Helgi Björnsson, glaciologist and professor emeritus at the Earth Sciences Institute of the University of Iceland, believes that it is extremely dangerous to offer trips to ice caves during the summer. The caves are constantly changing during the summer when the glacier is moving more. You should wait until autumn to go on such trips.

Moscow’s trade representative in Nigeria says the first shipments of cocoa beans from the African state will arrive in Russia this autumn Read Full Article at RT.com

Several other French government sites were also attacked following the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in Paris Read Full Article at RT.com

The ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church violates freedom of worship and is “unacceptable,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Read Full Article at RT.com

The institute has managed the Samoilovsky Island year-round research station since 2012, when it was built at the initiative of Russia's prime minister

The company has been using advanced technologies, he continued, and, due to sanctions, it had to replace part of the equipment

On Monday, an unnamed former French MP showed Politico on his phone that Macron was displayed as having been connected to the messaging platform «recently»

The top Russian dimplomat recalled that in the past, when Russian authorities had legal issues with Telegram, «no attempts to restrict the freedom of Pavel Durov or his team took place»

That said, after the contract expires Ukraine will make a decision about the transit of Russian gas through its territory to Europe jointly with the EU, the president noted

Although the fleet of Spanish purse seiners registered in Seychelles have noted a drop in catch for the yellowfin tuna in 2023, the first half of 2024 seems to be back to the normal average, said the deputy manager of OPAGAC, Miguel Herrera. The OPAGAC-AGAC group represents the interests of six Spanish seiners out of the 13 seiners registered in Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean. OPAGAC is an organisation of producers of frozen tuna recognised in Spain by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, while AGAC is the Association of Large Tuna Freezers and currently has nine groups of shipowners. Every year, the Seychelles-flagged vessels are legally required to declare their catch for the year on December 31, and usually, vessels start reaching their limit towards the end of October or the beginning of November. This is, however, vessel-specific as each one manages its quota differently. Last year, since the vessels were behind on their quota, they were still at sea until the end of December. To ensure that these vessels did not miss the start of the season at the beginning of January, they were allowed to remain at sea and granted permission to declare their catch for 2023 two weeks later on January 15.   Herrera said, «Yes, there were vessels from AGAC that remained at sea over the end of the year, as they had not reached their YFT catch limits. All Seychelles-flagged purse seiners have logbooks onboard and skippers are obliged to report catches in those logbooks, per fishing set and species. Therefore, the SFA (Seychelles Fishing Authority) can monitor the catches in near-real time and assign them to the year in which the catch limit applies.» Herrera highlighted the country's privileged position in the Indian Ocean, being at the centre of purse seine activity. (Joe Laurence, Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY  He noted that «this has been the system used by other members of IOTC (Indian Ocean Tuna Commission), like Spain and France, since the implementation of catch limits for the monitoring of catches against the limits assigned to each purse seiner. This system assists Seychelles to fully utilise its catch limits, reducing the time in the port of purse seiners and ensuring a longer economic activity and supply to the canning factory in Seychelles.» Herrera surmised that the drop last year may have been due to natural phenomena such as El Nino, but for this year, they were maintaining the normal average so far. «The fleet has noted a drop in catchability of yellowfin tuna during 2023, which was very likely driven by oceanographic conditions. During 2023, the thermocline was allegedly deeper, and the fish targeted by surface fisheries was more spread over the water column, some beyond the range of purse seine nets, which may reach depths of around 150-200m, depending on the currents. However, in 2024 everything seems to be back to normal, with catches of YFT at normal average levels according to skippers.» Yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean is currently the most overfished tuna stock in the world. In 2016, the IOTC adopted a resolution reducing the fishing allowance of the species by 15 percent to help rebuild the population. Given these limits and the possibility of catchability being affected by natural phenomena, Herrera said, «The fleet tries to adapt to the circumstances as they come, using the technology at hand. Fishing is always subject to management rules and the availability of tuna schools, which may be caught as either free-swimming schools or associated with fishing objects. In recent years, shipowners and skippers have been obliged to plan properly their fishing activities, bearing in mind the catch limits in place. The recent adoption by the IOTC of catch limits for the bigeye tuna may also bring changes in the future, as the fleet adapts to both yellowfin and bigeye catch limits.» Given Seychelles' position geographically, Herrera highlighted the country's privileged position in the Indian Ocean, being at the centre of purse seine activity. He emphasised the importance of maintaining a fine balance between further investments as well as certain challenges that may arise on the horizon. «Most of the purse seine fishing occurs in the western central Indian Ocean, in waters within or neighbouring the Seychelles EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). Regarding investments, it is a delicate balance, and we believe that there will be increased competition in the region, as some other coastal countries are trying to develop infrastructure and services for fishing vessels. Considering that Seychelles has been the most important tuna hub in the region for many years, we are confident that the government will keep using their savoir-faire to keep levels of activity where they are now,» he added. Herrera concluded that while the rest of the year is still uncertain regarding the catch levels, they are still hopeful for the future and that «2024 seems to be a normal year, with catches at levels similar to those before 2023. However, it is too early to say whether this will be the situation by the end of the year as this is a very changing world.» «We hope that we will be able to make the best of our fishing opportunities, within the margins established by the IOTC, and the Seychelles government, to ensure the long-term sustainability of our vessels and the resources they depend on. We are also hopeful that the IOTC will be able to resolve all the issues identified at previous YFT assessments and reach a consensus on a fully inclusive YFT management measure. In this regard, we fully appreciate the active role that the Seychelles government has been playing at the regional level and hope that efforts to bring everybody on board will continue,» he said. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke with US President Joe Biden about his visit to Ukraine, with the White House voicing hope that he embraced Kyiv's view on ending Russia's invasion. Modi, who angered Ukrainians by hugging Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow recently, visited Kyiv on Friday and told President Volodymyr Zelensky that «no problem should be solved on the battlefield.» Speaking to Biden by telephone, Modi «reiterated India's consistent position in favor of dialogue and diplomacy and expressed full support for (an) early return of peace and stability,» an Indian foreign ministry statement said. Asked about Biden's response, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the United States supported all countries listening to Zelensky's perspectives on ending the war. «We welcome any other country that wants to help President Zelensky work towards this just peace,» Kirby told reporters. The White House later released a readout of the call that said Biden «commended the prime minister» for «his message of peace and ongoing humanitarian support for Ukraine, including its energy sector.» Modi and Biden «affirmed their continued support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law, on the basis of the UN Charter,» the White House said. Zelensky has called for the return of all territory seized by Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. India has not explicitly backed Zelensky's stance. Despite increasingly close relations with Washington, India has refused to join US sanctions on Moscow, with which it has historic relations, and instead has embraced Russia as a cheaper source of oil. India said that Modi and Biden also discussed Bangladesh, where leader Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi, resigned and fled earlier this month after mass protests against her increasingly authoritarian rule. The Indian statement said that Modi and Biden «emphasized restoration of law and order and ensuring safety and security of the minorities, particularly Hindus, in Bangladesh.» In the immediate aftermath of Hasina's fall, attacks on Hindus across Muslim-majority Bangladesh were reported. The security situation has since far improved. The United States had repeatedly criticized Sheikh Hasina for backsliding on democracy but, knowing that India was far more invested in Bangladesh, had been careful not to clash openly with New Delhi. © Agence France-Presse

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced a global climate «SOS» at a Pacific islands summit on Tuesday, unveiling research that shows the region's seas rising much more swiftly than global averages. «I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS -- Save Our Seas -- on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril» he said. Sparsely populated and with few heavy industries, the Pacific islands collectively pump out less than 0.02 percent of global emissions every year. But this vast arc of volcanic islands and low-lying coral atolls also inhabits a tropical corridor that is rapidly threatened by encroaching oceans. The World Meterological Organisation has been monitoring tide gauges installed on the Pacific's famed beaches since the early 1990s. A new report released by the top UN climate monitoring body showed seas had risen by around 15 centimetres in some parts of the Pacific in the last 30 years. The global average was 9.4 centimetres, according to the report. «It is increasingly evident that we are fast running out of time to turn the tide,» said the forecasting agency's top official Celeste Saulo. Some sites, particularly in Kiribati and Cook Islands, measured a rise that matched or was just under the global average. But other sites, such as the capital cities of Samoa and Fiji, were rising almost three times higher. In low-lying Pacific nation Tuvalu, land is already so scarce that throngs of children use the tarmac at the international airport as their own makeshift playground. Scientists have warned that, even under some moderate scenarios, Tuvalu could be almost entirely wiped off the map within the next 30 years. «It's disaster after disaster, and we are losing the capacity to rebuild, to withstand another cyclone or another flood,» Tuvalu Climate Minister Maina Talia told AFP on the summit's sidelines. «For low-lying island states, it's a matter of survival for us.» The plight of Pacific islands has been easily overlooked in the past, given their relative isolation and lack of economic might. But the region is increasingly seen by scientists as a climate canary in the coal mine, hinting at the troubles possibly facing other parts of the planet. «This new report confirms what Pacific leaders have been saying for years,» Australian climate researcher Wes Morgan told AFP. «Climate change is their top security threat. Pacific nations are in a fight for survival, and cutting climate pollution is key to their future.» Surrounded by millions of square miles of tropical ocean, the South Pacific is uniquely threatened by sea-level rise. The vast majority of people live within five kilometres of the coast, according to the United Nations. Rising seas are swallowing up scarce land and tainting vital food and water sources. Warmer waters are also fuelling more intense natural disasters, while ocean acidification slowly kills the reefs that nourish key marine food chains. © Agence France-Presse

MOGADISHU (Xinhua) -- Lido Beach in the Somali capital of Mogadishu used to be a popular hangout spot surrounded by striking beach hotels and restaurants, which were a favorite for many Somalis who spent time with family and friends and enjoyed the beauty of the Somali coastline.

China says Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia share its concerns about the West easing rules governing Kiev’s use of its weapons in Russia Read Full Article at RT.com

The coming winter will be the most difficult in the country’s modern history, the energy minister has warned Read Full Article at RT.com

The US wants “total control” of social media, which is why it had Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested, Vyacheslav Volodin has claimed Read Full Article at RT.com

Elon Musk has urged French President Emmanuel Macron to share more details about the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov  Read Full Article at RT.com

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal has explained how his government intends to cover budget expenses through tax hikes and borrowing Read Full Article at RT.com

The relations between Russia and Yemen are «of fundamental nature,» while Moscow has always played a notable role in supporting the republic and its people, Yemeni Foreign Minister Shaya Mohsen al-Zindani stressed

The deputy director for personnel at the Kursk NPP emphasized the importance of responding promptly to concerns and addressing issues that affect the work environment and morale of staff

Sergey Ryabkov recalled that the «Chinese colleagues first put forward a proposal for concluding such an agreement back in 1994»

The Ukrainian leader did not share details about the missile

The operational situation is under control, the plant's press service reported, citing Deputy Director for Personnel Management Vadim Yeletskikh

The Metropolitan Police said 230 people were arrested at the Notting Hill Carnival yesterday on top of the 104 on Sunday's 'Family Day' which saw a mother stabbed in front of her young child.

Ukraine has endured a second night of deadly Russian air strikes just hours after a 'massive' bombardment saw energy infrastructure and civilian buildings hit by drones and hypersonic missiles.

A family attended the restaurant in the southern area of ​​Arezzo to celebrate their mother's birthday after asking in advance whether they can bring a cake from the pastry shop.

Workers in hi viz jackets were seen out on the streets of West London in the early hours of Tuesday morning clearing huge piles of food packages, drink cans and laughing gas canisters.

The gold-medal winning Paralympian, 54, said she arrived into London King's Cross station around 10pm yesterday and there were no workers there.

A suspected bot campaign surrounding a recent Pierre Poilievre event shows that generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are easily accessible to anyone looking to influence political messaging online, researchers have found.

It's apparent that Canadians bagging their own groceries has become the norm at many grocery stores. CBC News explores how we got to this point and why some shoppers aren't happy about it.

A Toronto-based Uber driver spends nearly half an hour most days walking back and forth between an on-street electric vehicle charging station and his home. John Chen says he could cut that walk down to eight minutes each way if the city allowed him to use a closer charging station in his neighbouring permit parking zone.

Two kayakers reached new horizons this summer, paddling by every coast and cliff around the island of Newfoundland.

Quebec police have issued an Amber Alert for five-year-old Shi Gao Getty.

Vladimir Putin said at a meeting earlier that the fight against inflation should be primarily based on the growth of the supply of goods and services

«As a major naval power, Russia is interested in ensuring strategic stability at sea,» Nikolay Patrushev stressed