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  • U.S., EU pile new sanctions on Russia

    U.S., EU pile new sanctions on Russia

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    The United States and the European Union are piling new sanctions on Russia on the eve of the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony.

    What You Need To Know

    • The United States and the European Union are piling new sanctions on Russia on the eve of the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week

    • The U.S. Treasury Department plans to impose more than 500 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022

    • Also Friday, the European Union announced it is imposing sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine

    The U.S. Treasury, State Department and Commerce Department plan Friday to impose roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. They come on the heels of a series of new arrests and indictments announced by the Justice Department on Thursday that target Russian businessmen, including the head of Russia’s second-largest bank, and their middlemen in five separate federal cases.

    The European Union announced Friday that it is imposing sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc also said that it was targeting scores of Russian officials, including “members of the judiciary, local politicians and people responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”

    “The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions. “If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States — along with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world — will rise.”

    While previous sanctions have increased costs for Russia’s ability to fight in Ukraine, they appear to have done little so far to deter Putin’s aggression or ambitions. The Biden administration is levying additional sanctions as House Republicans are blocking billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine.

    The war is becoming entangled in U.S. election-year politics, with former President Donald Trump voicing skepticism about the benefits of the NATO alliance and saying that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to countries that, in his view, are not pulling their weight in the alliance.

    Many of the new U.S. sanctions announced Friday target Russian firms that contribute to the Kremlin’s war effort — including drone and industrial chemical manufacturers and machine tool importers — as well as financial institutions, such as the state-owned operator of Russia’s Mir National Payment System.

    In response to Navalny’s death, the State Department is designating three Russian officials the U.S. says are connected to his death. It also will impose visa restrictions on Russian authorities it says are involved in the kidnapping and confinement of Ukrainian children.

    In addition, 26 third-country people and firms from across China, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, and Liechtenstein are listed for sanctions, for assisting Russia in evading existing financial penalties.

    The Russian foreign ministry said the EU sanctions are “illegal” and undermine “the international legal prerogatives of the UN Security Council.” In response, the ministry is banning some EU citizens from entering the country because they have provided military assistance to Ukraine. It did not immediately address the U.S. sanctions.

    The U.S. specifically was to target individuals associated with Navalny’s imprisonment a day after Biden met with the opposition leader’s widow and daughter in California. It was also hitting “Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” Biden said. “They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”

    The EU asset freezes and travel bans constitute the 13th package of measures imposed by the bloc against people and organizations it suspects of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

    “Today, we are further tightening the restrictive measures against Russia’s military and defense sector,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “We remain united in our determination to dent Russia’s war machine and help Ukraine win its legitimate fight for self-defense.”

    In all, 106 more officials and 88 “entities” — often companies, banks, government agencies or other organizations — have been added to the bloc’s sanctions list, bringing the tally of those targeted to more than 2,000 people and entities, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates.

    Companies making electronic components, which the EU believes could have military as well as civilian uses, were among 27 entities accused of “directly supporting Russia’s military and industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine,” a statement said.

    Those companies — some of them based in India, Sri Lanka, China, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Turkey — face tougher export restrictions.

    The bloc said the companies “have been involved in the circumvention of trade restrictions,” and it accuses others of “the development, production and supply of electronic components” destined to help Russia’s armed forces.

    Some of the measures are aimed at depriving Russia of parts for pilotless drones, which are seen by military experts as key to the war.

    Since the start of the war, U.S. Treasury and State departments have designated over 4,000 officials, oligarchs, firms, banks and others under Russia-related sanctions authorities. A $60 per barrel price cap has also been imposed on Russian oil by Group of Seven allies, intended to reduce Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels.

    Critics of the sanctions, price cap and other measures meant to stop Russia’s invasion say they are not working fast enough.

    Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that primarily sanctioning Russia’s defense industry and failing to cut meaningfully into Russia’s energy revenues will not be enough to halt the war.

    “One way or another, they will have to eventually address Russia’s oil revenues and have to consider an oil embargo,” Snegovaya said. “The oil price cap has effectively stopped working.”

    Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo, in previewing the new sanctions, told reporters that the U.S. and its allies will not lower the price cap; “rather what we’ll be doing is taking actions that will increase the cost” of Russia’s production of oil.

    He added that “sanctions alone are not enough to carry Ukraine to victory.”

    “We owe the Ukrainian people who have held on for so long the support and resources they desperately need to defend their homeland and prove Putin wrong once and for all time.”

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  • Navalny’s mother says she’s seen her son’s body

    Navalny’s mother says she’s seen her son’s body

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    Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said Thursday that she has seen her son’s body and that she is resisting strong pressure by authorities to agree to a secret burial outside the public eye.

    What You Need To Know

    • Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said Thursday that she has seen her son’s body

    • Navalny, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, suddenly died in an Arctic prison last week, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles

    • Navalnaya reaffirmed the demand to give Navalny’s body to her and protested what she described as authorities trying to force her to agree to a secret burial

    • Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power


    Speaking in a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, Navalnaya said investigators allowed her to see her son’s body in the city morgue. She said she reaffirmed the demand to give Navalny’s body to her and protested what she described as authorities trying to force her to agree to a secret burial.

    “They are blackmailing me, they are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried,” she said. “They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony.”

    Navalny, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, suddenly died in an Arctic prison last week, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles. The Russian authorities have detained scores of them as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe ahead of the presidential election he is almost certain to win.

    Navalny’s mother has filed a lawsuit at a court in Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release her son’s body. A closed-door hearing has been scheduled for March 4. On Tuesday, she appealed to Putin to release her son’s remains so that she could bury him with dignity.

    In the video released Thursday, Navalnaya said she had spent nearly 24 hours in the Salekhard office of the Investigative Committee, where officials told her that they have determined the politician’s cause of death and have the paperwork ready, but she has to agree to a secret funeral. She didn’t specify what the cause of death was.

    “They want to take me to the outskirts of the cemetery to a fresh grave and say: ‘Here lies your son.’ I don’t agree to this. I want you too — to whom Alexey is dear, for whom his death was a personal tragedy — to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him,” she said.

    Navalnaya accused the authorities of threatening her: “Looking into my eyes, they say that if I do not agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body. Investigator Voropayev openly told me: ‘Time is not on your side, the corpse is decomposing’,” she said, reiterating her demand to release her son’s body “immediately.”

    Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid Putin’s unrelenting crackdown on the opposition.

    Since Navalny’s death, about 400 people have been detained across in Russia as they tried to pay tribute to him with flowers and candles, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests. Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials to victims of Soviet repression across the country that were being used as sites to leave makeshift tributes to Navalny. Police removed the flowers at night, but more keep appearing.

    Earlier Thursday, imprisoned opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza urged Russians not to give up after Navalny ‘s death, and he alleged that a state-backed hit squad was taking out the Kremlin’s political opponents, according to a video posted to social media.

    A British-Russian citizen, Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year sentence for treason at Penal Colony No. 7 in the Siberian city of Omsk. He comments came as he appeared via a video link in a court hearing over a complaint against Russia’s Investigative Committee for what he believes were two poisoning attempts against him. He alleges the committee didn’t properly investigate the attempts.

    Kara-Murza is one of several opposition figures who have either been imprisoned, forced to flee the country or killed. He was convicted of criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was handed a stiff sentence as part of a crackdown against critics of the war and freedom of speech.

    “We owe it … to our fallen comrades to continue to work with even greater strength and achieve what they lived and died for,” Kara-Murza said in the video, which was shared by the Russian Sota telegram channel.

    Kara-Murza says the attempts to poison him took place in 2015 and 2017. In the first, he nearly died of kidney failure, although no cause was determined. He was hospitalized with a similar illness in 2017 and put into a medically induced coma. His wife said doctors confirmed he was poisoned.

    Kara-Murza’s latest hearing came after months of postponements. In January, he was moved from another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement over an alleged minor infraction.

    According to the video shared by Sota, Kara-Murza alleged there is a “death squad within the Federal Security Service, a group of professional killers in the service of the state, whose task is to physically eliminate political opponents of the Putin regime.”

    He said investigative journalists had shown the group of FSB officers participated in his poisoning, as well as Navalny’s poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 and the surveillance of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov before he was shot and killed in 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin.

    On Monday, Ilya Yashin, an opposition figure serving 8 1/2 years in prison for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine, alleged in a social media post shared on his behalf that Putin had killed Navalny.

    “I have no doubt that it was Putin. He’s a war criminal,” Yashin said. “Navalny was his key opponent in Russia and was hated by the Kremlin. Putin had both motive and opportunity. I am convinced that he ordered the killing.”

    The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the illnesses and deaths of the opposition figures, including Navalny.

    Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said Thursday on her Instagram account that she had flown to visit her 20-year-old daughter, Dasha, a student at Stanford University.

    “My dear girl, I came to hug you and support you, and you sit and support me” she wrote under a photo of herself and her daughter lying on a carpet.

    Describing her daughter as “strong, brave and resilient,” Navalnaya said the family would “definitely cope with everything.” She also has a 15-year-old son, Zakhar.

    Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown and have refused to release his body for two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, his team said. It accused the government of stalling to try to hide evidence.

    In a video on Monday, Yulia Navalnaya also accusing Putin of killing her husband and alleged the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations, calling them “absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”

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    Associated Press

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  • AT&T says it’s restored three-quarters of its network after outage

    AT&T says it’s restored three-quarters of its network after outage

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    AT&T said that it has restored three-quarters of its network after an outage on Thursday morning that disrupted phone service nationwide.

    “Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored,”AT&T said in a statement to Spectrum News. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”

    What You Need To Know

    • AT&T said that it has restored three-quarters of its network after an outage on Thursday morning that disrupted phone service nationwide
    • Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages
    • In a statement to Spectrum News, Verizon said its network is “operating normally; likewise, T-Mobile said that it did not experience an outage

    Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages.

    Per Downdetector, users began to report issues after 3:30 a.m. ET. Reports peaked at at around 4:30-5:30 a.m. ET, depending on the carrier in question. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.

    Areas reporting issues included New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, Chicago and Atlanta. Some municipalities across the country also reported issues with contacting emergency services, including 911.

    The emergency services outage prompted at least one law enforcement organization to urge people not to test if 911 was working.

    “Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” Massachusetts State Police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”

    AT&T had more than 64,000 outages on Thursday morning. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, more than any other company in the U.S.

    Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000, the outage tracking website said Thursday. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,900 outages reported. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.

    In a statement to Spectrum News, Verizon said its network is “operating normally.”

    “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier,” the carrier said. “We are continuing to monitor the situation.”

    Likewise, T-Mobile said that it did not experience an outage.

    “Our network is operating normally,” the company said in a statement to Spectrum News. “Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”

    NOTE: Spectrum News is owned by parent company Charter Communications, which owns and operates Spectrum Mobile. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Associated Press

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  • AT&T says it’s restored three-quarters of its network after outage

    AT&T says it’s restored three-quarters of its network after outage

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    AT&T said that it has restored three-quarters of its network after an outage on Thursday morning that disrupted phone service nationwide.

    “Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored,”AT&T said in a statement to Spectrum News. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”

    What You Need To Know

    • AT&T said that it has restored three-quarters of its network after an outage on Thursday morning that disrupted phone service nationwide
    • Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages
    • In a statement to Spectrum News, Verizon said its network is “operating normally; likewise, T-Mobile said that it did not experience an outage

    Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages.

    Per Downdetector, users began to report issues after 3:30 a.m. ET. Reports peaked at at around 4:30-5:30 a.m. ET, depending on the carrier in question. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.

    Areas reporting issues included New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, Chicago and Atlanta. Some municipalities across the country also reported issues with contacting emergency services, including 911.

    The emergency services outage prompted at least one law enforcement organization to urge people not to test if 911 was working.

    “Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” Massachusetts State Police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”

    AT&T had more than 64,000 outages on Thursday morning. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, more than any other company in the U.S.

    Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000, the outage tracking website said Thursday. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,900 outages reported. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.

    In a statement to Spectrum News, Verizon said its network is “operating normally.”

    “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier,” the carrier said. “We are continuing to monitor the situation.”

    Likewise, T-Mobile said that it did not experience an outage.

    “Our network is operating normally,” the company said in a statement to Spectrum News. “Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”

    NOTE: Spectrum News is owned by parent company Charter Communications, which owns and operates Spectrum Mobile. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Associated Press

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  • Miguel scores 17, South Florida defeats UTSA 66-61

    Miguel scores 17, South Florida defeats UTSA 66-61

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    SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Selton Miguel’s 17 points off of the bench helped lead South Florida to a 66-61 victory against UTSA on Wednesday night.

    Miguel also added six rebounds for the Bulls (20-5, 13-1 American Athletic Conference). Chris Youngblood scored 15 points while going 6 of 14 from the floor, including 2 for 7 from 3-point range, and 1 for 3 from the line. Kasean Pryor was 3 of 9 shooting and 6 of 8 from the free throw line to finish with 12 points, while adding 10 rebounds. It was the 12th victory in a row for the Bulls.

    The Roadrunners (8-19, 2-12) were led in scoring by Christian Tucker, who finished with 15 points and six assists. Chandler Cuthrell added 10 points and 10 rebounds for UTSA. In addition, Carlton Linguard had 10 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. The Roadrunners prolonged their losing streak to seven in a row.

    South Florida went into halftime leading UTSA 32-30. Miguel scored eight points in the half. Youngblood put up 10 second-half points and South Florida secured the victory after a second half that had eight lead changes and was tied three times.

    ___

    The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by https://www.dataskrive.com/ and data from https://www.sportradar.com.

    By The Associated Press

    SAN ANTONIO

    AP Wire ID 52cc1a894614460fb93a8a98244f1e8b

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    Associated Press

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  • Nelson powers No. 13 Alabama to 98-93, overtime win over No. 24 Florida

    Nelson powers No. 13 Alabama to 98-93, overtime win over No. 24 Florida

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    BY JOHN ZENOR

    Updated 10:24 PM EST, February 21, 2024

    TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — With the outright Southeastern Conference lead in jeopardy, Alabama dug out of a double-digit hole before finally taking control in overtime.

    Grant Nelson had 22 points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots and No. 13 Alabama started fast in OT to beat newly ranked No. 24 Florida 98-93 on Wednesday night.

    The Crimson Tide (19-7, 11-2 SEC) scored the first seven points of overtime and held on to preserve their perch atop the league standings over No. 5 Tennessee after a shootout between two of the nation’s top 10 scoring teams.

    Alabama coach Nate Oats said he was “still not quite sure how we figured out how to win it.”

    “We’re figuring out ways to win games,” Oats said. “If you’re going to win league championships, which we’re obviously in the hunt for with five games left, these are the games that you’ve got to figure out ways to win when you don’t play well.”

    Aaron Estrada scored on a follow shot with 7 seconds left after Sam Walters kept the ball alive. Estrada finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

    Walter Clayton Jr. led Florida with 27 points but missed a potential tying 3-pointer at the end. Alabama’s Mark Sears collected the rebound, drew an immediate foul and made two free throws.

    Florida (18-8, 8-5) didn’t score in overtime until Clayton made a pair of free throws with 2:28 left, and he got two more on the next possession to pull the Gators within 92-89. Sears stripped the ball from Clayton on a drive to the basket and Rylan Griffen made two foul shots.

    Alex Condon’s short jumper cut it to 94-93 with 36 seconds left. Estrada snared the rebound after Griffen’s missed 3. But the Gators appeared in charge much of the game after their first ranking under coach Todd Golden.

    “I think we have a chance at a really special end of the year,” Golden said. “Even though we came up short tonight, I think our effort indicates that.”

    Alabama opened the extra period with two baskets by Estrada sandwiched around Griffen’s 3-pointer.

    Alabama had six players score in double figures. Sears had 17 points and eight of Alabama’s 19 assists.

    Walters had 14 points and four 3-pointers. Nick Pringle scored 13 points before fouling out in overtime and Griffen scored 10. And Nelson had what Oats called “probably” his best game with the Tide.

    Clayton also had eight rebounds and five assists. Zyon Pullin and Will Richard scored 17 apiece for Florida, Tyrese Samuel had 14 and Condon 10.

    The Tide had rallied from a 10-point deficit over the final 9 minutes of regulation.

    Both teams missed potential winning shots on their final possessions of regulation, sending it to overtime tied at 85-85. Micah Handlogten blocked Sears’ layup attempt at the buzzer.

    It was the first time since 2007 the teams had met when both were ranked.

    Alabama was without starting guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr., out with a head injury sustained on Monday.

    “I felt like I had to step up, because losing a great shooter like that is definitely hard on our team,” Walters said. “I’m glad we fought through.”

    BIG PICTURE

    Florida: Had entered the rankings for the first time since December 2021 on Monday. Micah Handlogten had 13 rebounds and three blocks.

    Alabama: The SEC’s most prolific 3-point shooting team made just one of its first 17 attempts from 3 but finished 8 of 32. The Tide have won 16 straight SEC home games.

    UP NEXT Florida hosts Vanderbilt on Saturday.

    Alabama visits No. 17 Kentucky on Saturday.

    ___

    Get poll alerts and updates on AP Top 25 basketball throughout the season. Sign up here.

    ___

    AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

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    Associated Press

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  • Advocates concerned about Alabama ruling’s impact on fertility treatments

    Advocates concerned about Alabama ruling’s impact on fertility treatments

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    The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos created during fertility treatments should be considered children under state law

    • Justices issued the ruling Friday in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic

    • Justices said an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location”

    • The ruling brought a rush of warnings from groups and advocates who said it would have sweeping implications for fertility treatments in the state

    The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

    “Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.

    Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman is pregnant are covered under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the Act’s coverage.”

    The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.

    “This ruling is stating that a fertilized egg, which is a clump of cells, is now a person. It really puts into question, the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told The Associated Press Tuesday. The group called the decision a “terrifying development for the 1-in-6 people impacted by infertility” who need in-vitro fertilization.

    She said it raises questions for providers and patients, including if they can freeze future embryos created during fertility treatment or if patients could ever donate or destroy unused embryos.

    Sean Tipton, a spokesman with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said at least one Alabama fertility clinic has been instructed by their affiliated hospital to pause IVF treatment in the immediate wake of the decision.

    Dr. Paula Amato, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said a decision to treat frozen fertilized egg as the legal equivalent of a child or gestating fetus could limit the availability of modern health care.

    “By insisting that these very different biological entities are legally equivalent, the best state-of-the-art fertility care will be made unavailable to the people of Alabama. No health care provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” Amato said.

    Gabby Goidel, 26, who is pursuing IVF treatment in Alabama after three miscarriages, said the court ruling came down on the same day she began daily injections ahead of egg retrieval.

    “It just kind of took me by by storm. It was like all I could think about and it was just a very stressful thing to hear. I immediately messaged my clinic and asked if this could potentially halt us. They said we have to take it one day at a time,” Goidel said.

    She said her clinic is continuing to provide treatment for now, but said it will let her know if they have to change course.

    Goidel said she turned to IVF and preimplantation genetic testing after the multiple miscarriages related to genetic issues.

    “Without IVF, I would have to probably go through several more miscarriages before I even had an option of having a baby that is my own,” she said.

    The plaintiffs in the Alabama case had undergone IVF treatments that led to the creation of several embryos, some of which were implanted and resulted in healthy births. The couples paid to keep others frozen in a storage facility at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center. A patient in 2020 wandered into the area and removed several embryos, dropping them on the floor and “killing them,” the ruling said.

    The justices ruled that wrongful death lawsuits by the couples could proceed. The clinic and hospital that are defendants in the case could ask the court to reconsider its decision.

    Michael Upchurch, a lawyer for the fertility clinic in the lawsuit, Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they are “evaluating the consequences of the decision and have no further comment at this time.”

    An anti-abortion group cheered the decision. “Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action said in a statement.

    Chief Justice Tom Parker issued a concurring opinion in which he quoted the Bible in discussing the meaning of the phrase “the sanctity of unborn life” in the Alabama Constitution.

    “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Parker said.

    Justice Greg Cook, who filed the only full dissent to the majority opinion, said the 1872 law did not define “minor child” and was being stretched from the original intent to cover frozen embryos.

    “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches,” he wrote, adding the ruling “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”

    The Alabama Supreme Court decision partly hinged on anti-abortion language added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018, stating it is the “policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.”

    Supporters at the time said it would have no impact unless states gained more control over abortion access. States gained control of abortion access in 2022.

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Alabama decision reflected the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed Republican elected officials from blocking access to reproductive and emergency care to women.

    “This president and this vice president will continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

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    Associated Press

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  • Advocates concerned about Alabama ruling’s impact on fertility treatments

    Advocates concerned about Alabama ruling’s impact on fertility treatments

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    The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos created during fertility treatments should be considered children under state law

    • Justices issued the ruling Friday in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic

    • Justices said an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location”

    • The ruling brought a rush of warnings from groups and advocates who said it would have sweeping implications for fertility treatments in the state

    The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

    “Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.

    Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman is pregnant are covered under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the Act’s coverage.”

    The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.

    “This ruling is stating that a fertilized egg, which is a clump of cells, is now a person. It really puts into question, the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told The Associated Press Tuesday. The group called the decision a “terrifying development for the 1-in-6 people impacted by infertility” who need in-vitro fertilization.

    She said it raises questions for providers and patients, including if they can freeze future embryos created during fertility treatment or if patients could ever donate or destroy unused embryos.

    Sean Tipton, a spokesman with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said at least one Alabama fertility clinic has been instructed by their affiliated hospital to pause IVF treatment in the immediate wake of the decision.

    Dr. Paula Amato, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said a decision to treat frozen fertilized egg as the legal equivalent of a child or gestating fetus could limit the availability of modern health care.

    “By insisting that these very different biological entities are legally equivalent, the best state-of-the-art fertility care will be made unavailable to the people of Alabama. No health care provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” Amato said.

    Gabby Goidel, 26, who is pursuing IVF treatment in Alabama after three miscarriages, said the court ruling came down on the same day she began daily injections ahead of egg retrieval.

    “It just kind of took me by by storm. It was like all I could think about and it was just a very stressful thing to hear. I immediately messaged my clinic and asked if this could potentially halt us. They said we have to take it one day at a time,” Goidel said.

    She said her clinic is continuing to provide treatment for now, but said it will let her know if they have to change course.

    Goidel said she turned to IVF and preimplantation genetic testing after the multiple miscarriages related to genetic issues.

    “Without IVF, I would have to probably go through several more miscarriages before I even had an option of having a baby that is my own,” she said.

    The plaintiffs in the Alabama case had undergone IVF treatments that led to the creation of several embryos, some of which were implanted and resulted in healthy births. The couples paid to keep others frozen in a storage facility at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center. A patient in 2020 wandered into the area and removed several embryos, dropping them on the floor and “killing them,” the ruling said.

    The justices ruled that wrongful death lawsuits by the couples could proceed. The clinic and hospital that are defendants in the case could ask the court to reconsider its decision.

    Michael Upchurch, a lawyer for the fertility clinic in the lawsuit, Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they are “evaluating the consequences of the decision and have no further comment at this time.”

    An anti-abortion group cheered the decision. “Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action said in a statement.

    Chief Justice Tom Parker issued a concurring opinion in which he quoted the Bible in discussing the meaning of the phrase “the sanctity of unborn life” in the Alabama Constitution.

    “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Parker said.

    Justice Greg Cook, who filed the only full dissent to the majority opinion, said the 1872 law did not define “minor child” and was being stretched from the original intent to cover frozen embryos.

    “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches,” he wrote, adding the ruling “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”

    The Alabama Supreme Court decision partly hinged on anti-abortion language added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018, stating it is the “policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.”

    Supporters at the time said it would have no impact unless states gained more control over abortion access. States gained control of abortion access in 2022.

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Alabama decision reflected the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed Republican elected officials from blocking access to reproductive and emergency care to women.

    “This president and this vice president will continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

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    Associated Press

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  • College Football Playoff OKs format with 5 conference champs, 7 at-large teams

    College Football Playoff OKs format with 5 conference champs, 7 at-large teams

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    The field for the 12-team College Football Playoff will comprise five conference champions and seven at-large selections after the university presidents who oversee the CFP voted unanimously Tuesday to tweak the format.

    What You Need To Know

    • University presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff voted for a new format Tuesday

    • The CFP will be made up of five conference champions and seven at-large teams

    • The original plan, before the disassembling of the Pac-12, was for six league champs

    • The new format will go into effect in the upcoming season

    The move to decrease the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five was prompted by realignment and the disassembling of the Pac-12 and has been anticipated for several months. An expected vote last month was delayed at the Pac-12’s request.

    The original plan for the 12-team format was to have the six highest-ranked conference champions, with the top four receiving first-round byes, and six at-large selections. But with one fewer power conference after the Pac-12’s demise, the commissioners who manage the CFP recommended to make the change from a 6-6 format to a 5-7.

    No conference will have automatic access. Those five slots will go to the highest-ranked conference champs as determined by the CFP selection committee, ensuring at least one team from outside the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference will make the 12-team field.

    The selection committee’s rankings also will determine the seven at-large bids. There will be no limit to how many teams can come from the same league.

    “This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” said Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State University and chair of the CFP Board of Managers. “I know this change will also be well-received by student-athletes, coaches and fans. We all will be pleased to see this new format come to life on the field this postseason.”

    The 2024 season will be the first with a 12-team playoff after 10 years of it being a four-team event.

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    Associated Press

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  • Stalled Ukraine aid underscores GOP’s shift away from confronting Russia

    Stalled Ukraine aid underscores GOP’s shift away from confronting Russia

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    At about 2 a.m. last Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stood on the Senate floor and explained why he opposed sending more aid to help Ukraine fend off the invasion launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    “I don’t like this reality,” Johnson said. “Vladimir Putin is an evil war criminal.” But he quickly added: “Vladimir Putin will not lose this war.”

    That argument — that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there’s no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him — marks a new stage in the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump.

    What You Need To Know

    • Republicans have been softening their stance on Russia ever since Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents

    • Now the GOP’s ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine

    • Many Republicans are openly frustrated that their colleagues don’t see the benefits of helping Ukraine
    • Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies have banked on democracies wearying of aiding Kyiv, and Putin’s GOP critics warn that NATO countries in eastern Europe could become targets of an emboldened Russia that believes the U.S. won’t counter it


    The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents. There are several reasons for the shift. Among them, Putin is holding himself out as an international champion of conservative Christian values and the GOP is growing increasingly skeptical of overseas entanglements. Then there’s Trump’s personal embrace of the Russian leader.

    Now the GOP’s ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine at a pivotal time in the war.

    The Senate last week passed a foreign aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine on a 70-29 vote, but Johnson was one of a majority of the Republicans to vote against the bill after their late-night stand to block it. In the Republican-controlled House, Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber will not be “rushed” to pass the measure, even as Ukraine’s military warns of dire shortages of ammunition and artillery.

    Many Republicans are openly frustrated that their colleagues don’t see the benefits of helping Ukraine. Putin and his allies have banked on democracies wearying of aiding Kyiv, and Putin’s GOP critics warn that NATO countries in eastern Europe could become targets of an emboldened Russia that believes the U.S. won’t counter it.

    “Putin is losing,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said on the floor before Johnson’s speech. “This is not a stalemate.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was one of 22 Republican senators to back the package, while 26 opposed it.

    The divide within the party was on stark display Friday with the prison death of Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption advocate Alexei Navalny, which President Joe Biden and other world leaders blamed on Putin. Trump notably stood aside from that chorus Monday in his first public comment on the matter that referred to Navalny by name.

    Offering no sympathy or attempt to affix blame, Trump posted on Truth Social that the “sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”

    Nikki Haley, his Republican presidential primary rival, said Monday that Trump is “siding with a thug” in his embrace of Putin.

    Tillis responded to Navalny’s death by saying in a post, “History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy.”

    Johnson, the House speaker, issued a statement calling Putin a “vicious dictator” and pledging that he “will be met with united opposition,” but he did not offer any way forward for passing the aid to Ukraine.

    Within the Republican Party, skeptics of confronting Russia seem to be gaining ground.

    “Nearly every Republican Senator under the age of 55 voted NO on this America Last bill,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, elected in 2022, posted on the social media site X after the vote last week. “15 out of 17 elected since 2018 voted NO. Things are changing just not fast enough.”

    Those who oppose additional Ukraine aid bristle at charges that they are doing Putin’s handiwork. They contend they are taking a hard-headed look at whether it’s worth spending money to help the country.

    “If you oppose a blank check to another country, I guess that makes you a Russian,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said on the Senate floor, after posting that conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s recent controversial interview of Putin shows that “Russia wants peace” in contrast to “DC warmongers.”

    Rep. Matt Gaetz, a leading opponent of Ukraine aid in the House, described the movement as “a generational shift in my party away from neoconservatism toward foreign policy realism.”

    In interviews with voters waiting to see Trump speak Saturday night in Waterford Township, Michigan, none praised Putin. But none wanted to spend more money confronting him, trusting Trump to handle the Russian leader.

    Even before Trump, Republican voters were signaling discontent with overseas conflicts, said Douglas Kriner, a political scientist at Cornell University. That’s one reason Trump’s 2016 promise to avoid “stupid wars” resonated.

    “Some of it may be a bottom-up change in a key part of the Republican base,” Kriner said, “and part of it reflects Trump’s hold on that base and his ability to sway its opinions and policy preferences in dramatic ways.”

    Trump has long praised Putin, calling his invasion of Ukraine “smart” and “savvy,” and recalling this month that he had told NATO members who didn’t spend enough on defense that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to them. He reiterated that threat days later.

    Despite the reluctance within the GOP to continue supporting Ukraine, Russia remains deeply unpopular in the U.S. A July 2023 Gallup poll found that just 5% had a favorable view of Putin, including 7% of Republicans.

    But Putin has positioned his country as a symbol of Christian conservatism and resistance to LGBTQ rights, while portraying himself as an embodiment of masculine strength. The combination has appealed to populist conservatives across the Western world. Putin’s appeal in some sectors of the right is demonstrated by Carlson’s recent tour of Russia, after which the conservative host posted videos admiring the Moscow subway and a supermarket that he says “would radicalize you against our leaders.”

    “The goal of the Soviet Union was to be the beacon of left ideas,” said Olga Kamenchuk, a professor at Northwestern University. “Russia is now the beacon of conservative ideas.”

    Kamenchuk said this is most visible not in Putin’s U.S. poll numbers, but in fading Republican support for Ukraine. About half of Republicans said the U.S. is providing “too much” support to Ukraine when it comes to Russia’s invasion, according to a Pew Research poll in December. That’s up from 9% in a Pew poll taken in March 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded.

    When Putin attacked Ukraine, there was bipartisan condemnation. Even a year ago, most Republicans in Congress pledged support. But around the same time, Trump was lamenting that U.S. leaders were “suckers” for sending aid.

    By the fall, the party was divided. Republicans refused to include another round of Ukraine funding in the government spending bill, insisting that Democrats needed to include a border security measure to earn their support.

    After Trump condemned the compromise border proposal, Republicans sank the bill, leaving Ukraine backers no option but to push the assistance as part of a foreign aid package with additional money for Israel and Taiwan.

    Several experts on Russia note that the rhetoric the GOP uses against Ukraine aid can mirror Putin’s own — that Ukraine is corrupt and will waste the money, that the U.S. can’t afford to look beyond its borders and that Russia’s victory is inevitable.

    “He’s trying to create the perception that he’s never going to be beaten, so don’t even try,” Henry Hale, a George Washington University political scientist, said of Putin.

    Skeptics of Ukraine aid argue the war has already decimated the Russian military and that Putin won’t be able to target other European countries.

    “Russia has shown in the last two years that they do not have the ability to march through Western Europe,” said Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget who is now president of the Center for Renewing America, which opposes additional Ukraine funding.

    But several experts noted that Putin has alluded to plans to retake much of the former Soviet Union’s territory, which could include NATO countries such as Lithuania and Estonia that the U.S is obligated under its treaty to defend militarily.

    Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, noted that Russia for decades has hoped the U.S would lose interest in protecting Europe: “This was Stalin’s dream, that the U.S. would just retreat to the Western hemisphere.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Stalled Ukraine aid underscores GOP’s shift away from confronting Russia

    Stalled Ukraine aid underscores GOP’s shift away from confronting Russia

    [ad_1]

    At about 2 a.m. last Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stood on the Senate floor and explained why he opposed sending more aid to help Ukraine fend off the invasion launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    “I don’t like this reality,” Johnson said. “Vladimir Putin is an evil war criminal.” But he quickly added: “Vladimir Putin will not lose this war.”

    That argument — that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there’s no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him — marks a new stage in the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump.

    What You Need To Know

    • Republicans have been softening their stance on Russia ever since Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents

    • Now the GOP’s ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine

    • Many Republicans are openly frustrated that their colleagues don’t see the benefits of helping Ukraine
    • Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies have banked on democracies wearying of aiding Kyiv, and Putin’s GOP critics warn that NATO countries in eastern Europe could become targets of an emboldened Russia that believes the U.S. won’t counter it


    The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents. There are several reasons for the shift. Among them, Putin is holding himself out as an international champion of conservative Christian values and the GOP is growing increasingly skeptical of overseas entanglements. Then there’s Trump’s personal embrace of the Russian leader.

    Now the GOP’s ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine at a pivotal time in the war.

    The Senate last week passed a foreign aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine on a 70-29 vote, but Johnson was one of a majority of the Republicans to vote against the bill after their late-night stand to block it. In the Republican-controlled House, Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber will not be “rushed” to pass the measure, even as Ukraine’s military warns of dire shortages of ammunition and artillery.

    Many Republicans are openly frustrated that their colleagues don’t see the benefits of helping Ukraine. Putin and his allies have banked on democracies wearying of aiding Kyiv, and Putin’s GOP critics warn that NATO countries in eastern Europe could become targets of an emboldened Russia that believes the U.S. won’t counter it.

    “Putin is losing,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said on the floor before Johnson’s speech. “This is not a stalemate.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was one of 22 Republican senators to back the package, while 26 opposed it.

    The divide within the party was on stark display Friday with the prison death of Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption advocate Alexei Navalny, which President Joe Biden and other world leaders blamed on Putin. Trump notably stood aside from that chorus Monday in his first public comment on the matter that referred to Navalny by name.

    Offering no sympathy or attempt to affix blame, Trump posted on Truth Social that the “sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”

    Nikki Haley, his Republican presidential primary rival, said Monday that Trump is “siding with a thug” in his embrace of Putin.

    Tillis responded to Navalny’s death by saying in a post, “History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy.”

    Johnson, the House speaker, issued a statement calling Putin a “vicious dictator” and pledging that he “will be met with united opposition,” but he did not offer any way forward for passing the aid to Ukraine.

    Within the Republican Party, skeptics of confronting Russia seem to be gaining ground.

    “Nearly every Republican Senator under the age of 55 voted NO on this America Last bill,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, elected in 2022, posted on the social media site X after the vote last week. “15 out of 17 elected since 2018 voted NO. Things are changing just not fast enough.”

    Those who oppose additional Ukraine aid bristle at charges that they are doing Putin’s handiwork. They contend they are taking a hard-headed look at whether it’s worth spending money to help the country.

    “If you oppose a blank check to another country, I guess that makes you a Russian,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said on the Senate floor, after posting that conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s recent controversial interview of Putin shows that “Russia wants peace” in contrast to “DC warmongers.”

    Rep. Matt Gaetz, a leading opponent of Ukraine aid in the House, described the movement as “a generational shift in my party away from neoconservatism toward foreign policy realism.”

    In interviews with voters waiting to see Trump speak Saturday night in Waterford Township, Michigan, none praised Putin. But none wanted to spend more money confronting him, trusting Trump to handle the Russian leader.

    Even before Trump, Republican voters were signaling discontent with overseas conflicts, said Douglas Kriner, a political scientist at Cornell University. That’s one reason Trump’s 2016 promise to avoid “stupid wars” resonated.

    “Some of it may be a bottom-up change in a key part of the Republican base,” Kriner said, “and part of it reflects Trump’s hold on that base and his ability to sway its opinions and policy preferences in dramatic ways.”

    Trump has long praised Putin, calling his invasion of Ukraine “smart” and “savvy,” and recalling this month that he had told NATO members who didn’t spend enough on defense that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to them. He reiterated that threat days later.

    Despite the reluctance within the GOP to continue supporting Ukraine, Russia remains deeply unpopular in the U.S. A July 2023 Gallup poll found that just 5% had a favorable view of Putin, including 7% of Republicans.

    But Putin has positioned his country as a symbol of Christian conservatism and resistance to LGBTQ rights, while portraying himself as an embodiment of masculine strength. The combination has appealed to populist conservatives across the Western world. Putin’s appeal in some sectors of the right is demonstrated by Carlson’s recent tour of Russia, after which the conservative host posted videos admiring the Moscow subway and a supermarket that he says “would radicalize you against our leaders.”

    “The goal of the Soviet Union was to be the beacon of left ideas,” said Olga Kamenchuk, a professor at Northwestern University. “Russia is now the beacon of conservative ideas.”

    Kamenchuk said this is most visible not in Putin’s U.S. poll numbers, but in fading Republican support for Ukraine. About half of Republicans said the U.S. is providing “too much” support to Ukraine when it comes to Russia’s invasion, according to a Pew Research poll in December. That’s up from 9% in a Pew poll taken in March 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded.

    When Putin attacked Ukraine, there was bipartisan condemnation. Even a year ago, most Republicans in Congress pledged support. But around the same time, Trump was lamenting that U.S. leaders were “suckers” for sending aid.

    By the fall, the party was divided. Republicans refused to include another round of Ukraine funding in the government spending bill, insisting that Democrats needed to include a border security measure to earn their support.

    After Trump condemned the compromise border proposal, Republicans sank the bill, leaving Ukraine backers no option but to push the assistance as part of a foreign aid package with additional money for Israel and Taiwan.

    Several experts on Russia note that the rhetoric the GOP uses against Ukraine aid can mirror Putin’s own — that Ukraine is corrupt and will waste the money, that the U.S. can’t afford to look beyond its borders and that Russia’s victory is inevitable.

    “He’s trying to create the perception that he’s never going to be beaten, so don’t even try,” Henry Hale, a George Washington University political scientist, said of Putin.

    Skeptics of Ukraine aid argue the war has already decimated the Russian military and that Putin won’t be able to target other European countries.

    “Russia has shown in the last two years that they do not have the ability to march through Western Europe,” said Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget who is now president of the Center for Renewing America, which opposes additional Ukraine funding.

    But several experts noted that Putin has alluded to plans to retake much of the former Soviet Union’s territory, which could include NATO countries such as Lithuania and Estonia that the U.S is obligated under its treaty to defend militarily.

    Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, noted that Russia for decades has hoped the U.S would lose interest in protecting Europe: “This was Stalin’s dream, that the U.S. would just retreat to the Western hemisphere.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Daytona 500 race postponed due to weather concerns

    Daytona 500 race postponed due to weather concerns

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    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Daytona 500 has been postponed due to inclement weather, NASCAR announced on their X account, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday morning.

    The race has been rescheduled to Monday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m., creating the first-ever doubleheader with the NASCAR Xfinity Series race that will take place that day at 11 a.m.

    The original broadcast networks remain unchanged. The NASCAR Xfinity Series race will still broadcast on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The DAYTONA 500 will be live on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    Fans with Saturday grandstand tickets and admission to the Hard Rock Bet Fanzone may attend both the NASCAR Xfinity Series race and the DAYTONA 500, officials said. 

    One family that came all the way from Canada said they will be staying in the area until tomorrow.

    “The excitement, even though we never got into the track yet, is just starting to build,” said attendee Allen Whiteman. “Had trouble sleeping last night and it won’t be any different tonight.” 

    Whiteman’s family said despite the rain, they plan to make the best of their trip, as this is their first time at Daytona Beach.

    The last time the Daytona 500 was postponed a full day was in 2012. NASCAR completed 20 laps in 2020 before rain halted activity, and the race resumed the next day.

    In making the early call Sunday, NASCAR prevented fans from sitting in the rain awaiting a decision on whether the race would proceed. It continued a willingness NASCAR exhibited earlier this month when it moved the exhibition Clash at the Coliseum up a full day on little notice because of poor weather headed toward Los Angeles.

    Spire Motorsports driver Zane Smith offered on social media to mingle with fans Sunday.

    “Hate the rain won today but going to try to make the most of it and meet some of you guys,” Smith tweeted. “Let me know your camp spot and I will try to come find you! Might be able to drag a few other drivers along too.”

    Added Spire teammate Carson Hocevar: “Unfortunate cards we have been dealt as a sport, but probably the right call. Feel bad for the fans that saved up for this trip and now can’t stay.”

    Despite the postponement, NASCAR and Daytona continued many of the prerace activities, including celebrity visits from singer and Trackhouse Racing co-owner Pitbull and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

    Pitbull’s prerace concert was scrapped. He already agreed to return next year and perform then. Johnson is the race’s grand marshal, tasked with delivering the command for drivers to start their engines.

    “Everything happens for a reason,” said Madison Marsh, the reigning Miss America who was scheduled to drive the pace car and lead the field to the green flag. “Although I would have loved, obviously, to get to drive the pace car, there have been so many other parts of this weekend that have been fantastic.

    “Just getting to be a part of that, I’m never going to regret coming here. … Obviously would have liked to drive, but everything is going to work out the way it’s supposed to.”

    Previous racing events this weekend

    The Arca Hard Rock Bet 200 was moved to Friday night and ran after the truck series race. Rain has been moving in on Central Florida, but luckily racers and fans got in as much action as they could.

    The inclement weather definitely isn’t what race fans what to see this weekend, but they say that they’re happy to be here and glad they’ve experienced what they’ve been able to see.

    Wayne Stevens said he’s lived in the Daytona area for decades and he’s staying optimistic.

    “I’ve lived in Florida for 52 years, moved here in 1972. It would rain across there and the sun would be out over here, so we don’t know,” he said.

    NASCAR does have a weather policy for fans, which can allow them to exchange tickets when races are postponed or rescheduled.

    Could delays boost local businesses?

    Delays could mean a boost for businesses already banking on the busy weekend. During rain delays, people still have to eat says a local server.

    “People are going to need something to do (…) and somewhere to eat, so hopefully we can get people to come out of their little shell and come check us out,” said Bella Robinson, who works at Adam’s Egg in Daytona Beach.

    Business always spikes this time of year at the restaurant, but this year has been a little different.

    Robinson says she hasn’t seen as many people as in years past. She believes more people are choosing to stay closer to the racetrack.

    “I think people are being very careful with what they’re spending money on and with these events costing so much already, I think they’re being really careful about what they spend on food and supplies and gas – anything extra is just kind of on the back burner this year, because it’s definitely not been as busy as normal,” she said.

    Even with the possible foot traffic from washed out race fans, the rain can be a bummer.

    “The 500, the Rolex, the Super Motocross: they all rain out every single year – but, oh well, we play in the rain here, so it doesn’t matter,” said Robinson. 

    If the rain does draw in more customers, Robinson says she’ll be willing to serve them a little longer until they can head back to the racetrack.

    Another restaurant said they still saw a boost in revenue with the weekend’s events.

    C’s Waffles has been around for 9½ years in Daytona Beach. With several other locations, including two in New Smyrna, the restaurant is family-owned and takes special pride in their delicious waffles. The restaurant gets its name from the family’s last name — “Cotelesse.”

    “This is one of the busiest weeks of the year,” said C’s Waffles General Manager Chris Cotelesse. “From about the beginning of February, ’til about the middle of April, this whole area is flooded with new faces.”

    The Associated Press has contributed to this story.

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    Jeff Allen

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  • USF beats No. 24 FAU 90-86

    USF beats No. 24 FAU 90-86

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    The announced crowd of 10,659 set a Bulls home attendance record.

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    Associated Press

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  • U.S. condemns Rwanda’s support of rebels in eastern Congo

    U.S. condemns Rwanda’s support of rebels in eastern Congo

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    The U.S. has condemned Saturday Rwanda’s support of the armed M23 group in eastern Congo, whose rebellion has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and called on the rebel group to “cease hostilities.”

    The U.S. State Department in a statement strongly criticized “the worsening violence … caused by the actions of the Rwanda-backed, U.S.- and UN-sanctioned M23 armed group.” It called on Rwanda “to immediately withdraw all Rwanda Defense Force personnel from the (Congo) and remove its surface-to-air missile systems,” which it said threatened civilian lives and peacekeepers. It also urged the rebels to retreat from their current positions near two urban areas in Congo’s North Kivu province.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. has condemned Rwanda’s support of the armed M23 group in eastern Congo, whose rebellion has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and called on the rebel group to “cease hostilities”
    • The U.S. State Department in a statement Saturday strongly criticized “the worsening violence … caused by the actions of the Rwanda-backed, U.S.- and UN-sanctioned M23 armed group”
    • It called on Rwanda to immediately withdraw all its forces from Congo). It also urged the rebels to retreat from their current positions near two urban areas in Congo’s North Kivu province
    • This is likely to put pressure on Rwanda, whose government has repeatedly denied any links to the M23 group

    This is likely to put pressure on Rwanda, whose government has repeatedly denied any links to the M23 group.

    Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has accused Rwanda of destabilizing Congo by backing the rebels. U.N. experts previously said they had “solid evidence” that members of Rwanda’s armed forces were conducting operations there in support of the M23 group.

    Fighting near Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in the region, has intensified in recent days as the rebels threatened to take over the metropolis. Residents of the nearby town of Sake have been fleeing fierce fighting between Congolese government troops and the group.

    The armed conflict has so far displaced more than one million people in eastern Congo since November, according to the aid group Mercy Corps.

    Many M23 fighters, including Congolese Tutsis, were once members of Congo’s army. The group’s leaders say they are fighting to protect local Tutsis from extremist Hutu groups such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, whose members were among the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

    M23 is one of more than 100 armed groups active in eastern Congo, seeking a share of the region’s gold and other resources as they carry out mass killings.

    The rebel group rose to prominence just over a decade ago when its fighters seized Goma, which borders Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal which it accuses the Congo government of not implementing. After being largely dormant for a decade, the M23 resurfaced in late 2021.

    The U.S. statement urged all sides to de-escalate and to “participate constructively in reaching a negotiated solution” to the conflict.

    “It is essential that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and hold accountable all actors for human rights abuses in the conflict in eastern (Congo),” it said.

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  • Grand jury decides against charges in troopers’ shooting of 2

    Grand jury decides against charges in troopers’ shooting of 2

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    DAYTON, Ohio — No charges will be filed in the shooting deaths of a man and woman in a gun battle with Ohio state troopers following a police pursuit and kidnapping last summer, authorities said.

    What You Need To Know

    • No charges will be filed in the shooting deaths of a man and woman in a gun battle with Ohio state troopers following a police pursuit and kidnapping last summer, authorities said

    • The Montgomery County prosecutor’s office said Friday that a grand jury reviewed the Aug. 2 shooting of Rodney Helman, 54, and Elaine Helman, 51, and concluded that “the troopers acted lawfully under the circumstances”

    • When Rodney Helman fired a handgun, three troopers returned fire, hitting both suspects, who both died at a hospital, authorities said

    • Prosecutors said both suspects had been shot once each

    The Montgomery County prosecutor’s office said Friday that a grand jury reviewed the Aug. 2 shooting of Rodney Helman, 54, and Elaine Helman, 51, and concluded that “the troopers acted lawfully under the circumstances.”

    Police began pursing their van after they gave false information at an early morning traffic stop in London, Ohio, and then drove away, officials said. They stopped at a truck stop on US 42 and fled on foot, then got into an unlocked tractor-trailer cab and drove off. The truck driver, who was still inside, was shot in the hand, authorities said.

    The Ohio State Highway Patrol and officers from other law enforcement agencies then chased the truck cab through several counties before the pursuit ended in Vandalia on Interstate 70 west, near the Dayton International Airport Access Road. Police then negotiated for about four hours before deciding to approach the vehicle, and when Rodney Helman fired a handgun, three troopers returned fire, hitting both suspects, who both died at a hospital, authorities said.

    Prosecutors said both suspects had been shot once each. The truck driver was treated for a wound to the hand. Prosecutors said Rodney Helman’s handgun was recovered and ballistics confirmed that it had been fired at least twice.

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  • Vince Carter, Chauncey Billup Basketball Hall of Fame

    Vince Carter, Chauncey Billup Basketball Hall of Fame

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    INDIANAPOLIS — Vince Carter is one step from the Basketball Hall of Fame.

    Carter — who played 22 NBA seasons, the most in league history — was among the Hall of Fame finalists announced Friday at All-Star weekend. The finalist nod came in Carter’s first year of eligibility.

    What You Need To Know

    • Carter — who played 22 NBA seasons, the most in league history — was among the Hall of Fame finalists announced Friday at All-Star weekend in his first year of eligibility 
    • Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Michael Cooper, NBA legend Jerry West and current Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups are also among the list of finalists. West was enshrined as a player in 1980
    • “Unbelievable,” Carter said. “You look in the crowd, you see Hall of Famers, and the opportunity … I mean, you can’t beat that”
    • That voting takes place in the coming weeks, with the Class of 2024 set to be unveiled at the Final Four in Phoenix on April 6. The class will be enshrined on Aug. 17 in Springfield, Massachusetts


    Also among the finalists: four-time WNBA champion Seimone Augustus, former Detroit Pistons guard and current Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, former Los Angeles Lakers guard Michael Cooper, Phoenix Suns all-time leading scorer Walter Davis, former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, and three nominees as contributors — former player and coach Doug Collins, Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon and NBA legend Jerry West, who was enshrined as a player in 1980.

    “Every year is new. Every year is different. We’re very happy with this group,” said Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame. “And hopefully, we’re going to have great results in terms of voting.”

    That voting takes place in the coming weeks, with the Class of 2024 set to be unveiled at the Final Four in Phoenix on April 6. The class will be enshrined on Aug. 17 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

    “Unbelievable,” Carter said. “You look in the crowd, you see Hall of Famers, and the opportunity … I mean, you can’t beat that. You can’t beat that. It’s a proud moment.”

    Other finalists include Charles Smith, the winningest high school head coach in Louisiana history; former Kansas coach Marian Washington; Australian guard Michele Timms; three-time NAIA champion at Tennessee A&I Dick Barnett; and six-time AAU champion coach Harley Redin.

    Washington, Redin and Timms are all already in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Timms is also a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame.

    Colangelo said he was pleased to see diversity within the group of finalists — men, women, big-name players and small-college coaches among them.

    “It’s an honor that reflects not only individual greatness but also the long-lasting impact on the game itself,” Colangelo said of being a finalist. “From the strategic brilliance of coaches to the unmatched abilities of players and the influential roles of a coach-broadcaster, an esteemed owner, and a dynasty-building executive, each finalist embodies the pinnacle of basketball excellence.”

    Nominees were announced in December. Among those who did not make the cut this year — Penny Hardaway, and the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team dubbed the “Redeem Team” after winning gold in Beijing four years after the Americans finished third at the Athens Games.

    There were other honorees revealed by the Hall on Friday as well.

    JoAn Scott, the NCAA’s vice president of men’s basketball, received the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been with the NCAA since 2013 after time at Nike and USA Basketball – where, among other duties, she was the staff administrator for the original Dream Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

    Also announced Friday were the recipients of this year’s Curt Gowdy Awards, named for the legendary broadcaster and given to those deemed to have made “a significant contribution to the game of basketball.”

    J.A. Adande, the director of sports journalism at his alma mater Northwestern, received the Curt Gowdy Award for print journalism. Longtime analyst and television commentator Debbie Antonelli won for electronic journalism. Slam Magazine and the television show “NBA Inside Stuff” received the awards for transformative media. They will also be honored during Hall of Fame weekend.

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  • Researchers, farmers work with alternative crops to fight climate change

    Researchers, farmers work with alternative crops to fight climate change

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    Katrina Cornish spends her days raising dandelions and desert shrubs. She harvests the stretchy rubber substances they produce and uses special machines to dip them into condoms, medical gloves and parts for trachea tubes. And she thinks those products could forever alter the landscape of agriculture in the United States.

    What You Need To Know

    • Many companies, philanthropic organizations and national and international entities tout the promise of alternative crops to fight climate change

    • They fund initiatives promoting crops like sorghum and cassava, declare the “year of the millet” or give grants to researchers working on dandelions that could one day replace rubber

    • But while some of the researchers and farmers on the other side of that funding are optimistic about the potential of these crops and say they are important in certain parts of the world to fight hunger, they also say drastic changes would need to happen before we ever see fields full of these out-of-the-box plants

    Cornish, a professor at The Ohio State University who studies rubber alternatives, isn’t the only one pouring energy into alternative crops like that desert shrub, guayule or the rubber dandelions that bloom with yellow petals in the greenhouse where Cornish works. In Arizona, too, guayule thrives amidst drought, its blue-green leaves set apart from dry dirt at a research and development farm operated by the tire company Bridgestone. And in Nebraska and other parts of the central U.S., green grasses of sorghum spring up, waving with reddish clusters of grains.

    They’re not the corn, soybeans, wheat or cotton that have dominated those areas for decades. Instead, they’re crops that many companies, philanthropic organizations and national and international entities tout as promising alternatives to fight climate change. But while some researchers and farmers are optimistic about the potential of these crops, many of which are more water-efficient and important in certain parts of the world to fight hunger, they also say drastic changes would need to happen in markets and processing before we ever see fields full of these out-of-the-box plants or many products in stores made with them, especially in the United States.

    Most rubber processing happens overseas, and the U.S. isn’t prepared to process rubber domestically. But Cornish also says the threats of disease, climate change and international trade tensions also mean that it would be a smart investment to work on growing and processing domestic alternatives.

    With sorghum, too, grown for people to eat as well as for farm animals or even pet food, processing would need to be scaled up, said Nate Blum, chief executive officer of Sorghum United, an international non-governmental organization focused on spreading awareness about sorghum. Though the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of sorghum, it still represents only a small fraction of acres grown compared to commodity crops like corn and soybeans. And though corn and soybeans are heavily incentivized in the U.S., Blum is hopeful that consumer demand will encourage more investment in the sorghum and millets industry.

    However, farmers are more likely to plant whatever crops get subsidies, said James Gerber, a senior scientist with climate solutions nonprofit Project Drawdown. Gerber, who recently published a paper in Nature Food about which crops will continue to see yield growth and which may stagnate in the coming years, said comparing sorghum production in India and the U.S. illustrates this principle. India has invested heavily in improving sorghum yields there, but the U.S. has not, he said.

    Still, Blum thinks there are real benefits to pursue with sorghum, and perhaps more urgent benefits in other parts of the world than in the U.S. On the heels of last year, when the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization declared a focus on millets including sorghum, Blum thinks there’s still much more to be done.

    “The end of the international year is not the end. It’s actually just the beginning,” he said.

    With climate change bearing down on agriculture around the world, the need for crops that can withstand extreme weather like persistent drought is especially important in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where smallholder farmers rely on just a few acres of land. Some of the breeding programs for those crops are based in the U.S., but they are much less frequently included in the American diet or lifestyle.

    That’s why specialty markets will be critical if these crops have any hope of taking off here, Cornish said. She thinks that, just as Tesla opened up the possibility of mainstream electric cars by first marketing the product as a luxury good, premium goods like condoms, trachea tube parts and radiation-rated surgical gloves need to be made with dandelion and guayule to inspire producers to grow more meaningful amounts of either of those crops.

    “You can’t do it without going to that route because you have no economies of scale, and you do not have enough to go into markets that require a large amount,” Cornish said.

    Guayule is “clearly a specialty crop and probably always will be” in terms of acres grown, said Bill Niaura, Bridgestone’s executive director of sustainable innovation. He said that Bridgestone’s work on guayule has been strictly in the research and development realm for about the last ten years, and only within the past two years or so has the company been transitioning it into an exploratory business.

    “You’re trying to develop a new industry for the Americas that currently doesn’t exist,” he said.

    In the meantime, farmers in the U.S. rely on an agricultural economy built on scale, so they farm the crops that allow them options of where to sell, said Curt Covington, senior director of institutional business at AgAmerica Lending, a private investment manager and lender focused on agricultural land. He added that the bankers financing those farmers often don’t want to take the risk on a full switch to a crop that doesn’t have established markets. That, he said, could be a problem for the country as climate change exacerbates threats to crops like cotton and alfalfa, thirsty crops grown in the Southwest, in the future.

    Farmers in Arizona have already had to fallow land, stopping their planting altogether and sometimes struggling with or giving up on family businesses as a result of Colorado River water cuts. Though guayule only uses half as much water as cotton and alfalfa, if the economics don’t support it, that doesn’t do the majority of farmers much good.

    “Ultimately what you end up with is potential for, honestly, a lot of fallowed land, and that same crop being imported into this country from other countries,” Covington said. “And so to me that creates a security risk for this country.”

    That’s something Cornish thinks can be prevented, she says, by reimagining the United States not as a land dominated by waves of grain, but also as a dominant producer of natural rubber.

    “My job isn’t done until this is a permanent feature of the landscape,” she said.

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  • Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny’s team confirms his death

    Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny’s team confirms his death

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    Alexei Navalny’s spokesperson confirmed Saturday that the Russian opposition leader had died at a remote Arctic penal colony and said he was “murdered,” but it is unclear where his body is.

    What You Need To Know

    • An official note handed to Navalny’s mother stated that he died at 2:17 p.m. local time Friday, Kira Yarmysh said

    • She added that an employee of the prison colony said that Navalny’s body was taken to the nearby city of Salekhard as part of a probe into his death

    • When a lawyer and Navalny’s mother visited the morgue in Salekhard, it was closed, Navalny’s team said, writing on their Telegram channel. The lawyer called the morgue and was told that Navalny’s body is not there, his team said

    • “It’s obvious that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body,” Yarmysh wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that his team “demand that Alexei Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately”

    An official note handed to Navalny’s mother stated that he died at 2:17 p.m. local time Friday, Kira Yarmysh said. She added that an employee of the prison colony said that Navalny’s body was taken to the nearby city of Salekhard as part of a probe into his death.

    When a lawyer and Navalny’s mother visited the morgue in Salekhard, it was closed, Navalny’s team said, writing on their Telegram channel. The lawyer called the morgue and was told that Navalny’s body is not there, his team said. Another of Navalny’s lawyers went to Salekhard’s Investigative Committee and was told that the cause of Navalny’s death has not yet been established and that new investigations are being done with the results to be released next week, Yarmysh said.

    “It’s obvious that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that his team “demand that Alexei Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately.”

    Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny felt sick after a walk and became unconscious at the penal colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. An ambulance arrived, but he couldn’t be revived. The cause of death is still “being established,” it said.

    Maria Pevchikh, head of the board of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that the opposition leader would “live on forever in millions of hearts.”

    “Navalny was murdered. We still don’t know how we’ll keep on living, but together, we’ll think of something,” she wrote on X.

    Arrests continued Saturday after more than 100 people were detained in various Russian cities Friday when they came to lay flowers in memory of Navalny at memorials to the victims of Soviet-era purges, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political repression in Russia.

    The tributes were removed overnight, but people continued trickling in with flowers on Saturday. In Moscow, a large group of people chanted “shame” as police dragged a screaming woman from the crowd, video shared on social media showed.

    More than 10 people were detained at a memorial in St. Petersburg, including a priest who came to conduct a service for Navalny there.

    In other cities across the country, police cordoned off some of the memorials and officers were taking pictures of those who came and writing down their personal data in a clear intimidation attempt.

    “After the murder of Alexei Navalny, it’s absurd to perceive (Russian President Vladimir) Putin as the supposedly legitimate head of the Russian state. He is a thug who maintains power through corruption and violence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference in Germany Saturday.

    “Just yesterday he tried to send us all a clear message — as the Munich Security Conference opened, Putin murdered another opposition leader,” Zelenskyy said.

    U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Saturday that Britain “will be taking action” against the Russians responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny.

    Speaking to broadcasters in Munich, Cameron said “there should be consequences” for “appalling human rights outrages like this.” He said Britain would “look at whether there are individual people that are responsible and whether there are individual measures and actions we can take.” Cameron did not say whether the response would consist of financial sanctions or other measures.

    U.S. President Joe Biden Friday said Washington doesn’t know exactly what happened, “but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did.”

    The Kremlin bristled Friday at the outpouring of anger from world leaders, with Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying the statements are “unacceptable” and “outrageous,” noting that medics haven’t issued their verdict on the cause of Navalny’s death.

    Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was later convicted three times, saying each case was politically motivated, and received a sentence of 19 years for extremism.

    After the last verdict, Navalny said he understood he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime.”

    The news of Navalny’s death comes less than a month before an election that will give Putin another six years in power.

    It shows “that the sentence in Russia now for opposition is not merely imprisonment, but death,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia & Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

    Hours after Navalny’s death was reported, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, made a dramatic appearance at the Munich conference.

    She said she was unsure if she could believe the news from official Russian sources, “but if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband.”

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  • Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison

    Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison

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    Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison Friday, Russian authorities said. He was 47.

    What You Need To Know

    • Russian authorities say that Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison

    • The Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Navalny, 47, felt unwell after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness
    • Navalny’s spokeswoman said on X that the politician’s team had no confirmation of his death so far and that his lawyer was traveling to the town where he was held
    • Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking to the Munich Security Conference on Friday, laid the blame squarely at Russia and Putin’s feet

    Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, felt unwell after a walk, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to revive him, but he died. It said the cause of death was “being established.”

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was informed of Navalny’s death and the prison service would look into it in line with standard procedures.

    Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the politician’s team had no confirmation of his death so far and that his lawyer was traveling to the town where he was held.

    Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption, organized major anti-Kremlin protests and ran for public office.

    He had since received three prison sentences, all of which he rejected as politically motivated.

    Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, speaking to the Munich Security Conference, laid the blame squarely at Russia and Putin’s feet.

    “Before I begin today, we’ve all just received reports that Alexei Navalny has died in Russia,” Harris said at the top of her remarks. “This is, of course, terrible news, which we are working to confirm.”

    “My prayers are with his family, including his wife Yulia, who is with us today, and if confirmed, this would be a further sign of Putin’s brutality,” she continued.

    “Whatever story they tell, let us be clear: Russia is responsible,” Harris said, adding the Biden administration “will have more to say on this later.” 

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Navalny’s wife Yulia on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, similarly offered harsh criticism of Russia.

    “Fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built,” the United States’ top diplomat said. “Russia’s responsible for this.”

    Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a candidate vying for the Republican presidential nomination, took the criticism one step further and attacked her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

    “Putin did this,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends.”

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Putin a “a vicious dictator” who “is likely directly responsible for the sudden death of his most prominent political opponent.”

    “If confirmed, this action is emblematic of Putin’s global pattern of silencing critics and eliminating opponents out of fear of dissent,” he continued. “This is the latest attempt to send a message to those working to confront Moscow’s aggression. In the coming days, as international leaders are meeting in Munich, we must be clear that Putin will be met with united opposition.”

    North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis offered a brutal condemnation of both Putin’s alleged involvement and U.S. lawmakers who are silent on Russia.

    “Navalny laid down his life fighting for the freedom of the country he loved. Putin is a murderous, paranoid dictator,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy. Nor will history be kind to America’s leaders who stay silent because they fear backlash from online pundits.”

    Shortly after Navalny’s death was reported, the Russian SOTA social media channel shared images of the opposition politician reportedly in court yesterday. In the footage, Navalny is seen standing up and is laughing and joking with the judge via video link.

    Navalny was moved in December from a prison in central Russia to a “special regime” penal colony — the highest security level of prisons in the country — above the Artic Circle.

    His allies decried the transfer to a colony in the town of Kharp, in a region about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow, as yet another attempt to force Navalny into silence.

    In Putin’s Russia, political opponents often faded amid factional disputes or went into exile after imprisonment, suspected poisonings or other heavy repression. But Navalny grew consistently stronger and reached the apex of the opposition through grit, bravado and an acute understanding of how social media could circumvent the Kremlin’s suffocation of independent news outlets.

    He faced each setback — whether it was a physical assault or imprisonment — with an intense devotion, confronting dangers with a sardonic wit. That drove him to the bold and fateful move of returning from Germany to Russia and certain arrest.

    Navalny was born in Butyn, about 25 miles outside Moscow. He received a law degree from People’s Friendship University in 1998 and did a fellowship at Yale in 2010.

    He gained attention by focusing on corruption in Russia’s murky mix of politicians and businesses; one of his early moves was to buy a stake in Russian oil and gas companies to become an activist shareholder and push for transparency.

    By concentrating on corruption, Navalny’s work had a pocketbook appeal to Russians’ widespread sense of being cheated, and he carried stronger resonance than more abstract and philosophical concerns about democratic ideals and human rights.

    He was convicted in 2013 of embezzlement on what he called a politically motivated prosecution and was sentenced to five years in prison, but the prosecutor’s office later surprisingly demanded his release pending appeal. A higher court later gave him a suspended sentence.

    The day before the sentence, Navalny had registered as a candidate for Moscow mayor. The opposition saw his release as the result of large protests in the capital of his sentence, but many observers attributed it to a desire by authorities to add a tinge of legitimacy to the mayoral election.

    Navalny finished second, an impressive performance against the incumbent who had the backing of Putin’s political machine and was popular for improving the capital’s infrastructure and aesthetics.

    Navalny’s popularity increased after the leading charismatic politician, Boris Nemtsov, was shot and killed in 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin.

    Whenever Putin spoke about Navalny, he made it a point to never mention the activist by name, referring to him as “that person” or similar wording, in an apparent effort to diminish his importance.

    Even in opposition circles, Navalny was often viewed as having a overly nationalist streak for supporting the rights of ethnic Russians — he supported the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Moscow in 2014 although most nations viewed it as illegal — but he was able to mostly override those reservations with the power of investigations conducted by his Fund for Fighting Corruption.

    Although state-controlled TV channels ignored Navalny, his investigations resonated with younger Russians via YouTube videos and posts on his website and social media accounts. The strategy helped him reach into the hinterlands far from the political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg and establish a strong network of regional offices.

    His work broadened from focusing on corruption to wholescale criticism of the political system under Putin, who has led Russia for over two decades. He was a central galvanizing figure in protests of unprecedented size against dubious national election results and the exclusion of independent candidates.

    Navalny understood that he could get attention with a pithy phrase and potent image. His description of Putin’s power-base United Russia as “the party of crooks and thieves” gained instant popularity; a lengthy investigation into then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s lavish country getaway boiled down to the complex’s well-appointed duck house. Soon, comical yellow duck toys became a popular way to mock the premier.

    He often tweeted sarcastic remarks from police custody or courtrooms on the many occasions he was arrested. In 2017, after an assailant threw green-hued disinfectant in his face, seriously damaging one of his eyes, Navalny joked in a video blog that people were comparing him to the comic-book character The Hulk.

    Much worse was to come.

    While serving a jail sentence in 2019 for involvement in an election protest, he was taken to the hospital with an illness that authorities said was an allergic reaction, but some doctors said it appeared to be poisoning.

    A year later, on Aug. 20, 2020, he became severely ill on a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, where he was organizing opposition candidates. He collapsed in the aisle while returning from the bathroom, and the plane made an emergency landing in the city of Omsk, where he spent two days in a hospital while supporters begged doctors to allow him to be taken to Germany for treatment.

    Once in Germany, doctors determined he had been poisoned with a strain of Novichok – similar to the nerve agent that nearly killed former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018 and resulted in the death of another woman.

    Navalny was in a medically induced coma for about two weeks, then labored to recover speech and movement for several more weeks. His first communication while recovering showed his defiant wit — an Instagram post saying that breathing on one’s own is “a remarkable process that is underestimated by many. Strongly recommended.”

    The Kremlin vehemently rejected it was behind the poisoning, but Navalny challenged the denial with an audacious move — essentially a deadly serious prank phone call. He released the recording of a call he said he made to an alleged member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly carried out the poisoning and then tried to cover it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as fake.

    Russian authorities then raised the stakes, announcing that during his time in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of a suspended sentence in one of his embezzlement convictions and that he would be arrested if he returned home.

    Remaining abroad wasn’t in his nature. Navalny and his wife boarded a plane for Moscow on Jan. 17, 2021. On arrival, he told waiting journalists that he was pleased to be back and walked to passport control and into custody. In just over two weeks, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 2½ years in prison.

    The events sparked massive protests that reached to Russia’s farthest corners and saw more than 10,000 people detained by police.

    As part of a massive crackdown against the opposition that followed, a Moscow court in 2021 outlawed Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and about 40 regional offices as extremist, a verdict that exposed members of his team to prosecution.

    When Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Navalny strongly condemned the war in social media posts from prison and during his court appearances.

    Less than a month after the start of the war, he was sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court in a case he and his supporters rejected as fabricated. The investigators immediately launched a new probe, and in August 2023 Navalny was convicted on charges of extremism and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

    After the verdict, Navalny said he understands that he’s “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime.”

    A documentary called “Navalny” that detailed his career, his near-fatal poisoning and his return to Moscow won an Academy Award for best documentary in March 2023.

    “Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to us all: We must not be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever it rears its head,” director David Roher said in accepting the Oscar.

    Navalny’s wife also spoke at the award ceremony, saying: “My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy. Alexei, I am dreaming of the day you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love.”

    Besides his wife, Navalny is survived by a son and a daughter.

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  • Kylian Mbappe tells PSG he will leave at the end of the season: source

    Kylian Mbappe tells PSG he will leave at the end of the season: source

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    Kylian Mbappe has told Paris Saint-Germain he will leave the club at the end of the season, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

    What You Need To Know

    • A source told The Associated Press that Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe informed the club’s owner that he will leave at the end of the season

    • The person said Mbappe did not tell the PSG president which club he will join next

    • Mbappe, who has consistently been linked with a move to Real Madrid, will be a free agent at the end of the campaign after seven years with PSG

    • While Madrid seems like the most probable destination for Mbappe, his departure from PSG is likely to spark a bidding war between a host of other clubs eager to sign the former World Cup winner


    The person said the French forward informed PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi on Thursday that he would not stay at the club when his contract expires.

    The person said Mbappe — widely considered one of the best players in the world — did not tell the president which club he will join next.

    Mbappe, who has consistently been linked with a move to Real Madrid, will be a free agent at the end of the campaign after seven years with PSG.

    The France international informed the club last year that he would not trigger an extension to the contract he signed in 2021.

    While Madrid seems like the most probable destination for Mbappe, his departure from PSG is likely to spark a bidding war between a host of other clubs eager to sign the former World Cup winner.

    Mbappe has been at PSG since 2017 after signing from Monaco in a transfer worth a reported $190 million.

    In 2021, PSG turned down a bid of $190 million from Real Madrid for the World Cup-winning forward, who went on to sign his current contract.

    Mbappe will be the latest superstar player to leave the French club in recent times following the departures of Lionel Messi and Neymar last year.

    Mbappe won five French league titles with PSG, but has so far failed to lead it to success in the Champions League.

    He could still go out on a high by winning European club soccer’s biggest prize this season. He scored in PSG’s 2-0 win on Wednesday over Real Sociedad in the first leg of the round of 16.

    Mbappe’s decision brings an end to a drawn-out saga that has overshadowed his final year at the club.

    PSG has already made moves to shift its focus over the past 12 months in light of the exits of Messi and Neymar.

    PSG has been owned by Qatar Sports Investments since 2011 and dominated French soccer with some of the biggest names in the sport, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mbappe, Neymar and Messi. But it has begun to shift away from that model with signings like Randal Kolo Muani last year.

    Mbappe has long been seen as a successor to Karim Benzema at Madrid, who left the Spanish giant for Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia last year.

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    Associated Press

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