Zelensky urged NATO to do more in interview with The Times
Ukrainian President Zelensky called on the United States and Europe to take more action to defend Ukraine. Extensive interview with The Times. He proposed that NATO aircraft shoot down Russian missiles in Ukrainian airspace.
“What’s the problem?” Zelensky said in an interview in Kiev on Monday. “Why can’t we shoot them down? Is it defensive? Yes. Is this an attack on Russia? No. Are you shooting down Russian planes and killing Russian pilots? No. So what’s the problem with bringing NATO countries into the war? ? There is no such problem.”
Analysts say such direct NATO involvement could provoke retaliation from Russia, but has been resisted by Western countries. Zelensky drew a comparison to how the United States and Britain helped Israel shoot down a series of drones and missiles from Iran last month.
Zelensky said he also called on senior U.S. officials to allow Ukraine to launch U.S. missiles and other weapons at military targets in Russia, but the United States remained opposed to the tactic. He said the inability to do this gave Russia a “huge advantage” in the cross-border war, which it was using to launch attacks in northeastern Ukraine.
Zelensky is frustrated and confused by the West’s reluctance to take bolder steps to ensure Ukraine wins the war.
His request comes at a critical moment in the war in Ukraine. Its troops are retreating, and America’s package of new weapons has yet to arrive in sufficient numbers. Analysts say Ukraine has never faced such a severe military challenge since the early days of the war.
“Shoot down the object over Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “And provide us with weapons to fight Russian forces on the border.”
Iranian President’s funeral begins
Video released by Iranian news agencies showed crowds gathering in the streets of Tabriz, a city in northwestern Iran, yesterday. Procession carrying coffin draped with flags President Ibrahim Raisi, the foreign minister and six others were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
The parade in Tabriz was the first in a series of official events to bid farewell to Lacey. Raisi is a hardline cleric widely seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The country is grappling with the shock of losing two of its top leaders at such a tumultuous time. Now, Khamenei is weighing options on how to move forward with elections and rebuild the country’s leadership structure.
He must choose whether to launch a campaign and face moderate rivals, or limit the candidates and risk the embarrassment of low voter turnout. My colleague Erica Solomon reports.
US suspends Guantánamo transfer
The Biden administration is preparing to send about a dozen Guantánamo Bay detainees headed to Oman for resettlement last year. Then Hamas attacked Israel, and the United States suddenly halted its covert operations.
None of the Yemeni prisoners have been charged with a crime, and all have been cleared for transfer by a national security review panel. A military aircraft was already on the runway, ready to airlift them.
But U.S. officials said Democrats were concerned about possible instability in the Middle East after the Oct. 7 attacks. As my colleague Carol Rosenberg reports, these arrangements are still under review.
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Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos tells a passionate love story in the final years of East Germany. Won the International Booker Prize yesterdayThe chairman of the jury said the book’s description of the relationship and the two’s “descent into a spiral of destruction” traced the history of East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Erpenbeck shared the award with Michael Hoffman, who translated the book into English. This is the first award-winning original novel in German.
Read our review and Configuration file Erpenbeck.
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Graceland’s future: Elvis Presley’s granddaughter be accused to prevent the family’s former home from being auctioned, saying it was a fraudulent scheme.
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Climate issues: Biodegradable plastics exist, but This is not a perfect solution.
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Mahjong rising: Young Asian Americans in Brooklyn get together and play gameslong-term interactions with the elderly.
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Scarlett Johansson challenges OpenAI
OpenAI has hired Scarlett Johansson, who played the virtual assistant in the movie “Her,” to be the voice of the chatbot. Johnson declined twice.
But last week, the company released a virtual assistant that Johnson said sounds “Amazingly similar to mine”. She hired a lawyer and asked OpenAI to stop using the voice called Sky.
The company paused Sky launches over the weekend. “Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s and is not intended to be an imitation of hers,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.
Johansson is the latest high-profile figure to accuse OpenAI of using creative works without permission. The company has been sued by writers, actors and newspapers for copyright infringement, with The Times suing OpenAI and its partner Microsoft.
