The Full Belmonte, 3/4/2022
Ukrainian soldiers cross a destroyed bridge.Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images
A campaign of terror
“The war in Ukraine is a mismatch.
On one side is the Russian military, among the world’s largest and strongest forces. On the other side is Ukraine, a medium-sized country whose infrastructure is being destroyed during the fighting. Although Ukraine has powerful allies — like the U.S. and Western Europe — those allies have chosen not to send troops, partly because they do not see Ukraine as vital to their national interests and because they fear starting a larger war with nuclear-armed Russia.
The reality of this mismatch explains the developments of the past 48 hours. After some surprising setbacks in the first few days of the invasion, Russia has since used brutal tactics, often targeting civilians, to make progress.
Russian troops have taken control of areas in both the east and south of the country. In the east, Russia is hoping to isolate — and then crush — Ukrainian forces that for years have been battling Russia-backed separatists near the Russian border. In the south, the goal appears to be to control the Black Sea coast, potentially cutting off Ukraine from sea access.
Russian-occupied areas as of 3 p.m. Eastern on March 2. | Source: Institute for the Study of War
Russia has also intensified its bombing of Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, from planes and missile launchers stationed outside the cities. (Here’s footage of bombs hitting a residential area of Chernihiv, a city on the route to Kyiv from the north.)
The strategy, my colleague Eric Schmitt said, is ‘to terrorize the population and force them to flee, or beg their government to surrender — and to pummel Ukrainian government buildings to disrupt their wartime operations.’
The humanitarian disaster is likely to increase in the coming days. ‘We cannot collect all the bodies,’ the deputy mayor of Mariupol, a southern city, told CNN. The mayor said that the electricity was out and that Russia was blocking food from entering the city.
More than a million Ukrainians, out of a population of about 40 million, have fled. Many have headed west, away from the areas where Russia is advancing, in the hope of entering bordering countries like Poland or Romania. A million more people are internally displaced.
Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, is filled with people carrying suitcases, according to Valerie Hopkins, a Times correspondent there. Hotels are cramming people into rooms so that they do not need to sleep at the train station. Valerie spoke with one 20-year-old woman traveling with her mother who had packed only three sweatshirts, a pair of socks and her dog. The two of them had left everything else behind.
Russia’s challenges
It still seems possible that Russia will not be able to win a quick victory.
Russia does not yet control the skies over Ukraine, and its military is struggling to make much progress in the north, near Kyiv. A miles-long convoy of hundreds of military vehicles has largely stalled, about 18 miles from Kyiv. It is facing fierce Ukrainian opposition, as well as shortages of fuel and spare parts, a reflection of the failure to conquer Kyiv immediately.
Morale among Russian troops may also be a problem. Pentagon officials told Eric that some Russian soldiers appeared not to have known that they would be invading Ukraine until the war began. Ukrainian officials quoted what they claimed was a Russian soldier’s text to his mother, recovered from his phone after he died: ‘There is a real war raging here. I’m afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians.’
The U.S., E.U. and Britain are continuing to send arms to Ukraine’s military, over land routes. And the West has continued to impose sanctions, which seem to be inflicting significant damage on Russia’s economy.
All of which raise the prospect that the war, which already seems to be somewhat unpopular within Russia, will become even more so.
‘No matter what’
Still, Vladimir Putin is signaling that he will respond to setbacks with more destruction. He also seems willing to allow Russia to pay a high price, in both economic terms and soldiers’ lives.
During a 90-minute call yesterday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin said that Russia would achieve its goal in Ukraine ‘no matter what.’ In a televised address yesterday, Putin told Russians that he was determined to fight the war.
Paul Poast, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, pointed out on Derek Thompson’s ‘Plain English’ podcast that Russian leaders have a long history of accepting large casualties among their own troops to win wars. ‘I’m starting to think that that is what they’re expecting is going to happen here,’ Poast said. ‘It doesn’t matter about the morale, it doesn’t matter if the equipment breaks down. They’re just going to be able to overwhelm eventually the Ukrainians because they don’t expect direct military involvement by the West.’
There are other plausible outcomes, though. The Ukrainian resistance could prove so stout that Russia finds itself in a yearslong quagmire. Or Western sanctions could create such instability in Russia that Putin loses support among the officials around him.
Regardless, the coming weeks are likely to be filled with tragedy for Ukraine.
An evacuation train passes through Kyiv.Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
More on the war
Russian troops have seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. International monitors said there was no sign that radiation had leaked.
Across Ukraine, Russian forces are pressing ahead, attacking cities and trying to control ports.
Ukraine has mounted a stiffer-than-expected opposition. U.S. officials say that may not last.
Officials from Russia and Ukraine agreed to establish ‘humanitarian corridors’ that would allow civilians to evacuate.
‘Everything that’s not propaganda is being eliminated’: Putin is dismantling the last vestiges of a Russian free press.
The U.S. will allow some Ukrainians to stay temporarily. The E.U. and Canada announced similar measures.
Times photographers are documenting the invasion.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has asked Congress for $32.5 billion in emergency spending to bolster the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
The administration requested $10 billion in humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine, which was nearly $4 billion more than an initial amount floated late last month, underscoring how rapidly the country’s need for aid has grown as Russian forces continue their attack.
As part of its new coronavirus response strategy, the administration also requested $22.5 billion for additional vaccines, oral antivirals and monoclonal antibodies, testing, and support for the global vaccination effort.
Officials hope to include both pieces of emergency aid in a sprawling catchall spending package that would fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. Congress has until March 11, when funding is set to lapse, to hammer out the details of a deal on the dozen bills needed to keep federal money flowing.” Read more at New York Times
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson joins Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at a press conference today following the passage of the Ending Forced Arbitration Act. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
“President Biden today will sign landmark workplace legislation that forbids companies from forcing sexual harassment and assault claims into arbitration, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
Why it matters: The law, the Ending Forced Arbitration Act, is the first major piece of legislation to come out of the upheaval of the #MeToo era.
Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) told Axios it was ‘the most significant piece of labor legislation passed in this century.’
It's a huge win for former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, credited with bringing together diverse supporters, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Workers will no longer be forced to take claims of sexual harassment or assault to private arbitration.
But employers can still force workers to take all kinds of other complaints to private dispute resolution — including pay inequality and civil rights claims over race.” Read more at Axios
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
“The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing which led to the deaths of three spectators and a police officer, reversing a lower court decision.
The ruling was 6-3 along conservative-liberal lines.
‘Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes,’ Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority. ‘The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one.’
The justices’ ruling reversed a federal appeals court that had wiped away the death sentence for Tsarnaev and ordered a new penalty-phase trial. At the time, the lower court said that Tsarnaev would remain in prison for the rest of his life for an ‘unspeakable brutal act,’ but that the trial court had made mistakes regarding issues related to pretrial publicity, as well as the exclusion of evidence that might have helped Tsarnaev’s case.
Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015 in the deaths of Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard and Lingzi Lu at the marathon and Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier several days later, among other charges. Hundreds were injured after Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan set off two shrapnel bombs near the finish line, leaving the sidewalks strewn with BBs, nails, metal scraps and glass fragments.
Tamerlan would later die in a gunfight with police, but Dzhokhar is being held in federal prison in Florence, Colorado, following his guilty verdict.
The Trump administration had initially asked the Supreme Court to step in and reinstate the original sentence. The Biden administration renewed the request, calling Tsarnaev a ‘terrorist’ who acted in ‘furtherance of Jihad’ and urging the justices to restore the jury’s recommendation of death after the ‘carnage at the finish line.’
It is unclear whether Tsarnaev would actually be put to death given the Biden administration’s position on the federal death penalty. Currently, there is a moratorium on federal executions as the government studies the issue. Over the years, survivors and family members have split on whether Tsarnaev should get the death penalty.” Read more at CNN
“The U.S. jobs market maintained its strong showing last month by adding 678,000 jobs—a figure way higher than economists had predicted. The jobless rate also slipped to just 3.8 percent, according to figures from the Labor Department that are the lowest since before the pandemic. However, CNN reports there are still 2.1 million fewer jobs than there were before the pandemic decimated the economy back in March 2020. Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed, told The Wall Street Journal: ‘The labor market continues to be quite hot... It looks like the labor market is still primed for lots of strong employment growth.’ The figures were recorded before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent spike in oil prices could hit next month’s jobs numbers.” [Daily Beast] Read more at The Wall Street Journal
“At least publicly, the Republican senators who will vote on whether to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court are keeping their powder dry, saying they are keeping an open mind as they prepare for personal meetings with the nominee and a four-day confirmation hearing later this month.
But senior party officials have begun quietly sketching out the critiques and challenges that Republicans plan to aim at Jackson when she faces several days of rigorous questioning from senators at the hearing, which is scheduled to begin March 21.
The clearest outline of the GOP’s emerging case against Jackson came from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who on Thursday telegraphed the range of attacks she can anticipate: that her background as a public defender means she’s soft on crime, that she won’t commit to opposing Supreme Court expansion, that she’s being promoted by so-called “dark money” groups.” Read more at Washington Post
“Members of the Sackler family, the billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma, reached an agreement to pay up to $6 billion to resolve lawsuits alleging the OxyContin maker helped fuel the opioid epidemic.
The payment, up from a previous offer of $4.5 billion, is part of a compromise negotiated between the company, family members and attorneys general from eight states and D.C. who previously resisted the company’s bankruptcy plan, according to court filings Thursday. A settlement would allow money to flow to addiction treatment programs and calls for the family to relinquish control of the company so it can be turned into an entity whose proceeds fight the opioid crisis. It would also shield Sackler family members from current and future civil claims over opioids.
As part of the settlement, still subject to the approval of U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert D. Drain, the Sackler family must accept when institutions or organizations take their names off buildings, programs, scholarships or other things the family funded. Members of the family will attend a hearing Wednesday when victims of the opioid epidemic will be allowed to address the court. The family did not acknowledge wrongdoing or personal responsibility.” Read more at Washington Post
“WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court blocked Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah’s request to obtain evidence from former Central Intelligence Agency contractors who allegedly tortured him at a ‘black site’ in Poland, siding 6-3 with government arguments that permitting such testimony could jeopardize U.S. relationships with foreign intelligence services.
In a second decision Thursday, an 8-1 court revived a bid by Kentucky’s Republican attorney general to continue defending a state law banning a common second-trimester abortion method, after a federal appeals court found the measure unconstitutional. In a separate case from Mississippi, the court currently is weighing whether to restrict or eliminate federal abortion rights altogether, with a decision expected before July.
Mr. Zubaydah, who has been held at the Guantanamo military prison since 2006, was captured in Pakistan in 2002. Under the mistaken belief that he was a top al Qaeda commander, the CIA transferred him through secret overseas facilities where he was waterboarded, buried alive, given forced enemas and otherwise brutalized in a futile effort to extract information about future attacks.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The Internal Revenue Service plans to hire 10,000 employees in a push to cut into its backlog of tens of millions of tax returns by recruiting for jobs across the agency that have gone unfilled for years, according to four people familiar with the plan.
The agency will accelerate recruiting in the coming weeks for 80 distinct positions, from entry-level clerical workers to advanced engineers and tax attorneys, one person familiar with the plan said. Among the recruiting targets are high-skill technology professionals to modernize its outdated infrastructure, according to those familiar with the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details have not been publicly released.
The agency plans to use money from its existing budget, a large share of it from coronavirus stimulus funding, to pay for the new hires, to be made over the next two years. The number of new jobs would represent a 14 percent increase in the IRS workforce. It remains unclear how much the agency will spend on the hiring plan, officials said, but it will be significantly smaller than President Biden’s proposed IRS investment of $80 billion over the next decade.” Read more at Washington Post
“The only officer to be charged for his actions during the fatal police raid on Breonna Taylor’s apartment was found not guilty on Thursday of endangering three of Ms. Taylor’s neighbors by firing bullets into their home during the botched operation.
Jurors acquitted the former officer, Brett Hankison, whose bullets did not strike anyone, on all three counts of wanton endangerment after deliberating for about three hours.
Mr. Hankison, a longtime detective for the Police Department in Louisville, Ky., testified that he had taken part in as many as 1,000 raids during his police career but said that he had never fired his gun while on duty until the March 2020 raid, during which another officer fatally shot Ms. Taylor.
The killing of Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who worked as an emergency room technician, was among several police killings that set off a wave of protests across the country in 2020. The demonstrations were particularly sustained in Louisville, where activists protested for more than 100 days in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to persuade the Kentucky attorney general to file charges against the officers who shot Ms. Taylor.” Read more at New York Times
“WASHINGTON — Shortly after the 2020 election, as ballots were still being counted, the top data expert in President Donald J. Trump’s re-election campaign told him bluntly that he was going to lose.
In the weeks that followed, as Mr. Trump continued to insist that he had won, a senior Justice Department official told him repeatedly that his claims of widespread voting fraud were meritless, ultimately warning him that they would ‘hurt the country.’
Those concerns were echoed by the top White House lawyer, who told the president that he would be entering into a ‘murder-suicide pact’ if he continued to pursue extreme plans to try to invalidate the results of the 2020 election.
Yet Mr. Trump — time and again — discounted the facts, the data and many of his own advisers as he continued to promote the lie of a stolen election, according to hundreds of pages of exhibits, interview transcripts and email correspondence assembled by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack for a legal filing released late Wednesday.
In laying out the account, the panel revealed the basis of what its investigators believe could be a criminal case against Mr. Trump. At its core is the argument that, in repeatedly rejecting the truth that he had lost the 2020 election — including the assertions of his own campaign aides, White House lawyers, two successive attorneys general and federal investigators — Mr. Trump was not just being stubborn or ignorant about his defeat, he was knowingly perpetrating a fraud on the United States.
It is a bold claim that could be difficult to back up in court, but in making it, the House committee has compiled an elaborate narrative of Mr. Trump’s extraordinary efforts to cling to power.
In it, Mr. Trump emerges as a man unable — or unwilling — to listen to his advisers even as they explain to him that he has lost the election, and his multiple and varied claims to the contrary are not grounded in fact.
At one point, Mr. Trump did not seem to care whether there was any evidence to support his claims of election fraud, and questioned why he should not push for even more extreme steps, such as replacing the acting attorney general, to challenge his loss.” Read more at New York Times
“The House select committee probing the Capitol riot issued a subpoena to Kimberly Guilfoyle on Thursday, compelling her to testify on matters related to Jan. 6 after she agreed to appear voluntarily before them last week—but abruptly ended her deposition mid-interview. Guilfoyle, a former Trump campaign adviser and current fiancée to Donald Trump Jr., ‘apparently played a key role organizing and raising funds’ for the Trump rally that took place prior to the insurrection, according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS). ‘The Select Committee is seeking information from her about these and other matters,’ he wrote, after she ‘backed out of her original commitment to provide a voluntary interview.’ Guilfoyle came before the committee on Feb. 25, but ended proceedings after committee members began participating in the session, according to a statement from her attorney. The one-time Fox News host also accused panel members of leaking her appearance to the media, an allegation they denied.” [Daily Beast] Read more at Axios
“The Florida state Senate voted late Thursday to pass a Republican bill that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, signaling the start of what is expected to be a cascade of new restrictions in GOP-led states as the conservative Supreme Court considers the fate of Roe v. Wade.
The vote was 23 to 15.
The state House approved the bill last month. Now the measure will be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has expressed his support and is expected to sign it.
Florida’s current law allows abortions until the 24th week of pregnancy. The 15-week ban makes no exception for rape, incest or human trafficking. It does include exceptions if the mother’s life is endangered and for ‘fatal fetal anomalies’ that are identified by two physicians.
The action by the Florida legislature comes as states rush to restrict access to abortion in anticipation of the 6-to-3 conservative-majority Supreme Court rolling back or overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed a right to abortion, and giving the power to the states.” Read more at Washington Post
“Transgender girls and women are no longer allowed to participate in female sports in the state of Iowa. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law, which applies to K-12 schools and community colleges as well as colleges and universities affiliated with the NCAA and NAIA.” Read more at NPR
“An international team of scientists published two papers with the strongest evidence yet pointing to a market in Wuhan as the origin of the coronavirus. The papers conclude that the virus most likely jumped from a caged wild animal to humans.” Read more at NPR
“A former Fox News producer was charged on Thursday with violating U.S. sanctions by working for a Russian oligarch who has been accused of being a leading financial supporter of separatists in Crimea and eastern Ukraine and has close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin.
The producer, John Hanick, was arrested in London last month and charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in what federal prosecutors said was the first such indictment stemming from sanctions imposed as a result of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Konstantin Malofeev — the oligarch who employed Mr. Hanick, according to the indictment — was labeled ‘one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea’ by the Treasury Department when the sanctions were put in place in December 2014. Mr. Hanick worked for Mr. Malofeev from 2013 to 2017, the indictment says.
The case against Mr. Hanick, a 71-year-old U.S. citizen, was announced as the United States and much of the rest of the world continue to punish Russia financially amid broader efforts to halt its war on Ukraine. On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced a new task force to ‘hold accountable corrupt Russian oligarchs’ who had supported the invasion.” Read more at New York Times
“Nineteen-year-old Jackson Reffitt testified against his father in the first trial related to the Jan 6. insurrection. Guy Reffitt faces five criminal charges, including weapons offenses and obstruction, for allegedly threatening Jackson and his younger sister to keep quiet about the siege. Jackson said it ‘felt pretty gross’ to report his father but it was ‘better safe than sorry.’” Read more at NPR
“SINGAPORE (AP) — As the West condemns Russia, President Vladimir Putin has vocal supporters in China, where the ruling Communist Party tells its people they are fellow targets of U.S.-led harassment.
‘If Russia is destroyed, we will be next. This is for sure,’ said Wang Yongchun, a retiree in Beijing. ‘The United States wants to dominate the world.’
Such comments reflect the stance of a ruling party that is the closest thing Putin has to a major ally: The war should stop but the United States is to blame.
President Xi Jinping’s government has tried to distance itself from Russia’s offensive but avoided criticizing Moscow. The government has offered to act as mediator and denounced trade and financial sanctions against Russia.
Ruling party control of all Chinese media and intensive internet censorship make it hard to gauge public opinion. But what the party allows online and requires media to publish make clear what it wants the public to think.” Read more at AP News
“Russian cats are the latest population to feel the wrath of the global reaction to the invasion of Ukraine. Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) is banning Russian cats from its competitions for the next three months.” Read more at NPR
© Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant via AP
“Russia on Thursday continued its brutal offensive to seize cities and port areas in Ukraine, even as it agreed with Ukrainian officials to create ‘humanitarian corridors,’ or temporary local cease-fires for escaping civilians. Overnight, Russian forces shelled a Ukrainian nuclear power complex (above), igniting a blaze that was captured on video and later extinguished without radiation leakage. The emergency and Russia’s seizure of the plant, according to Ukraine, renewed international calls for Moscow to cease its assault (The Associated Press).
Russian forces have made their most significant inroads in the south, where the Kremlin strategy appears to be to try to capture Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast, including Mariupol, which on Thursday was surrounded by invading troops, although the Ukrainians today still have control there, according to a British intelligence update (Reuters and The New York Times). The southern city of Kherson is close to collapse without a civilian corridor for escape, its trapped residents said (The Washington Post).
The Associated Press: Day 9 of war and what to know.
Russian and Ukrainian representatives, huddled at an undisclosed location, agreed to the cease-fires but only where humanitarian corridors are established and for the duration of civilian evacuations, according to Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak (BBC).
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking publicly on Thursday, again defended the country’s war with Ukraine, saying it was ‘going to plan’ while promising the families of Russian military casualties a special payout of 5 million rubles or nearly $50,000 each.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Putin for 90 minutes on Thursday, telling reporters afterward that he anticipated the worst lies ahead for Ukraine after Putin told him Russia would not stop until it reaches its goals. France believes Putin seeks to seize and hold all of Ukraine.
‘Your country will pay dearly because it will end up as an isolated country, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time,’ Macron told Putin, according to a French official, who added that Macron ‘called on Vladimir Putin to not lie to himself’ (The Washington Post).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held his first press conference since the start of the war, amplifying his frequent appearances in news media interviews and his own statements, videos and pleas posted to social media as the war’s toll mounts and more than a million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, continue to flee across borders.
Zelensky appealed anew to Western allies to create a no-fly zone to fortify defenses from the air, an idea NATO countries have shelved out of fear it could increase Putin’s wrath (Axios).
Zelensky (pictured below), who has devoted considerable time and technique to keeping his country front-facing in the news media as a way to fortify chances of Ukraine’s survival, is portrayed in Western coverage as a quote-savvy ‘people’s president’ (The Daily Beast), a T-shirted international icon (The Hill) who has ‘united the world’ while photographed amid stacks of sandbags and Ukraine’s flag (TIME).
© AP/Francois Mori
The Hill: Zelensky says he wants to talk with Putin.
CNN: The first foreign fighters are now in Ukraine to help his country’s defenses, Zelensky said.
The United States levied new sanctions on eight members of Russia’s elite and imposed visa restrictions on 19 oligarchs and their relatives, the White House said on Thursday. The aim is to squeeze Putin by punishing, blocking, inconveniencing and isolating his wealthiest allies and political supporters.
‘The goal was to maximize the impact on Putin and Russia and minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world,’ President Bidensaid during a Thursday Cabinet meeting. ‘Our interest is in maintaining the strongest unified economic impact campaign on Putin in all history, and I think we’re well on the way to doing that.’
The Washington Post: The U.S. granted temporary protected status to tens of thousands of Ukrainian immigrants already in this country.
The administration targeted Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, whose $600 million yacht was seized by Germany on Wednesday. The U.S. government also sanctioned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, described by the White House as a ‘top purveyor of Putin’s propaganda.’ Both men were sanctioned by the European Union. ‘These individuals and their family members will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, their assets in the United States will be frozen and their property will be blocked from use,’ the administration announced (The Hill).
The Washington Post: The French Finance Ministry announced Thursday that it seized a $120 million yacht owned by Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, the CEO of oil giant Rosneft.
The Washington Post: The United Kingdom sanctioned two more Russian oligarchs on Thursday said by the government to have ‘significant’ Kremlin ties.
The Western efforts to help expand Ukraine’s international megaphone are concurrent with efforts to shut down Russia’s conduits for disinformation. Major tech companies have sought to deplatform state-owned RT, Sputnik and other Russian outlets known for dispensing misinformation about the invasion in Ukraine (The Hill). RT America on Thursday announced it ceased production and laid off its staff (CNN).
The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant and Laura Kelly report on surprise decisions in Germany and Switzerland to toughen their respective national postures toward Russia.
The Associated Press: Neutral Finland and Sweden warm to the idea of NATO membership.
The U.S. has contributed more than $1 billion to help Ukraine’s military in the past year and the administration is seeking another $10 billion from Congress. Washington has reportedly sent hundreds of stinger missiles as part of the latest package of defensive aid and has approved the shipment by allied nations of American-made weapons to Ukraine, which is a non-NATO country. U.S. options to help Ukraine are still on the table short of putting troops on the ground there, which Biden insists will not happen. The president has said U.S. forces would help defend NATO countries against any Russian attacks (The Hill).
The Pentagon in recent days has mobilized some 14,000 troops, along with F-35 strike fighters and Apache helicopters to Poland, Hungary and the Baltics. The U.S. has 100,000 troops in Europe, and the Pentagon told lawmakers on Tuesday that the addition of forces to Eastern European NATO-member countries on a long-term basis is under consideration (Defense News).
U.S. officials told reporters on Thursday that Russia had fired 480 missiles in its war to capture Ukraine. One official told reporters the majority of the Russian missile launches since the war began, or more than 230 of them, are coming from mobile systems within Ukraine. More than 150 missiles have been fired from within Russia, more than 70 from Belarus and only a very small number from ships in the Black Sea. Ukrainian air defenses are still intact and have been effective against the missiles, the official said, adding that Russia’s progress in the south has been aided by the country’s eight-year presence in Crimea, where it has built infrastructure and systems to sustain troops. As a result, the supply lines to troops in the south of Ukraine are much shorter and more effective, according to the administration.
The Hill: The White House is considering sending Vice President Harris to Warsaw, Poland, and Bucharest, Romania, to show solidarity with Ukrainians, reports Amie Parnes. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to be in Poland this week before traveling to Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
The New York Times: Lawmakers push to ban Russian oil imports. The White House is resisting.” Read more at The Hill
© AP/Vadim Ghirda
Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting yesterday at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. Photo: Andrei Gorshkov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
“Thousands of Russians are rushing to flee the country ahead of this weekend, as rumors swirl that Vladimir Putin could soon declare martial law, close the borders and crack down even harder on domestic dissent, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.
Why it matters: For as devastating as the humanitarian situation in Ukraine has become, widespread suffering is rapidly arriving at Russia's own doorstep.
More than 8,000 people have already been detained at anti-war protests since Feb. 24, according to the independent monitor OVD-Info.
Russia's Duma has passed a law making the spread of ‘fake news’ about the Russian military punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The last pillars of Russia's already-limited independent press were forced to close under pressure from the Kremlin this week.
Russia's state communications watchdog blocked the websites of the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle and other foreign media outlets for spreading ‘fake’ information.
What to watch: Russia's second-largest airline announced it will cease all international flights from tomorrow, as Russia's upper house of parliament meets for an emergency session that many fear could mark the descent of a new Iron Curtain.” Read more at Axios
“A mysterious hunk of metal leftover from a rocket is about to smash into our moon. A lunar crater-to-be is likely to be made by part of a Chinese spacecraft launched in 2014.” Read more at NPR
“The University of California, Berkeley is preparing to cut its on-campus enrollment by at least 2,500 students this fall, after the state’s highest court overruled its request to reverse an enrollment cap instituted by a trial judge.
The court decision throws into disarray the school’s plans for about one-quarter of the new undergraduate students it expected to bring to campus, including both first-year students and transfers. At least 1,500 of those students will be offered one of two options: to enroll online for the fall, or to defer their enrollment entirely until January 2023.
Berkeley, among the most selective public universities in the country, has been embroiled for years in a legal battle over its enrollment expansion and the impact of that growth on the surrounding community. An Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled last year that the school should cap enrollment at its 2020-21 level, and the state appeals court rejected Berkeley’s challenge. The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday to uphold the cap, which is just one part of the broader legal case.
Berkeley says tying future enrollment to that particular year, when many students took off time from school due to the pandemic, is problematic. Berkeley had expected to enroll about 9,500 new students this fall, including freshmen and transfer students.
The group behind the lawsuit, Save Berkeley Neighborhoods, has argued that the university grew enrollment beyond its previous projections without doing enough to study environmental impacts on the community. The group sued in 2018, and again in 2019.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The Smithsonian has announced a new initiative aimed at preserving cultural and historical touchstones from Ukraine as residents flee the country. The institution's Cultural Rescue Initiative is in touch with people in the country who specialize in preserving cultural heritage in times of crisis.” Read more at NPR
“Novak Djokovic may just be able to come and compete on the clay courts after all. With French officials announcing Thursday that the country will no longer require proof of a COVID-19 vaccine for indoor venue entry after March 14, the Serbian tennis star will likely be allowed to play in the upcoming French Open—and defend his 2021 title. Djokovic, who is currently ranked No. 2 in the world, was infamously deported from Australia in January ahead of the Australian Open after a lengthy legal battle over his decision not to receive a vaccine. When asked last month if he was willing to miss out on more Grand Slams because of his vaccination status, Novak Djokovic replied, ‘Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay.’ At the French Open in May, Djokovic will look to collect his 21st Grand Slam title, a record reached previously only by his (vaccinated) rival Rafael Nadal—who achieved it by winning this year's Australian Open.” [Daily Beast] Read more at CBS Sports
“The N.F.L. and the N.F.L. Players Association agreed to suspend all Covid-19 protocols, effective immediately, returning teams and players to pre-pandemic operations for the first time since March 2020. The N.F.L., which is not in season, is the first of the United States’ major professional sports leagues to halt its coronavirus-related policies.
Players and team staff members will no longer be required to wear masks inside facilities, adhere to social distancing measures or restrict access within team buildings based on vaccination or job function, according to a memo sent to all 32 teams on Thursday, though each team will have to comply with local ordinances governing mask mandates.
Teams are expected to provide an area where P.C.R. tests can be run on-site for anyone who self-reports coronavirus symptoms, but there will be no mandatory testing cadence. Those who test positive will be required to isolate for five days, as per current recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The memo cited ‘encouraging trends’ regarding the prevalence and severity of Covid-19 cases, evolving guidance from the C.D.C. and changes to state laws as reasons for the change.” Read more at New York Times
Robert Pattinson in “The Batman.” Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros. Pictures
Batman returns, again
“Every few years, it seems, there is a new Batman. This time it’s Robert Pattinson, taking on the role in ‘The Batman’ alongside Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman. Here’s a crash course in others who have worn the cape:
Adam West: Goofy and nostalgic, West’s take on the superhero hit the big screen in 1966, in a feature-length film based on the cult TV series.
Michael Keaton: Reinterpreted by the director Tim Burton in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Keaton’s version of Batman, set against a gothic backdrop, was haunted and more frightening.
Val Kilmer and George Clooney: The director Joel Schumacher’s pair of ’90s movies are perhaps best known for their camp and Batsuits with nipples.
Christian Bale: The director Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy is a fan favorite, and it ushered in a wave of gritty superhero blockbusters. Whether Bale’s guttural Bat-voice was over the top or inspired is still up for debate.
Lego Batman: Voiced by Will Arnett in ‘The Lego Movie’ franchise (with a stand-alone movie in 2017), this satirical Batman stands at a fearsome four centimeters tall, according to The Economist.
Ben Affleck: The actor took on the role beginning in 2016, with a more grizzled, world-weary spin on the masked vigilante.
And for the completists, Esquire has a guide to watching all the Batman flicks in order.” — Sanam Yar, a Morning writer Read more at New York Times