Death toll rises in Ukraine
More than three dozen people have died in cities across Ukraine after four days of bombardment by Russia. The new toll emerged as Western allies met to figure out how to strengthen Ukraine’s hand on the battlefield without enlarging the deadliest, most destructive conflict to be fought in Europe since World War II.
Western nations are working to hasten deliveries of sophisticated air-defense systems to Ukraine, and E.U. officials said they planned to begin training Ukrainian soldiers on E.U. soil, even as some member nations expressed concerns that the mission would increase the risks of their becoming embroiled in the war.
Amid concerns about future threats to Europe, 15 European defense ministers yesterday announced plans to develop a “European Sky Shield.” The German-led effort intends to standardize short-, medium- and long-range air defense missiles, as well as radars, for use in warding off potential attacks.
Kherson: As Russian forces continued to lose ground on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Thursday that it would help residents leave the southern province, one of four illegally annexed by Moscow.
By the numbers: Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has called for $57 billion in aid to rebuild and keep the country’s economy afloat.
Germany turns to coal
Germany has pledged to wean itself off coal by 2030. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent cutoff of Russian gas supplies to Europe, has led the country to step up its use of coal. It could also mean the end for Lützerath, a German farming village that sits atop a large coal deposit the German government hopes to mine.
Protesters in Lützerath — environmental activists, middle-class residents from nearby towns and a religious community that recently carried a cross around the village — say they are exhausted but plan to keep fighting. Energy experts suggest that Lützerath’s coal is not necessary for the country’s energy supplies.
Germans have traditionally been supportive of clean energy, but there has been little public backlash to destroying the village, and many Germans seem to have accepted that coal will be an important part of their near-term energy future. Since the crisis began, coal-fueled electricity generation in Germany has risen by nearly 5 percent, accounting for almost of all electricity produced in Germany.
In other energy news:
A subpoena for Donald Trump
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol voted unanimously to subpoena Donald Trump to question him about his role in the day’s events. The vote came after the committee presented a sweeping summation of its case against him, including more details about his state of mind and his central role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
The panel showed how Trump had repeatedly sought to join the crowd at the Capitol, even after his supporters had turned violent and were attacking the police. “He is required to answer for his actions,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the committee. “He is required to answer to those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy.”
The committee also presented evidence that Tom Fitton, an informal Trump adviser, had counseled the president days before the election to declare victory strictly on the basis of votes cast on Election Day, effectively asserting that lawfully cast early and absentee ballots should not count.
Next steps: It is still unlikely that the committee will have the chance to question Trump. He would be all but certain to defy any subpoena, and attempts to enforce one would almost certainly lead to a protracted legal battle.
THE LATEST NEWS
Around the World
As an energy crisis looms, nimble young activists are using superhero-like moves to switch off wasteful lights that Parisian stores leave on all night.
“Everyone can contribute in their own way” to save energy, said Kevin Ha, the leader of the Paris-based On the Spot Parkour collective. “We put our physical abilities to good use.”
SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC
Barcelona’s messy financial woes: Barcelona’s policy of using short-term fixes to jump-start the team, with a Champions League exit looming, means more lever-pulling looks certain. Are they a mess? It’s complicated.
Harry Kane would thrive like Erling Haaland if he played for Manchester City: A hot take? Well, England icon Alan Shearer says Harry Kane would be just as prolific on Pep Guardiola’s team as their Norway sensation Erling Haaland.
Gregg Berhalter’s USMNT system is mostly the right fit, but adjustments are needed: Despite disappointing form entering the World Cup, the U.S. probably doesn’t have many realistic options with its current personnel. Is head coach Gregg Berhalter setting the team up in a way that’s a good fit for the players?
ARTS AND IDEAS
Re-evaluating a staple of Chaucer studies
It was a publicity coup akin, as the literary scholar Jonathan Hsy put it on Twitter, to “a Beyoncé album drop.” Two scholars have stunned the world of medieval literature with previously unknown documents that they say show that Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of “The Canterbury Tales,” was not accused of rape, as has long been believed.
A court document discovered in 1873 suggested that around 1380, Chaucer had been charged with raping Cecily Chaumpaigne, the daughter of a London baker. In the document, Chaumpaigne released Chaucer from “all manner of actions related to my raptus” — a word commonly translated as rape or abduction. The document had helped inspire a rich vein of feminist criticism looking at sex, power and consent in Chaucer’s work.
But the new documents, the two scholars say, establish that the one that surfaced in the 1870s had been misinterpreted. Instead of stemming from a rape case, they argue, the document was part of a labor case, in which another man charged Chaumpaigne with leaving his household to work in Chaucer’s before her term of labor was over.
“Chaucer and Chaumpaigne are not on different sides,” said Sebastian Sobecki, a professor at the University of Toronto, who did the research with Euan Roger of the British National Archives. “They are both defendants. And that changes everything.”
