Our daily travels around the world

🇷🇺 A trio of Russia-related stories made headlines yesterday. 1) NATO officials said a major Russian offensive has begun in eastern Ukraine, after Moscow mobilized thousands of fresh troops to the region in recent weeks; 2) A joint report published by Yale University and the US State Department found Moscow has deported 6,000+ Ukrainian children to “reeducation camps” in Russia over the past year, which would constitute a war crime; 3) Norway’s intelligence service said Russia has deployed nuclear-armed ships for the first time since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

🇪🇺 EU lawmakers approved a new law effectively banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035. The law requires all new cars and vans to reduce their carbon emissions by 55% starting in 2030, with that level falling to zero emissions by 2035. The EU joins several other jurisdictions that have passed similar legislation, including Canada, the UK, and 18 US states including California and New York.

🦠 The WHO has abandoned its plans for a follow-up investigation into the origins of Covid. The WHO cited difficulties in doing field research in China and "politics across the world" as reasons for the cancellation, Nature first reported. The organization’s initial investigation in March 2021 concluded it’s “extremely unlikely” Covid escaped as the result of a lab accident, saying the virus likely spread from bats and then to humans via another small mammal species – though many scientists raised concerns that China had influenced the report.