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Two leaders could meet if necessary but no concrete plans in place, says spokesperson. Plus: meet the ‘millennial parent whisperer’• Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, has said it is “premature” to talk about specific plans for a summit between Putin and Joe Biden, after an announcement on Sunday from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, thathis Russian and US counterparts had agreed in principle to attend talks aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis.What did Peskov say? He said Putin and Biden could meet if they considered it necessary, but emphasised that it was “premature to talk about specific plans for a summit” and no concrete plans were in place.Is the threat of a Russian attack still predicted? Yes. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said: “Everything we are seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion.”What has the bank said about the revelations? “Credit Suisse strongly rejects the allegations and inferences about the bank’s purported business practices,” it said in a statement. Continue reading...

The Olympic movement risks lurching even further into an existential crisis if major problems aren’t addressed, and many of the levers for change are in the hands of US stakeholdersHere is an argument you won’t often hear from a US gold medallist. Russia isn’t solely to blame for the crisis in the Olympic movement. The real problem is wider and more serious – and it represents a threat to the whole Olympic movement with Russia currently at the center.How might we view Russia? They could be seen like a kid behind you on an airplane who keeps kicking your seat. And yet when you turn around and ask them to stop, they keep going. If the parent doesn’t hold the child accountable, what reason is there for behavior change? In this case the IOC executive board are the parents, and IOC president Thomas Bach is ultimately responsible. Continue reading...

Jackie Robinson is rightfully lauded for his role in the desegregation of baseball. But many others, from writers to train porters, helped the processDecades after the installation of a color barrier in professional baseball, one of the nation’s top Black athletes – Jackie Robinson – stood on a Major League field for a tryout. Infield practice, batting practice, fungoes – he did it all, including some memorable shots against the wall in left field.This did not take place at the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ebbets Field, where Robinson would integrate the majors on 15 April 1947 though. Rather, it happened two years earlier, almost to the day, at Fenway Park. On 16 April 1945, the Boston Red Sox held a tryout for three Black players – Robinson, Sam Jethroe and Marvin Williams. No job offers resulted, and the Red Sox ended up becoming the last MLB team to integrate, over a decade later. That the tryout took place at all is a testament to two determined individuals – Isadore Muchnick, a white Boston city councilor, and Wendell Smith, a Black sportswriter. A new book honors such advocates in the long battle for integration on the diamond – Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier by Boston-based journalist Ted Reinstein. Continue reading...

Mark Finchem, a supporter of the ex-president’s ‘big lie’ about the 2020 election, could soon oversee voting in the stateLast September, Donald Trump released a statement through his Save America website. “It is my great honor to endorse a true warrior,” he proclaimed, “a patriot who has fought for our country, who was willing to say what few others had the courage to say, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”Former US presidents usually reserve their most gushing praise – replete with Capital Letters – for global allies or people they are promoting for high office. A candidate for the US Senate, perhaps, or someone vying to become governor of one of the biggest states. Continue reading...

Judges, scholars and attorneys all concerned whether people due in court will receive notice before their hearingsAmerica’s immigration courts are struggling to function at the most basic level, with judges who are already woefully understaffed and often undertrained now overwhelmed by a growing backlog of more than 1.6m cases, industry leaders have warned.The system is so damaged that judges, scholars and attorneys all share concerns about whether immigrants due in court will even receive notice before their hearings so they know to show up and aren’t ordered deported in absentia – an urgent concern made worse by volatile immigration policies at the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

A helicopter has crashed into the water off Miami Beach, just a few feet away from swimmers in a crowded stretch popular with tourists. A video shared by police captured the chopper descending over the ocean and crashing into the water as sunbathers packed the beach and others swam. Two of the three passengers onboard were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, police said, adding that no one else appeared to be injured

Palm Beach county sheriff says Sondra Wiener, 87, and 90-year-old husband Marvin Wiener found dead on ThursdayThe sister of the Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in Florida in what investigators said was an apparent murder-suicide.The Palm Beach county sheriff’s office on Sunday identified the couple as 87-year-old Sondra Wiener of Boynton Beach and her 90-year-old husband, Marvin Wiener. Continue reading...

Adonis Lattimore of Landstown high school, who also has just one finger on his right hand, wins 106lb weight classA Virginia high school senior who was born with no right leg and a left leg that ends at the middle of his thigh took home a state wrestling championship – surprising everyone but himself.“Really if you work hard, you can do anything – even win a state championship without legs,” Adonis Lattimore said on Saturday, after winning first place in the Virginia high school league class 6, 106lb weight class at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. Continue reading...

Authorities describe confrontation in Normandale Park between homeowner and participants in police violence protestOne person was killed and five wounded in a shooting on Saturday night at a Portland park where a march was planned to protest police violence.The shooting at Normandale Park happened during a confrontation between an armed homeowner and armed protesters, Portland police said. Continue reading...

Youth, 15, was shoved to couch but not restrained while 14-year-old was handcuffed in incident that went viralA New Jersey teen who was involved in a mall fight that went viral has said police were wrong to treat him differently than the other youth in the altercation, who is Black.“I don’t understand why they arrested him and not me,” he said. “I say, that was just plain old racist. I don’t condone that at all.” Continue reading...

Apple App Store lists rightwing Twitter alternative but ex-congressman tapped to lead company indicates slow rolloutDonald Trump’s rightwing riposte to Twitter – his new social media app Truth Social – is supposed to launch on Monday. But the rollout of what the former president hopes will be the start of a new media empire continues to be shrouded in confusion and secrecy.Devin Nunes, the former Republican congressman and Trump loyalist who heads Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), told Fox News on Sunday Truth Social would make its debut on the Apple App Store this week. The app is featured on the store, with the notice “Expected Feb 21”. Continue reading...

We Ukrainians are ready to fight. But war can still be averted if the west shows the Kremlin what Russia has to lose

South Carolinian tells Fox News ‘Everybody wants to be on President Trump’s bandwagon, without any question’

It’s easy to see the prime minister starting a western-backed insurgency that, knowing him as we do, he will not finish Continue reading...

Covid closures and attempt to rename schools deemed named for figures linked to injustice, including Abraham Lincoln, fueled voteSan Francisco school board members recalled from their posts this week allowed themselves to become distracted by politics, the city’s mayor said on Sunday.Voters overwhelmingly approved the recall of board president Gabriela López, vice-president Faauuga Moliga and commissioner Alison Collins. Continue reading...

Justices have been chosen on grounds of identity before, as Trump did when he picked a woman to replace Ruth Bader GinsburgThe Republican senator Ted Cruz complained on Sunday that Joe Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman to the supreme court was an instance of racial discrimination – but also claimed the GOP would not drag the eventual nominee “into the gutter” in confirmation hearings.“Democrats today believe in racial discrimination,” Cruz told Fox News Sunday. “They’re they’re committed to it as a political proposition. I think it is wrong to stand up and say, ‘We’re going to discriminate.’” Continue reading...

Team GB’s women won curling gold before a Beijing closing ceremony to a Games embroiled in controversy

Apparent suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel in Paris jail ends case against him unless other suspects are foundVictims of a French modelling agent’s alleged sexual abuse have expressed shock and dismay after he was found dead in his cell, in an apparent echo of the prison suicide of his close associate, the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein.Paris police are investigating the death of Jean-Luc Brunel, 75, who had been charged with the rape of minors and was also being held on suspicion of trafficking underage girls for sex, whose body was found in La Santé prison early on Saturday. Continue reading...

The term ‘fully vaccinated’ needs to be redefined. It’s time for the United States and the CDC to see natural immunity as a partial path to protectionThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has failed to recognize that people with confirmed Covid infections, also known as “natural immunity,” have achieved some level of protection against subsequent infections and severe disease. This has unnecessarily fueled divisiveness, particularly when vaccines are mandated without acknowledgement that prior Covid is an alternate path, albeit with some limitations, for protection of the individual and helping to build the population’s immunity wall.While there has been a body of data supporting a robust immune response to Covid infections, that evidence has recently been substantially bolstered. In the very large trial on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine single shot compared with placebo, among over 2,000 participants with prior infections, as documented by positive antibody status, their protection against moderate or severe disease was 90%. That’s much higher than the vaccine efficacy of 56%, yet the CDC recognizes 2-shot of this vaccine as “fully vaccinated” but ignores these data, and many other proof points, of natural immunity protection.Eric Topol is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, professor of molecular medicine, and executive vice-president of Scripps Research Continue reading...

Local officials are being ousted and threatened as extreme rhetoric takes over once-staid public meetingsResidents of a California county are mounting an aggressive campaign to oust officials who have supported Covid safety measures and vaccines, the latest example of a growing extremism in local politics fueled by the pandemic.A group in Nevada county, a rural expanse of about 100,000 people in the Sierra Nevada, is seeking to recall five county supervisors, saying that contact tracing efforts and the promotion of lockdowns and vaccines violate “religious freedoms and individual liberty”. Continue reading...

Ron DeSantis is backing a bill that would strip education funding from Democratic counties that retained Covid precautionsFlorida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is backing a controversial proposal to strip $200m in education funding from Democratic counties that defied his executive order last year banning mask mandates in schools.DeSantis, who is widely seen as a leading heir to Donald Trump in the Republican party, plans to send the money instead to mostly Republican counties that supported him. Continue reading...

This great cultural institution’s trustees must refuse to renew its sponsorship arrangement with BPThe critics are unanimous: the British Museum’s new exhibition, The World of Stonehenge, is a triumph. As archaeologists, it’s wonderful for us to see the show achieve such plaudits. But the fact that the exhibition is once again sponsored by the oil and gas supermajor BP brings inevitable disquiet. Hundreds of our colleagues in archaeology, museums and the heritage sector have recently signed a letter asking the museum to end its relationship with BP. The signatories include senior curators and academics from across the UK and beyond. This is a decisive moment for the British Museum: its agreement with BP is due for renewal this year and its future hangs in the balance.BP has maintained a strategy of sponsoring cultural institutions for decades, as part of its heavy investment in public relations. It’s keen to convince the public – and our policymakers – that it can be trusted to manage the transition to net zero itself. But BP’s programme for “net zero by 2050” relies on massive use of unproved carbon capture technologies and implausible offsetting. The company is continuing to look for new sources of oil and gas, which the International Energy Agency has said cannot be exploited if net zero is to be achieved. BP’s plans also ignore its 20% stake in the Russian oil company Rosneft, which is launching a $134bn project to drill in the Arctic. BP’s activities jeopardise efforts to keep global heating within the 1.5C limit of the Paris climate agreement and avoid yet worse droughts, wildfires and sea level rise. Continue reading...

A major series blaming Islamophobia for the 2014 Birmingham schools controversy is one-sided and risks opening old woundsSerial is one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world. Its first season, a true-crime whodunnit that became an instant hit had me hooked on its release eight years ago. So I was excited to tune into its new offering with the New York Times, The Trojan Horse Affair, an eight-part series that promises to tell the real story of the anonymous letter sent to Birmingham city council in 2013, that alleged a plot to take over and run local state schools according to strict Islamist principles.But this latest series skewers the art of narrative journalism Serial is widely considered to have pioneered. Long-form podcasts have more blockbuster potential than straight-up reporting, but are laced with danger: the temptation to cherry-pick facts in service of a gripping story. Continue reading...

Congresswoman has been a boon to progressive candidates in Texas while party grapples with rift in WashingtonHolding a gold microphone and wearing a seafoam-green pantsuit, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez energized the San Antonio crowd with her vision for flipping the state of Texas to Democratic control.“It will happen,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a rally earlier this month. “The only question is when, Texas.” Continue reading...

‘You’re a creep, bro,’ says New York congresswoman after Carlson attacked Ocasio-Cortez in Fox News segmentThe Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday night, claiming the US congresswoman was not a woman of colour.“She’s a rich entitled white lady,” he said. Continue reading...

Police in Florida share video of aircraft descending and crashing in incident which left two passengers injuredA helicopter crashed into the sea off Miami Beach on Saturday, a few feet away from swimmers in a crowded stretch popular with tourists, officials said.Two passengers were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, police said, adding that no one else appeared to be injured. Continue reading...

US agriculture department says safety is paramount after threat to inspectorThe avocado ban is toast. US officials announced on Friday that imports from Mexico had resumed, following a temporary ban that stemmed from a threat against an American agricultural inspector.The US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis) said avocado inspections in Michoacán, Mexico had restarted, allowing imports to follow. Continue reading...

Trump Organization has held discussions with Saudi-backed body, Washington Post reports

Company says it is not aware of any consumer complaints but lists 404 stores that might have sold contaminated food and drugsMore than 1,000 rodents were found inside a Family Dollar distribution facility in Arkansas, the US Food and Drug Administration said on Friday as the chain issued a voluntary recall on items purchased from hundreds of stores across the US south.A consumer complaint had prompted officials to inspect the West Memphis, Arkansas, facility in January, the FDA said. Continue reading...

Police tactics used against protesters following murder of George Floyd widely condemnedJose Garza ran for district attorney in Austin on promises to hold police accountable in the Texas capital. He got off to a fast start, charging at least seven officers during his first year on the job, including one charged with murder twice.But no cases have reached deeper into the police department than the indictments on Thursday of 19 officers on felony charges over tactics used during protests against racial injustice in 2020. Continue reading...

Members of Sackler family would contribute sum over 18 years under latest proposalMembers of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, are willing to kick in more money – up to $6bn in total – to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids as the company tries to work out a deal with state attorneys general who torpedoed an earlier settlement.The offer was detailed in a report filed on Friday in US bankruptcy court by a federal mediator who asked the court to let her have until the end of the month to broker a new settlement. Continue reading...

Congressman Mark Takano, whose family was forced into camps, calls for vigilance amid ‘nefarious nostalgia’Eighty years ago, as anti-Japanese fervor gripped the US, the parents and grandparents of the California congressman Mark Takano were among 120,000 Japanese Americans forcibly removed from their homes and sent to desolate camps scattered across the west.They were allowed to take only what they could carry. Everything else was sold, stored or left behind. Confined by barbed wire fences and armed military guards, their only offense was looking like the enemy. Continue reading...

Kryst, who died aged 30, called ‘a curriculum for how to be an attorney, how to be an advocate and how to be a human being’Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church in North Carolina on Friday night to celebrate the life of Cheslie Kryst, an attorney, former Miss USA and justice advocate who died last month, aged 30.“Cheslie … sowed many seeds through her work, her philanthropy, her advocacy, and most importantly, her genuine care for others,” said Kryst’s mother, April Simpkins, as reported by the Charlotte Observer.In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

While gizmos such as Apple’s AirTags are undeniably useful, they carry with them the danger of privacy abusesOnce upon a time, intensive surveillance was a prerogative of states. After the arrival of the internet, and especially the rise of companies such as Google and Facebook, ISPs (internet service providers) and mobile networks, it became a prerogative shared between the state and private companies – corporations that log everything you do online. Surveillance became a kind of public-private partnership. The companies do much of the work and readily cooperate with security agencies when they come armed with a warrant.Way back in 2009 the German Green politician Malte Spitz went to court to obtain the data that his mobile phone operator, Deutsche Telekom, held on him and then collaborated with the newspaper Die Zeit to analyse and visualise it. What emerged was a remarkably detailed timeline of his daily life, a timeline that would have been readily available to state authorities if they had come for it with appropriate legal authorisation. Continue reading...

There are different constellations in the Never Trump firmament and it’s unclear if they can uniteAs Joe Biden lurched from crisis to crisis with plummeting approval ratings, the Republican party seemed largely content to bury its internal differences and enjoy the show.But not for long. Continue reading...

The prince’s settlement with Virginia Giuffre leaves several loose ends, including whether more in the disgraced financier’s circle could be implicatedAfter news of Prince Andrew’s settlement with his accuser Virginia Giuffre, the question of who or what the tentacles of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking conspiracy will envelope next remains.New York attorneys believe it is unlikely any more will be said by the parties involved in Andrew’s case, assuming the senior British royal keeps to the agreed settlement. The letter that accompanied the court filing last week, agreed by both sides, was unusually explicit and calculated to the purpose of settling the matter for good. Continue reading...

Former model agency boss accused of rape and suspected of trafficking minors has died in prisonThe former boss of a French model agency accused of rape and under investigation on suspicion of supplying underage girls to the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in prison.The body of Jean-Luc Brunel, 75, was reportedly found hanging in his cell in the early hours of Saturday. The French prosecutors’ office confirmed the report and said an inquiry had been opened into the exact cause of death, but early indications pointed to suicide. Continue reading...

Celebrities look increasingly desperate when they turn their hands to reality TV genres to try to keep in the spotlightAnother week and the smell of another celebrity cooking show permeates the air. Gavin Rossdale, of 90s grunge-adjacent, arena-stuffing band Bush, is the latest star to turn to cookery, with Deadline reporting that he is to launch a cooking and entertainment show called E.A.T. In it, he will talk to celebrity guests, including Tom Jones, at his house in the Hollywood Hills, while designing, preparing and making them a three-course meal.He is part of a broader picture of celebrities widening their repertoires and his is not the first celebrity-to-chef shift of recent times. Those who follow such news will be familiar with Brooklyn Beckham’s move from photography to cookery, Cookin’ With Brooklyn, a social media series presumably conceived of as rhyme first, content later, in which Beckham describes making a sandwich, but confuses slices of bread with loaves. (Unless he really does put fish between two loaves of bread. Maybe that’s the twist.) Selena Gomez learns to cook on Selena + Chef, which is like a high-end version of that bit on Sunday Brunch where soap stars chuck flour in a bowl and pretend to enjoy baking. Sadly, Paris Hilton’s Netflix show, Cooking With Paris, has not been renewed for a second series, despite being a work of genuine high art. Continue reading...

Their divorce may be a private matter between the two of them but further normalizing the idea that persistent pursuit is romantic is harmful for everyoneI do not, as a rule, keep up with the Kardashians. And I try to pay as little attention as humanly possible to the erratic antics of Kim Kardashian’s ex Kanye West (who recently changed his name to Ye). But over the last couple of weeks I’ve made something of an exception to my “avoid losing braincells through exposure to Kimye drama at all costs” rule because Ye’s public behaviour has become increasingly disturbing. Even more disturbing, however, is the way his behaviour towards Kardashian is largely being treated as entertaining gossip by the media instead of being called out as harassment. While a handful of (mainly women-focused) media outlets, including Elle and Jezebel, have sounded alarm bells at the way Ye is acting, his behaviour is still being dangerously downplayed.Sending a truck filled with roses and emblazoned with the words “MY VISION IS KRYSTAL KLEAR” on its side to Kardashian’s house for Valentine’s Day.Posting what seems to be private correspondence from Davidson online.Encouraging his fans to scream “Kimye Forever” at Davidson if they see him in public.Leaking what appear to be private text messages from Kardashian on social media. He later acknowledged this “came off as harassing Kim” but then continued to rail at her online.Publicly accusing Kardashian of kidnapping their daughter Chicago after she threw her a birthday party and allegedly refused to tell him the address. He also turned up at the birthday party despite reportedly having agreed to host a separate event for Chicago.Arwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order Continue reading...