War of Words: In a heated exchange at the UN Security Council, the US accused Russia of threatening world peace over Ukraine while the Russians dismissed concerns as fearmongering.

  “This is as clear and consequential a threat to peace and security as anyone can imagine,” said the United States ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. 

  Russia’s Vasily Nebenzia said the Americans are “whipping up tensions and provoking escalation,” insisting that Russia has no plan to invade Ukraine despite massing 130,000 troops on three borders.

  Nebenzia said to Thomas-Greenfield, “You are almost pulling for this. You want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.” He said the West is trying to drive a wedge between Russia and Ukraine, as if the Ukrainians want their father to move into the living room.

  In a separate development, The Washington Post Reports that the Russians have delivered their written response to a US proposal aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, but the contents have not been revealed.

Party Man: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to resign following the release of a report that says he partied his way through pandemic isolation.

  Leaving things up to the imagination, the public release of the 500-page report was scrubbed of many of its scandalous details about drunken Covid bashes.

  Sue Gray, a senior civil servant who wrote the report, noted in British understatement that, “At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of government, but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time.” 

   She also said, “The excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time.” 

  As if that’s not enough, the London Metropolitan Police say they are investigating eight gatherings on government properties and they have as many as 300 pictures for proof. 

  Johnson, who heads the Conservative Party, has been fighting a rear guard action to avoid a no-confidence vote. While this has been going on, he’s been trying to play a tougher line against the possibility of Russia’s Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine.  Maybe he should offer Putin a drink.

Covid World: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tested positive for Covid-19 and moved his family to a secret location after the capital city of Ottawa was massed by people protesting vaccine mandates.

    Participants in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” lined up in front of Parliament buildings Saturday, some bearing signs attacking  Trudeau. At least one  US Confederate flag was in the crowd as well as several Nazi swastikas.

  Trudeau announced in a tweet, “I’ll continue to work remotely this week while following public health guidelines. Everyone, please get vaccinated and get boosted.”

  The protesters, many of them truckers traveling in a highway-clogging convoy, demanded repeal of Canada’s vaccine mandates, masking, and lockdown requirements.

  Here in the US, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are expected to ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve a two-shot coronavirus vaccine for children under 5. 

Insurrection: Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short testified last week before the January 6^th investigating committee, making him the most senior person who would have known about the pressure on Pence to overturn the 2020 election. Short was with Pence on January 6^th.

  In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked for FBI protection after statements made by the former president accusing her office of prosecutorial misconduct saying, they are “going after me without any protection of my rights by the Supreme Court or most other courts.”

  Willis is investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and says his complaints have escalated security  worries in and around her offices.

  Trump said Saturday night in Texas, “If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” 

In a Word: The New York Times bought rights to the word game Wordle, which has become explosively popular since its release only last October.  The Times says it paid in the “low seven figures” for the daily online game that gives a player six chances to guess a five-letter word. 

  The Times said that in their effort to be “the essential subscription for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world” that Wordle  will give “millions more people around the world another reason to turn to The Times to meet their daily news and life needs.”

  We got today in two.

The Spin Rack: Famed coach Alberto Salazar, who guided top track and field athletes to the medal stands for years before he was suspended for doping violations, was barred from the sport for life after an arbitrator found it likely that at least twice he had sexually assaulted an athlete. We’ll spare you the details. — A federal judge rejected the plea deal  prosecutors reached with Travis McMichael, 35, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, who have already been convicted of murder for chasing down and killing the black jogger Ahmaud in their Georgia neighborhood. The two had agreed to admit they attacked Arbery because he was black, but Arbery’s mother objected to the deal because they would have been sent to a more comfortable federal rather than state prison. 

Shred Man: Some of Donald Trump’s documents delivered by the National Archives to the January 6^th committee  had been ripped up and taped back together, The Washington Post  reports, confirming Trump’s habit of tearing documents to shreds and tossing them on the floor, leaving records management analysts to piece them back together.

  This tops Richard Nixon’s aspirin bottle with tooth marks on the child proof cap.

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