Vladimir Putin’s main spokesman said the West had pushed the Kremlin “into the corner” with NATO expansion, while sanctions on trade, finance and the oligarchs looked like an “absolute war” against Russia. Dmitry Peshkov said in an interview with US television that the United Kingdom and Ukraine’s military intelligence services were “serious” and that Russia’s war effort was “serious”. The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has said Russia is expected to step up its invasion force by sending more than 1,000 mercenaries from Wagner’s private military group to eastern Ukraine as the Kremlin continues to suffer heavy casualties. The resumption of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey today may be overshadowed by reports that oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov suffered symptoms of poisoning after informal peace talks in Turkey. Both men, who consumed only chocolate and water, were treated in Istanbul for symptoms that reportedly included loss of vision and peeling skin. The bill supports allegations of possible poisoning first reported in the Wall Street Journal and by research agency Bellingcat. “Fear always makes you an accomplice”: Zelensky warns of lenient sanctions – video This morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged countries to have the courage to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine without fear of possible Russian retaliation, saying: “Fear always makes you an accomplice.” Zelensky hailed the military success in Irpin and parts of Kiev. Ukraine’s military intelligence service said its forces also continued to defend Motyzhyn, Lisne, Kapitanivka and Dmytrivka. He said Ukrainian forces were “continuing to maintain the city of Mariupol and defend the enemy in the Chernihiv region”, although British intelligence had said that the Russians were gaining ground in Mariupol. According to the mayor of the besieged southern city, nearly 5,000 people, including about 210 children, have been killed. Find out about the facts on our live blog. Partygate fines approaching – The first fines for Downing Street lockdown violations are expected to be issued shortly after Scotland Yard breaches the laws at the heart of the government, sources told the Guardian. No. 10 has promised to reveal whether Boris Johnson receives a fixed penalty notice, which could provoke a vote of no confidence in the Commons. It is understood that the Met is expected to initially issue about 20 fines in the simplest cases. For two months the force examined material from Sue Gray’s search for the partygate. Police are investigating 12 different incidents in 2020 and 2021, six of which Johnson is said to have attended. Smith apologizes for slapping – Will Smith apologized to Chris Rock, the Oscars and the audience after slapping the comedian on stage, saying “he was not indicative of the man I want to be”. Smith wrote on the Internet that he “reacted emotionally” to Rock’s joke about the baldness of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, which is related to the disease of alopecia, but his behavior “was unacceptable and unjustified. Jokes against me are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me and I reacted emotionally. “I would like to apologize publicly to you, Chris.” The academy condemned the attack and said it would launch an investigation. Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund wrote on the Internet: the moment. ” Special needs at school – General schools in England need to “change their culture and practice” to make children with special educational needs and disabilities more inclusive, abbreviated as Send. The government will present plans to reform the Send system in a green paper published today. The document will propose new national standards for education, health and care to better support Mission children, as well as a legal requirement for councils to publish integration plans. The Green Paper will propose the introduction of new standards in education, health and care. Photo: Dominic Lipinski / PA An “inclusion toolkit” is suggested to help parents understand what support is available in their area. Under the current regime, parents often have to engage in long-term battles to try to ensure the right provision for their child. The publication of the paper will be followed by a 13-week consultation. Type 2 Risks Abound – People with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of 57 other conditions, such as cancer, kidney disease and neurological conditions, according to a Cambridge study. The condition, which is linked to obesity, inactivity or family history of diabetes, affects millions of people worldwide. The researchers found that people with type 2 had the relevant health problems up to five years earlier than people without it. Separately, experts are calling for genetic testing to predict how people will respond to the drugs. About 6.5% of hospital admissions in the UK are caused by drug reactions, while most prescription drugs only work in 30% to 50% of people. The British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians recommend individualized prescriptions based on human genes. False rights – The British government is committing “vandalism” as it seeks to repeal the Human Rights Act and introduce “draconian” legislation on refugees and policing, according to Amnesty International’s annual report. Sacha Deshmukh, head of Amnesty UK, said the Human Rights Act was “the central pillar of human rights and protection in the UK”. for ethnic minorities and to ensure a proper Covid Survey. ” Amnesty also criticizes the government bill on nationality and borders, which is being passed by parliament, and the bill on police, crime, conviction and the courts. Globally, Amnesty says post-pandemic promises of “better reconstruction” have been broken by governments around the world. Despite enough production to fully vaccinate the world by 2021, by the end of the year less than 4% of those living in poor countries had been fully vaccinated. Cryptocurrency Climate Challenges – Cryptocurrency mining is creating a huge carbon footprint, but a change in its computer coding could fix it, says a campaign starting today. Change the Code Not the Climate seeks to replace the “proof of work” system – in which computers use vast amounts of electricity to validate and secure transactions – with another system called “proof of participation”, where miners must freeze their currencies to verify transactions. The campaign says it would use 99% less energy. Michael Brune, the campaign director, said that with the work proven, surplus fossil fuel units in the US were being rebuilt just to power cryptocurrency mining, which means “there is no way we can meet our climate targets”. The Ethereum cryptocurrency is scheduled to go into a share receipt this year.
Today on the Focus podcast: How to make the ferry pay
The dismissal of 800 workers in the UK by P&O without warning sparked outrage from both politicians and unions. But will anything change? Joanna Partridge explores a low point in the recent history of working relationships. Today at Focus
How to pay the ferry?
Sorry your browser does not support audio – but you can download it here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/05/05-61553-gnl.fw.200505.jf.ch7DW.mp3
Read lunch time: Come to your senses and eat
To eat in the modern world often means to eat in a state of deep sensory release. Bee Wilson on how we can restore this lost connection to food. Composite: Getty Images / Alamy
Sport
The first indicator for monitoring the representation of matches in all sports in the United Kingdom led 43% of national administrations to receive the three lowest available scores. Paul Collingwood, the interim manager of the Tests, says that England has “put it down” and that captain Joe Ruth has the support of the players and the administration. Gareth Southgate said it was unfortunate that the pandemic meant that England would face only one non-European opponent in the year before the 2022 World Cup. George Russell warned that he and teammate Lewis Hamilton had no choice. chance to fight for the Formula 1 title, unless Mercedes improves drastically. The remaining tickets for the final of the European Women’s Championship are sold out in one hour, while there are 100 days left for England to start with Austria at Old Trafford. And a group of more than 70 current and former Canadian athletes called for an independent inquiry into what they described as “toxic culture and abusive practices” in their sport in the country.
Business
The governor of the Bank of England warned that rising energy prices could be worse than any year of the oil shock of the 1970s. Andrew Bailey said demand from consumers and businesses was slowing due to rising gas prices , electricity and other goods and services. The FTSE100 will gain 0.4% this morning, according to futures contracts, and the pound is worth $ 1,310 and € 1,191.
The papers
The Guardian is leading the way today with “peace talks on Ukraine continuing amid allegations that Abramovich was poisoned” – the sanctioned oligarch was involved in informal negotiations as part of a Russian-Ukrainian group, separate from official talks. The main image shows Will Smith and Chris Rock right after the slap. The Mirror has “poisoned Abramovich in the peace talks” while the Daily Mail says that he was left “blind” and with peeled skin. This is the big title on the Times front as well, although at the top it has …
