Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday sternly warned NATO against deploying its troops and weapons to Ukraine, saying it represents a red line for Russia and would trigger a strong response.

Commenting on Western concerns about Russia’s alleged intention to invade Ukraine, he said that Moscow is equally worried about NATO drills near its borders.

Speaking to participants of an online investment forum. Mr. Putin said that NATO’s eastward expansion has threatened Russia’s core security interests. He expressed concern that NATO could eventually use the Ukrainian territory to deploy missiles capable of reaching Moscow in just five minutes.

Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, leading to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said Friday.

Fires in Sequoia National Park and surrounding Sequoia National Forest tore through more than a third of groves in California and torched an estimated 2,261 to 3,637 sequoias, which are the largest trees by volume and date back to ancient civilizations.

Nearby wildfires last year killed an unprecedented 7,500 to 10,400 giant sequoias that are only native in about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range. Losses now account for 13 to 19 percent of the 75,000 sequoias greater than 4 feet in diameter.

COVID-19 vaccines court much controversy. Yet some have an even greater worry—that coronavirus vaccines are the infamous mark of the beast mentioned in the book of Revelation: “And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Rev. 13:16).

The idea here can seem to jive with coronavirus. Notice what the “mark” does: “that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark” (vs. 17). Vaccine mandates! Cannot shop without proof of inoculation! No jab, no job!

However, does this prophetic theory hold water?

The World Health Organization warned Monday that the global risk from the omicron variant is “very high” based on the early evidence, saying the mutated coronavirus could lead to surges with “severe consequences.”

The assessment from the UN health agency, contained in a technical paper issued to member states, amounted to WHO’s strongest, most explicit warning yet about the new version that was first identified days ago by researchers in South Africa.

It came as a widening circle of countries around the world reported cases of the variant and moved to slam their doors in an act-now-ask-questions-later approach while scientists race to figure out just how dangerous the mutant version might be.

Wall Street banks are planning for a sustained period of higher inflation, running internal health checks, monitoring whether clients in exposed sectors could pay back loans, devising hedging strategies and counseling caution when it comes to deals.

U.S. consumer prices this month posted their biggest annual gain in 31 years, driven by surges in the cost of gasoline and other goods.

Senior bank executives have become less convinced by central bankers’ arguments that the spike is a temporary blip caused by supply chain disruption and are stepping up risk management.

Reuters – Russian troop movements near Ukraine have drawn concern from Kyiv and the United States that it might be considering attacking its neighbor. Here is a look at some of the questions that raises.

What are the two sides saying about the risk of conflict?

Russia denies threatening anyone and says it can deploy its troops on its own territory as it pleases. It has accused Ukraine and NATO of whipping up tensions and suggested Kyiv might be preparing to try to seize back two eastern regions controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Russia’s foreign spy agency this week compared the situation with the build-up to a 2008 war in which Russia’s forces crushed those of neighboring Georgia.

The number of people trying to enter Europe without authorization has risen significantly this year to surpass migrant border crossing figures from 2019, before restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited travel, the European Union’s border and coast guard said Tuesday.

Frontex said in a statement that 160,000 illegal border crossings were recorded in the first 10 months of this year, up 70 percent compared to the same period in 2020 and 45 percent more than in 2019. The biggest rise was at the EU’s eastern borders, in the Balkans region and via central Mediterranean Sea crossings.

Almost 8,000 people—most of them Iraqis, Afghans and Syrians—entered through the EU’s eastern frontier; a 15-fold increase over 2020, the agency said. Crossings from Belarus hit a peak of more than 3,200 in July, but had dropped to over 600 by October.

“You will have to sit in the back seat. Keep your head down until I tell you not to.”

With that command from our driver, I had to forfeit my position in the front seat—not easy to do when you are six feet, three inches tall. Having to crouch and keep my head down in the back of our small, cramped car did not make it any easier.

But it was a small price to pay to remain on the safe side given the area through which we were traveling. As a white man from Canada, I did everything I could to make myself less conspicuous and less of a target for theft—a difficult task given that crowds peered into the car every time we stopped amid chaotic, lane-free traffic.