Good morning.
The White House has dismissed Monday’s Victory Day speech by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as “revisionist history” and said his suggestion that western aggression led to the Ukraine war was “patently absurd”.
In the US, congressional Democrats have reportedly agreed to provide as soon as today a further $39.8bn in additional aid for Ukraine, exceeding Joe Biden’s request last month for $33bn including more than $20bn in military assistance. Senate leaders were prepared to move quickly to enact the new proposal, reports said, which includes an additional $3.4bn for military aid and $3.4bn in humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged the international community to take immediate steps to end a Russian blockade of his country’s ports in order to allow wheat shipments and prevent a global food crisis.
The Black Sea export port of Odesa was struck by missiles on Monday.
Have all Ukrainian refugees been made welcome in other countries? A warm welcome has been given to most people fleeing Putin’s war but Roma women and children are struggling to find homes.
What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 76 of the invasion.
Climate limit of 1.5C close to being broken, scientists warn
The year the world breaches for the first time the 1.5C global heating limit set by international governments is fast approaching, a forecast shows.
The probability of one of the next five years surpassing the limit is now 50%, scientists led by the UK Met Office found. As recently as 2015, there was zero chance of this happening in the following five years. But this surged to 20% in 2020 and 40% in 2021. The global average temperature was 1.1C above pre-industrial levels in 2021.
It is also close to certain – 93% – that by 2026 one year will be the hottest ever recorded, beating 2016, when a natural El Niño climate event supercharged temperatures. It is also near certain that the average temperature of the next five years will be higher than the past five years, as the climate crisis intensifies.
“The 1.5C figure is not some random statistic. It is rather an indicator of the point at which climate impacts will become increasingly harmful for people and indeed the entire planet,” said Prof Petteri Taalas, the head of the World Meteorological Organization, which published the new report.
What will happen if the temperature stays over the 1.5C global heating limit? The world’s scientists warned in 2018 that 1.5C of global heating would bring severe impacts to billions of people, including heatwaves, floods and even snowstorms.
Mississippi governor refuses to rule out banning contraception
The Republican governor of Mississippi has refused to rule out attempting to ban some forms of contraception if the supreme court ruling that guarantees the right to abortion should fall.
“That is not what we’re focused on at this time,” Tate Reeves said.
The ruling, Roe v Wade, seems likely to be overturned this summer, after the leak of a draft supreme court decision supported by five conservatives on the nine-member court.
The leak prompted celebrations among conservatives and protests among liberals, as a near-50-year battle over a key privacy right approached a decisive moment.
Like other states, Mississippi has a “trigger law”, which, if Roe falls, will outlaw almost all abortions, with exceptions in cases of rape or threat to the life of the mother. The case at issue in the draft ruling, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, originated in Mississippi.
Could Roe v Wade be a ‘precursor to larger struggles’? It could be a milestone in America’s seemingly inexorable journey from United States to divided states as the likely demise of Roe v Wade could drive the biggest wedge yet between what appear to be two irreconcilable nations coexisting under one flag.
In other news …
The capture of a former Alabama jail official, along with a murder suspect she allegedly helped escape from custody, ended in tragedy yesterday when the jail official, Vicky White, fatally shot herself after a police chase. White, 56, was accused of fleeing with Casey White, 38, who is back in custody.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late dictator, has won a landslide presidential election victory, signalling an extraordinary rehabilitation for one of the country’s most notorious political families. With more than 90% of an initial count concluded, he had almost 30 million votes.
Sri Lanka has deployed thousands of troops and police to enforce a curfew after five people were killed in the worst violence in weeks of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis. Nearly 200 people were wounded as prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned, but that did little to calm public anger.
A member of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame crashed into and killed a man while driving drunk in Florida earlier this year, authorities said. Tamara Lynn “Sunny” Sytch caused the wreck that killed Julian Lasseter. A toxicology test confirmed she was more than three times over the legal limit.
Stat of the day: Andy Warhol’s famed Marilyn Monroe portrait sells for record $195m at auction
Andy Warhol’s 1964 silk-screen portrait of Marilyn Monroe has sold for $195m at auction, setting new records for 20th-century art and art made by an American artist. The painting sold for a hammer price of $170m. Added fees gave it a final price of $195m. The sale broke the previous record for an artwork made in the 20th century, set by Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O), which sold for $179.4m, including fees, in 2015.
Don’t miss this: Why women should say no to ‘office housework’
Many of us have a never-ending list of tasks that are work-related, but not quite work: writing up minutes from meetings, organising holiday parties, shopping for leaving gifts. Many, if not most, working women accept it as just part of the job. But taking one for the team could be holding all women back. A new book argues that “non-promotable work” is the invisible hurdle to gender equality in the workplace, with women’s time and energy being disproportionately expended on thankless tasks.
Climate check: Just one of 50 aviation industry climate targets met, study finds
The international aviation industry has failed to meet all but one of 50 of its own climate targets in the past two decades, environment campaigners say. A report commissioned by the climate charity Possible assessed every target set by the industry since 2000 and found that nearly all had been missed, revised or quietly ignored. The charity says the findings undermine a UK government plan to leave airlines to reduce their emissions through self-regulation.
Last Thing: Belgian cartoonist takes on plastic pollution
The Belgian cartoonist Pieter De Poortere was trying to do his bit for the environment: eating less meat and diligently sorting his rubbish – glass, paper, plastics. He realised it wasn’t enough. So he put his best-known character to work as part of an international art project aiming to draw attention to the problem of plastic production. Dickie, a pudgy antihero with a bristly moustache, is a perpetual loser. After years of mishaps, Dickie is now wreaking havoc on the environment.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
