Category Archives: World News

Fears mount for safety of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors amid Russian invasion

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Core meltdowns due to operational challenges cause concern even as direct strikes to facilities remain remote possibility

Concerns are mounting about the safety of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors and the possibility of an ecological disaster in the midst of the Russian invasion.

Experts said that those reactors, at four power plants around the country, had layers of safeguards to prevent a catastrophic meltdown of their cores, but in a full scale war of the kind Vladimir Putin has unleashed, there was a heightened risk of those safety layers all failing at once.

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Putin references neo-Nazis and drug addicts in bizarre speech to Russian security council – video

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The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on Friday briefed his country’s security council on the invasion of Ukraine. He claimed that most Ukrainian military units have been reluctant to engage with Russian forces and said the units offering resistance are mostly volunteer battalions made up of rightwing Ukrainian nationalists. He offered no evidence for his claims, which could not be independently verified

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Zelenskiy tells Ukrainians he will remain in Kyiv – video

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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday said he is remaining in Kyiv, even as Russian forces pounded the capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day. Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital, with gunfire and explosions resonating ever closer to the government quarter, in an invasion of a democratic country that has fuelled fears of wider war in Europe and triggered worldwide efforts to make Russia stop

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Ukrainian man survives after military vehicle swerves and drives over his car – video

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An armoured vehicle has been filmed crashing into and then crushing a civilian car in a Kyiv suburb. Before the incident, recorded from multiple angles, the vehicle was being driven down a main road leading through a residential area. Separate footage showed that the driver survived after local residents helped free him from the wreckage. It is not yet clear whether Russian or Ukrainian forces were driving the vehicle.

Russian forces are approaching Kyiv from the north and north-east, Ukraine's army said, with many fearing that the capital could fall on the second day of Moscow's offensive

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‘It’s not rational’: Putin’s bizarre speech wrecks his once pragmatic image

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Analysis: President makes appeal to Ukraine’s military to abandon its ‘drug-addicted, neo-Nazi’ leaders

• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news

Looking dead-eyed into the camera on Friday, Vladimir Putin gave one of the most bizarre speeches of his 22 years as Russia’s leader, a directive that managed to sound alarming even in a week when he has ordered tanks into Ukraine and missile strikes on Kyiv.

“Once again I speak to the Ukrainian soldiers,” he said, addressing his enemy. “Do not allow neo-Nazis and Banderites to use your children, your wives and the elderly as a human shield. Take power into your own hands. It seems that it will be easier for us to come to an agreement than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis.”

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Nato to deploy extra troops to alliance nations in eastern Europe

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Forces not being sent to Ukraine itself to avoid ‘existential’ war with Russia, say UK ministers

Nato will deploy significant extra troops to countries in eastern Europe which are part of the alliance, but UK ministers warned there would be no forces going to Ukraine itself to avoid an “existential” war between Russia and the west.

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, chaired a virtual summit of 30 leaders on Friday, where the agreement was made to amass forces in eastern Europe.

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Newborn babies moved to bomb shelter from hospital in eastern Ukraine – video

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Footage shows newborn babies after they were moved to a makeshift bomb shelter from a neonatal intensive care unit at a children's hospital in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine, the New York Times reported. Dr Denis Surkov, chief of the neonatal unit at Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Children's Clinic hospital, said in a statement: 'This is our reality' 

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‘So many rabbit holes’: Even in trusting New Zealand, protests show fringe beliefs can flourish

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Researchers say country’s successful Covid pandemic response and high-trust society is no inoculation against misinformation

New Zealand’s anti-vaccine convoy is hoping to be there for the long haul. Once a ragtag collective of tents, it has become a fully fledged encampment: it has free clothing tents, admin checkpoints, yellow-vested security guards, portable toilets, tents for charging phones, and a “blues lounge” where the band plays a light, jazzy reimagining of Pink Floyd’s Brick in the Wall. “We don’t need no vaccination, we don’t need no thought control,” a woman croons, tapping the bongos.

On the surface, the occupation of parliamentary grounds evokes a poorly planned but amiable music festival, but an undercurrent of violence – or its threat – throbs below. As well as chalked messages of peace and love, some protesters came bearing nooses, promises of a “war crimes trial” for politicians, journalists, and scientists, or outright demands to “hang them high”.

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The battle for Kyiv: ‘People are grieving. This is already a tragedy’

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Residents of Ukrainian capital express shock and anger as invading Russian troops bring death and destruction

The missile left a crater two metres deep, twisted shards of metal beside a playground slide, and shattered glass below the windows of a nearby kindergarten. Dozens of homes were scorched or shredded, their inhabitants turned into some of Kyiv’s first war refugees.

In one apartment block 10 floors of kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms sat open to the skies, their balconies, doors and windows broken off or shattered into pieces by the weapon that brought the Russian invasion to this corner of the city.

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‘Terrible and fantastical’: fear and farewells on the road out of Ukraine

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A great caravan dozens of miles long was leaving Kyiv as the Russians approached, while others stayed to fight

Within minutes of the first explosions, Ukraine’s great exodus began. Some had been planning for a Russian invasion for months. They had carefully filled the car with petrol, bought food supplies and packed a getaway bag, just in case. And, in many cases, a carrier for much-loved family pets.

Others had done nothing whatsoever. Until Russia’s blitzkrieg invasion began early on Thursday, many people in Kyiv believed the prospect fanciful. And yet the nightmare was real enough: air raid sirens, Russian helicopters flying low against a grey sky in attack formation, the roar of enemy warplanes.

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Russia is banned from Eurovision after invasion of Ukraine

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After a U-turn, organisers say Russia’s inclusion could ‘bring the competition into disrepute’

Russia will no longer be allowed to compete in this year’s Eurovision song contest, with organisers saying its inclusion could “bring the competition into disrepute”.

On Thursday, the European Broadcasting Union said Russia would still be allowed to compete, despite its invasion of Ukraine. But after pressure from broadcasters across Europe, the EBU made a U-turn, publishing a statement on Friday stating the country would no longer be allowed to take part.

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Prominent Russians join protests against Ukraine war amid 1,800 arrests

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As invasion continues, people from worlds of entertainment, business and journalism voice opposition

Prominent Russians shocked by the invasion of Ukraine have gone public with their opposition to the war, despite the professional and personal risks that come with dissent on such a sensitive issue in Russia.

More than 1,800 people were arrested at rallies across the country on Thursday night as prominent Russians from the worlds of entertainment, business and journalism have risked their livelihoods in order to speak out.

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Western powers have realised Russia is largely immune to sanctions

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Analysis: Only the financial equivalent of unleashing a nuclear arsenal will dent Russia’s foreign assets war chest

The war against Russia is one western countries want to fight with only economic sanctions, not guns.

Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, despite its long gestation and planning by Vladimir Putin and his supporters in the Kremlin, was supposed to end quickly once financial retaliation began. Yes, there would be military skirmishes on the ground, but little more than a few casualties were expected once a range of penalties began to bite.

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Ukrainian woman offers seeds to Russian soldiers so ‘sunflowers grow when they die’ – video

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A woman is being hailed on social media after she confronted a heavily armed Russian soldier and offered him sunflower seeds – so that flowers would grow if he died there on Ukraine’s soil. 'You’re occupants, you’re fascists,' she shouts, standing about a metre from the soldier. 

'Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here'

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Russian soldiers captured on CCTV disabling surveillance cameras – video

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Russia continued to press its invasion of Ukraine to the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, on Friday, with troops and tanks moving in from three sides. Ground forces coming from Crimea were caught on CCTV cameras as they advanced toward Kherson to the north-west. The footage shows troops stopping and climbing up the masts to point the cameras downwards

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House committee requests White House records recovered from Trump’s home

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Letter to National Archives requests files found in boxes at Mar-a-Lago that should have been turned over when Trump left office

The investigation into whether Donald Trump broke federal records laws when he took White House documents home after leaving office took another step forward on Friday when a congressional oversight committee requested the materials from the National Archives.

The letter to the archivist, from the House committee on oversight and reform, requests the content of the documents taken by Trump to Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida. They also asked for any records that the former US president attempted to destroy, and communications on the issue by Trump’s White House aides.

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Fighting reaches Kyiv suburbs as Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies

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Air raid sirens wail over capital and heavy gunfire and explosions heard in residential district

Fighting has reached the suburbs and historic centre of Kyiv after a night of Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital, as Moscow indicated it was ready to talk and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded for international help.

Russian forces advanced to the outskirts of the capital from three sides on Friday while Ukrainian soldiers established defensive positions at key bridges and patrolled in armoured vehicles down the city’s streets watched by anxious residents.

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‘A symbol of new beginning’: Mosul’s university library reopens

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The institution suffered a devastating attack by Islamic State in 2014. Eight years on, an international effort has seen it reopen as ‘a lighthouse of knowledge’

The university library in Mosul, which was bombed by Islamic State militants, has opened its doors again, describing itself as a “lighthouse of knowledge” which is “once again burning bright”.

Founded in 1921, the library was ransacked and bombarded by missiles during the IS occupation of the city, with an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 books and manuscripts destroyed. It was reopened on 19 February by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with financial support from Germany and book donations from around the world, including over 20,000 from the UK.

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Covid live news: Sweden ‘should have clamped down harder’ as pandemic hit; US set to ease mask guidelines

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Latest updates: Swedish report says government should have shown better leadership at start of crisis; new US mask guidelines expected on Friday

At least 5.2 million children around the world have lost a parent, grandparent or family member who helped care for them to Covid, according to a new study.

The research looked at coronavirus mortality data across 21 countries from the start of the pandemic between March 2020 and October 2021.

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Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to become first Black woman on supreme court

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  • White House praises ‘exceptionally qualified nominee’
  • Jackson, if confirmed, will replace retiring Stephen Breyer

Joe Biden on Friday nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the supreme court, seeking to elevate a Black woman to the nation’s highest court for the first time in its 232-year history.

Biden’s decision to nominate Jackson to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, for whom she clerked, sets up a fierce confirmation battle in the deeply partisan and evenly-divided Senate. Breyer, the most senior jurist in the court’s three-member liberal wing, will retire at the end of the court’s current session this summer.

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