Good morning dear friends,
Welcome back in 2022. We are glad that you are opening the Free Europe 3 minute newsletter, the world described several times a day.
Here is the main news of the morning:
- Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with Tayyip Erdogan about strengthening the Russia-Turkey partnership. Ankara delivers weapons to Ukraine.
- US President Joe Biden speaks on the phone for the third time in the last month with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the context of the Russian threat.
- Twitter shuts down Republican politician Marjorie Greene, a member of Congress, over false information about vaccination and pandemic.
Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders, a major concern in 2022
According to a statement from the Kremlin, dubbed by the Turkish presidency, yesterday’s January 2 meeting between Moscow leader Vladimir Putin and Ankara leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused on Russia’s security, the situation in the Caucasus. south, but also on the problems in Syria and Libya. The discussion was about the general idea of strengthening relations between Russia and Turkey.
The phone call, Free Europe notes, comes after Turkey – NATO’s second-strongest army – reaffirmed its support for Ukraine’s integrity. Ankara has infuriated Moscow by delivering military drones to the Ukrainian army, already used against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in mid-October.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenski, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, at their meeting at the White House / Washington, on September 1, 2021.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden spoke again on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the third talks in three weeks amid more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border.
In a context, The Guardian quotes in a front-page article the head of the Congressional Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, who warns that Russia will attack Ukraine if the sanctions with which the West already threatens Moscow do not prove unprecedented.
Plus a strong statement from the senior US official: “A strong form of intimidation of the opponent is that (Russians no) understand that if they invade Ukraine, this will bring NATO closer to Russia, not further.”
Twitter is blocking another US candidate. Why?
The Guardian, like the American press and not only, notes that Twitter has permanently banned access to the network, a representative of Georgia in the US Congress, Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. The reply was that “Twitter is an enemy of the American nation and cannot accept the truth.”
Last year, Greene’s personal Twitter account was suspended four times between 12 hours and a week for messages “misleading enough to hurt others,” according to Twittter rules.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and colleagues Matt Gaetz and Louie Gohmert spoke on December 7, 2021, about the treatment of those accused of the January 6, 2021 Capitol violence and who are in prison.
Member of Congress for 2020, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is one of the most controversial politicians in Washington, writes BBC. An ardent supporter of President Trump vehemently supported his baseless allegations that the election in which he was defeated was rigged.
In fact, the New York Times presents a balance of the investigation related to the assault on the Capitol, from January 6, 2021, a moment that will be marked on Thursday, a year later, in the Congress.
The Washington Post counts 19 misinformation of the Republican politician, including the idea that the Covid virus is not dangerous for non-obese people under 65 (825,000 Americans died of Covid, many without being at risk) or that the vaccine is not it is useless (when in Romania, for example, only about 10% of patients who died of Covid were vaccinated).
WP insists on pro-Trump messages (whose Twitter account was blocked on the day of the assault of its supporters on Congress), messages focused on a conspiracy theory that former president’s opponents are a parallel state, whose members are trafficking children.
The phrase became familiar in Romania during the Dragnea-Dăncilă government. Recently, various forms of misinformation and fake news can be found on social media accounts and messages from politicians such as Diana Șoșoacă or businessmen such as Gigi Becali.
Preparations for the 5th wave of the pandemic
The entire international press, but also the Romanian press, talks about the preparations of different governments in the face of the exponential expansion of Omicron infection.
The BBC discusses the renewed requirement for students to wear masks to school and reports on the testing policy. However, according to the Times, British ministers are convinced that new restrictions are not necessary since Omicron is spreading too fast.
The authorities in Bucharest also seem to believe that they preferred to minimize the restrictions during the holidays, but continued the explanations related to vaccination against medication, as explained, among others, by G4Media.
What is certain is that Israel has invited vulnerable people to get a fourth dose of the vaccine. Despite reports that Omicron is not as lethal as Delta, the Tel Aviv authorities prefer that collective immunity be achieved through vaccination, not mass infection.
Other topics:
- An analysis related to the depoliticization of the Constitutional Court publishes Adevărul, shortly after the European Court of Justice specified that Romanian judges are not bound by CCR decisions if they violate European law.
- The Times warns of the spread of an extremely dangerous phenomenon, the so-called “incel” sites, involuntary singles who spread hatred against women and even incitement to rape, with practical effects in killing at least five people.
- The Minister of Culture complains that the Netflix production “Emily in Paris” presents Ukraine as derogatory through a Petra character who steals from stores. “Why should such a character be from Ukraine?” he wonders.
Remember that you can write to us about these topics or others at treiminute@rferl.org.
All the best, see you tomorrow,
Elena
