The U.S. and allies committed more rocket systems, ammunition and other military aid to Ukraine Wednesday, as American defense leaders said they see the war to block Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region grinding on for some time. 

Speaking at the close of a virtual meeting with about 50 defense leaders from around the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it will be “hard work” to keep allies and partners all committed to the war effort as the months drag on. 

“We’re pushing hard to maintain and intensify the momentum of donations,” Austin said. “This will be an area of focus for the foreseeable future, as it should be, in terms of how long our allies and partners will remain committed … There’s no question that this will always be hard work making sure that we maintain unity.” 

Officials have been reluctant to say how long the war may last, but Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested it could be a long slog. 

“We have a very serious grinding war of attrition going on in the Donbas. And unless there’s a breakthrough on either side — which right now the analysts don’t think is particularly likely in the near term — it will probably continue as a grinding war of attrition for a period of time until both sides see an alternative way out of this, perhaps through negotiation or something like that.” 

Officials said Wednesday that the U.S. will send Ukraine four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and precision-guided rockets for them, as well as additional artillery rounds. A more detailed announcement is expected later this week. 

The aid comes as Russian forces try to solidify gains in the two provinces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Donetsk and Luhansk, while also expanding attacks into other areas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia has expanded its “special military operation” from the Donbas to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and other captured territories. 

Austin said Lavrov’s comments come as no surprise to allies who have known Russia has greater ambitions in capturing Ukraine. 

But Ukrainian troops have been using the HIMARS to strike Russian logistics nodes and command and control centers, including behind the front lines to disrupt supply chains. And on Wednesday they struck and damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Lavrov said Moscow is trying to consolidate its territorial gains. 

The U.S. has already provided more than $7 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war began in late February. Austin said that during the defense meeting, there was also discussion about how to ensure that Ukraine is able to maintain and repair the weapons systems into the future. 
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World Food Program chief David Beasley raised the alarm Wednesday on Capitol Hill about the possibility of global food shortages next year if Russia does not lift its blockade of Ukrainian grain exports and send its own fertilizer to world markets.

“And that is going to be a crisis beyond anything we’ve seen in our lifetime,” he warned.

Beasley noted that in 2008 when global inflation and food prices last saw a severe spike, civil unrest, protests and riots followed in nearly 50 nations.

“The situation today is much, much worse, and we are already beginning to see destabilization take place in many countries — Sri Lanka, we saw what happened in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso,” Beasley said. “We are seeing protests and riots in Kenya, Pakistan, Peru, Indonesia. And I could go on and on.”

In addition to destabilization and the potential for mass migration, Beasley said the numbers of people severely food insecure were at 276 million before Russia’s invasion. Now, they are projected to be 345 million. Within that number, he said, 50 million people in 45 countries are “knocking on famine’s door.”

Beasley welcomed U.S. support to the WFP, which totals nearly $6 billion this fiscal year. But he said other countries have not stepped up enough.

“As we heard, China has only given us $3 million,” Beasley said. “The Gulf states with unprecedented oil prices, which is compounding the food crisis, should be stepping up in ways beyond anything we have seen before.”

The price of a barrel of crude oil was $107 on Wednesday, which has dramatically driven up the cost of transporting food. Beasley told lawmakers that his agency, which was already struggling to fund its work, is now facing added costs of $74 million each month because of shipping costs.

The WFP chief separately briefed members of the Senate and House foreign relations committees on the same day that Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska addressed lawmakers, appealing for more weapons for her country to defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

Before the February 24 invasion, Ukraine was a top global exporter of grain, producing enough food to feed 400 million people worldwide. WFP buys half of its grain from Ukraine.

“When you take enough food that feeds 400 million people off the market, what do you think is going to happen? It’s going to devastate the poorest of the poor,” Beasley told lawmakers.

‘War on food security’

The WFP chief, whose agency was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, said when the war began, he went to the southern port of Odesa in Ukraine, where more than 5 million metric tons of grain passed through each month on its export journey.

“As I tweeted and said to President [Vladimir] Putin, ‘Regardless of your views of Ukraine, you cannot bring an absolute declaration of war on food security around the world, and you cannot impose famine upon nations around the world. Open up these ports. If you have any heart at all, open up these ports,’ ” Beasley recounted.

The United Nations has been working for months with Russia and Ukraine, and with Turkey as a mediator, to forge a deal to get Moscow to end its blockade. Both Beasley and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who also briefed senators, said they are hopeful a final deal will be announced in the coming days.

Thomas-Greenfield noted that the Kremlin has been effective in its disinformation campaign, telling developing nations that Western sanctions are responsible for the food crisis and the rising cost of fertilizer, of which Russia is the world’s top exporter.

“When in fact there are no sanctions on their agricultural products, there are no sanctions on their fertilizer,” Thomas-Greenfield underscored. “They can move their agricultural products. They can move their wheat if they wanted to do it. But they would prefer to blame the rest of the world, thinking that that will get them more support from the world. And I think they have failed.”

Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told senators that one of the things USAID is working on is helping African countries lessen their dependence on fertilizer from Russia, which is no longer a reliable source.

“So, we are seeking to diversify and also to ensure in Africa production of fertilizer, as well as food sovereignty in countries that are too import-dependent,” Power said.

Criticism of Russia, China

Lawmakers expressed concern at the situation and Russia’s disinformation campaign. They also criticized China for aligning with Russia as food insecurity grows.

“China is responsible, as well as Russia, for allowing Russia to use food as a weapon of war — for the denial of food,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez said.

“We have continued to press the Chinese to step away from what we see as a really bad relationship that they have established with the Russians in terms of supporting their activities in Ukraine,” Thomas-Greenfield told senators. “And it goes against what the Chinese themselves have indicated is a priority — and that is the protection of the [U.N.] Charter and the sovereignty of borders.”

Following Wednesday’s hearing, Power said she is heading to the Horn of Africa, where the U.N. says 18.4 million people across Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya need food assistance because of conflict and severe drought.

Thomas-Greenfield said she will also be leaving for the region in about 10 days to engage with countries about the food crisis.
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Top U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans said on Wednesday they may have the votes to pass a bill protecting same-sex marriage rights nationwide, the day after the measure passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan majority.

The measure, intended to head off any Supreme Court effort to roll back gay marriage rights, passed the House on Tuesday with all Democrats and 47 Republican representatives — just over a fifth of their caucus — voting in favor.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday said he was “really impressed by how much bipartisan support it got in the House.”

When the Supreme Court last month struck down its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling protecting the right to abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should also reconsider its past rulings that guaranteed access to contraception and the right to gay marriage because they relied on the same legal arguments as Roe.

Under Senate rules, Schumer would need at least 10 Republicans in favor to pass the bill in the 50-50 Senate.

Senator John Thune, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said he believed a bill codifying gay marriage could receive enough Republican support to pass.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. We haven’t assessed that at all, yet,” he told reporters when asked if 10 Republicans could back such legislation. “But as a general matter, I think that is something people in the country have come to accept.”

Several other Republicans said they could support the bill. Senator Susan Collins co-sponsored a Senate version of the House bill. Senator Thom Tillis told CNN on Wednesday that he would “probably” vote in favor.

Senator Rob Portman, another co-sponsor, said the bill sends “an important message.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz said on Saturday that the Supreme Court was “clearly wrong” in establishing a federal right to gay marriage. Senator Lindsey Graham said he would not support a bill codifying same-sex marriage.

Other Republicans said they would wait to read the text of the bill before deciding how they would vote.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney called the House legislation “unnecessary.”

“I haven’t given consideration to that legislation in part because the law isn’t changing and there’s no indication that it will,” he said, adding that Justice Thomas had “opened a lot of doors that no other justices walk through.”
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Drought can slightly increase developing world children’s risk of diarrheal disease, researchers have found, adding that wetter regions seem to be affected differently than drier ones. 

Diarrhea is the second-leading cause of death among children worldwide, and climate change is making droughts longer, more frequent and more severe, the new study published in the journal Nature Communications found. 

The study, based on data from 51 low- and middle-income countries, found that children were more likely to recently have had diarrhea following six months to two years of drought conditions, although the effect of drought differed across dry, temperate and tropical climate zones. 

Previous studies found links between diarrheal disease and rainfall, flooding and seasonality, but little was known before about the effects of drought. 

The new study “fills that void of understanding the impacts associated with drought specifically, as opposed to flooding, extreme rains and seasonality,” said epidemiologist Joseph Eisenberg of the University of Michigan, who was not involved in the study. 

“Water plays an essential role both in helping address the problem as well as increasing the risk of being exposed,” he said. 

Water essential  for good hygiene

Water is central to the spread and prevention of diarrheal disease. Germs that cause diarrhea survive and spread in water, but water is also important for hygienic practices, such as hand-washing, that prevent infections. 

Study author Pin Wang, an environmental epidemiologist at Yale University, and his colleagues thought drought could force families to prioritize scarce water for drinking rather than washing, leaving children more vulnerable to diarrhea. 

“Drought can directly impact the WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) practices,” Wang said. “Because of the insufficient water supply, people might prioritize the water for other necessary uses, such as drinking, but not for washing hands and also flushing [the] toilet.” 

Wang and his colleagues combined weather records with data on diarrhea in over 1.3 million children under the age of 5 from the Demographic and Health Surveys Program, which surveys representative families to collect data on health and demographics in the developing world. The Demographic and Health Surveys data also included information on each child, household wealth and WASH practices. 

Using this data, the researchers then determined whether the children in the dataset had experienced drought, how long the drought had lasted, and how severe it had been relative to normal conditions. 

Correcting for differences among households and individual children, the researchers found that exposure to a six-month drought slightly increased the risk of diarrhea in children under age 5. Risk was 5% higher after mild drought and 8% higher after severe drought, though the strength of drought’s effect on diarrhea depended on other factors, such as local climate, hygiene and water access. 

In dry regions, droughts lasting six months did not affect diarrhea rates significantly, but droughts lasting two years did. 

The authors speculate that it may be because these dry regions are already prepared for short periods of water scarcity but can’t cope with very long droughts. On the other hand, tropical and temperate regions saw worse effects in six-month droughts than in longer ones, perhaps because they are less prepared for water shortages in the short term but have more water available in general to help adapt in the long term. 

The researchers found that families in a drought washed their hands and performed other WASH practices less often than those who were not experiencing drought. That accounted for about 10% of the increase in diarrhea rates in mild drought and about 20% in severe conditions. 

Children whose families need to walk more than 30 minutes to collect water also had a higher risk of diarrhea associated with severe drought than those whose families had water nearby. 

More studies needed

Eisenberg said that the study was a good first step, but that more studies would be needed to confirm the results. 

“I think the biggest implication … as a hypothesis-generating result is that it will promote and motivate people to conduct some more sophisticated studies to sort of back up the findings,” he said. 

Wang also said that future studies would be needed to back up his findings. And as climate change is expected to shake up rainfall patterns around the world, he said he hopes his result will translate into policy that would protect children from diarrheal disease brought on by drought. 

“We obviously think that with climate change, there will be higher incidence of drought events in the future, particularly … in the places where it’s already having less rainfall right now,” Wang said. “We need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, that’s the first thing. The second is that the WASH variables should be emphasized or prioritized — particularly in these low- and middle-income countries. People need better WASH practices to reduce their diarrhea risks.”
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U.S. lawmakers are set to hear Wednesday from Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska as she delivers remarks on Capitol Hill. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of the address that Zelenska would be speaking on behalf of all Ukrainian mothers and women. 

“And I really believe that it will be heard by those on whom decision-making in the U.S. depends,” the president said. 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraged all members of the House and Senate to attend, saying it would be an “important and timely opportunity to hear directly from First Lady Zelenska, to learn more about the terrible toll of the Russian invasion and to express our gratitude to the people of Ukraine for their fight for Democracy.” 

Zelenska met with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at the White House on Tuesday. 

The two last saw each other during Biden’s unannounced visit to western Ukraine in May when they visited a school and joined children who were making Mother’s Day gifts. 

President Joe Biden presented the Ukrainian first lady with a bouquet of flowers — yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids — the colors of Ukraine’s flag. 

The White House said Zelenska is visiting Washington “to highlight the human cost of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. They will discuss the United States’ continued support for the government of Ukraine and its people as they defend their democracy and cope with the significant human impacts of Russia’s war, which will be felt for years to come.” 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters
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They’re planning days around air conditioning in Oklahoma, monitoring the grid in Texas, and keeping an eye out for sharks as they try to cool off in New York. 

Across the United States, Americans have been enduring, in some cases, dangerously high heat that meteorologists say will last into next week. 

More than 100 million people are living under excessive warnings or heat advisories this week, according to the National Weather Service. 

In Oklahoma City, where a high of 43 degrees Celsius (110 Fahrenheit) was predicted Tuesday, Colin Newman says the heat hits like “dragon’s breath” when he steps outside, even in the early hours. 

“We plan our days around getting from one air-conditioned place to another,” he said. 

New Yorkers, meanwhile, are expected to venture to the beaches to cool off. New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered additional shark monitoring off Long Island, where sharks injured three people this month. Rockaway beaches in Queens were closed to swimmers Tuesday afternoon after a reported shark sighting, according to a New York Police Department tweet. 

The excessive heat in the United States comes hot on the heels of a heat wave this week in Europe, which has seen wildfires and record temperatures in the kind of weather event that scientists say will become more frequent with climate change. 

At least many U.S. homes, unlike those in Europe, have air conditioning. 

Power use in Texas is expected to break records again this week as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners, the state’s power grid operator projected on Monday. 

For those without easy access to air conditioning in New York, the New York City Fire Department said that cooling centers have opened in libraries, community centers and other city buildings, and that on request, it is installing spray caps on fire hydrants. 

In the city, transportation workers were taking precautions such as drinking plenty of water, said Celeste Kirkland, a Transport Workers Union Local 100 subway safety team lead. 

“We’re working in some of the hottest places you can think of,” she said. 

In Florida’s Port St. Lucie, resident Lisa Kessler was avoiding all outdoor activity until the sun goes down. 

“Florida is like getting a hug from a hot bowl of soup,” she said. 

Inside Death Valley National Park in California, the village of Stovepipe Wells is expected to hit 48 degrees Celsius (119 F) on Tuesday. 

But Death Valley is one of the hottest places on Earth, and Park Ranger Nico Ramirez said that such temperatures are normal for this time of year. He likened the local way of coping to how people handle the extreme cold in cooler climes. 

“We hibernate in the heat,” he said. “I have a PlayStation and Wi-Fi. If I’m not working, I’m home with my Wi-Fi and music and games.” 

 
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