IAEA: Iran enriching uranium up to 20 percent

Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium is now more than 14 times over the limit set down in its 2015 deal with world powers, the UN's nuclear agency reports.

The UN’s atomic watchdog has said its inspectors have confirmed that Iran has started enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

It’s the latest in a string of violations of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday that as of February 16, Iran had added 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) of uranium enriched to 20 percent to its stockpile.

Overall, it increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to 2,967.8 kilograms (6,542.9 pounds), up from 2,442.9 kilograms (5,385.7 pounds) reported on Nov. 2.

The nuclear deal signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds). It also allows enrichment only up to 3.67 percent.

Tehran, Iran, February 21, 2021. (Reuters)

Restriction on inspections

Iran has officially started restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities, state TV reported on Tuesday, a bid to pressure European countries and US President Joe Biden's administration to lift crippling economic sanctions and restore the deal.

World powers slammed the restrictions as a “dangerous” move.

The state TV report gave little detail beyond confirming that Iran had made good on its threat to reduce cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

Iran's move to limit international inspections underscores the daunting task facing Biden as he seeks to reverse former President Donald Trump's decision to pull the US unilaterally out of the deal in 2018, leaving Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia struggling to keep it alive.

The JCPOA was the most significant pact between Iran and major world powers since its 1979 Islamic revolution, and Germany, France and Britain stressed their commitment Tuesday to preserving it, urging Iran to “stop and reverse all measures that reduce transparency.”

“The E3 are united in underlining the dangerous nature of this decision,” the European powers said in a statement. “It will significantly constrain the IAEA's access to sites and to safeguard s-relevant information.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said a new law had gone into effect Tuesday morning, under which Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the UN agency.

“We never gave them live video, but (recordings) were given daily and weekly,” Zarif said of the IAEA's access to information recorded by camera monitors. “The tape recording of our (nuclear) program will be kept in Iran.”

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Tehran’s civilian nuclear agency, has promised to preserve the tapes for three months, then hand them over to the IAEA, but only if granted sanctions relief.

Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough.

Source: TRT World

Farmers fight back: Making animal feed from a locust plague

LAIKIPIA (Reuters) - Kenya is battling some of the worst locust plagues in decades, but start-up The Bug Picture hopes to transform the pests into profits and bring “hope to the hopeless” whose crops and livelihoods are being destroyed by the insects.

Unusual weather patterns exacerbated by climate change have created ideal conditions for surging locust numbers, which have destroyed crops and grazing grounds across East Africa and the Horn. Scientists say warmer seas are creating more rain, waking dormant eggs, and cyclones that disperse the swarms are getting stronger and more frequent. The Bug Picture is working with communities around the area of Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu in central Kenya to harvest the insects and mill them, turning them into protein-rich animal feed and organic fertilizer for farms. “We are trying to create hope in a hopeless situation, and help these communities alter their perspective to see these insects as a seasonal crop that can be harvested and sold for money,” said Laura Stanford, founder of The Bug Picture. In central Kenya’s Laikipia, clouds of locusts are devouring crops and other vegetation. The Bug Picture is targeting swarms of 5 hectares or less in inhabited areas not suitable for spraying. Swarms can travel up to 150 km (93 miles) a day and can contain between 40-80 million locusts per square kilometre. “They destroy all the crops when they get into the farms. Sometimes they are so many, you cannot tell them apart, which are crops and which are locusts,” said farmer Joseph Mejia. The Bug Picture pays Mejia and his neighbours 50 Kenyan shillings ($0.4566) per kilogram of the insects. Between Feb. 1-18, the project oversaw the harvest of 1.3 tons of locusts, according to Stanford, who said she was inspired by a project in Pakistan, overseen by the state-run Pakistan Agricultural Research Council. The locusts are collected at night by torchlight when they are resting on shrubs and trees. “The community ... are collecting locusts, once they (are collected) they are weighed and paid,” said Albert Lemasulani, a field coordinator with the start-up. The insects are crushed and dried, then milled and processed into powder, which is used in animal feed or an organic fertiliser.

Source: Reiters - Reporting by Baz Ratner; Writing by Omar Mohammed; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Raissa Kasolowsky

UK teens given reanimated hearts in world-first transplants

‘No-one else in the world is currently doing this'

NHS staff have become the first in the world to give teenagers new hearts that have been reanimated by a pioneering new machine. Medical professionals at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Royal Papworth Hospital (RPH) in Cambridge collaborated on the ground-breaking treatment, which successfully saved the lives of six young people in 2020. The revolutionary new method – which is known as Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) – uses donated hearts which are kept beating outside a human body until they are needed for transplantation. Historically, donated hearts have come from people who are “brain-dead”, but whose hearts continue to beat, which limits the scope for the number of transplants possible. DCD not only allows more hearts to be used, it also enables them to be transported further and grants medical professionals more time. While the innovative technique was first performed in Europe in 2015, it was – until recently – only possible amongst adult patients.

The collaboration between RPH and GOSH represents a world-first for the DCD approach in relation to young people, however.

Marius Berman, consultant cardiothoracic transplant surgeon at the RPH, said: “No-one else in the world is currently doing this.

“It’s been an incredible multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team effort to make this possible, involving everyone from the specialist nurses in organ donation and retrieval, transplant co-ordinators, physicians and surgeons.

“Above all, none of this would be possible without the generosity of every donor and their families.”

Jacob Simmonds, consultant cardiologist and transplant physician at GOSH, echoed Dr Berman’s comments.

“In early 2020 we had more children at GOSH on the transplant list than I’d ever seen in my 16 years working at the hospital.

“Every day a child waits there is a bigger likelihood that they may get too ill even for transplantation, or worse.”

He added: “Although medical advances have come far, for some children with heart failure an organ donation is truly their only hope.”

The DCD heart programme has created more opportunities for donation, essentially doubling the number of transplants done at GOSH in eligible patients weighing more than 44lb (20kg), he said.

“It’s game-changing and work is already under way to make the technique suitable for our much younger and smaller patients.

“Ultimately, though, this still relies on families having conversations around their organ donation wishes, and then of course the bravery to consider making this precious, life-saving gift at a time of unimaginable tragedy.“

The UK still suffers from a shortage of suitable organ donors, which means that the number of children who might benefit from organ transplantation exceeds the number of organs available.

Fifteen-year-old Anna Hadley was the first patient to receive a DCD heart as a result of the collaboration.

The teenager was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy after collapsing during a PE class two months earlier.

Her father said: “After weighing up the potential risks and benefits of the DCD heart transplant with a more conventional one, we realised that there was only one choice, and we’re so glad we made it.

“Five days after the transplant, Anna was walking up and down the corridors, chatting away and high-fiving staff. It was incredible.”

Source: The i