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Zelensky says Ukraine ready to discuss neutrality in peace talks with Russia

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Zelensky says Ukraine ready to discuss neutrality in peace talks with Russia

Ukraine is able to declare neutrality, abandon its drive to hitch Nato and vow to not develop nuclear weapons if Russia withdraws troops and Kyiv receives safety ensures, President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned on the eve of a brand new spherical of peace talks in Turkey.

Talking in Russian, Zelensky instructed a gaggle of Russian unbiased journalists on Sunday that Kyiv was ready to satisfy Moscow on a few of its calls for given that the adjustments had been put to a referendum and third events promised to guard Ukraine.

“Safety ensures and neutrality, the non-nuclear standing of our state — we’re prepared to do this. That’s a very powerful level [ . . . ] they began the battle due to it,” Zelensky mentioned.

Russia’s media censor ordered the 4 reporters to not publish the interview and vowed to research them — regardless that it had already blocked a web site that one in all them edits and shut down a TV station previously run by one other.

Zelensky mentioned Ukraine’s essential purpose was to finish the battle as rapidly as potential and make Russia’s forces withdraw to their positions earlier than Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24.

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He mentioned he was “99.9 per cent positive” the Russian president had thought Ukraine can be ready for the invasion with “flowers and smiles” — going as far as to ship troops with parade gown for a victory celebration in Kyiv apparently deliberate for the third or fourth day of the battle.

However Zelensky mentioned Ukraine was ready to carry separate discussions on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and the japanese Donbas border area, the place greater than 14,000 individuals have died in a slow-burning separatist battle involving Russian proxies that broke out quickly afterwards.

“I perceive it’s not potential to make Russia utterly depart the territory — that’ll result in world battle three,” Zelensky mentioned. “That’s why I’m saying this can be a compromise. Return to the place this all began after which we’ll attempt to clear up the troublesome Donbas challenge.”

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia are set to satisfy on Monday in Ankara for 3 days of talks aimed toward ending Putin’s month-long invasion.

However Zelensky performed down feedback by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, that Ukraine and Russia had been near a deal on 4 factors. He mentioned peace might solely be achieved by means of a gathering with Putin.

“So we meet, we make a deal, and that’s sufficient — we signal a deal, stamp it, or signal it in blood. That’s sufficient to start out the troop withdrawal course of. The troops should be withdrawn, everybody indicators the ensures, and that’s it,” Zelensky mentioned.

In change for giving up its need to hitch Nato — an aspiration mirrored in Ukraine’s structure — Kyiv needs the brand new agreements to be extra like Nato’s Article 5 in requiring the nation’s protectors to return to its support whether it is attacked.

Zelensky mentioned he needed to place the choice to a referendum, which he mentioned would take “a number of months”, earlier than embarking on constitutional adjustments that may require at the least a 12 months of labor.

“The guarantors received’t signal something if we’ve got troops [on our territory]. That’s why I believe we might end the battle rapidly. It’s simply Putin and his entourage who’re dragging it out,” Zelensky mentioned. “Who’s going to speak about something if troops are nonetheless there? Who’s going to signal something? Nothing will occur, it’s unimaginable.”

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He added that Ukraine refused to debate two different Russian calls for on the talks: “denazification” and “demilitarisation”. These had been “utterly incomprehensible issues”, he mentioned.

Ukraine and its western backers concern Russia could also be utilizing the talks as a smokescreen whereas it regroups its forces for a brand new offensive and builds up new battle teams close to the border.

On Sunday, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken mentioned Washington will present an additional $100mn in civilian safety help to Ukraine to assist civil regulation enforcement and defend authorities infrastructure.

In a press release, Blinken mentioned the cash would assist proceed to safe private safety tools, tactical and communications tools, medical provides and armoured autos for Ukraine’s border guard service and its nationwide police power.

Fierce preventing additionally continued to rage within the east and north, with Ukraine claiming it had clawed again territory alongside provide routes close to Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

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Russia stepped up its missile assaults on gas and meals depots for a 3rd day. Ukraine reported strikes in Lutsk, Zhytomyr and Rivne within the west and Kharkiv within the east in addition to “carpet bombing” on Mariupol, the south-eastern port metropolis the place the battle’s worst clashes have erupted and which has been virtually destroyed.

Zelensky mentioned Ukraine was ready to contemplate giving the Russian language protected minority standing if it acquired analogous ensures from Moscow on Ukrainian. However he mentioned Putin had performed “irreparable harm” to the Russian language in Ukraine by means of brutal assaults on primarily Russian-speaking cities corresponding to Mariupol.

“These Russian-speaking cities are those which have been wiped from the face of the earth. And these households,” Zelensky mentioned.

He mentioned 90 per cent of the buildings in Mariupol, which beforehand had a inhabitants of 400,000, had been destroyed, “however they had been at the least multistorey, so you may think about what was there”. Smaller cities however had been utterly destroyed.

“I don’t know who else the Russian military ever handled like this,” the president mentioned, including that the destruction was worse than throughout Moscow’s two campaigns in Chechnya within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.

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Dozens of monkeys escape from South Carolina research facility

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Dozens of monkeys escape from South Carolina research facility

River, left, and Timon, both rhesus macaques who were previously used in medical research, sit in an outdoor enclosure at Primates Inc., in Westfield, Wis., on May 13, 2019. The sanctuary is a 17-acre rural compound where research animals can live their remaining years when their studies are done. A report released on Thursday, May 4, 2023, says a shortage of monkeys available for medical research undermines U.S. readiness to respond to public health emergencies.

Carrie Antlfinger/AP


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Carrie Antlfinger/AP

Dozens of monkeys have escaped from a research facility in Yemassee, S.C., prompting police to urge residents to lock their doors and windows until the primates have been captured.

The Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center is home to the 43 escaped female rhesus macaque primates, which police describe as very young and weighing between 6 and 7 pounds.

“The Yemassee Police Department, in collaboration with Alpha Genesis, have initiated search teams to help locate the escaped primates. Alpha Genesis currently have eyes on the primates and are working to entice them with food,” police said in a statement.

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“The public is advised to avoid the area as these animals are described as skittish and any additional noise or movement could hinder their safe capture.”

The monkeys had never been used for testing due to their young age, and they’re too young to carry diseases, the statement said.

Attempts to reach Alpha Genesis for comment went unanswered.

Speaking to CBS News, Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said that a caretaker accidentally left a door to the enclosure unsecured. The ensuing escape, he said, was like an all-too-literal version of monkey see, monkey do.

“It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go,” Westergaard said. “It was a group of 50 and seven stayed behind and 43 bolted out the door.”

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Even though he called the escape “frustrating,” Westergaard said he hoped the monkeys would ultimately return home of their own free will.

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Video: Biden Promises Americans an Orderly Transition of Power to Trump

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Video: Biden Promises Americans an Orderly Transition of Power to Trump

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Biden Promises Americans an Orderly Transition of Power to Trump

President Biden vowed to honor the Constitution with an orderly transfer of power to President-elect Donald J. Trump.

I know for some people, it’s a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it’s a time of loss. Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times, you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree. I will do my duty as president. I’ll fulfill my oath and I’ll honor the Constitution. On Jan. 20, we’ll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America. Yesterday, I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory. And I assured him that I’d direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve. Yesterday, I also spoke with Vice President Harris. She’s been a partner and a public servant. She ran an inspiring campaign and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect so much: her character. She has a backbone like a ramrod. She has great character — true character. She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran. Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up. The American experiment endures. We’re going to be OK, but we need to stay engaged. We need to keep going. And above all, we need to keep the faith.

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43 monkeys escape from a South Carolina medical lab. Police say there is no serious danger

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43 monkeys escape from a South Carolina medical lab. Police say there is no serious danger

Forty-three monkeys escaped from a compound used for medical research in South Carolina but the nearby police chief said there is “almost no danger” to the public.

“They are not infected with any disease whatsoever. They are harmless and a little skittish,” Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander said Thursday morning.

The Rhesus macaque primates escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility Wednesday when a new employee didn’t fully shut an enclosure, Alexander said.

The company usually handles escapes on site, but the monkeys got outside the compound about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from downtown Yemassee, Alexander said.

“The handlers know them well and usually can get them back with fruit or a little treat,” Alexander told The Associated Press by phone.

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But rounding up these escapees is taking some more work. Alpha Genesis is taking the lead, setting up traps and using thermal imaging cameras to recapture the monkeys on the run, the chief said.

“There is almost no danger to the public,” Alexander said.

People living nearby need to shut their windows and doors so the monkeys can’t find a place to hide inside and if they see the primates, call 911 so company officials and police can capture them.

Alpha Genesis provides primates for research worldwide at its compound about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Savannah, Georgia, according to its website. The company did not respond to an email asking about Wednesday’s escape.

In 2018, federal officials fined Alpha Genesis $12,600 after dozens of primates escaped as well as for an incident that left a few others without water and other problems with how the monkeys were housed.

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Officials said 26 primates escaped from the Yemassee facility in 2104 and an additional 19 got out in 2016.

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