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US ramps up Ukraine warning, says Russia may invade any day
The Biden administration on Friday escalated dire warnings of a possibly imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it could happen at any moment, even as emergency diplomatic efforts continued. Adding to the sense of crisis, the Pentagon ordered an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Poland to reassure allies.
As diplomatic options for averting war in Ukraine appeared to narrow, the White House said President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin would discuss the crisis by phone on Saturday.
Biden has said the U.S. military will not enter a war in Ukraine, but he has promised severe economic sanctions against Moscow, in concert with international allies.
Timing of possible Russian military action remains a key question.
The U.S. picked up intelligence that Russia is looking at Wednesday as a target date, according to a U.S. official familiar with the findings. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and did so only on condition of anonymity, would not say how definitive the intelligence was, and the White House publicly underscored that the U.S. does not know with certainty whether Putin is committed to invasion.
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However, U.S. officials said anew that Russia’s buildup of offensive air, land and sea firepower near Ukraine has reached the point where it could invade on short notice. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, urged all Americans in Ukraine to leave within the next 48 hours, emphasizing that they should not expect the U.S. military to rescue them in the event that air and rail transportation is severed after a Russian invasion.
Several NATO allies including Britain, Canada, Norway and Denmark also are asking their citizens to leave Ukraine.
Sullivan said Russian military action could start with missile and air attacks, followed by a ground offensive.
“Yes, it is an urgent message because we are in an urgent situation,” he told reporters at the White House.
Also read: British envoy in Moscow to try to ease Ukraine crisis
“Russia has all the forces it needs to conduct a major military action,” Sullivan said, adding, “Russia could choose, in very short order, to commence a major military action against Ukraine.” He said the scale of such an invasion could range from a limited incursion to a strike on Kyiv, the capital.
Russia scoffed at the U.S. talk of urgency.
“The hysteria of the White House is more indicative than ever,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost. Provocations, misinformation and threats are a favorite method of solving their own problems.”
In addition to the more than 100,000 ground troops that U.S. officials say Russia has assembled along Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, the Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain a war. This week Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land marines on the coast.
Sullivan’s stark warning accelerated the projected timeframe for a potential invasion, which many analysts have believed was unlikely until after the Winter Olympics in China end on Feb. 20. Sullivan said the combination of a further Russian troop buildup on Ukraine’s borders and unspecified intelligence indicators have prompted the administration to warn that war could begin any time.
“We can’t pinpoint the day at this point, and we can’t pinpoint the hour, but that is a very, very distinct possibility,” Sullivan said.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conferred by phone with several of his NATO counterparts. Echoing Sullivan’s public remarks, Austin told them a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could begin at any time,” Kirby said.
Biden has said U.S. troops will not enter Ukraine to contest any Russian invasion, but he has bolstered the U.S. military presence in Europe as reassurance to allies on NATO’s eastern flank. On Friday the Pentagon said Biden ordered a further 3,000 soldiers to Poland, on top of 1,700 who are on their way there. Together they form an infantry brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. The U.S. Army also is shifting 1,000 soldiers from Germany to Romania, which like Poland shares a border with Ukraine.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by phone Friday with his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov. Milley’s office provided no details beyond saying the two men discussed “several security-related issues of concern.” Milley also had phone calls with several of his counterparts from NATO countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland and Romania.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was traveling in Australia, was the first senior U.S. official to say publicly that an invasion could come before the end of the Olympics.
Sullivan would not discuss the intelligence details behind the U.S. assessment and denied a report that American officials believe Putin has made the decision to invade. But he said U.S. officials believe there is “a strong possibility” of an invasion.
“We believe he very well may give the final go order,” Sullivan said. “It may well happen soon.”
Biden spoke to a number of European leaders on Friday to underscore the concerns raised by U.S. intelligence about the potential imminence of a Russian invasion. Sullivan said the Western leaders were completely united and would respond harshly to a Russian invasion with devastating economic and trade sanctions.
Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, visited Moscow a day after British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss held frosty talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and urged him to pull back Russia’s troops near Ukraine. Lavrov characterized that meeting as a “conversation between deaf and dumb.”
Russia opened massive war games in Belarus on Thursday that are due to run through next weekend but says it has no plans to invade Ukraine.
The Russians are insisting that the West keep Ukraine and other former Soviet countries out of NATO. It also wants NATO to refrain from deploying weapons near its border and to roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe — demands flatly rejected by the West.
Speaking at the start of his talks with Britain’s Wallace, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that “the military-political situation in Europe is growing increasingly tense, and it’s not our fault.”
Shoigu said that shipments of weapons to Ukraine by the U.S., Britain and other allies have contributed to the tensions and pointed to the recent deployment of British soldiers to Ukraine, asking why they were sent and how long they would stay.
Speaking to reporters after the talks, Wallace said the anti-tank missiles that Britain sent to Ukraine were defensive tactical weapons that do not pose a threat to any neighbor unless it invades.
He described the talks as “constructive and frank” and noted his Russian counterpart’s assurances that Moscow has no intention to attack Ukraine. But he also emphasized that the concentration of Russian troops near Ukrainian territory is clearly “beyond normal exercising.”
Russia’s troop concentration includes forces deployed on the territory of its ally Belarus for massive joint drills involving firing live ammunition. Those exercises entered a decisive phase Thursday and will run through Feb. 20. The Ukrainian capital is about 75 kilometers (47 miles) south of the Belarus border.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited a military base in Romania, hailing the deployment of additional U.S. troops as “a powerful demonstration of trans-Atlantic unity.”
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly leader was driven from office by a popular uprising. Moscow responded by annexing Crimea and then backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.
A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped halt large-scale battles, but regular skirmishes have continued, and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.
India-US trade crossed $100bn-mark in 2021
In another sign of the deepening economic relationship between India and the United States, bilateral trade in goods between the two countries crossed the $100 billion mark in 2021, making it the largest volume of goods trade in a calendar year in India-US economic history. This also represents an almost 45% jump from 2020, and while US trade with its top 15 partners increased over the past year, the single biggest jump was with India, Hindustan Times reports .
India retains a trade surplus in the relationship.
According to figures released by the US Census Bureau, India-US bilateral goods trade was worth $113.391 billion from January to December 2021. India exported goods worth over $73 billion, and imported goods worth a little over $40 billion dollars.
In 2020 – an unusual year because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and subsequent economic restrictions – trade fell to a little over $78.2 billion, from the high of $92.1 billion in 2019. India had then exported goods worth $57.8 billion and imported goods worth $34.2 billion.
Placing the figures in perspective, Richard M Rossow, the Wadhwani chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the foremost expert of the bilateral economic relationship in Washington DC, said that bilateral trade has been on an upward trajectory for 20 years, and shrunk year-on-year only three times since 2002.
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“While we should certainly pause to celebrate the milestone of crossing the $100 billion in bilateral trade, it is not far off the overall trajectory of the trade relationship in this period.” The 45% jump, he said, was due to the “deep trough” in 2020, as both India and the US dealt with the initial onslaught of the coronavirus.
Mukesh Aghi, president and chief executive officer of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), said that a key reason for the spike in Indian exports to the US was the concerted increase in demand in the US market.
“The US has seen consumption-driven growth in the past year. There was pent-up demand for items such as jewellery and electronics which has got channelled in the last six months. The fact that US companies have also sought to diversify their supply chains has played a role too. Electronic component markets have moved production to India. For instance, Apple now exports a million smart phones from India to the United States every month.” The challenge, he added, was to sustain the momentum.
When asked what had driven the spike, Rossow said that while the details of which products drove the record-breaking year was not clear yet, the push by the Donald Trump administration to sell American hydrocarbons to India had been a key factor in enabling greater trade.
“A decade ago, the US had nearly zero exports of natural gas, coal, or crude oil to India. Today these three are all among the 10 biggest export categories. US imports from India are more balanced, with good increases in trade among a range of categories. But a few stand out as over-performers such as furniture, aluminium, and food products.”
India’s principal goods exports to the US are precious and semi-precious stones, drugs and pharmaceuticals, petroleum products, cotton fabrics, garments, marine products, iron and steel products, electrical equipment and auto components. And its primary import was crude oil (the biggest import head in 2021, some $10.39 billion worth). India also imports pearls, coal, chemicals, gold, paper, and precious stones from the US.
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Recently, the US approved imports of mangoes and pomegranate from India, and secured New Delhi’s approval to supply of cherries, alfalfa hay, pork and pork products into India, according to an Indian government official who asked not to be named.
“This is as per a recent agreement between the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for implementing the ‘2 Vs 2’ agri-market access,” he added.
Another official familiar with the bilateral relationship said that the spike in trade was also a product of the concerted Indian attempts to deepen economic ties with a range of American economic stakeholders – be it through extensive commercial engagement or facilitating business-to-business exchanges or working to get commitments by major American corporates to source material from India or proactively leveraging the sentiment in the US to diversify from China.
A third official pointed out that the trade figures also firmly rebut the impression of India turning inwards and protectionist, and in fact, show that its outwards economic engagement, on its own terms, will only increase.
While India is working with Australia, the UK, the European Union, Canada and the US to push through larger trade arrangements, any major free trade agreement is unlikely, especially with the US, given the domestic political mood in Washington against trade pacts.
When asked if the increase in India-US trade showed that both countries have found ways to deepen ties while circumventing established formats, Rossow said, “Trade deals are helpful to boost trade ties, but far from essential. In recent decades, nations such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China managed to become major global trade players without vast networks of trade deals. It does, however, feel like our nations continue to defy gravity. Both governments have taken protectionist steps in recent years, both globally and towards each other. Whether this continued growth in trade can be sustained in light of anti-trade policies remains to be seen.”
UK lifts all testing requirements for vaccinated travelers
Vaccinated travelers can enter Britain without taking any coronavirus tests starting Friday, after the government scrapped one of the final restrictions imposed over the past two years in response to COVID-19.
British residents and visitors who have had at least two doses of an approved coronavirus vaccine now only need to fill out a passenger locator form before traveling to the U.K. Unvaccinated people still have to take tests both before and after arriving but no longer need to self-isolate until they get a negative result.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the U.K. “now has one of the most free-flowing borders in the world — sending a clear message that we are open for business.”
Airlines and other travel firms hailed the change as a lifeline after two years of severely constricted travel. Andrew Flintham, managing director of travel group Tui UK, said there was “a huge pent-up demand for international travel,” and people were rushing to book getaways for the February school break and April’s Easter holiday.
Gatwick, London’s second-busiest airport, said that it plans next month to reopen the second of its two terminals, shuttered since June 2020.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle urged other countries to follow Britain’s “pragmatic approach.”
But some scientists worry the government is moving too fast. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government lifted most domestic rules last month. Face masks are no longer mandatory in most indoor spaces in England, vaccine passports for gaining entry to nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home. Other parts of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have also lifted most restrictions.
Read: UK defense secretary in Moscow amid Ukraine tensions
Johnson announced this week that he hopes to lift the final restriction — mandatory self-isolation for people who test positive — by the end of February as part of a plan to live long-term with COVID-19. Officials have said the government plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus more like the flu as it becomes endemic in the country.
Scientists expressed surprise at Johnson’s announcement. Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at Kings College London, said it was “more a political type of statement rather than a scientific one.”
“There is some rationale to this and other countries are doing things similar, but it’s clearly a race for the government to say that ‘Britain is first, Britain is the first to come out of this, Britain has conquered omicron, our booster program is world beating etc, etc,’” he told Times Radio.
The re-opening came as statistics showed the U.K. economy grew by a bigger-than-expected 7.5% in 2021, despite an omicron-driven slowdown at the end of the year. The re-imposition of some restrictions in response to the highly transmissible variant brought a 0.2% contraction in December.
The Office for National Statistics said the growth follows a 9.4% contraction in 2020 as the pandemic shut down big chunks of the economy. The U.K. economy is now back to the size it was in February 2020, just before the new coronavirus swept the U.K.
Britain has Europe’s highest coronavirus toll after Russia, with more than 159,000 officially recorded deaths. The country has seen a drop in both new infections and COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals since the peak of the omicron spike in early January.
Officials have credited the government’s booster jab program with preventing the surge in omicron cases from causing serious stress to U.K. hospitals. In Britain, 84.6% of people 12 and up have had two doses of a vaccine and almost two-thirds have had a third, booster shot.
UK defense secretary in Moscow amid Ukraine tensions
Britain’s defense secretary visited Moscow Friday for talks on easing tensions amid massive Russian war games near Ukraine.
Ben Wallace’s trip comes a day after British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss held talks in Moscow, urging Russia to pull back over 100,000 troops amassed near Ukraine and warning that attacking its neighbor would “have massive consequences and carry severe costs.”
Russia says it has no plans to invade Ukraine but wants the West to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet countries out of NATO. It also wants NATO to refrain from deploying weapons there and roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe — demands flatly rejected by the West.
In an interview Thursday with NBC News, U.S. President Joe Biden repeated his warning that any Americans still in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible.
“It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly,” he said.
Asked whether there were any scenarios that would prompt him to send U.S. troops to Ukraine to rescue Americans, the president said: “There’s not. That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another.”
Amid the soaring tensions, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Thursday that the Ukraine crisis has grown into “the most dangerous moment” for Europe in decades.
Russia’s troop concentration includes forces deployed on the territory of its ally Belarus for massive joint drills involving firing live ammunition. That entered a decisive phase Thursday and will run through Feb. 20. The Ukrainian capital is located about 75 kilometers (47 miles) south of the Belarus border.
Continuing its military buildup near Ukraine, Russia has moved six amphibious assault vessels into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land marines on the coast.
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Moscow has announced sweeping drills in the Black and Azov seas in the coming days and closed large areas for commercial shipping, drawing a strong protest from Ukraine on Thursday.
NATO has stepped up military deployments to bolster its eastern flank, with the U.S. sending troops to Poland and Romania.
The U.S. Navy said Thursday it has deployed four destroyers from the United States to European waters. The Navy did not directly tie this deployment to the Ukraine crisis but said the ships provide “additional flexibility” to the U.S. Sixth Fleet commander, whose area of responsibility includes the Mediterranean, and will operate in support of NATO allies.
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly leader was driven from office by a popular uprising. Moscow responded by annexing Crimea and then backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.
A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped halt large-scale battles, but regular skirmishes have continued and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled. The Kremlin has accused Kyiv of sabotaging the agreement, and Ukrainian officials argued in recent weeks that implementing it would hurt their country.
Foreign policy advisers from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine held nearly nine hours of talks in Berlin on Thursday to try to revive the stalled agreement but made no progress.
Russian representative Dmitry Kozak said Ukraine firmly refused to commit to a dialogue with the rebels on a political settlement, blocking any further movement. Ukrainian envoy Andriy Yermak sounded a more positive note, noting that the parties agreed to continue their discussions and hailed the four-way talks as an “effective and efficient platform.“
Can you get long COVID after an infection with omicron?
It’s too early to know for sure, but many doctors believe it’s possible to have long-term effects from the omicron variant of the virus.
Long COVID is usually diagnosed many weeks after a bout with COVID-19. Any long-lasting effects typically appear about 90 days after symptoms of the initial infection go away, Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization said this week.
Overall, some estimates suggest more than a third of COVID-19 survivors will develop some symptoms of long COVID. Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety and other problems. The lingering illness is more likely if you’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19, but research shows it can happen even after a mild infection.
Omicron began its race around the world late last year. The variant generally causes milder illness than the delta version of the coronavirus, but has still overwhelmed hospitals.
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Van Kerkhove said she hasn’t seen any research indicating that the portion of COVID-19 survivors who get long COVID will change with the omicron variant.
Dr. Linda Geng of Stanford University, who co-directs one of the many clinics specializing in long COVID, said that though she can’t say for sure, a new wave of patients is likely.
“We have to be very cautious and very careful and prepared,” Geng said.
In the meantime, scientists are racing to figure out what’s behind the mysterious condition. Some theories? It may be an autoimmune disorder. Tiny microclots may be causing the disabling symptoms. Or perhaps latent viruses in the body have been reactivated.
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Scientists are also looking at whether vaccines could be part of the answer. A Yale University team is studying the possibility that vaccination might reduce long COVID symptoms. And two other studies offer early evidence that being vaccinated before getting COVID-19 could help prevent the lingering illness or at least reduce its severity.
Karnataka hijab row: How the issue sparked massive protests
An Indian state has shut high schools and colleges after a row over the hijab that has gained international attention after Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai weighed in.
The government of Karnataka state in southern India took the decision after protests by students over Muslim women wearing headscarves in the classroom escalated into violence, reports BBC.
The state's high court is set to continue hearing a petition that argues for the Muslim women on Wednesday.
The developments occurred after protests by six teenage students at a government-run college over wearing hijabs spread to other colleges.
Several Hindu students then turned up wearing saffron shawls - the colour seen as a Hindu symbol - to protest against Muslim women wearing hijabs.
India row over right to wear hijab deepens
On Tuesday, Malala - who was 15 when she survived an attack by the Taliban in Pakistan for speaking up for the right of girls to be educated - called on India's leaders to do something to "stop the marginalisation of Muslim women".
"Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying," the 24-year-old activist tweeted. "Objectification of women persists - for wearing less or more."
In India, the stand-off has increased fear and anger among minority Muslims, who say the country's constitution grants them the freedom to wear what they want.
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On Tuesday, viral videos showed a Muslim woman being heckled by a mob of young men shouting slogans, and heated arguments between students wearing hijabs and saffron shawls.
In a rare move, the judge hearing the case appealed to students and others to "maintain peace and tranquillity".
How did the row begin?
The issue began gaining attention when six teenage students at a government-run pre-university college - equivalent to a high school - in Karnataka's Udupi district began protesting over being barred from classes for wearing a hijab.
Udupi is one of three districts in Karnataka's communally sensitive coastal region - a stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Commentators often describe the region as a laboratory for majoritarian Hindu politics. The BJP is also in power in Karnataka.
The issue gained national attention after six women began protests at an Udupi college
The college said it allowed students to wear the hijab on campus and only asked them to take it off inside the classroom. But the protesters - who all wear the mandatory college uniform - argued they should also be allowed to cover their hair in the classroom.
"We have a few male teachers. We need to cover our hair before men. That is why we wear a hijab," Almas AH, one of the students, told BBC Hindi.
The students denied allegations that they were acting at the behest of the Campus Front of India - the student-wing of the radical Islamic group, Popular Front of India - who were advocating for them.
It's not unusual to see women wearing hijabs and burkas (the full Islamic veil) in India, where public displays of symbols of faith are common. But the college principal said it was necessary for the teacher to see the student's face and the uniform helped them ensure there was no discrimination among students.
Repeated meetings between the students, college officials and government representatives couldn't solve the stand-off.
How did it spread to other colleges?
The issue of Muslim women wearing hijabs had cropped up in a few other colleges in Karnataka earlier too, but it started gaining momentum when photos of the women protesters in Udupi went viral.
Soon, Hindu students in some other colleges began coming to classes wearing saffron shawls - this forced officials to insist that both couldn't be allowed on campus.
Last week, a video showing gates being shut on a group of hijab-clad students - shot at a pre-university college in Kundapur in Udupi district - had led to outrage.
Groups of Hindu students - both male and female - also began going on marches against their classmates wearing hijabs.
But there was no violence until Tuesday - hours before the court began hearing the petition, incidents of stone-throwing and even arson were reported from some cities.
Local authorities imposed Section 144 - a colonial-era law that prohibits the gathering of more than four people in one place - to curb the protests.
In Shivamogga district, a group of male students were caught on camera hoisting a saffron flag at their college, prompting the government to announce an inquiry.
In Mandya district, a viral video showed a young woman in a burka being approached by a mob of men with saffron shawls. As they yelled Jai Shri Ram (hail Lord Ram) repeatedly, she stood her ground, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) as college authorities escorted her away.
Later, the woman - identified as Muskan - said her college principal assured her that he would support her.
"A few other Muslim girls were also heckled in a similar manner. The college administration and the principal never prevented us from wearing the burka, so why should I listen to outsiders?" she told The Indian Express newspaper.
A senior police official told BBC Hindi that these were all "minor incidents" and that the situation was in control.
What has the state government said?
Karnataka Education Minister Nagesh BC has backed college authorities who say both saffron scarves and headscarves should be banned on campuses.
He has also alleged that the students are being instigated to protest by "miscreants".
"It's basically politics. All this is happening because state assembly elections are due next year," Mr Nagesh told BBC Hindi, referring to attempts by the Popular Front of India's political wing to gain traction in the region.
Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai and the state's home minister have urged the students and others to "maintain peace and harmony".
What has the court said so far?
Two petitions have been filed on behalf of the protesters.
One argues that choosing what to wear is a fundamental right guaranteed by India's constitution. The other questions the legality of a recent state government dress code order for educational institutions, which bans headscarves and hijabs.
Their lawyer appearing has argued that the government's order on banning the hijab is both unconstitutional and illegal - he has also asked the court to pass an interim order that will allow the students to attend classes ahead of exams.
Justice Krishna Dixit has said he would act according to the constitution. "I will act according to the oath of office which I took. It is not a healthy situation that students should be outside the classrooms," he added.
Macron: Putin told him Russia won’t escalate Ukraine crisis
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Moscow would not further escalate the Ukraine crisis.
Macron also said it would take time to find a diplomatic solution to the rising tensions, which represent the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
His remarks on a visit to Kyiv came as the Kremlin denied reports that he and Putin struck a deal on de-escalating the crisis. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “in the current situation, Moscow and Paris can’t be reaching any deals.”
Macron met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid mounting fears of a Russian invasion. Moscow has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, but insists it has no plans to attack.
The Kremlin wants guarantees from the West that NATO will not accept Ukraine and other former Soviet nations as members, that it halt weapon deployments there and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe — demands the U.S. and NATO reject as nonstarters.
At a news conference after meeting Zelenskyy, Macron said Putin told him during their more than five-hour session Monday that “he won’t be initiating an escalation. I think it is important.”
According to the French president, Putin also said there won’t be any Russian “permanent (military) base” or “deployment” in Belarus, where Russia had sent a large number of troops for war games.
Peskov said withdrawing Russian troops from Belarus after the maneuvers was the plan all along.
Zelenskyy said he would welcome concrete steps from Putin for de-escalation, adding he didn’t “trust words in general.”
Macron also sought to temper expectations.
“Let’s not be naive,” he said. “Since the beginning of the crisis, France hasn’t been inclined to exaggerate, but at the same time, I don’t believe this crisis can be settled in a few hours, through discussions”
Zelenskyy called his talks with Macron “very fruitful.”
“We have a common view with President Macron on threats and challenges to the security of Ukraine, of the whole of Europe, of the world in general,” Zelenskyy said.
He said France was giving 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in financial aid to Ukraine and helping restore infrastructure in the war-ravaged east of the country.
Western leaders in recent weeks have engaged in high-level talks, and more are planned against the backdrop of military drills in Russia and Belarus. On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that six amphibious landing ships were moving from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea for exercises and two Tu-22M3 long-range nuclear capable bombers flew another patrol over Belarus.
Macron said he had not expected Putin to make any “gestures” Monday, saying his objective was to “prevent an escalation and open new perspectives. ... That objective is met.”
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Macron said Putin “set a collective trap” by initiating the exchange of documents with the U.S. Moscow submitted its demands to Washington in the form of draft agreements that were made public, and insisted on a written response, which was then leaked.
“In the history of diplomacy, there was never a crisis that has been settled by exchanges of letters which are to be made public afterward,” he said, adding that’s why he decided to go to Moscow for direct talks.
Macron later flew to Berlin, where he briefed Polish President Andrzej Duda and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said their stance was unified, with a joint goal “to prevent a war in Europe.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was pleased to see the high level of diplomatic activity, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “The secretary‑general could not be clearer in the need to increase diplomatic activity to avoid any sort of escalation,” Dujarric said.
Putin said after Monday’s meeting that the U.S. and NATO ignored Moscow’s demands, but signaled readiness to continue talking. He also reiterated a warning that NATO membership for Ukraine could trigger a war between Russia and the alliance should Kyiv try to retake the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
NATO, U.S. and European leaders reject the demands that they say challenge NATO’s core principles, like shutting the door to Ukraine or other countries that might seek membership; but they have offered to discuss other Russian security concerns in Europe.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said any prospect of Ukraine entering NATO “in the near term is not very likely,” but he and other alliance members and NATO itself refuse to rule out Ukraine’s future entry.
Biden met Monday with Scholz, who also will travel to Kyiv and Moscow on Feb. 14-15. They threatened Russia with grave consequences if it invaded, and Biden vowed that the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline, which has been completed but is not yet operating, will be blocked. Such a move would hurt Russia economically but also cause energy supply problems for Germany.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in an article in the Times of London, also urged allies to finalize heavy economic sanctions that would take effect if Russia crosses into Ukraine. He said the U.K. is ready to bolster NATO forces in Latvia and Estonia as he prepared to meet the Lithuanian prime minister in London to show support for the Baltic nations.
Johnson said he was considering dispatching RAF Typhoon fighters and Royal Navy warships to southeastern Europe. Britain said Monday it is sending 350 troops to Poland to bolster NATO’s eastern flank. It already has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.
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More than 100 U.S. military personnel arrived in Romania ahead of a deployment of about 1,000 NATO troops expected in the country in the coming days, Romania’s Defense Minister Vasile Dincu said.
U.S. officials have said that about 1,000 alliance troops will be sent from Germany to Romania, a NATO member since 2004. Romania borders Ukraine to the north. About 1,700 U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne are also going to Poland.
U.S. officials have portrayed the threat of an invasion of Ukraine as imminent — warnings Moscow has scoffed at, accusing Washington of fueling tensions.
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east of the country. The fighting between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed over 14,000 people.
In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict. The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kyiv of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it would hurt Ukraine.
After meeting Macron, Putin said without elaboration that some of the French president’s proposals could serve as a basis for a settlement of the separatist conflict, adding that they agreed to speak by phone after Macron’s visit to Kyiv.
Peskov said such a call would take place “in the nearest future.”
Macron said both Putin and Zelenskyy confirmed they were willing to implement the Minsk agreements — “the only path allowing to build peace ... and find a sustainable political solution.”
Macron also said the presidential advisers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine will meet Thursday in Berlin on the next steps. “It will take time to get results,” he said.
Zelenskyy was mum on where Ukraine stands on implementing the Minsk agreements and whether he assured Macron that Kyiv is committed to do so, saying only that his country views Thursday’s meeting “very positively” and hoped for a subsequent meeting by the four leaders.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, visiting the front line in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, said she wanted “to get an impression of what it means that we still have war in the middle of Europe.”
Germany has given Ukraine about 1.8 billion euros in aid since 2014, part of which is helping those displaced by fighting.
Indian scientists claim to have designed vaccine against all variants of coronavirus
Indian scientists claim to have designed a universal vaccine that can be effective against all variants of the coronavirus, which triggered the once-in-a-century pandemic two years back. With new variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus triggering fresh waves of the highly infectious disease, scientists at the Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneshwar have designed a peptide vaccine which they claim could protect against any future variants of the coronavirus.
Their research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Molecular Liquids that is devoted to fundamental aspects of structure, interactions and dynamic processes in simple, molecular and complex liquids, The Economic Times reports.
"In this study, we employed immunoinformatic approaches to design AbhiSCoVac - a multi-epitope multi-target chimeric peptide that would be able to generate protective immunity against all six virulent members of the family hCoV-229E, hCoV-HKU1, hCoV-OC43, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV as well as SARS-CoV-2," the researchers said.
"The designed vaccine was found to be highly stable, antigenic and immunogenic," the researchers Abhigyan Choudhury and Suprabhat Mukherjee from Kazi Nazrul University and Parth Sarthi Sen Gupta, Saroj Kumar Panda, and Malay Kumar Rana from IISER, Bhubaneshwar said.
Read: Single-dose Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine gets EUA in India
Choudhary said the team of researchers developed the vaccine using computational methods and the next stage would involve the production of the vaccine which would be followed by testing.
"This vaccine is one of a kind. No other vaccine in the world has been designed to cope with all the Coronaviridae family viruses at a single time," he told PTI.
He said the researchers had first identified various conserved regions in the spike protein of the six different viruses that undergo very few mutations and thus change a little in the course of pandemic.
Also, these regions of the protein identified are highly immunogenic which means they can produce high levels of immune memory in the body that is required to protect against the viruses, he said.
"Unlike other vaccines, these identified were selected after they have shown high binding strengths with a protein called TLR4 - the same protein responsible for detecting SARS-COV-2 viruses in the body and initiating the immune responses," Choudhary said.
Single-dose Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine gets EUA in India
India’s drug regulator on Sunday granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) to Single-dose Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine in India.
With this, Sputnik light becomes the ninth Covid-19 vaccine that has been granted EUA in the country, reports The Economic Times.
“This will further strengthen the nation's collective fight against the pandemic,” tweeted Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
Read: India to offer jobs to 80 Afghan military cadets
Dr Reddy's had completed Phase-3 clinical trial data of Sputnik Light and sought approval from DCGI to use the vaccine as standalone in January this year.
Around 6.5 lakh people have already taken the first dose of Sputnik V first dose.
"We feel confident that Sputnik Light is not only effective against other variants of concern, but also with Omicron,” MV Ramana, CEO, Branded Markets (India and Emerging Markets) of Dr. Reddy's said during the post earnings media briefing last month.
Sputnik V is a two-dose vaccine made from two components - recombinant adenovirus 26 or Ad26 and adenovirus 5 or Ad5 The first dose (Ad26) is the main vaccine, and the second (Ad5) is a booster shot. The Sputnik Light vaccine is made from Ad26, which is the first part of the Sputnik V vaccine.
The company has also submitted a proposal to conduct clinical trials to test Sputnik Light as a booster to other vaccines.
Russia's Gamelya Center had in December last year said that the Sputnik Light booster dose increased virus neutralizing activity against Omicron. The data was based on sera 2-3 months after re-vaccination.
Read: Russian bombers fly over Belarus amid Ukraine tensions
Earlier on February 4, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) announced that Sputnik V was granted full permanent approval by Russia’s Health Ministry. It had previously held temporary emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Russian regulator.
Sputnik Light is authorized in over 30 countries, both as a standalone vaccine and a universal booster to other vaccines.
Trial of 3 cops in Floyd killing to resume after COVID pause
The federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s rights is expected to resume Monday, after it was abruptly suspended last week because one of the defendants tested positive for COVID-19.
J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are accused of depriving Floyd of his rights when they failed to give him medical aid as Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the Black man’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed, facedown and gasping for air. Kueng and Thao are also accused of failing to intervene in the May 2020 killing that triggered protests worldwide and a reexamination of racism and policing.
The trial, which was in the middle of its second week, was halted Wednesday when Judge Paul Magnuson said one of the defendants had tested positive. The defendant wasn’t named, but Kueng and Thao were in court that day and Lane was not. Lane’s attorney declined to say whether his client had COVID-19.
That “trial participant” was to be tested again before the trial resumes, as will all other case participants who had been near that person. The court said Magnuson and the jurors aren’t considered close contacts because they weren’t within 6 feet of the attorneys’ tables.
Case participants have to answer questions about COVID-19 symptoms each morning before the trial begins. If any test positive, have been in close contact with someone who did, or begins having symptoms, a COVID-19 test is immediately given.
Testimony began Jan. 24 after a jury was quickly selected in one day. Magnuson ordered the selection of six alternates instead of the usual two in case any jurors became ill and had to drop out.
To ensure social distancing, Magnuson set limits on who can be in the courtroom. That includes allowing only four pool reporters plus a sketch artist, along with a limited number of family and friends of the officers and Floyd. Everyone entering the courtroom is asked about symptoms.
The general public and other journalists can watch a closed-circuit TV feed in separate rooms.