THE GUARDIAN: The House impeachment managers have filed a brief outlining their argument for Donald Trump’s conviction ahead of the former president’s second Senate impeachment trial.
“In a grievous betrayal of his Oath of Office, President Trump incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol during the Joint Session, thus impeding Congress’s confirmation of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as the winner of the presidential election,” the brief says. “President Trump’s responsibility for the events of January 6 is unmistakable.” » | Joan E Greve (now) and Martin Belam (earlier) | Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Tuesday, February 02, 2021
Americans Smoking More Cigarettes during COVID-19 Pandemic
NEW YORK POST: Smoking has made a comeback as the stress of the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll — with cigarette sales rebounding in 2020.
Sales rose by 0.4 percent last year — reversing a decades-long steady decline — as people in lockdown lit up more often and vapers switched back to tobacco over health concerns, according to data released by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc.
Bored Americans who weren’t able to travel or dine out regularly also had more disposable income to spend on smoke sticks, the tobacco maker said.
An FDA spokeswoman said changes in cigarette smoking can’t be tied to one specific event, but admitted the pandemic has played a role.
“COVID-19 has created a drastic change in daily life, including increased stress and anxiety, that may contribute to a smaller-than-expected reduction in cigarette sales,” she told the Wall Street Journal. » | Jesse O'Neill | Friday, January 19, 2021
Sales rose by 0.4 percent last year — reversing a decades-long steady decline — as people in lockdown lit up more often and vapers switched back to tobacco over health concerns, according to data released by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc.
Bored Americans who weren’t able to travel or dine out regularly also had more disposable income to spend on smoke sticks, the tobacco maker said.
An FDA spokeswoman said changes in cigarette smoking can’t be tied to one specific event, but admitted the pandemic has played a role.
“COVID-19 has created a drastic change in daily life, including increased stress and anxiety, that may contribute to a smaller-than-expected reduction in cigarette sales,” she told the Wall Street Journal. » | Jesse O'Neill | Friday, January 19, 2021
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Notturno, Op. 27: No. 2 in D-Flat Major
Truss: Asia Pacific Countries 'Where the Big Markets Are'
BBC: International trade secretary Liz Truss says Asia Pacific countries "will provide big markets" in the future for British products.
The UK is applying to join a free trade area made up of 11 Asia and Pacific nations, under its post-Brexit plans. » | BBC | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Dumb is as dumb does! – Mark
The UK is applying to join a free trade area made up of 11 Asia and Pacific nations, under its post-Brexit plans. » | BBC | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Dumb is as dumb does! – Mark
In Russia, Economic Slump Erodes Consensus That Shielded Putin
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The rally-around-the-flag effect of President Vladimir V. Putin’s assertive foreign policy known as the Crimea consensus is unraveling with the economy.
KALININGRAD, Russia — Aleksandr Dobralsky took to the streets to protest the arrest this past month of Russia’s most prominent opposition leader. But he had other grievances as well.
“It’s like somebody stepped on your toe and said, ‘Just be patient with this for a little while,’” Mr. Dobralsky, a lawyer, said of the country’s economic woes. “How can you just wait for it to be over?”
Opinion polls have for a few years been tracking a pivot in the national mood, away from what was called the “Crimea consensus” of wide support for President Vladimir V. Putin for annexing the Ukrainian peninsula. Now, people are focused on their disappointment over slumping wages and pensions.
In Russia, the competition between the rally-around-the-flag effect of Mr. Putin’s assertive foreign policy and anger over the sagging economy is often referred to as the battle between the television and the refrigerator: Do Russians pay attention to the patriotic news on TV or notice their empty fridges? » | Andrew E. Kramer | Sunday, January 31, 2021
KALININGRAD, Russia — Aleksandr Dobralsky took to the streets to protest the arrest this past month of Russia’s most prominent opposition leader. But he had other grievances as well.
“It’s like somebody stepped on your toe and said, ‘Just be patient with this for a little while,’” Mr. Dobralsky, a lawyer, said of the country’s economic woes. “How can you just wait for it to be over?”
Opinion polls have for a few years been tracking a pivot in the national mood, away from what was called the “Crimea consensus” of wide support for President Vladimir V. Putin for annexing the Ukrainian peninsula. Now, people are focused on their disappointment over slumping wages and pensions.
In Russia, the competition between the rally-around-the-flag effect of Mr. Putin’s assertive foreign policy and anger over the sagging economy is often referred to as the battle between the television and the refrigerator: Do Russians pay attention to the patriotic news on TV or notice their empty fridges? » | Andrew E. Kramer | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Thousands Arrested at Fresh Protests in Support of Kremlin Critic Navalny
Much of Western Australia Goes into Five-day Lockdown after Hotel Guard Tests Positive to UK Covid Variant
THE GUARDIAN: Restrictions imposed in Perth, Peel and South West, with schools suspended and residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons
Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s South West amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
The state premier, Mark McGowan, said the “full lockdown” would begin at 6pm on Sunday, meaning residents could only leave their homes for essential grocery shopping, medical reasons, to care for the vulnerable or exercise within their neighbourhood.
Schools were due to return on Monday but will now remain closed; masks will become mandatory during the lockdown’; and venues including bars, pubs, clubs, gyms and places of worship will need to close. Restaurants and cafes will be limited to takeaway service. Elective surgery has also been suspended. » | Luke Henriques-Gomes | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s South West amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.
The state premier, Mark McGowan, said the “full lockdown” would begin at 6pm on Sunday, meaning residents could only leave their homes for essential grocery shopping, medical reasons, to care for the vulnerable or exercise within their neighbourhood.
Schools were due to return on Monday but will now remain closed; masks will become mandatory during the lockdown’; and venues including bars, pubs, clubs, gyms and places of worship will need to close. Restaurants and cafes will be limited to takeaway service. Elective surgery has also been suspended. » | Luke Henriques-Gomes | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Brexit 'Teething Problems' Endemic and Could Ruin Us, Say UK Businesses
THE GUARDIAN: Ease of trading is key measure of success, say cross-channel businesses, not lack of lorry traffic
It was billed as a deal that would secure tariff-free access to the EU, that “sunlit uplands” would follow initial disruption to trade.
But one month since the Brexit trade deal came into force, businesses are warning that the “teething problems” Boris Johnson described in a visit to Scotland last week are in fact symptomatic of endemic disruption that will force many businesses to restructure and will mean the end of some British businesses altogether.
“The last month has been like Dante’s fifth circle of hell” for importers and exporters unable to move supplies because of new red tape, said Ben Fletcher, the policy director of Make UK, which represents manufacturers across the UK.
One internationally renowned car manufacturer had “1,000 cars sitting in their car park partially built because they could not get the parts in time,” said Fletcher. “They said this has never happened ever before.” » | Lisa O’Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Brexit is for fossils and fools! – Mark
It was billed as a deal that would secure tariff-free access to the EU, that “sunlit uplands” would follow initial disruption to trade.
But one month since the Brexit trade deal came into force, businesses are warning that the “teething problems” Boris Johnson described in a visit to Scotland last week are in fact symptomatic of endemic disruption that will force many businesses to restructure and will mean the end of some British businesses altogether.
“The last month has been like Dante’s fifth circle of hell” for importers and exporters unable to move supplies because of new red tape, said Ben Fletcher, the policy director of Make UK, which represents manufacturers across the UK.
One internationally renowned car manufacturer had “1,000 cars sitting in their car park partially built because they could not get the parts in time,” said Fletcher. “They said this has never happened ever before.” » | Lisa O’Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Sunday, January 31, 2021
Brexit is for fossils and fools! – Mark
Paris, Shuttered, Must Be Imagined
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The pandemic has enshrouded and dimmed the City of Light. But there are many reasons to soldier through the fog.
PARIS — “We’ll always have Paris.” Turns out perhaps the most famous line in the movies was wrong.
Paris is gone for now, its lifeblood cut off by the closure of all restaurants, its nights silenced by a 6 p.m. curfew aimed at eliminating the national pastime of the aperitif, its cafe bonhomie lost to domestic morosity. Blight has taken the City of Light.
Taboos fall. People eat sandwiches in the drizzle on city benches. They yield — oh, the horror! — to takeout in the form of “le click-and-collect.” They dine earlier, an abominable Americanization. They contemplate with resignation the chalk-on-blackboard offerings of long-shuttered restaurants still promising a veal blanquette or a boeuf bourguignon. These menus are fossils from the pre-pandemic world.
Gone the museums, gone the tourist-filled riverboats plying the Seine, gone the sidewalk terraces offering their pleasures at dusk, gone the movie theaters, gone the casual delights of wandering and the raucous banter of the most northern of southern cities. In their place, a gray sadness has settled over the city like fog. » | Roger Cohen | Published: Saturday, January 30, 2021; Updated: Sunday, January 31, 2021
PARIS — “We’ll always have Paris.” Turns out perhaps the most famous line in the movies was wrong.
Paris is gone for now, its lifeblood cut off by the closure of all restaurants, its nights silenced by a 6 p.m. curfew aimed at eliminating the national pastime of the aperitif, its cafe bonhomie lost to domestic morosity. Blight has taken the City of Light.
Taboos fall. People eat sandwiches in the drizzle on city benches. They yield — oh, the horror! — to takeout in the form of “le click-and-collect.” They dine earlier, an abominable Americanization. They contemplate with resignation the chalk-on-blackboard offerings of long-shuttered restaurants still promising a veal blanquette or a boeuf bourguignon. These menus are fossils from the pre-pandemic world.
Gone the museums, gone the tourist-filled riverboats plying the Seine, gone the sidewalk terraces offering their pleasures at dusk, gone the movie theaters, gone the casual delights of wandering and the raucous banter of the most northern of southern cities. In their place, a gray sadness has settled over the city like fog. » | Roger Cohen | Published: Saturday, January 30, 2021; Updated: Sunday, January 31, 2021
Amtsenthebung: Donald Trump verliert vor Verfahren seine Anwälte
ZEIT ONLINE: Kurz vor Beginn des Amtsenthebungsverfahrens muss sich der frühere US-Präsident laut Medienberichten neue Verteidiger suchen. Grund dafür seien strategische Differenzen.
Kurz vor Beginn des Amtsenthebungsverfahrens gegen Donald Trumpim Senat sind dem früheren US-Präsidenten Medienberichten zufolge seine Verteidiger abhanden gekommen. Wie unter anderem der Nachrichtensender CNN berichtete, würden die fünf vorgesehenen Anwälte den Republikaner in dem Verfahren nun doch nicht verteidigen. Unter ihnen seien auch die beiden Anwälte Butch Bowers und Deborah Barbier, die eigentlich Trumps Verteidigung im Senat hätten anführen sollen. » | Quelle: ZEIT ONLINE, dpa, AP, AFP, msk | Sonntag, 31. Januar 2021
Kurz vor Beginn des Amtsenthebungsverfahrens gegen Donald Trumpim Senat sind dem früheren US-Präsidenten Medienberichten zufolge seine Verteidiger abhanden gekommen. Wie unter anderem der Nachrichtensender CNN berichtete, würden die fünf vorgesehenen Anwälte den Republikaner in dem Verfahren nun doch nicht verteidigen. Unter ihnen seien auch die beiden Anwälte Butch Bowers und Deborah Barbier, die eigentlich Trumps Verteidigung im Senat hätten anführen sollen. » | Quelle: ZEIT ONLINE, dpa, AP, AFP, msk | Sonntag, 31. Januar 2021
Russie : plus de 4 400 arrestations lors d’une nouvelle journée de manifestations à l’appel de l’opposant Navalny
LE MONDE: Des rassemblements ont notamment eu lieu à Moscou, Saint-Pétersbourg et Iekaterinbourg. Selon l’Union des journalistes russes, au moins 35 professionnels de la presse ont été arrêtés.
Malgré la pression croissante des autorités russes, qui ont multiplié les mises en garde et les procédures judiciaires, les partisans d’Alexeï Navalny manifestaient, dimanche 31 janvier, lors d’une nouvelle journée de mobilisation pour appeler à la libération de l’opposant emprisonné. La police russe a déployé un important dispositif et fermé l’accès au centre de plusieurs villes pour empêcher les protestataires de participer à ces réunions non autorisées.
D’après l’organisation OVD-Info, spécialisée dans le suivi des manifestations, au moins 4 407 personnes ont été interpellées dans 85 villes, principalement à Moscou (1 357) et Saint-Pétersbourg (950). Selon l’Union des journalistes russes, au moins 35 professionnels de la presse ont été arrêtés. » | Le Monde avec AFP | dimanche 31 janvier 2021
Malgré la pression croissante des autorités russes, qui ont multiplié les mises en garde et les procédures judiciaires, les partisans d’Alexeï Navalny manifestaient, dimanche 31 janvier, lors d’une nouvelle journée de mobilisation pour appeler à la libération de l’opposant emprisonné. La police russe a déployé un important dispositif et fermé l’accès au centre de plusieurs villes pour empêcher les protestataires de participer à ces réunions non autorisées.
D’après l’organisation OVD-Info, spécialisée dans le suivi des manifestations, au moins 4 407 personnes ont été interpellées dans 85 villes, principalement à Moscou (1 357) et Saint-Pétersbourg (950). Selon l’Union des journalistes russes, au moins 35 professionnels de la presse ont été arrêtés. » | Le Monde avec AFP | dimanche 31 janvier 2021
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Reputations - Coco Chanel
How Big a Threat Is Navalny to Putin's Power? | DW News
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been coming under unusual pressure. A billion-dollar palace allegedly paid for illegally has been making global headlines, while young Russians flood TikTok with calls for protests. Thousands hit the streets in some of the most widespread demonstrations in years. And the president himself faced the public to deny accusations of stolen wealth. Much of the agitation was sparked by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, now watching from prison.
With parliamentary elections looming, does Navalny pose a growing threat to President Putin's rule?
With parliamentary elections looming, does Navalny pose a growing threat to President Putin's rule?
Corona-Krawalle in den Niederlanden: So knallhart greift die Polizei jetzt durch
Es ist Freitag, 21.24 Uhr. Seit 24 Minuten greift die nächtliche Ausgangssperre. Bis 4.30 Uhr morgens müssen alle Niederländer in ihren Häusern bleiben. So will die Regierung die Zahl der Corona-Neuinfizierungen in den Griff bekommen und Krawalle unterbinden.
Jetzt greifen die Behörden in den Niederlanden hart durch. Dutzende Polizisten sind im Einsatz, um für Recht und Ordnung zu sorgen.
Jetzt greifen die Behörden in den Niederlanden hart durch. Dutzende Polizisten sind im Einsatz, um für Recht und Ordnung zu sorgen.
The Crown Prince with No Kingdom
'Half-friends Is Not a Concept': UK Should Decide Who Its Allies Are, Says Macron
Emmanuel Macron has warned that Boris Johnson’s government has to decide who its allies are, insisting that “half-friends is not a concept”.
“What politics does Great Britain wish to choose? It cannot be the best ally of the US, the best ally of the EU and the new Singapore … It has to choose a model,” the French president said, in an interview with the Guardian and a small group of other media.
“But I have the impression the country’s leaders have sold all these models [to the people]. If it decides on a completely transatlantic policy then we [the EU] will need clarification, because there will be divergence on rules and access to markets.
“If it decides to be the new Singapore, which it has once suggested … well, I don’t know. It’s not for me to decide, but I would like good, peaceful relations. Our destinies are linked, our intellectual approach is linked, our researchers and industrials work together … I believe in a sovereign continent and nation states; I don’t believe in neo-nationalism.
“I am for common ambition and a common destiny. I hope Boris Johnson is also on that path, because I think the British people are. We remain allies. History and geography don’t change, so I don’t think the British people have a different destiny to ours.” » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Saturday, January 30, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Remarkable Private Pictures of the Russian Royal Family Found in a Remote Urals Museum
THE SIBERIAN TIMES: Tsar Nicholas II appears in a photograph to be teaching his daughter Grand Duchess Anastasia how to smoke.
Another picture taken by the emperor dated 1916 shows Tsarevich Alexei - heir to an autocratic throne that would be abolished the following year - posing on a tree in winter with his beloved pet spaniel Joy.
These images of the Russian royal family, captured in photographs taken by the Tsar himself or his children, mostly date from the years of the First World War, and some very soon before the Romanov dynasty crumbled, to be rapidly replaced by Communism.
Found in a vault in Zlatoust, the album shows the private moments of the royals as the storm clouds gather over a dynasty that had ruled for more than three centuries.
The smoking picture shows the youngest princess Anastasia, then 15, evidently imbibing from a cigarette with every encouragement from the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. At the time there was not the same stigma attached to smoking and in fact a year earlier Anastasia had written to her father: 'I am sitting here with your old cigarette that you once gave me, and it is very tasty'. » | The Siberian Times Reporter | Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Diary of Olga Romanov: Smoking Cigarettes »
Another picture taken by the emperor dated 1916 shows Tsarevich Alexei - heir to an autocratic throne that would be abolished the following year - posing on a tree in winter with his beloved pet spaniel Joy.
These images of the Russian royal family, captured in photographs taken by the Tsar himself or his children, mostly date from the years of the First World War, and some very soon before the Romanov dynasty crumbled, to be rapidly replaced by Communism.
Found in a vault in Zlatoust, the album shows the private moments of the royals as the storm clouds gather over a dynasty that had ruled for more than three centuries.
The smoking picture shows the youngest princess Anastasia, then 15, evidently imbibing from a cigarette with every encouragement from the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. At the time there was not the same stigma attached to smoking and in fact a year earlier Anastasia had written to her father: 'I am sitting here with your old cigarette that you once gave me, and it is very tasty'. » | The Siberian Times Reporter | Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Diary of Olga Romanov: Smoking Cigarettes »
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Poland to Implement Near-total Ban on Abortion Imminently
THE GUARDIAN: Move comes three months after original ruling prompted country’s biggest protests in recent history
A controversial ruling that imposes a near total-ban on abortion in Poland will come into effect imminently, the government has announced, three months after the original ruling prompted the biggest protests in the country’s recent history.
The announcement led protesters to gather again in Warsaw and other cities on Wednesday evening. “We are inviting everyone, please, go out, be motivated, so we can walk together, make a mark,” said protest group leader Marta Lempart.
The ruling, handed down by the constitutional tribunal in October, found that terminating pregnancies due to severe foetal abnormalities is unconstitutional. Poland already has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, and most of the small number of legal abortions that take place in the country are cases of foetal defects.
Once the ruling goes into effect, abortion will only be permitted in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. » | Shaun Walker, Central and eastern Europe correspondent | Wednesday, January 27, 2021
A controversial ruling that imposes a near total-ban on abortion in Poland will come into effect imminently, the government has announced, three months after the original ruling prompted the biggest protests in the country’s recent history.
The announcement led protesters to gather again in Warsaw and other cities on Wednesday evening. “We are inviting everyone, please, go out, be motivated, so we can walk together, make a mark,” said protest group leader Marta Lempart.
The ruling, handed down by the constitutional tribunal in October, found that terminating pregnancies due to severe foetal abnormalities is unconstitutional. Poland already has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, and most of the small number of legal abortions that take place in the country are cases of foetal defects.
Once the ruling goes into effect, abortion will only be permitted in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. » | Shaun Walker, Central and eastern Europe correspondent | Wednesday, January 27, 2021
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