(BEIJING) — Kamila Valieva earned the highest score in the women’s figure skating singles event short program at the Olympics on Tuesday.
The 15-year-old, who represents the Russian Olympic Committee, scored a mark of 82.16, putting her in first place going into the free skate portion of the competition.
The winner of the women’s event will be determined after skaters compete in the free skate event on Thursday. The gold medal will be awarded to the skater with the highest total score (calculated as the sum of the two programs).
Anna Shcherbakova of the ROC is in second place with a score of 80.20 and Sakamoto Kaori of Japan is in third place with a score of 79.84.
Valieva stumbled on her first jump in what was her first time competing since it was revealed she tested positive for a banned substance in December ahead of the Russian Figure Skating Championships, according to the International Testing Agency.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Monday to allow Valieva to skate, despite the failed drug test.
During the figure skating team event, Valieva became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics.
Russian athletes at the Olympics are competing under the name “Russian Olympic Committee” due to an ongoing ban against Russia participating in the games due to its previous doping violations. This is the second Olympics in a row in which Russia has been banned.
Russia has been banned from all its international sporting events because of the doping allegations.
Russian athletes who could prove they were clean and unconnected to the cover-up are allowed to compete.
Crowds protesting the government’s mask and vaccine mandates in Wellington, New Zealand have had to deal with something more unusual than police hassling them. Lawmakers are playing hits by Barry Manilow, James Blunt and Celine Dion on a loop in an attempt to get them to disperse.
Trevor Mallard, the speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, has been blastingBarry Manilow‘s greatest hits — as well as the 1990s Los del Rio hit “Macarena” — through the speakers inside Parliament buildings in an attempt to break up the crowds of protestors, who have refused to budge for the past week. COVID-19 vaccine PSAs are also being played.
After James Blunt spotted the story, he tweeted, “Give me a shout if this doesn’t work” — and his hit “You’re Beautiful” was promptly added to the rotation, as well as an out-of-tune recorder rendition of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”
The tactic has made headlines around the world, and elicited mixed reactions.
Mallard told the New Zealand website Stuff over the weekend that surrounding residents had been consulted on the plan and were supportive. “And one of them is a Barry Manilow fan,” Mallard added.
So far, the protestors appear to be unbothered: They’ve been dancing along to the “Macarena,” singing along to “You’re Beautiful” and playing their own songs, like Twisted Sister‘s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
(NEW YORK) — The majority of children under age 5 are getting more screen time than is recommended by pediatricians, new research shows.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends babies and toddlers up to age 2 should avoid screen time other than video-chatting, while children ages 2 to 5 should be limited to no more than one hour per day of high-quality programming.
More than 75% of children younger than 2 and 64% of kids ages 2 to 5 exceeded the recommended guidelines, according to researchers at the University of Calgary, who analyzed over 60 studies looking at more than 89,000 children around the world.
The researchers described kids ages 5 and under as the “fastest-growing users of digital media,” citing research showing that prior to the coronavirus pandemic, kids in that age group used screens for an average of around 25% of the time they are awake each day.
They found that kids under 2 consume more TV and movies, while kids ages 2 to 5 engage in everything from TV and movies to tablets and video games.
“Digital media are now a regular part of young children’s lives, and supporting families to best fit evidence-based recommendations into their daily routines needs to be a priority,” the researchers wrote.
Too much screen time can be linked to obesity when it replaces physical activity or encourages mindless eating while being on screens, irregular sleep if they are on screens more than recommended, and even violence if exposed to violent content on TV, which can significantly impact their behavior, according to an article published by the Mayo Clinic in May 2021.
Other studies have found that there can be cognitive and emotional delays in a child’s development from excessive screen time.
While regulated screen time does have some potential benefits for kids, like learning opportunities, parents should monitor their kids’ use, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent.
“I think when you take into account the risk versus benefit, in this age group, the risks outweigh the benefits,” Ashton said Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Ashton recommends limiting screen time by keeping kids engaged in a variety of ways.
One tip is to make a screen time schedule that sets time aside on the weekends for activities away from computers and tablets. Making a chart for older kids so they can see where they are on their schedule is also another way to limit screen time.
Ashton also said it is important to separate eating from screen time, so kids are not consuming snacks or meals while they watch.
And finally, Ashton recommends bringing in other activities, like getting outside with kids to walk or play.
(NEW YORK) — Black students are much more likely to incur the largest average student loan debt out of any group in the United States, including their white peers, according to a recent study from nonprofit The Education Trust.
It’s a situation Dr. Shamell Bell knows well. Even though she had scholarships, Bell, who is now a Harvard lecturer and single mother, took out multiple student loans to pay for her living expenses while she pursued higher education.
Bell told ABC News’ Good Morning America the stress from her college debt has significantly impacted her life.
“Every single night, I’m not getting sleep because I’m worried about my bills. I’m worried about loan payments. I’m worried about my credit,” she said.
“We were sold a lie with the educational system. I went all the way to the top and I still feel like I failed,” she added.
Bell isn’t alone. A 2021 report from the American Association of University Women, based in part on federal data, shows that women not only make less than men after graduating from school, they hold more debt, an average of $31,276 more. Black women also borrowed an average of $37,558, more than other racial and ethnic groups overall.
Financial aid expert Jessica Brown, author of How To Pay For College When You’re Broke, told GMA there are several keys to tackling college debt. Here are her recommendations:
Financial advice for incoming students
– Apply for grants, loans and other aid as soon as possible with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
– Research prospective schools.
– Understand the cost of attendance at different schools.
– Make a financial blueprint with your family.
Financial advice for current students
– Use apps to look for “unclaimed” scholarships. Apps like Scholly and the HBCU Hub can help you identify these funds. You can also look into community organizations and see if they offer any scholarships you qualify for.
– Build relationships with your college’s financial aid office.
– Maintain academic excellence. Many scholarships award strong academic performance.
Financial advice for graduates
– Build a relationship with your loan servicer. This way, you can identify the best repayment plan for you that’s realistic and feasible for you to maintain.
– Inquire about consolidating federal student loans and see if that would be best for your situation.
– Check your eligibility for public service loan forgiveness. Some jobs, in sectors such as education and the federal government, offer loan forgiveness for employees.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Russia’s military has said some troops massed near Ukraine will begin returning to base on Tuesday following the completion of what it called “exercises,” in a potential sign of de-escalation amid continuing fears of a possible Russian invasion.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said units from its southern and western military districts, which have deployed thousands of troops close to Ukraine’s border, had begun returning to barracks. Video released by the military showed what it said was tanks pulling back and being loaded onto rail transports. A spokesman for Russia’s southern military district also said its servicemen had also begun leaving Crimea, where Russia has built up a large force.
United States and Ukrainian officials, as well as independent experts, though cautioned that it was still to be seen whether the Russian forces will now really leave and how many. Major Russian exercises are still continuing in neighboring Belarus to the north of Ukraine and in the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said officials would believe the Russian withdrawal “when we see it.”
Hopes that Russia might be moving to de-escalate were dimmed by Russia’s parliament which on Tuesday voted to pass a law calling on President Vladimir Putin to recognize two Russian-controlled breakaway regions of Ukraine as independent. The law appeals to Putin to recognize the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk” in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian statelets that were created with Moscow’s backing and troops during fighting in 2014. Separatist forces, backed up by Russian troops, have continued to fight a low intensity war with the Ukrainian government along a static frontline since then.
The move to recognize the regions would open a path to Russia formally annexing the regions, as it did Crimea eight years ago, a step that would likely trigger more Western sanctions and further escalate the crisis. The vote now puts the decision in Putin’s hands, who can decide whether to go through with it.
The parliament’s speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, said the appeal would be sent to Putin “immediately.”
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the issue was “highly, highly relevant in Russian society” but told reporters not to get ahead of themselves, as “no decisions have been taken.”
The vote was denounced in Ukraine, with an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling it an “escalatory action.” The advisor, Mikhailo Podolyak, said if Putin went ahead it would amount to Russia’s formal exit from the Minsk agreements, the stalled 2015 peace deal aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine.
The U.S. and other western countries have warned this week that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come this week and U.S. officials Tuesday said they would wait to see if Russia really does now pull back its forces, warning they consider Ukraine still to be inside the window for a potential attack.
Satellite images and videos spotted on social media by open source researchers over the weekend and Monday showed Russian forces continuing to move closer to Ukraine, with some units taking up what experts said appeared to be forward positions. The U.S. on Monday announced it was closing down its embassy in Kyiv and moving key diplomats to Lviv in western Ukraine amid an “accelerated” build up by Russian forces.
The Russian announcement that it was pulling back some forces came a day after Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu briefed Putin that Russia’s huge military drills would end in the “near future.”
Shoigu told Putin that “part of the drills are approaching their completion, and part would be completed in the near future.”
Russia has always denied it has any intention to attack Ukraine using the over 100,000 troops it has massed near its border. Russia has painted warnings from the U.S. and other Western countries that it may be preparing to launch an invasion as “hysteria.”
A spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that the day would prove the Western warnings had been unfounded.
Tuesday “will go down in history as the day the Western propaganda war failed. Disgraced and destroyed without a shot being fired,” the spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, wrote on her Facebook.
Military exercises on an unprecedented scale are continuing in Belarus and are due to end on Feb. 20.
Putin hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for talks at the Kremlin on Tuesday, as Western countries continue intensive diplomacy to try to avert a war.
The U.S. has warned that Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine this week, reportedly briefing NATO allies last week that it had intelligence the attack could come as early as Wednesday.
Ukraine’s government has expressed more skepticism that Russia is ready to attack this week, suggesting it believes the massive Russian build up is intended to pressure Ukraine with the threat of invasion. Zelenskyy, in a televised address Monday night, told Ukrainians he was declaring Wednesday, the alleged day of a possible Russian attack, a national holiday.
Zelenskyy’s national security advisor, Oleksiy Danilov, told Ukrainian television Monday night that Ukraine did not see signs Russia is preparing to attack on Feb. 16 or 17.
“We recognize all the risks that there are for our country. But the situation is absolutely under control,” he said. “More than that, we today do not see that a broad-scale invasion from Russia can happen on either 16th or 17th February. We do not see that.”
The first trailer for Lucy and Desi, a new documentary from Amy Poehler, dropped on Monday. The clip features Hollywood legends, including Bette Midler, Carol Burnett and Norman Lear, attempting to describe the Hollywood couple’s impact on the entertainment industry. Per Amazon, “Lucy and Desi explores the unlikely partnership and enduring legacy” of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. “One of the most prolific power couples in entertainment history,” Ball and Arnaz “risked everything to be together. Their love for each other led to the most influential show in the history of television.” Lucy and Desi premieres March 4 on Amazon Prime Video…
HBO has renewed The Gilded Age, the period drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, for a second season. Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, Simon Jones, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, Jack Gilpin, Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski. star in the series, set in “a period of immense economic change, of great conflict between the old ways and brand-new systems, and of huge fortunes made and lost,” according to HBO. The Gilded Age debuted in January, and will air its season finale on March 21…
Whoopi Goldberg returned to The View on Monday following her two-week suspension and promised that the show would keep having “tough conversations.” Whoopi faced criticism after saying on the show that she did not believe the Holocaust was about race, but instead about “man’s inhumanity to man.” She later apologized but was removed temporarily from her duties as co-host…
L-R Sykes, Schumer, Hall — Bruce Glikas/WireImage — Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
The 94th Academy Awards will have a triple dose of comedy from its three hosts.
Good Morning America revealed Tuesday that the 2022 Oscars will be hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes.
“I’m not sure who thought this was a good idea,” Schumer joked on GMA.
All three entertainers have previous awards show hosting experience. Hall hosted the 2019 BET Awards, Schumer hosted the 2015 MTV Movie Awards and Sykes hosted the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards.
Never before have three women hosted the Oscars. The last time there were at least three hosts for the Oscars was 35 years ago, at the 1987 Academy Awards, when Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and Paul Hogan emceed. The only time there have been multiple women hosting the Oscars was 45 years ago, at the 1977 Academy Awards, when Ellen Burstyn and Jane Fonda hosted alongside Warren Beatty and Richard Pryor.
Hall is known for appearing in the Scary Movie franchise as well as films like The Best Man, and Girls Trip, as well as shows like Ally McBeal, and Nine Perfect Strangers.
Schumer is a stand-up comedian known for the comedy series Inside Amy Schumer, which won her an Emmy Award in 2015, as well as for starring in movies like Trainwreck, and I Feel Pretty. She can next be seen in the Hulu show Life & Beth.
Sykes is a stand-up comedian known for starring on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and black-ish. She also hosted an eponymous talk show from 2009 to 2010 and won an Emmy Award in 1999 for her writing on The Chris Rock Show.
The 2022 Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 27, on ABC.
Love was in the air on Valentine’s Day, which was apparently perfect timing for Gunna and Chloe to drop the visuals for their song “you & me.”
The song, which samples, Jon B.‘s ballad “They Don’t Know,” was featured on Gunna’s third studio album, DS4Ever, which was released last month.
The music video came Monday night, just two hours before the official end of the romantic holiday, and begins with the 28-year-old rapper at a pay phone — much like Jon B.’s video — before cutting between scenes of the two artists cuddled up on a couch and flirting and laughing as they shop around a store.
Prior to the “you & me” video release, speculation swirled that Gunna, 28, and Chloe, 23, were dating and although they’ve downplayed those rumors, the video’s lovey-dovey vibe is bound to get people talking again.
The “you & me” video is available to stream now on YouTube.
(NEW YORK) — A Missouri mom is warning fellow parents about a rare condition caused by a strand of hair that sent her 5-month-old son to the emergency room.
Sara Ward, from St. Louis, shared a Facebook post explaining that her 5-month-old son, Logan, started developing a condition called hair tourniquet syndrome on Jan. 22 and, over the course of a week, had to be rushed to his pediatrician’s office, urgent care and later, the emergency room at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.
“This was my first time and even with being a third-time parent, I was not aware of this beforehand,” Ward, a mom of three, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
“I had never seen this or this (had) never come up with any of my friends or family members that are moms. So I was definitely kind of in the dark on just how severe this can be,” Ward said.
For Ward, the unexpected ordeal began when she and her husband noticed that one of Logan’s toes was “looking a little bit pink.”
“We kind of didn’t really think much of it that night because he didn’t seem bothered by it at all,” she said.
They went about their weekend as usual, but Ward said that after a couple of days, Logan’s toe started changing color again.
“By Monday, it hadn’t improved and it was starting to look redder and we were kind of noticing this line that was going across the middle of the toe.”
That’s when she decided to take Logan to see his pediatrician and it was at the doctor’s office that she first learned about hair tourniquet syndrome.
“Hair tourniquet syndrome is when there is a piece of hair, or a thread of another material like a piece of cloth, that’s tightly wrapped around a body part. It’s usually a finger or a toe, but it also can be the genitals,” Dr. Sara Holmstrom, a board-certified pediatrician and a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, explained to GMA.
Holmstrom said hair tourniquet syndrome cases are “pretty uncommon overall” and noted that in a 2015 review from Lurie Children’s, only 81 cases of patients ranging in age from 2 to 22 years old were reported from May 2004 to March 2014.
“It most often occurs in young infants under six months, most frequently on the toe, and most of the time, patients do not need surgery,” Holmstrom added. At 5 months, Logan matched the typical patient profile.
At the pediatrician’s office, Ward estimated that Logan’s doctor and nurses spent about 40 minutes trying to remove the hair that had somehow gotten wrapped around his third right toe.
“They took a look and they had to use all these kinds of special instruments. They brought in these magnifying goggles and special lights and they had these long tweezers and like little scalpels,” Ward said. “They were going in there and they could not get it either. I mean they were able to get one small piece of it but they did not feel confident that they got it.”
Logan’s pediatrician then sent the family home with orders to monitor his condition and see if the toe would get better on its own.
“Within a few hours of being home, it felt like the toe was starting to swell some and we felt like it was starting to look a little bit purple, in the back of the toe,” Ward said. “So we became concerned again, and I took him into the urgent care center. And they sent us right to the emergency room.”
Ward said several doctors responded to Logan’s case and he was admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay. By Tuesday morning, when Logan’s toe wasn’t immediately improving, doctors told Ward they had to start considering surgery as a treatment option.
“I was just kind of in shock the whole time that it was getting to this point. I just really thought nothing of it in the very beginning because it didn’t seem to bother him and once we went into the pediatrician and they mentioned that a piece of hair got wrapped around it, I still thought it was going to be an easy fix and that well then, you can just go in and we’ll remove the hair right here in the pediatrician’s office. … I think that’s where a lot of people don’t understand the severity that these hair tourniquets can cause and that it can get to that point,” Ward said.
Symptoms and treatment options for hair tourniquet syndrome
According to Dr. Katie Lockwood, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “typically, the affected body part becomes red, swollen, and sometimes has an indentation where the hair/fiber is in a circumferential pattern.”
“You will notice some redness and swelling of a digit, or the affected area, so fingers, toes and then sometimes genitals. So, more commonly the penis in males or labia in females … Sometimes it can cause breakdown of the skin so you may see a little bit of bleeding with time,” Holmstrom continued. “And if it’s been there for a really long time, the digit can actually turn purple, so not just a red discoloration but kind of purple and signs that the blood flow has not been adequate for some time.”
“If (parents notice) their babies are really fussy and they’ve checked all the usual things – they’re fed, they don’t have a wet diaper, they’re trying to console them – as a mom of a six-month-old myself, I would say, ‘Let me just take these socks off and take a peek at the toes,'” Holmstrom added.
Both physicians noted that if manual attempts at removing the hair or thread are unsuccessful, doctors will try other methods.
“We do this in the emergency room, use a chemical solution that dissolves hair,” Holmstrom said. “So over-the-counter, that’s Nair. Veet is another brand and we actually have that in the emergency room to dissolve the hair. And then worst-case scenario, if it can’t be manually or chemically removed, then surgical removal is needed.”
Ward said Logan did not need to have surgery and the hospital discharged him once his toe swelling started to improve.
“We’re actually not really sure what happened. Some of the swelling started to come down. So we’re not sure if maybe the hair removal creams might have worked. I mean, honestly, we couldn’t even tell you because we never even really saw the hair,” she said.
Her message to other parents?
“Be aware of hairs and always be checking the toes and fingers. If (you) see that a hair strand is wrapped around it, try to remove it as quickly as you can and if you can’t get it, then seek help from your pediatrician right away,” she said.
Lockwood and Holmstrom both recommend seeking medical care or contacting a pediatrician if a child can’t be consoled after all the usual methods are exhausted. Other signs it may be time to get a doctor’s opinion is if there’s any abnormal discoloration or swelling of a finger or toe that doesn’t subside.
Ward reported that it took at least a week for Logan’s toe to “fully look back to normal” and her baby boy has recovered three weeks after the incident.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is warning that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region.
As many as 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders and U.S. officials have urged all Americans to leave the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that the country was shuttering its embassy in Kyiv and “temporarily” relocating the small group of diplomats left in Ukraine to the western city of Lviv, citing the “rapid acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces.”
But Ukrainian officials have said they do not see signs of a Russian attack as soon as Wednesday — the date reportedly given to NATO allies — and called for a day of unity instead.
Russia has demanded the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance and pull back troops from Eastern European member states, while denying it has plans to invade Ukraine.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 15, 7:02 am
Russia’s parliament asks Putin to recognize breakaway regions in Ukraine
Russia’s parliament voted for a law on Tuesday that calls on President Vladimir Putin to recognize two Russian-controlled breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.
The measure is a formal appeal to Putin to recognize the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, in an area of southeastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists forces have been battling the Ukrainian army since 2014.
Such recognition would open a path for Russia to formally annex the two regions as it did the Crimean Peninsula almost eight years ago. It’s now up to Putin to decide whether to go through with it.
Two bills were initially put forward for a vote in Russia’s parliament — one by the Communist Party and the other by Putin’s ruling United Russia. The first would have the request sent to the president immediately, while the second would have sought consultations with the foreign ministry and other government agencies before appealing directly to Putin. Ultimately, parliament voted for the first bill.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office called the vote an “escalatory action.” Ukraine’s foreign ministry has warned that it will consider Russia recognizing the separatist regions as a withdrawal from the Minsk peace agreement reached in 2015, which was supposed to end the conflict in Donbas that broke out a year earlier.
Feb 15, 5:41 am
Ukraine reacts to Russia announcing withdrawal: ‘We’ll believe it when we see it’
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba reacted to Russia’s announcement Tuesday that it is withdrawing some troops from the border, saying his country will “believe it when we see it.”
“There are constantly various statements coming from the Russian Federation, so we have a rule: we’ll believe it when we see it,” Kuleba said during a televised briefing Tuesday. “When we see the withdrawal, we’ll believe in de-escalation.”
Feb 15, 5:25 am
Russia says some troops will return to base
Some Russian troops positioned near the border with Ukraine will begin returning to their bases Tuesday after completing “exercises,” according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The units set to return are from Russia’s Southern and Western Military Districts, the defense ministry said Tuesday. But there are troops from other military districts massed on the border. Still, if some troops do pull back, it would potentially be a key signal that the crisis with Ukraine will not escalate.
Russian state media then released video purportedly showing tank troops loading up in neighboring Belarus to return home as well as tanks in southwestern Russia moving back. A spokesperson for Russia’s Southern Military District told state media Tuesday that some personnel have begun leaving Crimea for their permanent bases following the completion of drills.
In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and established two federal subjects there, the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. But the international community still recognizes the territories as being part of Ukraine.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday that the military exercises would end “in the near future.” There are still drills being conducted in neighboring Belarus as well as the Black Sea that are due to end Feb. 20.
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a post on her official Facebook page on Tuesday that Feb. 15 “will go down in history as the day the Western propoganda war failed.”
“Disgraced and destroyed without a single shot fired,” Zakharova added.
Feb 15, 4:29 am
White House warns invasion could start ‘at any time’
While the United States believes a path of diplomacy remains “open” to Russia, a White House official warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could begin at any time.”
Answering a question from ABC News’ Cecilia Vega during a press briefing Monday, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. government is so far seeing “more and more” Russian troops arrive on the border with Ukraine.
“In the past 10 days or so, when you look at what is happening at the border of Ukraine, there, we are seeing more than 100,000 troops there and it’s just been an every day more and more troops,” Jean-Pierre said.
“So we are certainly open to having conversations and seeing a de-escalation,” she added. “That door is open for diplomacy and this is up to President Putin. He has to make that decision. It is his decision to make on which direction he wants to take this.”
Jean-Pierre noted that “it remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take.”
When asked about the imminency of the situation, she said: “We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.”
“I’m not going to comment on the intelligence information,” she added, “except to say that it could begin this week.”
