Good morning.
Vladimir Putin has accused the US of ignoring Russia’s security proposals in his first public comments on the growing crisis over Ukraine since December.
During a press conference at the Kremlin on Tuesday, the Russian president told journalists he was unsatisfied with the US response to Moscow’s demands that Nato remove troops and infrastructure from eastern Europe and agree never to accept Ukraine into the alliance.
“It’s already clear … that Russia’s principal concerns were ignored,” Putin said after talks with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
Putin also said the west was using Ukraine as a “tool to hinder Russia” and hypothesised that Ukraine’s entrance into Nato could lead to a conflict over Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
What happens next? Putin said he was ready to continue negotiations with the west, which has said it is ready for dialogue but views Moscow’s demands as a non-starter.
But … Russia has also continued deploying thousands of troops and offensive weapons to the Ukrainian border, appearing to threaten a strike if the Kremlin does not get its way. Joe Biden has said that he believes Putin has not decided whether or not to launch an attack but that he expects that he will “move in”.
Fury over early release of Chicago officer convicted of Black teenager’s murder
The early release from prison of a white Chicago police officer who was sentenced to six years and nine months for the murder of a Black teenager in 2014 has sparked anger among relatives, community organizers and politicians who are questioning the decision to shave three years off his sentence for “good behavior”.
Jason Van Dyke was convicted in 2018 of the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, after video showed Van Dyke shooting the teenager 16 times.
Van Dyke is to be released on 3 February, almost three years ahead of schedule. He will remain on parole for at least two years.
McDonald’s grandmother, Tracie Hunter, called Van Dyke’s punishment a “slap on the wrist”, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Local activists have led several protests over the past week, including a rally outside Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s home last Friday. A number of other actions are planned for Thursday, when Van Dyke will be released.
Republicans to field more than 100 far-right candidates this year
More than 100 far-right candidates are running for political office across the country as Republicans this year, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a non-profit that monitors hate groups.
Aside from those expressing extremist rhetoric and far-right views, the ADL has found at least a dozen of the candidates had explicit connections to “white supremacists, anti-government extremists and members of the far-right Proud Boys”. This includes primary challengers running on the right of some sitting Republicans.
The wave of far-right candidates includes sitting legislators such as the Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers, who has admitted to being a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia with 11 members under federal indictment for seditious conspiracy.
Other militia groups have candidates running or already in local office. The Washington Three Percent militia claims members in dozens of elected offices throughout the Pacific north-west, the Washington Post found, “including a mayor, a county commissioner and at least five school board seats”.
In other news …
US talkshow host and actor Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks for saying the Holocaust “isn’t about race” on Monday’s episode. Her suspension from the The View was announced in a statement released by US network ABC News on Tuesday night, after Goldberg issued a public apology.
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing three NFL teams and the league itself, which he claims “is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation”. Flores, who is Black, was fired by the Dolphins last month despite leading the team to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2003. The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, seeks unspecified damages.
Some of the White House records turned over to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack were ripped up by Donald Trump, the National Archives said. Trump also directed Rudy Giuliani to ask the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if it could seize voting machines in three key states six weeks after the 2020 election, the New York Times reported.
Boris Johnson attended a prosecco-fuelled leaving party during the strict post-Christmas lockdown, which is now under police investigation, the Guardian has learned. The revelation places Johnson at another event under investigation by police as he fights to stay in office. Live coverage here.
Don’t miss this: Why Generation Z is turning its back on sex-positive feminism
Photograph: CTK/Alamy
The idea that nobody should be judged for their sexual desires lies at the heart of so-called “sex-positive feminism”, writes Gaby Hinsliff. From the gleeful exhibitionism of Love Island contestants to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s exuberant sex-positive anthem Wet Ass Pussy, the idea that enjoying sex is nothing to be ashamed of – in theory at least, if not always in practice – has filtered into young women’s everyday lives. But if sex-positive feminism champions women pursuing their own desires without feeling judged, it also demands that they refrain from judging the way other people have sex – at least between consenting adults. Now, some are questioning who this free-for-all really serves and how consent is defined, in a society where women are still heavily conditioned to please men.
Climate check: Extreme heat in oceans ‘passed point of no return’ in 2014
Extreme heat in the world’s oceans passed the “point of no return” in 2014 and has become the new normal, according to research.
Scientists analysed sea surface temperatures over the last 150 years, which have risen because of global heating. They found that extreme temperatures occurring 2% of the time a century ago have occurred at least 50% of the time across the global ocean since 2014.
In some hotspots, extreme temperatures occur 90% of the time, severely affecting wildlife. More than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the ocean, which plays a critical role in maintaining a stable climate.
Last Thing: Idaho library has wait list for story eight-year-old hid on a shelf
Photograph: Isabelle Plasschaert/Alamy
When eight-year-old Dillon Helbig finished writing his book, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, in mid-December, he wanted everyone to read it. So during a visit with his grandmother to the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library in Boise, Idaho, Dillon quietly deposited his book, signed “by Dillon His Self”, on to a nearby shelf. Manager Alex Hartman and his colleagues discovered Dillon’s book in the “stories” section and read it, including to Hartman’s six-year-old son. “Dillon’s book definitely fit all the criteria that we would look for to include a book in our collection,” Hartman said. And so, with Dillon’s permission, the library stickered and catalogued the book and placed it with its holdings of graphic novels for adults, teens and kids.
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