AP News
Russian airstrike hits Ukraine maternity hospital, 17 reported hurt
A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the besieged port city of Mariupol amid growing warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn. Ukrainian officials said the attack wounded at least 17 people.
The ground shook more than a mile away when the Mariupol complex was hit by a series of blasts that blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building. Police and soldiers rushed to the scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher as light snow drifted down on burning and mangled cars and trees shattered by the blast.
Another woman wailed as she clutched her child. In the courtyard, a blast crater extended at least two stories deep.
Deutsche Welle
Ukraine: Women giving birth in basements and bunkers
It was late February when Kyiv local Svetlana Lukash started going into labor. Despite air raid sirens blaring, and a city-wide curfew, Lukash was taken to a maternity ward. The pregnant woman, in danger of experiencing complications during childbirth, did not want to take any unnecessary risks.
"You cannot give birth at home, on your sofa, when there could be complications," she told DW. "Once we arrived at hospital, we were taken to the basement."
Russia's war on Ukraine has seen it launch scores of rockets and drop countless bombs on cities, forcing pregnant woman to seek shelter and give birth in hospital basements. While unsuited for such purposes, such places are much safer than delivery rooms that could be hit by Russian fire.
EuroNews
Ukraine war: Attacks on hospitals and ambulances 'increasing rapidly', says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ukraine's health system is under "severe pressure" amid the war with Russia.
The head of the WHO's Europe office says the number of attacks on hospitals and ambulances in Ukraine have increased rapidly in recent days. Dr Hans Kluge told reporters that it had confirmed 16 separate attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities since 24 February. […]
The UN body has also warned that Ukraine is running short of vital medical supplies but has “remarkably” maintained its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NBC News
U.S. warns Russia could use chemical weapons in false-flag operation in Ukraine
U.S. officials say they are concerned Russia could be preparing to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine after the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of possibly planning a false-flag chemical weapon attack.
An administration official said the U.S. is worried that the Russians are making the claim “to justify a false-flag operation or them using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine themselves.”
“We do believe that we should be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons,” the official said. The U.S. is also concerned that Russia could be making the claim to justify its continued invasion of Ukraine.
San Francisco Chronicle
Silicon Valley tech worker was the Ukrainian mom lying dead on street in brutal photo that sparked outrage
A Silicon Valley employee and her children are the subjects of photos so devastating that they shocked the world: a Ukrainian family lying dead on the pavement, killed by Russian mortar fire while trying to flee the conflict.
The images of Ukrainian soldiers tending to the bloodied bodies of a woman, her teenage son and young daughter, and their friend ran on the front page of the New York Times this week, along with online videos of the unprovoked attack on civilians. They stirred international outrage and a pledge from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to punish the perpetrators. “There will be no quiet place on Earth for you,” Zelenskyy said. “Except for the grave.”
Palo Alto startup SE Ranking confirmed Wednesday that the photo depicts its chief accountant, Tatiana Perebeinis, 43, along with her daughter, Alise, 9, and son, Nikita, 18, who were killed by Russian forces as they tried to flee the town of Irpin, a suburb about 15 minutes from Kyiv. They had just dashed across a partially destroyed bridge over the Irpin River into Kyiv when a mortar hit.
The New York Times
They Died by a Bridge in Ukraine. This Is Their Story.
[…] Serhiy and Tetiana Perebyinis owned a Chevrolet minivan. They shared a country home with friends, and Ms. Perebyinis was a dedicated gardener and an avid skier. She had just returned from a ski trip to Georgia.
And then, late last month, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the fighting quickly moved toward Kyiv. It wasn’t long before artillery shells were crashing into their neighborhood. One night, a shell hit their building, prompting Ms. Perebyinis and the children to move to the basement. Finally, with her husband away in eastern Ukraine tending to his ailing mother, Ms. Perebyinis decided it was time to take her children and run.
They didn’t make it. Ms. Perebyinis, 43, and her two children, Mykyta, 18, and Alisa, 9, along with a church volunteer who was helping them, Anatoly Berezhnyi, 26, were killed on Sunday as they dashed across the concrete remnants of a damaged bridge in their town of Irpin, trying to evacuate to Kyiv.
Their luggage — a blue roller suitcase, a gray suitcase and some backpacks — was scattered near their bodies, along with a green carrying case for a small dog that was barking.
They were four people among the many who tried to cross that bridge last weekend, but their deaths resonated far beyond their Ukrainian suburb. A photograph of the family and Mr. Berezhnyi lying bloodied and motionless, taken by a New York Times photographer, Lynsey Addario, encapsulates the indiscriminate slaughter by an invading Russian army that has increasingly targeted heavily populated civilian areas.
NPR News
More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine, 12 days after Russia invaded
More than 2 million Ukrainians have fled their country in the 12 days since Russia began its invasion, according to a tracker from the U.N. refugee agency.
It took a single week for the number of refugees to reach 1 million, on Thursday. That number has increased exponentially, as Russian forces have amped up their shelling of critical and civilian infrastructure.
The 2 million refugees, who are mostly women and children, represent about 4% of Ukraine's population. At least half of them are children, according to UNICEF. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that some 4 million Ukrainians could flee their homeland as the crisis unfolds.
France24
US turns to old foe Maduro to help shut off Russia’s oil revenues
Venezuela released two jailed US citizens on Tuesday in an apparent goodwill gesture toward the Biden administration, which has reached out to the regime of Nicolas Maduro as it looks for help in shutting off Russia’s oil revenues amid the war in Ukraine.
CNN
Why the US rejected Poland’s plan to send fighter jets to Ukraine
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it is bluntly opposed to a Polish plan to provide fighter jets to Ukraine.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Polish minister of defense that the US does not support the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets to the Ukrainian air force “at this time,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said, either by Poland transferring them to Ukraine with the US backfilling Poland’s fleet or by Poland transferring the MiG-29s to the US to then give to Ukraine.
Austin “stressed that we do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian air force at this time, and therefore have no desire to see them in our custody either,” Kirby said.
BBC News
Kamala Harris heads to Poland amid Nato fighter jet rift
US Vice-President Kamala Harris has begun her trip to Poland and Romania, giving her a chance to negotiate directly with Polish leaders on the issue of fighter jet transfers to Ukraine.
The topic has exposed disagreements within the Nato alliance. On Tuesday, Poland's offer to provide the US with MiG-29 fighter jets as an intermediary step toward transferring them to Ukraine was rejected as "not tenable" by American officials.
On Wednesday afternoon, US Defence Department spokesman John Kirby was even more definitive, saying such a transfer presented a "high risk" of a Russian response that leads to a military escalation with Nato.
Nikkei Asia
China signals shift on Ukraine as Russia accused of atrocities
China appears to be shifting its tone on the war in Ukraine, as Beijing counts the costs of defending a Russian ally accused of war crimes and braces for the economic fallout from Western-led sanctions…
President Xi Jinping told his French and German counterparts that Beijing was ready to work with the international community to "prevent the tense situation from escalating, or even running out of control," in his strongest comments yet on the two-week-old invasion… Xi also called for "maximum restraint to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis," as the number of civilian casualties mount, including children. […]
Xi… also used the term "war" for the first time, according to an English statement issued by the foreign affairs ministry, after Chinese officials had earlier stuck to Russia's description of the offensive as a "special military operation."
South China Morning Post
Chinese critics of Russian attack on Ukraine frightened to speak out
[…] Although many people have posted their views on the conflict on China’s vast – but heavily censored – social media platforms, Fang Kecheng, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a former journalist with Guangzhou-based liberal newspaper Southern Weekly, warned not to read too much into those messages.
“Academic studies have found that only 1 per cent of the users would actively post on social media platforms. And in this specific context, I believe those who are more hawkish and chauvinistic people are much more likely to post than others.
“Also, the government is actively censoring posts that are overtly critical of Russia. So we should be very cautious in drawing any conclusion from Weibo data,” he said.
“I do believe that there is a strong pro-Russia view on Weibo. The most important reason is that many are buying into the official narrative that Nato and the US have pushed Russia into starting the war, and that if China does not support Russia, Nato will become a threat to China.
ABC News
End of the line for congressional funding to fight COVID-19
This could be the end of the line for congressional funding to fight COVID-19.
What started a month ago as a $30 billion request from the White House to prepare for the next phase of the pandemic has been slashed, reduced and fallen apart on Capitol Hill.
The end result Wednesday was a $15.6 billion package prepared by House Democrats that has almost no chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans have indicated they are unwilling to provide more money without cuts elsewhere or a full accounting from the Biden administration of already-approved virus funding.
That means it's highly likely no new federal money will be readily approved to fight COVID as the pandemic moves to what many officials are now calling the endemic stage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the turn of events “heartbreaking.”
The Washington Post
For Jackson, path to the Supreme Court is paved with smiles and small talk
[…] Inside the robin-egg-blue walls of Sen. Susan M. Collins’s private office Tuesday, a ritual exertion of Washington power unfolded as Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson visited the Maine Republican for a closed-door confab. […]
“I have a nice notebook of the issues that I’m going to raise, and I really appreciate the opportunity to sit down with the judge,” Collins said. “We’ll see how things go.”
Nothing so encapsulates the finely choreographed nature of the modern Supreme Court confirmation process as the round-robin of senatorial interviews — a weeks-long process where the nominee clomps through Capitol Hill hallways with an entourage of Secret Service agents and White House aides, gripping and grinning with the lawmakers who hold the confirmation in their hands.
Los Angeles Times
Judge rules against Trump lawyer John Eastman in dispute with Jan. 6 investigators
A federal judge on Wednesday handed an incremental victory to the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection in a case involving California attorney John Eastman. […]
Eastman sued to block release of [emails sent or received by Eastman from Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, 2021], which are housed on the server of Chapman University in Orange, which was Eastman’s employer at the time. He argued that they’re protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege and related legal rules.
The judge rejected that blanket claim.
“After reading the emails, the Court will determine for each document whether any privilege existed, whether that privilege was waived, and whether any exceptions apply,” wrote U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is based in Santa Ana.
“Ultimately, the Court will issue a written decision including its full analysis and its final determination of which, if any, documents must be disclosed to the Select Committee.”
Reuters
U.S. judge dismisses claims that congressman incited Capitol riots
A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed civil claims against Republican Representative Mo Brooks alleging he helped incite supporters of … Donald Trump's to attack the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, saying Brooks' speech to the crowd was constitutionally protected free speech.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta represents a setback for U.S. House of Representatives Democrats, including Eric Swalwell, who last year filed the lawsuit against Trump and his allies alleging they encouraged the crowd to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress met to formally certify Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory over Trump.
Mehta in February had dismissed claims against several of Brooks' co-defendants, including former Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani and Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. But in that ruling, Mehta said he would allow the plaintiffs to continue to pursue their claims against the former president
USA Today
Republican National Committee sues House panel investigating Jan. 6 to block subpoena for donor, supporter info
The Republican National Committee filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday aiming to block a subpoena for documents about the party’s donors and supporters by the House committee investigating the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021.
Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the panel’s subpoenas. The subpoenas and the committee’s authority to issue them have been upheld in the U.S. District and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But the RNC lawsuit adds a political angle by arguing that the Democratic House and its investigative panel are seeking valuable, confidential information about party donors, volunteers and other supporters. The lawsuit named House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the nine members of the committee as defendants.
Politico
Republican Party pushes for an ‘earthquake in American electoral power’
A legal argument lurking in two Supreme Court cases could give Republican legislators in battleground states sweeping control over election procedures, with ramifications that could include power over how states select presidential electors. […]
At least four justices embraced the “independent legislature” theory to some degree, which would consolidate power over election administration in key states with GOP-dominated state legislatures, from the ability to draw district lines unchallenged to passing new restrictions on voting. Taken to its extreme, some proponents of the theory argue it would give legislators power to override the choice of presidential electors after voting in their states. […]
The theory has its roots in the most famous elections-related Supreme Court case this millenium: Bush v. Gore, along with a related ruling. Then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist argued in a concurring opinion that, under Article II of the Constitution, state legislatures had near-unchallengeable authority to decide how presidential electors were appointed, and he wrote that federal courts may need to step in to make sure “that post-election state court actions do not frustrate the legislative desire.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia elections bill backs ballot inspections and GBI investigations
Georgia Republicans introduced a broad elections bill Wednesday that would enable public ballot inspections, restrict nonprofit funding and empower the GBI to investigate fraud allegations.
The proposals are the next wave of attempts to change election rules following Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in 2020 over Republican Donald Trump. Last year, the General Assembly passed an expansive bill that limited drop boxes, required more ID for absentee voting and allowed state takeovers of local election boards.
This year’s legislation focuses more on how the government runs elections than on voter access. […]
Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams, said the legislation would empower endless ballot inspections by supporters of losing candidates and burden election officials by cutting outside funding.
The Denver Post
Grand jury indicts Mesa County clerk Tina Peters and deputy clerk in election system breach investigation
A Mesa County grand jury returned 10 criminal counts against Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and six counts against Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley in its investigation over a potential election equipment security breach.
The grand jury was empaneled at the end of January to investigate the election equipment tampering and official misconduct allegations and returned its findings Tuesday evening.
Peters, a Republican who launched a bid for secretary of state, has been charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and identity theft, all felonies, according to the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office. She is also charged with first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state, all misdemeanors.
The Oregonian
Oregon Republican chair resigns, citing those in his party as ‘greater evil than the Democrats’
Dallas Heard, chair of the Oregon Republican Party, has resigned, citing “evil” inside the party he leads. Heard, who is also a state senator from Myrtle Creek, wrote a blistering letter to inform the party of his decision.
“My physical and spiritual health can no longer survive exposure to the toxicity that can be found in this community,” wrote Heard. “We truly have an equal if not greater evil than the Democrats walking among us.” […]
“The endless slander, gossip, conspiracies, sabotage, lies, hatred, pointless criticism, blocking of ideas, and mutiny brought against my administration has done what I once never thought possible, They have broken my spirit. I can face the Democrats with courage and conviction, but I can’t fight my own people too,” Heard wrote.
The Seattle Times
Rep. Jayapal, other lawmakers accuse Amazon of obstructing antitrust investigation
[…] In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland sent Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, and other members of the Judiciary Committee accused Amazon of obstructing its 16-month antitrust investigation by refusing to turn over information and lying about how the company treats third-party sellers on its platform.
The committee members say Amazon told Congress it does not use the data it collects from third-party sellers to make its own pricing decisions, but an investigation and several reports over the last few years allege Amazon had looked at data about what other companies were selling on the platform. […]
Lying to members of Congress and using another company’s data to gain a competitive edge hurts Washington residents who shop on Amazon or run businesses that compete with the company for customers, Jayapal said.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Walz joins other governors in calling for suspension of federal gas tax
Gov. Tim Walz joined five other Democratic governors this week to call on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax amid soaring prices at the pump and Russia's assault on Ukraine.
"At a time when people are directly impacted by rising prices on everyday goods, a federal gas tax holiday is a tool in the toolbox to reduce costs for Americans," the governors wrote in a letter Tuesday to congressional leaders in support of legislation dubbed the Gas Prices Relief Act. […]
Walz was joined by the governors of Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.
Toronto Star
Police seized digital wallets as lawsuit seeks millions from Ottawa protest organizers
An Ottawa man who helped raise funds for the so-called “Freedom Convoy” says police searched his home and seized his digital wallets as part of a criminal investigation into alleged money laundering, according to documents tied to a proposed class-action lawsuit.
The revelation comes amid an ongoing legal fight over millions of dollars raised for the convoy protesters, as downtown Ottawa residents, workers and businesses seek more than $300 million in damages from organizers of the demonstration that occupied the streets around Parliament Hill for more than three weeks.
A Crown lawyer also revealed Wednesday that the provincial government will attempt to seize almost $1.4 million in donations held in a frozen account of convoy co-organizer Tamara Lich.
The Guardian
‘We need bread’: fears in Middle East as Ukraine war hits wheat imports
Concerns are growing across the Middle East and north Africa that the war in Ukraine will send prices of staple foods soaring as wheat supplies are hit, potentially fuelling unrest. Russia and Ukraine supply a quarter of the world’s wheat exports, while Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat.
In Tunisia, like many people queueing for bread in Tunis’s sprawling medina, or old town, Khmaes Ammani, a day labourer, said the rising cost of living was leaving him squeezed. “There’s never any money at the end of the month,” he said. “I even have to borrow some. Everything is getting more expensive.”
Nearly half of Tunisia’s wheat imports come from Ukraine, and the Russian invasion has sent prices to a 14-year high. Even though the Tunisian state controls the price of bread, people fear they will inevitably feel the crunch.
Al Jazeera
Iraqis protest rise in food prices, officials blame Ukraine war
Protests have erupted in Iraq’s impoverished south over a rise in food prices that officials attributed to the conflict in Ukraine.
For about a week, the price of cooking oils and flour have skyrocketed in local markets as government officials have sought to address growing anger with various statements and measures.
More than 500 protesters gathered on Wednesday in a central square in the southern city of Nasiriya – a flashpoint of anti-corruption protests that gripped the country in 2019.
“The rise in prices is strangling us, whether it is bread or other food products,” retired teacher Hassan Kazem told AFP news agency. “We can barely make ends meet.”
Bloomberg
As War Spurs Race for Wheat, World Has Limited Room to Grow More
[…] Russia’s war in Ukraine has effectively choked off over 25% of the world’s supply of a grain used in everything from bread to noodles to livestock feed. This puts the market on track for the “sharpest shock” since the Great Grain Robbery in the 1970s, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The prices are speeding up food inflation and raising concerns for countries reliant on foreign supply. […]
Another reason most countries have limited ability to boost wheat acres is that the crop has largely been planted across the Northern Hemisphere. There’s some spring wheat, but Europe and the U.S. primarily grow winter wheat, which was all seeded back in the autumn, making it too late to change the area now. […]
In Australia, where farmers harvested a bumper crop last year, any increase in acreage would be marginal… So far, China has been scooping up Australian wheat, with exports in 2022 already outstripping orders made during the whole of last year.
Africa News
Kenya moves to regulate Boda Boda motorcycle operators
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered on Tuesday the most severe and a census of motorcycle cabs across the country, after the scandal caused by the video of a young woman assaulted by several of them.
In the video, which has gone viral on social networks, a young woman is seen screaming at the wheel of her open car, as she is assaulted and partially stripped by motorcycle cab drivers, apparently after a traffic accident.
On Tuesday morning, police announced that they had conducted an operation against motorcycle cabs in the capital Nairobi, resulting in more than 200 arrests.
Mongabay
Study finds major brands selling cat food that contain protected sharks
Shark meat from vulnerable species is being processed into cat food for major brands, according to a new study.
Researchers from the National University of Singapore used DNA barcoding technology to analyze 144 samples from 45 cat food products that were produced by 16 different brands in Thailand and sold in Singapore. They found that 31% of the samples contained shark meat. […]
However, none of the cat food products were accurately labeled as containing shark meat. Instead, they used generic terms like “ocean fish,” “white fish” and “white bait,” the researchers said.
Leading brands such as Fancy Feast, Whiskas, and Sheba were among those found to contain shark meat, including CITES-protected silky sharks.
The Verge
Shipwreck Endurance Is Still ‘bold and Beautiful’ after a Century in Antarctic Waters
The wreck of one of the world’s most legendary exploring ships was just found in icy waters off Antarctica — and the pictures from the expedition are incredible.
The discovery comes more than 100 years after the ship Endurance was crushed by sea ice, leaving explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew to find an alternate (and brutal) route home. The ship’s final resting place was discovered by the expedition Endurance22, which used high-tech underwater search vehicles to find and document the wreck.
“In a long career of surveying and excavating historic shipwrecks, I have never seen one as bold and beautiful as this,” Mensun Bound, the expedition’s director of exploration, wrote in a blog post.
The Atlantic
On Top of Everything Else, Nuclear War Would Be a Climate Problem
[…] Energy is not the only domain that has a direct bearing on whether we have a livable climate or not. So does foreign policy—specifically, nuclear war. […]
If you are worried about rapid, catastrophic changes to the planet’s climate, then you must be worried about nuclear war. That is because, on top of killing tens of millions of people, even a relatively “minor” exchange of nuclear weapons would wreck the planet’s climate in enormous and long-lasting ways.
Consider a one-megaton nuke, reportedly the size of a warhead on a modern Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. […]
All this carbon would transform the climate, shielding it from the sun’s heat. Within months, the planet’s average temperature would fall by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit; some amount of this cooling would persist for more than a decade. But far from reversing climate change, this cooling would be destabilizing. It would reduce global precipitation by about 10 percent, inducing global drought conditions. In parts of North America and Europe, the growing season would shorten by 10 to 20 days.
This would prompt a global food crisis the world hasn’t seen in modern times.
Ars Technica
The secret US mission to bolster Ukraine’s cyber defenses ahead of Russia’s invasion
Months before the Russian invasion, a team of Americans fanned out across Ukraine looking for a very specific kind of threat.
Some team members were soldiers with the US Army’s Cyber Command. Others were civilian contractors and some employees of American companies that help defend critical infrastructure from the kind of cyber attacks that Russian agencies had inflicted upon Ukraine for years.
The US had been helping Ukraine bolster its cyber defenses for years, ever since an infamous 2015 attack on its power grid left part of Kyiv without electricity for hours.
But this surge of US personnel in October and November was different: it was in preparation of impending war. People familiar with the operation described an urgency in the hunt for hidden malware, the kind Russia could have planted, then left dormant in preparation to launch a devastating cyber attack alongside a more conventional ground invasion.