Top story: Zaporizhzhia fire sparks international alarm
Hello, I’m Warren Murray with this morning’s top stories.
Fire broke out at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant overnight after shelling from Russian forces. “Europe must wake up now,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accusing Vladimir Putin of “nuclear terrorism”. “The largest nuclear station in Europe is on fire. Right now Russian tanks are shelling nuclear units.” Ukrainian authorities later said the fire was extinguished and the reactors safe, but it underlined the dangers of a nuclear plant being caught up in the conflict. Joe Biden called Zelenskiy and the White House said the two leaders urged “Russia to cease its military activities in the area”.
Boris Johnson also spoke with Zelenskiy and said the “reckless actions of president Putin could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe”. The PM’s office said he was seeking an emergency UN security council meeting. Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, said Ukraine’s nuclear regulator reported normal radiation levels. He appealed for a ceasefire and warned of “severe danger” if the reactors were hit.
On day nine of Putin’s war against Ukraine, Luke Harding tells this morning how demoralised Russian soldiers captured by the Ukrainians have told of their anger at being “duped” into war. “Frankly speaking, they tricked us,” an officer says under questioning. “Everything we were told was a fake. I would tell my guys to leave Ukrainian territory. We’ve got families and children. I think 90% of us would agree to go home.”
The BBC’s website may have been blocked in Russia and it has brought back its shortwave radio service in Ukraine and Russia to ensure civilians can access news from outside. The BBC’s shortwave radio broadcast can be found on 15735 kHz from 6pm to 8pm and on 5875 kHz from midnight to 2am, Ukraine time. BBC Russia reported that Meta/Facebook also appeared to be blocked, and the US government-funded broadcaster Radio Liberty, among others.
Make sure you stay up to date with further developments at our live blog.
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Economy to slump – Britain’s economic growth will halve this year as a result of inflation, tax rises and the war in Ukraine, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) says. It expects an inflation rate of 8% to cut disposable incomes, putting the brakes on the pandemic recovery, and interest rates to increase to 1.5%. The BCC says the size of the economy will surpass its pre-pandemic level over the next few months but it is likely to struggle as consumer confidence drops further. Business investment is forecast to grow at 3.5% instead of the BCC’s previously forecast 5.1% and “materially lower than the Bank of England’s latest projection of 13.75%”. There could be a drop in household real incomes of 3.1% in 2022 compared with a year earlier. “Our latest forecast signals a significant deterioration in the UK’s economic outlook,” said Suren Thiru, head of economics at the BCC.
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Schools scrimp while academies hoard – Children’s education is being eroded by financial pressures triggering staff cuts and scaled-back curriculums, despite what the Department for Education says, according to parliament’s spending watchdog, the PAC. It says one in four secondaries has been forced into such cuts while, in contrast, some academy trusts have built up large reserves with a cumulative surplus of £3.1bn – money that is therefore not being spent on pupils’ immediate education, the report points out. The PAC has called on the education department to investigate whether such reserves are justified. Colleges in England, meanwhile, are facing their worst staffing crisis for two decades with 6,000 job vacancies, according to a report by the Association of Colleges.
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Trauma history of female offenders – The vast majority of vulnerable young women and girls in the criminal justice system have previously suffered abuse and violence, says the Young Women’s Justice Project report, published today. It cites greater prevalence of poor mental health among young women in the system compared with young men and older women; girls in custody self-harming at much higher rates than boys; while Black, Asian and other minority women and those with experience of the care system are significantly overrepresented in the system. The report calls for recognising and responding to the needs of women in the system, including needs specific to women from minorities and from care. The Ministry of Justice says that since its female offender strategy was launched in 2018 there has been a 30% drop in the number of women entering the criminal justice system.
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‘Patch those servers’ – Employees should report suspicious emails rather than delete them and firms must step up vigilance against cyber-attacks in the face of a heightened threat from Russian hackers, as well as the general threat of cybercrime, the UK’s information commissioner, John Edwards, has said. Outside the Ukraine conflict, there had been a “steady and significant” increase in cyber-attacks against UK businesses over the past two years, he said. “It is a time for vigilance, for checking security settings and making sure those servers are patched and up to date, reminding staff of basic email hygiene and of scepticism to phishing attacks. And of the need of not just to curl your lip and hit delete but to notify your IT department and get these things blocked so one of your colleagues doesn’t inadvertently open the organisation to a vulnerability.”
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Streamlined stegosaur – A dinosaur with spine-like plates along its back is one of the earliest stegosaurs yet discovered, fossil hunters have revealed. Bashanosaurus primitivus is thought to have lived about 168m years ago. It is named partly for the ancient name of a region in China where it was found in 2016. The discovery makes it an early cousin of stegosaurus, which lived about 150m years ago and had a stocky build, spiked tail and huge, kite-shaped plates down its back.
Dr Susannah Maidment, of the Natural History Museum in London and a co-author of the study, said Bashanosaurus would have looked rather different. “Bashanosaurus doesn’t have these great big flashy, massive giant plates – very, very thin plates – that stegosaurus has, it has much smaller plates, and they’re quite spine-like really.” It is thought Bashanosaurus measured about 2.8 metres in length – a relatively small size, although the team note it is not clear if the fossils are from an adult or juvenile.
Today in Focus podcast: As seen on (Russian) TV
The world has reacted with revulsion to stark images of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. But televisions in Moscow show a different story entirely, says Andrew Roth.
Lunchtime read: Neneh Cherry and Robyn on changing the face of pop
Thirty-three years since Cherry emerged from the punk underground into the pop mainstream with Buffalo Stance, Robyn (alongside the producer Dev Hynes and the Swedish rapper Mapei) has covered that timelessly bolshie hit for a new covers collection celebrating Cherry’s first three albums. The friends talk sisterhood, being Swedish and fighting the system.
Sport
Todd Boehly and Hansjörg Wyss are increasingly confident that their bid to buy Chelsea will be successful and are set to step up negotiations with Roman Abramovich this weekend. Abramovich’s plan to use the sale of Chelsea to donate funds to victims of the war in Ukraine is not solely intended for Ukrainians, raising the prospect of money going to Russian soldiers or to their families. Boreham Wood’s fairytale FA Cup run has ended after Salomón Rondón’s second-half double put Everton into a quarter-final against Crystal Palace. Novak Djokovic’s efforts to compete at the next grand slam on the tennis calendar will be far less complicated than his failed Australian Open bid after the French government announced it would suspend its vaccination pass.
A superb opening round of 65 left Rory McIlroy leading the Arnold Palmer Invitational, with Graeme McDowell and Adam Scott three shots behind him on 68. Taking on Ireland at Twickenham a week on Saturday will be a “step up” in the Six Nations for England, says the forwards coach, Richard Cockerill. Fitness scares over Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood left England with an unwanted headache ahead of next week’s first Test against West Indies. Ash Handley’s superb hat-trick inspired Leeds to a first Super League win of the season as they triumphed 34-18 at Wakefield, who have now lost four games in a row. Russia is launching a last-ditch court appeal after its athletes were banned from the Beijing Winter Paralympics on the eve of competition after a U-turn by the International Paralympic Committee. And the cricket world is mourning Rod Marsh, the Australian great who has died aged 74.
Business
Asian shares have been taking a beating in trading so far. Shares fell more than 2% in Tokyo and Hong Kong and declined in most other Asian markets. US futures were lower. The FTSE will open around 100 points down, futures trading predicts. The pound is worth $1.333 and €1.209 at time of writing.
The papers
The Guardian front page this morning has “Putin prompts fears of ‘the worst to come’ in Ukraine” – and that was much in evidence soon after the papers went to bed, when reports emerged a Ukrainian nuclear plant had caught fire from Russian shelling. A Ukrainian father is shown on our front page, grieving over the body of his teenage son lying under a bloodied sheet.
Others repeat that assessment put out by the Élysée Palace after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, spoke with Vladimir Putin. “The worst is yet to come” says the i over a picture of a multi-storey building torn in two by bombs. The Telegraph calls it “Putin’s chilling warning” and the Times has “Putin vows total victory”. The Express says “In God’s name, Putin, stop the suffering”.
“Who’ll rid the world of this ranting madman?” asks the Daily Mail. The Mirror carries Voldymyr Zelenskiy’s entreaty to Vladimir Putin: “Talk to me”. The Sun turns one of the Russian president’s insults back on him: “Putin is the extreme gangster”. It uses the same front-page picture as the Guardian. The Financial Times has that picture as well, and quotes the mayor of wartorn Mariupol: “They’re trying to wipe this city off the face of the Earth”.
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