Egyik 19

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Magyarország
2022. március 2.  Országgyűlési képviselők választása 2022. április 3.-án. Országos listák - Pártlisták; Nemzetiségi listák. (Forrás: NemzetiVálasztásiIroda): https://tinyurl.com/ve53dbfu

2022. március 2. Országos népszavazás 2022. április 3.-án. A népszavazás kérdései:    1 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekeknek köznevelési intézményben a szülő hozzájárulása nélkül szexuális irányultságokat bemutató foglalkozást tartsanak?     2 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekek számára nemi átalakító kezeléseket népszerűsítsenek?     3 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekeknek fejlődésüket befolyásoló szexuális médiatartalmakat korlátozás nélkül mutassanak be?    4 Támogatja-e Ön, hogy kiskorú gyermekeknek a nem megváltoztatását bemutató médiatartalmakat jelenítsenek meg?         Az országos népszavazás érvényes, ha az összes választópolgár több mint fele érvényesen szavazott, és eredményes, ha az érvényesen szavazó választópolgárok több mint fele a megfogalmazott kérdésre azonos választ adott. (Forrás: NemzetiVálasztásiIroda): https://tinyurl.com/4a54pnsm

Greece
March 2, 2022 Greece has decided to show its solidarity by opening 50,000 jobs in the tourism sector to Greek expatriates and Ukrainian refugees. In February 28, the Minister of Tourism, Kikilias, announced that last year over 50,000 surpluses were not covered by the domestic market. “Could these people with dignity, with European contracts and collective labour contracts be absorbed and help in this sector,” he said. According to Kikilas, until May 28, flights from Russia to Europe will be banned for three months. There is still no information on how much Greek tourism will be affected. They will do their best to bring all visitors, travellers, and tourists from all over the world to Greece. The EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Johansson, noted that the EU countries are already hosting about 300,000 Ukrainian refugees. (Source: SchengenVisaInfonews)

Spain
2 Mar 2022 About 500 people managed to cross into the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla after clashing with Moroccan police. About 2,500 migrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa have tried cross the border fence separating the tiny territory of enclave from Morocco. It is one of the largest influxes in recent years. The people today used “hooks” to scale the high fence and threw rocks at police. Three Spanish Guardia Civil police suffered slight injuries in the incident and three migrants were also treated for injuries near the fence. Last year, 1,092 migrants and refugees managed to enter Melilla, a 23 percent drop from 2020. Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish territories in North Africa are favoured entry points for African migrants and refugees. In mid-May 2021, Spain was caught off guard when more than 10,000 people swam or used small inflatable boats to cross into Ceuta territory as the Moroccan border forces looked the other way. The influx took place during a diplomatic crisis between Madrid and Rabat over Western Sahara, which has long pushed for independence from Morocco. Madrid had angered Morocco by allowing the leader of Western Sahara’s independence movement into Spain for hospital treatment for a severe case of COVID-19. The unprecedented border breach was widely seen as a punitive move by Rabat. (Source: AlJazeera)

European Union
March 2, 2022 1:26 PM GMT+1 An unidentified state actor is targeting European officials with malicious software in an apparent attempt to try and disrupt efforts to assist Ukrainian refugees, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said today. "Proofpoint has identified a likely nation state sponsored phishing campaign using a possibly compromised Ukrainian armed service member's email account to target European government personnel involved in managing the logistics of refugees fleeing Ukraine," researchers at Proofpoint said. Proofpoint noted the attack was anecdotally similar to campaigns carried out by a hacking group dubbed Ghostwriter - also known as TA445 or UNC1151 - which has previously been identified as working in the interests of Belarus. It may also be an attempt to "gain intelligence regarding the logistics surrounding the movement of funds, supplies, and people within NATO member countries," they added. The campaign targeting European officials could be the next stage of these attacks, Proofpoint researchers said. "While the utilised techniques in this campaign are not ground-breaking individually, if deployed collectively, and during a high tempo conflict, they possess the capability to be quite effective," the researchers said. Close to 700,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries since the start of what Russia calls a "special operation' in Ukraine. The current exodus looks set to become Europe's largest refugee crisis this century. (Source: Reuters)

2 March 2022  Eastern European security after the invasion of Ukraine. The EU developed its post-1990s security and defence policy with the aim of managing external crises. Until last week, it had tried to keep its distance from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and had avoided coming to Ukraine’s defence. While some policymakers in Western capitals discussed notions such as neutrality and spheres of influence in abstract terms, those in the Baltic states (and, of course, Ukraine) were acutely aware of their tangible impact on ordinary people’s lives. The EU’s lack of serious efforts to counter Russian influence and aggression left these countries ever more exposed. Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, member states’ threat assessments of Russia moved much closer together. But debates on EU defence and EU-Russia relations moved on separate tracks. Defence initiatives such as Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence contained some projects relevant to the defence of eastern member states, particularly the PESCO project on military mobility. However, the EU’s military contribution to the security of these states has largely been indirect and marginal. Furthermore, the EU took a cautious approach to another of their key concerns: the security of Eastern Partnership countries. Concerned that EU defence policy might duplicate or undermine NATO, eastern member states have tended to focus on constraining the union’s defence activities rather than looking for ways in  which EU initiatives could provide security in eastern Europe. Since 2016, the union has intensified its efforts to strengthen its defence capacity. The concept of European strategic autonomy has been a central but controversial part of this process. For eastern EU member states, the controversy mainly arises from suspicions about the implications of ‘autonomy’ for the transatlantic relationship: they want to ensure that the United States has a strong presence in Europe. The EU’s eastern member states know from experience, Russia’s imperial instincts cannot be contained by diplomacy alone. Measures to strengthen EU defence policy have done little to address their primary security concern – which has always been Russia. The events of 24 February 2022 have fundamentally changed the way the European Union sees not just Russia but also its own contribution to European security. Following the invasion of Ukraine,eastern member states should no longer have the same concerns about how EU defence policy could undermine the transatlantic relationship. Russia’s war is leading to a larger US presence in Europe, a stronger NATO presence on the eastern flank, and closer EU-NATO ties. There is still a prospect that the US will one day step back from its key role in European security. But Europeans are finally taking serious steps to become more prepared for that day. From the perspective of its eastern member states, the EU can only become a credible security actor if it gets serious about tackling the Russian threat. No matter how events in Ukraine unfold over the coming months, the EU-Russia relationship can only recover once Russia drastically changes course. In future, the EU should contribute significantly more to the development of the kind of European defence capabilities that are needed for defence and deterrence vis-à-vis Russia. It should step up its cyber-security policies and reduce its dependence on Russian energy; it should consistently support the security and defence of Ukraine, Moldova, and other eastern partners who are committed to a European path; and it should offer these countries a clear prospect of EU membership.  (Source: ECFR)

Russia
2 March 2022 17:30 GMT  Putin recently narrowed his group advisers to a small number of securocrats known as siloviki who consist of generals, friends and spies. Their closeness to Putin has coincided with a distancing from the more qualified and experienced experts who would normally brief the Russian strongman. 'My advice today, given the current situation on the ground, would be to turn a ceasefire into the top priority. We have to stop the conflict, Kortunov, the director general of the Russian International Affairs Council said. The siloviki have increased Putin's fears the West is trying to destroy Russia, Kortunov believes. 'We tend to believe that the name of the game is development, but I can imagine that some people around Mr Putin believe that the name of the game is survival,' he said. Some 6,840 people have been detained at anti-war protests since the invasion began on February 24. More than 6,100 academics, scientific journalists and medics have condemned the military action, have put their name in an open letter, risking fines or even prison sentences. They said there was no 'rational justification for this war' and warned the country was 'doomed to isolation' and demanded 'an immediate halt to all military operations directed against Ukraine'. Any public criticism of the Russian state can result in fines of up to £6,200 or jail sentences, under laws introduced in 2012. (Source: DailyMail)

March 02, 2022 13:13 The Russian armed forces took under full control Ukraine's southern city of Kherson, the Russian Defense Ministry announced. The civil infrastructure, life support facilities, and urban transport operate in a routine mode, ministry spokesman Konashenkov told in Moscow. "The city does not experience shortages in food and essential goods. Negotiations are continuing between the Russian command, the administration of the city, and the region to address issues of maintaining the functioning of social infrastructure facilities, ensuring law and order, and public safety," Konashenkov said. Meanwhile, the Russian Airspace Forces carried out a massive airstrike on the military infrastructure of Ukraine, hitting 67 objects, Konashenkov added. The 72nd main center for psychological operations was also disabled with high-precision weapons that allowed to avoid the destruction of the nearby residential buildings, the spokesman continued. In total, as of today, 1,502 objects of Ukraine's military infrastructure were destroyed, including 51 control and communication centers, 38 air defense systems S-300, Buk M-1, and Osa, 51 radar stations, 47 aircraft on the ground and 11 aircraft in the air, 472 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 62 multiple rocket launchers, 206 field artillery and mortars, 336 units of special military vehicles, and 46 unmanned aerial vehicles, he added. The rebel forces of Ukraine's regions of Donetsk and Luhansk moved forward for 75 kilometers, and took under control eight settlements, Konashenkov said. (Source: yenisafak)

Ukraine
7:45 ET, Mar 2 2022 Updated: 14:35 ET, Mar 2 2022  A number of unverified videos and pictures on social media show expensive Russian military vehicles abandoned by troops. One picture shows a Russian thermobaric TOS-1A tank - a so-called "vacuum bomb" captured by the Ukrainian army. The tweet claims the tank was abandoned in good condition and fully-loaded. Lee, a PhD student at King's College London's Department of War Studies, shared pictures of an abandoned Russian short-range air defence system, a Tor-M2, left by troops in Ukraine. Intercepted radio messages, recordings, obtained by British intelligence company ShadowBreak include a soldier who sounds like he is crying. Another soldier refuses to use artillery on an area until civilians have left, ShadowBreak founder Cardillo claimed. Some units are reportedly running out of food and fuel. A number of troops were highly inexperienced, and didn't even know they were being sent into combat. Many troops have been shocked by the backlash from ordinary Ukrainians to their invasion, having expected to be welcomed as liberators. Weeping prisoners of war have said in videos they were sent as "cannon fodder." In a video posted to the Ukraine security services' Facebook page, an injured Russian soldier sat in front of a Ukrainian flag was filmed saying: 'This is not our war. Mothers and wives, collect your husbands. There is no need to be here. Other footage showed a handcuffed Russian prisoner in tears saying into the camera: 'They don't even pick up the corpses, there are no funerals." (Source: TheU.S.Sun)
Se also there subtitles and  published photos of prisoners of wars ;) like:
'A number of Russian soldiers are reportedly conscripts' / Credit: Unknown;
'Some young, wounded soldiers claim they had no idea they were fighting in Ukraine' / Credit: unknown
'A captured, injured, pantles Russian soldier sits in front of a Ukrainian flag / Credit: Unknown
'Captured Russian troops weep in videos to their family' / Credit: Unknown.

11:52 GMT, 2 March 2022 | Updated: 17:01 GMT, 2 March 2022  Russia bombarded the TV tower near central Kyiv overnight, killing five people and damaging a Holocaust memorial. A TV control room and power substation were hit, and at least some Ukrainian channels briefly stopped broadcasting.Russia previously told people living near transmission facilities used by Ukraine's intelligence agency to leave their homes. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov claimed today that the airstrike on the TV tower did not hit any residential buildings. Mayor Klitschko said defences are being built and that 'we will fight' to stop the city being captured. Another Russian airstrike hit a residential area in the city of Zhytomyr. Ukraine's emergency services said yesterday's strike killed at least two people, burned three homes and broke the windows in a nearby hospital. About 85 miles west of Kyiv, Zhytomyr is the home of the elite 95th Air Assault Brigade, which may have been the intended target. In Kharkiv, with a population of about 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the region's administrative building on Freedom Square was hit with what was believed to be a missile. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry said its consulate in Kharkiv, located in another large building on the square, was destroyed. Putin's forces have today renewed attacks on other cities including Kherson and Mariupol. Moscow's strategy in Chechnya and Syria was to use artillery and air bombardments to pulverize cities and crush fighters' resolve. One senior Western intelligence official estimated that 5,000 Russian soldiers had been captured or killed in the ground war. The U.N. human rights office said it has recorded 136 civilian deaths, though the actual toll is surely far higher. (Source: DailyMail)
A comment: "Hope all goes well..."Orphanage in Odessa evacuated - 120 children on their way to Berlin - including a six-day-old baby... The orphanage belongs to the Je.-wish community Mishpacha Chabad. The buses should arrive Berlin by Friday noon, where the children would have support from the Je.-wish community. "70  years ago, my grandfather fled Germany from the Na.zi.s - now my son is making the journey in the opposite direction. Its crazy." said Abraham Wolff the Chiefrabbi of Odessa and Southern Ukraine."

10:15, 2 Mar 2022 Updated: 14:11, 2 Mar 2022 In Kyiv, at least five people have been killed after Russian missiles rained down on the city, hitting a Holocaust memorial and the biggest TV mast in the Ukrainian capital. Footage showed a fireball erupting next to the TV transmitter tower - temporarily knocking out all broadcasts. The interior ministry said equipment had been damaged and "channels won't work for a while", but services resumed soon after. The Ukraine Air Force said two Ukrainian MIG-29 fighters took out two Russian jets in a battle in the skies in the Kyiv region. One Ukrainian troop was killed. The advance towards the capital Kyiv appears to have stalled as Ukrainians fight back. Eerie pictures from the town of Bucha - 20 miles from the capital - revealed mangled wreckage of Russian tanks and military equipment. Footage showed the column of Russian tanks rolling into the town, near the Gostomel airbase, on Sunday, February 27 afternoon before the convoy was shot down and destroyed by Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes. Locals also banded together to help fight the invaders - with some reportedly chucking Molotov cocktails at enemy vehicles. Video shows major damage to two large apartment blocks on fire, on the town of Borodyanka, about 35 miles northwest of Kyiv. Residential buildings were hit by a Russian missile near the base of the 95th Airborne Brigade in Zhytomyr 75 miles west of the capital Kyiv. "So far, four people have died. Including a child," said Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister of Ukraine. Later, the Interior Ministry said the missiles fired at the base were launched from Belarus. The eastern city Kharkiv, 25 miles from the Russian border has come under missile attack by Russian bombers last night - a renewed offensive with a barrage of strikes. Footage from this morning showed a massive explosion ripping through the city centre. Buildings including the city's police station were on fire. At least 21 people were killed and 112 wounded in shelling over the last 24 hours, regional governor Synegubov said. 340 miles south, Putin's forces managed to capture a city seizing the port of Kherson. President Zelenksy said 6,000 Russian troops have now been killed in the first six days of fighting. At least 136 people, including 13 children, have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, the UN has said. (Source: TheSun)

March 2, 2022 12:46 pm  Russian forces are bombarding parts of Ukraine's railway network making it more difficult to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people attempting to flee the conflict, according to Kamyshin, chairman of state-owned Ukrainian Railways. "We keep repairing our infrastructure but they keep destroying it," Kamyshin told. So far, he estimates the company has sent 670,000 people from the war-ravaged center, east and south of Ukraine  -  along with 11,000 cats and dogs -  to the west, either directly to borders or to cities such as Lviv or Uzhhorod that are close to the frontier with the EU. "We have a daily schedule, updated by 9 p.m. for the next day," he said. "We see which cities are under control and then we go there." Ukrainian Railways is continually sharing photos on the Telegram messaging service of severe damage to passenger rail infrastructure including twisted metal, shattered bridges and unexploded munitions. Today morning, Ukrainian Railways said it was prepared to run an evacuation corridor for citizens trying to leave Volnovakha, a town between Donetsk and  Mariupol under heavy shelling. The company has now started producing anti-tank hedgehog obstacles while Ukraine International Airlines, has offered its stewards to help staff packed trains and stations while there's still a ban on all commercial air traffic. By yesterday afternoon, traffic on many trains coming from the east of the country was delayed by at least five hours, though there were still cross-country services coming into Lviv from Lysychansk, in the east, heading for Uzhhorod. Trains were also still running back east to the center of Ukraine. Amid a steady flow of people heading west, the focus is also on boosting connections with EU countries. Kamyshin said he had talked over plans to increase the capacity of rail links to Poland with the country's  Transport Minister Adamczyk late yesterday. There is currently a humanitarian train regularly departing from Lviv's central station toward the Medyka border crossing with Poland, primarily for women and children though some foreigners are being allowed onboard. Those services are packed with people trying to flee the country while on the return leg back to Ukraine the carriages are stocked with water, food and medicine. From today, a free evacuation train running from Przemyśl to Prague will depart nightly at 9:30 p.m., aiming to transit refugees further into Central Europe. On the return leg back to Poland, anyone  prepared to fight for the Ukrainian government will be able to get onboard, the company said. There are also five daily trains running from Kyiv to Przemyśl in Poland. Today, Kamyshin said, the company managed to start a separate service over the border to Chelm. At the outbreak of the conflict, Czech Railways had also offered to provide carriages for use in getting people out of Ukraine. (Source: Politico)

2 March, 12:09  Russia attacks national police, security service buildings in Kharkiv. Some of the buildings were destroyed, the building of the Faculty of Sociology of the Karazin National University located across the street from the police department building was also affected, featured in a video published by Advisor to the Interior Minister Gerashchenko today. The number of casualties in the attacks is yet to be reported. In Kharkiv, 'the invaders fired on residential areas of the city using Grad multiple rocket launcher systems. On top of that, Russian troops carried out a powerful artillery strike on residential areas of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv'. A powerful barrage of shells hit Kharkiv on March 1, with cruise missiles exploding on Ploshcha Svobody. The occupiers also fired a missile at the broadcaster’s control room on the television tower in Kyiv, killing five people. On the night of March 2, Zhytomyr – a city about 120 km west of Kyiv – was subjected to rocket fire. (Source: TheNewVoiceofUkrain)

March 2, 2022 at 11:22 am Russian forces have advanced on Kharkiv, which has a population of 1.4 million people. A bomb has struck the headquarters of a  Catholic diocese on yesterday in the besieged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Forty people were sheltering in the basement of the diocesan chancery when the bomb landed, but no injuries were reported. A video posted on Twitter by the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales showed debris strewn across the floor of a upper room in the chancery. “This morning was hell, the bomb fell on the curia,” Father Semenkov, chancellor of the Latin Rite Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia, told. "The attacks targeted government offices. The bombs also hit the people who were waiting to get bread and just at that moment a bomb fell on the curia. “There are many dead. For now, there is no news about the number of victims and wounded. The internet connection is down so we don’t have updated information.” He added: “In the curia these days there are many people, many mothers with children. We are a total of 40 people. We put them in a safe place. We were all under ground and luckily the bomb hit high up.” A minority of Catholics in Ukraine are Latin Rite.The Latin Rite Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia was createArchdiocese of Lviv of the Latins in western Ukraine. The majority of Catholics belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest of the 23  Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with Rome. The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need said that Bishop Honcharuk, the Latin Rite bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia, has “spent the past days in a bunker with several families, as well as with his Orthodox counterpart.” The 44-year-old, who has served as a bishop for two years, told the charity: “I wish for this war to end as quickly as possible". “My message is short because we are under constant bombardment, and I am a little nervous, but we try to act normally. God bless you!” (Source: CatholicHerald / CNA)

March 2, 2022  Russia told the International Atomic Energy Agency that its military had taken control of territory around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Ukraine authorities say they maintain control of the plant itself and that a combat-ready military unit remains within the perimeter. Some residents from the nearby town of Enerhodar erected barricades to the plant, according to multiple online accounts. The IAEA convened an extraordinary meeting in Vienna today, just hours after Russian officials informed Director General Grossi that they controlled accessto the facility. Zaporizhzhya is Europe’s biggest nuclear power installation. Its six reactors sit on a cape that abuts the Dnieper River with only a single road leading in or out.  “Any military or other action that could threaten the safety or security of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants must be avoided,” the IAEA wrote in a statement. “Operating staff must be able to fulfill their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.” Earlier this week, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear-power utility called on international monitors to intervene to ensure the safety of the country’s 15 atomic reactors. Energoatom chief Kotin asked the IAEA to help erect a 30 kilometer safe zone around the country’s four nuclear power plants. (Source: Bloomberg)

03 02 2022  In a video address, the Ukrainian president said a Russian missile strike in the capital yesterday which hit a Holocaust memorial complex 'proves that for many people in Russia our Kyiv is absolutely foreign'. “They don’t know a thing about Kyiv, about our history. But they all have orders to erase our history, erase our country, erase us all,” he added. (Source: GreekCityTimes)

Europe
March 2, 2022  Gazprom shares collapse by 97% at the London Stock Exchange, falling by 97% in the first hours of trading, reducing the company's value to a mere $250mn. As of 11:30 GMT on March 2, shares in Gazprom were priced at just $0.03 apiece, giving it a market capitalisation of $248.6mn. Put in context, Gazprom’s market capitalisation was more than $68bn at the start of the year, and closed on March 1 at above $61bn. Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft suffered a similar but less severe 67% nosedive in its share price to $0.88 per share on March 2, giving it a market capitalisation of $9bn. Shares in Novatek, Russia’s second-biggest gas producer, dropped over 96%, reducing its capitalisation to only $163mn. (Source: IntelliNews)

Israel
02.03.2022  On his first tour of Israel as German chancellor, Olaf Scholz spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The cabinets of both countries hold regular joint sessions, and Germany is Israel's most important European Union trade partner. The war in Ukraine has overshadowed the visit, which was planned before Russia's invasion. They today underlined their commitment to securing further peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Since Russia launched its invasion last week, Scholz's coalition government has reversed a ban on sending weapons into conflict zones. It has also halted the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany, and pledged to spend more than 2% of Germany's gross domestic product on defense annually. "Attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians must stop," he stressed. Bennett said it was Israel's "duty to do everything we can do to end the bloodshed." Given Israel's experience of war: "Unfortunately, it can get much worse," he said. Israel has taken a more guarded approach, highlighting its warm relations with both Kyiv and Moscow. Bennett has been mentioned by Zelenskyy as a possible mediator in the war. Earlier today, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called on Jewish people around the world to speak out. The plea came after a Russian missile strike on a Kyiv television tower that was built on the site of a World War II massacre of Jews by German troops. Managers of the nearby Babi Yar Holocaust memorial said parts of the facility had been damaged by a fire started after those attacks. Scholz reaffirmed Germany's commitment to Israel's security. The German chancellor addressed the issue of a new Iran nuclear agreement - something staunchly opposed by Israel - saying it "cannot be postponed any longer." Bennett said Israel was following the talks in Vienna with concern. Israel, he said, would not allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons status. Currently, talks with Iran are underway in Vienna to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The United Kingdom, China, France, Germany and Russia are in direct talks with their Iranian counterparts. The United States, which withdrew from the agreement in 2018, is an indirect partner. "Now is the time to finally say yes to something that represents a good and reasonable solution," Scholz said. Prime Minister Bennett has repeatedly insisted that Israel, which is not a party to the talks, is not bound by any agreement and opposes it. (Source: DW)

United States
March 2, 2022 State of the Union: President Biden's 62-minute speech was split between attention to war abroad and worries at home as he vowed in his first State of the Union address yesterday night to check Russian aggression in Ukraine, tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus. Biden highlighted a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy through sanctions. While the crisis in Eastern Europe may have helped to cool partisan tensions in Washington, it didn’t erase the political and cultural discord that is casting doubt on Biden’s ability to deliver. A February AP-NORC poll found that more people disapproved than approved of how Biden is handling his job, 55% to 44%. Even before the Russian invasion sent energy costs skyrocketing, prices for American families had been rising, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt families and the country’s economy. He outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers. In a rare discordant moment, Rep. Boebert of Colorado yelled out that Biden was to blame for the 13 service members who were killed during last August’s chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “You put them in. Thirteen of them,”  Boebert yelled. Iowa Gov. Reynolds, selected to give the Republican response, said Biden’s address came as a blast from the past with rising inflation, rising crime and a resurgent Russia making it feel more like the 1980s than today. 'Even before taking the oath of office, the president said that he wanted to make America respected around the world again, and to unite us here. He’s failed on both fronts,” she said. The president highlighted investments in internet broadband access, bridge construction, proposals like extending the child tax credit and bringing down child care costs, called for lowering health care costs and to ban assault weapons. (Source: APnews)

Mar 2 2022 Biden branded Putin’s aggression 'totally unprovoked' and Russian oligarchs “corrupt leaders". He vowed: “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.” During his 62-minute address, the commander-in-chief blundered when he said Iranians when referring to the Ukrainian people. Biden said: “Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he’ll never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.” Journalists and political commentators took to Twitter following the gaffe. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

NATO
March 2, 2022  NATO countries pour weapons into Ukraine, risking conflict with Russia In all, about 20 countries - most members of NATO and the European Union, but not all - are funneling arms into Ukraine to fight off Russian  invaders and arm an insurgency, if the war comes to that. On Feb. 25, the day after Russia attacked Ukraine, the White House approved a $350 million package of weapons and equipment, including Javelins and Stingers. Pentagon officials said shipments began flowing within days from military stockpiles in Germany to Poland and Romania, from where the matériel has been shipped overland through western Ukraine. According to NATO, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States have already sent or are approving significant deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine, as well as millions of dollars, while other member states are providing humanitarian aid and welcoming refugees - Hungary, Moldova and Poland are welcoming thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war. The Czechs are sending machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols and ammunition. The Dutch are sending rocket launchers for air defense. The Estonians are sending Javelin antitank missiles. Germany, long allergic to sending weapons into conflict zones, is sending Stingers as well as other shoulder-launched rockets. The Latvians and the Poles are sending Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, promised Ukraine to provide tens of thousands of shells and artillery ammunition, antiaircraft missiles, light mortars, reconnaissance drones and other reconnaissance weapons. Even formerly neutral countries like Finland and Sweden are sending weapons. Finland has said it will deliver 2,500  assault rifles and 150,000 rounds of ammunition for them, 1,500 antitank weapons and 70,000 combat rations. Sweden, also not a member of NATO, announced that it would send Ukraine 5,000 antitank weapons, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 items of body armor and 135,000 field rations, plus about $52 million for the Ukrainian military. At the same time, NATO is moving military equipment and as many as 22,000 more troops into member states bordering Russia and Belarus. The United States alone has deployed 15,000 extra troops to Europe - 1,000 to the Baltic States, 5,000 to Poland, 1,000 to Romania -  while committing another 12,000 troops, if necessary, to NATO’s Response Force, being used in collective defense for the first time. Washington has also deployed more  fighter jets and attack helicopters to Romania, Poland and the Baltic States. Canada has sent some 1,200 soldiers, artillery and electronic warfare units to Latvia, as well as another frigate and reconnaissance aircraft, while putting 3,400 troops on standby for the Response Force. Denmark is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and will send 200 soldiers and deploy four fighter jets to Lithuania and some to Poland to support of NATO’s air-policing mission. France sent its first tranche of troops to Romania in February 28, to lead a new NATO battalion there, and provided Rafale fighter jets to Poland. Germany, which already is lead nation of a NATO battalion in Lithuania, has sent another 350 troops and howitzers there, six fighter jets to Romania, some troops to Slovakia and two more ships to NATO’s maritime patrols. Berlin also said it would send a Patriot missile battery and 300 troops to operate it to NATO’s eastern flank, but did not specify where. Italy sent eight fighter jets to Romania and put 3,400 troops on standby. The Netherland have sent 100 troops to Lithuania and 125 to Romania, and assigned eight fighter jets to NATO duties. Spain has sent four fighter jets to Bulgaria and ships for maritime patrols. The United Kingdom, the lead nation of the NATO battalion in Estonia, has sent another 850 soldiers and more Challenger tanks there, plus 350 more troops to Poland. It has also put another 1,000 on standby to help with refugees, and sent another four fighter jets to Cyprus, while sending two ships to the eastern Mediterranean. Western weaponry has been entering Ukraine in relatively large but undisclosed amounts for the last several days. The effort to move equipment and weapons rapidly into Ukraine from Poland is being carried out by individual countries and is not formally either a NATO or E.U. operation. The United Kingdom and the United States are doing setting up something called, deliberately blandly and neutrally, the International Donors Coordination Center. It is doubtful that Mr. Putin will be fooled by the name. The French say that the E.U.’s military staff is trying to coordinate the push. Whether European weaponry will continue to reach the Ukrainian battlefield in time to make a difference is far from certain. “European security and defense has evolved more in the last six days than in the last two decades,” von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, asserted in a speech to the European Parliament today. The European fund being used to buy lethal arms is called the European Peace Facility. The fund is two years old and is intended, at least, to prevent conflict and strengthen international security. It has a financial ceiling of 5.7 billion euros - about $6.4 billion - for the seven-year budget of 2021 to 2027. If Ukraine needs more money, an E.U. official said, it can be provided. However proud Brussels is of its effort, it is a strategy that risks  encouraging a wider war and possible retaliation from Mr. Putin. The rush of lethal military aid into Ukraine from Poland, a member of NATO, aims, after all, to kill Russian soldiers. Mr. Putin already sees NATO as committed to threaten or even destroy Russia through its support for Ukraine, as he has repeated in his recent speeches, even as he has raised the nuclear alert of his own forces to warn Europe and the United States of the risks of interference. Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, hit his constant themes again yesterday as he visited a Polish air base. “Putin’s war affects us all and NATO allies will always stand together to defend and protect each other,” he said. “Our commitment to Article 5, our collective defense clause, is ironclad.” But for now the fight is in Ukraine, and while NATO and European Union have made it clear that their soldiers would not fight Russia there, they are actively engaged in helping the Ukrainians to defend themselves. More supplies of ground-to-air missiles like Stingers and antitank weapons like the Javelin are crucial, as is secure communications equipment, so the Ukrainian government can continue to be in contact with its military and its people if the Russians take down the internet, said Lute, a former lieutenant-general and American ambassador to NATO. In fact, even if no NATO soldier ever crosses into Ukraine, and even if convoys of matériel are driven to the border by nonuniformed personnel or contractors in plain trucks, the European arms supplies are likely to be seen in Moscow as a not-so-disguised intervention by NATO. There is always the possibility of Russian aircraft straying into NATO airspace as they try to interdict convoys or chase Ukrainian planes. Something similar happened the only time a NATO country shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet, near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015. (Source: msn / TheNewYorkTimes)

Globalization
7:03 ET, Mar 2 2022 Updated: 11:29 ET, Mar 2 2022  Anonymous has claimed that it has shut down Russia's space agency, Roscosmos. The hacking team has said that Russian officials have "no more control over their spy satellites." The Director General of Roscosmos, Rogozin, in a social media statement said: "The information of these scammers and petty swindlers is not true. All our space activity control centers are operating normally." Rogozin has previously stated that control of the Russian space industry, orbital group and the Russian International Space Station segment is protected from cyber criminals. It comes just days after Anonymous claimed it had successfully breached over 300 Russian websites including the state-run news agency TASS and offered troops over $53,000 to give up their tanks. The hacker group said on Twitter that 300 websites belonging to Russian government agencies, state media outlets, banks, as well as websites of leading Belarusian banks, including Belarusbank, Priorbank and Belinvestbank, had all been hacked. This also included allegedly hacking into Russian TV so that all channels played Ukrainian folk songs, with the pro-Ukraine hackers claiming the hack saying that they are from Anonymous. The regular websites have been replaced with a message calling for an end to the hostilities. The offer to buy tanks from Russian soldiers has emerged after the hacker collective claimed to have amassed more than RUB 1billion ($10.3million) and is offering tank crews RUB 5million ($51,000) for each surrendered tank, according to Ukrainian media. Russian troops have been advised by Anonymous to surrender with a white flag and use the password "million" to show that they accept the collective’s terms. The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has also reportedly said that it will guarantee amnesty to surrendering forces. Anonymous is allegedly telling Russian soldiers that its global community has collected RUB 1,225,043 in bitcoin to help you." Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Fedorov reportedly announced the creation of a Telegram channel for the IT Army of Ukraine on Saturday, February 26. He said: “In 2022 modern technologies  are one of the best responses to tanks, rockets and missiles. “I’ve addressed to the biggest tech giants to support the sanctions for Russian Federation.  We asked them to help us stop this outrageous aggression on our people!” The hacking collective also claimed to have taken down state-owned media outlet RT. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

Wed 2 Mar 2022 12.07 GMT  According to data from Checkpoint Research, in the first three days of combat, cyber-attacks on Ukraine’s government and military sector went up by 196%, compared to the rest of February. A cyber attack was made on Ukraine's websites of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and two banks. The fightback, with attacks on Russia were up 4% for the week. Ukraine has launched its own volunteer IT army, looking to respond to Russian cyber-attacks, Ukraine’s deputy PM Fedorov made the announcement on Telegram. A separate Telegram channel, reported to contain 175,000 people, is used to assign tasks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on key Russian websites including government sites, banks, and energy businesses. Russian state media site Tass has also been targeted by hackers to show the number of Russian casualties. The conflict has even drawn division among ransomwaremgroups. The Conti group had its internal communications leaked this week by a pro-Ukraine member who was angry that the group had sided with Russia. Meta, TikTok, Twitter (and Musk, obviously) have been dragged into the conflict. Both Twitter and Facebook reported this week that they removed two pro-Russian covert influence operations from Russia and Belarus. Meta’s head of security Gleicher and director of threat disruption Agranovich said the operations were run from Russia and Ukraine, and were targeting people in Ukraine on multiple platforms and websites. The network in question was relatively minor, with about 4,000 accounts following one page on Facebook, and fewer than 500 following its Instagram accounts. The sites were pushing many of the lines Putin was using to justify the invasion. They generate realistic-looking profile pictures of people pretending to be journalists and experts. Within Russia itself, access to Twitter and Facebook has reportedly been restricted, in part on the basis that Facebook had refused demands to stop factchecking Russian media outlets. Facebook then went a step further with the company’s president of global affairs, Clegg, announcing via tweet that Meta would restrict access to RT and Sputnik in the European Union. TikTok soon followed Facebook’s move. Twitter announced it would label any link from state-run media as such, stating that the majority of the links to Russian state-run media tend to come from individual accounts, not the accounts associated with the media outlets. The company also tweaked its algorithm so that the links won’t appear in top search results. Google and Facebook announced they would suspend the media companies from being able to monetise on their platforms, while Twitter is pausing ads in Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian government’s call for donations in crypto has been loudly heard, with over US$18m flooding into the country in the first few days of the conflict to fund Ukraine armed forces. The country has been accepting donations in Ethereum, bitcoin and Tether. The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, committed $10m in donations towards Ukraine. Fedorov asked for Musk to intervene and provide his satellite Starlink stations to Ukraine. Musk responded quickly that the high-speed internet service was active in the area, and delivered more stations in February 28. While that has been welcomed by Ukraine, one Citizen Lab researcher expressed concern that the satellite devices may be used by Russia to track people in Ukraine. (Source: TheGuardian)

March 2, 2022  Economic dangers from Russia’s invasion ripple across globe. Even before Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, the global economy was straining under a range of burdens: Surging inflation. Tangled supply chains. Tumbling stock prices. The Ukraine crisis both magnified each threat and complicated the potential solutions. The Ukraine war coincides with a high-risk moment for the Federal Reserve and other central banks. They were caught off-guard by the surge in inflation over the past year. In January, U.S. consumer prices rose 7.5% from a year earlier, the biggest such jump since 1982. In Europe, figures out today show inflation accelerated to a record 5.8% last month compared with a year earlier for the 19 countries that use the euro currency. Now, the  fighting and sanctions that have disrupted Russia trade with the global economy threaten to send prices ever higher, especially for energy: Russia and Ukraine together produce 12% of the world’s oil and 17% of its natural gas. Central bankers must weigh intensifying inflationary pressure against the risk that the Ukraine crisis will weaken economies. The United States and other Western nations have targeted Russia with sanctions of unprecedented breadth and severity for a major economy. They have thrown major Russian banks off the SWIFT international payment system, limited high tech exports to Russia and severely restricted Moscow’s use of its foreign currency reserves. The sanctions quickly caused damage. The Russian ruble plunged to a record low yesterday. The Institute of International Finance foresees the Russian economy enduring a double-digit contraction this year, worse even than its 7.8% drop in the Great Recession year of 2009. The damage to the overall global economy appears to be relatively slight, if only because Russia and Ukraine are not economic powerhouses. Important as they are as exporters of energy, wheat and other commodities, precious metals, the two together account for less than 2% of the world’s gross domestic product. The sanctions and collapse of the labor market in Russia will have an immediate and profound economic impact, damage on Russia’s neighbors in Central Asia, Helf, an expert on Central Asia for the U.S. Institute of Peace, wrote this week. As its own workforce has aged, Russia has turned to younger migrant workers from such countries such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Even at the height of COVID-19 in 2020, remittances from Russia to Uzbekistan topped $3.9 billion and to Kyrgyzstan $2 billion. Most major economies have only limited trade exposure to Russia: For the U.S., it’s 0.5% of total trade. Europe’s economy is now especially at risk. Russia is a vitally important supplier of oil, natural gas and metals, and higher prices for those commodities are sure to inflict economic damage. Europe relies on Russia for nearly 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil. For the European continent, Russia’s war has significantly heightened the  likelihood of runaway inflation, another economic setback or both. Natural gas prices shot up 20% after the war started, on top of earlier increases, and now are roughly six times what they were at the start of 2021. The gas price shock is feeding higher inflation and swelling utility bills. The result is that households have less money to spend, and hopes for a surge in consumer spending resulting from fewer pandemic restrictions and COVID-19 cases have diminished. Escalating gas prices have caused what economists call “demand destruction” among industrial enterprises, like fertilizer makers, that use a lot of gas and have now slashed production. Farmers are paying more to run machinery and buy fertilizer. “The drag from higher prices and the negative confidence affect may lower real GDP growth in the eurozone from 4.3% to 3.7% for 2022,” said Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank. Ukraine and Russia account for 30% of the world’s exports of wheat, 19% of corn and 80% of sunflower oil, which is used in food processing. Much of the Russian and Ukrainian bounty goes to poor, unstable countries like Yemen and Libya. The threat to farms in eastern Ukraine and a cutoff of exports through Black Sea ports could reduce food supplies just when prices are at their highest levels since 2011 and some countries are suffering from food shortages. With ports, airports and rail lines closed and young Ukrainian men fighting the Russian invasion, who’s going to be doing the harvesting and the transportation? Disruptions to Russian and Ukrainian industries could delay any return to normal conditions. Russia and Ukraine together produce 70% of the world’s neon, critical in the making of semiconductors, 13% of the world’s titanium, which is used to make passenger jets and 30% of the palladium, which goes into cars, cellphones and dental fillings. Russia also is a major producer of nickel, used to produce electric car batteries and steel. (Source: APnews)

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