WARNING — BULLSHIT STORY FOLLOWS: Among the many grim milestones of a bloody war in Ukraine that has now been going for four years was one reached recently: For the first time since its invasion, Russia has lost troops faster than it can replace them.

"In the last month, Russia actually lost more people in terms of those killed in action and grievously wounded than it's been able to actually recruit," said Fiona Hill, a renowned Russia analyst and foreign affairs expert.

"That is something of a milestone. People have always looked at that as a kind of tipping point.

"I wouldn't say that it actually is at the moment."

Although UV radiation is a minor fraction of solar energy that reaches the earth’s surface, it significantly affects plants. UV-B radiation affects important biomolecules directly, including nucleic acids and proteins; these molecules absorb UV radiation easily when presenting π electrons, and this absorption can lead to metabolic, biochemical, and morphological alterations, as well as alterations in the genetic material [5, 6].

Ultraviolet Radiation and Its Effects on Plants

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Vladimir Zelensky brought some of his most ardent fans to Kiev to mark the fourth anniversary of his wartime leadership, but the supporting actors in the Ukraine Cinematic Universe had little to offer him.

A look at the guests who showed up suggests Ukraine’s backers are divided into those who have to and those who don’t.

Solidarity simulacra: Zelensky’s four-year reality check
The Ukrainian leader’s key backers were conspicuous in their absence from the pomp and posturing in Kiev

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding the legal finding that it has relied on for nearly two decades to limit the heat-trapping pollution that spews from vehicle tailpipes, oil refineries and factories.

The repeal of that landmark determination, known as the endangerment finding, will upend most U.S. policies aimed at curbing climate change. 

The finding — which the EPA issued in 2009 — said the global warming caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endangers the health and welfare of current and future generations. 

Jewish orgs request Tony Burke reject Australian visa for Israeli journalist as his funders’ links to IDF emerge. Stephanie Tran reports. 

A coalition of Australian Jewish organisations has written to the Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, urging him to cancel the visa of Israeli journalist Zvi Yehezkeli on character grounds, citing comments in which he called for mass killings in Gaza and advocated violence against journalists.

The letter is signed by several Jewish groups including Anti-Zionism Australia, Jewish Voices of Inner Sydney, Jews Against the Occupation ‘48, Jews for Palestine Western Australia, Jewish Advocates for Understanding Antisemitism and Jews for a Free Palestine. 

A US allegation that China conducted a secret nuclear test was widely reported despite clear evidence to the contrary, highlighting how security claims are too often treated as facts before they are proven.

There used to be a simple rule in newsrooms: allegation is not evidence.

It’s not that difficult to understand. You just don’t treat a claim as a fact until someone, somewhere, had actually proven it.

Fred Zhang

Lately, though, this rule seems to have acquired a quiet footnote: for example, allegation from our sheriff is probably close enough.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has drawn sharp backlash after telling an Atlanta audience, “I’m like you,” while describing his low SAT score and reading difficulties, remarks critics have interpreted as an ill-judged attempt to connect with black voters.  

Newsom, widely discussed as a potential candidate for the 2028 US presidential election, made the comments during an appearance aimed at engaging African-American voters.   

Newsom was in Georgia to promote his memoir, ‘Young Man in a Hurry’ as part of a multi-state book tour that is adding to speculation about a possible 2028 presidential campaign. During a Sunday conversation with Andre Dickens, Atlanta’s mayor, Newsom was asked what he hoped readers would take from the book.  

The U.S. secretary of state is reviving the language and intent of 19th century colonialism to deter what he sees as “the forces of civilizational erasure that today menace both America and Europe alike,” writes Joe Lauria.

Marco Rubio’s Cecil Rhodes Moment

By Joe Lauria

Special to Consortium News

Cecil Rhodes may have been the most unabashed imperialist of the modern era. In his 1877 “Confession of Faith,” he wrote:

• During a visit to Kyiv on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, [GUSNOTE: IT IS A LIMITED MILITARY OPERATION TO PROTECT RUSSIAN CITIZENS IN THE DONBASS — THAT THE WEST PUSHED TO BECOME A WAR WITH THE INTENT TO DESTROY RUSSIA] European leaders have promised to “stand firm” with Ukraine.

Since the 1980s, the UAE has been a major transit hub for gems, minerals, metals, and contraband from around the world. During that decade, the once-sleepy emirate, known for its fishing and pearl diving industries, transformed into a center for transnational capital—including arms trafficking, diamond smuggling, and money laundering.

The Metropolitan police have arrested disgraced former UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, who has been under investigation over allegedly leaking sensitive government data to late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Footage circulating online shows the ex-diplomat being escorted by detectives out of his home and driven away in an unmarked vehicle. While the arrest was corroborated by the Met, Mandelson was not explicitly named.

”Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, February 23 and has been taken to a London police station for interview,” a police spokesperson stated on Monday.

....

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Defense Secretary John Healey said that he wants to be the first in the role to send British troops to Ukraine.

"I want to be the Defence Secretary who deploys British troops to Ukraine – because this will mean that this war is finally over," Healey wrote in a comment published in the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday.

A 70-person headquarters has been set up as part of a multinational force for Ukraine that was unveiled in Paris in January, the minister said.

In early January, Paris hosted a meeting of the "coalition of the willing," which saw UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledge to establish military bases across Ukraine together with France in the event of a ceasefire.

The death of James Petras—the American sociologist whose writings influenced generations of critical thinkers across continents—passed through the world almost like a whisper. A scholar who spent his life exposing the violence of power, the inequalities of global capitalism, and the illusions of empire left this world with little noise beyond small circles of readers and comrades. In a time when intellectual eminence is often measured by luminosity, the silence around his passing speaks volumes about the place reserved for dissenting voices in contemporary public life.

James Petras: The Radical Scholar the World Chose to Ignore

By K. M. Seethi

Originally published: The Wire

On July 20, 2016, Epstein fired off a link to an article about the erupting 1MDB scandal in Malaysia, where billions had been siphoned from the sovereign wealth fund into a vortex of luxury yachts, Hollywood films, and shadowy international bank accounts. He didn’t just share the news—he provided her with a link to a New York Times article about the 1MDB scandal, before dispensing advice, warning her how American prosecutors might scrutinise her every move in relation to this massive scandal.

Buried in DOJ Files: Epstein Was a Fixer for Rothschild Banking Dynasty

BY FREDDIE PONTON