Category: NEWS
Ukrainians would ‘rather die than be enslaved’
“Aleksandra” weaves the hardships suffered by a Ukrainian woman in the last century with the fate of her country.
Live: ‘Ukraine has united the world’, Zelensky says on anniversary of Russian invasion
President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed his nation and its people for fighting back against Russia over the past year and said their resistance against Russian occupation “has united the world”. Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 – a major escalation of the conflict which began with Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014. Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
Putin Popularity Remains High At Home
Putin Popularity Remains High At Home
The announcement of a partial mobilization of Russian citizens in September was the first time since the invasion of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating had dipped significantly.
However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, according to a survey by the independent institute Levada Center, the approval of Putin in Russia rose again in the following months, reaching 82 percent again in January.
You will find more infographics at Statista
The invasion itself had boosted Putin’s popularity at home from around 70 percent to 83 percent in March 2022. The Russian president announced during his annual address yesterday that the country was exiting the New START nuclear non-proliferation treaty with the United States, the only pact on nuclear weapons regulation for the two countries.
The Russian state-controlled media pushing the narrative of a mission to “denazify” Ukraine and to return it to Russia where it historically belonged explains why Putin’s approval can stay so high despite the country now being extremely marginalized in the international community and enduring the hardships of sanctions and war mobilization. Despite the surveys carried out by an independent researcher, Russians might still feel pressured to give a favorable opinion of the head of state due to the oppressive system they live in. The Levada Center has in a release pointed out that, while surveys also show the behavior people are willing to display publicly, survey-taking behavior has not changed since the invasion.
Going further back, the share of the Russian population supporting President Putin has also remained above 80 percent for most of the period between 2014 and 2018. In April 2014, after Crimea had been illegally annexed by Russia, Putin’s approval climbed to 82 percent while the Donbas War raged in Ukraine. In October 2015, with the beginning of the Russian intervention in Syria, Putin enjoyed a positive image in the eyes of 88 percent of Russians.
However, three years later he suffered the worst dip in popularity in that decade with the announcement of social reforms aiming to raise the pension age.
Opposition to Putin increased even more after the outbreak of COVID-19 and the adoption of confinement measures in early 2020.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/24/2023 – 02:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-popularity-remains-high-home
Defending Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams reveals his ‘No. 1’ NFL destination
USC quarterback Caleb Williams already knows where he wants to play professionally.
The defending Heisman Trophy winner still has another year of college ball before he heads to the NFL, but he’s likely to be the No. 1 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.
He’s sure hoping a particular squad has that selection: the Miami Dolphins.
“I like to be around younger coaches,” Williams told People. “I’d probably go to the Dolphins. I also would be able to play with Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Mike Gesicki. The defense isn’t bad. That’s probably my No. 1 spot.”
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“I also like the colors,” he added. “The colors are pretty cool and the weather’s good.”
Williams may need a reality check, though. The Dolphins just made the playoffs, so it’d be very hard to see them fall to the worst record in the league with the hopes of acquiring his talents.
Of course, Miami could trade up in the 2024 draft (assuming Williams declares and his stock remains sky high), but again, considering the likelihood that they’ll be a playoff team, their picks wouldn’t exactly move the needle.
There also is another issue – Miami already has a young, promising quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa. The soon-to-be 25-year-old suffered two concussions during the regular season, one of which was the subject of much controversy, so who knows what his future may hold, both short and long-term.
Williams did later add that he’d play “anywhere,” but also mentioned the San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders and Atlanta Falcons as teams atop his wish list.
The latter two are surely in the quarterback market, while the Niners, at this point, probably have too many.
The rising junior just threw for 4,537 yards and 42 touchdowns to go along with 10 touchdowns on the ground.
So while he doesn’t have 32 teams on his list, most of the 32 certainly have him on theirs.
On this day in history, Feb. 24, 1914, Joshua L. Chamberlain dies, college professor turned Civil War hero
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a bookish professor of rhetoric at Bowdoin College in Maine who became the Union’s most celebrated combat hero of the Civil War, died on this day in history, Feb. 24, 1914.
Brig. Gen. Chamberlain was 85 years old.
“A veritable icon of Civil War legend, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is best known for his heroic participation in the Battle of Gettysburg,” writes the American Battlefield Trust.
“Prolific and prosaic throughout his life, Chamberlain spent his twilight years writing and speaking about the war.”
His death was attributed at least partly to some of the incredible six wounds he suffered and survived in battle 50 years earlier.
His ability to continue fighting despite numerous wounds, in an era in which whiskey and amputations were common treatments in battlefield medicine, was among his many remarkable successes as soldier.
Chamberlain is the last Civil War soldier to die of injuries suffered in combat, according to the Department of the Defense.
Colonel Chamberlain earned the Medal of Honor for his heroic leadership of the 20th Maine Infantry at Gettysburg.
He later had the honor of accepting General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
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He served four terms as governor of Maine, wrote a powerful chronicle of the last months of the war, “The Passing of the Armies,” and returned to academia, spending 12 years as president of Bowdoin.
Chamberlain’s legend was forged on Little Round Top, on the far left flank of the vast Union army at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1863.
Chamberlain’s 20th Maine repelled numerous Confederate charges but ran out of ammunition.
He could not retreat and he could not surrender — or the rebels might roll up the entire Union line and possibly win the war with a stunning victory in the northern state.
Chamberlain responded with a dramatic bayonet charge down the hill, a turning point in American history that was immortalized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 historical novel “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara and again in the 1993 movie, “Gettysburg.”
“Chamberlain raised his saber, let loose the greatest sound he could make, boiling the sound up from his chest,” Shaara wrote in the dramatized account of the historically accurate encounter.
“Fix bayonets! Charge! Fix bayonets! Charge! Fix bayonets! Charge! He leaped down from the boulder, still screaming, his voice beginning to crack and give, and all around him his men were roaring animal screams,” wrote Shaara.
“He saw the whole regiment rising and pouring over the wall, and beginning to bound down through the dark bushes, over the dead and dying and wounded, hats coming off, hair flying, mouths making sounds, one man firing as he ran, the last bullet, the last round.”
The frenzied charge swept away four Confederate regiments. About 2,000 men were killed, wounded, surrendered or retreated.
The rebel army lost the battle the following day, with the heroic but ill-fated disaster of Pickett’s Charge.
Chamberlain’s beautifully written work, “The Passing of the Armies,” published posthumously in 1915, serves as a foundation of scholarship of the final year of the Civil War and offers sobering insight into of the minds of men in combat.
MEET THE AMERICAN WHO WROTE ‘THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC’
“The hammering business had been hard on the hammer,” he wrote of the tragic Union casualties suffered while trying to pound the Confederates into defeat at Petersburg in the final months of the war.
Chamberlain was later given the duty of accepting General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, adding to his legend among Civil War soldiers.
“Grant wished the ceremony to be as simple as possible, and that nothing should be done to humiliate the manhood of the southern soldiers,” Chamberlain wrote in “The Passing of the Armies.”
He ordered his columns to salute the defeated Confederate troops — helping set the tone of the peace in Lincoln’s stated hope “with malice toward none and charity toward all.”
“It was not a ‘present arms,’ however … which then as now was the highest possible honor to be paid even to a president,” Chamberlain later said.
“It was the ‘carry arms,’ as it was then known, with musket held by the right hand and perpendicular to the shoulder.”
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“Throughout the war, Chamberlain was wounded six times, most grievously at Petersburg in June 1864,” writes American Battlefield Trust.
“Believing this wound to be mortal, Congress promoted Chamberlain to the rank of brigadier general. Chamberlain, however, would survive the wound, and return to the front in time to play a pivotal role in the Appomattox Campaign.”
His achievements with both sword and quill make him one of the most remarkable soldiers in American history.
“Our place in human brotherhood, our responsibility not only in duty for country, but as part of its very being, came into view,” he wrote of serving the nation in wartime.
His legend was cemented in that decisive moment of action on July 2, 1863, for which he was awarded the nation’s highest honor for valor.
Some historians argue that the heroic Chamberlain not only saved the Union army at Little Round Top, but saved the cause of the Union itself.
“The regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat,” reports American Battlefield Trust.
Winter storm moving through SoCal spawns tornado
A weak tornado generated by a powerful winter storm toppled several trees in southeast L.A. No damage or injuries were reported.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-23/weak-tornado-topples-la-mirada-tree
Video shows bystander chase down man who killed Texas off-duty cop in car crash
But a Good Samaritan, identified by WFAA as Justin Gonzalez, quickly pursued Molina and yelled “Hey! Get your f— a– over here motherf—er,” according to the video.
‘Succession’ to end with Season 4 on HBO, creator Jesse Armstrong says: ‘I feel deeply conflicted’
“Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong says the hit HBO series is ending with upcoming season 4. “It feels quite perverse to stop doing it.”
Florida death row inmate Donald Dillbeck uses last words to trash Gov. Ron DeSantis
A death row inmate in Florida used his final words to criticize Gov. Ron DeSantis, claiming the Republican leader has “done a lot worse” than him.
Just minutes before Donald Dillbeck, 59, was executed in the Florida State Prison death chamber Thursday night, he admitted to hurting people when he “was young” but saved his final comment to call out DeSantis.
“I know I hurt people when I was young. I really messed up. But I know Ron DeSantis has done a lot worse. He’s taken a lot from a lot of people. I speak for all men, women and children. He’s put his foot on our necks,” Dillbeck said, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
After the comment, officials at the Florida Department of Corrections began the process of administering three drugs that sedated him, paralyzed him, and then stopped his heart.
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He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m., just 11 minutes after the process started, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Dillbeck was convicted of killing two people and was sentenced to death 32 years ago following the 1990 fatal stabbing of Faye Lamb Vann, whose family members were sitting in the witness gallery.
They did not speak to reporters after Dillbeck was put to death.
In a statement put out later by prison system spokeswoman Michelle Glady, Vann’s children Tony and Laura Vann said Dillbeck “robbed” them of time they could have spent with their mother and that his death brought “some closure.”
“11,932 days ago Donald Dillbeck brutally killed our mother,” they wrote in the let, per the report. “We were robbed of years of memories with her and it has been very painful ever since. However, the execution has given us some closure.”
Dillbeck’s criminal history includes him fatally shooting a Lee County deputy when he was just 15 years old, receiving a life sentence for that murder, escaping custody and killing again.
PREGNANT FLORIDA SUSPECT IN UBER MURDER SEEKS RELEASE BECAUSE UNBORN BABY NOT CHARGED WITH CRIME
The then-teenaged Dillbeck killed Lee County Deputy Dwight Lynn Hall, 31, in 1979, during a scuffle where Hall tackled Dillbeck, who grabbed the deputy’s gun and shot and killed him, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
The incident took place as Dillbeck was on the run for a carjacking offense.
In 1990, while Dillbeck was serving a life sentence in Gadsden County for that murder, he escaped from authorities and fled to Tallahassee. Once in the city, he attempted to carjack a vehicle at a mall containing Vann, who he then stabbed to death.
Dillbeck’s last meal included fried shrimp, mushrooms, onion rings, ice cream, pecan pie and chocolate, officials said.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block Dillbeck’s execution.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-death-row-inmate-donald-dillbeck-last-words-gov-ron-desantis