Russia prepares for another attack
After meeting with Vladimir Putin yesterday, Austria’s chancellor Karl Nehammer said he feared the Russian president was planning to dramatically intensify the brutality of the war. “The struggle under threat cannot be underestimated in its violence,” Nehammer said.
The meeting came as Russia moved thousands of troops and vehicles east — including infantry, attack helicopter support units and artillery — in preparation for an attack on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the Pentagon said. Civilians meanwhile fled to the west.
Satellite images showed Russian military vehicles heading towards the Ukrainian city of Izium, which could serve as a launch site for the offensive. The next phase of the war will look very different from the battles in and around Ukrainian cities. The flatter, more open landscape of Donbas may favor Russia’s armored units and air superiority.
Related: The Biden administration wants Putin to be held responsible for war crimes. But US policy has long resisted cooperation with The Hague for fear that Americans will be charged there.
A month of terror in Bucha
A mother killed by a sniper while walking with her family to fetch a thermos of tea. A woman held as a sex slave, naked except for a fur coat and locked in a potato cellar before being executed. Two sisters dead in their house, their bodies lying on the floor for weeks.
These are the scenes documented by Times reporters and photographers who spent more than a week in Bucha, the city on the outskirts of Kiev that was occupied by Russian troops for a month.
The evidence suggests that the Russians killed recklessly and at times sadistically, partly in revenge. When a defeated and demoralized Russian army finally withdrew from Bucha, it left a grim scene: bodies of dead civilians strewn on streets, in basements and in backyards, many with bullet wounds to their heads, some with their hands tied behind their backs.
citable: “They shot everything,” said Anatoly Rodchenko, a retired high school physics teacher. “They were shooting at houses. They shot and killed a woman on the street. They shot at dogs.”
Can Macron’s ‘dam’ hold up against Le Pen?
Ahead of a runoff election, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, hopes to build a “dam” of mainstream voters to prevent Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, from ascending to the presidency. Many may come from left-wing veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the first round with 22 percent of the vote.
After five years of Macron as president, Le Pen has emerged stronger than ever. She has softened her image in a successful “demonization” process and relentlessly focused on the economic hardship of ordinary voters. That message has found even more resonance now that energy prices have risen as a result of the war in Ukraine.
During a campaign shutdown yesterday, Le Pen said the dam was an unfair strategy to win elections. “It’s a way of saving yourself if you don’t deserve it,” she said. Meanwhile, Macron tried to remind voters of the extremist roots of Le Pen’s party, referring to its old name, the National Front.
Macron’s strategy: Macron has moved to the right during his presidency, hardening France’s stance on immigration, strengthening the police force and fighting Islamist extremism. Many working French also believe that his economic policies unfairly favor the rich and left them more adrift.
THE LAST NEWS
Around the world
In 1890, a mustachioed eccentric released several dozen European starlings into New York City. His alleged purpose? Introduce all the bird species mentioned in William Shakespeare’s plays to America.
Except it wasn’t. This mundane story is mostly fictional, researchers say. What else have scientists and naturalists been wrong in the starling’s story? And is there more to this bird best known as an invasive pest?
ART AND IDEAS
The most banned books
At school board meetings and libraries across the US, parents regularly call for the removal of books they deem inappropriate. Last year, efforts to ban books rose to their highest level in two decades, according to the American Library Association.
Many of the targeted books were by or about black people and LGBTQ people. Among the most challenged, according to the ALA, were “Gender Queer,” an illustrated memoir by Maia Kobabe that talks about coming out as gender unconventional, and “The Hate U Give,” a young adult novel by Angie Thomas about a black teen whose boyfriend is shot by a police officer.
Part of the reason for the increase is that parents are using social media to distribute lists and coordinate prohibition efforts. And librarians say they’ve noticed more heavy-handed tactics from government officials and others, such as political pressure on certain books (such as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”) and legal threats against the people who choose reading materials.
Read the ALA list of the 10 most targeted books.