SINCERETALK

South Africa took a share of the series when they beat New Zealand by 198 runs in the second Test at the Hagley Oval on Tuesday. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/Ot4Pfoa via sinceretalk

During the negotiations, it is important that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not rewarded, or seen to be rewarded, for his illegal war. The idea that Ukraine should be demilitarised and “denazified” as a price for ending the conflict would be seen internationally as capitulation, writes Stefan Wolff and David Hastings Dunn. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/jbZlGQL via sinceretalk

Russia and Belarus were suspended from all international rugby "until further notice" on Tuesday, the world governing body said, as it announced "full and immediate" sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/17Y0FpJ via sinceretalk

Russia strongman Vladimir Putin was harshly criticized on Twitter on Monday after video evidence appeared to show the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine. Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who commanded U.S. Army forces in Europe, identified the use of cluster bombs during a Monday appearance on CNN. "Ukrainian officials say at least 11 people were killed and more were wounded in the eastern city of Kharkiv on Monday morning after Russia launched rocket strikes, targeting Ukraine’s second-largest city with some of the heaviest shelling and street fighting since the invasion began Thursday. Suspected cluster munitions struck buildings in the city," The Washington Post reported . "Oleh Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, said Monday that 'dozens are dying' and that at least 11 people were confirmed dead. He called the attacks in three areas of the predominantly Russian-speaking city that had been considered more friendly to Russia 

Christian Broadcasting Network founder, far-right conservative, and anti-LGBTQ activist Pat Robertson came out of retirement Monday to support Vladimir Putin , declaring the Russian President is being “compelled by God” to attack Ukraine. Robertson, whose failure to become a practicing attorney led to him becoming a born-against Christian and turning failure that into a net worth reportedly in the hundreds of millions, acknowledged that Putin may be “out of his mind.” "But at the same time, he’s being compelled by God.” “He went into the Ukraine, but that wasn’t his goal,” Robertson insisted. “His goal was to move against Israel ultimately,” Robertson claimed. He also claimed Putin is supposed to be using Ukraine as a “staging ground for one of the armies, and across is Erdogan in Turkey.” “Is Putin crazy? Is he mad? Well, perhaps. But God says ‘I am going to put hooks in your jaws and draw you into this battle, whether you like it or not.” “Watch what’s going to happen n

Ex-Acting United States Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said over the weekend that former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen and rife with voter fraud are “mumbo jumbo gunk.” Whitaker was approached by Under Current reporter Laurent Windsor while attending the annual Conservative Action Political Conference in Orlando, Florida. After telling Whitaker that she was a “big fan” of his tenure at the Department of Justice, Windsor prodded him on if former Attorney General William Barr should be charged with treason for breaking with Trump. Whitaker disagreed. “I think that’s a big word to throw around. I just, I think calling an American, that’s you know, got a lot of considerations. I would. I would worry about throwing around the weight of the word,” he replied, referring to the use of the term treason. Windsor – who was posing as a Trump supporter – then asked Whitaker what he thinks can still be “done” about the non-existent theft of the election.

A landmark UN report warned Monday that time had nearly run out to ensure a "liveable future" for all, detailing a horrifying "atlas of human suffering" and warning that far worse was to come. Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, insect-borne disease, deadly heatwaves and megastorms, water shortages, reduced crop yields -- all are measurably worse due to rising temperatures, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. In the last year alone, the world has seen a cascade of unprecedented floods, heatwaves, and wildfires across four continents. Such events will accelerate in coming decades even if the fossil fuel pollution driving climate change is rapidly brought to heel, the 195-nation IPCC warned. As nations struggle to bend the curve of carbon dioxide emissions downward, they must also prepare for a climate onslaught that in some cases can no longer be avoided, the report made clear. For UN chief Antonio Guterres, it stands as a "damn

Liverpool won the League Cup final in dramatic fashion as Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga missed the decisive penalty to give the Reds an 11-10 shootout victory. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/e6P1Sw3 via sinceretalk

Nonprofits organisations sign a petition calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to treat hunger in South Africa as a pandemic The post Local hunger relief organisations want department to revoke R50-million Cuba donation appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Oil soared as energy and commodity markets were thrown into a state of disarray after Western nations unleashed more sanctions to isolate Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/R57WwBq via sinceretalk

Politics have come in the way of South Africa upholding its commitment to international criminal justice as the ANC reconsiders its 2016 threat to leave the international criminal court The post South Africa must stop sheltering war criminals appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

President Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western reprisals for his war on Ukraine, which said it had repelled Russian ground forces attacking its biggest cities. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/BTnL14h via sinceretalk

Hundreds have gathered in Klawer to pay their last respects to Jerobiojin van Wyk, 13. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/OZotF0H via sinceretalk

The second Test between South Africa and New Zealand is heading to an exciting conclusion after the visitors ended the third day on 140/5 at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Sunday. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/Aekxhcq via sinceretalk

SWIFT is the world's main international payments network. Here is more about what it does and why it matters. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/uO6DxzC via sinceretalk

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) submitted the appeal on February 9 on behalf of Earthlife Africa and groundWork. The two organisations are part of the Life After Coal campaign, which relates to coal-fired power stations such as Majuba, Kendal, Tutuka, Camden, Hendrina, Arnot, Komati, Grootvlei and Kriel. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/QTBIAU2 via sinceretalk

An income-generating farm near Beaufort West, with olive groves and a 3-star guest lodge, will be auctioned in March. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/Lq9fhJG via sinceretalk

Working conditions, personal circumstances and the ‘militaristic manner’ in which SAPS is managed have a detrimental effect on mental health, say experts The post A life of brutality: The unspoken rise of police suicide appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

Thapelo Morena came on as a late substitution for Mamelodi Sundowns to score a superb winning goal against Al Ahly in their CAF Champions League encounter on Saturday. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/64LfUY8 via sinceretalk

U.S. intelligence analysts have determined that Moscow would consider a cyberattack against the U.S. as the Ukraine crisis grows . This article was authored by Scott Jasper . As a scholar of Russian cyber operations , I know the Kremlin has the capacity to damage critical U.S. infrastructure systems. Federal officials have been bracing for this. In January 2022 the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert that outlined the Russian cyberattack threat, with technical details of sophisticated Russian-led hacking from recent years. That included a complicated digital break-in that targeted the U.S. energy industry and gained access to the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities. According to Homeland Security officials, the hackers “ could have thrown switches ” and knocked out power to the public – but did not. In mid-February 2022, federal cybersecurity experts met with executives from big U.S. banks to discuss defenses against Russian hacking at

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Friday said at CPAC that she was certain the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump before acknowledging that she has no idea how it supposedly happened. While speaking with the Right Side Broadcasting Network, Greene trashed Republicans who pay lip service to investigating purported voter fraud in the 2020 election, but won't pledge to "decertify" the results. "They start scattering and tip-toeing around it!" she complained about Republicans' attitude to decertifying the election. Greene then bragged about objecting to the election results on January 6th, 2021, even after Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol building. "I proudly objected on January 6th!" she said. "I would object again today because I know for a fact there was so much wrong in that election and I believe it was stolen. Do I know how? No, I don’t know how, but we have enough there that we should be audi

An infectious disease expert warned on Friday that the United States is woefully unprepared for the next pandemic. In an interview with The Hill at its “America’s Report Card” event, Dr. Céline Gounder, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, explained that American infrastructure is nowhere near ready for the spread of a lethal pathogen, including variants of COVID-19 that have yet to emerge. “We get exhausted, we become short-sighted, we don’t build the necessary pandemic preparedness to protect ourselves and insulate and shield ourselves better for next time and there will be a next time,” said Gounder. According to Gounder, the US needs to ramp up its efforts to monitor outbreaks of new viruses and bacteria as well as increase its promotion of vaccines if it hopes to stave off the worst impacts of a future crisis. “We tend to be fairly, frankly provisional in how we think about things here, but

The 15 boxes of documents Donald Trump unlawfully removed from the White House and infamously stored in his personal suite at Mar-a-Lago are so highly classified that “only a very few” federal government officials have clearance to see them. “There are records that only a very few have clearances” to review, a source tells The Washington Post in a report published Friday. The paper explains the “documents are so sensitive that they may not be able to describe them in an unclassified way.” House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has requested from the National Archives a “detailed description of the contents of the boxes recovered from Mar-a-Lago … and identification of any items that are classified and the level of classification.” “The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provided new details of what appear to be the largest-scale violations of the Presidential Records Act since its enactment,” Chairwoman Maloney wrote in a letter sent to the Archiv

Competing state constitutional amendments go to different lengths to enshrine voting rights and target anti-voter legislation and court rulings. This article was produced by Voting Booth , a project of the Independent Media Institute. A new front is opening in Michigan’s voting wars that raises fundamental questions about how far defenders of fact-based elections and representative government must go to protect voting rights in an era marked by Republicans who deny results and spread lies about elections. Republicans have launched ballot initiatives to bypass a gubernatorial veto and enact laws that would complicate voting , and sanction outside inquiries into close results. Voting rights groups and Democrats, in turn, are using the initiative process to amend Michigan’s constitution to close the veto loophole and to affirmatively enshrine voting rights and balloting options. There are three pro-voter proposed amendments. The first would close the veto dodge. The other two ,

On CNN Thursday, John Kelly, the retired Marine General who served as former President Donald Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security and White House chief of staff, reacted with shock to his former boss' lavish praise for Vladimir Putin for his violent invasion of Ukraine. "We've heard a lot of prominent Republicans, both in politics and in conservative media, praising Vladimir Putin, even calling him a 'genius,'" said anchor Jake Tapper. "What's your response when you hear that?" "Disbelief," said Kelly. "He's a tyrant. He's a murderer. He has attacked an innocent country whose only crime is that they want to be free and democratic and they're working in that direction and have been working in that direction. They have been a cooperative country. They gave up, on our word, the nuclear weapons that the old Soviet Union left behind. They participated with other U.S./NATO allies. They participated in operations —

Florida LGBTQ organizations are organizing rallies to protest Thursday afternoon’s passage of the House’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that will force schools to out children to parents and make clear to all that being LGBTQ or coming from an LGBTQ home is unacceptable in the Sunshine State. The bill would prohibit nearly all “classroom instruction” of LGBTQ issues and invite parents to sue if they feel the law has been violated. Freshman Republican state Rep. Joe Harding's legislation withstood damning attacks by House Democrats, local, state, and national leaders, activists, and organizations. Seven GOP lawmakers crossed the aisle to vote against the bill, but in the end, as expected, it passed: 69-47. “This bill in its language empowers school districts throughout this state to eliminate any discussion or recognition of the LGBTQ community until high school graduation. This is not about kindergarten through third,” state Democratic Rep. Mike Grieco said, as Florida Politics report

The American Civil War was well underway by the time President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. Coincidentally, new findings show that global patterns of modern sea level rise first emerged that same year. Though climate change and rising tides may have seemingly nothing in common with the famous, if symbolic, gesture of freeing slaves, they are more connected to Civil War than one might assume. This article was authored by Eric Schank . Nowadays, we associate climate change with clogged highways full of gas-guzzling cars and smokestacks belching fumes from coal-fired power plants. But in the mid-19th century, climate change certainly was not the problem that it is today; but coal, which still powers 20 percent of the electrical grid today , was fueling an era of industrialization. Revolutionized by the coal-powered steam engine, transportation in the form of steamboats and railroads ultimately aided Union victory in what has been described as the fi

Sen. Bernie Sanders condemned former President Donald Trump on Thursday for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as "genius" and citing it as a potential model for U.S. border policy. "It is outrageous, if unsurprising, that Trump would praise Putin's murderous invasion of Ukraine as an act of 'genius,'" Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in a Twitter post on Thursday as Russian forces continued their assault on the neighboring country of 44 million, sparking fears of mass displacement , death, and potential nuclear catastrophe . "It should concern us all that Putin is exactly the kind of leader Trump would like to be," Sanders added, "and that so few Republicans have the courage to say this out loud." Trump's comments came Tuesday after Putin formally recognized two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent and announced the deployment of Russian troops there, a move that was seen as the start

On February 19th, Republican United States Senate candidate JD Vance of Ohio complained that “it’s ridiculous that we are focused on this border in Ukraine. I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.” OH Senate candidate JD Vance: \u201cI think it\u2019s ridiculous that we are focused on this border in Ukraine. I got to be honest with you, I don\u2019t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.\u201dpic.twitter.com/QtZbckZf0b — Ron Filipkowski (@Ron Filipkowski) 1645292567 On Thursday, however, Vance completely changed his tune. In a lengthy press statement posted to Twitter by his campaign, Vance condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine as "unquestionably a tragedy, especially for the innocent people caught in the crossfire.” Vance proceeded to praise former President Donald Trump - who routinely sucked up to the Russian autocrat – for his “strengh and diplomatic engagement that kept

A Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives released a campaign ad on Thursday in which he displayed images of President Joe Biden, Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Ilhan Omar (D-Illinois), and ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick that preceded footage of him wielding a rifle and pledging to "do whatever it takes to return this country back to its former glory." JR Majewski of Ohio's 9th Congressional District, which includes Toledo, is an Air Force Veteran who supports former President Donald Trump and wants to "make Ohio and America great again." His area of expertise is managing projects within the nuclear power industry. In his 60-second spot, Majewski accuses Democrats of "pushing unsustainable environmental solutions that waste taxpayer dollars on useless government subsidies that are killing our jobs. They're not creating new energy besides the energy to run their mouths." Pictures of AOC, Oma

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has the entire world wondering what comes next. Will his incursion succeed? Will Ukrainian forces manage to ward off Putin’s troops? Washington Post opinion columnist tackles the tough questions in a Thursday editorial . "I am impatient with both those who insist that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a stroke of ‘ genius ’ and those who insist it is a historic blunder . The truth is we don’t know which it will be. That will depend on what the people of Ukraine — and the nations of the West — do to resist this war of aggression,” Boot began. “Putin does not shy away from the use of military force, and his experience of war over the past two decades undoubtedly makes him confident, even cocky, as Russian forces attack Ukraine.” Putin has made a habit of attacking his country’s neighbors, from Chechnya in 1999, to Georgia in 2008, to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Putin even installed pro-Kremlin puppet regimes in