St Louis TV journalist’s quirky segment contemplating dreary winter cityscapes and broken umbrellas resurfaces every yearApril may be the cruelest month, but February straight up sucks. This is the “news” that was broken by local reporter Kevin Killeen of St Louis’s KMOX, in a 2016 video segment declaring February “an honest month” because it is one that “doesn’t hold up life any better than it really is”.The segment mixes Killeen’s straight-faced, deadpan local news delivery with an almost avant garde absurdity. At one point, Killeen stands atop a parking garage in St Louis, gesturing at the dark office buildings behind him and says, “Something great happened here but it’s over with.” In a voiceover describing images of the city’s downtown, he declares, “This looks like a place where people who are being punished are sent.” Continue reading...
Report says two-thirds of people would like shorter working hours and 60% would support pilotHair stylist Joel McCauley had seen too many colleagues burn out after a perpetual cycle of work, eat and sleep, so when he opened his own salon in Cardiff he was determined to do things differently.Staff at Slunks in Morgan Arcade now work a four-day week for no less pay than for working five days. They are happier, more productive and provide a better service, said McCauley. Continue reading...
I was taught our minds were the most important part of us – now so many have been captured and pollutedIn 1995, the celebrated Indian film-maker Saeed Mirza made a film called Naseem. Set in Agra, a town in Uttar Pradesh, between June and December 1992, it portrays the lead up to the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by rightwing Hindu organisations, led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The film’s titular character asks her grandfather why he did not go to Pakistan at the time of partition. He says: “Your grandmother loved the neem tree in the back yard.” In the middle of the partition riots of 1947, when thousands of Muslims were being massacred in India, as were Sikhs and Hindus in Pakistan, Naseem’s grandmother was so emotionally connected to the neem tree, to the mother Earth, that she would rather take the risk of being killed than leave.One hundred and twenty-five miles from Agra, in Delhi, my father, Haneef Hashmi, also refused to go to Pakistan during the riots. He was a student leader, a freedom fighter, and had spent years in the British jail. He refused to leave India, despite an attack on his family, because he believed in the idea of a diverse, democratic secular country, which was not formed on the basis of religion but on the principles of fraternity, equality and justice. Continue reading...
by Philip Oltermann in Berlin, Julian Borger in Washi on (#5W3ZR)
German chancellor is expected to talk about how to stabilise Ukraine’s economy as tensions rock global stock marketsThe German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will travel to Kyiv on Monday as western leaders voiced concerns of a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen at any moment, sending stock markets tumbling and the price of oil soaring.On the eve of his departure, Scholz said that any Russia attack would lead to “tough sanctions that we have carefully prepared and which we can immediately put into force”. Continue reading...
Two birthdays bring number of over-100s in Perdasdefogu to 10 in a population of 1,765Vittorio Lai, nicknamed Pistol, still drives and hunts wild boar, and on Saturday became the latest person in Perdasdefogu, a remote mountain town on the Italian island of Sardinia that set a world record for longevity, to celebrate his 100th birthday.He will be joined this week by another sprightly centenarian, Piuccia Lai (no relation), who has no qualms about hopping on a plane to visit her sons in Milan, bringing the total number of over-100s in the town to 10 among a population of 1,765. Continue reading...
by Written and read by Roy Cohen and produced by Hatt on (#5W3ZW)
At a summer camp for kids from conflict zones, I met my brave, funny friend Aseel. He was Palestinian. I was Israeli. When he was killed by police, my hope for our future died with him. By Roy Cohen• Read the text version here Continue reading...
Ambassador bridge linking Detroit and city of Windsor cleared of protesters, ending six-day standoffThe key Ambassador bridge trade link between Canada and the United States has reopened after police cleared the last Covid restriction protesters, ending a six-day blockade.Police moved in to clear and arrest the remaining protesters on the border bridge early on Sunday, trying to end one of the main demonstrations that have broken out across Canada against Covid-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions to bring the pandemic under control. Continue reading...
Some complain of ‘questionable’ words but the Times denies any changes to the gameWhat began as a daily slice of bliss is in danger of turning into something of a strain, some say.Some players of the viral word game Wordle have complained that it has become harder since it was bought by the New York Times late last month. Continue reading...
The film-maker behind bawdy comedy hits including Twins, Stripes and Kindergarten Cop, died at his home in California on SaturdayIvan Reitman, the influential film-maker and producer behind beloved comedies including Ghostbusters, Animal House and Twins, has died at the age of 75.Reitman died peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, California, his family told the Associated Press. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...
The supergroup of hip-hop and R&B legends delivered the most entertaining Super Bowl half-time show in yearsEven by Super Bowl standards, an event in which the mythologising is as much of a sport as the football, this has been a particularly hyped half-time show. Three weeks before the fact, the NFL released a four-minute trailer, a third as long as the performance itself, which saw Dr Dre, the most important producer in rap history, assemble a superhero cast of 90s hip-hop and R&B legends: Eminem, Mary J Blige and Snoop Dogg as well as Kendrick Lamar, the great west-coast hip-hop talent of his generation, who went to the same Compton high school as Dre.Yet, despite all that pomp, this felt like a different kind of half-time show, directorially and musically more inventive than the normal tropes of marching bands and fake fans on the pitch. There was more collaboration and smart interstitial set-pieces, all brought together by Anderson.Paak’s impressive live band. Just before it began, the NBC hosts whispered it might be the greatest Super Bowl half-time show ever – it wasn’t far off. Continue reading...
Front pages focus on the diplomatic efforts of Boris Johnson and Olaf Scholz amid warnings Russia could invade within daysFears that diplomatic efforts will fail to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine within days are writ large across most of today’s front pages, despite the latest talks announced by Boris Johnson and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.The Mirror carries an air of the inevitable with the headline “Countdown to war”, saying Vladimir Putin has continued to mass troops at the border and quoting No 10 saying there could be an invasion “at any moment”. Continue reading...
Plan proposes two ‘green freeports’ based around low-emission industriesUK ministers and the Scottish government have reached a deal over proposed freeports in Scotland, after months of disagreement over what No 10 has billed as one of the main economic benefits of Brexit.The Scottish government had resisted the idea of freeports – specific areas that offer tax breaks and other incentives to investors – which are intended to revitalise deprived areas but have been accused of encouraging tax avoidance and lower regulation. Continue reading...
Keir Starmer places Tories’ record on crime at heart of Labour’s local election campaignPriti Patel must shoulder some blame for the public’s plunging trust in the police in the wake of Cressida Dick’s resignation, her Labour counterpart said on Sunday.It comes as Keir Starmer placed the Tories’ record on crime at the heart of Labour’s local election campaign which launched just days after the Met commissioner’s departure, and as Boris Johnson faces possible fines for attending parties during lockdown. Continue reading...
Rape threats and racism feature in this alarming encounter with white nationalists who spread hate online while denying they’re fascists. Might this documentary do more harm than good?Nick J Fuentes, the 23-year-old founder of the America First Foundation, wants there to be no more immigration to the US. “White men founded this country. It wouldn’t exist without white men and white men are done being bullied … Genocide is being perpetrated against the white man.” He thinks women should stay in the home. “They have been convinced it’s dignified to abandon your children – literally out of their womb – and go work in an office, go work for a corporation. How sick is that?” He thinks they shouldn’t have the vote either, “but that’s probably not going to land soon”. Articulate, charismatic and convincing, he has built a substantial following, beginning with the online gaming community, and now, spreading outward from there, holds his own rallies. He also wants to be president.The most terrifying part of this opening episode of Louis Theroux’s new three-part documentary series, Forbidden America (BBC Two), is that by the end of it you can see no reason why he could not be. Theroux’s latest outing is – for all the compelling interviews that abound – really about the tentacular reach and spectacular, unprecedented power of the internet (alongside whatever else it has brought us); its ability to politicise, radicalise, give voice to would-be demagogues and hatemongers who would once have had their influence naturally curtailed by time and distance, encourage the worst in humanity and then unite people on that basis. Continue reading...
Les Républicains’ presidential choice promises crackdown after defections to Macron and rise in far-right’s pollingThe rightwing French presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse vowed to crack down on immigration as she held her first big rally on Sunday amid competition from the growing far right and defections from her party to the centrist leader Emmanuel Macron.“There is no sovereignty without borders,” Pécresse said on stage in Paris as more than 6,000 people waved French flags in support of the first female presidential candidate for Les Républicains, the traditional rightwing party of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Continue reading...
The true story of a Turkish-German mother’s fight to release her son from the notorious US detention camp gets an oddly pitched telling from director Andreas DresenIn December 2001, the US government was ramping up its “war on terror” and 19-year-old Murat Kurnaz was about to board a plane home from Pakistan to Germany, where the Turkish national had legal residency and lived with his parents in Bremen. Reportedly as a result of the Americans offering “bounties” for suspected terrorists, Kurnaz was arrested and detained in Guantánamo Bay without trial or evidence; he was only released in 2006, as a result of a passionate letter-writing campaign by his formidable mother, Rabiye, culminating in her lawyer taking their case to Washington DC and sensationally submitting a writ of habeas corpus in federal court: Murat Kurnaz v George W Bush.It is this harrowing true story to which German film-maker Andreas Dresen has given the Hollywoodised feelgood-underdog treatment, concentrating on Murat’s gutsy mum played – often for sentimental laughs – by German-Turkish comedian and TV personality Meltem Kaptan. Her lawyer, Bernhard Docke, is played by veteran Berlin actor Alexander Scheer, very much in the traditional style of the stressed, fallible but idealistic lawyer who gallantly takes up the impossible pro bono case (much like Albert Finney for Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich). Continue reading...
‘Risk of something going down like a mid-air collision, or a trigger-happy Russian or American, can really escalate things quickly’The unprecedented Russian military encirclement of Ukraine has not only brought closer the prospect of a devastating war in that country, it has also raised the risks of triggering an unintended wider conflict.The US and Nato have been adamant that their troops will not enter Ukraine no matter what happens, and the Pentagon has pulled out the 160 national guard soldiers who were acting as military advisers. Continue reading...
Hugo Torres, 73, was among 46 opposition figures jailed by Ortega last year to clear way for his re-electionA former Sandinista guerrilla who once led a raid that helped free Daniel Ortega from prison has died, eight months after the now-president jailed him and dozens of other Nicaraguan opposition leaders.Government prosecutors said Hugo Torres, 73, died at a hospital in Managua, the capital, “of illnesses he had”. It was unclear if his death was hastened by conditions in prison, according to a statement by government prosecutors. Continue reading...
Demonstrators against Covid-19 restrictions in France and the Netherlands staged protests on Saturday inspired by the 'freedom convoy' demonstrations in Canada. In France, police fired teargas at demonstrators on the Champs Élysées in Paris shortly after a convoy made it into the capital. Cars carrying protesters managed to get through police checkpoints in central Paris to snarl traffic around the Arc de Triomphe. Inspired by horn-blaring demonstrations in Canada, the motorists waved French flags and honked in defiance of a police order not to enter the city.A convoy of vehicles from across the Netherlands brought The Hague’s city centre to a standstill earlier in the day
Whatever happened to stumbling across the love of your life? The radical shift in coupledom created by dating appsHow do couples meet and fall in love in the 21st century? It is a question that sociologist Dr Marie Bergström has spent a long time pondering. “Online dating is changing the way we think about love,” she says. “One idea that has been really strong in the past – certainly in Hollywood movies – is that love is something you can bump into, unexpectedly, during a random encounter.” Another strong narrative is the idea that “love is blind, that a princess can fall in love with a peasant and love can cross social boundaries. But that is seriously challenged when you’re online dating, because it’s so obvious to everyone that you have search criteria. You’re not bumping into love – you’re searching for it.”Falling in love today tracks a different trajectory. “There is a third narrative about love – this idea that there’s someone out there for you, someone made for you, a soulmate,” says Bergström. “And you just need to find that person.” That idea is very compatible with online dating. “It pushes you to be proactive – to go and search for this person. You shouldn’t just sit at home and wait for this person.” Continue reading...
Family of teenager advised that one parent could sit in overspill room shared with alleged rapist’s familyThe parents of a schoolgirl who has accused a stranger of rape have been told by police that there is not enough space in a Nightingale court for them to attend the alleged attacker’s trial.Instead, the family of the teenager have been advised that only one of her parents should sit in an overspill room that would be shared with two members of the alleged rapist’s family. Continue reading...
More babies are born by C-section than ever, causing alarm at the WHO. But some believe the option should always be offered. So what are the risks and benefits?When Elizabeth Chloe Romanis first considered the ethics of chosen caesarean sections, she was listening to a radio programme her husband had sent her. The programme was about how some NHS trusts refused to give medically unnecessary C-sections to people who wanted them. “He sent it to me like: ‘Have you heard this?’ and obviously I got very annoyed,” says the biolaw researcher at Durham University.Someone phoned in and asked, why should the NHS offer the choice when childbirth is natural and surgery costs money? Irritated, Romanis thought someone from her field ought to argue for the right to choose. “So that’s what I did,” she says. Continue reading...
by Sam Jones in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain on (#5W3CH)
The unique Gladys Palmera archive may cross the Atlantic from Madrid to secure a permanent baseOn a hillside an hour from Madrid, not far from the sepulchral splendour of the Escorial monastery, with its royal tombs, imperial maps and sacred relics, lies another, rather less austere, treasure house.The Gladys Palmera collection, kept in a sprawling, tropical-hued complex crammed with 1950s Mexican film posters and prowled by the odd decorative monkey and jaguar, is the largest private archive of Latin American music in the world. Continue reading...
Patsy Stevenson says Cressida Dick presided over a force where misogyny and racism had thrivedA student whose photograph went viral after her arrest at a vigil following the murder of Sarah Everard said she “almost cried” when she heard Dame Cressida Dick had resigned as Metropolitan police commissioner.Patsy Stevenson was pinned to the ground at the vigil on 13 March at Clapham Common, south London, for Everard, who had been kidnapped while walking home before being raped and murdered by the serving Met officer Wayne Couzens. Continue reading...
The musical theatre star on her new tribute show to Stephen Sondheim, her unconventional upbringing, and her happiest song…Maria Friedman, 61, is a singer, actor and director who has a natural musicality (her parents were classical musicians) and knows how to get inside a song and make it her own – and ours – with emotional precision. An eight-time Olivier nominee (she has won the prize three times), she is known for her interpretations of Stephen Sondheim’s songbook, and is about to celebrate him and the composers Marvin Hamlisch and Michel Legrand in Legacy, a show at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. Friedman is married to the actor Adrian Der Gregorian and has two sons.Tell me about the first time you met Stephen Sondheim…
For increasing numbers of people finding ‘the one’ is no longer the ideal, and there are different, equally valid, ways to connectI have spent much of the past decade talking to people about love. I make it clear that any type of love is a welcome topic but when I ask what love is, my interviewees often shoot straight to romantic love. This is partly down to the inadequacy of our language: that small word has to do a lot of heavy lifting. But it is also because of the multibillion-pound industry that has convinced us the search for “the one” is the be-all and end-all. Mention love and that’s where we immediately go.But does this obsession with romantic love still reflect the lives we lead? In my new book, Why We Love: The New Science Behind our Closest Relationships, I have spoken to people from different backgrounds who have made me rethink our acceptance of romantic love as the dominant narrative. For some it is not a priority, for others it is a restrictive stereotype, while for others it can be a source of risk. As Valentine’s Day comes round again maybe it’s time for a different perspective. Continue reading...
Vets are no strangers to pressure, but Covid and the huge boom in pets means they have never been busier – or experienced so much stressBy the summer of 2020, veterinary practices were beginning to feel the effects of the pandemic pet boom. That was the time that Melanie, a small-animal vet from the southeast of England, realised she no longer wanted to be in the profession. The feeling left her at a loss. All she’d ever done was eat, breathe and sleep veterinary medicine. Like many vets she had been inspired since she was a child: religiously watching TV shows such as Animal Hospital and Vets in Practice, mucking out stables to embellish her university application and completing a five-year degree before finding work at a busy practice. It was a vocation, not a job: she simply loved animals. “Ever since I knew what a vet was, I wanted to be one,” she says. “I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to do that – until now.”But for Melanie, the pressure of lockdown was just the start. During the initial mayhem, practices were forced to work within strict Covid restrictions. Many team members were off sick, isolating or furloughed. Melanie worked three shifts on, three shifts off with a skeleton staff, clocking two hours’ overtime every evening out of a sense of duty. The busiest day in the practice calendar was usually Boxing Day. But between March and July 2020, says Melanie, every day felt as if it was Boxing Day “if the toilet was flooded and the lab was on fire”. Staff bounced from the reception to operations, from remote appointments to emergencies, shepherding animals in for treatment from the street while brushing off abuse from stressed-out owners who were unhappy about wearing masks, didn’t want to wait outside or refused to accept that they couldn’t receive a home visit to have their cat’s claws clipped. Continue reading...
Telegram posts show far-right groups ‘emboldened’ by physical attack on Labour leaderThe Metropolitan Police is investigating death threats against Keir Starmer made in the wake of Boris Johnson’s accusation that he “failed to prosecute” Jimmy Savile.A cache of evidence documenting the threats was sent to Scotland Yard on Friday afternoon, including a number of apparently identifiable users on the messaging app Telegram who called for the Labour party leader to be hung or “executed”. Continue reading...
Liza Minnelli gives a towering performance in a loose adaptation of the stage musical that broaches tough subject matter with deft easeCabaret opens with a Nazi getting kicked out of the Kit Kat Klub, a Berlin nightspot catering to the prurient whims of a well-heeled audience in 1931. It ends with the entire club populated by Nazis, as if it were under occupation. In between, the show goes on with minor changes to accommodate a different clientele, and the country, too, slips inexorably into darkness, engulfing characters who are powerless to stop it, even if they’re inclined to do so. It is an utterly bone-chilling movie musical, yet seductive, witty and delightful – an unbearable lightness of being.The contradictory tensions of Cabaret are managed with such deftness by director Bob Fosse that it remains, 50 years later, a rare film that feels like only one person could have pulled it off. How people continue to live their lives in the face of encroaching authoritarianism and violence is an endlessly renewable and relevant subject for movies, but Fosse choreographs the foreground and background of historic change with as much care as he brings to the song-and-dance at the Kit Kat Klub. “Leave your troubles outside,” beckons Joel Grey’s Master of Ceremonies to the audience in the opening number. Easier said than done. Continue reading...
The famously dogged political reporter has quit TV, but shows no signs of slowing down, having written a rollicking biography of Nigel Farage – and, surprisingly, taken up a role at the Daily Mail’s new project, Mail+It feels like an inversion of the natural order of things to be on Michael Crick’s doorstep. In almost 40 years as a political reporter Crick has made the kerbside ambush of his subjects, outsize furry microphone to hand, something of a personal art form. During his long stints as political editor of BBC’s Newsnight and as political correspondent at Channel 4 News it was said that there was no more alarming sentence for a government minister than “Michael Crick is waiting for you outside”. For a select few – Jeffrey Archer, Michael Heseltine, Michael Howard – those words have only been eclipsed for anxiety by “Michael Crick is writing your biography”.Crick’s house is a friendly double-fronted Edwardian terrace just off Clapham Common, south London. He bought it with his mother, Pat, 31 years ago, moved in with her for a while when his first marriage ended and since her death in 2010 has lived here with his partner, Lucy Hetherington (daughter of the former Guardian editor Alastair), and their daughter, who is now 15. He greets me grinning and a bit stir-crazy from 10 days of asymptomatic Covid quarantine, the itinerant gumshoe confined to quarters. We sit at opposite ends of a sofa in the bay window of a book-crammed through room. Crick, a boyish 63, is an obsessive collector not just of uncomfortable facts, but of much else besides. He has “just about” (said through gritted teeth) every Manchester United match day programme since the war. He also hoards political toby jugs. A lineup of the latter on his mantelpiece includes, prominently, the subject of his latest book, Nigel Farage, gurning in a spivvy suit and a gangster’s fedora. Continue reading...
by Emma Graham-Harrison and Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa on (#5W39W)
The blockade of Ottawa has sparked copycat action around the globe, and such disparate demonstrations of grievance may prove hard to shut downIt only took six dozen trucks, and a few hundred protesters to bring Canada’s capital to a standstill and close a critical border crossing with the US, throttling the car industry that straddles the line between both countries and relies on a constant flow of trade.On Saturday, Canadian authorities finally began taking action to clear the Ambassador Bridge into the US, the busiest land crossing in North America, which had been blockaded by just over a dozen trucks and smaller vehicles, and a crowd a few hundred strong. Continue reading...
Joint statement from US, Japan and South Korea urges Pyongyang to return to negotiations and stop its recent spate of ‘destabilising’ missile launchesThe top diplomats of Japan, South Korea and the United States declared their unity against North Korea on Saturday after a series of ballistic missile launches by Pyongyang.After a day of meetings in Honolulu, US secretary of state Antony Blinken, South Korean foreign minister Chung Eui-yong, and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa condemned the series of seven launches as “destabilising” in a joint statement. Continue reading...
Former model Jack Guinness caught up in furore over Mississippi mayor’s attempt to withhold funding for library until ‘homosexual materials’ are withdrawnA British writer, presenter and former model says he is shocked to find himself at the centre of an unprecedented wave of book banning in the US.A Mississippi mayor has told the Madison County Library to remove LGBTQ+ books from its shelves or lose funding. One of the books singled out as an example was The Queer Bible, a collection of LGBTQ+ history essays edited by Jack Guinness. Ridgeland’s Republican mayor, Gene McGee, has refused to release funds to the library until “homosexual materials” are withdrawn. Continue reading...
by Nicola Slawson (now); Lucy Campbell and Jem Bartho on (#5W2RS)
US president and Russia’s leader make call after Macron tells Putin sincere negotiations are incompatible with an escalation in tensions; UK troops training Ukrainian army to leave this weekend
Emergency services at scene of partial building collapse in Hackney Wick, east LondonSeven people have been rescued from the Two More Years bar in east London, and a number of people have been treated at the scene and taken to hospital after a mezzanine floor collapsed at the venue.Emergency services are dealing with the incident. London fire brigade (LFB) said firefighters were called to a ceiling collapse at a pub in Roach Road, Hackney Wick. Continue reading...
As Australia slips down in global rankings, maths experts are divided on which teaching method is best for studentsAustralia’s sliding mathematics ranking and disagreements around how the subject should be taught remain key sticking points preventing a consensus on the proposed national curriculum.The nation’s eduction ministers met earlier this month to discuss the proposed curriculum and almost reached a consensus, but while most of the state and territories were happy with the latest revisions, the federal and Western Australian education ministers held out. Continue reading...
Hour long call between US and Russian presidents widely seen as last-ditch attempt to stop invasion of UkraineJoe Biden and Vladimir Putin talked by phone for over an hour on Saturday in what is widely seen as a last-ditch effort to fend off a Russian invasion of Ukraine which the US has warned could start as early as Wednesday.The call brought “no fundamental change” to the worsening crisis according to a senior US official, briefing reporters. The official said two leaders agreed to stay engaged in the coming days “but Russia may decide to proceed with military action anyway,” adding there was no evidence of “meaningful” de-escalation on the Ukrainian border. Continue reading...
by Owen Bowcott and Bruno Rinvolucri on the Chagos Is on (#5W30R)
Fifty years since they were deported to Mauritius by the UK, Chagossians are still fighting for their homelandReturning to their birthplace after decades of enforced exile, five Chagossians leapt from a motor launch on to the palm-shaded beach of Peros Banhos atoll on Saturday afternoon, kissed the pale sand and stood – hands joined together – in thanksgiving prayers.For Olivier Bancoult, Lisbey Elyse, Marie Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert, it was the moment they had long anticipated – the first time they could step ashore without close monitoring by British officials. Continue reading...
by Owen Bowcott & Bruno Rinvolucri on the Chagos on (#5W30T)
Fifty years after the UK forcibly deported them, five Chagossians have visited the disputed archipelago with Mauritius’s helpReturning to their birthplace after decades of enforced exile, five Chagossians leapt from a motor launch on to the palm-shaded beach of Peros Banhos atoll on Saturday afternoon, kissed the sand and stood – hands joined together – in prayer.For Olivier Bancoult, Lisbey Elyse, Marie Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert, it was the moment they had long anticipated – the first time they could step ashore without close close monitoring by British officials. It is 50 years since they were forcibly deported to Mauritius by the UK, which cleared the archipelago of its entire population to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia. Continue reading...
The massive military buildup could be a bluff, or a political ploy designed for a Russian audience. Either way, the US is digging inRussian spokespeople daily deny any intention to invade. So, too, did Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, when he met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, last week, and when he spoke to US president Joe Biden on the phone. There are two problems with this. First, given Putin’s Johnsonian relationship with truth, few western governments believe the denials. Second, Putin has not explained why, if his intentions are peaceful, more than half of Russia’s armed forces, including 130,000 troops, are massed on Ukraine’s borders. It could all be a bluff. But who would bet the house on that? Continue reading...
Ukrainians rallied in Kyiv on Saturday to show unity as international warnings of a Russian invasion sharpened.Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told people not to panic, but more than 100,000 Russian troops are positioned near Ukraine and have carried out large-scale exercises, increasing tensions.The US said on Friday an invasion could start at any moment, but Russia denied having any plans to launch one.
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