Russian missiles continued to hit administrative and residential buildings in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv. A video released by Ukraine's ministry of emergency situations shows firefighters attempting to put out a fire burning in the regional headquarters of the ministry of internal affairs in Kharkiv
• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news
Continue reading...Medics unable to keep babies alive, says doctor, as Ethiopia’s civil war creates desperate shortages of drugs, oxygen, fuel and food
People in Tigray are dying due to a lack of oxygen and medicines, a doctor at the region’s largest hospital has said, as medics struggle to care for the sick amid frequent electricity blackouts and fuel shortages.
As the 16-month conflict between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian government forces drags on, the isolated northern region of 5.5 million people continues to suffer under what the UN has called a de facto blockade.
Continue reading...Public prosecutors’ claim that detainees inflicted injuries on themselves with a coin is ‘laughable’, says Human Rights Watch
Detainees seen in videos allegedly showing torture in a Cairo police station inflicted their injuries on themselves, according to Egyptian authorities, who have charged the prisoners with spreading “fake news”.
Up to 13 people detained in El-Salam First police station for unknown petty crimes made multiple videos that they say show the abuse they suffered at the hands of police officers and security forces.
Continue reading...Most of 358 victims worked on land, environmental and indigenous rights, with more killed in Mexico, India and among Afghan women
A Colombian conservationist who saved a rare species of parrot from extinction, a young feminist activist in Afghanistan, and two poets in Myanmar who used words to protest against the military coup were among 358 human rights defenders murdered in 35 countries last year, analysis has found.
The environmentalist Gonzalo Cardona Molina, 55; Frozan Safi, a 29-year-old Afghan economics lecturer; and K Za Win and Khet Thi, two of several poets to be killed, were among those targeted because of their “peaceful and powerful” work, according to a global analysis of threats and attacks faced by human rights activists compiled by Front Line Defenders (FLD) and the Human Rights Defenders Memorial.
Continue reading...‘Open-source intelligence community’ is already collecting and studying video and photo evidence
Six days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, there is mounting evidence that its military is committing war crimes with deadly attacks on civilians and the use of cluster munitions.
Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative journalism site Bellingcat, said there was evidence of Russia causing “civilian harm”, including through the use of “cluster bombs in civilian areas”, from credible video and stills of the conflict.
Continue reading...Russia intensifies bombardment of cities as Ukraine’s president insists Moscow will not be able to take his country with bombs and air strikes
Researchers are gathering evidence of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
My colleague, Dan Sabbagh, reports that an ‘open-source intelligence community’ is already collecting and studying video and photo evidence that Russia’s military is committing war crimes with deadly attacks on civilians and the use of cluster munitions.
Continue reading...Ukraine dominated Biden’s address, but he set out plans to combat inflation and insisted America can move on from the pandemic
Joe Biden denounced Russian “tyranny” in his first State of the Union speech, but also carved plenty of time time to make his pitch for Democrats as the US midterm elections loom.
The president, who is struggling with a low approval rating and faces the prospect of Democrats losing control of the House and the Senate in the November, condemned Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He announced a flight ban on Russian aircraft, before turning to the domestic policies Biden hopes will make voters choose him.
Continue reading...Heavy fighting in Kharkiv after Russian paratroopers land, as Biden warns Putin ‘will pay’ for invasion
Ukraine’s besieged cities have come under more heavy bombardment after Russian commanders facing fierce resistance intensified their shelling of urban areas.
As US president Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin that he would “pay a price” for his aggression, the Russia leader’s forces have shown no sign of stopping an assault that has included strikes on the capital Kyiv and rocket attacks in the second city of Kharkiv, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people.
Continue reading...Oksana Markarova appears moved as she thanks attendees, while US president condemns Putin’s ‘tyranny’
Oksana Markarova, the ambassador of Ukraine to the US, was given a standing ovation at the US Capitol on Tuesday nightduring Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address to Congress.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated the early part of Biden’s speech, as the president condemned Vladimir Putin’s “tyranny” and announced he would ban Russian aircraft from US airspace.
Continue reading...The study of fossils and prehistoric species is exploitative of local communities, says international team
The public image of palaeontologists as dusty, but rather affable academics, could be due an update. The study of ancient life is a hotbed of unethical and inequitable scientific practices rooted in colonialism, which strip poorer countries of their fossil heritage, and devalue the contributions of local researchers, scientists say.
Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, an international team of palaeontologists argue that there has been a steady drain of plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, prehistoric spiders, and other fossils from poorer countries into foreign repositories or local private collections – despite laws and regulations introduced to try to conserve their heritage.
Continue reading...Bombed and menaced by an unchecked Putin since 2015, Syrians hope the tide might be finally turning
When a Russian air raid in north-western Syria killed 34 Turkish troops, Ankara’s revenge quickly followed. But, instead of targeting the forces of Vladimir Putin, whose jets had caused the carnage, Turkey sent armed drones towards the Syrian army, pulverising hundreds of pieces of weaponry and killing scores of troops – all as Russia watched on blithely.
In the years since Putin intervened in Syria in 2015 to save the regime of Bashar al-Assad there had been countless examples of Russian attacks on civilian sites – schools, bakeries and hospitals – all of which had met meek responses from global leaders and drawn scant attention from war crimes prosecutors.
Continue reading...Mobile-phone video shows wrecked residential buildings with no windows, and fallen trees and power lines, in the aftermath of strikes that killed at least 11 people in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city on Monday.
Kharkiv’s regional administration chief said artillery had pounded residential districts. The city has been the target of some of the worst aerial attacks since Ukraine was invaded by Russian forces
Unarmed people in Ukraine have been filmed attempting to stop Russian vehicles with their bodies in a string of defiant acts.
In the south-eastern city of Melitopol people pushed on Russian military vehicles with their bare hands, while in the north-east Kupyansk residents jumped on a Jeep with Russian markers to fight the Russian occupation.
There were reports of fierce shelling in the northern city of Chernihiv, where people were filmed singing the Ukrainian national anthem and standing in front of tanks
Continue reading...Chinese foreign minister says Ukrainian counterpart asked for help to find diplomatic solution
China has signalled its willingness to play a mediator role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as the war entered its sixth day.
In his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, since the outbreak of the war, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on Tuesday that Beijing “laments” the outbreak of the conflict and is “extremely concerned” about the harm to civilians, according to a Chinese readout.
Continue reading...Analysis: Economic penalties have been meted out since Napoleon’s day but there’s little proof they achieve the desired outcome
Waging war by economic means is nothing new. Napoleon imposed an ineffective embargo on British exports in the early 19th century and during the first world war there were attempts by both sides to starve each other into submission.
But since 1945 sanctions have been used with increasing frequency as a means of trying to change either the policy stance or the regimes in targeted countries.
Continue reading...Pundits and officials turn to ‘mythbusting’ as evidence of Ukraine destruction undermines official line
Russian state television talkshows are describing videos of missiles striking Ukrainian cities and reports of Russian soldiers killed in action as “fakes”, as the country’s media try to account for photos and video emerging from Ukraine that contradict official reports of the invasion.
The “mythbusting” is one of the adjustments that TV propaganda shows have had to make as evidence of the growing destruction in cities such as Kharkiv and Kyiv makes it increasingly difficult for the government to present the fiction of a concentrated offensive in the Donbas region.
Continue reading...Thousands of people trying to escape Ukraine capital amid fears that large-scale attack is imminent
The piercing screams of children mingled with the barking of traumatised dogs and the shouts of soldiers desperately trying to maintain order, as the 14.07 to Ivano-Frankivsk pulled into Kyiv’s central station.
There was a crowd of thousands on platform one, surging towards the blue carriages and desperate to secure a prized place on a ride westwards out of the Ukrainian capital. Most people would not be able to board.
Continue reading...Five people have been killed and several wounded in a Russian attack on a TV tower in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, according to reports.
Two explosions were heard in the Borshchahivka and Dorohozhychi areas, said the news agency Interfax-Ukraine, knocking several channels off air.
The incident was first reported on social media by the Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, Anton Herashchenko, moments after Russia warned Kyiv residents to evacuate military and intelligence infrastructure
Continue reading...Analysis: On a national level, web access has so far been largely unaffected by the invasion, and supports daily life
Ukraine’s continued access to the internet not only supports day-to-day life and the country’s financial system but it is also enabling the coordination of Ukrainian civil resistance – plus the ability of everyone, from the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to ordinary citizens, to communicate with the outside world.
How much of Ukraine still has access to the internet?
Ukraine remains largely connected to the internet, especially in major population centres. Mobile networks have struggled under the weight of connections and there have been broadband outages in areas with heavy fighting.
At a busy train station in Poland, families arrive while others head in the opposite direction to take up arms or be with family
Platform four or three: at the railway station in Przemyśl, Poland, the fates of hundreds of Ukrainians lie divided. On platform four, families fleeing the Russian bombing of Ukraine get off the carriages, seeking asylum in Europe. At platform three, dozens of Ukrainian men and women are about to board a blue train bound for Odessa, southern Ukraine.
“I have worked and lived in many countries,” says Oksana, 50. “I have lived in Poland and Italy. Ukraine may not be as beautiful as Italy, but it is my country. And I’m not leaving my country at such a difficult time. If all Ukrainians flee the country, who will stay in Ukraine? I see many of my fellow countrypeople around me here, coming from Germany and Poland. Some of them had good jobs. But they left them to return to Ukraine and fight.”
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