Six In The Morning Monday 21 March 2022

 

Neither side is backing down in the conflict, senior NATO official says

From CNN's Natasha Bertrand

A senior NATO intelligence official said on Monday that signs are pointing to a stalemate emerging in Russia’s war on Ukraine, with Russian ground forces remaining stalled and Russian combat aircraft unable to achieve air superiority over Ukraine.

“If we are not in a stalemate already, we are rapidly approaching one,” the official told reporters during a briefing at NATO headquarters. “And it's quite a thing to say when you consider the disparity in strength when this fight began.” 

US declares Myanmar army committed genocide against Rohingya

Designation could put global pressure on military-led government, which faces accusations at international court of justic

Julian Borger in Washington

The US has declared Myanmar’s mass killing of the Rohingya Muslim population to be a “genocide”.

The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, made the announcement at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“The United States has concluded that genocide has been committed seven times. Today marks the eighth. I have determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity,” Blinken said. The US government uses the country’s pre-1989 name, Burma.

The American doctors treating Ukrainians via Zoom and YouTube: ‘We can hear shelling in the background’

Philadelphia-based surgeon Dr. Roxi Horbowyj tells Rachel Sharp how people on the ground in Ukraine can help keep each other alive - with the help of Stop the Bleed’s free Zoom courses and YouTube tutorials

With supplies dwindling in the city of Chernihiv as it came under constant fire from Russian forces, desperate civilians stood waiting in a line to buy bread. Vladimir Putin’s troops opened fire on them, killing at least 10.

In Irpin, a mother, her two children and a friend dashed across a bridge to escape the city after their apartment building was struck by bombs one day earlier. They were hit by a Russian mortar strike - their bodies seen lying in the road in an image that sent shockwaves across the globe.

Expectant mothers prepared to welcome their new bundles of joy in the maternity ward of a children’s hospital in Mariupol. Bombs were dropped on the hospital, killing at least three and wounding 17 more. Days later, a pregnant woman who was injured in the attack died along with her newborn baby.

A new Republic: Leftist Mélenchon promises to topple France’s ‘presidential monarchy’

Rising in the polls, the French election’s dark horse Jean-Luc Mélenchon has promised a reboot of the French Republic, vowing to overhaul a presidential regime that he blames for mounting abstention, disillusion and increasingly violent protests.

Sporting a prominent French moustache and the Phrygian cap of the revolutionary Sans-culottes, Johan Pain cut a familiar figure on place de la République in Paris – the French capital’s traditional protest hub

The sprawling square, best known for its towering allegorical statue of the French Republic (coiffed, of course, with a Phrygian cap), has long been a rite of passage for every left-wing march in town. On Sunday, it was the stage for the biggest rally of France’s presidential campaign, in support of veteran campaigner Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is polling in third with just three weeks to go before the April 10 vote.

With eye on China, Japan breaks with precedents for strong Ukraine response

Japan has broken with years of precedent in its tough response to the Ukraine invasion, and the conflict could reshape Tokyo's defense strategy as it confronts China's regional ambitions, analysts say.

When Russia last pushed into Ukraine in 2014, Japan's response was seen as lukewarm, but this time around it has marched in lockstep with Western allies on unprecedented sanctions and tough rhetoric, even sending non-lethal military aid.

And the crisis is already impacting debates on security spending and capacity in a country whose constitution limits its military to defense.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: I should have been freed six years ago

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said it should never have taken the government so long to secure her release.

Appearing at a press conference in Westminster, she said: "What's happened now should have happened six years ago. I shouldn't have been in prison for six years."

The British-Iranian was speaking for the first time since her dramatic return to the UK last week.

She was freed after spending six years of detention in Iran.

Her release came after the UK government paid a £400m debt to Iran dating back to the 1970s, although both governments have said the two issues should not be linked.