Ukrainians plead for Mariupol rescue; Russian advance crawls – The Associated Press
Ukrainians plead for Mariupol rescue; Russian advance crawls – The Associated Press

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces fought village by village Saturday to hold back a Russian advance through the country’s east, while the United Nations worked to broker a civilian evacuation from the last defensive stronghold in the bombed-out ruins of the port city of Mariupol.

An estimated 100,000 civilians remain in the city, and up to 1,000 are living beneath a sprawling Soviet-era steel plant, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukraine has not said how many fighters are also in the plant, the only part of Mariupol not occupied by Russian forces, but Russia put the number at about 2,000.

Russian state media outlets reported Saturday that 25 civilians had been evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks, though there was no confirmation from the U.N. Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency said 19 adults and six children were brought out, but gave no further details.

A top official with the Azov Regiment, the Ukrainian unit defending the plant, said 20 civilians were evacuated during a cease-fire, though it was not clear if he was referring to the same group as the Russian news reports.

“These are women and children,” Sviatoslav Palamar said in a video posted on the regiment’s Telegram channel. He also called for the evacuation of the wounded: “We don’t know why they are not taken away and their evacuation to the territory controlled by Ukraine is not being discussed.”

Video and images from inside the plant, shared with The Associated Press by two Ukrainian women who said their husbands are among the fighters refusing to surrender there, showed unidentified men with stained bandages; others had open wounds or amputated limbs.

A skeleton medical staff was treating at least 600 wounded people, said the women, who identified their husbands as members of the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard. Some of the wounds were rotting with gangrene, they said.

In the video the men said that they eat just once daily and share as little as 1.5 liters (50 ounces) of water a day among four people, and that supplies inside the besieged facility are depleted.

One shirtless man appeared to be in pain as he described his wounds: two broken ribs, a punctured lung and a dislocated arm that “was hanging on the flesh.”

“I want to tell everyone who sees this: If you will not stop this here, in Ukraine, it will go further, to Europe,” he said.

AP could not independently verify the date and location of the video, which the women said was taken in the last week in the maze of corridors and bunkers beneath the plant.

The women urged that Ukrainian fighters also be evacuated alongside civilians, warning they could be tortured and executed if captured. “The lives of soldiers matter too,” Yuliia Fedusiuk told AP in Rome.

In his nightly video address late Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy switched into Russian to urge Russian troops not to fight in Ukraine, saying even their generals expect that thousands more of them will die.

The president accused Moscow of recruiting new soldiers “with little motivation and little combat experience” so that units gutted early in the war can be thrown back into battle.

“Every Russian soldier can still save his own life,” Zelenskyy said. “It’s better for you to survive in Russia than to perish on our land.”

In other developments:

— Ukrainian Deputy Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky said in televised remarks that Russian forces have seized hundreds of thousands of tons of grain in territory under their control. Ukraine is a major grain producer, and the invasion has pushed up world prices and raised concerns about shortages.

— A Russian rocket attack destroyed the airport runway in Odesa, Ukraine’s third-most populous city and a key Black Sea port, the Ukrainian army said.

— The bodies of three men were found buried in a forest near the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the head of Kyiv’s regional police force said. The men, whose bodies were found Friday, had been tortured before they were shot in the head, Andriy Nebytov wrote on Facebook. Ukrainian officials have alleged that retreating Russian troops carried out mass killings of civilians in Bucha.

— Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators talk “almost every day.” However, he told Chinese state news agency Xinhua, “progress has not been easy.”

— Two buses sent to evacuate residents from the eastern town of Popasna were fired upon, and contact with the organizers was lost, Mayor Nikolai Khanatov said: “We know that (the buses) reached the town and then came under fire from an enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group.”

Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in eastern Ukraine has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery barrages have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move around. Also, both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.

But Western military analysts suggested that the offensive in the Donbas region, which includes Mariupol, was going much slower than planned. So far, Russian troops and the separatists appeared to have made only minor gains in the month since Moscow said it would focus its military strength in the east.

Numerically, Russia’s military manpower vastly exceeds Ukraine’s. In the days before the war began, Western intelligence estimated Russia had positioned near the border as many as 190,000 troops; Ukraine’s standing military totals about 200,000, spread throughout the country.

Yet, in part because of the tenacity of the Ukrainian resistance, the U.S. believes the Russians are “at least several days behind where they wanted to be” as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in the east, said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the American military’s assessment.

With plenty of firepower still in reserve, Russia’s offensive still could intensify and overrun the Ukrainians. Overall the Russian army has an estimated 900,000 active-duty personnel. Russia also has a much larger air force and navy.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance has flowed into Ukraine since the war began, but Russia’s vast armories mean Ukraine’s needs are nearly inexhaustible.

Mariupol officials have described dire shortages of food, water and medicine. U.N. humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu said the world organization was negotiating with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv, but he could not provide details of the ongoing evacuation effort “because of the complexity and fluidity of the operation.”

“There is, right now, ongoing, high-level engagements with all the governments, Russia and Ukraine, to make sure that you can save civilians and support the evacuation of civilians from the plant,” Abreu told AP. He would not confirm video posted on social media purportedly showing U.N.-marked vehicles in Mariupol.

Ukraine has blamed the failure of numerous previous evacuation attempts on continued Russian shelling.

___

Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell and Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Yesica Fisch in Sloviansk, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Trisha Thompson in Rome and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Source Article from https://apnews.com/f1d99718192f44056b839595996ac72e

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Biden set to deliver remarks at White House Correspondents’ Dinner – CNN
Biden set to deliver remarks at White House Correspondents’ Dinner – CNN

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN

Updated 3:14 PM ET, Sat April 30, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/30/politics/white-house-correspondents-dinner/index.html

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Biden considering income stipulations on student loan cancellation: report – The Hill
Biden considering income stipulations on student loan cancellation: report – The Hill

President Biden is considering limiting student loan forgiveness to individuals who make below a specific income, three sources familiar with the issue told The Washington Post.

Officials are looking at limiting cancellation to those making below $125,000 or $150,000 as an individual or $250,000 or $300,000 for couples who file taxes together.

“There’s different proposals floating around the administration about how to structure this,” one person told the Post.  “Over the course of the past week especially, administration and congressional staff have focused the conversation on debt cancellation on how to best meet the president’s desire to ensure the most economically vulnerable people with student debt benefit from any action.”

One of the arguments Republicans use against student loan relief is that it will benefit higher income Americans who are capable of paying back their debt. 

The sources told the outlet the conversations are still in early stages and plenty of changes may unfold before an official plan is announced. 

Earlier this week, Biden denied debt relief would be as high as $50,000 per borrower but said he would have more to say on the issue in the upcoming weeks. 

“I am considering dealing with some debt reduction,” Biden said. “I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction, but I’m in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness and I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple of weeks.”

Since his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden has promised to eliminate at least $10,000 in student debt per borrower, but fellow Democrats and activists are pushing for more ahead of the midterm elections.

Biden has been holding off the issue by continuing to extend the student loan payment freeze that began during the pandemic due to the loss of jobs. 

Biden has extended the resumption of payments twice, with borrowers set to begin paying again at the beginning of September.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/news/administration/3472538-biden-considering-income-stipulations-on-student-loan-cancelation-report/

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How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable – The New York Times
How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable – The New York Times

But as televised theater, the formula works. Mr. Carlson reliably draws more than three million viewers. When he defended the idea of demographic “replacement” on a different Fox show in April, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, called for his firing, noting that the same concept had helped fuel a string of terrorist attacks, including the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. But when Mr. Carlson ran a clip of his comments on his own prime-time show a few days later, according to Nielsen data, the segment got 14 percent more viewers in the advertiser-sweet “demo” of 24- to 54-year-olds than Mr. Carlson’s average for the year.

Every cable network cares about ratings, but none more so than Fox, whose post-Ailes slogan stresses neither fairness nor balance but sheer audience dominance: “Most Watched, Most Trusted.” And at Fox, according to former employees, no host scrutinizes his ratings more closely than Mr. Carlson. He learned how to succeed on television, in part, by failing there.

The talk-show host who rails against immigrants and the tech barons of a new Gilded Age is himself the descendant of a German immigrant who became one of the great ranching barons of the old Gilded Age. Henry Miller landed in New York in 1850 and built a successful butcher business in San Francisco; along with a partner, he went on to assemble a land empire spanning three states. They obtained some parcels simply by bribing government officials. Others were wrung from cash-poor Mexican Californians who, following the Mexican-American War, now lived in a newly expanded United States and couldn’t afford to defend their old Mexican land grants in court against speculators like Mr. Carlson’s ancestor. Through the early 20th century, Mr. Miller’s land and cattle empire “was utterly dependent on immigrant labor,” said David Igler, a historian at the University of California, Irvine, and author of a history of the Miller empire.

Over the years, the Miller fortune dispersed, as great fortunes often do, into a fractious array of family branches. Mr. Carlson’s mother, Lisa McNear Lombardi, was born to a third-generation Miller heiress, debuted in San Francisco society and met Richard Carlson, a successful local television journalist, in the 1960s. They eloped to Reno, Nev., in 1967; Tucker McNear Carlson was born two years later, followed by his brother, Buckley. The family moved to the Los Angeles area, where Richard Carlson took a job at the local ABC affiliate, but the Carlsons’ marriage grew rocky and the station fired him a few years later. In early 1976, he moved to San Diego to take a new television job. The boys went with him — according to court records, their parents had agreed it would be temporary — and commuted to Los Angeles on weekends while he and Lisa tried to work out their differences.

But a few months later, just days after the boys returned from a Hawaii vacation with their mother, Richard began divorce proceedings and sought full custody of the children. In court filings, Lisa Carlson claimed he had blindsided her and left her virtually penniless. The couple separated and began fighting over custody and spousal support. Mr. Carlson alleged that his wife had “repeated difficulties with abuse of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines,” and that he had grown concerned about both her mental state and her treatment of the boys. On at least one occasion, he asserted, the boys had walked off the plane in San Diego without shoes; the mother’s own family members, he said, had urged him not to let her see the children unsupervised. He won custody when Tucker was 8, at a hearing Lisa did not attend: According to court records, she had left the country. She eventually settled in France, never to see her sons again. A few years later, Richard Carlson married Patricia Swanson, an heiress to the frozen-food fortune, who adopted both boys.

For many years, Tucker Carlson was tight-lipped about the rupture. In a New Yorker profile in 2017, not long after his show debuted, he described his mother’s departure as a “totally bizarre situation — which I never talk about, because it was actually not really part of my life at all.” But as controversy and criticism engulfed his show, Mr. Carlson began to describe his early life in darker tones, painting the California of his youth as a countercultural dystopia and his mother as abusive and erratic. In 2019, speaking on a podcast with the right-leaning comedian Adam Carolla, Mr. Carlson said his mother had forced drugs on her children. “She was like, doing real drugs around us when we were little, and getting us to do it, and just like being a nut case,” Mr. Carlson said. By his account, his mother made clear to her two young sons that she had little affection for them. “When you realize your own mother doesn’t like you, when she says that, it’s like, oh gosh,” he told Mr. Carolla, adding that he “felt all kinds of rage about it.”

Mr. Carlson was a heavy drinker until his 30s, something he has attributed in part to his early childhood. But by his own account, his mother’s abandonment also provided him with a kind of pre-emptive defense against the attacks that have rained down on his Fox show. “Criticism from people who hate me doesn’t really mean anything to me,” Mr. Carlson told Megyn Kelly, the former Fox anchor, on her podcast last fall. He went on to say: “I’m not giving those people emotional control over me. I’ve been through that. I lived through that as a child.” One lesson from his youth, Mr. Carlson told one interviewer, was that “you should only care about the opinions of people who care about you.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-gop-republican-party.html

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Alabama corrections officer Vicky White missing, hunt continues for escapee Casey Cole White – AL.com
Alabama corrections officer Vicky White missing, hunt continues for escapee Casey Cole White – AL.com

As federal, state and local authorities continue investigating the disappearance of Alabama corrections officer Vicky White and capital murder suspect Casey Cole White, the Lauderdale County sheriff says the evidence is suggesting she helped the prisoner escape.

“The question is: did she do so willingly or was she coerced into doing it by inmate White by threatening her and/or her family or other means,” the Lauderdale County sheriff’s office said in a statement to news outlets on Saturday afternoon.

Vicky White, an assistant director of corrections at the Lauderdale County jail, and Casey Cole White, a man who was incarcerated on capital murder charges, have been missing since they left the jail Friday morning at 9:41 a.m. The two are not related.

Sheriff Rick Singleton said the primary focus right now is finding the two. Before they left the jail on Friday, Vicky White told jail employees to prepare Casey White for transport to the Lauderdale County Courthouse for a mental health evaluation, the sheriff said, though no such court appearance was scheduled.

Vicky White also told colleagues that she was going to seek medical attention after dropping Casey White off at court because she wasn’t feeling well, but Singleton said there was no such medical appointment.

“Our secondary focus is on investigating the escape itself,” Singleton said in the statement Saturday afternoon. “Indications are, since no court appearance was scheduled, that AD (assistant director) White assisted in the escape.”

The sheriff released a timeline Saturday detailing the chain of events and what has happened in the investigation since Vicky White and Casey White disappeared.

The two never arrived at the courthouse, which is located in downtown Florence, about a half mile from the county jail.

At 11:34 a.m., about two hours after the pair left the jail, a Florence police officer saw White’s patrol vehicle. It was parked among vehicles that were listed for sale. The officer, like other law enforcement, was unaware at the time that officer White and Casey White were missing.

At 3:30 p.m., a jail employee reported to the administration that she had been trying to contact deputy White but could not reach her. The employee also reported that Casey White had not returned to the jail.

After law enforcement announced that the pair was missing, according to the sheriff’s office, a member of the public reported seeing the patrol vehicle in a shopping center parking lot. Deputies searched the vehicle but did not find any evidence.

By 5:30 p.m., about 20 local investigators were working on the case, reviewing surveillance video from the courthouse, jail, shopping center and other locations.

As of Saturday morning, deputies were still looking for any leads on a vehicle that may have been used after White’s patrol vehicle was abandoned.

The FBI, U.S. Marshals and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency are assisting with the search. The state issued a Blue Alert.

“Casey White is believed to be a serious threat to the corrections officer and the public,” the alert says.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference Friday night, Sheriff Singleton said he believes deputy White is in danger, citing Casey White’s history of violence. “He was in jail for capital murder…,” the sheriff said.

He said Vicky White had been “an exemplary employee” before violating sheriff’s office policy by traveling alone with a prisoner. Two sworn deputies are supposed to escort incarcerated people.

In 2020, Casey White was charged with two counts of capital murder for the Oct. 23, 2015 murder-for-hire slaying of Connie Jane Ridgeway. Rogersville police found Ridgeway’s body in the living room of her apartment after a neighbor requested a welfare check. The 59-year-old woman lived at Meadowland Apartments on Prince Drive in Rogersville, across the street from Lauderdale County High School’s football field.

White in December of 2015 was accused in a two-state crime spree that left a dog dead and a woman injured. Police said he carried out multiple shootings, a home invasion and two carjackings in north Alabama and southern Tennessee. In 2019, he was found guilty of a total of nine charges, including trying to kill his ex-girlfriend and kidnapping her two roommates.

Anyone who sees Casey White is advised to contact 911 immediately. Authorities say it is not safe to approach the 38-year-old. He is described by the authorities as 6 feet 6 inches tall and 252 pounds. He has salt and pepper hair, hazel eyes and tattoos on both arms, according to state police.

Vicky White, who has been with the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office for more than 16 years, is described by the authorities as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 160 pounds. She has brown eyes and blond or strawberry blond hair, according to state police. She is 56.

Source Article from https://www.al.com/news/2022/04/alabama-corrections-officer-vicky-white-missing-hunt-continues-for-escaped-inmate-casey-cole-white.html

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4 injured, significant damage reported after tornado activity in Kansas – NBC News
4 injured, significant damage reported after tornado activity in Kansas – NBC News
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Russia hits Pentagon spokesman over emotional remarks: Kirby is ‘losing his nerve’ – Fox News
Russia hits Pentagon spokesman over emotional remarks: Kirby is ‘losing his nerve’ – Fox News
Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for April 30

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova hit at Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Saturday after he got emotional talking about her country’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In a post on the messaging platform Telegram, she wrote in an “opinion” post that the press secretary is “losing his nerve.” 

UKRAINE DEFENSE MINISTRY WARNS OF ‘SIGNS’ RUSSIA IS INCREASING TROOP SIZE IN DONBAS

She called his comments “rude, insulting and troublesome,” noting he “said some nonsense” about Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“Among other gibberish, he said it was ‘hard to look at what Russian forces are doing in Ukraine.’ Really? How hard can it be for an American rear admiral to look at anything?” she asked.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby gets emotion while talking about the war in Ukraine during a briefing, April 29, 2022.
(Fox News)

ZELENSKYY TURNS NAZI RHETORIC ON RUSSIA, SAYS US AID PROGRAM WILL DEFEAT THEIR ‘IDEOLOGICAL SUCCESSORS’

Nearly 5.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the assault began on Feb. 24 and while the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reports 6,134 civilian casualties in Ukraine as of Friday, the office states that the actual figures are considerably higher.

Kirby, answering a question from a reporter about whether Putin is a rational actor, said Friday that he would not go into the psychology of the Russian leader.

Video

“It’s hard to look at what he’s doing in Ukraine, what his forces are doing in Ukraine and think that any ethical, moral individual could justify that,” he replied. “It’s difficult to look at the – sorry. It’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious, mature leader would do that. So I can’t talk to his psychology, but I think we can all speak to his depravity.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Images of mass grave sites and bodies littering city streets have drawn global outrage. 

Russia has previously claimed that the photos were staged by Ukraine and has denied committing war crimes. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/world/russia-pentagon-spokesman-emotional-remarks-kirby-losing-his-nerve

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20 civilians evacuated from besieged steel plant in Mariupol; U.K. PM says he wants to ensure Putin fails – CNBC
20 civilians evacuated from besieged steel plant in Mariupol; U.K. PM says he wants to ensure Putin fails – CNBC

LIVE UPDATES

This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates. 

Russia has been forced to move “depleted and disparate” forces to eastern Ukraine, according to the latest intelligence report from the U.K. Defense Ministry on Saturday.

The U.K. said that “many of these units are likely suffering from weakened morale.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said Russia has stolen “several hundred thousand tonnes” of grain that farmers had stored in the country, and a group of civilians were evacuated from a besieged steel plant in Mariupol.

The West braces for Russia’s next moves as Ukraine war enters a new phase

The war in Ukraine appears to be entering a new phase after Russia ramped up its threats this week, NBC News reports, with analysts saying that both sides seem prepared for prolonged conflict that could extend beyond the battlefield.

Moscow has escalated a slew of threats, including warnings of nuclear confrontation, energy crises and invasions of new territories. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its allies are preparing new shipments of heavy weapons and military equipment to aid Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin told reporters after a trip to Kyiv that the U.S. wants to see Russia military weakened to the extent that it can’t do things like invade Ukraine. And on Thursday, President Joe Biden requested Congress to provide $33 billion to Ukraine, including $20 billion for military equipment and assistance.

Read the full NBC News report.

— Emma Newburger

UK PM Johnson tells Zelenskyy he is more committed than ever to reinforcing Ukraine

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a phone call that he is more committed than ever to reinforcing Ukraine and “ensuring Putin fails,” according to a Downing Street statement. It also confirmed that the U.K. will continue to provide additional military aid to Ukrainians.

Johnson also offered Britain’s continued economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine, the statement said.

The leaders also discussed progress of the effort to evacuate the southern city of Mariupol and agreed to remain in close contact on next steps.

— Emma Newburger

Ukraine says 20 civilians evacuated from besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol

A Ukrainian commander said 20 civilians were evacuated Saturday from the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, according to a video posted to Telegram and translated by NBC News.

Earlier in the day, Russian state media had reported that 25 civilians were evacuated from the plant. CNBC could not independently confirm either claim.

In recent weeks, Russian forces had all but surrounded the strategic coastal town of Mariupol making the steel facility the city’s last stronghold.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he personally requested that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov coordinate an evacuation for civilians trapped in the steel facility during in-person talks in Moscow last week. Following discussions in Moscow, Guterres traveled to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

— Amanda Macias

Ukraine says Russian strike knocks out runway at Odesa airport

A Russian missile strike at the airport in the southwestern port of Odesa — a city that has so far been relatively unscathed in the war — has damaged the runway, and it can no longer be used, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday.

Russia has sporadically targeted Odesa, a Black Sea port, and a week ago, Ukraine said at least eight people were killed in a strike on the city.

“As a result of a missile attack in the Odesa region, the runway at Odesa airport was damaged. Its further use is impossible,” the Ukrainian military said.

There was no immediate word on the strike from the Russian military.

— Reuters

Warren Buffett says there ‘isn’t any solution’ for nuclear war

At the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting on Saturday, Warren Buffett and his executive team were asked about the impact of a potential nuclear war on the conglomerate company.

The 91-year old investor said that the world has been testing its luck since the 1940s with potential global devastation.

“The world is flipping a coin every day as to whether people who can literally destroy the planet as we know it will do it. And, unfortunately, the major problem is with people who have large stocks of nuclear weapons and ICBMs,” Buffett said.

Without referencing the Russia-Ukraine war specifically, Buffett expressed confusion that a country would consider using nuclear weapons in limited fashion “because they are losing a war.”

“If somebody’s willing to kill hundreds of thousands of people … why would they stop?” Buffett said.

As for the business impact, Buffett downplayed the idea that the company could plan to limit the impact of such an event.

“We have no solution for it, and there isn’t any solution for it,” Buffett said.

— Jesse Pound

Bodies of 3 more tortured men found in Bucha, police say

Another mass grave has been found in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the scene of alleged mass executions of civilians before its recapture by Ukrainian forces in early March, the head of Kyiv’s regional police force said.

“On April 29, a pit with the bodies of three men was found in the Bucha district,” regional police chief Andriy Nebytov wrote on Facebook. “The victims were tortured for a lengthy period of time. Bullet wounds were found on the extremities of their bodies. In the end, each of the men was shot through the ear.”

“This is another mass burial made by the occupiers in the Bucha district, the long-suffering district where more than a thousand civilians have been killed and tortured,” Nebytov added.

According to Nebytov’s post, the burial site was found in the forest near the village of Myrotske, 6 miles northwest of the town of Bucha. Nebytov said the three bodies were being sent for a forensic examination, following a preliminary inspection by the Kyiv regional police.

— Associated Press

Russian non-proliferation official talks down nuclear threat

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West should not underestimate the elevated risks of nuclear conflict over Ukraine. On Saturday, a top Russian non-proliferation official made less threatening comments.

Vladimir Yermakov, the Russian foreign ministry’s head of nuclear non-proliferation, told the Russian government-controlled TASS news agency that all nuclear powers must stick to the logic laid out in official documents aimed at preventing nuclear war, and Russia believes the risks of nuclear war should be kept to a minimum and that any armed conflict between nuclear powers should be prevented.

The United States government had said after Lavrov’s comments that it did not believe there was a threat of Russia using nuclear weapons despite an escalation in Moscow’s rhetoric. 

Yermakov on Saturday referred in his comments to a joint statement published in January by Russia, China, Britain, the United States and France, in which the five countries — permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — agreed that the further spread of nuclear arms and a nuclear war should be avoided.

“The risks of nuclear war, which should never be unleashed, must be kept to a minimum, in particular through preventing any armed conflict between nuclear powers,” TASS quoted Yermakov as saying on Saturday. “Russia clearly follows this understanding.”

— Reuters

Ukrainian official says more prisoners swapped with Russia

Seven Ukrainian soldiers and seven civilians have been released in a prisoner swap Saturday with Russia, according to social media posts from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

“We’re bringing home 14 of our people: seven military personnel and seven civilians,” Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook and Telegram. “To me, this exchange is special: one of the female soldiers is five months pregnant.”

Earlier this week, Vereshchuk said Russia had handed over 33 Ukrainian soldiers, including 13 officers, in an exchange of prisoners of war.

Vereshchuk did not say how many Russians were involved in the exchanges. As of Saturday afternoon, the most recent swap had not been confirmed by official Russian sources.

— Associated Press

Angelina Jolie visiting children in Ukraine

Angelina Jolie is visiting Ukraine to meet children affected by the war and the organizations providing them aid, a spokesperson for the actress and humanitarian told NBC News.

Jolie is calling for an opening of humanitarian corridors to allow for the evacuation of civilians and the ability to deliver humanitarian relief in conflict zones. Ukraine has struggled to open safe corridors for people seeking to flee increasingly dangerous conditions, saying that Russia is making it impossible.

“The purpose of Angelina’s visit is to bear witness to the human impact of the conflict, and to support the civilian population. She met with orphaned and displaced children – including children evacuated from Mariupol – and Ukrainian volunteers and doctors caring for them, as well as local NGOs working on civilian protection,” the spokesperson said.

The visit is being carried out in a private humanitarian capacity, the spokesperson said.

—Jessica Bursztynsky

Ukraine agriculture officials say Russian forces ramped up grain theft in April

Russian forces have ramped up grain theft in areas of Ukraine they invaded and now occupy, according to agriculture officials in the nation under siege.

The Kremlin has denied Ukraine’s account of the matter, saying it did not know where that information was coming from.

Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said on national TV in Ukraine that Russia has already stolen “several hundred thousand tonnes” of 1.5 million tonnes of grain farmers had stored in the country.

Agriculture minister Mykola Solskyi said the grain theft had increased in April, and could comprise a threat to global food security while creating food insecurity in parts of Ukraine that are not controlled by Russia.

— Reuters

A look at the mounting damage from the Kremlin’s war — and its cost

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor said there are ways under existing law to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to pay reparations for the Kremlin’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

“One way is we say we will only return the central bank reserves when you put $200 billion into a reconstruction fund and until you do, we keep these $300 billion,” Taylor explained to an audience of international lawyers gathered at the American Bar Association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Taylor, the vice president of the Russia and Europe unit at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said that the U.S. and other nations are currently assessing ways in which to change legislation to further hold the Kremlin to account.

Last month, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal projected that his country would need at least $575 billion to physically rebuild what Russian forces destroyed in just three weeks. Shmyhal’s estimate did not include compensation for deaths and injuries.

After nine weeks of war and failed peace talks, the damage from the Kremlin’s war is mounting. Here is a further look at the devastation.

 — Amanda Macias, Adam Jeffery and Getty Images

Macron pledges ongoing assistance to Ukraine in his second term

French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he intends to work with allies to “re-establish the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” during his second term, according to the presidential Elysee Palace.

Before his re-election last week, Macron held multiple conversations with Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy and Macron spoke again for an hour on Saturday with the French president committing to send more humanitarian assistance and military supplies to aid the nation under siege.

France has already sent 615 tons of equipment and aid to Ukraine, including generators for hospitals, ambulances and food. Macron also recently revealed that France sent anti-tank missiles and truck-mounted cannons, as well as other “consequential equipment” to aid Ukraine.

— Associated Press

Russian central bank expects economy to shrink by 8% to 10%

The Russian central bank projected that the economy would shrink by 8% to 10% this year.

The central bank said it cut its key interest rate to 14% and discussed the possibility of lowering rates further in 2022.

“The external environment for the Russian economy remains challenging,” the bank said in a Friday statement. The bank added that it was prepared to step in further to prevent inflation from spiking.

“The current situation is extremely uncertain,” Central Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina was quoted as saying by Reuters at a news conference Friday. She downplayed concerns of a sovereign default but acknowledged “difficulties with payments,” according to Russian-state-owned news agency TASS. “I hope that all this will end up successfully,” she added.

Read more on the economic fallout facing Russia.

— Amanda Macias

Zelenskyy says gas prices rising across Ukraine as Russia targets infrastructure

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attacks on its energy infrastructure have led to “queues and rising prices at gas stations” in many regions of the country, but Ukraine will soon stamp out the fuel shortages.

This week, Russia struck Ukraine’s main fuel producer, the Kremenchuk oil refinery, among other energy infrastructure targets.

“The occupiers are deliberately destroying the infrastructure for the production, supply and storage of fuel,” Zelenskyy said in a nightly video speech on Friday.

While he promised a fix for the energy supply issues, he indicated it won’t be immediate.

“Russia has also blocked our ports, so there are no immediate solutions to replenish the deficit,” Zelenskyy said.

— Reuters

EU will reportedly propose a ban on Russian oil

The European Union plans to propose a ban on Russian oil, according to Bloomberg News. Restrictions would be introduced gradually before going into full effect by the end of the year, the outlet said.

A decision on the sanctions could be made as soon as next week, Bloomberg reported. All 27 member states must back the measure to be adopted.

An oil embargo would likely up the ante against Russia. The EU, looking to pressure Putin to stop the war on Ukraine, is the largest consumer of Russian crude and fuel, Bloomberg reported.

Read the full Bloomberg News report here.

— Jessica Bursztynsky

Wives of Mariupol defenders appeal for soldiers’ evacuation

Two Ukrainian women whose husbands are defending a besieged steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol are calling for any evacuation of civilians to also include soldiers, saying they fear the troops will be tortured and killed if left behind and captured by Russian forces.

“The lives of soldiers matter too. We can’t only talk about civilians,” said Yuliia Fedusiuk, 29, the wife of Arseniy Fedusiuk, a member of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol.

She and Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband, Denys Prokopenko, is the Azov commander, made their appeal in Rome on Friday for international assistance to evacuate the Azovstal plant, the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic and now bombed-out port city.

An estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians are holed up in the plant’s vast underground network of bunkers, which are able to withstand airstrikes. But conditions there have grown more dire, with food, water and medicine running out, after Russian forces dropped “bunker busters” and other munitions in recent days.

The United Nations has said Secretary-General António Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on arranging evacuations from the plant during a meeting this week in Moscow, with the U.N. and International Committee of the Red Cross involved. But the discussions as reported by the U.N. concerned civilians, not combatants.

— Associated Press

More than a dozen U.S. military flights of security assistance for Ukraine set to arrive

More than a dozen U.S. military cargo flights carrying security assistance for Ukraine are expected to arrive in the region on Saturday.

A senior U.S. Defense official said Phoenix ghost drones, radars and additional artillery rounds were some of the types of military aid on the flights.

The official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, a ground-rule established by the Pentagon, said that U.S. military cargo flights that arrived on Friday carried equipment including small-caliber rounds, 122mm rockets, helmets and body armor.

From heavy artillery to tactical drones to armored vehicles, the U.S. has provided $3.4 billion in weapons to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion two months ago.

Read more about the weapons the U.S. has committed to the fight thus far.

— Amanda Macias

Russia’s foreign minister claims 1 million people evacuated from Ukraine

Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow has evacuated over 1 million people from Ukraine since the war there began.

The comments Saturday by Sergey Lavrov in an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua come as Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcefully sending Ukrainians out of the country. Lavrov said that figure included more than 300 Chinese civilians.

Lavrov offered no evidence to support his claim in the interview.

Lavrov also said that negotiations continue between Russia and Ukraine “almost every day.” However, he cautioned that “progress has not been easy.”

Lavrov in part blamed “the bellicose rhetoric and inflammatory actions of Western supporters of the Kyiv regime” for disrupting the talks. However, Russian state TV nightly has had guests suggest that Moscow use nuclear weapons in the conflict.

— Associated Press

Lavrov claims West will fight until ‘the last Ukrainian’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made another string of assertions in an interview with Chinese state media agency Xinhua, published Saturday morning.

Lavrov claimed that NATO was interfering with a political settlement in Ukraine and that the West intended to fight until “the last Ukrainian,” according to an NBC News translation.

He also claimed the Ukraine conflict “contributes to the process of freeing the world from the neo-colonial oppression of the West.”

—Matt Clinch

‘We will not give up’: UN chief tells Ukrainians

The United Nations will not give up, but will “redouble its efforts to save lives and reduce human suffering,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a Twitter post on Friday.

The UN chief said he was “moved by the resilience and bravery of the people of Ukraine. My message to them is simple: We will not give up.”

“In this war, as in all wars, the civilians always pay the highest price,” he said.

Guterres has just returned from the war-torn country, where he visited the Kyiv suburbs of Borodianka, Bucha and Irpin nine weeks after Russia began its illegal and unprovoked war.

“When we see this horrendous site, it makes me feel how important it is [to have] a thorough investigation and accountability,” he said Thursday, when he was in Bucha — where horrific photos of mass graves and executed civilians strewn in the streets sparked global outrage.

“The war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil,” he said during his visit to Ukraine, where he also met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

— Joanna Tan

Russia has been forced to merge ‘depleted and disparate’ forces in Ukraine, UK says

Russia continues to face “considerable challenges” in its war against Ukraine, the U.K. Defence Ministry said.

“It has been forced to merge and redeploy depleted and disparate units from the failed advances in north-east Ukraine. Many of these units are likely suffering from weakened morale,” the ministry said on Twitter.

“Shortcomings in Russian tactical co-ordination remain. A lack of unit-level skills and inconsistent air support have left Russia unable to fully leverage its combat mass, despite localised improvements,” said the latest British intelligence report.

In a bid to fix problems that have constrained its advances, Moscow is trying to concentrate combat power geographically, shorten its supply lines and simplify command and control, the report said.

— Joanna Tan

U.S. and Canadian troops are training Ukrainian soldiers in Europe, Pentagon says

U.S. troops in Germany have started training Ukrainian soldiers on the use of heavy weapons to defend their country against Russian attacks, the Pentagon said Friday.

“These efforts build on the initial artillery training that Ukraine’s forces already have received elsewhere and also includes training on radar systems and armored vehicles that have been recently announced as part of security assistance packages,” Press Secretary John F. Kirby said.

This week, President Joe Biden called on Congress to authorize as much as $33 billion in humanitarian and military aid to Kyiv in its fight against Moscow’s attacks.

Canada has given heavy artillery to Ukrainian forces, including M-777 howitzers and anti-armor ammunition, the Canadian government said last week.

Canadian service members are training Ukrainians on the M-777 howitzer in Europe, Kirby added, citing Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand.

— Joanna Tan

Russia says it’s not at war with NATO, blames alliance for war in Ukraine

Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow does not consider itself at war with NATO.

In an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya TV channel, Sergei Lavrov said: “Unfortunately, NATO, it seems, considers itself to be at war with Russia.”

“NATO and European Union leaders, many of them, in England, in the United States, Poland, France, Germany and of course European Union chief diplomat Josep Borrell, they bluntly, publicly and consistently say, ‘Putin must fail, Russia must be defeated,'” he told the network.

“When you use this terminology,” he said, “I believe you think that you are at war with the person who you want to be defeated.”

Lavrov — who has been sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and Europe for his role in the war — reportedly said his country’s “special operation” in Ukraine is “a response to what NATO was doing in Ukraine to prepare this country for a very aggressive posture against the Russian Federation.”

He told Al-Arabiya that Ukraine was given arms that can reach Russian territory, and that military bases were being built, including on the Sea of Azov — where the battle for the besieged port city of Mariupol continues today.

Russian forces have largely destroyed the city of Mariupol, though Moscow falsely claims that it doesn’t target civilian areas.

Lavrov claimed many military exercises held on Ukrainian territory “were conducted under NATO auspices, and most of these exercises were designed against the [interests] of the Russian Federation, so the purpose of this operation is to make sure that those plans do not materialize.”

— Joanna Tan

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:

Zelenskyy says peace talks are close to collapse; Russia says it’s not at war with NATO

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/30/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html

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White House considers excluding high earners from student-loan relief – Business Insider
White House considers excluding high earners from student-loan relief – Business Insider
  • High earners could be excluded from qualifying for student-loan relief, The Washington Post reported.
  • “There’s different proposals floating around about how to structure this,” a source told the paper.
  • Relief for loans that were taken out for medicine and law degrees could also reportedly be excluded.

The White House is weighing up the possibility of using income caps to exclude high earners in its eligibility criteria for student-loan relief.

The Washington Post reported the news on Saturday.

Officials are thinking about ways to write off student loans as President Biden indicated that he is considering waiving the debt, Congress lawmakers told various news outlets on Wednesday.

Top Biden aides are looking at capping the relief to people earning less than $125,000 to $150,000, or $250,000 to $300,000 for couples that file joint taxes, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. But they said that no final decision has been made on the plans. 

“There’s different proposals floating around the administration about how to structure this,” one person told the Washington Post.

They added that administration and Congressional staff have centered their discussion on “how to best meet the president’s desire to ensure the most economically vulnerable people with student debt benefit from any action.”

The US administration is discussing the amount that will be cut from student-loan debt but this could be at least $10,000 for eligible individuals, the people briefed on the matter told The Washington Post.

The people added that the White House is also considering excluding relief for loans that were taken out for professional degrees like medicine and law, and could limit the aid to undergraduate loans.

Biden has taken a number of actions since taking office to help Americans who have mounting student loan debts totalling $1.7 trillion. Biden said this week that he would make a decision on student-loan relief in the coming weeks.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-caps-exclude-high-earners-student-loan-relief-2022-4

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Elon Musk tells AOC to ‘stop hitting on me’ after his Twitter purchase – New York Post
Elon Musk tells AOC to ‘stop hitting on me’ after his Twitter purchase – New York Post

Elon Musk took Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ attack on billionaires in stride, urging the outspoken Congresswoman to “stop hitting on me.”

“Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special,” AOC said in a Friday posting.

Musk wasn’t named in the tweet but was quick to respond.

“Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy,” he wrote, adding a smiling emoji. The line appears to be a reference to when AOC said her Republican critics on the platform just wanted to date her.

“I was talking about Zuckerberg but ok,” AOC shot back at Musk before deleting the response about a minute later.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez responded, but quickly deleted her comeback.
Getty Images

The Tesla billionaire and world’s richest man has sent shockwaves around the platform this week after striking a deal with the company’s board to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. Musk has inflamed liberals by promising to loosen censorship on the platform and embrace more free expression.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/04/30/elon-musk-tells-aoc-to-stop-hitting-on-me/

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Free speech concerns mount over DHS ‘disinformation’ board as lawmakers, critics weigh in – Fox News
Free speech concerns mount over DHS ‘disinformation’ board as lawmakers, critics weigh in – Fox News
Video

Biden disinformation czar goes viral for TikTok song

‘Outnumbered’ panelists discuss the possible impacts of Biden’s new disinformation governance board on free speech.

Federal and state lawmakers, constitutional scholars and other experts are expressing concerns with the Department of Homeland Security’s new misinformation board, which they say is the Biden administration’s attempt to stifle free speech.

Mayorkas announced during testimony Wednesday before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that DHS had created a Disinformation Governance Board to combat online disinformation.

“The goal is to bring the resources of (DHS) together to address this threat,” Mayorkas said during the hearing, adding that the department is focused on the spread of disinformation in minority communities ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

REPUBLICANS ACCUSE MAYORKAS OF DISCREDITING ‘LEGITIMATE CRITICISM’ WITH ‘DISINFORMATION’ BOARD, DEMAND INFO

Nina Jankowicz will be executive director of the misinformation board.
(Arkadiusz Warguła/iStock)

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was quick to condemn this latest action by the Biden administration, promising to introduce legislation to defund the new disinformation board.

“The Federal Government has no business creating a Ministry of Truth. The Department of Homeland Security’s “Disinformation Board” is unconstitutional and unamerican, and I’ll be introducing a bill to defund it,” he tweeted Friday.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., similarly tweeted, “Nothing else we are working on will matter if we don’t put an end to the Biden’s Ministry of Truth.” And Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., stated, “I trust the common sense of the American people. A government arbiter of ‘truth’ department is a [red flag] for free thinking people.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., plans to ask Mayorkas more about the board in a hearing next week before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., organized a letter Friday to Mayorkas, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, to “conduct oversight” on the new board and “continued efforts within the Biden Administration to suppress free speech and discredit legitimate criticism as misinformation.” All 19 House Oversight Republicans signed the letter.

“The same party that spent years promoting the Russia collusion hoax, suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, & equated parents to terrorists believes it has credibility to control your speech,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted on Friday. “Biden must immediately abandon his plan to create an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before a House Appropriations Subcommittee April 27, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., also sent a letter to Mayokras Friday, expressing “serious concerns” about the lack of information about the activities of the board under Jankowicz’s leadership.

MAYORKAS TESTIFIES DHS IS CREATING ‘DISINFORMATION GOVERNANCE BOARD’

In addition, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., tweeted, “I don’t think people are fully understanding the severity of what a Ministry of Truth organized by DHS truly means. This is Stalin level. This is Mao level. This is the hill to die on.”

The issue has spread to states, with GOP lawmakers and leaders pushing back.

WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS DHS ‘DISINFORMATION’ BOARD: ‘NOT SURE WHO OPPOSES THAT EFFORT’

“Clearly, our entire principles that the country was founded on you cannot have a Ministry of Truth in this country,” Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference Friday. “So let’s get real here, let’s make sure we’re doing things to benefit Floridians and Americans, but we’re not going to let Biden get away with this one.”

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt wrote a letter to Mayorkas Friday that was obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. In the letter, Schmitt states that the focus of the “Orewellian” board to focus resources on the threat of “mis/disinformation” should “shock the very core of the American belief system, a threat to free speech that will rightly alarm freedom-loving people across America, including those in my home state of Missouri.”

Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Shadi Hamid said the disinformation board is “not exactly a reassuring thought.” 

“How is this even up for debate? The government should not be involved in deciding what is true and false,” Hamid continued.

Not all the critics are Republicans or conservatives. 

“That the Biden Admin casually announced today that the Dept of Homeland Security — a domestic security agency — has created a ‘disinformation’ board is indescribably dystopian and chilling,” Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted Thursday. “That Democrats think this is good and normal tells you all you need to know about them.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP 

The White House defended the DHS board Thursday, saying its objective is to prevent disinformation in a “range” of communities.

“It sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response to Republican criticism of the board during a daily press briefing. “I’m not sure who opposes that effort.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/free-speech-concerns-dhs-disinformation-board-lawmakers-critics

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Bulldozers, aircraft used to fight fire near New Mexico city – ABC News
Bulldozers, aircraft used to fight fire near New Mexico city – ABC News

SANTA FE, N.M. — Over 1,000 firefighters backed by bulldozers and aircraft battled the largest active wildfire in the U.S. on Saturday after strong winds pushed it across some containment lines and closer to a small city in northern New Mexico.

Preliminary overnight mapping imagery indicated that the fire that has burned at least 166 homes grew in size from 103 square miles (266 square kilometers) Friday to 152 square miles (393 square kilometers) by early Saturday, officials said.

Ash carried 7 miles (11 kilometers) through the air fell on Las Vegas, population about 13,000, and firefighters were trying to prevent the blaze from getting closer, said Mike Johnson, a spokesman for the fire management team.

Calmer winds on Satuday were aiding the firefighting effort after gusts accelerated the fire’s advance to a point on Friday when “we were watching the fire march about a mile every hour,” said Jayson Coil, a fire operations official.

Winds gusted up to 65 mph (105 kph) Friday before subsiding as nightfall approached. By Saturday, aircraft that dump fire retardant and water could resume flights to aid ground crews and bulldozers.

The fire’s rapid growth Friday had forced crews to repeatedly change positions because of threatening conditions but managed to immediately re-engage without being forced to retreat, Coil said. No injuries were reported.

“Kind of a nod to everybody out there that made good decisions on the fly with limited information in a chaotic environment with direct personal threat,” Coil said. “They did an excellent job.”

The winds first sent the flames advancing furiously on April 22 across the northern New Mexico landscape. Since then, crews have worked to limit structure damage by installing sprinklers, pumps and hoses and clearing vegetation around buildings, officials said.

With that work and five times as many firefighters now working the fire, they were in much better position than a week earlier and were on track to make “tremendous progress,” Carl Schwope, the incident management team’s commander said Friday.

The fire as Saturday was contained around about a third of its larger perimeter, down a little from Thursday. The fire started April 6 when a prescribed burn set by firefighters to clear out small trees and brush that can fuel fires was declared out of control. That fire then merged with another wildfire a week ago.

With the fire’s recent growth, estimates of people forced to evacuate largely rural areas plus a subdivision near Las Vegas doubled from 1,500 to 2,000 people to between 3,000 and 4,000, said Jesus Romero, the assistant manager for San Miguel County.

Officials have said the fire has destroyed 277 structures, including at least 166 homes. No updated damage assessments were available on Saturday, Romero said.

Wildfires were also still burning Saturday elsewhere in New Mexico and in Arizona. The fires are burning unusually hot and fast for this time of year, especially in the Southwest, where experts said some timber in the region is drier than kiln-dried wood.

Wildfires have become a year-round threat in the West given changing conditions that include earlier snowmelt and rain coming later in the fall, scientist have said. The problems have been exacerbated by decades of fire suppression and poor management along with a more than 20-year megadrought that studies link to human-caused climate change.

In northern Arizona, firefighters neared full containment of a 30 square-mile (77 square-kilometer) blaze that destroyed at least 30 homes near Flagstaff and forced hundreds to evacuate. A top-level national wildfire management team turned oversight of fighting the blaze back to local firefighting forces on Friday.

National forests across Arizona announced they would impose fire restrictions starting next Thursday that limit campfires to developed recreation sites and restrict smoking to inside vehicles, other enclosed spaces and to the recreation sites.

“Given current drought conditions and the ‘very high’ fire danger level, it is too risky for these activities,” said Taiga Rohrer, fire management officer for the Tonto National Forest.

———

Davenport reported from Flagstaff, Arizona. Associated Press writer Felicia Foneca in Flagstaff and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/evacuations-expected-dangerous-southwest-wildfires-84412479

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How Tucker Carlson Reshaped Fox News — and Became Trump’s Heir – The New York Times
How Tucker Carlson Reshaped Fox News — and Became Trump’s Heir – The New York Times

In early June 2020, Mr. Carlson told his audience that the Black Lives Matter protests were “definitely not about Black lives” and to “remember that when they come for you.” The next evening, as Fox’s public relations team insisted Mr. Carlson’s comment was being mischaracterized, Mr. Carlson leaned in. “The mob came for us — irony of ironies,” he told Fox viewers. “They spent the last 24 hours trying to force the show off the air for good. They won’t succeed in that, thankfully. We work for one of the last brave companies in America, and they’re not intimidated.”

Off-camera, Mr. Carlson could be less defiant. In a conversation that spring with Eric Owens, one of his former employees at The Daily Caller, he worried that the controversy over his show had made it difficult for his children to get jobs and internships; he worried that his younger children wouldn’t get into college. “It’s not right for this to affect my family, and literally affect my children’s future,” Mr. Carlson said, according to Mr. Owens.

But it’s less clear whether the attacks significantly affected Fox’s bottom line: To compensate for the lost advertising, Fox turned “Tucker Carlson Tonight” into a promotional engine for the network itself. It replaced the fleeing sponsors with a torrent of in-house promos, leveraging Mr. Carlson’s popularity to drive viewers to other, more advertiser-friendly offerings. By early 2019, roughly a fifth of all advertising “impressions” on the show were from in-house ads, according to data from the analytics company iSpot.tv. That summer, as Fox fended off criticism of Mr. Carlson’s “hoax” comments, the proportion climbed to more than a third. (A Fox spokeswoman said the actual proportions were lower, but declined to provide specific figures.) “Fox is basically an enormous loyalty brand,” said Jason Damata, the chief executive officer of Fabric Media, a media consultancy. “He’s the hook.”

Other advertising slots were taken by direct-to-consumer brands that either didn’t care about Mr. Carlson’s bad publicity or saw that they could use his intensity to sell their products. Beginning in January 2019, MyPillow, a Fox advertiser whose chief executive, Mike Lindell, is a major promoter of Mr. Trump’s stolen-election lie, began airing more than $1 million worth of ads on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” each month. Fox appeared to be using MyPillow to cushion Mr. Carlson: As other advertising dried up, the company’s ads spiked. (All told, through December 2021, Mr. Lindell had bought advertising that would have cost $91 million at publicized rates; discounts probably made that sum lower.)

Blue-chip advertisers would never return to the show in force. But thanks in part to the large audiences he could provide for those advertisers who remained, and the premium prices Fox could charge them, Mr. Carlson’s ad revenue began to recover. Every year since 2018, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has brought more annual ad revenue to Fox than any other show, according to estimates by iSpot. Last May, after promoting the white supremacist “replacement” theory, Mr. Carlson had half as many advertisers as in December 2018 but brought in almost twice as much money.

As “Tucker Carlson Tonight” became more toxic to advertisers, it also began featuring fewer guests who disagreed with the host, and more guests who simply echoed or amplified Mr. Carlson’s own message. It wasn’t just that liberals didn’t want to debate him, though some now refused to appear on the show, as Mr. Carlson complained during a Fox appearance last summer; Fox was learning that its audience didn’t necessarily like hearing from the other side. “From my discussions with Fox News bookers, my takeaway is that they’ve made the judgment that they just don’t do debate segments anymore,” said Richard Goodstein, a Democratic lobbyist and campaign adviser who appeared regularly on Mr. Carlson’s show until the summer of 2020. Across much of the Fox lineup, former employees said, producers were relying more and more on panels of pro-Trump conservatives competing to see who could denounce Democrats more fervently — a ratings gambit one former Fox employee called “rage inflation.” (One exception, perhaps, is “The Five,” a panel show featuring four conservative co-hosts and one rotating co-host from the left, which has beaten Mr. Carlson in total viewers in some recent months.)

And as advertisers fled, Mr. Carlson’s opening monologue grew. Where once he spoke for only a few minutes, sometimes in a neutral just-asking-questions mode, he now often opened the show with a lengthy stemwinder, addressing his audience as “you” and the objects of his fury as a shadowy “they.” Ratings data showed that the monologues were a hit with viewers, according to one former and one current Fox employee, and by 2020, Mr. Carlson regularly spoke directly to the camera for more than quarter of the hourlong show. Instead of less Tucker, the audience got more.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-fox-news.html

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Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West’s megadrought: Water or electricity – CNN
Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West’s megadrought: Water or electricity – CNN

Why the Great American Lawn is terrible for the West’s water crisis

Southern Californians told to reduce outdoor watering in ‘unprecedented’ order

Lake Mead plummets to unfathomable low, exposing original 1971 water intake valve

Experts say the term ‘drought’ may be insufficient to capture what is happening in the West

The Colorado River irrigates farms, powers electric grids and provides drinking water for 40 million people. As its supply dwindles, a crisis looms.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/30/us/west-drought-lake-powell-hydropower-or-water-climate/index.html

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Ukraine says Russia pounding Donbas, failing to take targets – Reuters
Ukraine says Russia pounding Donbas, failing to take targets – Reuters

KYIV, April 30 (Reuters) – Russian forces pounded Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Saturday but failed to capture three target areas, Ukraine’s military said, while Moscow said Western sanctions on Russia and arms shipments to Ukraine were impeding peace negotiations.

The Russians were trying to capture the areas of Lyman in Donetsk and Sievierodonetsk and Popasna in Luhansk, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a daily update. “Not succeeding – the fighting continues,” it said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in remarks published early on Saturday, said lifting Western sanctions on Russia was part of the peace talks, which he said were difficult but continued daily by video link. read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24 that sanctions needed to be strengthened and could not be part of negotiations. He said on Friday there was a high risk the talks would end because of what he called Russia’s “playbook on murdering people”.

Ukraine accuses Russian troops of atrocities in areas near the capital, Kyiv, that they previously occupied. Moscow denies the claims.

Lavrov said that if the United States and other NATO countries were truly interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis, they should stop sending weapons to Kyiv. read more

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed $33 billion aid package for Ukraine, including $20 billion for weapons, has received bipartisan support. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday she hoped Congress would pass the package as soon as possible. read more

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

The war has turned cities to rubble, killed thousands and forced 5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad. After failing to capture the capital, Russia is now focusing on the east and south of Ukraine.

Moscow hopes to take full control of the eastern Donbas region made up of Luhansk and Donetsk, parts of which were already controlled by Russian-backed separatists before the invasion.

Moscow said on Saturday its artillery units had struck 389 Ukrainian targets overnight. The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region said air defenses had prevented a Ukrainian aircraft from entering the region, and as a result shelling had hit parts of an oil terminal, Russian news agencies reported. read more

On the Ukrainian side, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said the Russians were shelling all over the region “but they cannot get through our defence”. He said civilians would continue to be evacuated despite the difficult situation.

Gaidai said two schools and 20 houses were destroyed by Russian attacks on Friday in the Luhansk towns of Rubizhne and Popasna.

Mykola Khanatov, head of military administration in Popasna, said two buses sent to evacuate civilians from the town were fired on by Russian troops on Friday and there was no word from the drivers. He did not say how many people were on the buses.

There were also reports of attacks on places outside the Donbas, including in the southern Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia areas and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where the regional governor said a residential area had been shelled overnight.

Britain’s defence ministry said on Saturday that Russia had been forced to merge and redeploy depleted and disparate units from failed advances in northeastern Ukraine. read more

Reuters could not independently verify the reports on what was happening on the ground.

Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy accused Russian forces of stealing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grain in the areas they occupy, and said he feared an additional 1.5 million tonnes were at risk of being stolen. read more

Ukraine said on Thursday that Russian theft of grain from its territory was increasing the threat to global food security posed by disruptions to spring sowing and the blocking of Ukrainian ports. The Kremlin said it had no information on the matter.

According to International Grains Council data, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter in the 2020/21 season, selling 44.7 million tonnes abroad. The volume of exports has fallen sharply since the invasion.

Zelenskiy said in his evening address on Friday that fuel shortages would end soon in Ukraine even though Russian forces had damaged a number of oil depots.

Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Ukraine’s operators had secured contracts with European suppliers.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-warns-talks-with-russia-may-collapse-battles-rage-east-2022-04-30/

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Western artillery surging into Ukraine will reshape war with Russia – The Washington Post
Western artillery surging into Ukraine will reshape war with Russia – The Washington Post

War in Ukraine: What you need to know

The latest: Russian military advances in Donbas are “slow and uneven,” the Pentagon said Friday, even as the Kremlin concentrates on eastern Ukraine. The “plodding progress” partially reflects Russia’s decision to avoid stretching its supply lines in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, according to Washington. Meanwhile, more than 12 flights carrying weapons and equipment, including artillery and drones, will make their way from the United States through Friday and Saturday, according to the Pentagon.

The fight: Russian forces continue to mount sporadic attacks on civilian targets in a number of Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian prosecutors have been taking detailed testimony from victims to investigate Russian war crimes.

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.

Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.

How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.

Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/04/30/ukraine-russia-artillery/

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Dozens of buildings leveled after a powerful tornado tears through Wichita area – CNN
Dozens of buildings leveled after a powerful tornado tears through Wichita area – CNN

A powerful tornado tore through the Wichita area Friday night, leveling dozens of structures in the city of Andover, according to officials.

The twister touched down in Sedgewick County, Kansas, before traveling to Andover in Butler County, the city’s fire chief Chad Russell said during a news conference. More than 950 buildings were in the pathway of the tornado, he said.

“We had many buildings in Andover take very tough damage,” Russell said, adding that some homes were “completely blown down.”

The recovery will take years, Russell said. “Unfortunately, we’ve been through this before,” he added, alluding to the devastation caused by an F-5 tornado that struck Andover on April 26, 1991. Seventeen people died in that tornado’s wake.

Although the damage was extensive Friday, only a handful of injuries were reported by authorities early Saturday.

Andover, a city of around 15,000 people, is about 14 miles east of Wichita, Kansas.

Resident Alaina Adkins told CNN that she took shelter in her neighbor’s basement across the street from her apartment complex as the tornado swept by.

“I just couldn’t believe. It just didn’t look real,” the 26-year-old said. “We stepped out of our front door, and it was coming straight to our place,” she said.

The tornado missed her home by a block, but power in her neighborhood was cut off, Adkins added.

More than 20,000 homes and businesses in Kansas were without power in the immediate aftermath. By 4 a.m. ET, that number had declined to around 8,500, according to poweroutage.us.

Videos and photos showed gutted homes, flipped cars and storm debris littering streets and front yards.

In an early estimate, Jim Jonas, the Wichita director of communications, said between 50 to 100 structures were damaged by the tornado.

One of those buildings was a YMCA community center in Andover, which suffered significant damage, city administrator Jennifer McCausland said.

The National Weather Service in Wichita said it will send out teams Saturday to conduct damage surveys. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to those impacted by tornadoes this evening,” it said.

14 tornadoes reported in Kansas or Nebraska

Several tornadoes touched down Friday in Kansas, according to Gov. Laura Kelly, who declared a state of disaster emergency.

“We have learned from past experience that we can’t wait for the storm to hit before we respond,” Kelly said. “By taking these steps early we are able to more quickly react when the counties ask for assistance.”

Over 40 million people are under severe storm threat this weekend

A total of 15 tornadoes – 14 of which were across Kansas or Nebraska – were reported Friday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center. The other tornado was in Florida, the center said.

Additionally, there have been more than 70 reports of wind damage and over 50 reports of hail.

In Enterprise, Kansas, there was hail up to four inches in diameter.

On Saturday, the storm is expected to move east, where more than 40 million people are under the overall threat for severe storms.

A level 2 out of 5 risk for severe storms has been issued and includes Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Little Rock.

“Severe thunderstorms associated with a threat for wind damage and large hail are possible on Saturday from the lower Mississippi Valley northward into the western Great Lakes,” the Storm Prediction Center said, “A couple tornadoes may also occur.”

CNN’s Paradise Afshar, Andy Rose, Taylor Ward, Allison Chinchar and Sharif Paget contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/30/weather/andover-kansas-tornado-saturday/index.html

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Opinion | Biden’s Hopeless Disinformation Police – POLITICO – POLITICO
Opinion | Biden’s Hopeless Disinformation Police – POLITICO – POLITICO

The press did pry out of DHS the board’s goal to contest disinformation crafted by Russia as well as the general disinformation (authors unstated) that had deceived immigrants from Haiti and other places that the U.S. southern border was open. Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and conservative media like the Washington Times flipped out at the announcement, dusting off their Orwell and combing out their fright-wigs to warn of an impending DHS crackdown on not just free speech but free thinking. “This is dangerous and un-American,” Hawley said in a statement. “The board should be immediately dissolved.”

The idea that the Biden administration would pulp the First Amendment and institute an authoritarian regime through its agents at DHS is immediately dismissible if only because it is one of the most ineffectual departments in the president’s Cabinet. Had Biden given the task to Agriculture or Commerce or another department with a better GPA in governing, we should be afraid. But DHS couldn’t stamp out disinformation or erect an American Reich if we reallocated to it all of the arms we’re currently shipping to Ukraine. It’s peopled by a confederacy of dunces and botch-artists, incapable of carrying out its current mission. For instance, DHS shrugged off the Jan. 6 warning signs, according to a Government Accountability Office report. It failed to share intelligence about the wave of Haitian immigrants who breached the border in 2021. (Based on its track record, DHS’ content monitors will surely miss any treacherous disinformation the Russkies ship our way.) The department is so riddled with “copycat” programs that duplicate duties handled by other federal agencies, Dara Lind argued in Vox, that it should be abolished, a view held by many. In 2020, former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) wrote an op-ed regretting having midwifed it with her Senate vote.

But never mind DHS. Who among us thinks the government should add to its work list the job of determining what is true and what is disinformation? And who thinks the government is capable of telling the truth? Our government produces lies and disinformation at industrial scale and always has. It overclassifies vital information to block its own citizens from becoming any the wiser. It pays thousands of press aides to play hide the salami with facts.

This is the government that lied about winning the war in Vietnam, that said the Watergate affair was a “third-rate burglary,” that fought a secret war in Nicaragua, that lied about a clandestine love affair in the White House, that used faulty intelligence to force a war in the Middle East. Even President Barack Obama shortchanged the truth. Of 600 Obama statements PolitiFact checked during his administration, a quarter of them fell into the “red zone” of being false, mostly false, or “pants on fire” false. Not so long ago, 50 intelligence officials — each of them smarter and better informed than any DHS brainiac — assured the nation that the Hunter Biden laptop story bore “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” How did that work out? The idea that Covid could have come from a Chinese lab was similarly dismissed as disinformation; now it’s considered a legitimate possibility by the Biden administration. Meanwhile, we have documented proof from the Washington Post that even Joe Biden can’t handle simple truths! (We don’t need to reassess the Donald Trump presidency here, do we?)

Making the federal government the official custodian of truth would be like Brink’s giving a safe-cracker a job driving an armored car. On top of that, who is going to accept DHS’ determinations? Not reporters, who are accustomed to government lies. Not the man in the street. Certainly not the so-called low-information voters the government would like to diaper and stuff into an escape-proof playpen. By conjuring the Disinformation Governance Board into existence, the Biden administration will give itself a referee’s power to declare some things completely out of bounds. Without stepping out on the slippery slope, that would give Biden’s people the power to find some things dangerous or objectionable. After branding something disinformation, it’s only a short slide to suppressing the contested information or replacing it with what Kellyanne Conway fancifully called “alternative facts.”

If Russian disinformation is a problem, it has been so for almost a century. As Lawfare reported in 2017, the Russians started sending out fake defectors in the 1930s to spread disinformation in the West. After World War II, the Soviets shifted their focus to the United States. Two years after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Soviet leadership sought to influence public opinion by covertly funding newspapers and radio stations around the world and establishing fronts to nurture communism. It forged documents and attempted to plant them in credible publications. In one disinformation campaign, it promulgated the tall tale that AIDS was the product of an American biological weapons experimentation. And so on.

Somehow we survived the Soviet onslaught without a Disinformation Governance Board to guide us. Not every particle of disinformation can be blocked. Anybody who is good at inventing lies can produce disinformation faster than anybody can shoot disinformation down. (See this RAND report about the Russian “firehose“ of lies.) Instead of installing a Truth Politburo at DHS, the government should leave the job of policing disinformation to the competitive organs of the press, which compete “to obtain the earliest and most correct intelligence of the time, and instantly, by disclosing them to make them the common property of the nation,” as Times of London editor J. T. Delane put it in 1852.

If DHS so badly needs a paperwork project, it can address a problem closer to home: set up a bureau to study and eradicate U.S. government disinformation.

*******

Thanks to Nick Gillespie for expanding my consciousness on this one. Earlier this week, David C. Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker fame responded to the Disinformation Governance Board news by tweeting a poll: “Okay you’re a punk rocker in 1982 and the Department of Homeland Security under President Reagan sets up a Disinformation Governance Board to combat disinformation. You’re reaction: That’s punk rock; That’s not punk rock.” Send government disinformation to [email protected]. You can’t subscribe to my email alerts because the list is full. My Twitter feed liked Cracker more than CVB. My RSS feed believes nothing.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/29/dont-trust-the-government-00029103

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Alabama deputy, capital murder suspect missing after transport to courthouse – WVTM13 Birmingham
Alabama deputy, capital murder suspect missing after transport to courthouse – WVTM13 Birmingham
LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. —

A search is underway in north Alabama after a man charged with capital murder and a deputy transporting him to court went missing Friday morning. Learn more in the video above.

Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office employee Vicki White, who is the assistant director of corrections, and inmate Casey Cole White have not been seen since 9:30 a.m. Friday when they allegedly left for the county courthouse. The sheriff’s office said the deputy and suspect are not related.

The marked vehicle that the two left the detention center in was located in the parking lot of a shopping center in Florence around 11 a.m. Friday. Their current direction of travel is unknown and investigators are looking for video footage that may give more information.

In a news conference Friday evening, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said Officer White, who is an employee of 25 years, told the booking officer at the detention center that she was escorting inmate White to the courthouse for a mental health evaluation. After dropping the inmate off with other deputies, Officer White said she was going to seek medical attention for herself because she wasn’t feeling well.

Around 3:30 p.m., the booking officer attempted to contact Officer White, but her phone was going straight to voicemail. It was also discovered that inmate White never returned to the jail. The sheriff said they began investigating “aggressively.”

Officials said the officer and the inmate never showed up to the courthouse and it has since been determined that the inmate did not have any evaluations scheduled. Local urgent care offices also have no record of Officer White visiting on Friday.

The sheriff added that it is a “strict violation of policy” for inmates with those types of charges to be escorted anywhere by one deputy, but they believe Officer White wasn’t questioned because she is the head of operations and coordinates all transports.

“Knowing the inmate, I think [Officer White] is in danger whatever the circumstances,” Singleton said. “He was in jail for capital murder. He has nothing to lose.”

According to court documents, Casey White’s capital murder charge stems from the “brutal death” death of Connie Ridgeway at her Rogersville home in 2015. The capital murder charge also includes first-degree burglary.

If anyone sees the suspect or Officer White, do not approach them and contact 911 immediately.

Source Article from https://www.wvtm13.com/article/capital-murder-suspect-alabama-deputy-missing-court-transport-lauderdale-county/39865649

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DeWine, once a bipartisan favorite, faces re-election hurdle in raucous GOP primary – NBC News
DeWine, once a bipartisan favorite, faces re-election hurdle in raucous GOP primary – NBC News
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Russia’s war is endangering cooperation with Norway on climate and nuclear waste – NPR
Russia’s war is endangering cooperation with Norway on climate and nuclear waste – NPR

Norwegian coast guard cutters are used for rescue, fishery inspection, research purposes and general patrols in Norwegian waters.

Nora Lorek for NPR


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Norwegian coast guard cutters are used for rescue, fishery inspection, research purposes and general patrols in Norwegian waters.

Nora Lorek for NPR

Capt. Pal Bratbak has patrolled the Barents Sea for decades. His Norwegian coast guard search and rescue cutter mostly chases after distress calls from fishermen. The fishermen are chasing the cod — and the cod sometimes lead them astray.

“The codfish, they don’t see the border, so we help every boat in our area,” he says, and that means as many Russian boats as Norwegian. A treaty allows both nations to catch a quota, and that management of the Barents Sea Arctic cod fleet is considered a success worldwide, both economically and environmentally.

“That’s important for Norway and the European Union and NATO and the whole world. And it’s important for the Russians,” he says.

Capt. Pal Bratbak has been patrolling the Barents Sea for decades in a Norwegian coast guard search and rescue cutter.

Nora Lorek for NPR


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Cooperation like that has been a given on the Russian-Norwegian frontier for decades, if not centuries. The Norwegians call it “high north, low tension.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though, that tension isn’t so low, and Bratbak is worried. The coast guard also enforces the fishing laws in the Barents Sea.

Years ago, in a rare case, a Russian trawler fled from a coast guard ship, into Russian waters — with Norwegian inspectors on board. Back then, Russian authorities promptly arrested the captain and returned the inspectors. Bratbak hopes the same cooperation would happen today, but his confidence is a bit shaken by recent events.

“In these days, Russia can use other methods to negotiate. Like in the Ukraine conflict, they are willing to use power (more) than talking,” he says.

Critical climate work is on hold

As a founding member of NATO, Norway’s government has joined the rest of Europe in isolating Russia. But as a country bordering Russia, it’s feeling the effects more immediately than some others — in everything from Arctic climate action and nuclear waste control to cross-border trade and regional sports leagues.

Tromso, Norway

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The protection of the pristine waters of the Arctic, as well as that cod fleet Capt. Bratbak mentioned, falls under an international group called the Arctic Council. The rotating chair of that group is currently Russia, and as such the council has suspended all activities, including crucial research on climate change.

“It’s not something you can point out that failed today, but it’s ongoing,” says Kim Holmen with the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso, where the Arctic Council would normally be coordinating research.

Russia has about half of the world’s Arctic landmass, including permafrost that, if it melts, could release megatons of trapped carbon and greenhouse gases.

Scientists like Holmen count on collaboration with their Russian colleagues.

“We have common publications. We have collected data together. We’ve been on each other’s cruises. I’ve been to people’s homes in Saint Petersburg, good friends,” he says.

Scientists like Kim Holmen, with the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso, count on collaboration with their Russian colleagues.

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Holmen isn’t in contact with those friends right now. He’s been working on the Arctic for more than 30 years, and he says the lesson from back in the Soviet days is that communication will only get them into trouble, which would delay getting back to work.

“Polar scientists are used to the cold,” says Holmen. “We hope and wish to pick up when it thaws.”

“We are seeing the Iron Curtain come back”

For residents of the border city of Kirkenes, their world changed overnight.

Guro Brandshaug is CEO of the Kirkenes Conference, an annual businesses summit between Russia and Norway. This was the 14th year the event was held, and, on a weeknight in February, it all started out relatively normally.

“On Wednesday the 23rd I welcomed our foreign minister and the Russian ambassador,” says Brandshaug.

With Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, she says, it was tense. But Kirkenes is a city built on friendly relations with Russia, and Brandshaug says no one she knew thought Russian President Vladimir Putin would really invade.

“And then we woke up on the morning on the 24th,” she says. “The Russians had started bombing Ukraine. It was a huge shock. People were actually crying.”

A nuclear waste dump poses a constant threat

“Everything that has been built up over the last 30 years, was just washed out in a few days. We are seeing the Iron Curtain coming back,” says Thomas Nilsen with the Barents Observer newspaper in Kirkenes.

The new Iron Curtain severed personal ties, economic links and even scuttled issues of mutual survival, Nilsen says. For years, Norway had been helping Russia safely dispose of spent fuel rods from its aging nuclear submarines, which were stationed in the Arctic.

At a park station in Svanvik, scientist Bredo Moller collects air samples for the Norwegian radiation safety authority.

“We are some, some kind of a nuclear watchdog on the border to Russia,” he says. “That’s more or less why we’re here — to monitor what’s on the other side of the border, just a few kilometers from here.”

He’s referring to one of the world’s biggest nuclear waste dumps, across the border, where tons of waste from Russian power plants and aging submarines pose a constant threat, either as a contaminant to the Arctic sea life or as material in a terrorist dirty bomb.

Moller says that just last November, Norway marked 25 years of cooperation on nuclear cleanup, and he went to Murmansk in Russia for a celebration with his colleagues.

“I have many friends in Murmansk, shaking their heads like me, waiting for this to end,” he says.

The Norwegian coast guard is part of the Royal Norwegian Navy and has some police authority.

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Moller is counting on those colleagues to keep up the work of saving the Arctic from nuclear contamination. And he’s certain his friends oppose the war in Ukraine just as he does — they just can’t speak right now. But it’s chilling that many local officials across the border, as well as 700 rectors and university presidents in Russia, have issued strong statements supporting Putin. And that makes Moller worry that even this vital work might not resume soon.

“It will take many, many years I’m afraid, to get back to that trust that we have gained through these 25 years of cooperation. So, yeah, it is frightening times,” he says.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1092639702/russia-norway-nato-arctic-council

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