Some headlines from today:
- Waffle is just Like Wordle but at Least Five Times Better
- Ukraine, Fighting Russia With Drones, Is Rewriting the Rules of War
- French Elections: Macron targets Le Pen as run-off campaigns begin
- Last marines defending Mariupol ‘running out of ammunition’
- Donbas: why Russia is trying to encircle Ukraine’s east
- Biden announces measures to crack down on ghost guns
- Dead wrong: Brazilian newspaper ridiculed after saying Queen has died
- Sunak ‘completely out of touch’ on everyday struggles, says Starmer
- Imran Ahmad Khan expelled from Tories after guilty verdict
- ‘Unthinkable’ flood-related scams fleece victims of more than $50,000, authorities say
- Sweden and Finland make moves to join Nato
- Marjorie Taylor Greene: judge mulls move to bar Republican from Congress
- Illegal mining, abuses surge on Indigenous land in Brazil: Report
- Shehbaz Sharif elected as Pakistan’s new prime minister
- Biden, Modi discuss Ukraine war as Indian response raises concern
- Warsaw hands over ‘spy nest’ to Ukrainians
- Austrian chancellor concludes 'tough' talks with Putin in Moscow
- A Chinese student Americanized her name to fit in. It took more to feel she belonged
- After a Texas teacher saw his students struggling with math, he turned to rap music
This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
C/NET
Ukrainian nonprofit Come Back Alive has collected ammunition, rifle stands and radios to help the country's soldiers fight Russia's invasion. This week, it also delivered items more commonly used to pep up YouTube videos than fight a war: 24 DJI Mavic 3 drones.
"Our drones are our eyes," said one Ukrainian military officer who's worked with drones since 2015 and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The Ukrainian military has no official drone unit, the officer said, but soldiers and civilians use them to see what's in the next village or along the next kilometer of road. "If Russian artillery is preparing to strike, we can shift civilians. ... It's a possibility to make a preventive strike and to save Ukrainian people."
C/NET
Without a doubt, 2022 is the Year of the Wordle. Ever since the tiny yellow and green boxes started appearing on social media feeds late last year, the game has been unstoppable. There are dozens -- maybe hundreds -- of Wordle spinoffs covering everything from geography to music to math, all replete with their own little green and yellow squares for social media.
Every morning I wake up, roll over, open Wordle, mess around until I get the day's word, then flip over to Worldle and guess a country, skip over to Heardle so I can guess the day's song, open a new tab to get through Quordle (solving four Wordles at once) and then, of course, hit Wordle (BTS Version). OK, maybe not that last one.
BBC
Russia has pulled troops away from Kyiv and shifted most of the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine, after a series of defeats near the capital. This push into the area known as Donbas could mean a protracted conflict.
What would Vladimir Putin need before he could claim his goal of "liberating" Ukraine's old industrial heart and is that possible?
Russian forces have already triggered a humanitarian catastrophe in the east, reducing Mariupol to ruins, but they have failed to inflict defeat on Ukraine's military.
Preparing for a reinvigorated Russian onslaught on the east, President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed: "We will fight for every metre of our land."
Ukraine's best-trained forces were already posted in the east because of an eight-year war with Russian-backed separatists. They are thought to have suffered heavy losses, but are still a significant challenge to Russia's invading army.
BBC
Emmanuel Macron is firing up his campaign for re-election, directly taking on far-right rival Marine Le Pen in France's presidential run-off.
He made his first trip to a Le Pen stronghold at Denain, one of France's poorest towns in the industrial north.
President Macron won the first round of the election, but opinion polls suggest the second round will be a close race on 24 April.
"Make no mistake: nothing is decided," he told supporters after the vote.
Both candidates polled better than the first round in 2017, but Le Pen officials were in far more buoyant mood the morning after the result, even though she trailed the president by four points.
The Guardian, International Edition
The last Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol said they were “running out of ammunition” on Monday and expected to be killed or taken prisoner very soon by Russian forces surrounding the city.
Writing on Facebook, the 36th brigade said its 47-day defence of Mariupol was coming to a tragic conclusion.
“We were bombed from airplanes and shot at by artillery and tanks. We have been doing everything possible and impossible. But any resource has the potential to run out,” it said.
Russian troops have been besieging the city on the Sea of Azov since the beginning of March.
The territory controlled by Ukrainian forces has gradually shrunk to a few central areas. The surviving marines are now holed up in the Azovstal iron and steelworks next to the port.
The Guardian, US Edition
Joe Biden has announced a crackdown on “ghost guns”, untraceable firearms assembled from kits that have been used in a rising number of shooting crimes.
The US president, who promised to tackle gun violence across America, said the new rule would make it easier for law enforcement to track and catch those who use illegal firearms.
“These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals,” Biden said during an event in the White House Rose Garden. “We’re going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice and when we find them, put them in jail for a long, long time …If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution.”
The Guardian, International Edition
One of Brazil’s leading newspapers has been forced into a mortifying retraction after inadvertently announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth “at the age of XX”.
The Folha de São Paulo incorrectly reported the British monarch’s demise on its website at about noon on Monday, telling millions of South American readers she had died “as a result of XXXXXXXX”.
“Elizabeth will go down in history as the longest-reigning British sovereign,” the newspaper said in its 1,300-word tribute to a woman who remained very much alive.
Realising its royal mistake, the Folha deleted its premature obituary and blamed the bloomer on “technical error”. It is normal practice in journalism to prepare stories about possible and/or probable situations, such as the death of world leaders, celebrities and public figures. Folha regrets the error,” the
newspaper said.
The Guardian, UK Edition
Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of “rank hypocrisy” and questioned the ability of super-rich politicians to relate to the public as No 10 came under pressure to reveal if any other ministers had used schemes to avoid tax.
In an interview with the Guardian amid controversy over Rishi Sunak’s wife’s tax status, Starmer said having a spouse who was a non-dom would create a “very obvious conflict of interest” for any cabinet minister.
He called on the prime minister to make clear that no other cabinet ministers had taken advantage of non-dom status, used tax havens or benefited from offshore trusts.
The Guardian, UK Edition
The MP for Wakefield, Imran Ahmad Khan, has been expelled from the Conservative party with “immediate effect” after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, the party said in a statement.
Khan was already sitting as an independent MP after the Conservative whip was suspended before his trial, and he may be able to continue in the role for some time while he appeals against the verdict.
Janes Solicitors, the firm representing Khan, said in a statement: “Our client Imran Ahmad Khan MP maintains his innocence and will be appealing as soon as possible.”
Hours after Khan was found guilty of sexually assaulting the boy, whom he plied with gin at a party in 2008, a Conservative party spokesperson said: “Mr Khan has been expelled from the Conservative party with immediate effect.”
However, another Tory MP, Crispin Blunt, said he was certain Khan was innocent and that the trial “was nothing short of an international scandal”.
The Guardian, Australian Edition
Scammers have allegedly fleeced at least $50,000 through cons related to devastating flooding across Australia’s east coast, with criminals impersonating charities, emergency services and government departments in dozens of frauds.
New South Wales police have received multiple reports about scams they said were “unthinkable”, but no arrests have yet been made.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said at least 45 scam reports related to flooding had been lodged with its Scamwatch project in NSW and Queensland since 1 February.
The Guardian, International Edition
Sweden’s ruling party has begun debating whether the country should join Nato, and neighbouring Finland expects to reach a decision within weeks, as Moscow warned that the Nordic nations’ accession would “not bring stability” to Europe.
Both countries are officially non-aligned militarily, but public support for Nato membership has almost doubled since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to about 50% in Sweden and 60% in Finland, multiple opinion polls suggest.
Sweden’s centre-left Social Democrats, led by prime minister Magdalena Andersson, said their “security review” was about more than just joining the 30-nation alliance, adding that the party could decide to apply even without the backing of members.
The Guardian, US Edition
A federal judge has indicated that an attempt to stop the far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene running for re-election will be allowed to proceed.The challenge from a group of Georgia voters says Greene should be disqualified under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, because she supported insurrectionists who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Al Jazeera
Illegal gold mining surged by a record amount last year on Brazil’s biggest Indigenous reservation, according to a new report that carried chilling accounts of abuses by miners, including extorting sex from women and girls.
The area scarred by “garimpo”, or wildcat gold mining, on the Yanomami reservation in the Amazon rainforest increased by 46 percent in 2021, to 3,272 hectares (8,085 acres), said a report by the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY) on Monday.
Al Jazeera
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s parliament has elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister following the weekend removal of Imran Khan in a vote of no confidence.
Ahead of the vote on Monday, MPs from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party resigned en masse, boycotting the election of Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has been elected as prime minister,” said Acting Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
In his first address as prime minister in the National Assembly, Sharif announced an increase in salaries, pensions and the minimum wage for labourers.
Bangkok Post
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual summit Monday, clouded by US frustration over New Delhi's neutral stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The South Asian nation has tried to walk a tightrope between maintaining relations with the West and avoiding alienating Russia, and has not imposed sanctions over the war.
New Delhi has raised concerns in Washington in particular by continuing to buy Russian oil and gas, despite pressure from Biden for world leaders to take a hard line against Moscow.
Deutsche Welle
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski on Monday said a fenced compound once used by Russia and now apparently empty had been seized.
Trzaskowski said the property would be made available to the Ukrainian community, to possibly house refugees taken in by Poland in the wake of Russia's invasion.
What did the Warsaw mayor say?
The apartment buildings, built by Russia in the 1970s, had been at the center of a dispute with Moscow that lasted decades.
Trzaskowski said the compound had been recovered after being "unlawfully occupied by the Russians." He said the process had been given added urgency after Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Deutsche Welle
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Monday became the first European leader to visit Moscow and meet Russian President Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
Nehammer called the talks "direct, open and tough" after meeting with Putin in his residence in the Novo-Ogaryovo neighborhood of Moscow.
The Austrian chancellor emphasized that the trip had not been a "friendly visit," adding that he had brought up the issue of war crimes in Bucha and other places and stressed that "all those who are responsible will be held to account," Austrian media reported him as saying.
Nehammer said he had come away from the talks with "no optimistic impression."
He said the Russian military was preparing a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine. "This battle will be fought with vehemence," he said, urging civilians in the contested areas to escape the fighting
NPR
Aria Young didn't become Aria Young until she was 16 years old.
She was moving to Lancaster, Pa., from her home in Shanghai for high school. Her Chinese name, 杨沁悦, or Yáng Qìn Yuè, was "too hard for the English tongue to pronounce," Young explains in "What's in a Name," her entry for NPR's College Podcast Challenge. Judges selected Young's audio story as the grand-prize winner from 10 finalists.
[...]
"Being Asian was not really accepted or appreciated," she explains. Young says she and other Asian international students faced microaggressions and racism at their new school.
"People would come up to us and ask us if we eat dogs," she recalls. "People would come up to me and ask questions about, you know, 'What's it like being Asian?' As if they've never seen an Asian person before."
Still, she was determined to belong, and a big part of that meant assimilating into American culture.
NPR
Thomas Mayfield had a major problem to solve in his fifth-grade classroom.
"I'm not good at adding. I don't know how to regroup or borrow. I'm not good at subtracting. Or I don't know my facts yet, and I'm a fifth-grader," Mayfield's students used to tell him.
The 42-year-old math teacher from Fort Worth, Texas, took their frustrations to heart. He knew it was important to try something new, especially because most of his students were also struggling outside of the classroom.
[...]
To reach students in a way that was familiar and inviting, he brought rap music to the classroom.
"It's built confidence," he said. "It helps to build a less traumatic experience, and they feel like they're invited and welcomed into the classroom."
"Kids started caring more about coming to school"
In one of Mayfield's videos, he plays an instrumental beat to Luniz's song, "I Got 5 on It." He gets his students pumped. Then they start to rap about decimal point places.
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