Good morning.
Russia is preparing its forces for a fresh assault in the breakaway Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has claimed, despite peace talks resuming on Friday.
Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian army’s resistance had forced the Kremlin to announce it would de-escalate attacks on cities such as Kyiv and Chernihiv. Despite the announcement, Russian forces have continued to attack Chernihiv and parts of the capital.
The Ukrainian president said his government was seeing “a buildup of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas and [is] preparing for that”. The region, which includes the besieged city of Mariupol, was a focus of talks on Tuesday. The talks will resume online on Friday, according to a senior Ukrainian negotiator.
A special tribunal must be set up immediately to investigate the crime of Russian aggression, the leading international lawyer Philippe Sands has argued. While the investigations were needed, he said, “war crimes and crimes against humanity investigations alone could end up as a means of letting the main man off the hook”.
The White House has rebuked Donald Trump after he called on Vladimir Putin to release potentially damaging information about Hunter Biden. The remarks came during an interview on the Just the News TV program that raised unsubstantiated questions about Biden’s past business dealings in Russia.
Arizona governor signs law requiring proof of citizenship to vote for president
Arizona’s Republican governor has signed a bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote for president, as well as proof of address for newly registering voters.
Although the state legislature’s own lawyers said much of the bill is unconstitutional and likely to be thrown out in court, voting rights advocates fear it is an attempt to get the measure before supreme court, which has become more conservative.
Representative Jake Hoffman, who helped develop the bill, said it aimed to eradicate voting fraud, despite cases of non-citizens voting being extremely rare. Arizona is the only state that requires voters to prove their citizenship at registration.
How many people could it affect? Voting rights advocates fear it risks affecting 200,000.
It comes amid an unprecedented supreme court ruling that threw out Wisconsin’s redrawn electoral map, which created a new district to represent Black population growth.
California reparations decision sparks debate over who should qualify
The descendants of enslaved and free Black people who were in the US in the 19th century could receive compensation for the harms of slavery after California’s reparations taskforce made the landmark recommendation.
The taskforce voted 5-4 to recommend restitution based on lineage, rather than the broader category of race. It has been working through divisive questions of who should be eligible, with those pushing for a more limited scope arguing that those who migrated to the US in the 20th and 21st centuries did not experience the same harms as enslaved people. Other argued for reparations for all Black residents, saying that they continue to suffer from the effects of systemic racism.
What reparations would people receive? It has not yet been decided; California would need to pass a new law.
How many could be eligible? Two million of the 2.6 million Black Californians are estimated to be descendants of enslaved people, according to the taskforce.
In other news …
The UK government has given more than £5bn within the last three years to international projects connected to labour abuses and environmental damage, according to a Guardian analysis. The funding comes from the government’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), and went towards projects including oil refineries.
The North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn will not face immediate disciplinary action after making claims about orgies in Washington and cocaine use. After meeting with Cawthorn, who is a controversialist and Trump supporter, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters his comments were “unacceptable”.
Will Smith was asked to leave the Oscars after hitting Chris Rock but refused, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has said. It added that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith.
Stat of the day: 500 ghost flights leaving the UK monthly
Almost 500 ghost flights – those with no passengers, or at less than 10% of capacity – left the UK between last October and December, data shows. As flying is one of the most carbon-polluting activities, the practice has angered environmentalists. It has been blamed on airports requiring airlines to run most of their flights in order to retain their landing slots – but despite this threshold being dropped from 80% to 50% in October 2021, there has been little effect on the number of ghost flights.
Don’t miss this: the Chinatown bookstore helping New York’s Asian American community heal
Yu and Me Books has become a community oasis and literary hub for New York’s Asian American community since it opened in December. Amid a rise in racist attacks since the onset of the pandemic, 27-year-old owner Lucy Yu set the store up due to the “need for a sense of celebration and security” felt by the city’s Asian American community. “I wanted to do things for communities that look like me – immigrant communities. Something that makes them feel a little less alone, a little less scared in the world,” Yu said.
Last Thing: the ‘McPosh’, now on sourdough
The sourdough obsession has reached its final frontier: McDonald’s is trialling a chicken fillet served on the type of bread usually associated with artisan bakeries (and perhaps the first coronavirus lockdown). That’s not all – dubbed the “McPosh”, the mayo comes with “just a hint of truffle”.
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