Washington (AFP) – Buy a T-shirt, get a “gift” of weed: that’s how some stores operate in Washington, exploiting a perceived loophole to sidestep a ban on selling cannabis in the US capital.

The situation is but one example of the hazy legality surrounding marijuana in America, despite a trend in recent years towards normalization.

“Business is great!” declares Forest “Ty” Hayward, 41, the proud co-owner of Sneaker Headz — one of several “gifting shops” that have sprung up in a city now known for the everpresent fragrance of the flower.

Many are African-American owned, and are seeing a lively trade ahead of national marijuana day on April 20. Hayward sees his work as “a turning point for the Black community,” which historically suffered a disproportionate rate of cannabis convictions.

Since 2014, Washington residents have been allowed to possess paraphernalia and two ounces of weed, gift some to others, use it on private property, and grow up to six plants. But Congress — which approves the city’s budget — has barred legal sales.

Instead stores sell items like T-shirts and stickers, starting at around $30, with which customers also receive “presents” in the form of weed buds or gummies.

Cannabis was first outlawed at the federal level in 1937, “largely along racial reasoning, as well as to keep out immigrant workers or find ways to criminalize them,” Morgan Fox, political director of advocacy group NORML, told AFP.

The 1970s brought the “War on Drugs,” which likewise disproportionately hit minorities — before the medical marijuana movement took root in the 1990s, and in 2012 the first states made recreational cannabis legal for adults.

Today, 18 of the 50 US states plus Washington have legalized recreational weed use, while 37 have medical cannabis laws on the books. 

But since the drug remains a controlled substance at the national level, everyone involved is still technically breaking the law of the land.

The ban makes it difficult to access banking services, stops federal funding for medical marijuana research, prevents interstate commerce, and federal regulation on best practices and protocols for marijuana.

What’s more, a future presidential administration unsympathetic to legalization could go after businesses and consumers even in states where the plant is legal.

Former president Donald Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions wanted to do this, but federal prosecutors ultimately decided it was a waste of their time.

Legal trouble

Still, sticky situations can arise. 

After Canada fully legalized cannabis in 2018, US Customs and Border Patrol officers began issuing lifetime entry bans to Canadians who answered “yes” when asked at checkpoints if they had ever consumed the drug.

The same agency this month issued a warning to residents in New Mexico that it would continue to prosecute offenders caught with the substance at highway checkpoints, even after the state had legalized it.

Native American nations also encounter raids with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, despite the fact they live on nominally self-governing territories.

And in Washington, those caught smoking on federal grounds — including iconic monuments like the Lincoln Memorial — may have a run in with federal agents.

That’s why it’s vital to pass legislation at the national level, said Fox. 

The House of Representatives has passed some bills, including as recently as this month, but it has yet to be brought before the Senate, where Republican opposition would likely nix it.

Fox believes framing the issue in terms of states’ rights, personal freedoms, and increased tax revenue is the best way to win over Republicans, and younger conservatives who will eventually replace their elders are more cannabis friendly.

For now, the community is celebrating the progress they have won.

“I want to have a whole shebang, just remind everybody we’re still here to give back to the community, get high and have a wonderful life,” says Sneaker Headz’ co-owner Kashous Solomon, 22.

Bryan Cranston is set to be godfather to Aaron Paul’s newborn son.

The ‘Breaking Bad’ star shared photographs of his little boy, who is named Rydin, during his appearance on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on Tuesday (19.04.22), where he revealed his co-star and good friend has accepted his offer to take on the special role in his son’s life.

Aaron told the host: “Yes, a new baby boy. Yeah, his name is Rydin, and I love him.”

Fallon asked: “I know Bryan Cranston is a good friend of yours. Has he seen the baby yet?”

To which Aaron replied: “He has. He has met the baby.

“Ya know, I asked Bryan on his birthday if he would be our baby’s godfather.”

Fallon reacted: “I’m assuming…”

Aaron then quipped: “He said no.”

Before he continued: “No, he’s very excited, very honoured. I love the man to death. He’s one of my best friends in the world, and, so yeah, it was just a no brainer.”

Aaron’s spouse Lauren Paul – with whom he also has four-year-old daughter Story – announced they were set to welcome their second child in December.

The 42-year-old actor previously admitted he couldn’t wait to have more kids, after fatherhood had changed his life.

He said: “It’s easily the best chapter of my life. I think if I maybe was single, didn’t have a job and was struggling and I turned 40, it would be a lot harder, but I feel I’m in a good place. I can’t wait to have another baby, and I’m so excited to see what 40 has to offer. I’m just excited to be around, to be alive. I’m just happy to be here. Life is good.

“Fatherhood has definitely changed me. Having a child is the closest thing to magic that anyone can have. I see why people rush home to be there when they get home from school. You don’t want to miss any of it.”

The ‘Westworld’ actor gushed over his wife Lauren, too, saying his spouse – who he married in 2013 – is a “beacon of kindness”.

He said: “[Lauren] completely changed my life, saved my life. She’s such a beacon of kindness and hope and love.”

Aaron has also admitted that being a father is “a dream come true”.

He said: “The fact that I have just a beautiful, healthy, happy daughter that runs and screams at me and throws her arms around me and calls me, ‘Daddy,’ is such a dream come true.”

Olly Alexander is smitten with his mystery man.

The Years and Years star previously revealed he has a “paramour” and though he wouldn’t name his partner, he revealed he had known him for years before they got together romantically.

The ‘It’s A Sin’ actor – who was previously in a relationship with former Clean Bandit star Neil Milan – gushed that he’s never felt love like this before.

He said: “I’m in love. I feel like this is a new feeling for me as well, even though I’m with someone who, we were together quite a long time ago, but now we’re kind of in a sequel.

“This one has turned out to be really, really good. It’s also a bit of a pandemic rekindle.”

The 31-year-old singer-and-actor loves having someone to “lean on” after years of being single.

Speaking on ‘Charli XCX’s Best Song Ever’ podcast, he spilled: “I haven’t been in one place for so long, so just having this experience with someone I really love and being able to lean on someone has been amazing.

“I was single for quite a while.”

Olly feeling secure with his partner comes after he admitted he finds it harder to “trust” people because it’s difficult for him to have any sort of anonymity – while he also struggled to form intimate relationships.

Discussing the inspiration behind the songs on his most recent album, ‘Night Call’, he said: “I was lacking a lot of things in my life like fun and connections with strangers, sex, intimacy in general.

“[The songs talk about how] a hook-up could be the most transcendent, beautiful experience. I felt like it was just something that I couldn’t experience any more in my life for different reasons. Trusting people became harder . . . there are definitely places in the world where I’m anonymous, but it can feel like that’s sort of taken away from you.

“It was almost getting into character and saying things that I would never have said in real life. Just pushing this more confident part of my personality.”

Pamela Anderson says starring in ‘Chicago’ on Broadway is a “pretty hard” workout.

The former ‘Baywatch’ actress – who is mother to model Dylan, 24, and Brandon, 25, with ex-husband Tommy Lee – is now starring as Roxie Hart in the classic musical, and she’s revealed how she keeps in shape for the energetic dance routines.

Asked what her fitness regime is, the 54-year-old star replied: “I get regular massage, body work. I love Pilates. I’m working out pretty hard on Broadway right now. My walks in the park and some stretching is enough for me to keep up my stamina.”

When she is in need of some self-care, the former Playboy bunny heads to her favourite facialist in the Big Apple.

She told E! Online: “While we push our limits out of our comfort zone, self-care is important. I’m lucky. I go to Klara Beauty Lab anytime I’m in New York. She’s the best. She takes great care of me. Her facials are custom- always different- nurturing, rejuvenating, cleansing.”

The blonde bombshell also opened up about her mantras on life and is a firm believer beauty comes from “within”.

She said: “I believe all beauty comes from within. Happiness is the best beauty trick. Being brave is sexy. Feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Fighting for freedom starts with one’s own freedom. It is a condition when fighting for others freedom. It is a political statement to be happy, to be alive. Life is a privilege not to be taken lightly.”

Pamela’s son Dylan recently congratulated his mother on her stellar opening night.

He wrote: “Mother killed it.”

And the ex-glamour model’s oldest son Brandon shared a snap of his world-famous mother as she posed for photos with fans at the stage door and signed autographs.

Pamela previously spoke about how her role in ‘Chicago’ – which tells the story of two women who end up in jail accused of murder and become tabloid sensations – could be the beginning of a “new career” in theatre as she thanked her sons for their support.

She said: “This is the beginning of the rest of my career — maybe. It is a real big deal but I’m leaning on my support system and my kids.”

Kaley Cuoco reveals Sharon Stone “b**** slapped” her three times during ‘The Flight Attendant’ filming.

The 36-year-old actress has recalled working with the 64-year-old star on her series, and Sharon – who plays her mother on the show – improvised a slap during an intense scene.

Appearing on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’, Kaley said: “Before we started the scene, she sat me down and said, Hey how do you feel about me touching you in this scene?’

“I said, ‘Whatever you want to do, you are Sharon Stone.’ “

The ‘Big Bang Theory’ actress explained that they did the scene, and Sharon said her line as planned before grabbing her co-star’s face.

She added: “Then she whacks me… It was real. First of all, the reaction was about as real as you could get.

“I had snot coming out and I’m crying, and literally shaking and ‘Cut’. No one moves. No one makes a sound.

“No one knows if Kaley is happy, did she tell Sharon to slap her?”

Sharon apologised and told the actress she loved her, insisting the slap “just felt right for the scene”.

Kaley quipped: “I just got b**** slapped.”

Producers then came over and suggested telling Sharon they got everything in the first take, but Kaley suggested they just went again.

She explained: “I said ‘Listen, I’m going to bet that woman is not slapping me again’. Do not tell Sharon Stone not to slap me. She is not going to do it again.

“We do another take. I’m crying. She comes up to me and she wails on me again and they get another incredibly real reaction because I just got slapped a second time.

“She comes back and she’s like ‘I’m sorry it just felt right for the take.’ “

Her team joined her outside while she was holding her face and suggested saying something, but Kaley was adamant Sharon wouldn’t slap her “a third time”, joking that “there’s no way”.

She found herself pulling back during the third take, and added: “‘Just get in there Kaley, she is not going to slap you again’. Get in there, she slaps me again. Three times I got slapped…

“Now I need to ice. It was insane but one of the best stories I have ever had.”

(Reuters) – Russia launched its long-awaited all-out assault on east Ukraine, unleashing thousands of troops in what Ukraine described as the Battle of the Donbas, a campaign to seize two provinces and salvage a battlefield victory.

FIGHTING

* Ukraine’s defence ministry said the aim of Russia’s new offensive in eastern Ukraine was to seize all of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, establish a land link between those territories and Crimea, and destroy Ukraine’s armed forces.

* An aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia’s new offensive in eastern Ukraine will fail because Moscow’s forces lack the strength to break through Ukrainian defences.

* A senior U.S. official said the latest offensive was the prelude to a much larger assault.

* Russia’s defence ministry said it had opened a corridor for Ukrainian forces who wanted to lay down their arms and safely leave the Azovstal steel works in the besieged city of Mariupol.

* Russian forces seized Kreminna, a city of over 18,000 people in eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces withdrew, the regional governor said.

* Russia handed over 60 soldiers and 16 civilians to Ukraine in the fifth such exchange of prisoners of war, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said.

* At least three people were killed and 16 wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said.

DIPLOMACY

* U.S. President Joe Biden held a nearly-90-minute video call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Poland, Japan and Italy.

* “There was broad consensus on the need to step up pressure on the Kremlin, including by adopting further sanctions, and to increase Moscow’s international isolation,” the Italian government said.

* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the allies were cooperating to provide more financial and military support to Ukraine, including long-range artillery and anti-tank and air defence weapons.

* Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters it was hard to say when the next direct peace talks would be possible as Russia was now “seriously betting” on its offensive in eastern Ukraine.

* U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a four-day humanitarian pause over the Orthodox Easter to allow civilians to leave areas of conflict and humanitarian aid to reach hard-hit areas.

ECONOMY

* Russia’s invasion has damaged or destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine’s infrastructure at a cost of $100 billion, a Ukrainian minister said, adding reconstruction could be achieved in two years using frozen Russian assets to help finance it.

* World Bank President David Malpass will host a meeting on Thursday with Ukraine’s prime minister and finance minister to discuss further financial assistance. He said Ukraine’s debt burden had to be “reduced substantially” because of the pressures from Russia’s invasion.

* Russia flagged a likely further cut in interest rates and more budget spending to help the economy adapt to biting Western sanctions as it heads for its deepest contraction since 1994.

QUOTES

“Of course there are morons who draw ‘Z’, but 10% of any country are morons. 90% of Russians are AGAINST this war! … Dear ‘collective West’ please give Mr Putin a clear exit to save his face and stop this massacre” – wealthy Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov

“What has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cost? A crisis on top of a crisis, with devastating human costs and a massive setback for the global economy,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina told a food security panel.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s administration plans to rescind a rule devised under his predecessor Donald Trump that was intended to make it easier for healthcare providers including doctors and nurses to avoid performing abortions or other medical services on religious or moral grounds, Politico reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2018 unveiled what it called the “conscience rule,” but it never took effect due to litigation. States including California and New York and abortion providers filed suit to challenge it, leading a federal court to block the measure in 2019.

The rule enabled the federal government to punish hospitals, clinics, universities and other healthcare providers that stopped healthcare workers from doing what their “conscience” dictated and refusing to carry out certain procedures. Trump’s HHS said the rule fulfilled his “promise to promote and protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious liberty.” Religious conservatives were a key constituency for Trump.

Politico, quoting sources familiar with the matter, reported that HHS could act to rescind the rule as soon as the end of this month.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some states and municipalities argued that the rule could undermine their ability to provide effective healthcare and upend their efforts to accommodate workers’ beliefs. Critics also have said the rule could deprive gay, transgender and other patients of needed healthcare because some providers, citing religious beliefs, might deem them less worthy of treatment.

Biden, a Democrat, promised during his 2020 election campaign to reverse many of the measures restricting reproductive rights introduced or backed by Trump, a Republican.

Republican-governed states have passed a series of laws in recent years restricting abortion rights. The U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule by the end of June in a case from Mississippi that gives its conservative majority a chance to overturn its landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion nationwide.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House announced on Tuesday that it has finalized regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects like highways and pipelines that would consider their climate impacts and other factors.

The White House Council for Environmental Quality has now officially restored key provisions of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations that had been in place before the Trump administration overhauled the rules last year for the first time in decades.

The change will require federal agencies to consider the “direct,” “indirect,” and “cumulative” impacts of proposed projects or actions, including a full evaluation of climate change impacts and assessment of the impact of releasing additional pollution in communities that are already choked by polluted air or dirty water.

“Restoring these basic community safeguards will provide regulatory certainty, reduce conflict, and help ensure that projects get built right the first time,” said CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory.

In addition to requiring an analysis of climate impacts, the final rule empowers federal agencies to consider alternative designs or approaches for a company’s proposed projects and allows agencies to adopt reviews that are more stringent than CEQ’s regulations.

The council also announced on Tuesday that it plans to propose a “phase 2” NEPA rulemaking in the coming months that will improve the efficiency of the review processes.

Former President Donald Trump in 2020 revamped NEPA in an effort to fast-track major projects like the now-cancelled Keystone XL oil pipeline that he said got caught up in red tape and interfered with his focus on U.S. “energy dominance.”

His NEPA overhaul allowed federal agencies to exclude the climate impact of a project, allowing major fossil fuel projects to sail through the approval process and avoid legal challenges.

Over the last few years, however, federal courts had ruled that NEPA required the federal government to consider a project’s carbon footprint in decisions relating to leasing public lands for drilling or building pipelines.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Washington (AFP) – Tucker Carlson, star Fox News anchor and bow-tied darling of the American right, has become a laughingstock among Twitter users for his new series on masculinity, which according to him is under growing threat. 

In the trailer for “The End of Men,” Carlson worries about “the total collapse of testosterone levels in American men,” which he says is “a huge story that no one covers.”

The short clip, set to the grandiose theme music from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” shows muscular young white men wrestling shirtless, milking a cow, preparing a barbecue, doing push-ups and drinking what appears to be raw eggs. 

Others chop wood or carry tractor tires, always bare-chested. 

In the midst of these images appears a naked man, arms outstretched, standing high on a rock at sunset in front of a small machine that is emitting an orange light on his crotch. 

The voiceover, meanwhile, talks about “men who are tough, men who are resourceful, men who are strong enough to survive.”

The excerpt has triggered an avalanche of mockery on social networks, with many users commenting on what they call the “homoeroticism” of the footage, in stark contrast to the professed traditional family values widely propounded on Fox News.

“You could literally just change the voiceover and make this an ad for Grindr,” the gay hook-up site, commented one Democratic activist. 

In another teaser clip, Carlson talks to a sports coach from Ohio who is the promoter of “red light therapy,” a practice that, he says, includes “testicle tanning.”

Without explicitly defending this practice, which has not been endorsed by medical professionals, Carlson insists on the need to “seek a solution” to the drop in testosterone levels.

New York (AFP) – Alex Jones, the US conspiracy theorist who faces multiple defamation lawsuits by parents of victims of a massacre that he called a hoax, has declared bankruptcy for his far-right website Infowars, documents seen Monday showed.

The filing for bankruptcy protection, also known as “Chapter 11,” is intended to freeze the civil court proceedings while recovery plans are prepared for the company, which can continue to operate.

The well-known but deeply controversial figure on America’s rightwing fringe and promoter of multiple debunked conspiracy theories has been sued for years by parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut.

Jones claimed the massacre, which left 26 people dead including 20 children, was a fake event staged by anti-gun activists.

The parents had demanded Jones produce accounting documents which they say would show that he made millions of dollars by spreading such disinformation.

Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook murders were real.

The 48-year-old, accused by many as a provocative disinformation agent and huckster, is being sued in courts in Texas and Connecticut, where he has suffered legal setbacks.

In November a judge in Connecticut ruled he was civilly liable and could be subject to damages.

The bankruptcy, filed in a Texas bankruptcy court, also involves Jones’s companies IWHealth and Prison Planet TV.

LONDON (Reuters) – Days after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Andrei Shestakov opened a set of files in a WhatsApp group chat for history teachers like himself in his town in east Russia.

The files – which Reuters reviewed and contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links – are instructions on how to teach teenage school children about the conflict. It’s unclear who shared the files to the group chat, but many of the documents carry the crest of the education ministry in Moscow.

The material includes lesson guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukraine’s rulers made common cause with people who collaborated with World War Two Nazis, that the West was trying to spread discord in Russian society, and that Russians must stick together.

Shestakov said he leafed through the files during one of his lessons. The slim-built 38-year-old said that before becoming a teacher in January he had spent 16 years as a police officer. But he had growing doubts in recent years, he said, about whether Russia’s rulers were living up to the values they professed about democracy, influenced in part by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

He decided not to teach the modules to his pupils at the Gymnasium No. 2 school where he worked in Neryungri, a coal-mining town in eastern Siberia, some 6,700 km (4160 miles) east of Moscow.

Instead, Shestakov told his pupils about the contents of the teaching guide and why they were historically inaccurate, he told Reuters. For instance, he said he explained that the materials claimed Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik communist Russia yet history textbooks discussed Ukrainian history going back centuries.

He went further. On March 1, he told pupils during a civics class he would not advise them to serve in the Russian army, that he opposed the war against Ukraine, and that Russia’s leaders exhibited elements of fascism even while saying they were fighting fascism in Ukraine, according to a signed statement taken by police and reviewed by Reuters.

In the following days, the local police and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, summoned Shestakov for questioning, according to the March 5 signed statement about his classroom comments. He said he has not been charged in relation to those comments. The FSB and local police didn’t respond to requests for comment.

A court did fine him 35,000 roubles (about $420) on March 18 for discrediting the Russian armed forces after he re-posted videos online of interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters.

He said he quit his job last month because he believed he would be fired anyway for his public opposition to the war, he told Reuters. The local education authority and the education ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment on Shestakov and the teaching guide. When Reuters reached the school by phone, a woman who identified herself as acting head teacher said she declined to comment on Shestakov’s case and ended the call.

Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar teaching guides, according to two teacher’s union officials, two other teachers and social media posts from two schools reporting they had taught the modules.

Olga Miryasova, an official with a trade union called Teacher, said regional education authorities circulated the teaching guide Shestakov received to multiple schools around the country. Reuters was unable to determine independently how many schools received the modules. One of the teachers said they received a different teaching pack from the one Shestakov did, though it contained similar content.

The initiative shows how the Russian state — which has been intensifying its grip on the mainstream media — is now extending its propaganda effort about the Ukraine war into schools as the Kremlin seeks to shore up support. Since the war started, many Russian schools have posted images on social media showing pupils sending messages of support to troops fighting in Ukraine and standing in formation to spell out the letter “Z,” a symbol of support for the war in Russia.

Teachers who disagree with the war are now joining the ranks of opposition activists, non-governmental organisation campaigners, and independent journalists in feeling the pressure of the Russian state, with fines, prosecutions, and the prospect of forfeiting their jobs. President Vladimir Putin in early March signed into law legislation that makes the spread of “fake” information about the Russian armed forces, an offence punishable with fines or jail terms of up to 15 years.

Even before the invasion, the Kremlin had been tightening the screws on its opponents using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists.

The Kremlin didn’t respond to requests for comment about its handling of opposition to the war, the teaching guide and Shestakov’s case.

Russia’s Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov told a parliamentary committee in March that his ministry had launched a nationwide drive to discuss Russian-Ukrainian relations with pupils, amid questions from children about the situation in Ukraine and sanctions.

The Kremlin has said it is enforcing laws to thwart extremism and threats to stability. It says it is conducting what it calls a “special operation” to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and “denazify” Ukraine and prevent genocide against Russian speakers, especially in the east of the country. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war, and accuse Russian forces of killing civilians.

WEST’S ‘HYBRID WARFARE’

The teaching guide that Shestakov received says it is aimed at pupils aged between 14 and 18 years. It comprises detailed lesson plans for teachers, links to videos of speeches by President Putin and short films to illustrate the lessons.

According to the teaching materials, the West is waging information warfare to try to turn public opinion against Russia’s rulers, and that all Russian people need to stand firm against that.

One lesson plan explains Russia was fighting a cultural war against the West which had destroyed “the institute of the traditional family” and was now trying to foist its values on Russia.

It says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had conducted an anti-Russian policy. “There were attacks on the Russian language, our common history was falsified, war criminals and criminal groups from World War Two were turned into heroes,” according to the document, which refers to Ukrainian nationalists who made an alliance with Germany during that war.

Another lesson says that the West is deploying “hybrid warfare” — a mixture of propaganda, economic sanctions, and military pressure — to try to defeat Russia by fomenting internal conflict. “That is precisely why they urge us to attend unsanctioned demonstrations, they incite us to break the law, and try to scare us,” it reads.

“We must not succumb to provocation,” the document says.

The modules include a game where pupils have 15 seconds to decide if a statement is true or false. One statement reads: “The organisation of protests, provocations of the authorities and mass gatherings are an effective way of resolving a hybrid conflict.” According to the lesson guide, the correct answer is “false.”

Reuters found social media posts from a school in Samara, on the Volga river, and a school in Minusinsk, southern Siberia, showing slides from the same presentations being used.

Danil Plotnikov, a math teacher in Chelyabinsk, the Ural mountains, told Reuters he had been asked by his bosses to teach similar content but from a different teaching pack than the one Shestakov received; Plotnikov didn’t identify who the bosses were. Tatyana Chernenko, a math teacher in Moscow, said colleagues in other schools told her they had been asked to teach similar modules but they had not been taught in her school.

The teachers Reuters spoke to said that some regions and schools pushed the lessons harder than others. None of the five teachers said they had heard of cases where teachers were explicitly ordered to teach the modules. They said it was usually framed as a request, or a recommendation by a school or regional education authorities.

Some had said no, and faced no consequence, said Daniil Ken, chair of an independent teachers’ trade union called Teachers’ Alliance. Others did not teach the lessons but told bosses they had, said Ken. He added refusing was a risk, with teachers not knowing if their head teachers would pressure them to quit.

Ken said his union has heard from about half a dozen teachers a week who say they are quitting because they didn’t want to promote the Kremlin’s line – something Reuters wasn’t able to independently verify.

POLITICAL AWAKENING

Shestakov wears his hair close cropped and practices sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet army. He said his career in the police included a one-year stint in the interior ministry special forces, an arm of law enforcement whose officers are now fighting in Ukraine. The interior ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

By 2018, when he was a community officer working with juvenile offenders, he had a political awakening, according to Shestakov. He said he started watching videos put out by Navalny, the opposition figure who is now in a Russian jail, alleging corruption by Kremlin leaders.

“I became a real opposition person,” Shestakov said.

He said when the war in Ukraine started, the images of casualties disturbed him and he spent hours watching videos of the fighting on social media.

Under a pseudonym, he re-posted the videos of interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine to the comments section of a local media outlet that has about 5,200 subscribers, according to Shestakov and the March 18 court ruling seen by Reuters.

The court said his actions were a violation of a law forbidding the discrediting of the Russian armed forces.

Shestakov said he suspects the FSB has in recent weeks been eavesdropping on his phone conversations, though he did not have evidence of that. He also said that he has seen people he recognises as undercover FSB officers three times in recent days. The FSB didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether it is monitoring him.

Now, Shestakov plans to leave Russia because he says he fears further penalties from authorities. He would join tens of thousands of Kremlin opponents who have also fled the country since Putin began cracking down hard on opposition in 2018.

He said he planned to go to Turkey, unless the authorities bar him from leaving the country.

Staying and dropping his public opposition to the war was not an option for him, Shestakov said. “It will be hard for me to keep my mouth shut,” he said.

(Editing by Christian Lowe and Cassell Bryan-Low)

Poland’s border guard counted more people leaving Polish territory for Ukraine on Sunday than entering Poland from its war-torn neighbour.

The border guard said on Twitter on Monday that some 19,300 people had left Poland for Ukraine in 24 hours. Some 17,300 people entered Poland from Ukraine in the same period, 10% fewer than the previous day.

According to UN figures, more than 2.81 million people have fled Ukraine for neighbouring Poland since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.

Ukrainian returnees mostly travel to areas that the Ukrainian army has recaptured as Russian forces have retreated east.

There is no official information on how many refugees have stayed in Poland and how many have travelled on to other EU states.

Ukraine had more than 44 million inhabitants before the Russian invasion. Poland and Ukraine are connected by a border more than 500 kilometres long.

Los Angeles (AFP) – “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” had a slightly less than fantastic North American opening this weekend, at least by Wizarding World standards, taking in an estimated $43 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

Ticket sales for the Warner Bros. fantasy film, the third in the “Fantastic Beasts” series, were the lowest of any of the 11 films in the Wizarding World franchise, even while topping the weekend box office, industry outlet Variety said.

“Fantastic Beasts was never going to maintain Harry Potter’s success,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “That was a once-in-a-generation phenomenon.”

Some of the early Potter gloss has been lost as author J.K. Rowling faces criticism over statements on sex and gender identity. But Gross said the series remains strong overseas — as it will need to do, with Covid-inflated production costs of some $200 million. 

In second place, down sharply from last weekend’s $71 million opening, was Paramount’s family friendly “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” at $30 million. The hybrid film features Jim Carrey in a live-action role, while Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba and Colleen O’Shaughnessey voice animated characters.

The original Harry Potter, likable British actor Daniel Radcliffe, has embraced the dark side as a villain in Paramount’s “The Lost City,” which took in $6.5 million to place third for the Friday-through-Sunday period. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum also star.

Sci-fi comedy film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from indie production company A24 came in fourth, at $6.2 million. The movie has enjoyed strong reviews — with a 97 percent rating on the Rotten Tomatoes site — with critics lauding its originality.

Its unlikely plot has Michelle Yeoh playing a woman being audited by tax authorities who learns that she must jump between versions of herself in different multiverses to save them all.

And in the fifth spot was new Sony/Columbia Pictures release “Father Stu,” at $5.7 million. Based on a true-life story, Mark Wahlberg plays a boxer who gains religion and becomes a priest after suffering a muscular disease. 

The film has drawn mixed reviews but strong audience ratings. Mel Gibson also stars.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Morbius” ($4.7 million)

“Ambulance” ($4 million)

“The Batman” ($3.8 million)

“KFG Chapter 2” ($2.9 million)

“Uncharted” ($1.2 million)

Miami (AFP) – Florida on Thursday signed into law a 15-week abortion ban, becoming the latest US state to further restrict reproductive rights in a nationwide push by conservatives.

Tighter restrictions in states including Texas and Idaho come as the Supreme Court looks poised to re-examine the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that cemented a woman’s right to abortion.

The court is now dominated by conservatives following the nomination of three justices by former president Donald Trump.

“We are here today to defend those who can’t defend themselves,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said as he signed the law which reduced the abortion limit from 24 to 15 weeks.

“This will represent the most significant protection for life that’s been enacted in this state in a generation,” DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, added.

Right-wing politicians have launched an assault on abortion, with Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, fighting back to protect access to the procedure.

The Florida law, which comes into force on July 1, includes exemptions if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality, but not in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking.

“This abortion ban is an attack on our most fundamental freedoms — the right to control our own bodies, our own futures,” said Stephanie Fraim of Planned Parenthood.

A recent bill passed in Idaho allows families of women who have had abortions — and the father of the fetus — to sue providers, taking enforcement out of the hands of the state, in a move modeled on a controversial new Texas law.

Other bills are in the works in Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, with California, Washington state and Vermont taking an opposing stance and promoting pro-choice abortion rights.