Russian troops are concentrating attempts mostly on conducting the offensive in the Bakhmut path. In the Avdiivka course, enemy offensive steps are unsuccessful.

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Former high school teacher Ailia was devastated when her 85-year-old father died after displaying COVID-like symptoms as the virus swept through their hometown in the southeastern province of Jiangxi.

While her father was never tested, Ailia and her mother were both confirmed positive around the same time and she believes that COVID was a cause in his death.

As hundreds of millions of Chinese travel to reunite with families for the Lunar New Year holiday starting Jan. 21, many will do so after mourning relatives who died in the COVID-19 wave that has raged across the world’s largest population.

For many, bereavement is mixed with anger over what they say was a lack of preparation to protect the elderly before China suddenly abandoned its “zero-COVID” policy in December 2022 after three years of testing, travel restrictions and lockdowns.

Ailia, 56, said that she, like countless Chinese, had supported reopening the economy. Her father died in late December, weeks after China dropped its COVID restrictions.

“We wanted things to open up, but not to open up like this – not at the expense of so many elderly people, which has a huge impact on every family,” she said by phone.

On Saturday, China announced that there had been nearly 60,000 COVID-related hospital deaths since the end of “zero-COVID” – a 10-fold increase from previous figures – but many international experts say that is an undercount, in part because it excludes people who died at home, like Ailia’s father.

Among those fatalities, 90% were 65 or older and the average age was 80.3 years, a Chinese official said on Saturday.

Many experts have said China failed to take advantage of keeping COVID-19 largely at bay for three years to better prepare its population for reopening, especially its hundreds of millions of elderly – criticism that China rejects.

Shortcomings cited included inadequate vaccination among older people and insufficient supplies of therapeutic drugs.

A Chinese official said on Jan. 6 that more than 90% of people above aged 60 had been vaccinated, but the share of those over age 80 who had received booster shots was only 40% as of Nov. 28, the most recent date for which that data was available.

“If only they used the resources used for controlling the virus for protecting the elderly,” said Ailia, who like many people interviewed declined to use their full name given the sensitivity of criticising China’s government.

Chinese officials have repeatedly cited the importance of protecting the elderly, announcing various measures, from vaccination drives to setting up a task force in Shanghai, China’s biggest city, to identify high-risk groups.

Beijing’s decision to end “zero-COVID” came after rare widespread street protests against the policy in late November, but public complaint over China’s handling of the end of COVID curbs has largely been via heavily censored social media.

Several analysts said China’s handling of COVID had eroded confidence in the government, especially among upper-middle class urbanites, but they did not see it as a threat to the rule of President Xi Jinping or the Communist Party.

Lila Hong, 33, who works in marketing for a carmaker, was in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic there three years ago. While her family made it through that harrowing initial period when little was known about the coronavirus, last month she lost two grandparents and a great-uncle after they caught COVID-19.

Hong recalls visiting with her father to a crowded Wuhan crematorium to collect the ashes of her grandparents – a grim but common experience during China’s COVID surge.

“It should have been a very solemn and respectful situation. You imagine it like that, but in fact it felt like queuing up in the hospital,” she said.

“I’m not saying reopening is not good,” said Hong. “I just think they should have given more time for preparatory work.”

A Beijing resident surnamed Zhang, 66, said he had lost four people close to him to the virus since early December including his aunt, 88, who was infected while in hospital.

Like others, he said he felt the aftermath of her death was chaotic, rushed and not keeping with tradition.

“People haven’t had the opportunity to say farewell to their loved ones. If we cannot live a decent life, we should at least be able to have a decent death,” he said.

“It’s very sad.”

Of seven grieving relatives Reuters spoke to for this article, all but one said COVID was left off the death certificates of their loved ones, even though they believe it was a key trigger for their deaths.

Relatives were likewise sceptical about official death tolls, with several citing lost trust in the government during three years of “zero COVID” pandemic management.

Philip, a 22-year-old student from Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, supported November’s anti-lockdown protests but feels let down by how the reopening has been managed and blames the government.

“It seems like they have all the power in the world and yet they did not do this well. If it was a CEO of a company I think he would have to resign,” said Philip, who lost his 78-year-old grandfather on Dec. 30.

“The hospital didn’t have any effective medicine,” he recalled. “It was very crowded and there weren’t enough beds.”

After his grandfather died, his body was removed from the bed, quickly replaced by another patient.

“The nurses and doctors were so busy. They seemed to be constantly writing death certificates and giving copies to relatives. There were so many deaths … it’s a huge tragedy.”

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Solomon Peña, a Republican who mounted an unsuccessful candidacy for a New Mexico state House seat was arrested Monday. Peña is facing charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, shooting at dwellings or occupied buildings, and shooting from a vehicle. He allegedly paid four men to shoot at the homes and businesses of Democratic elected officials, and Peña allegedly participated in one of the shootings himself. Fortunately, no one was injured in the shootings and there was only property damage.

Peña ran last year against Democrat Miguel Garcia for the District 14 seat in the New Mexico House. It wasn’t even a close election with Garcia receiving 73.6% of the vote. Instead of being an adult about the matter Peña refused to concede. Of course, Peña is a supporter of the Orange Florida Man (OFM) Donald Trump, and tweeted that he stood with OFM when OFM announced his “candidacy” for 2024. This is not Peña’s first brush with the law, and he served several years in prison for stealing goods in a smash and grab scheme.

These were acts of terrorism, and the media and other Republicans cannot be allowed to equivocate or try to pretend these were the actions of one disturbed individual. These terrorist attacks show why election denialism is so dangerous to our democracy and that it inevitable leads to acts of violence and terrorism. We saw it on January 6 and we’re seeing it again now. And the Republican party has a problem on its hands in that it invites the likes of MTG, Santos, Boebert, and now Peña to run for elected office and supports their wild and unsubstantiated claims of fraud when they lose elections.

The post Losing Republican candidate arrested for alleged shooting spree appeared first on Palmer Report.

Ukraine is a step closer to winning approval for German-made modern battle tanks to confront invading Russian forces and has secured a pledge of more Patriot defence missiles as its allies appear ready to rally for the next phase of the war.

* Russia said it would make “major changes” to its armed forces from 2023 to 2026, after months of setbacks on Ukraine’s battlefields.

* More than 9,000 civilians, including 453 children, have been killed since the war began last February, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide said. The civilian toll is more than 7,000, according to the United Nations human rights agency.

* A senior Ukrainian official blamed Russia for carrying out the bulk of more than 2,000 cyberattacks in 2022, speaking at a news conference he said was itself delayed because of a cyberattack. There was no immediate comment from Moscow.

* Ukrainian authorities called off the search for survivors in the ruins of an apartment building destroyed during Russian missile attacks on Saturday on the central city of Dnipro.

* 45 people were confirmed killed and 20 remain unaccounted for; 79 were wounded and 39 rescued from the rubble.

* Ukraine’s allies must intensify their military support to Kyiv to help them break a hardening of the front lines and avoid a devastating, prolonged, World War One-style battle of attrition, Britain’s foreign minister said.

* Germany’s government named Boris Pistorius as the new defence minister; allies ramped up pressure on Chancellor Scholz to allow the supply of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Allied defence ministers are meeting in Germany on Friday.

* The Netherlands will send a Patriot missile defence system to Ukraine, Prime Minister Rutte said.

* The training of Ukrainian officers to operate the Patriot advanced long-range air defence system will last 10 weeks, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said.

* Ukraine’s top general outlined the “urgent needs” of his armed forces at a first personal meeting with top U.S. General Mark Milley in Poland, the Ukrainian armed forces chief said.

* Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska urged delegates at the World Economic Forum to do more to help end the war, adding she would deliver a letter from her husband to the Chinese delegation setting out Ukraine’s proposed peace formula.

* Russia expects Western sanctions to have a significant impact on its oil product exports and therefore its production, but that will likely leave more crude oil to sell, a senior Russian source with detailed knowledge of the outlook said.

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India’s highest court will hear arguments on whether to legalize same-sex marriage on March 13, a landmark for the country of 1.4 billion people and for the global movement for LGBTQ rights. A ruling that finds gay marriages are allowed under India’s constitution would run counter to the socially conservative sentiment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as wide swaths of the country’s Muslim community. But younger Indians tend to be more accepting, and absent any intervention from Parliament, the court’s decision will be the law of the land.

What’s the legal situation now?

In India, marriage is governed by different laws tailored to the country’s religious groups; All limit marriage to male-female couples. But legal rights for LGBTQ people in India have been expanding over the past decade, led almost entirely by the Supreme Court.

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In 2014, it laid the groundwork by giving legal recognition to non-binary or transgender persons as a “third gender.”

In 2017, it strengthened the right to privacy, and also recognized sexual orientation as an essential attribute of an individual’s privacy and dignity.

In 2018, it decriminalized homosexual sex — overturning a British colonial-era law — and expanded constitutional rights for LGBTQ people.

Last year, the court instituted protections for what it called “atypical” families. It’s a broad category that includes, for example, single parents, blended families or kinship relationships — and same-sex couples. The court said that such non-traditional manifestations of families are equally deserving of benefits under various social welfare legislation.

Where does the government stand?

The ruling party, the BJP, opposed broadening the Hindu Marriage Act to include same-sex marriages in 2020, arguing that such unions are out of step with Indian values and culture. The Supreme Court has asked the government to officially weigh in on the current case; as of mid-January it had yet to do so. Sushil Modi, a BJP lawmaker, told Parliament in December that a question of such social significance shouldn’t be left to “a couple of judges.” He has urged the government to strongly argue against legal sanction for gay marriages.

And what about religious leaders?

Leaders of India’s most prominent religious groups either don’t support LGBTQ rights or avoided commenting. But among the Hindu majority — roughly 80% of the country — there’s been a gradual shift in how religious leaders engage with the community.

In 2018, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu-nationalist group, agreed with the top court ruling decriminalizing gay sex but maintained that same-sex relationships are “neither natural nor desirable.” This year, the group’s head, Mohan Bhagwat, backed LGBTQ rights, saying such people “have always been there” and are “a part of the society.” But he stopped short of advocating for same-sex marriages.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), a non-governmental body that works to protect and propagate Muslim personal laws, such as those dealing with family issues, opposes homosexuality, terming it immoral. (About 15% of Indians are Muslim.)

Some groups of the much smaller Christian population had argued against legalizing homosexuality in 2018 and said that “same-sex marriages would become social experiments with unpredictable outcome.”

For LGBTQ people in India, is it easy to be out?

It depends. While they are no longer at the risk of facing criminal prosecution, there are no national anti-discrimination laws covering sexual orientation in employment or housing. The LGBTQ people can take recourse in the Constitution of India though that guarantees right to equality to all. Younger people are more open and willing to talk about sexuality and sexual identity. Most big cities host LGBTQ Pride parades or other events and tend to be much more open than many rural places. Nearly 60% of the urban population is comfortable with LGBTQ persons being open about their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the Ipsos 2021 LGBTQ+ Pride survey. More people (44%) said they supported same-sex marriage than public displays of affection between LGBTQ people (39%), such as holding hands or kissing. In rural parts of the country though, where roughly two-thirds of the country’s population lives, being gay can still be considered taboo. They still face societal discrimination, being shunned by the community and their family, and harassment or violence, sometimes even at the hands of the police. There’s also the fear of being subjected to “corrective treatment.”

What’s before the court?

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the petition of two same-sex couples in November. More couples have joined since, and the court has also absorbed similar cases from some states challenging different religious personal statutes. That means the court will address whether gay marriage will be allowed under the Hindu Marriage Act, the Indian Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, and Muslim personal laws (which are largely uncodified) in addition to the secular code — Special Marriage Act — which governs unions between interfaith couples, non-believers and others. Some legal experts think the court will try to find a way to allow same-sex marriage under the secular laws, without expanding the religious codes. The case is scheduled to be heard on March 13, with no timeline for a decision. The 2018 decriminalization decision was handed down two months after the hearings, but that was seen as surprisingly quick.

How does India compare with other countries?

At the end of 2022, same-sex marriage was legal in more than 30 countries, mostly in Western Europe and the Americas. In Asia, only one jurisdiction — Taiwan — allows it, and attitudes and laws elsewhere are split. Hong Kong doesn’t allow same-sex marriage at home but will grant dependent visas to same-sex spouses of expatriate workers, for example. Thailand is inching toward recognition for civil unions. Other places have become more restrictive: Indonesia, which doesn’t recognize gay marriage, recently banned all extra-marital sex; Singapore’s parliament passed a law lifting a ban on sex between men but has blocked a path toward marriage equality. If India’s court sanctions same-sex marriage, the country would supplant the US as the biggest democracy with such rights for LGBTQ couples.

A Philippine court on Wednesday acquitted journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa as well as Rappler Holdings Corporation, the company that owns the news site she co-founded in 2012, of tax evasion charges. The ruling represents Ressa’s latest victory against what press freedom advocates have branded as judicial harassment.

The four tax evasion charges were filed in 2018 by the government of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, Rappler reported. An official from the clerk’s office of the Court of Tax Appeals, First Division, confirmed Ressa’s acquittal of tax evasion cases to TIME.

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Ressa, who has been the president and CEO of Rappler since its founding and recently published a book titled How to Stand Up to a Dictator, claims she has been unfairly targeted following the news organization’s reporting of Duterte’s deadly campaign against illegal drugs. Rappler also produces investigative coverage of disinformation online and is one of Meta’s third-party fact-checking partners in the country.

Read More: The Filipino War on Drugs Killed Thousands. Now the Government Is Blaming Corrupt Police

“Today, facts win, truth wins, justice wins,” an emotional Ressa said to reporters outside the Manila court.



Ressa, 59, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize awardees for their work in journalism amid “increasingly adverse conditions.” In 2018, she was among the “Guardians” of press freedom whom TIME collectively named as “Person of the Year.”

Read More: ‘It Is a Battle for Facts.’ What Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Understands About Why She Was Chosen

Duterte, a populist and widely popular president, had openly criticized Rappler for its critical coverage of his “war on drugs.” He alleged that it violated foreign ownership laws—which the company denies. In 2018, the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Rappler to shut down after revoking its operating license, but the news website carried on doing business as usual.

The SEC case was then followed by a string of legal battles. In 2020, a court convicted Ressa of libel and sentenced her to almost seven years in prison. She is out on bail pending her appeal.

Her acquittal at the tax court on Wednesday leaves only three active legal battles, according to Rappler, including the libel conviction appeal, the SEC case, and a separate tax case.

The Hold the Line Coalition—an international group that advocates for press freedom—said in a statement on Wednesday: “We hope we are seeing the beginning of an end to the previous administration’s strategy to instrumentalize the courts as a means to undermine independent news organizations and damage journalists’ credibility. As an immediate next step, we call for all remaining cases against Rappler and Ressa to be closed and their constant persecution to be stopped once and for all.” The group called on the incumbent administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “to hit reset on his predecessors’ vast campaign of media repression.”

Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index ranks the Philippines, a Southeast Asian nation of 110 million, 147th among 180 in the world, noting that at least 34 journalists have been killed there between 2012 and 2021. As recently as Oct. 3, 2022, a veteran journalist reporting on rampant corruption was shot dead while driving on his way home.