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“There have been about 1,300 Russian tank losses … so the actual numbers of new tanks [for Ukraine] in a military sense are not that significant. There’s a lot of Ukraine and 20, 30, 40 tanks does not go that far,” said Ronald Ti, an expert in military logistics at King’s College, London. Nevertheless, the move to create a new “tank coalition,” as some officials called it, has been widely welcomed in Ukraine. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine requires around 300 tanks in order to successfully defend its territory from an expected Russian spring offensive, and to begin winning back territory ceded to Moscow since the invasion began last February. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, seen in Berlin on Wednesday, has faced prolonged criticism for a reluctance to send military equipment to Ukraine.

☆ Germany sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine, ending rift among Western allies
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Ukrainian military leaders have said they need hundreds of the tanks to break through Russian defenses. Germany has more than 300 active Leopard tanks and more in storage. Several countries use Leopard tanks, including Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden. “The question is whether 100 tanks of different varieties will be enough to eject Russian forces from Ukraine. The deployment of Leopard tanks was the most significant, he said, because of its conventional diesel-powered engine, as opposed to the Abrams tanks, which are powered by jet fuel.

But a new survey suggests a “disturbing” lack of awareness about the Holocaust in the Netherlands, where she and her family hid for years before being discovered and deported to a Nazi concentration camp. Equally disturbing is the trend toward Holocaust denial and distortion,” Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor said in a press release accompanying the survey. Some of them, a small part, do not even know about the Holocaust,” Dutch Holocaust survivor Max Arpels Lezer, 86, told NBC News by video call from his home in Amsterdam. A memorial at the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, where Dutch Jews were kept before being sent to concentration camps. In 1961, Lezer married Sofia, now 86, who as a child had been hidden by a Dutch family during the war.

SHANGHAI — Patients are crammed into hallways, stairwells and lobbies, and still the sick keep coming. After international criticism that it had not been transparent about the severity of the outbreak, the Chinese government said last weekend that it had recorded 60,000 Covid-related deaths since Dec. 8. But that figure covers only those who have died in hospitals, suggesting the true death toll could be much higher. “My father had no symptoms but still died,” one 31-year-old woman said outside a hospital in central Shanghai. On the day my father moved into the hospital, almost all patients in the emergency department died.”

Less than three years later on Wednesday, tens of thousands of nurses in England are estimated to have walked off work as part of an unprecedented strike shaking the country’s much-loved but troubled National Health Service. They are also striking to highlight the long-term deterioration of the service amid a chronic shortage of health care staff and ballooning living costs. Meanwhile, the health service, normally a huge source of pride for Britons, has spiraled into crisis due to long- and short-term factors including the fallout of the pandemic. As of September, there were a record 132,000 unfilled health service jobs — almost 10% of the total workforce of more than 1.3 million — according to figures released by NHS England. She described one shift in which three nurses and two student nurses looked after 15 patients.

Italy's most-wanted man, Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested Monday after three decades on the run. Messina Denaro, a convicted murderer who has eluded authorities 30 years, is thought to be the leader of the notorious Cosa Nostra organized crime group. A picture released by police early Monday showed Messina Denaro in a police car — visibly older than in his 1990s mugshots — alongside two officers. Matteo Messina Denaro after his arrest on Monday. In 2006, police arrested Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano, who police named as the "Capo di Capi," or chief of chiefs, after a 43-year manhunt.

☆ Russia claims control of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, its first victory in months
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Russian forces on the frontline of the bitter fight for control of eastern Ukraine have claimed their first victory in several months of grinding conflict. After some of the war's most intense combat, Russia now controls the mining town of Soledar in the Donetsk region, Moscow's defense ministry said Friday. He had claimed victory in Soledar earlier this week and boasted on social media that his forces were in sole charge of the town. Wagner mercenary group fighters in a photo said to be in Soledar and released Wednesday. The town lies in the eastern Donetsk region, one of four that Putin claimed to have annexed last year despite failing to fully control.

☆ Russia nears breakthrough after months of 'savage' fighting in eastern Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Russia has struggled to advance in the area for months, with both sides suffering huge losses as it became a focal point of the conflict after Ukraine's successful counteroffensive in the south. But the Kremlin's forces appeared to have made progress in Soledar in recent days. There is almost no life left.”“The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes,” he added. The Moscow-backed leader of the occupied areas of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, told Russian state TV on Tuesday that Russian forces were “very close” to taking Soledar, but that the gains were coming at a high price. Taking the town would create “good prospects” to then take Bakhmut, he said.

☆ Prince Harry's memoir, 'Spare,' which captures the ugly sides of royal life, hits bookshelves
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

“There was a new low every few minutes,” Harry wrote of the time after their relationship went public in November 2016. Prince Harry and Prince William at the unveiling of a statue of their mother, Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London on July 1, 2021. “I don’t think Harry and Megan’s public image is repairable in the U.K.; I think it’s gone beyond that,” she added. Regardless of the danger he felt his family was in, and the disappointment with his family, Harry said he would “forever support my queen, my Commander in Chief, my Granny. Even after she’s gone.”“My problem has never been with the monarchy, or the concept of monarchy.

However, in the age of Apaches and laptops, everything I did in the course of two tours of duty was recorded and time-stamped,” Harry writes. The disagreement came at a planned reconciliatory tea at Kensington Palace in June 2018, Harry writes. According to the book, Kate told Meghan: “You talked about my hormones. We are not close enough for you to talk about my hormones!”According to Harry, Meghan recalled the conversation but was perplexed at Kate's reaction. Harry writes: "What I do remember with stunning clarity is that I did not cry.

About an hour after the Russian cease-fire began, air raid sirens sounded in the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian officials accused Putin of using Christmas as cover to buy time for his military to regroup. Putin's surprise order instructed his defense minister to institute the cease-fire “along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine” from Friday, which is Christmas Eve for the Orthodox church. The Russian Orthodox Church, which uses the ancient Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7 — later than the Gregorian calendar. Some Orthodox Christians in Ukraine recently started celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 to show their anger at and defiance of Moscow.

☆ Zelenskyy's U.S. trip comes as Ukraine warns Putin is planning a major new offensive
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

The visit comes a day after Zelenskyy greeted troops in Bakhmut, a front-line city that Moscow's forces have struggled to seize despite months of intense battles, while Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a rare admission of his army's difficulties. The Russian leader’s pre-Christmas trip to neighboring Belarus only added to mounting speculation. Zelenskyy will now meet with President Joe Biden and address Congress as his country hopes to not just shore up but secure greater support from its Western allies. "Ukraine is very keen to step up and intensify the military support from the U.S.," Frank Ledwidge, a senior lecturer of law and strategy at University of Portsmouth, told NBC News. On Monday, Putin and his most senior advisers traveled to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to meet authoritarian ally President Alexander Lukashenko, amplifying long-held fears that his forces could join a new offensive.

The greatness of Lionel Messi has never been in doubt. But in Sunday’s breathtaking World Cup final, he burnished his case as the finest to ever play the world’s most popular sport — and secured his place as an eternal icon in Argentina and beyond. Messi, at 35, led his country to glory against France, winning soccer’s ultimate prize in a pulsating match that finished 3-3 after extra time and had to be settled by a nerve-wracking penalty shootout. On Monday Messi and teammates are expected to be greeted by vast crowds as they finally bring home the trophy that had eluded him, and for decades his country. In a nation where soccer is close to a religion, the relief and joy at Sunday’s victory was palpable, coming at a time of great unease and economic turmoil.

☆ Royal family braced for new criticism in final Harry and Meghan Netflix episodes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, were expected to level stinging new criticisms at the British royal family in the second installment of their Netflix documentary series, which was released Thursday morning. "I wasn’t just being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves," Meghan says. The trailer shows Harry on board a plane, which he describes as a "freedom flight." Prince Harry and Meghan attend day two of the Invictus Games on April 17, 2022 in The Hague, Netherlands. Harry and Meghan are clearly keen to tell the story of their relationship and their rift with the royals from their perspective.

☆ What the U.S. sending Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine means for Putin's war
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Washington is poised to satisfy Kyiv's long-held and repeated request by sending Patriot missile systems, fulfilling its promise to further bolster Ukraine’s ability to thwart repeated Russian attacks on both its military sites and civilian infrastructure. Ukraine’s bitter winter is being felt across the country, with many areas without power or heating after bombardment by Russian forces destroyed power plants, lines and substations. The war has become, in the eyes of some Western officials, a battle over who has the most ammunition. “So it’s very likely Russia is going to keep up pressure from the air by trying to systematically destroy Ukrainian infrastructure. So it is therefore very important for Ukraine’s Western backers to look again at Ukraine’s air defenses.

Ashton also questioned how Mas’ud came to be in custody in the U.S. — something that remains unclear. Late last month, local Libyan media reported that Mas’ud had been kidnapped by armed men from his residence in Tripoli, the capital. He was convicted of 270 counts of murder, was given a life sentence and was the only person convicted for their involvement in Lockerbie. The release was met with scenes of jubilation in Libya, where al-Megrahi was greeted by thousands of well-wishers in the capital, Tripoli. He is among the victims’ family members who question the evidence used to convict al-Megrahi in 2001.

This grassroots protest movement has been driven largely by ordinary farmers like Luiten and their supporters, but it has another element: the far-right. As conspiracy-driven Telegram groups, right-wing commentators and some lawmakers would baselessly put it, Dutch farms are being shut down to make space for asylum-seekers. Right-wing populists around the world have offered their support for the farmers’ stand, including former President Donald Trump, France’s Marine Le Pen and Poland’s far-right populist government. But, in reality, many Dutch farmers are just trying to make a living. Supporters stand on highway bridges every night waving the inverted tricolor as a symbol of defiance against an unpopular government and to call for an end to the nitrogen plan.

☆ Who is Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss? Germany's far-right coup plotter explained
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Patrick Smith | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Heinrich XIII, 71, belongs to the House of Reuss, an ancient royal lineage that ruled parts of what is now Thuringia in central Germany for hundreds of years until 1918. In an eccentric quirk dating back to the 12th century, male heirs to the Reuss throne are all called Heinrich, followed by a number. Heinrich may claim the hereditary title, but the House of Reuss is less than pleased with him. The House of Reuss disowned Heinrich XIII even before Wednesday’s arrest. In short, Heinrich XIII argues that Germany as we know it doesn’t exist.

The news Wednesday that a far-right group had plotted to overthrow the German government in a coup surprised many around the world who thought the country had largely done away with its extremist right wing. The group is closely associated with the extremist Reichsbürger movement — literally meaning “citizens of the Reich,” or kingdom — which rejects the legitimacy of the German state. Miro Dittrich, an expert at CeMAS, a German group that monitors right-wing extremism, said this was not the first far-right group to have plotted a coup d’etat in recent years. One of the group’s main leaders is Heinrich XIII Prince Reusthe, holder of a royal title that lapsed with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the creation of the modern German state in 1918. What unites them, he added, was a “belief that the Germans are being oppressed by a powerful foreign power,” or that the German state is assisting in this oppression, therefore justifying an armed insurrection.

MAINZ, Germany — Authorities in Germany arrested 25 people on Wednesday who are suspected of planning to violently overthrow the government in a far-right extremist plot. It is centered on the so-called Reichsbürger, or Reich Citizens, movement which is motivated by conspiracy theories about the role and legitimacy of the modern German state. The homes of a further 27 people suspected of being members or supporters of the group have been searched. The German armed forces have been beset by a series of scandals involving personnel belonging to far-right groups. German prosecutors note, however, that there is no evidence Russian officials reacted positively to the request.

A blast hit an airbase inside Russia on Tuesday, the latest in a series of apparent Ukrainian drone attacks that showcase an ability to strike at the heart of Russian territory and suggest a new boldness in Kyiv's fight against Moscow's war. An airfield at Kursk in southwest Russia, near the Ukrainian border, was ablaze on Tuesday morning, with regional governor Roman Starovoit saying the incident was the result of a drone attack. The Engels base houses Russia's strategic bombing fleet of tu-160 and tu-95 planes, which have been used on long-range bombing missions to Ukraine and can be adapted to carry nuclear weapons. "It’s important from a morale point of view that some Russian strategic resources are being targeted." Russia has the firepower to carry on bombing Ukraine, he added.

☆ Qatar World Cup lays bare environmental cost of a desert tournament
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Armelle De Oliveira | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Patrick-Smith-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

But as it hosts the soccer World Cup, controversy is also descending on the tiny Gulf kingdom. “The tournament has been labeled as the first ‘fully carbon neutral FIFA World Cup tournament,’ meaning its overall impact on the planet should be zero,” the letter said. People gather around the official countdown clock showing remaining time until the kick-off of the World Cup on Nov. 11. After winning the right to host the tournament, Qatar pledged to become the first carbon neutral World Cup host. “Events like the World Cup, like the football World Cup or like the Olympics bring joy and happiness to millions of people, sometimes even billions of people, right?” he said.

Follow along for live coverage of the World Cup. Morgan had asked for "the honest, realistic total" of migrant workers who had died in the course of contributing to projects somehow related to the World Cup. The figure has not previously appeared in official reports from the Supreme Committee or FIFA, soccer's global body. There are about 2 million migrant workers in Qatar — an estimated 95 percent of the country’s total working population. Thousands of young men from south Asia worked on this and other World Cup projects.

When the United States' national men's team faces England at the Qatar World Cup later on Friday, one thing will be missing: medieval knights. Soccer’s governing body FIFA has told English soccer fans to ditch imitation chain mail, shields and swords or miss the game, according to the Times of London. England fans have worn similar outfits at previous tournaments while watching other sports. Press photos and social media footage show that England fans wearing Crusader gear were allowed into the stadium to watch their team's match against Iran. "As soon as you know anything about crusading history, you know it would produce a reaction like this in the Islamic world," he said.

Millions of Ukrainians face a deadly winter — and it isn't just the risk of being hit by Russian bombs. “This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine,” according to Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, the United Nations health agency’s regional director for Europe. Average winter temperatures in Ukraine are around 27 degrees Fahrenheit, and are expected to reach minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the country in the coming months, the WHO said. Ukrainian officials say the wreckage of Shahed-136 drones — which are fitted with a warhead and fly directly into their target — have been found at the site of bomb attacks across the country. The city was recently retaken by Ukrainian forces following a Russian retreat.

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