Russia launches missile strikes across Ukraine
Russia launched 55 missiles at targets across Ukraine yesterday, with strikes killing at least 11 people and wounding another 11, the authorities said. A total of 47 missiles were shot down by Ukrainian forces. A day earlier, Germany and the U.S. pledged to send dozens of battle tanks to Ukraine, a major step up in Western military support.
Since October, Russia has fought a campaign to target infrastructure and cripple Ukraine’s power grid. The barrages have sometimes come after Ukrainian successes. “The main goal is energy facilities, providing Ukrainians with light and heat,” Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said in a post on Telegram.
For the past week, Russia’s Air Force has been conducting exercises north of Ukraine in Belarus, keeping Ukraine on heightened alert. Air attack sirens have sounded countrywide each time Russian planes take to the air.
Analysis: The war has raised the influence of Central and Eastern European countries with negative views of Russia, amplified calls to expand the E.U. and NATO, and dimmed the power of France and Germany, writes Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for The Times.
9 Palestinians killed in West Bank raid
At least nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin early yesterday, the Palestinian authorities said, prompting the Palestinian Authority to suspend security coordination with Israel. The deaths brought to 30 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank in less than a month, including at least five youths under 18.
At least 20 people were injured by gunfire or tear gas inhalation yesterday, with four in critical condition, the Palestinian health ministry said. The ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent accused Israeli troops of storming the Jenin government hospital and firing tear gas inside the pediatric ward, but Israel denied those accusations.
A gun battle between Israeli troops and Palestinians broke out during the raid, the Israeli military said, adding that it had responded with live rounds after coming under fire. The Israeli military said it was trying to apprehend members of Islamic Jihad who were involved in planning and carrying out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Response: Suspension of security coordination with Israel by the Palestinian Authority could limit communication and intelligence sharing between Israeli and Palestinian officials, reduce the Palestinian Authority’s policing of armed Palestinian groups in the West Bank and potentially contribute to direct confrontation between Israeli and Palestinian security personnel.
European geopolitics at the Australian Open
Geopolitics has been everywhere at the Australian Open and will be at center stage in the women’s final, which takes place on Saturday, as Elena Rybakina, a native Russian who became a citizen of Kazakhstan five years ago in exchange for financial support, and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus go head-to-head.
Sabalenka, like other Russian and Belarusian players, has not been permitted to represent her home country — part of the wrangling by professional tennis as it tries to balance its stated opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with its hopes of rising above the quagmire of international politics.
Earlier this week, videos surfaced of Novak Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, posing with fans who waved a Russian flag and wore the pro-war “Z” logo, and voicing his support for Russia. The week before, organizers of the tournament had prohibited fans from exhibiting any form of the Russian or Belarusian flags or other symbols that supported Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Geopolitics: The player Karen Khachanov of Russia has been writing messages of support to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, a long-disputed enclave that is home to tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders.
Olympics: Athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, against the stated wishes of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Future cringe
What are the things we do today that will seem embarrassing to our future selves — the stuff that will make us cringe when we look back on the early 2020s? The Times asked more than 30 people from academia, fashion, the media, the arts and business, as well as a certain infamous chatbot. Here are some of their responses.
Christina Oxenberg, writer and fashion designer: “Monarchy.”
Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine: “Eating dead animals. Not being able to have two spouses at once. Fearing human clones. Thinking you needed permission to visit another country.”
Chris Stein, guitarist, songwriter and co-founder of Blondie: “C.G.I. will be very embarrassing in the future. Every action movie has the same stupid monster with the glowing embers under the skin, and it just gets ridiculous.”
Rufus Wainwright, singer-songwriter: “Plastic bottles.”
ChatGPT: “Overreliance on technology: Our overdependence on smartphones, social media and other digital devices will likely look outdated in a few years as new technologies emerge.”
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