LIVING WAGE

Workers behind the first union push at an Amazon retail store just sent management a list of demands, including a starting wage of $25 an hour

klong@insider.com (Katherine Long) 

© Reuters/HENRY NICHOLLS Inside an Amazon Fresh store

 Reuters/HENRY NICHOLLS

Workers at a Seattle Amazon Fresh grocery launched the first union push at an Amazon retail store.

A wave of labor activism is sweeping Amazon, including at three US warehouses with union drives.

The Amazon grocery workers are asking for higher wages and a more flexible attendance policy.

Workers behind the first union push at an Amazon retail store have asked management for higher pay, a more flexible attendance policy, longer breaks, and other benefits, according to an email shared with Insider.

They are also calling on a federal labor board to investigate whether Amazon violated labor law by removing pro-union literature from a break room and disciplining the employee who put it there.

The Fresh grocery store in Amazon's hometown of Seattle is the latest part of the company's empire to experience labor activism. Three US Amazon warehouses are in the midst of unionization campaigns, with votes at warehouses in Alabama and New York scheduled to conclude at the end of this month. Last June, the Teamsters approved a plan to organize Amazon warehouses and delivery drivers.

In Seattle, the Amazon Fresh workers are advocating for a $25 starting wage, less discipline around tardiness and absenteeism, longer paid breaks, chairs at checkout counters, and more rigorous training on diversity issues, sexual harassment and discrimination, according to the email, which was sent Tuesday. An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions.

The current starting pay for workers at the store is $18.25 an hour, according to job advertisements. Until Seattle lawmakers repeal a state of emergency declared at the start of the pandemic, pay at the store is boosted by a city hazard pay ordinance, which adds an extra $4 to grocery workers' hourly wages.

Labor organizing is sweeping other retailers. Workers at more than 100 Starbucks locations are petitioning to form unions. Outdoor equipment retailer REI is also facing a union fight in New York City. Some other companies in the sector have already raised wages. Target just increased starting pay to up to $24 an hour. Costco made headlines last year when the CEO announced that over half its retail workforce makes more than $25 per hour.

Workers at the Seattle Amazon Fresh location are organizing independently under the moniker Amazon Workers United, unaffiliated with established grocery unions like United Food and Commercial Workers. The union drive kicked off in February after an employee, Joseph Fink, said they were disciplined by a manager for posting pro-union literature in the break room, Seattle's KUOW reported.

Fink filed a complaint last month with the National Labor Relations Board over the incident. They lodged a second complaint with the board Tuesday, alleging that Amazon removed an NLRB settlement notice Fink posted that reminded workers of their right to unionize.

The NLRB required Amazon to post copies of the settlement, which included information about workers' rights, in "prominent places" in some of its facilities, though not in its retail stores, until the end of February. The settlement, made public in December, stemmed from six workers' allegations that Amazon had limited their rights to unionize.

Employees of the Seattle Amazon Fresh store have been meeting for months about possibly forming a union, Fink told Insider. The group decided to go public with their union push last month, before filing a petition to hold a union election, in part to "eradicate the climate of fear around the word 'union,'" Fink said. "There's already such a fearful work environment at Fresh. We wanted to have a different kind of narrative about our union."

Amazon Workers Union doesn't know yet when it will hold a formal election, Fink said. For now, the union is focused on educating workers about their rights to organize.

'Fresh wounds:' 169 potential graves found at former Grouard residential school

Hamdi Issawi

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey (right) listens while Kapawe'no First Nation Chief Sydney Halcrow speaks about the discovery of 169 potential remains with ground penetrating radar at the former Grouard Mission site in Treaty 8 during a press conference in Edmonton on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms)

University of Alberta researchers working with Kapawe`no First Nation have identified 169 potential graves at a former residential school site in northern Alberta.

Speaking in Edmonton on Tuesday at the North Peace Tribal Council Office, Chief Sydney Lee Halcrow of the Kapawe’no First Nation announced the results of a recent ground survey, and said it marks the beginning of a long journey to learn about the children who never made it home from St. Bernard’s mission in Grouard, about 370 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

“The grief we felt when discovering our stolen children has opened fresh wounds,” Halcrow said. “We remember the desolation our people felt when our children were forcibly removed from their families and communities to be placed in Indian residential schools.”

The announcement comes after the First Nation, assisted by the University of Alberta’s Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, completed ground survey work in October at the former mission site.

Dr. Kisha Supernant, director of the institute and an associate professor of archeology at the university, said the effort involved ground-penetrating radar and drone imagery during a six-day search of only one acre of the site — a “high priority” area identified by residential school survivors, community members and archival records.

Halcrow told Postmedia the entire site spans at least 100 acres, and he plans to eventually search all of it.

© Ian Kucerak Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey spoke about the discovery of 169 potential remains with ground penetrating radar at the former Grouard Mission site in Treaty 8 during a press conference in Edmonton on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

Of the potential graves identified, Supernant said 115 were found at a community cemetery in an area with no grave markers, while 54 were found in other areas around the school property.

The effort relied on Canadian Archaeology Association best practices for the use of ground-penetrating radar to search for unmarked graves, she added, and all data were analyzed to identify results with traits that scientific research associates with unmarked graves.

While she is reasonably confident the cemetery findings represent graves, Supernant said she can’t determine whether they belong to children or other community members, although parish records indicate that children who died at the school were buried in the cemetery.

“We do not need ground-penetrating radar results to know that children didn’t come home from this school,” she said. “The knowledge of survivors, and the extensive archival records already contained clear information about children dying while in residence here.”

Following the announcement, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson issued a joint statement condemning the “wicked injustice” of the residential school system while thanking the university’s archeological team for its assistance.

In June, Kenney said the province would spend $8 million to aid Indigenous communities researching burial sites and undocumented deaths at residential schools.

Halcrow said Kapawe`no First Nation conducted the search on its own dime, and only received provincial funds a couple of weeks ago.

“If we would have waited, this report would not be done until probably next year,” he said.

© Ian Kucerak Dr. Kisha Supernant, Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, University of Alberta, speaks about the discovery of 169 potential remains with ground penetrating radar at the former Grouard Mission site in Treaty 8 during a press conference in Edmonton on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

According to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), St. Bernard’s, also known as the Grouard Indian Residential School, operated for 63 years between 1894 and 1957 under Roman Catholic administration.

Supernant said the search will expand to include the site of a former Anglican mission nearby known as St. Peter’s, which the NCTR identifies as the Lesser Slave Lake Residential School.

Also speaking at the announcement, Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey said the mounting number of potential graves found at former residential school sites across the country leaves him with a deep sorrow that’s difficult to express.

In May, a ground-penetrating radar search near the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. helped identify about 200 potential graves. Since then, Indigenous communities across the country have reported hundreds of similar findings.

“It’s as if this wound cannot heal — it’s reopened over and over, and when you think it will get better, it splits open again,” Noskey said. “How can we heal if we haven’t found them all? How can we heal unless we search every single residential school site in Canada for our children?”

The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available 24-hours a day at 1-800-721-0066 for those feeling pain or distress from residential school experiences.

hissawi@postmedia.com

@hamdiissawi

WORKERS CAPITAL

California lawmakers say they'll push the 2 largest US public pension funds to dump Russia investments

gdean@insider.com (Grace Dean)

Russian President Vladimir Putin seen in Moscow, 

Russia, on February 19, 2022. 

Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS

California lawmakers say they'll push state agencies to dump investments in Russia.

The legislation would include CalPERS and CalSTRS, America's two largest public pension funds.

As well as US federal sanctions, state and private entities are scrambling to cut ties with Russia.

California lawmakers say they'll push state agencies, including the US' two largest public pension funds, to dump investments in Russia after the country invaded Ukraine.

Data suggests California likely has more than $1 billion in investments in Russia, primarily in its pension funds, the office of State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire said in a statement.

McGuire and a bipartisan group of California lawmakers will introduce legislation calling on all state agencies "to divest from any and all Russian assets immediately," Monday's statement said.

The call comes as governments imposed sanctions against Russia, and international companies scaled back their interests there, after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine.

McGuire's office said that state pension funds California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, and California State Teachers' Retirement System, known as CalSTRS, would be called upon to immediately divest Russian assets under the proposed legislation.

CalPERS is the largest pension fund in the US with nearly $500 billion in assets. A spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the fund had around $900 million of exposure to Russia, but no Russian debt.

Calculations by Reuters suggest that CalSTRS had more than $800 million in exposure to Russian assets as of June 2021. CalSTRS is the US's second-largest pension fund with more than $300 billion in assets. The fund told Reuters that it had investments in Russia and was monitoring potential risks to its portfolio.

Neither pension fund immediately responded to Insider's requests for comment, made outside of regular working hours.

The California lawmakers said in the statement that the legislation would also block the state from awarding contracts to companies that conduct business with Russia, and that they would also ask private companies to divest their investments in the Russian economy.

"California is the world's fifth largest economy and enhanced action taken by the State could help the people of Ukraine by putting additional financial pressure on the already beaten-up Russian economy," McGuire's office said in the statement.

"At this point there can be no excuse to invest in and support Putin, his oligarchs, and the Russian economy," his office added.

The US is among countries that have been imposing sanctions on Russia after the country recognized two breakaway groups in Ukraine before launching an invasion of the country. The sanctions are aimed at hobbling Russia's economy and have hit its banks, oligarchs, and trade. So far the measures have led to a collapse in the currency, the ruble, and a surge in inflation.

Colorado's state pension fund said last week that it would divest $7.2 million from Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank, after the US announced Thursday that it was blocking the bank from processing transactions made in dollars. Maryland has severed its sister-city ties with Russia's Leningrad region in what the state's governor called a "symbolic gesture" backing Ukraine.

Canada will soon require digital platforms to pay news outlets and broadcasters revenue

MobileSyrup 



Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez’s mandate letter calls on him to introduce drastic legislation to equal the news revenue playing field.

The legislation will likely require digital platforms (like Google and Facebook) financially benefiting from Canadian news content to share revenue with news outlets. The mandate letter states Rodriguez will present legislation in early 2022.

But according to recent reporting from Cartt, a timeline to when exactly the legislation will be introduced has not been made public.

The publication does confirm news broadcasters are going to be a part of the new legislation, according to an announcement Rodriguez made at a Canada 2020 event discussing the future of news.

“Minister Rodriguez confirmed last week that broadcasters will benefit from the framework, given the important role they play in producing and providing Canadians access to news,” the spokesperson told Cartt.

The mandate letter also details the legislation will take after Australia’s approach.

Named the “news media bargaining code,” the legislation allows Australia’s Treasury to designate certain digital platforms to share revenues with news platforms they financially benefit from.

But what exactly that will look like in Canada is not clear at this time.

“Further details on the legislative approach will be available in due course,” the spokesperson told Cartt.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Cartt.ca

Alberta video game developers say industry is being left behind in province

Stephen David Cook

A lack of incentives for Alberta video game development is taking jobs and economic opportunities elsewhere, industry advocates warn.

Last week's provincial budget promised increased funding for film, television and innovation programs but was a disappointment for the video game industry as it failed to offer any new support.

"It's just an absolutely massive opportunity for Alberta, but we continue to lag behind other provinces," said Scott Nye, chair of the industry association Digital Alberta.

A report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada notes the industry contributed $5.5 billion to Canada's GDP in 2021 — a growth of 35 per cent over two years.

Full-time employment in the industry rose by 17 per cent in that time while studios continue to pop up across the country, primarily in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia where tax incentives are offered.

Alberta had its own Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit, introduced by the NDP government. It covered 25 per cent of salaries and bonuses for staff, along with an additional five per cent for employees from diverse or under-represented backgrounds.

After being elected in 2019, the UCP government yanked the credit and introduced its own tax regimens for film, television and innovation.

The growth of the interactive digital media sector in Alberta has significantly slowed, Nye said.

"A lot of companies that are members of Digital Alberta are making the hard decision to, unfortunately, stop growing in Alberta, and instead put their investment in jobs in other provinces."
Fostering growth

Trent Oster, CEO of Edmonton-based Beamdog, said his initial growth plan had the video game development company at 130 employees at this point. He's now sitting around 80, with almost a third of those in other provinces.

"It's a race and we were actually accelerating — we were on a catch up pace — and then that got knocked out from under us," he said. © CBC Trent Oster, standing, is the CEO of Edmonton independent video game company Beamdog. He was a co-founder of BioWare in 1995.

Oster pointed to Quebec as an exemplar province that aggressively courted video game developers. Montreal boasts offices for major studios like Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games and Electronic Arts.

Such an ecosystem allows employees to gain experience and move between companies or start their own. Alberta's industry is missing a tier of experienced employees and must look elsewhere, Oster said.

Alberta needs to foster a similar ecosystem to remain competitive but video game studios are like start-ups and scale-ups that need support before they can become major profitable ventures, he said.

"If there's no support and no investment and, as a result, no infrastructure that builds up around it … the companies just either starve out or they move."
Tech sector support

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Innovation said in a statement the province's tech sector has grown exponentially during the UCP government's tenure. The spokesperson pointed to investment success stories like those from Amazon Web Services and homegrown companies like Jobber.

The statement did not address video game or interactive digital media development directly.© David Bajer/CBC Kyle Kulyk founded Itzy Interactive more than a decade ago, starting in mobile games before moving to computer games.

Kyle Kulyk runs independent studio Itzy Interactive, which counts three full-time employees and four contractors. He said the only reason he's not looking to set up shop elsewhere is that he's already built a life in Edmonton.

"I stay in the province simply because my family is here," Kulyk said.

Alberta's lower corporate tax rate doesn't mean much for a small business as it can take up to three years before the studio sees any income from a product beingput out to market, he said.

Kulyk noted the TV production of HBO's The Last of Us, which filmed around the province last summer and was upheld as an investment success story, is based on a video game.

"They won't put any effort into growing the industry that creates those [intellectual properties]," he said. "And it's just a lack of vision."

The IPCC report proves ‘green capitalism’ doesn’t work, says climate expert

Water floods streets and houses in Maryborough, Australia, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. - Copyright AP Photo

By Morgan Phillips • Updated: 01/03/2022 - 

Dr. Morgan Phillips is the UK Co-Director of The Glacier Trust and author of ‘Great Adaptations - In the shadow of a climate crisis’. Here he gives us his take on the latest IPCC report.

A full eight years have passed since the IPCC’s fifth assessment report on climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. A lot of ‘climate action’ has happened in the intervening years, but the headlines emerging from the release, today, of the IPCC’s sixth report stress again that the action being taken is not even close to being adequate.

The 3,675 page report is the result of a voluntary and collective effort by 330 scientists and academics and draws on the work of thousands more. It is a truly global effort and a very timely reminder of the cooperative and collaborative power of the human species.

The all-important ‘Summary for Policymakers’ was finalised on Saturday and released today.

It has been meticulously approved by national Government officials from all over the world. They do not appear to have watered much down; it is a very sobering read.

The IPCC, once again, is telling us a story of impacts that are heavy and worse than previously expected. They are warning of a chronic lack of investment in adaptation, but also the limits of adaptation. And they are highlighting specific and generic vulnerabilities that climate change is exposing and exacerbating.

Today and tomorrow, news and social media feeds will be full of calls to double down on climate action.

One message will drown out all others: the world must – rapidly and urgently – invest in renewable energy.

Today and tomorrow, news and social media feeds will be full of calls to double down on climate action.

One message will drown out all others: the world must – rapidly and urgently – invest in renewable energy, phase out (not down) fossil fuels, and get on a credible pathway to ‘Net Zero’ emissions.

It’s the path we take that matters

It is a well-rehearsed message and one that gets listened to, but not heard. The campaign group Zero Hour have pointed this out brilliantly. In their short viral video they emphasise a key point that so often gets lost: “it’s not when we reach #NetZero, it’s the path we take that matters”.

According to the IPCC, the path we need to be on is concave, with deep cuts in carbon emissions in the near term:

CO2 emission graphEuronews

The path the UK is on – and the UK is doing better than most – is, however, disastrously convex. It is a pathway that goes around the problem:

CO2 emission graph convexEuronews

By delaying the making of deep cuts until the 2040s, the UK Government is taking a huge gamble on the power of future carbon removal technology and the expansion of renewable energy capacity. However, even if these technologies do emerge, this pathway commits the UK to emitting twice as much CO2 compared to the safer, concave path.

That is a lot of greenhouse gas to bestow on our children and grandchildren. If world leaders are serious about avoiding climate breakdown, the convex pathway is not a credible way to do it.

If world leaders are serious about avoiding climate breakdown, the convex pathway is not a credible way to do it.

Today’s IPCC report does nothing to assure us that temperature rises are slowing down, or that impacts will be benign. 1.5C of warming looks almost inevitable. This means that the planet will soon experience climate change impacts that are “irreversible”.

The stark reality is that today’s socioeconomic system is incompatible with climate stability.

Efforts to tackle climate change, and to prevent it from causing catastrophic loss and damage, have failed. If the world persists with neoliberal consumer capitalism, the failure is going to get deeper and deeper. Eventually, capitalism will collapse bringing Western civilisation down with it.

We don’t need ‘green capitalism’

The solution, sadly, is not to switch to a ‘green’ version of capitalism. After at least 30 years of trying, the convex pathway is the best route to Net Zero that green capitalism has come up with.

It is clearly not sufficient; going around the problem gets us nowhere. A far more radical approach is needed.

At this morning’s launch event, the IPCC’s chairperson, Dr. Hoesung Lee, concluded that the new report “emphasises the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action to address climate risks”. He warned us that “half measures are no longer an option.”

He is skirting around the issue, and he is unable to say that our efforts have failed, few people are. However, until a widespread willingness to admit that the capitalist way of solving the climate crisis is the half measure, and that it has failed, we are stuck with it – which is to say, we are stuck with climate breakdown.

The end of capitalism is not the end of the world, it is not even the end of the market economy.

The myth of 'green capitalism' will not solve the climate crisis

For me, the reason people are too afraid to admit that efforts have failed is that alternatives to capitalism have not yet entered the collective imagination. Viable visions of different and better kinds of future are needed, they will give people an alternative paradigm to step into and the confidence to call green capitalism out for what it is – a half measure.

Alternative socioeconomic models are emerging. They are more compatible with climate and ecological stability. I have covered some in my latest book, 'Great Adaptations', and there are many more to be found in the social sciences.

The third part of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report will be published in April. It is the labour of working group 3 and looks at strategies for cutting carbon emissions. It is high time it majored on post-capitalist, post-consumerist, and post-growth visions of the future and how a shift to them might make near-term deep cuts possible.

EV ECOCIDE

Massive cargo ship carrying electric cars sinks in Atlantic Ocean after fire

By Euronews with AP, AFP • Updated: 01/03/2022

The ship caught fire on February 16 near Faial island in Portugal's Azores. - Copyright Portuguese Navy via AP

A large cargo vessel carrying cars has sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, thirteen days after a fire broke out on board.

The ship's manager and Portuguese navy confirmed on Tuesday that the Felicity Ace sank around 400 kilometres off the Azores.

The Panama-flagged vessel was being towed after a salvage team had extinguished the fire, MOL Ship Management in Singapore said in a statement.

The 200-metre-long vessel had been sailing from Germany to the United States before it caught fire last month. Portugal's Air Force had evacuated the 22 crew members, before letting the ship drift for several days in the mid-Atlantic.

Ocean-going tugboats with firefighting equipment had been hosing down the ship’s hull to cool it.

Portuguese navy rescues 22 crew members from burning cargo ship in Atlantic Ocean

It was not clear how many luxury cars were onboard, but vessels of the Felicity Ace’s size can carry at least 4,000 vehicles.

The ship was transporting electric and non-electric vehicles, according to Portuguese authorities.

Authorities suspect the fire may have broken out due to the lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, but an investigation into the cause of the blaze is still underway.

The Portuguese navy confirmed the sinking of the Felicity Ace, saying it occurred outside Portuguese waters.

There were also concerns that the sunken vessel could pollute the ocean, given that it had been carrying 2,000 metric tons of both fuel and oil.

The Portuguese navy said in a statement that only a few pieces of wreckage and a small patch of oil was visible where the ship went down. The tugboats were breaking up the patch with hoses, it added.

A Portuguese Air Force plane and a Portuguese navy vessel will remain at the scene on the lookout for signs of pollution.

'Half of humanity' at risk from impacts of climate change, major UN report warns

Denmark authorises construction of gas pipeline from Norway to Poland

By AFP with Euronews • Updated: 01/03/2022

Construction work where the gas pipeline is due to come ashore in West Jutland, Denmark.

 - Copyright John Randeris / Ritzau Scanpix via AP

Denmark has authorised the construction of a new pipeline between Norway and Poland to reduce Warsaw's dependence on Russian gas.

The "Baltic Pipe" project aims to ensure that Poland receives supplies of Norwegian gas through the Baltic Sea. The pipeline is expected to have an annual transport capacity of 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

The Danish energy infrastructure manager Energinet confirmed on Tuesday that a new environmental permit had been granted.

An original permit for the undersea gas pipeline was rejected by authorities last year due to environmental concerns.

"Energinet can start construction work on the parts of the project in East Jutland and on West Funen that have been on hiatus since May 2021," Energinet said in a statement.

Concerns had been raised about the impact of the 210-kilometre Danish pipeline on protected animal species.

Baltic Pipe Project: Deal agreed to build gas pipeline under sea between Denmark and Poland

"We are very busy taking into account nature and wildlife in connection with the construction of the Baltic Pipe," said the main project manager, Søren Juul Larsen.

"I am glad that we have received an environmental permit that thoroughly describes the considerations we will take into account, among other things, the protected animal species in the areas we pass through."

Energinet expects the pipeline to be partially commissioned from October, and fully operational by 1 January 2023.

The EU has provided €215 million in funding for the Baltic Pipe Project, which will also allow Poland to supply gas to the Danish market.

Poland had announced in 2019 that it would not extend its contract with Russian giant Gazprom beyond 2022, which covered two-thirds of its gas consumption.

Last week, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany suspended the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which connects its territory to Russia via the Baltic Sea.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy: 

Why Ukraine's 'brave 

and anti-nationalist*' 

president is a nightmare for Moscow

By Aleksandar Brezar • Updated: 01/03/2022

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks at a front-line position from a shelter as he visits eastern Ukraine - Copyright Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, Fil

He was IS a multimillionaire comedian, the voice of Paddington Bear and won Dancing with the Stars.

After his TV series based around a man who accidentally becomes president became a hit, he founded his own party and was elected president in real life.

Now, he's leading a country being invaded by the second most powerful military in the world.

Those who support the way Volodymyr Zelenskyy is helming the country in the midst of an invasion forget that Ukraine was already at war for years when he took office in a surprising landslide victory in 2019. He pledged, like many other Ukrainian politicians, that he would put an end to it.

"He was trying to do everything to achieve peace," Iuliia Mendel, a journalist and former spokeswoman for Zelenskyy, told Euronews.


"He promised to finish the war soon," Mendel explained.

The negotiations with Russia over the breakaway Kremlin-backed territories in Donbas led to successful ceasefire agreements, and Zelenskyy managed to bring home around 150 prisoners of war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin grew increasingly irritated by his Ukrainian counterpart, who practically predicted his political trajectory with his Sluga narodu or Servant of the People hit TV show, where he played an idealistic, unpretentious history teacher know-it-all forced to slug his way through a system riddled with corrupt bureaucrats.

Putin might have also become concerned by Zelenskyy's growing popularity in Russia, according to Mendel.

After purchasing the entire series in 2019, Russian channel TNT only ran one episode before pulling the show from the air, claiming it only aired it as a marketing ploy.

It also censored a joke in the episode in which Putin is said to be wearing a Hublot watch — a reference to a racy anti-Putin chant.

Ukrainian comedian and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskyy performs during a show in Brovary, near Kyiv in 2019

Emilio Morenatti/Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

At the same time, Zelenskyy grew more disgruntled with Putin's interpretation of the Minsk Agreements, signed to establish a ceasefire between the two sides and defined the relationship between the Kyiv government and the occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk.

And then Putin massed around 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border, starting in the spring of 2021, which were later withdrawn only to appear again in the winter.

Zelenskyy gave an interview to the Financial Times, in which he openly criticised the Western-brokered 2014 and 2015 peace agreements and said he would not talk to Donbas separatists, calling them "terrorists" – a considerably harsher tone than he had earlier in his presidency.

"He actually publicly said that the Minsk agreements did not work. After that, their rhetoric changed a lot and they declined any meetings and absolutely blocked the dialogue," Mendel said, recalling the Russian response.

"And although Zelenskyy's ideology didn't change, his rhetoric went from milder to stronger."

But Putin's claims of the country being run by "Nazis and drug addicts" are outrageous, Mendel insisted. Zelenskyy, in particular, is as far removed from a hardline nationalist as one could be.

"Zelenskyy always said that Ukrainians are different — we have different religions, we speak different languages — but we are all united as a nation, and he was always proud of the diversity that exists in Ukraine as something that must make us stronger, not weaker."

Zelenskyy exceeds expectations

Just like his character's surname on the "Servant of the People", Goloborodko — meaning "beardless," but also poor or wet behind the ears — many took Zelenskyy's freshly shaven, youthful look for naivety.

Some even accused him of working for the Kremlin, most notably his main opponent in the elections, former president Petro Poroshenko. Zelenskyy comes from the mainly Russian-speaking region of Kryvyi Rih.

"There were a lot of well-organised attacks by the opposition on him when he came to power, saying that he was a Russian speaker and that he will take Ukraine to Russia," Mendel said.

"But that was never true. I was with him at the very beginning of his presidency, and he was always devoted to Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena visit a monument for Holodomor victims during a commemoration ceremony in Kyiv in 2021

Uncredited/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office

After news of US intelligence broke of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine earlier in February, many were taken aback by his constant appeals for calm and statements that there is "no need for panic".

Some of his critics accused him of being "dispiritingly mediocre," as one op-ed in the New York Times claimed on the eve of the invasion.

In real life and the midst of war, Zelenskyy proved to be much more astute.

Now sporting a five-o'clock-shadow and olive-green fatigues, Zelenskyy quickly grew into the leading motivating voice for both his army and his citizens, appearing in videos in downtown Kyiv after being labelled "target number one" and repeatedly rejecting Western offers to leave the country.

"I am here. We are all here. We are in Kyiv. We are defending Ukraine," he said in one video filmed on his phone on Friday night as air raid sirens permeated the streets of the capital.

Due to his relaxed style and the occasional lack of diplomatic language that would make way for sarcasm and barbed retorts, people wondered if he was serious or performing, Daniel Bilak, a Canadian attorney and former advisor to two Ukrainian prime ministers, told Euronews.

But the way Zelenskyy responded to the war has "virtually completely rehabilitated him in all of his doubters' eyes in the space of several days," he said.

"This is not a performance. People feel the passion. People feel the pain because we're going through it every day."

Ukrainian servicemen walk by fragments of a downed aircraft in KyivOleksandr Ratushniak/Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

What also helped Ukraine stand up to the aggression was that Zelenskyy changed the leadership of the armed forces last August, Bilak explained.

"He put into place who should be there. These were battlefield commanders who had experience in the east, none of them had served in the Soviet military, which was something new," he said.

While the new military leadership had only a few months to prepare, Zelenskyy's calls for calm signalled that the government was aware of what was to come. And it worked, Bilak said.

"Ukrainians did not panic, did not lose their heads over this, and this is really crucial because at its essence this is a psychological war of attrition. Of who will crack first," he stated.

Path to EU forged in war

Since the invasion, Zelenskyy's repeated appeals for NATO and EU assistance have resulted in the latter deciding to purchase and send weapons to the country – for the first time in its history – while Russia and its leadership face crippling sanctions.

But the two blocs have avoided a direct answer to any formal talks regarding Ukraine's membership so far, its aspirations being dismissed by claims that the country is far from ready.

Bilak believes that this is too hard on a country that has undergone significant progress since it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

"This is a democratic country worth defending," he said. "Ukraine is a messy, vibrant, emerging democracy. This country can give most European nations lessons in democratic government, frankly."

Although Ukraine signed its stabilisation and association agreement in June 2014, Brussels has largely ignored the idea of any of its Eastern Partnership countries entering the bloc. The country was at war, and the membership process contains gruelling reforms.

Now Zelenskyy might just find himself in another role – that of a leader who finally brokered a deal, even if it was done by forcing the bloc's hand in dire circumstances. While Kyiv was under intense shelling, he signed an application for membership together with the prime minister and the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gestures while speaking to the media during a news conference with the world's largest aeroplane, Mriya in 2021

MRIYA WAS SEIZED AND DESTROYED BY RUSSIAN TROOPS

Efrem Lukatsky/Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Although the EU has acted much more quickly and collectively than most people thought possible, the road to the EU might still be a long one, Anthony Zacharzewski, founder of Democratic Society, a Brussels-based NGO, believes.

"At best, the EU will fire the starting gun on a membership marathon," he told Euronews.

"The Treaties don't provide for speeding up entry - maybe with goodwill on both sides it could be done in five years, but everyone thinks that there is a need for a general revision of the Treaties and that could take even longer."

Instead, Zacharzewski envisions a makeshift solution.

"One possible approach would be for the EU to create a new model of accession agreement giving non-voting 'waiting room' membership to countries that meet democracy and rule of law criteria and make a firm commitment to join."

Yet the war will determine not just Ukraine's future but also that of Russia, as Zelenskyy can carry the growing legitimacy forward, while Putin is now the world's pariah.

"If Zelenskyy survives, he will have immense personal authority at home and with Europe. It will be hard to resist calls for Ukraine to swiftly be made a candidate country – if he manages peacetime as well as he has managed war," Zacharzewski explained.

* COSMOPOLITAN, MULTICULTURAL, GLOBALIST

 I WILL MISS SPUTNIK FOR THESE STORIES

'Tic Tac UFO' Spotted by Motorist Over Seoul – Video

CC0 / /

Andrei Dergalin

SPUTNIK

The object in the video "has no tail, no wings, no window" and "looks similar to that of a rocket more than anything else", as the blogger who shared the footage noted.

Prolific blogger Scott C. Waring, who previously made claims about UFO sightings and supposed alien bases on Earth, has reported what he described as “100 percent real UFO raw footage”.

The sighting occurred on 27 February in the South Korean capital Seoul, where a motorist managed to capture some strange shape in the sky on their cell phone camera (though the veracity of the footage could not be immediately confirmed).

As the blogger points out, the object "has no tail, no wings, no window" and the clip "looks similar to that of a rocket more than anything else".

"I put it into slow motion to see if the UFO went behind or in front of the highway signs... it went behind", Waring noted. “Had it gone in front I would know instantly it was fake, its (sic!) not."

The blogger called the object in the video a Tic Tac UFO – an apparent reference to an object spotted by US Navy fighter aircraft several years ago and officially released by the Pentagon.