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The United States and its allies are increasing sanctions against Russia in response to the Ukraine crisis

Ukranian service members
At a training area in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Ukrainian army men participate in tactical manoeuvres.

MOSCOW/DONETSK/WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the US and its allies attempted to increase sanctions against Russia over the deployment of soldiers in separatist areas of eastern Ukraine, in one of Europe’s biggest security crises in decades.

According to the Ukrainian military, pro-Russian separatists over the preceding 24 hours, used heavy artillery, mortar bombs, and Grad rocket systems to bombard the two separate districts, killing one soldier and wounding six others.

According to US estimates, Russian President Vladimir Putin has gathered more than 150,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders and issued a decree authorizing the deployment of troops in the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk enclaves to “maintain the peace” – a reason the US calls “nonsense.”

Putin recognized separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that border Russia on Monday, heightening Western worries of a catastrophic European conflict by increasing the potential of a full-scale invasion beyond the breakaway territories.

The US, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Japan retaliated with measures to target banks and the wealthy, while Germany halted a major gas pipeline project from Russia.

On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced more penalties, including a ban on Russia selling national debt in London.

Truss told Sky, “We’ve been quite clear that we’re going to limit Russian access to British markets.” “We’re going to put a halt to the Russian government issuing sovereign debt in the UK.”

Three billionaires with strong ties to Putin and five minor lenders, including Promsvyazbank, were sanctioned by the United Kingdom on Tuesday. But, like other US allies, it has warned that if Russia invades its neighbor, further sanctions would be imposed.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, dismissed the possibility of penalties on Tuesday.

“Our European, American, and British friends will not stop or relax until they have exhausted all of their options for so-called Russian retribution,” he warned. According to a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, sanctions are never the best method to address problems. “Dialogue and consultation,” she said.

Moscow is demanding security assurances, including a guarantee that Ukraine would never join NATO, while the US and its allies are offering Putin confidence-building and arms-control measures to help calm the crisis.

According to US firm Maxar, satellite footage over the previous 24 hours reveals multiple additional military and equipment deployments in western Russia, as well as more than 100 vehicles at a tiny airstrip in southern Belarus, which borders Ukraine. According to the armed forces, following President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s directive, Ukraine has begun conscripting reservists aged 18 to 60.

As weeks of frenzied diplomacy failed to settle the problem, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian both canceled separate talks with Lavrov on Tuesday.

According to a US official, plans revealed by US President Joe Biden to strengthen Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania involve sending 800 infantry personnel and up to eight F-35 fighter planes to positions around NATO’s eastern border, although these are redistributions rather than increases.

 

Putin dispatches troops to eastern Ukraine, prompting outrage at a United Nations emergency conference

president Valdimir Putin
In the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a document recognising rebel territories in eastern Ukraine's independence.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent soldiers into Ukraine, only hours after recognising the independence of two Moscow-backed separatist regions in the country’s east.

The decision is likely to be perceived as yet another escalation in the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, coming on a day when emotions were already high after Putin announced the formal recognition of the two territories and made a lengthy address about the two countries’ relationship.

In both places, Putin characterised the troop movement as a “peacekeeping” endeavour. His recognition of both regions was viewed by the United States and its European allies as a major provocation and a justification to attack Ukraine, prompting the United States and the European Union to issue sanctions against both areas.

Many analysts predicted that Moscow’s formal recognition would essentially derail a previous cease-fire deal that some Western allies hoped would give a way out of the conflict.

Putin portrayed Ukraine as a historical part of Russia that was illegitimately stolen from Moscow and is now administered by a “puppet regime” controlled by the US and the West in a wide-ranging televised speech Monday evening.

“Ukraine is more than simply a neighbour. They are a part of our way of life “he stated

He cautioned Kyiv, noting that Ukraine had removed several of its Soviet-era statues: “Do you want to be decommunized? We’ll demonstrate what it’s like.”

He then signed a document legally recognising the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, both of which have been under Russian-backed rebel rule since 2014.

Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, the rulers of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, were present.

Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated unambiguously that Putin’s actions violate his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He believes it might signal a unilateral departure from the Minsk agreements, which aimed to end the conflict in the Donbas area.

“The Russian Federation’s political leadership bears full responsibility for the repercussions of these actions,” Zelenskyy said in a speech late Monday.

Later in the speech, Putin declared, “We are not frightened of anything or anybody,” referring to Russia’s position in Donbas since 2014.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, spoke out against Putin’s conduct at an emergency Security Council meeting late Monday. “He wants to show that by using force, he can make the United Nations a joke,” she explained.

“Putin wants the world to go back in time,” she continued, “to a time before the United Nations, to a time when empires dominated the world.” “Russia believes it is the year 1919. It isn’t the case. It is 2022.” “Russia has led us to the verge,” Barbara Woodward, the United Kingdom’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said during the conference. We implore Russia to take a step back.”

Late Monday, the US State Department announced that troops in Lviv, western Ukraine, will spend the night in Poland to ensure their safety.

With solar-powered cribs, this Nigerian tech business is combating newborn jaundice

crib-a-glow-nigeria-jaundice-pho
Crib A'Glow is solar-powered and folds flat for simple transportation.

Virtue Oboro went through every mother’s worst fear in 2015, when her newborn baby was sent to the hospital for emergency care at the age of 48 hours.

Tombra, her son, was diagnosed with jaundice, a disorder that affects more than 60% of infants globally. Many cases are minor and go away on their own, but more serious cases need phototherapy, which involves exposing newborns to blue light.

It’s a simple, successful therapy, but access to the essential equipment isn’t always feasible in some locations, including Oboro’s native nation of Nigeria. Failure to seek treatment might result in permanent health issues such as hearing loss, visual impairment, brain damage, and cerebral palsy.

Tombra’s health was critical, but there were no phototherapy devices accessible, so his family had to wait four hours as his condition worsened.

He was eventually given an emergency blood transfusion, a dangerous procedure that bought him some time until a phototherapy device could be found. During Tombra’s seven-day therapy, Oboro claims she had to buy the bulb herself, and power interruptions caused the unit to be turned off for many hours.

Despite the several challenges, her kid, who is now six years old, has made a full recovery. However, Oboro claims that the experience was traumatic, prompting her to change jobs.

She designed the Crib A’Glow as part of a new mission to save newborns from jaundice. It’s a portable, cheap, solar-powered phototherapy machine that uses blue LED lights to cure jaundice.

“I felt that some of the things (I went through) could have been avoided, or the degree of stress could have been decreased,” she adds. “I wondered if there was anything I could do to alleviate the anguish for the newborns and moms.”

Bilirubin, a yellow chemical formed when red blood cells break down, builds up in the blood, causing jaundice. The liver normally removes bilirubin, but the livers of infants are frequently not formed enough to do so properly. The blue light makes it easier for the liver to break down bilirubin.

According to Hippolite Amadi, a professor of bioengineering at Imperial College, London, who specialises in newborn medicine and has worked with neonatal hospitals in Nigeria for over 20 years, Oboro’s experience with power outages and faulty equipment is not unusual in Nigeria.

According to Amadi, parents frequently have to drive significant distances to reach a hospital, and not all of them have phototherapy equipment or newborn experts. “At some of these centres, one may discover enormous numbers of antiquated or broken systems,” he writes, adding that “less than 5% of all Nigerian hospitals has sufficient functional phototherapy devices” to assist necessary patients.

This raises the risk of a poor outcome: newborns in low and middle-income countries are 27 times more likely to suffer from brain damage caused by jaundice and 119 times more likely to die than infants in high-income countries.

After another weekend of arrests, Canada is looking to put a stop to the Covid-19 demonstrations with stiffer financial penalties

canada-protest
Financial assets of people participating in ongoing protests in Ottawa have been frozen by Canadian authorities.

Another weekend of demonstrations over Canada’s Covid-19 mandates resulted in approximately 200 arrests in the nation’s capital, as officials sought to put a stop to the weeks-long standoff by towing vehicles and levying financial fines on protestors.

Over the weekend, police used pepper spray and increased techniques to disperse crowds and make arrests in front of the Parliament building, according to police. Protesters using smoke grenades and pyrotechnics, as well as individuals wearing body armour, were among those arrested, according to police.

A lady was allegedly critically hurt during an encounter with a police officer on a horse, and a second incident in which an officer fired a less-than-lethal rifle at demonstrators is being investigated by Ontario’s Special Investigation Unit.

At a press conference on Sunday, Ottawa Interim Police Chief Steve Bell said the number of demonstrators had dropped dramatically. He did say, however, that inhabitants in the downtown area had awoken to fence and a “very substantial police presence,” as well as checkpoints all across the city.

According to Bell, 191 protestors were detained and 107 individuals were charged. According to him, the charges included impeding police, defying a court order, assault, mischief, weapon possession, and attacking a police officer.

At the news conference, Chris Harkins, deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, said that 76 automobiles had been seized and impounded.

A group of truck drivers opposed to a Covid-19 immunisation and testing mandate launched the Ottawa demonstrations in late January. However, others from outside the trucking business have joined in to express their displeasure with a variety of additional Covid-19 health initiatives, such as the need that students wear masks in school.

Officials promised to put a stop to the demonstrations by using extraordinary measures, such as the Emergencies Act. Although the legislation authorises the Canadian government to use armed forces, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated that troops are not required.

At a press conference on Sunday, Mike Duheme, deputy commissioner of federal policing for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said the Emergencies Act had aided the police operation.

According to Duheme, Canadian authorities blocked the funds of some individuals and firms suspected of being involved in the demonstration on Sunday.

According to Duheme, the RCMP froze 206 financial items, including bank and corporate accounts, exposed 56 entities related with cars, persons, and corporations, shared 253 bitcoin addresses with virtual currency exchangers, and froze a payment processing account worth $3.8 million.

Meanwhile, Canadian officials said on Saturday that small companies that were unable to operate due to blockades and experienced financial losses may apply for a grant of up to $10,000 that they would not have to repay.

This week, millions of Americans will be forced to take an involuntary arctic plunge

weather-wind-chill-card-image
By Tuesday and Wednesday, the temperature will have dropped to 30 to 40 degrees below average, as a powerful high pressure system begins to transport Arctic air further south and east.

After a pleasant weekend in many parts of the country, Old Man Winter will return as we begin the new workweek.

By Monday morning, temperatures in the northern tier states will be 10 to 20 degrees below average, according to the Weather Prediction Center. And that’s only the start. By Tuesday and Wednesday, the temperature will have dropped to 30 to 40 degrees below average as a powerful high pressure system begins to distribute Arctic air further south and east.

Some people, like seen above, prefer to do a polar plunge on their own will. Whether they like it or not, many people will be subjected to freezing weather this week. In a 48-hour period, several cities will see a dramatic polar dip.

Denver’s high temperature will drop from the low 60s on Sunday to 15 degrees on Tuesday, with snow showers.

Rapid City, South Dakota, will see temperatures drop from 50 degrees on Sunday to 0 degrees on Tuesday. The temperature in the Black Hills will plummet to 15 degrees below zero by Tuesday night.

Some places may see the dramatic decrease in temperatures even faster, in as little as 24 hours. Monday’s maximum temperature in Amarillo, TX will be in the low 70s, but will soon plummet to the mid 30s the next day. Wichita, Kansas’ temperature will drop even further, from a high of 70 degrees on Monday to the mid-20s on Tuesday.

More than 70% of Americans in the Lower 48 will see temperatures below freezing throughout the next week. Over 15 million people will be exposed to temperatures below zero.

With the current frigid temperatures, any precipitation going through will result in snowfall across a large area.

Snow will begin to fall over the Upper Midwest, but the slow movement of the cold front will allow for significant snowfall rates across the region. Sleet, showers, and freezing rain will blanket the Great Lakes area by Tuesday, with major ice accumulations probable.

Approximately 6 inches of snow is expected throughout parts of the northern Plains and Midwest through Tuesday, with up to 12 inches possible in certain locations.

Due to very heavy rain on the southern side of the storm, the sluggish passage of the system will be a worry. The rain will be heaviest in the Southeast on Monday and Tuesday. The South will be one of the few places in the country to have above-average temperatures on Monday, which will aid in the development of strong storms.

 

Scientists have discovered a third rock orbiting an alien sun

Proxima-d-Proxima-Centauri
The discovery represents a significant advancement in the way astronomers look for planets orbiting distant stars, and it might lead to the discovery of even more worlds in the near future.

Astronomers have discovered evidence of a third planet orbiting the sun’s nearest neighbor, confirming that planets orbit all of the galaxy’s stars, even the tiniest ones.

While the newly discovered planet is less than half the size of Earth and is most likely too hot to support life, there is still a potential that life exists in the vicinity of Proxima Centauri, Earth’s nearest galactic neighbour.

“The planet isn’t in the habitable zone of the star because it orbits too near,” said astronomer Joo Faria, principal author of a research detailing the finding published this month in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. “As a result, it’s improbable that water would be liquid and that the circumstances will be suitable for life.”

In fact, the new planet is so near to its star that it only takes five days to complete an orbit around it – roughly a tenth of the distance between the sun and Mercury.

As the moon is to Earth, it’s also expected to be “tidally locked,” with one face always pointed toward Proxima Centauri. This might result in temperature extremes and reduce the chances of the planet having a stable atmosphere, according to Faria.

Despite the potentially hazardous conditions on the new planet, scientists are ecstatic about the finding.

According to Faria, a researcher at the University of Porto’s Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, the Proxima system might be “packed with planets.”

It’s also a watershed moment in the way scientists hunt for planets around distant stars, he added in an email, which might lead to the finding of even more in the near future.

Other measurements will be needed to confirm the existence of the new planet, but Faria and his co-authors claim to have found it in minute changes in Proxima’s brightness — “wobbles” created by the planet’s gravity.

The first planet discovered orbiting Proxima in 2016 and a second planet discovered in 2019 were discovered using similar procedures.

However, the most recent search employed light collected by a new spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope on a hilltop in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert — a more sensitive device than previously used.

“We can now identify such little signals with such high instrumental accuracy,” Faria said. “This raises the potential of discovering planets like the Earth surrounding stars like the sun in the not-too-distant future.”

Proxima Centauri is the third star in the Alpha Centauri system, and it appears to Earth as a single brilliant star. Despite its great distance, it’s the nearest star system. It’s little over four light-years distant, or roughly 25 trillion miles.

With the human eye, only the light from its two brightest stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, can be seen. They orbit each other, but they’re far enough away that their planets aren’t thought to collide.

Because Alpha Centauri A and B are so similar to the sun, scientists believe life may have developed on their planets or moons, thus a specialised space telescope will be used to search for them. Proxima Centauri, on the other hand, is a faint red dwarf star found by telescope in 1915, distant from the system’s two major stars.

 

 In Beijing, Jessie Diggins won silver for Team USA’s final medal

Jessie Diggins
Jessie Diggins now has one of each colour four years after helping the United States win its first-ever women's Olympic cross-country gold.

Hebei’s ZHANGJIAKOU Therese Johaug of Norway earned her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, while Jessie Diggins of the United States took silver in an individual cross-country skiing event for the first time since 1976.

Johaug took the lead early in the 30-kilometer mass start event and held on to win in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 54 seconds, despite strong gusts and cold conditions. Johaug also won the 10-kilometer classic event and the skiathlon, the first gold medal of the Olympics.

As winds blasted over the tracks and pounded the skiers, many of whom had tape on their faces to protect themselves from the cold, Diggins kept a steady pace behind the Norwegian. She collapsed after reaching the finish line, 1:43.3 seconds behind Johaug.

Kerttu Niskanen of Finland, in 2:33.3, led a pursuit group to the finish line for bronze.

Diggins and Kikkan Randall won the team sprint at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, making history for the United States in cross-country skiing. It was the country’s first gold medal in the sport. Diggins became the first woman to earn an individual medal for the United States at the Beijing Olympics when she won bronze in the sprint.

The silver matched the best individual cross-country skiing achievement ever achieved by an American. At the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, Bill Koch took silver in the men’s 30-kilometer event.

On Sunday, the temperature was approximately minus 14 degrees Celsius (6.8 degrees Fahrenheit), but the wind chill made it seem much worse. On a 7.5-kilometer (4.6-mile) circuit, the women skied four laps.

On the first lap, Johaug pushed the pace, forming a lengthy line of single skiers snaking over the curves and downhills.

Johaug, Diggins, Ebba Andersson of Sweden, and Delphine Claudel of France built a gap at the first check point at 2.9 kilometres. Rosie Brennan, Krista Parmakoski, and Niskanen were roughly seven seconds back, but by the end of the first lap, the margin had grown to 28 seconds.

The World Cup leader, Natalia Nepryaeva, fell behind and dropped out of the race before the finish of the first lap. Claudel fell behind the pack at the 8.8-kilometer mark.

At approximately 10 kilometres, Johaug moved away from the leaders, with Diggins and then Andersson pursuing. On the hills, the Norwegian kept her customary fast pace, while Diggins stayed close behind, trailing by roughly 23 seconds.

Johaug was 27 seconds ahead of Diggins at the halfway stage, with Andersson 1:15 behind.

The chasing group caught Andersson and Niskanen in a sprint with one lap to go and Johaug and Diggins out front.

As the number of cases of Covid declines, vaccination regulations are being relaxed across the United States

Covid Vaccination
However, according to a public health expert, it's a "effort to create normalcy without their being any normalcy."

Starting March 1, restaurants, theatres, and gyms in Seattle, the state’s largest city where the first Covid-19 case was verified more than two years ago, would no longer need proof of vaccination.

Employees from the city and county who have been working from home for the past two years will shortly be called back into the office.

As the number of Covid-19 infections falls, other large cities around the country, including Philadelphia, the Twin Cities, and the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., are following suit. According to NBC News’ count, the average number of new daily cases has plummeted by 67 percent nationwide in the previous two weeks.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said after the state’s strict rule, which compelled companies to demand proof of complete immunisation or mask-wearing at all indoor events, expired last month, that “numbers are coming down, and it is time to adjust.”

Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, became the latest major city mayor to waive the requirement for proof of vaccination in restaurants and other public places on Thursday.

In a statement, Baraka added, “The data confirms that we are making fantastic progress.” “The City of Newark’s three-day rolling average is 2.5 percent”.

However, public health experts are keeping a close eye on the development. They point out that more than 103,000 individuals have died from Covid in the United States so far in 2022, and that while 76 percent of the population has received at least one injection, millions more have not.

Dr. Sadiya Khan, an epidemiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained the findings. “Vaccine mandates are shown to be safe and successful public health initiatives, and stepping down would only exacerbate the problem.”

Khan said she understands “the commercial case for repealing vaccination restrictions and encouraging more clients and visitors.”

Anthony Santella, the director of the University of New Haven’s Department of Health Administration and Policy, concurred.

Santella responded, “It’s too soon.” “We went through this in the summer, when many people assumed things were returning to normal and scaled back the mitigating strategies that were supposed to curb the spread.”

The delta form, followed by the much more dangerous omicron variant, infected both vaccinated and unprotected persons, forcing local authorities to reimpose harsher pandemic precautions, according to the scientists.

“They encountered criticism even from folks who had previously been amenable when they sought to reimpose these regulations,” Santella added. “Yes, things have really improved. But it’s not over yet. We need to be a little more patient, in my opinion.”

Daily infection rates have decreased by 83 percent in King County, Washington, where Seattle is situated, since early January, while hospitalizations have decreased by 62 percent. As a result, local authorities say they have less reservations about repealing immunization laws.

 

Russia claims to be removing armed forces from Ukraine border

After conducting war simulations that alarmed the West, Russia announced on Friday that it has begun withdrawing more tanks and other armoured equipment from locations near Ukraine’s border.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that “another military train transporting people and military equipment belonging to tank army units of the western military district returned to their permanent barracks in the Nizhny Novgorod region after completing scheduled exercises.”

Separately, it said that ten Su-24 warplanes would be redeploying from the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow has annexed, to airfields in other parts of the country. The Russian pullbacks announced on Friday are the most recent in a series of moves this week that raised hopes of a lessening in tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

The West has accused Moscow of massing tens of thousands of troops on Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders, and has warned of a Russian invasion.

However, in response to the initial announcements of the military reductions, Washington claimed that there had been no substantial reduction in soldier levels and that Russia was actively reinforcing forces along the border. Tensions have been heightened by Russian military games in Belarus, and Belarus’ strongman leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow later Friday.

The Blonds finish fashion week with a writhing trio of gorgeous vampires

New York Fashion Week
During New York Fashion Week, the Blonds Fall/Winter 2022 collection is modelled at Spring Studios.

(AP) — NEW YORK (AP) — The Blonds, a shock rock design team, finished New York Fashion Week on Wednesday night with hot vampires, ornate corsets, and writhing dancers whipping their long ponytails down the catwalk.

Phillipe and David Blond, partners in life and in their artistic profession, were ecstatic to be back for their second pandemic-era physical play following a cabaret-style show in September. They brought out jogging togs, tight tops, and party dresses with a hint of glitter on a printed fabric based on their silver spike and studded corset worn by Katy Perry and Rihanna in the past, paired to strong rhythms.

One of their hallmark pieces is the corset. The two told The Associated Press backstage before the event that a model wore a fresh generation of the outfit in honour to their history.

But let’s return to the dancers. Parris Goebel, a choreographer and dancer, was invited to walk the runway in black leather leggings and a matching corset. The ponytailed three snaked across the floor and strutted for the audience, which included Adam Lambert and Cardi B’s sister, influencer Hennessy Carolina, who sat in the front row.

In case anyone was wondering who pays the bills, Goebel & Co. brought out newfangled Razr phones as a nod to show sponsor Motorola. They quickly placed a few pieces from their spike print up for sale in the “see now, buy now” manner (at Theblondsny.com ).

According to David, the creative director, the Blonds, who met 22 years ago at the iconic nightclub The Roxy and have been together ever since, went “macabre, goth, and vamp” to close fashion week. The superhero horror franchise “Blade,” “Vamp,” “The Matrix,” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” were among the films that influenced them.

David stated, “We kind of embrace all that digital vampirism.” The true concept is “vampires meets the Matrix,” according to Phillipe, the designer.

“In a nutshell, that’s wonderful,” David agreed.

An over-the-thigh heeled boot with gold platforms is a favourite of these vamps and vamps-adjacent. Three of them strolled around covered in tulle, one of whom was all crimson from head to toe.

Phillipe debuted in a catsuit with studded ornamentation, miniature silver head horns, and a cloak fit for a modern-day bloodsucker. Then there was a male model dressed in small spike underwear, a cross over his naked breast, and a long red-lined shining cloak.

“It’s a little darker, I think.” “It’s usually a bit brighter, a little more, I don’t know, fluffier,” Phillipe remarked of their new merchandise.

Where are all these vampires and their companions going?

“I’m out,” David stated. “Yes, we’re leaving.”

 

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