US accuses Russia of holding food supplies hostage | First Thing
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With the Russian invasion of Ukraine entering its 86th day, the US is accusing Russia of holding the world’s food supply hostage amid growing fears of famine in developing countries. Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, demanded at a UN security council meeting yesterday that Russia lift its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and enable the flow of food and fertiliser around the world.

“The Russian government seems to think that using food as a weapon will help accomplish what its invasion has not: to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people,” he said at the meeting called by the Biden administration.

Ukraine’s grain exports fell from 5m tons a month before Russia’s February invasion to 200,000 tons in March and about 1.1m tons in April, said Serhii Dvornyk, a member of Ukraine’s mission to the UN, who pointed out that 400 million people around the world depended on grain from Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia, warned that Russia would not continue food supplies unless the west eased its sanctions against the Kremlin.

Pete Buttigieg at Berlin’s central station. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian

As the discussions about the food crisis continue, Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, is in Berlin and backing a recovery program for Ukraine similar to the Marshall plan, which helped rebuild Europe after the second world war.

“With the memory of the Marshall plan in mind, what we’re talking about is not only about how we fund immediate needs and support their ability to maintain the war effort, but how we support the ability of Ukraine to be economically viable and generate a sustainable future for themselves, even as they’re under attack,” Buttigieg told the Guardian.

This comes as the Senate overwhelmingly approved a $40bn infusion of military and economic aid for Ukraine. “Help is on the way, really significant help. Help that could make sure that the Ukrainians are victorious,” said the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer.

Former special agent: FBI is failing to address white supremacist violence

The FBI headquarters building in Washington DC. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters

A former FBI special agent who infiltrated white supremacist groups in the 1990s has told the Guardian that his former agency is failing to address the rising scourge of white supremacist violence – even amid stark warnings that such attacks pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat in the US.

“US law enforcement is failing, as it long has, to provide victimized communities like Buffalo’s with equal protection under the law. They are not actually investigating the crimes that occur,” said Michael German, a fellow with the Brennan Center at NYU School of Law.

The Buffalo mass shooting suspect was heckled in court yesterday, with some calling him a coward. Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist, targeted attack on a Buffalo supermarket.

Oklahoma passes nation’s strictest abortion ban

Pro-choice demonstrators rally at the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

Oklahoma’s Republican-led legislature passed a bill yesterday allowing citizens to sue anyone, anywhere who “aids or abets” a patient in terminating a pregnancy. The bill bans abortion from conception, even before an egg implants in the uterus, and would go into effect immediately if signed by the Republican governor, Kevin Stitt.

In other news …

A pro-Trump mob storms the US Capitol building on 6 January 2021. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Stat of the day: more than 5,000 firefighters are battling wildfires blazing across the American south-west

Vadix Armendarez looking for hot spots along state highway 434 north of Mora last week as firefighters from all over the country converged on northern New Mexico. Photograph: Jim Weber/AP

Wildland blazes have been burning across New Mexico, Texas and Colorado for weeks now, with thousands of fire personnel battling flames in dry, windy weather. A fire in west Texas has destroyed dozens of structures and the gusty winds, high temperatures and extremely low humidity in New Mexico have authorities expecting that the number of structures destroyed there will reach 1,000.

Don’t miss this: Sex, death and Benediction

The British film director Terence Davies photographed at his home in Essex. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Director Terence Davies spoke to the Guardian about reconstructing trauma on screen, the use of humor and his upcoming Siegfried Sassoon biopic. “Being in the past makes me feel safe because I understand that world,” Davies said, on how he has largely avoided contemporary settings.

Climate check: A mustard shortage

A man walks past a mustard shop in Dijon. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

French mustard producers said seed production in 2021 was down 50% after poor harvests, which they are attributing to the changing climate in France’s Burgundy region and Canada, the second largest mustard seed producer in the world. The result is that supermarkets in France are now running out of dijon mustard, raising questions about whether the shortage may spread to other countries as well.

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Last Thing: A chaos creature

Aidan Harte’s sculpture of a púca. Photograph: Aidan Harte

It was the horse that launched a thousand memes. Eighteen months ago, sculptor Aidan Harte was commissioned to create a 2-meter-tall bronze statue of a púca for the town square in Ennistymon, County Clare in Ireland. When photographs of the clay mould for the sculpture leaked in April 2021, they elicited an immediate response on social media: the parish priest called it “sinister”. An artist painted it in a mural. One songwriter composed a song lauding the sculpture but another composer wrote a a piece that envisaged blowing it up. “Your ugly horse can kiss my ’orse,” said one line.

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