It is a turbulent week for Russia, from stark warnings that “poisonous” pollution is cutting down life expectancy, to a UK inquiry decades later linking Vladimir Putin directly to the infamous poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Meanwhile, the Soviet-era city of Baku sees tens of thousands gather in defiance of a Soviet military crackdown that would later become known as Black January. In Washington, this week proves transitional as George H W Bush is sworn in as US president, promising a new political era and distancing himself from the “selfish” excesses of the Reagan era. Beyond our terrestrial plane, attention turns skywards as new images from Mars reveal frozen water on the planet’s surface, raising fresh questions about its past – a significant step in understanding whether the Red Planet might once have supported life. All are charted in The Independent.
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