Britain on Friday rejected Russia's call for a secret ballot in the UN General Assembly next week on whether to condemn Moscow's move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine and requested that the 193-member body vote publicly.
Moscow claimed it had annexed four regions in Ukraine — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia ― after staging what it called referendums.
Ukraine and its allies have denounced the votes as illegal and coercive.
The General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that would condemn Russia's "illegal so-called referenda" and the "attempted illegal annexation."
It also reaffirms the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and calls on states not to recognise Russia's move.
In a letter to UN states earlier this week, Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia lobbied for a secret ballot, arguing that Western lobbying meant that "it may be very difficult if positions are expressed publicly."
Britain's ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward on Friday said the rules of the General Assembly were clear that any representative may request a recorded vote.
"To conduct a secret ballot on a General Assembly decision would go against decades of precedent and undermine the practices of the world's most representative deliberative body," Ms Woodward wrote in a letter to the General Assembly president.
"That is why we are requesting under rule 87b that a recorded vote should take place on the resolution," she said.
Vladimir Putin annexes four regions of Ukraine — in pictures
The General Assembly is due to vote on the draft resolution on Tuesday or Wednesday, diplomats said.
"This is not about transparency," Mr Nebenzia said in a letter on Friday of Britain's move. "This is about the use of a recorded vote as a tool of subjugation and discipline."
In his own letter to the president of the General Assembly, Mr Nebenzia formally requested a secret ballot and said that if anyone opposed it, then they could call a vote on the move. Such a vote would be public.
Russia vetoed a similar resolution in the 15-member Security Council last week.
It has been trying to chip away at its international isolation after nearly three-quarters of the General Assembly reprimanded Moscow and demanded it withdraw its troops within a week of its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The moves at the UN mirror what happened in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea.
At the Security Council, Russia vetoed a draft resolution that opposed a referendum on the status of Crimea and urged countries not to recognise it.
The General Assembly then adopted a resolution declaring the referendum invalid with 100 votes in favour, 11 against and 58 formal abstentions, while two dozen countries did not take part.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Benefits: No tax, no restrictions on dual citizenship, no requirement to visit or reside to retain a passport. Visa-free access to 129 countries.
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MO
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Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
- European Championship - 2008, 2012
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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