IMPORTANT | | Shell Shock | Biden Expects Russian Invasion Within ‘Several Days’ A spike in shelling on the front line between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists Thursday suggested the long-running dispute is entering a disastrous new phase. President Joe Biden warned that Moscow is “engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in” after separatists claimed they came under fire from Ukraine. While the Kremlin insisted that it’s withdrawing troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claimed the opposite is happening. He said Russia is stocking up on blood supplies and combat aircraft, and “you don’t do these sorts of things ... if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home.” (Sources: NYT, AP) |
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| | | | Macron’s Mali Maneuvers | France to Withdraw Troops From Mali President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would withdraw its troops from the West African nation besieged by Islamic militants. Macron said the move was the result of a breakdown in diplomatic relations with Mali's governing military junta but he insisted that the mission had not been a failure. Colonel Souleymane Dembélé, a spokesman for the junta, dismissed the announcement, arguing that while European forces were in the country, “terrorism engulfed the entire Malian territory.” Some of the French troops will be redeployed to neighboring Niger but fears remain that the security vacuum in Mali will further destabilize the region. (Source: BBC) |
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| | Trumps to Testify | NY Judge Rules Trump and Kids Must Answer Business Questions New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that former President Donald Trump and his children Donald Jr. and Ivanka must answer questions under oath as part of a civil probe into their family company's business. Engoron said state Attorney General Letitia James had “the clear right” to question them about the “copious evidence of possible financial fraud” unearthed by her investigation. The Trumps, who have 21 days to submit to questioning, had earlier accused James of “selective prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct that this country has never seen,” through lawyer Alina Habba. They are appealing the ruling. (Sources: Reuters, CNN) |
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| | Startup Success | Nigeria’s Flutterwave Becomes Africa’s Richest Startup Flutterwave, which facilitates cross-border payments for companies including Uber and Booking.com, has achieved a $3 billion valuation after its latest funding round. The 6-year-old firm was valued at $1 billion a year ago. The news comes amid a flurry of investor interest in African startups: Firms on the continent secured a record $5 billion in capital last year. Co-founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola, who once engineered solutions for PayPal, said Flutterwave plans to expand through mergers and acquisitions. “We are thinking Egypt or Morocco,” he hinted — as well as by expanding into more countries in Africa and beyond. (Source: Al Jazeera) |
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| | Briefly | Here are some things you should know about today: Brazil mudslides. Rescue workers in the Brazilian city of Petropolis are in a race against time to recover survivors from the wreckage wrought by floods and mudslides. At least 110 people have died. (Source: Al Jazeera) Australia shark attack. A 35-year-old British expat has been identified as the victim of Sydney’s first fatal shark attack since 1963. Simon Nellist was training for a charity swim. (Source: Sky News) Ottawa standoff. Truckers in Canada’s capital stood their ground as police tried to break up their protest. “The action is imminent,” said interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell. “Your time in our city has come to an end and you must leave.” (Sourc e: CBC) |
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| INTRIGUING | | Glow With the Flow | Glow-in-the-Dark Fish Invade Brazilian Streams Zebrafish that have been genetically modified to glow under black light have escaped fish farms in southeastern Brazil and are sowing their luminous seed in the surrounding waterways, according to a recent report in Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment. The zebrafish, which have been modified with genes from naturally luminescent creatures like coral and jellyfish, are popular among aquarium owners. But conservationists worry they will wreak havoc on one of Brazil’s most biodiverse regions. “They are in the first stages of invasion with potential to keep going,” warned study author André Magalhães from the Federal University of São João. (Sources: Science, Newsweek) |
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| | Baptism of Fire | Arizona Priest Quits After Innocent Baptismal Blunders An Arizona priest who served in Phoenix since 2005 has resigned after realizing thousands of baptisms he performed are likely invalid due to an innocent — but consistent — slip of the tongue. Instead of saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Rev. Andres Arango routinely started the sentence with, “We baptize you.” María Vázquez, who considers her 6-year-old grandson’s baptism by Arango to be valid, has sent a letter asking for his reinstatement, arguing, “Priests who have done far worse ... have been allowed to remain in their churches.” (Source: AP) |
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| | Fly Got Your Tongue? | New Long-Tongued Fly Species Discovered in South Africa Birds do it, bees do it, even long-tongued flies do it. Prosoeca peringueyi, a wacky-looking critter with a needlelike tongue nearly twice the length of its body, has long been known to pollinate dozens of long tubed flower species in South Africa’s Namaqualand region. But recent research by French and South African scientists has shown that what was always believed to be one fly species is actually two and that between them the flies pollinate far more flower species than previously believed. P. torquata, the newly named species, has a white collar-like marking and a much shorter tongue than P. peringueyi. (Source: The Scientist) |
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| | | | Lunar Land Grabs | Right-wing Think Tank Calls for the Moon to be Privatized If you liked it then you should’ve put a flag on it. So says a report from neoliberal U.K. think tank Adam Smith Institute that sets out proposals to slice the moon up like a big pizza pie and divvy it up among earthly nations. Report author Rebecca Lowe says a “clear” and “morally justified” system for assigning and regulating property rights in space would “present vast benefits.” But Professor Malcolm Macdonald of the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications disagreed: “I’m not clear how extending the inequalities of our Earth-bound system to the Moon really advances the whole of humanity.” (Source: The National) |
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| | Valieva Vindication? | Controversial Russian Figure Skater Misses Medals Kamila Valieva, the red-hot fave for individual figure skating gold despite being mired in a doping controversy, slipped out of medal contention after a disastrous free program. She made mistakes on her first four jumps before tumbling to the ice on an attempted quad toe loop. The performance ranked among the 15-year-old Russian phenom’s worst ever and it meant that the medal ceremony — featuring Russia’s Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova in gold and silver and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto in bronze — could go ahead. The International Olympic Committee had previously announced that it would be delayed if Valieva featured. (Source: USA Today) |
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| ABOUT OZY OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on “the New and the Next.” OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. www.ozy.com / #CarlosWatson / #OZY Curiosity. Enthusiasm. Action. That’s OZY! |
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