This is The Prophecy. The Prophecy is much more than seeing into the future. For The Prophecy sees without the limits of time. For The Prophecy sees what is, what was, and what always shall be.
KYIV, March 22 (Reuters) – Ukrainian engineers have fixed a high-voltage power line supplying the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom said on Friday, after it said earlier disruption to the cable threatened a blackout.
The Russian-controlled management of the Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, also said the line had been repaired.
“On March 22, Ukrainian energy workers restored the operation of the PL-750kV Dniprovska external overhead line, which was damaged this morning during massive Russian missile strike,” Energoatom said in a Telegram post.
The Zaporizhzhia plant was captured by Russian forces shortly after their invasion in 2022. It is shut down and needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic meltdown.
It is 35 miles (56 km) from Ukraine’s biggest hydro-electric dam, which was hit by Russian strikes on Friday, causing blackouts.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier the nuclear power plant had lost connection to its main off-site power line, but that a backup power line was still working.
“Such a situation is extremely dangerous and threatens to lead to an emergency,” Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, said earlier on Telegram.
The plant has been cut off from power several times during the war and has in the past been forced to rely on backup diesel generators, which officials say poses an increased risk of nuclear accident.
The Russian-controlled management of the plant said earlier that one of the two high-voltage lines supplying it with electricity was down but that there was no safety threat.
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, April 1 (Reuters) – Israeli forces left Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week operation, leaving a wasteland of destroyed buildings and Palestinian bodies scattered in the dirt.
Hundreds of people, including some who had been sheltering in the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital prior to the Israeli incursion, rushed back to check damage and hunt for belongings.
Hamas and medics deny any armed presence in hospitals.
The Hamas-run Gaza media office said Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians around Al Shifa, including a woman doctor and her son, also a doctor, and put the medical facility out of function. There was no immediate Israeli response.
“The occupation destroyed and burnt all buildings inside Al Shifa Medical Complex. They bulldozed the courtyards, burying dozens of bodies of martyrs in the rubble, turning the place into a mass graveyard,” said Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the media office.
Reuters could not verify the allegations and Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On previous occasions during the almost six-month-old war, Israeli forces have dug up bodies for forensic inspection, suspecting some might be those of hostages seized by Hamas during an Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that sparked the fighting.
‘THERE IS NO HOSPITAL ANYMORE’
Footage on social media, unverified by Reuters, showed corpses, some covered in dirty blankets, scattered around the charred hulk of the hospital, many of whose outer walls were missing. It showed ground heavily ploughed up, and numerous buildings outside the facility flattened or burned down.
“I haven’t stopped crying since I arrived here, horrible massacres were committed by the occupation here,” said Samir Basel, 43, speaking to Reuters via a chat app as he toured Al Shifa.
“The place is destroyed, buildings have been burnt and destroyed. This place needs to be rebuilt – there is no Shifa hospital anymore.”
One video obtained by Reuters showed some Palestinians returning to the area to retrieve mattresses and other belongings from under rubble where they had previously been sheltering.
“We evacuated hoping to come back and find my belongings. I have nothing left. My house was bombed and everything has gone. I have nothing left,” one woman told Reuters.
“I sought shelter at schools but they told me there was no space for me. Where do I go?”
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 63 in the past 24 hours, in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health authorities.
In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The military has published the names of 257 soldiers killed in Gaza combat.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, mediators held talks with Israeli officials in a bid to bridge gaps between the positions of Hamas and Israel over reaching a ceasefire.
But a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters: “There has been no sign of a breakthrough.”
Writing by Dan Williams and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew Cawthorne
The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency has once again criticized the Iranian regime’s further restriction of IAEA inspectors’ access to its nuclear activities, saying that the nuclear deal known as the JCPOA has practically been abandoned and Iran’s nuclear capabilities are no longer the same as they were ten years ago.
In February, Reuters reported that the IAEA had informed its members that Iran’s storage of 60% enriched uranium continues to grow, but its pace has slowed in recent months.
Rafael Grossi reiterated his criticism of the agency’s limited access to Iran’s nuclear activities in his new interview with the PBS, emphasizing the complexity of the Iranian issue.
He said that the agency has inspections in Iran, but not at the levels and depths necessary, which is the crux of the problem.
He added that while parties talk about returning to the JCPOA, the reality is that in 2024, Iran is very different from 2015.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers.
Less than three years later, in May 2018, Donald Trump, the then-President of the United States, announced the US withdrawal from the agreement, after which Iran gradually abandoned its commitments under the JCPOA.
Iran’s move last year to not renew the visas of some agency inspectors, whom Mr. Grossi had called the “most experienced” inspectors, was seen as part of the rift between Tehran and Western countries.
Rafael Grossi told the BBC that the agency does not want to repeat the sad experience of Iraq. Grossi doesn’t think it’s in anyone’s interest. Therefore, shutting down inspections and expelling inspectors is never a good idea.
The restriction of inspections and the discovery of traces of enriched uranium in undisclosed locations have been among the disputes between the agency and the Iranian regime.
However, Rafael Grossi announced last February his decision to travel to Tehran again and pursue previous negotiations.
Immediately after that, Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that this trip would take place in May, referring to the “congestion of the schedule in February.”
Several terrorists were eliminated in the raid in close combat with Israeli forces, including senior Hamas leader Ra’ad Thabat and Mahmoud Khalil Ziqzouq.
Forces from the elite Shayetet 13, Duvdevan, and Nahal Brigade Reconnaissance units conducted a targeted raid where intelligence officials determined the terrorists were located. At the targeted location, armed terrorists came out of the emergency room to fire on the soldiers.
Several terrorists were eliminated in the raid, including senior Hamas leader Ra’ad Thabat, as well as Mahmoud Khalil Ziqzouq, who was the deputy head of the rocket unit in Gaza City.
In addition, terrorists Fadi Dewik and Zakariya Najeeb were eliminated in an encounter in the maternity ward. Dewik, who carried out a shooting attack in the Adora settlement in 2002 in which four people were murdered, was released in the Gilad Schalit deal of 2011.
Najeeb was a senior operative in Hamas’s West Bank headquarters and was responsible for linking the West Bank and Gaza Strip in directing terror attacks. He, too, was released in the Schalit deal.
The terrorists eliminated
Forces from the army’s 401st Brigade and Shayetet 13, under the 162nd Division’s command, have been continuing to operate in the area of the hospital to fight Hamas terrorists using the medical facility.
They have reportedly been operating under intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), which revealed the presence of the senior Hamas members in the hospital.
Israeli forces also located many weapons, including sniper weapons, Kalashnikov rifles, cartridges, and grenades.
In the last few days, Israeli forces have encountered terrorists outside the hospital building, who were thwarted by troops from the Shaked Battalion.
The flow of Western military aid to Ukraine is waning. President Putin will feel emboldened. But Sean Bell explains that there are options to swing the balance in Ukraine’s favour for the West – if its leaders are willing to call Russia’s bluff.
The West had rallied to President Zelenskyy’s call for military support to enable a spring offensive, and there was an air of optimism that Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine was to be defeated.
However, a year on, the much-anticipated Ukrainian spring offensive failed to deliver any significant changes to the frontline, and 2024 started with Russia on the front foot in the Donbas.
Although the Ukrainian forces have proven brave and tenacious on the Ukrainian battlefield, Russia has the advantage of “mass”.
Western high-tech precision weapons provided the Ukrainian military with a crucial advantage against the Russian invaders; however, two years into the war, Western war chests have been emptied, and the future is now looking increasingly bleak for President Zelenskyy and his fellow Ukrainians.
Image:Pic: Reuters
Is this the beginning of the end for Ukraine?
High-end warfare consumes huge quantities of ammunition and weapons and requires a rapid mobilisation of the established defence industrial base to provide both the quantity, and quality, of munitions required.
Although the West’s defence industrial base has a significantly greater potential than Russia, the West has been slow to invest.
In stark contrast, Russia’s defence industry is now three times the size it was at the start of the war, and Russia’s oil revenues are sustaining the flow of weapons from both North Korea and Iran.
Image:Pic: Sputnik/Reuters
Despite robust Western political rhetoric in support of Ukraine, actions speak louder than words, andPutin will feel emboldened by the West’s hesitancy over the level of commitment to combating Russian aggression.
Putin knows well that Russia has a significant military and economic advantage over Ukraine.
However, he also knows that Russia is no match for NATO or a concerted and determined Western campaign of military support for President Zelenskyy.
The question is whether Western support will continue at the level required.
Putin’s threats resonate – even if he can’t risk NATO war
Putin has consistently threatened escalation in response to Western military aid to Ukraine.
At the start of the war, the West prevaricated about providing anti-tank weapons due to Putin’s threats.
However, the West eventually agreed to send modern tanks and then long-range missiles – such as Storm Shadow – despite a growing tirade of threats from Putin.
But even now, Russian threats of retaliation against Germany are delaying the supply of Taurus missiles.
Putin knows he cannot afford to precipitate a war with NATO or the West, but his threats resonate with nervous Western leaders.
Ultimately, bullies such as Putin only respect strength and resolve.
If he were to subjugate Ukraine – eventually – his battle-hardened military, backed by a robust and sustainable defence industrial base, would hold a significant military advantage over any of Russia’s neighbours.
Unless the West shifts from appeasement to a robust defence of Ukraine, why would Putin stop?
Although there is no quick fix to the weapons crisis, the West does have other options available.
This is not just about Western military personnel – such a move would also enable the West to deploy modern weapons that cannot be gifted to Ukraine for security reasons.
Also, the Russian air force has struggled to prevail over a significantly smaller and less capable Ukrainian air force, losing over 10% of its pre-war fighter jets.
If the West was to impose a No-Fly Zone over all or part of Ukraine, that would present a huge threat to the Russian military advance, and significantly tip the balance of power Ukraine’s way.
President Putin would recognise the significance of such a move and would increase his threatening rhetoric, but he knows that it is Russia that is responsible for the war and for invading a vulnerable neighbour.
Image:Pic: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Reuters
Russia cannot risk an escalation – its military has been decimated by the war to date, and nuclear weapons are only a credible option if Russia itself is threatened.
Ultimately, this is all about the resolve and determination of Western political leaders.
Nobody wants to get embroiled in a brutal war, but history suggests that aggressors such as Putin will not desist unless they are robustly challenged.
The West has the capability to halt Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine, but does it have the political resolve?
The rise of China is a “threat” to the Indo-Pacific region, Latvia’s Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins said recently while calling for deeper cooperation between Japan and Europe to protect the international order.
While Beijing steps up military pressure on Taiwan, a territory it regards as a renegade province to be unified with the mainland, Karins said in a recent interview with Kyodo News in Belgium there is a danger China will attempt to change the status quo by force, which he labeled as “not acceptable.”
The former prime minister of Latvia remarked on his nation’s “long-standing good cooperation” with Taiwan, having maintained active trade with the self-ruled island since the 1990s, and emphasized the importance of maintaining the established order.
He also said Japan and Europe share the same values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, adding that the two sides “have to look for more ways how we can cooperate and work together.”
During Karin’s tenure as premier from 2019 to 2023, Latvia withdrew from Beijing’s signature Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, the 2022 decision taken due to a lack of discernable benefits for the small Baltic nation.
“I think there is a realization that what happens in the Indo-Pacific affects us as much as what happens in Europe affects the Indo-Pacific,” he said, citing the global disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Karins said Russia will remain a “long-term threat” even if Ukraine emerges victorious, and the way to contain Moscow is for Europe and NATO to be strong, as that is what Russia “understands.”
Karins said Latvia learned lessons from being too dependent on neighboring Russia for energy and suffering soaring costs after Moscow invaded Ukraine. In regards to China, he said he believes the best way to move forward is “de-risking, not decoupling.”
While noting the many benefits ongoing trade brings, he said “to be too dependent on anyone is never a good idea,” adding, “We need a more coherent European policy with China.”
The Prophecy Blog 
