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Ukraine war: Heavy losses reported as battle for Bakhmut rages

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As the conflict for Bakhmut continues, reports indicate that Russia and Ukraine have suffered significant losses. Moscow has been waging a gruelling war of attrition on eastern Ukraine for months.

Russian forces have lost more than 1,100 lives in the last several days, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and many more have been gravely injured. Over the previous 24 hours, more than 220 Ukrainian service members, according to Russia, have died.

Despite having minimal strategic worth, according to analysts, Bakhmut has become a focus for Russian commanders who have found it difficult to bring any good news to the Kremlin.

By taking the city, Russia would be a little bit closer to its objective of dominating the entire Donetsk region, one of the four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that it annexed last September after holding fraudulent referendums that were roundly denounced outside of Russia.

Russian forces are being constrained, according to Ukrainian commanders who have committed major resources to the city’s defence, and their plan is to stop Moscow from launching any more offensives in the near future.

Between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian troops have reportedly been killed or injured in and around Bakhmut, according to Western officials.

A proposed proposal that was presented to the Russian parliament on Monday proposes to raise the age range for conscription from the existing 18–27 years to 21–30 years.

According to Reuters, the conscription age would be extended to 10 or 11 years in 2024 or 2025 rather than the customary nine years. This would increase the number of men who are eligible to serve in the military.

Russia’s previous attempt to draft thousands of new recruits into the Ukraine war met with some resistance. In September the announcement of a partial military mobilisation saw long queues form at border crossings as men of draft age sought to flee the call-up.

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WHO’s Latest Message On Covid Origin 3 Years Since It Declared Pandemic

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The head of the World Health Organization stated in his clearest remarks to yet that the UN body remains dedicated to learning how the virus originated that learning the origins of COVID-19 is a moral necessity and all possibilities must be studied.

The Wall Street Journal stated that a US agency determined that the pandemic was most likely brought on by an unintentional Chinese laboratory leak, putting additional pressure on the WHO to provide an explanation. Beijing contests the analysis.

“Understanding #COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains: a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks (and) a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Twitter.

He was writing to commemorate three years since the WHO used the term “pandemic” for the first time to describe the widespread COVID-19 epidemic.

The focus of the anniversary, according to activists, lawmakers, and academics, should be on averting a repetition of the unequal COVID-19 vaccine introduction, which they claim resulted in at least 1.3 million avoidable deaths.

After spending weeks in and around Wuhan, China, the site of the first human cases, a WHO-led team concluded in 2021 that the virus had likely been spread from bats to humans via another animal, though more investigation was required. China has said no additional visits are needed.

Since then, the WHO has established a scientific advisory group on dangerous pathogens, but it hasn’t made any determinations regarding how the pandemic started because it claims that important pieces of information are lacking.

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67-Million-Year Old T-Rex Skeleton To Be Auctioned In Europe Next Month

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The first sale of a Tyrannosaurus-Rex skeleton in Europe will take place at an auction in Switzerland next month, the auction house said on Saturday.
The Trinity skeleton will be auctioned off on April 18 in Zurich, according to the Koller auction house.

According to the auction brochure, Trinity, which stands at a height of 3.9 metres (12.8 feet), is worth between six and eight million Swiss francs ($6.5-8.7 million). But Christian Link, in charge of natural history memorabilia at Koller, told AFP he believed that was a “very low estimate”.

Trinity, a well-preserved and expertly repaired dinosaur, is “one of the most stunning T-Rex skeletons in existence,” according to the auction house.

The auction would offer a complete T-Rex dinosaur skeleton of extraordinary grade for the first time in Europe and just the third time overall.

Koller cited a 2021 study published in the academic magazine Nature that claimed only 32 adult T-Rex skeletons, one of the biggest terrestrial carnivores ever to walk the Planet, had been discovered globally.

The bones from three T-Rex specimens were used to create the Trinity skeleton.

The auction catalogue stated that they were extracted between 2008 and 2013 from the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations in Montana and Wyoming in the United States.

The two sites are known for the discoveries of two other significant T-Rex skeletons that have gone to auction: Sue went under the hammer in 1997 for $8.4 million, and Stan, which took the world-record hammer price of $31.8 million at Christie’s, in 2020.

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Hamburg shooting: Seven killed in attack on Jehovah’s Witness hall

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According to authorities, a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in Hamburg, Germany, left seven people dead, including an unborn child. According to them, the shooter carried out the attack on Thursday alone before killing himself. His motivations are unclear.

The defendant, who has only been identified as Philipp F, allegedly harboured “bad will” towards the religious group he had formerly belonged to. There is video that appears to show him firing through a hall window.

The police announced at a briefing on Friday that four men and two women had been shot to death. German nationals were all of the deceased. There were eight injuries, four of them serious. Those hurt included a Ukrainian and a Ugandan.

Seven months pregnant and shot, the woman’s unborn child perished. Mother made it through. On Thursday at 21:04 local time (20:04 GMT), the police received the first emergency contact reporting gunfire inside a structure on Deelböge Street in the Gross Borstel neighbourhood.

Four minutes later, officers arrived on the scene, and special forces joined them nearly immediately. To get inside the premises where roughly 50 people had congregated, the officers had to shatter windows. The culprit ran to the first floor and was identified as a 35-year-old “sports shooter” with a firearms licence. Shortly later, his “lifeless body” was discovered. Nine magazines of ammunition had been shot by him, and 20 more were discovered in his rucksack.

Senator Andy Grote of Germany claimed that police officers’ “quick and decisive actions” had saved numerous lives. He added that the incident was the “worst crime” in recent Hamburg history.

The police stated that they had previously received a tip-off that was anonymous and raised questions about the mental stability of the culprit. Police had visited him following the tip, but they lacked sufficient evidence at the time to take his pistol away.

“I didn’t realise what was happening,” Gregor Miesbach, who recorded the attacker shooting through a first-floor window, told the Bild newspaper. When I zoomed in while using my phone to record, I saw that someone was shooting at Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Germany has some of the harshest firearms regulations in all of Europe, including a requirement that anybody under 25 must successfully pass a psychological test in order to obtain a firearms licence.

According to the National Firearms Registration, there were about one million private gun owners in Germany in 2021. The majority of them are owned by hunters, and they total 5.7 million legal firearms and firearm parts.

German officials intend to make the nation’s gun restrictions even stricter following a wave of arrests in December in connection with an alleged coup attempt.

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Italy migrant boat shipwreck: More than 100 people feared dead

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More than 100 passengers, possibly including children, are thought to have perished after their boat capsized in choppy waters off southern Italy. There have been at least 62 verified deaths among migrants, with 12 children, including a baby, reportedly among the dead.

On Sunday, the ship, which is believed to have been carrying 200 people, broke apart as it attempted to touch down close to Crotone. There were reportedly passengers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

At a nearby seaside resort in the Calabria region, bodies were found on the beach. Many more are still missing, according to the coast guard, who said that 80 individuals had been rescued alive, “including some who managed to reach the land after the sinking.”

According to customs police, one survivor was detained on suspicion of trafficking in migrants. Many of the passengers were reportedly from Pakistan. More than a dozen Pakistanis are thought to have been among the deceased, according to Shehbaz Sharif, the country’s prime minister, on Monday.

A number of the survivors of the horrific disaster are still dealing with the death of their loved ones as help and relocation efforts go on. Some of them were sobbing silently inside a makeshift reception facility in the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, while others were simply covered in blankets and gazing into space.

Secretary General António Guterres called on nations to do more to assist refugees and migrants, as well as for safer transit routes and strengthened rescue operations, in a Monday morning address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, who was elected last year in part on a promise to stop the flow of immigrants into her country, expressed “great grief” and accused human traffickers for the deaths on Sunday.

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Turkish journalists detained over earthquake reports

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The catastrophic earthquake that shook Turkey on February 6th struck 200 miles from the epicentre, where freelance journalist Mir Ali Koçer was located. He drove down to the damaged area, picked up his camera and microphone, and began interviewing survivors.

On Twitter, he posted accounts of rescuers and survivors. He is currently being investigated for allegedly spreading “false news” and could spend up to three years in prison. At least four journalists are being looked into for reporting or making comments on the earthquake, including him.

Several more have reportedly been imprisoned, intimidated, or prevented from reporting, according to press freedom organisations. Turkey and Syria both experienced earthquakes that resulted in at least 50,000 fatalities. The detentions have not been addressed by the Turkish government.

Mr. Koçer, a Kurd who writes for pro-opposition news outlets like Bianet and Duvar, was smoking on his balcony in the southeast Turkish city of Diyarbakir the night of the earthquake when his two dogs started barking out of the blue.

Afterwards, he recalled how they had yelled in a similar manner in 2020, shortly before a lesser earthquake struck eastern Turkey.

After leaving Diyarbakir, Mr. Koçer went to Gaziantep. He was horrified to see images of carnage and victims suffering in subfreezing temperatures in villages close to the earthquake’s epicentre.

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No G20 Joint Statement After China Objects To Use Of “War” Over Ukraine

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Although China tried to tone down references to the Ukraine war, G20 finance ministers were unable to reach agreement on a common statement on the status of the world economy on Saturday during discussions in Mumbai.

Instead, India, the G20’s current president, released a “chair’s report” in which it was stated that “the majority of members strongly denounced the war in Ukraine” and that “various evaluations of the situation and sanctions” were made during the two-day Bengaluru summit.
Two paragraphs about the conflict that were taken from the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration in November, according to a footnote, “were agreed to by all member countries with the exception of Russia and China.”

Nadia Calvino, a spokesperson for Spain, had earlier stated that it was “difficult” to agree on a statement due to some unnamed nations’ “less productive” attitudes during the discussions among the top 20 economies of the globe.

According to sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, China intended to remove the word “war” from the declaration’s language as of November.

Since G20 member Russia invaded its neighbour in February, previous gatherings of the group’s finance ministers and central bankers have similarly failed to result in a shared declaration.

The Chinese and Russian officials refused to ratify the language on Ukraine, according to senior Indian official Ajay Seth, since “their job is to deal with economic and financial matters.”

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Ukraine Allies Mark Invasion Anniversary With Slew Of Sanctions On Russia

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On the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s supporters throughout the world lit up significant landmarks, held vigils, and prepared new sanctions as a show of support.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, which has abandoned its “Wandel durch Handel” (change through trade) strategy towards Russia and supplied arms to Ukraine, declared that the invasion was an assault on the lessons of the two World Wars.

“It is an attack on everything we stand for,” he said at a commemorative event, calling Russia’s invasion an “epochal breach” and adding he was sure Germany would continue to be Ukraine’s biggest military supporter on the European continent.

Between Germany and Ukraine, in Poland, demonstrators chanted “Russia is a terrorist state” and blasted sirens outside a residence for staff members of the Russian embassy in Warsaw.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the premier of Poland, visited Kyiv and, along with the prime minister of Ukraine, lay flowers at the Wall of Memory for those who gave their lives for Ukraine.

For the occasion, the US unveiled fresh export restrictions, tariffs, and sanctions against Russia and its allies in an effort to limit Moscow’s capacity to wage war. Further sanctions were also imposed by the UK. Putin claims he is engaged in a struggle for Russia’s survival against the united power of the West. Unless Russia, which denies deliberately hitting people, withdraws, there cannot be peace, according to Kyiv.

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Swedish police chief Mats Lofving found dead after inquiry

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A senior police officer from Sweden was discovered deceased at his house in a case that the police have deemed “very unfortunate.” Regional police commander for Stockholm, Mats Lofving, was only under investigation for choices he allegedly made while dating the former head of police intelligence.

The injured person was reported to the police at Norrkoping, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south-west of Stockholm. They claimed that he could not be saved.

Police had opened a preliminary murder investigation, a spokesman told Swedish media, because it was yet unclear what caused his death.

An outside investigation had already discovered that Lofving, 61, who served as deputy national police chief, had a conflict of interest in several of the choices he made regarding Linda Staaf, the department’s intelligence chief (Noa).

Ms. Staaf has insisted time and time again that her relationship with Lofving was never more than platonic.

Runar Viksten, the special investigator who oversaw the inquiry, found no proof that she and Lofving were dating at the time she was named intelligence chief in 2015.

She received her service weapon from the police chief in 2020, her contract was extended and her pay was increased, and she was also given approval to write a crime fiction.

The investigation discovered that while Lofving’s judgements were neither unjustified nor improper, he shouldn’t have made them.

Lofving said that the conclusions had been challenging to hear on Wednesday to Sweden’s state television. He should either relinquish his position as police chief or resign entirely, according to the study.

Hours before the news of his death broke, Ms. Staaf claimed she was fully suited for the position and felt vindicated because the investigation found that the judgements taken regarding her were correct.

She believed the police authorities might have provided her with more assistance, though. She claimed to have been the target of a “smear campaign” to the Swedish media in December of last year.

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Teacher stabbed to death by pupil in France

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In a school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France, a high school student fatally stabbed a teacher. Olivier Véran, a spokesman for the French government, confirmed the attack on Wednesday and stated that the offender was 16 years old.

Police and the district attorney went to Saint-Thomas d’Aquin school, where the student was detained. According to the French publication Sud Ouest, the perpetrator attacked the teacher as she was teaching a Spanish class inside the classroom.

As emergency personnel arrived at the school, the teacher, who was in her 50s, passed away from a heart attack, according to local media. According to French television station BFM, the assailant locked the classroom door before stabbing the teacher in the chest.

Local police had launched an assassination inquiry, according to municipal prosecutor Jerome Bourrier, and the suspect was in jail. He continued by saying that neither the police nor the legal system knew who the culprit was.

On Thursday afternoon, the prosecutor will hold a press conference to provide additional information on the investigation. The attack was referred to as “a tragedy of exceptional seriousness” by France’s Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, who also offered his sympathies.

The school is a private, Catholic institution located close to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a popular French summer vacation destination. Around midday, those pupils who had been instructed to stay in their classes were permitted to go, and many were picked up by their parents.

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