Ukraine’s military said its forces repelled an attack in the area of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, while Russia’s Wagner private military group said it took control of the village.

* Russia accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately striking a hospital in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine on Saturday in what it said was a war crime that killed 14 people and wounded 24 patients and medical staff. There was no immediate response to the allegations from Ukraine. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the situation at the front as “extremely acute“, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where Russia is stepping up an offensive.

* Tearful mourners in Kyiv commemorated a British volunteer aid worker, Andrew Bagshaw, killed while attempting a rescue mission from the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to contacts with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz though has no phone call scheduled with him, a Kremlin spokesman said. Scholz, who last week approved providing Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukrainian forces, was quoted in a published interview as saying he would speak to Putin again but the onus was on the Russian leader to withdraw troops from Ukraine “to end this horrendous, senseless war…”

* Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov will hold a meeting with Lynne Tracy, the new U.S. ambassador, early next week, RIA news agency reported.

* Zelenskiy condemned the idea of neutrality in sports at a time when his country’s athletes fight and die in war, while their Russian counterparts might be allowed to compete.

* Russia said it will not hold annual talks with Japan on renewing a pact that allows Japanese fishermen to operate near disputed islands, saying Japan had taken anti-Russian measures.

* Expedited talks are under way among Ukraine and its allies about its requests for long-range missiles that it says are needed to prevent Russia from destroying its cities, a top aide to President Zelenskiy said.

* German arms-maker Rheinmetall is ready to greatly boost output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the West, and may start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told Reuters.

* Ukraine has been promised 321 heavy tanks by several countries, its ambassador to France said.

* Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has pledged, the Polish prime minister said in an interview with Canadian television.

* Ukraine imposed sanctions on 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, in the latest of a series of steps by Zelenskiy to block their links to his country.

* On a trip to Turkey and the Middle East this week, the U.S. Treasury Department’s top sanctions official will warn countries and businesses that they could lose U.S. market access if they do business with entities subject to U.S. curbs as Washington cracks down on Russian attempts to evade sanctions.

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Actor Alec Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday for showing a “reckless” disregard for safety that led to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie “Rust” in New Mexico in 2021, according to court documents.

District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies filed charges following months of speculation as to whether she had evidence that Baldwin acted with criminal negligence when a revolver with which he was rehearsing fired a live round that killed Hutchins.

Baldwin and set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were each charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. The most serious charge, which carries a potential sentence of five years in jail, would require prosecutors to convince a jury that Baldwin acted with willful disregard for the safety of others.

A lawyer for Baldwin declined to comment. Hutchins’ lawyer said the prosecutor had “completely misunderstood the facts and has reached the wrong conclusions.”

Baldwin’s case is remarkable in that there is little or no precedent for a Hollywood actor to face criminal charges for an on-set death.

A statement of probable cause by the prosecution’s special investigator, Robert Shilling, made clear Baldwin was being charged as an actor and producer on the low-budget movie.

Baldwin’s failure to get sufficient firearms training, check with the armorer whether the revolver was loaded, or address safety complaints from crew were cited by Shilling as some of his many “extremely reckless acts or reckless failures to act” in the 10-day period leading up to Hutchins’ death.

The “30 Rock” actor has denied responsibility for the shooting inside a movie-set church, saying Hutchins directed him to point the gun at the camera, he cocked the revolver but never pulled the trigger.

Baldwin said live ammunition should never have been allowed on the set and it was the job of Gutierrez-Reed and first assistant director Dave Halls to ensure the gun was unloaded, a position supported by many actors and the SAG-AFTRA union.

Videos from inside the church prior to the shooting show Baldwin with his finger on the trigger, Shilling said.

An FBI forensic test of the revolver found it “functioned normally” and would not fire without the trigger being pulled.

The prosecution used Baldwin’s comments to media against him, saying the investigation showed he deviated from firearm safety protocols that he laid out in television interviews.

“Baldwin would have been better served not making public statements about these incidents,” said Kate Mangels, an attorney with entertainment law firm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley.

Still, prosecutors could face long odds convincing a jury Baldwin is criminally liable as he was assured the gun was not loaded and it will be difficult to blame him for all the movie’s alleged safety failures, legal analysts said

No other “Rust” producer has been charged.

Charging documents held Gutierrez-Reed responsible for “allowing live ammunition on the set,” but did not accuse her of physically introducing them onto the production.

Gutierrez-Reed has said she brought two boxes of dummy rounds onto the set from a previous movie. Supply company PDQ Arms and Prop also provided dummy rounds and blanks. An FBI test found live long Colt .45 rounds taken from PDQ in Albuquerque did not match those found at the movie set, including the round that killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.

As armorer responsible for firearm safety and training, Gutierrez-Reed failed to provide sufficient instruction to Baldwin, check rounds loaded into the revolver or remain present in the rehearsal to ensure the actor did not point the weapon at Hutchins, the special investigator said.

Gutierrez-Reed has said she checked that the rounds were dummies before handing the gun to Halls and leaving the church due to COVID protocols. Halls then handed it to Baldwin, telling him it was a “cold gun,” meaning it did not contain an explosive charge, according to police.

Halls has signed a plea deal for a misdemeanor charge and is expected to cooperate with the prosecution.

Gutierrez-Reed has said producers denied her requests for extra firearms training, including with Baldwin.

Gabrielle Pickle, line producer on the movie, on Dec. 20 testified to New Mexico’s worker safety agency (OSHA) that all of Gutierrez-Reed’s requests for extra days for armorer duties were granted.

On Dec. 7 Gutierrez-Reed testified to OSHA that Baldwin’s lack of knowledge and “poor form” in using a revolver may have led to the discharge that killed Hutchins.

Her lawyer Jason Bowles said Halls, her senior in the production, was at fault for not calling Gutierrez-Reed back into the church to perform her armorer duties.

“We will fight these charges and expect that a jury will find Hannah not guilty,” he said in a statement.

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(NewsNation) — A former Dallas Zoo security guard told NewsNation that the people who should be protecting animals are “failing at their job” after a string of breaches at the zoo.

“The people that were hired to prevent this stuff are failing at their job, and that ultimately relies on security,” the former guard said.

“This upsets me quite a bit. Because as security you’re hired to protect that property and whatever creatures are there — human or animals,” the guard exclusively told NewsNation. “The Dallas Zoo is a huge black market gold mine — always has been.”

In just two weeks, four different investigations have been opened involving animals and breached enclosures. The latest disappearance of two emperor tamarin monkeys from their enclosure was the fourth incident in the last two weeks at the Dallas Zoo. The two monkeys were found Tuesday evening, after Dallas police said they received a tip. Police said they went to an empty home in Lancaster, located just south of Dallas, and found the monkeys safe in a closet.

The monkeys have been returned to the zoo.

Earlier this month a clouded leopard named Nova escaped her enclosure after a cutting tool was used to make a hole in her habitat’s fence. The same type of hole was discovered in the langur monkey enclosure soon after.

Last week, a lappet-faced vulture was found dead in its enclosure with a wound that zoo officials described as “not natural.” The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

The former security guard joined NewsNation anonymously to protect his identity, as well as the safety of his former coworkers. He says was contracted through the third-party security firm GardaWorld in 2022, but ultimately left after seven months after he says GardaWorld didn’t take his concerns seriously. GardaWorld did not return NewsNation’s request for comment.

The former employee claims there are nearly 10 vulnerable entries into the zoo that someone could get past. He claims he was often advised not to go after people seen as trespassers and that some security guards on duty were aggressive.

The former security guard told NewsNation that he quit his job after he flagged security concerns, but they weren’t taken seriously by management.

When asked by NewsNation’s Markie Martin if he felt unsafe at work, he said yes.

“I even brought this up with my higher-ups and they did not care,” he said. “And that was a huge problem, we’re all carrying firearms and I didn’t want to have to draw my firearm in self-defense.”

According to zoo officials, more than 100 cameras monitor the zoo at all times.

In the wake of these security leaks, the Dallas Zoo has heightened surveillance measures: adding more camera, doubling security and increasing staffing.

The Dallas Police Department is conducting an ongoing investigation into these breaches. But the former security guard is still upset.

“Something needs to be done. And I’m not gonna sit there and let this big security company get away with this stuff while animals and people ultimately will get hurt. That’s not okay with me.”

Dallas PD said they are looking to identify and question a man they believe has crucial information about the tamarin monkeys and are offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.

Kevin McCarthy can’t do anything right. You’ve perhaps known in your lifetime, someone or several people like McCarthy. They’re thin-skinned, they wear capes of cowardice, and they care about nothing except moving up the ladder, metaphorically speaking. They crave power, and they will do anything to get it.

So let’s talk about Kevin and his latest bizarre and unintentionally hilarious statement. The setting was Fox News, of course. I hope there were refreshments in the greenroom because Kevin had a bad time on the non-news station. One would hope at least he got some good food out of it.

The interviewer was conservative Mark Levin. If you know Levin at all, you know he likely has never smiled in his life. Mark Levin gives new meaning to the word grumpy. I am not convinced he and the Grinch that stole Christmas aren’t best friends.

Levin was asking McCarthy about George Santos, which is obviously not Kevin’s favorite topic because Kevin refuses to do one thing about Santos and his lies. So Levin asked him this question — and it was a stupid one: “Who has more power, Joe Biden or George Santos?”

I marvel at the fact that people actually tune in to WATCH this stuff. McCarthy’s response is one for the ages because it was worse than even I could have foreseen. First, McCarthy burst into (rather hysterical) laughter. One imagines the non-speaker may have been a bit giggly because he was nervous. Then he said this: “Well, right now, I think it’s president Joe Biden.”

Very good, Kev! See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Apparently, it was. Because – as you might have begun to suspect — Kevin then proceeded to screw up his answer. Wouldn’t you just know it? Let’s go back to Kevin’s original answer.

“Well, right now, I think it is president Joe Biden.”

“UNFORTUNATELY.”

Unfortunately? I can hear the bells of miserable failure ringing all across the lands. Now this throw-away comment was said under his breath, only it came through loud and clear on our television sets. Perhaps Kevin did not mean it to. After all — he had just declared that pathological liar Santos should be, in Kevin’s opinion more powerful than the President.

On Twitter, the word “unfortunately” started lighting up the site. Twitter could not believe it. And this is a group of people who have seen it ALL.

“Unfortunately?” thousands of bewildered tweeters asked. Wait now! Hold up! He couldn’t — Kevin just couldn’t have said this. It has to be a joke, right? The answer to that question is no; it is not a joke. Meet the republican speaker of the house — unfortunately.

The post Kevin McCarthy is already falling to pieces appeared first on Palmer Report.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Wednesday called for countries in the Americas to reinforce protections for women and girls seeking abortions, after observing measures that “go backwards” last year.

“Both material and formal measures were observed that go backwards in the guarantee of reproductive rights free of all forms of violence and discrimination,” the IACHR said in a statement.

El Salvador “stood out,” it said, for 30 and 50-year sentences for homicide imposed on two women last year, despite rights activists saying they suffered miscarriages.

The small Central American country, which has some of the world’s harshest anti-abortion laws, bans all terminations even if the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s life or results from rape or incest.

Even in countries where abortion is partially legal, the IACHR said girls and teens who became pregnant as a result of rape or incest faced difficulties accessing healthcare.

In Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Panama, medical and legal professionals helping provide access to abortions permitted under national laws faced threats of legal action, according to the IACHR.

While many U.S. states protect access to abortion, the body highlighted the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which for close to half a century established a constitutional right to abortion.

The IACHR praised Colombia’s decriminalization of abortion through 24 weeks of gestation last February, as well as moves by Mexican states, including southern Quintana Roo, to allow abortion within a set number of weeks.

Quintana Roo state borders Guatemala, which has hardened punishments for women who abort to up to 25 years in jail.