European Union judges have escalated a battle with Hungary and Poland over violations of “community values”, causing outrage over a Brussels “jihad” against socially conservative governments in eastern Europe.
The European Court of Justice threw out the two nations’ challenge to new powers today, allowing Brussels to block EU funds worth 3 to 5 per cent of national GDP in both countries.
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Both Hungary and Poland, which are governed by Eurosceptic and proudly “illiberal” conservative governments, challenged European Commission powers to cut off funding over “rule of law” disputes including judicial independence, migrant quotas and gay rights.
Judit Varga, the Hungarian justice minister, claimed the judges’ ruling was a “political decision” because Hungary is holding a referendum in April to ban the promotion of homosexuality
The world must judge Russia with its own eyes as to whether it is de-escalating, the defence secretary said as he warned an invasion of Ukraine is still possible.
Ben Wallace told Sky News: "Judge with your own eyes at the scale of that Russian deployment on the borders of Ukraine and indeed all the press conferences held by President Putin.
"It's pretty clear that their intentions towards Ukraine is to change their behaviour and indeed change NATO's relationship towards Ukraine and they're doing so with the threat of invasion."
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Why NATO remains so concerned about Russia
Ukraine is surrounded
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The defence secretary, who is in Brussels for a NATO meeting, added that although Moscow has said it is sending some military units back to their bases, when he was a soldier troops did not set up blood banks and field hospitals and move strategic weapons if they were just training.
He added that intelligence shows the Russians have 60% of their entire land combat power on the border with Ukraine and a "significant flotilla" at sea, meaning Ukraine is "fairly surrounded" by a "significant force that would overwhelm Ukraine should it be deployed".
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"From a Ukrainian point of view, they're fairly surrounded by a very large force of ready troops," Mr Wallace added.
"I think that continues, they haven't taken the foot off the gas. Readiness is one of the first signs you always get about how serious a country is."
Russia's Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Tuesday said it had completed some planned training exercises and a number of troops were heading back to their bases but the majority were still training and drills were being carried out in the Black Sea.
Russia's issue with Ukraine wanting to become a member of NATO is one of the reasons Kyiv fears it will invade, but Moscow has said it is not intending to invade - but called for Ukraine to not become a member of the alliance.
Image:Russia released pictures of tanks it says are going back to bases after exercises. Pic: Russian Defence Ministry
Russian forces can be held at readiness for weeks
A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said 15 February 2022 "will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed" as she said the West had been "humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired".
On Wednesday, the Russian MoD published another video showing a column of tanks and military vehicles leaving annexed Crimea, the peninsular seized from Kyiv in 2014, and said some troops would be returning to their permanent bases.
But several world leaders warned the threat of invasion was not over, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden.
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Biden: Russian troop pullback 'not yet verified'
US intelligence had indicated Russia might invade on Wednesday but Mr Wallace said "dates are not the issue" and the "real indication" Russia is getting ready to invade is forces being built up into a "readiness posture".
"Forces can only be held at readiness for so long. Russians are better at it than most, they can hold those forces at readiness for weeks," he said.
"So there's really no point speculating on a specific date, however, there are definitely dates in the mix."
Image:Russian President Vladimir Putin has been speaking to various Western leaders over the past two weeks
Ukraine's defence ministry website hacked
In Ukraine, hackers hit the defence ministry's web portal with an "unprecedented" denial of service attack on Tuesday that was still ongoing on Wednesday morning.
The ministry said the hackers had succeeded in finding vulnerabilities in the programming code of the portal but traffic is being rerouted to servers in the United States while the issue is being fixed.
Earlier on, the US had offered to help Ukraine weather the cyber attack.
Chinese factory gate inflation fell in January to its lowest rate in six months, as government intervention cooled prices in commodity markets and renewed Covid-19 lockdowns crimped demand.
The producer price index rose 9.1 per cent compared to the same period a year ago, narrowly missing the 9.5 per cent increase forecast by economists polled by Bloomberg.
The latest figures come after months of state-led intervention in energy and commodity markets following soaring factory gate inflation last year. January also saw a string of strict measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus in China, including the lockdown of Xi’an, a central Chinese city of 13mn residents.
January’s moderation in inflation was helped by declining prices of fuel and energy, metals, chemicals, timber and agricultural products, figures from National Bureau of Statistics showed.
By sector, the coal mining and washing industry saw the biggest declines, with prices falling 3.5 per cent compared to December, after the price of coal reached record highs last year.
Prices in the oil and natural gas sector rose 2.6 per cent, however, compared to December, with analysts saying that geopolitical tensions over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine could add further price pressure.
Headline consumer price index inflation also missed forecasts, rising 0.9 per cent year-on-year, driven by a 2.5 per cent month-on-month decline in the price of pork.
“Looking ahead, PPI inflation may face upward pressure if geopolitical tensions contribute to upward pressure on commodity price,” Jing Liu, senior economist for greater China at HSBC, said in a note.
“But there is arguably more disinflationary concern given the muted core CPI inflation, as strong headwinds including the challenge posed by Omicron continue to hinder the consumption recovery and economic growth.”
A company that made a rifle used in one of the US's deadliest school shootings has settled with the families of victims for $73m (£53.9m).
The settlement from Remington Arms comes in response to a lawsuit brought by the families of nine of 26 victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.
The case marks the first time a gun-maker has faced liability for a mass shooting.
Until now, the industry had immunity from litigation.
Each family will receive a share of the settlement, but other details of the deal were not disclosed.
Josh Koskoff, a lawyer representing the families of victims, said they were delighted by the outcome because their focus was on "preventing the next Sandy Hook".
"Our loss is irreversible, in the sense this outcome is neither redemptive nor restorative," Lenny Pozner and Veronique De la Rosa, whose six-year-old son Noah was killed, wrote in testimony released after the settlement.
"What is lost remains lost," they added. "However, the resolution does provide a measure of accountability in an industry that has thus far operated with impunity."
This makes future lawsuits more likely
In the early 2000s, the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups pushed states and the federal government to enact laws to protect gun manufacturers from financial responsibility for deaths that result from the use of their products. Their crowning achievement was the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, passed by Congress and signed by President George W Bush in 2005.
That law has shielded many gun manufacturers from legal exposure, but it was not enough to protect Remington and its Bushmaster AR-15, used by Adam Lanza to kill 20 children and six school employees in Newtown, Connecticut.
The families of five adults and four child victims claimed Remington pitched its rifle to "at-risk" young men in violent video games and with bombastic, militaristic language. They pointed to an exception in the federal law that prohibited illegal marketing claims. Remington's decision to pay $73 million to end the lawsuit suggests the company weighed the risk of going to trial and opened its chequebook.
This settlement may encourage state governments and gun-control advocates who want to hold manufacturers financially responsible for gun violence to press on - offering them hope that existing legal protections won't always be an insurmountable obstacle.
One example cited by Mr Koskoff featured an image of a rifle along with the words "consider your man card reissued". The lawsuit alleged that the campaign formed part of a larger and "aggressive" marketing effort that included product placement in video games.
"I had thought the case was about the gun, but it's just as much about the greed," he said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The $73m amounts to the full amount of coverage available from Remington's four insurers.
"This victory should serve as a wake up call, not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up," he added. "For the insurance and banking industries, it's time to recognise the financial cost of underwriting companies that elevate profit by escalating risk."
Last July, Remington - the oldest gun-maker in the US - offered $33 million to (£24m) to the families, falling far short of the $225m they'd sought in court. They rejected the offer and said they had collected enough evidence to prove misconduct from Remington.
Remington, which was founded in 1816 and is based in North Carolina, has denied the allegations and claimed that there was no evidence that its marketing practices were related to the shooting at Sandy Hook.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
Despite the deaths of young children aged six and seven, no new national gun control laws were passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Vladimir Putin eased tensions in the Ukraine crisis on Tuesday, drawing down some Russian troops from border areas to enable “dialogue” with the west while still keeping the threat of invasion hanging over his neighbour.
Russia’s president said he was prepared to hold negotiations on intermediate nuclear missile forces and confidence-building measures with the west if the US and Nato agreed to discuss Moscow’s grievances with the transatlantic alliance — including its chief demand that it pledge never to admit Ukraine.
The comments, made after three hours of talks with German chancellor Olaf Scholz, were Putin’s strongest indication yet that Russia is ready to de-escalate despite western warnings of Moscow’s plans for a renewed invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking alongside Putin, Scholz said diplomatic options were “not by any means exhausted”. “The fact that we’re now hearing that some troops are being withdrawn is a good sign, and we hope that more will follow,” the chancellor said.
Putin said “a decision has been taken to partially withdraw forces” following what Russia claims were exercises involving more than 130,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and in neighbouring Belarus.
But he said future negotiations would hang on the “real situation on the ground”, which he said was unpredictable and “does not only depend on us”.
Putin said Nato countries told him they would not admit Ukraine tomorrow but “only when they’ve got it ready”. “That might be too late for us. So we want to solve this issue right now . . . as part of a peaceful negotiating process,” he added.
Addressing one of Russia’s key demands, Scholz said Ukraine’s Nato membership was “not on the agenda”.
“That is not an issue that’s going to come up again while we’re in office. I don’t know how long the president intends to stay in office, I have the feeling that it will be a long time, but not forever,” Scholz said.
The talks between Scholz and Putin were the latest in a series of last-ditch efforts by western leaders to talk the Russian president out of invading Ukraine.
Speaking in Brussels, Nato’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said he had not seen “any sign of de-escalation” by Russian troops near Ukraine, but added there was reason for “cautious optimism” given signs that Russia wished to continue with diplomacy.
He warned that the security alliance had not seen signs of a reduced military presence and that Moscow still had the means to mount an attack.
“What we need to see is a significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops and not least the heavy equipment,” Stoltenberg said.
In a call with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said Washington remained committed to “pursue a diplomatic solution to the crisis Moscow has precipitated” and believed “that a window remains to resolve the crisis peacefully”.
Blinken said the US hoped for a written response from Moscow on “concrete areas for discussion regarding European security” sent by the US and Nato to Russia last month, according to the state department’s account of the conversation.
While Lavrov complained about the “aggressive rhetoric spread by Washington and its allies”, he “stressed the importance of ongoing work” on draft security guarantees, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.
Earlier Russia’s defence ministry said units from the country’s southern and western military districts were heading back to base following the completion of drills. “The units . . . have already started loading on to rail and road transport and will start moving to their military garrisons today,” said Igor Konashenkov, a ministry spokesman.
European and US equities rose on Tuesday in the wake of the Russian announcement while the oil price fell.
Russia has threatened “the most unpredictable and grave consequences” if the west does not agree to two draft security protocols that would roll back Nato’s presence in eastern Europe.
In a sign of continuing tensions, Russia’s lower house of parliament asked Putin to sign a resolution recognising two Moscow-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin has given no indication as to whether Putin will back the measure, which would probably put an end to the fraught Minsk peace process governing the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
Washington DC is waking up to the news that some of Russia's military appears to be withdrawing. But the signals are mixed.
It will be another day of predicting the workings of Vladimir Putin's mind. Another day of trying to work out who is bluffing.
The central question remains: Will Mr Putin engage in diplomacy and back down? Or was his plan always to make undeliverable demands of the West as a pretext to invade? Or to encourage "Western hysteria" and then repeat the Crimea performance, taking just a little of eastern Ukraine?
His foreign minister told him from one end of a long table in the Kremlin that diplomacy still has road to run.
"Good," the Russian president replied.
A bluff, televised for us all to see? Or, is America's assessment that Mr Putin will invade on Wednesday the bluff?
I spent much of the day yesterday in the State Department. The chat has been of denying the ability for Putin to create a "false flag" – attacking his own side, blaming it on the other side, then using that as an excuse to invade.
Surely the US embassy closure in Kyiv is a solid signal that America really does think an invasion is imminent? Or is it just prudence after Afghanistan and the prospect, even a remote one, of a face-off between US marines and Russian troops?
Of the analysts and diplomats I talk to behind the scenes in Washington and Moscow, there are varied assessments. The closer you probe to Kyiv and Moscow, the more you hear from people that an invasion won't happen.
In real-time, we're watching American, European and Russian posturing and statecraft play out. It's complex diplomacy with a good dose of misinformation from both sides, no doubt; each trying to expose the other.
Bluff, counter bluff. Truth and disinformation. This could end horribly this week or run for many months.
North Korea's nuclear test site has been struck by a series of small, natural earthquakes, South Korea has said.
Seoul said it highlights the area's geological instability as Pyongyang hinted it could resume testing for the first time since 2017.
At least four earthquakes were monitored in the region in the past five days, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) in Seoul.
The latest was a 2.5 magnitude quake on Tuesday morning, which was centred around 36km (22 miles) from the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site. A pair of 2.3 magnitude earthquakes were reported in the area on Monday and another 3.1 magnitude quake was observed on Friday.
Punggye-ri in northeast North Korea is the country's only known nuclear testing facility.
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Its last known weapons test was conducted in September 2017 when North Korea detonated its sixth and largest nuclear bomb, which it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon.
In the weeks after the explosion experts said a series of tremors and landslides near the nuclear test base was a sign the large blast had destabilised the region, which had never previously registered natural earthquakes.
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After one quake in 2020, South Korean government experts said the nuclear explosions appeared to have permanently changed the geology of the area. Some experts raised fears radioactive pollution could be released if North Korea used the site again.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he is no longer bound by a self-imposed moratorium on testing.
In January the country hinted it is considering resuming tests of nuclear weapons or long-range ballistic missiles because of a lack of progress in talks with the US and its allies.
Satellite imagery has shown no major signs of activity at Punggye-ri beyond routine security patrols and maintenance since its closure, monitoring groups have said.
Funding missile programme with stolen cryptocurrency
The country stole more than (£37m) in digital assets between 2020 and mid-2021 according to UN investigators. Others have put the figure nearer to $400m (£295m).
North Korea has conducted a suspected seven ballistic missile tests this year.
