Good morning.
Western leaders are preparing for Vladimir Putin to use “whatever tools he has got left” including nuclear threats and cyber-attacks in response to an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia.
British officials at the G7 foreign ministers’ summit in Japan said they were expecting Russia to retaliate and “must be prepared” for extreme tactics as it attempted to hold on to Ukrainian territory.
The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said last month that Moscow was ready for the Ukrainians to hit back, warning that his country would use “absolutely any weapon” if Kyiv attempted to retake Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. There appeared to be an acknowledgment in Moscow that its forces could soon find themselves on the defensive in Ukraine as Russia’s winter offensive appeared to be slowing down.
Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has united the G7 ministers, who issued a statement after their two-hour meeting yesterday condemning the threats as “unacceptable” and criticising Putin’s plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
What needs to happen to end the war? A transatlantic group of former senior diplomats and high-level military advisers said yesterday that the war in Ukraine was on course to become a stalemate unless the west went “all in” and increased its level of military support. The group said “declarations of unwavering support” were not enough and “actions still fail to match the rhetoric” in a reflection of military assessments in European capitals and Washington.
Police charge white man for shooting Black teen boy who had wrong address
A white homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, has been charged with armed assault after he shot a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake, authorities announced yesterday.
Andrew Lester, 85, also faces a charge of armed criminal action after shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, twice on Thursday. The teenager, a high school junior, was going to pick up his younger twin brothers from a play date when he went to the wrong address. Zachary Thompson, the prosecuting attorney, announced the charges late on Monday after intense local protests and widespread outrage over the police’s decision to briefly detain Lester before releasing him without charges.
Lester was not in custody early yesterday evening, but there was a warrant out for his arrest, Thompson said. Charging documents said that Lester came to the door when the doorbell rang and then shot the boy in the head, before shooting him again, and that no words were exchanged before he opened fire.
Yarl was recovering at home after being released from a Kansas City hospital on Sunday, where he was being treated for gunshot wounds to his head and chest, his family said. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the family, told the Guardian that Yarl suffered a fractured skull, a traumatic brain injury involving swelling, post-concussive syndrome and injuries to his arm.
Why wasn’t he charged sooner? Kansas City police said they could not take further action until they spoke to the seriously injured boy.
What have Yarl’s lawyer’s said? The prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump is also representing the family, and earlier told CNN: “It is inescapable not to observe the racial dynamics here … We can only imagine if the roles were reversed, and you have a Black man shooting a 16-year-old white child who was simply ringing his doorbell, and the police took him in for questioning and let him come home and sleep in his bed at night.”
‘It avoids a public grilling’ – why Murdoch could settle Dominion’s Fox News lawsuit
Rupert Murdoch’s push to try to bury a landmark defamation case against Fox News aims to avoid further damage to his media empire’s reputation – and protect the 92-year-old from a gruelling court appearance as he formulates succession plans, writes Mark Sweney.
Judge Eric M Davis moved on Sunday to delay the start of the $1.6bn defamation trial between Fox Corporation and Dominion, which has alleged Fox News repeatedly broadcast false claims that its voting machines were rigged, amid reports of a settlement.
However, the following day Davis confirmed the six-week trial would begin a day later than planned, with jury selection starting on Tuesday, after talks between the parties failed – for now at least. Nevertheless, a settlement deal could yet be brokered at any time, with a possible price tag mooted at about $500m less of a thorny issue than Dominion’s demand for a public apology from Fox.
“Any settlement will be very generous but the [Murdoch] empire can take and absorb such a shock; it has paid out more than $1bn over the last decade relating to phone hacking,” says Claire Enders, a co-founder of Enders Analysis and a longtime Murdoch watcher.
What else did Enders say? “Murdoch is someone who settles, quickly, efficiently and is extremely pragmatic in his settlements. Shareholders would find it a relief [but] it also spares a desire to put Mr Murdoch and others on the stand, de-risking any potential embarrassment from a public grilling.”
In other news …
Ron DeSantis has annouunced the latest act of retaliation against Disney for speaking out against his “don’t say gay” law: he’s threatening to build a state prison next to the company’s central Florida theme park. The governor dropped the suggestion at a hastily convened press conference yesterday.
The FBI has arrested two men accused of running a covert station for China’s police force in New York and using it as a base to track Chinese dissidents living in the US. The station, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, was allegedly set up in February 2022 and operated by Beijing’s ministry of public security (MPS).
A US diplomatic convoy came under fire in Sudan in an apparent attack by fighters associated with Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in an incident he described as “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
A woman looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York was shot dead after the car she was riding in was met with gunfire in the driveway, authorities have said. Kaylin Gillis, 20, was travelling through the rural town of Hebron with three people.
Don’t miss this: ‘A gamechanger’ – this simple device could help fight the war on abortion rights in the US
Dr Joan Fleischman has always had people flying in from across the world to her private abortion practice in Manhattan. Often they are from Texas, sometimes Ohio, or Florida. Some with links to the city, others with none. There’s a reason people fly to see Fleischman, writes Poppy Noor. She provides abortions through manual uterine aspiration – using a small, handheld device to remove pregnancy tissue. The device is gentle enough that the tissue often comes out almost completely intact. It is also a quick and discreet procedure where a patient can be in and out of the door in less than an hour. Fleischman is the co-founder of the MYA Network of primary care clinics and clinicians in 16 states. They believe the tool could be radical in the hands of more primary care clinicians.
… or this: Photographer admits prize-winning image was AI-generated
A photographer is refusing a prestigious award after admitting to being a “cheeky monkey” and generating the prize-winning image using artificial intelligence. The German artist Boris Eldagsen revealed on his website that he was not accepting the prize for the creative open category, which he won at last week’s Sony world photography awards. The winning photograph depicted two women from different generations in black and white. Eldagsen said he had “applied as a cheeky monkey” to find out if competitions would be prepared for AI images to enter. “They are not,” he added. “We, the photo world, need an open discussion,” said Eldagsen. “A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake?”
Climate check: Colorado River snaking through Grand Canyon is most endangered US waterway – report
A 277-mile stretch of the Colorado River that snakes through the iconic Grand Canyon is the US’s most endangered waterway, a report has found. The unique ecosystem and cultural heritage of the Grand Canyon is on the brink of collapse as a result of prolonged drought, rising temperatures and outdated river management, according to American Rivers, the conservation group that compiles the annual endangered list. Its future hangs in the balance as the Biden administration is poised to impose changes to the way the Colorado River’s dwindling water is divided. Further restrictions to the flow risks turning the Grand Canyon into an ecological sacrifice zone, causing irreparable damage to wildlife, fish stocks and sacred sites, the report warns.
Last Thing: The disgusting food of TikTok – is it designed to eat, provoke or arouse?
I have just ironed my husband a toasted sandwich like some kind of tradwife and to be honest, I’m disappointed with his reaction. Unless you are a particularly online person, you are probably asking why, at this point. It’s a question I have asked myself repeatedly, in a rising pitch of incredulity and distress as I dived deep into TikTok food – or FoodTok, if you will. Because that is where the ironed toastie comes from: it’s part of a new generation of TikTok recipe hacks that embody a provocative, frankly deranged “why not?” philosophy. You can watch people boil up crisps to make mashed potato or unholy tacos made by boiling beef, eggs and cheese in a bag of Doritos. At the risk of sounding like Grampa Simpson yelling at clouds – which is exactly how I feel exploring FoodTok – what is going on?
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