UN's António Guterres visits Ukraine as war nears six months

Guterres visited the port of Odesa, where shipments of Ukrainian grain are under way. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What The World is following UN Secretary-General António Guterres visits Ukraine as the war rages on for nearly six months [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, center, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres shake hands after their meeting in Lviv, Ukraine.] Credit: Evgeniy Maloletka Ukraine UN Secretary-General António Guterres is visiting Ukraine where the war has raged on for nearly six months. On Friday, [Guterres visited]( the Black Sea port of Odesa, where shipments of Ukrainian grain are en route after a UN-brokered deal between Moscow and Kyiv. [Guterres met on Thursday]( with Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelenskiy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Lviv for high-level discussions on expanding prisoner exchanges and arranging for UN nuclear energy experts to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is in the middle of fierce fighting. Russia has rejected appeals to completely demilitarize the area around Europe’s largest nuclear plat in southern Ukraine, [raising fears]( of a catastrophe. United States Moazu Kromah, a Liberian national who resided in Uganda and was extradited to the US three years ago, [has been sentenced]( by a New York court to five years in prison for conspiring to traffic millions of dollars worth of rhino horns and elephant ivory. Kromah had pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking part in a trafficking ring that transported over 400 pounds of rhino horns and 10 tons of elephant ivory that originated in East Africa and were meant to be sold in the US and Southeast Asia. Prosecutors said Kromah, along with other individuals, was involved in illegally poaching over 35 rhinos and more than 100 elephants. Saudi Arabia Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi woman pursuing a PhD at Leeds University in the UK, [has been handed a 34-year sentence]( in Saudi Arabia by a terrorism tribunal for aiding dissidents seeking to "disrupt public order" and publishing "false rumors." Shehab was arrested last year while she was on holiday in the kingdom after posting on Twitter messages calling for reforms in Saudi Arabia. She also reshared Twitter posts advocating for the release of prominent activists, clerics and other intellectuals. This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has punished its online critics. [The World’s Shirin Jaafari reports]( that Twitter posts have played a role in landing several Saudi nationals in prison in the past. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [US educators step up to help displaced Ukrainians continue their studies]( [Kyiv School of Economics student Anna Myslytska fled Ukraine when Russian missiles destroyed her hometown. She’s continued her education, taking courses online from Spain.]( Credit: Courtesy of Anna Myslytska Several American-based online learning platforms have made their coursework free to Ukrainians whose education has been upended by the war in their country. Students, as well as universities, [are embracing]( the new offerings. [Ukraine’s grain feeds the world]( [Director General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala walks outside of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) building during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings in Washington in April, 2022.]( Credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP At least 18 vessels loaded with grain have left Ukraine in the past two weeks in what could be a sign that global cooperation can ease trade, even in an active war zone. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, says that a lot of groundwork has gone into making the grain shipments work. “Remember, the UN secretary-general, Turkey and others had worked with Russia and Ukraine to make this happen, she said. “So these are very good signs. We are cautiously optimistic and hope this will continue, but we are not past the worst." [She spoke with The World’s Marco Werman]( 🎧 about the shipments, the slowdown in global trade and what could be done to alleviate world hunger. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bright spot For the first time in 6,000 years, three wild bison were released into a forest in the UK last month. The animals will be ecosystem engineers — they will thrash around the forest, eating bark and killing trees, eating and dispersing seeds, [creating new habitats 🎧](for other species. 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