SEND7Thursday 10th March 2022
Europe
The United States has rejected Poland’s offer to transfer its MIG fighter aeroplanes to Ukraine. The United States government said that flying aircraft into the war zone would “raise serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance”. NATO has said that it does not want direct conflict with Russia.
Ukraine says that Russia bombed a children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol during a ceasefire yesterday. The governor of the Donetsk region sad that 17 people were wounded. Russia has said that Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets.
Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to develop biological or nuclear weapons. Russian reports say that it has uncovered “biological weapons labs” in Ukraine. Ukraine has denied this claim. Yesterday, the European Union said that it doubted the credibility of Russia’s report.
The International Organisation for Migration has said that a ceasefire is needed in Ukraine. The director general of the IOM, Antonio Vitorino, said that refugees should be allowed to escape and supplies and aid workers should be allowed into Ukraine through humanitarian corridors.
NATO’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg spoke at Ottawa’s annual security conference yesterday. He called on President Putin to respect humanitarian corridors.
“We have seen credible reports of attacks against civilians, which is a war crime. And therefore we call on President Putin to end this war and to withdraw all his forces and to sit down and engage in real efforts to find a political solution. And of course the first step is to allow humanitarian corridors to be established and to respect those.”
In Russia, a “Z” symbol is being used to show support for Russia’s armed forces during the invasion of Ukraine. The sign is being painted on bus stops and road signs in Russia.
The European Union has announced that it will increase its sanctions on Russia, to include banks in Belarus.
Rest of the world
Peru’s congress has confirmed president Pedro Castillo’s new cabinet. This is Castillo’s fourth cabinet in seven months. This comes one day after around 50 lawmakers in congress filed a motion to impeach Castillo on Tuesday.
Tunisia’s president Kais Saied has set up an online questionnaire for citizens to give their input on the constitution. Saied is “in the process of rewriting the constitution”. So far, only 276,000 people have responded out of 12 million.
South Korea held its presidential election yesterday. At the time of recording this podcast, the opposition candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol is predicted to win the election, with 48.6% of the votes so far.
And in Antarctica, the wreckage of the ship Endurance was found yesterday. The ship was crushed by ice and sank around 3,000 meters more than 100 years ago. There have been multiple failed attempts to find it.
That’s your world news in 7 minutes. You can get in touch with us on writing or in an audio message at send7.org. I’m Juliet Martin, tomorrow you will be with Stephen Devincenzi. Have a great day.