Union Budget 2022 is just around the corner and citizens and experts alike are keen to know what it will have for women. This has gained importance as allocation for scheme for women decreased by 26 per cent from the levels in 2020 budget. The allocation came down from Rs 20,72,610 millon in years 2020 to Rs 15,33,260 million in year 2021.&nbsp;

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, during his speech that kicked off Indian Parliament's budget session on MOnday underlined the role and importance of participation of women in the country's development. The president said that women's empowerment is one of the top priorities of the government.

"Women participation in the development of the rural economy is increasing. In the year 2021-22, 28 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) were given financial support of Rs 65,000 crore by the banks," the President said while addressing both the houses of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/india-budget-2022-economic-survey-projects-8-85-gdp-growth-for-2022-23-449130">India Budget 2022: Economic Survey projects 8-8.5% GDP growth for 2022-23</a>

He said this figure is four times higher than that of 2014-15 financial year.

Kovind further informed that the Centre has trained thousands of such groups and helped them participate as `Banking Sakhi`. "These women are connecting banking services in rural areas to each and every household there," he said.

Highlighting the schemes introduced by the Centre to help women, the President said that the success of Ujjwala Yojna has been witnessed by all and with the help of schemes like Mudra Yojna, more than 15 crore people have been benefited and around 4 crore people have started their own business.

Kovind also mentioned the `Beti Bachao, Beti padhao` campaign, adding that it yielded positive results as the number of girls taking admission in schools has increased significantly.

To ensure equality between genders, the Centre has proposed to increase the marriageable age of women from 18 to 21, he said.

He said that by brining in a law against Triple Talaq, the Centre has abolished a social evil prevalent in Muslim society, "and Muslim women will no longer need to be accompanied by a blood-relative (Mehram) to go for Haj pilgrimage," he added.

Upliftment of the gender demographic needs investment in government-backed programmes, incubation centres for businesses led by women. MSMEs led by women would benefit from, interest-free loans. Similarly focussing on girls' and women's education would go a long way in building a better society.

(With inputs from agencies)

Union Budget 2022 is just around the corner and citizens and experts alike are keen to know what it will have for women. This has gained importance as allocation for scheme for women decreased by 26 per cent from the levels in 2020 budget.

Union Budget 2022 is just around the corner and citizens and experts alike are keen to know what it will have for women. This has gained importance as allocation for scheme for women decreased by 26 per cent from the levels in 2020 budget. The allocation came down from Rs 20,72,610 millon in years 2020 to Rs 15,33,260 million in year 2021. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, during his speech that kicked off Indian Parliament's budget session on MOnday underlined the role and importance of participation of women in the country's development. The president said that women's empowerment is one of the top priorities of the government. "Women participation in the development of the rural economy is increasing. In the year 2021-22, 28 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) were given financial support of Rs 65,000 crore by the banks," the President said while addressing both the houses of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session. Also Read | India Budget 2022: Economic Survey projects 8-8.5% GDP growth for 2022-23 He said this figure is four times higher than that of 2014-15 financial year. Kovind further informed that the Centre has trained thousands of such groups and helped them participate as `Banking Sakhi`. "These women are connecting banking services in rural areas to each and every household there," he said. Highlighting the schemes introduced by the Centre to help women, the President said that the success of Ujjwala Yojna has been witnessed by all and with the help of schemes like Mudra Yojna, more than 15 crore people have been benefited and around 4 crore people have started their own business. Kovind also mentioned the `Beti Bachao, Beti padhao` campaign, adding that it yielded positive results as the number of girls taking admission in schools has increased significantly. To ensure equality between genders, the Centre has proposed to increase the marriageable age of women from 18 to 21, he said. He said that by brining in a law against Triple Talaq, the Centre has abolished a social evil prevalent in Muslim society, "and Muslim women will no longer need to be accompanied by a blood-relative (Mehram) to go for Haj pilgrimage," he added. Upliftment of the gender demographic needs investment in government-backed programmes, incubation centres for businesses led by women. MSMEs led by women would benefit from, interest-free loans. Similarly focussing on girls' and women's education would go a long way in building a better society. (With inputs from agencies)

India Union Budget 2022: What women want

We know iguanas, the reptiles with a peculiar look that makes many run in the opposite direction. Iguanas are mostly harmless. They peacefully go about their business in trees. But what if one falls on you without notice. The iguana appears dead but its not dead.

Residents of Florida are somewhat in such a situation where iguanas are literally falling out of the trees. Unusual cold temperatures in the state are making them immobilised. But they are not dead.

"Iguanas are cold-blooded. They slow down or become immobile when temps drop into the 40s. They may fall from trees, but they are not dead," the service said on Twitter.

Zoologist Stacey Cohen, a reptile expert at Palm Beach Zoo in Florida, explained the phenomenon to ABC affiliate WPBF.

"Their bodies basically start to shut down where they lose their functions and so they are up in the trees on the branches sleeping and then because it gets so cold, they lose that ability to hang on and then they do fall out of trees a lot," Cohen said.

"Cold is a very, very life-threatening thing for them because they are from parts of Central and South America close to the equator where it always stays very warm," she said.

The problem of falling iguanas has become so big that weather service has had to issue a warning

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Jan 30: A cold morning...not as cold as our friends to the north dealing with a blizzard...but we have our own lizards to worry about. 
 
Did you really think with the coldest temperatures in over a decade we would not warn you about falling Iguanas? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iguanas?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Iguanas</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/flwx?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#flwx</a> <a href="https://t.co/ornSpetd6a">pic.twitter.com/ornSpetd6a</a>
— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSMiami/status/1487719748779802625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

A Florida resident reportedly woke to find her yard "littered with frozen iguanas" on Sunday (January 30, 2022).

The winter storm has pummeled eastern US and the cold weather is being felt in&nbsp;Florida.

We know iguanas, the reptiles with a peculiar look that makes many run in the opposite direction. Iguanas are mostly harmless. They peacefully go about their business in trees.

We know iguanas, the reptiles with a peculiar look that makes many run in the opposite direction. Iguanas are mostly harmless. They peacefully go about their business in trees. But what if one falls on you without notice. The iguana appears dead but its not dead. Residents of Florida are somewhat in such a situation where iguanas are literally falling out of the trees. Unusual cold temperatures in the state are making them immobilised. But they are not dead. "Iguanas are cold-blooded. They slow down or become immobile when temps drop into the 40s. They may fall from trees, but they are not dead," the service said on Twitter. Zoologist Stacey Cohen, a reptile expert at Palm Beach Zoo in Florida, explained the phenomenon to ABC affiliate WPBF. "Their bodies basically start to shut down where they lose their functions and so they are up in the trees on the branches sleeping and then because it gets so cold, they lose that ability to hang on and then they do fall out of trees a lot," Cohen said. "Cold is a very, very life-threatening thing for them because they are from parts of Central and South America close to the equator where it always stays very warm," she said. The problem of falling iguanas has become so big that weather service has had to issue a warning Jan 30: A cold morning...not as cold as our friends to the north dealing with a blizzard...but we have our own lizards to worry about. Did you really think with the coldest temperatures in over a decade we would not warn you about falling Iguanas? #Iguanas #flwx pic.twitter.com/ornSpetd6a — NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) January 30, 2022 × A Florida resident reportedly woke to find her yard "littered with frozen iguanas" on Sunday (January 30, 2022). The winter storm has pummeled eastern US and the cold weather is being felt in Florida.

Florida: It's 'raining' iguanas, and they are not dead 

Kremlin on Monday expressed its displeasure over Britain's plan to target Russian companies to deter Russia from invading Ukraine. The Kremlin vowed that it will retaliate if need be.

"This is a very worrying statement from London, &nbsp;not only for our companies. This demonstrates a fair amount of unpredictability on the part of London and is a cause for serious concern for international financial structures," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

He called it an "undisguised attack on business."

"Essentially, the British cabinet is threatening its big businesses, among other things. The Anglo-Saxons are massively ramping up tensions on the European continent."

Moscow will respond with "retaliatory measures" if Russian companies are targeted, Peskov added.

"These measures will be based on our own interests," he said without providing further details.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday that UK was going to unveil new sanctions legislation. She said that doing so would widen country's toolbox so &nbsp;"any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia" could be targeted.&nbsp;

Russia curently has more than 100,000 of its troops stationed at its border with Ukraine. Though Russia claims that it does not have invasion in mind, various statement from the Russian side have been taken to be suggesting otherwise.

Russia is fiercely against Ukraine joining the NATO. It wants assurance from the West that Ukraine, a former Soviet state, would never be included in the alliance.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Kremlin on Monday expressed its displeasure over Britain's plan to target Russian companies to deter Russia from invading Ukraine. The Kremlin vowed that it will retaliate if need be.

Kremlin on Monday expressed its displeasure over Britain's plan to target Russian companies to deter Russia from invading Ukraine. The Kremlin vowed that it will retaliate if need be. "This is a very worrying statement from London, not only for our companies. This demonstrates a fair amount of unpredictability on the part of London and is a cause for serious concern for international financial structures," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He called it an "undisguised attack on business." "Essentially, the British cabinet is threatening its big businesses, among other things. The Anglo-Saxons are massively ramping up tensions on the European continent." Moscow will respond with "retaliatory measures" if Russian companies are targeted, Peskov added. "These measures will be based on our own interests," he said without providing further details. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday that UK was going to unveil new sanctions legislation. She said that doing so would widen country's toolbox so "any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia" could be targeted. Russia curently has more than 100,000 of its troops stationed at its border with Ukraine. Though Russia claims that it does not have invasion in mind, various statement from the Russian side have been taken to be suggesting otherwise. Russia is fiercely against Ukraine joining the NATO. It wants assurance from the West that Ukraine, a former Soviet state, would never be included in the alliance. (With inputs from agencies)

Kremlin expresses displeasure over UK plans of new sanctions

Former US President Donald Trump teased on Saturday (local time) that he may run to become US president in the 2024&nbsp;US Presidential Election and said that if he becomes president, he would pardon those facing criminal charges over the Capitol Hill attack.

In the aftermath of the US Presidential Election 2020, Trump had repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged against him. After his rally in Washington on January 6, his supporters had attacked US Capitol Building in which US Congress was in the process to certify Joe Biden's election victory.

On Saturday, Trump was speaking at a rally in Conroe, Texas.&nbsp;

"If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," Trump said to applause. "We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly."

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Thousands of Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This was considered the worst assault on US Congress since the War of 1812.

One police officer who responded to the scene died the day after the attack, while four others who guarded the Capitol died later by suicide. About 140 police officers were injured during the hours-long attack. Four rioters also died. More than 700 people have been charged with joining in the assault.

Trump's rally has come just when Joe Biden's approval ratings were plummeting. A recent Pew survey revealed that Biden's support among African-American voters was diminishing as well.

(With inputs from agencies)

Former US President Donald Trump teased on Saturday (local time) that he may run to become US president in the 2024 US Presidential Election and said that if he becomes president, he would pardon those facing criminal charges over the Capitol Hill attack.

Former US President Donald Trump teased on Saturday (local time) that he may run to become US president in the 2024 US Presidential Election and said that if he becomes president, he would pardon those facing criminal charges over the Capitol Hill attack. In the aftermath of the US Presidential Election 2020, Trump had repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged against him. After his rally in Washington on January 6, his supporters had attacked US Capitol Building in which US Congress was in the process to certify Joe Biden's election victory. On Saturday, Trump was speaking at a rally in Conroe, Texas. "If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," Trump said to applause. "We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly." × Thousands of Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This was considered the worst assault on US Congress since the War of 1812. One police officer who responded to the scene died the day after the attack, while four others who guarded the Capitol died later by suicide. About 140 police officers were injured during the hours-long attack. Four rioters also died. More than 700 people have been charged with joining in the assault. Trump's rally has come just when Joe Biden's approval ratings were plummeting. A recent Pew survey revealed that Biden's support among African-American voters was diminishing as well. (With inputs from agencies)

Donald Trump teases presidential run, says would pardon Capitol Hill attack accused

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko on Friday (as per local time) said that Belarus did not have interest in war and claimed conflict would only erupt if the country or its ally Russia were directly attacked. Lukashenko's words have come just when both countries are preparing to hold military drills.

He said, however, that "there will be no winners in this war" and "everything will be lost".

Lukashenko made his remarks in a televised speech which was an address to the nation. Belarus and Russia will soon hold military drills in Belarus to the north of Ukraine. This has put the West on edge. The military drills have come even as tens of thousands of Russian troops remain stationed along its border with Ukraine. The threat of Russian invasion remains high.

Though Russia has said that it does not want to invade Ukraine, statements from the Russian camps about Ukraine creating security threats for Russia are seen as a prelude to invasion.

Russian troops have reached Belarus for the military drills.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/amid-ongoing-ukraine-crisis-russian-troops-arrive-in-belarus-for-military-drills-448750">Amid ongoing Ukraine crisis, Russian troops arrive in Belarus for military drills</a>

The military drills will be closely monitored around the world especially in the West.

The drills will take place from February 10 to February 20 and aimed at "practicing coordinating allied forces," Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Russia is fiercely against Ukraine's inclusion in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Ukraine was part of erstwhile Soviet Union. NATO has been maintaining that its 'open door policy' would continue, meaning that any country could freely join the alliance if it chooses to.

Russia is the key political and financial ally of Belarus. Moscow stood by Lukashenko in the wake of massive protests against his re-election in 2020 that were violently crushed.

(With inputs from agencies)

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko on Friday (as per local time) said that Belarus did not have interest in war and claimed conflict would only erupt if the country or its ally Russia were directly attacked.

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko on Friday (as per local time) said that Belarus did not have interest in war and claimed conflict would only erupt if the country or its ally Russia were directly attacked. Lukashenko's words have come just when both countries are preparing to hold military drills. He said, however, that "there will be no winners in this war" and "everything will be lost". Lukashenko made his remarks in a televised speech which was an address to the nation. Belarus and Russia will soon hold military drills in Belarus to the north of Ukraine. This has put the West on edge. The military drills have come even as tens of thousands of Russian troops remain stationed along its border with Ukraine. The threat of Russian invasion remains high. Though Russia has said that it does not want to invade Ukraine, statements from the Russian camps about Ukraine creating security threats for Russia are seen as a prelude to invasion. Russian troops have reached Belarus for the military drills. Also Read | Amid ongoing Ukraine crisis, Russian troops arrive in Belarus for military drills The military drills will be closely monitored around the world especially in the West. The drills will take place from February 10 to February 20 and aimed at "practicing coordinating allied forces," Russian defence ministry said in a statement. Russia is fiercely against Ukraine's inclusion in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Ukraine was part of erstwhile Soviet Union. NATO has been maintaining that its 'open door policy' would continue, meaning that any country could freely join the alliance if it chooses to. Russia is the key political and financial ally of Belarus. Moscow stood by Lukashenko in the wake of massive protests against his re-election in 2020 that were violently crushed. (With inputs from agencies)

War possible only if Belarus or Russia get attacked, says Lukashenko

Canada's foreign ministry on Sunday said that the country would temporarily withdraw non-essential Canadian employees and remaining dependents from its embassy in Ukraine. The decision has been taken amid the international standoff over Russian troops massed on Russia-Ukraine border.

"As we continue to closely monitor the situation, our highest priority remains the safety and security of Canadians. Our officials stand ready to provide consular assistance to Canadian citizens, as required," the ministry said in a statement.

The embassy in Kyiv remains open, it said.

Canada said last week it will reinforce the team at the Canadian Embassy with experts in security, conflict management, democratic reform and consular services.

"Together, they will increase our diplomatic capacity and allow us to continue to assess and respond to the evolving situation in support of Ukraine," it said.

Russia currently has more than 100,000 of its soldiers and military equipment at its border with Ukraine. Russia has been repeatedly claiming that it did not intend to invade Ukraine but claims from Russian camps suggesting security threat from Ukraine is seen as attempt to create a pretext for invasion.

Tensions are high between Russia and the West. Russia is fiercely against Ukraine joining the NATO and demanding assurances that this will never happen.

Canada's foreign ministry on Sunday said that the country would temporarily withdraw non-essential Canadian employees and remaining dependents from its embassy in Ukraine.

Canada's foreign ministry on Sunday said that the country would temporarily withdraw non-essential Canadian employees and remaining dependents from its embassy in Ukraine. The decision has been taken amid the international standoff over Russian troops massed on Russia-Ukraine border. "As we continue to closely monitor the situation, our highest priority remains the safety and security of Canadians. Our officials stand ready to provide consular assistance to Canadian citizens, as required," the ministry said in a statement. The embassy in Kyiv remains open, it said. Canada said last week it will reinforce the team at the Canadian Embassy with experts in security, conflict management, democratic reform and consular services. "Together, they will increase our diplomatic capacity and allow us to continue to assess and respond to the evolving situation in support of Ukraine," it said. Russia currently has more than 100,000 of its soldiers and military equipment at its border with Ukraine. Russia has been repeatedly claiming that it did not intend to invade Ukraine but claims from Russian camps suggesting security threat from Ukraine is seen as attempt to create a pretext for invasion. Tensions are high between Russia and the West. Russia is fiercely against Ukraine joining the NATO and demanding assurances that this will never happen.

Canada removes non-essential personnel from embassy in Ukraine

The earth outside the tiny village of Treblinka, in eastern Poland, still bears traces of the death camp the Nazis built there in 1942. Close to 925,000 Jews were slaughtered at Treblinka, making it the second-largest Jewish killing field in the world after Auschwitz. On a sad, wet day in November, I wandered close to where Germans had burned the bodies of those murdered in the gas chambers nearby. At my feet on the damp ground, among the pebbles, I saw tiny white specks. They were small pieces of bones that still rise to the surface of the tainted earth of Treblinka after the rain.

The ashes there tell one of the many stories of the murdered Jews of Europe. But recently, Poland’s government has been working to redirect the narrative. That same day in November, I saw Magdalena Gawin, the Polish deputy minister of Culture and National Heritage at the time, speak at the Treblinka train station flanked by a Polish Army honor guard, a Roman Catholic bishop and other distinguished guests, including Yehoshua Ellis, an American-born rabbi. They were assembled in Treblinka, a couple of miles away from the former death camp of the same name, to unveil a monument honoring Jan Maletka, a 21-year-old Polish railroad worker. Mr. Maletka, Polish researchers say, was shot in 1942 by the Nazis for giving water to the Jews as they waited in locked cattle cars idling outside the camp.

At the ceremony that day, Ms. Gawin spoke of death and sacrifice. “It is estimated that 900,000 Jews died in Treblinka,” she said. “At the same time, we meet here to commemorate the death of one man, 900,000 Jews and one man.”

The scene that unfolded last November in Treblinka is one of the most vivid examples of a dangerous new threat that is spreading rapidly today in Eastern Europe: Holocaust distortion. A false equivalence of victimization is but one hallmark of the new Polish historical revisionism. Another hallmark is a state-sponsored effort that downplays antisemitic terror at the hands of the Poles, though such incidents are well documented in the historical record.

To better explain how this distortion works, consider this: Of the more than 900,000 Jews who arrived in Treblinka, fewer than 100 survived the war. Jewish survivor testimonies of Treblinka are harrowing: Many remembered extreme thirst; they also recalled groups of Polish railway workers and Polish youths who stood close to the cattle cars ready to hand over water — in exchange for gold or cash. In their oral histories and written accounts, survivors described how they were met not with compassion, but with greed: Jankiel Wiernik, a carpenter and cabinet maker, recalled how terribly hot the day he arrived in Treblinka was. From the train he saw Polish locals selling water to desperate Jews. Abram Jakub Krzepicki remembered that people in the wagon were dying of thirst. He described terrible scenes of Jews pleading with the workers, handing over fistfuls of money for a mere half cup of water.

None of this is to necessarily undermine the story of Jan Maletka and what is said to be the quiet act that cost his life. There are no eyewitnesses left, so we will never know whether Mr. Maletka acted out of empathy for the dying Jews or not. But this huge memorialization effort obscures the full story. It is essential to understand that Mr. Maletka’s actions occurred within the broader experience of exploitation and murder. To identify and shift focus to Mr. Maletka serves not only to elevate a heartwarming story about a young man but also to marginalize the hundreds of thousands of mostly unnamed Jewish victims. Indeed, the sign on the monument devotes equal spaces to the Polish railway worker and the Jews who perished in Treblinka.

Markers to Poles killed by Nazis for rescuing Jews have been proliferating in the Polish countryside for several years now. The effect of these memorials to Polish national virtue is a new historical narrative that depicts the rescue of the Jews as a default position of Polish society during the Holocaust. The Polish government denies it is engaging in Holocaust distortion, but these stone monuments play into a distortion of the historical narrative. In my work as a historian of the Holocaust, I have come to call these efforts “memory patches” — stories intended to paper over the tragic legacy in which some Poles denounced or turned over to the Gestapo Jewish fellow citizens who were seeking shelter in wartime Poland.

Take the testimony of Adam Starkopf, who escaped the Warsaw ghetto with his wife, Pela, and their young daughter. Mr. Starkopf described in his memoir “Will to Live” being woken in the night in the town of Sadowne, where the couple were hiding in plain sight because Mr. Starkopf looked “Aryan” enough to pass as a Pole. A group of Polish villagers, he wrote, invited him into their plan to hunt down, rob and then turn over to the Gestapo a group of Jews who had escaped from a cattle car. “Just think — all these Jews lying on the ground, ready for the taking! It’s a windfall!,” Mr. Starkopf recalled his neighbors saying to him. “We’ll take their clothes, clean out their pockets and on top of that we’ll get a reward from the Germans for bringing them in.” (Mr. Starkopf declined to participate.)

The Polish narrative of wartime heroism and valor is espoused by Poland’s nationalistic government, led by the right-wing Law and Justice Party. In 2019 Ms. Gawin initiated “Called by Name,” a program intended to commemorate Poles who died rescuing Jews. “Called by Name” lives under the auspices of the government-funded Pilecki Institute, itself dedicated to commemorating Poles “who were murdered for providing aid and assistance to Jews during the Second World War.” In the vicinity of Treblinka in the past several years, the Pilecki Institute has erected no fewer than 10 other monuments to celebrate brave Poles who died giving assistance to Jews.

As if to underscore how integrated the government is with this effort, Magdalena Gawin, the minister who oversaw the Treblinka memorial, is now the director of the Pilecki Institute. The institute’s former director, Wojciech Kozlowski, has denied that the institute’s work is politically driven. “We are not in any way interested in promulgating any sort of ‘alternative narrative’ or in pursuing any kind of political agenda,” he told The Times of Israel in 2020.

Poland’s efforts to reframe history reflect a trend proliferating in other European countries to obfuscate the history of the Holocaust. In France, the far right has made efforts to whitewash the record of the Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis. In Hungary and Croatia, local complicity and collaboration during the war is downplayed, shifting the blame for the Jewish catastrophe entirely onto the German occupiers. What makes the Polish example so distinctive is the apparent scale of state official involvement in redirecting the narrative.

In all these cases, pushing blame for the destruction of Jewish communities entirely onto Nazi occupiers obfuscates the larger context of Holocaust horror and the very real problems of collaboration, bystanderism and local antisemitism that helped run the machine of the Holocaust.

Indeed, in Poland some of the commemorative markers have even been erected in places such as the town of Sadowne, where Mr. Starkopf described listening to the sound of Jews “being dragged through the snow to barns and stables” after his conversation with his neighbors. Thus the marker serves to deflect attention from atrocities committed by locals and to reframe their role in history. This commemorative drive allows the nationalists to present themselves as primarily defenders of the idea of historical innocence of the nation.

To be sure, efforts to shift the historical narrative in Poland did not begin with the Law and Order Party. Older markers, some erected by municipalities and local organizations, can be found in the former Warsaw ghetto, in the Plaszow concentration camp (depicted in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”) and near the site of the 1946 Kielce pogrom, where a Polish mob murdered scores of Jewish survivors who returned to the city after the war.

In the former Warsaw ghetto — where about 80,000 Jews died of starvation or disease and from which more than 300,000 were transported to their deaths at Treblinka — tourists encounter not only memorials to Jewish trauma but also a street named after a brave Polish woman who saved Jewish children. There is also a statue of a Polish underground courier who tried to alert the indifferent Western Allies to the continuing genocide and a marker commemorating an organization to save Jews and a roundabout bearing the name of the “Righteous Among the Nations,” to name but a few.

Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust archive and museum, has long honored righteous gentiles who saved or in some way protected Jews. Over 7,000 of those righteous gentiles were in Poland, more than in any other country. And Poland suffered greatly at the hands of the occupiers; in a population of 35 million, Nazis murdered an estimated 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians. There is a way to honor them and to underscore how a population under siege can still act with valor. But that effort cannot come at the expense of remembering the Jewish victims of the war, a large majority of whom did not survive the era.

Poland’s Jewish population numbered well over three million before the war. At the end of the war, some 380,000 Polish Jews had survived, most of whom had fled in 1939 into the former Soviet Union. By 1950, only about 45,000 Jews were left living in Poland.

The current effort to erect dozens of monuments to Polish heroes in places of Jewish terror appears to be changing the teaching and understanding of history in Poland. Even Auschwitz, perhaps the most visible symbol of the genocide, has not been spared. According to a national poll published in 2020, nearly half of Poles today think that Auschwitz is most of all a place of Polish suffering. Thus Auschwitz — which is also a museum funded by the Polish government devoted to the memory of nearly one million Jews who lost their lives in the gas chambers of Birkenau — has emerged, to a certain extent, as a place of Polish suffering as much as a Jewish one.

As a historian, I myself have encountered this new and dangerous trend. In 2021 I was accused of slandering the memory of a long-deceased Polish village mayor. The claim was based on a footnote in “Night Without End,” a book that I co-edited. In the text, a Holocaust survivor is quoted recalling an incident in which the mayor of his village alerted the Nazis to the whereabouts of a group of Jews, resulting in their death. The mayor’s niece, assisted by an NGO that receives government funding, took us into Warsaw’s District Court to defend the name of her uncle. We were dismayed by the ruling, in which the judge, Ewa Jonczyk, asked us to apologize.

“We can assume that ascribing to Poles the crimes of the Holocaust committed by the Third Reich can be construed as harmful and detrimental to the sense of identity and of national pride,” the judge said last February. “Attributing to the Polish nation the responsibility for the Holocaust, for the killing of Jews during World War II and for the confiscation of their property touches upon the sphere of the national heritage and, consequently, as completely untrue and harmful, can significantly impact one’s feeling of own national dignity, destroying the justified — based on facts — belief that Poland was the victim of war operations initiated and conducted by the Germans.”

Fortunately the ruling was overturned, but the chill was felt among scholars inside and outside Poland.

It seemed to me that the real objective of the lawsuit was not to rescue a man’s name or alter his reputation, but to frighten scholars of the Holocaust, to instill Poland’s pervasive atmosphere of fear into an entire discipline and to make students and educators think twice before choosing topics that would challenge the government-sponsored version of history. The idea of a right to national pride, advanced in court, is an ambiguous and legally undefined sentiment that effectively means any member of the Polish nation has the right to sue historians whose findings offend them.

Meanwhile, Holocaust survivors are dying every day. There are few left to protest the new revisionism.

The assault on the value of Jewish survivor testimony and the legal attack on our knowledge of the past are signs that the memory of the Holocaust is under threat not only by the deaths of survivors, but also by the willful choices of the present generation. The more time distances us from the event, the more heated the exchanges become, and the more forceful the attacks on the memory of the Shoah.

The earth outside the tiny village of Treblinka, in eastern Poland, still bears traces of the death camp the Nazis built there in 1942. Close to 925,000 Jews were slaughtered at Treblinka, making it the second-largest Jewish killing field in the world after Auschwitz.

The earth outside the tiny village of Treblinka, in eastern Poland, still bears traces of the death camp the Nazis built there in 1942. Close to 925,000 Jews were slaughtered at Treblinka, making it the second-largest Jewish killing field in the world after Auschwitz. On a sad, wet day in November, I wandered close to where Germans had burned the bodies of those murdered in the gas chambers nearby. At my feet on the damp ground, among the pebbles, I saw tiny white specks. They were small pieces of bones that still rise to the surface of the tainted earth of Treblinka after the rain. The ashes there tell one of the many stories of the murdered Jews of Europe. But recently, Poland’s government has been working to redirect the narrative. That same day in November, I saw Magdalena Gawin, the Polish deputy minister of Culture and National Heritage at the time, speak at the Treblinka train station flanked by a Polish Army honor guard, a Roman Catholic bishop and other distinguished guests, including Yehoshua Ellis, an American-born rabbi. They were assembled in Treblinka, a couple of miles away from the former death camp of the same name, to unveil a monument honoring Jan Maletka, a 21-year-old Polish railroad worker. Mr. Maletka, Polish researchers say, was shot in 1942 by the Nazis for giving water to the Jews as they waited in locked cattle cars idling outside the camp. At the ceremony that day, Ms. Gawin spoke of death and sacrifice. “It is estimated that 900,000 Jews died in Treblinka,” she said. “At the same time, we meet here to commemorate the death of one man, 900,000 Jews and one man.” The scene that unfolded last November in Treblinka is one of the most vivid examples of a dangerous new threat that is spreading rapidly today in Eastern Europe: Holocaust distortion. A false equivalence of victimization is but one hallmark of the new Polish historical revisionism. Another hallmark is a state-sponsored effort that downplays antisemitic terror at the hands of the Poles, though such incidents are well documented in the historical record. To better explain how this distortion works, consider this: Of the more than 900,000 Jews who arrived in Treblinka, fewer than 100 survived the war. Jewish survivor testimonies of Treblinka are harrowing: Many remembered extreme thirst; they also recalled groups of Polish railway workers and Polish youths who stood close to the cattle cars ready to hand over water — in exchange for gold or cash. In their oral histories and written accounts, survivors described how they were met not with compassion, but with greed: Jankiel Wiernik, a carpenter and cabinet maker, recalled how terribly hot the day he arrived in Treblinka was. From the train he saw Polish locals selling water to desperate Jews. Abram Jakub Krzepicki remembered that people in the wagon were dying of thirst. He described terrible scenes of Jews pleading with the workers, handing over fistfuls of money for a mere half cup of water. None of this is to necessarily undermine the story of Jan Maletka and what is said to be the quiet act that cost his life. There are no eyewitnesses left, so we will never know whether Mr. Maletka acted out of empathy for the dying Jews or not. But this huge memorialization effort obscures the full story. It is essential to understand that Mr. Maletka’s actions occurred within the broader experience of exploitation and murder. To identify and shift focus to Mr. Maletka serves not only to elevate a heartwarming story about a young man but also to marginalize the hundreds of thousands of mostly unnamed Jewish victims. Indeed, the sign on the monument devotes equal spaces to the Polish railway worker and the Jews who perished in Treblinka. Markers to Poles killed by Nazis for rescuing Jews have been proliferating in the Polish countryside for several years now. The effect of these memorials to Polish national virtue is a new historical narrative that depicts the rescue of the Jews as a default position of Polish society during the Holocaust. The Polish government denies it is engaging in Holocaust distortion, but these stone monuments play into a distortion of the historical narrative. In my work as a historian of the Holocaust, I have come to call these efforts “memory patches” — stories intended to paper over the tragic legacy in which some Poles denounced or turned over to the Gestapo Jewish fellow citizens who were seeking shelter in wartime Poland. Take the testimony of Adam Starkopf, who escaped the Warsaw ghetto with his wife, Pela, and their young daughter. Mr. Starkopf described in his memoir “Will to Live” being woken in the night in the town of Sadowne, where the couple were hiding in plain sight because Mr. Starkopf looked “Aryan” enough to pass as a Pole. A group of Polish villagers, he wrote, invited him into their plan to hunt down, rob and then turn over to the Gestapo a group of Jews who had escaped from a cattle car. “Just think — all these Jews lying on the ground, ready for the taking! It’s a windfall!,” Mr. Starkopf recalled his neighbors saying to him. “We’ll take their clothes, clean out their pockets and on top of that we’ll get a reward from the Germans for bringing them in.” (Mr. Starkopf declined to participate.) The Polish narrative of wartime heroism and valor is espoused by Poland’s nationalistic government, led by the right-wing Law and Justice Party. In 2019 Ms. Gawin initiated “Called by Name,” a program intended to commemorate Poles who died rescuing Jews. “Called by Name” lives under the auspices of the government-funded Pilecki Institute, itself dedicated to commemorating Poles “who were murdered for providing aid and assistance to Jews during the Second World War.” In the vicinity of Treblinka in the past several years, the Pilecki Institute has erected no fewer than 10 other monuments to celebrate brave Poles who died giving assistance to Jews. As if to underscore how integrated the government is with this effort, Magdalena Gawin, the minister who oversaw the Treblinka memorial, is now the director of the Pilecki Institute. The institute’s former director, Wojciech Kozlowski, has denied that the institute’s work is politically driven. “We are not in any way interested in promulgating any sort of ‘alternative narrative’ or in pursuing any kind of political agenda,” he told The Times of Israel in 2020. Poland’s efforts to reframe history reflect a trend proliferating in other European countries to obfuscate the history of the Holocaust. In France, the far right has made efforts to whitewash the record of the Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis. In Hungary and Croatia, local complicity and collaboration during the war is downplayed, shifting the blame for the Jewish catastrophe entirely onto the German occupiers. What makes the Polish example so distinctive is the apparent scale of state official involvement in redirecting the narrative. In all these cases, pushing blame for the destruction of Jewish communities entirely onto Nazi occupiers obfuscates the larger context of Holocaust horror and the very real problems of collaboration, bystanderism and local antisemitism that helped run the machine of the Holocaust. Indeed, in Poland some of the commemorative markers have even been erected in places such as the town of Sadowne, where Mr. Starkopf described listening to the sound of Jews “being dragged through the snow to barns and stables” after his conversation with his neighbors. Thus the marker serves to deflect attention from atrocities committed by locals and to reframe their role in history. This commemorative drive allows the nationalists to present themselves as primarily defenders of the idea of historical innocence of the nation. To be sure, efforts to shift the historical narrative in Poland did not begin with the Law and Order Party. Older markers, some erected by municipalities and local organizations, can be found in the former Warsaw ghetto, in the Plaszow concentration camp (depicted in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”) and near the site of the 1946 Kielce pogrom, where a Polish mob murdered scores of Jewish survivors who returned to the city after the war. In the former Warsaw ghetto — where about 80,000 Jews died of starvation or disease and from which more than 300,000 were transported to their deaths at Treblinka — tourists encounter not only memorials to Jewish trauma but also a street named after a brave Polish woman who saved Jewish children. There is also a statue of a Polish underground courier who tried to alert the indifferent Western Allies to the continuing genocide and a marker commemorating an organization to save Jews and a roundabout bearing the name of the “Righteous Among the Nations,” to name but a few. Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust archive and museum, has long honored righteous gentiles who saved or in some way protected Jews. Over 7,000 of those righteous gentiles were in Poland, more than in any other country. And Poland suffered greatly at the hands of the occupiers; in a population of 35 million, Nazis murdered an estimated 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians. There is a way to honor them and to underscore how a population under siege can still act with valor. But that effort cannot come at the expense of remembering the Jewish victims of the war, a large majority of whom did not survive the era. Poland’s Jewish population numbered well over three million before the war. At the end of the war, some 380,000 Polish Jews had survived, most of whom had fled in 1939 into the former Soviet Union. By 1950, only about 45,000 Jews were left living in Poland. The current effort to erect dozens of monuments to Polish heroes in places of Jewish terror appears to be changing the teaching and understanding of history in Poland. Even Auschwitz, perhaps the most visible symbol of the genocide, has not been spared. According to a national poll published in 2020, nearly half of Poles today think that Auschwitz is most of all a place of Polish suffering. Thus Auschwitz — which is also a museum funded by the Polish government devoted to the memory of nearly one million Jews who lost their lives in the gas chambers of Birkenau — has emerged, to a certain extent, as a place of Polish suffering as much as a Jewish one. As a historian, I myself have encountered this new and dangerous trend. In 2021 I was accused of slandering the memory of a long-deceased Polish village mayor. The claim was based on a footnote in “Night Without End,” a book that I co-edited. In the text, a Holocaust survivor is quoted recalling an incident in which the mayor of his village alerted the Nazis to the whereabouts of a group of Jews, resulting in their death. The mayor’s niece, assisted by an NGO that receives government funding, took us into Warsaw’s District Court to defend the name of her uncle. We were dismayed by the ruling, in which the judge, Ewa Jonczyk, asked us to apologize. “We can assume that ascribing to Poles the crimes of the Holocaust committed by the Third Reich can be construed as harmful and detrimental to the sense of identity and of national pride,” the judge said last February. “Attributing to the Polish nation the responsibility for the Holocaust, for the killing of Jews during World War II and for the confiscation of their property touches upon the sphere of the national heritage and, consequently, as completely untrue and harmful, can significantly impact one’s feeling of own national dignity, destroying the justified — based on facts — belief that Poland was the victim of war operations initiated and conducted by the Germans.” Fortunately the ruling was overturned, but the chill was felt among scholars inside and outside Poland. It seemed to me that the real objective of the lawsuit was not to rescue a man’s name or alter his reputation, but to frighten scholars of the Holocaust, to instill Poland’s pervasive atmosphere of fear into an entire discipline and to make students and educators think twice before choosing topics that would challenge the government-sponsored version of history. The idea of a right to national pride, advanced in court, is an ambiguous and legally undefined sentiment that effectively means any member of the Polish nation has the right to sue historians whose findings offend them. Meanwhile, Holocaust survivors are dying every day. There are few left to protest the new revisionism. The assault on the value of Jewish survivor testimony and the legal attack on our knowledge of the past are signs that the memory of the Holocaust is under threat not only by the deaths of survivors, but also by the willful choices of the present generation. The more time distances us from the event, the more heated the exchanges become, and the more forceful the attacks on the memory of the Shoah.

Poland is distorting how we remember the Holocaust

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday said that his country supported United Arab Emirates' security needs. He was visiting UAE for first time. Herzog said that Israel wanted more countries in the region to join its detente with the Arab world.

The UAE, along with Bahrain, signed US-brokered normalisation agreements with Israel, dubbed the "Abraham Accords", in 2020. The two Gulf states and Israel share concerns about Iran and its regional allies.

Isaac Herzog discussed security and bilateral relations with the UAE's de facto ruler Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In past fortnight, Abu Dhabi has been a target of two attacks which involved missiles and drones. The attacks were claimed by Yemen based Houthi rebels. Iran supports Houthi rebels.

Israel has responded by offering security and intelligence support to the UAE against further drone attacks.

"We completely support your security requirements ... We are here together to find ways and means to bring full security to people who seek peace in our region," Herzog said during the meeting, in comments released by his office.

Sheikh Mohammed said Israel and the UAE share a "common view of the threats to regional stability and peace, particularly those posed by militias and terrorist forces".

The presidency in Israel is a largely ceremonial post. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the UAE in December.

En route to the UAE President Herzog's plane flew over Saudi Arabia, which Herzog said was "a very moving moment". Riyadh has not yet followed its Gulf neighbours in normalising ties with Israel, but Israeli officials express hope this will happen.

"The Abraham Accords should be continued and more nations should join us," Herzog said.

Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which opposes countries normalising with Israel, said such visits "encourage the occupation to continue escalating its aggression against our Palestinian people and denial of their rights".

The heads of the Manufacturers Association of Israel and of the Israel Export Institute, travelling with Herzog, discussed a $10 billion fund set up under the Abraham Accords and how the UAE might help Israel find new Middle Eastern and Asian markets, the Association said.

President Herzog met the UAE's foreign minister and other officials, UAE news agency WAM said. He will also meet Jewish communities in the UAE, which is the region's commercial and tourism hub.

(With inputs from agencies)

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday said that his country supported United Arab Emirates' security needs. He was visiting UAE for first time. Herzog said that Israel wanted more countries in the region to join its detente with the Arab world.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday said that his country supported United Arab Emirates' security needs. He was visiting UAE for first time. Herzog said that Israel wanted more countries in the region to join its detente with the Arab world. The UAE, along with Bahrain, signed US-brokered normalisation agreements with Israel, dubbed the "Abraham Accords", in 2020. The two Gulf states and Israel share concerns about Iran and its regional allies. Isaac Herzog discussed security and bilateral relations with the UAE's de facto ruler Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In past fortnight, Abu Dhabi has been a target of two attacks which involved missiles and drones. The attacks were claimed by Yemen based Houthi rebels. Iran supports Houthi rebels. Israel has responded by offering security and intelligence support to the UAE against further drone attacks. "We completely support your security requirements ... We are here together to find ways and means to bring full security to people who seek peace in our region," Herzog said during the meeting, in comments released by his office. Sheikh Mohammed said Israel and the UAE share a "common view of the threats to regional stability and peace, particularly those posed by militias and terrorist forces". The presidency in Israel is a largely ceremonial post. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the UAE in December. En route to the UAE President Herzog's plane flew over Saudi Arabia, which Herzog said was "a very moving moment". Riyadh has not yet followed its Gulf neighbours in normalising ties with Israel, but Israeli officials express hope this will happen. "The Abraham Accords should be continued and more nations should join us," Herzog said. Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which opposes countries normalising with Israel, said such visits "encourage the occupation to continue escalating its aggression against our Palestinian people and denial of their rights". The heads of the Manufacturers Association of Israel and of the Israel Export Institute, travelling with Herzog, discussed a $10 billion fund set up under the Abraham Accords and how the UAE might help Israel find new Middle Eastern and Asian markets, the Association said. President Herzog met the UAE's foreign minister and other officials, UAE news agency WAM said. He will also meet Jewish communities in the UAE, which is the region's commercial and tourism hub. (With inputs from agencies)

Israel president expresses support for UAE's security needs during his visit

A Christian priest was killed and his colleague wounded by gunmen in Pakistan's Peshawar on Sunday. Both of them were driving home from church, said police.

Pastor William Siraj died instantly in the ambush, church authorities said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. Peshawar has seen twin suicide bombing killing outside a church in 2013.

Azad Marshall, the most senior bishop in the protestant Church of Pakistan, condemned the attack and tweeted: "We demand justice and protection of Christians from the Government of Pakistan."

Pakistan's northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan have seen a rise in militant attacks on security forces in recent days, most of them claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group which associates itself with the Afghan Taliban.

The attackers opened fire on the car carrying Pastor Siraj and the Rev Patrick Naeem in the city's Chamkani area, church officials said.

Naeem was out of danger and being treated, a spokesman for the city's Lady Reading hospital said.

Bishop Azad said both were clergy of the Diocese of Peshawar in the Church of Pakistan, which is a union of protestant churches including the Methodists and the Anglicans.

(With inputs from agencies)

A Christian priest was killed and his colleague wounded by gunmen in Pakistan's Peshawar on Sunday. Both of them were driving home from church, said police. Pastor William Siraj died instantly in the ambush, church authorities said.

A Christian priest was killed and his colleague wounded by gunmen in Pakistan's Peshawar on Sunday. Both of them were driving home from church, said police. Pastor William Siraj died instantly in the ambush, church authorities said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. Peshawar has seen twin suicide bombing killing outside a church in 2013. Azad Marshall, the most senior bishop in the protestant Church of Pakistan, condemned the attack and tweeted: "We demand justice and protection of Christians from the Government of Pakistan." Pakistan's northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan have seen a rise in militant attacks on security forces in recent days, most of them claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group which associates itself with the Afghan Taliban. The attackers opened fire on the car carrying Pastor Siraj and the Rev Patrick Naeem in the city's Chamkani area, church officials said. Naeem was out of danger and being treated, a spokesman for the city's Lady Reading hospital said. Bishop Azad said both were clergy of the Diocese of Peshawar in the Church of Pakistan, which is a union of protestant churches including the Methodists and the Anglicans. (With inputs from agencies)

Pakistan: Christian priest killed by unknown gunmen

The Tonga volcano erupted violently on January 15 and sent life in the small Pacific island nation into disarray. The country was cut off from the world for days as its only airport was rendered unusable due massive amount of ash.

Everyone knows that it was a major eruption. But just how horrific the power of it all is becoming more and more evident as days go by.

In addition to spewing lava, smoke and ash, the volcano explosion caused Earth's atmosphere to 'ring like a bell'.

NASA's chief scientist James Garvin has been quoted as saying that the volcanic eruption was 500 times as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima towards the end of Second World War.&nbsp;

Effects of the volcanic eruption were felt thousands of miles away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The effects of the tsunami caused by the eruption were felt as far as Peru.

In addition to this, the volcano created atmospheric pressure waves that travelled around the world at speeds of around 650 miles per hour. Scientists say that these waves literally made Earth's atmosphere 'ring like a bell'.

But was this 'bell' audible? Unlikely.

The actual frequency of the sound waves was out of the auditory range of humans.

The Tonga volcano erupted violently on January 15 and sent life in the small Pacific island nation into disarray. The country was cut off from the world for days as its only airport was rendered unusable due massive amount of ash.

The Tonga volcano erupted violently on January 15 and sent life in the small Pacific island nation into disarray. The country was cut off from the world for days as its only airport was rendered unusable due massive amount of ash. Everyone knows that it was a major eruption. But just how horrific the power of it all is becoming more and more evident as days go by. In addition to spewing lava, smoke and ash, the volcano explosion caused Earth's atmosphere to 'ring like a bell'. NASA's chief scientist James Garvin has been quoted as saying that the volcanic eruption was 500 times as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima towards the end of Second World War. Effects of the volcanic eruption were felt thousands of miles away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The effects of the tsunami caused by the eruption were felt as far as Peru. In addition to this, the volcano created atmospheric pressure waves that travelled around the world at speeds of around 650 miles per hour. Scientists say that these waves literally made Earth's atmosphere 'ring like a bell'. But was this 'bell' audible? Unlikely. The actual frequency of the sound waves was out of the auditory range of humans.

Tonga volcano explosion was so severe it made atmosphere 'ring like a bell'

Voting for Portuguese parliamentary election started on Sunday morning (local time). There was no clarity as to early signs of who would be the winner. Voter turnout was predicted to be low amid rise in Covid infections.

Polling stations opened at 0800 GMT

At the University of Lisbon, staff outnumbered mostly elderly voters, with signs on the walls asking people to wear a mask, observe social distancing and to use their own pen.

Some even wore gloves for extra protection.

"I have been vaccinated, and I haven't had COVID yet... But I felt very safe," said Maria Odete, 73, adding that the election race appeared too close to produce a stable government capable of bringing positive change.

Those infected have been given permission by the government to leave isolation and cast ballots on person. It has been recommended that they cast their votes in the last hour before polling stations close at 1900 GMT

Over a tenth of Portugal's 10 million people are estimated to be isolating because of COVID-19. As in many European countries, infections have spiked lately, stoked by the Omicron variant, although widespread vaccination has kept deaths and hospitalisations lower than in earlier waves.

The election is wide open as the centre-left ruling Socialists have lost much of their lead in opinion polls to the main opposition party, the centre-right Social Democrats, and neither is likely to win a stable majority.

Low turnout could make projections unreliable, analysts say. Abstention was already record at 51% in the 2019 general election before the pandemic.

The vote, called in November after parliament rejected the minority Socialist government's budget bill, is likely to worsen political volatility and could produce a short-lived government, unless one of the main parties manages to cobble together a working alliance, which could be a daunting task.

"We want more stability but I don't think that's what is going to happen. I think we'll have one or two years of instability," said Mario Henriques, 42, as he walked out of the polling station in a rush, wearing sports clothes.

(With inputs from agencies) 
&nbsp;

Voting for Portuguese parliamentary election started on Sunday morning (local time). There was no clarity as to early signs of who would be the winner. Voter turnout was predicted to be low amid rise in Covid infections.

Voting for Portuguese parliamentary election started on Sunday morning (local time). There was no clarity as to early signs of who would be the winner. Voter turnout was predicted to be low amid rise in Covid infections. Polling stations opened at 0800 GMT At the University of Lisbon, staff outnumbered mostly elderly voters, with signs on the walls asking people to wear a mask, observe social distancing and to use their own pen. Some even wore gloves for extra protection. "I have been vaccinated, and I haven't had COVID yet... But I felt very safe," said Maria Odete, 73, adding that the election race appeared too close to produce a stable government capable of bringing positive change. Those infected have been given permission by the government to leave isolation and cast ballots on person. It has been recommended that they cast their votes in the last hour before polling stations close at 1900 GMT Over a tenth of Portugal's 10 million people are estimated to be isolating because of COVID-19. As in many European countries, infections have spiked lately, stoked by the Omicron variant, although widespread vaccination has kept deaths and hospitalisations lower than in earlier waves. The election is wide open as the centre-left ruling Socialists have lost much of their lead in opinion polls to the main opposition party, the centre-right Social Democrats, and neither is likely to win a stable majority. Low turnout could make projections unreliable, analysts say. Abstention was already record at 51% in the 2019 general election before the pandemic. The vote, called in November after parliament rejected the minority Socialist government's budget bill, is likely to worsen political volatility and could produce a short-lived government, unless one of the main parties manages to cobble together a working alliance, which could be a daunting task. "We want more stability but I don't think that's what is going to happen. I think we'll have one or two years of instability," said Mario Henriques, 42, as he walked out of the polling station in a rush, wearing sports clothes. (With inputs from agencies)

Portuguese vote in election marked by Covid

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday said that Europe needed to diversify its energey supplies. Though he did not explicitly mentioned Russia in this context the hint was clear as Russia is one of the major suppliers of natural gas to Europe. Relations between Russian and the West have been strained over the Ukraine crisis.

"We are concerned about the energy situation in Europe because it demonstrates the vulnerability of being too dependent on one supplier of natural gas and that's the reason why NATO allies agree that we need to work and focus on diversification of supplies," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenburg said.

Russia has massed some 120,000 troops near its neighbour and demanded the western defence alliance pull back troops and weapons from eastern Europe and bar Ukraine, a former Soviet state, from ever joining the Western defence alliance.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/we-want-mutually-respectful-ties-with-us-says-russian-foreign-minister-448989">We want 'mutually respectful' ties with US, says Russian foreign minister&nbsp;</a>

US&nbsp;officials said on Saturday Russia's military buildup had been expanded to include supplies to treat casualties of any conflict. Across the border in Ukraine, locals trained as army reservists as the government scrambled to prepare.

Moscow denies any plan to invade but said on Sunday it would ask NATO to clarify whether it intends to implement key security commitments after earlier saying the alliance's response to its demands did not go far enough.

"If they do not intend to do so, then they should explain why," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on state television. "This will be a key question in determining our future proposals."

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-ukraine-crisis-uk-to-offer-nato-military-deployment-in-europe-kyiv-urges-west-to-be-firm-in-talks-448866">Russia-Ukraine crisis: UK to offer NATO military deployment in Europe; Kyiv urges West to be 'firm' in talks</a>

The United States has said it is waiting to hear back from Russia. It says NATO will not withdraw from eastern Europe or bar Ukraine but it is prepared to discuss topics such as arms control and confidence-building measures.

Washington has spent weeks trying to build agreement with European partners on a strong sanctions package if Russia attacks Ukraine. But the issue is divisive, with Germany urging "prudence".&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday said that Europe needed to diversify its energey supplies. Though he did not explicitly mentioned Russia in this context the hint was clear as Russia is one of the major suppliers of natural gas to Europe.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday said that Europe needed to diversify its energey supplies. Though he did not explicitly mentioned Russia in this context the hint was clear as Russia is one of the major suppliers of natural gas to Europe. Relations between Russian and the West have been strained over the Ukraine crisis. "We are concerned about the energy situation in Europe because it demonstrates the vulnerability of being too dependent on one supplier of natural gas and that's the reason why NATO allies agree that we need to work and focus on diversification of supplies," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenburg said. Russia has massed some 120,000 troops near its neighbour and demanded the western defence alliance pull back troops and weapons from eastern Europe and bar Ukraine, a former Soviet state, from ever joining the Western defence alliance. Also Read | We want 'mutually respectful' ties with US, says Russian foreign minister US officials said on Saturday Russia's military buildup had been expanded to include supplies to treat casualties of any conflict. Across the border in Ukraine, locals trained as army reservists as the government scrambled to prepare. Moscow denies any plan to invade but said on Sunday it would ask NATO to clarify whether it intends to implement key security commitments after earlier saying the alliance's response to its demands did not go far enough. "If they do not intend to do so, then they should explain why," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on state television. "This will be a key question in determining our future proposals." Also Read | Russia-Ukraine crisis: UK to offer NATO military deployment in Europe; Kyiv urges West to be 'firm' in talks The United States has said it is waiting to hear back from Russia. It says NATO will not withdraw from eastern Europe or bar Ukraine but it is prepared to discuss topics such as arms control and confidence-building measures. Washington has spent weeks trying to build agreement with European partners on a strong sanctions package if Russia attacks Ukraine. But the issue is divisive, with Germany urging "prudence". (With inputs from agencies)

NATO chief calls on Europe to reduce energy dependence on Russia

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