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world news Diasabra 12 Maart 2022

China locks down city of 9 million amid new spike in cases

(AP) — China on Friday 500,000 people in the east- Friday, bringing its total to
ordered a lockdown of ern province of Shandong, 78 in recent days. Authori-
the 9 million residents of show China is sticking to the ties have repeatedly pledged
the northeastern city of draconian approach to the to lock down any community
Changchun amid a new pandemic it has enforced for where one or more cases are
spike in COVID-19 cas- most of the past two years, found under China’s “zero
es in the area attributed despite some earlier indica- tolerance” approach to the
to the highly contagious tions that authorities would pandemic.
omicron variant. be implementing more tar-
geted measures. Another 93 cases were con-
Residents are required to China reported another 397 firmed in the nearby city of
remain at home, with one cases of local transmission Jilin that bears the same name
family member permitted to nationwide on Friday, 98 of as the surrounding province.
venture out to buy food and them in Jilin province that Authorities have already or-
other necessities every two surrounds Changchun, a dered a partial lockdown in
days. All residents must un- center of the country’s auto the city and severed travel
dergo three rounds of mass industry. In the entire prov- links with other cities. cial media that those who ferred more than 6,000 peo-
testing, while non-essential ince, cases have exceeded tested positive were being ple to quarantine, according
businesses have been closed 1,100 since the latest out- Officials of the Jilin Agricul- confined in school libraries to state broadcaster CCTV.
and transport links suspend- break first struck late last tural Science and Technology and other buildings in poor
ed. week. University have been sacked conditions. Aerial images showed stu-
after a cluster of infections dents in hazmat suits lining
The latest lockdowns, which Just two cases were reported was reported on campus and The school has registered 74 up in the cold and dark wait-
also include Yucheng with within Changchun itself on students complained on so- confirmed cases and trans- ing to be transferred.

Russian offensive widens as US imposes new trade sanctions

(AP) — Russia widened its offen- regain momentum after encounter- such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, the long-awaited battle for Kyiv is
sive in Ukraine on Friday, striking ing heavier losses and stiffer resis- while also pounding targets away just hours or days away. He predicted
airfields in the west and a major tance than anticipated over the past from the main battle zones. a drawn-out siege, not an immediate
industrial city in the east, while two weeks. Britain’s Ministry of De- storming of the city.
the huge armored column that fense said Russia is trying to “re-set Russia said it used high-precision
had been stalled for over a week and re-posture” its troops, gearing up long-range weapons to put military “This is going to be a very long bat-
outside Kyiv appeared to have for operations against Kyiv. airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk tle of attrition. This is going to be
spread out near the capital. in the west “out of action.” The at- an atrociously casualty-heavy battle
“It’s ugly already, but it’s going to get tack on Lutsk killed four Ukrainian and a siege, the likes of which we
Military analysts were divided over worse,” said Nick Reynolds, a war- servicemen, the mayor said. have rarely seen in modern history,”
whether the maneuvering by the fare analyst at Royal United Services Boulegue said.
Russian convoy signaled the immi- Institute, a British think tank. Russian airstrikes also targeted for the
nent start of a siege of Kyiv or was just first time Dnipro, a major industrial But a senior American defense of-
an effort to disperse some vehicles to With the invasion in its 16th day, hub in the east and Ukraine’s fourth- ficial said that while elements of the
more protected positions. Russian President Vladimir Putin largest city, with about 1 million peo- convoy have broken off and moved to
said there had been “certain positive ple. One person was killed, Ukraine the tree line, the U.S. believes those
On the economic and political front, developments” in Russia-Ukraine said. are efforts to hide and better protect
the U.S. and its allies moved to fur- talks, but gave no details. the vehicles, which are largely for
ther isolate and sanction the Kremlin. In images of the aftermath released supplies.
President Joe Biden announced the For his part, Ukrainian President by Ukraine’s emergency agency,
U.S. will dramatically downgrade its Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian firefighters doused a flaming build- The official, who spoke on condi-
trade status with Russia and also ban forces had “reached a strategic turn- ing, and ash fell on bloodied rubble. tion of anonymity to describe the
imports of Russian seafood, alcohol ing point,” though he did not elabo- Smoke billowed over shattered con- U.S. military assessment, said that
and diamonds. The move to revoke rate. crete where buildings once stood. the convoy hadn’t made any substan-
Russia’s “most favored nation” status tial progress toward the city and that
was taken in coordination with the “It’s impossible to say how many days In another potentially ominous de- the vehicles’ moves were not part of a
European Union and Group of Sev- we will still need to free our land, but velopment for Ukraine, new satel- tactical effort to advance on Kyiv.
en countries. it is possible to say that we will do it,” lite photos appeared to show that the
he said via video from Kyiv. massive Russian convoy outside the However, the official said other forc-
“The free world is coming together capital had split up and fanned out es from the northeast had moved
to confront Putin,” Biden said. He also said authorities were work- into towns and forests. closer to Kyiv and were about 20 to
ing on establishing 12 humanitarian 30 kilometers (12 to 19 miles) east of
On the ground, the Kremlin’s forces corridors and trying to ensure food, Howitzers were towed into firing po- the city center.
appeared to be trying to regroup and medicine and other basics get to peo- sition, and armored units were seen
ple across the country. Thousands of in towns near the Antonov Airport Repeated rounds of negotiations be-
civilians and soldiers on both sides north of the city, according to Maxar tween Russia and Ukraine have taken
are believed to have been killed in the Technologies, the company that pro- place along the Belarus border, and
invasion. duced the images. the two countries’ foreign ministers
held talks on Thursday with no ap-
So far, the Russians have made the The 40-mile (64-kilometer) line of parent progress, while various third
biggest advances on cities in the east tanks and other vehicles had massed countries have also made attempts to
and south — including in Mariupol, outside Kyiv early last week. But its broker a stop to the fighting.
the heavily bombarded seaport where advance had appeared to stall amid
civilians scrounged for food and fuel reports of food and fuel shortages, A Western official, speaking on con-
amid a harrowing 10-day-old siege muddy roads and attacks by Ukrai- dition of anonymity to discuss intel-
— while struggling in the north and nian troops with anti-tank missiles. ligence matters, said the fact that ne-
around Kyiv. gotiations are taking place so early in
Mathieu Boulegue, a researcher at the fighting “might speak to Russian
On Friday, Putin’s forces continued the London think tank Chatham concerns” about the progress of the
to launch airstrikes in urban areas House, said the redeployment means war.