Jambi - Kasus ular piton makan manusia kembali terjadi di Tanah Air. Kali ini korbannya seorang wanita paruh baya bernama Zahra (54), warga Dusun Betara 8, Desa Terjun Gajah, Kecamatan Betara, Kabupaten Tanjungjabung Barat.
Tragis, Zahra ternyata dimakan ular piton yang panjangnya tujuh meter. Sebelumnya, pihak keluarga menyatakan korban hilang lantaran tak kunjung pulang.
"Setelah dilakukan pencarian akhirnya korban ditemukan dari kecurigaan warga pada seekor ular piton yang berada di kebun warga," kata Kepala Desa Terjun Gajah, Anton kepada media, hari Senin, 24/10/2022.
Kejadian bermula pada hari Jumat, 21/10/2022 saat korban pergi ke kebun untuk memotong karet.
Warga menangkap dan membelah isi perut ular sanca, didalamnya ada ibu paruh baya.
Namun, hingga sore korban tidak kunjung pulang ke rumah yang kemudian dilaporkan hilang setelah sempat dicari keluarga dan warga.
"Kita sudah melakukan pencarian dari Minggu malam dan setelah kita lanjutkan pencarian pada hari ini, masyarakat melihat dan menemukan ular piton yang besar yang ada di semak perkebunan warga," kata Anton.
Dari temuan ular piton atau sanca itulah warga curiga ular tersebut memakan Zahra.
Setelah dilakukan pengecekan dan memotong ular tersebut ternyata benar korban berada dalam perut ular piton itu.
"Setelah kita tangkap memang benar ibu tersebut ada di dalam perut ular dan kemudian dilakukan pembelahan tubuh ular dan mengangkat korban dari dalam perut ular besar itu" kata Anton.
Saat dikeluarkan dari dalam perut ular tersebut kondisi korban dalam keadaan utuh akan tetapi, kemungkinan ada patah patah tulang.
"Ya kemungkinan patah ada dikarenakan di dalam perut ular itu," kata Anton.
Saat ini jenazah korban sedang disemayamkan di rumah duka untuk selanjutnya dikebumikan.
Anton pun mengimbau kepada masyarakat sekitar dan warganya untuk berhati hati saat kekebun.
"Masyarakat yang pergi kekebun perlu waspada dan harus berhati hati." kata Anton.
Students stand in a parking lot near the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School after a reported shooting at the school in St. Louis, on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. David Carson—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP
Ashooting at a St. Louis magnet high school has left two people dead and another six injured, local authorities said during a press conference Monday morning. The suspected gunman, thought to be in his 20s, was killed after a shootout with police.
The victims have not been identified, but one teenage girl and one woman were killed. The victims taken to the hospital had injuries ranging from shrapnel wounds to cardiac arrest.
Police officers were informed about the shooting just after 9 a.m. as hundreds of students, faculty, and staff members fled Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, located on the south side of St. Louis.
Police officers were informed about the shooting just after 9 a.m. as hundreds of students, faculty, and staff members fled Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, located on the south side of St. Louis.
“I’m heartbroken for these families who send their children to our schools hoping that they will be safe,” said St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones at the press conference. “Our children shouldn’t have to experience this, they shouldn’t have to go through active shooter drills in case something happens. And unfortunately that happened today.”
What happened?
About 9:10 a.m., a gunman was reported at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School. Onsite security guards quickly noticed the shooter, who was reportedly armed with a long gun, was struggling to enter through the school’s locked doors. The principal warned students over the loudspeaker that an active shooter was on site.
It’s unclear how the gunman was able to enter the school.
Officers arrived at the school within minutes and ran to the sound of gunshots, police said. They exchanged gunfire with the shooter, who was killed.
By 9:30 am, the school was blocked off by police, ambulances, and a SWAT van, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Police said the threat to the school is over, though the investigation unit is on site and will conduct a more thorough examination and interview students in the coming days.
What do we know about the suspect?
Lt. Col. Michael Sack, St. Louis’ Interim Police Commissioner, says the suspect has not yet been identified. Authorities believe he is 20 years old.
Though the shooter’s connection to the school remains unknown, Taniya Gholston, a 16-year-old student at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, told the Post-Dispatch that the shooter said something along the lines of being “sick of this damn school.”
Police believe they have located the suspect’s vehicle, which will be searched after bomb dogs do a check.
What do we know about the victims?
Eight people were transported to local hospitals, out of which one adult female has since been pronounced dead.
Police also said that one teenage girl who was shot and killed remains at the crime scene in the school. Identities of the victims have not been publicly shared.
Police have not shared the occupation of the adult woman who died, and are waiting for next of kin to confirm her relationship to the school.
Others continue to be treated, but there are no updates on their conditions.
Parents were told to reunite with their children at Gateway Stem High School.
Monday is United Nations Day – a holiday celebrating the anniversary of the day the intergovernmental organization was established on October 24,1945. In the three quarters of a century since its founding, the UN has proven successful in its main goal: preventing World War III. On other fronts, the organization’s record is far more modest.
The United Nations is “made for” times of crisis like the one the world is presently experiencing, Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said.
“The United Nations is the product of hope. The hope – and resolve – following the Second World War to move beyond global conflict to global cooperation. Today, our organization is being tested like never before. But the United Nations was made for moments like this. Now, more than ever, we need to bring to life the values and principles of the UN Charter in every corner of the world. By giving peace a chance and ending conflicts that jeopardize lives, futures and global progress,” Guterres wrote in his official congratulatory message on UN Day.
Since its creation 77 years ago by the victorious powers in World War II, the UN has proven instrumental in helping to resolve or at least temper dozens of civil, regional and global conflicts, from the Indo-Pakistan wars to the seemingly eternal Arab-Israeli conflict and the forty-year Cold War between the USSR and the USA, which saw the planet come dangerously close to nuclear Armageddon on multiple occasions.
From the early 1990s onward, through lavish funding and vigorous diplomatic courting, the United States sought to turn the UN and other international institutions into arms of the State Department, hoping to create the post-Cold War unipolar “New World Order” declared by former President George H.W. Bush in late 1991. But these efforts have not always proven successful, with the overwhelming majority of nations (including most of America’s allies) refusing to endorse the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and most of the Global South rejecting the West’s efforts to bully them into submission to condemn Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.
Unlike its League of Nations predecessor, which collapsed into irrelevance after Germany withdrew from the body in late 1933, the UN has managed to remain a truly representative international authority, with its 193 member states representing over 99 percent of the world’s population, and all of the planet’s major powers. The organization’s endurance can be credited in part to the work of Andrei Gromyko – the Soviet diplomat-turned Cold War foreign minister instructed to enshrine the right of veto into the authority of each of the five permanent Security Council members during negotiations on the UN’s creation. The right of veto has stopped resolutions on key global security issues from becoming popularity contests and, for the most part, have prevented the international organization from being turned into a tool allowing one major power or bloc to pursue its interests.
The UN’s current setup allows nations to take their grievances directly to the body, have their perspective heard, and hopefully resolve conflicts before they escalate into a regional or global conflagration that could end humanity. For conflicts in progress, the UN is a key platform for brokering ceasefires and peace agreements, or at least facilitating talks between combatants. Pending approval from warring parties, the UN can deploy peacekeepers to put new conflicts on ice, or prevent frozen ones from reigniting.
Korean Crisis
But the UN has not always lived up to its role as peacekeeper. 72 years ago, the body faced the very real prospect of its own dissolution after voting to intervene militarily in the Korean crisis at Washington’s behest. On June 27, 1950, taking advantage of the Soviet boycott of the Security Council in protest of China’s UN seat being held by the Kuomintang government, rather than the People’s Republic, the US and its allies rammed through a Security Council resolution authorizing the deployment of UN troops to Korea under what would nominally become a ‘United Nations Command’.
Over 370,000 troops from 22 countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Turkey, Australia, and the Philippines fought in Korea under the UN flag, with the three year conflict claiming three million lives, and leveling 85 percent of North Korea’s infrastructure using more bomb tonnage than was used in the entire Pacific Theater in World War II. After China’s entry into the conflict in late 1950, US President Harry Truman and UN Command chief Douglas MacArthur pondered using nuclear weapons. Fortunately for the world, the situation never escalated to that stage, and in July 1953, an armistice was signed. Moscow learned its lesson, and in the years and decades since, the UN has never again been authorized to intervene directly into a nation-to-nation or regional warzone flying the UN flag.
Cambodian Quagmire
The Cambodian Genocide of 1975 and 1979, which saw the extermination of between 1.5 and 2 million people by the ultra-nationalist, ultra-Maoist Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime, is an embarrassing example of the UN’s capacity for complacency, as well as the cold, calculating logic of realpolitik and ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ logic.
After toppling the previous government in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge inherited Cambodia’s seat at the United Nations. Even as the years wore on and evidence of Pol Pot’s brutality began to mount, particularly after the Vietnamese military intervened to topple Pol Pot in 1978, dogged US and Chinese intransigence at the UN led to an bizarre situation in which the intergovernmental organization continued to recognize the Khmer Rouge government even after it was driven out of Phnom Penh in January 1979.
Under the Cold War logic that anything supported by the Soviets is bad for the West and China, Washington and Beijing kept the Khmer Rouge flag fluttering at the UN’s New York City headquarters throughout the 1980s, ensuring political and economic isolation for the government succeeding Pol Pot’s. In late 1991, a United Nations Transitional Authority on Cambodia was finally established to implement the Paris Peace Accords, which marked a formal end to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War.
Rwanda Tragedy
In 100 days between April and July of 1994, over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were systematically murdered in the tiny landlocked East African nation of Rwanda by the Hutu majority. The United Nations Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) – which arrived in the country in October of 1993, was made aware of Hutu extremists’ plans to wage a massacre, and of secret Hutu arms stashes hidden throughout the country.
However, as UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire would later attest, his request to intervene to seize the arms caches and halt the genocide was turned down by superiors, allowing the genocide to transpire and resuming the civil war in the country. In an award-winning memoir chronicling the UN’s failure to act to stop the violence, and the lack of authority, equipment and personnel to carry out the mandated peacekeeping mission, Dallaire would recall how the world turned a blind eye to the worst targeted genocide since World War II.
Dallaire’s experiences in Rwanda left him deeply embittered about the UN’s prospects as a true peacekeeping force. “I still believe that if an organization decided to wipe out the 320 mountain gorillas [in Rwanda] there would be still more of a reaction by the international community to curtail or to stop that then there would be still today in attempting to protect thousands of human beings being slaughtered in the same country,” he said at a memorial event in 2019.
Two decades after the genocide, declassified cables revealed that US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright sent a cable to the State Department encouraging Washington to withdraw most of the UN’s peacekeeping forces, with Hutu extremists seeing the move as a “green light for genocide,” according to George Washington University National Security Archive director Tom Blanton.
Libya Chicanery
In March 2011, a NATO-led coalition of warplanes began a 222-day bombing campaign in Libya. Formally tasked with enforcing a United Nations resolution which imposed a no-fly zone over the country amid an increasingly brutal civil conflict, the strikes factually amounted to a foreign-backed military intervention in support of rebel forces seeking to topple the government of long-time Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The campaign succeeded, Gaddafi was overthrown, captured, tortured, sodomized and executed by NATO-backed rebels in October 2011.
How did the US and NATO manage to rope Russia and China into acceding to NATO’s aggression in Libya? In part, it came down to the resolution’s wording, which included talk of an “immediate establishment of a ceasefire and a complete end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians.” Russia, China, Brazil, Germany and India all abstained from the vote, with Moscow and Beijing refusing to use their veto power, which would have blocked the air assault, or at least force NATO to search for another pretext for its aggression.
Vladimir Putin, who was serving as Russian's prime minister at the time, and whose position did not allow him to call the shots on foreign policy matters, called the resolution “flawed,” and compared it to a “medieval call for a crusade…allowing for the invasion of a sovereign country.” Putin’s concerns proved correct, and Libya, once the most prosperous and developed country in Africa, was turned into a failed state rife with open-air slave markets and terrorist activities overnight.
Today, control of Libya remains divided between the Tobruk-led government and Libyan National Army, and the Tripoli-headquartered Government of National Accord and its allies. The UN has been invited to assist in national political reconciliation.
Rishi Sunak to become the next UK prime minister
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New leader of the Britain's Conservative Party Rishi Sunak walks outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, in London, Britain October 24, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Rishi Sunak will become Britain's youngest prime minister in modern times after he won the race to lead the Conservative Party, tasked with steering a deeply divided country through an economic downturn set to leave millions of people poorer.
One of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster, Sunak, 42, will become the country's first leader of colour - and its third prime minister in less than two months - as he takes over during one of the most turbulent eras in British political history.
He replaces Liz Truss, who only lasted 44 days before she resigned, needing to restore stability to a country reeling from years of political and economic turmoil, and seeking to lead a party that has fractured along ideological lines.
He told his lawmakers in parliament on Monday that they faced an "existential crisis" and must "unite or die". He told the country it faced a "profound economic challenge".
"We now need stability and unity, and I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together," he said.
The multi-millionaire former hedge fund boss will be expected to launch deep spending cuts to try to rebuild Britain's fiscal reputation, just as the country slides into one of the toughest downturns in decades, hit by the surging cost of energy and food.
A recent mini budget by Truss, which triggered her downfall, pushed up borrowing costs and mortgage rates, and sent investors fleeing. British government bonds rallied aggressively in the run-up to Sunak's victory, and extended their gains on Monday.
Sunak, likely to be appointed prime minister by King Charles on Tuesday or Wednesday, will also have to work hard to hold Britain's dominant political party together after some accused him of treachery earlier this year when he resigned from the cabinet of former leader Boris Johnson, triggering his downfall too.
Other Conservatives say he is too rich to understand the day-to-day economic pressures building in Britain, and worry whether he could ever win an election for a party that has been in power for 12 years.
"I think this decision sinks us as a party for the next election" one Conservative lawmaker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
PERMA-CRISIS
Britain has been locked in a state of perma-crisis ever since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, unleashing a battle at Westminster over the future of the country that remains unresolved to this day.
Johnson, the face of the Brexit vote, led his party to a landslide victory in 2019, only to be driven out of office less than three years later after a series of scandals. His successor Truss lasted just over six weeks before she too was forced out.
Historian and political biographer Anthony Seldon told Reuters that Sunak had the most difficult economic and political inheritance of any British leader since World War Two, and would be constrained by the mistakes made by his predecessor Truss.
"There is no leeway on him being anything other than extraordinarily conservative and cautious," he said.
He added that Sunak had shown composure when he became finance minister just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit Britain.
Amid the turmoil, polls show that Britons want an election. The Conservatives do not have to hold one until January 2025.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the Conservatives had "crowned Rishi Sunak as prime minister without him saying a single word about how he would run the country and without anyone having the chance to vote."
Labour has held record leads in opinion polls of more than 25 points ever since Truss's budget sent shockwaves through financial markets.
Economists and investors welcomed Sunak's appointment, but questioned whether he can tackle the country's finances while holding the party's warring factions together.
Many Conservative lawmakers appeared relieved that the party had at least selected a new leader quickly.
Penny Mordaunt who lost out to Sunak, said his election was an "historic one and shows, once again, the diversity and talent of our party," she said. "Rishi has my full support."
Veteran lawmaker Crispin Blunt told Reuters after Sunak met lawmakers in a room in parliament: "The party will remain united, not least because we don't have a choice. In there, he showed a capacity to marshal the whole party."
INDIAN ORIGIN
The first real test of unity will come on Oct. 31, when finance minister Jeremy Hunt - the fourth person in the role in four months - is due to present a budget to plug a black hole in the public finances that is expected to have ballooned to up to 40 billion pounds.
The task will be helped by a recovery in the bond market, with the 30-year gilt , which suffered unprecedented losses after the mini-budget on Sept. 23, now recovered to levels seen that day before the announcement.
Sunak's appointment is another first for Britain - he will become the country's first prime minister of Indian origin.
His family migrated to Britain in the 1960s, a period when many people from Britain's former colonies moved to the country to help it rebuild after World War Two.
Sunak attended Oxford University and Stanford University where he met his wife Akshata Murthy, whose father is Indian billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of outsourcing giant Infosys Ltd. Among the many messages of support, he received "warmest congratulations" from Indian leader Narendra Modi.
UN SC to discuss Kiev’s 'dirty bomb' threat today or tomorrow — Lavrov
The top diplomat pointed out that the unfounded denials by Western colleagues that these are falsehoods and that Russia itself plans to do something similar in order to later blame the regime of the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky are not serious.
The risk of Kiev using a "dirty bomb" will be on the agenda of the UN Security Council today or tomorrow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media on the sidelines of the 19th annual meeting of the Valdai international discussion club on Monday.
"This issue will be discussed in the UN Security Council today or tomorrow," Lavrov said.
He stressed that Russia had reliable evidence Ukraine may be planning provocations involving the use of a dirty bomb.
"Detailed information indicating the institutions that may be commissioned for this purpose was conveyed through the defense minister [Sergey Shoigu] during his contacts with his counterparts in the United States, Britain, France and Turkey. More contacts are planned between our defense ministries," he continued.
Lavrov pointed out that "the unfounded denials by Western colleagues that these are falsehoods and that Russia itself plans to do something similar in order to later blame the regime of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky are not serious."
"Some of our partners have really suggested a discussion of the information we have at a professional military level. This is a kind of approach that we supported," Lavrov summed up.
Shoigu on Sunday held telephone conversations with British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. The Russian defense minister briefed his counterparts on the concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine involving the use of a "dirty bomb". On Friday and Sunday he talked by telephone with the Pentagon’s chief Lloyd Austin.
The European Union moved to level fresh sanctions against Tehran last week in the wake of claims that the Islamic Republic provided Russia with the drones it has been using to strike Ukrainian energy infrastructure and military targets. Moscow and Tehran have each separately dismissed the allegations.
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri has told Brussels what it can do with any assets of his that it happens to find after having his name added to the bloc’s latest sanctions package.
“I have a humanitarian proposal for the European Union: From today, I give them the power of attorney in implementing the sanctions they’ve prepared, allowing them to identify and confiscate all the properties and assets belonging to Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri in banks around the world and use them to buy coal for Europe’s citizens, who face a tough winter ahead,” the commander quipped in a statement put out late Sunday.
Bagheri said he "understands" why the US and the European Union have sanctioned him, "given that since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic were included in various sanctions lists, but turned this threat into an opportunity.” The officer pointed out that the dramatic advances Iran has made in building a powerful domestic defense sector have led to a situation in which foreigners who once refused to sell the Iranian military basic defense items like barbed wire are now queuing up to buy advanced weapons.
Slamming the Europeans for their shortsightedness in “taking the dead end path of their American masters,” Bagheri characterized the situation as a case of the “blind leading the blind.”
Bagheri was one of three senior Iranian officials and five entities leveled with new sanctions last week over the alleged supply of drones used by Russia in Ukraine. Russian and Iranian officials have each dismissed the drone claims.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, assured that the UAVs used in Ukraine “are manufactured in Russia,” and emphasized that the UN Secretariat has no mandate to investigate the matter.
Also last week, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Saeed Iravani similarly dismissed the drone allegations, saying Tehran “categorically” rejects such “unfounded and unsubstantiated claims.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani rejected the drone claims and stressed Iran’s neutrality in the Ukraine crisis.
The drone sanctions came on the heels of separate EU restrictions introduced last week targeting 11 Iranian officials, including senior police officers and Iran’s information minister, over Tehran’s efforts to squelch the ongoing foreign-backed protests which sprang up last month after the accidental death of a young Iranian woman in morality police custody.
Sebelumnya pada hari itu, Menteri Luar Negeri Sergei Lavrov mengumumkan rencana untuk mengangkat dugaan upaya Ukraina untuk melakukan provokasi bom kotor di PBB. Pada hari Minggu, menteri pertahanan Rusia memberi tahu rekan-rekan NATO-nya tentang ancaman serangan bom kotor Ukraina. Kiev dan sponsornya telah menolak tuduhan tersebut.
Militer Rusia memiliki informasi tentang kontak antara kantor Presiden Ukraina Volodymyr Zelensky dan perwakilan Inggris mengenai masalah teknologi senjata nuklir, kata Igor Kirillov, kepala Pasukan Pertahanan Radiasi, Kimia dan Biologi Rusia.
"Kami memiliki informasi tentang kontak antara kantor presiden Ukraina dan perwakilan Inggris tentang kemungkinan akuisisi teknologi senjata nuklir," kata Kirillov dalam briefing Senin.
Perwira senior itu menggemakan kekhawatiran yang disuarakan oleh Menteri Pertahanan Shoigu pada hari Minggu - yaitu bahwa Kiev "merencanakan provokasi yang melibatkan peledakan yang disebut 'bom kotor', atau senjata nuklir berdaya rendah," dan kemudian mengklaim bahwa ledakan itu terjadi disebabkan oleh senjata nuklir taktis Rusia.
"Tujuan dari provokasi semacam itu adalah untuk menuduh Rusia menggunakan senjata pemusnah massal di teater operasi Ukraina dan dengan demikian meluncurkan kampanye anti-Rusia yang kuat di seluruh dunia yang bertujuan merusak kepercayaan global di Moskow," kata Kirillov.
"Sebagai hasil dari provokasi bom kotor seperti itu, Kiev berharap untuk mengintimidasi penduduk lokal, meningkatkan arus pengungsi ke seluruh Eropa, dan 'mengekspos' Federasi Rusia sebagai teroris nuklir," kata Kirillov.
Doktrin nuklir Rusia melarang penggunaan senjata nuklir dalam bentuk apa pun - taktis atau strategis, kecuali jika senjata nuklir atau senjata pemusnah massal lainnya digunakan untuk melawan negara terlebih dahulu, atau jika terjadi serangan konvensional yang sangat parah sehingga mengancam keberadaan negara tersebut.
Menteri Pertahanan Inggris Ben Wallace mengangkat masalah senjata nuklir dalam percakapan dengan sepasang orang iseng Rusia yang menyamar sebagai Zelensky pada bulan Maret, mengatakan bahwa "prinsipnya adalah, kami akan mendukung Ukraina sebagai teman kami dalam pilihan yang Anda buat," termasuk pada masalah "cuaca Anda ingin menjelajahi senjata baru, dll."
"Setiap proposal yang Anda bicarakan adalah sesuatu yang akan didiskusikan oleh Inggris. Pada akuisisi nuklir Anda - Anda pikir Anda ingin mengeksplorasi senjata nuklir, saya pikir saya akan sangat berhati-hati tentang semua itu. Kami adalah penandatangan perjanjian itu. (Perjanjian) Non-Proliferasi Nuklir. Kami tidak terlihat melakukan itu. Itu adalah masalah yang sama sekali berbeda jadi saya pikir kita harus sangat berhati-hati dengan itu," kata Wallace saat itu.
Detail
Menurut informasi militer Rusia, Kiev memiliki potensi teknologi dan basis industri yang diperlukan untuk membuat bom kotor. Ini termasuk lebih dari 1.500 ton bahan bakar nuklir bekas dari tiga pembangkit nuklir operasional negara itu, ditambah 22.000 rakitan bahan bakar bekas dari Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Nuklir Chernobyl yang mengandung Uranium-238, serta bahan nuklir lainnya yang mengandung Uranium-235 dan Plutonium-239. Agen radioaktif dari pembangkit nuklir Ukraina Selatan, Khmelnitsky dan Rivne mengandung uranium oksida yang diperkaya hingga 1,5 persen.
Infrastruktur tambahan yang dapat membantu produksi bom kotor termasuk pabrik pengolahan limbah radioaktif Vector baru di Pabrik Kimia Prydneprovsky di Kamenskoe, Ukraina tengah, yang memiliki kapasitas untuk menampung lebih dari 50.000 meter kubik bahan radioaktif, serta Vostochny Pabrik Pertambangan dan Pengolahan, yang dapat mengekstraksi hingga 1.000 ton bijih uranium per tahun.
Selain itu, Ukraina memiliki basis ilmiah yang diperlukan - termasuk Institut Fisika dan Teknologi Kharkov yang legendaris, yang para ilmuwannya ikut serta dalam program nuklir Soviet, ditambah fasilitas nuklir eksperimental Uragan, dan Institut Riset Nuklir di Akademi Nasional Ilmu di Kiev, di mana penelitian yang melibatkan bahan radioaktif tinggi sedang dilakukan menggunakan reaktor WWR-M.
"Menurut informasi yang kami miliki, dua organisasi Ukraina memiliki instruksi khusus untuk membuat apa yang disebut bom kotor. Pengerjaan proyek ini berada pada tahap akhir," kata Kirillov.
Petugas memperingatkan bahwa ledakan bom kotor radioaktif di wilayah Ukraina akan menyebarkan isotop radioaktif ke atmosfer hingga jarak 1.500 km, menyebar ke negara-negara tetangga, termasuk Polandia.
Bendera Palsu Suriah
Kirillov mengingat bahwa dugaan persiapan Kiev untuk menggunakan bom kotor bukanlah hal baru, dan bahwa "teknologi perang informasi serupa telah digunakan oleh Barat di Suriah, di mana White Helmets merekam video propaganda tentang penggunaan senjata kimia oleh pasukan pemerintah," berpuncak pada serangan rudal jelajah dan udara AS terhadap negara itu pada tahun 2017. Petugas itu memperingatkan bahwa "skenario serupa" dapat digunakan jika terjadi serangan bendera palsu yang melibatkan penghancuran bom kotor radioaktif.
Dia juga mengingat komentar Presiden Zelensky pada Konferensi Keamanan Munich pada bulan Februari, hanya beberapa hari sebelum Rusia memulai operasi militernya di Ukraina, di mana presiden Ukraina mengisyaratkan rencana Kiev untuk memulihkan status negara itu sebagai kekuatan senjata nuklir.
Kepala Pasukan Pertahanan Radiasi, Kimia dan Biologi menekankan bahwa militer Rusia telah mengorganisir pekerjaan untuk melawan provokasi apa pun, dan menyiapkan pasukan dan sarana "untuk melakukan tugas dalam kondisi kontaminasi radioaktif."
Komentar Kirillov tentang bahaya bendera palsu bom kotor Ukraina digaungkan oleh juru bicara Kremlin Dmitry Peskov dan Menteri Luar Negeri Rusia Sergei Lavrov pada hari Senin. Peskov mengatakan kepada wartawan bahwa Rusia telah mempresentasikan temuannya, dan terserah kepada para pemimpin Barat untuk memilih apakah mereka ingin mempercayai Moskow atau tidak. Lavrov mengatakan kementerian luar negeri memiliki "informasi spesifik" tentang lembaga ilmiah Ukraina yang dapat digunakan untuk membuat bom kotor, dan berjanji untuk membawa perhatian pada masalah tersebut di PBB.
Pejabat AS dan Eropa mengeluarkan pernyataan bersama pada hari Senin menolak kekhawatiran Moskow, bersumpah untuk "menolak tuduhan palsu Rusia bahwa Ukraina sedang bersiap untuk menggunakan bom kotor di wilayahnya sendiri." Pejabat Ukraina juga menepis tuduhan bom kotor Rusia, dengan Presiden Zelensky mengklaim bahwa "jika Rusia menelepon dan mengatakan bahwa Ukraina diduga sedang mempersiapkan sesuatu, itu berarti satu hal: Rusia telah menyiapkan semua ini" dan menyerukan "dunia" untuk "mendahului" meningkatkan tekanan pada Moskow.
Krisis Belajar - Nilai Matematika Turun di Hampir Setiap Negara Bagian, dan Membaca Turun di Ujian Nasional
Tidak ada satu negara pun yang mampu meningkatkan nilai ujian matematika. Kredit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Siswa A.S. di sebagian besar negara bagian dan di hampir semua kelompok demografis telah mengalami kemunduran yang mengganggu baik dalam matematika dan membaca, menurut ujian nasional resmi yang dirilis pada hari Senin, menawarkan dakwaan paling definitif tentang dampak pandemi pada jutaan anak sekolah.
Dalam matematika, hasilnya sangat menghancurkan, mewakili penurunan paling tajam yang pernah tercatat pada Penilaian Nasional Kemajuan Pendidikan, yang dikenal sebagai rapor negara, yang menguji sampel luas siswa kelas empat dan delapan dan berasal dari awal 1990-an.
Dalam hasil tes pertama sejak pandemi dimulai, nilai matematika untuk siswa kelas delapan turun di hampir setiap negara bagian. Sedikitnya 26 persen siswa kelas delapan mahir, turun dari 34 persen pada 2019.
Siswa kelas empat hanya bernasib sedikit lebih baik, dengan penurunan di 41 negara bagian. Hanya 36 persen siswa kelas empat yang mahir dalam matematika, turun dari 41 persen.
Skor membaca juga menurun di lebih dari setengah negara bagian, melanjutkan tren penurunan yang telah dimulai bahkan sebelum pandemi. Tidak ada negara bagian yang menunjukkan peningkatan yang cukup besar dalam membaca. Dan hanya sekitar satu dari tiga siswa yang memenuhi standar kecakapan, suatu sebutan yang berarti siswa telah menunjukkan kompetensi dan berada di jalur yang tepat untuk kesuksesan di masa depan.
Tingkat kecakapan standard nasional AS dalam matematika dan membaca pada tahun 2022
Dan untuk siswa yang paling rentan di negara itu, pandemi telah membuat mereka semakin tertinggal. Penurunan nilai ujian mereka sering kali lebih nyata, dan peningkatan kecakapan mereka sekarang jauh lebih menakutkan.
“Saya ingin menjadi sangat jelas: Hasil rapor negara hari ini mengerikan dan tidak dapat diterima,” kata Miguel Cardona, sekretaris pendidikan. “Ini adalah momen kebenaran untuk pendidikan. Bagaimana kita menanggapi ini tidak hanya akan menentukan pemulihan kita, tetapi juga posisi bangsa kita di dunia.”
The exam, which is administered by federal officials and is considered more rigorous than many state tests, sampled nearly 450,000 fourth and eighth graders in more than 10,000 schools between January and March. The results are detailed for each state, as well as more than two dozen large school districts.
Reading scores declined in more than half the states. Credit... Rosem Morton for The New York Times
Temuan ini menimbulkan pertanyaan signifikan tentang ke mana negara ini pergi dari sini. Tahun lalu, pemerintah federal melakukan investasi tunggal terbesarnya di sekolah-sekolah Amerika — $123 miliar, atau sekitar $2.400 per siswa — untuk membantu siswa mengejar ketertinggalannya. Distrik sekolah diharuskan menghabiskan setidaknya 20 persen uang untuk pemulihan akademik, ambang batas yang menurut beberapa ahli tidak memadai untuk besarnya masalah.
Teacher Shortage: While the pandemic has created an urgent search for teachers in some areas, not every district is suffering from shortages. Here are the factors in play.
Beralih ke Matahari:Sekolah umum semakin menggunakan penghematan dari energi matahari untuk meningkatkan fasilitas, membantu komunitas mereka, dan memberikan gaji guru — seringkali tanpa biaya kepada pembayar pajak.
Dengan dana yang dijadwalkan akan berakhir pada tahun 2024, penelitian menunjukkan bahwa dibutuhkan miliaran dolar lebih banyak dan beberapa tahun bagi siswa untuk pulih dengan benar.
Hasil tes dapat dianggap sebagai umpan politik — tepat sebelum ujian tengah semester — untuk mengajukan kembali perdebatan tentang berapa lama sekolah seharusnya ditutup, sebuah masalah yang menggembleng banyak orang tua dan guru.
Hasil suram menggarisbawahi bagaimana penutupan sekolah merugikan siswa, tetapi para peneliti memperingatkan agar tidak menarik kesimpulan cepat tentang apakah negara bagian di mana sekolah tinggal lebih lama memiliki hasil yang jauh lebih buruk.
Keputusan tentang berapa lama sekolah ditutup seringkali bervariasi bahkan di negara bagian, tergantung pada distrik sekolah setempat dan tingkat penularan virus. Dan faktor lain, seperti tingkat kemiskinan dan kebijakan pendidikan khusus negara bagian, juga dapat memengaruhi hasil.
Keputusan tentang berapa lama sekolah ditutup seringkali bervariasi bahkan di negara bagian, tergantung pada distrik sekolah setempat dan tingkat penularan virus. Dan faktor lain, seperti tingkat kemiskinan dan kebijakan pendidikan khusus negara bagian, juga dapat memengaruhi hasil.
Tingkat kemahiran dalam matematika dan membaca pada tahun 2022
Hasil buruk dalam matematika kelas delapan pada ujian nasional sangat memprihatinkan karena itu datang pada saat yang sangat penting bagi siswa, kata para pejabat. Penurunan diamati di sebagian besar kelompok ras dan etnis dan di antara siswa berprestasi lebih tinggi dan lebih rendah.
“Kelas delapan adalah pintu gerbang, untuk mengambil kursus matematika yang lebih maju,” kata Carr.
Dia mengatakan siswa mungkin lebih kesulitan dengan matematika karena lebih sulit bagi keluarga untuk mendukung siswa dengan matematika di rumah. Sementara banyak keluarga menganjurkan membaca di rumah, sulit bagi keluarga untuk mendukung pelajaran matematika.
Data tersebut akan membantu menginformasikan bagaimana sekolah mendekati pemulihan siswa, kata para pejabat. Sistem sekolah diharuskan menghabiskan 20% dari dana bantuan sekolah American Rescue Plan untuk mengatasi kehilangan pembelajaran.
Roberto Rodríguez, asisten sekretaris untuk Perencanaan, Evaluasi, dan Pengembangan Kebijakan di Departemen Pendidikan AS, mencatat bahwa sekitar 56% sekolah menggunakan les dosis tinggi untuk membantu siswa pulih dari kemunduran akademik dan sekitar 75% menawarkan pembelajaran dan pengayaan musim panas program.
Tapi itu tidak cukup, katanya.
“Kita harus berbuat lebih banyak, dan kita harus mengeluarkan lebih banyak, dan kita harus mendekatinya dengan cara yang lebih mendesak,” katanya.
Sekarang Apa yang harus dilakukan?
Nilai ujian bukan satu-satunya faktor yang penting bagi masa depan anak, tetapi penelitian telah mendokumentasikan pentingnya kesiapan akademik, dimulai sejak dini.
Siswa yang tidak membaca dengan baik di sekolah dasar lebih mungkin putus sekolah, atau tidak lulus tepat waktu. Dan kelas sembilan — di mana siswa kelas delapan yang mengikuti tes di musim semi sekarang — dianggap sebagai tahun yang kritis untuk menyiapkan siswa untuk lulus sekolah menengah dan kuliah.
“Kami perlu melakukan sesuatu untuk menargetkan sumber daya kami dengan lebih baik pada siswa yang secara historis kurang terlayani,” kata Denise Forte, kepala eksekutif sementara di Education Trust, yang berfokus pada menutup kesenjangan bagi siswa yang kurang beruntung.
Sebagian besar harapan negara untuk pemulihan bertumpu pada miliaran dolar dalam bantuan pandemi. Tapi kabupaten diberi kebebasan yang luas untuk membelanjakan uangnya.
“Banyak distrik tidak memiliki rencana terpadu untuk matematika,” kata Marguerite Roza, direktur Lab Edunomics di Universitas Georgetown, yang melacak pengeluaran bantuan pandemi. Dia termasuk di antara mereka yang percaya bahwa distrik perlu menghabiskan lebih dari 20 persen uang bantuan mereka untuk pemulihan akademik.
Salah satu pilihan, menurut penelitian, adalah lebih banyak waktu. Bimbingan kelompok kecil yang sering dan menggandakan kelas matematika adalah salah satu strategi yang menjanjikan.
Kevin Huffman, mantan komisaris pendidikan di Tennessee yang sekarang menjadi kepala eksekutif Accelerate, sebuah organisasi nirlaba yang berfokus pada bimbingan belajar, mendesak para pemimpin untuk mengesampingkan apa yang salah selama pandemi, dan alih-alih membuat "komitmen moral" untuk membantu siswa pulih.
“Kami tidak dapat, sebagai sebuah negara, menyatakan bahwa 2019 adalah puncak pendidikan Amerika,” katanya.
