Top story: Nato to Russia – don’t attack our supply lines
Hello, I’m Warren Murray and here is how things stand on Wednesday morning.
The US government has declined to act as a middleman in transferring fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine’s air force. Warsaw offered to send its MiG-29 planes – thought to number about 28, and which Ukraine’s pilots know how to fly – to the US air base Ramstein in Germany, if the US would supply Poland with comparable jets. The Pentagon said the jets flying from Germany into the Ukraine war zone would raise “serious concerns for the entire Nato alliance”. Washington added it would continue to consult with Poland and Nato about the issue. The US is putting two Patriot anti-missile batteries in Poland to bolster its defences. Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has warned Russia that any attack on supply lines in Nato countries carrying arms and ammunition up to the Ukrainian border would be grounds for retaliation by the 30-member alliance. “An attack on Nato territory, on Nato forces, Nato capabilities, that would be an attack on Nato,” Stoltenberg said.
Moscow officials have said they are ready to provide humanitarian corridors this morning for people fleeing Kyiv and four other cities. Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv have previously accused Moscow of shelling a similar refugee corridor meant to allow residents to escape the devastated port of Mariupol. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said 5,000 civilians were evacuated on Tuesday from the Sumy region after 21 people had been killed in air strikes.
The US is banning imports of Russian oil and, after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s rousing address to the Commons, the British government promised to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of the year. Venezuela has released at least two Americans from jail following a visit to Caracas by a high-level US delegation for talks that may lead to Venezuelan oil filling the gap. But Joe Biden has apparently had trouble getting in touch with Saudi and UAE leaders about supplying more oil. Keep up with further developments at our live blog.
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‘Amazing display of temper’ – John Bercow should have been expelled from parliament had he remained an MP, an independent inquiry has found, describing him as a “serial bully”. It upheld 21 out of 35 complaints against the ex-Speaker by former staff. The panel gave its findings after Bercow appealed against an initial report by Kathryn Stone, the standards commissioner. The former Black Rod Lt Gen David Leakey said Bercow should be barred from holding public office or positions of leadership. Complainants described Bercow’s “amazing display of temper” including an incident where he “threw the mobile phone right in front of me on my desk and it burst into hundreds of bits and I could feel them hitting me”.
Bercow described the inquiry as “a protracted, amateurish and unjust process which would not have survived five minutes’ scrutiny in court” and said the only outcome was that he should be denied a parliamentary pass, which he had not applied for.
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Midweek catch-up
> Removing carbon dioxide from the air is essential if there is to be any chance of meeting global climate targets, a thinktank has warned, as switching to renewable energy alone will not produce enough carbon savings to limit heating to 1.5C.
> Elon Musk has asked a federal judge to terminate his 2018 agreement with the US securities regulator requiring some of his tweets to be vetted by a lawyer. “The SEC’s pursuit of Mr Musk has crossed the line into harassment,” Musk’s lawyers wrote.
> Sadiq Khan has called on ministers to grant him powers to freeze private rents in London to ease cost of living issues. His previous such calls have been rebuffed. Khan wants to freeze private rents for two years, saving tenants an average of £3,000.
> Spain has announced plans to ban influencers, TV presenters and sports stars from advertising unhealthy food and drink to children.
> Emmanuel Macron has promised to scrap France’s TV licence fee if he is re-elected as president, prompting questions over the funding and independence of public television and radio.
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England’s hidden children – The children’s commissioner for England has backed mandatory tracking of youngsters by local authorities. “[Local authorities] do not have an accurate figure of how many children there are in England – let alone the number of children not receiving education,” Rachel de Souza said. A report for De Souza calls for local authorities to collect and access more regularly updated data on children and their movements, including on immigration from the Home Office. One option would be a “unique identifier” for each child on databases that “would enable [local authorities] to better track children who move around the system”.
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Sturgeon’s apology to witches – Nicola Sturgeon has issued a posthumous apology to the more than 4,000 mostly women who were accused, convicted and often executed in Scotland under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. Speaking on International Women’s Day, Sturgeon said: “They were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable or in many cases just because they were women.” Sturgeon said this type of misogyny was “not yet historic. There are parts of our world where even today, women and girls face persecution and sometimes death because they have been accused of witchcraft.” Sturgeon welcomed in principle the recommendations made by Helena Kennedy’s working group on misogynist abuse, stating her government would respond formally as soon as possible.
Today in Focus podcast: Shared language but no love for Putin
Shaun Walker has spent much of the first fortnight of the war in and around Kyiv. Travelling south to the port city of Odesa, he found even the Russian-speaking population were becoming hardened in disgust at Moscow’s invasion.
Lunchtime read: ‘Having better sex than our kids!’
Without work or children taking up their time, and with decades of experience, many older people say sex has never been more enjoyable – whether it ends in orgasms or a cup of tea.
Sport
Jürgen Klopp insisted Liverpool deserved to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals despite a 1-0 defeat in the second leg of their tie with Internazionale. England’s second defeat of the Women’s World Cup – a narrow seven-run loss to the West Indies in Dunedin – has left little room for error if they are to qualify for the semi-finals. Jonny Bairstow saluted the return of England’s travelling supporters and reiterated his passion for Test cricket after a sublime unbeaten century delivered a telling fightback against the West Indies in Antigua. The Russian gymnast who provoked global anger by wearing a propaganda symbol in support of the invasion of Ukraine on a World Cup podium has insisted that he has no regrets – and would even do the same again if he gets the chance.
Azeem Rafiq has accused senior county leaders of dragging their feet instead of opening their arms in cricket’s push for diversity. England are still hoping Tom Curry and Alex Dombrandt will be available to face Ireland after both forwards were included in a 26-man squad for Saturday’s penultimate Six Nations weekend. Any outbreak of peace between Phil Mickelson and the PGA Tour will need to be instigated by the player, the Tour’s commissioner has said. And Todd Boehly and Hansjörg Wyss have submitted their offer to buy Chelsea but they are yet to convince Roman Abramovich to sell the club to their consortium.
Business
The KFC parent company Yum has joined the flood of western companies quitting or pausing their operations in Russia as sanctions begin to bite against Vladimir Putin’s regime. Yum, which has seen Russia as a key growth market, follows McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pepsi and Coca-Cola in the last 24 hours. Markets were a bit steadier overnight but Brent crude added another 2% to $131. The FTSE100 is expected to jump around 1.3% at the opening while the pound is on $1.312 and €1.201.
The papers
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s invoking of the Churchillian legend proves irresistible for most of the front pages today. The Mail declares him a “Commons hero” and uses one of his most defiant lines as the headline: “We will fight until the end”. The Express salutes Zelenskiy’s “inspirational” and “historic” Commons speech with the headline: “We’ll fight in forests, fields and on shores”. The Guardian carries a picture of the packed chamber on its front pages and the headline “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost”, although it leads with “‘Blow to Putin’: Britain and US ban Russian oil”.
The FT has “US bans Russian oil as shelling forces Ukraine to halt fresh evacuation bid”. The Mirror’s headline is “We will never surrender”, although that is one famous Churchill line that Zelenskiy didn’t actually use. The Times uses a picture of the Commons chamber but leads with the offer by Poland: “Ukraine to get Nato jets”. The Telegraph has “Poland offers fighter jets for Ukraine”. The Scotsman says “Zelensky invokes Churchill in Ukraine’s darkest hour”, while the i splash headline is “We will fight in the forests and on the streets” and the Metro has “Hear hear hero” over a picture of MPs giving their standing ovation. The Sun has a small teaser to the Zelenskiy story but leads with a young Coldstream guardsman off to fight for Ukraine: “Queen’s guard AWOL to fight Vlad”.
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