The Full Belmonte, 3/20/2022
“The war in Ukraine has reached a stalemate after more than three weeks of fighting, with Russia making only marginal gains and increasingly targeting civilians, according to analysts and U.S. officials.
‘Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war,’ the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research institute, said in an analysis. Russians do not have the manpower or the equipment to seize Kyiv, the capital, or other major cities like Kharkiv and Odessa, the study concluded.
The American defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, said that the United States saw no sign that Russia planned to try to seize Odessa or other cities in the south in the ‘near term.’ Mr. Austin said Russia’s incremental gains had come though ‘brutal, savage techniques’ largely aimed at civilians. Even as the Russian Army seeks to strangle the strategic port city of Mariupol, vicious street battles there are costing it time and casualties.
But a stalemate does not mean an end to the bloodshed. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has repeatedly called for direct negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in the hope of ending the war.
Mr. Putin does not think the time is yet right for talks, according to a senior Turkish official who was on a recent call between Mr. Putin and Turkey’s president. With Mr. Putin determined to pummel Ukraine into submission, Russia’s failure to achieve its initial objectives could presage an even deadlier phase of the war defined by large-scale casualties.
Here are the latest developments in Ukraine:
At least 40 marines died in a Russian airstrike on barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
Mariupol’s city council said Russia had bombed a drama school where about 400 people had been hiding. It did not estimate the number of casualties, if any.
Russian forces are taking thousands of Ukrainians against their will across the border into Russia who he feared could be compelled into forced labor, according to a city official. Russian forces have taken ‘between 4,000 and 4,500 Mariupol residents forcibly across the border to Taganrog,’ Pyotr Andryuschenko, an assistant to the city’s mayor, said, referring to a city in southwestern Russia.
Russia is using long-range missiles to devastating effect, even as its ground advance on key targets remains stalled
At least 847 civilians — including 64 children — have been killed since Russia’s invasion began, in what United Nations officials say is almost certainly an undercount.” Read more at New York Times
“LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the embattled port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine’s president said an unrelenting Russian siege would be remembered for centuries to come.
It was the second time in less than a week that city officials reported a public building where residents had taken shelter coming under attack. A bomb hit a Mariupol theater with more than 1,300 believed to be inside on Wednesday, local officials said.
There was no immediate word on casualties from the reported strike on the art school, which The Associated Press could not independently verify. Ukrainian officials have not given an update on the search of the theater since Friday, when they said at least 130 had been rescued.
Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been under bombardment for at least three weeks and has seen some of the worst horrors of the war in Ukraine. At least 2,300 people have died, some of whom had to be buried in mass graves, and food, water and electricity have run low.” Read more at USA Today
“Confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court begin Monday. Ahead of the historic hearings, we swung by the politics desk and spoke with Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze on what we can expect. Here's what he had to say:
‘The confirmation of a Supreme Court justice is like the Super Bowl of legal coverage. It draws in a lot of people who don't pay attention to the regular season. Because of that, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination is an opportunity to highlight where things stand on the Roberts court today and where the justices are headed on abortion, guns, voting rights and other issues . Jackson's nomination is historic - she's the first Black woman named to the high court - and she has a fascinating background that will add new perspective to the court.
‘One thing I'll be watching for in her confirmation hearings is how Republicans approach that background and how the Democratic base responds to any attacks on her. That'll offer clues about the next big political event to capture the nation's attention: The 2024 presidential election.’” Read more at USA Today
Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson begin Monday, March 21, 2022.MANDEL NGAN, AFP via Getty Images
“COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina has given the greenlight to firing-squad executions, a method codified into state law last year after a decade-long pause in carrying out death sentences because of the state’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs.
The state Corrections Department said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia and that the agency had notified Attorney General Alan Wilson that it was able to carry out a firing-squad execution.
Lawmakers set about tweaking state law to get around the lethal injection drug situation. Legislation that went into effect in May made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution while giving inmates the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.” Read more at USA Today
FILE - In this photo provided by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority small fish school in waters of Ribbon Reef No 10 near Cairns, Australia, Sept. 12, 2017. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering widespread and severe coral bleaching due to high ocean temperatures two years after a mass bleaching event, a government agency said on Friday, March 18, 2022. (J. Sumerling/Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority via AP)
“CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering widespread and severe coral bleaching due to high ocean temperatures two years after a mass bleaching event, a government agency said on Friday.
The report by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority, which manages the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, comes three days before a United Nations delegation is due to assess whether the reef’s World Heritage listing should be downgraded due to the ravages of climate change.
‘Weather patterns over the next few weeks will be critical in determining the overall extent and severity of coral bleaching across the Marine Park,’ the authority said.
‘Bleaching has been detected across the Marine Park — it is widespread but variable, across multiple regions, ranging in impact from minor to severe,’ the authority added.
The reef has suffered significantly from coral bleaching caused by unusually warm ocean temperatures in 2016, 2017 and 2020. The previous bleaching damaged two-thirds of the coral.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON (AP) — When three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, some saw a message in them wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag. They shot that down on Saturday.
Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev said each crew picks the color of the flight suits about six months before launch because they need to be individually sewn. And since all three of them were graduates of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, they chose the colors of their prestigious alma mater.
‘There is no need to look for any hidden signs or symbols in our uniform,’ Artemyev said in a statement on the Russian space agency’s Telegram channel. ‘A color is simply a color. It is not in any way connected to Ukraine. Otherwise, we would have to recognize its rights to the yellow sun in the blue sky.
These days, even though we are in space, we are together with our president and our people!’” Read more at AP News
P&O passenger ferries moored at the Port of Dover, in southeast England, on Friday.Credit...Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“LONDON — A British ferry company laid off 800 people with immediate effect on Thursday, many of them over video, leading to international travel disruptions and condemnation by government officials over its plan to cut service and replace staff with cheaper labor.
On Friday, the company’s ferries were at a standstill, without staff to crew its ships. P&O Ferries, which is owned by DP World, a shipping company based in Dubai, said on its website that there would be significant disruption to its services over the next few days as it became ‘a more competitive and efficient operator.’
Workers, their families and community members attended protests on Friday in the English port cities of Hull, Dover and Liverpool and the Northern Irish port of Larne.
Mark Dickinson, the general secretary of Nautilus International, a maritime workers’ trade union, said as he was leaving a protest of about 400 people in Dover that he had never seen a moment so low in his 40 years in the industry.
‘I just think there’s been quite a bit of this hiring and firing lately, and this is the latest example,’ he said. ‘There’s weariness, and people are just fed up.’ In Britain, an island nation, seafarers are not thought of as essential workers, even though they have worked throughout the pandemic to bring food, medicine and other goods to the country, he said.” Read more at New York Times
Ryan Kellman/NPR
“Many Ukrainian women have taken up arms against the Russians — in this war, and in past ones. One 49-year-old mother of two enlisted, following in the footsteps of her late grandmother, who was an army medic in WWII. She said she decided to join the fight for her children. At boot camp, she learned to fire a weapon. Her response? ‘Easier than making borscht!’” Read more at NPR
“The U.S. has tried making daylight saving time permanent before — and it failed. Facing an energy crisis in the early 1970s, Congress passed a law to make the practice permanent, for two years, with the hope that it would reduce national energy consumption. The plan didn’t work. And the country hated it.” Read more at NPR
“U.S. health officials are eyeing an upswing in U.K. COVID cases with concern.Daily case counts there have more than doubled, fueled by widespread removal of COVID restrictions, waning immunity and the more transmissible BA.2 omicron subvariant. Experts warn the trend could hit the U.S. within weeks — and while the variant doesn’t appear to cause more severe disease, there’s one critical reason why stopping the spread is so important.” Read more at NPR
“So, why can’t we just drill more oil? It may seem like a logical fix to counter surging fuel prices in the U.S. — one that even President Biden himself has suggested. But boosting output at home is much easier said than done, oil producers say. Here’s why.” Read more at NPR
“This common form of memory loss can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s, but few people know about it. About 1 in 7 people aged 60 and older have the condition, called ‘mild cognitive impairment,’ but many may mistake it for normal aging. It's defined as memory changes that are noticeable to the affected person and others — but not serious enough to interfere with daily activities. That’s exactly why it’s so tricky to diagnose.” Read more at NPR
“The men's NCAA Tournament second round started in exciting fashion on Saturday, with one No. 1 seed going down and another barely avoiding an upset.
North Carolina built a 25-point lead against No. 1 Baylor, only to watch it wither away play-by-play in the game's last 10 minutes, before the defending national champions finally forced overtime. UNC showed its resolve by gutting it out in the extra frame to advance to the Sweet 16.
‘I’m so proud of these guys,’ UNC coach Hubert Davis said afterward. ‘This is a group that shows toughness, resiliency. One of the things I wanted them to do was have their own testaments, their own March Madness moments.’
No. 1 seeds Kansas and Gonzaga evaded similar fates in making key plays down the stretch to send Creighton and Memphis home, respectively. Michigan showed what getting an at-large bid can do for a program, upsetting Tennessee to reach the Sweet 16 – just a week after being a bubble team and unsure of hearing its name called on Selection Sunday.
And then giant killer Saint Peter's kept its Cinderella run going by dispatching Murray State to reach the Sweet 16. The Peacocks are just the third ever No. 15 seed to make it to the second weekend of March Madness.
A look at all the winners and losers from Saturday's slate of games.
Winners
Saint Peter's
The Peacocks (21-11) have all the key ingredients to be one of the best Cinderellasin NCAA Tournament history and that was on full display in a 70-60 second round win over Murray State. Doug Edert was a hero again, scoring 10 of his 13 points in the game's final minutes in an array of clutch possessions. But the real workhorse on this team is KC Ndefo, who finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks.
UCLA
The Bruins (27-7) saw one of their best players, Jaime Jaquez Jr., go out with an ankle injury with seven minutes left in their second-round clash with Saint Mary's. Instead of falling apart, they instead used the adversity as motivation to pull away for a Sweet 16-clinching 72-56 win over the Gaels. That's the type of resiliency of a Mick Cronin-coached team. It started with do-everything point guard Tyger Campbell, who finished with 16 points and four assists, pacing a UCLA team with four players in double figures. A surprise Final Four finisher last year, this group looks determined and poised to get back there this year.
North Carolina
The Tar Heels were exhaling after nearly blowing a 25-point lead in their 93-86 overtime win against Baylor. While much of the storyline will center on the Bears' comeback – nearly the biggest comeback in NCAA Tournament history – two takeaways to note from coach Hubert Davis' team: The resolve to pull out the win in overtime and how incredible the Tar Heels looked for the first 30 minutes of this game. If Brady Manek doesn't get ejected for a flagrant foul, he may have kept draining threes and UNC could have won by 30-plus – against a No. 1 seed. North Carolina is the real deal this March, and this upset is proof.
Kansas
The Jayhawks (30-6) won at the free-throw line, where they shot 19 for 20 (95%), dispatching No. 9 seed Creighton 79-72 to advance to the Sweet 16 in Chicago. That was a difference-maker in a close game that saw Creighton get within one point in the final minute. Coach Bill Self didn't always utilize Arizona State transfer Remy Martin (20 points off the bench) throughout the year, but Martin's first-half offensive flurry positioned KU to pull this one out.
Michigan
The No. 11-seeded Wolverines (19-14) got 27 points from 7-footer Hunter Dickinson, who played with determination to send Michigan to the Sweet 16 with a 76-68 win over Tennessee. Eli Brooks added 21 points and five assists in the win. All of a sudden, a season of underachievement seems far away. After garnering a No. 1 seed in last year's NCAA Tournament behind Juwan Howard, this season saw Michigan stumble in the Big Ten to barely make the field. The Wolverines have undoubtedly made the most of their No. 11 seed now.
Arkansas
The Razorbacks (27-8) evaded an upset by surviving New Mexico State 53-48 and have reached the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year under coach Eric Musselman. Arkansas defenders contained Teddy Allen, who broke out for 37 points in the first round, to just 5-for-16 shooting and 12 points. They kept the pace and tempo of the game in their favor and veteran JD Notae (18 points) was solid in the win as usual.
Providence
Coach Ed Cooley knows many people were picking against the Big East champion Friars in the first round against South Dakota State. After shaking off that upset bid, Providence looked absolutely dominant in a 79-51 rout of Richmond in their second-round matchup in the Midwest Region. The Friars (27-5) shot 12 for 22 (55%) from 3-point range while containing the Spiders to 1 for 22 (5%).
Losers
Baylor
The final 10 minutes of regulation were arguably the most inspired basketball coach Scott Drew's group played all season, willing their way back to tie the game at 80 in regulation and force overtime. Yet after coming back from 25 points down, with all the momentum in the Bears' favor, they shot 1 for 11 from the floor in overtime. That finish, along with the ugly start, showed that this Baylor squad isn't in the same stratosphere as last year's national title team. Still, Adam Flagler (27 points) James Akinjo (20 points), Matthew Mayer (10 points, three charges) and Co. fought in a way they should be proud of.
Memphis
The Tigers (22-11) led by 12 points in the second half but watched top-seeded Gonzaga storm back and take control of the game on the play of Drew Timme. In the closing minutes of the game, Memphis kept chipping away but didn't execute well enough to knock out the top overall seed in the tournament. Coach Penny Hardaway had several occasions where he should've called timeout to offset the 'Zags' surge. A 4-for-19 shooting clip from 3-point range didn't do this team any favors, either.
Tennessee
The Volunteers (27-8) were heavily favored against No. 11 seed Michigan, which barely got into the field of 68 as a bubble team. But Tennessee wasn't on its A-game and shot just 2 for 18 (11%) from beyond the arc, as Michigan pulled away for a 76-68 upset. This was perhaps coach Rick Barnes' best shot at getting a Tennessee team to the Final Four, and not making it to the second weekend of the tournament after such a strong regular season serves as the definition for underachievement.
Murray State
The Racers (31-3) were riding a 21-game winning streak and had a No. 7 seed for a reason despite playing in a mid-major conference. But Murray State couldn't match the intensity that No. 15-seeded Saint Peter's brought into the game from the tip. The Racers never led all game and were playing catch-up. By the time this team finally started to put together a run at the end, it was too late and Saint Peter's had a counter-punch. Murray State got out-rebounded 38-31, which never should've happened considering how good this team is on the glass (ranking fourth in rebounding margin) compared to the small mid-major from the MAAC (ranking 105th).
Creighton
The Bluejays (23-12) had the top-seeded Jayhawks on the ropes but crumbled on their last three possessions late in the game. Credit Kansas' defense in Creighton's loss and poor playmaking in crunch time, but a key turnover by Trey Alexander with 1:01 left proved most costly when the Bluejays were within striking distance (down 73-72). Freshman Arthur Kaluma (24 points, 12 rebounds) was excellent in the paint vs. KU and has a bright future ahead.” Read more at USA Today
Paige Bueckers of Connecticut shooting over Mercer defenders in their first-round N.C.A.A. tournament game.Credit...David Butler II/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
“After Arizona handed Connecticut a humbling loss in last season’s Final Four, Geno Auriemma, the Huskies’ head coach, was blunt about his team’s level of maturity.
‘When we’re high and when we’re on top of the world, we think everything’s great,’ Auriemma said at the time. ‘And when things don’t go our way, there’s a pouty-ness about us. There’s a feeling sorry for ourselves about us that you don’t win championships when you’re like that unless you get lucky.’
Before Connecticut’s convincing 83-38 win over 15th-seeded Mercer in the first round of the tournament on Saturday, Auriemma said that his team was more experienced and more complete than it was last year, but that the Huskies, a No. 2 seed, had not yet faced enough adversity to measure how much they had matured….
Despite Mercer’s best efforts in the first quarter to keep the game close, Connecticut scored with ease with a balanced offensive attack, made easy buckets in transition and used its height advantage to dominate on offense and defense.
Paige Bueckers, the reigning national player of the year, had been playing limited minutes while recovering from an anterior tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear in her left knee in December. Bueckers, who has averaged about 14 minutes per game since the injury, was aggressive on offense and active on defense Saturday. She finished with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in 25 minutes.
Christyn Williams, the Huskies’ leading scorer with 14.6 points per game, led the team with 13 points.
One of the Huskies’ biggest strengths during their 10-game winning streak has been defense, which has improved after a handful of players missed games with various injuries.
Mercer shot just 23.2 percent and scored its lowest point total all season. The Huskies’ full court press forced several Mercer turnovers. Connecticut scored 23 points off 21 Mercer turnovers….
No. 12 Belmont upsets No. 5 Oregon in double overtime.
Belmont’s players outplayed Oregon using quick reflexes and a 3-point attack.Credit...Wade Payne/Associated Press
If you were looking for the promised madness of March, the Belmont Bruins and the Oregon Ducks delivered.
The No. 12 Bruins defeated the No. 5 Ducks, 73-70, in double overtime — the first double overtime in the N.C.A.A. women’s tournament in nine years….
No. 3 Louisiana State ekes out a win over No. 14 Jackson State.
No No. 14 seed has ever won a game in the N.C.A.A. women’s tournament, but when Jackson State took a 10 point lead in the middle of the fourth quarter against No. 3 seed Louisiana State, it looked like it might be the team to change that.
Alas, in L.S.U.’s first tournament game under coach Kim Mulkey, the higher seed found a way to pull ahead at the last possible moment on its home floor. Louisiana State’s leading scorer, Khayla Pointer, capped its comeback with a 3-point shot that proved a winner.
A slew of unlikely foul calls, including a technical foul against Jackson State Coach Tomekia Reed and a delay of game technical against L.S.U. that followed a warning for the same seemingly minor infraction, added to the chaos.
Jackson State entered the game with a tie for the longest active win streak in Division I women’s basketball. The team competed against Baylor, then coached by Kim Mulkey as well, in last year’s tournament — a possible explanation for how effective their game plan was.
Jackson State’s 3-point shooting, specifically four timely 3-point baskets from junior Miya Crump, kept Jackson State in the game, but it was the inside effort of Southwestern Conference Player of the Year Ameshya Williams-Holliday that gave Jackson State its advantage through much of the fourth quarter.
Sharp guard play from Louisiana State, particularly Jailin Cherry, who had a career high 24 points, helped the team crawl back just in time — and delayed one particular women’s tournament milestone.
No. 11 Princeton stuns Kentucky, the Southeastern Conference champion.
For the third time in N.C.A.A. women’s tournament history, an Ivy League team has won a game. For the second time, that team is Princeton.
The Tigers managed a win for the first time since 2015 as a No. 11 seed, despite competing against a nominally formidable opponent: a sixth-seeded Kentucky team that had just upset the best team in the country, South Carolina, to win the Southeastern Conference tournament.
The Tigers took over early in their game on Saturday, though, thanks in large part to the fearless play of senior guard Abby Meyers, who finished with 29 points. Meyers and her fellow guard Kaitlyn Chen set the pace, executing graceful fakes and muscling past a Kentucky team that seemed to be perennially looking for foul calls that never came.
Rhyne Howard, Kentucky’s best player and a projected first-round W.N.B.A. draft pick, tried to respond but her efforts were futile. She made just 4 of her 14 attempts from the field, and along with her teammates looked generally bewildered by the Tigers’ defense. Dre’una Edwards, who hit the buzzer-beater shot that won Kentucky its conference title, finished the game with 16 points and 12 rebounds….
Villanova upset Brigham Young.
Maddy Siegrist averaged 25 points per game this season, and that’s exactly what the nation’s second-leading scorer posted as she led No. 11 Villanova to a win over No. 6 Brigham Young.
Siegrist, a 6-foot-1 junior, was responsible for every field goal the Wildcats made in the final seven minutes of the game, as well as most of the free throws that sealed their victory….
N.C. State left no doubt about its prowess.
North Carolina State, a No. 1 seed who is trying to make a Final Four appearance for the first time since 1998, defeated No. 16 seed Longwood, 96-68, in Raleigh, N.C.
Longwood kept up with North Carolina State through the first quarter thanks to Tra’Dayja Smith, who finished with 25 points, and Kyla McMakin, who finished with 19, and headed into the second quarter with only a 4-point deficit. But North Carolina State kicked into high gear in the second quarter and took off, extending its lead to 42-21….
Michigan’s Naz Hillmon dominates as the Wolverines advance.
Naz Hillmon made a statement in just three quarters of No. 3-seeded Michigan’s blowout 74-39 win over American.
Michigan’s first-ever Associated Press all-American proved why she deserved that award with a nearly flawless performance in the Wolverines’ first game of the tournament. Hillmon put on a show for the home crowd in Ann Arbor, scoring 24 points in 25 minutes on the floor while gathering 11 rebounds. It was her 49th career double-double….
Ayoka Lee leads No. 9 Kansas State in her first tournament victory.
The coronavirus pandemic may have delayed the postseason ambitions of Ayoka Lee, Kansas State’s 6-foot-6 center, for two years, but no longer. Lee and the ninth-seeded Wildcats outlasted No. 8-seeded Washington State in a hard-fought defensive battle, winning 50-40 and denying the Cougars their first tournament win in program history.
Kanstas State’s Ayoka Lee defending against Ula Motuga of Washington State.Credit...Ben Mckeown/Associated Press