Andrey Kortunov is a respected foreign policy analyst and adviser to the Kremlin. He is no apologist for the Kremlin but is not afraid to defend its actions if he sees fit, and we are used to seeing him on our news doing so. Not today. Not after this invasion. In an extraordinary interview, he
Month: March 2022
Ukraine has thanked tech billionaire Elon Musk after equipment to use SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service arrived in the country. Mr Musk replied with “you are most welcome” after Ukraine‘s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, expressed his thanks on Twitter. Mr Fedorov also shared an image of the Starlink dishes on the back of a
Shop prices rose at their fastest rate in over a decade last month, new figures show. Retail price annual inflation accelerated to 1.8% in February, up from 1.5% in January – the highest rate of inflation since November 2011, according to the BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index. Rapidly rising food prices, particularly for fresh produce –
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have joined rock giants Green Day and former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson in scrapping a gig in Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The band praised “the brave people of Ukraine” and their “heroic leader” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a statement. Cave, known for hits such as Into My
MPs will get a pay rise of more than £2,000 this year, the parliamentary pay watchdog has announced. MPs will receive £2,212 more for the year from 1 April, increasing their pay by 2.7% from £81,932 to £84,144, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) announced. IPSA sets MPs’ pay independently of parliament and government. It
British Gas owner Centrica says it is planning to cancel its contracts with Russian gas suppliers, including Gazprom, as a matter of “urgency”. The company is attempting to do this voluntarily, as it is not required to end its agreements as part of any sanctions regime – making it an outlier as other energy companies
A lawsuit filed by the family of Glee actress Naya Rivera against Ventura County over her drowning in July 2020 has been privately settled, according to the lawyer handling her case. The 33-year-old was boating with her four-year-old son Josey Hollis Dorsey on Lake Piru, northwest of Los Angeles, when she drowned. Her body was
Benedict Cumberbatch has urged people to help the children and families of Ukraine “struggling to survive as rockets rain down on their cities”. The British actor used the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame to call attention to the crisis, as violence continues to rage across the region following the Russian
Prince Charles has likened the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the killing of Sir David Amess as he fulfilled the MP’s long-held wish of making his constituency town of Southend a city. As he handed over the document which turned the Essex town into a city, he said: “What we saw in the terrible tragedy
Decisions by BP and Shell to exit their investments in Russia, along with Norway’s $1.3tn sovereign wealth fund and Australia’s $143bn Future Fund, have thrown the spotlight on other major international companies yet to disinvest. BP on Sunday announced it would “exit” its 19.75% stake in Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil giant, while on Monday
Sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine caused the rouble to plummet on Monday but as it dropped the value of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum shot up. Unlike the global financial system where central authorities can prevent Vladimir Putin’s regime from accessing the Kremlin’s foreign reserves, and Russian banks from using the SWIFT payments network,
Ofcom has launched an “unprecedented” 15 investigations into the “due impartiality” of programmes on Russian news channel RT. Speaking to Sky News, Dame Melanie Dawes described the situation as “serious” and said she was “expecting full cooperation” from RT (formerly known as Russia Today) as they attempt to look into potential rule breaches as quickly
The UK “stands ready” to take Ukrainians fleeing the Russia’s invasion in “considerable numbers”, Boris Johnson has said. Speaking in Warsaw alongside Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Mr Johnson said he is “more convinced than ever” that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will fail. With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, the
Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Company and Sony Pictures will not release their latest films in Russian cinemas, in response to the conflict in Ukraine. The major Hollywood studios announced their decisions on Monday as Russian military forces continued attacks on Ukrainian cities. The decisions mean that superhero blockbuster The Batman starring Robert Pattinson, computer-animated
The Queen has hosted two virtual engagements just over a week after testing positive for COVID-19, Buckingham Palace has said. Earlier on Tuesday, she received His Excellency Carles Jordana Madero, who presented the Letters of Recall of his predecessor and his own Letters of Credence as ambassador from the Principality of Andorra to the Court
A man has shot dead his three daughters, their chaperone and himself at a church in California. The girls were aged nine, 10 and 13. The gunman was estranged from their mother and was taking them on a supervised visit. It happened at about 5pm on Monday in Sacramento’s Arden-Arcade neighbourhood, said Sergeant Rod Grassman