Apple suspends ALL sales in Russia: iPhone maker imposes freelance sanctions on pariah state in a move that Ukraine hopes will anger young people and provoke more protests against the invasion

from Keith Griffith for Dailymail.com and Reuters

Posted: 21:34 GMT, March 1, 2022 | Updated: 21:34 GMT, March 1, 2022

Apple paused all sales of products in Russia in response to the Russians invasion of Ukraine.

The move comes after Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital minister, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking him to suspend all sales and services in Russia, including the App Store.

Apple confirmed on Tuesday that it sought to halt Russian sales, which Fedorov said he hoped would infuriate younger Russians and motivate them to protest the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Apple said in a statement: “We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and we are with all the people who are suffering as a result of the violence.”

Apple has stopped all sales of products in Russia in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Pictured: Apple CEO Tim Cook

“We support the humanitarian effort, provide assistance for the unfolding refugee crisis and do everything possible to support our teams in the region.”

The company outlined a number of actions in response to the invasion, including stopping all exports in its sales channels in the country.

Apple Pay and other services are limited, the company said.

Russian state media, RT News and Sputnik News, are no longer available for download from the Apple Store outside of Russia.

On Tuesday, consumers in Russia still had access to Apple’s online store, but attempts to buy an iPhone showed they were not available for delivery.

An evolving story follows.

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In a rare interview Tuesday afternoon, Zelensky said that as Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian cities continue, little progress can be made in talks between the two nations.

“You have to talk first. Everyone must stop fighting and leave [back] so far, where it started five, six days ago, “Zelenski said.” It’s important to stop bombing people and then we can move on and sit at the negotiating table. “

Asked if he thought Ukraine was wasting time talking to Russia, he said: “We’ll see.” Officials from both sides met for the first time Monday since the Russian invasion began last week.

Ahead of Biden’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, Zelensky called on the president to instill in Americans the urgency and consequences of the Russian invasion.

“He is one of the world leaders and it is very important for the people of the United States to understand (that) despite the fact that the war is in Ukraine … [a] war for the values ​​of democracy, freedom, “Zelenski said.

Zelensky reiterated calls for the United States and NATO to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine or to put boots on the ground. “I have already addressed and (spoken) to some Western leaders with this request, because I believe that leaders should support democracies and they should help them.

“When we talk about no-fly zones, we look back in history … and that doesn’t mean we have to involve another country in the war. And, frankly, you know, everyone is involved in the war now. “

“I’ve talked to Biden many times,” Zelenski said. “And I have told them many times that Ukraine will resist and fight stronger than anyone else, but we will not be able to fight Russia alone.

“Therefore, if someone wants to help us, everyone must act quickly,” Zelenski added. “This is the moment.”

US and NATO allies have helped Ukraine by sharing weapons, military equipment and intelligence, while imposing dramatic sanctions on Russia. But so far, the alliance has made it clear that it has no plans to send troops to non-NATO Ukraine.

Zelenski also predicts problems in NATO member states if Russia takes control of his country. “If Ukraine fails, then all these troops will be on your borders, Poland, Lithuania … and you will face bigger problems. There will be other provocations,” he said.

“The world cannot lose Ukraine”

As CNN and Reuters met with Zelensky in his bunker in Kyiv, the capital – along with cities in Ukraine – was preparing for a renewed and intensified attack by Russian forces.

The missiles were fired near a television tower on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Russia warned of “high-precision” strikes on other facilities linked to Ukraine’s security services. The missile attack destroyed the broadcasting hardware, raising fears that Russia is trying to destroy the city’s communications infrastructure, Ukraine’s interior ministry said.

Zelensky told CNN on Tuesday that Russia was indiscriminately attacking Ukrainian citizens and historical sites.

“As you can see, no one pays much attention to the goals. We see children being killed … We are defending our right to life,” he said, adding that Moscow was “firing its missiles at ancient Kyiv, the heart of Kyiv.”

He spoke triumphantly about Ukraine’s resistance and said of the Russian soldiers: “They have no idea what [are] right. They do not know our streets. They do not know this people. They do not understand our philosophy. Our mentality, our aspirations, what kind of people they have here, they know nothing.

“They were just sent to kill and die,” Zelenski said.

As missiles hit Kyiv on Tuesday, a 40-kilometer convoy of Russian tanks, armored vehicles and towed artillery headed for the Ukrainian capital, according to satellite images from Maxar Technologies, as the military stepped up attacks on other key cities.

The attacks also hit Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv. More than 20 people were injured, including a child, in an explosion at a government building there, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a Telegram post Tuesday.

Russia’s actions on Tuesday marked a far less restrained bombing, raising fears that more civilians could be affected by strikes. The UN says at least 102 civilians have been killed across the country and 304 injured, although those figures probably underestimate the actual number.

Zelensky received global praise for his response to the invasion after rejecting evacuation proposals and instead delivering frequent messages to Ukrainians as Kyiv came under Russian attack.

Earlier Tuesday, he received a standing ovation for an emotional address to the European Parliament via video link, telling delegates: “We are fighting for our lives.”

Asked by CNN about his transformation from a comedian to a world-famous military leader, Zelensky said: “It’s very serious, it’s not a movie … I’m not iconic, I think Ukraine is iconic.”

“Ukraine is the heart of Europe and now I think Europe sees Ukraine as something special to this world,” he added. “That’s why [the] the world cannot lose this special thing. “

The Ukrainian leader looked tired and stressed, but was friendly with CNN and Reuters. He said he had not seen his family for three days; Asked what his typical days were, he said, “Work and sleep.”

Matthew Chance reports from Kyiv; Rob Picheta writes from London.

President Biden, in his address Tuesday night, will call for limits on potentially harmful interactions between children and social media platforms.

The Biden administration has said he will ask Congress to ban targeted advertising targeted at children on social media. According to the newsletter, the president will also say that platforms “should be required to prioritize and ensure” the safety and health of young people, including when choosing designs for their product. And he will call for more research into how social media affects mental health and new analyzes of the algorithms that often determine what someone sees online.

The plans, part of a larger mental health package that Mr. Biden will announce during the State of the Union address, reflect backlash against the biggest tech companies and their ubiquitous products. Parents, activists and politicians say social media services and streaming platforms like YouTube are designed to hook their users by providing them with content the sites know will keep their attention. In turn, critics say young people may be fed increasingly extreme content or posts that lower their self-esteem.

One of the guests joining First Lady Jill Biden for the speech will be Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who leaked documents that, among other things, showed some teens said Instagram made them feel worse about themselves. Last year, Ms. Haugen spoke to Congress about her concerns.

But the United States is lagging behind many of its allies in taking concrete steps to protect children from extremist posts, addictive content and online data collection. Last year, new regulations came into effect in the United Kingdom that are pushing platforms to limit the data they collect about young people, prompting several companies to implement more child safety features. Australia has just given one of its regulators expanded powers to protect children and adults online. Both the UK and the European Union are also considering additional laws to tackle what they call harmful content on the Internet.

Canvas masks do little to prevent the spread of COVID-19or other airborne diseases, a new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom have found that 90 percent of the particles can pass through cloth masks, making them effectively useless during a pandemic.

Canvas masks are popular in the United States because they are easy to reuse after washing and at times were the most affordable due to shortages and high prices for surgical or N95 masks.

However, experts have now found that these masks do almost nothing to stop the virus from spreading, and may have contributed to the spread, as people who believe they are safe do not.

Researchers have found that canvas masks block only about 10 percent of all particles from penetrating. Because cloth masks are made of densely woven yarn (top), unlike surgical and other types of masks that are made to filter particles (bottom), they are less protective against Covid

Researchers also do not recommend surgical masks because they do not fit well and often leave gaps that allow filtered particles to escape.

Researchers who published their findings on Tuesday in Fluid physicsbuild a simulation of airflow using 3D images to assess how well the different masks were used during the pandemic, filtered particles.

They note that unlike N95 or surgical masks, cloth masks are not made of a material made to filter particles.

Canvas masks are made of densely woven fabrics. Although not visible to the eye, small gaps in the tissue are enough to allow the vast majority of particles to pass.

“Masks are air filters, and fabrics like cotton make good jeans, shirts and other clothing, but they are bad air filters,” said Richard Sear, co-author of the study and a physicist at the University of Surrey. declaration.

KN95 masks are designed for particle filtration and have a standard filtration of 95 percent.

“The filter layer of the N95 mask is made of much smaller, 5-micrometer fibers with gaps that are 10 times smaller, making it much better for filtering out nasty air particles, such as those containing a virus.” said Sear.

KF-94 masks are also considered very effective, with the ability to filter 94 percent of the particles.

However, filtering efficiency is not the only two advantages of these masks. Fitting is also very important.

The sign should fit snugly around a person’s face, almost hugging his nose, cheeks and chin.

This is to avoid leaving gaps above or below the mouth and nose where air can escape.

Even if a person has a mask that can filter up to 95 percent of the particles, if the mask does not fit well, then the particles can simply escape from the side.

That is why Sear also does not recommend the use of surgical masks.

“Surgical masks do not fit well, so a lot of air passes unfiltered along the edges of the mask to the cheeks and nose,” he said.

Although this is only a computer-based study, the consequences are great when we look back two years from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many Americans wore cloth masks, almost exclusively, during the pandemic, believing they were doing their part to stop the virus from spreading.

Wearing a mask may also have made people feel more comfortable going out in public, believing that face shields will protect everyone around them from the virus.

Cloth masks may provide little or no protection, and people who believe they are taking appropriate measures to mitigate the virus do not.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends KN95 masks as the gold standard to stop the spread, but still recommends cloth masks as a valid front cover on your website.

representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tore down House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy over what she called a “toothless” statement of condemnation after republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green and Paul Gossar appeared at white nationalist events.

“McCarthy has been defending his little KKK Caucus for years with these toothless statements and meetings. That’s how he covers them, “New York democrat tweets on monday night. “Now he has been helping them for so long that they have escalated their open anti-Semitism and cooperation with white nationalist groups. He is just as guilty, “she added.

Green was in Orlando, Florida over the weekend to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, but was also a surprise guest at the American Political Action Conference, organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tore up House Leader Kevin McCarthy for what she called a “toothless” statement of condemnation after Republicans Marjorie Taylor Green and Paul Gossar appeared at white nationalist events

“McCarthy has been defending his little KKK Caucus for years with these toothless statements and meetings. That’s how he covers them, “the New York Democrat tweeted Monday night, adding that the Republican leader was” guilty. ”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Monday he would speak to MPs Marjorie Taylor Green and Paul Gossar about participating in white nationalist events, saying CNN Green’s appearance over the weekend was “horrifying and wrong”.

Gosar appeared in person at AFPAC last year and recorded a message about the event this year.

Monday night McCarthy told CNN it was “horrible and wrong” for Green to speak to AFPAC.

“There’s no place in our party for any of this,” said the California Republican. That is unacceptable. “

Said McCarthy he was going to meet Green and Gosar.

Green defended his appearance by saying he did not know Fuentes – who is also anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying. He attended the Unite the Right white rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, which turned out to be deadly.

“I do not know Nick Fuentes. I’ve never heard him speak, I’ve never seen a video. I don’t know what his views are, so I don’t agree with anything that is contradictory, “Green Robert Costa told CBS’s CPAC on Sunday. “I went to his event last night to address his many followers because they are very young followers and this is a generation I am extremely concerned about.”

At AFPAC, the crowd hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was involved in a deadly attack on Ukraine, and Fuentes complimented comparisons between Putin and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

“Now they are talking about Russia and Vladimir Putin. They say it’s not good, “Fuentes said before Green took the stage.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Green was in Orlando, Florida this weekend to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (pictured), but was also a surprise guest at the White Nationalists Conference, America’s First Political Action Conference.

The AOC also said McCarthy “does not want to alienate its base” when it refused to condemn Green’s appearance at the conference for the second day in a row. “You know what, I commented on that yesterday,” he told a reporter on Tuesday

McCarthy made these comments, condemning Green’s appearance to Punchbowl News.

– She personally went to answer this. But I think with this introduction you had to leave the stage, “McCarthy said.

Instead of Green entered the hall shiningsaying to the crowd, “Well, hello canceled Americans!”

McCarthy finished talking about Green’s appearance by Tuesday.

“You know what, I commented on that yesterday. I understand your work, I understand what you are trying to do, I have already commented on that. “We have a war in Europe that we have not fought since World War II,” McCarthy told a news conference. “You can take my statement, which I said yesterday, and release it once again.

Ocasio-Cortez also criticized this.

“He doesn’t want to alienate his base,” the New York Democrat tweeted.

In November, Gosar was reprimanded and removed from the House’s anime-sharing committees on Twitter, showing him killing Ocasio-Cortez.

In February 2021, Green was also stripped of her duties on the committee for her support on social media for right-wing conspiracy theories and violence against Democrats.