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Might the conflict’s financial toll pressure Western unity?
Because the conflict in Ukraine settles into a protracted battle that will final years, it’s testing the resolve of Western international locations, with European and American officers questioning whether or not the rising financial toll will erode their solidarity over time. Observe the newest updates from the conflict.
What fissures have to date offered themselves are principally superficial, together with restiveness in Paris with the Biden administration’s navy ambitions. And but there are indicators of solidarity: Finland and Sweden edged nearer to becoming a member of NATO on Wednesday, with Britain providing safety assurances to gird in opposition to the Russian menace.
But 76 days into the preventing, the cascading impact on provide chains and power pipelines will solely be felt extra acutely at fuel pumps and on grocery store cabinets. Some analysts imagine Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is calculating that the West will likely be first to tire of a protracted battle for Ukraine’s contested Donbas area.
Warnings: The Biden administration’s director of nationwide intelligence, Avril Haines, stated yesterday that Putin was digging in for a protracted siege and “most likely relying on U.S. and E.U. resolve to weaken as meals shortages, inflation and power shortages worsen.”
Bulgaria takes a stand in opposition to a former good friend
Moscow lengthy counted Bulgaria as its most ardent and dependable good friend in Europe. However in latest weeks, the nation has joined fellow members of the E.U. in imposing ever more durable financial sanctions on its former ally; supplied to restore damaged navy helicopters and tanks for Ukraine; and expelled but extra Russian diplomats.
The speedy souring of relations with Bulgaria, a poor however symbolically essential nation due to its traditionally shut ties to Russia, underscores how far off-script the invasion ordered by Putin has traveled. In response, Russia halted provides of pure fuel to Bulgaria by Gazprom final month.
Moscow has additionally launched cyberattacks, assaulting the server of Bulgaria’s state power firm and crippling pension funds by its Postal Service. “We’re beneath extreme assault for the time being,” stated Kiril Petkov, the Bulgarian prime minister, describing this as a transparent “try to derail our authorities” by stoking home unrest.
Quotable: “Historically, Russia has all the time had an enormous affect right here, however we have now been an enormous shock to them,” Petkov stated. “They don’t perceive what occurred.”
Journalist killed within the West Financial institution
Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera, was fatally shot whereas reporting within the West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin early yesterday. The information community, citing the Palestinian Well being Ministry, stated she had been shot within the head by Israeli forces throughout a raid. A second journalist was hospitalized after being shot within the again, the ministry stated.
A veteran journalist, Abu Akleh was a family identify throughout the Center East. On the time of her dying, she was sporting a protecting vest that recognized her as a member of the media. One other journalist current, Shatha Hanaysha, stated she believed that she and different journalists had been focused. Israeli forces, she stated, “didn’t cease firing even after she collapsed.”
In a night briefing, Israel’s minister of protection, Benny Gantz, stated it was unclear what had occurred. “It may be Palestinians who shot her,” he stated. “Tragically, it could be on our aspect. We’re investigating it.”
Quotable: “Al Jazeera holds the Israeli authorities and the occupation forces liable for the killing of Shireen,” the information community stated in a press release. “It additionally calls on the worldwide group to sentence and maintain the Israeli occupation forces accountable.”
Journalists in danger: No less than 27 media staff have been killed whereas working or for causes regarding their journalistic actions since Jan. 1, together with seven in Ukraine and eight in Mexico, in response to the nonprofit Reporters With out Borders.
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“The basic weight loss program slogan that made such an impression on me as a chubby youngster — ‘Inside each fats individual, there’s a skinny individual ready to get out’ — ought to, in my case, be reversed,” writes Sam Anderson, pictured above in sixth grade, on this private essay on weight reduction from The Instances Journal.
“It doesn’t matter what my physique occurs to appear like at any specific second, Fats Sam lives inside me. I acknowledge now, in actual fact, that Fats Sam represents a few of my greatest qualities: curiosity, cheerful urge for food, a starvation for all times, satisfaction within the second.”
Eurovision 2022, by the numbers
The Eurovision Music Contest is the world’s largest reside music occasion. It’s also nearly actually the kitschiest. This yr’s competitors takes place this week in Turin, Italy, the place nations are going head-to-head for the (non-monetary) glory of a win, in addition to a trophy formed like a Nineteen Fifties microphone. Right here’s what it is advisable know.
66: Years because the contest began in 1956. (It was initially a pleasant competitors between public service tv broadcasters.)
40: Nations taking part on this yr’s contest. In an unusually political transfer, the organizers have barred Russia from competing “in mild of the unprecedented disaster in Ukraine.”
1974: Yr wherein Abba gained the competitors, with the music “Waterloo.”
183 million: Complete viewers of final yr’s contest.
Three: Most size in minutes for every music, in response to the competition’s guidelines.
33,938: Inhabitants of the smallest nation competing — San Marino, a landlocked enclave inside Italy.
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