Top story: ‘This is how the Russian state will be perceived’
Hello, welcome to this Guardian morning briefing on Monday 4 April 2022 with me, Warren Murray.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has addressed Russian forces as “butchers”, “murderers”, “torturers” and “rapists” responsible for genocide after hundreds of bodies of Ukrainian civilians were found in towns surrounding Kyiv. “What did the man who was riding his bicycle down the street do? … I want all the leaders of the Russian Federation to see how their orders are being fulfilled … This is how the Russian state will now be perceived.” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dymtro Kuleba, said Russia was “worse than Isis”. Zelenskiy has vowed to investigate and prosecute all Russian crimes in Ukraine, saying he had created a “special mechanism” to do so.
Witnesses in Bucha told the Guardian that Russian soldiers fired on men fleeing the town and killed civilians at will. Taras Schevchenko, 43, said some bodies were left “squashed by tanks … like animal skin rugs”. Reporters from Agence France-Presse saw at least 20 bodies in civilian clothing strewn across a single street in Bucha. One had his hands tied behind his back with a white cloth, his Ukrainian passport lying beside him. “All these people were shot,” said Bucha’s mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, adding that a further 280 bodies had been buried in mass graves. Be warned that the following video is grim and graphic in parts.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said he was “deeply shocked” while Boris Johnson said the killings added to evidence of Russian war crimes. The UK was committed to “further ramping up sanctions to increase the economic pressure on Putin’s war machine”. Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, said it was clear that rape had also been used as a weapon of war by Russian forces. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described Bucha as “a punch to the gut”. Russia for its part tried to paint the situation as somehow representing a “provocation” by Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly claimed, without proof, that Ukraine has staged such atrocities for its own benefit. But the Kremlin line is starkly contradicted by ample evidence on the ground, as well as Putin’s past form of having no compunction about slaughtering civilians.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, expressed shock about the “terrible and horrifying” footage from Bucha. There are calls for further sanctions – Germany has been resisting an immediate ban on Russian fossil fuels, but now its defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, has said the EU should consider a ban on gas imports from Russia. Latvian authorities announced that all three Baltic states had stopped importing Russian gas since 1 April. “If we can do it, the rest of Europe can too,” said Lithuania’s president, Gitanes Nausėda. Follow today’s developments at our live blog.
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Grammys 2022 – Olivia Rodrigo and R&B duo Silk Sonic have dominated the major categories while Jon Batiste won album of the year at the 64th annual Grammys, where there was a video message from Volodymyr Zelenskiy and an emotional tribute to victims of the Russian invasion. A week after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, Grammys host Trevor Noah said: “We’re gonna be listening to some music, we’re gonna be dancing, we’re gonna be singing, we’re gonna be keeping people’s names out of our mouths.”
Zelenskiy’s message served as an intro to a John Legend performance of Free along with Ukrainian musicians Mika Newton and Suizanna Iglidan and Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk.
Doja Cat exclaimed “I have never taken such a fast piss in my whole life!” after apparently rushing from the bathroom to the stage to accept best pop duo performance with SZA, for Kiss Me More. Silk Sonic, aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, grooved on to the stage for both record and song of the year. “We are really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point,” Anderson .Paak quipped. “Drinks is on Silk Sonic tonight!” Jon Batiste closed the evening with, fittingly, a celebration of music for album of the year.
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Broken swings and karaoke – Some Downing Street staff have been told they will be issued with fines by police over their attendance at a party the night before Prince Philip’s funeral, while indoor social mixing was banned by Covid regulations. It is the first decision by Scotland Yard that Covid laws were broken inside No 10. Two parties for the departure of Downing Street staff members took place on the evening of 16 April, and Downing Street staff were said to have got so drunk they broke the swing used by the prime minister’s son, Wilf, in the garden. Scotland Yard said it would not confirm which events fines had been issued for, or the identity of anyone who received a fixed-penalty notice. Meanwhile, it has emerged that Helen MacNamara, the Cabinet Office’s then head of ethics, attended a June 2020 leaving do where it is understood she supplied a karaoke machine. Calls continue for Boris Johnson to resign over partygate after he told parliament in December that “all guidance was followed completely in No 10”.
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Orbán entrenched – Viktor Orbán has won a fourth successive term as Hungary’s prime minister, capping a campaign dominated by his isolated stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Orbán’s victory speech appeared to mock Volodymyr Zelenskiy: “We had the biggest [range of opponents to] overpower … even the Ukrainian president in the end.” Counting on Sunday night put Orbán’s Fidesz party at 135 seats in the 199-member parliament. Fidesz has tightened its grip on office by controlling media ownership and manipulating the voting system. Zelenskiy has branded Orbán as Putin’s sole European supporter. Separately, Serbia’s centre-right president Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive party (SNS) are on track to be declared landslide winners after general elections on Sunday.
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Labour NDA outcry – A dozen senior Labour women have called on the party to end its use of confidentiality agreements to “cover up” sexual harassment allegations. Laura Murray, Labour’s ex-head of complaints, and Georgie Robertson, who worked in the party’s press office, said they refused to sign non-disclosure agreements after their complaints. After the BBC revealed their allegations, 12 senior Labour women wrote to the party’s ruling body saying they were “appalled”. Labour has denied it uses any non-disclosure agreements that would stop anyone speaking out about sexual harassment, and says it “takes any complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously, which are fully investigated and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken in line with the party’s rules and procedures”.
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South Asia’s political crises – Sri Lanka’s entire cabinet aside from the president and his sibling prime minister have resigned from their posts as the ruling Rajapaksa clan faces continued demonstrations over a severe economic crisis. A social media blackout and nationwide curfew have failed to halt protests sparked by severe shortages of food and fuel, crippling power cuts and record inflation. The president may appoint a new cabinet today. Sri Lanka’s main opposition alliance, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), has said it is time for the government to resign and end President Rajapaksa’s “autocratic rule”. Elsewhere in south Asia: Imran Khan is facing accusations of treason after he dissolved Pakistan’s parliament and called fresh elections to block a no-confidence vote that was expected to remove him as prime minister.
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Cash for jabs – A 60-year-old man is said to have received up to 90 Covid-19 shots in Germany so he could sell the vaccination cards to others. The man from Magdeburg is under police investigation for issuing vaccination cards without authorisation and document forgery, it has been reported.
Today in Focus podcast: The curse of fentanyl
Erin McCormick examines what’s driving a surge in drug overdose deaths in America – and why Black Americans, Indigenous Americans and young people have been so hard hit by the crisis.
Lunchtime read: ‘People used to think Marine was nasty’
Elisabeth, 68, who once voted for the left, will return a ballot for the far-right Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election this month. “People used to think Marine was nasty,” she said. “Now they realise she’s not. Other politicians are taking her ideas. They all talk like her now.” The National Rally leader is closing the gap on Emmanuel Macron in the polls, writes Angelique Chrisafis.
Sport
Antonio Conte declared his Tottenham team to be “now in the race” for Champions League qualification after they swept Newcastle away with a devastating second-half performance in a 5-1 win. Heather Knight has said she takes “a lot of pride” in her England side, despite their defeat by Australia in the World Cup final in Christchurch after Nat Sciver hit an unbeaten century to take England to within 72 runs of their mammoth 357-run target. Oxford won the men’s Boat Race for the first time since 2017, while Cambridge women continued their recent domination as the races returned to the Thames. Louis van Gaal, the Netherlands coach and former Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Ajax manager, has revealed he has been receiving treatment for an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-4 to win the Miami Open final and confirm the young Spaniard’s arrival among the tennis elite. Sam Kerr and Bethany England both scored twice and Jessie Fleming added another as Chelsea recorded a commanding 5-0 win over Reading at the Kingsmeadow to return to the top of the WSL in style. Jennifer Kupcho took the final victory leap into Poppie’s Pond after the American won her first major with victory at the Chevron Championship. And Tiger Woods will make a last-minute call on whether to stage an incredible comeback at the Masters but every available indication so far suggests the 15-time major champion will take to the first tee at Augusta National on Thursday.
Business
World share markets have been mixed so far. A holiday in China has made for sluggish trading. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.3% in morning trading while Japan’s Nikkei dipped along with S&P 500 stock futures and Nasdaq futures. This morning the FTSE will open higher according to futures trading. The pound is worth $1.311 and €1.186 at time of writing.
The papers
Revulsion at the atrocities committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha dominates today’s front pages. The Guardian shows a scene of destruction with the headline: “Horror in Bucha: Russia accused of torture and massacre of civilians”. The Mirror says simply “Genocide” in its headline under the bleak strapline: “Putin’s latest atrocities”. The Times has “Civilians shot in the streets” and reports many victims had been bound “execution style” – its journalists visited two sites in Bucha.
The i emphasises those killed were civilians: “Massacre of the innocents”. It notes Boris Johnson’s call to “starve Putin’s war machine”. The Financial Times reports on the prospect of a full oil and fuel embargo – in the wake of Bucha, EU diplomats are expected to discuss further measures on Wednesday. The Telegraph says the UK and its allies will not rest until Vladimir Putin is held responsible. The Daily Mail likens the scenes in Ukraine to “the atrocities of the Nazis, and Stalin’s Great Terror”. The headline is “Putin’s stain on humanity”. Metro quotes the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, for its headline: “Worse than Isis”. The Daily Express says Boris Johnson wants to “make Putin pay for ‘despicable’ war crimes”. The Sun notes Johnson’s comments in a side story on its front page.
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