Putin in Mariupol visited the occupied territory for the first time after the Russian invasion
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Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed China’s “willingness to play a constructive role” in Ukraine as his “good old friend” Xi Jinping heads to Moscow.
In an article written for a Chinese newspaper, Putin said the Kremlin had high hopes for a Chinese president’s visit, the first visit to Russia since Putin launched his “special military operation” last year.
“We are grateful for the balanced line [China] in connection with the events taking place in Ukraine, in order to understand their background and true causes. We welcome China’s readiness to play a constructive role in resolving the crisis,” Putin said.
China has publicly remained neutral in the Ukraine conflict, criticizing Western sanctions against Russia and reaffirming its close ties to Moscow.
Last month, Beijing released a 12-point document calling for dialogue and a settlement in Ukraine, but it contained only general statements and no specific proposals for how the year-long war could end.
Ukraine, which says any settlement would require Russia to withdraw from all of its seized territory, including the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, has cautiously welcomed the Chinese proposal.
Putin and Xi may be having an affair, but it’s clear who’s in power
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have met about 40 times since the Chinese leader became president in 2012. In many ways, the camaraderie between the pair has come to define diplomatic relations between Moscow and Beijing over the past decade.
Xi made his first overseas visit to Moscow as president in 2013, and that latest visit will come next week after he won an unprecedented third presidential term. During this time, the greetings between Xi and Putin turned from “dear president” to “dear friend” and then to “my old friend.” Last year, just weeks before Moscow’s troops invaded Ukraine, the leaders met and announced a “limitless” partnership between the two countries.
Historically, relations between China and Russia have been filled with distrust and confrontation, especially at the height of their Cold War split in the late 1960s, but Putin and Xi have changed the dynamic. During his most recent visit to Moscow in 2019, Xi spoke of his “deep personal friendship” with his Russian counterpart. “Over the past six years, we have met almost 30 times. Russia is the country I visited most often, and President Putin is my best friend and colleague,” Xi said. Both leaders share a goal to change the world order, and they will continue to pursue it.
Chris Stevenson Feedback on unbalanced relationships:
Putin says ‘good old friend’ Xi Jinping plays ‘constructive role’ in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin said China had shown a “willingness to play a constructive role” in Ukraine ahead of Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow.
In an essay published on Monday in the People’s Daily newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Putin said: “We are grateful for[China’s]measured line on the events taking place in Ukraine, for understanding their background. and real reasons. We applaud China’s willingness to play a constructive role in resolving the crisis.”
He called Mr Xi his “good old friend” as the Chinese leader prepared for his first trip to Russia since Mr Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine last year.
In February, China released a position paper calling for an end to hostilities in Ukraine and for the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. It did not say how to resolve Russia’s illegal claims to annex four regions of Ukraine.
‘Criminal’ Vladimir Putin visits devastated Mariupol after the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest
Kiev officials have described Vladimir Putin as a “criminal” who returned to the “scene of the crime” after the Russian president visited Mariupol during the second of two appearances in Ukraine after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest ((Matt Mathers writes).
State media reported that on Saturday, Putin drove through the occupied port city in a car, stopping in several districts to talk to locals in what appeared to be an attempt by the president to create an image of power after he was charged with war crimes. . He visited the city for the first time.
Mariupol in southern Ukraine was captured by Russia 10 months ago after indiscriminate bombing by Kremlin forces at the start of Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year.
Medical volunteers on the front line withstood the attack of the Russians
Medical volunteers work in Donetsk, the most heavily fought zone in Ukraine, where Russian troops continue to advance.
Medical volunteer Frida Ukraine listens to the lungs of a girl through a stethoscope while providing specialized medical care to the civilian population in the village of Khrestyshche, Donetsk region.
(AP)
The Ukrainian-Israeli Medical Assistance Organization, staffed by volunteer doctors, provides specialized medical care through mobile clinics in villages and towns near the front line and in recently recaptured areas.
Vladimir Putin was spotted on the streets of the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol today on his first trip to occupied territory since the Russian invasion.
Mariupol came under a brutal siege by Russian forces in the first weeks of the invasion as Moscow sought to secure a land route from the Russian border to Crimea.
The Russian President visited Crimea yesterday to mark the ninth anniversary of Ukraine’s annexation of the peninsula.
Putin in Mariupol visited the occupied territory for the first time after the Russian invasion
Russia ‘highly unlikely’ to seize major facilities in near future – Defense Ministry
Russian fighting forces in Ukraine are “highly unlikely” to capture Moscow’s previously planned key targets in the months of hard-fought war, the British defense ministry said today.
He pointed to a decree issued on March 3, according to which the authorities of the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region declared the occupied Melitopol the capital of the region.
“The Russian-appointed head of the region, Evgeny Balitsky, said that this is a temporary measure until the city of Zaporozhye is under Russian control,” the ministry said.
It added: “The quiet announcement of an alternative capital is likely a tacit admission within the Russian system that its forces are unlikely to be able to capture previously planned major targets in the near future.”
Three people died as a result of the strike of Russians in Zaporozhye
Three people were killed and two were injured when Russian troops shelled a residential building in the Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine on Sunday.
The military administration of the region said that Russian troops fired Grad missiles at the village of Kamenskoye, where about 2,600 people lived before the start of the war.
Authorities urged people to evacuate, warning of the constant threat of shelling near the front line.
People inspect a damaged restaurant after Russian shelling in Zaporozhye, Ukraine on Saturday, March 18.
Watch: Putin visits Crimea to mark anniversary of Russia’s annexation
Vladimir Putin left on Saturday, March 18, for an unannounced visit to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of territory from Ukraine.
The President of Russia met with the Russian-appointed Governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, and visited a new children’s center and art school.
The surprise visit comes a day after the International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Putin, charging him with a war crime involving the illegal deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine.
Putin visits Crimea to mark anniversary of Russia’s annexation
Vladimir Putin left on Saturday, March 18, for an unannounced visit to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of territory from Ukraine. The President of Russia met with the Russian-appointed Governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, and visited a new children’s center and art school. The surprise visit comes a day after the International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Putin, charging him with a war crime involving the illegal deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Who are the Ukrainian children at the heart of Putin’s arrest warrant?
Daria Gerasimchuk, the Commissioner of the Office of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation, described in an interview with Reuters on March 17 the five main ways that she said Russia used to illegally transfer Ukrainian children.
offer families living in the occupied territories to take their children to rest in Russian children’s camps and not return them within the agreed time frame;
pick up Ukrainian children from children’s institutions in the occupied territories;
separation of children from parents at filtration posts – places for checking and registering Ukrainian citizens from regions under Russian occupation before entering Russia;
deprivation of parental rights through laws in force in the occupied territories;
removal of children in cases where they stayed with other adults after their parents died in the war
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin said on March 17 that the prosecutor’s office was investigating cases of deportation of more than 16,000 children from Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. “But the real figure could be much higher,” Kostin wrote on his Facebook page.
According to official figures, Ukraine managed to return 308 children.
Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk on Saturday issued a public appeal to Russian officials with a request to provide lists of all Ukrainian orphans and all Ukrainian children whose parents have been deprived of parental rights who are currently in the occupied territories of Ukraine or have been illegally displaced in Russia.
A report published in February by the Humanities Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health as part of the Conflict Observatory says Russia is holding at least 6,000 Ukrainian children — probably many more — in Russian-controlled locations in Crimea and Russia, the main purpose of which is to apparently to be a political re-education. The report says Yale University researchers identified at least 43 camps and other institutions holding Ukrainian children that were part of a “large-scale systematic network” run by Moscow.
Donald Trump is gearing up for his most legally dangerous week since leaving the White House, and the Manhattan District Attorney is likely to file criminal charges against him for his role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels. for this weekend he has gathered to strategize his legal and political responses.
The former U.S. president wrote in capital letters on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED TUESDAY NEXT WEEK” and urged his supporters to join the protests – an ominous echo of his tweets calling for protests to be led. until the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th.
Trump’s post was nothing more than a guess as to when Alvin Bragg might file charges, sources close to Trump said after he saw media reports that the DA’s office had contacted the U.S. Secret Service about security if indicted. accusations.
A grand jury in New York is expected to hear evidence in the reopened 2016 money-hush case and hear another witness on Monday, making an arrest unlikely the next day as indictments could take additional hours to complete.
This witness reportedly Robert J. Costello, who appears at the request of Trump’s legal team. Costello was once Cohen’s legal adviser, but the two have since fallen out. Costello’s testimony is most likely intended to undermine Cohen’s testimony.
But Trump’s frantic posts reflect his deep panic and dismay over the imminence and likelihood of criminal charges, sources say, not least because he is powerless to stop the district attorney’s office from advancing a case that will take the U.S. to new legal territory as Trump accelerates his 2024 campaign. year for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump and his allies have speculated in recent days that the money-hush indictment could benefit him politically — the Republican base could view the decades-long case as a veritable “witch hunt,” he claimed — but it’s also true. that Trump himself is very afraid of criminal charges.
Trump has been discussing the secret money case every day for the past week, and his advisers say they have been considering various scenarios if indicted, including whether he will travel to New York first to be charged or show up remotely from his Mar. a- Lago resort.
Trump has expressed interest in appearing in person at Manhattan Criminal Court, where he believes he can turn the proceedings into a spectacle in front of a crowd of reporters, the sources said, and mentioned the prospect Saturday afternoon as he traveled to Oklahoma for the NCAA championship. on wrestling. .
Each grand juror hearing evidence in the case reportedly questioned Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, suggesting they thought he was a credible witness. Photographer: Justin Lane/EPA
But some members of his legal team advised against appearing in person in such a situation, citing security concerns among other things, and suggested that he let them negotiate an agreed date for surrender and a remote initial appearance when they were notified of the charges.
Trump’s legal team specifically focused on defense strategy. Outside counsel – Joe Takopina and Susan Necheles – concluded that a case of suppression of money related to campaign finance violations could be weak after a similar case. Prosecution of Democratic Senator John Edwards failed in 2012.
If the indictment alleges that silence money violates campaign finance laws, Trump’s lawyers are expected to argue that it fails an “independent test” — that Trump would have paid Daniels regardless of the 2016 campaign to avoid embarrassment. because he was already a public figure. .
Trump may have a hard time wrestling with these arguments, given the fact that having “mixed motives” to protect himself personally and protect his campaign could result in him being held accountable, and payment timings suggest there was an urgent need to pay the money. before the end of the 2016 campaign.
In response, Trump’s legal team is expected to argue that Daniels tried to sell her romance story with Trump in 2011 and was then told to “leave Trump alone.” Forget the story,” which proves that her silence was desired long before Trump ran for president.
Trump’s lawyers recently presented these arguments to the district attorney’s office when Necheles stepped in to urge Bragg to drop the case, the Guardian previously reported. But all signs point to Bragg still pushing the case on the unprecedented indictment of a former U.S. president — and one who seeks a return to the Oval Office.
The investigation concerns $130,000 that Trump gave Daniels through his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Trump later reimbursed Cohen with checks for $35,000 from his personal funds, and in 2018 Cohen pleaded guilty to federal hush money-related charges.
The DA’s case is likely to focus on how Trump and the Trump organization handled reimbursement. The Trump Organization falsely recorded the payments as legal fees, citing a non-existent down payment with Cohen, according to court documents in the federal case.
In recent weeks at the district attorney’s office, at least seven senior Trump aides and advisers have testified before grand juries, including Cohen, who was tested for about two hours on Wednesday – his second appearance – and each juror is said to have asked a question, suggesting interested grand jury.
That’s a typical sign for prosecutors when they’re weighing potential charges, legal experts say, because it could indicate that a grand jury thought he was a persuasive witness, and jurors in a possible trial might be just as convinced.
Yesterday, I praised Viola Davis’ Oscar speech for being memorable without being overtly political—for simply talking about her work in a touching and well-written way. Twitter quickly let me know that I missed something. On social media and on conservative news sites, Davis’ speech actually sparked outrage.
Explaining that she believed her mission was to “unearth… the stories of people who dreamed great things but never made those dreams come true, people who fell in love and lost,” Davis said:
I became an artist – and thank God I did – because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live life.
This statement became one of the points of discussion of the right Internet after the Oscars ceremony. “Art is beautiful; art enriches; art can connect us to each other,” writes Ben Shapiro. V daily wire. “But the sheer arrogance of declaring that artists are “the only profession that celebrates what it means to live life” is simply amazing. How about doctors? What about stay-at-home mothers who help shape lives rather than pursue their own career interests? How about undertakers? How about if almost everyone in a free market economy gives themselves to others to improve life?
Variations of this sentiment have ricocheted online, with Davis sometimes being misquoted as saying that only “actors” celebrate what it means to live life, or worse, are the only ones who “know” what it means to live life. .
Do people have the right to be offended? Did they say that artists are better than everyone else? If you read her words literally, in the context of her speech, and give her the slightest benefit of doubt, it’s hard to see the backlash against Davis as anything but a symptom of our overblown culture wars.
Everyone “celebrates what it means to live life” in their own way, but for whom can this be the main function of their profession? Artists, definitely. The clergy, perhaps. Doctors Keep life, not to glorify them, and it does not humiliate them if they talk about it. Stay home parents help others, and Davis might even agree that it is more noble, important and necessary than “glorifying” the meaning of life.
Her point was simply that artists have a unique role to play in telling stories about the human experience and that she is glad to be a part of it.
Of course, she could have edited herself to be less controversial, though perhaps less interesting., statements. If she had simply said, “I became an artist—and thank God I did—because we are celebrating what it means to live life,” the complaints might have been more difficult. The word “one” emphasizes the special feature of the artists, but it is also a whistle for anyone who has a strong resentment of Hollywood elitism and condescension. And there has rarely been a better time to express such outrage than now.
On the right, reflective aversion to the entertainment industry has taken on a new dimension under Donald Trump. during Fox and friends after Oscarthe confusion that la la country Wrongly declared “Best Picture” Steve Doucey called “Hollywood got the election wrong, and last night Hollywood got the Oscar wrong.” Guest Tucker Carlson agreed, but added that Moonlight “should have won” because that’s what the moralizing, politically correct establishment wanted. Yes, the Oscars were both a disaster out of touch with reality and a cunningly rigged game.
Donald Trump interpreted the Academy’s failure in his own way: “I think they were so focused on politics that at the end they couldn’t come together,” he said. beardas if the accountant of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who handed Warren Beatty the wrong envelope did so because he cursed too hard at Kimmel, who tweeted the president “are you okay?”
Liberals may moan when Trump attributes a logistical error to his critics. But of course, both sides today see a lot of politics in entertainment: see below. all takes do like Dusi and compare the end of the Oscars to election night.
To many viewers on Sunday, Davis’s speech was remarkable in that she almost went beyond the partisan strife and just spoke passionately about acting. But one word – “only” – was enough to make it a culture war litmus test. Maybe she wanted to argue about the place of art in society, or maybe she just portrayed her profession as she really sees it. In any case, it was a defiant move in an age where artists are increasingly being held to the same standards as candidates for office: they are expected to choose their words not for truth, but for politics.
Two black parents from Georgia are reportedly fighting to get their five children back from Tennessee. The saga began when they were pulled over for tinted windows and arrested for possession of a small amount of marijuana more than a month ago.
Bianca Claiborne and Deonte Williams were on their way to a funeral in Chicago on February 17 when Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled them over for being “dark in color”.[ed windows] and driving in the left lane without active overtaking”, according to Lookouta non-profit news organization that broke history and spoke to the family.
According to Tennessee Lookout, after the car was pulled over, police found a joint and a small amount of marijuana in the bag, less than five grams of marijuana in total. The police charged Williams with a misdemeanor and arrested him, while Claiborne was charged.
But just six hours later, Claiborne, who was not arrested, reportedly had her five children taken from her and placed in state custody after the State Department of Children’s Affairs requested and received an emergency order from a judge. Their youngest child is a four-month-old boy who is still breastfed, Claiborne told Tennessee Lookout. The remaining children are aged 2 to 7 years.
The state reportedly accused the family of putting their children in danger in court documents obtained by Lookout.
Williams told Tennessee Lookout that this is a lie and that he believes the state “kidnapped” his children. Claiborne told Lookout her health has been affected, including a trip to the emergency room due to a panic attack last weekend, which she attributes to the anguish of separation from her children.
A lawyer representing the family said their ordeal “shocks the conscience”.
“I just have to believe that if my clients looked different or had a different background they would just be given a link and told you just keep these things away from kids while you are in this state and they would be on his. way,” Nashville lawyer Jamaal Boykin told Tennessee Lookout.
The Department of Children’s Affairs told VICE News in a statement that state anonymity laws prevent them from commenting on active cases and suggested that “anyone who releases the contents of a minor’s petition is breaking the law.” However, DCS said the Coffee County Judge was responsible for the decision to place Williams and Claiborne’s children in state custody.
“DCS and law enforcement are following evidence collection protocol,” a spokesperson for VICE News said via email. “These findings are then presented to the court. In this case, the evidence led the court to place the children in DCS custody.”
A spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol told VICE News in a statement that “criminal investigations and prosecutions are ongoing and the District Attorney’s office serving Coffee County has claimed the privilege of not releasing documents at this time,” citing Criminal Justice Rules in Tennessee Courts.
Tennessee’s foster care system has long been recognized as one of the most dysfunctional in the nation. In July 2021, seven children in state custody spent the night at the DCS office in Nashville, including several children who slept on the floor. according to video obtained by Tennessee Lookout at the time.
And last year, the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth says the report that from 2016 to 2020, the state had the highest rate of foster care instability in the nation, defined as three or more placements in the first year of detention. At the time, more than 33 percent of cases in Tennessee met this definition, compared to a national average of 14 percent. (Supreme Senator of Tennessee Republican Party filed a bill to abolish the Commission for Children and Youth.)
Democratic State Senator London Lamar said at a press conference on Thursday that the justice system is “absolutely inadequate [the] children on charges of misdemeanor.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous when marijuana is legal in about half the states in the country, and a black family has five children taken away and placed in a DCS that does a poor job of caring for the children they already have.” Lamar said Thursday. “And they will not return their children to them on charges of wrongdoing.”
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