NYC’s new One Vanderbilt skyscraper is evacuated after ‘huge SHAKE’ rippled through it
Workers are filmed Tuesday evacuating the One Vanderbilt skyscraper in midtown Manhattan after its interior was reportedly shaken and at least one person feared the tower might collapse
Terrified workers fled a soaring new Manhattan skyscraper after experiencing a huge 'shake' run through the building, that made it feel as if its floors were collapsing.
One Vanderbilt, a $3.31 billion tower which sits just north of Grand Central train terminal in Midtown Manhattan, was struck by the tremor on Tuesday afternoon.
A tweeter called Colin Ho who says he works inside said the shake was felt on at least three floors of the 93-story tower, which opened in September 2020.
Colin wrote: '@one_vanderbilt huge “shake” just ran through the building. felt on the 14th, 51st, and 60th floors. what was it??? felt like a huge sine (sic) wave running through the building. anyone else feel it
@one_vanderbilt huge “shake” just ran through the building. felt on the 14th, 51st, and 60th floors. what was it??? felt like a huge sine wave running through the building. anyone else feel it
Working at #onevanderbilt today and it felt like the floor dropped 5 feet and continued to bounce. Evacuated to Madison Avenue and mutiple floors are reporting this. 13, 33, and 60. So far they say they are investigating and there is “no cause for concern”. It is very scary.
"i and my team evacuated. strange i haven’t seen any other tweets or news on it yet. i’m never the first on these things!"
Another tweeter called Bridgette Devine shared an even scarier version of events.
She tweeted: "Working at #onevanderbilt today and it felt like the floor dropped 5 feet and continued to bounce. Evacuated to Madison Avenue and mutiple (sic) floors are reporting this. 13, 33, and 60. So far they say they are investigating and there is “no cause for concern”. It is very scary."
Those who evacuated are said to have congregated in nearby Bryant Park, although there has been no word of any compulsory evacuation of the tower.
Others replied to apparently confirm Colin's version of events. A tweeter called Hidden Aegis said: "Was on a video conference with some colleagues. They felt the floor shake and are now evacuating."
And a third tweeter called Pana said they had been texted by a friend about the same thing.
There have not been any reports of injuries or damage, and it's unclear what may have caused the shake.
One Vanderbilt is billed as one of Manhattan's glitziest new skyscrapers, and features a three-floor summit observation deck spread across its upper floors.
Its clients include multiple blue-chip banking, law and tech firms.
New Yorkers have been understandability jittery about unexplained incidents in tall buildings since the 9/11 attacks, when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by two Boeing 767s piloted by Islamist terrorists.
The attraction at the top of the tower, called Summit One Vanderbilt, includes an outdoor terrace more than 1,200 feet in the air, accessible by transparent elevators that take visitors up the side of the building.
Each elevator, known as 'Ascent', is 90 square feet.
They are the largest glass-floor elevators in the world, shooting up 1,000 feet in just 42 seconds.
Those brave enough to visit will get incredible views of Manhattan and its surrounding areas, including New Jersey and Brooklyn.
Moscow and Beijing have issued a joint statement on a number of poignant geopolitical issues, making this move amid the ongoing visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russia.
The two world powers have declared their intent to help protect one another’s “core interests,” such as “sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and development.”
US Chemical Weapons and Biological Military Activities
China and Russia have insisted that the United States should step up the process of eliminating its chemical weapon stockpiles, pointing out that the US is the only signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention who has not yet done so.
Moscow and Beijing have also voiced their “serious concern” about the “military biological activities” the US carries out both at the American soil and beyond its borders.
Stating that these activities “pose a serious threat to the security of other states and entire regions,” Russia and China demanded that the US should “provide clarifications on this matter” and refrain from conducting activities that contradict the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
US Designs for Global Defense Missile System
Russia and China said that they are concerned by the United States’ attempts to establish a global missile defense system and to deploy elements of said system in various corners of the world, coupled with Washington’s “build-up of potential in precise non-nuclear weapons for conducting a disarming strike and other strategic capabilities.”
They also expressed concerns about the United States’ “aspiration to deploy ground-based missiles, intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific and European regions and transfer them to their allies."
AUKUS & Nuclear Submarines
Moscow and Beijing voiced their concerns about the plans of the US, the UK and Australia – members of the trilateral military pact AUKUS – to build nuclear submarines.
“The parties strongly urge the members of this partnership to strictly fulfill their obligations to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, to maintain regional peace, stability and development in the region," the Sino-Russian joint statement said.
No Nuclear War
In their statement, Russia and China firmly insisted that nuclear war must be allowed to occur and that there would be no winners in such conflict.
"Underlining the importance of the joint statement by the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states on the prevention of nuclear war and the prevention of an arms race, the sides reiterate that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be unleashed," they declared.
Moscow and Beijing have reaffirmed their obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which they described as the “cornerstone of the international mechanisms for nuclear disarmament and the international regime for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.”
/p>
They also pledged to continue coordinating efforts to “preserve and strengthen” said treaty “in the interests of maintaining international peace and security."
African Union’s Accession to G20, WTO Reform.
Both Russia and China stated they support the accession of the African Union to the G20.
Moscow and Beijing stressed that they are “determined to strengthen coordination within the G20 and other multilateral mechanisms” in order to “improve global economic governance in a fair and rational manner so that it better reflects the structure of the world economy, which includes increasing representation and giving greater voice to emerging market economies and developing countries.”
They also expressed intent to ramp up cooperation on “issues of supporting a multilateral trading system based on WTO rules and combating trade protectionism, which manifests itself, among other things, in the establishment of illegitimate unilateral restrictions on trade,” and to “strengthen dialogue on the WTO agenda, including its reform in order to increase the role of the WTO in the global economic governance."
Fukushima Radioactive Water
Russia and China expressed their concern regarding Tokyo’s plans to dump into the ocean the contaminated water that accumulated at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant after the nuclear disaster at the facility back in 2011.
Both parties insisted that Japan should “show transparency in contacts with adjoining countries, other interested states, international agencies, and, among other things, hold comprehensive consultations on this issue.
Rick Rodriguez takes a selfie of himself and Alana Litz adrift in the Pacific on March 13, 2023. (Rick Rodriguez)
A crew of four sailors have recounted the sinking of their boat and subsequent rescue after it was struck by a whale earlier this month. The incident occurred while the group were undertaking a three week voyage in the Pacific ocean, the Washington Post has reported.
Florida native Rick Rodriguez and three others were 13 days into what was expected to be a 21-day crossing between the Galapagos Islands and French Polynesia when they felt a thunderous impact towards the rear of their boat.
The group had planned a three-week sailing trip from the Galápagos Islands to French Polynesia, about 3,500 miles away in the south Pacific. But on 13 March, only 13 days into the crossing, disaster struck. At about 1.30pm, Rodriguez was enjoying a vegetarian pizza for lunch with the others when he heard a loud noise.
“The second pizza had just come out of the oven, and I was dipping a slice into some ranch dressing,” Rodriguez said to the Post during an interview over a satellite phone. “The back half of the boat lifted violently upward and to starboard.”
Other members of the crew were thrown by the large impact, but each saw from different angles that a whale had smashed into the boat.
Alana Litz was the first to see what she now thinks was a Bryde’s whale as long as the boat. “I saw a massive whale off the port aft side with its side fin up in the air,” Litz said.
Rodriguez looked to see it bleeding from the upper third of his body as it slipped below the water.
Five seconds after the whale’s collision, an alarm sounded, warning that the boat was filling with water. Rodriguez said the crew members, who each have experience boating, quickly sprang into action.
Bianca Brateanu was below cooking and got thrown in the collision. She rushed up to the deck while looking to the starboard and saw a whale with a small dorsal fin 30 to 40 feet off that side, leading the group to wonder if at least two whales were present.
Within five seconds of impact, an alarm went off indicating the bottom of the boat was filling with water, and Rodriguez could see it rushing in from the stern.
Water was already above the floor within minutes. Rodriguez made a mayday call on the VHF radio and set off the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). The distress signal was picked up by officials in Peru, who alerted the U.S. Coast Guard District 11 in Alameda, Calif., which is in charge of U.S. vessels in the Pacific.
It wasn’t lost on Rodriguez that the story that inspired Herman Melville happened in the same region. The ship Essex was also heading west from the Galápagos when it was rammed by a sperm whale in 1820; leaving the captain and some crew to endure roughly three months and resort to cannibalism before being rescued.
There have been about 1,200 reports of whales and boats colliding since a worldwide database launched in 2007, said Kate Wilson, a spokeswoman for the International Whaling Commission. Collisions that cause significant damage are rare, the U.S. Coast Guard said, noting the last rescue attributed to damage from a whale was the sinking of a 40-foot J-Boat in 2009 off Baja California, with that crew rescued by Coast Guard helicopter.
The crew launched the inflatable life raft, as well as the dinghy, then realized they needed to drop the sails so that line attaching the life raft didn’t snap as it got dragged behind still-moving Raindancer.
Rodriguez grabbed his snorkel gear and a tarp and jumped into the water to see if he could plug the holes, but it was futile. The area near the propeller shaft was badly punched in, he said.
Meanwhile, the others had gathered safety equipment, emergency gear and food. In addition to bottled water, they filled “water bottles, tea kettles and pots,” before the salt water rose above the sink, Rodriguez said.
“There was no emotion,” Rodriguez recalled. “While we were getting things done, we all had that feeling, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ but it didn’t keep us from doing what we needed to do and prepare ourselves to abandon ship.”
Rodriguez and Simon Fischer handed the items down to the women in the dinghy, but in the turmoil, they left a bag with their passports behind. They stepped into the water themselves just as the deck went under.
Rodriguez swam to the life raft, climbed in and looked back to see the last 10 feet of the mast sinking “at an unbelievable speed,” he said. As the Raindancer slipped away, he pulled a Leatherman from his pocket and cut the line that tethered the life raft to the boat after Litz noticed it was being pulled taut.
They escaped with enough water for about a week and with a device for catching rain, Rodriguez said. They had roughly three weeks worth of food, and a fishing pole.
The Raindancer “was well-equipped with safety equipment and multiple communication devices and had a trained crew to handle this open-ocean emergency until a rescue vessel arrived,” said Douglas Samp, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area Search and Rescue Program Manager. He cautioned that new technology should not replace the use of an EPIRB, which has its own batteries.
Both he and Brateanu, 25, from Newcastle, England, have mariner survival training. Litz, 32, from Comox, British Columbia, was formerly a firefighter in the Canadian military. Fischer, 25, of Marsberg, Germany, had the least experience, but “is a very levelheaded guy,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez gave detailed information on their location and asked his brother to send a message via WhatsApp to Joyce, who has a Starlink internet connection that he checks more frequently than his Iridium Go. Because of his low battery, he told his brother he was turning the unit off and would check it in two hours.
Rodriguez also activated a Globalstar SPOT tracker, which transmitted the position of the life raft every few minutes, and he broadcast a mayday call every hour using his VHF radio.
When he turned the Iridium Go back on at the scheduled time, there was a reply from Joyce: “We got you bud.”
As luck would have it, the Raindancer was sailing the same route as about two dozen boats participating in a round-the-world yachting rally called the World ARC. Boatwatch, a network of amateur radio operators that searches for people lost at sea, was also notified. And the urgent broadcast issued by the Coast Guard was answered by a commercial ship, Dong-A Maia, which said it was 90 miles to the south of Raindancer and was changing course.
“We have a bunch of boats coming. We got you brother,” Joyce typed.
“Can’t wait to see you guys,” Rodriguez replied.
Joyce told Rodriguez that the closest boat was “one day maximum.”
In fact, the closest boat was a 45-foot catamaran not in the rally. The Rolling Stones was only about 35 miles away. The captain, Geoff Stone, 42, of Muskego, Wis., had the mayday relayed to him by a friend sailing about 500 miles away. He communicated with Joyce via WhatsApp and with the Peruvian coast guard using a satellite phone to say they were heading to the last known coordinates.
In the nine hours it took to reach the life raft, Stone told The Post, he and the other three men on his boat were apprehensive about how the rescue was going to work.
“The seas weren’t terrible but we’ve never done a search and rescue,” he said. He wasn’t sure whether they would be able to find the life raft without traveling back and forth.
He was surprised when Fischer spotted the Rolling Stones lights from about five miles away and made contact on the VHF radio.
Once it got closer, Rodriguez set off a parachute flare, then activated a personal beacon that transmits both GPS location and AIS (Automatic Identification System) to assist in the approach. Although the 820-foot Dong-A Maia, a Panamanian-flagged tanker, was standing by, it made more sense to be rescued by the smaller ship.
To board the Rolling Stones, the crew from the Raindancer transferred to the dinghy with a few essentials, then detached the life raft so it wouldn’t get caught in the boat’s propeller.
“We were 30 or 40 feet away when we started to make out each other’s figures. There was dead silence,” Rodriguez said. “They were curious what kind of emotional state we were in. We were curious who they were.”
“I yelled out howdy,” to break the ice, he explained.
One by one they jumped onto the transom. “All of a sudden us four were sitting in this new boat with four strangers,” Rodriguez said.
The hungry sailors were given fresh bread, then offered showers. The Rolling Stones crew gave their guests toothbrushes, deodorant and clothes. None even had shoes.
Rodriguez said he had tried not to think about losing his boat while the crisis was at hand. But, the first morning he woke up on Rolling Stones, it hit him. Not only had he lost his home and belongings, he felt like he’d lost “a good friend.”
“I’ve worked so hard to be here, and have been dreaming of making landfall at the Bay of Virgins in the Marquesas on my own boat for about 10 years. And 1,000 nautical miles short my boat sinks,” Rodriguez said.
The Rolling Stones is expected to arrive in French Polynesia on Wednesday, and Rodriguez is glad that he’s onboard.
“I feel very lucky, and grateful, that we were rescued so quickly,” he said. “We were in the right place at the right time to go down.”
Bulan sabit tidak terlihat pada Selasa malam di Arab Saudi. (SPA)
Bulan sabit tidak terlihat pada Selasa malam di Arab Saudi dan Kamis, 23 Maret, akan menjadi awal bulan suci Ramadhan, kata Mahkamah Agung Kerajaan Arab Saudi.
Pengadilan meminta semua Muslim di Kerajaan untuk mencari bulan sabit Ramadhan pada Selasa malam yang sesuai dengan 29 Shaban, 1444.
Kementerian Kehakiman Kerajaan Arab Saudi mengumumkan telah meluncurkan sistem elektronik untuk penampakan bulan “dengan tujuan mengotomatiskan dan mengatur proses penampakan bulan, dan menyatukan prosedur kerja antara pengadilan tingkat pertama dan Mahkamah Agung.”
Layanan ini bertujuan untuk menyatukan sumber data observatorium melalui sistem elektronik yang kuat yang memberikan kecepatan dan integrasi dengan otoritas terkait, meningkatkan kualitas operasi observatorium, dan mempercepat dikeluarkannya keputusan Mahkamah Agung terkait penampakan hilal.
Lebih dari 1,9 miliar Muslim di seluruh dunia akan menandai bulan suci, di mana orang-orang beriman tidak makan, minum, dan merokok dari fajar hingga matahari terbenam.
UEA Mengonfirmasi Hari Pertama Ramadhan Pada hari Kamis, 23 Maret
Di UEA, bulan suci Ramadhan akan dimulai pada Kamis, 23 Maret karena bulan sabit, yang menandai awal bulan dalam kalender Islam Hijriah, tidak terlihat pada Selasa malam, sebagaimana dilaporkan oleh komite penampakan bulan.
Setelah sholat Maghrib, komite penampakan bulan UEA berkumpul di Departemen Kehakiman Abu Dhabi. Pertemuan tersebut dipimpin oleh Menteri Kehakiman Abdullah Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi, dan pejabat tinggi lainnya.
Bulan suci Ramadhan tahun ini akan memiliki periode 29 hari menurut prediksi astronomi. Warga akan mendapatkan akhir pekan selama empat hari untuk merayakan Idul Fitri yang diprediksi jatuh pada Jumat, 21 April.
Sesuai Departemen Urusan Islam dan Kegiatan Amal (IACAD) Dubai, Maghrib akan dilakukan pada pukul 18.35. pada hari pertama Ramadhan, yang berarti umat Islam dapat berbuka puasa pada waktu itu. Waktu Maghrib akan terus bertambah hingga akhir Ramadhan. Sholat tarawih akan dimulai Rabu malam setelah Sholat Isya.
Umat Islam mengikuti kalender lunar, dan metodologi penampakan bulan dapat menyebabkan berbagai negara menyatakan awal Ramadhan satu atau dua hari terpisah. Otoritas agama di Mesir dan Suriah menyatakan puasa akan dimulai Kamis
Ramadhan di Cina diperkirakan akan dimulai pada Rabu malam, 22 Maret 2023, dan berakhir pada Jumat malam, 21 April 2023
Demikian juga di China, mereka akan memulai puasa Ramadhan pada tanggal 23 Maret 2023.
Hari Kamis menjadi hari pertama Ramadhan di Arab Saudi
Komunitas Muslim di Turki diperkirakan akan merayakan hari pertama Ramadan pada Kamis, 23 Maret.
Puasa pertama akan diadakan pada 23 Maret 2023 tahun ini, saluran TV Turki NTV mengutip pernyataan Kepresidenan Urusan Agama Republik Turki.
Sumber yang sama menambahkan bahwa Laylat Al Qadr, yang dikenal dalam bahasa Inggris sebagai Malam Ketetapan atau Malam Kekuasaan, akan berlangsung pada 17 April di Turki.
Umat Islam Indonesia akan memulai puasa diperkirakan hari Kamis
Pemerintah belum menetapkan tanggal awal Ramadhan 2023. Rencananya, sidang isbat penetapan awal Ramadhan 1444 Hijriah akan digelar Kementerian Agama (Kemenag) pada hari Rabu, 22 Maret 2023.
"Seperti biasa, sidang isbat awal Ramadhan akan kita laksanakan setiap 29 Syakban. Tahun ini, bertepatan dengan hari Rabu, 22 Maret 2023," kata Direktur Urusan Agama Islam dan Pembinaan Syariah Kemenag, Adib, dikutip dari siaran pers laman resmi Kemenag, hari Senin, 20/03/2023.
Adib menerangkan, sidang isbat penetapan awal Ramadhan tahun ini masih akan digelar secara hybrid atau gabungan daring dan luring.
Selain melibatkan tim hisab rukyat Kemenag, pelaksanaan rangkaian sidang isbat rencananya juga mengundang Komisi VIII DPR RI, pimpinan Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), duta besar negara sahabat, perwakilan ormas Islam, dan lainnya.
Menurut Adib, rangkaian pelaksanaan sidang isbat akan dibagi dalam tiga tahap. Pertama, seminar pemaparan posisi hilal awal Ramadhan 1444 Hijriah berdasarkan hasil hisab atau perhitungan astronomi.
"Sesi seminar yang terbuka untuk umum inilah yang digelar secara hybrid karena kapasitas ruangan yang terbatas," jelasnya.
Rangkaian kedua, pelaksanaan sidang isbat penetapan awal Ramadhan 1444 Hijriah.
Dalam sidang ini, pemerintah akan merujuk pada data hisab dan hasil pengamatan atau rukyatul hilal.
Pengamatan hilal ini digelar di 124 lokasi di seluruh Indonesia.
Selain data hisab, sidang isbat juga akan merujuk pada hasil rukyatul hilal yang akan dilaksanakan pada 123 lokasi di seluruh Indonesia.
UK Minister of State for Defense Annabel Goldie said on Tuesday that London would provide Ukraine with armor piercing shells for the Challenger 2 main battle tanks it has decided to send to Kiev, including depleted uranium ammunition.
“Today it became known that the United Kingdom, through its deputy head of the ministry of defense, announced not only the supply of tanks to Ukraine, but also shells with depleted uranium," Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that "it seems that the West really decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, not in words, but in deed."
"I would like to note in this regard that if all this happens, then Russia will be forced to react accordingly - I mean that the Collective West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component," Putin added.
His comments came after meetings with a delegation of high-level Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Later in the day, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned the United Kingdom that there would be few red lines left uncrossed if it delivered on its promise to give Ukraine depleted uranium weapons.
"I can only say this: We are running out of red lines … Another line has been crossed and there are fewer and fewer of them left," he told reporters in Moscow.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium refining process composed of uranium-238, which is not useful for generating nuclear chain reactions but which is extremely dense and used to make armor-piercing ammunition. However, it still possesses radioactive properties that can be very harmful to humans and is highly toxic, making it a dangerous weapon long after the engagement in which it was fired.
Sites in Iraq and Yugoslavia which US forces used depleted uranium to attack have been associated with increases in birth defects and rare forms of cancer associated with exposure to radioactive materials, including depleted uranium and related radioactive isotopes.
While Moscow has repeatedly warned about the creeping danger of some kind of nuclear exchange as a result of NATO's support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, Western governments and media have tried to spin such warnings as being threats about the use of nuclear weapons. Putin has since made it explicitly clear that Moscow intends to maintain its no-first-use policy regarding nuclear weapons.
Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine in February 2022 after months of negotiations with Kiev and NATO failed to yield a situation that respected Moscow's security red lines, most especially regarding Ukraine's prospective membership in the alliance and the possibility of NATO weapons being stationed on Russia's borders. The operation aims to neutralize that possibility.
Kiev's Use of Depleted Uranium Ammo May Cause Health Problems Akin to Yugoslavia and Iraq
The use of ammunitions with depleted uranium (DU) by the Kiev regime may result in a spike of oncological diseases akin to the outbreak registered in the aftermath of the Yugoslav War, Ivan Konovalov, military expert and political analyst, told Sputnik.
On March 21, UK Minister for Defense Annabel Goldie told British lawmakers that London would grant a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Kiev, as well as ammunition including armor-piercing rounds that contain depleted uranium. "Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles," she bragged.
"The main feature of these shells is that they have a very high level of penetration. Depleted uranium provides a level of penetration that other shells do not," Konovalov told Sputnik. "I recall the history of the Yugoslav War; I worked there [at the time]. The Americans used depleted uranium in their air bombs."
In March 2000, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) confirmed to the United Nations that depleted uranium (DU) was used during the Kosovo conflict. NATO secretary-general at the time, Lord Robertson, told the international body that "DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged armor during Operation Allied Force." It was used throughout Kosovo during approximately 100 missions with "a total of approximately 31,000 rounds" of DU ammo being used during NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia.
"As far as we know, the people who were involved in this, including those on the American side, fell ill with oncological diseases, and in those areas where ammunition was used against Yugoslav cities, there were also outbreaks of oncological diseases. The Americans deny this; they say that it has nothing to do with it. But, nevertheless, the fact is obvious. At least we are witnessing that such ammunition caused outbreaks of cancer," Konovalov continued.
DU ammunition was also heavily used by US forces and their NATO allies in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraqi doctors and campaigners allege that the radioactive material contained in the munitions caused horrific birth defects and increased cancer rates. The US National Institutes of Health released a study in 2021 stating that the evidence gathered "suggests possible associations between exposure to depleted uranium and adverse health outcomes among the Iraqi population."
The UK has pledged 14 of its 227 Challenger 2 main battle tanks, along with a plethora of other heavy arms, to Ukraine — which Russia has warned will only prolong the conflict there.
The British government will give Ukraine radioactive depleted uranium ammunition for the tanks it has promised the Kiev regime.
"Alongside our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, we will be providing ammunition including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium," junior Defence Minister Annabel Goldie told Parliament on Tuesday in response to a question from Lord Raymond Hylton. "Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government has already pledged 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks (MBTs) to Volodymyr Zelensky's regime in Kiev. The tanks have been out of production for over 20 years and only 227 remain in service with the British army.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also announced that three batteries of the army's AS90 155mm self-propelled howitzers will also be sent, adding up to at least 24 vehicles. The Ministry of Defence has reportedly placed an order for Archer wheeled motorised howitzers from BAE Systems' Swedish subsidiary Bofors after it emerged that the donated vehicles represent most of the army's functional artillery.
Russia has warned NATO members that arming Ukraine will only prolong the conflict and lead to more bloodshed, without changing the outcome.
The depleted uranium (DU) rounds in question are armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) sub-calibre projectiles for the tanks' 120mm-calibre rifled main guns. They are not compatible with the same 120mm guns on the German Leopard 2 tanks already supplied to Ukraine or the US M1 Abrams tanks promised for delivery in 2024, as they use more modern smoothbore guns.
DU is used in the dart-like projectiles due to its very high density — two-thirds heavier per cubic centimetre than lead — which increases armour penetration, as well as its pyrophoric property of igniting on impact.
DU ammunition was heavily used by US forces and their allies in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Doctors have said the radioactive material — a by-product of spent nuclear fuel — left strewn around the country has caused horrific birth defects and increased rates of cancer.
A study published by the US federal National Institutes of Health in 2021 concluded that the evidence gathered "suggests possible associations between exposure to depleted uranium and adverse health outcomes among the Iraqi population."
Serbian citizens have also sued NATO over its use of around 15 tonnes of DU munitions in its 1999 war on the Balkan republic in support of Kosovar separatist militants, but the US alliance has claimed it has legal immunity from litigation.
