Analysis: Faint cracks emerge in the facade of Putin's rule, one year after Ukraine invasion


Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is fond of a phrase, the wonderful Russia of the future, his shorthand for a country without President Vladimir Putin.
But in the year that has passed since…


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"We need to wait": WHO urges caution against mix-and-match vaccines | New

Image
s The World Health Organization (WHO) is now advising against mixing two different vaccines. Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said decisions to allow potential mixing of vaccines are being driven by a lack of data. “It’s a little bit of a dangerous trend where people are in a data-free, evidence-free zone.” She went on to say that there’s a possibility that it will turn out to be a good approach, but because of the lack of data and science behind it, it’s too soon to say for certain. “There are studies going on; we need to wait for that.” The National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which certain Canadian health jurisdictions rely on for guidance in regards their vaccine strategies, has approved mix-and-match vaccinations in certain conditions. Dr. Swaminathan also reiterated her point on Twitter after the briefing. Another topic that was discussed was COVID-19 vaccine digital certification. This would be another way for health officials to track vaccinations.
Read more

An eternity later: Sponge fossils may be earliest animal on Earth | Daily Sabah

Image
A geologist in Canada may have just discovered traces of the earliest known animal life on Earth in the northwestern region of the country, giving a glimpse of the humble dawn of life that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago, a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature said. Around a billion years ago, a region of northwest Canada now defined by steep mountains was a prehistoric marine environment where the remains of ancient sponges may be preserved in mineral sediment, the paper says. Geologist Elizabeth Turner discovered the rocks in a remote region of the Northwest Territories accessible only by helicopter, where she has been excavating since the 1980s. Thin sections of rock contain three-dimensional structures that resemble modern sponge skeletons. "I believe these are ancient sponges – only this type of organism has this type of network of organic filaments," said Joachim Reitner, a geobiologist and expert in sponges at Germany's University of G
Read more

What Voters in a California Swing District Say About Afghanistan

Image
HACIENDA HEIGHTS, Calif. — Brenda and Leo Ortiz had paid enough attention to the news from Afghanistan that it was hardly a surprise when their 11-year-old son asked them a question: How could so many Americans be killed last week? Ms. Ortiz, 41, tried her best to explain, giving their son a brief history lesson on Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and ISIS. But by Saturday, Ms. Ortiz was focused on more personally pressing matters. Her three children were completing their first month of in-person schooling since the start of the pandemic. She said she was saddened by the deaths of Americans. But she wondered aloud how she could possibly focus on a crisis on the other side of the world when there was more than enough to worry about in the United States, in her own backyard. “I don’t think it was ever going to be easy to leave,” Ms. Ortiz said while watching her children play soccer in their recently resumed league at a park in the Los Angeles County community of Hacienda Heights. “A
Read more