The Week in Short World

Ukraine, Russia Blame Each Other for Destruction of Critical Dam

ukraine has blamed russian forces for blowing up the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Dnipro River in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian officials have blamed the incident on Ukrainian military strikes in the contested area.

COVID-19

Some Sudden Deaths Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines, Autopsies Confirm

eight people who died suddenly after receiving a messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine died due to a type of vaccine-induced heart inflammation called myocarditis, South Korean authorities said after reviewing the autopsies.

“Vaccine-related myocarditis was the only possible cause of death,” said Dr. Kye Hun Kim of the Chonnam National University Hospital and other South Korean researchers in a report of study findings published by the European Heart Journal.

All of the sudden cardiac deaths occurred in people aged 45 or younger, including a 33-year-old man who died just one day after receiving a second dose of Moderna’s vaccine and a 30-year-old woman who died three days after receiving a first dose of Pfizer’s shot.

Myocarditis wasn’t suspected as a clinical diagnosis or cause of death before the autopsies, researchers said.

UKRAINE CANADA

Canada on Track for Worst-Ever Wildfires: Officials

wildfires have been burning in nearly all Canadian provinces and territories, and federal government officials said their modeling shows increased wildfire risk in most of Canada through August.

“The distribution of fires from coast to coast this year is unusual. At this time of the year, fires usually occur only on one side of the country at a time, most often that being in the west,” said Michael Norton, an official with Canada’s Natural Resources ministry.

Lightning has ignited multiple fires in hard-hit Québec, in eastern Canada, Norton said. “The rate of increase of area burned is also high. ... If this rate continues, we could hit record levels for area burned this year,” he said.

Flames have been mushrooming rapidly in eastern Canada and have forced evacuations in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, as well as in coastal Québec. The wildfires also have forced evacuations in parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and British Columbia.

The explosion at the Soviet-era Nova Kakhovka dam—which holds the same amount of water as the Great Salt Lake in Utah—sent millions of liters of water bursting through a gaping hole.

The damage has prompted mass evacuations of multiple villages along the banks of the river, including parts of Kherson.

US, Japan, Philippines Hold 1st-Ever Trilateral Sea Exercise

the coast guards of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines conducted their first-ever trilateral exercises in the South China Sea to strengthen defense cooperation amid China’s growing assertiveness.

Around 400 coast guard personnel from the three nations participated in the week-long Kaagapay maritime exercise in the Philippine waters off Bataan Province, GMA News reported.

The Philippines Coast Guard (PCG) deployed four vessels to take part in the trilateral exercise, while the U.S. and Japanese coast guards deployed two ships—the USCG Cutter Stratton and Akitsushima.