China's NATO blame game in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been brought back to Asia, where Beijing says U.S. alliance-building could result in a great power clash before long. The Chinese leadership's decision to side with Russia came long before Vladimir Putin ordered troops across lines of control into Ukrainian-held territory on February 24. Officials in Beijing sympathize with Moscow's grievances against the West because they perceive a similar U.S.-led containment effort happening around them, despite American assurances that it's not the case. From China's perspective, a contested land border with India as well as maritime and…

The battle for Ukraine’s cities thundered across its suburbs Tuesday, with the Ukrainian military saying it forced Russian troops out of a strategically important Kyiv suburb, while Russian forces took partial control of three northwest areas where there’s been fighting for weeks. A senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday that Russian ground forces were still largely stalled outside the capital city, but Russian ships spent the past day shelling the already devastated southern port city of Mariupol from offshore. Civilians making the dangerous escape from Mariupol described fleeing through street gun battles and past corpses as Russian forces tried to…

Ukraine poultry companies report major losses caused by the Russian invasion and direct attacks on poultry production assets and warehouses. Ukraine’s largest egg producer, Avangard, said that the Russian aggression caused significant losses in production capacity, with several key egg farms shut down and destroyed, while at some operational farms the birds were left without feed and “condemned to death”. To date, the overall financial losses the company sustained have reached 1.5 billion hryvnias (US$51 million). Almost the entire flock slaughtered “In particular, Europe’s largest egg cluster, Chornobayivska in Kherson Region, has lost the ability to feed the birds, transport…

Fully vaccinated travellers coming into Nigeria will no longer be required to take a pre-departure PCR Covid-19 test. This is according to the Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee, Boss Mustapha. Mustapha made the comment on Monday during a briefing of the PSC announcing a revision of International Travel Protocols. However, passengers who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated are still expected to take a Covid-19 PCR test 48 hours before departure, or do a Day 2 and day 7 test on arrival. Such passengers, he said, will be expected to pay for their PCR tests through the Federal Government’s travel…