Category World News

In the occupied West Bank, at least 13 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Ramallah. As the army raided foreign currency exchanges, soldiers videoed soldiers firing directly at civilians and journalists.

Ivan Chenin, a student in Moscow, resigned as president of Ukraine when Vladimir Putin decreed a full-scale invasion in 2022 to work as a volunteer for the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics of eastern Ukraine, which Russia now calls its “new territories.”

Chenin re-enlisted in the Thunder Cascade volunteer unit after returning from an earlier trip to Ukraine’s occupied areas last year.

Chenin told Al Jazeera, “I operated a reconnaissance UAV [drone].

“My responsibilities included observing and resolving issues with the enemy.” I reported a target to the commander, and we took control of it once it was discovered. Then the missile or artillery systems operated.”

One of the nearly half a million people who signed up for military service in Russia as contract soldiers or volunteers was Chenin.

Russia does not currently appear to have this issue despite Ukraine’s struggles with manpower to the point where recruitment officers are accused of systematically detaining young men off the street.

Putin asserted at a meeting in March that Russia is hiring more servicemen at a rate twice as high as Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials in Kiev reported in April that this year the Russian military will increase its presence in Ukraine by 150 000 soldiers. The Russian Federation’s deputy head of military intelligence, Vadym Skibitsky, stated earlier this month that its recruitment goals are being met by at least 105 to 110 percent per month, which puts it well on track to meet its quotas by the end of the year.

Reduced casualties

Given that Russia keeps these statistics secret, it is impossible to independently verify that number, which is in line with other estimates from Western intelligence agencies and think tanks, is more than a million Russian soldiers have died during World War II.

However, one reason for Russia’s escalating number of troops is because it is now enduring fewer losses, according to Oleg Ignatov, a senior analyst for Crisis Group.

He told Al Jazeera, “This is explained by a change in tactics.”

Because it is so vulnerable to drones, Russia has almost stopped using heavy equipment on the front lines. He continued, citing Ukraine’s counterattack in western Russia as the last time it used heavy equipment on a large scale during the Kursk operation in winter.

“Russia hasn’t attacked with large numbers of soldiers in a while. Under the cover of drones and artillery, Russia gradually infiltrates Ukrainian army positions using small groups, occasionally just one or two people. This lessens the number of casualties.

Other factors are at play, too.

In neighboring countries like Georgia and Mongolia, thousands of young men who were eligible for military service fled during the first year of the conflict. In order to arrest potential draftees, police patrolled subways and searched for housing options.

These apprehensions about being press-ganged have now largely dissipated.

Since November 1, 2022, there hasn’t been a call-up for mobilization, according to a human rights lawyer from the group that assists eligible recruits avoid military service.

The mobilization period is still ongoing and has not yet been ended, meaning those who are already serving can’t quit until the mobilization is complete. The regions have been given the task of recruiting contract soldiers since 2022, replacing having them conscripted for mobilization. Participants in the war are limited to those hired under contract.

The lawyer added that unscrupulous recruiters who tell their targets they are required to sign a contract because conscription is still in place use this tactic to exploit the confusion. Conscripts have occasionally been the subject of contracts that have been forged on their behalf, which is against Russian law.

The generous salaries appeal to others.

A decree signed by Putin last year gave new contract soldiers a welcome bonus of 400, 000 roubles (roughly $4, 977) from the federal government. Local authorities were advised to at least double that amount, as well as offer a minimum monthly salary of 204, 000 roubles ($2, 500) and other benefits like loan assistance. The offers are appealing for those who are struggling to find a job or who come from rural areas that are less developed and poor.

The lawyer, who requested anonymity, continued, “People who are most vulnerable to recruitment for a contract are people who are suffering from poverty as well as those who have been brought to the attention of the police, such as those who are caught for petty thefts and other crimes.”

Worker migrants, foreigners, or new citizens are also susceptible to recruitment and coercion to serve under a contract. It is obvious that more people are recruited because the regions are more economically and economically depressed.

Freedom is a major battleground for Russia’s front-line forces, which includes a sizable portion of it. Prisoners who have been detained throughout the war, including those who have been found guilty of murder and rape, have been released from their cells and given rifles to fight in Ukraine.

They were instructed to storm Ukrainian positions in human wave assaults in battles, such as the bloody fighting in Bakhmut in mid-2019, when Russian forces were accused of war crimes. If they were to survive, they were greeted as heroes deserving of redemption and returned to Russia as men who could not be free.

However, rehabilitation is not always successful: veterans are encouraged by the fact that they can simply re-enlist if they are caught again. This is a problem.

The scheme was expanded to include those who were awaiting trial or were merely being investigated by the government last year.

Ivan Chuviliaev, spokesman for Go By The Forest, a group that assists soldiers avoid mobilization, said, “On average, 50 people leave]prison] colonies in a single stream, about once a week.

According to a report in the Moscow daily MK in February, the once-massive prison population in Russia has decreased by 120, 000 over the past two years to a record low of 313, 000. Correctional facilities across the nation are currently shutting down.

However, these strategies are not always required. According to a poll conducted earlier this year by independent pollster Levada, 75% of Russians are in favor of the war, and recruits like Chenin are drawn to patriotism.

Love for the motherland is considered to be the first and foremost factor. He claimed that “everything else is secondary.”

Iqbal Solangi, a resident of Karachi, is in his small home as a new wave of cloudbursts, monsoon rains, and floods wreak havoc across Pakistan. He is grieving for those who lost their loved ones, their homes, and their livestock.

More than 800 people have died as a result of a heavier-than-usual monsoon that followed floods and landslides, damaged at least 7,225 homes, washed away more than 5,500 livestock, and caused the country’s widespread crop destruction.

Although it is still unknown what caused the floods, climate change, and other factors may have played a role in the deluge. Pakistan, one of the top 10 most vulnerable countries for climate change, contributes less than 1% of global emissions, but it is one of the top 10 most vulnerable countries.

After the 2010 and 2012 floods, Solangi had already left farming and had already put an end to his climate-change-forced exile in 2022. He had also experienced another major debt loss, this time due to the flooding.

Due to climate change, his forefathers’ jobs had become unsustainable, so he relocated to Karachi in 2012. He had already moved from a small village on the border of Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Three decades of farming were abruptly put to an end by the displacement.

When I was sitting in a high chair and watching the water go away, I decided I would never go back, Solangi said of the 2022 floods, which had impacted 33 million people and flooded 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of agricultural land.

According to data from 2022, Pakistan ranked first among the countries on the list of the most affected according to the Climate Rate Index report from 2025. More than 1, 700 people were killed by extensive flooding in the following region of the nation: 9 million people were in poverty, caused $ 14. 8 billion in economic losses, and caused $ 15. 2 billion in damage.

The monsoon has changed from a source of beauty and renewal to a source of chaos and despair, according to an article in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper in August. What was once filled with joy now fills the void.”

More than 600 people died as a result of a heatwave and thousands of more floods were affected by the heatwave last year. The over 13 000 plus glaciers in Pakistan are being forced to melt due to the country’s rising temperatures, which raises the risk of flooding, property loss, damage to infrastructure, loss of life, and water shortage.

According to Pakistan’s Bureau of Statistics (PBS), agriculture still accounts for roughly 24 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP). Agriculture, which makes up more than 37 percent of the workforce, provides 40 million people with a means of earning a living.

The Pakistani minister of climate change warned that the melting of the glaciers would have “catastrophic consequences for Pakistan’s agricultural economy” in an interview with Al Jazeera earlier this year.

If these gushing floods wash away our infrastructure and wreak havoc on agricultural lands, the government lacks the resources to provide for such a large portion of the population because they work in agriculture. The potential for destruction is enormous, according to Musadiq Malik, both economically and agriculturally.

Agriculture’s sector posted a modest 0.6 percent growth rate this year, which is significantly below the target 2 percent and significantly below the 6.4% growth rate that was previously announced.

Between 1950 and 2012, according to a recent study published in the Nature journal, the Indus Plain in Pakistan experienced 19 flood disasters that affected an area of almost 600,000 square kilometers (231, 661.3 miles), resulting in 11, 239 fatalities, and causing more than $ 39 billion in economic damage. After 2000, all of those things happened.

PBS’s shared data shows a rise in farmland numbers in Pakistan over the past few years, from 8.6 million in 2010 to 11.7 million last year, with an exception of Punjab, which is increasing across all provinces. Farmers have been greatly impacted by changes in the rain patterns, though.

Basharat Jamal still cultivates his land in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but he claims that droughts have nearly eliminated his crop over the past ten years.

Jamal, who earns a small sum of money as a supplement to his income, claims that the area has been put in double jeopardy as a result of the shift from farming practices. Many farmers are moving to urban centers to find work because their income and output have drastically decreased. Additionally, some farmers now own livestock, which eat away at their unprotected crops due to lack of fodder.

Major crops like wheat and cotton, which are now considered to be in decline, decreased by 13.5 percent, limiting the overall GDP growth rate by 0.6%, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25.

Farming is now equivalent to “gambling with nature.”

Farmers in Pakistan’s largest province, Balochistan, say farming in an unpredictable climate is “like gambling with nature” as a result of the frequent floods and droughts that have forced him to cross several states.

Despite “watching helplessly our crops wither and fail year after year,” he has continued to farm.

We had no choice but to leave our ancestral homeland and cross the world in search of survival ten years ago, Hashim said. Then, in 2022, the devastating floods struck. Everything that we rebuilt was left standing. Our fields once more were destroyed. We relocated once more the following year. We briefly found some tranquility.

On my farm and in a shop, I worked. Our kids returned to school, and things started to feel normal.

Farmers who abandoned their land and moved to cities as a result of the 2022 floods, according to the Migration Policy Institute, were among the more than 8 million people who were displaced by the floods.

In a report on the 2022 floods, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) stated that Pakistan will face “a crucial, trying year,” with growing macroeconomic and fiscal concerns, a cost-of-living crisis affecting the most vulnerable, and cataclysmic floods whose threats were multiplied by climate change.

However, he was forced to relocate soon after the drought, but he quickly resigned.

He said, “My farming days would be over one year when there are floods and drought,” adding that if this pattern continued.