Seattle deluged with more than a month's worth of rain in 3 days
By Allison Finch, AccuWeather, Accuweather.com

Flooding near Warner's Creek closed State Route 7 in Lewis County from milepost 2 to milepost 11 due to flooding near Warner's Creek. Photo courtesy of the Washington State Department of Transportation/Twitter

An extreme atmospheric river unleashed heavy rain and snow over the Pacific Northwest over the last three days of February, bringing significant flooding, avalanche threats, landslides and wreaking havoc on roadways.

The deluge shattered daily rainfall records in Seattle, according to the National Weather Service, and the Emerald City wasn't the only place to break daily rainfall records. The new daily record of 2.97 inches of rain in Seattle surpassed the previous record of 1.46 inches set back on Feb. 28, 1972. Feb. 28 also took the spot for the fourth-wettest February day on record.

The heavy rain to close out February marked an abrupt turnaround as, for most of the month, precipitation amounts in Seattle were trending well below average.

"There has been more rain in the last three days of February in Seattle than there was in the entire month" leading up to that rainy stretch, AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said. "In fact, the 4.58 inches in the last three days is nearly an inch above the normal for the month," DePodwin added, noting that Seattle, on average, picks up 3.76 inches of rain in February.

"While this month will go down as wetter than normal -- 141 of normal -- it likely will be remembered for being dry due to the majority of days that did not have much precipitation," he said.

For the first 25 days of the month in Portland, Ore., only 58 hundredths of an inch of rain fell, making for a dry month. The city recorded 2.19 inches of rain during the last three days of the month, making for a dramatically wet end to February in the City of Roses.

Just south of Seattle, in Olympia, Wash., 3.12 inches of rain fell, breaking the previous record of 1.69 inches set back in 1972, according to the NWS. West of Olympia, Hoquiam, Wash., broke its 1967 daily rainfall record of 1.33 inches when a total of 2.14 inches of rain fell on Feb. 28.

"These atmospheric river patterns that set up across the Pacific Ocean happen only several times a year, primarily October to April, so while that much rain is not common when this pattern sets up over an area and persists for a couple of days, heavy rain where it sets up is the norm," said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dave Houk.
Heavy rain that saturated the ground tripped many mudslides across parts of Washington Monday. Valley Regional Fire posted photos on Twitter of a mudslide blocking the entire road just south of Seattle, in Auburn, Wash.

Another mudslide was reported just east of Seattle, in Bellevue, Washington, in the same location that experienced a water main break and mudslide just six weeks prior. Residents who were evacuated during the flood of Jan. 17 had just returned to their homes Friday, Feb. 25, only to be greeted with another mudslide on Monday, according to KIRO 7 TV station in Seattle.

A nine-mile stretch of State Route 7 was closed in Lewis County, Wash., on Monday due to flooding near Warner's Creek, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

And the precipitation impacts weren't limited to rainfall. Snowfall at higher elevations was significant also.

According to the Northwest Avalanche Center, there was still a "considerable" avalanche danger for most areas of Washington's Cascade mountains on Tuesday as well as a "high avalanche danger for the east slopes of the northern region of the Cascades.

"Triggering a slide is likely and will be big enough to bury or kill you. Avoid travel in or below avalanche terrain," said NWAC via Twitter.

Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass, roadways over the Cascade Mountains that connect western Washington and eastern Washington, were closed Monday due to heavy snow and avalanche dangers. Stevens Pass opened Monday afternoon, and Snoqualmie Pass opened around 5 p.m. amid areas of standing water and rain. Traction tires were advised for those traveling through Snoqualmie Pass.

Flood watches, warnings and advisories were in effect through Thursday across parts of Washington. Forecasters warned that recent rainfall and runoff could cause rivers, creeks, streams and other low-lying areas to flood.

AccuWeather forecasts say the dip in the jet stream that fueled this rich flow of moisture will move eastward in the next few days, changing the weather pattern for the Pacific Northwest.

"There can still be periods of lighter rain across western Washington through Wednesday. New [rainfall] totals should be near or less than half an inch, which will not be a major player in triggering any new flooding," Houk said.

PRIVATIZATION OF SPACE
SpaceX Axiom crew nears final training for first all-private mission to ISS

By Paul Brinkmann

5 / 6The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew 

Dragon Endeavour during a flyaround of the orbiting lab in November.

 Photo courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- NASA and Houston-based Axiom Space are in the final stages of training and preparation to launch the first all-private astronaut mission, Ax-1, to the International Space Station in late March, mission leaders said Monday.

But don't call the crew -- three billionaires paying $55 million each -- space tourists, Michael López-Alegría, former astronaut and Ax-1 mission commander, said during a press conference.

"The crewmates have worked very hard," López-Alegría said. "They're busy people and they've taken a lot of time out of their lives to focus on this. And it's definitely not a vacation for them.

The private crew members are businessmen Larry Connor from Ohio, Mark Pathy of Montreal and Eytan Stibbe Israel. They will focus on space health research, outreach to people on Earth while they are in space and other microgravity science experiments during the 10-day stay.

"We are not space tourists. I think there's an important role for space tourism, but it is not what Axiom is about," López-Alegría said.

Axiom plans to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket March 30. Liftoff is set for 2:46 p.m. EDT from Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

López-Alegría, a vice president with Axiom, flew to space four times over a 20-year career at NASA. He will become the first person to command both a civil and a commercial human spaceflight mission.

SpaceX is excited to support the mission with Axiom, one of four such private missions planned, Benjamin Reed, senior director, Human Spaceflight Programs for SpaceX, said in the virtual press conference.

Reed said work on the rocket and capsule are "coming along well" at SpaceX's Florida facilities.

"They are on track for being ready to launch here in about a month," he said.

Former NASA official Michael Suffredini, who once managed the International Space Station program, leads Axiom as president and CEO.

He said Axiom, not NASA, will take the lead on communications and publicity about the mission, while NASA will practice oversight and monitoring of the space station as usual.

Ax-1 only plans to use the U.S. portions of the station, so concerns about Russian aggression in Ukraine won't have much of an impact, he and NASA officials said.

The mission is taking more than 25 research experiments that have been developed for microgravity, said Christian Maender, director of Axiom's in-space research and manufacturing.

"They brought to us a portfolio of work and they said, we really want to do some of these things in orbit. And it's been a pleasure to work with them and with NASA and the National Lab to really bring these things to fruition," Maender said.

NASA astronauts also will help pack the Dragon with additional experiments that have been waiting for a ride home, he said.

Connor, an Ohio real estate and financial technology entrepreneur, has flown fighter jets and will be the mission pilot, according to Axiom's mission description.

Connor previously said he plans to collaborate with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic on medical research, while providing lessons to students at Dayton Early College Academy in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.

Pathy, chief executive of Mavrik, a Montreal investment firm, plans to collaborate with the Canadian Space Agency and the Montreal Children's Hospital on health-related projects.

Eytan Stibbe plans to conduct experiments for Israeli researchers and entrepreneurs coordinated by the Ramon Foundation and the Israel Space Agency, along with educational outreach to Israeli students.

California doctor's 3D-printed sculpture breaks Guinness World Record


Dr. Vinson Eugene Allen of Gardena, Calif., broke a Guinness World Record by assembling a 3D-printed sculpture of a human figure that measured 19 feet and 10 inches tall. 

Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records

March 1 (UPI) -- A Southern California doctor broke a Guinness World Record by assembling a 3D-printed sculpture of a human measuring 19 feet and 10 inches tall.

Dr. Vinson Eugene Allen of Gardena said he made his first 3D-printed sculpture of a doctor to adorn a Los Angeles billboard advertising his urgent care centers.

Allen said people suggested to him the statue could be a Guinness World Record, but when he researched the record for largest 3D-printed sculpture of a human, he found it wasn't quite large enough.

Allen decided to create a second, larger statue that he dubbed The Statue of Inspiration. The 3D-printed figure of a doctor stands 19 feet and 10 inches tall. He said it took 12 weeks for a team of nine people to print the pieces of the statue and assemble them.

"The obstacles were overwhelming, but as we shared stories about 'who wears a size 45 shoe,' the fun of creation began to overcome the obstacles," Allen told Guinness World Records. "My advice to anyone and everyone is: Dream Big. Stay Focused. Let no one tell you what you can't do.

Allen's sculpture took the record from British man James Bruton, who assembled a 3D-printed sculpture of a person in 2017 that stood at 11 feet and 10 inches tall.

Rashida Tlaib calls for Build Back Better passage, end to filibuster in SOTU response

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said Tuesday that passing Build Back Better and ending the filibuster could advance a progressive agenda in a response to the State of the Union address. File Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo

March 1 (UPI) -- Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., called for Congress to pass President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan and eliminate the filibuster in a progressive response to the State of the Union on Thursday night.

Tlaib was representing the Working Families Party, which she described as "a voice for the multiracial working class" as she called for a unified progressive Congress.

"Imagine a government where corporate donors don't drive healthcare, climate, education and poverty policies. Where the working families call the shots," she said. "It's time we had a majority in Congress to fight for us -- A Working Families majority."

A Working Families majority, she continued, would work with Biden to guarantee healthcare as a basic right, make life-saving medicine affordable, make abortion care a fundamental right, address rising housing costs and "transform our broken immigration system."

She said that Build Back Better is a key part of the agenda as it would lower prescription drug costs, provide affordable childcare and free education, build affordable housing, invest in renewable energy and create green jobs.

"No one fought harder for Biden's agenda than progressives," said Tlaib. "But two forces stood in the way: A Republican Party that serves the rich and powerful. And just enough corporate-backed Democratic obstructionists to help them succeed."

Tlaib railed against the influence donors have over some elected officials, saying that "disproportionate representation in the Senate distorts the democratic will of the people" while taking aim at the filibuster.

"The filibuster continues to be used to block action to end inequality and injustice in our country. We must abolish it in the Senate, like the House did decades ago," she said.

She also called on Biden to take further actions to enact a progressive agenda such as canceling student loan debt, banning fossil fuel drilling and mining on federal lands and making more Americans eligible for federal benefits.

Tlaib called on Americans to vote to elect a Working Families majority and prevent Republicans from gaining control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.

"We must connect on the dreams we have for our children and the hopes we have for our communities," she said. "When we connect with one another we can outwork the hate and show the people who want to ensure we never have a seat at the table that we aren't going anywhere."

Trucker rally fizzles out in Washington, D.C.
By Simon Druker

Activist Kyle Sefcik speaks onstage during the Stage of Freedom rally at the Washington Monument held to support the trucker convoy heading to Washington D.C. on Tuesday. Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

March 1 (UPI) -- A rally in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, modeled after the "Freedom Convoy" that occupied Ottawa for more than a week, failed to draw substantial crowds.

The rally drew fewer than a hundred people to the Washington Monument Tuesday, to protest COVID-19 restrictions, the Washingtonian reported.

Truckers also caused havoc at a Canadian border crossing between Michigan and Ontario, disrupting cross-border travel, including commercial goods.

A protestor holds a sign urging vaccination against the COVID-19 virus at the Stage of Freedom rally at the Washington Monument held to support the trucker convoy heading to Washington D.C. on Tuesday. Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

This comes after a contingent of truckers -- also slated to arrive Tuesday -- fizzled over a lack of participation and was eventually canceled, The New York Times reported. It counted five trucks among its ranks when it arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday. The Freedom Convoy USA 2022 originally left California Feb. 23 for the 11-day trip.

Mixed Martial Arts fighter Kyle Sefcik organized the rally, which was to take place just hours before President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. Sefcik opened the rally by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance on the "Stage of Freedom," according to the Daily Beast.

Police and media members outnumbered those in attendance.

Several trucker convoys were still on their way to the city to protest COVID-19 restrictions, including vaccine and mask mandates.

The rally drew far fewer participants than had been anticipated, as few a 12 at one point in time, with police and media members outnumbering attendees. 

Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

Florida IT student sets up Twitter account tracking travel of Russian oligarchs


Jack Sweeney, a Florida college student, has started tracking the aircraft of several Russian oligarchs, including the Airbus A-319 owned by Alexander Abromov, similar to the one pictured. Photo courtesy of Airbus

March 1 (UPI) -- Jack Sweeney, an information technology student at the University of Central Florida has set up a new Twitter account tracking the travel of Russian oligarchs amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Twitter account, Russian Oligarch Jets, had over 182,000 followers by 4 pm. on Tuesday.

"People have been asking me about Putin for awhile," Sweeney, 19, told NBC News. "They wanted to know if they could track him."

Though Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't traveled frequently, other elite businessmen in the country have, and according to Bloomberg, Sweeney received requests to track them after the United States and its allies announced sanctions on Moscow and some of its elite.

"The aircraft these oligarchs have are absolutely crazy," Sweeney told Bloomberg, adding that they traveled on commercial-sized aircraft such as the Airbus A319 and Boeing 737. "Their planes are huge compared to other jets."

The feed, launched over the weekend, is currently tracking jets of Russian billionaire tycoons, such as Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich and steel billionaire Alexander Abramov.

Abramovich's jet has been tracked in places, such as Moscow, Russia, Antigua and Barbuda, the account's posts show, and Abramov's jet-setting has been tracked in places, such as Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates, and in Los Angeles.

"These are the glitterati of Russia," Russian expert Howard Stoffer, a University of New Haven teacher of international affairs, told NBC News. "They should be exposed, and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them."

"Get these [airplane] tail numbers out. Tell the government these are the people, this is where they're located and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate."

Sweeney previously gained attention when he tracked Tesla CEO Elon Musk's private jet.

The teenager told Protocol.com last month Musk had offered him $5,000 to shut down an account tracking his private jet.

Ongoing labor dispute shuts down London Underground after negotiations fail

By Rich Klein

The union blames London Underground managers for refusing to "rule out job cuts and detrimental changes to pensions." Officials say they have not proposed cuts to workers' pensions. 

File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI | License Photo

March 1 (UPI) -- About 10,000 employees of London's underground subway system went on strike and shut the rails down on Tuesday after negotiations with the government over pay, pensions and working conditions failed to reach a resolution.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union said last week that the workers would walk off the job for 24 hours on both Tuesday and Thursday over the labor dispute with Transport for London.

The planned walkout went ahead after government and union negotiators failed to reach a resolution on Monday in a meeting that lasted for 20 minutes.

The union, which represents more than 83,000 workers across the transportation industry, said there will also be overnight strikes for the Central and Victoria lines on Fridays and Saturdays through mid-June. Transport for London said commuters should expect "severe disruptions" across the system.



British transport secretary Grant Shapps called the strike "a kick in the teeth for Londoners" and urged London Mayor Sidiq Khan and the union to resolve the dispute. Shapps said the strike is "counterproductive."

The union blamed London Underground managers for refusing to "rule out job cuts and detrimental changes to pensions." It said that 600 "front-line jobs" are in jeopardy and transportation officials want to make significant changes to pensions to drive down costs.

RELATED London Mayor Sadiq Khan announces increase in bus, tube fares

Transport for London has disputed the union's concerns and said cuts to workers' pensions have not been proposed.

The London Underground, known colloquially as the tube, consists of close to 300 stations in and around London.

Volcanoes and climate change – how do they connect?

Volcanic Eruption on Spain's Canary Island of La Palma - 

 Copyright Getty Images

CLIMATE NOW Updated: 28/02/2022 - 

Monitoring the interaction of volcanic eruptions with the atmosphere is increasingly important in a changing climate

It was around Christmas last year that the Cumbre Vieja volcano stopped spitting lava on the Spanish island of La Palma, bringing some relief to the locals after more than 85 days of eruption and €1 billion in damages. But in 2021 Cumbre Vieja was not the only volcano making headlines with its massive outburst. Across the world, from Kamceatka to Reunion and Guatemala, and from Iceland to Sicily, several volcanoes fired up into sizable eruptions, adding to the list of extreme events affecting lives and economies.

Increasingly, when extreme events occur, be they wildfires, typhoons, or floods, they stir discussions about the role of climate change in making natural hazards more frequent and/or intense. But is that the case for volcanic eruptions too? Can we tie volcano behaviour to climate change? And if so, why does it matter?
The climate connection

Volcanoes do interact with the climate through what they inject into the atmosphere during eruptions. Eruptions produce big amounts of gas, particles (known as aerosols), ash and metals, temporarily altering the climate at a local, regional, or even global scale.

“Large volcanic eruptions in the past have changed global climate directly and by reinforcing other processes,” says Dr. Santiago Arrellano, researcher at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at the Chalmers Institute of Technology. An eruption’s effect on the climate depends on the location, altitude, amount, and composition of the material spewed, explains Dr. Arrellano. For example, tropical eruptions will have a bigger impact than those in upper latitudes, as air from the tropics travels more widely, and can carry volcanic emissions across the globe. Also, stronger eruptions have more enduring effects as they send particles into the stratosphere, where they remain for longer. In the Philippines, for example, Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991 sent huge amounts of particles and gas more than 20 km high into the atmosphere, which then circled the planet for about three weeks.

© Getty Images Lava ocean entry, Kilauea, Hawaii

Although it could seem that explosions of steaming hot lava and gas would warm up the atmosphere, science points to the contrary. While eruptions do spit out global warming CO2 – although all of the Earth’s volcanoes erupting together would produce 100 times less carbon than human activities – they have a predominantly cooling influence on the climate. “The effect of large volcanic eruptions on our climate […] is due to the emission of particles, mostly fine ash and sulphates, which are very effective in scattering solar radiation,” says Dr. Arrellano. “These sulphate aerosol particles are very tiny and shiny and reflect some of the incoming sunlight back to space, which results in a temporary cooling effect at Earth’s surface,” says Dr. Anya Schmidt, Professor for Climate Modelling at LMU in Munich. “Averaged across the globe, the surface cooling effect is up to about 0.5°C for bigger eruptions such as the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and lasts for a few years,” says Dr. Schmidt.

The effects of more recent events remain to be seen. “We still need to see if the 2022 eruption in Tonga [...] will have a noticeable effect on the climate,” says Dr. Arrellano.
Eruptions and climate change

Recently, researchers are exploring how climate change could influence eruptions, by looking at how things might change at ground level, as well as up in the air.

Some studies point out that shifting patterns in the atmosphere’s circulation could alter the cooling effect of volcanic plumes. Research from Cambridge University and the Met Office shows that the impacts of a warmer climate on big versus smaller eruptions will differ. “For large eruptions such as Pinatubo’s, which generally occur once or twice per century, climate change will cause volcanic plumes to rise higher and aerosols to spread faster over the globe, amplifying the cooling by about 15 per cent compared to the present-day climate,” says Dr. Schmidt.

“But for smaller-sized eruptions such as the 2011 Nabro eruption in Eritrea, which typically happen yearly, the surface cooling effect will be reduced by about 75 per cent under a high-end warming scenario” (n.b.under multiple degrees of warming). As the tropopause, the layer between the lower atmosphere and the stratosphere, is predicted to increase, this means that volcanic plumes will take more time to reach the latter, Schmidt explains. As a consequence, the aerosols from eruptions will remain low in the air and will have limited impact, as they will be quickly washed out by precipitation.

Scientists are also looking at how climate change could influence how frequently volcanic eruptions occur. “There is an interesting connection here,” says Dr. Arrellano, “because global warming causes the melting of glaciers, many of which cover the flanks of active volcanoes.” According to Dr. Arrellano, a massive melting will reduce the pressure on the Earth’s surface, altering processes in its crust, causing for example hot magma to get in contact with aquifers. “This may in turn trigger volcanic activity, as the whole system is interconnected,” says Dr. Arrellano. However, more research is needed, as between 1850 and now, there is no evidence that eruptions have become more frequent with glacier melting, according to Dr. Schmidt.

Volcanoes at high elevation could also be affected by climate change if they have ice caps that are melting, says Dr. Tamsin Mather, professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. “If the ice caps maintain volcanic structures, their disappearance could lead to instability, and events such as volcanic landslides.”
Monitoring volcanic emissions

While the impacts of climate change on volcanoes remain difficult to gauge, monitoring emissions from eruptions is critical for air quality, public health, and industries such as aviation. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) regularly tracks the transport and behaviour of sulphur dioxide from eruptions. In the case of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, CAMS monitored SO2 plumes travelling across North Africa, Europe and the Atlantic, all the way to the Caribbean region, where sulphate aerosols contributed to poor air quality conditions. CAMS has also monitored emissions resulting from recent eruptions of Mount Etna in Sicily, La Souffriere in St. Vincent, Nyiragongo in Congo, and Raikoke in the Kuril Islands.

© Copernicuseuronews

“There are multiple ways to monitor emission of lava, gases, ash, or aerosols emitted from volcanoes, but the accuracy depends on the property and the type of emission,” says Dr. Arrellano, who has been working with CAMS on providing information on volcanic emissions estimates. Remote sensing on the ground, in the air and in space can quantify gaseous SO2, satellites can map volcanic ash, while ground mapping and thermal radiation are used to track lava. “Most of these techniques used for monitoring volcanic emissions were not designed for this purpose,” says Dr. Arrellano. “They are by-products of missions with other objectives, such as global monitoring of the ozone layer.” The data is used widely. “Volcanologists want to track the rate and magnitude of emission of gases, lava or ashes to determine the physical state of the volcano and predict its activity. The meteorologist may be interested in tracking volcanic plumes to understand circulation patterns and the interaction of volcanoes with the atmosphere,” says Dr. Arrellano. “The climate scientist wants to know where, how high and how much of certain species is emitted to quantify the climate forcing. Air transport authorities are interested in observing the location of volcanic ash plumes to alert pilots and avoid accidents.”

Although CAMS does not monitor eruptions themselves, it offers information on the load of SO2 in the atmosphere through near real-time satellite observations and combines that data with its global forecasts to predict the composition and quality of the air over a five-day period.

Understanding how volcanoes and climate influence each other remains challenging, according to Dr. Schmidt. “While some of the feedback loops are becoming more obvious now, the climate system is complex and getting a grasp of all potential feedback loops is critical in our quest to make accurate climate projections that consider volcanic eruptions.”
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People of Georgia take to the streets in solidarity with Ukraine

People of Georgia take to the streets in Tbilisi in support of Ukraine. 

 - Copyright Melanie Hamilton

By Melanie Hamilton • Updated: 01/03/2022 - 18:17

On Sunday evening, for the fourth day in a row, Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue flooded with demonstrations of solidarity for Ukraine that poured out from the Parliament steps.

Across the sea of some 30,000 people, blankets of sky blue and wheat yellow danced alongside white sheets branded with ruby crosses, a symbol of two countries united.

Between the thundering of Ukraine’s national anthem - whose lyrics proclaim “Ukraine is not yet dead” and that her “enemies will vanish like dew in the morning sun”– I watch the crowd belt out in unison Slava Ukraini! and Putin khuylo! These are two patriotic sayings synonymous with Ukrainian freedom, the former of which means Glory to Ukraine, and the latter, a vulgar and apt sobriquet for Vladimir Putin.

Tbilisi is one of many cities across the globe standing up for Ukraine as Russia launches air raids on the capital of Kyiv. People have come out in record numbers in cities like Berlin, which had 100,000 people take to its streets yesterday and Prague’s nearly 70,000 strong gathering at Wenceslas Square.

For Georgia though, the knife of Russian aggression digs deep.

Protests in Tbilisi

Melanie Hamilton

What’s Georgia’s historical relation with Russia?

“My family remembers watching the Tskhinvali skyline from their balcony and seeing what could’ve been confused for a night of fireworks and celebrations. But they were bombs,” says Nina Vaxanski, a Georgian photojournalist raised in Gori, the epicenter of the 2008 Russo-Georgian war.

According to an EU fact finding report, the war left 170 servicemen, 14 policemen and 228 civilians dead on the Georgian side. Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia’s north central region of Samachablo has been under Russian occupation since.

“Over the years, Russia has tried again and again to take Georgia. I worry now that if they continue this way in Ukraine, if we don’t stand up against this horrible power, they will come back to Georgia and try to ruin all that we’ve worked for.”

Over the years, Russia has tried again and again to take Georgia.

She continues by saying, “If Ukraine is strong, we can be too, this needs to be a wake up call for the world. We are in this war together with Ukraine and we stand strong with them. Just because the bombs don’t drop on us now, doesn’t mean that they won’t.”

Children, teenagers and adults all wave Ukrainian flags in the streets.

Melanie Hamilton

This shared struggle is one of the many reasons Georgians and Ukrainians have a strong camaraderie with one another and why, to many, this attack on Ukraine feels like an attack on Georgia.

Over the past few days, 300 odd Georgians have left for Ukraine where they will fight side by side with Ukrainians against a common enemy.

This needs to be a wake up call for the world. We are in this war together with Ukraine and we stand strong with them.

Georgian people hold signs supporting Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

Melanie Hamilton

A heroic act that brings on mixed feelings of perseverance and angst further punctuated by the lack of sanctions and any real condemnation of the Kremlin by Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili.

Children are screaming for Ukrainian freedom

I’ve watched in awe, slack-jawed really, as people, a surprising number of whom looked to be 20 or younger, took to the same street used to protest anti-Russian aggression so many times before.

Children no more than 5, sat on dad’s shoulders, screaming for Ukrainian freedom, and groups of teens proudly waving the Georgian and Ukrainian flags, laughing with their friends, cigarettes dangling from their lips.

Off in the distance a man can be seen holding a small book before lighting it on fire and belting an emotional speech to those gathered around him. The scarlet coloured book, embroidered with a two-headed gold eagle, isn’t really a book at all, it’s his Russian passport.

A child sits on her father's shoulders behind a Putin sign in Tbilisi.

Melanie Hamilton

Further into the crowd, a girl shoots up on someone’s shoulders and screams out “Slava Ukraini!” Before popping the top on a yellow smoke bomb. Deeper into the crowd, on the jam-packed steps of Parliament are two girls, Hanga Modzmanashvili and Oliko Chelidze, who at just 12 years old find their time best spent fighting for democracy.

To these inseparable friends it’s simple, “standing up for Ukraine is the right thing to do.”

The Russian Empire, then the Soviet Union, and now the Russian Federation, seem to love toying with power. And as the rest of the world waits with bated breath for what’s next, so too does Georgia, chanting in unison that Ukraine is not yet dead and that one day, their enemy will vanish like dew in the morning sun.

Ukrainian and Russian opera stars in emotional embrace after performance

As the Russia-Ukraine war escalates, two opera singers 

from opposing countries hug in a symbolic embrace - Copyright AP Photo

By Theo Farrant & AP • Updated: 01/03/2022 - 14:18

Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska and Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova hugged at the end of their performance of "Aida" at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, Sunday evening.

Monastyrska, 46, was born in Irkliiv, in central Ukraine, while Gubanova is from Moscow.

As they hugged, in a symbolic gesture of peace and friendship, the stars were applauded by the audience, and shouts of "peace, peace, peace."

Many institutions across the cultural landscape have expressed opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The sails of the Sydney Opera House were lit up in blue and yellow to show solidarity with Ukraine.

A prominent contemporary art museum called Garage in Moscow announced Saturday it was halting its work on exhibitions and postponing them "until the human and political tragedy that is unfolding in Ukraine has ceased."

The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, recently decided to suspend Russian director Valery Gergiev from leading the La Scala opera house orchestra, as he failed to condemn Russia's invasion.