BORODYANKA/LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – A fire broke out in a training building outside the largest nuclear power plant in Europe during intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Friday.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said there was no indication of elevated radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which provides more than a fifth of total electricity generated in Ukraine.

A video feed from the plant verified by Reuters showed shelling and smoke rising near a building at the plant compound.

There has been fierce fighting in the area about 550 km (342 miles) southeast of Kyiv, the mayor of the nearby town of Energodar said in an online post. He said there had been casualties, without giving details.

“As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire,” Mayor Dmytro Orlov said on his Telegram channel.

Russia has already captured the defunct Chernobyl plant, about 100 km north of Kyiv, which spewed radioactive waste over much of Europe when it melted down in 1986. The Zaporizhzhia plant is a different and safer type, some analysts said.

Early reports of the incident at the power plant sent financial markets in Asia spiralling, with stocks tumbling and oil prices surging further. [MKTS/GLOB]

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy to get an update on the situation at the plant.

“President Biden joined President Zelenskiy in urging Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site,” the White House said.

Energy Secretary Granholm said on Twitter that the reactors at Zaporizhzhia were “protected by robust containment structures” and were being “safely shut down”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the Russian army was “firing from all sides” on the plant.

“Fire has already broke out … Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!” he wrote on Twitter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a tweet that it was “aware of reports of shelling” at the power plant and was in contact with Ukrainian authorities.

SANCTIONS MOUNT

As the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two enters its ninth day, thousands are thought to have died or been wounded, 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine and Russia’s economy has been rocked by international sanctions.

The United States and Britain announced sanctions on more Russian oligarchs on Thursday, following on from EU measures, as they ratcheted up the pressure on the Kremlin.

More companies including Alphabet Inc’s Google, footwear giant Nike and Swedish home furnishing firm IKEA shut down or reduced operations in Russia as trade restrictions and supply constraints added to political pressure.

Sanctions have “had a profound impact already,” Biden said.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that is not designed to occupy territory but to topple the democratically elected government, destroy its neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. It denies targeting civilians.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Aleksandar Vasovic in Ukraine, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and other Reuters bureaux; Writing by Costas Pitas and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Colin Farrell thinks the crotch on his ‘Batman’ action figure is “too ample”.

The 45-year-old actor stars in Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ as villain The Penguin alongside Robert Pattinson in the title role as the DC Comics superhero, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Paul Dano as Riddler, and he has jokingly complained that the pelvic area on his toy likeness is “all wrong”.

He said: “The eyebrows are in the neighbourhood. I look like I’m wearing a sumo thing. The crotch is all wrong. Far too ample.”

During an appearance on ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’ alongside Patrick Stewart, host James then pulled out out an action figure depicting Patrick as his ‘Star Trek’ alter-ego Captain Picard, praising the rear of the mini space traveller.

James said: “What I like on this guy is the a**. Look at the a** on that guy! It’s like a separate a**, it’s like an extra additional a**!”

After Colin quipped that his action figure’s derriere was “too flat”, Patrick asked Colin to turn his own figure around so he could examine them both, with Patrick’s mini-me appearing to be considerably more “pert”.

Colin said: “Who made this genius rendering of my a**? It’s very flat, it looks like I’ve been sitting down for 10 years.[Yours is] very pert!”

In response, Patrick joked that he had “no idea” as the pair questioned who had designed such figurines.

Patrick said: “I swear to you I didn’t know!”

Prompting James to say with a laugh: “Yeah you did. Look at that tight peach!”

Elsewhere in the interview, the trio discussed how Patrick’s former co-star William Shatner had trekked into space for real on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket and James asked Patrick would ever do the same.

Patrick replied: “Yeah, I’ve thought about it … I think I would pass!”

New York (AFP) – The National Rifle Association escaped a court-ordered dissolution Wednesday, after a New York judge ruled that alleged self-dealing by the powerful gun lobby’s leader, if proven, would not warrant such a strong penalty.

The state’s lawsuit seeking to boot NRA chief Wayne LaPierre from his post will, however, be allowed to proceed.

“Allegations in this case, if proven, tell a grim story of greed, self-dealing, and lax financial oversight at the highest levels of the National Rifle Association,” State Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen ruled in his 42-page decision.

Nonetheless, New York Attorney General Letitia James failed to show “the type of public harm that is the legal linchpin for imposing the ‘corporate death penalty,'” Cohen added, referring to James’s request to fully dissolve the 150-year-old organization.

“Her allegations concern primarily private harm to the NRA and its members and donors, which if proven can be addressed by the targeted, less intrusive relief she seeks through other claims in her complaint,” Cohen said.

James, a Democrat, is seeking monetary penalties from LaPierre, the NRA’s leader since 1991, and three other executives. She also wants to ban them permanently from working for any New York non-profits.

In a press release, the attorney general hailed Cohen’s decision to reaffirm her office’s “right to pursue its long-standing claims that fraud, abuse, and greed permeate through the NRA and its senior leadership.”

She added that she is “disappointed that the judge ruled against the dissolution portion of the case,” but she will continue to explore legal options.

After a 15-month investigation into the NRA, Attorney General James filed a lawsuit in August 2020 alleging wide-spread fraud in the organization and frequent self-dealing by Lapierre — an accusation which he denies.

According to James’s court filing, LaPierre often used NRA funds to fly his family to the Bahamas for luxury vacations, among numerous other instances of alleged illegal wrongdoing.

The gun lobby almost exclusively supports Republicans and staunchly defends the Second Amendment’s stated right of Americans to bear arms.

While legally headquartered in New York, the NRA’s main offices are in Virginia, just outside of Washington.

In May 2021, it attempted to reincorporate in Texas and file for bankruptcy, but a US judge blocked the move.

Jennifer Hudson is getting her own daytime talk show.

The Academy Award winner, 40, will be debuting ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’ on Fox in the autumn.

Jennifer said: “I have experienced so much in my life; I’ve seen the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows, and just about everything in between but as my mother always told me, ‘Once you think you’ve seen it all, just keep on living.'”

The ‘Dreamgirls’ star is “so ready” to explore “the things that inspire and move us all”

Jennifer said: “People from around the world have been a part of my journey from the beginning – twenty years ago – and I’m so ready to join their journey as we sit down and talk about the things that inspire and move us all.”

The ‘Respect’ star “couldn’t be more thrilled” to be showing a newer side of herself.

Jennifer said: “I have always loved people and I cannot wait to connect on a deeper level and let audiences see the different sides of who I am, the human being, in return.

“And I couldn’t be more thrilled to do it alongside this incredible team. We’re about to have a lot of fun and shake things up a little bit!”

The recent NAACP Image Award winner recently gushed about her 12-year-old son Daniel – who she shares with her ex David Otunga – on her Instagram after they attended the NBA’s All Star Weekend in Cleveland and met many basketball legends, such as Shaquille O’Neal.

Jennifer wrote: “I’m a boy mom and proud of it!”

In another post, she wrote “There’s nothing like seeing life [through] your child’s eyes and watching their dreams come to life. Thank [you] to the whole @NBA for making all my boy’s dreams come true. It’s all about the basketball for the babies but for me, it’s all about the babies and what my kid is into, I’m into!”

Darren Criss is heartbroken “beyond measure” after his brother Charles died by suicide.

The former ‘Glee’ star shared the tragic news – along with a slideshow of the singer and his 36-year-old brother – on social media.

The 35-year-old actor wrote on Instagram: “It breaks my heart beyond measure to say that my beloved brother Charles has left us.’

Darren called it a “colossal shock”

He continued:“His loss leaves behind a debilitating fracture in the lives of his mother, his brother, his three small children, and their respective mothers.”

The ‘American Crime Story’ star has spent time “trying to wrap” his brain around the loss but thinks the question will never leave him.

Darren said: “I have spent what feels like a small eternity trying to wrap my head around it, something I suspect I’ll be attempting to do for the rest of my life.

“But in the short time that I’ve had to process everything, I’ve managed to put some words together that may help with some of the questions you have.

Darren admitted that it gave him “peace” to share both his loss.

He said: “And though it’s with the heaviest sadness I’ve ever felt to have to write this, it does give me peace to know I’m putting it out there.”

“I’ve learned by now that vagueness can lead to confusion, and provoke ideas far worse than the truth.”

“The last several years were increasingly difficult for Chuck as he struggled to find stability during an unfortunate rough patch in his life.”

Darren shared that his brother “had a severe depression welling up inside him” that he was good at hiding from his loved ones.

“Despite our very vocal concerns about his well-being, and his protestations that everything was fine, it’s crushing to say now that Chuck clearly had a severe depression welling up in him for some time.

“A depression that was only worsened by a lifelong struggle he had with expressing his feelings — a dangerous combination only outmatched by his all-too-incredible ability to conceal it.”

Darren – who is expecting his first child in the spring with partner Mia Swier – concluded: “Not just from the world at large, but most tragically, from the people who were closest to him.”

Evan Rachel Wood is set to play Madonna in ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as the parody song legend in his upcoming biopic, and now the 34-year-old actress has boarded the cast as The Queen of Pop and wowed with her transformation into the 63-year-old music icon.

Evan shared a snap of her in the lace wedding dress-style ensemble, complete with stacked jewellery and the cross earrings, which Madonna wore in her music video for 1984 hit ‘Like a Virgin’, a song which Al famously parodied and turned into ‘Like a Surgeon’.

Alongside the snap, Evan wrote: “The secret’s out! I am having WAY TOO MUCH FUN playing the iconic Madonna in @therokuchannel’s WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story with Daniel Radcliffe.”

Looking forward to the project, Al said: “When my last movie ‘UHF’ came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork. I’m very happy to say we’re on schedule.

“And I am absolutely thrilled that Daniel Radcliffe will be portraying me in the film. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for.”

Production is fully underway in Los Angeles, and the movie will be available exclusively on The Roku Channel.

Colin Davis, Roku’s head of original scripted programming, said: “There clearly aren’t enough biopic movies about famous musicians and we were excited to shine a light on the incredibly true, unexaggerated story of Weird Al.

“This is sincerely the ultimate combination of talent, creativity, and friends, coming together to make something genuinely funny and we could not be prouder to call this film a Roku Original.”

Eric Appel, the film’s writer and director, jumped at the chance to turn Weird Al’s life into a film.

Eric shared: “When Weird Al first sat me down against my will and told me his life story, I didn’t believe any of it, but I knew that we had to make a movie about it.”

By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) – Florida’s Republican-led Senate on Thursday is expected to pass a bill to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, putting the state one step closer to adopting a gestational limit currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state’s House of Representatives, which also has a Republican majority, approved the measure last month on a party-line vote. Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, is expected to sign it after Senate approval.

Enactment of the law would significantly reduce access to late-term abortions for women across the U.S. Southeast, many of whom travel hundreds of miles to end pregnancies in Florida because of stricter abortion laws in surrounding states.

The state currently permits abortions up to 24 weeks without a mandatory waiting period, meaning a woman can terminate her pregnancy the day she arrives at a clinic.

Florida’s measure, which would take effect on July 1, makes exceptions to the 15-week rule only in cases when the mother is at risk of death or “irreversible physical impairment,” or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality.

In a session on Wednesday, lawmakers debated an amendment to the bill that would make exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking, which ultimately failed.

Democratic lawmakers who supported the amendment asked their colleagues to focus on the emotional needs of pregnant victims of sexual assault. “We’re better than this,” state Senator Victor Torres said.

The bill’s sponsor, state Senator Kelli Stargel, defended the bill’s exclusion of an exception for rape. She said she rejected the premise that a “child should be killed because of the circumstances in which it was conceived.”

Republican lawmakers around the country have introduced bills mirroring a 15-week abortion ban enacted by Mississippi and now being weighed by the Supreme Court after lower courts blocked the measure as unconstitutional. Arizona’s Senate and West Virginia’s House passed similar 15-week abortion bans last month.

During oral arguments in December, the Supreme Court indicated its willingness to allow Mississippi’s law to stand. A ruling in Mississippi’s favor would conflict with the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing the right to end a pregnancy before the fetus is viable, typically around 24 weeks.

Besides seeking reinstatement of its abortion law, the state of Mississippi in Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Dobbs has asked the high court to overturn Roe altogether.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected this spring.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida said a privacy clause in Florida’s constitution that protects against government “intrusion” in residents’ private lives would be grounds for a lawsuit challenging a 15-week abortion ban, even as the Supreme Court has not yet decided on the constitutionality of the restriction.

“Because of the explicit right to privacy in our state constitution, Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Dobbs will not dictate what happens with Florida’s cruel 15-week abortion ban,” Kara Gross, ACLU Florida’s legislative director, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Aurora Ellis)

Kyiv (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed no let-up in his invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, even as the warring sides met for ceasefire talks and Kyiv appealed for relief supplies to reach shattered cities.

After the fall of a first major Ukrainian city to Russian forces, Putin appeared in no mood to heed a global clamour for an end to hostilities as the war entered its second week.

“Russia intends to continue the uncompromising fight against militants of nationalist armed groups,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin account of a call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

But Ukraine insisted that corridors for medical and other supplies were the bare minimum it expected, as negotiators arrived for the talks at an undisclosed location on the Belarus-Poland border.

A first round of talks on Monday yielded no breakthrough, and Kyiv says it will not accept any Russian “ultimatums”.

Putin, however, said any attempts to slow the talks process would “only lead to additional demands on Kyiv in our negotiating position”.

For his part, Macron said he feared that “worse is to come” in the conflict and condemned Putin’s “lies”, according to an aide.

The invasion, now in its eighth day, has created a refugee exodus and turned Russia into a global pariah in the worlds of finance, diplomacy and sports. 

The UN has opened a probe into alleged war crimes, as the Russian military bombards cities in Ukraine with shells and missiles, forcing civilians to cower in basements.

“We will restore every house, every street, every city and we say to Russia: learn the word ‘reparations’,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video statement. 

“You will reimburse us for everything you did against our state, against every Ukrainian, in full,” he said. 

‘Just like Leningrad’

Zelensky claims thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed since Putin shocked the world by invading Ukraine, purportedly to demilitarise and “de-Nazify” a Western-leaning threat on his borders.

Moscow says it has lost 498 troops and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would praise their sacrifice at a meeting with his security chiefs.

“It’s a huge tragedy,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow. 

“But we also admire the heroism of our soldiers. Their exploits will enter into the history books, their exploits in the struggle against the Nazis.” 

The Kremlin has been condemned for likening the government of Zelensky, who is Jewish, to that of Germany in World War II. 

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov kept up a verbal barrage, accusing Western politicians of fixating on “nuclear war” after Putin placed his strategic forces on high alert.

While a long military column appears stalled north of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Russian troops seized Kherson, a Black Sea city of 290,000 people, after a three-day siege that left it short of food and medicine.

Russian troops have been advancing elsewhere on the southern front and are besieging the port city of Mariupol east of Kherson, which is without water or electricity in the depths of winter.

“They are trying to create a blockade here, just like in Leningrad,” Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko said, referring to the siege of Russia’s second largest city, since re-named Saint Petersburg, by Nazi Germany’s invading army in World War II.

Ukrainian military authorities said residential and other areas in the eastern city of Kharkiv had been “pounded all night” by indiscriminate shelling, which UN prosecutors are investigating as a possible war crime.

Oleg Rubak’s wife Katia, 29, was crushed in the rubble of their family home in Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv, by a Russian missile strike.

“One minute I saw her going into the bedroom. A minute later there was nothing,” Rubak, 32, told AFP, standing stunned and angry amid the ruins in the bitter winter chill.

“I hope she’s in heaven and all is perfect for her,” he said, adding through tears, “I want the whole world to hear my story.”

Junk status

The war has displaced more than one million people, according to the United Nations. The body’s aid chief pleaded on Thursday for civilians in Ukraine to be protected and for humanitarian aid to enter unhindered. “Protect civilians, for God’s sake, in Ukraine; let us do our job”, emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths told AFP in Geneva.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency urged Russia to “cease all actions” at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, including the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Putin now finds himself an international outcast, his country the subject of swingeing sanctions that sent the ruble into further freefall on currency markets on Thursday.

Russia’s central bank — whose foreign reserves have been frozen in the West — imposed a 30-percent tax on all sales of hard currency, following a run on lenders by ordinary Russians.

The unfolding financial costs were underlined as ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s slashed Russia’s sovereign debt to “junk” status. 

Turmoil deepened on markets more broadly. European stocks slid and oil prices approached $120 per barrel. 

Swedish furniture giant Ikea became the latest to halt operations in Russia, as well as Belarus.

Russia’s sporting isolation worsened as it lost the right to host Formula One races. And the International Paralympic Committee, in a U-turn, banned Russians and Belarusians from the Beijing Winter Games.

The UN General Assembly voted 141-5 to demand that Russia “immediately” withdraw from Ukraine. Only four countries supported Russia — Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria. China abstained.

Europe stepped up practical support as well as diplomatic. The German government is planning to deliver another 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, a source said. 

Leaving everything behind

Many Ukrainians have now fled into nearby countries, according to the UN refugee agency’s rapidly rising tally.

“We left everything there as they came and ruined our lives,” refugee Svitlana Mostepanenko told AFP in Prague. 

Nathalia Lypka, a professor of German from the eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, arrived in Berlin with her 21-year-old daughter.

“My husband and son stayed… My husband already served in the army, and he had to return to duty,” she said, before boarding a train for Stuttgart where friends were waiting.

Putin’s invasion has appeared hamstrung by poor logistics, tactical blunders and fierce resistance from Ukraine’s outgunned military — as well as its ever-swelling ranks of volunteer fighters.

Scores of images have emerged of burned-out Russian tanks, the charred remains of transporters and of unarmed Ukrainians confronting bewildered occupation forces.

US officials say the massive column of Russian military vehicles amassed north of Kyiv has “stalled” due to fuel and food shortages. 

Russian authorities have imposed a media blackout on what the Kremlin euphemistically calls a “special military operation”.

The Ekho Moskvy radio station — a symbol of new-found media freedom in post-Soviet Russia — said it would shut down after being taken off air over its invasion coverage.

But Russians have still turned out for large anti-war protests across the country, in a direct challenge to Putin’s 20-year rule.

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators have been detained.

“I couldn’t stay at home. This war has to be stopped,” student Anton Kislov, 21, told AFP.

burs-jit/dc/gil

Lady Gaga, Billy Porter and Eric McCormack will co-host Sir Elton John’s Oscar viewing party.

The music legend’s fundraising bash in aid of his Elton John AIDS Foundation will return for the first time as an in-person event since the pandemic on March 27.

The glitzy bash where famous faces watch the Academy Awards has raised more than $86 million over the past three decades.

As well as the ‘Born This Way’ hitmaker, ‘Pose’ star and ‘Will and Grace’ actor hosting with the ‘Rocket Man’ hitmaker, Brandi Carlile is the special guest performer.

Elton’s husband and co-founder of the AIDS Foundation, David Furnish, commented: “Lady Gaga, Billy Porter and Eric McCormack are not only amazingly talented, but have greatly contributed to LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion in entertainment – both on screen and in music.

“I’m honoured to have this group to join me on stage in West Hollywood Park to advocate for all marginalised groups affected by HIV.”

Since its inception in 1992, The Academy Awards Viewing Party has supported the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s efforts to raise millions for their lifesaving work.

Elton, 74, recently threw his support behind the British government’s vow to end HIV infections and deaths in England by 2030.

The government is pumping £23 million into funding for the cause, with an aim of reducing infections by 80 per cent by 2025 and putting an end to all new cases five years later.

And the ‘Tiny Dancer’ hitmaker insisted the most vital thing is “testing”.

Speaking on World AIDS Day in December, Elton said: “One thing we’ve learned this year is the importance of testing and testing for HIV is at the core of ending new cases of HIV in England. It’s so important for everyone to know their HIV status to protect themselves and others.”

Nairobi (AFP) – The United Nations on Wednesday agreed to start negotiating a world-first global treaty on plastic pollution in what has been hailed a watershed moment for the planet.

Nearly 200 nations at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi unanimously agreed to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalise a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024.

UNEA chair Espen Barthe Eide declared the resolution passed with a strike of the gavel as the assembly hall erupted into cheers and applause.

“We are making history today. You should all be proud,” said Eide, who is Norway’s climate and environment minister. 

Negotiators have been given a broad mandate to target plastic trash in all its forms -– not just bottles and straws in the ocean, but invisible microplastics polluting the air, soil and food chain.

‘Historic crossroad’

Supporters described the commitment to take united action on the plastic crisis as the most important environmental decision taken by the UN in years.

“We stand at a crossroad in history when ambitious decisions taken today can prevent plastic pollution from contributing to our planet’s ecosystem collapse,” said Marco Lambertini from WWF.

The broad treaty framework approved by nations — among them major plastic producers like the United States and China — does not spell out specific policies, with particulars to be negotiated later.

But the scope covers the entire life cycle of plastic — a key demand of nations, businesses and environment groups — and could for the first time introduce new rules on the production of new plastic.

It also allows for the negotiation of new rules around the design of plastic products — which are made from oil and gas — to make recycling easier, encourage sustainable use, and spur better waste disposal.

“This is a clear acknowledgement that the entire life cycle of plastic, from fossil fuel extraction to disposal, creates pollution that is harmful to people and the planet,” said Graham Forbes from Greenpeace.

The mandate allows for binding and voluntary measures, and the setting of global targets and obligations, the development of national action plans, and mechanisms for tracking progress and ensuring accountability.

It also calls for financial assistance to help poorer countries take action.

‘Landmark’ decision

The amount of plastic trash entering the oceans is forecast to triple by 2040, and governments have been under pressure to unite behind a global response to the crisis.

The rate of plastic production has grown faster than any other material and is expected to double within two decades, the UN says.

But less than 10 percent is recycled and most winds up in landfill or oceans creating what Eide called an “epidemic” of plastic trash.

By some estimates, a garbage truck’s worth of plastic is dumped into the sea every minute.

Large pieces of plastic are a notorious peril for sea birds, whales and other marine animals. But at the microscopic level, particles of plastic can also enter the food chain, eventually joining the human diet.

Environment groups are buoyed by the broad scope given to negotiators but say the strength of the treaty is yet to be determined.

The first round of negotiations is set for the second half of this year. 

Big corporations have expressed support for a treaty that creates a common set of rules around plastic and a level playing field for competition.

“This is a landmark decision by UN member states. A legally binding treaty that addresses the full life cycle of plastic will make a dramatic difference in the fight against plastic pollution,” said Richard Slater, chief research and development officer at British consumer goods group Unilever.

Big plastic makers have underscored the importance of plastic in construction, medicine and other vital industries and warned that banning certain materials would cause supply chain disruptions.

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A juror who threw Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction into doubt by failing to reveal before trial that he had been sexually abused as a child will not answer a judge’s questions on the matter, his lawyer said.

Juror No. 50, as he is known in court papers, will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination at a scheduled March 8 hearing, lawyer Todd Spodek said in a letter made public on Wednesday.

The hearing before U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan follows Maxwell’s Dec. 29 conviction on five of the six counts she faced for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Maxwell’s lawyers demanded a new trial after the juror told media including Reuters that he shared with other jurors his history of sexual abuse during deliberations.

While denying Maxwell’s request, Nathan said the juror’s statements provided “incontrovertible evidence” that he responded falsely on a screening questionnaire that asked whether he had been sexually abused, denying the defense a chance to question him for bias.

Juror No. 50, who identified himself to the media by his first and middle names Scotty David, signed the form under penalty of perjury, meaning he could face legal consequences if he lied.

Prosecutors who won Maxwell’s conviction told Nathan they will seek an order to compel Juror No. 50’s testimony.

Maxwell, 60, faces up to 65 years in prison. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at the age of 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)

By Hassan Hankir and Hams Rabah

SIDON, Lebanon/AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian refugee Ahmad al-Hariri, who fled the war in his country for neighbouring Lebanon 10 years ago, spent the last decade hoping in vain to escape to a new life in Europe.

Watching European nations open their arms to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in less than a week, the father of three can’t help but compare their fates.

“We are wondering, why were Ukrainians welcome in all countries while we, Syrian refugees, are still in tents and remain under the snow, facing death, and no one is looking to us?” he told Reuters in a refugee centre where 25 families are sheltered on the edge of the Mediterranean city of Sidon.

In the Arab world, where 12 million Syrians have been uprooted by war, critics ranging from Hariri to activists and cartoonists contrast the Western reaction to the refugee crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the way Europe sought to hold back Syrian and other refugees in 2015.

Some recalled images of refugees walking for days in harsh weather, or losing lives in perilous sea crossings as they tried to breach Europe’s borders.

On Monday, four days after Russia launched its attack, the European Union said at least 400,000 refugees had entered the bloc from Ukraine, which has land borders with four EU states.

Millions more are expected and the EU is preparing measures which would offer temporary residence permits as well as access to employment and social welfare – a swift opening of its doors at odds with its response to wars in Syria and elsewhere.

By early 2021, 10 years after Syria’s conflict erupted, EU states had taken in 1 million Syrian refugees and asylum seekers, of which Germany alone took more than half. Most of them arrived before a 2016 deal in which the EU paid billions of euros for Turkey to continue hosting 3.7 million Syrians.

This time the welcome has been immediate.

“We have here not the refugee wave which we are accustomed to and we do not know what to do with – people with an unclear past,” Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said, describing Ukrainians as intelligent, educated and highly qualified.

“These are Europeans whose airport has been just bombed, who are under fire,” he said. Bulgaria has said it will help everyone coming from Ukraine, where there are about 250,000 ethnic Bulgarians.

Last year 3,800 Syrians sought protection in Bulgaria and 1,850 were granted refugee or humanitarian status. Syrians say most refugees only pass through Bulgaria to wealthier EU states.

Poland’s government, which came under heavy international criticism last year for pushing back against a wave of immigrants crossing over from Belarus, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, has welcomed those fleeing the Ukraine war.

In Hungary, which built a barrier along its southern border to prevent a repeat of the 2015 influx of people from the Middle East and Asia, the arrival of refugees from neighbouring Ukraine has triggered an outpouring of support and offers of transport, short-term accommodation, clothes and food.

“RELATIVELY CIVILISED”

Hungary and Poland both say that refugees from the Middle East who arrive at their borders have already crossed other safe countries which have a duty to provide shelter.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto defended the different approaches. “I must reject drawing comparisons between those fleeing war and those trying to get into the country illegally,” he told a United Nations meeting in Geneva.

The welcome has been eased by the fact that Ukraine is home to a large ethnic Hungarian community.

Ties like those have led some Western journalists to suggest that the humanitarian disaster in Ukraine is different to crises in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, because Europeans could relate more closely to the victims.

Their comments sparked a wave of condemnation on social media, accusing the West of bias. Clips of the reports were widely circulated and heavily criticised across the region.

For instance, a television reporter on U.S. network CBS described Kyiv as a “relatively civilised, relatively European” city, in contrast to other war zones. Others said Ukraine was different because those fleeing were middle class or watched Netflix.

The CBS reporter Charlie D’Agata apologised, saying he had been trying to convey the scale of the conflict. CBS did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Nadim Houry, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, said parts of the media coverage were disturbing and revealed “ignorance about refugees from other parts of the world who also have the same aspirations as Ukrainians”.

FIGHTERS

Houry and other critics also say some governments are showing double standards on the issue of volunteers who want to fight in Ukraine against Russian forces.

Britain’s foreign minister Liz Truss on Sunday backed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s appeal for people to join an international force to fight Russian troops. “Absolutely. If people want to support that struggle, I would support them doing that,” she told BBC television.

In contrast, British police warned Britons travelling to Syria to help the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad eight years ago that they could be arrested on their return, saying they may pose a security risk to the UK.

The foreign office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Truss’s remarks. Defence minister Ben Wallace said the situation was different to fighters who joined groups like Islamic State in Syria, but that the government would discourage people from going to Ukraine.

While their sense of abandonment has been heightened by the Ukrainians’ welcome in eastern Europe, several refugees in north Syria, Lebanon and in Jordan told Reuters responsibility for their plight lay with authorities closer to home.

Some say Arab countries should have done more to support the military struggle against Assad, which grew out of widespread popular protests against the president in 2011, and helped the refugees more. Apart from Syria’s neighbours Jordan and Lebanon, Arab countries have taken in few of the war’s displaced people.

“We do not blame European countries, we blame Arab countries,” said Ali Khlaif, living in a tented camp near the northwestern Syrian town of Azaz. “European countries welcome those from their people. We blame our Arab brethren, not the rest.”

(Additional reporting by Gergely Szakacs in Budapest, William James in London, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia; Writing by Dominic Evans, Editing by William Maclean)

By Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans challenging court-drawn congressional district maps in North Carolina and Pennsylvania have asked the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to embrace an esoteric legal theory that could give politicians far greater power over elections.

The cases, filed using the court’s emergency “shadow docket” that can allow it to act quickly and without the public deliberation that is a staple of major cases, seek to advance the “independent state legislature doctrine,” a little-known legal theory that could limit the ability of state courts to impose new maps.

The 6-3 majority conservative court is considering the Republicans’ emergency requests to block lower court decisions that approved electoral maps for U.S. House of Representatives races replacing ones drawn by the Republican-led legislatures in the two states, where primary elections take place on May 17. The court, which has been increasingly assertive in taking up contentious cases, could act within days.

In the North Carolina case in particular, the Republican challengers place front and center the theory that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures, and not other entities such as state courts, the power to set rules governing elections, including where district lines are drawn.

“They’re very aggressive because they are asserting that legislatures when they are engaged in congressional redistricting are essentially immune from all state law,” said Paul Smith, the senior vice president at Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan voting rights organization.

Critics say the independent state legislature doctrine flouts democratic principles because it could limit the ability of courts to block electoral districts designed to entrench one political party in power, known as gerrymandering.

EMPOWERS PARTISANSHIP

The doctrine could also stymie challenges on issues such as voter identification, mail-in ballots and drop boxes, which Republicans have sought to restrict in a number of states, and factor into lawsuits that arise in the heat of an election.

“It’s dangerous because state politicians are the people most interested in crafting the rules of the game to help themselves and their side continue to win,” said Josh Douglas, a voting rights expert at the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law.

In most states, lawmakers control the process of redrawing their congressional maps every 10 years after the U.S. Census has been taken. The Supreme Court in 2019 said federal courts are powerless to intervene to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

Republicans need to flip only a handful of seats in November’s midterm elections to recapture control of the U.S. House and hinder much of Democratic President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

The doctrine, which is gaining traction in conservative legal circles, is based in part on language in the U.S. Constitution that the “times, places and manner” of federal elections “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

The Republican challengers are pressing the theory at a time when the Supreme Court seems more receptive to it.

Four of the court’s conservative justices appeared to lend weight to the argument during the flurry of litigation around the 2020 election, when Republican lawmakers or officials sought to block court decisions requiring changes to election deadlines and rules, to account for the coronavirus pandemic.

For instance, in a case from Wisconsin last October, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in an opinion that “state courts do not have a blank check to rewrite state election laws for federal elections.”

Kavanaugh is one of three conservative justices appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump, who has continued to falsely claim that his election defeat to Biden was the result of fraud, inspiring a wave of new restrictions on voting in Republican-led states.

The dispute in North Carolina centers on a state supreme court ruling last month that struck down the Republican-dominated legislature’s congressional map as a violation of the state’s constitution.

That ruling came in two lawsuits brought by plaintiffs including Democratic voters and an environmental group claiming that the map was biased toward Republicans. A lower court then adopted a remedial map drawn by a bipartisan panel of experts.

Republican lawmakers in the state urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, saying the federal Constitution “does not give the state courts, or any other organ of state government, the power to second-guess the legislature’s determinations.”

In Pennsylvania, the state supreme court last month approved a new congressional map after Democratic Governor Tom Wolf vetoed one drawn by the majority-Republican legislature, saying it gave an unfair advantage to Republicans.

Republicans, including one who is running for office, then sued to block the new map and turned to the U.S. Supreme Court when their efforts failed, saying the state court had “no authority to impose a congressional map” unless the legislature authorized it.

Their lawyer, Jonathan Mitchell, told Reuters his argument was not as broad as that made in the North Carolina case because he concedes that courts can intervene when a legislatively enacted map violates the state or federal Constitution.

“The problem is that the [Pennsylvania] court acted to impose a map of its choosing, not to remedy a state or federal constitutional violation,” he said.

In another redistricting case on a different legal question, the court last month allowed Alabama to use a Republican-backed map, signaling further weakening of the Voting Rights Act enacted to protect minority voters.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Scott Malone and Mark Porter)

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Texas man who is the first person to stand trial for joining the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol told a friend he wanted to drag Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the building, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Guy Reffitt, of Wylie, Texas, is the first of some 750 people charged with joining the riot by Donald Trump’s supporters to face trial in Washington. Reffitt has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including carrying a semi-automatic handgun while on Capitol grounds.

“The defendant was the tip of this mob’s spear,” federal prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors in his opening statement, saying Reffitt led a mob of rioters up the Capitol’s stairs to “overwhelm” police and storm the building.

Nestler said Reffitt texted a friend about plans to drag Pelosi and other lawmakers from the building.

“I just want to see Pelosi’s head hitting every fucking stair” of the building, Reffitt told the friend, according to the prosecutor.

Reffitt’s lawyer, William Welch, gave a brief opening statement, addressing jurors for only two minutes.

“He exaggerates and he rants,” Welch said of his client. “This trial will be about fact versus hype.”

Some 200 defendants have already pleaded guilty to joining the mob, which sent lawmakers running for their lives. Reffitt’s trial is an important test case as the U.S. Justice Department attempts to secure convictions from the hundreds of defendants who have not taken plea deals.

They face charges ranging from unlawful picketing to seditious conspiracy, with which 11 people affiliated with the right-wing Oath Keepers were charged in January.

One of those 11 defendants, Joshua James, has a plea hearing scheduled for Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) — a likely sign that he will plead guilty. Such a guilty plea would be a notable victory for the Justice Department, which hopes to secure a similar conviction against Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and other defendants in the sedition case.

A guilty verdict for Reffitt could motivate defendants to accept plea deals offered by prosecutors. But a verdict in Reffitt’s favor could encourage the hundreds of defendants who have not taken plea deals to roll the dice on a trial.

Reffitt also faces charges of obstruction for allegedly threatening his teenage children with harm if they turned him in to authorities.

Reffitt’s estranged son Jackson, now 19, turned him into the FBI. The son will testify against his father at trial, Nestler said.

Thousands of people stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after a fiery speech in which Trump falsely claimed his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud, an assertion rejected by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration.

Four people died on the day of the violence, one shot dead by police and the other three of natural causes. A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the following day.

Four police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. More than a hundred police officers were injured in the riot.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone, Kenneth Maxwell, Bill Berkrot and Jonathan Oatis)