Airstrikes Intensify as Third Week of Fighting Unfolds

www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright Sponsored by Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. Mar 10, 2022 Today Ukraine’s president made an impassioned plea to the West as the Russian invasion entered its third week. The EPA is renewing permits for chemicals proven to decimate bee populations. Thousands of women in Mexico took to the streets to protest rampant femicide, while women in Afghanistan risk their lives to speak up. And Marion Marechal, heir to France’s far-right Le Pen political dynasty, dealt a major blow to her aunt, Marine Le Pen. All this and more in today’s PDB. IMPORTANT ‘Stop the Killings’ Russia Steps Up Attacks on Cities as Humanitarian Crisis Deepens Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shifted tone as the war entered its third week and Russian forces bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol. In a fiery message to his 5.1 million Twitter followers, Zelenskyy moved from rallying Western countries to condemning them for not doing enough as a grave humanitarian crisis worsens. “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity!” Zelenskyy wrote. “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?” The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine will meet today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss a peace deal as Russian forces escalate airstrikes against civilians. (Sources:[WaPo](, [NYT]() Bee Worried EPA to Permit Chemicals That Devastate Bees, Butterflies and Other Wildlife The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to renew permits on four neonicotinoids proven to decimate bees and other pollinators vital to our ecosystem. The pesticides, embedded within seeds or sprayed on crops, will hasten the demise of already drastically reduced insect populations. While studies have shown that in many cases crop yields are not improved by the use of these chemicals, aggressive marketing has convinced farmers “they will have a catastrophic outbreak of pests if they don't use them, even though this is unlikely,” said John Tooker, an entomologist at Penn State. The chemicals also harm birds. (Source:[Mother Jones]() Sobering Day for Women Protests on International Women’s Day Highlight a Long Road Ahead Thousands of women took to the streets in Mexico Tuesday to protest the femicides that have plagued the country for decades. Last year, 969 femicides were reported and activists say at least 10 women are killed each day because of their gender. Meanwhile, the arrest, abduction and torture of young educated women have become routine in Afghanistan since the Taliban gained control of Kabul last August. Stripped of the right to work or study and arbitrarily abducted from their homes or workplaces, women recount harrowing stories of torture to “the silence of international community and organizations,” said a human rights activist. (Sources: [NYT](,[The Independent]() It’s a Family Affair Heir to French Political Dynasty Defects to Rival Camp Marion Marechal, 32, a rising star in France's contentious far-right politics, has dealt a blow to her aunt, Marine Le Pen, by announcing her support of nemesis Eric Zemmour yesterday. Le Pen's reactionary National Rally — previously the National Front — is largely a family affair founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a champion of French nationalism, antisemitism and xenophobia. But ex-journalist Zemmour, twice convicted of hate speech and a staunch supporter of Russia, has upended the National Rally's chances at toppling President Emmanuel Macron in April elections. Le Pen herself is also under fire, having accepted Russian loans for past campaigns. (Sources:[France24](,[Politico](, [WaPo]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: Russia could be planning chemical or biological weapon attacks. “We’ve got good reason to be concerned,” one Western official warned this morning, while the White House countered Russian claims of finding American-funded biological weapons in Ukraine labs. (Source: [BBC]() President Joe Biden’s tense relationship with Big Oil may hamper efforts to stem pump prices. His emphasis on renewable energies threatens ties between Washington and the oil industry at a crucial moment. (Source: [WSJ]() Jussie Smollett returns to the courtroom. The actor will be sentenced today, three months after being found guilty of staging a hate crime back in 2019. (Source: [ABC News]() Catch the Newest Episodes of The Carlos Watson Show, Season 4! [WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET: WALK THE WALK WITH THESE SHOES]( [Cariuma]( has always been a leading brand when it comes to sustainable footwear. These shoes are good-looking, crazy comfortable and, best of all, consciously made. With each purchase, two trees are planted in the Brazilian rain forest. Stylish, sustainable and saving the planet — what more can you ask for? [Get an exclusive $15 off]( when you buy these one-of-a-kind sneakers with code OZY2022. [Shop Now]( INTRIGUING Endurance Found Frigid Antarctic Waters Reveal Pristine Wreck of Legendary Ship A team of adventurers has found the wreck of the Endurance, one of the world’s most famous ships involved in one of its greatest survival stories. In 1914, in a bid to become the first team to cross Antarctica, explorer Ernest Shackleton led his 27-man crew across the Weddell Sea in frigid temperatures. The crew was forced to abandon the ship when it was caught and crushed in the ice, and they embarked on a harrowing 800-mile journey that, miraculously, all 28 survived. The discovery of the intact ship — on the 100th anniversary of Shackleton's funeral — ends the world’s most challenging shipwreck search. (Sources:[NYT](,[The Guardian]() Fashion Forward Creative Director at Balenciaga Stands With Ukrainian Refugees Who says fashion is frivolous? Despite Russia’s invasion four days earlier, Paris Fashion Week seemed like glamorous business as usual. But not at Balenciaga. Creative director Denma, a refugee from the 1993 civil war in Georgia, was so upset by the conflict he considered canceling his show, saying, “In a time like this ... fashion feels like some kind of an absurdity.” Instead, the lauded designer staged a haunting performance with models evoking refugees as they lugged leather garbage bags through fake snow and high winds in a “dedication to fearlessness, to resistance.” Nearly 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country so far. (Sources:[WSJ](,[CNN]() Plastic Perils French Company Hopes to Revolutionize Plastics Recycling With[380 million tons of plastic]( produced each year and plastics polluting the ocean as a floating island[twice the size of France](, reducing this omnipresent substance has become an environmental imperative. But plastics are notoriously difficult to recycle and further break down with each reuse. Now French company Carbios has a plan: Use genetically modified enzymes to recycle plastics into a purer, more reusable form, so plastic bottles could be recycled until the end of time. L'Oréal, Nestlé and PepsiCo are already onboard for a trial, and Carbios is preparing to launch a 44,000-ton-capacity industrial-scale recycling facility in 2025. (Source:[The Atlantic]() A Minute a Day... Study Finds Only Seconds of Weight Training Can Yield Giant Benefits Couch potatoes rejoice. A new study suggests that a mere three seconds of strenuous resistance exercise a day can increase muscle strength by 12% after a month. Forget working yourself into a froth or investing in a personal trainer. Researchers at Japan’s Niigata University of Health and Welfare say that super-short but vigorous workouts can trigger the biological responses that keep us fit. Four seconds of strenuous biking, 10 seconds of sprinting and three seconds of intense bicep squeezes can be an effective way to start gaining strength and endurance. That’s a full workout in under a minute. (Source:[NYT]() Kicking Out Corruption Sicilian Neighborhood Uses Rugby to Resist Mob Influence The game of rugby has transformed the Librino district of ​​Catania by offering disadvantaged kids a feeling of belonging and a way off the streets. But not everyone is pleased. A stronghold of the feared Sicilian Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, Librino provided mobsters a constant supply of cheap labor, with children as young as six being recruited as drug dealers. The mob torched the Briganti rugby club’s bus and clubhouse in a series of attacks meant to demoralize the teams. But the opposite effect was achieved: The teams have garnered international support from the likes of England coach Eddie Jones and World Rugby. 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