Six In The Morning Monday 28 February 2022

 Captured Ukrainian marines and guards alive - Navy

Ukrainian soldiers who were reportedly attacked on Zmiinyi (Snake) island are still alive, according to a statement posted on Facebook by Ukraine's naval services.

"We are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well," the statement posted on Monday said.

The sailors "rebuked twice the attacks of the Russian invaders," but could no longer continue to protect the island, the statement continued.

Connection with the island was completely cut off and attempts to reach the sailors futile, after Russian armed forces destroyed its infrastructure, the navy said.

On Friday we reported how Ukraine was honouring 13 soldiers it said were killed while defending the island from Russian attacks.

‘They were fooled by Putin’: Chinese historians speak out against Russian invasion

An open letter written by five historians denounced the war. They hope to persuade Beijing to make their stance clearer

Vincent Ni China affairs correspondent

Mon 28 Feb 2022 03.04 GMT

For Xu Guoqi, a Chinese historian, Beijing’s reluctance to denounce Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is alarming. “I’m a historian of the first world war. Europe sleep-walked into a huge conflict over 100 years ago, which also had had enormous consequences for China,” Xu said. “The world may be at the point of no return again”.

But looking at how Chinese diplomats are responding to it, and how Chinese people have talked about it on social media in the past week, he said, “I’m afraid it seems we still have not learned the lessons of the past tragedies. As a historian I’m very disappointed.”

How to think about the risk of nuclear war, according to 3 experts

The threat of nuclear weapons never went away. But Putin’s invasion of Ukraine makes it visible again.

By Neel Dhaneshaneel.dhanesha@vox.com 

When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, he also made a more nebulous threat: “No matter who tries to stand in our way or … create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

Another part of his speech seemed to make his meaning clear. “Today’s Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states,” Putin said. As justification for the invasion, Putin also made unfounded claims that Ukraine was on a path to build its own nuclear arsenal. “There’s no evidence of that at all,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

Sudanese protester killed as thousands march against coup

 A Sudanese protester was shot dead Monday, medics said, during the latest march by thousands who continue to oppose a military coup which took place four months ago.

The latest death -- despite international appeals for an end to the violence -- takes the total number of people killed to at least 84 in a crackdown since General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led an October 25 military takeover, according to independent medics.

"Tear gas canisters will not stop us!" said Taqwa Mohammed, a demonstrator near Khartoum's presidential palace, where the ruling Sovereign Council is based along the Nile River.

Around him, the bangs of stun grenades rang out, as volleys of tear gas canisters fell into the crowds, hissing out acrid clouds of red, green or yellow smoke.

Ex-Ghosn aide Kelly confident of being acquitted on Thursday

By Yuki Yamaguchi and Takuma Obinata

Former Nissan Motor Co executive Greg Kelly is confident he can win an acquittal over his alleged involvement in underreporting compensation for his former boss and one-time corporate superstar Carlos Ghosn as a court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on Thursday.

"There was no need to report because Carlos Ghosn never got paid, and there was never an agreement to pay Carlos Ghosn," Kelly said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. "This is not a criminal matter, and nobody should go to jail for anything."

Kelly, the 65-year-old former Nissan representative director and close aide of Ghosn, is accused of conspiring with Ghosn, former Nissan chairman, in understating his remuneration by around 9 billion yen over eight years through March 2018, violating Japan's financial instruments and exchange law.

'Delay means death': We're running out of ways to adapt to the climate crisis, new report shows. Here are the key takeaways

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN

Updated 1105 GMT (1905 HKT) February 28, 2022

Climate change is on course to transform life on Earth as we know it, and unless global warming is dramatically slowed, billions of people and other species will reach points where they can no longer adapt to the new normal, according to a major report published Monday.

The UN-backed report, based on years of research from hundreds of scientists, found that the impacts from human-caused climate change were larger than previously thought. The report's authors say these impacts are happening much faster and are more disruptive and widespread than scientists expected 20 years ago.

The authors point to enormous inequities in the climate crisis, finding that those who contribute the least to the problem are the worst affected, and warn of irreversible impacts if the world exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming.