all the oil will leak out.”

Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets said at least 150 metric tons of oil from the dam have leaked into the Dnipro and the environmental damage had been estimated at 50 million euros ($53.8 million), according to Reuters.

One environmental expert warned of the potential damage that the oil spill could cause. “Just 1 litre of oil can contaminate 1 million liters of water. So 150 tons will have numerous impacts on Ukrainian water resources and the environment,” said Yevheniia Zasiadko, Head of Climate Department at Kyiv-based environmental non-profit Ecoaction. “Oil spreads over the surface in a thin layer that stops oxygen from getting to the plants and animals that live in the water,” she said.

Gas stations and sewage treatment plants along the river also pose an additional risk of water pollution, Zasiadko said.

Strilets said downstream wildlife species found nowhere else in the world were in jeopardy, including the sandy blind mole-rat. Ukraine’s Black Sea Biosphere Reserve and two national parks were also likely to be heavily damaged, he added, Reuters reported.

The flooding has already killed 300 animals at the Nova Kakhovka zoo, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday the dam collapse was an “ecological catastrophe” with the destruction of newly planted crops and massive flooding “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

Farming and food threats as millions in need of assistance

Before its collapse, the critical Nova Kakhovka dam was the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume.

It’s the last of the cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine, and supplied water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014.

There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, the UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said its collapse is possibly the “most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The dam, Griffiths said, is a lifeline in the region, being a critical water source for millions of people in Kherson as well as the Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia regions, and a key source of agricultural irrigation in southern Kherson and the Crimean peninsula – impacting farming and food production.

The Ukrainian Agricultural Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of agricultural land are expected to flood on the right bank, the west side controlled by Ukraine, following the collapse. “It was several times more on the left bank,” the statement added.

The collapse has left 94% of irrigation systems in Kherson, 74% in Zaporizhzhia and 30% in Dnipro regions “without a source of water,” according to the Ukrainian Agricultural Ministry. The ministry added that the dam will lead to “fields in southern Ukraine perhaps turning into deserts.”

Severe impact is also expected in Russian-occupied areas where humanitarian agencies are still struggling to gain access, he added.

“The damage caused by the dam’s destruction means that life will become intolerably harder for those already suffering from the conflict,” Griffiths said.

Between 35 and 80 settlements were expected to be flooded due to the breach, Zelensky said, and aid efforts are ongoing to get drinking water, hygiene kits and other supplies to affected neighborhoods.

As the area is on the front lines of the conflict, the rising water brought with it an added danger of mine and explosive ordnance contamination.

“This is both a water element and a mine hazard, because mines float here and this area is constantly under fire,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s regional military administration, who has been overseeing rescue efforts.

Griffiths said projectiles like mines risk being displaced to areas previously assessed as safe.

Mohammad Heidarzadeh, senior lecturer in the department of architecture and civil engineering at the University of Bath in England, said the Kakhovka reservoir is one of the largest dams in the world in terms of capacity.

“It is obvious that the failure of this dam will definitely have extensive long-term ecological and environmental negative consequences not only for Ukraine but for neighboring countries and regions,” Heidarzadeh told Science Media Centre on Tuesday, adding the facility was an “embankment” dam, which means it was made of gravel and rock with a clay core in the middle.

“These types of dams are extremely vulnerable, and are usually washed away quickly in case of a partial breach… a partial damage is sufficient to cause a complete collapse of the dam because water flow can easily wash away the soil materials of the dam body in just a few hours,” he added.

Falling water supplies

Both Moscow and Kyiv noted the humanitarian and environmental consequences, while blaming each other for the dam’s destruction.

The Russian-appointed acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said the collapse of the dam led to “a large, but not critical” amount of water flowing down the Dnipro which resulted in the washout of agricultural fields along the coast and disruption of civilian infrastructure.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the dam breach “has caused devastating damage to the farmland in the region and the ecosystem at the mouth of the Dnieper river.”

“The inevitable drop in the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir will affect Crimea’s water supply and will hinder the improvement of agricultural land in the Kherson region,” it said.

Several Ukrainian regions that receive some of their water supply from the reservoir of the Nova Kakhovka dam are making efforts to conserve water.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, where about 70% of the city of Kryvyi Rih was supplied by the reservoir, Ukrainian authorities have asked people to “stock technical water and drinking water” and businesses to limit consumption and banned the use of hoses.

The reservoir also supplies water to the upstream Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk” at the plant, water from the reservoir is used to cool its reactors and emergency diesel generators.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the UN nuclear watchdog’s staff on site have been told the reservoir is draining at 5 centimeters (2 inches) an hour and it is “estimated” that water used for the mainline of cooling “should last for a few days.”

However, should the reservoir drop below the pumping level there “are a number of alternative sources of water,” Grossi said, with the main one being the “large cooling pond next to the site.”

“It is estimated this pond will be sufficient to provide water for cooling for some months,” he added.

Pope Francis underwent a successful, three-hour operation on his abdomen, the Vatican said Wednesday, after renewed fears over the 86-year-old’s fragile health.

There were no reported complications, the Vatican said. It had earlier said the pope would remain in the hospital for several days.

Francis reacted well to the surgery and to the anesthesia, and had already made a joke since, according to one of the doctors involved in the procedure.

“He has been in pain. This wasn’t an urgent surgery …. He continued to feel the pain, so a surgery was decided yesterday,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri said at a press conference in Rome.

“Other pathologies or illnesses were not found,” Alfieri said, adding that the pope has resumed his work from hospital.

“Now he is awake, he is fine, and he is already at work.” Francis will remain in the hospital for around 10 days for recovery, the doctor said.

On Thursday, the Vatican spokesperson, Matteo Bruni, said “the night went well” following the surgery and that more information would be released later in the day, according to an official statement on the Vatican’s press office Telegram account.

The pope was forced to cancel several work commitments in late May after he was debilitated by a fever. He was also hospitalized in March for bronchitis but responded well to antibiotics. Leaving hospital on that occasion, Francis joked that he’s “still alive.”

Technically called a laparotomy, Wednesday’s procedure involves general anesthesia and is intended to repair a hernia that the Vatican said was causing “recurrent, painful and worsening” symptoms.

According to medical sources, the intervention is likely related to the surgery Francis experienced in 2021 to remove half of his colon.

Bruni said before the procedure that the pope was expected to make a “full functional recovery.” The Prefecture of the Papal Household said all of Francis’ audiences have been canceled until June 18.

Francis left for hospital on Wednesday after his general audience at St. Peter’s Square, where he stopped to chat with members of the crowd, Reuters reported. The pope then traveled to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a 10th-floor suite reserved for popes, according to Reuters.

“I went to the audience today and saw the pope. Then we heard the mass and the priest said to say a prayer for the pope. We are praying for Pope Francis now,” Sister Annatuli, 40, said.

Carina, 30, said she had traveled from Mexico to visit her aunt, who is a nun in Rome. “I can comprehend how serious this is. It’s difficult because so many people are devoted to him and the church.

“We hope that he will recover.”

In addition to his colon surgery two years ago, Francis had part of one lung removed after a severe bout of pneumonia as a young man. More recently, in 2019, he underwent ocular surgery at Rome’s Clinic of Pius XI to treat a cataract. He has also struggled with chronic sciatica pain.

Over the past year, he experienced knee troubles that have largely confined him to the use of a cane or a wheelchair.

Should Francis be incapacitated for any length of time, the Vatican could find itself facing something of a constitutional crisis. There is no “vice pope” in the Catholic system, meaning someone who can exercise the pope’s authority in his absence.

The Vatican’s secretary of state, currently Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, can oversee routine day-to-day management, but he has no authority, for example, to appoint bishops or to create or suppress dioceses around the world.

Resignation letter was prepared

In an interview with Spanish daily ABC in December, Francis said he had already prepared a letter of resignation in the case of permanent medical incapacity shortly after his election in 2013.

Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.

In his first public comments about the letter’s existence, the pope was quoted as saying: “I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation.’”

In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing “advanced age” as the reason and startling the Catholic world.

It marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

The pope has positioned himself as a more progressive leader than his predecessors during his decade-long tenure.

In 2016, he urged priests around the world to be more accepting of LGBTQ communities, but later walked back on comments declaring support for civil union for same-sex couples.

He has made historic visits to Myanmar and Iraq, and was also the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in 2019. The pope has also been a vocal supporter for peace in Ukraine.

Francis has also taken steps to crack down on clerical sexual abuse, an issue the Catholic Church has been plagued by in several countries around the world.

Pope Francis was recovering well in a Rome hospital on Thursday, the day after the 86-year-old had abdominal surgery that renewed health fears.

“The night went well,” said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni, in a statement on the Vatican’s press office Telegram account.

Francis spent a “peaceful night managing to rest for a long time” and is in “good general condition, alert and breathing easily,” a Vatican spokesperson told reporters Thursday.

“The pope is informed of the messages of closeness and affection that have arrived in the last few hours and expresses his gratitude, at the same time asking to continue to pray for him,” said the spokesman.

The pope will spend the remainder of the day resting, as advised by his medical staff.

Francis left for hospital on Wednesday after his general audience at St. Peter’s Square, where he stopped to chat with members of the crowd. The pope then traveled to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, which has a 10th-floor suite reserved for popes, according to Reuters.

“This wasn’t an urgent surgery,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the surgeon who operated on Pope Francis, said at a press conference.

“He continued to feel the pain, so a surgery was decided,” Alfieri said.

There were no reported complications, according to the Vatican. It had earlier said the pope would stay in hospital for several days.

Francis reacted well to the surgery and to the anesthesia, and had already made a joke since the operation, Alfieri said.

“Other pathologies or illnesses were not found,” Alfieri said, adding that the pope has resumed his work from hospital.

Pope’s fragile health

This operation is the latest in a series of health scares surrounding Pope Francis.

He was forced to cancel several work commitments in late may after he was debilitated by a fever. He was also hospitalized in March for bronchitis, but recovered after taking antibiotics.

When he left hospital on that occasion, Francis joked that he’s “still alive.”

Wednesday’s procedure – called a laparotomy – involved general anesthesia and is intended to repair a hernia that the Vatican said caused “recurrent, painful and worsening” symptoms.

Medical sources say that the intervention was likely related to the surgery Francis underwent in 2021, which removed half of his colon.

Francis also had one part of his lung removed after a severe bout of pneumonia as a young man. In 2019, he had ocular surgery to treat a cataract. He has also struggled with chronic sciatica pain.

Over the past year, knee troubles have also largely confined him to the use of a cane or a wheelchair.

Should Francis be incapacitated for any length of time, the Vatican could face a constitutional crisis. There is no “vice pope” in the Catholic system, meaning someone who can exercise the pope’s authority in his absence.

The Vatican’s secretary of state, currently Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, can oversee routine day-to-day management, but he has no authority, for example, to appoint bishops or to create or suppress dioceses around the world.

Bruni said before the procedure that the pope was expected to make a “full functional recovery.” The Prefecture of the Papal Household said all of Francis’ audiences have been canceled until June 18.

“I went to the audience today and saw the pope. Then we heard the mass and the priest said to say a prayer for the pope. We are praying for Pope Francis now,” Sister Annatuli, 40, said.

Carina, 30, said she had traveled from Mexico to visit her aunt, who is a nun in Rome. “I can comprehend how serious this is. It’s difficult because so many people are devoted to him and the church.

“We hope that he will recover.”

Resignation letter written in advance

In an interview with Spanish daily ABC in December, Francis said he had already prepared a letter of resignation in the case of permanent medical incapacity shortly after his election in 2013.

Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.

In his first public comments about the letter’s existence, the pope was quoted as saying: “I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation.’”

Papal resignations are exceedingly rare. In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, because the first pope to step down in nearly 600 years, citing “advanced age” as his reason.

In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, the late Pope Benedict XVI, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing “advanced age” as the reason and startling the Catholic world.

The decision startled the Catholic world. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

Pope Francis has positioned himself as a more progressive leader than his predecessors during his decade-long tenure.

In 2016, he urged priests around the world to be more accepting of LGBTQ communities, but later walked back on comments declaring support for civil union for same-sex couples.

He has made historic visits to Myanmar and Iraq, and was also the first pontiff to celebrate Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in 2019.

The pope has also been a vocal supporter for peace in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met the pope at the Vatican in May.

Francis has also taken steps to address clerical sexual abuse – an issue that has dogged the Catholic Church around the world – saying in 2018 that young Catholics have been “scandalized” by the church’s “monstrous” abuse crisis.

Five years after #MeToo took the world by storm, Taiwan, a liberal democracy that has prided itself on gender equality, is facing its own reckoning over sexual harassment – brought about by a hit Netflix series.

The series, “Wave Makers,” follows the fictitious lives of a team of campaign staffers in the run-up to a presidential election in Taiwan. Though branded as a political drama, it is the show’s sexual harassment plot line that has attracted the most attention and made waves in real life.

Since late May, the show has sparked more than a dozen real-life #MeToo accusations involving political figures on the self-ruling island, as it too gears up for a presidential election in January.

With tensions between Taipei and Beijing running at their highest in decades, the fallout from the #MeToo revelations risks adding more uncertainty to the all-important presidential race.

The allegations have rocked the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), prompting resignations in its upper ranks and public apologies from President Tsai Ing-wen.

“As the former party chairman, I should bear full responsibility,” Tsai wrote in a Facebook post on June 2, pledging to “reflect on our mistakes.”

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party has also been hit, and has vowed to probe a sexual harassment allegation against one of its lawmakers.

Since then, the storm has spread from the center of political power to other parts of society, with a growing list of allegations hitting academia, sports and cultural circles as well as the island’s exiled mainland Chinese dissident community.

The turn of events took the creators of “Wave Makers” by surprise. They said they had not expected such an impact and were now witnessing “high waves” being made every day.

“Cases have been popping up in all walks of life recently, and you can see why it resonates,” said Chien Li-ying, who co-wrote the script with Nina Peng. “There had been so many incidents like this, but they couldn’t be discussed or told.”

Since its release in late April, the hugely popular show has provided a common language for discussions about sexual harassment, said Wen-Ti Sung, a political analyst based in Taipei.

“It also gave victims who came forward a common reference point around which they could rally support and strengthen solidarity,” he said.

‘Let’s not just let this go’

A central rallying point for Taiwan’s #MeToo reckoning is a powerful line from one of the best known scenes in “Wave Makers” involving two of the show’s main characters.

In it, one of the characters, a senior party member, promises to seek redress for an incident in which a junior staffer had been groped by a colleague, despite pressure from higher up to hush up.

“Let’s not just let this go, OK? We can’t let things go this easily. Otherwise, we’ll slowly wither away and die,” she tells her.

The line was referenced at the top of a Facebook post that kicked off the whole #MeToo storm.

In the post, a former DPP staffer claimed her supervisor dismissed her workplace sexual harassment complaints and discouraged her from reporting the incident formally.

Her account drew an outpouring of support online and a swift apology from William Lai, the DPP’s chairman and presidential candidate. The former supervisor, who had risen to become a senior party official, was suspended the next day and later resigned.

The case encouraged dozens of others to come forward with their own stories, including allegations against Wang Dan, an exiled leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests. Wang, who was accused by a man of attempted rape, has vehemently denied the accusations.

Kang Ting-yu, an associate professor specializing in gender and media studies at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said after watching the show, many sexual harassment victims felt they shouldn’t “just let it go.”

In addition to posting on social media, some have filed sexual harassment complaints through official channels, Kang said.

“I know of multiple cases where they explicitly said they were inspired by the show,” she said.

Chien, the scriptwriter, said the line “let’s not just let it go” embodies their aspirations for an ideal society, where the “the victims could be helped, supported and told that they don’t need to blame themselves.”

In reality, she said, most sexual harassment victims were told to “let it go,” especially in organizations with a strong common goal. “The victims are prone to self-censor, because they are afraid what they say would spoil the bigger cause,” she said.

Such culture of self-sacrifice is deep rooted in Taiwan’s political reality, where the “big picture” often comes above everything else, Chien said.

“It seems like the issue of sexual harassment and assault has been suppressed all along – as if we’ve been swallowing it for a bigger political cause and sacrificing ourselves for the sake of the bigger picture,” she said.

Following the accusations, some DPP supporters have criticized the victims for jeopardizing the party’s presidential election campaign. Others have blamed Wang’s accuser for sabotaging the overseas pro-democracy movement against the Chinese Communist Party, noting the allegations emerged just days before the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre.

Tsai, Taiwan’s President, has called on the public not to blame the victims and cause them secondary harm.

‘It’s just the beginning’

As Taiwan’s first female President, Tsai has prided her government’s efforts on improving gender equality, especially female participation in politics.

Women account for 42% of Taiwan’s parliament – well above the average of 21% in Asia and also higher than North America’s 37%, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Taiwan is also at the forefront of LGBTQ equality in the region. In 2019, it became the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

But workplace sexual harassment is still prevalent and those who decide to seek justice could face a daunting and grueling process, experts say.

“Even the protagonists in ‘Wave Makers’ might not be able to persevere in our system,” said Kang at the National Chengchi University.

The woman, surnamed Liao, said it took her two attempts to have the police register her report of sexual harassment, and a year for a government agency “mediating” her case to rule that her allegations were substantiated.

She said she was then told by the agency that she could take the case to court, but as a fresh graduate, she had no financial means to fund a lawsuit. “In the end, I let it go,” she said.

Liao criticized “Wave Makers” for painting too “rosy” a picture on how sexual harassment complaints are handled at the workplace, but she is happy to see the impact the show has had.

“If Taiwan’s #MeToo wave has come five years late, it would be great if we could seize the opportunity to reform the outdated laws on sexual harassment,” she said.

Many experts are now calling for reforms. “The reporting mechanisms of sexual harassment cases in organizations, such as the assurance of protecting the victims’ anonymity, need to be improved,” Kang said.

More education and awareness campaigns on sexual misconduct, as well as new legislation against online sexual violence, are also essential, said Lu Sheng-yen, an assistant professor of gender studies at National Taiwan Normal University.

As more and more people came forward with experiences of sexual harassment, the island’s President issued a second apology on Tuesday and pledged wide-ranging reforms.

The government will reexamine and improve the existing mechanisms for reporting sexual harassment complaints and push to amend laws on gender equality, Tsai said.

“Our society as a whole must educate ourselves again,” Tsai said in a Facebook post. “The people who have been sexually harassed are victims, not wrongdoers. These are people we must protect, not treat with prejudice.”

For the show’s scriptwriters, Taiwan’s #MeToo moment has not fully arrived.

“I think it’s just the beginning, the first step,” Peng said, citing the lack of social consensus on the support for sexual harassment victims.

Chien said the #MeToo reckoning should not be limited to progressive circles or organizations. “Only when it happens across society – including in more conservative circles, and people are still willing to come forward – will it be the real #MeToo moment.”