Good morning.
President Joe Biden has urged Americans in Ukraine to immediately leave the country, stressing that “things could go crazy quickly” as Russia-Ukraine relations further deteriorate.
“American citizens should leave, should leave now,” Biden said in an interview with NBC News. “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”
Russia and Ukraine said on Thursday night in Berlin that no breakthrough had been achieved after a day of talks with French and German officials. Talks between the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, also failed to make progress.
Why was there no breakthrough? Russia and Ukraine continued to hold different interpretations of the 2015 Minsk agreement aimed at ending the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, said the Russian envoy Dmitry Kozak.
How quickly could Russia launch an attack? Moscow has gathered more than 135,000 soldiers on Ukraine’s borders in Russia and Belarus, military analysts say. Some believe nearly all the key elements are in now place for an attack.
US urges Canada to end trucker blockade
The US has urged Canada to use federal powers to end the protest blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, where protesters opposed to vaccine mandates are causing deeping economic disruption.
The “Freedom Convoy” of truckers opposed to a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers began blocking North America’s busiest international land border crossing on Monday. The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, urged the Canadian government “to use federal powers to resolve this situation at our joint border”.
The mayor of Windsor, Ontario, Drew Dilkens, said that police near the Ambassador Bridge had begun receiving reinforcements, saying: “[If] the protesters don’t leave, there will have to be a path forward,” he told CNN. “If that means physically removing them, that means physically removing them, and we’re prepared to do that.”
What else is being done to end the blockade? Windsor is seeking an injunction from Ontario superior court to have the protest ended, Dilkens said, adding he continues to search for a peaceful resolution.
What are the protesters demanding? As the “Freedom Convoy” protest in Ottawa enters its third week, the movement has broadened to demand an end to all Covid public health measures.
QAnon candidates vie for election official roles in swing states
Far-right conspiracy theory movement QAnon appears to have begun a nationwide attempt to seize control of the US election process in key swing states ahead of the 2024 election.
At least 15 candidates associated with the movement, which maintains the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, are running to serve as chief election officials in crucial battleground states. At least eight of them are working in coalition, sharing tactics and ideas on how to radically reshape the election system.
“This is the way that QAnon could trigger a constitutional crisis,” said Alex Kaplan, senior researcher at the watchdog Media Matters for America who is a close observer of the conspiracy theory. “QAnon is linked to an effort to recruit and elect candidates to positions directly controlling election administrations, and given their ties to harming democracy, that is very concerning.”
How could the candidates subvert democracy? If any are elected, they would be in a strong position to distort or even overturn state election results in favour of their preferred candidate, which could sway the national result.
In other news …
Federal protections for gray wolves have been restored in much of the US after being scrapped during the Trump administration. Wildlife advocates have hailed it as a significant conservation success, while the move has angered livestock farmers.
Jerry Harris, the former star of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, has pleaded guilty to federal charges of receiving child sexual abuse images and soliciting sex from minors. Harris, 22, pleaded guilty to two of seven felony counts against him and is scheduled to be sentenced on 28 June.
The spread of the mysterious Havana syndrome has seriously affected US morale and ability to recruit diplomats, the head of the American Foreign Service Association has said. Recruits are asking whether the government would provide for them if they became ill with the syndrome, which involves long-term loss of balance and cognitive function.
Stat of the day: Texas law causes abortions to drop by 60% in state
The number of abortions carried out by registered practitioners in Texas dropped by 60% within a month of the state passing the most restrictive abortion law seen in decades, new figures show. The law, which bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected and makes no exception for incest or rape, has forced some patients to travel hundreds of miles to clinics in other states, resulting in a backlog of appointments in some places.
Don’t miss this: finding refuge in Chernobyl
Despite the continued threat of radiation that persists 35 years after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, refugees displaced by the eight-year conflict in the Donbas region have moved into abandoned housing near the forbidden zone. Photojournalist Gaëlle Girbes documents the lives of Ukrainians seeking refuge in a largely deserted area with almost no infrastructure and no jobs.
Last Thing: Experience: I found a tiny frog in my salad – now he’s my friend
After Simon Curtis found a tiny tree frog in a box of lettuce while preparing a salad, he did what any concerned pet-owner-to-be would do: asked Twitter for advice. His phone blew up with people invested in the story, and after consulting a frog specialist, he decided the best option was to keep the animal, which he named Tony, as a pet. Curtis describes him as living “a chill existence … He’s mischievous, incorrigible and precious.”
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