After Russian troops invaded Ukraine Thursday morning, Americans took to the streets Thursday afternoon. Groups pleading for peace and for an end to the war protested across the country. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti has our story.
Camera: Michael Eckels, Scott Stearns and Ihar Tsikhanenka
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Month: February 2022
Latest Developments in Ukraine: Feb. 25
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST:
1:05 a.m.: Thousands of Indian nationals are trapped in Ukraine.
12:10 a.m.: Facebook and rumors of “kill lists.”
12:03 a.m.: VOA’s Jeff Seldin on Vladimir Putin:
12:01 a.m.: Reuters reports that protests around the world denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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More Than Half of US Abortions Now Done With Pills, Report Says
More than half of U.S. abortions are now done with pills rather than surgery, an upward trend that spiked during the pandemic with the increase in telemedicine, a report released Thursday said.
In 2020, pills accounted for 54% of all U.S. abortions, up from roughly 44% in 2019.
The preliminary numbers come from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. The group, by contacting providers, collects more comprehensive abortion data than the U.S. government.
Use of abortion pills has been rising since 2000 when the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone, the main drug used in medication abortions.
The new increase “is not surprising, especially during COVID,” said Dr. Marji Gold, a family physician and abortion provider in New York City. She said patients seeking abortions at her clinic have long chosen the pills over the medical procedure.
The pandemic prompted a rise in telemedicine and FDA action that allowed abortion pills to be mailed so patients could skip in-person visits to get them. Those changes could have contributed to the increase in use, said Guttmacher researcher Rachel Jones.
The FDA made the change permanent last December, meaning millions of women can get prescriptions via online consultations and receive the pills through the mail. That move led to stepped-up efforts by abortion opponents to seek additional restrictions on medication abortions through state legislatures.
How it works
The procedure includes mifepristone, which blocks a hormone needed for pregnancy to continue, followed one or two days later by misoprostol, a drug that causes cramping that empties the womb. The combination is approved for use within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, although some health care providers offer it in the second trimester, a practice called off-label use.
So far this year, 16 state legislatures have proposed bans or restrictions on medication abortion, according to the Guttmacher report.
It notes that in 32 states, medication abortions must be prescribed by physicians even though other health care providers including physician assistants can prescribe other medicines. And mailing abortion pills to patients is banned in Arizona, Arkansas and Texas, the report said.
According to the World Health Organization, about 73 million abortions are performed each year. About 630,000 abortions were reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019, although information from some states is missing. Guttmacher’s last comprehensive abortion report dates to 2017; the data provided Thursday came from an update due out later this year.
Global numbers on the rates of medication versus surgical abortions are limited. Data from England and Wales show that medication abortions have outpaced surgical abortions for about 10 years.
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Human Rights Risk Further Declines in Mali, Experts Say
The security of civilians in Mali has improved in recent years, but the country must remain vigilant, according to human rights experts.
Alioune Tine, who was appointed in 2018 by the United Nations Human Rights Council to assist the Malian government in protecting its citizens, visited the country February 8-17.
During a video press conference on Tuesday, Tine noted an improvement in security in central and northern parts of the country. However, he also voiced concern about the withdrawal of international partners from Mali after France announced February 17 that its troops would leave because of tensions with the military government.
Tine ended his remarks by calling for “more integrated security strategies focused on the protection of civilian populations and their fundamental human rights.”
The improved security situation coincides with a military offensive in the past few months by the Malian army. Some activists say that the offensive involved arbitrary arrests and disappearances among the Fulanis, an ethnic group that resides mostly in north and central Mali. Fulanis say they are often unfairly accused of being jihadists.
Ibrahim Diallo is a member of two Fulani cultural organizations, Tabital Pulaaku and Pinal. He said that during a recent offensive in Niono, in Mali’s Segou region, some Fulani youth fled when they saw the army, fearing they could be unfairly targeted. As they fled, Diallo said, they were fired upon.
Diallo said he knows two people who were shot and has heard that they died, but has not seen the bodies.
Aly Barry is a doctor from the Mopti region in central Mali and a member of a Fulani association. He said from Bamako via a messaging app that the Malian army’s successful advances are “undeniable,” but that actions have negatively impacted the human rights of civilians.
Barry said a few dozen people were arrested February 20 in Niono, but he doesn’t know if they are in prison or dead.
Aguibou Bouaré is president of the National Commission on Human Rights, a governmental organization that independently investigates human rights abuse accusations in Mali. Bouaré confirmed that the security situation in the center and north of the country has improved, but said the commission has concerns about human rights abuses during the past few months of “ramping up” by the Malian army.
He said his group is recording allegations of human rights violations that are attributed to the armed security forces during this period, and that the investigations are continuing.
VOA reached a Malian army spokesman by phone, but he refused to comment on the incidents in Niono or elsewhere in the country.
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Sudan’s Leader Engaged in Moscow Talks as Russia Invades Ukraine
Sudan’s military government is seeking funding from Russia, following the West’s cutoff of financial aid to Khartoum.
Sudanese General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as “Hemedti,” was in Moscow on Thursday discussing bilateral relations with Russia — just as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine, sparking global condemnation.
Economic analyst Samah Salman, with the U.S.-Educated Sudanese Association, says Hemedti’s Moscow visit must be viewed in the context of Sudan’s economic crisis, which got worse when the U.S. and other Western countries halted financial aid and reversed an earlier decision to cancel much of Sudan’s debt.
Since then, Sudan’s local currency has steadily deteriorated against the U.S. dollar, while the country’s inflation rate remains one of the highest in the world.
Sudan’s top military rulers — including General Himedti and General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — are looking to Russia for support in case the U.S. follows through on threatened sanctions against them, said Salman.
“I believe General Himedti and General Burhan, they know that the possibility of targeted sanctions from the U.S. looms over their heads after they carried out the October 25 coup, and Himedti will be looking to an alliance with Russia for continued military and financial assistance,” Salman told VOA.
It’s no surprise that Sudan is turning to Russia for help, said Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.
“There’s certainly an economic motivation here, although Russia is not a donor country, it’s not an economic powerhouse. So I think with the trip to Russia, it’s even more of a signal of a strategic shift and trying to play on U.S. or Western fears that Sudan, as much as it has been trying to pivot into maybe a Western or U.S. orientation, it might now in fact, be pivoting back,” Hudson told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.
Building friendly ties with Sudan also serves Russia’s strategic interests in Africa, said Hudson.
“Russia grows its presence in Africa through a deeper partnership and relationship with Sudan, and if you just look at the map, they tried to gain a foothold in Libya through their support to [Khalifa] Haftar. They have clearly taken root in Central African Republic. They’re now in Mali, and so they are executing a strategy to rebuild their influence across Africa and a relationship with Sudan, and a seaport on the Red Sea gives them really a huge strategic advantage,” said Hudson.
Russia signed an agreement with former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to build a Red Sea naval base. After the military ousted Bashir and a civilian-led transitional government was put in place, the deal was put on hold. Following the coup, military rulers indicated the project may be resurrected.
Russian influence in Africa can already be seen through the Wagner Group, a private military company with Russian ties that operates in parts of Africa, according to Salman.
“Even though the Wagner Group is reported be a private security company, many reports show that it’s actually a state actor or state-linked actor, and it is one of the primary actors the Russian government is using to intensify its competition with the U.S. in Africa,” said Salman.
The Russian government has denied any links to the Wagner Group. However, Salman says Russia uses Wagner to supply countries like Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Libya, Mali and Madagascar with “military assets, weapons and funds.”
There is evidence that the Wagner Group also supports Himedti’s Rapid Support Forces in exchange for lucrative mining deals in Sudan, said Salman. The Rapid Support Forces were largely responsible for violent crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters in Sudan before and after the coup.
Khartoum-based economic analyst Mohamed al-Nair argues Himedti’s visit may have been scheduled long before the Ukraine crisis.
“It came at a time that allowed their visions [Sudan and Russia] and interests to coalesce. Sudan has waited for long for the West to deliver. The West has made promises to Sudan and conferences were held in Berlin and Paris to support Sudan, but Sudan could not wait until too late when all its economic indicators deteriorated further in light of the West withholding assistance to the country,” al-Nair told VOA.
The Atlantic Council’s Hudson disputes the allegation that the U.S. was slow in supporting Sudan, saying the military coup was proof that U.S. engagement in Sudan was working.
“It was working so well in fact that the military felt threatened by the advances and the demand for civilian governance, and that’s why they took over. I talked to people in the [U.S.] Treasury Department and they told me that Sudan was in the process of getting debt relief faster than any other country in history,” Hudson told VOA.
Al-Nair said he believes Sudan “will be turning to China in the next phase.”
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Biden Imposes Fresh Sanctions on Moscow
President Joe Biden condemned what he has called Russia’s “unprovoked and unjustified” military attack on Ukraine and launched another round of sanctions against Moscow. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Producer: Barry Unger
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With Invasion, African Students in Ukraine, Russia Get Lesson in Anxiety
Mohamed Abdi Gutale woke Thursday morning in Ukraine’s capital to a state of heightened anxiety.
“We heard two huge explosions,” said Gutale, a 30-something Somali university student in Kyiv. “And according to government officials on the TV, the bombardment targeted government sites, not civilians.”
Within hours, Gutale was fleeing Kyiv aboard a train bound for a Ukrainian community near the western border with Poland, he told VOA’s Somali Service in a phone interview. He carried a backpack and books — and uncertainty about the future, including any further studies.
Thousands of foreign students like Gutale are caught up in the crisis in Ukraine, where Russia sent invading forces early Thursday. The country had more than 76,500 international students as of 2020, Nigeria’s Premium Times website reported, citing data from Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Sciences. VOA could not independently reach the ministry, its website or Ukraine’s embassy in Washington to verify information. But Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website said the country has more than 240 universities, drawing international students from more than 150 countries every year.
Africans account for at least a fifth of Ukraine’s international students, the German news organization DW, or Deutsche Welle, reported.
One of those students is Jovice Johnas, 22. She left north-central Tanzania’s Mwanza region to pursue an engineering degree at the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, in Ukraine’s second-largest city in the country’s northeast.
On Thursday, Johnas was hunkered down in the basement of an off-campus housing unit with roughly 70 other people — at the university’s instruction, she told VOA’s Swahili Service.
“It’s an empty space, with no place to sleep, no water, no bathroom,” Johnas said, noting that it has electricity, so she can charge her phone. She said she had just enough notice early Thursday to grab a change of clothing and some bottled water; friends have shared snacks of potato chips and chocolates.
“Pray for us. … We need peace,” Johnas said when asked what message she had for the international community. She said that while she has been getting a good education in Ukraine, “a good country,” she and other students “would like the government of Tanzania to help us, by any means, get out of the country.”
Leaving the conflict area has become difficult. Ukrainian authorities closed at least three of the country’s airports to commercial traffic as of late Wednesday. Major roads and highways have been clogged with vehicles fleeing major cities, according to local reports.
The National Union of Ghana Students on Wednesday issued a statement urging the federal government in Accra “to accelerate efforts in ensuring the safety of all Ghanaian students” in Ukraine and Russia.
The student union asked that students be evacuated from Ukraine’s eastern provinces, as well as from Russia, “as the country may pose an overall hostile environment to our students.”
On Thursday, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a statement on social media that it would help facilitate Nigerians’ evacuation as soon as airports have reopened. More than 4,000 Nigerians are studying in Ukraine, according to local news sources.
The crisis in Ukraine also has gripped the attention of Augustin Vyukusenge, an African student in Russia.
“People in shopping centers and on public transportation are calm but are following very closely the news on their mobile phones, and on mounted TV screens in metro stations — but still very, very calm,” said Vyukusenge, a Burundi native and doctoral student in communications at the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics.
Vyukusenge told VOA’s Central Africa Service that the few Russians with whom he had spoken lately “are very supportive of their government’s actions.” However, he added, Russians “are very worried of the possibility that NATO could bring war on Russian territory. … Not many of us believe that the war can reach up to Moscow. … But if war became very serious, and countries in Europe join it through NATO, we would be very worried. For now, we hope it will stay on [the] Ukraine side.”
This report originated in VOA’s Africa Division. It was compiled by Carol Guensburg, with contributions from Mohamed Olad Hassan of the Somali Service, Auriane Itangishaka of the Central Africa Service and Omary Kaseko of the Swahili Service.
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US Shifting Global Pandemic Strategy as Vaccine Supply Outstrips Demand
With the global vaccine supply exceeding distribution capacity, the Biden administration is acknowledging a need to adjust its pandemic response strategy to address hurdles faced by lower-income countries to vaccinate their citizens.
“It is clear that supply is outstripping demand and the area of focus really needs to be that ‘shots in arms’ work,” said Hilary Marston, White House senior policy adviser for global COVID, to VOA. “That’s something that we are laser-focused on for 2022.”
Marston said that the administration has helped boost global vaccine supply through donations, expanding global manufacturing capacity and support for COVAX, the international vaccine-sharing mechanism supported by the United Nations and health organizations Gavi and CEPI.
Following supply setbacks in 2021, COVAX’s supply is no longer a limiting factor, a Gavi spokesperson told VOA. He said COVAX now has the flexibility to “focus on supporting the nuances of countries’ strategies, capacity, and demand.”
However, the pivot from boosting vaccine supply to increasing delivery capacity depends on whether the administration can secure funding from Congress, including funds for the U.S. government’s Initiative for Global Vaccine Access, or Global VAX, a program launched in December by USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Global VAX is billed as a whole-of-government effort to turn vaccines in vials into vaccinations in arms around the world. It includes bolstering cold chain supply and logistics, service delivery, vaccine confidence and demand, human resources, data and analytics, local planning, and vaccine safety and effectiveness.
Four-hundred-million dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act has been put aside for this initiative, on top of the $1.3 billion for global vaccine readiness the administration has committed. Activists say this is not nearly enough, but USAID says it’s a good first step.
“The U.S. government will surge support for an initial subset of countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have demonstrated the potential for rapid acceleration of vaccine uptake with intensive financial, technical, and diplomatic support,” a USAID spokesperson told VOA.
Those countries include Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Critical bottleneck
In January, COVAX had 436 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to allocate to lower-income countries, according to a document published in mid-February. Those countries, however, only asked for 100 million doses to be distributed by the end of May – the first time in 14 allocation rounds that supply has outstripped demand, the document from the COVAX Independent Allocation of Vaccines Group said.
“We’ve seen now 11 billion plus doses of vaccine being manufactured,” said Krishna Udayakumar to VOA. “We’re estimating 14- to 16- plus billion doses of vaccine being available in 2022,” added Udayakumar, who is founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center and leads a team that tracks global vaccine production and distribution.
But rather than fulfilment of vaccination targets, the oversupply highlights a weakness in global distribution capacity, which Udayakumar said is becoming “the critical bottlenecks.”
Only 12% percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to country data compiled by Our World in Data. Many countries still face massive hurdles to get those shots in arms, including gaps in cold-chain storage, and lack of funding to support distribution networks.
Global COVID funding
As the administration prepares to pivot its global pandemic response, humanitarian organizations are criticizing it for requesting insufficient funding from Congress.
“After two devastating years of this pandemic, U.S. leaders are dropping the ball on fighting COVID-19. Today we learned the Biden administration briefed Congress on the need for $5 billion in funding from Congress to fight COVID-19,” said Tom Hart, president of the ONE Campaign, in a statement to VOA last week. “What the world needs, though, is a formal request for $17 billion.”
Hart argued the $5 billion funding would be insufficient to provide critical resources needed to deliver vaccines, tests, and life-saving treatments to low-income countries, and achieve the administration’s goal of 70% global vaccination by September – a goal that is already far below pace.
The White House said the number is not final. “I don’t have any specific numbers; we’re still in conversation with the Hill (Congress) at this point about funding and funding needs, both domestically and internationally,” press secretary Jen Psaki told VOA on Wednesday.
In a statement to VOA, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro, said they are still reviewing the funding request. “I will work with my colleagues to meet these important public health needs at home and around the world,” she said.
Meanwhile, Gavi, a COVAX co-sponsor, said it has only raised $195 million out of the $5.2 billion it asked for this quarter. The Gavi spokesperson told VOA the call to donors only went out in January and typically campaigns such as this require extensive rounds of consultation.
“The reason we launched a campaign to raise US $5.2 billion in additional funding is to ensure countries are able to roll out vaccines rapidly and at scale and have the resources on hand to be able to immediately step in as and when countries’ needs change,” the spokesperson said. “We need resources available now to prevent lower income countries once again finding themselves at the back of the queue. This is the only way we will break this pandemic.”
TRIPS waiver
Humanitarian organization Oxfam also argues that $5 billion dollars is not enough.
“We need to do much more to vaccinate the world, including investing in local manufacturing and most importantly, sharing the vaccine recipe,” Robbie Silverman, Oxfam’s senior advocacy manager told VOA.
Sharing vaccine recipes essentially means implementing a temporary TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver at the World Trade Organization to allow the generic production of current vaccines, as proposed by South Africa and India in October 2021. The proposal is supported by the Biden administration but rejected by the European Union.
Following a summit between European Union and African Union leaders last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered a compromise and said that the EU and AU will work together to deliver a solution within the next few months.
The U.S. is by far the biggest vaccine donor. The administration is sending 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Angola, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Zambia and Uganda this week, bringing the total shipped globally to 470 million doses out of 1.2 billion doses pledged.
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Reporter’s Notebook: Confusion, Chaos as Russia Invades Ukraine
Like many people in Ukraine today, we knew about the invasion before we could hear the bombs.
Around 5 a.m. our phones were pinging, with WhatsApp, Signal and Facebook posts: “We heard a blast in Kyiv. Blasts heard in Mariupol … bombs in Kramatorsk,” and so on.
By the time we could hear bombing in the distance from our hotel in Slovyansk, a quiet town about 20 kilometers from the nearest place of military significance, we were not surprised. In fact, we were already planning our departure, thinking someplace farther from the battle zones would be safer.
Within the next hour, our translator told us it was too dangerous for her to work, and several drivers wisely said they would not risk being separated from their families during this crisis.
By 8 a.m. the streets began to fill, with crowds gathered outside grocery stores and pharmacies, and forming long lines near ATMs. Dasha, a young mother who traveled 30 kilometers to a cash machine, said she left her husband and daughter in her rural home early that morning, after the bombing subsided.
“We are preparing,” she said. “But we hope nothing will happen.”
What did happen may not have surprised some world leaders, but it sent shockwaves through Ukraine. In the morning hours after the bombs, Russian forces entered through multiple borders.
By around noon we made it to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, not far from the usually peaceful border with Russia. One of the few hotels still open was fully booked, and most businesses were closed.
As we searched our social media and called friends, colleagues and contacts around the country to find out where we could go, we met Anton, who said he was an oncologist and had a brother traveling a few hours out of the city. Russian forces, he said, were on their way.
“If you stay here,” Anton said, “In two hours you will be in Russia.”
What we saw
After about two hours, videographer Yan Boechat and I were on the road to Kyiv with an enthusiastic young driver, Igor. Along the road we saw a bus on fire, with black smoke billowing into the sky across the street from an abandoned military truck.
A few blocks later, locals gathered around a house that appeared to have been bombed not long before and was now on fire. Some soldiers loitered around other military trucks, appearing uncertain what to do.
The road to Kyiv was not a great option because of reports of early-morning bombings and expected evening clashes. But it was, as far as we could tell, the only option that did not include running headfirst into Russian forces.
Hours later . . .
We’ve now been traveling toward the capital on backroads for many hours without seeing any incidents. We’ve also heard that Russia is pausing hostilities, presumably to renegotiate with a stronger hand. But to be clear, the exact movements and objectives of the Russian forces are not clear at this time. There were videos of Russian tanks entering Ukraine this morning but we didn’t see pictures of the advancing Russian army circulating on social media.
We have seen Ukrainian tanks and heavy artillery moving mostly toward the border, but we’ve also heard that after the chaos of the day, cities and towns bombed early this morning are now quiet. Colleagues who stayed back in Kharkiv hoping to get pictures of Russian soldiers rolling into a Ukranian city are disappointed but relatively safe and comfortable.
About 150 kilometers outside Kyiv we stopped at a gas station and minimart for sandwiches and coffee. The bright room selling snacks, gifts and imported wines and beers was a little crowded and definitely relaxed. Three female soldiers washed their faces in the bathroom sink and Yan, the videographer, commented on the atmosphere after such a tense day.
“This is what I like to see,” he said.
What’s next?
While this evening feels like a respite from weeks of buildup and this terrible day of danger, the war is far from over, and perhaps has only begun. Russian rhetoric has heightened in recent days, with President Vladimir Putin going as far as suggesting Ukraine and Russia are one country by nature.
Even before Putin made this speech, we heard locals speak vehemently against the idea, and some matter-of-factly for it. Activists in Kyiv told us Russians wished to eliminate them, their language and their culture. Families along the border with Russia near Kharkiv told us Russian is their language; their relatives live in Russia, and they do not feel strongly about who controls their area.
Which is not to say any part of Ukraine presents a monolith of ideas. In a village by the border, two women in a store selling clothes, appliances and office supplies talked about Russia as a “brotherly country” and said the only danger the two sides face is further separation. Extended families already are unable to cross to see relatives across the border, and the 30 passenger trains that used to cross daily haven’t operated since 2014.
Outside the shop, Roman, a 48-year-old grandfather, said he would fight for Ukraine against Russia if he could. When he was 9, he fell from a tree and lost one arm, he said, making it impossible to fight.
But Roman said he has two brothers, one who supports Russia and would be happy to see it control their portion of Ukraine. His other brother, like himself, supports Ukraine and its sovereign rights.
“We just can’t get along with our pro-Russian brother,” Roman said.
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Chernobyl No-go Zone Targeted as Russia Invades Ukraine
It was among the most worrying developments on an already shocking day, as Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday: warfare at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, where radioactivity is still leaking from a nuclear disaster 36 years ago.
Russian forces took control of the site after a fierce battle with the Ukrainian national guards protecting the decommissioned plant, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press. The condition of the plant’s facilities, a confinement shelter and a repository for nuclear waste is unknown, he said.
An official familiar with current assessments said Russian shelling hit a radioactive waste repository at Chernobyl, and an increase in radiation levels was reported. The increase could not be immediately corroborated.
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) zone of forest surrounding the shuttered plant, lies between the Belarus-Ukraine border and the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian officers fought to defend it, “so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated.” He called it a “declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”
Podolyak said that after an “absolutely senseless attack … it is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe.” He warned that Russian authorities could blame Ukraine for damage to the site or stage provocations from there.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashenko warned that any attack on the waste repository could send radioactive dust over “the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and countries of the EU.”
Russian officials, who have revealed little of their operations in Ukraine and not revealed their goals, did not publicly comment on the battle.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it is following the situation in Ukraine “with grave concern” and appealed for maximum restraint to avoid any action that may put Ukraine’s nuclear facilities at risk.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA’s general director, said Ukraine has informed the Vienna-based agency that “unidentified armed forces” have taken control of all facilities at the plant and that there had been no casualties or destruction at the industrial site. Grossi said it is “of vital importance that the safe and secure operations of the nuclear facilities in that zone should not be affected or disrupted in any way.”
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, said, “I can’t imagine how it would be in Russia’s interest to allow any facilities at Chernobyl to be damaged.”
In an interview, Lyman said he is most worried about spent fuel stored at the site, which has not been active since 2000. If the power to cooling pumps is disrupted or fuel-storage tanks are damaged, the results could be catastrophic, he said.
Reactor No. 4 at the power plant exploded and caught fire deep in the night on April 26, 1986, shattering the building and spewing radioactive material high into the sky.
Soviet authorities made the catastrophe even worse by failing to tell the public what had happened, angering European governments and the Soviet people. The 2 million residents of Kyiv weren’t informed despite the fallout danger, and the world learned of the disaster only after heightened radiation was detected in Sweden.
The building containing the exploded reactor was covered in 2017 by an enormous shelter aimed at containing radiation still leaking from the accident. Robots inside the shelter work to dismantle the destroyed reactor and gather up the radioactive waste.
It’s expected to take until 2064 to finish dismantling the reactors. Ukraine decided to use the deserted zone as the site for its centralized storage facility for spent fuel from the country’s other remaining nuclear power plants.
Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, told The Associated Press that Russia would not need to obtain nuclear material from Chernobyl if it wanted to use it for any purpose, because it has enough such material of its own.
your ad here3 Former Officers Convicted of Rights Violations in Floyd Killing
Three former Minneapolis police officers have been convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights.
Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9½ minutes as the 46-year-old Black man was handcuffed and face down on the street on May 25, 2020.
Thao and Lane were also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin.
The videotaped killing sparked protests in Minneapolis that spread around the globe as part of reckoning over racial injustice. Chauvin was convicted of murder last year in state court and pleaded guilty in December in the federal case.
Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back, Lane held his legs and Thao kept bystanders back.
Kueng and Lane both said they deferred to Chauvin as the senior officer at the scene. Thao testified that he relied on the other officers to care for Floyd’s medical needs as his attention was elsewhere.
Conviction of a federal civil rights violation that results in death is punishable by life in prison or even death, but such sentences are extremely rare.
During the monthlong trial, prosecutors sought to show that the officers violated their training, including when they failed to move Floyd or give him CPR. Prosecutors argued that Floyd’s condition was so serious that even bystanders without basic medical training could see he needed help.
Lane, Kueng and Thao also face a separate trial in June on state charges alleging that they aided and abetted murder and manslaughter.
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Russian Police Arrest More than 1,000 Anti-War Protestors in Russia
Russian police detained more than 1,300 anti-war protestors in 50 Russian cities Thursday, according to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group.
Anti-war rallies broke out after a military operation targeting Ukraine was announced. The human rights organization said most of the detentions, 660, were in Moscow.
The group said arrests were also made in Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and other cities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a televised address to announce what he called a “special” military operation in eastern Ukraine, in response to what he termed Ukrainian threats. He warned other countries not to intervene, declaring they will face “consequences they have never seen” if they do.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the government was introducing martial law throughout the country after “Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in the World War Two years.”
NATO is bolstering its military presence to defend allied countries in eastern Europe, if necessary, the military alliance said hours after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the people of Ukraine were suffering “an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces,” adding, “The world will hold Russia accountable.”
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Biden Announces Additional Sanctions After Russia Invades Ukraine
President Joe Biden announced additional sanctions that “will impose severe costs on the Russian economy” following its invasion of Ukraine.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said from the White House Thursday.
Watch President Biden’s press conference:
The new sanctions will target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors
Earlier, a U.S. Defense official said Russia has “every intention” of overthrowing the Ukrainian government with President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the neighboring country on Thursday.
“What we are seeing is initial phases of a large-scale invasion,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters. “They’re making a move on Kyiv.”
“They have every intention of decapitating the Ukraine government,” the official said.
The official said the first Russian assault involved more than 100 short-range ballistic missiles, but also medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles. The missiles were targeted at military sites — airfields, barracks and warehouses.
The United States has “seen indications” that Ukrainian troops “are resisting and fighting back,” the official said.
Putin launched the invasion early Thursday in the biggest European onslaught since the end of World War II, attacking Ukrainian forces in the disputed eastern region and launching missiles on several key cities, including the capital, Kyiv.
Putin called it a “special military operation” aimed at the “demilitarization and denazification” of its southern neighbor, once a Soviet republic but an independent country since 1991.
Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.
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CAR’s Capital Pays Tribute to National Army, Russian Soldiers
As much of the world denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Thursday, the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, hosted a tribute to Russian paramilitaries who helped beat back rebels a year ago.
In Bangui’s city center, a human-sized statue erected last year depicts Central African and Russian security forces protecting a woman and her child.
As Western countries tried in vain Wednesday to prevent Russian military aggression against Ukraine, about 100 Central Africans gathered at the monument holding Russian flags.
The group was paying tribute to Russian mercenaries who helped defend the capital, Bangui, last year against rebels.
Blaise-Didacien Kossimatchi organized the ceremony. He heads the “National Galaxy” platform, a Central African group close to the government that often holds protests against France and the United Nations.
He says they say no to everything that is a smear campaign against our army and our Russians, especially by the international press who qualify the Russians as mercenaries.. Kossimatchi adds, “no, the Russians are not here to make exactions – the Russians did nothing!”
By exactions, Kossimatchi means crimes such as rapes and killings. U.N. experts accuse Russian mercenaries of abusing civilians in the CAR. and several other countries.
Several of those celebrating the anniversary wore T-shirts that read “I am Wagner,” a reference to the Wagner Group, the shadowy Russian network that supplied the mercenaries.
Analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ally, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is behind the Wagner Group.
Wagner’s fighters provide security for CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and have been spotted from Syria to Libya and from Mozambique to Mali.
Yefi Kezza, a member of the ruling United Hearts Movement party, says they’re changing history. You see what is happening in Mali, says Kezza. This is a strong message that I’m sending to the French Embassy today, he says. It is time to cooperate with President Touadera and to try and liberate the country together, says Kezza. We’re grateful to the Russians. We are here today, he says, and we have invited the Russians to join us to thank them along with our national army.
No Russians attended the celebration in Bangui, but one Central African army commander was in the crowd.
One man held a sign that read, “Russia will Save the Donbas from War,” referring to the area in southeast Ukraine that Russia declared independent this week before launching its invasion.
A CAR government spokesman declined to comment on the celebration.
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Seattle Paper Fills Gap for Chinese Diaspora Seeking Local News
Founding a newspaper is rarely easy, but when Assunta Ng was preparing to launch the Seattle Chinese Post in 1982, she faced an unexpected challenge: The Chinese-script typewriters ordered from Taiwan were lost in transit.
The typewriters eventually turned up at the Port of Seattle, eight days before the newspaper was due to publish. A short window to train typists on the hard-to-use equipment.
But they got the job done, Ng said. In the early hours of January 20, the Post went to print and became the first Chinese-language paper in the Pacific Northwest since 1927.
Forty years on, the paper’s weekly circulation is in the thousands, but its small size belies its significance as one of the few independent Chinese-language outlets to offer local news in the United States.
Mandarin and other Chinese dialects combine to make up the third-most-common language in the U.S., with some 3.5 million speakers, according to a Census Bureau report.
And while major papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal publish in Chinese, they typically don’t provide hyper-local news.
That is where outlets like the Seattle Chinese Post and the New York-based website NYChinaRen come in.
Both cover typical community news – a mix of local politics, crime, weather, business and culture.
That focus is what separates them from the broader — though still narrow — Chinese-language media landscape in the U.S., which Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang says is politically polarized.
Some Chinese news outlets have ties to Beijing. Others are backed by opposition groups, such as the Epoch Times, which is reported to be aligned with Falun Gong, a controversial religious movement that claims persecution by Beijing.
Finding accurate, unbiased outlets can be a challenge, says Wang. And while American media publishing in Mandarin provide independent coverage, their reporting doesn’t necessarily target a Chinese audience living in the U.S., Wang said.
Rare outlets like the Seattle Chinese Post and NYChinaRen, both of which publish in Mandarin, provide a snapshot into the small landscape of independent and impartial Chinese-language media in the U.S.
In Seattle, Ng is proud of her paper’s independence and neutrality.
Before the Post was founded, members of the city’s large Chinese population would gather at bulletin boards in Seattle’s Chinatown to get the latest news. Ng, who moved to Washington from China for college, wanted to fill that gap.
The local community was initially skeptical of Ng’s newspaper until she assured them that it would be politically neutral.
“We’re not pro-Taiwan or China,” Ng said. “We want to serve the community, and we want to write stories, and we write stories that other newspapers have not been able to see.”
That local knowledge and connection with the community in Seattle came into play in 1983, when 13 people were killed at a gambling club.
“The mainstream media – I wouldn’t say they didn’t cover our community – they did,” Ng said. “But they always liked to feature us with food. So I always laughed at them. ‘Boy, we look like a very hungry community.’ You always write about us about food and nothing else. And now there’s this murder – biggest murder in the state – and you didn’t know how to cover it.”
“Overnight I had so many mainstream media calling me to ask for help because they couldn’t communicate with the Chinese immigrants in Chinatown,” Ng said. “I was like a bridge between our community and the mainstream media.”
The Seattle Chinese Post is an outlier, but Ng doesn’t really view it that way. For her, its neutrality is not a political statement. Ng views the Post first and foremost as a local newspaper, one that just happens to publish in Mandarin.
“We are an American newspaper, except written in Chinese,” Ng said.
In leading NYChinaRen, Cheng Yizhong was similarly motivated. He worked at state-run and privately owned outlets in China before an arrest in 2004 on corruption charges, a move seen widely as retaliation for his outspoken reports.
Being jailed in China is behind Cheng now. “It doesn’t really matter to me anymore,” he told VOA in November. “It only makes me believe firmly that our industry is extremely important.”
Cheng acted as editor-in-chief from when NYChinaRen was founded in 2019 until he stepped down in January, citing “political risk and pressure” but reaffirming in a statement that the website is independent. For him, media play an important role in reporting on local Chinese communities
“Their news may not be reported by mainstream American news channels. But that’s what we care about,”’ he said.
Beijing’s reach
For the past decade, China has worked to extend its influence over global media, using training opportunities, content sharing agreements, media trips and funding to try to curry favor with foreign outlets, all while restricting and expelling correspondents in Beijing.
Experts including the International Federation of Journalists believe China uses such tactics to influence global media coverage in its favor.
Wang, of Human Rights Watch, said Beijing made similar efforts to influence Chinese-owned media in New York and other cities “through ownership or making the businesspeople who are close to Beijing buy those newspapers.”
In an email to VOA, China’s Washington embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that Chinese media “should not be assumed to be led or interfered (with) by the Chinese government,” adding, “The Chinese government supports closer cooperation between Chinese and foreign media.”
Being relevant to Mandarin-speaking audiences can bring challenges, including whether to connect via the popular app WeChat.
With more than 1.2 billion active monthly users worldwide, the Chinese social media, messaging, and payment app is a powerful tool. It is also under the reach of Beijing’s censors.
Rights groups have cited how sensitive topics, like criticism of the government and human rights, are suppressed on the app.
The WeChat question is an important tradeoff, according to Sheng Zou, a University of Michigan postdoctoral research fellow. Chinese-language outlets can access more readers, but at the expense of editorial independence.
“If you want to cater towards the Chinese community, then you inevitably have to use WeChat,” Zou said.
Embassy spokesperson Pengyu denied that Beijing censors web content and said that “Chinese people have extensive access” to online information.
The website for NYChinaRen is blocked in China, but it has two public WeChat accounts with about 250,000 subscribers, according to Cheng. The accounts act as a news portal or blog page that app users follow.
Ng decided to not disseminate Seattle Chinese Post content on WeChat.
But despite challenges of adapting in the digital age, local news remains at the core of both media outlets.
Although some mainstream media in the U.S. publish in Mandarin, they do not concentrate as closely on what’s happening in the Chinese diaspora communities, Zou said. That’s what makes local-language media all the more important.
“Identity — this sense of belonging, this sense of rootedness — is a very important factor in their consumption of the media,” he said. “Identity politics is crucial to understanding why people want to consume Chinese media.”
And, as Ng says: “People are hungry for information and what’s going on in the community.”
Bo Gu contributed to this report.
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Africa Opposes Border Aggression but Unlikely to Condemn Russia
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has so far been met with diplomatic silence in Africa, except for a comment made by Kenya’s ambassador to the UN earlier this week. Analysts say that while many Africans disagree with Russia’s use of force, the continent’s governments are aware of Russia’s power on the world stage.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Kenya, Andrii Pravednyk, spoke to reporters in Nairobi and appealed to the international community to help his country against Russia’s invasion.
“Today, the future of Europe and the future of the world is at stake. Today Ukraine calls on the international community to take the following actions, to implement devastating sanctions on Russia now without any delay,” he said.
But so far, African governments have said nothing about the Russian aggression. One exception is Kenya, whose ambassador to the U.N., Martin Kimani, condemned the prospect of an invasion Monday, three days before Russian forces entered Ukraine.
“Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression,” he said.
Separately, South Africa issued a statement Wednesday urging Ukraine and Russia to find a way to de-escalate tensions.
Steven Gruzd is the head of the Russia-Africa Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs. He says African states are well aware of Russia’s power in the international system.
“African countries are mindful of the role Russia plays in international politics. It is a supporter without asking governance questions, without asking [about] the internal affairs of countries,” he said.
“There was a big Africa-Russia summit in 2019 in Sochi where 43 African leaders went. Russia is definitely wooing the continent and that may weigh on how critical countries are going to be,” he said.
But Grudz says in principle, African government oppose the idea of rearranging borders by force.
“We were left with colonial borders at the end of the 19th century and when our countries became independent, we decided that we would respect those borders even though they cut off ethnic groups and language groups and so on. Otherwise, it’s a recipe for total disaster. So, I think the fact that there is some political affinity between Russia and African countries would probably make the statement more muted but African countries will stand for their principles and one of those is territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said.
Kenyan international relations expert Kizito Sabala says he doubts the Kenyan ambassador’s words at the U.N. will affect Nairobi’s relationship with Moscow.
“Russia is going to ignore this statement just like any other from the U.S. or any other partner. They are just going to proceed with what they want to do and what they think is right but in terms of relations, I don’t think it is going to adversely affect Kenya-Russia relations,” he said.
Russia has exerted increasing influence in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya in recent years. Some governments have used Russian mercenaries to battle insurgent groups.
The mercenaries are accused of widespread abuses against civilians. The Russian government denies any link to the mercenaries.
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African Relations with Russia Uncertain Amid Ukrainian Conflict
Russia has played an increasing role on the African continent through trade, aid, military training and paramilitary security. Analysts say the future of that relationship will be tested as Russia’s tensions with the West escalate amid the Ukrainian conflict.
The South African government condemned Russia’s action in a statement, saying “it is dismayed at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine” and “calls on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine in line with the United Nations charter.”
Other African countries remained quiet Thursday as Russian forces pushed into Ukraine.
Russia has increased its presence on the continent in recent years and is scheduled to host a Russia-Africa summit this November.
Regardless of how African nations react to Russia’s invasion going forward, analysts say the continent will feel repercussions.
Irina Filatova is the professor at Russia’s Higher School of Economics University.
“Will it be the new cold war, or will it be the new hot war? We still do not know. But whatever it is, Africa is one, is going to be one of the victims of it,” Filatova said.
Countries reliant on imported oil and gas like South Africa will feel the pain of skyrocketing prices.
Northern African countries that import grains from Ukraine will feel disruptions in supply and price.
The conflict could also impact the availability of funding and resources for international development and aid that many African countries rely on.
Dzvinka Kachur is a researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.
“It’s also going to create a long-term distraction from and attention from the sustainable development goals,” Kachur said. “So we can expect the budgets of states around the world will be gearing towards more militarization and not the developmental goals.”
The conflict not only risks disruptions to aid, but also military and peacekeeping support on the continent.
Pauline Bax is the deputy director for the International Crisis Group in Johannesburg.
“A lot of attention will be taken away from conflicts that are quite urgent here in Africa, such again as the Sahel, the conflict in Mozambique and the conflict in Ethiopia,” said Bax. “A lot of diplomatic efforts will have to be put in the Ukraine crisis now and has already been put in – to the detriment of other crises here in Africa.”
However, the conflict could also bring opportunities.
Kachur says African leaders should call for changes in global power structures, especially at the United Nations.
Russia is of of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
“This is an opportunity to show that U.N. system is ineffective if the aggressor is one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council,” Kachur said. “…. This is a good time for African countries to talk about the change of the global system of international relations and to redistribute power.”
Analysts note it’s too early to be sure how the conflict in Ukraine will affect countries thousands of kilometers away. But to the extent the world order is being altered, Africa will feel the impact.
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HRW: Civilians Run Greatest Risk in Putin’s War Against Ukraine
Human Rights Watch warns Russian President Vladimir Putin’s battle plan for Ukraine will likely entail the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure to weaken Ukraine’s resolve to fight on.
Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, says he fears Russia’s military will replicate in Ukraine the war strategy it employed to help the Syrian regime reclaim the northern province of Idlib, the country’s last rebel-controlled enclave.
He says a detailed study of how Russia fought that war found repeated instances of Russian bombers deliberately targeting civilian institutions. He says hospitals, schools, markets, and civilian buildings were blatantly attacked.
“We were able to document, I think it was 43 cases of these where there were no known military targets in sight. It was just deliberately attacking a civilian institution, to make it unlivable and make it easier for the Syrian military to move in.… It became clearer that these were deliberate efforts … to make life unlivable for the three million civilians in Idlib,” he said.
What is particularly worth noting, Roth says, is the structure of the chain of command behind Russia’s deliberate, illegitimate policy.
“We found that Putin himself had command responsibility and that he had even given out, what is called a ‘Hero of Russia’ award to the two commanders who were in charge of this bombing during the period when we found these bombings going on. So, our fear is that this will be replicated,” he said.
Roth says serious pressure must be put on the Russian military not to replicate this wartime strategy. He notes Russia’s wanton bombing campaign in Idlib stopped in March 2020 under the combined pressure from the German French, and Turkish leaders. He says international pressure on Putin in this instance must be maintained.
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US Weekly Jobless Claims Fall; Fourth-quarter GDP Growth Revised Slightly Up
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, indicating that the labor market recovery was gaining traction.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 232,000 for the week ended Feb. 19, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 235,000 applications for the latest week.
Claims had risen in the week ending Feb. 12, which economists blamed on week-to-week volatility in the data and the delayed impact of winter storms early in the month.
With a near record 10.9 million job openings at the end of December, layoffs are minimal and economists expect claims to fall back below 200,000 in the coming weeks. They were last below this level in early December.
Many Federal Reserve officials view labor market conditions as being already at or very close to maximum employment.
Claims have dropped from a record high of 6.149 million in early April 2020. The tightening labor market conditions are boosting wage growth, which is contributing to high inflation.
Rising wages and better job security should, however, help to underpin consumer spending and sustain the economic expansion even as the Fed starts raising interest rates to tamp down inflation, and government money to households and businesses dries up. The U.S. central bank is expected to start raising rates in March, with economists anticipating as many as seven hikes this year.
A separate report from the Commerce Department on Thursday confirmed that economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as the drag from a resurgence in COVID-19 infections over the summer, driven by the Delta variant, eased.
Gross domestic product increased at a 7.0% annualized rate last quarter, the government said in its second GDP estimate. That was slightly up from the previously reported 6.9% pace. The economy grew at a 2.3% growth pace in the third quarter.
The economic momentum, however, appeared to have faded by December amid a strong headwind from coronavirus infections fueled by the Omicron variant. But activity has since picked up as the winter wave of infections subsided.
Retail sales surged in January and business activity rebounded in February, data showed this month. That has created an upside risk to GDP growth estimates for
the first-quarter, which are mostly below a 2.0 rate.
The United States is reporting an average of 80,131 new COVID-19 infections a day, sharply down from the more than 700,000 in mid-January, according to a Reuters analysis of official data.
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Moscow Warns Russians Against Staging Anti-War Protests
Russian authorities on Thursday warned anti-war sympathizers from gathering for protests after President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee, a government body that investigates major crimes, warned Russians of legal repercussions for joining unsanctioned protests related to “the tense foreign political situation.”
It said it was responding to social media calls to protest against Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine.
“One should be aware of the negative legal consequences of these actions in the form of prosecution up to criminal liability,” it said.
The Russian interior ministry said it will take “all necessary measures to ensure public order.”
Russia has strict protest laws and demonstrations often end in mass arrests.
Some Russians called on social media for people to take to the streets to protest against the Ukraine attack.
Independent rights monitor, OVD-info, said at least 27 people had been arrested throughout Russia for holding anti-war protests.
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said earlier on Thursday that he was against the invasion in a speech during his trial, held behind bars.
“I am against this war,” Navalny was heard saying in a video published by independent news outlet Dozhd.
“This war between Russia and Ukraine was unleashed to cover up the theft from Russian citizens and divert their attention from problems that exist inside the country,” Navalny said.
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Study: US Child Poverty Rising After Tax Credit Expires
The number of children in America living in poverty jumped dramatically after just one month without the expanded child tax credit payments, according to a new study. Advocates fear the lapse in payments could unravel what they say were landmark achievements in poverty reduction.
Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimates 3.7 million more children were living in poverty by January — a 41% increase from December, when families received their last check. The federal aid started last July but ended after President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill stalled in the sharply divided Congress. Payments of up to $300 per child were delivered directly to bank accounts on the 15th of each month, and last week marked the second missed deposit of the year.
The Columbia study, which combines annual U.S. Census data with information from the Census Bureau’s monthly Current Population Survey bulletins, found that the monthly child poverty rate increased from 12.1% in December to 17% in January. That’s the highest level since December 2020, when the U.S. was grappling with high unemployment and a resurgence of COVID-19. Black and Latino children experienced the highest percentage point increases in poverty — 5.9% and 7.1% respectively.
Megan Curran, policy director for the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, said the sudden spike shows how quickly the payments became core to household financial stability for millions of families after only six months.
“It really had a huge impact right off the bat,” Curran said. “We saw food insecurity drop almost immediately as soon as the payments started … all of that progress that we made could now be lost.”
Curran said the increase in children living in poverty could also partially reflect rising prices.
The new numbers represent a serious setback from the original goals of the child tax credit program, which ambitiously sought to cut nationwide child poverty in half. As part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package last year, the existing child tax credit program was massively reshaped, boosting the amount of the payments, greatly expanding the pool of eligible families and delivering the money in monthly installments designed to be incorporated into day-to-day household budgets.
The program extended payments of $250-per-month for children ages 6 through 17 and $300-per-month for those under 6 to most families in the country, at an annual cost of about $120 billion. The goal was to put discretionary cash in the hands of parents along with the freedom to spend it as they saw fit month-to-month.
Republican lawmakers are generally unified in opposition to the expanded tax credit — describing it as excessive, inflationary and a disincentive to work. But when it was originally passed, many Democrats openly declared their intention to make the payments a permanent anchor of the American social safety net.
The goal for the Democratic-held Congress was to keep the program running, and fight about its future months from now, armed with data and millions of anecdotes about the tax credit’s benefits.
Instead the 50-member Democratic bloc in the Senate collapsed from within, with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin holding out on his vote for weeks before finally refusing to endorse Biden’s social spending package. Manchin cited his opposition to the child tax credit’s massive price tag among his reservations with the bill.
Earlier this month, Manchin called negotiations on Biden’s Build Back Better bill “dead.”
Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, one of the expanded child tax credit’s strongest advocates, said Wednesday in a statement to The Associated Press that nearly all the children in his state benefited from the credit and that letting it expire was “a moral failure.”
An informal survey conducted of families by the nonprofit advocacy group ParentsTogether Action found a similarly immediate impact to the lapsed child tax credit payments for respondents, with roughly 1 in 5 families surveyed reporting they could no longer afford housing or enough food for their kids.
Allison Johnson, the organization’s campaign director, said the child tax credit payments were designed so parents would “not have to make these really hard choices,” she said.
The end to the deposits makes it nearly impossible for needy families, who may be struggling to pay down debt or cope with major expenses, to develop financial stability or momentum, Johnson said.
“This lack of clarity is super difficult for people. It makes them unable to plan for things,” she said.
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Shares Dive, Oil Soars After Russian Action in Ukraine
Stocks plunged and oil prices surged by more than $5 per barrel Thursday after President Vladimir Putin launched military action in Ukraine, prompting Washington and Europe to vow sanctions on Moscow that may roil the global economy.
Market benchmarks in Europe and Asia fell by as much as 4% as traders tried to figure out how large Putin’s incursion would be and the scale of Western retaliation. Wall Street futures retreated by an unusually wide daily margin of 2.5%.
Brent crude oil briefly jumped above $100 per barrel in London for the first time since 2014 on unease about possible disruption of supplies from Russia, the No. 3 producer. Benchmark U.S. crude briefly surpassed $98 per barrel. Prices of wheat and corn also jumped.
The ruble sank 7.5% against the dollar.
Financial markets are in a “flight to safety and may have to price in slower growth” due to high energy costs, Chris Turner and Francesco Pesole of ING said in a report.
In Brussels, the president of the European Commission said Thursday the 27-nation European Union planned “massive and targeted sanctions” on Russia.
“We will hold President Putin accountable,” Ursula von der Leyen said.
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London fell 2.5% to 7,311.69 as Europe awakened to news of explosions in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the major city of Kharkiv and other areas. The DAX in Frankfurt plunged 4% to 14,047.18 and the CAC in Paris lost 3.6% to 6,537.32.
The futures for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 2%.
That was on top of Wednesday’s 1.8% slide for the S&P 500 to an eight-month low after the Kremlin said rebels in eastern Ukraine had asked for military assistance. Moscow had sent soldiers to some rebel-held areas after recognizing them as independent.
Putin said Russia had to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine, a claim Washington had predicted he would make to justify an invasion.
President Joe Biden denounced the attack as “unprovoked and unjustified” and said Moscow would be held accountable, which many took to mean Washington and its allies would impose additional sanctions. Putin accused them of ignoring Russia’s demand to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and to offer Moscow security guarantees.
Washington, Britain, Japan and the EU earlier imposed sanctions on Russian banks, officials and business leaders. Additional options include barring Russia from the global system for bank transactions.
Prices of benchmark U.S. and international oils hovered near $100 per barrel.
West Texas Intermediate soared $5.86 to $97.96 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 25 cents to $92.10 on Wednesday.
Brent crude advanced $5.57 to $99.62 per barrel in London after spiking above $100. It lost 20 cents to $94.05 the previous session.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 1.8% to 25,970.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 3.2% to 22,901.56. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 1.7% to 3,429.96.
Asian economies face lower risks than Europe does, but those that need imported oil might be hit by higher prices if Russian supplies are disrupted, forecasters say.
The Kospi in Seoul lost 2.6% to 2,648.80 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 fell 3% to 6,990.60.
India’s Sensex fell 3.4% to 55,283.65. New Zealand lost 3.3% and Southeast Asian markets also fell.
Investors already were uneasy about the possible impact of the Federal Reserve’s plans to try to cool inflation by withdrawing ultra-low interest rates and other stimulus that boosted share prices.
The dollar weakened to 114.68 yen from Wednesday’s 114.98 yen. The euro fell to $1.1243 from $1.1306.
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Russia Launches Invasion of Ukraine with Multiple Cities Hit in Initial Missile Strikes
Russia fired missiles at more than half a dozen Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, targeting air defense facilities and military infrastructure just before dawn Thursday and landed soldiers on the country’s south coast. The action unfolded shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on television what he described as a “special military operation,” but what Ukrainian leaders say is a full-scale invasion of their country, the second biggest in Europe.
In an angry address broadcast just before 6 a.m. Moscow time, Russia’s president said he could no longer tolerate what he called the threats from Ukraine. He ended his speech warning outside powers not to interfere. He said his goal was the “demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine.” He added: “We will bring to court those who have committed many crimes, responsible for the bloodshed of civilians, including Russian citizens,” he said.
Putin warned that if Ukrainian soldiers don’t lay down their weapons, they would be responsible for bloodshed.
Shortly after he spoke, intense rocket fire could be heard in the eastern city of Kharkiv and then sporadic rumbling explosions could be heard coming from the outskirts of Kyiv, from the direction of the capital’s main Boryspil international airport and its second airport at Zhuliany.
“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter. “This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now,” added Kuleba.
Within hours of the missile attacks, Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders, from Russia, Belarus and from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014. Ukrainian officials said amphibious Russian forces landed near Odesa on the Black Sea coast.
Ukraine’s State Border Guards said Lukansk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts have come under attack. And they said Russian forces were crossing into Ukraine from Crimea.
Ukraine’s response
Broadcasting from his phone, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainians he would declare martial law and, urging Ukrainians to stay home, he said: “Don’t panic. We are strong. We are ready for everything. We will defeat everyone. Because we are Ukraine.”
But as the tanks rolled into Ukraine, they appeared to be facing little coordinated initial resistance and Russia broadened its air assault firing Cruise missiles at military airports in western Ukraine.
Ukrainian military officials said they shot down five Russian warplanes and a helicopter.
In Kyiv, the city administration issued an airstrike warning and sounded sirens several hours after the city’s airports were struck. The first explosions could be heard from downtown Kyiv just before 5 a.m., local time. The blasts sounded a long way off and then came in short flurries. Television footage later showed fires raging at Boryspil.
Other cities issued warnings and in Lviv on the Polish border, where many European embassies relocated to earlier this month, air-raid sirens sounded. The wide-ranging offensive took many by surprise here in Kyiv and as the attack unfolded, the city’s early morning commute got under way and only thinned out as startled workers began to understand that the long-feared invasion was getting under way.
Hotels in Kyiv quickly emptied with guests checking out in droves. “Everything is OK,” said a worker in a fitness spa in one five-star hotel in the city center. “Keep calm,” she added. By there were few pedestrians on the streets of the city — with only dog-walkers loitering. Couples could be seen pulling their luggage. One young woman struggling with a huge bag was asked where she was going: “Away,” she responded.
Blasts were more intense and concentrated in eastern Ukraine, on the borders of Moscow’s breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Local residents reported four loud blasts early Thursday in Kramatorsk, which serves as the Ukrainian government’s de facto capital in the Donbas region. Blasts were also reported in the southeastern port city of Mariupol.
Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, tweeted a “wholly unprovoked attack” on Ukraine was starting. She added: “A wholly unprovoked attack on a peaceful country, Ukraine, is unfolding. Horrified. Just because you’ve prepared and thought about this possibility for weeks and months doesn’t mean it isn’t shocking when it actually happens.”
In some Ukrainian towns there were reports civilians rushed to bomb shelters as dawn broke.
Russia’s defense ministry claimed it was using “high-precision weaponry to take out Ukrainian military infrastructure, air defense, aerodromes, and aviation.”
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the initial assault had led to hundreds of casualties. Roads leading out of Kyiv were soon clogged with families packed into cars and determined to head for Lviv in the west.
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Ukraine Closes Airspace to Civilian Flights Amid ‘High Risk’ To Safety
Ukraine said on Thursday it had closed its airspace to civilian flights because of a “high risk” to safety, and Europe’s aviation regulator also warned about the hazards of flying in bordering areas of Russia and Belarus because of military activities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine on Thursday in what appeared to be the start of war in Europe.
Ukraine State Air Traffic Services Enterprise said on its website that the country’s airspace was closed to civilian flights starting at 0045 GMT on Thursday and that air traffic services had been suspended.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said airspace in Russia and Belarus within 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) of their borders with Ukraine could also pose safety risks to airlines.
“In particular, there is a risk of both intentional targeting and misidentification of civil aircraft,” the agency said in a conflict zone bulletin.
“The presence and possible use of a wide range of ground and airborne warfare systems poses a HIGH risk for civil flights operating at all altitudes and flight levels.”
The aviation industry has taken heightened notice of the risks conflicts pose to civil aviation since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
EASA said Russia’s Ministry of Defense had sent an urgent message to Ukraine warning of a high risk to flight safety due to the use of weapons and military equipment from 0045 GMT on Thursday and asked Ukraine’s air traffic control to stop flights.
Flight tracking websites showed early morning traffic skirting the whole country in crowded corridors to the north and west.
An El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto made a sudden U-turn out of Ukraine’s airspace around the time the airspace was closed, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
A LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Kyiv also turned back to Warsaw around the same time.
Hours before then, Safe Airspace, which was set up to provide safety and conflict zone information after the downing of MH17, said it had increased its risk level over all of Ukraine to “do not fly.”
It also warned of the potential for a cyberattack on Ukraine’s air traffic control.
Russia has also closed some airspace in the Rostov sector to the east of its border with Ukraine “in order to provide safety” for civil aviation flights, according to a notice to airmen.
Before Ukraine advised of the airspace restrictions, the United States, Italy, Canada, France and Britain had told their airlines to avoid certain airspace above eastern Ukraine and Crimea but stopped short of a total ban.
Germany’s Lufthansa LHAG.DE halted flights to Ukraine from Monday, joining KLM which already suspended flights.
Two Ukrainian airlines last week disclosed problems in securing insurance for some of their flights while foreign carriers began avoiding the country’s airspace as Russia massed a huge military force on its border.
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