Mike Pence knocks Trump and lays the groundwork for possible presidential run

Former Vice President Mike Pence has spent the past week outmaneuvering Donald Trump, his old boss and potential 2024 primary opponent.

Shortly after the plane Trump was flying on last weekend was forced to land due to an engine failure, Pence flew to Israel on the private jet of the GOP’s most prized donor, Miriam Adelson. And while Trump was avoiding criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin in a call-in interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Pence and his wife, Karen, flew to the border between Ukraine and Poland to distribute relief aid to refugees.

In perhaps the most telling indication that the political dynamic between the two men has shifted, Pence implicitly hit Trump at a Republican National Committee speech last Friday, saying the GOP should not include any “apologists for Putin.”

“Welcome to the front end of the Pence boomlet,” said veteran Republican pollster Michael Cohen, who has no relation to the former Trump lawyer. “Who had a better week or past few weeks than Pence? I mean, it’s not even close.”

When Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, he not only resolidified the old Western alliances formed in the wake of World War II, he also shook up the Republican Party’s power dynamics, at least temporarily.

The longtime center of power on the right, Trump has been struggling to garner attention for himself after six years of almost unilaterally controlling the national stage. And Pence, who’s best known for being stiff, boring and deferential to the former president, has walked into the center of the vacuum created by Trump's absence.

Pence has even grabbed prime slots on Fox News, making news in an interview with one of Trump’s favorite hosts, Maria Bartiromo. Bartiromo pressed Pence repeatedly on his plans for 2024, and whether he would run against Trump if the former president enters the race. But Pence played coy, brushing away the questions.

“I’m confident the Republican Party will nominate a candidate who will be the next president of the United States of America, and at the right time, my family and I will reflect and consider how we might participate in that process,” Pence said.

The burst of attention for Pence comes after more than a year of laying groundwork behind the scenes, making campaign-style trips to early-voting states like New Hampshire and Iowa and courting Republican donors who have bankrolled successful White House bids.

Trump remains the leader in early polls for the 2024 party nomination, but despite his popularity with the Republican grassroots, a number of GOP lawmakers are mulling runs of their own. All are trying to develop their own unique brands, whether through Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s culture-war broadsides or Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton’s appeal to unite the pre- and post-Trump wings of the GOP.

Yet despite his very public falling out with Trump, Pence's backers see him as a figure uniquely suited to bring together the warring factions within the GOP. An evangelical Christian originally elected to Congress in 2000, he steadily climbed the ranks of the House Republican caucus. In 2012, Indiana voters elected him governor, a position he left to become Trump’s running mate and shore up the erstwhile TV host’s conservative bona fides.

Since the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, in which Trump-backed rioters threatened to hang Pence for not helping the then president overturn the 2020 election results, Pence has been slowly and steadily hitting the campaign trail — even though he has yet to announce his intentions for 2024. A Pence spokesman did not respond to Yahoo News’ request for comment.

But the real break in the dam seemed to come almost immediately after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. Trump and his backers, who just days earlier had been touting Putin’s “genius,” suddenly looked outdated and perhaps out of touch with the GOP.

“The McCain wing of the GOP is back and stronger than ever, truth-telling about Mr. KGB,” said longtime Republican strategist Scott Reed, who ran Bob Dole’s campaign for president in 1996.

But Republican operatives, like the candidates they advise, are still trying to game out whether the turn from Trump-style populism, at least in matters of foreign policy, is permanent or merely a passing fluke.

“It’s too soon to tell, but I still think Americans don’t want U.S. troops over there, and a lot don’t want to even send money there,” said former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. “This could be an issue in the midterms.”

Pence, meanwhile, is doing what he has always done, plodding forward steadily and waiting for his moments to grab the spotlight.

Russia to block Instagram over ‘death to invaders’ posting rule

Moscow also opens criminal case into Instagram’s owner, Meta, for allowing posts calling for violence against Russian forces.

Russia has announced plans to block access to Instagram and launched a criminal case against its owner, Meta Platforms Inc, after the company said it would allow posts that call for “death to the Russian invaders”.

Friday’s move is the latest in Russia’s confrontation with United States-based social media platforms that has escalated since its invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has already limited access to Twitter and blocked Facebook, which is also owned by Meta.

Russia’s communications and media regulator, Roskomnadzor, said it was restricting access to hugely popular Instagram because of the platform is spreading “calls to commit violent acts against Russian citizens, including military personnel”.

The ban will come into effect on Monday, it said, allowing active Instagram users “time to transfer their photos and videos to other social networks and notify their followers”.

In response, Meta’s Global Affairs President Nick Clegg defended what he described as a temporary decision “taken in extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances”.

“I want to be crystal clear: Our policies are focused on protecting people’s rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country,” he said in a statement.

“The fact is, if we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable.”

He noted that the policy only applies in Ukraine and the company hasn’t changed its policies against hate speech targeting Russian people.

‘Illegal calls’

But Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, had already said it was launching an investigation of Meta, and prosecutors pushed for the Silicon Valley giant to be branded “extremist”.

“A criminal case has been initiated … in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram,” said the committee, which reports directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was not immediately clear what the consequences of the criminal case might be.

Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp services are all popular in Russia, with 7.5 million, 50.8 million and 67 million users last year respectively, according to researcher Insider Intelligence.

Russia’s RIA news agency, citing a source, said the legal moves will not affect WhatsApp as the messaging app is considered a means of communication not a way to post information.

Meta’s relaxing of its rules had met with controversy almost immediately, and the United Nations voiced alarm, warning it could lead to “hate speech” against Russians.

UN Rights Office Spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell said that the policy lacked clarity, which “could certainly contribute to hate speech directed at Russians in general”.

Contrasting views

Meta, which boasts billions of users globally across its apps, has previously struggled with what it would allow people to post in moments of upheaval.

In July 2021, the firm temporarily allowed posts calling for “death to Khamenei,” referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during protests that rocked the country.

Tech platforms have had to navigate a slew of thorny issues related to the war in Ukraine, such as when US Senator Lindsey Graham called for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a televised interview and on Twitter.

“The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” says Graham’s tweet from March 3, which Twitter has not taken down.

Meta’s decision drew sharply contrasting views.

“The policy regards calls for violence against Russian soldiers,” said Emerson Brooking, a disinformation expert at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

“A call for violence here, by the way is also a call for resistance because Ukrainians resist a violent invasion,” he added.

But some expressed deep concerns, like Lehigh University Professor Jeremy Littau, who tweeted: “‘We don’t allow hate speech except against certain people from a certain country’ is one hell of a can of worms.”

Facebook and other US tech giants have moved to penalize Russia for the attack on Ukraine, and Moscow has also taken steps to block access to the leading social media network as well as Twitter.

Russia thus joined the very small club of countries barring the largest social network in the world, along with China and North Korea.

Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last month, Russian authorities have also stepped up pressure against independent media, though press freedoms in the country were already rapidly waning.

Moscow blocked Facebook and restricted Twitter the same day last week that it backed the imposition of jail terms on media publishing “false information” about the military.

Businesses Assail Texas Move to Classify Care for Trans Teens as 'Child Abuse'

More than 60 major businesses, including household names in technology and retail, have signed onto a new advertising campaign in Texas protesting a move by the state’s governor to label as “child abuse” medical treatments that are widely considered to be the standard of care for transgender teenagers.

In digital ads and a full-page advertisement in Friday’s Dallas Morning News, the businesses assailed a Feb. 22 directive by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, requiring teachers and medical professionals to report to child protective services parents who are helping their children get such treatments as puberty-suppressing drugs and hormones.

Abbott’s order — announced a week before the Texas primary, in which he won nomination for another term as governor — came as lawmakers in Florida have also moved to advance a bill banning instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity in some elementary school grades, widely called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Both measures are part of a wave of anti-LGBTQ crackdowns by conservative politicians heading into the midterm elections.

“It’s a page from the playbook that we’ve seen before, and it’s very familiar to me,” said Jay Brown, a senior vice president for programs, research and training at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, which arranged for the Texas ads.

“Discrimination is bad for business,” Friday’s print ad says, followed by a demand that Abbott drop the new policy.

The signatories include old blue-chip brands like Johnson & Johnson and Macy’s as well as tech giants like Apple, Meta and Google, the apparel makers Levi Strauss & Co. and Gap Inc., and retailers like Ikea and REI.

“Our companies do business, create jobs, and serve customers in Texas,” the ad says, adding that the companies “have stood to ensure LGBTQ+ people — our employees, customers, and their families — are safe and welcomed in the communities where we do business.”

“The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies,” the ad continues. It warns that the policy could instill fear among parents of transgender children worried that providing them the best possible medical care could “risk having those children removed by child protective services.”

“It’s not just wrong, it has an impact on our employees, our customers, their families and our work,” the ad concludes.

The effort by businesses to pressure the state recalls the response after North Carolina officials passed a bill in 2016 requiring people to use public bathrooms appropriate to the sex listed on their birth certificates.

Whether there will be a more aggressive response from businesses to the Texas measure or others like it remains to be seen.

“I think the community has been really hungry for more,” Brown said, adding, “We really do see that this is the beginning and not the end of more voices speaking out against these laws.”

Brown said that Texas lawmakers had caused intense fear among families of transgender youths, who he said were some of the most vulnerable people with the fewest legal protections.

“People are really scared,” he said. “I know families who have had to move hundreds of miles from their homes because their lawyers are telling them it’s not safe in the country they live in, in Texas. The lawmakers who do this, they’re making a short-term wager with their extremist base that they’re going to score a couple points at the risk of people’s lives.”

Uber will add a temporary surcharge for rides and food deliveries due to the rising cost of gas

As the price of gasoline continues to surge to record highs across the country, Uber announced Friday that it is adding a fuel surcharge to rides and food-delivery orders. 

Depending on location, a fee of 45 cents or 55 cents will be added per trip for rides, and 35 cents or 45 cents for Uber Eats food delivery orders for the next 60 days beginning on March 16, Liza Winship, head of driver operations for U.S. and Canada, said in a press release. 

Winship added that the surcharge will depend on location and trip length, with "100% of that money going directly to workers' pockets."

"Our hope is that this temporary measure will help ease the burden, but we’ll continue to listen to feedback and may make changes in the future." She said the ride-hailing company will reassess the need for the surcharge after 60 days.

As of Friday, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States was $4.33, up 53% from a year prior, according to AAA. The average price per gallon reached a nationwide high of $5.72 in California on Friday, compared to $3.78 a year ago, AAA data shows.

During his annual State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he will propose legislation to provide Californians relief from rising gas prices.

Newsom previously proposed suspending a gas tax increase scheduled for July. On Tuesday night, Newsom said, "it's clear we have to go farther" than that.

"That's why, working with legislative leadership, I'll be submitting a proposal to put money back in the pockets of Californians to address rising gas prices," he said.

Newsom has since provided no further details on his proposal to offset the rising price of gas.

Ukraine says shelling damaged cancer hospital

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials accused Russia damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery.

The hospital’s head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the hospital during the attack but that no one was killed. The assault damaged the building and blew out windows.

Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Mykolaiv, located 470 kilometers (292 miles) south of Kyiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.

Ukrainian and Western officials earlier accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Three people died in that attack.

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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Friday of kidnapping the mayor of the city of Melitopol, equating it to the actions of “ISIS terrorists.”

“They have transitioned into a new stage of terror, in which they try to physically liquidate representatives of Ukraine’s lawful local authorities,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday evening.

Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, posted a video on the social media site Telegram which he said showed a group of armed men carrying the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, across a square.

Russian forces captured the southern port city of Melitopol, with a population of 150,000, on Feb. 26.

The prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a Moscow-backed rebel region in eastern Ukraine, said on its website that there was a criminal case against Fedorov. The prosecutor’s office accused Fedorov of “terrorist activities” and of financing the nationalist militia Right Sector to “commit terrorist crimes against Donbass civilians.”

The office said it was looking for Fedorov and called for anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact them.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. — U.S. soldiers are continuing to deploy to Europe, joining thousands already sent overseas to support NATO allies amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

About 130 soldiers from the 87th Division Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade gathered Friday at Hunter Airfield in Savannah, Georgia and departed on a chartered flight.

The soldiers are in addition to the estimated 3,800 soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division who deployed recently from nearby Fort Stewart.

A division commander said that soldiers are being told to prepare for about six months overseas. The Pentagon has ordered roughly 12,000 total service members from various U.S. bases to Europe.

The soldiers’ mission is to train alongside military units of NATO allies in a display of force aimed at deterring further aggression by Russia. The Pentagon has stressed U.S. forces are not being deployed to fight in Ukraine.

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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian forces and cut off from deliveries of food and medicine.

Mariupol officials said Friday that 1,582 people had been killed in the 12 days since the siege began.

“There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the city and the dead aren’t even being buried,” Mariupol’s mayor’s office said in a statement Friday, calling for Russian forces to lift the siege.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes and preventing civilians from escaping the city of 430,000 people.

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BERLIN — Ukraine told the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday that technicians have started repairing damaged power lines at the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant in an effort to restore power supplies, the U.N. nuclear agency said.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said that Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, was knocked off the power grid, with emergency generators supplying backup power.

The Ukrainian nuclear regulator said Friday that workers repaired one section of the lines, but there still appears to be damage in other places, the IAEA said. Repair efforts would continue despite “the difficult situation” outside the plant, which was taken by Russian forces early in the invasion, it said.

The Ukrainian regulator said additional fuel was delivered for generators, but it remains important to fix the power lines as soon as possible. The IAEA reiterated that the disconnection “will not have a critical impact on essential safety functions at the site.”

The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog said that it still isn’t receiving data from monitoring systems installed to monitor nuclear material and activities at Chernobyl, but transmission from the Zaporizhzhia plant — Ukraine’s biggest, which Russian forces seized last week — has been restored after being lost earlier this week.

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PARIS — Interpol is restricting Russia’s ability to input information directly into the global police organization’s vast network, deciding that communications must first be checked by the general secretariat in Lyon, France.

The French Foreign Ministry said Friday that the beefed-up surveillance measures follow “multiple suspicions of attempted fraudulent use” of the Interpol system in recent days, but it did not elaborate.

Interpol stressed in a statement Thursday that it is maintaining its pledge of neutrality amid war between two of its members, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it said that “heightened supervision and monitoring measures” of Moscow’s National Central Bureau were needed “to prevent any potential misuse of Interpol’s channels” like targeting individuals in or outside Ukraine.

The ministry noted that Interpol’s decision has multiple impacts from communications, to putting out so-called “red notices” for criminals on the loose or even feeding data on lost or stolen documents — all of which must now get compliance checks from Interpol headquarters.

Interpol, which has 195 members, said it had received calls to suspend Russia from the network, along with calls by law enforcement leaders looking for continued cooperation to better fight crime.

“In addition to the tragic loss of life, conflicts invariably lead to an increase in crime,” as organized crime groups try to exploit desperation, Interpol said. Risks include human trafficking, weapons smuggling and trafficking in illicit goods and medicines.

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BOSTON — YouTube announced Friday that it has begun blocking access globally to channels associated with Russian state-funded media. It had previously blocked them — specifically RT and Sputnik — across Europe.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced the move in a Twitter post and said that while the change is effective immediately, “we expect our systems to take time to ramp up.”

YouTube also said it was now removing content about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that violates its policy that “minimizes or trivializes well-documented violent events.” The Kremlin refers to the invasion as a “special military operation” and not a war.

YouTube previously paused YouTube ads in Russia. Now, it is extending that to all the ways it makes money on the platform in Russia.

Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, predicted in his Telegram channel that the Kremlin would soon move to block YouTube in Russia. “It’s a question of time.”

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ANTALYA, Turkey— With the Ukrainian refugee crisis, European countries that had previously been reluctant to share the burden for refugees have found themselves seeking solidarity and burden-sharing, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday.

Grandi spoke at a diplomacy forum near the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya as the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine passed 2.5 million.

“European countries, including countries that have been rather hesitant in the past to any notion that you should share that responsibility, now find themselves … in the situation to hold hundreds of thousands,” Grandi said. “And what do they do? They ask for that international solidarity and sharing, which means financial assistance.”

Grandi said: “I think that we need to capitalize on what is happening now to restate this notion, that if refugees move, everybody should share responsibility.

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WARSAW, Poland – Ukraine’s president and NATO chief remotely joined Poland’s leaders and lawmakers Friday for a session marking Poland’s 23 years in the defensive military alliance at a time when neighboring Ukraine is fighting Russian invasion.

In a video link to the gathering in Poland’s parliament, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Poland for supporting his nation’s struggle against the aggressor and also for opening its borders to refugees fleeing the war. Over 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion. Over 1.5 million of them have made their way to Poland.

In a veiled way Zelenskyy said he hopes Ukraine will eventually receive Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland. The delivery implications of the jets recently led to an apparent misunderstanding between Warsaw and the U.S. administration.

“I am grateful for the efforts you are taking to allow us to protect Ukraine’s skies,” Zelenskyy said. “I trust that we will be able to arrive at a result that is very important to us.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Poland is safer for being a member of the alliance, and stressed the task is now to make sure the armed conflict does not spread but comes to an end.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda condemned Russia’s bombings of Ukraine’s cities and housing areas as “war crimes.”

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UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations human rights office has received “credible reports” that Russian forces are using cluster munitions in Ukraine, including in populated areas which is prohibited under international humanitarian law, the U.N. political chief said Friday.

Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told a U.N. Security Council meeting that residential areas and civilian infrastructure are being shelled in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv and “the utter devastation being visited on these cities is horrific.”

Most of the civilian casualties recorded by the U.N. human rights office — 564 killed and 982 injured as of Thursday — “have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” she said.

“Indiscriminate attacks, including those using cluster munitions, which are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction, are prohibited under international humanitarian law,” DiCarlo said. “Directing attacks against civilian and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages, are also prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.”

As of Thursday the U.N. World Health Organization has verified 26 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, including the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital, which caused 12 deaths and 34 injuries, DiCarlo said.

All alleged violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated and those found responsible must be held accountable, she said.

DiCarlo stressed that “the need for negotiations to stop the war in Ukraine could not be more urgent.”

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Footage recorded on the outskirts of Kyiv by Radio Free Europe on Wednesday shows Ukrainian soldiers with rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers slung over their shoulders traversing snow-dusted fields and woods and expressing disdain toward the Russians.

One unidentified soldier called their adversaries “orcs,” a reference to the monstrous and malevolent foot soldiers in the “Lord of the Rings” series.

Another soldier said they planned to kill all their enemies over the bombing of Mariupol.

“We’ll multiply them by zero,” the unidentified soldier said.

Gunfire and explosions erupt during the 3-minute, 30-second clip. At one point in the woods, shots split the air near the group, and soldiers drop to their stomachs in an instant and return fire. The assailants are not visible in the clip, but the crack-crack-crack from the gunfire exchange carries on for 15 seconds in one part of the clip.

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The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has opened an online portal to gather evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, as he renewed his call to combatants to abide by the laws of war.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a written statement Friday that he is “closely following the deeply troubling developments in hostilities.” There have been reports in recent days of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian towns and cities, including the deadly strike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol earlier this week.

Khan notes in a written statement that “if attacks are intentionally directed against the civilian population: that is a crime. If attacks are intentionally directed against civilian objects: that is a crime. I strongly urge parties to the conflict to avoid the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas.” He says there is no legal justification or excuse “for attacks which are indiscriminate, or which are disproportionate in their effects on the civilian population.”

Khan also said that two more of the global court’s member states, Japan and North Macedonia, have formally requested him to investigate in Ukraine, bringing the number of so-called state party referrals to 41.

The information will bolster evidence gathered by an investigative team Khan sent to the region last week to begin gathering evidence.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is an ICC member state, but Kyiv has recognized the court’s jurisdiction, allowing Khan to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

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BELGRADE, Serbia — A flight from Belgrade to Moscow was reverted and evacuated following a bomb alert, Serbian police said Friday.

The Belgrade airport received an email saying that an explosive device has been planted on the Air Serbia flight to Moscow, police said in an email.

The plane was then turned back shortly after take-off, and is being checked by police, the statement said. No other details were immediately available.

Serbian media said there were more than 200 passengers and crew on the plane.

Air Serbia carrier is the only one in Europe that still flies to and from Russia as Serbia has refused to join Western sanctions against its traditional ally over Ukraine.

Air Serbia has increased the number of flights to Russia amid high demand.

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ATHENS, Greece — The leader of Greece’s Orthodox Church has contacted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to offer support in housing refugees fleeing the war-torn country.

Archbishop Ieronymos, who heads the Greek church, said in a statement on Friday that he had telephoned Metropolitan Bishop Epiphanius of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church leader, and promised “full support” for Ukraine, adding that parishes across Greece had been sent a request to provide assistance.

Only several thousand refugees from Ukraine have traveled to Greece so far — out of the 2.5 million that have fled the country — but Greek authorities expect that number to increase in the coming weeks.

The Greek church has recognized the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine despite strong opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church.

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ISTANBUL — Turkey on Friday evacuated its embassy in Kyiv, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Tanju Bilgic said staff at the mission would move to Chernivtsi near the Romanian border for security reasons, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The order to leave Kyiv came as Russian forces fanned out around the city and appeared likely to step up artillery and rocket attacks. Many countries ordered diplomatic staff to leave Kyiv before Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

Turkey has close ties to both Ukraine and Russia and has been seeking to mediate between its warring Black Sea neighbors.

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VERSAILLES, France — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is underlining the importance of keeping in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but is stressing that “we will not make decisions for the Ukrainians.”

Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who has spoken frequently with the Russian leader, together spoke to Putin on Thursday. After a European Union summit on Friday, Scholz said “it is absolutely necessary that we do not let the thread of talks break.”

The Elysee said Friday that Macron and Scholz would speak again with Putin on Saturday.

Scholz stressed that he and Macron are consulting closely among themselves and with the Ukrainian leadership — and that a cease-fire is the top priority. Scholz said it’s good that there are talks, but they shouldn’t just drag on while “weapons every day destroy people’s lives, buildings, infrastructure and dreams.”

The chancellor said that there is “one very clear principle: we will not make decisions for the Ukrainians. They must know themselves what from their point of view is the right thing for their country in this threatening situation.”

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BELGRADE, Serbia — Germany’s foreign minister has urged Serbia, which has not imposed sanctions on traditional ally Russia over the war in Ukraine, to align policies with the European Union if it wants to join the bloc.

Annalena Baerbock said Friday in Serbia’s capital Belgrade that “we all must have a clear position” over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Baerbock said, launched a “shameless campaign of destruction” that is targeting “maternity wards, schools, (people’s) homes.”

While Serbia has criticized the attack on Ukraine and voted in the United Nations for the condemnation of the attack, Belgrade has refrained from joining Western sanctions against Moscow.

Historically considered a friendly nation, Russia remains popular among the Serbs, particularly because of Moscow’s support for Serbia’s opposition to the Western-backed independence of the breakaway former Kosovo province.

Baerbock praised Serbia’s U.N. vote and the offer to host Ukrainian refugees. But she added that “joining the European Union means readiness to align with the positions of the union.”

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said that “Serbia has a very determined and clear position” and has done “nothing that would hurt Ukraine.”

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MOSCOW — Russia’s communications and media regulator says it's restricting national access to Instagram because the platform is spreading “calls to commit violent acts against Russian citizens, including military personnel.”

The regulator, called Roskomnadzor, took the step Friday as Russia presses ahead with its invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said in a statement tweeted by its spokesman Andy Stone that it had “made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules on violent speech, such as ‘death to the Russian invaders’.”

The statement stressed that the company “still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”

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PRAGUE — Prague City Hall has started readying temporary accommodation for a surge in refugees from Ukraine after the Czech capital ran out of housing options for them.

The government estimates that up to 200,000 refugees — 55% of them children — have arrived in the Czech Republic, a European Union and NATO member that doesn’t border Ukraine. About 25% of the refugees entering the country have gone to Prague.

Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib has asked the heads of 22 city districts to prepare at least 100 beds each in school gyms and also provide food for the refugees there.

Hrib compared the current situation in Prague to Germany facing the waves of refugees during a European migrant crisis in 2015-16.

“The difference is that Germany had months to react, we have just days,” Hrib said. “The demand for accommodation in Prague is enormous and by far surpasses what we can offer.”

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ANTALYA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that the war in Ukraine could have been avoided had the world spoken out against Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“Would we have faced such a picture if the West, the whole world, had raised their voices?” Erdogan asked. “Those who remained silent in the face of Crimea’s invasion are now saying some things.”

Erdogan spoke Friday at a diplomacy forum near the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya, where the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met a day earlier for talks facilitated by Turkey’s foreign minister.

Erdogan said Turkey would continue its efforts for peace.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Finnish President Sauli Niinistö spoke in a phone call Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.

Niinistö's office said in a statement that he informed Putin that he, earlier in the day, had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and that Zelenskyy was prepared to talk directly with Putin.

The statement said Niinistö called for an immediate ceasefire and the safe evacuation of civilians, but also spoke to Putin about the security of nuclear energy facilities in Ukraine.

Niinisto is one of the few Western leaders who has kept a regular dialogue with Putin ever since the Finnish leader took office in 2012.

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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s prime minister said Friday that sanctions imposed against Russia by the European Union would not involve a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.

In a video on his social media channels following a meeting of EU leaders in Versailles, France, Viktor Orban said it was possible that the war in Ukraine “would drag on,” but that “the most important issue was settled in a way that was favorable to us.”

“There will be no sanctions covering oil and gas, which means that Hungary’s energy supply is guaranteed for the next period,” Orban said.

Orban, widely considered to be the Kremlin’s closest ally in the EU, has supported the bloc’s sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor.

But he has remained firm in insisting that the energy sector be left out of sanctions, arguing that such a move would damage EU countries more than Russia.

Last year, Hungary extended by 15 years a natural gas contract with Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, and has entered into a 12 billion-euro ($13.6 billion) Russian build-and-finance agreement to add two nuclear reactors to Hungary’s only nuclear power plant.

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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president says his country’s military forces have reached “a strategic turning point,” while Russia’s president says there are “certain positive developments” in talks between the warring countries.

Neither leader explained clearly what they meant, however.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday: “It’s impossible to say how many days we will still need to free our land, but it is possible to say that we will do it because ... we have reached a strategic turning point.” He didn’t elaborate.

He said authorities are working on 12 humanitarian corridors and trying to ensure needy people receive food, medicine and basic goods.

He spoke on a video showing him outside the presidential administration in Kyiv, speaking in both Ukrainian and Russian about the 16th day of war.

Meanwhile, in Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin said there have been positive developments in talks between the warring countries, but he didn’t offer any details about what those developments were.

Putin hosted Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for talks on Friday and told him that negotiations with Ukraine “are now being held almost on a daily basis.”

Biden, allies move to suspend normal trade relations with Russia

Seeking to further punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he described as a “merciless assault” on Ukraine, President Biden said on Friday that he would move to revoke Russia’s status as a top trading partner with the United States.

The action, Biden explained, would “make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States” by allowing for new taxes on imports from which nations with most-favored status are exempt. The European Union and Group of Seven nations — which include Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom — are taking similar steps, which could deal Russia what Biden described in his White House remarks as a “crushing blow.”

Congress will have to take up the matter, but given the rare eagerness with which Democrats and Republicans have united around a single foe, this latest effort to isolate Russia could be realized within a matter of days.

“The free world is coming together to confront Putin,” Biden said. “Our two parties here at home are leading the way.”

Putin does have a key ally: China, which trades far more with Russia ($147 billion last year) than it does with second-place Germany ($65 billion) or distant-fifth United States ($35 billion). Beijing has done its best to remain neutral when it comes to the Ukraine conflict and has not been party to any of the restrictive new trade policies directed at the Kremlin.

Still, the loss of premier trading status across Canada, Japan and much of Europe means that Russian exporters — already caught in a hostile global economy — will now face the possibility of tariffs on the goods they are looking to sell abroad. And even though the trade relationship with China remains stable, it is not clear just how much more that relationship can be expanded simply because Moscow has few other friends left.

Earlier this week, American financial giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase said they were ending business in Russia, further underscoring the costs both ordinary Russians and Russian elites are bearing for the unprovoked attack on Ukraine that Putin began last month. So far, diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have failed.

“Putin’s actions are causing massive harm to the Russian people,” former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb tweeted. “The sanctions will be as total as the isolation. No area will be spared: finance, trade, goods, services, individuals, culture, sport, energy, transport. Reserves will not last forever.”

American officials have said U.S. troops would not fight in Ukraine. Economic means are thus seen as the best way to convince Putin to withdraw troops from sovereign Ukrainian territory, an occupation that has already taken the lives of thousands of Russian troops and hundreds of Ukrainian civilians.

“Russia has now become a global economic and financial pariah,” the White House said in announcing the move, which comes with an outright ban of imports from Russia of luxury goods like vodka and caviar — two poignant symbols of the country after two decades of Putin’s rule, which has enriched a class of oligarchs known for their lavish lifestyles.

Biden called those oligarchs “corrupt billionaires,” and the Treasury Department moved on Friday to implement new sanctions on Russia’s ruling elite. “They support Putin, they steal from the Russian people and they seek to hide their money in our countries,” Biden said.

“They must share in the pain of these sanctions,” Biden continued, vowing to go after “their superyachts and their vacation homes.” Later in the morning, he signed an executive order banning the export of American luxury goods to Russia.

Congress gave Russia access to permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) — also known as most-favored-nation status — in 2012 as a sign that it had become a democracy that had recovered from the chaos and corruption of the early post-Soviet days. Yet antidemocratic abuses by the Kremlin, including the death of imprisoned attorney Sergei Magnitsky, made some wonder if Russia was deserving of such privilege.

“This culture of impunity in Russia has been growing worse and worse,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at the time.

Today, Cuba and North Korea are the only nations in the world that can’t claim the favored-nation protections of the PNTR, underscoring how quickly Russia is being expelled from virtually all U.S. economic arrangements.

Even Iran retains PNTR status, though trade with the Islamist republic has been sanctioned, to the point of nonexistence, since 1987. Venezuela, another adversary, also retains its favored-nation status. In fact, it appears to be on the cusp of selling oil to the United States again, in a stark contrast to Russia’s narrowing trade options. (Congress suspended oil imports from Russia earlier this week, thus making Venezuela’s vast oil reserves a potentially attractive option.)

Biden said Russia could soon be deprived of loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, further squeezing a nation cut off from Western financial markets. “He cannot pursue a war that threatens the very foundations of international peace and stability and then ask for financial help from the international community,” the president argued.

As such, the move would be as symbolic as it is economic. Last month’s invasion of Ukraine seemed to reverse three decades of optimism about Russia. Trade relations with Russia were normalized in 1990, with hopes that the Kremlin would steer the nation in the direction of a free-market economy. And for a while, that was indeed the course undertaken by President Boris Yeltsin and his successor, Putin.

Putin ended the “gangster capitalism” of the 1990s, turning the oligarchs who had gotten rich during that time essentially into an arm of the Kremlin. Those who weren’t chased out (Boris Berezovsky) or jailed (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) became near-literal vassals of Putin. Meanwhile, he ruthlessly consolidated control over the media and other sectors of free society.

American corporations and legislators were willing to overlook much of that over the last 15 years, though Putin invaded Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014). But the second Ukraine invasion — which has been longer and more brutal than the first — has shifted the calculus, and now the same Congress that granted Russia PNTR status could move to revoke the vote of confidence it gave a decade ago.

In his remarks on Friday, Biden made clear that the Russian people have one man to blame, just as his administration has said that Americans upset at higher gas prices should point their finger at the Kremlin, not the White House.

"Putin is an aggressor. He is the aggressor. And Putin must pay the price."

Tim Montgomerie versus Daniel Kawczynski

They say it's a foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss how the alliance can maintain peace and stability at a time of increasing tension with Moscow. On the agenda will be not shiny Russian involvement in Ukraine but also the buildup of missiles and troops along Europe's eastern border ahead of today's session NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg suggested if both sides to tone down their rhetoric it might take some of the heat out of the situation let's hear what he had to say.

Tim Montgomerie versus Daniel Kawczynski

Are the welcome and need toning down over the rhetoric because I think a word so matters and the. Less aggressive rhetoric and come be a first step towards also better dialogue. At the same time what's. Don't words matters about of course the deeds umap there's even more. So therefore that the important thing is what you see you look on actions we see from the Russian aside. Jens Stoltenberg and we're joined now by the conservative MP Daniel Kaczynski who sits on the foreign affairs committee welcome to the daily politics custom although Tim Montgomery there is evidently concern amongst the Baltic states understandably because of where they are geographically about the Russian threat. Is any talk of a new Cold War exaggeration.


I don't think so if you look at some of Russia's tactics that they're deploying in the region how they used. Undercut the troops to invade Easton you cry and how they are involved in. Stabilizing democracies around around the world their interference confirmed by intelligence agencies in America in the U. S. election involved in the wikileaks. And prophecy over Hillary Clinton's emails. On a whole range of fronts. Russia is reverting to the behavior that comes not true it's about admit Putin Vladimir Putin was trained as a KGB agents and I'm afraid you can't always teach an old dog new tricks he still behaving as he did in the past yes and how do you deal with a pout that behaves in that way there is no evidence to back up that Vladimir Putin is moving towards some sort of cool deal relationship with Europe for example what I think he instilled in both the clip that you played from UN Stoltenberg is extremely important.

I had met him we met at the foreign affairs select committee met with him at the European Parliament recently. And I asked him how are you going to a secretary general of NATO how you how are you going to lower tensions with Russia. And he talked to us about his experience when he was prime minister of Norway a NATO country which borders Russia he had in that position as prime minister of fat no way very pragmatic in a very effective policy Ove dealing with Russia on a bilateral basis and I very much hope that he will use that experience to try to lower tensions with Russia so he himself has said it's vitally important that despite the differences we have with them. We want to ease some of the tension that's building up is it more than just differences on a bilateral with Norway is one thing but actually dealings with Russia on a whole range of issues when it's on maneuvers abroad it's moving missiles closer to Europe's eastern border it's watching cyber attacks seeking to influence elections in the U. S. an inference.

Makes it more difficult what I wince this summer to the Polish Russian border and that is already becoming the most highly militarized part of Europe right if the **** for tat deployment of missiles continues at the pace it has been of that area of Europe will become akin to the north and south Korean border a no man's land and it's going to be it will just take a Spock to cause some sort of confrontation between these 2 sides yes be strong and tough with them yes spend more on defense. But we need to engage with them. Try to build up some sort of mutual trust and respect otherwise we are heading toward some sort of confrontation painting rushers the baking on all the time and talking about the Cold War went that escalate tensions would a different tone really in your mind change the balance of relations I think I'm done you officially I think represents Shrewsbury in parliament but he has more of a record I'm afraid for representing Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in Moscow in Russia has always been a spokesman an apologist for for these regimes and his recipe of appeasement that he would like us to Pacific has actually been the recipe that Barack Obama sausage with if you remember he withdrew the missile defense shield that America promise for the Czech Republic and Poland his sector of state Hillary Clinton and reset relations with Russia the whole message to Russia was exactly as Daniel has recommended we sort of accommodate ourselves to Putin's aggressiveness. Since then what Putin sold out was as a green light he saw weakness.

And he invaded Ukraine invaded Crimea he blanket bombs Aleppo and I'm afraid the kind of recipe. But Daniel always wants us to recommend to follow in the west to be kinder and more indulgent to dictatorships. Is exactly the sort of thing that inflames aggression and. It endangers peace rather than the reverse you're an apologist for dictator well this is this is what miss the likes of Mister mom command of those in the other neocons I'm I I was called the E. last weekend by a right wing think tank in America a Trojan horse for the Kremlin if if we did if members of parliament to tough Thailand to into this very popular narrative which is peddled by Mister Montgomery and others witches these regimes are bad they have to be ostracized they have to be kept away they are going to a cause problems if anybody dares challenge that very popular and fashionable concept as to whether or not it is in our country's national strategic interest completely ostracize these countries and not to have dialogue with them know one thing can challenge criminals generalizing that I'm usually on it somehow you shouldn't do we represent in the midst of your critique is his view that the federal.

His views are highly dangerous all they got it and we need to engage them in all your views holidays the sense is what he's your alternative solution to dealing with Russia is it containment. Well I think what we certainly have to be doing now is the alternative to not to the kind of militarization on the borders that Dino describes is allowing Russia to bring in that people in the green berets and hidden the century Russian troops to destabilize countries like Estonia if we do not make it absolutely clear to Russia that will be enormous consequences for them destabilizing other parts of the world what we will get from Putin is more of the kind of indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations that we've seen in Aleppo Aleppo wasn't the first time of course the Putin bomb civilian populations. Before he came to power as Russian president in Chechnya that is how he behaved he is a very nasty piece of work and when we have an apologist light down youthful him then we are and that we were inviting further aggression eyes you have dialed you do not have indulgent can I say that I will take any lectures from Mister Montgomery on this is. I'm the only British member of parliament to have been born in Poland. To have come from Poland I spent my childhood listening.

To my grandfather about the. Catastrophic destruction of Poland during the second World War war sold being razed to the ground. And that button left a huge indelible imprint on my mind and all I want to do he calls me an apologist or I'm interested in. Is making sure.

That those frontline states that we are lying to countries like Poland on not destroyed and devastated in another World War and what is as I've said to you what is happening on the Kaliningrad oblast with the Polish border is frightening and anybody who doesn't understand the concerns of that trajectory of conflict it is wrong and majesty lastly a lot of people actually if you talk to people on the ground whether it since Roseville anywhere else they expect politicians to go the extra mile to engage and to go do whatever they can get rid of Israel has yet 11 says that on occasions he that that has worked.

That's understandable when hot with a hatchet attempts at dialogue and they have been rejected in many people's minds by Vladimir Putin himself that he is only worried about his sphere of influence and that he feels under threat from the E. U. and that that is why he annexed Crimea that is why he got himself involved in managing cousin in eastern Ukraine there is no evidence to show that part of it which is interested in anything else then increasing his fear of influence hence getting involved in Syria while I'm on the basis of getting rid of Islamic state that is the absolutely pivotal question and we are currently on the foreign affairs select committee doing a report on Anglo Russian relations.

And may I just say to you and we've been doing this for the last year the report will be published etcetera but but what the evidence that he would let you respond to on the critical evidence is this all policy seems to amount to a confrontation and sanctions and the sanctions aren't working interestingly Russian trade with America China Brazil and India is at record levels so once we are imposing sanctions on Russia by the way British companies have lost ten billion pounds a year as a result of the sanctions our international competitors the Americans the Chinese the Brazilians are continuing to trade sanctions will only work if implemented by all the countries in the world not just by western Europe is a you going to be out of step with your views now when we look at president Donald Trump who of course highs and signale.

Italian PM to step down after Referendum Defeat

I Amrita Cheema astounding defeat the lot to NZ Italian prime minister had staked his future on the outcome of a referendum on constitutional reform he lost and is stepping down later today. Lindsey it campaign for changes he said would cost bureaucracy and make the country more competitive but his opponents disagreed me carefully MVP who voted against the reforms but first this report.

Italian PM to step down after referendum defeat

What is my own defeat I go headline that says it's too much here that I'm the one just over 40 percent of the vote a far heavier defeat and polls had predicted. And one for which he. Phone. But so far and that but with the latest on the next step now is money but we need to tomorrow I will hold the ministers meeting. I will thank my colleagues for their extraordinary support. And I will go to the presidential palace to inform the president of the Republic of my resignation casino limit the. After a fiery campaign turnout was high around 2 sets of eligible voters cast their ballots. When he had promised his reforms but stripped away bureaucracy and bring peace.

Payton said they would wreck the. Some balances. It's was a victory for those fed up with the established parties for many the decision was as much about pansy **** the proposed reforms. Boy boy not. I voted no we. I want the things. Stay as they are. And that that charlatan doesn't change the constitution that was so shocked owner. But I think that it is not the money to do this victory of the no vote is a signal that the people are tired of austerity and the neo liberal politics of princes government and those before him. I said and think that only comes.

These are the people who want to leave it to me now. Make that they clearly and his populist 5 star party let the no camp. They're now calling for immediate elections hoping to ride a wave of anti establishment Fateh into power. Joining me now from Bologna is any slight she's an Italian member at the European Parliament for the left being perceived a party. Until last year she was a member of prime minister Matteo Renzi is governing Democratic Party.



Welcome any to D. W. you and your party campaigned against events he's constitutive full plans what I. Well look because it was a very bad Reforma it would have shifted a lot of by where in the end up there ruling party and whatever you know way and deleted a lot off our competence is up there each one and it would have taken away the votes of their right to boats and for their present lives for us kind citizen and I think that's part of the reason why they voted against the coolest thing is that it is being described but at least this morning international media as a populist the boats while at it was not clearly because yes of course extreme right.

Well as on the side of the noble and Greenough spice their movement was supporting you know but also the net but also 60 percent of Italian people also the biggest trade union for example and also the association offer partisan and who read that there and that the county from a from the face is my and many years ago so it was not a populist the goal I think amendments that your holidays that there was broader support actually more than just the that the populace look but then she always argued that these reforms well about making it a bit more governable he said that's 50 changes to the Senate would make political deadlocks and less likely save money and make the country a more stable what do you feel about that. It was not true actually they used and constitutional architecture as a scapegoat set too high to be failures off the political system which are a different problem we are number 2 in Europa in in terms of how many laws we produced we don't need to speed up or to do more laws maybe we should need to move to do that there does so and actually was a add very bad debate in these months that could have been used to do to address the real issues off the county court obscenities and the rising inequalities instead they focus on changes of the because it do so which were not needed to make our institutional more if he said but in the truth to give more pi where to the ruling party that was a problem and fortunately even if you use that he he was the one to lead embedded populistic campaign by saying we need to reduce body peace and we need to reduce the cost of politics but fortunately people didn't buy it's an understood the risk to know what the quality of our democracy with any one of the things that many people are also saying that this was not a referendum on constitutional reform it was a referendum on Matilda and see what is your assessment.

Yeah that's what happened unfortunately because they managed to divide the county on that one thing on which we were really unite that our constitution at when he understood that the reform was very weak and he tried to personalize it to make it to frame it as a boat on him and his government trying to find what the constitution I legitimacy that he never had to be causing the E. was never voted at to be the prime minister as you know that was a huge mistake and I think that now is paying the consequences for that that choice not very irresponsible choice as well. Vita you parliamentary member any schline in Bologna central Italy thank you very much for that. Thank you.

Brexit constitutional crisis could be 'good for Scotland'

Not how you feeling that breaks it means brexit this week we've had David Davis saying Britain might continue to pay into the E. U. we had suggestions Britain might stay in the customs union and tomorrow the Supreme Court will consider case that Mike through another cat among the pigeons although Boris Johnson told Andrew Marr Elliot this morning there was no history of parliament frustrating the government over the European Union before we went on air I spoke to the S. and P. S. foreign affairs spokesperson and former first minister Alex Salmond.

Brexit constitutional crisis could be 'good for Scotland'

From a sunny but cold Aberdeenshire. Well let's start with the Supreme Court case from tomorrow onwards out examined them. If the government loses on that 6. Widely expected in a may well lose. What happens. Well I suppose that depends on the extent to which the government loose I mean that the government could lose because the Supreme Court says you have to have a Commons motion the Supreme Court should they could indicate the house to be legislation in the Commons a Supreme Court of cruise. Could indicate the alleged with of consent motion at was required in the Scottish parliament the very persuasive arguments off then the law to advocate that we've seen as so there's a whole range of ways that that the government could lose in each of these I I'd say a particular difficulties to the the government's possession of the odd looking like a a government which is being increasingly boxed in by a number of factors in one of these is the Supreme Court.

If there is a legislative consent motion the Scottish parliament and should. As this goes government had suggested the SMP voted diving. Some people are saying that because a constitutional crisis to do you agree with that. Well let's put it this way if it was that the Supreme Court decided that those to be alleged consent motion in the Scottish parliament. Then I I think that we could assume that Filippov and would be tough I rode back to Edinburgh and adopt an altogether different tone than the one he adopted this week it would put the Scottish parliament and then put the clinical study in an extremely powerful position.

Yes but I I'm just curious is on you take in this because some people say should the Scottish parliament vote. Against the ledges of consent motion. It would be a constitutional crisis up all those a safe but it doesn't matter it's only advisory the government London could just. Ignoring I'm I'm just curious as to what you think the implications would be of the hopping. Well it would certainly be a constitutional crisis that would have to be resolved it is true that the house of Commons could try to invoke an overt right close but of course you could remember that at NASA Kalman's Zampese on more or less lightened up a in favor of blacks that because of the results of the referendum and but that's an altogether different thing if you stop saying we're going to overtime allege the for consent motion or for that matter how about a guillotine then there and because use the legislation so you know the votes change given the question that's been asked and secondly it would result in a a constitutional way crisis tonight crisis might get extremely good thing for Scotland because of it put us in an extremely powerful position and towns of fat securing the interests of Scotland in the negotiations. But why I mean what we say constitutional crisis on on what puzzles me is what what that what that means and if the government just says well.



We hear what you're saying but sorry there's been a referendum votes it to leave the you and we're going to go ahead with that and. What what what what does that how does that crisis manifested itself. Well it would manifest itself and that the government would have to overrule its own legislation and it's the the basis of that the Scotland doctor and issues which affect devolve competencies in this sadly does the house to be alleged of consent motion of the government sweeps out wins as well were not what we're not gonna invoke on will get out of asset via a motion in the house of Commons then that makes the have to copy that motion against the clearly expressed will of the of the Scottish parliament so that you get 2 parliaments in direct opposition to each other and sometimes in politics so many come to take on as so many at forces at one time I'm in the come in that the government's lined up against the the rest of your up against the the Supreme Court and I I against the elements within the Conservative Party the business community as a questionable that want to add to that the the Scottish people I'm lots of members of the house of Commons.

Boris Johnson a phone sex or he's just been on undermines program and what when he was asked about the Supreme Court business he said there's no history in any U. negotiation or E. U. treaty of the house of Commons doing anything to factor the discretion of the government. Is that a statement you would sympathize with agree with. Well it sounds just plain wrong women bonus Johnson was not I wonder during last that come in for my sentence I was in there and the 19 nineties. So was David Davis since then he was the government chief whip forcing through the that the Maastricht treaty few hundreds of votes in the house of Commons some of which of course the the government lost. And I think but a structure should better brush up is history books as well as his eye is up to for all of diplomacy and of course this brings us to a very important point. Because if this motto ends up as legislation in the house of Commons. That is not just subject regardless of how shot debilis. It's not just subject to to one amendment as Jeremy Corbyn was suggesting this weekend and it could be subject to the 10 amendments are 50 amendments or 100 amendments.

Because of at least 100 mottos and probably a lot more but shop I brought up in the in the whole question of the L. off the optical 50 exit from the European Union basically you think Boris Johnsons just wrong and what. Well I I think. But it's just the has a. As a hobbit so for for. Venable in that to to deny you seem stuff committee into another one that costs that the pill bonds of depression because I needed the papers aside a conspiracy against the monthly at the present moment most about conspiracy emanate from the concept the pop instantly.

You have been upon the exploring possibilities for Scotland to begin. The end to a nafta even if it's still in the United Kingdom the United Kingdom isn't an after. I'm on the face of it this Scottish government diplomatic initiative is. Is not really getting anywhere did. Did you get anywhere when you had talks about this. Well I isa so you make a point to feel Heslop last week god not a man of course Sir subsequently Nicholas dungeon messiah I called it rock star status in there and the Republic of Ireland where fast members of every political party expressing a great support forum for Scotland's a first thought was ambition so it does seem that the diplomatic initiative led by the. The Scottish government it is getting some fruit but if you want my general feeling on us and I don't think that. Special status for Scotland and towns of being closer to Europe if through the European economic area on a variety of other things is going to blow much opposition anywhere in Europe indeed up the country I think it's gonna be greeted with. His grief immigration through Seattle at the question we've got to do is to. The full stop position online the government that's going to be the trick is how do you get the political leverage.

To make that popped of the UK negotiating position if it becomes part of UK negotiating position at than that the rest of thing the continent is going to be plain sailing. Yes and as you know only too well. Being a coded rock star status doesn't necessarily mean you get what you want in the end of the day. Well yeah but I was a bit more not was not a man that ever a political party in the Republic of Ireland expressed support for lack. And the aims and ambitions of phat nickel stops in for our European inclination for a sensitivity to the issue of fire of non violence was a bit more than they are a bit more to it than selfless wasn't on it was a that was a lot of fun your us out I I see a big if. If you don't say right bought on the other side of that aids for example on nafta the trade minister of Norway. Has said Luke Scotland couldn't join not add F. to if the UK didn't join it is it's not a country with of the Spanish government saying that we don't want any set.

Scotland we would veto that we've had the first missile whales saying that. So being being being affected by the by the applies the Irish parliament is is is may well be fantastic it's not government saying loot Scotland the Scottish government's gonna point here and we will buy them it's not locked. A I think you just said I was right so we got that not less via a foster many into it was I think happens I'm using I'm saying I'm saying. Well I'll I'll let you off the state but sadly bit make sure that's on the lack of full but I sense a happens on seals of offense than to the Norwegian European minister at Tomorrowland the I can say I've seen the foreign ministers of European ministers of many countries night and tells of what's on that on the record.

A big dive a hook a giver host stopped the European negotiators on the back of the saying that is Scott say European citizens shouldn't be jeopardized by a by line the government the spirits faces a sport from there the green group across Europe from the old the group from the last group from individual members of the socialist some conservative groups that is a so. I'm sure well of enthusiasm for Scotland's European ambitions. Because clearly other Europeans are quite favorable to the idea that the people of Scotland want to maintain a close an important...

Four point Brexit blueprint revealed

It was those one story which. Unfortunately into was not right I'm glad that it's being it's been corrected it and people can understand what we're trying to to do and you know got great respect Sir discarding use oil magnificent job is not storied did not quite reflect my views and that of those all that you can have immigration but it's got to be controlled and you also got to take back control of the of money I go to take back control of our democracy about rules and you gotta be in a position to do free trade deals and that is what the promise what so cheap.

Four point Brexit blueprint revealed

I just tell male breaks it I mean all you in favor again it's been enough flowed around today the tech David Davis the brexit minister yourself up all in favor of some kind of continuing pavement pavements ahead to the European Union oft up brexit for some kind of access is not something you could live with. Well what does it what David has said is that that's the kind of thing that could be considered but we are not getting as United into a running commentary on on negotiations I got given you pretty fat 4..



Analysis of what we need to achieve control the borders control of money control of moles the abilities do free trade deals that's but within those are ideas that is very simple ideas is a wealth of information about the kind of deal that we want and I've no doubt that we can achieve it it will be good. Not just for the UK will be good for Europe and the whole of Europe as well.

33 victims in California fire

The remains of 33 victims have now been recovered from the burned wreckage of a California warehouse which qualifies during an all night posse emergency teams in the city of Oakland have been picking their way through the remains of the building which is been partially destroyed by the flames.

33 victims in California fire

Police say as the crews get further into the warehouse they are expecting to final victims skies US correspondent Greg Milam reports now from Oakland in California. There is now a slow and painful process going on inside the building known as the ghost ship. Picking through what was left. After a far we now know has caused a terrible loss of life this tragedy has hit very close to home for for our agency one of our deputies that we work with. Lost. So. Still dealing with that. As we can. A deal with. The other victims. Affected. How's this for a. You know where where. We were really prepare to talk about that right now but but we're dealing with that and and our our family are. It's hurting from that. Intensity of Friday night's 5 calls the roof of the building to collapse.

The upper floor folding in on the low one without a permit for a party in cloth and chaotic inside there was little chance of escape started yelling. Everyone I know is that it all happened really quickly firemen went really. We. The warehouse is being the subject of numerous safety complaints in recent years an investigation was started just last month there was an inspection of the property and we were able to confirm blight at the property and we're still investigating down. As a. I'm committed concert.



Humidity is now in mourning many here knows someone who was inside that building now among the dead or unaccounted for. This tragedy women while young people. You know. Going out to have a good time and. Wrong place at the wrong time you know. Please. You can even it's mind blowing. It's heartbreaking.

Police confirmed they woulda international victims but it will be days before we know the final toll from the horror inside the ghost ship. Greg Milam Sky News Oakland in California.

Should portions be Standardised?

Fish and chips what's not to love I sigh and you go you go have a chipping a poker chips on Yahoo harmless. Big school does not a big problem but I am hunter everyday you go and the U. as big a portion she gets all I would think but not everyone is agreeing always about that's quite right yeah I thought as a new report out that saying that they should be standardized portion sizes so that we can help to.

Should portions be Standardised?

Will there be city crisis in this country well let's talk to nutritionist Amanda Ursell about or if they say the whole point is we don't know how many calories are in abortion itches they give us a wax case scenario for medium in bullshit and efficient shit well what happens is that with the fall of a done just this week and what they found towards the agriculture horticulture development board what they found I mean the figures don't forget me because when I write quite alright they went that they they go to the variation the size of a medium sized portions he's going to fish and chips at high tide meeting Clinton chips and you could get anything from 230 calories for the college up to 1400 is affected because but yet called said that's a huge difference just in the call to boot just going for a medium copies and the chips with a 240 calories to 2147 it depending on which fish and chip shop you intensity meeting Clinton chips please wooden massive variation of if you'll really bothered about how many calories you anything.

You don't really go for fish and chips more uncommercial news what why not be able to go and have something not that I know what you're getting I think that's the point of that you know we should be saying don't ever have fish and chips because that really is not a state but that but that that there is it that the problem of this is it's not practicable. Is it I mean we've had loads it with a chick peas tracing along today Marino fishbar yeah strikes molding to you saying and we can't do it because we call our own face if you want to standardize portion Cuba by pre cut face. Take your point that there is actually an industry guideline for fish and chip shops and markets 70 grounds to cold which is 420 calories and 284 grams of chips which 600 cases that is not just actually in industry guideline that I know you've flipped point of view is difficult but even if people want to get to roughly the same size that would cut that huge difference that we were talking about initially down so I didn't anyone wants to news of making a little with it you have to step in at that particular size portion but that isn't a beast a crisis in this country we do have initiatives so if we can start to do. Just to make small changes across the whole food industry is what you'll sky fight continued very small changes that the big outcomes in it in in that difficult to 96.



I think it would put chocolate manufacturers now he got started knit sizes of chalk deposit you know more than 250 calories proportion this issue to heart before they started doing that but they've done it and consumers of accepted it so I think that's a point which you can say okay this wouldn't moving in the right direction to get found the dice portions is not as soft as it sounds mission and you don't think the fish and chips is a has a great British institution it's a trait is not something that people do every single day so if people are going to go out there not going to be worrying about counting calories just like a Christmas dinner you don't want to know how many calories are in that it's that it's a treat for lots of people know why some people do have it more accurate but also it sets a standard safety somebody might be having fishing ships that would sweep the might be having fish and chips that work with Friday which is a big tradition in the what county what restaurant so if you've got you know had the sort of the size you get subdivision chip shot then you'll be expecting that when you go into your wet continue and about my happen knock on effects will ease up a home if you were doing fish and chips a homesick I think Mississippi a bigger picture here than just saying you've got to have this site because it's what you're going to be to efficiently because it's an overall picture which could set things about unfair just to be stigma not the state rising to because we think the fish and chips because.

I fax you a confession chip shop believe or not when I was in that sounds and I'll admit what you say is a treat it's not there but the regulars coming in almost every evening and it's not the fish that's the bad part I date thing is the other things that they serve the box sausages by accident mas bars the Padres eccentric and they would add that with the fish and chips and that's what makes a portion because that's what makes it was in my opinion because facies protein at the end of the day that's what about coming of satin finish that's new yeah but if it's but I I think I think you have to look at this in the prospective of the child abuse to patent shouldn't mattress published in August this year and we've had a reformulation products come from that. And it talks about portion sizes and and the idea that the industry should just be looking at everything radius not just.

That is not what you suspicion chips are absolutely right at people just on the back of taking responsibility hands it to help change the set point and and our expectations because we gradually crept up in portion size now with saying is let's try gradually go down again to at least be say 20 years ago while Twitter doesn't agree today flooring. I'm just not as the obsession with calorie counting isn't helpful food company chosen by calories 11 romance it but I think that's right that what we say to change the portraits I see you don't have to worry about because there's a lot of Amanda good still tinkling family much indignant middle of going through.

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley

LibDems a very keen to point out the wuyda messages from the results yet but as we know violation results don't necessarily translate into white up political results and. Contest here was a particular one the conservatives themselves did not put up a candidate neither did the greens and I'm joined now by Jonathan bought leave from the Green Party now you.

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley

Supported the lib dem candidates issue was MP issue now is Sarah Olney about why did you decide to do that. Well actually what we said was people should vote for the positive kind of that hope who they felt that was I think we're reaching a time where we needed to make a very clear statement against the regressive alliance of conservatives and you kept and that's in a win against their aggressive alliance was also win nothing for new politics of hope a new way of doing politics were saying that parties can put aside that tribalism and under all broken first possibly system wagon night ends up often as it was in this election being the choice between 2 candidates people want I imagine to to express how they feel and the channel that feelings at this time I threw a by election and I think it's a very interesting mod wasn't for the future if we can get parties working together and saying you know we have things that are in common we have things that we can stand together on and we can work together to make those things happen using as a model for the future so your press we should be looking for some sort of pact between the greens in the lib dems and maybe a few others.

But I think that's an interesting point to raise that we would have to be done locally parties as happened here in Richmond would have to agree that that's what they want to do that have to be agreement at the higher levels between party leaders to bring about you know what they want bring about and that would be I think election reform it is about not changing the system because we changed people's lives we deal with your check I need to change the system up. This collection result though is not gonna change people's lives necessarily is not even necessarily going to change the course of the bricks it process did you have to accept that this is a particular result in a particular constituency which has a very true European electorate on that that is not necessarily representative of the whole of the country.



Because it's representative of what's going on here the local level violations often now but is also clearly indicative for about what's happening right across the country I think we had a very very loud cry in the referendum everyone agrees about taking back control of feeling that people weren't being heard their voices weren't being listened to and here in this constituency a very very clear signal has been sent to government other people having to listen to that and I walk breaks it looks like hasn't been made clear people feel they weren't given all the facts during the referendum process. And when parties can find that common ground that common agreement of course we should work together why would we know that is real life meant few people think that the whole world is is divided up neatly into 2 or 3 different options people believe that you can work together you can have a post tribal politics which really works for me won't.

Body thank you very much indeed for joining us Sunday yes the LibDems 17 you do have a a spring in their step but clearly what it has done is given the a bit of recognition a chance to put that case across on the media I'm not in it self will be quite up valuable for Tim fireman his party as they try to drool wide to conclusions from this but it is warm by election in one constituency we got another one next week that does it for now for Richmond's. Okay Carol thank you very much Carl Walker that talking about Sara Lee's victory in Richmond park.