Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the aim of his negotiators is to arrange for him to meet Russian President Vladimir PutinA new round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will start on Monday even as Russian troops edge closer to Kyiv and keep up their relentless bombardment of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.
Talks are set to begin via video link at 10.30am Kyiv time (8.30am GMT), said Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister. Neither side has said what they would cover, Reuters reported. Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, focused mainly on humanitarian issues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the countries’ delegations have been speaking daily by video and a clear aim of his negotiators was to “do everything” to arrange for him to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Amid the diplomatic efforts, fighting has continued to rage. The Antonov aircraft plant in Kyiv has been shelled by Russian forces, the Kyiv city administration said on Monday. A barrage of Russian missiles hit an Ukrainian base just 25 kilometres from the Polish border that has previously hosted Nato military instructors, killing 35 people and wounding 134, a Ukrainian official said on Sunday. Russia’s defence ministry said as many as 180 “foreign mercenaries” and a large number of foreign weapons were destroyed. Russia has asked China for military equipment, sparking concern in the White House that Beijing may undermine Western efforts to help Ukrainian defenders, US officials said earlier. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is set to meet China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday, warned Beijing it would “absolutely” face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sanctions, Reuters reported. But when asked about Russia’s request for military aid, Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, said, “I’ve never heard of that.” China found the current situation in Ukraine “disconcerting”, he said, adding, “We support and encourage all efforts that are conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis.” Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded before dawn in many cities and regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk and Cherkasy. In Kyiv, at least one person was killed and three were wounded when a shell hit a residential building, state television said. Authorities said they were stockpiling two weeks’ worth of food for the two million people who have not yet fled from Russian forces attempting to encircle the capital. A US journalist was shot and killed by Russian forces in the town of Irpin, north-west of Kyiv, and another was wounded, the regional police chief said. Britain’s defence ministry said Russian naval forces had established a distant blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, isolating the country from international maritime trade. In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops were trying to surround Ukrainian forces, as they advanced from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city Kharkiv in the north, it added. The city council in Mariupol said 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Moscow denies aiming at civilians and blames Ukraine for failed attempts to relocate civilians from encircled cities. Ukraine and its Western allies have strongly rejected the accusations.
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Halle Berry is grateful to be living at a time when women are standing up and telling their own stories.
“We will write, we will produce, we will direct and if we’re brave enough we’ll star in it all at the same time,” Berry said while accepting the See Her trophy at the 2022 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday. The award is given in recognition of those who are working to authentically portray women and girls in advertising and media. Berry marked her directorial debut this year with Bruised, a sports drama that follows a disgraced MMA fighter, played by the actress, as she battles her inner demons to make a comeback in the octagon. The role, Berry said in her speech, was not originally written for someone “who looked like me.” “So I went to the producers and I said, ‘Why not me? Why can’t it be a black woman?’ They said, ‘Why not?’” Berry then adapted the role to suit herself and took on the project as director. The Academy Award-winning actress said when the film came out, she asked someone what they thought of it. He admitted to feeling uncomfortable “watching a woman get battered and beaten.” In that moment, Berry knew why she had to tell this story in the first place. “I knew exactly the power of the story because I said, ‘If you had a hard time, if it made you uncomfortable watching that story, imagine being that woman living that story.’” Storytelling, she said, can raise our consciousness and “help us think outside of ourselves and our individual circumstances.” “I realised that we truly need to see each other’s reality — no matter how uncomfortable it makes us — so that we can stop judging and stop pointing fingers, but rather find compassion and empathy for the others.” Berry said she used to consider “winning” as being able to play the part of a white man. “But you know what, wanna know why that didn’t work? Because, if you didn’t know, I’m not a white man,” said Berry, with a laugh. “So, for those roles to work, they would have to be substantially changed. It would have to be written with the reality of my journey, in all of its beauty and all of its pain.” “This is why I am so grateful to be standing and living in this moment where women are standing up and we are telling our own stories.” Ukrainian officials negotiating with their Russian counterparts are to ensure direct talks between the countries’ leaders that could lead to bringing peace, Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said late on Sunday.
The next round of the talks on the war in Ukraine between the two neighbors is scheduled for early Monday, via video links. Although officials have been giving upbeat assessments lately, positive results of the negotiations are yet to come. Ukraine has repeatedly called for direct talks between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, pointing to the Russian leader as the one making all final decisions. “Our delegation has a clear task — to do everything to ensure a meeting of the presidents. The meeting that I am sure people are waiting for,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address. “Obviously this is a difficult story. A hard path. But this path is needed. And our goal is for Ukraine to get the necessary result in this struggle, in this negotiation work. Necessary for peace. And for security.” Russia has said previously that the Kremlin would not refuse such a meeting to discuss “specific” issues, but there have been no further details. On Sunday, a barrage of Russian missiles hit a large Ukrainian base near the border with NATO member Poland on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 134, in an escalation of the war to the west of the country as fighting raged elsewhere. Ukraine has said previously it was willing to negotiate with Russia, but not to surrender in the conflict. Thousands have died and more than 2.5 million have fled since the war began. Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, had focused mainly on humanitarian issues and led to the limited opening of some corridors for civilians to escape fighting. Putin said on Friday there had been some “positive shifts” in the talks but did not elaborate. Talks between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers produced no apparent progress towards a ceasefire last Thursday, but analysts said the fact they were even meeting left a window open for ending the war ![]() The cryptocurrencies briefly jumped in price after the Tesla founder’s social media post before retreating againBitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin got a quick boost on Monday after Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell. Bitcoin, which had fallen as much as 2.9 per cent before Mr Musk’s tweet, briefly erased losses before retreating again. Ether was up as much as 2.3 per cent before giving up some gains. Dogecoin’s 3.8 per cent increase over the past hour was the biggest among cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko. Mr Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive of Tesla, is no stranger to social media posts on cryptocurrencies. Last May, he said he hasn’t “and won’t” sell any Dogecoin, a token created in 2013 as a joke and for which he’d become a proponent. In October, Mr Musk said he owns Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin. This time around, he had posted a question on Twitter about the likely rate of inflation over the next few years. Michael Saylor, chief executive of MicroStrategy and a prominent Bitcoin bull, replied: “Weaker currencies will collapse, and the flight of capital from cash, debt and value stocks to scarce property like #bitcoin will intensify.” “It is not entirely unpredictable that you would reach that conclusion,” Mr Musk retorted. MicroStrategy took a $147 million impairment charge for the fourth quarter as Bitcoin’s price drop forced the company to write down its holding in the cryptocurrency. Shane Lowry delivers shot of the day with a hole-in-one on the famed 17th
India’s Anirban Lahiri birdied three of his last four holes to seize a one-stroke lead before darkness halted Sunday’s third round of the storm-hit Players Championship. Lahiri made six birdies against a lone bogey to reach 5-under through 11 holes at TPC Sawgrass and stand on 9-under overall, one stroke ahead of Americans Tom Hoge and Harold Varner entering a Monday shootout at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. “I’m just being in the moment right now. I’m really happy. I’m confident,” Lahiri said. “You grind away, keep chipping away, keep working on your game, and when it clicks, it clicks.” Two days of torrential rain followed by fierce winds on Saturday delayed play so some golfers must go 27 holes on Monday to finish the tournament. Lahiri, 34, seeks his biggest career title after European Tour victories in 2015 at the Malaysian and Indian Opens. “It definitely would be a career highlight,” Lahiri said. “This is the next thing to winning a major.” World No 322 Lahiri seeks his first PGA Tour title and the first by any Indian player since Arjun Atwal’s 2010 triumph at Greensboro. He said it would mean a lot to his homeland because people could watch it there. “It would be huge,” Lahiri said. “With every shot live, it makes a big difference because people get to watch me play. It’s not every week you play well, but you play well in a week where people can actually see you play, it makes a bigger difference.” Varner is also aiming for his first PGA Tour title while Hoge captured his first only last month at Pebble Beach. Each has nine holes remaining in the third round. Lahiri’s day began in the second round in cold barely above freezing and he made three bogeys before an eagle at the par-5 11th in the second round. “I’m not used to playing in temps like that. I couldn’t feel anything in my fingers, my toes,” Lahiri said. “Felt like I made good swings but they came out sideways and I missed a few putts. “It kind of warmed up a little bit and I got a hold of what I wanted to do on the greens. Just making the three on 11 kind of gave me the momentum I needed to turn my day around.” In the third round, Lahiri made an 11-foot birdie putt at the first hole and tapped in for birdie at the par-5 second. He sank a 10-foot birdie putt at the sixth, rolled in a four-footer at the par-3 eighth and sank a birdie putt from just inside 25 feet at the par-5 ninth. Lahiri found the left trees off the 10th tee and made a bogey to start the back nine, but bounced back with a tap-in birdie at 11, making him the man to beat with nine rivals lurking three or less back. “I feel like I’m swinging well,” Lahiri said. “I’ve got to pull the right clubs, make the right shots and just hit it. There’s going to be lot of fiddly shots, a lot of uncomfortable shots and I’ve just got to commit. The few bad shots I hit today was either a bad club that I pulled or a shot I wasn’t committed.” England’s Paul Casey, sharing fourth on 7-under through nine holes with American Sam Burns and Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz, would be the second-oldest Players champion at 44. He has gone 42 holes without a bogey. “We started in the dark and got home in the dark. But in between I played some pretty good stuff,” Casey said. “I’ve got momentum.” Ireland’s Shane Lowry aced the famed par-3 17th island hole with a wedge from 124 yards in round three. It was the 10th ace at the hole, the first since Ryan Moore in the first round in 2019 and was the Irishman’s second PGA Tour ace after one at the 2016 Masters. ![]() The group needs to reassure consumers as to how much spare capacity it holds and that it is ready to use it in an emergency Oil made the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Under him, an unprecedented co-operation with Opec was forged. Now the oil exporters’ organisation has to manage the market turmoil unleashed by his military offensive in Ukraine. Mr Putin was plucked from apparent obscurity in August 1999 to become prime minister, then acting president. He came to office a year after Russia’s disastrous economic panic that was triggered by the Asian financial crisis and the slump in oil prices. Opec production cuts meant that, by then, oil prices were reviving solidly. Russia agreed to participate in managing output but did not follow this commitment. Prices were given a further boost after George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq, then soared under the stimulus of the Chinese boom up to mid-2008. The all-time record of $147 per barrel in July 2008 would be almost $200 today, allowing for inflation. Mr Putin used the windfall to tame the oligarchs who grabbed Russia’s natural resource wealth in the chaotic 1990s, either driving them into jail or exile and seizing their assets, as with Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos, or taming them into loyal servants of the state. Reliable aides, mostly from the security forces, were elevated to run the newly-assembled state companies. Notably this includes Igor Sechin, made chairman of Rosneft, which feasted on the carcass of Yukos to swell into the second-largest oil producing company in the world. Mr Putin boosted petroleum tax collection, pursued asset strippers and followed a conservative monetary and fiscal policy, accumulating large currency reserves. After another oil price crash in the 2008-09 global financial crisis, Mr Sechin attended Opec meetings as an observer, encouraged the organisation to cut production and said his country was also doing so while in fact its exports rose 700,000 barrels per day. So bringing Russia into alliance with Opec was always a great prize. Saudi Arabia and the organisation’s other leading lights had concluded by 2014 that they could not manage the shale boom without the assistance of major non-Opec competitors. The “Declaration of Co-operation” with Russia and several other significant producers in December 2016 was thus a great coup of Opec policymaking. It has endured remarkably well since, despite occasional expressions of Russian frustration with its production limits, and a brief return to all-out competition in April 2020 as the pandemic collapsed demand. But it was always fraught with risk. Russia is a producer of similar size to Saudi Arabia and has twice its gross domestic product. Unlike its Opec colleagues, it is also a great power militarily and holds a permanent UN security council seat. It can exert pressure and has interests in more and wider arenas than the oil market or the Middle East. Two of the members it brought into the alliance are former Soviet states where it has strong influence. Opec is now in an entirely different market regime. Its greatest successes, sprinkled with some significant failures, have come in managing surplus: in the early 1970s, in 1999, 2009, 2016 and 2020-21. It has not covered itself in glory in coping with shortages. Usually, when supplies elsewhere are interrupted, Saudi Arabia has had to step in with its massive spare capacity. But now, Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, observed at the CeraWeek conference in Houston that “Today, we [the world] only have 2 per cent of effective spare capacity…You need a resilient and strong spare capacity to make sure that you can absorb any supply shocks…Before the Ukraine crisis, the spare capacity was declining fast.” Several Opec+ members were heavily undershooting their targets even before the Russian attack. Indeed, about 2 million barrels per day of unused capacity in the kingdom, somewhat over 1 million bpd in the UAE, smaller amounts in Iraq and Kuwait, is almost all that is available globally. Shale oil growth in the US is constrained, with the industry blaming Joe Biden’s policies and the President pointing to a lack of new investment. Russia exports about 7.5 million barrels per day of crude oil and refined products. A loss of part of this by sanctions, trade disruption or deliberate action would be almost irreplaceable. For the next few years, there will be a hole in the market. Beyond that, Russian output will decline as it is starved of capital and technology. Oil prices touched $130 per barrel last Monday before falling back after suggestions from Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador in Washington, that the country favours “production increases and will be encouraging Opec to consider higher production levels”. Energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei indicated that the UAE remains committed to the Opec+ agreement – but that does not rule out, of course, working within it. This would be wise. Excessively high prices will trigger a global recession, improved energy efficiency and the rapid uptake of electric vehicles and other non-oil technologies. A few years of boom will give way to a long-lived, perhaps permanent, oil bust. Readmore:thenationalnews.com/business/comment/2022/03/14/can-opec-help-manage-the-ongoing-crude-price-rally-with-its-spare-capacity/ Video surveillance footage captured that attack, showing the shooter firing at one of the men as he slept at about 6amPolice in New York have appealed for help to identify a man who shot at least two homeless people, killing one as the victim slept on the street.
The attacker first shot a man, 38, in the US city’s Lower Manhattan area early on Saturday, wounding him, investigators said. Then shortly before 5pm, another man was found dead in a sleeping bag with gunshot wounds in his head and neck. “The cases are clear and horrific,” said Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, who urged witnesses to come forward. Video surveillance footage captured that attack, showing the shooter firing at the second man as he slept at about 6am, shortly after the first incident. On Sunday night, local media reported an attack on a third man, who also appeared to be homeless. He was found dead at around 7pm local time with a “possible gunshot wound,” NBC New York reported, citing police. Mr Adams described the shootings as senseless attacks on people “sleeping on the streets — not committing a crime, but sleeping on the streets.” He and the police urged New York’s thousands of homeless people to contact city agencies that can help them find sleeping accommodation. Homeless people moved out of subways New York’s homeless population has grown in recent years. Mr Adams announced a plan only weeks after taking office in January to move them out of the city’s vast system of subway tunnels, where many sleep on cold nights. His proposal drew sharp criticism from some non-governmental organisations. “People only stay in the subway because they have no better place to go,” said the Coalition for the Homeless. The appeal comes after a stabbing at New York’s Museum of Modern Art on Saturday, when a man leapt over a reception desk and stabbed two employees as they tried to flee. For thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion, their dog or cat is the only source of comfort and hope as their world falls apart.
More than 4.2 million people have left Ukraine in the six weeks of war to date, many of them refusing to leave behind their pets despite the huge effort involved in carrying them on the long journey out of the war zone. Viva animal charity, which operates in the UK and Poland, is one of the many groups offering assistance to Ukrainians with pets at borders, handing out food, carriers, leads and flea collars.The group’s founder and director Juliet Gellatley said the stories relayed to her by weary refugees as they crossed into Poland were inspiring and emphasised the important role pets play in the mental health of their owners. She said this was particularly evident in cases where children are traumatised from war. “Some of the children have had the responsibility of looking after the animals and have a special bond with them. [Bringing them across the border] gives them a sense of home,” Ms Gellatley told The National. “To leave them behind would destroy them, they would be heart-broken. This is their friend who shows then affection. Young children can talk to animals in a way they cannot with adults. It offers them home after all they have survived together. “Material possessions can be replaced but your dogs or cats cannot.“One woman, who had her bird and two dogs with her on the border, said 'all I want to say to other refugees is don’t leave your dogs behind, they need your love.' “One lady had carried her dog in a backpack for 15 days by the time she reached Warsaw. And a little boy had carried his pet rat in his pocket. “They’re essential and part and parcel of the family.” Before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Viva cared for 450 animals at its 24-hectare sanctuary in Korabiewicach, near Warsaw. Since then it has taken in 130 dogs and cats from Ukraine, some of which had been left homeless when their owners fled the violence. The sanctuary is now full and the charity is urging people in the UK to offer a loving home to one of the abandoned pets. Some animals handed in have complex needs, including blindness, and require special assistance. “There’s a story behind every dog and the ones coming from Ukraine have their own stories,” Ms Gellatley said. “There was one dog called Charlie whose owner died in Ukraine and someone brought him across the border saying he was not going to survive the war. He ended up at our sanctuary in Poland and is doing well. The vets believe they may be able to treat his eyes and he may be able to see again.” As well as housing and caring for animals at its sanctuary, Viva also distributes food for animals in Ukraine and donates pet carriers to refugees at border crossings. Since the start of the war the charity has raised £30,000 ($38,980) to help Ukrainian animals as people across the world have been moved by the plight of suffering dogs and cats. Volunteers listened to harrowing stories from desperate refugees including one who carried a shopping bag full of puppies out of the war zone and another whose elderly shepherd dog was unable to walk and had to be carried on its owner’s shoulders.“The scale of the problem for both people and their animals is vast,” Ms Gellatley said. “To ensure we can accept more animals into our Polish sanctuary, we have launched a rehoming scheme in the UK, where we have appealed to British people to home some of our existing Polish dogs, whose characters we know and who don’t require quarantine. They have responded magnificently, creating more space for us to receive new refugee dogs.” Viva Poland Manager Cezary Wyzinsky, who has run the branch for 18 years, described the situation created by the war as “chaotic”. “Our volunteers and resident vet, along with a refugee vet from Ukraine, have been able to settle, reassure and treat the often traumatised new arrivals,” he said. “It is a desperate situation, with two million refugees and their companion animals now in Poland, and the flow continues. ![]() Anurag Batra addressing the social enterprise summit organised by Business World 7 years ago, jokingly said they run a media company so that they are a social enterprise. The people who are gathered for the summit, who are driving social enterprises, who are doing something that is needed in the country. Anurag Batra was introduced these years back. He wrote a column in the entrepreneur magazine on entrepreneurship. And seeing that article, one of his friends asked him to write an article on social enterprises. And Anurag's interest to know more from his friend about the topic and by learning by it he was pleasantly surprised that so much work is happening in this domain. His friend told him about the institutions and the individuals that are working in this domain. He says that entrepreneurs who want to create just wealth for themselves are selfish and he calls it “sampati”. He feels that people in the social entrepreneurship space are creating what he called shared wealth which is termed as “sampatha”. Anurag Batra questions the need for law for CSR in India when everywhere else in the world, businesses are becoming a force for good. But here it is just 3% of it is need to be done for good. That means with the rest 97% nothing good happens. More people can contribute to the growth of this country in a meaningful manner and by sharing the wealth. When Anurag Batra started, he wasn’t aware of social enterprise. His thought was always to achieve something and then give back. But now he knows many young people who want to give and then achieve something. In Anurag’s case when it started happening years back, it was kind of a difficult notion to digest. He didn’t know if these young people for real. But over a while, he realised that these people want to give first. He feels that’s the mission that they put first. The real achievement for them is being successful in a social enterprise. Anurag Batra advises the young entrepreneurs that they are doing something that will go into nation-building. He also wants to give them 2 cautionary notes. All of us read international magazines and articles on Indian NGOs. He was very worried to read that article. He always looks down on NGOs because he knows too many people who are in the garb of NGOs running a commercial organization. Mr Anurag thinks even social enterprises need to be self-sustainable and if you are self-sustainable you can gift something to someone. He wrote an article in entrepreneurship about young entrepreneurs who get lots of awards but rarely build anything. He is too worried about how much is the circulation. this month how much money did we build did we lose that story or not how much did we bill on events. He is not really in touch with what’s happening in the country beyond what he sees. The institute of competitiveness in doing a social enterprise summit because this is a domain that needs to be talked about the heroes and the leaders of the social enterprise movement need to be brought to so that more people can be inspired and do work. He hopes that as we go along as a business world and institute of competitiveness, we can celebrate your journey and can contribute to your journey. Troops dig in around cities: Ukrainian forces began bolstering defences in key cities on Wednesday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. The military around Kyiv are resisting the Russian offensive with unspecified strikes and “holding the line”. In the northern city of Chernihiv, Russian troops are placing military equipment among residential buildings and on farms, the Ukrainian general staff said, while in the south, Russians dressed in civilian clothes are advancing on the city of Mykolaiv. The strategic port city of Mariupol remains encircled as a humanitarian crisis escalates. A Ukrainian MP on Wednesday shared a picture of a dead child whom she said had died of dehydration in Mariupol.
Chernobyl grows quiet: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has ceased transmitting data to the UN’s atomic watchdog, the agency has said, nearly two weeks after Russian forces seized the site. The agency’s chief Rafael Grossi “indicated that remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at the Chornobyl NPP had been lost”, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Agency is looking into the status of safeguards monitoring systems in other locations in Ukraine and will provide further information soon,” it said. Poles apart: The Pentagon rejected Poland’s offer to offer the US its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine in a rare public display of disharmony between Nato allies. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Warsaw’s proposal to deliver the aircraft to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of jets departing from a US and Nato base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine war. He said that while consultations on the offer would continue, “we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one”. No more Big Macs: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Starbucks are among the latest global chains to pull out of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The fast-food company said it was temporarily shutting its 847 restaurants in Russia, while Starbucks said its 100 coffee shops would shut. Zelenskyy channels Churchill: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a rousing speech to the UK Parliament in which he channelled the former wartime leader Winston Churchill. Mr Zelenskyy evoked the famous former prime minister as he made a comparison to the situation Britain faced in the Second World War. “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” the Ukrainian leader said. “We will fight in the forest, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.” |
MichaelMichael is Professor of Political Science and Head of Department. His research is on public administration and administrative reform, core executives, the role of civil servants in a transformed state, Archives
May 2024
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