Russia and Iran’s present of unity in opposition to the U.S.
At a gathering in Moscow yesterday, Vladimir Putin and Ebrahim Raisi, the leaders of Russia and Iran, sought to showcase tightening bonds between two nations with a standard adversary: the U.S. Now is the time to tackle “the power of the Americans with an increased synergy between our two countries,” Raisi instructed Putin.
The assembly comes because the U.S. prepares for a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Speaking on the White House, President Biden stated that he anticipated Putin to behave imminently, even when it didn’t quantity to a full-scale invasion of the nation. “My guess is he will move in,” he stated. “He has to do something.” This map exhibits how Russian troops are threatening Ukraine.
Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, will meet with Russia’s overseas minister on Friday. He warned that Russia might assault Ukraine “on very short notice” and warned of “confrontation and consequences for Russia” if it have been to take action. Sergey Lavrov, the overseas minister, disputed the assertion. “We will not attack, strike, invade, quote unquote, whatever, Ukraine,” he stated.
Aid for Ukraine: It was not clear if Blinken had provided concrete measures to assist Ukraine, however the Biden administration has accepted a further $200 million in defensive safety assist. That cash comes along with $450 million in such assist that the U.S. offered Ukraine within the final fiscal yr.
Despite Omicron, vacationers flock to Spain
The Omicron variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus has despatched infections and hospitalizations hovering in Spain. Yet vacationers stay undeterred, partly as a result of in contrast to a few of its neighbors, Spain doesn’t require a unfavourable check to enter the nation. And its message to vacationers has remained largely the identical as earlier than the surge in instances: Please come.
Like different nations, Spain is making an attempt to steadiness how a lot financial ache it might tolerate because it tries to maintain its folks secure. Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for roughly 12.4 % of the nation’s financial output. Memories of latest monetary destroy are particularly uncooked. The Spanish financial system contracted greater than 11 % in 2020 — the worst decline for the reason that Civil War of the Nineteen Thirties.
Though Spain has launched some restrictions, the federal government has indicated that it isn’t prone to impose extra. Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, stated that the nation ought to settle for that the virus had turn out to be a truth of life. “We are going to have to learn to live with it as we do with many other viruses,” he stated.
By the numbers: Western European nations now have among the highest an infection charges on the planet. In Spain, new instances rocketed from a mean of fewer than 2,000 a day in early November to greater than 130,000 day by day prior to now week.
Here are the newest updates and maps of the pandemic.
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Berlusconi angles for Italy’s presidency
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s billionaire former prime minister, is working arduous to influence lawmakers to vote for him for the nation’s presidency subsequent week, regardless of an uncommon résumé for a job resting on ethical authority. This career-culminating place because the nation’s head of state might enable him to clean away a long time of stains — his allies say unjustly thrown mud — and rewrite his legacy.
The Italian presidency is a seven-year place often crammed by a determine of unimpeachable integrity and sobriety. The present holder, Sergio Mattarella, is a quiet statesman whose brother was murdered by the mob. Mario Draghi, the prime minister and a titan of European politics, is yet one more contender.
But Berlusconi’s conflicts of curiosity, judicial issues and previous conduct, together with a conviction for tax fraud and investigations over mob hyperlinks, made him lower than a wonderful candidate, stated Emma Bonino, a veteran Italian politician who as soon as ran for the workplace herself. “I don’t think he would give a good image of our country in the world,” she stated.
Official remarks: Behind the scenes, Berlusconi is working the telephones and laying on the appeal, upping his Christmas-gift recreation from ties to framed oil work. Amid hypothesis that he would possibly drop out of the race, he issued a press release: “I haven’t decided. I’m an optimist.”
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It was heralded as the true property deal of the century: a 30,000-square-foot Sixteenth-century villa in downtown Rome full with a masterpiece painted on its ceiling — by Caravaggio — at a cool asking value of 471 million euros, or $533 million.
Yet when the Villa Aurora went up for public sale on Tuesday, there have been no presents on the minimal bidding value. Now, an internet petition is looking on Italy’s tradition ministry to purchase the villa, which returns to the block on April 7, with its value slashed by 20 % to a mere €377 million.
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André Leon Talley, a larger-than-life vogue editor who went from the racially segregated U.S. South to the entrance rows of Paris couture, died at 73.
The man who makes clowns cry
Philippe Gaulier has taught clowns for about half a century. Alumni of his faculty who’ve weathered his course of — which is characterised by blunt, flamboyantly unfavourable suggestions — embody Sacha Baron Cohen, Emma Thompson and Kathryn Hunter.
The criticisms would possibly embody “You sound like overcooked spaghetti in a pressure cooker” or “You are a very good clown for my grandmother.” He continuously focuses on the eyes. “If you are funny,” he instructed me, “you have funny eyes.”
Compared to different clowning academics, Gaulier, who’s French, doesn’t emphasize method or bodily virtuosity. He goals for one thing extra intangible, a way of play onstage. The most vital high quality in a clown is protecting issues mild and current and, as he says with the utmost respect, silly.
Finding “your idiot,” as he calls it, is the essence of clowning. “A clown is a special kind of idiot, absolutely different and innocent,” he stated. “A marvelous idiot.”
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