Live video coverage: States divided over gun control even as mass shootings increase. The latest on the war in Ukraine. | Newstalk Florida

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington Governor Jay Inslee was quick to respond to this week’s carnage at a Texas elementary school, sending out a tweet listing the gun control measures taken by the government. state controlled by Democrats. He ended with: “Your turn Congress.”

But gun control measures are likely going nowhere in Congress, and they have also become increasingly rare in most states. Aside from several Democratic-controlled states, the majority have either taken no action on gun control in recent years or taken aggressive steps to expand gun rights.

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This is because they are either politically controlled by Republicans who oppose gun restrictions or are politically divided leading to a stalemate.

“Here I’m in a position where I can do something, I can introduce legislation, and yet knowing it’s almost certainly not going anywhere is a feeling of helplessness,” said Sen. Greg Leding, a Democrat. of the GOP-controlled Arkansas Legislature. He has lobbied unsuccessfully for red flag laws that would allow authorities to remove firearms from those determined to be a danger to themselves or others.

After Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead, Democratic governors and lawmakers across the country have made impassioned pleas to Congress and their own legislatures. to enact gun restrictions. Republicans have primarily called for more efforts to tackle mental health and strengthen protections in schools, such as adding security guards.

In the meantime, the latest news on the war….

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia on Thursday pressed for the West to lift sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine, claiming without evidence that the punitive measures are preventing millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products to leave Ukrainian ports, exacerbating a global crisis. food crisis.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war, including the Russian blockade of its ports, has prevented most of these products from leaving the country, putting endangering the world’s food supply.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday sought to shift the blame to Western sanctions. “We accuse Western countries of taking a series of illegal actions that led to the blockade.”

Western officials have dismissed Russia’s claims that the sanctions are responsible. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted this week that food, fertilizer and seeds are exempt from sanctions imposed by the US and many others – and that Washington is working to ensure that countries know that the flow of these goods should not be affected.

As the war enters its fourth month, world leaders have stepped up calls for solutions this week.

“This food crisis is real and we need to find solutions,” World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “If we don’t find solutions, of course the countries that will suffer will be the poorest countries in the world.”

She said about 25 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain is currently stored and another 25 million tonnes could be harvested next month.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday proposed opening a corridor to allow foreign ships to leave Black Sea ports and another to allow ships to leave Mariupol on the Sea of ​​Azov. But Russia said the port of Mariupol in particular needed to be cleared first. Ukraine expressed its skepticism towards this proposal.

Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine was ready to accept safe corridors in principle, but was not sure whether it could trust the Russia to honor any agreement.

The question, he said, was “how do we ensure that by the time we create this safe passage and the entrance to the harbor is cleared, how do we ensure that at night or early in the morning Russia will not violate not agree on safe passage and its military ships will not sneak into the harbor and attack Odessa.

European countries have tried to ease the crisis by getting grain out of the country by rail – but trains can only transport a small fraction of what Ukraine produces, and ships are needed to carry out the mainstay of exports.

Mikhail Mizintsev, who heads Russia’s National Defense Control Center, said 70 foreign ships from 16 countries were now in six Black Sea ports, including Odessa, Kherson and Mykolaiv. He did not specify how many might be prepared to transport food.

On the battlefield, the Ukrainian army general staff said on Thursday that Russian forces were continuing their attempts to support their offensive in several sections of the front line in Ukraine’s Donbass region. This industrial heartland of coal mines and factories is now at the center of the fighting after Russia suffered a series of setbacks and the war was forced to pursue more limited goals.

Military officials said Russian forces were continuing their efforts to gain a foothold in the Sievierodonetsk region, which is the only part of the Luhansk region of Donbass under Ukrainian government control.

They also said Russia also launched missiles and airstrikes on infrastructure across the country.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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