To start with Girl of Ukraine Olena Zelenska has emphasised that, with day by day attacks, Russia only wishes to convert metropolitan areas into ruins and kill Ukrainians.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols ’ mother was just steps away from her son but couldn’t hear his anguished cries.

Beaten and broken, struggling to survive, Nichols had called out for her as five Memphis Police Department officers punched him, kicked him, and hit him with a baton after a traffic stop on Jan. 7.

Nichols, 29, who lived with his mom and stepdad, had slipped from the grasp of police after he was pulled over, dragged from his car and hit with a stun gun. Caught minutes later near their home and beaten savagely by five officers, he screamed, “Mom! Mom!”

Moments later, the police knocked on the mother’s door, but not to alert RowVaughn Wells that her child had been savagely beaten, according to Rodney Wells, her husband and Nichols’ stepfather. They said Nichols had been arrested for driving under the influence and was being taken to the hospital. Police said they could not go to the hospital because their son was under arrest.

So they waited.

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Memphis Police Director Cereyln “CJ” Davis, a mother herself, didn’t find out what her officers had done to Nichols until later either. The lack of police supervisors on the scene would be noted by many after Nichols died Jan. 10.

The fact that no one felt compelled to fill her in until the following day raised questions about the culture of her department she would have to answer in the coming days, even as she was asking them herself.

“There were failures of who should render aid, who should have notified, who went to the mother’s house, how they communicated,” Davis told the Associated Press in a Jan, 27 interview. “Why did the chief get notified at 4 o’ clock in the morning and the incident occurred at 8 o’ clock the previous night?”

It was around that same time of 4 a.m. that RowVaughn Wells received a call from a doctor at the hospital where he had been taken, Rodney Wells said. The doctor told them to get to the hospital immediately.

When she got there, she found Nichols on life support. While Wells was seeing her son’s battered body for the first time, Davis’ police department was swinging into damage control.

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The coming hours and days in Memphis would set the tone for America’s latest reckoning over police brutality, with RowVaughn Wells and Cerelyn Davis on opposite sides of the same tragedy. Their lives would be altered, in dramatically different ways.

Wells and her family seethed, cried and mourned for Tyre Nichols, the happy-go-lucky skateboarder and amateur photographer who came to Memphis from California about a year ago. She ultimately hung on to the hope her son’s fate might mean something, taking its place as it did in the long line of young Black men who have died at the hands of police.

Davis, the first Black woman to run the Memphis Police Department, faced heavy criticism. As she and other city officials came to grips with what had happened, they gradually took steps to hold the officers accountable, share the horror of the case with the public, and try to minimize the possibility that the incident could set off unrest in Memphis and beyond.

But she would be called out in vivid terms at Nichols’ funeral as a beneficiary of the progress that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis to fight for when he was shot to death more than half a century earlier.

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At 6:03 a.m. on Jan. 8, the police department posted a vague statement on social media saying that Nichols had two “confrontations” with police. He had “complained of having a shortness of breath, at which time an ambulance was called to the scene,” the statement said.

Wells knew better by then. She had seen him bruised, swollen, hooked up to machines.

Memphis’ fire department later revealed that 27 minutes elapsed from the time emergency medics arrived on the scene to the moment when an ambulance took him to a hospital.

“When I walked into that hospital room, my son was already dead,” Wells said during a Jan. 23 news conference.

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Doubts about the police department’s initial account only grew. A photo of a bruised Tyre in the hospital was distributed in the media. Activists questioned the department’s account and pushed for release of the arrest video.

Nichols’ family hired lawyer Ben Crump, known for representing the families of others struck down by police, including George Floyd. Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 led to nationwide protests and raised the volume on calls for police reform.

Wells cried throughout a Jan. 17 memorial service for her son but would not speak publicly until later.

Gradually, a fuller portrait of Nichols emerged. He had lived with his mom and stepfather and made boxes at FedEx alongside Rodney Wells. He had two brothers, a sister and a 4-year-old son. He was an amateur photographer who loved sunsets and skateboarding.

Tyre had his mother’s name tattooed on his arm.

“This man walked into a room, and everyone loved him,” said Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled from California for the service.

That same day, Memphis officials pledged to release video of the attack.

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The five officers were fired Jan. 20 after an internal police investigation revealed violations of police rules, including excessive use of force, and failure to intervene and render aid.

In a statement, Davis called their actions “egregious.”

The family met with authorities to see the video — horrific footage RowVaughn Wells said she was unable to watch at that meeting. Later, she warned parents to avoid showing it to their children.

Wells said she was inside her house at the time of the beating, waiting for Tyre to get home and give his customary cheerful greeting of “Hello parents!”

“For a mother to know that their child was calling them in their need, and I wasn’t there for him, do you know how I feel right now?” Wells told media during a Jan. 27 news conference.

“I wasn’t there for my son. I was telling someone that I had this really bad pain in my stomach earlier, not knowing what had happened,” she said. “But once I found out what happened, that was my son’s pain I was feeling.”

She also shared how an ordinary day had turned horrible.

Tyre, on the day of the arrest, had seen her pulling out some chicken before he left the house at around 3 p.m. to snap pictures of the sunset at a suburban park, she said.

“He said, ’Mom, are you cooking chicken tonight?” I said “Yes.”

“He said, ”How are you cooking it?”

With sesame seeds.

“He loved that.”

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In a late-night video statement released Jan. 25, Davis said she had met with the Nichols family and offered her condolences. She promised to continue investigating other officers’ actions.

“I am a mother, I am a caring human being, who wants the best for all of us,” Davis said. “This is not just a professional failing. This is a failing of basic humanity.”

Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were charged the next day — 19 days after Nichols’ arrest. It’s a length of time that Crump said should be a “blueprint” for other police agencies to follow when dealing with similar situations.

When asked about the charges, Rodney Wells told the AP that the family was “fine with it.”

He also said his wife thought Davis was doing an “excellent” job.

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Friday, Jan, 27 was the day Memphis and the nation had waited for — the video release.

Hours before it was posted by the city, Davis told the AP that the footage failed to show what still remains a mystery — why Nichols was stopped in the first place.

Officers were “already amped up, at about a 10,” she said, when the video started. The members of the crime-suppression team known as the Scorpion unit were “aggressive, loud, using profane language and probably scared Mr. Nichols from the very beginning,”

“We don’t know what happened,” Davis said. “All we know is the amount of force that was applied in this situation was over the top.”

Rodney Wells, Davis and community leaders had called for protests to be peaceful, in honor of King’s belief in nonviolent action.

Protesters blocked an interstate bridge, but there was no violence. No property damage. No arrests.

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Davis disbanded the Scorpion unit on Jan. 28, after “listening intently” to the Nichols family, community leaders and other officers on the team.

Crump said the Nichols family considered the move “appropriate and proportional to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols.”

He also called it “a decent and just decision for all citizens of Memphis.”

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Tyre Nichols was laid to rest on Feb. 1. The funeral at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, delayed by icy weather, featured a rousing choir, a eulogy by the Rev. Al Sharpton and a visit by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Also present were relatives of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean, Jalen Randle and Floyd — Black people who also had been cut down by police.

Harris praised Nichols’ parents for their extraordinary strength, courage and grace throughout the ordeal.

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In his eulogy, Sharpton said he had taken his daughter Ashley early that morning to the site of the former Lorraine Motel, a Black-owned business where King was shot on April 4, 1968. The motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

Sharpton noted the civil rights movement led by King opened doors for Black city workers in Memphis and elsewhere and said the five Black officers insulted King’s legacy by beating Tyre to death.

Sharpton called out the officers and Davis, reminding them of those who marched, went to jail and died while fighting for racial equality.

“You didn’t get on the police department by yourself. The police chief didn’t get there by herself,” he said.

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Despite her grief, RowVaughn Wells spoke, too. Speaking from a lectern in the large church, she wiped away tears and said she believed her son “was sent here on an assignment from God.”

“And I guess now his assignment is done. He’s been taken home.”

Someone in the audience yelled that Nichols was going to change the world.

“Yes,” his mother said, nodding. “Yes.”

And then, once again, she praised Davis for acting swiftly.

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For more coverage of the beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers, go to https://apnews.com/hub/tyre-nichols.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will use his second State of the Union address on Tuesday to remind Americans of how their lives have been improved over his first two years in office, as he tries to confront pessimism in the country and navigate the tricky politics of a newly divided Washington.

Rather than laying out major new policy proposals, Biden was expected to devote much of his speech to highlighting his efforts over the past two years to create jobs, fight inflation and improve the nation’s infrastructure. The speech comes as Biden is honing his pitch to voters ahead of his expected announcement in the next few months that he will seek another term in office despite voter frustrations about the direction of the nation.

“Next week, I’ll be reporting on the state of the Union,” Biden said Friday after a stronger-than-expected jobs report that saw the unemployment rate drop to the lowest level in more than 53 years. “But today, I’m happy to report that the state of the Union and the state of our economy is strong.”

Biden’s remarks from the House rostrum will take place in a sharply different context from a year ago. Republicans now control the chamber, rendering it unlikely that any significant legislation reaches Biden’s desk. The newly empowered GOP is itching to undo many of Biden’s achievements and raising the specter of persistent investigations — including into the recent discoveries of classified documents from his time as vice president at his home and former office.

“Jobs are up, wages are up, inflation is down, and COVID no longer controls our lives,” Biden told the Democratic National Committee on Friday. “But now, the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives have made it clear they intend to put it all at risk. They intend to destroy it.”

The president, meanwhile, is shifting his focus from legislating to implementing the massive infrastructure and climate bills passed in the last Congress — and to trying to make sure Americans credit him for the improvements.

“These things don’t sell themselves,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday on NBC. “And it’s one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to that State of the Union address. I will say that there have been so many accomplishments under this administration. It can be difficult to list them in a distilled way.”

While large-scale bipartisanship remains unlikely, Biden was set to reissue his 2022 appeal for Congress to get behind his “unity agenda” of actions to address the opioid epidemic, mental health, veterans’ health and cancer.

Biden will also call on lawmakers to responsibly raise the debt limit and keep the government funded. The president has remained opposed to negotiating to avoid default, while Republicans are pushing for unspecified deep spending cuts to reduce the deficit.

Biden, according to two administration officials who requested anonymity to preview the speech, was also expected to discuss his decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon Saturday, as part of a broader section on countering China’s more assertive economic and military actions around the world.

His address last year came just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine and many in the West doubted Kyiv’s ability to avoid a swift routing. Now the war is on the cusp of entering its second year, and under Biden the U.S. and allies have sent tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. Now the president must make the case — both at home and abroad — for sustaining that coalition as the war drags on.

Meanwhile, inflation, which rose precipitously last year in part because of soaring energy prices from the war, has begun to ease.

Still, only a quarter of U.S. adults say things in the country are headed in the right direction, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research; about three-quarters say things are on the wrong track.

Similarly, views of the national economy remain deeply negative, with 24% calling the national economy good and 76% calling it poor. Forty-one percent of Democrats and 8% of Republicans call the economy good. The figures are similar to when Biden delivered his State of the Union address last year, but an adjustment from Biden’s first year in office when Americans were more optimistic; about half said they thought the country was headed in the right direction when the president took office.

At the same time, 57% say their personal financial situation is good. That’s unchanged since December but has eroded slightly since earlier last year. No less than 62% of Americans had called their personal financial situation good in AP-NORC polls conducted from late 2019 through spring of 2022.

Two years after Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, a protective fence was reinstalled Sunday around the Capitol ahead of Biden’s address.

After the speech, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and his Cabinet plan to hold over 30 events in two days to drive the message home to the American people in their communities. Biden will visit Wisconsin to discuss job creation on Wednesday and on Thursday will be in Tampa, Florida to talk about his efforts to lower prescription drug costs and protect Social Security and Medicare.

“During the State of the Union, President Biden will outline how the past two years has seen historic job growth, falling inflation, higher wages, and record investments coming back to America,” the White House said. “The economic travel blitz showcases how the president’s vision is creating jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure, lowering costs for families, tackling climate change, investing in our future and delivering for families too often left behind.”

The travel follows Biden’s stops last week in Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia focused on rail and water infrastructure projects funded by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Emily Swanson and Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has scheduled a major political conference to discuss the “urgent task” of improving its agricultural sector, a possible sign of worsening food insecurity as the country’s economic isolation deepens amid a defiant nuclear weapons push.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that members of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Politburo met on Saturday and agreed to hold a larger plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee in late February to review strategies on agriculture and set new goals. It said the Politburo members acknowledged a “a turning point is needed to dynamically promote the radical change in agricultural development.”

“It is a very important and urgent task to establish the correct strategy for the development of agriculture and take relevant measures for the immediate farming … to promote the overall development of socialist construction,” the KCNA said.

The Politburo meeting came amid indications that the country was preparing to stage a massive military parade in Pyongyang, possibly this week, to glorify the rule of leader Kim Jong Un and his growing collection of nuclear-capable weapons, which he has aggressively pushed to expand despite limited resources and economic decay.

Although not unprecedented, it’s uncommon for North Korea to hold two different party plenaries in a span of two months. It’s also rare for North Korea to call a plenary meeting over a single agenda, this time agriculture, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byoungsam said in a briefing.

“The government will closely watch North Korea’s food situation and internal trends,” said Koo. He said South Korea estimates that North Korean food production fell by about 4% in 2022 to 4.5 million tons.

Following the collapse of nuclear negotiations with the United States in 2019, Kim declared to strengthen his nuclear weapons and missile program against “gangster-like” U.S. sanctions and pressure and urged his nation to stay resilient in the struggle for economic self-reliance.

But the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed further shock on North Korea’s already broken economy, by forcing the nation to shield its poor healthcare system with strict border controls that choked off trade with China, its main ally and economic lifeline. The country was also hit with devastating typhoons and floods in 2020 that decimated crops.

In a study published on the North Korea-focused 38 North website last month, analyst Lucas Rengifo-Keller said food insecurity in North Korea is likely at its worst since the country’s 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

It’s difficult to establish an accurate assessment of North Korea’s humanitarian needs considering the closed nature of its regime and the poor quality of the limited statistics it discloses. But North Korea’s grain balance estimates issued by U.N. agencies and outside governments as well as possibly sharp increases in rice and corn prices observed by NGOs and media indicate that “country’s food supply has probably failed to satisfy minimum human needs,” Rengifo-Keller wrote.

Russia’s war on Ukraine likely worsened the situation by driving up global prices of food, energy and fertilizer, on which North Korea’s agricultural production is heavily dependent.

“Put simply, North Korea teeters on the brink of famine,” Rengifo-Keller said.

The Workers’ Party’s Central Committee also held a plenary meeting in December, when Kim doubled down on his nuclear ambitions by calling an “exponential increase” of nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nukes targeting rival South Korea and the development of more powerful long-range missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland. Party members also during the meeting identified key economic projects for 2023, highlighted by agricultural and construction activities.