As war rages above ground, Ukrainians have sought safety in metro stations and basements
In the bunkers and underground tunnels of Kyiv, life continues underground, even as explosions sound overhead.
Teens sit glued to iPhones, parents tuck quilts around their children to sleep. Some hold pets, while others sit in darkened, unmoving subway cars. And babies arrive. In one shelter in Kyiv, a woman gave birth to a girl, Mia.
Continue reading...Caps-Harris poll shows 62% of respondents believe Putin would not have ordered troops into Ukraine with Trump in White House
A clear majority of Americans think Vladimir Putin would not have ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine had Donald Trump still been in the White House, according to a new poll.
The poll, by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies (Caps)-Harris, found that 62% of those surveyed believed Putin would not have sent troops into Ukraine with Trump in the White House.
Continue reading...The ban on men aged 18 to 60 leaving the country leads one father to take drastic action
Clutching a mobile phone number of a woman she had never met, Nataliya Ableyeva crossed the border from Ukraine into Hungary entrusted with a precious cargo: a stranger’s children.
Waiting at the border crossing on the Ukrainian side, Ableyeva had met a desperate 38-year-old man from her home town of Kamianets-Podilskyi, with his young son and daughter.
Continue reading...Two children are among four people missing after the boat capsized as it was returning to Hội An
At least 13 people were killed and four others are missing after a tourist boat capsized on Saturday in bad weather off the coast of Hội An, a world heritage-listed Vietnamese city, an official said.
The accident occurred as the vessel carrying 39 local tourists and crew members was returning to Hội An from Cu Lao Cham island – a popular spot for diving, snorkelling and water sports.
Continue reading...The goal of a universal vaccine would have seemed a fantasy only a few years ago. But not now…
This week the government announced additional vaccine booster jabs for the over-75s and suggested a further shot is likely to be needed in the autumn. But imagine if the next Covid vaccine jab you have were the last you would ever need. That’s a dream being actively pursued now by researchers, who feel it could be possible to make a “universal” vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus that would work well not only against all existing variants but any that the virus could plausibly mutate into in the future.
Some are thinking even bigger. In January, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and two other experts called for more research into “universal coronavirus vaccines” that would work not only against Sars-CoV-2 but against the many other coronaviruses in animal populations that have the potential to spill over into humans and cause future pandemics. “We need a research approach that can characterise the global ‘coronaviral universe’ in multiple species,” Fauci and colleagues wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, “and apply this information in developing broadly protective ‘universal’ vaccines against all [coronaviruses].”
Continue reading...A man who claimed to be Russian was filmed apparently reprimanding a group of Russian soldiers in Melitopol, Ukraine. Russia has made claims to have taken the coastal city, where an airbase and a hospital were hit on Saturday morning.
He says to the soldiers: 'Russians invading Ukraine is so fucked up! What are you doing here? We have our life and you have yours. I’m Russian too, but I live in this country.
'You have your own country and we have ours. Don’t you have any problems in your own country? Are you all rich there? Shame on you!'
Welcome to the the grassroots CPAC summit, where conservatives see themselves not as dismantlers of democracy, but as saviors
On stage in a hotel ballroom glowing red, white and blue, Ron DeSantis was recalling his days in Congress and a book he wrote about America’s troubles. It was “read by about a dozen people,” the Florida governor said with rare self-deprecation.
DeSantis then told a gathering of grassroots conservatives on Thursday: “I look back at that time, it almost seems a little quaint to me because the threats we face to freedom, the threats we face to a just society, are much more pervasive than they were just 10 years ago.”
Continue reading...Anthony Broadwater served 16 years in prison but was exonerated last year after prosecutors re-examined case
Anthony Broadwater, who served 16 years in prison for the 1981 rape of the author Alice Sebold but was exonerated last year, has filed a $50m wrongful conviction lawsuit against New York state.
Broadwater, 61, was cleared in November of his conviction for the rape after a re-examination of the case found serious flaws in his arrest and trial.
Continue reading...Analysis: Ukraine’s president has won over critics with his courage and resilience as his country fights for survival
He looked gaunt and unshaven after another sleepless night under Russian attack and bombardment. But Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, struck a defiant tone in a video address on Saturday morning. “I’m here,” he said simply. And he was – in the centre of Kyiv, three days on from Vladimir Putin’s invasion, unbowed and going nowhere.
“Good morning everybody! Ukrainians: there’s a lot of fake information online that I call on our army to lay down arms, and that there’s an evacuation,” he said. “I’m here. We won’t lay down our arms. We will defend our state, our territory, our Ukraine, our children. That’s all I have to say. Glory to Ukraine!”
Continue reading...Fox News anchor accused of presenting ‘perfect distillation of white supremacy’ in rant against Biden supreme court nominee
The nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson is an attempt to “defile” the supreme court and “humiliate and degrade” the US, the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson claimed on Friday night.
If confirmed, Jackson, whose nomination was announced by Joe Biden earlier on Friday, will be the first Black woman on the court.
Continue reading...‘We are successfully holding back the enemy,’ says Ukraine’s leader amid fierce fighting around the city
Russian troops continued to press their offensive against Kyiv as well as other cities across Ukraine on Saturday, as residents sought shelter in the capital’s metro system and in basements during a third day of fierce bombardment.
As Russian strikes continued to pound Kyiv, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, refused a US offer to evacuate, insisting he would stay. “The fight is here,” he said as street fighting continued, largely around the edges of the city.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy has invited Ukraine's 'friends' to join the fight against Russia's assault, adding that weapons would be provided for them. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian president clarified that Ukraine was not surrendering. 'I’m here. We won’t lay down our arms. We will defend our state,' he said in a video posted on social media.
Fierce fighting broke out in Kyiv as Russian forces failed to push their way towards the city centre from multiple directions in the early hours of Saturday
Continue reading...More than 50 years after they were forcibly removed from their homes, former residents of Britain’s last colony in Africa are challenging the UK’s claim to the archipelago. After a five-day journey across the ocean, from which they returned this week, a small delegation of Chagos Islanders made an emotional return to their homeland. They were there to symbolically lay claim to the islands for Mauritius, in the hope of eventually resettling there. Olivier Bancoult was four years old when his family was deported to Mauritius from the Chagos Islands. We follow his journey
Continue reading...Fierce fighting broke out in Kyiv as Russian forces failed to push their way towards the city centre from multiple directions in the early hours of Saturday. An airstrike hit a residential building in Lobanovsky Avenue 6, in the centre of Kyiv. Video shared by the Ukrainian president's press service showed the missile exploding in a private flat
Continue reading...Russian forces have pressed towards the capital, Kyiv, as the death toll in the conflict rose to at least 198
Russian troops pressed towards Ukraine’s capital on Saturday after a night of explosions and street fighting that sent Kyiv residents seeking shelter underground.
The death toll so far in the Russian invasion of Ukraine is at least 198, according to the Ukrainian health ministry. Three children are among those dead. The ministry’s head was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying 1,115 people had been injured, including 33 children.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said at press briefing that his country would triumph over Russian forces. He said Ukrainian forces controlled Kyiv and key areas, adding: “We are defending our land and the future of our children.”
More European countries are in favour of cutting Russia out of the Swift global payments system, Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, have said. France supported the move, said Kuleba, while the Cypriot finance minister said his country was not opposed. In Italy, the leader of PD, a main coalition party, said Rome would support a block.
Germany is in talks over approving the delivery of 400 RPGs to Ukraine by a third country but a decision has not been taken yet.
Russia now has at least 50% of its invasion force inside Ukraine but is making slow progress due to unexpectedly stiff resistance, a senior US defence official has said. The official said that the Russian military had still not taken control of any Ukraine city, nor has it gained air superiority over the country, and the US had “indications that the Russians are increasingly frustrated by their lack of momentum over the last 24 hours.”
Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, said Russia could cut diplomatic ties with the west. The Russian RIA news agency reported that the senior lawmaker Andrei Klimov said Russia would decide in which areas it would work with the west and where it no longer made sense to cooperate.
A Russian shell has hit a residential building in the centre of Kyiv, Ukraine says. Video shared by Zelenskiy’s press service shows the missile exploding in a private flat, sending smoke and debris into the living room.
Continue reading...Report says average 4% of GDP will be spent on adapting to climate breakdown, risking deeper poverty
African countries are being forced to spend billions of dollars a year coping with the effects of the climate crisis, which is diverting potential investment from schools and hospitals and threatens to drive countries into ever deeper poverty.
Dealing with extreme weather is costing close to 6% of GDP in Ethiopia alone, equating to a spend of more than $1 repairing climate damage for every $20 of national income, according to research by the thinktank Power Shift Africa.
Continue reading...Thirty-second clip shared by Ukrainian news outlet HB shows a man standing in front of what appears to be military vehicles
A video which apparently shows a Ukrainian man attempting to block a Russian military convoy has gone viral online, with comparisons being drawn to the “tank man” of Tiananmen Square.
The 30-second clip, shared by Ukrainian news outlet HB, shows a man standing in front of what appear to be military vehicles. As the vehicles try to swerve around him, the man jockeys to the side, seemingly in an attempt to block their progress.
Continue reading...Bombing intensifies as Volodymyr Zelenskiy warns ‘This night will be the hardest’
Russian forces have tightened their stranglehold on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and carried out amphibious assaults on the country’s Sea of Azov coast in an attempt to topple the government.
Almost exactly 30 years after the devastating siege of Sarajevo, another major European capital came under heavy bombardment with shells hitting apartment blocks, driving up the civilian death toll. The onslaught of bombing intensified on Friday night, accompanied by artillery rounds and heavy gunfire on the city’s streets.
Ukrainians prepared a last-ditch defence of their capital, with barricades, and called for civilians to arm themselves with molotov cocktails.
According to US estimates, Russia has fired 200 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine, mostly hitting military targets but some landing in residential areas.
As human rights groups accused Russia of war crimes, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court issued a reminder he has jurisdiction to investigate atrocities committed inside Ukraine.
Continue reading...Dinosaur probably belongs to carnivorous group called abelisaurs and may have used its head to ram its prey
Scientists in Argentina have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown species of meat-eating dinosaur that lived about 70m years ago that had puny arms and may have used its powerful head to ram its prey.
The fossil skull of the Cretaceous period dinosaur, named Guemesia ochoai, was discovered in Argentina’s north-western Salta province. The researchers said it likely belongs to a carnivorous group of dinosaurs called abelisaurs, which walked on two legs and possessed only stub-like arms, even shorter than those of North America’s Tyrannosaurus rex.
Continue reading...Despite a narrow escape from last month’s tsunami and the arrival of Covid in Tonga, Ha’atafu owner Moana Paea is determined to rebuild her resort once again
When the Ha’atafu beach resort was levelled by the tsunami that hit Tonga last month, it was the third time that the family-run business had been completely destroyed by a natural disaster.
In 1982, the resort was wiped out by Cyclone Isaac and a year later by Cyclone Kina.
Continue reading...