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Mariupol residents ‘starving’ as Russian occupation continues: ‘Things are bad for my family’
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Residents of Mariupol, a strategically situated port metropolis in Ukraine that Russian forces have been shelling for weeks, are “ravenous” as assaults proceed.
Russia’s invasion of Mariupol and different key Ukrainian cities like Kyiv have pressured folks underground and destroyed indicators of civilization, leaving folks with out meals, water, electrical energy and methods to speak with their households.
Maria Smarovailo, a Mariupol native who has since left the town, informed Fox Information Digital that there was “no meals for greater than three weeks.”
Native residents keep at a bomb shelter throughout Ukraine-Russia battle within the besieged southern port metropolis of Mariupol, Ukraine March 20, 2022. (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
“Within the first week of hostiles within the metropolis, residents purchased meals in shops en masse,” she mentioned, in accordance with a translation. When electrical energy, water and cellphone indicators had been reduce, folks started gathering snow and rainwater and looting shops that had been nonetheless standing “to get at the least some meals and water for youngsters.”
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She added later that Russians will not be permitting humanitarian assist into the town, and “many individuals have no idea that volunteers are working to evacuate folks” as a result of there is no such thing as a web or cellphone sign for residents to speak with each other. Solely these with vehicles are profitable in serving to folks escape as a result of Russian forces will not be permitting buses into Mariupol’s metropolis limits, she mentioned.
One other 20-year resident of Mariupol who left not too long ago, figuring out herself solely as Nadia, mentioned “persons are ravenous” and “dying of dehydration” in Mariupol.
Native resident Antonina, 68, cooks soup in a avenue throughout Ukraine-Russia battle within the besieged southern port metropolis of Mariupol, Ukraine March 20, 2022. (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
“Issues are dangerous for my household,” she mentioned. “They’re left with no dwelling, with no metropolis, sitting with out meals, ravenous … in a chilly basement. There are corpses on the streets of Mariupol that aren’t even buried. All my buddies and acquaintances had been left homeless.”
She added that Russian shelling continues to hit the town “24/7.”
INSIDE THE BRUTAL, TERRIFYING RUSSIAN SIEGE OF MARIUPOL
“There isn’t any silence,” Nadia mentioned. “The Russian occupiers are destroying Mariupol, shelling colleges, maternity hospitals, homes.”
“Folks die day-after-day,” she mentioned.
Of their final replace, Mariupol officers mentioned March 15 that at the least 2,300 folks had died thus far within the siege. However there are fears the toll could possibly be a lot increased. Airstrikes over the previous week devastated a theater and an artwork college the place many civilians had been taking shelter.
A view exhibits a residential constructing which was broken throughout Ukraine-Russia battle within the besieged southern port metropolis of Mariupol, Ukraine March 18, 2022. (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photograph)
The Workplace of the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded about 1,000 civilian casualties whole in Ukraine as of Wednesday.
Smarovailo mentioned that whereas there are nonetheless “lots of people left within the metropolis,” the deceased are trapped “underneath rubble” that can not be cleared so as “to save lots of them.”
“There isn’t any inexperienced hall,” she mentioned of humanitarian corridors that Russian forces initially agreed to execute earlier this month however haven’t honored since, in accordance with native officers. “Folks, at their very own danger, depart the town limits underneath hearth. Not all succeed.”
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Smarovailo described the present state of childhood dwelling as a “big humanitarian disaster.”
“Town [has become] a ghost, the place civilians at the moment are burying folks in yards and homes,” she mentioned. There’s nothing to place out home fires with “as a result of there’s nearly no water.”
Folks carry wood boards to cowl the home windows of a constructing broken by a bombing the day past in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 21, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Vadim Ghirda)
No “complete” buildings or homes stand, she mentioned, in what had as soon as been a “very stunning metropolis with stunning folks, sea views, [attractions], concert events and renovated parks.”
“Now there’s nothing left of it,” Smarovailo mentioned.
A U.S. protection official mentioned Wednesday that Russia has ships stationed within the Sea of Azov which might be firing upon Mariupol.
Greater than 3.1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, and 13 million folks have been affected by the battle, in accordance with the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The refugee company described the humanitarian scenario in Mariupol and Sumy as “extraordinarily dire, with residents going through crucial and doubtlessly deadly shortages of meals, water and medicines,” in a March 18 press launch.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
Justices at the United States Supreme Court have signalled scepticism towards a challenge brought by the video-sharing platform TikTok, as it seeks to overturn a law that would force the app’s sale or ban it by January 19.
Friday’s hearing is the latest in a legal saga that has pitted the US government against ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in a battle over free speech and national security concerns.
The law in question was signed in April, declaring that ByteDance would face a deadline to sell its US shares or face a ban.
The bill had strong bipartisan support, with lawmakers citing fears that the Chinese-based ByteDance could collect user data and deliver it to the Chinese government. Outgoing US President Joe Biden ultimately signed it into law.
But ByteDance and TikTok users have challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing that banning the app would limit their free speech rights.
During Friday’s oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed swayed by the government’s position that the app enables China’s government to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito also floated the possibility of issuing what is called an administrative stay that would put the law on hold temporarily while the court decides how to proceed.
The Supreme Court’s consideration of the case comes at a time of continued trade tensions between the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies.
President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to begin his second term a day after the ban kicks in, had promised to “save” the platform during his presidential campaign.
That marks a reversal from his first term in office, when he unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok.
In December, Trump called on the Supreme Court to put the law’s implementation on hold to give his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case”.
Noel Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, emphasised to the court that the law risked shuttering one of the most popular platforms in the US.
“This act should not stand,” Francisco said. He dismissed the fear “that Americans, even if fully informed, could be persuaded by Chinese misinformation” as a “decision that the First Amendment leaves to the people”.
Francisco asked the justices to, at minimum, put a temporary hold on the law, “which will allow you to carefully consider this momentous issue and, for the reasons explained by the president-elect, potentially moot the case”.
‘Weaponise TikTok’ to harm US
TikTok has about 170 million American users, about half the US population.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration, said that Chinese control of TikTok poses a grave threat to US national security.
The immense amount of data the app could collect on users and their contacts could give China a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment and espionage, she explained.
China could then “could weaponise TikTok at any time to harm the United States”.
Prelogar added that the First Amendment does not bar Congress from taking steps to protect Americans and their data.
Several justices seemed receptive to those arguments during Friday’s hearing. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts pressed TikTok’s lawyers on the company’s Chinese ownership.
“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” Roberts asked.
“It seems to me that you’re ignoring the major concern here of Congress — which was Chinese manipulation of the content and acquisition and harvesting of the content.”
“Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok,” Roberts added, appearing to brush aside free speech arguments.
Left-leaning Justice Elena Kagan also suggested that April’s TikTok law “is only targeted at this foreign corporation, which doesn’t have First Amendment rights”.
TikTok, ByteDance and app users had appealed a lower court’s ruling that upheld the law and rejected their argument that it violates the US Constitution’s free speech protections under the First Amendment.
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