World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Russia still building forces on Ukraine border, says top Nato official
- Idea of Prince Andrew supporting trafficking victims ‘ridiculous’ says Jess Phillips
- Ottawa protests: ‘strong ties’ between some occupiers and far-right extremists, minister says
- Thousands of baptisms invalidated by priest’s use of one wrong word
- Little Bay shark attack: public warned against swimming at 13 of Sydney’s beaches
- Biden orders release of Trump White House visitor logs to January 6 panel
- New York girl missing for two years found alive in a hidden staircase room
- World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds
- Tehran under pressure as Iran nuclear deal reaches crunch point
- Nick Clegg promoted to top Facebook role
- Chinese MI6 informant gave information to MPs about Huawei threat
- Coronavirus restrictions ease across Europe despite high case rates
- Germany and Switzerland set to ease restrictions – as it happened
- Pregnant mother’s vaccination protects baby from Covid – study
- Coachella and sister festival Stagecoach lift Covid restrictions
- Velvet gloves to iron fists: how complicit are the wives of dictators?
- Cheating the audience: what went wrong with Inventing Anna?
- ‘Carnival of chaos’: Ottawa police face growing flak for failure to end protests
- The ugly truth: beauty’s not just skin deep – gorgeous people may be healthier too
- ‘At 6pm every evening the screen went blank’: the outlandish tale of the UK’s TV blackout
- Last Fukushima town to reopen welcomes back its first residents
- ‘The sober fairy gave me one more chance!’ Glee’s Jane Lynch on alcoholism, ambition and the return of Mrs Maisel
- Funding of Duke of York’s settlement to be raised in parliament
- Ukraine crisis: Nato considering new battlegroups in eastern Europe after ‘no sign’ of Russian de-escalation – live
- Women apply in their thousands to drive trains in Saudi Arabia
- France poised to announce withdrawal of military forces from Mali
- Morrison and Dutton are imperilling Australia’s national security to hang on to power | Katharine Murphy
- Australia politics live news updates: defence secretary advises ‘unity’; 62 Covid deaths; Moderna approved for children six and over
- Tigrayan soldiers accused of raping and killing civilians in Ethiopia’s civil war
- Women behind the lens: raising awareness of albinism in west Africa
- ‘Illegal’ extradition of Bahraini dissident from Serbia calls Interpol’s role into question
- How $10 radios and taxi bikes are helping to end the mutilation of girls
- ‘Men must be involved in the fight against girls being cut, it’s a violation’
- UK has been slower than some countries in giving Covid jabs to younger children
- Russian pledge of troop withdrawals met with widespread scepticism
- You’re going to feel this, Biden tells Americans, as Ukraine war looms
- Duma manoeuvre points to Kremlin impatience in Ukraine standoff
- 'Not too late': Nato leaders call on Russia to continue diplomatic efforts – video
- Education or indoctrination: inside the bitter fight dividing America's schools - video
- Scholz calls for 'courageous and responsible action' in meeting with Putin over Ukraine – video
- What exactly does Putin want in Ukraine? – video explainer
- 'Mixed signals': Boris Johnson on Russian diplomatic efforts over Ukraine – video
- Russia says it is sending some troops back to base after drills – video report
- Zelenskiy confirms Ukraine's desire to join Nato – video
| Russia still building forces on Ukraine border, says top Nato official Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:51 AM PST Nato secretary general contradicts Russian president Vladimir Putin's claim of 'partial' withdrawal Russia is continuing to send troops to what is now the biggest concentration of forces in Europe since the cold war, contradicting Moscow's claims of a drawdown on Ukraine's border, Nato's secretary general has said. Despite suggestions from Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, that a "partial" withdrawal was in effect, Jens Stoltenberg said Russian military capability was only increasing in number and strength. Continue reading... |
| Idea of Prince Andrew supporting trafficking victims ‘ridiculous’ says Jess Phillips Posted: 16 Feb 2022 10:14 AM PST Labour MP says she 'can't see him being welcome' by charities working with victims of sexual violence Prince Andrew will not be welcome in any role supporting victims of sex trafficking and shows a sense of entitlement in thinking he has something to offer, according to the Labour MP Jess Phillips. Phillips, a former Labour leadership contender who campaigns for women's rights, said the idea that Prince Andrew could help support victims of trafficking was "ridiculous" after he came to a multimillion-pound civil settlement with Virgina Giuffre, who had accused him of sexually assaulting her on three occasions when she was 17, which he denied. Continue reading... |
| Ottawa protests: ‘strong ties’ between some occupiers and far-right extremists, minister says Posted: 16 Feb 2022 02:54 PM PST Public safety minister speaks after arrest of extremists accused of plotting to kill police officers in Canada border town of Coutts Canada's public safety minister has warned of ties between protesters occupying the country's capital and a group of far-right extremists who were charged earlier this week in the border town of Coutts, Alberta, over an alleged plot to kill police officers. "Several of the individuals at Coutts have strong ties to a far-right extreme organization with leaders who are in Ottawa," the minister, Marco Medicino, told reporters on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Thousands of baptisms invalidated by priest’s use of one wrong word Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:57 AM PST Priest in Phoenix, Arizona, resigns after mistakenly using the phrase 'we baptize you' instead of 'I baptize you' for years Thousands of baptisms at a Catholic church in Arizona have been invalidated because a priest used the wrong words in performing the ceremony. Father Andres Arango resigned from the St Gregory parish church in Phoenix earlier this month after diocese leaders discovered he had mistakenly used the phrase "we baptize you" instead of "I baptize you" for years. Continue reading... |
| Little Bay shark attack: public warned against swimming at 13 of Sydney’s beaches Posted: 16 Feb 2022 03:34 PM PST Police and surf lifesavers are searching waters for human remains after a male swimmer was killed in the first fatal shark attack in Sydney since 1963 Police are continuing to scour the water off Sydney's eastern beaches as the search continues for a large shark responsible for the death of a male swimmer. The swimmer died from catastrophic injuries after being targeted by a shark at Little Bay on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading... |
| Biden orders release of Trump White House visitor logs to January 6 panel Posted: 16 Feb 2022 06:14 AM PST Ex-president had insisted that details of who visited him in the White House were protected by executive privilege Joe Biden has delivered another blow to Donald Trump's efforts to keep secret his actions around the time of the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection by refusing to exert executive privilege over the former president's White House visitor logs, according to a report published on Wednesday. The president has directed the National Archives to turn over the records within 15 days to the House committee investigating the attack by Trump supporters as a "in the light of the urgency" of the panel's work, the New York Times says. Continue reading... |
| New York girl missing for two years found alive in a hidden staircase room Posted: 16 Feb 2022 03:46 PM PST The biological non-custodial parents, who police believe abducted the six-year-old, have been arrested and charged Two years after she went missing, a six-year-old girl has been found alive and in good health in a makeshift room underneath a staircase in a house in New York state, according to police who said they suspected she was abducted by her biological non-custodial parents. Officers found the girl, Paislee Shultis, on Monday in a house in the town of Saugerties, two years after she went missing from Spencer, New York, about 180 miles (290 km) to the west, the Saugerties police department said in a statement on Tuesday. Continue reading... |
| World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds Posted: 16 Feb 2022 04:01 PM PST Research prompts warnings humanity is 'financing its own extinction' through subsidies damaging to the climate and wildlife The world is spending at least $1.8tn (£1.3tn) every year on subsidies driving the annihilation of wildlife and a rise in global heating, according to a new study, prompting warnings that humanity is financing its own extinction. From tax breaks for beef production in the Amazon to financial support for unsustainable groundwater pumping in the Middle East, billions of pounds of government spending and other subsidies are harming the environment, says the first cross-sector assessment for more than a decade. Continue reading... |
| Tehran under pressure as Iran nuclear deal reaches crunch point Posted: 16 Feb 2022 12:29 PM PST A breakthrough in the 2015 nuclear deal talks could be just days away, but key differences remain Iran has reached a moment of truth and must decide in days, not weeks, whether to accept the text of a nuclear deal accepted by China, Russia, European powers and the US, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has said. His claim that the text was now agreed, not just between western powers, but also Russia and China, is designed to put maximum pressure on Iran to accept the attempt to revive its landmark nuclear deal, by which it agreed to limit nuclear activity in return for the lifting of some sanctions. Continue reading... |
| Nick Clegg promoted to top Facebook role Posted: 16 Feb 2022 10:09 AM PST
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has promoted the company's top policy executive, Nick Clegg, to president of global affairs, Zuckerberg said in a post on Wednesday, reducing his own role in the company's policy decisions. Clegg, who previously served as Britain's deputy prime minister, had joined Facebook as vice‑president for global affairs and communications in 2018. Continue reading... |
| Chinese MI6 informant gave information to MPs about Huawei threat Posted: 16 Feb 2022 07:56 AM PST Wang Yam sent committee warnings about Britain's involvement with telecommunications firm A Chinese informant for MI6, now serving a life sentence for murder in a British jail, has given information about the telecommunications company Huawei to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC), the Guardian has learned. He has been thanked by the chair of the committee, the senior Conservative backbencher Dr Julian Lewis, and told that he had raised "several important areas of concern" and that the committee's findings may be "of interest" to him. Continue reading... |
| Coronavirus restrictions ease across Europe despite high case rates Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:08 AM PST France, Netherlands and Germany all announce plans to reduce or remove Covid controls France's nightclubs reopen for the first time in three months on Wednesday and the Netherlands returns to "almost normal" from next Friday, as European countries continue to lift their coronavirus curbs despite relatively high infection numbers. Groups may also play to standing audiences in French concert venues, customers in bars and cafes will be allowed to eat and drink while standing at the counter and cinemagoers and train passengers can snack during their film or journey. Continue reading... |
| Germany and Switzerland set to ease restrictions – as it happened Posted: 16 Feb 2022 03:59 PM PST This blog is now closed.
British ministers' plans to scale back free PCR Covid tests could weaken the UK's defences if a new variant of the virus emerges that results in "significant new waves" of cases, a group representing local public health chiefs has warned. Before a meeting of cabinet ministers and the prime minister later this week to discuss the "learning to live with Covid" strategy, the Association of Public Health Directors (APHD) said that forcing people to pay for lateral flow tests would also have a "detrimental impact" on take-up, particularly among disadvantaged communities. Continue reading... |
| Pregnant mother’s vaccination protects baby from Covid – study Posted: 16 Feb 2022 11:51 AM PST Research finds much lower risk of infant hospitalisation when mother had mRNA vaccine during pregnancy Babies whose mothers get vaccinated against Covid-19 during pregnancy are less likely to be admitted to hospital for the disease after they are born, a study suggests. The new findings are the first real-world evidence that pregnant women can not only protect themselves by getting vaccinated but can also protect their newborn infants. Continue reading... |
| Coachella and sister festival Stagecoach lift Covid restrictions Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:50 AM PST Festivals will not require vaccination, testing or masking while Coachella says 'no guarantee' attendees won't be exposed to Covid In a reversal of its previous policy, the Coachella music festival will not require Covid-19 vaccination, testing or masking when it resumes this April in southern California, the organizers said. The hugely popular festival saw up to 125,000 attendees leading up to the start of pandemic, during which it was cancelled three times. Continue reading... |
| Velvet gloves to iron fists: how complicit are the wives of dictators? Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:00 PM PST Freya Berry's debut novel The Dictator's Wife explores how tyrants deploy glamorous spouses to soften their image. Do they, too, have blood on their hands? "These prosecutors are rummaging in my closets, hoping to find skeletons. But all they will find are my beautiful clothes." So says the fictional Marija Popa, adapting an infamous phrase from Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, as she prepares to stand trial for her late husband's crimes. Popa is the anti-heroine of The Dictator's Wife, a debut novel by a young British Indian writer, Freya Berry, that explores how tyrants deploy glamorous spouses to soften their image: velvet gloves to their iron fists. Continue reading... |
| Cheating the audience: what went wrong with Inventing Anna? Posted: 16 Feb 2022 12:04 PM PST The Netflix series on 'Soho grifter' Anna Delvey is at once overlong and underwhelming There's a recurring impulse throughout Inventing Anna, the nine-part Netflix limited series on the so-called "Soho Grifter", to apply the scam logic of Anna Delvey – a broke twentysomething Russian émigré who posed as a wealthy German heiress in mid-2010s New York – to society at large. Capitalism is a scam. So is meritocracy. Rich people can skate by on the assumption of their wealth; men fake it till they make it all the time. There's a point to this, however blunt and flattening it's made in connection to Anna Delvey. Part of our evergreen fascination with scams – an amorphous zeitgeist that includes everything from Fyre festival to the Tinder Swindler to upcoming series on Elizabeth Holmes and WeWork's implosion – derives from recognition. They're extreme versions of dynamics with which we're all familiar: exploitation, manipulation of trust, seductive performance, inflation of the self. Based-on-a-true-story television, like a scam, requires sustained disbelief; if done well, it's a potent cocktail of truth and dramatic embellishment. There's an implicit contract with the audience that some details will be juiced up, some facts changed. Inventing Anna, the first Netflix series created by Shonda Rhimes under her blockbuster deal with Netflix (2020 hit Bridgerton, produced by her company Shondaland, was created by Rhimes protege Chris Van Dusen), invokes this connection at the beginning of each episode with a cheeky reminder: "This whole story is completely true, except for all the parts that are totally made up." Continue reading... |
| ‘Carnival of chaos’: Ottawa police face growing flak for failure to end protests Posted: 16 Feb 2022 10:42 AM PST Failure to prevent protests initially, and to rid the city of the trucks over three weeks have baffled and angered residents Police in Ottawa have warned they will begin breaking up blockades that have gridlocked traffic, angered residents and plunged Canada's capital into a crisis that has rippled throughout the country. For 20 days, protesters and large semi-trucks have blockaded sections of downtown Ottawa, including Parliament Hill, the seat of the country's government. The protests, which began as a demonstration against public health measures including vaccine mandates, have morphed into a broader anti-government movement as more fringe elements, including far-right and nationalist groups, became a growing presence. Continue reading... |
| The ugly truth: beauty’s not just skin deep – gorgeous people may be healthier too Posted: 16 Feb 2022 07:27 AM PST Good-looking people may be better at fighting infections, a study finds, so don't feel shallow when you swipe right Name: Gorgeous people. Age: Considerable. Certainly of greater longevity than poor saps like you who've been battered by the ugly stick and, let's face it, will probably die sooner than hotties like me. Continue reading... |
| ‘At 6pm every evening the screen went blank’: the outlandish tale of the UK’s TV blackout Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:00 AM PST It's 65 years today since television sets had to stop broadcasting to allow parents to put children to bed. How did it ever seem like a good idea? In 1953, when Norma Young was seven, her family became the first in their Glasgow tenement to get a TV set. It was a big deal – the Youngs had had to choose between a car or a TV. They opted for a 14in Ekco TV as deep as it was wide – and Norma was opened up to the world of The Woodentops and Andy Pandy, two shows that rapidly became her favourites. But at 6pm every evening the screen went blank, and Norma's viewing was at an end. This wasn't her parents regulating her TV time – it was the state. Abolished 65 years ago on Wednesday, the break in programming between 6pm and 7pm every night was a government policy, known colloquially as the toddlers' truce. Continue reading... |
| Last Fukushima town to reopen welcomes back its first residents Posted: 16 Feb 2022 06:01 AM PST Three people have moved back to Futaba, which aims to attract about 2,000 over the next five years Late last month, Yoichi Yatsuda slept in his own home for the first time in more than a decade. As a resident of Futaba, a town in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, there was a time when simply spending the night in his family home had seemed an impossible dream. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:00 PM PST The 61-year-old scene-stealer and gay icon is back! She talks about her triumph over sexism, shame and self-doubt Not so long ago, Jane Lynch was walking her dog, happy as could be, and she paused and said out loud to herself: "God, I love being Jane Lynch." She laughs at herself. "As if 'she' were something outside of me." But things do seem pretty good: she recently finished her run of cabaret dates with her friend, the actor Kate Flannery. There's a reboot of the underrated sitcom Party Down coming, and a fourth series of the Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs Maisel is about to start. Lynch won an Emmy for her role as Sophie Lennon, a bawdy superstar comic housewife from Queens (in reality, an upper-class Manhattanite, slumming it for financial gain and self-expression). This year, Lynch takes to Broadway, to be in Funny Girl, the fulfilment, at the age of 61, of a childhood dream. Last year, she got married for the second time. "I live in this really cute house in a little beach town," she says. "I've got a beautiful dog, a fantastic wife." She seems to marvel at it – she doesn't sound remotely boastful, just grateful. Things haven't always been so good. Lynch has been through divorce and alcoholism – giving up alcohol for the second time only fairly recently, after slipping back into addiction. As a teenager, she carried deep shame about her sexuality. Well into her 30s, she felt lonely and alienated, and it wasn't until her 40s that her career took off. Lynch might be the perfect embodiment of the idea that It Will Get Better. Continue reading... |
| Funding of Duke of York’s settlement to be raised in parliament Posted: 16 Feb 2022 03:56 PM PST Labour's Andy McDonald said he will seek assurances public money will not be used when MPs return next week A Labour MP intends to seek assurances in parliament that public money will not be used to pay for the Duke of York's settlement with Virginia Giuffre. An out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum, reportedly as high as £12m, was reached with Giuffre, who was suing the Queen's son claiming he had sexually abused her after she was trafficked by his friend and convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 16 Feb 2022 05:16 PM PST Nato secretary general sees 'no sign of de-escalation on the ground' and says organisation is developing options for bolstering eastern flank
Britain's defence secretary has said Russia should be judged by its actions when it comes to de-escalating tension at the Ukraine border, adding he has not seen evidence of a withdrawal of troops. Speaking in Brussels ahead of a meeting of Nato defence ministers, Ben Wallace told Sky News on Wednesday morning: We'll take Russia at its word, but we will judge them on their actions. Until we see a proper de-escalation, we should all be cautious about the direction of travel from the Kremlin." Continue reading... |
| Women apply in their thousands to drive trains in Saudi Arabia Posted: 16 Feb 2022 05:25 PM PST Rail company advertised 30 positions and received 28,000 applications in kingdom where women couldn't drive cars until 2018 A job advert to recruit 30 female train drivers in Saudi Arabia has attracted 28,000 applicants, highlighting the scale of pent-up demand as the conservative kingdom loosens some restrictions on women's employment. The Spanish railway operator Renfe said an online assessment of academic background and English language skills had helped it to reduce the number of candidates by around a half, and it would work through the rest by mid-March. Continue reading... |
| France poised to announce withdrawal of military forces from Mali Posted: 16 Feb 2022 11:02 AM PST After months of diplomatic crisis the departure will mark an end to a fraught nine-year mission France is expected to formally announce within days a phased withdrawal of its military forces in Mali after almost a decade, following months of diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The departure will mark an end to a fraught nine-year mission in Mali that French governments have argued is integral to regional security as well as preventing jihadist threats in Europe. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 16 Feb 2022 05:09 PM PST The PM and his defence minister are puffing themselves up like mini-me McCarthyists – and it's beyond reckless
Too often, political journalism is the art of asking the wrong question. We can preoccupy ourselves wondering whether or not a particular tactic will work. These are valid enough deductions, but the whole exercise can read like theatre criticism. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 16 Feb 2022 05:25 PM PST Greg Moriarty warns that Australia's adversaries 'will seek to sow division'; Moderna vaccine approved for children aged six and over; Victoria scraps density limits, with QR code rules to ease; Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson discuss human rights violations in Xinjiang; NSW records 14 Covid deaths, Victoria records nine, Queensland records 39 (but not all in past 24 hours). Follow all the day's news live
Here's the latest from that Little Bay shark attack: Speaking of not being politicised ... here's Amanda Meade on ABC managing director David Anderson's new book: Continue reading... |
| Tigrayan soldiers accused of raping and killing civilians in Ethiopia’s civil war Posted: 16 Feb 2022 04:07 AM PST New Amnesty report details 'mounting evidence' of repeated war crimes including gang-rape, summary killings and looting Tigrayan soldiers killed civilians and gang-raped women and girls in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, a human rights organisation has claimed, in the latest accusation of atrocities made against fighters engaged in the country's civil war. Troops with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) shot dead at least 24 people in the town of Kobo in one day last September, according to Amnesty International. Continue reading... |
| Women behind the lens: raising awareness of albinism in west Africa Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:30 PM PST People with albinism across Africa face the harsh sun as well as social exclusion and suspicion. Photographer Maroussia Mbaye hopes to bring greater understanding through her work An estimated 10,000 people are living with albinism in Senegal. Albinism is genetically inherited and, while prevalence varies from region to region, some of the highest rates are found in sub-Saharan Africa. The deficit in melanin is characterised by the absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism can lead to skin cancer, visual impairment and sun sensitivity. About 90% of people with the condition across Africa die of skin cancer before they are 40. Myths surrounding people affected by albinism have led to extreme practices involving the use of body parts. Hundreds of attacks including horrific mutilations, ritual killings, sexual violence, kidnappings and trafficking of people and body parts have happened in many countries across the continent. Many people with the condition are at risk every day because of superstition and witchcraft practices. Franco-Senegalese photographer Maroussia Mbaye is a graduate from the London School of Economics and the London College of Communication. She was raised in a politically active family and her experiences fuelled an interest in social division and justice, leading her to pursue documentary photography, through which she aims to capture human life in new, perspective-shifting ways Continue reading... |
| ‘Illegal’ extradition of Bahraini dissident from Serbia calls Interpol’s role into question Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:15 PM PST Abuse of the policing body's 'red notice' system is blamed as an activist is forced to return to life in prison in the Gulf state Marko Štambuk arrived at Belgrade district prison on a Monday morning in late January, only to be told his client was no longer inside. "Immediately I knew something had happened," he said. Štambuk, a lawyer, had spent the previous Friday frantically obtaining an injunction from the European court of human rights (ECHR) demanding Serbian authorities halt the extradition of his client, Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali, a Bahraini dissident. This banned the Serbian authorities from extraditing Ali until late February, and warned them that doing so would constitute a rare breach of the European convention on human rights. Continue reading... |
| How $10 radios and taxi bikes are helping to end the mutilation of girls Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:15 PM PST Across the continent, young Africans are using their unique local knowledge and bargaining power to challenge beliefs about female genital mutilation It took courage for Ayodeji Bella to raise the subject of female genital mutilation in her rural community in southern Nigeria. She knew local chiefs were key to challenging beliefs around the practice but when Bella, who was cut at five, broached the issue with an elder from her village, she was rebuked. "I was young and unmarried and they wouldn't take me seriously." Continue reading... |
| ‘Men must be involved in the fight against girls being cut, it’s a violation’ Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:15 PM PST Female genital mutilation cannot be considered solely a 'women's issue' if it is to be stamped out by 2030, say male campaigners in Guinea, Somalia, Kenya and Nigeria There is a case from Dr Morissanda Kouyaté's career that stays with him. In 1983, Kouyaté, then 32, was working at a village hospital in Guinea when 12-year-old twins, Hassantou and Housseynatou, were brought in. Through wails, their relatives told Kouyaté that earlier that day, the girls had been taken into the bush to be submitted to genital mutilation. Now, they were barely conscious and bleeding heavily. Continue reading... |
| UK has been slower than some countries in giving Covid jabs to younger children Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:01 AM PST Progress has been slower than in adults, with authorities blaming hesitancy among parents and some doctors as well as mixed messaging from experts All nations of the UK will offer Covid-19 vaccines to all 5-11 year olds, with England, Northern Ireland and Scotland all joining Wales in offering the jabs to younger children on Wednesday. Britain has been slower than some other countries in offering the shots to this age group. Many EU member states began offering vaccination to all children aged five to 11 in December, but progress has been patchy, with authorities blaming hesitancy among parents and some doctors as well as mixed messaging from experts. Continue reading... |
| Russian pledge of troop withdrawals met with widespread scepticism Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:00 PM PST Analysis: Experts have little faith in announcement and say there are no signs of de-escalation on Ukraine's borders A video of a handful of screeching tanks and lumbering armoured vehicles mounting a transport train in Crimea accompanied the Russian defence ministry's trumpeted announcement that some of the forces that have been encircling Ukraine will "head for their garrisons". Such evidence is clearly far too tentative to amount to anything definitive, however. The movement of Russian forces towards Ukraine has been patiently documented by a group of open source intelligence analysts, relying on public domain information, including satellite imagery and a large supply of on the ground videos. Continue reading... |
| You’re going to feel this, Biden tells Americans, as Ukraine war looms Posted: 15 Feb 2022 05:30 PM PST Analysis: US president gives the kind of speech normally delivered on the eve of momentous action, while speaking over Putin's head to the Russian people Joe Biden's speech sounded like a closing argument, one that had been honed for some time and one that suggested expectations are still high in the White House that Russia will take military action. Biden briefly nodded to Moscow's claims to be withdrawing before abruptly contradicting them, raising the US estimate of the number of troops surrounding Ukraine to 150,000 in a "threatening position". Continue reading... |
| Duma manoeuvre points to Kremlin impatience in Ukraine standoff Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:38 AM PST Analysis: recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk's independence would be seen as considerable escalation Russian lawmakers have passed a direct appeal to Vladimir Putin to recognise the Russian-controlled separatist states of Donetsk and Luhansk, providing a way to up the ante in the regional crisis without launching an attack on Ukraine. Putin has said he will not immediately recognise the so-called republics but he is likely to wield that option as a bargaining chip as he continues to demand security guarantees from the west. Continue reading... |
| 'Not too late': Nato leaders call on Russia to continue diplomatic efforts – video Posted: 16 Feb 2022 09:11 AM PST Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said he sees no signs of de-escalation on the ground from Russia's military, while urging it to 'step back from the brink of war'. He also reiterated that Nato action was defensive and 'not a threat to Russia'. Nato defence ministers are in Brussels for two days to discuss Russia military buildup on the Ukrainian border Continue reading... |
| Education or indoctrination: inside the bitter fight dividing America's schools - video Posted: 16 Feb 2022 03:11 AM PST Carmel, Indiana, is an affluent suburb just north of Indianapolis known for low crime rates and some of the country's best public schools. But early last year, the school board brought in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, which seek to combat structural racism in the education system. Since then, a battle has erupted between those who welcome the changes, and others who see it as leftwing indoctrination Continue reading... |
| Scholz calls for 'courageous and responsible action' in meeting with Putin over Ukraine – video Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:21 AM PST German chancellor Olaf Scholz said preventing war in Europe is the 'damn responsibility' of heads of state and government as he met with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Putin in turn raised questions about Ukrainian membership of Nato but was engaged in ongoing diplomatic efforts around military buildup on the Ukrainian border Continue reading... |
| What exactly does Putin want in Ukraine? – video explainer Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:40 AM PST Tensions in Europe have risen in recent weeks amid fears Russia is planning to invade Ukraine. So why has Russia amassed thousands of troops and weapons at its border with Ukraine? The Guardian's Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, looks at what Russian president, Vladimir Putin, may be hoping to achieve – and why now
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| 'Mixed signals': Boris Johnson on Russian diplomatic efforts over Ukraine – video Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:27 AM PST The prime minister told reporters that while Russia had announced it had withdrawn some troops from the Ukrainian border, intelligence showed that it was still making preparations to invade. Johnson said that while these 'mixed signals' meant UK sanctions on Russia needed to be ready to go, the government had decided to keep its embassy open in Kyiv as 'an important symbol' Continue reading... |
| Russia says it is sending some troops back to base after drills – video report Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:24 AM PST Russia's defence ministry says some of its troops are returning to base after carrying out drills near the Ukraine border. Nato's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, says the alliance has yet to see 'real de-escalation' from Russia, but will continue to monitor the situation
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| Zelenskiy confirms Ukraine's desire to join Nato – video Posted: 14 Feb 2022 09:59 AM PST Ukraine's president has quashed suggestions by the country's ambassador to Britain that it could drop its bid to join Nato to avoid war with Russia. Speaking at a press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: 'We would like Nato membership. It would ensure our security, our territorial sovereignty' Continue reading... |
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