Tag Archives: Focuses

Major study focuses on key lifestyle change that can add decade to life expectancy – The Independent

  1. Major study focuses on key lifestyle change that can add decade to life expectancy The Independent
  2. Midlife Diet Shifts Could Add A Decade To Your Life – ARAB TIMES – KUWAIT NEWS Arab Times Kuwait News
  3. Switching to a healthy diet could add 10 years to your life. 3 foods seemed to make the biggest difference in a study. Yahoo Life
  4. Switching to a healthy diet could add 10 years to your life. 3 foods seemed to make the biggest difference in Business Insider India
  5. Ditching fizzy drinks and bacon could add 10 years to your life, scientists say… The Sun
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Major study focuses on key lifestyle change that can add decade to life expectancy – The Independent

  1. Major study focuses on key lifestyle change that can add decade to life expectancy The Independent
  2. Switching to a healthy diet could add 10 years to your life. 3 foods seemed to make the biggest difference in a study. Yahoo Life
  3. Switching to a healthy diet could add 10 years to your life. 3 foods seemed to make the biggest difference in Business Insider India
  4. Midlife Diet Shifts Could Add A Decade To Your Life – ARAB TIMES – KUWAIT NEWS Arab Times Kuwait News
  5. Ditching fizzy drinks and bacon could add 10 years to your life, scientists say… The Sun
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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‘Echo’: ‘Hawkeye’ Spinoff Series To Debut Under New Marvel Spotlight Banner That Focuses On Less MCU Continuity – Deadline

  1. ‘Echo’: ‘Hawkeye’ Spinoff Series To Debut Under New Marvel Spotlight Banner That Focuses On Less MCU Continuity Deadline
  2. Echo to launch new Marvel label with less emphasis on continuity The A.V. Club
  3. ECHO: Runtime For First Two Episodes Revealed As Director Teases A Very Different Type Of MCU Story ECHO: Runtime For First Two Episodes Revealed As Director Teases A Very Different Type Of MCU Story CBM (Comic Book Movie)
  4. Echo’s Episode Count Gets Confirmed by Marvel Studios CBR – Comic Book Resources
  5. Marvel’s Echo Breaks New Ground as the First TV-MA Series on Disney+ MovieWeb
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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‘Echo’: ‘Hawkeye’ Spinoff Series To Debut Under New Marvel Spotlight Banner That Focuses On Less MCU Continuity – Deadline

  1. ‘Echo’: ‘Hawkeye’ Spinoff Series To Debut Under New Marvel Spotlight Banner That Focuses On Less MCU Continuity Deadline
  2. Echo to launch new Marvel label with less emphasis on continuity The A.V. Club
  3. Echo Will Be the First Series to Launch Under the New Marvel Spotlight Banner IGN
  4. Marvel’s Echo Episode Count Confirmed ComicBook.com
  5. ECHO: Runtime For First Two Episodes Revealed As Director Teases A Very Different Type Of MCU Story ECHO: Runtime For First Two Episodes Revealed As Director Teases A Very Different Type Of MCU Story CBM (Comic Book Movie)
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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NIL questions emerge after Jim Boeheim’s comments, but Pitt’s Jeff Capel focuses on his team – TribLIVE

  1. NIL questions emerge after Jim Boeheim’s comments, but Pitt’s Jeff Capel focuses on his team TribLIVE
  2. Forde Minutes: The Dangers of When College Hoops Coaches Become Emperors Sports Illustrated
  3. Rutgers assistant coach accuses Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim of buying teams, paying players NJ.com
  4. Syracuse University held hostage to Boeheim’s worst impulses (Your Letters) syracuse.com
  5. Boeheim, Weitsman discuss NIL remarks the coach made to ESPN: ‘That’s the future of basketball’ syracuse.com
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Dragon Age: Dreadwolf In-Game Cinematic Focuses on Solas and Sets the Stage for the Upcoming RPG

In celebration of Dragon Age Day 2022, BioWare has released an in-game cinematic from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf that sets the stage for the adventures to come.

The cinematic is all about Solas, a playable character in Dragon Age: Inquisition who is clearly one of the main driving forces in the upcoming RPG.

Varric, another playable character who first appeared in Dragon Age 2, narrates the video and tells the story of Solas, who was once known as Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf.

“I knew him as Solas, a thoughtful mage obsessed with dreams, but long ago, he had a different name – Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf,” Varric narrates. “Ancient Elven God of Lies or heroic rebel against tyranny, depending on which story you believe. In his final fight with the Elven Gods, Solas imprisoned them and created a veil that split our world from the raw magic of the fade. But now, he wants to tear down that veil and destroy the world, and we’re the only ones who can stop him.”

While we still have no release date for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, BioWare did confirm the much-anticipated RPG recently completed its Alpha milestone, meaning the game is now playable from start to finish. That being said, there is still a lot of work and polish to go.

BioWare had a few other surprises in store for Dragon Age Day 2022, including new character posters from Dragon Age: Absolution, the new series set to hit Netflix on December 9, 2022. You can check them out in the slideshow below and a trailer for the show and more details here.

Netflix’s Dragon Age: Absolution Character Posters

BioWare is also raising money for the Trans Empowerment Project, a “a non-profit organization with a focus on supporting the most marginalized people in the queer community, such as disabled and trans people of color.” BioWare is collecting donations through Tiltify for the non-profit and you can help by clicking here.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.



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As Musk focuses on Twitter, his $56 billion Tesla pay goes to trial

WILMINGTON, Del., Nov 7 (Reuters) – As Elon Musk is engulfed in his overhaul of Twitter, the entrepreneur is headed to trial to defend his record $56 billion Tesla Inc pay package against claims it unjustly enriches him without requiring his full-time presence at the carmaker.

A Tesla (TSLA.O) shareholder is seeking to rescind Musk’s 2018 pay deal, claiming the board set easy performance targets and that Musk created the package to fund his dream of colonizing Mars.

Tesla has countered that the package delivered an extraordinary 10-fold increase in value to shareholders.

The trial begins Nov. 14 and will be decided by Kathaleen McCormick on Delaware’s Court of Chancery. She oversaw Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk that ended last month when he agreed to close his $44-billion deal for Twitter, an acquisition which he financed largely with his Tesla stock.

“If Musk loses this pay package in some massive way, I think we can expect to see a lot of things that are going to be really hard to predict, like what happens going forward in terms of how Tesla is run and how Twitter is paid for,” said Ann Lipton, a professor at Tulane Law School.

However, Lipton and other legal experts said the lawsuit by Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta is going to be much more difficult than Twitter’s case against Musk.

Musk founded and is CEO of SpaceX, one of the world’s most valuable private companies, and founded or co-founded Neuralink, which makes brain implants, tunneling venture The Boring Co, and OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research lab. Last week, he appointed himself Twitter CEO.

‘PART-TIME CEO’

Tornetta’s lawyers argue the 2018 package failed its stated purpose of focusing Musk on Tesla. They portray Musk as a “part-time CEO,” citing his testimony that in 2018 he worked Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at the electric carmaker and Monday and Thursday at rocket company SpaceX, according to his deposition.

According to the lawsuit, Tesla’s board chair Robyn Denholm said the “minimal time” Musk was at Tesla was “becoming more and more problematic” in a 2018 email to Gabrielle Toledano, who at the time was the Tesla Chief People Officer.

The company has argued the package was not about requiring Musk to punch a clock and be on site specific hours each week, but to hit “audacious” targets, enriching Musk but also shareholders like Tornetta.

The disputed pay package allows Musk to buy 1% of Tesla’s stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met; otherwise Musk gets nothing. Tesla has hit 11 of the 12 targets as its value ballooned to $650 billion from $50 billion on the back of ramped up Model 3 production, according to court papers.

Musk’s vested grants are worth around $50 billion, according to Amit Batish at Equilar, an executive pay research firm. The grants contribute to his $200-billion fortune, the world’s largest.

Musk’s package of stock grants is larger than the combined pay of the 200 highest-paid CEOs last year – six times over, according to Batish.

The trial is likely to focus on Tornetta’s claims the package was developed and approved by directors beholden to Musk and promoted to shareholders without revealing the first tranches were probable of being met based on internal projections.

BOARD CONTROL

Tornetta’s filings are full of examples of a board controlled by Musk.

For example, Antonio Gracias, described by the plaintiff as a close friend of Musk and who was lead independent director from 2010-19, testified in his 2021 deposition that Musk could sell Tesla if he wanted and the board could not stop him.

“Who worked for who? Does Elon Musk work for the board or does the board work for Elon Musk,” said Minor Myers, a professor at UConn School of Law.

Myers said if the pay package is rescinded, the board could simply create a new one and do so with McCormick’s ruling to guide them.

But circumstances have changed, complicating the process.

“He now owns Twitter. How do they want to factor that in?” said Myers, who added that it will be a challenge to determine how to keep Musk from being distracted by other ventures.

“How much money do they need to put in front of this guy to get his attention,” he said.

Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Hyun Joo Jin in San Francisco
Editing by Noeleen Walder and Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Tom Hals

Thomson Reuters

Award-winning reporter with more than two decades of experience in international news, focusing on high-stakes legal battles over everything from government policy to corporate dealmaking.

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Jan. 6 hearing focuses on Trump effort to summon mob: live updates

WASHINGTON – The Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack is focusing its seventh hearing Tuesday on how former President Donald Trump summoned protesters to Washington and directed a mob he allegedly knew was armed to the U.S. Capitol.

Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., outlined “three rings of interwoven attack,” that were a part of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Those resulted in the Capitol attack, he said.

  • Linking Flynn, Stone to Oath Keepers, Proud Boys: Committee member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Tuesday that former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and Roger Stone both had connections to the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, showing photos of Flynn with members and pointing to communications between Stone and group leaders.
  • Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet triggered supporters: The committee tried to show how Trump’s tweet on Dec 19 inviting protestors to Washington helped lead to the attack on Jan. 6. protests in Washington. One group, Women for America First, changed their permit request for a rally from late January to Jan. 6 after his tweet.
  • Trump’s National Intelligence director feared Trump election challenges could prove ‘dangerous’: In earlier testimony to the committee but first aired Tuesday, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said Trump’s director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, told her he thought that the former president’s election challenges could “spiral out of control” and become potentially “dangerous.”
  • Cheney: Trump no ‘child’: Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., dismissed as “nonsense” Trump’s claims that he did not know that he lost the 2020 election given how his advisers repeatedly told him Biden won. Trump “is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.”
  • Cheney: Cipollone testimony lived up to expectations: Rep. Liz Cheney said that former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone’s testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee had “met our expectations.” Cipollone was questioned Friday behind closed doors on what he knew regarding Trump’s actions during the Capitol attack.
  • What is already known? Trump invited protesters to Washington for a rally near the White House against election fraud. Trump was notified the morning of Jan. 6 that members of the crowd were carrying rifles and pistols, and he directed the crowd to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. The Justice Department charged nearly 800 people after the siege at the Capitol, including seditious conspiracy charges against at least 11 members of the Oath Keepers and five members of the Proud Boys.

On Jan. 5, Trump and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon spoke twice. After their initial call, Bannon said on his podcast, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

“It’s all converging and now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack,” Bannon said. “Right, the point of attack tomorrow. I’ll tell you this. It’s not gonna happen like you think it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna be quite extraordinarily different. And all I can say is strap in.”

The committee revealed Trump and Bannon briefly spoke over the phone again for six minutes and the contents of the phone call are unknown. 

– Kenneth Tran

Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson, told the Jan. 6 committee that she directly raised concerns with former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about some of the speakers scheduled to talk at the former president’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pierson primarily raised concerns over far-right conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Ali Alexander because of their inflammatory rhetoric. 

“I probably mentioned to him that they had already caused trouble in other capitals, or at previous events,” she said.

– Ella Lee

The committee presented evidence from white supremacist, pro-Trump and anti-government groups showing their intent to join forces in protesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Kelly Meggs, indicted leader of anti-government group the Oath Keepers, outlined the plan in a Dec. 19, 2020, Facebook post.

“Well we are ready for the rioters, this week I organized an alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers, and Proud Boys. We have decided to work together and shut this sh*t down,” read the post.

– Chelsey Cox

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Tuesday that Michael Flynn and Roger Stone both had connections to the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, showing photos of Flynn with members and pointing to communications between Stone and group leaders.

The committee showed a photos of Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, with an indicted member of the Oath Keepers, Robert Minuta, and one of the group’s leaders, Stewart Rhodes.

Stone communicated with top group leaders via an encrypted group chat called “Friends of Stone,” Raskin said.

– Rick Rouan

A former homeland security leader in Washington, D.C., told the committee that the department had received intelligence of violent groups on the far-right uniting and planning to come to the nation’s capital.

“These nonaligned groups were aligning,” said Donnell Harvin, a professor at Georgetown Unviersity and the former chief of homeland security and intelligence for the government of the District of Columbia.

“All the red flags went up at that point,” Harvin said, “knowing that you have armed militia collaborating with white supremacy groups, collaborating with conspiracy theorist groups online, all towards a common goal.”

– Erin Mansfield

One of two witnesses soon expected to testify before the Jan. 6 Committee is Stephen Ayres, one of many rioters who were arrested for illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. He has also been charged with obstruction of justice for attempting to stop the certification of electors.

In an affidavit filed by the FBI related to his arrest, Ayres specifically referenced Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet saying there will be a “Big protest in D.C.” Ayres made several posts on Facebook leading up to Jan. 6 asking where Trump’s supporters will be. He also live-streamed the Capitol attack on Facebook at several points.

– Kenneth Tran

Prior to former President Donald Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19 calling his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, there was no plan or single day that his supporters planned to come. 

“People talked about going to D.C. when the election was over … after it was announced he was going to be there on the 6th, then anything else was shut out and it was just going to be on the 6th,” Jody Williams, former owner of far right website TheDonald.win, said in video testimony. 

Rep. Jamie Raskin said Trump’s tweet created a “laserlike focus” on Jan. 6, mobilizing his followers over a singular date and plan that allowed for the mob mentality and widespread violence of the riot. 

After Trump’s tweet, posts on Twitter and far-right websites focused their violent rhetoric around the that date. Followers wrote about the tunnels beneath the Capitol complex, suggestions for targeting members of Congress, with followers saying they were “ready to die for their beliefs.” 

– Katherine Swartz

A former Twitter employee who spoke to the Jan. 6 committee said Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19, “was essentially sticking a flag in DC on January 6th for his supporters to come and rally.” 

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” tweeted Trump on Dec. 19. The Twitter employee said reactions to Trump’s tweet made it “very clear that individuals were ready, willing and able to take up arms.” Trump appeared as a leader of their cause, according to the Twitter employee.

Users responded to Trump’s tweet with “locked and loaded” and “stand back, stand by.” The reactions to Trump’s tweet made the Twitter employee “absolutely” concerned that gatherings on Jan. 6 would turn violent.

– Kenneth Tran

The Jan. 6 committee spoke with a former employee of Twitter who worked on the platform’s moderation team throughout 2020 and 2021.

In a taped testimony, the anonymous person, whose voiced was changed to protect their identity, said Twitter had considered adopting stricter content rules as a result of the former president telling the Proud Boys to “stand back, and stand by” during one of the 2020 presidential debates.

“My concern was that the former president for seemingly the first time was speaking directly to extremist organizations and giving them directives,” the employee said. “We had not seen that sort of direct communication before, and that concerned me.”

Twitter did nothing in the months leading up to Jan. 6, however.

The employee said Twitter’s leaders “relished” being Trump’s favorite social media platform, and that any other user would have been permanently banned “a long time ago.”

Trump was eventually banned on Jan. 8.

– Phillip M. Bailey

Hours after former President Donald Trump tweeted his invitation for protests in Washington on Jan. 6, 2020, his supporters began organizing.

A committee member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Women for America First had applied for a rally permit Jan. 22 and 23 – several days after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. But hours after Trump’s tweet Dec. 19, 2020, the group changed the permit to Jan. 6 for the rally where Trump spoke.

Ali Alexander, leader of the advocacy group Stop the Steal, registered the web site wildprotest.com, with comprehensive information about protest events in Washington with times, places, speakers and details about transportation, Raskin said.

“Trump’s purpose was to mobilize a crowd,” Raskin said.

– Bart Jansen

More provocative prerecorded testimony presented by the Jan. 6 committee showed different sides of the Trump faction siding with or against the former president’s election fraud claims.

Trump’s former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell backed his fraud allegations, while White House counsel Pat Cipollone and adviser Eric Herschmann sought proof backing the claims.

A meeting between Trump’s advisers grew heated as Giuliani accused Cipollone and Herschmann of not acting aggressively enough, even once calling them the P-word.

“Excuse the expression, but that’s almost certain the word was,” Giuliani said.

Herschmann, who said he’d had it with Giuliani after Giuliani screamed insults at him, told the attorney “either come over of sit your effin’ ass back down.”

– Chelsey Cox

Unwilling to admit that his efforts to win back the White House had failed, former President Donald Trump on Dec. 19, 2020 took to Twitter to mobilize his followers, said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

“How do you mobilize a crowd in 2020?” Raskin asked. “With millions of followers on Twitter, President Trump knew exactly how to do it.”

Trump sent out an “explosive invitation” to protest on Jan. 6, telling his supporters to “be there – will be wild” and repeating false claims of election fraud. His supporters responded “immediately,” Raskin said. 

– Ella Lee

The Dec. 18 meeting in which Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn met to discuss overturning the election ended with the three Trump allies insulting people and verbally attacking the White House counsel, two former White House staffers said in videotaped testimony.

“It was not a casual meeting,” said Derek Lyons, a former White House staff secretary. “At times there were people shouting at each other, hurling insults at each other. It wasn’t sort of people sitting around on the couch just chit-chatting.”

Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, said, “I remember the three of them were really sort of forcefully attacking me verbally,” and he, Lyons, and lawyer Eric Herschmann were asking “one simple question, as a general matter, ‘Where is the evidence?’”

– Erin Mansfield

Rudy Giuliani had to be escorted out of the White House at the end of a heated meeting among former President Donald Trump, the team of attorneys pursuing baseless claims of election fraud and White House lawyers.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson captured the moment in a photograph the committee showed Tuesday. Rep. Jamie Raskin, R-Md., said the photo showed then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows escorting Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, off the grounds to “make sure he didn’t wander back into the mansion.”

“The west wing is UNHINGED,” Hutchinson said in a text message that night, according to the committee.

– Rick Rouan

Former President Donald Trump’s outside advisers, including lawyer Sidney Powell and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn drafted an executive order Dec. 16, 2020 – two days after the Electoral College voted to say Joe Biden won the election – to have the Defense Department seize voting machines.

A committee member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., quoted from the draft order: “Effective immediately, the Secretary of Defense shall seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines…”

Raskin said the executive order, which wasn’t implemented, also called for Powell to be appointed special counsel to investigate election fraud.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr called the allegations voting machines were being manipulated “nonsense” and refused to seize voting machines.

“I told him that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that and it was doing a grave disservice to the country,” Barr said in videotaped testimony.

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone opposed Powell’s appointment.

“I was vehemently opposed,” Cipollone said. “I didn’t think she should be appointed to anything.”

– Bart Jansen

Pat Cipollone says Trump wanted voting machines to be seized

White House lawyer Pat Cipollone said he felt former President Donald Trump should have conceded when no evidence of election fraud was found.

Ariana Triggs, USA TODAY

Along with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was shocked to find Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, alone with Trump in the Oval Office.

“I walked in, I looked at him and I said ‘Who are you?’ And he told me,” Cipollone testified. “I had never heard of who this guy was.”

Byrne, Flynn, Powell and others met alone with Trump for at least 10-15 minutes without White House staff’s knowledge.

“I don’t think any of these people were providing the president with good advice, so I didn’t understand how they had gotten in,” Cipollone said.

– Katherine Swartz

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., described a heated meeting between Trump’s outside advisers and White House advisers. The meeting included Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former CEO of overstock.com Patrick Bryne, all conspiracy theorists who have made false claims the election was stolen.

The group of outside advisers “were able to speak with the president by himself for some time,” according to Raskin. White House officials were apparently unaware this meeting was happening, and when they found out, a “heated and profane clash,” ensued between the two groups.

The clash included “personal insults, accusations of disloyalty to the president, and even challenges to physically fight,” said Raskin.

– Kenneth Tran

One of the jaw-dropping moments from Tuesday’s hearing was how Trump wanted to seize voting machines in the aftermath of losing the 2020 election.

Former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone explained in taped testimony how the president had an unplanned meeting with outside advisors, including Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, about the plan.

“It’s a terrible idea for the country,” he said. “That’s not how we do things in the United States.”

The committee showed a draft of an executive order by Trump that would have empowered the secretary of defense to seize voting machines, and appoint a “special counsel” who could charge people with election crimes. Trump had considered Powell for the position of special counsel, according to the panel.

Many will recall Powell as the face of the campaign’s efforts to overturn the election, including false claims that foreign governments had interfered in the 2020 contest.

“I was vehemently opposed,” Cipollone said. “I didn’t think she should be appointed to anything.”

– Phillip M. Bailey

In testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson said that Trump’s director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, told her he thought that the former president’s challenges to the election could “spiral out of control” and become potentially “dangerous.”

Ratcliffe, a Republican, also previously served as a Texas U.S. representative from 2015 to 2020. 

– Ella Lee

Multiple White House officials told the House Jan. 6 committee that they believed the Trump administration’s days were numbered after the Electoral College votes were cast on Dec. 14.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior adviser Ivanka Trump and deputy press secretary Judd Deere all said in recorded testimony that Dec. 14, 2020, was a key date in the conclusion of the Trump administration.

Trump’s legal challenges of the 2020 election results all had failed, and the Electoral College had met to cast electoral votes that delivered Joe Biden’s victory.

McEnany said after Dec. 14 that she “began to plan for life after the administration.” Ivanka Trump agreed that Dec. 14 was an important day for the end of the administration, saying “I think it was my sentiment probably prior as well.”

– Rick Rouan

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said during Tuesday’s hearing that former President Donald Trump’s advisers visited him on Dec. 18. The meeting was described as “unhinged, not normal,” and the “craziest meeting” of Trump’s presidency.

Raskin also said there has never been a time when a president asked a crowd to gather at the Capitol to fight the “certification of electoral results.”

– Merdie Nzanga

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the Jan. 6 committee in prerecorded testimony that Mark Meadows, former Trump chief of staff under the Trump administration, insisted Trump would participate in the peaceful transfer of power.

Meadows was said to assure both Cipollone and former Attorney General Bill Barr that Trump would agree to a “graceful exit” by conceding the 2020 presidential election around Nov. 23, 2020.

“I will say that that is a statement and a sentiment that I heard from Mark Meadows,” Cipollone said.

– Chelsey Cox

Eugene Scalia, then-secretary of labor to Trump and son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, advised former President Donald Trump to concede the election following a series of legal losses.

In videotaped testimony to the Jan. 6 Committee, Scalia said he spoke to Trump on Dec. 14 – the same day electors met in each state to certify Biden’s victory – and told him he “thought that it was time for him to acknowledge that President Biden had prevailed in the election.” 

Since legal processes in dozens of states had been shot down by judges and no evidence of widespread fraud had been found, Scalia told Trump it was time to accept he had lost the election.

Instead, four days later, Trump called out to his supporters over Twitter to protest at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

– Katherine Swartz

Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said he though the process for deciding the 2020 election had ended by mid-December, just after the Electoral College met to cast formal votes for president.

“Did I believe she should concede the election at a point in time?” Cipollone asked the Jan. 6 committee in a videotaped interview. “Yes I did.”

He pointed to comments from then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Dec. 15, 2020, saying that the process had already played out, and added, “That would be in line with my thinking on these things.”

– Erin Mansfield

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., outlined “three rings of interwoven attack,” that were a part of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election which resulted in the Capitol being attacked.

In the inner ring, Raskin described Trump’s internal efforts of trying to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to reject certain electoral votes, effectively overturning the election and keeping Trump in office, which “would have been a fundamental and unprecedented breach of the Constitution,” said Raskin.

In the middle ring, Raskin said Trump put a target on Congress’ back, which encouraged far-right extremist groups “to coordinate a massive effort to storm, invade, and occupy the Capitol.”

And the outer ring was the fruition of Trump’s efforts on the day of the Capitol attack, as “thousands of enraged Trump followers thoroughly convinced by the Big Lie,” converged upon the Capitol, said Raskin.

– Kenneth Tran

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., who is co-leading Tuesday’s hearing, outlined how Trump used social media as a bullhorn to summon his most radical supporters to help overthrown the 2020 election.

The former president, Murphy said, had “called for backup” in a Dec. 19 tweet in order to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted at the time. “Be there, will be wild!”

Murphy said the message was more than just a “call to action” but also served as a “call to arms” for his loyal base to help Trump steal the election.

“It’s clear the president intended the assembled crowd on Jan. 6 to serve his goal,” she said.

– Phillip M. Bailey

The vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, took direct aim at former President Donald Trump by arguing that his own White House advisers and Justice Department officials told him he lost the 2020 election and yet he willfully refused the accept that conclusion.

“The strategy is to blame people his advisers called ‘the crazies’ for what Donald Trump did,” said Cheney, R-Wyo. “This, of course, is nonsense. President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.”

Cheney argued Trump had access to more detailed information than almost anyone else.

“No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposition conclusion,” Cheney said. “Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind.”

– Bart Jansen

In her opening remarks, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said that witnesses and lawyers in former President Donald Trump’s orbit have changed their approach to the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack since it began its hearings.

Before the hearings began, the approach taken by Trump allies was to “deny and delay,” Cheney said. Now, Trump’s allies and former members of his administration agree the committee has turned up several truths. 

“Today, there appears to be a general recognition that the committee has established key facts, including that virtually everyone close to President Trump, his Justice Department officials, his White House advisors, his White House Counsel, his campaign, all told him the 2020 election was not stolen.”

– Ella Lee

Cassidy Hutchinson on pardons: Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows sought pardons related to Jan. 6 attack, testimony reveals

Rep. Liz Cheney said during her opening statement on Tuesday that former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone’s testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee had “met our expectations.”

The committee had issued a subpoena for Cipollone to speak to the committee, and he appeared before the committee last week.

“Mr. Cipollone’s testimony met our expectations,” said Cheney, the committee’s vice chair and its top Republican. “We will save for our next hearing President Trump’s behavior during the violence of Jan. 6.”

– Rick Rouan

Former aide: Trump demanded weapons detectors removed at Jan. 6 rally

During Trump’s rally held on Jan. 6, Cassidy Hutchinson says she overheard Trump tell staff that he didn’t care whether people had weapons.

Cody Godwin, Associated Press

Tuesday’s hearing will focus on whether Trump and his allies coordinated with violent extremist groups to incite a mob to breach the U.S. Capitol. One witness set to testify in today’s hearing is Jason Van Tatenhove, former national media director for the Oath Keepers, a violent alt-right extremist organization that was present at the Capitol attack.

Van Tatenhove is expected to testify about how Stewart Rhodes, founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, started and kept the organization running through far-right conspiracy theories and propaganda. Van Tatenhove was a spokesperson for the Oath Keepers from 2014 to 2017, and he has since had no affiliation with the group.

The Department of Justice Department has charged several members of the Oath Keepers with seditious conspiracy and obstruction in connection with the Capitol attack and their attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election. 

– Kenneth Tran

The Proud Boys is an extremist group started in 2016 whose members describe themselves as promoting “Western chauvinism.” The group was founded by Miami native Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who also served as the Florida state director for Latinos for Trump.

Founded in 2009 by Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers is a paramilitary group that actively recruits law enforcement and military veterans. The group’s members have been involved in armed standoffs with the federal government and have shown up armed to public events saying they are security.

The Department of Justice has charged members of both groups, in separate cases, with seditious conspiracy, the most serious charges that have come out of the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

– Erin Mansfield

The Tuesday hearing is the first since former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone testified Friday behind closed doors. Video recordings of his testimony will be shared during the Tuesday hearing, continuing a format the committee has used throughout the first six hearings. 

He is considered a key witness because of his access and involvement with the former president, especially during Trump’s final months in office. Cipollone testified for more than eight hours Friday. 

“He was aware of every major move, I think, that Donald Trump was making to try to overthrow the 2020 election and essentially seize the presidency,” committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

– Candy Woodall and Bart Jansen

The attack, extremists, Trump: Jan. 6 hearing to focus on Trump mob. A breakdown of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and the attack.

January 6 hearings: Deconstructing the insurrection using new evidence

The January 6 hearings have given new insight and information on the Capitol insurrection, helping to construct a timeline of the day’s events.

Megan Smith and Hank Farr, USA TODAY

Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will lead today’s proceedings into the role former President Donald Trump had in summoning far right extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

In social media posts ahead of the hearing, both Raskin and Murphy emphasized former Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19 as a key moment in mobilizing the extremist groups. 

“When he sent this tweet, Trump became the first president in American history to call for a protest against the peaceful transfer of power,” Raskin said on Twitter. 

Murphy said on Twitter that Trump’s tweet “activated domestic extremist groups” and that some members of Congress “amplified that message, all leading to the attack on January 6th.”

– Katherine Swartz 

The hearing comes a day after Trump ally Steve Bannon asked a federal court to delay his contempt trial for defying a committee subpoena.

Bannon offered to testify, after refusing since the subpoena was issued in September. But federal prosecutors argued the trial should proceed and a judge denied his request to delay the trial Monday. 

“If he wants to come in, I’m sure the committee would be very interested in hearing from him,” Raskin said.

His testimony is not anticipated Tuesday.

– Bart Jansen and Candy Woodall

Bannon trial won’t be delayed: Steve Bannon’s request to delay contempt trial denied after he offered to testify before Jan. 6 panel

While Trump fought election results in dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits, he invited protesters to Washington with a tweet Dec. 19, 2020.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump said. “Be there, will be wild!”

Trump also urged the crowd to march to the Capitol, where he said he would join them in cheering on senators and representatives challenging the election results. After a dispute with his security detail, he never went.

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told the crowd. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

-Bart Jansen

What Trump did on Jan. 6: On Jan. 6, Trump was out of public view as aides urged him to act. A breakdown of those 187 minutes.

Trump WH counsel Cipollone meets with Jan. 6 panel

Pat Cipollone had been a sought-after witness by the House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol after bombshell testimony revealed his efforts to thwart many of Trump’s actions that day. (July 8)

AP

Capitol Police released a special assessment Jan. 3, 2021, anticipating members of the Proud Boys and other groups were expected and would target Congress, according to the Jan. 6 committee’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said at the June 9 hearing. “The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot.”

A White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, testified June 28 that she kept hearing about Oath Keepers and Proud Boys while planning for the Jan. 6 rally when Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was around.

“Things might get real, real bad on January 6th,” Hutchinson quoted former chief of staff Mark Meadows as telling her.

-Bart Jansen

Throughout the first six public hearings, the Jan. 6 committee has sought to prove the former president oversaw and coordinated “a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of power,” according to committee’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

It’s an investigation that gained momentum in June, most notably with its star witness Cassidy Hutchinson. The former top White House aide testified June 28 and described how Trump knew some of his angry supporters were armed as he directed them to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol.

The committee held six hearings in June. The hearings covered:

-Candy Woodall and Bart Jansen



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Jan. 6 committee hearing today focuses on Trump’s efforts to pressure state officials

Washington — The House select committee examining the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol convened Tuesday for its fourth public hearing this month. This session will focus on President Trump’s efforts to pressure state officials as part of his broader campaign to remain in office for a second term after losing the 2020 election.

Expected to appear before the panel are two GOP elections officials from Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the secretary of state’s office, as well as Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, also a Republican. Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former election worker from Fulton County, Georgia, will also appear. 

Trump lost both Georgia and Arizona to President Biden, but he and officials with his reelection campaign pushed top officials in those states to overturn the election results, in part through a scheme to submit alternate, pro-Trump slates of electors.

Select committee aides said they’ll show that Trump “was warned that these actions, including false claims of election fraud, pressuring state local officials, that they risked violence. They risked undermining confidence in our democratic institutions.”

In Georgia, Trump urged Raffensberger in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to “find” enough votes to make him the winner, though Raffensperger repeatedly rebuffed the president’s efforts and refuted claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia. 

Both Raffensperger and Sterling defended the integrity of Georgia’s election and faced intense criticism for their actions, receiving death threats and, in the case of Raffensperger, a censure by the state Republican Party. Despite the backlash, Raffensperger defeated Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice and two other candidates who challenged him in the Republican primary last month for secretary of state.

The two election officials also testified this month before a special grand jury in Fulton County that is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election.

Moss, the Fulton County election worker, sued One America News Network and Rudy Giuliani in December for defamation, alleging the network aired stories that falsely accused her and her mother, a fellow election worker, of committing ballot fraud to alter the outcome of the 2020 election, according to the lawsuit. The two reached a settlement agreement with One America News in April, though Giuliani remains as a defendant.

Trump himself also accused Moss and her mother of carrying out a fake ballot scheme and called them professional vote scammers, allegations that led to death threats and intimidation, and forced them into hiding, committee aides said.

In Arizona, Bowers, who backed Trump in 2020, received a call from Trump and Giuliani, the former president’s lawyer, in late November 2020 urging him to have the state legislature substitute a slate of presidential electors, overriding Mr. Biden’s win in the state, according to the Arizona Republic. 

Bowers also received an email from Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in early November 2020 urging him to select a “clean slate of electors,” according to the Washington Post. The committee has asked to speak with Thomas, and she told The Daily Caller she looks forward to talking with House investigators.

Testimony from Trump White House officials, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, is expected to be heard during Tuesday’s hearing.

Tuesday’s hearing will kick off the third week of proceedings for the Jan. 6 select committee, which is laying out for Americans how Trump mounted a multi-pronged campaign to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and stop the peaceful transfer of power, culminating in the violent attack on the Capitol building.

Earlier hearings have focused on the violence that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as law enforcement struggled to control the mob of Trump’s supporters descending on the complex to stop Congress’s counting of state electoral votes; Trump’s decision to declare victory on election night even though his closest aides knew there was no evidence to support his claims the election was stolen from him; and the former president’s efforts to strong-arm Vice President Mike Pence to reject state electoral votes and unilaterally declare him the winner of the election.

In its third hearing last week, aides to the former vice president said Trump’s repeated lies about the election pushed the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis and put Pence in harm’s way when a mob of Trump supporters breached the Capitol building.

“Approximately 40 feet. That’s all there was, 40 feet between the vice president and the mob,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, a Democrat from California, said last week. “Make no mistake about the fact that the vice president’s life was in danger.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, is expected to play a leading role in the fourth hearing. He told CNN on Sunday that the panel will demonstrate how Trump mounted a pressure campaign against state and local elections officials that endangered their lives, and present evidence of the former president’s role in a scheme to convince states to name pro-Trump alternate slates of electors.

“The system held because a lot of state and local election officials upheld their oath to the Constitution,” Schiff told CNN.

Since its creation nearly one year ago, the select committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews — including with former White House and Trump campaign officials, and members of the former president’s family — and collected more than 140,000 documents.

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to attack the committee and falsely claim he won the 2020 election. During remarks Saturday in Memphis as part of the “American Freedom Tour,” Trump claimed without evidence the committee is doctoring video of depositions and accused its members of being “liars and con artists.”

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Live updates | UN focuses human rights inquiry in Ukraine

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BERLIN — The U.N.’s top human rights body has overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on its investigators to specifically look into possible rights abuses and violations in northern Ukraine shortly after Russia’s invasion.

In a 33-2 vote, with 12 abstentions, the Human Rights Council concluded a special session Thursday on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also by calling on Russia to grant international human rights groups “unhindered, timely, immediate, unrestricted and safe access” to people who have been transferred from Ukraine to Russia or areas controlled by Russian forces or affiliates.

Only China and Eritrea voted against the measure, which also urged the U.N. human rights office to report on events in Mariupol, a besieged southeastern port city where thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed. Access to the city has been virtually nonexistent for international human rights during recent fighting there.

The council called on a team of investigators known as a Commission of Inquiry to look specifically into the “events” in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions of Ukraine in late February and early March after Russia’s invasion “with a view to holding those responsible to account.” The commission was already created to investigate rights abuses and violations generally in Ukraine.

Many atrocities in the war came to light last month after Moscow’s forces aborted their bid to capture Kyiv and withdrew from around the capital, exposing mass graves and streets and yards strewn with bodies in towns such as Bucha.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— Finland’s leaders in favor of applying for NATO membership

— ‘ This tears my soul apart ’: A Ukrainian boy and a killing

— Protesters vent fury at French company for staying in Russia

— Ukrainian circus comes to town, and stays in Italy, amid war

Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — Between 8 and 12 Russian missiles hit the oil refinery and other infrastructure in the Ukrainian industrial hub of Kremenchuk Thursday, the acting governor of the central Poltava region said that same day.

In a Telegram post, Dmytro Lunin urged residents to remain in underground shelters, citing the “persistent” threat of airstrikes.

In early April, Lunin had said that the Kremenchuk refinery – Ukraine’s only remaining fully functional facility of its kind at the time — was no longer operational following a Russian attack. Moscow claimed to have targeted the refinery again at the end of the month, and to have destroyed further fuel production and storage facilities.

BERLIN — The U.N. refugee agency is reporting that more than 6 million people have now fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

Geneva-based UNHCR also said Thursday that the number of refugees who have returned back to Ukraine, either partially or fully, has reached more than 1.6 million. It says that number reflects cross-border movements, and doesn’t necessarily indicate “sustainable” returns. The agency says it’s too early to draw conclusions about “definitive trends” on returns.

Matthew Saltmarsh, an agency spokesman, also said Thursday that a total of 2.4 million people who have left Ukraine have moved beyond Ukraine’s immediate border countries which have taken in the lion’s share of refugees from the country. Poland alone has registered more than 3.2 million people who fled Ukraine. It and other European Union member countries have open borders, making tracking where people go a complex endeavor.

On Tuesday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, tweeted that the number of refugees from Ukraine had reached the same 5.7 million figure as the tally from Syria’s 11-year war, which previously was the source of the world’s biggest refugee crisis.

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. children’s agency says the war in Ukraine is a “child rights crisis” where education is under attack and nearly 100 youngsters have been killed in just the last month.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi told the U.N. Security Council Thursday that more children have been injured, millions have been displaced and schools continue to be attacked and used for military purposes.

The school year came to a standstill after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and as of last week at least 15 of 89 UNICEF-supported schools in the country’s east have been damaged or destroyed in the fighting, he said.

In mid-March, over 15,000 schools resumed education in Ukraine mostly through remote learning or in-person hybrid options, he said.

“It is estimated that 3.7 million children in Ukraine and abroad are using online and distance learning options,” Abdi said.

But he stressed that there are still “enormous obstacles” to education including availability for learning, resources, language barriers and movements of children and their families.

“Ultimately, children need an end to this war — their futures hang in the balance,” Abdi said.

KYIV, Ukraine — Talks are underway between Kyiv and Moscow on the possible evacuation of 38 “severely wounded” Ukrainian troops from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine’s deputy PM said Thursday afternoon.

The steel mill is the only remaining stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the ruined port city, and is now surrounded by Russian forces.

“We are working step by step,” Iryna Vereshchuk wrote in a public post on the Telegram messenger app.

She said that Kyiv hoped to exchange the soldiers for 38 “significant” Russian prisoners of war, before moving on to the next stage of the negotiations. She did not specify what this next stage would concern, but said that there were no negotiations “on the exchange of 500 or 600 people.”

Earlier on Thursday, an official at the Ukrainian President’s Office said that Kyiv hoped to extract “half a thousand” wounded Ukrainian fighters from Azovstal.

Members of the Azov Regiment holed up inside the plant have repeatedly refused to surrender, citing fears of being killed or tortured. On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said that “more than a thousand” Ukrainian troops, many of them injured, remained at Azovstal.

VIENNA — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö Thursday, the same day Finland’s leaders announced the country plans to apply for NATO membership, the German chancellery said Thursday afternoon.

“Chancellor Scholz welcomed today’s statements by the President and Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin, in which both advocate their country’s immediate accession to NATO, and assured Finland of the Federal Government’s full support on this path,” Scholz’s office said in a statement.

Finland’s announcement paves the way for a historic expansion of the alliance that could deal a serious blow to Russia as its military struggles with its war in Ukraine.

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) land border with Russia.

KYIV, Ukraine — About 3,000 Mariupol civilians are being detained in prisons controlled by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s industrial east, the country’s human rights chief says.

Lyudmyla Denysova claimed on social media Thursday that Kyiv is aware of at least two prisons set up in the eastern Donetsk region, one in the regional capital of Donetsk and another in Olenivka, a suburb 20 kilometers southwest of the city center.

She claimed that authorities in Kyiv had received reports of people being “tortured, interrogated, threatened with execution and forced to cooperate,” and others disappearing after interrogations.

She also alleged that detainees were being kept in “inhuman conditions,” with inadequate access to bathrooms and no space to lie down.

She claimed that some captives had been released after 36 days, after signing unspecified documents, but did not provide more details. Ukrainian authorities are calling on the U.N. to intervene.

More than 100,000 civilians remain in the ruined port city of Mariupol, which had a pre-war population of about half a million. Ukrainian authorities have previously claimed that “thousands of Ukrainians” had been forcibly taken to Russia.

Troops from Ukraine’s Azov Regiment continue to hold out at the Azovstal steelworks, the last bulwark of Ukrainian resistance in the city.

MOSCOW — Russia has warned that it will have to take unspecified “military-technical” steps in response to Finland’s decision to join NATO.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Finland’s accession to NATO will “inflict serious damage on Russian-Finnish relations, as well as stability and security in Northern Europe.”

It said in a statement that “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps of military-technical and other characteristics in order to counter the emerging threats to its national security.”

The statement noted that while it’s up to Finland to decide on ways to ensure its security, “Helsinki must be aware of its responsibility and the consequences of such a move.” The ministry charged that Finland’s move also violated past agreements with Russia.

“History will determine why Finland needed to turn its territory into a bulwark of military face-off with Russia while losing independence in making its own decisions,” it added.

The ministry’s statement follows Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comment earlier Thursday that Finland’s decision wouldn’t help stability and security in Europe. Peskov said that Russia’ response will depend on NATO’s moves to expand its infrastructure closer to the Russian borders.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says Western sanctions against Russia are provoking a global economic crisis.

Speaking during a Thursday meeting on economic issues, Putin said Western nations were “driven by oversized political ambitions and Russophobia” to introduce sanctions that “hurt their own economies and well-being of their citizens.”

Putin charged that the “sanctions are provoking a global crisis” and will lead to “grave consequences for the EU and also some of the poorest countries of the world that are already facing the risks of hunger.”

He alleged that the “Western elites are ready to sacrifice the rest of the world to preserve their global domination.”

The Russian leader insisted the Russian economy has successfully withstood the blow from Western sanctions and that Russian companies will fill the niche left by the withdrawal of Western enterprises.

LVIV — Russia has used cluster bombs and phosphorus munitions in the southern Ukrainian region of Kryvyi Rih, according to the regional military chief.

It’s the first time use of the weapons has been reported in the area. The claim could not immediately be verified.

“The occupiers are firing, including with the use of prohibited phosphorus and cluster munitions,” regional military governor Oleksandr Vilkul said Thursday on Ukrainian TV channels. He didn’t detail where and when they allegedly were used.

He said one person was killed and one wounded over the past day.

Russian troops have been pressing an offensive toward the city of Kryvih Rih, the capital of the region. It is north of the Russian-held Black Sea port city of Kherson, and is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.

The Ukrainian military previously accused Russian forces of using phosphorus and cluster munitions in the eastern Donbas region. Ukrainian authorities have launched investigations into their use, whch dozens of countries have agreed to ban under an international treaty.

BERLIN — The U.N.’s human rights chief says her office has found that Russian forces and affiliated armed groups are responsible for most civilian deaths during the war in Ukraine.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the “vast majority” of civilian casualties have been caused by the use of explosive weapons, including heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and airstrikes.

“According to our information, while such incidents can be attributed to both parties to the conflict, most of these casualties appear attributable to the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups,” Bachelet told a special session of the Human Rights Council on Thursday.

Ukraine and its backers led a push to convene the special session of the 47-member body. The Geneva-based council was set to vote on a resolution that would reiterate its demand “for the immediate cessation of military hostilities against Ukraine.”

The U.N. General Assembly voted last month to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s top human rights body, over allegations of war crimes by Russian forces.

NICOSIA, Cyprus — A Ukrainian human rights activist says LGBTQ people in her country are “on the front line of resistance” against Russia’s invasion and many have joined the Ukrainian army to thwart Russian forces.

Olena Shevchenko told a European forum being held in Cyprus via a video link that Ukraine’s LGBTQ support groups also have joined in offering humanitarian assistance to all those suffering from or who have fled the fighting.

Shevchenko was critical of the European Union’s statements about safeguarding the continent’s values in the face of war, saying words should turn into actions and specifically material help like food and medicine for those who need it most.

Triantafillos Loukarelis, chairman of the Council of Europe’s committee on anti-discrimination, diversity and inclusion, said his organization has notified authorities in countries that are hosting Ukrainian refugees to be vigilant against the potential for human trafficking, especially of LGBTQ people.

MOSCOW — A top Russian official says that there is a growing threat of the fighting in Ukraine spilling into a direct conflict between Russia and NATO.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday that growing Western arms supplies to Ukraine and training for its troops have “increased the probability that an ongoing proxy war will turn into an open and direct conflict between NATO and Russia.”

He added that “there is always a risk of such conflict turning into a full-scale nuclear war, a scenario that will be catastrophic for all.”

Medvedev, who served as Russia’s placeholder president in 2008-2012 while Putin shifted into the prime minister’s seat to observe term limits, has become increasingly hawkish in his statements in recent months.

In a messaging app commentary, Medvedev urged the U.S. and its allies to think about the possible consequences of their actions and “not to choke on their own saliva in the paroxysms of Russophobia.”

LONDON — Britain’s military says Ukraine has recaptured several towns and villages in the country’s northeast from Russian forces.

The Ministry of Defense says Russia’s focus on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine had left its remaining troops around the city of Kharkiv “vulnerable to the mobile, and highly motivated, Ukrainian counter-attacking force.”

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has suffered heavy Russian bombardment during the war as Russia sought to encircle it. But the U.K. said in an intelligence update on social media that “it has reportedly withdrawn units from the region to reorganize and replenish its forces following heavy losses.”

It said that withdrawal was “a tacit recognition of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited resistance from the population.”

HELSINKI — Finland’s president and prime minister say they’re in favor of applying for NATO membership, paving the way for the alliance to expand in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The announcement by President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday means Finland is virtually certain to seek NATO membership though a few steps remain before the application process can begin.

Neighboring Sweden is expected to decide on joining NATO in coming days.

Niinisto and Marin said in a joint statement: “As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance.”

They said that Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay, adding: “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed Russia’s determination to wrest separatist-held territory from Ukraine in a congratulatory message to the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine.

Russia backed the separatists for years and recognized them as independent on the eve of invading Ukraine.

In a statement released by the Kremlin on Thursday, Putin said: “I am sure that through our joint efforts we will defend the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the Luhansk republic.

Meanwhile, the head of the Luhansk self-proclaimed republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said Thursday that it would never return to Ukrainian control and that most of its residents want it to become part of Russia.

Russian migration authorities also reported that 15,000 people had crossed from Ukraine’s Donbas region to Russia’s Rostov region in 24 hours, according to Russian state news agency Tass. The number couldn’t be verified and the circumstances of the crossings were unclear.

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