AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

War fears grow as Putin orders troops to eastern Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — A long-feared Russian invasion of Ukraine appeared to be imminent Monday, if not already underway, with Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering forces into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.

A Vaguely worded decree signed by Putin did not say if troops were on the move, and it cast the order as an effort to “maintain peace.” But it appeared to dash the slim remaining hopes of averting a major conflict in Europe that could cause massive casualties, energy shortages on the continent and economic chaos around the globe.

Putin’s directive came hours after he recognized the separatist regions in a rambling, fact-bending discourse on European history. The move paved the way to provide them military support, antagonizing Western leaders who regard it as a breach of world order, and set off a frenzied scramble by the U.S. and others to respond.

Underscoring the urgency, the U.N. Security Council held a rare nighttime emergency meeting on Monday at the request of Ukraine, the U.S. and other countries. Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo opened the session with a warning that “the risk of major conflict is real and needs to be prevented at all costs.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sought to project calm, telling the country: “We are not afraid of anyone or anything. We don’t owe anyone anything. And we won’t give anything to anyone.”

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Putin’s recognition of Ukraine’s rebels ups ante in crisis

MOSCOW (AP) — It was a piece of fast-moving political theater in Moscow, a carefully orchestrated political announcement years in the making.

Russian President Vladimir Putin moved quickly on Monday to recognize the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, framing his show of defiance against the West in a series of nationally televised appearances that came amid Western fears of Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Immediately after the pro-Russian leaders of Ukraine’s separatist “people’s republics” were shown on Russian TV pleading with Putin to acknowledge them as independent states, Putin chaired a Kremlin meeting Monday in which a lineup of senior Russian officials all backed the move.

Hours later, Putin spoke in an hour-long televised address to the nation and then was shown on TV signing the recognition decrees.

The quick move by Putin represents a sharp change of course for the Kremlin, which in the past hoped to use a 2015 peace agreement brokered by France and Germany to have Ukraine’s rebel regions gain more power inside the country to stymie its bid for NATO membership. The strategy didn’t work, because most Ukrainians resented the deal as a betrayal of national interests and its implementation has stalled.

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EXPLAINER: The story behind Ukraine’s separatist regions

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized the independence of Moscow-backed rebel regions in eastern Ukraine, a move that will further fuel tensions with the West amid fears of Russian invasion.

Putin’s move follows days of heightened tensions in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, where Ukrainian forces are locked in a nearly eight-year conflict with Russia-backed separatists that has left more than 14,000 people dead.

Here is a look at the rebel-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine:

SEPARATIST REBELLION IN THE EAST

When Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president was driven from office by mass protests in February 2014, Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. It then threw its weight behind an insurgency in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine region known as Donbas.

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Colombia’s highest court legalizes abortion up to 24 weeks

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia became the latest country in Latin America to expand access to abortion Monday as the nation’s Constitutional Court voted to legalize the procedure until the 24th week of pregnancy.

The decision by the tribunal of nine judges fell short of the expectations of pro-choice groups that had been pushing for abortion to be completely decriminalized in Colombia. But it was nevertheless described as a historic event by women’s rights groups, which estimate 400,000 women get clandestine abortions in the country each year.

Before the ruling, Colombia allowed abortions only when a woman’s life was in danger, a fetus had malformations or a pregnancy resulted from rape.

Now women in Colombia will be able to get abortions until the 24th week of their pregnancy without having to provide any justification. After the 24th week of pregnancy, abortion will still face restrictions.

“We were trying to get the complete decriminalization of abortion … but this is still a historic step,” said Cristina Rosero, a lawyer for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, an advocacy group that was one of five organizations that filed a lawsuit in 2020 to get the high court to review Colombia’s abortions laws.

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For Chinese leaders, Olympics weren’t 2022’s big-ticket item

BEIJING (AP) — The just-concluded Winter Olympics weren’t China’s big event of the year — internally, at least. For the Communist Party, that comes this fall at a major meeting that will likely cement Xi Jinping ‘s position as one of the nation’s most powerful leaders in its seven decades of Communist rule.

The party congress, held every five years, is expected to appoint Xi to a third five-year term as its leader, breaking with recent past practice that limited the top person to 10 years in power. That would pave the way for him to get a third term as China’s president at the following year’s annual meeting of the legislature.

For China’s 1.4 billion people and the rest of the world, Xi’s tightening grip on power signals at least a partial return to the cult of personality that characterized the rule of Mao Zedong, who led Communist China from its founding in 1949 until his death in 1976, and that the party had moved away from after the disaster of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

“The 20th Party Congress will be extremely important even though and maybe because there will be no leadership change,” said Bonnie Glaser, the director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “Xi Jinping will likely lay out his priority agenda, which will provide insights into the legacy items he hopes to achieve.”

An overarching goal, which predates Xi, is to “rejuvenate” China, to build it into a strong nation that will be on equal footing with other major countries. Xi has sought to accelerate that process, making it a central part of his mandate and expanding China’s global role.

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Canada lawmakers extend emergency powers for truck protests

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian lawmakers voted Monday night to extend the emergency powers that police can invoke to quell any potential restart of blockades by those opposed to COVID-19 restrictions.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 185 to 151 to affirm the powers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier that the powers were still needed despite police ending the occupation of the nation’s capital by truckers over the weekend and police ending border blockades before that.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said the protesters were going for the “lifeblood of this nation, which is trade with the United States.”

Trudeau noted there were some truckers just outside Ottawa who might be planning further blockades or occupations. His public safety minister said there was an attempt to block a border crossing in British Columbia over the weekend.

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3 cops’ trial in Floyd killing heads to closing arguments

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Closing arguments were expected Tuesday in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights, with jurors to get the case after a month of testimony.

Thomas Lane was the final officer to present his defense, testifying Monday he didn’t realize how dire Floyd’s condition was while handcuffed, facedown on the street with Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee pressed to his neck — until paramedics turned Floyd over.

“What went through your mind when you saw his face there, once he was tipped over?” Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, asked.

“Um. He didn’t look good,” Lane said.

Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care as Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes. Lane held the 45-year-old Black man’s feet, Kueng knelt on his back and Thao held back bystanders.

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Trump’s social media app launches year after Twitter ban

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s social media app that he hopes will rival Twitter launched Monday as he seeks a new digital stage to rally his supporters and fight Big Tech limits on speech, a year after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

His Truth Social app was offered for download from the Apple App Store to a limited number of subscribers who had preordered. Others who were added to a waiting list are to be given access over the next 10 days.

The site encountered technical glitches shortly after launch, with reports that subscribers were shut out for hours. Others had trouble signing on. The site is not expected to be open to anyone who wants to download it until next month.

“Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist,” read a message to some of those trying to access the platform, adding, “We love you.”

Trump is hoping Truth Social will attract the millions who followed him on Twitter as he hints at a third presidential run, triggering a wave of other subscribers to justify the billions of dollars that investors have bet on the venture. Shares in a company that plans to buy Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, have soared in recent months.

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Dr. Paul Farmer, global humanitarian leader, dies at 62

BOSTON (AP) — Dr. Paul Farmer, a U.S. physician, humanitarian and author renowned for providing health care to millions of impoverished people worldwide and who co-founded the global nonprofit Partners in Health, has died. He was 62.

The Boston-based organization confirmed Farmer’s death on Monday, calling it “devastating” and noting he unexpectedly passed away in his sleep from an acute cardiac event while in Rwanda, where he had been teaching.

Farmer was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the division of global health equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He wrote extensively on health, human rights and social inequality, according to Partners in Health.

“A compassionate physician and infectious disease specialist, a brilliant and influential medical anthropologist, and among the greatest humanitarians of our time — perhaps all time — Paul dedicated his life to improving human health and advocating for health equity and social justice on a global scale,” wrote George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard University’s Faculty of Medicine, in a statement.

Partners in Health, founded in 1987, said its mission is “to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care.” The organization began its work in Cange, a rural village in Haiti’s central plateau, and later expanded its operations to regions including Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

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Michigan’s Howard suspended 5 games for Wisconsin melee

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard has been suspended the final five games of the regular season and fined $40,000 for hitting a Wisconsin assistant in the head,triggering a postgame melee.

The Big Ten Conference also on Monday suspended three players one game for the altercation following the Badgers’ 77-63 win on Sunday: Michigan’s Moussa Diabate and Terrance Williams II, and Jahcobi Neath of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin coach Greg Gard was fined $10,000 for violating the conference’s sportsmanship policy, but was not suspended. Howard is expected to be back for the Big Ten tournament, which begins March 9 in Indianapolis.

“After taking time to reflect on all that happened, I realize how unacceptable both my actions and words were, and how they affected so many,” Howard said Monday in a statement released by the university. “I am truly sorry.”

Phil Martelli will serve as Michigan’s interim coach in Howard’s absence. Michigan’s final five regular-season games are home contests with Rutgers on Wednesday, No. 15 Illinois on Sunday, Michigan State on March 1 and No. 25 Iowa on March 3 plus a visit to No. 22 Ohio State on March 6.