Progressive Democratic lawmakers urged U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday to shift the U.S. approach to the war in Ukraine by directly negotiating with Russia.

A letter signed by 30 House Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Representative Pramila Jayapal, said they appreciated Biden’s commitment “to Ukraine’s legitimate struggle against Russia’s war of aggression” and acknowledged U.S. economic, military and humanitarian aid has been critical to Ukraine’s success in fighting off Russia.

But the lawmakers said, in the letter first reported by the Washington Post, that diplomatic efforts should also be a part of the U.S. approach to ending the war that has had a catastrophic toll on the Ukrainian people as well as threatening global food and poverty crises through rising fuel and grain costs.

“As legislators responsible for the expenditure of tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in military assistance in the conflict, we believe such involvement in this war also creates a responsibility for the United States to seriously explore all possible avenues, including direct engagement with Russia, to reduce harm and support Ukraine in achieving a peaceful settlement,” the lawmakers wrote.

In a June 2022 press conference, Biden acknowledged that possibility when asked if Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia to put an end to the conflict.

“It appears to me that, at some point along the line, there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here. And what that entails, I don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows at the time,” Biden told reporters.

The lawmakers specified it was not the place of the U.S. to pressure Ukraine into accepting a settlement, writing that any “framework would presumably include incentives to end hostilities, including some form of sanctions relief, and bring together the international community to establish security guarantees for a free and independent Ukraine that are acceptable for all parties, particularly Ukrainians.”

The U.S. has sent nearly $60 billion in humanitarian, economic and military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February. In the Monday letter, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said they are still in favor of continued aid.

But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — who is poised to become Speaker of the House if Republicans win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November midterm elections — said continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine is not assured, given domestic economic concerns.

“I think people are going to be sitting in a recession, and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” McCarthy told U.S. political news outlet Punchbowl News last week.

Not all Republican leaders agree. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for more U.S. aid to Ukraine in a statement last Friday, saying “The Biden Administration and our allies need to do more to supply the tools Ukraine needs to thwart Russian aggression. It is obvious this must include additional air defenses, long-range fires, and humanitarian and economic support to help this war-torn country endure the coming winter.”

Progressive Democrats did praise Biden’s approach, saying the administration’s policy was critical in preventing an all-out nuclear conflict.

“We are under no illusions regarding the difficulties involved in engaging Russia given its outrageous and illegal invasion of Ukraine and its decision to make additional illegal annexations of Ukrainian territory. However, if there is a way to end the war while preserving a free and independent Ukraine, it is America’s responsibility to pursue every diplomatic avenue,” the letter said.
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In marking World Polio Day, advocates for a polio-free world are urging nations to commit to a new five-year strategy to eradicate this crippling disease and consign it to the trash bin of history.

An estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio when the World Health Organization launched its Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. In the world today, polio is endemic only in Pakistan, and Afghanistan. So far this year, 29 cases have been recorded, putting the possibility of a polio-free world within reach.

The WHO notes the final stretch is the most difficult and cautions nations against letting down their guard too soon. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the 29 recorded cases include a small number in southeast Africa linked to a strain originating in Pakistan.

“While it does not affect the WHO African region’s wild polio free certification, it shows us that as long as polio continues to circulate anywhere, it is a threat to children everywhere. Despite this news, we have a unique window of opportunity right now to end polio for good.”

The WHO warns polio also can spread within communities through circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses. These variants, it notes, can emerge in places where not enough people have been immunized against this crippling disease. It reports these variants continue to spread across parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe and new outbreaks have been detected in Britain, Israel and the United States in recent months.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell says the new polio eradication strategy is designed to take the world to the finish line. She says the strategy includes tactics to protect children from variant outbreaks and stop their spread to other countries.

“We are also working with governments to speed up our response to these outbreaks, acting immediately to ensure that they do not harm more children,” Russel said. “And we continue working to integrate polio activities with other immunization and health programs so we can reach high-risk children who have never received vaccines before. The new strategy will help us end all forms of polio. It will also help prepare countries to respond to future health threats.”   

If this goal is reached, polio will become only the second disease after smallpox to have been wiped off the face of the Earth. U.N. health agencies say it will cost $4.8 billion to achieve this historic milestone.    

The economic returns, they say, will be significant. They estimate eradicating polio would result in savings of more than $33 billion.    
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The European Union is aiming to clinch deals on three new laws to fight climate change in time for the annual United Nations climate negotiations next month, in a bid to boost its political clout at the talks.

Nearly 200 countries agreed at last year’s U.N. COP26 negotiations to upgrade their climate pledges by this year’s summit, to bridge the gap between their current plans and the far faster reduction in greenhouse gas emissions needed to avert disastrous climate change.

But two weeks away from the COP27 summit in Egypt, only around two dozen countries have done so. The 27-country EU will decide on Monday whether to commit to raise its own target, although countries disagree on whether to agree to do this by a certain date, or at all.

Meanwhile, the EU has agreed to speed up negotiations on three emissions-cutting laws, so it can arrive at the U.N. summit with newly ambitious climate policies, EU officials told Reuters.

“The EU has to be the bridge builder and you can only build bridges if you are seen as ambitious yourself,” EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said on Monday.

The policies being fast-tracked are a law to ban sales of new fossil fuel cars in the EU by 2035, expand Europe’s natural CO2-absorbing “sinks” like forests, and set binding national emissions-cutting goals.

They are part of a bigger package of policies being negotiated by EU countries and the European Parliament, designed to deliver the bloc’s overall goal to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels.

The CO2 sinks law, in particular, is seen as a roundabout way of hiking the EU’s climate target, because if achieved, it could cut countries’ overall net emissions by 57%, according to EU lawmakers.

Ville Niinisto, Parliament’s negotiator on the law, said having a deal before COP27 would show the EU “will do more than we promised”.

Jessica Polfjard, Parliament’s negotiator on the national emissions-cutting targets, said she wanted a good deal rather than a quick deal. “At this stage I remain confident that I can deliver both.”
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Ukraine rejected Russian allegations that Ukrainian forces might detonate a radioactive device, and accused Russia of planning to carry out such an act and blame it on Ukraine.

“Russian lies about Ukraine allegedly planning to us a ‘dirty bomb’ are as absurd as they are dangerous,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his nightly address Sunday that Russia was the only one in the region capable of using nuclear weapons.

“If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” Zelenskyy said. “I believe that now the world should react in the toughest possible way.”

Russia’s defense ministry said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu voiced concern Sunday to his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey about “possible Ukrainian provocations involving a ‘dirty bomb.’”

Dangers of a “dirty bomb”

A “dirty bomb” is a device that uses conventional explosives to scatter radioactive material. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says most dirty bombs “would not release enough radiation to kill people or cause severe illness,” but could create panic and contaminate property. Nuclear bombs, by comparison, have explosions that are millions of times more powerful, according to the NRC.

The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain and France reiterated their support for Ukraine in a statement late Sunday, and said their defense ministers made clear to Shoigu their rejection of “Russia’s transparently false allegations.”

“The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation. We further reject any pretext for escalation by Russia,” the U.S., British and French ministers said.

For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, his phone call Sunday with Shoigu was the second between the two ministers in the span of three days. The Pentagon said Austin rejected any pretext for Russian escalation and reaffirmed the value of continued communication amid “Russia’s unlawful and unjustified war against Ukraine.”

Suburb attacked

Also Sunday, a Russian missile attack smashed into a suburb of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

While two apartment blocks were destroyed, no one was killed because most residents had already moved away after a similar attack in the vicinity six months ago, Reuters reported.

The explosions in the Karabelnyi district of Mykolaiv, a ship-building center at the confluence of the Southern Buh and Dnipro rivers, continued a weeks-long Russian aerial offensive that has targeted civilian infrastructure.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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A right-wing politician and a centrist independent candidate will face each other in a runoff presidential election in Slovenia after no candidate achieved an outright victory in the first round of voting Sunday, partial results showed.

Former Foreign Minister Anze Logar was leading the race with 34% of the vote, followed by lawyer Natasa Pirc Musar with nearly 27%, state election authorities said after counting 85% of the ballots.

Trailing third was Social Democrat Milan Brglez, the candidate of the ruling liberal government, who garnered some 15% of the vote, according to the official tally.

Since none of the seven contenders who competed in the election managed to gather more than 50% of the ballots needed for an outright victory, a runoff between Logar and Pirc Musar will be held on Nov. 13.

While Logar took a lead on Sunday, analysts in Slovenia have predicted the tables could turn in the runoff if Slovenia’s centrist and liberal voters rally behind Pirc Musar.

Logar, 46, served under former populist Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who moved Slovenia to the right while in power and faced accusations of non-democratic and divisive policies.

Logar has sought to shake off a populist image and present himself as a unifier. His victory would deal a blow to the liberal coalition that ousted Jansa from power six months ago.

If Pirc Musar wins, she would become the first female president of Slovenia since the country became independent from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

“I woke up cheerful and pleased,” she said when she voted on Sunday. ”I am certain they (voters) will recognize my values and my non-partisan orientation.”

Logar said a place in the second round would be a “success,” and the rest would depend “on presenting a convincing political argument, out there in the field.”

Turnout by 1400 GMT was nearly 35%, somewhat higher than for the previous presidential election five years ago, election officials said as polls closed.

Slovenia’s 1.7 million eligible voters eventually will choose a successor to incumbent Borut Pahor. He has served two full five-year terms and was banned from running for a third.

While in office, Pahor tried to bridge Slovenia’s left-right divide that remains a source of political tension in the traditionally moderate and stable nation of 2 million.

Prime Minister Robert Golob said the future president should have “moral authority” on the country’s political scene and “great trust among Slovenians.”

Ziga Jelenec, a resident of Ljubljana, the capital, said the election likely will show “how much our society is divided.”
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Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson pulled out of the contest to become Britain’s next leader on Sunday, saying he had the support of enough lawmakers to progress to the next stage but far fewer than front-runner former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak.

“There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative Party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday,” Johnson said in a statement.

“But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”

Johnson, who never formally announced his bid to return to Downing Street, has spent the weekend trying to persuade Conservative lawmakers to back him and said on Sunday that he had the support of 102 of them.

He needed the backing of 100 by Monday to proceed to the next stage, which would have seen him going head-to-head against Sunak in a vote by the Conservative Party’s 170,000 members.

Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister in July helped precipitate Johnson’s fall, had cleared the threshold of 100 lawmakers needed to progress to the next stage, securing 142 declared supporters on Sunday, according to Sky News.

He will be named leader of the Conservative Party and become prime minister on Monday unless candidate Penny Mordaunt reaches the threshold of 100 backers to force a run-off vote by party members. She had 24 declared supporters on Sunday.
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Climate protesters threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum to protest fossil fuel extraction Sunday but caused no damage to the artwork.

Two activists from the group Last Generation, which has called on the German government to take drastic action to protect the climate and stop using fossil fuels, approached Monet’s “Les Meules” at Potsdam’s Barberini Museum and threw a thick substance over the painting and its gold frame.

The group later confirmed via a post on Twitter that the mixture was mashed potatoes. The two activists, both wearing orange high-visibility vests, also glued themselves to the wall below the painting.

“If it takes a painting – with #MashedPotatoes or #TomatoSoup thrown at it – to make society remember that the fossil fuel course is killing us all: Then we’ll give you #MashedPotatoes on a painting!” the group wrote on Twitter, along with a video of the incident.

In total, four people were involved in the incident, according to German news agency dpa.

The Barberini Museum said later Sunday that because the painting was enclosed in glass, the mashed potatoes didn’t cause any damage. The painting, part of Monet’s “Haystacks” series, is expected to be back on display Wednesday.

“While I understand the activists’ urgent concern in the face of the climate catastrophe, I am shocked by the means with which they are trying to lend weight to their demands,” museum director Ortrud Westheider said in a statement.

Police told dpa they had responded to the incident, but further information about arrests or charges was not immediately available.

The Monet painting is the latest artwork in a museum to be targeted by climate activists to draw attention to global warming.

The British group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery earlier this month.

Just Stop Oil activists also glued themselves to the frame of an early copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and to John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” in the National Gallery.
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