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The new sports center at a high school in Przemysl, Poland, has been transformed into a reception center for refugees from Ukraine. (Kasia Strek for The Washington Post)
PRZEMYSL, Poland — The two women look like sisters, but they are actually childhood friends — both 35 years old, both with relentlessly energetic 12-year-old sons.
And both now share a terrifying reality as war refugees adrift with no idea what the future will hold amid waves of desperate people streaming out of Ukraine to Poland and other countries — an exodus of more than 660,000 people so far fleeing Russia’s invasion.
They recounted how the air raid sirens would sound at least twice an hour in their central Ukrainian hometown of Vinnytsia, meaning their minds could only alternate between two thoughts. One: Are we going to die? And two: Snap out of it and rush everyone to the basement.
The latest updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
On Monday, they arrived in Poland after a grueling 33 hours on multiple trains in which their children slept in the aisles with hundreds of others. The vast majority of those on the move are women and children, separated from their boyfriends, husbands and fathers because able-bodied men 18 to 60 years old are prohibited by Ukraine’s government from leaving.
“Every moment I spend thinking about what is happening to my husband,” said Anya Siemiechkina, who then picked up her phone and called him. The call was brief, straightforward. Toward the end of it, her voice caught and she inhaled deeply through her nose, looking up at the ceiling of the community center theater now housing refugees. She composed herself, and said goodbye.
“He says today the Russians are focusing on Kharkiv, and that every day the bombing continues, the longer the war will be, the more Ukrainians will wish for revenge,” she said. “He says, ‘Get as far away from the border as you can. Poland is helping Ukraine and Putin won’t like that.’ ”
“We thought this would just be a few days, a few weeks,” she said, as her and friend Snezhana Kazpenko’s sons cartwheeled about, asking for their phones to play games, for markers to continue making drawings of knives and missiles on scrap paper.
The reality is dawning on many Ukrainian refugees, as well as their hosts in Poland and four other countries to Ukraine’s west, that it will be much longer.
The European Union commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, said Sunday that the 27-nation bloc may grant temporary asylum to Ukrainians for up to three years. The plan could move ahead this week.
In Poland, an initial wave of Ukrainians with connections here — the two countries share a deeply intertwined history — quickly found spots in family homes stretching from the border to Warsaw. But now many without connections are arriving.
Siemiechkina and Kazpenko have no friends or family in Poland, and no idea where they’ll go next.
“Ukrainians from all over the country are making their way to Poland right now,” said Katarzyna Komar-Macynska, a coordinator of relief efforts at the Ukrainian Association of Poland in Przemysl, the closest city to the main border crossing between the two countries. “We are overwhelmed with support from local people right now, but the numbers are about to grow by a lot.”
Unlike other refugee crises, this one has seen little presence of international aid organizations or even federal governments, which are focused on the immediate crisis at border posts. Instead, local governments and communities have taken charge of welcoming, housing and feeding new arrivals.
Komar-Macynska’s organization has 300 bilingual volunteers working round-the-clock in shifts to help refugees find places to sleep. Those arriving are often out of energy — feet frozen, eyes blank, children crying, phones dead. Komar-Macynska’s phone doesn’t stop ringing and buzzing. To talk to a reporter without being distracted, she had to take her phone to another room and leave it there.
Across town, in a centuries-old building that has survived numerous wars, more refugees gathered in the gymnasium of what is now a public high school.
“The government says we might expect 3 or even 4 million more Ukrainians to come to Poland,” said the school’s principal, Tomasz Dziumak. “The question is quickly becoming: How many will stay and for how long? Is this our new reality?”
Dziumak said that in Poland, the phrase “before the war” had been specifically connected to World War II but that the same phrase is now being used to describe a beforetime that feels like eons ago, but was actually just last week.
In his office hung a portrait of the graduating class of 1938, many of whom perished fighting for Poland’s army or in the Holocaust. “It is a great tragedy that we have not been able to prevent another war,” he said.
Not only Ukrainians are fleeing their country. Thousands of people from elsewhere, mostly students, are in escape mode, too.
They tend to be facing the longest waits at the border and some of the least certain futures in Europe, because asylum rules extended to Ukrainians will probably not be applied to them.
Ukrainian border authorities have said that they are prioritizing women, children and the elderly at border crossings. Because most of the third-country refugees are in their 20s, they have been pushed to the back of lines — and kept there as the flood of Ukrainians has been unrelenting.
Ukraine waives visa requirements for foreigners willing to fight
Eventually, however, most are making it across.
Victoria Funke, 25, had been studying business management in Kyiv and had become pregnant in the three months she was there. She and three other Nigerians, including her husband, had first tried the Slovakian border and gave up because the line seemed to be barely moving. At the Polish border, they waited, standing, for 20 hours. They were allowed to cross during a brief lull in Ukrainian arrivals.
Funke said no one at the border told her what kind of legal status she would have in Poland, and she and dozens of other non-Ukrainians interviewed by The Washington Post said embassies for their countries had been nonresponsive. No embassy officials from any country were present at one border crossing visited by The Post on Sunday and Monday. At a loss for what to do, Funke and the three others hitched a ride to Przemysl in the back of a van.
“In Lagos, where I am from, we are rich. I have a car; I’ve never even sat in a danfo,” Funke said, referring to the Nigerian city’s dingy collective taxi vans. “We are now refugees, I guess.”
Ukrainian families were also confused about their legal status. In the gym of the school in Przemysl, three generations of a family that had never even had a passing thought of leaving Ukraine mulled their future. They had heard that the Ukrainian Consulate in Krakow, Poland, was helping refugees without passports to get documents. For now, the plan was to go there.
“People are saying to expect to stay away from Ukraine maybe for years because now we are seeing that Putin is truly a madman,” said Lyudmila, 72, a grandmother with two gold front teeth and a jar of preserved boiled pork in broth with garlic, who declined to give her last name. She, her daughter, her daughter-in-law, their two sons, and their dog Archie and cat Pushka had arrived in Przemysl on Monday on the same train as Siemiechkina and Kazpenko and their children.
Asked whether she expected to see Ukraine again, Lyudmila trembled and began to cry, and her grandchildren looked away.
“I hope,” she said, haltingly, “that you never experience what I have.” | null | null | null | null | null |
More substantively, Ukraine has struggled with corruption to an extent that many E.U. countries have been wary of admitting it. Its size and its poverty make it an awkward match. At 44 million people, it would be bloc’s fifth-biggest country. But even the poorest current E.U. member, Bulgaria, is three times as wealthy per capita — leading to a yawning economic need that, under E.U. funding rules, would pull cash from every other country. | null | null | null | null | null |
Low turnout for D.C. protest of covid restrictions
A rally in D.C. against pandemic-related restrictions and in support of the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” that occupied downtown Ottawa for weeks drew a crowd of a few dozen people, many of whom were journalists, near the Washington Monument on Tuesday afternoon.
Rally organizer Kyle Sefcik, a Gaithersburg man who is running in the Maryland gubernatorial race as an unaffiliated candidate, decried public health measures such as mask requirements and vaccine mandates. He also acknowledged the the small turnout.
“With the millions of hits, the hundreds of thousands of people that are behind the movement, there’s still not people showing up and being about it,” Sefcik said. But he said he was undeterred: “I needed these cameras here because … this is the message that I need to get out.”
His complaints, and those of other anti-mandate protesters, come as many pandemic restrictions and mandates have been blocked or rescinded. In the District, Bowser has lifted the requirement for residents to show proof of vaccination to enter most businesses. Officials in parts of the Washington region are removing indoor mask mandates, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently eased mask recommendations.
The Secret Service and other federal and local authorities were preparing for possible demonstrations and disruptions ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, with heightened security measures including temporary fencing around the U.S. Capitol. However, by the late afternoon no disruptions had occurred.
The possibility of a caravan of truckers and other vehicles headed to the region has heightened security, drawing in police agencies from Maryland and Virginia to monitor the Capital Beltway. At a Tuesday news briefing, D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III called the increased safety measures precautionary.
Sefcik tried to launch his own D.C.-bound convoy from Los Angeles last week, but it soon dissolved. He told the small group gathered on Tuesday to support other convoys headed to the nation’s capital.
The “People’s Convoy,” a U.S.-based group of activists also opposed to vaccine mandates, is on a cross-country trip aiming to arrive in the Washington region March 5. Organizers say they intend to target the Beltway but not travel into the city. It’s not clear what their plans are once they arrive.
Hundreds of D.C. National Guard personnel and 50 large tactical units are also authorized to assist with traffic control during First Amendment demonstrations expected in the city in the coming days.
“We have resources that are deployed, very much coordinated with all of our federal partners here, to make sure that we have a safe State of the Union and peaceful first Amendment assembly,” Contee said, “whatever day it shows up.” | null | null | null | null | null |
A mother comforts her 6-year-old as she receives her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine Nov. 3, 2021, in Novi, Mich. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP)
The data are broadly consistent with real-world effectiveness data for adults showing that protection from two doses diminishes over time but that in people eligible for a booster, a third dose revs the immune system back up to robust levels. In children, as with adults, vaccine effectiveness faded during omicron and generally decreases relative to the time since vaccination.
The research provides an evolving picture of the vaccine’s performance in children, and some experts said it suggested a need to consider increasing the size of the dose 5- to 11-year-olds receive.
Pediatric infections and hospitalizations reached their highest rate in January, when omicron swept the country. Its higher transmissibility meant more people — including the vaccinated — were likely to be infected. Despite this increase in infections and hospitalization, data show coronavirus vaccines continued to protect 5- to 17-year-olds against severe illness, hospitalization and death.
“Every time there’s a new variant, we worry that the vaccine will provide no protection at all,” Link-Gelles she said. “And that is certainly not the case here. … The infection cases are less concerning to me as a parent. What I want to avoid are midnight emergency room visits, hospitalizations and, obviously, death. And I think that these data do show that we’re continuing to see protection against those outcomes.”
The latest data on efficacy in 5- to 11-year-olds come after developments involving shots for children younger than 5. The Food and Drug Administration in January said it would review data for a two-dose regimen in hopes of swift authorization and then add a third dose after data on a booster became available.
Some experts said the recent findings raise additional questions about the dose needed for younger children. Data from New York state “strongly suggest that the lower vaccine dose given to 5- to -11-year-olds is not inducing the strong protective immune responses we see in older children and adults,” said Albert Ko, an infectious-diseases physician and epidemiologist at the Yale University School of Public Health.
Others said the data “doesn’t feel settled,” said Natalie E. Dean, an Emory University biostatistician. “This may well be a three-dose vaccine. … We’re still piecing this together. It’s going to take a few more studies.”
The CDC released two analyses Tuesday. One report evaluated the protection afforded by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against emergency department and urgent care visits in 10 states from April 2021 through January. It showed the vaccine was protective against hospitalization and death in 5- to 17-year-olds, even after omicron emerged.
— After two doses, the vaccine initially was 92 to 94 percent effective for 12- to 17-year-olds against hospitalization during the delta and omicron waves. But protection against hospitalization faded more than five months after getting the second shot, with effectiveness falling to a range of 73 to 88 percent.
— Two doses of the vaccine were about 51 percent effective in preventing 5- to 11-year-olds from going to emergency departments and urgent care centers as omicron spread, the CDC study found. For fully vaccinated 12- to 17-year-olds, protection ranged between 34 percent for older teens and 45 percent for younger adolescents for the same period. For older teens who received boosters, protection rose to 81 percent.
In a separate CDC analysis of surveillance data from 29 jurisdictions, vaccinated children and adolescents were less likely to be infected than those who were unvaccinated, despite a decline in protection against infection during the omicron surge. Unvaccinated 5- to 11-year-olds were 1.3 times more likely to get infected during January, compared with those who were vaccinated; unvaccinated 12- to 17-year-olds were 1.5 times more likely to get infected.
New York state data released Monday, which is about one-tenth the size of the population analyzed in the CDC surveillance data, showed a rapid and steep drop in vaccines preventing infection in 5- to 11-year-olds compared with adolescents.
The New York study analyzed health records for covid cases in children and teens from Dec. 13, 2021, to Jan. 30. During that period, protection against infection from a two-dose regimen for 5- to 11-year-olds fell from 68 percent to 12 percent. Protection against hospitalization fell from 100 percent to 48 percent. | null | null | null | null | null |
Lawmakers approve cabinet amid tensions
The new government includes three deputy prime ministers, 29 ministers and six ministers of state. There are two women in the cabinet, overseeing the Ministry of Culture and Arts and holding the position of state minister for women’s affairs.
Bashagha appointed Ahmeid Houma, the second deputy speaker of the parliament, as defense minister, and Brig. Essam Abu Zreiba, from the western city of Zawiyah, as interior minister. Former envoy to the European Union Hafez Qadour is foreign minister.
The appointment last month of Bashagha, a former interior minister from the western city of Misurata, is part of a road map that also involves constitutional amendments and sets a date for elections within 14 months.
The move has deepened divisions among Libyan factions and raised fears that fighting could return after more than a year and a half of relative calm.
Embattled Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah remained defiant Tuesday, after saying repeatedly that his government will hand over power only to an elected government.
Dbeibah was appointed through a U.N.-led process in February 2021 to shepherd the country until elections. However, disputes delayed a Dec. 24 vote, and lawmakers argue that Dbeibah’s tenure ended then.
Supreme Court halts Palestinian evictions
Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a group of Palestinian families slated for eviction from an East Jerusalem neighborhood can remain in their homes for the time being.
The ruling could work to ease tensions in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah district that helped ignite an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza last year.
The court ruled that the families can stay in their homes until Israel carries out a land arrangement, a process that could take years or may not be carried out at all, according to Ir Amim, an advocacy group.
Dozens of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem are at risk of eviction by Jewish settler groups.
The properties in question were built on land owned by a Jewish community trust before the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, court papers say. After the war, when East Jerusalem was controlled by Jordan, Palestinian refugee families were settled there. Israel took control of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, and since 1972, settler groups have tried to claim the property and evict the Palestinian residents.
Pope alters Vatican's family leave policy: Pope Francis has decided to grant three days of paid paternity leave to new fathers who work at the Vatican. In a law published Tuesday, Francis amended the Vatican's family leave policy, which sets out the benefits for workers who have children or must care for family members. Mothers already were entitled to six months' maternity leave at full pay. Parents who adopt a child receive a similar benefit. The new policy for fathers contrasts with that of Italy, which offers 10 days of paid leave.
British monarch holds virtual audiences: Queen Elizabeth II felt well enough to undertake two virtual audiences just over a week after testing positive for the coronavirus and following the cancellation of other similar events last week. The British monarch, 95, has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and was said to have been suffering mild cold-like symptoms. Despite canceling some events, she continued with light duties after testing positive.
Migrant deaths reported by Tunisia, Greece: At least nine migrants died after their boat capsized off Tunisia, the country's Defense Ministry said. The Tunisian navy rescued nine other migrants, who it said were from various African nations. The boat sank Monday near the port of Mahdia. Meanwhile, Greece's coast guard said six bodies were recovered from the shore of the island of Lesbos, and authorities suspect they belonged to migrants trying to reach Greece from Turkey. | null | null | null | null | null |
Other teams undoubtedly feel the same way. Trade speculation has persisted regarding Wilson, the nine-time Pro Bowl selection for the Seattle Seahawks. The Houston Texans could seek to trade Watson, the three-time Pro Bowler who did not play last season while facing allegations of sexual misconduct made by women in civil lawsuits.
A district court judge in Harris County, Tex., ruled Monday that Watson can be deposed in some of the civil cases against him. His attorney, Rusty Hardin, said the Harris County District Attorney will likely decide by April 1 whether Watson will be criminally charged. Watson has denied the allegations.
Watson has been the subject of trade rumors for months, even after the Texans placed him on the game-day inactive list on a weekly basis throughout the 2021 season. The NFL also is investigating the matter and could impose disciplinary measures. Watson has four years left on his contract with the Texans which includes a fully guaranteed $35 million salary for the 2022 season and a $20 million salary and $17 million roster bonus for the 2023 season that becomes fully guaranteed on March 22 of this year.
The Colts traded for Wentz last year in exchange for a 2021 third-round draft pick and what became — based on Wentz’s playing time last season — a first-round choice this year. He has three years left on his contract, and if he’s still on the roster by March 19, his $22 million salary for the upcoming season becomes fully guaranteed.
Ballard said he visited with Wentz for an hour Tuesday morning and said the meeting was “really good.” But when pressed about whether the Colts’ staff believes Wentz can help the team win, Ballard’s indirect answer spoke volumes. | null | null | null | null | null |
Suit filed in Texas over transgender care order
Suit filed over order
on transgender care
According to documents filed in Travis County district court, Jane Doe is an employee of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Her 16-year-old daughter, Mary Doe, is transgender and has been receiving medical care from the same pediatrician for most of her life.
The Texas legislature considered two bills last year that would have banned gender-confirmation surgery, hormone therapy and puberty suppression treatments for Texas’s transgender children, but both died in the House.
— Casey Parks
Former campaign chief for congressman sentenced in theft: A former campaign manager for a veteran member of Congress was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to two federal counts in a case saying he stole more than $1.4 million from the campaign. Jamie Schwartz, 42, admitted embezzling the money while working for the campaigns of Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) during 2011 to 2019. Schwartz apologized to Chabot and his staff before being sentenced in federal court, saying his life became a lie. Schwartz must repay the $1.42 million to the campaign, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Chabot, who is serving his 13th U.S. House term, said in 2019 that he had been the victim of "financial malfeasance." | null | null | null | null | null |
Maybe the economic differences between MLB and the union are so significant that they couldn’t be bridged with nine straight days of negotiation in Florida or, shoot, 13 weeks since the owners locked out the players. The inner workings of the game’s salary structure — for instance, whether the best young players can be paid more earlier in their careers because owners have increasingly shown they won’t pay aging players at the rates they once did — matter to those who play the game and those who pay the players. Healthy economics are necessary for a healthy sport. That’s logical.
Baseball is a business, and that is undeniable not just to the 30 groups that own and run the teams but to the players whose dream of playing in a big league uniform gradually transforms into a workaday job. Let’s not pretend otherwise. | null | null | null | null | null |
Employment agencies for the two jurisdictions were among the first selected to receive these new federal grants, which are meant to help claimants from traditionally marginalized backgrounds access unemployment benefits, Labor officials announced Tuesday.
After the coronavirus pandemic put an unprecedented strain on unemployment programs around the country, researchers have pointed to mounting inequities in who applies for benefits — and how much funding is disbursed. The first-of-their-kind grants, including $6.84 million for Virginia and more than $2.28 million for the District, are meant to address those disparities.
“Throughout the pandemic, the unemployment insurance system provided a critical lifeline for millions of workers, yet far too many workers struggled to access benefits quickly,” U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said in a statement. “To become a more robust safety net and economic stabilizer, our unemployment insurance system must serve all workers fairly and equitably.”
More than 49 states and jurisdictions applied for the equity grants. Labor officials said D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania and Oregon were the first to be selected because their agencies presented the most thorough applications. More than $20.5 million was distributed in the initial round, and other remaining applications will be approved on a rolling basis.
“We had to spend a lot of time going back and forth with states about looking at where they think this will actually move the needle, and what the need is,” said Michele Evermore, deputy director for policy in the Labor Department’s Office of Unemployment Insurance. “Equity is something we’ve never measured or enforced on.”
The District’s Department of Employment Services said it would be using its grant to boost communication, improve access in other languages and incorporate “human centered design” that would make its online interfaces easier to navigate. The department will also look to remove “unnecessary or duplicative hurdles” faced by claimants in the process.
Evermore said the District also proposed using the funds to expand its data collection to better assess which populations have the most access to benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender, among other factors.
DOES Director Unique Morris-Hughes said in a statement that the effort would overall “better assist District workers in their ability to support themselves and their families.”
Neither the Virginia Employment Commission nor a spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) responded to requests for comment on how the agency would be using its grant.
The first-of-its-kind grant program is a continuation of more than $2 billion in funding allocated to the Department of Labor and made available to U.S. states and jurisdictions through the American Rescue Plan.
Last year, the Labor Department awarded $140 million in grants to help states enhance fraud protection in their unemployment systems.
Even as Congress expanded the number of workers eligible for benefits, some data has shown that a smaller percentage of unemployed Black workers received benefits compared to White workers in certain periods of the pandemic.
Evermore added that some workers who are eligible for unemployment insurance don’t qualify because they falsely assume they’re ineligible or because messaging hasn’t reached them.
“A lot of barriers to access are generally a lot more unintentional,” Evermore said. | null | null | null | null | null |
A mother comforts her 6-year-old as she receives her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine Nov. 3, 2021, in Novi, Mich. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images)
The data are broadly consistent with real-world effectiveness data for adults showing that protection from two doses diminishes over time, but that in people eligible for a booster, a third dose revs the immune system back up to robust levels. In children, as with adults, vaccine effectiveness faded during omicron and generally decreases relative to the time since vaccination.
Pediatric infections and hospitalizations reached their highest rate in January, when omicron swept the country. Its higher transmissibility meant more people — including the vaccinated — were likely to be infected. Despite this increase in infections and hospitalization, data show coronavirus vaccines continued to protect 5-to-17-year-olds against severe illness, hospitalization and death.
“Every time there’s a new variant, we worry that the vaccine will provide no protection at all,” Link-Gelles said. “And that is certainly not the case here. … The infection cases are less concerning to me as a parent. What I want to avoid are midnight emergency room visits, hospitalizations and, obviously, death. And I think that these data do show that we’re continuing to see protection against those outcomes.”
The latest data on efficacy in 5-to-11-year-olds come after developments involving shots for children younger than 5. The Food and Drug Administration in January said it would review data for a two-dose regimen in hopes of swift authorization and then add a third dose after data on a booster became available.
Some experts said the recent findings raise additional questions about the dose needed for younger children. Data from New York state “strongly suggest that the lower vaccine dose given to 5-to-11-year-olds is not inducing the strong protective immune responses we see in older children and adults,” said Albert Ko, an infectious-diseases physician and epidemiologist at the Yale University School of Public Health.
The data “doesn’t feel settled,” said Natalie E. Dean, an Emory University biostatistician. “This may well be a three-dose vaccine. … We’re still piecing this together. It’s going to take a few more studies.”
The CDC released two analyses Tuesday. One report evaluated the protection afforded by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against emergency department and urgent care visits in 10 states from April 2021 through January. It showed the vaccine was protective against hospitalization and death in 5-to-17-year-olds, even after omicron emerged.
— After two doses, the vaccine initially was 92 percent to 94 percent effective for 12-to-17-year-olds against hospitalization during the delta and omicron waves. But protection against hospitalization faded more than five months after getting the second shot, with effectiveness falling to a range of 73 percent to 88 percent.
— Two doses of the vaccine were about 51 percent effective in preventing 5-to-11-year-olds from going to emergency departments and urgent care centers as omicron spread, the CDC study found. For fully vaccinated 12-to-17-year-olds, protection ranged between 34 percent for older teens and 45 percent for younger adolescents for the same period. For older teens who received boosters, protection rose to 81 percent.
In a separate CDC analysis of surveillance data from 29 jurisdictions, vaccinated children and adolescents were less likely to be infected than those who were unvaccinated, despite a decline in protection against infection during the omicron surge. Unvaccinated 5-to-11-year-olds were 1.3 times more likely to get infected during January, compared with those who were vaccinated; unvaccinated 12-to-17-year-olds were 1.5 times more likely to get infected.
New York state data released Monday, which is about one-tenth the size of the population analyzed in the CDC surveillance data, showed a rapid and steep drop in vaccines preventing infection in 5-to-11-year-olds compared with adolescents.
The New York study analyzed health records for covid cases in children and teens from Dec. 13, 2021, to Jan. 30. During that period, protection against infection from a two-dose regimen for 5-to-11-year-olds fell from 68 percent to 12 percent. Protection against hospitalization fell from 100 percent to 48 percent. | null | null | null | null | null |
One paper provided an analysis of the geographical clustering of patients in the vicinity of the market. The authors of that study — Rasmussen and Andersen among them — said environmental samples inside the market showed the virus was disproportionately evident in stalls selling animals. Five positive samples were in a stall that had been seen by one of the paper’s authors in 2014 selling raccoon dogs, a mammal capable of carrying coronaviruses. | null | null | null | null | null |
A blast hits Kyiv's TV tower on March 1. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
The United Nations has recorded more than 130 civilian deaths since the beginning of the fighting last week, including 13 children, mostly because of shelling and rocket fire. The actual toll is likely far much higher, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
Officials say Moscow has now pushed into Ukraine more than 80 percent of the combat power it staged within Russian border areas and in neighboring Belarus in recent months, demonstrating Putin’s determination to cripple a Western-backed government that he maintains has undermined Russian security.
In videos, photos and maps, how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is unfolding on the ground
Zelensky spoke with President Biden on Tuesday hours before his State of the Union speech, which was expected to highlight his administration’s efforts to confront Russian aggression. Biden has ruled out sending U.S. forces to fight in Ukraine, but officials say military and humanitarian aid will continue.
"What is the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?” Zelensky tweeted. “At least 5 killed. History repeating …”
“This is very serious, and people are in a state of shock because they could have never thought this would happen," the mayor said in a phone interview.
In southern Ukraine, Russia has occupied Berdyansk and taken possession of Melitopol, a city of about 150,000. Russian forces remain outside the major southern city of Mariupol, but are close enough to attack it with artillery and other long-range fires, the U.S. defense official said.
Perspective: The strength of Ukrainian women is on display
In Kyiv, peopled waited hours in line for gasoline and scoured local stores for food ahead of what they feared would be a similar assault to the one gripping Kharkiv. A children’s hospital set up makeshift wards in a basement shelter for cancer patients and preemies.
Sanctions are crippling the Russian economy -- but might not easily reach oligarchs living in the West
At a separate session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, dozens of U.S and European diplomats walked out during remarks that Lavrov made by video link.
Ryan and Lamothe reported from Washington. Sudarsan Raghavan, Siobhán O’Grady, Whitney Shefte and Kostiantyn Khudov in Kyiv; David Stern in Mukachevo, Ukraine; Karla Adam in London; and John Hudson and Tyler Pager in Washington contributed to this report. | null | null | null | null | null |
Maybe the economic differences between MLB and the union are so significant that they couldn’t be bridged with nine consecutive days of negotiation in Florida or, shoot, 13 weeks since the owners locked out the players. The inner workings of the game’s salary structure — for instance, whether the best young players should be paid more earlier in their careers because owners have increasingly shown they won’t pay aging players at the rates they once did — matter to those who play the game and those who pay the players. Healthy economics are necessary for a healthy sport. That’s logical.
Baseball is a business, and that is undeniable not just to the 30 groups that own and run the teams but to the players whose dreams of playing in a big league uniform gradually transforms into a workaday job. Let’s not pretend otherwise. | null | null | null | null | null |
Other teams undoubtedly feel the same way. Trade speculation has persisted regarding Wilson, the nine-time Pro Bowl selection for the Seattle Seahawks. The Houston Texans could seek to trade Watson, the three-time Pro Bowl pick who did not play last season while facing allegations of sexual misconduct made by women in civil lawsuits.
Gutekunst dismissed the uncertainty as “no different than every year.” But it’s not every year that a two-time defending league MVP might move on. Gutekunst called the Rodgers and Adams situations “completely different.” Yet Rodgers has said he does not want to be part of a rebuilding project. After an NFL Network report that the two sides are negotiating a revised contract to accommodate Rodgers’s possible return, Gutekunst called the financial considerations “part of the process.” He said he hopes for clarity by the mid-March opening of the free agent market.
A district court judge in Harris County, Tex., ruled Monday that Watson can be deposed in some of the civil cases against him. His attorney, Rusty Hardin, said the Harris County district attorney will probably decide by April 1 whether Watson will be criminally charged. Watson has denied the allegations.
Watson has been the subject of trade rumors for months, even after the Texans placed him on the game-day inactive list on a weekly basis throughout the 2021 season. The NFL also is investigating the matter and could impose disciplinary measures. Watson has four years left on his contract with the Texans, which includes a fully guaranteed $35 million salary for the 2022 season and a $20 million salary and a $17 million roster bonus for the 2023 season that becomes fully guaranteed March 22 of this year.
Ballard offered no guarantees Tuesday that Wentz will remain with Indianapolis, saying the team is “still working through it.”
The Colts traded for Wentz last year in exchange for a 2021 third-round draft pick and what became — based on Wentz’s playing time last season — a first-round choice this year. He has three years left on his contract, and if he’s still on the roster March 19, his $22 million salary for the upcoming season becomes fully guaranteed.
Ballard said he visited with Wentz for an hour Tuesday morning and the meeting was “really good.” But when pressed about whether the Colts’ staff believes Wentz can help the team win, Ballard’s indirect answer spoke volumes. | null | null | null | null | null |
“I think we fell into the same place,” Vincent said. “It was completely clear. … Pointing at your opponent, standing over top of him, going back towards the opponent’s sideline — those things are clear.”
Last season’s strict enforcement of the previously existing taunting rule resulted from the competition committee making that a point of emphasis for officiating crews. That came, according to league officials and competition committee members, at the behest of coaches.
The enforcement drew criticism by some players, media members and fans. The NFL Players Association called for the point of emphasis to be removed. But the league didn’t budge, and several coaches expressed their support for the strict enforcement of the existing rule. | null | null | null | null | null |
What’s happening in Ukraine? Our reporters answer your questions about the Russian invasion.
Olena, 42, who works as a lawyer and is one of the female members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense unit, together with Оksana, 52, a graphic designer as they guard a neighborhood in capital Kyiv on Feb. 28. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
Russian forces have been gathering menacing strength outside of major Ukrainian cities this week. Shelling has intensified from the capital to cities across Ukraine. A 40-mile-long convoy of tanks, troop carriers and artillery is idling just 20 miles north of central Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, where, residents are bracing for an all-out assault by Russian forces.
Nearly 680,000 Ukrainians have left Ukraine since the start of the invasion, mostly to Poland, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said.
Post reporters Alex Horton, Loveday Morris, Michael Birnbaum, and Jon Gerberg will answer your questions on Thursday at 11 a.m. Eastern. Horton reported from Ukraine in February and, lately, has been covering the Russian military’s strategy to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Morris has been reporting from Poland and Ukraine. Birnbaum is a former Moscow bureau chief for The Post and has been reporting on NATO’s response to the invasion. Gerberg is a video journalist currently reporting in Lviv, Ukraine. | null | null | null | null | null |
Loudoun Valley roars past the field for another Virginia indoor track state title
Vikings claim their fourth crown in the past five years
By Jim McGrath
Loudoun Valley's Graham Mussmon won the 1600 and 3200 and was part of the Vikings' winning 4x800 relay. (Jim McGrath for The Washington Post)
LYNCHBURG, Va. — In the two-day meet’s penultimate event, the 3,200 meters, the Loudoun Valley boys completed an impressive comeback to win the Virginia Class 4 indoor track and field championship Tuesday at Liberty University.
For the Vikings, it was their fourth championship in the past five years. Loudoun Valley won in 2018, 2019 and 2020 before Patrick Henry of Ashland claimed the title in 2021 — when most Loudoun County teams, including the Vikings, did not compete.
Of the 10 Northern Virginia schools representing Class 3 and 4 this week, no other local team placed in the top 14.
Loudoun Valley earned its first 10 points Monday, with Justin Park, Jake Rimmel, Graham Mussmon and Aidan Soto overcoming a tough 4x800 field to win in 7 minutes 50.99 seconds.
After Tuesday’s field events, that was the only first-place finish among the Northern Virginia teams. Only two other performances scored in the top three Monday: Brentsville’s Dylan Sawyer was second in the boys’ pole vault in Class 3 with a clearance of 12 feet 9 inches, and Dominion’s Arun Mantena was third in the boys’ triple jump in Class 4 at 43-7.5.
The Vikings’ fortunes improved dramatically Tuesday. The team of John Lyth, Blake Moore, Isaiah Stokes and Sam Hummer placed second in the boys’ 4x200 relay in 1:33.08, and those eight points pushed Loudoun Valley into the top 10.
In the next event, the boys’ 1,600, Mussmon led three Vikings in the top five with his win in 4:13.26. Those 14 points vaulted Loudoun Valley into second place, trailing Pulaski County 46.5-32.
Mussmon, a Liberty-bound senior, was impressive on his future home track, taking the lead from the opening gun. To his surprise, Trevor Mason of Patrick Henry seized the pace on the straightaway leading to the 1,200-meter mark and seemed to be gaining momentum. But Mason’s move for the front gave Mussmon a moment to recharge.
“I was hoping that someone would take the [lead] for a couple of laps, to give me a break,” he said.
Boys’ basketball Top 20: Paul VI affirms No. 1 ranking with dramatic WCAC title win
On the backstretch, Mussmon made his move and took the lead. Mason struggled to respond, eventually placing second in 4:14.32.
Soto was third in the 1,000 (2:30.09) to give Loudoun Valley six more points. Rimmel’s fifth-place finish earned four more, cutting the team’s deficit to 46.5-42.
The Vikings, the region’s top distance team for the past decade, almost took the lead on a sprint event when Moore placed fifth in the 300 (35.81). His four points pushed Loudoun Valley within a half-point.
Pulaski had no entries in the 3,200 or 4x400 relay, the final events, so all Loudoun Valley needed to do was score a single point to win the team title. Mussmon left nothing to chance, unleashing a vicious kick over the final 200 meters to win the 3200 in 9:13.48, giving his team 10 points and the state crown. Western Albemarle ended up second, with Pulaski third.
For the Loudoun Valley girls, Scarlet Fetterolf placed third in the 3,200 in 10:52.09.
The Abingdon boys and Heritage-Lynchburg girls won the Class 3 titles, and the Heritage-Newport News girls prevailed in Class 4. | null | null | null | null | null |
Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera speaks during a news conference at the NFL football scouting combine Tuesday (Michael Conroy/AP)
INDIANAPOLIS — The Washington Cach, Ron Rivera reiterated what he’s said time and time again since the start of the offseason: the team, still in search of a long-term solution at quarterback, is exhausting all avenues.
“We’re trying to let people know, 'Hey, we’re interested,’” Rivera said Tuesday.
“A quarterback of that ability is a guy you win with and you win because of his abilities,” Rivera said. “To me, it's either looking at it, 'Hey, this is going to be easier to do,' or 'We've got to be better here in these specific areas.’ So whichever route we take, I just know that we're going to fortify the other parts here.”
Washington’s difficult decisions are compounded by the relatively weak quarterback class in this year’s draft. No clear leader has emerged among Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, Liberty’s Malik Wilson, Mississippi’s Matt Corral and North Carolina’s Sam Howell.
“The big thing more than anything else and the reason I’d be comfortable with a rookie is just because of the players we have. We have a solid offensive line and we’ve got skilled players at the skill positions,” he said. “Would it be ideal? No, but I would be comfortable.”
Rivera, though, is confident Samuel can provide a needed complement to Terry McLaurin and is hopeful Brown can develop in Year 2. He also spoke glowingly about veteran Cam Sims, a soon-to-be free agent.
Washington has a handful of players who hit the open market if not re-signed before mid-March. Atop the list is right guard Brandon Scherff, who appears headed for free agency after the team franchise-tagged him twice. But running back J.D. McKissic, safety Bobby McCain and wide receiver DeAndre Carter are all players Rivera expressed hope of retaining.
Malik Willis, the draft’s most scrutinized quarterback, shines at the Senior Bowl
Collins currently has the largest cap charge on Washington’s roster for 2022, at $16.08 million. But his $11.5 million salary isn’t guaranteed, and if Washington chose to move on from him, it would save roughly $6.5 million in cap space.
“We're not trying to speed through this,” Rivera said. “We want to do this very, very deliberately and make sure we get the right decision.” | null | null | null | null | null |
“It was all in the eye of, ‘We’ve got to go get a quarterback,’ ” Beane says now. “Once I left the Senior Bowl [in January 2018], I was convinced we were going to have some options to say, ‘This guy can be the guy for us.’”
In his first year as general manager of the Bills, Beane set out to do what every quarterback-needy team must: try to find that franchise player with the physical tools, the mental makeup and the leadership skills to turn a fledgling team into a contender. His aggressive yet calculated approach — which included multiple trades to move up in the first round — landed Josh Allen, whom the Bills nabbed with the No. 7 pick and have since built their offense around. His emergence as one of the NFL’s most transcendent players has not only reshaped the trajectory of the Bills but further cemented the value of an elite quarterback.
“It’s driven by that position,” says Paul Hackett, a former quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in the league. “Now, what’s great about the NFL is the variance of styles in quarterbacking. So there’s a lot of ways to do that, but it still remains the key to success in football — how you coach and evaluate the quarterback.”
So it’s no surprise that most No. 1 overall draft picks are quarterbacks, that most league MVPs are quarterbacks and that the most lucrative contracts are awarded to … quarterbacks.
“You can win with a middle guy, but you better be really, really good everywhere else,” said one NFC coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter freely. “That’s the problem with it. You need the system, the coaches and all that to help a guy. If they can’t just carry the weight like one of those transcendent QBs, a couple injuries and you’re done.”
Beane wanted Allen to get playing time as a rookie but never had an amount in mind. He admits now that Allen “probably wasn’t ready” when he made his first start in Week 2 of the 2018 season. But Nathan Peterman recorded a 0.0 passer rating in their season opener as they were blown out, 47-3, by the Ravens.
Veteran quarterbacks may provide an easier evaluation, but rarely do the elite ones hit the open market in their primes. Peyton Manning faced skepticism about his health when he was cut by the Indianapolis Colts in 2012 after undergoing multiple neck surgeries and missing the entire 2011 season. And Tom Brady was in a class of his own with a “prime” that extended into his late 40s.
When asked about their absolute must-have traits for quarterbacks, nearly a dozen coaches, executives and analysts who spoke to The Washington Post consistently cited three: decision-making or mental toughness, accuracy and leadership.
As Pioli explains, it’s not simply about learning a more complex playbook but about being able to quickly recognize fronts and coverages, to know the checks, to be aware of blitzes, to cycle through progressions and to adjust in mere seconds when rushers are barreling in.
“You don’t have to be a vocal leader at most positions, but this one, it’s kind of important to do that,” Beane says. “This is one I found that you need to not only lead by example but you need to be able to call the troops up.”
“We would have scrapped and clawed like we did the first year and tried to finish strong in other areas, which [Commanders executive vice president of football/player personnel Marty Hurney] and Ron and that crew have tried to do in building their defense,” Beane says. | null | null | null | null | null |
PITTSBURGH — Freshman guard Trevor Keels scored a career-high 27 points, Paolo Banchero added 21 and No. 4 Duke clinched at least a share of its 13th Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title under coach Mike Krzyzewski with an 86-56 win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Caleb Daniels scored 20 points, Eric Dixon scored 15 and Collin Gillespie had 14 as Villanova beat Providence in a fantastic Big East matchup.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Oscar Tshiebwe had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Sahvir Wheeler added 16 points and Kentucky beat Mississippi in its home finale.
ATHENS, Ga. — Josiah-Jordan James scored a career-high 23 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers that gave Tennessee the lead early in the second half, and the Vols overcame a slow start to beat struggling Georgia.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bryce McGowens scored 26 points, Alonzo Verge Jr. had 13 points and 11 assists, and Nebraska beat Ohio State. | null | null | null | null | null |
Charter schools, which educate nearly 50 percent of the city’s public school students, will be allowed to choose whether or not to keep the outdoor mask mandate. KIPP, the city’s largest charter network, did not have plans to drop its outdoor mandate, a spokesman said Tuesday.
In Virginia, following fierce and politically charged battles over masks in schools, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed a bill last month making masks optional in school buildings by March 1. Fairfax County — the state’s largest school system, which had pushed back against the governor’s previous attempts to make face coverings optional in schools — said it would comply with the latest law. Still, students at Alexandria City High School were planning a lunchtime walkout Wednesday in opposition to lifting the mask mandate.
Nationwide, about 71 percent of all students can go to school without masks under new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that loosens mask recommendations, based on health metrics at the end of last week, according to preliminary data from the American Enterprise Institute’s Return to Learn Tracker. That figure includes districts that currently require masks as well as those that do not.
Lifting the indoor mask mandate in schools may be a hard sell in the District right now. The city has not received widespread parent complaints about the indoor mandate, and most children in the city are still unvaccinated. Just 25 percent of D.C. children between the ages of 5 and 11 are fully vaccinated, according to city data. There are wide disparities in vaccination rates between wards, so in many schools the youth vaccination rate is likely far lower than that.
Nerissa Ford, a parent to a prekindergarten student at Excel Academy Public School, said that dropping the masking requirement outdoors wasn’t a good idea. Her daughter is too young to be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine. Ford said her family would continue to mask.
“We’re still in the middle of the pandemic," Ford said. "For them to want to lift the mandate is completely absurd.”
Washington Teachers’ Union President Jacqueline Pogue Lyons said there was no concern about lifting the outdoor masking requirement, but there would be if the indoor mandate was lifted, especially since children under 5 don’t have access to the vaccine.
“We’re just still very cautious,” Lyons said Tuesday. “I think we’re just wrestling with, ‘When is it going to be time when we can take them off in the classroom?’”
Nicole Asbury and Laura Meckler contributed to this report. | null | null | null | null | null |
Twitter vice president of product Keith Coleman said Tuesday, after publication, that the company will be expanding the Birdwatch pilot “very soon.” He said it’s important to make sure that the fact-checks added to tweets are helpful, and the company has been “focused on making that a reality before expanding.” | null | null | null | null | null |
“Nobody wants to leave their home,” said 55-year-old Anatoly, who wept as he told the story of their escape, leaving behind what he described as an idyllic, self-sufficient life on their farm with 150 cherry trees, two cows, two bulls and 100 chickens. But getting his family to safety was more important. | null | null | null | null | null |
Felon voting rights, same-sex marriage measures die in Virginia House panel
RICHMOND — Republicans in control of a state House subcommittee voted Tuesday to kill two proposed constitutional amendments, one to lift a Jim Crow-era ban on felon voting and the other to repeal Virginia’s now-defunct prohibition against same-sex marriage.
The party-line votes mark the end of the road for the measures, which had bipartisan support in both chambers of the General Assembly last year but never made it to the full House for a floor vote this time.
The six Republicans who killed the proposals made no comments ahead of the votes. One of the four Democrats on the panel, Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg (Henrico), implored the subcommittee to pass both measures. A high school civics teacher, VanValkenburg noted that Virginia first imposed its lifetime voting ban on felons in the Jim Crow era.
“In 1902, when they put these barriers to voting in the constitution with the intent of keeping people from citizenship, Virginia was the worst democracy in the country,” he said. “We made Mississippi look like a hotbed of democracy. This is one of those last pieces from that era.”
The ban on same-sex marriage was a much more recent addition to the constitution, with an amendment passed in 2006. It defined marriage as “only a union between one man and one woman.” That language remains, even after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and struck down state laws banning it.
To change the state constitution, a proposed amendment must win passage in General Assembly two years in a row — with an election in between — before going to a public vote in a general election. The felon voting and same-sex marriage measures passed both chambers of the Democratic-controlled legislature last year with bipartisan support, but prospects for their passage dimmed after Republicans won control of the House in November.
The governor has no role in the amendment process — except as an individual voter if one makes it to the ballot. A spokeswoman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who ran as a tough-on-crime conservative, did not respond to a request for comment. Youngkin indicated to the Associated Press in October that he personally does not support same-sex marriage but acknowledged that it was “legally acceptable” and that as governor, he would support the law.
The constitution permanently strips felons of their voting rights, although they can petition the governor for restoration. Recent governors have taken steps to make the restoration process easier, starting with Republican Robert F. McDonnell and greatly accelerating under Democrats Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, who restored rights in record numbers.
The proposed amendment would have made restoration of felons’ rights automatic upon completion of their sentences.
“Virginians who have served their time and paid their debt to society should not have to petition to be full citizens of the Commonwealth,” McAuliffe, who in November lost a comeback bid to Youngkin, tweeted after the vote. “Today’s vote to deny a referendum on automatic restoration of rights is deeply troubling. A missed opportunity for such important progress.”
Supporters of the voting rights measure took it as a good sign this year that a Republican, Del. Mike Cherry (Colonial Heights) sponsored the House version of that measure. But the GOP-led House Privileges and Elections Subcommittee shot that down a month ago, along with the House version of the marriage amendment.
So there was little doubt about the outcome Tuesday, as the same subcommittee took up identical measures that had crossed over from the Senate. Sen. Mamie E. Locke (D-Hampton) made a halfhearted pitch for her voting rights legislation.
“You know what this amendment does,” she said. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”
A handful of supporters — including individual ex-felons and officials with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Virginia Catholic Conference — spoke briefly in favor.
“We think it’s an important matter of justice for those who have finished their sentences,” said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference.
No one from the public or on the panel spoke against the legislation. But as the subcommittee promptly shot it down without comment, Locke muttered: “What a surprise.”
The committee next did the same to the marriage measure, brought by Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who in 2003 became the first openly gay person elected to Virginia’s General Assembly.
“We’ve evolved since 2006, when we stained our constitution with the so-called marriage amendment,” Ebbin said. “And we give this committee a chance to evolve since you made a mistake a few weeks ago.”
Ebbin said the amendment would provide “a fundamental dignity and equality to our friends, family and neighbors — and to me.”
Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, described a same-sex couple who had built a life of “hopes and dreams and happiness and love.”
Supporters “want to see our constitution reflect the hopes and dreams for everyone who deserve the right to be married,” she said. “Marriage equality is the law of the land. What I’m asking you here today is to leave that decision to the Virginia voters in November on the ballot.”
Opposition was muted, compared with a month ago, when conservatives warned that the amendment could open the door to polygamy, intrafamily marriage and child marriage — all of which are separately prohibited in state law.
“We affirm the dignity of every person,” Caruso said. “We also believe marriage has an original design and purpose that predates any nation, religion or law. … If you believe, as we do, that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and that we should preserve this original design, please vote to continue reflecting that in our state constitution.” | null | null | null | null | null |
One idea: a “test-to-treat” initiative, where people who test positive at pharmacies can be prescribed medication on the spot — which Biden previewed on Tuesday night. Other strategies include an initiative to improve indoor air quality to reduce viral spread, and an initiative to expand research into “long covid,” the constellation of symptoms that persist in many people for weeks or months after their initial infections. | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: I pray with Chicago families traumatized by homicide. And I pray for the city to do something.
Naikeeia Williams speaks on Feb. 14, 2017, in Chicago at a vigil honoring her 11-year-old daughter, Takiya Holmes, who died earlier that day. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Pastor Donovan Price is executive director of the Chicago-based victim advocacy and crisis intervention nonprofit Solutions and Resources.
“As we pulled into the parking lot of my job and stopped, we heard the shots. I’ve always taught my children how to get down when we hear shots, but I guess she looked back first. And the bullet hit her in the head.” This was Naikeeia Williams speaking, the mother of 11-year-old Takiya Holmes.
In Chicago on a Saturday night in 2017, Takiya was one of two girls shot in the head, an hour or so apart, in separate locations. Takiya and 12-year-old Kanari Bowers each spent a few days on life support before they died.
As a street pastor in the city, I had come to Comer Children’s Hospital, where Takiya was hooked up to a ventilator, every morning since the shooting, just to pray and be there for her mother and grandmother. A little after 7 one morning, Takiya’s grandmother, Patsy Holmes, came down and said, “My baby is dead.” The sadness was almost too much to bear.
Five years ago, I hadn’t been answering this pastoral “calling” for long, but I knew deep down that God wanted me to be there to offer aid and comfort to families whose loved ones were victims of violent crime.
I wasn’t prepared for what came after Takiya’s death. Soon, dozens of friends and family members filled the lobby of the emergency room. It was a heart-rending scene. Some screamed, some wept, some fell to the floor when overcome. I offered what comfort I could. A box of Kleenex, a hug, a prayer, a hand to help someone stay upright — those aren’t enough, but they’re something.
I also wasn’t prepared for what was to come in the five years after that terrible day. Since then, I have attended to families who have lost loved ones in hundreds of homicides and countless shootings. You hear a lot about Chicago’s crime statistics, especially in the past couple of years, but the victims are not numbers. These are human beings, and what happens to them, and their families, is an individual tragedy, an individual trauma, each with its own particular pain, every time.
When family members are beside themselves with grief, they need practical help, too, not just comforting words. At a homicide scene, three or four hours can pass before the body is removed. During that period, survivors often are desperate for basic information, so I act as a liaison between the family and law enforcement. And I escort them to the morgue and stand by them through the body identification.
Soon afterward, the families also often need assistance with planning vigils and finding resources for funerals. My nonprofit organization helps with that. Later, they might need advice about how to gain access to social services and whatever else might help as they rebuild their lives — not just to live again but also to gain strength and move toward healing.
As the number of homicides in Chicago has skyrocketed, I thought addressing this disaster would be more important than anything else. Shouldn’t trying to stop the killing take precedence over the political priority of the moment? But I am learning that maybe it just isn’t going to happen.
What I hope will cause outrage and prompt change in communities and the city at large — another weekend of carnage, another child caught in the crossfire — somehow draws a day or two of attention and then fades. Instead, what stirs longer-lasting anger is an incident of police violence, or pandemic rules that some dislike, or maybe government spending they don’t approve of. All the while, more precious lives are senselessly lost.
As a man of faith, I believe in the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. urging us to “never lose infinite hope.” But that is difficult when you go to dozens of shooting scenes in a matter of days, or when the majority of funerals you officiate at, as I do, are for children younger than 13.
What will it take for the leadership in this city, and others around the nation, to wake up? We must work harder to learn about the varying circumstances in these shootings, not only criminal but also psychological, social and cultural. Trained counselors need to walk these streets, knock on doors, sit on sofas and at kitchen tables — talk to those at the epicenter of the violence. Help them not to fear, not to run and hide, but to join hands with their neighbors to nurture a safer local culture. And when another deadly shooting occurs, provide immediate trauma-related care to the families and communities affected. (After all, hurt people … hurt people.)
Too often, unless it happens to “their” daughter or in “their” neighborhood, it isn’t “their” problem. Well, guess what, neighbor? Guess what, gang member? Mayor? Police superintendent? Soccer mom? Senator? CEO? Janitor? If you think the coronavirus is contagious, wait until you get a load of the effects of a disease called #ineverthoughtitwouldhappentome. | null | null | null | null | null |
On March 1, President Biden gave his first State of the Union address. Here’s a round-up of a few dubious claims. (The Washington Post)
A State of the Union address generally is a product of many hands and is carefully vetted. But State of the Union addresses often are very political speeches, an argument for the president’s policies, so context is sometimes missing. Last year, President Biden got in trouble when he ad-libbed some lines in a speech to Congress that stretched the truth. He stuck to the script more closely in his first State of the Union address. Here’s a roundup of seven claims that caught our attention.
Now, the United States is emerging from a pandemic that caused huge job losses in 2020 — 9 million jobs, in fact. The rounds of stimulus bills — passed under President Donald Trump and Biden — certainly had an impact. But they also increased the deficit. As the economy recovers, government finances are also returning to normal, with receipts growing rapidly. In the first four months of fiscal 2022, which began last October, the federal government ran a deficit of $259 billion, $477 billion (65 percent) less than at this point in fiscal 2021.
The 2005 law does not guarantee blanket immunity, and it has some exceptions. Manufacturers or dealers can be sued if they knowingly sold a product that would be used to commit a crime. They can be sued if they were negligent in selling the product to someone they knew was unfit (such as a child or someone who was drunk). They can be sued for another technical negligence claim (“negligence per se”) that relates to the violation of a safety statute.
The New Deal between 1933 and 1937 spent outlays that averaged 1.36 percent of gross domestic product, according to a Brookings Institution analysis. That compares with about 1.25 percent for the Biden bill, which authorized about $566 billion of gross budget authority (and tax cuts) that will be spent mostly but not entirely over five years. | null | null | null | null | null |
In this photo released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, right, greets former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen as he arrives at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. A delegation of former U.S. defense officials landed in Taiwan Tuesday in a sign of stepped-up communication between the sides amid the looming threat from China. (Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP) (Uncredited/Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs) | null | null | null | null | null |
But while the speech included stirring rhetoric, Biden said much less about the longer-term consequences of what is unfolding in Europe. He was very much in the moment at time when the war rages on inconclusively.
When Biden came to office, his focus in this struggle between democracy and autocracy was more on the threats from a rising China and its president, Xi Jinping. Now he is preoccupied with Putin and Russia, and there are questions about whether the administration can manage both those challenges while dealing with everything else. Yet there seems no choice but to do so.
“When the history of this era is written, Putin’s war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger,” Biden said Tuesday night. “While it shouldn’t have taken something so terrible for people around the world to see what’s at stake, now everyone sees it clearly.” | null | null | null | null | null |
New Zealand police battle protesters as tents burn, Parliament camp cleared
In what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said was a preplanned operation to remove the camp, hundreds of officers assembled at dawn and began towing away the cars and trucks demonstrators have used to block streets for more than three weeks, in imitation of the “Freedom Convoy” in Canada.
By early afternoon, the situation had descended into chaos as protesters violently resisted, hurling chairs, bottles, bricks and other objects at officers, according to authorities and videos taken by protesters and local journalists.
Some footage appeared to show protesters deliberately setting fire to tents, then throwing fuel onto the blaze. One of the fires engulfed a children’s playground as gas canisters could be heard exploding across Parliament grounds.
She said police had arrested around 60 people, and that a group of around 270 protesters — many misled by dangerous conspiracy theories — were to blame for the violence.
The camp began in early February as protesters gathered to oppose coronavirus vaccines and vaccine mandates but quickly grew into an amorphous demonstration against all pandemic restrictions. Initially, the atmosphere was almost playful, with authorities turning on the sprinklers and blaring “Baby Shark” and other songs to disperse the protesters, who countered with singing, dancing and music of their own.
Videos showed some protesters pick up paving stones and hurl them at officers, while police and protesters exchanged punches.
After almost two years of close to zero local covid infections, New Zealand is now in the midst of a record spike with more than 22,000 new cases on Wednesday.
“Our people will not be defined by a small handful of protesters,” she said. “Our country will not be defined by the dismantling of an occupation. In fact, when we look back at this period in our history, I hope we remember one thing: together, thousands more lives were saved over the past two years by your actions as New Zealanders, than were on the front lawn of parliament today.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Dixie State Trailblazers (13-16, 6-10 WAC) at Abilene Christian Wildcats (18-9, 9-7 WAC)
, ; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Abilene Christian will try to keep its four-game home win streak intact when the Wildcats face Dixie State.
The Wildcats have gone 12-3 at home. Abilene Christian is seventh in the WAC in team defense, allowing 66.4 points while holding opponents to 43.6% shooting.
The Trailblazers are 6-10 against conference opponents. Dixie State has an 8-12 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. Abilene Christian won 64-50 in the last matchup on Jan. 2. Cameron Steele led Abilene Christian with 23 points, and Dancell Leter led Dixie State with 15 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Damien Daniels is averaging 6.1 points, 3.6 assists and two steals for the Wildcats. Airion Simmons is averaging 13.7 points and 6.6 rebounds while shooting 50.5% over the past 10 games for Abilene Christian.
Hunter Schofield is shooting 47.8% and averaging 15.1 points for the Trailblazers. Leter is averaging 12.1 points over the last 10 games for Dixie State. | null | null | null | null | null |
Grambling Tigers (11-17, 8-7 SWAC) at Alabama A&M Bulldogs (10-16, 9-7 SWAC)
Huntsville, Alabama; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Alabama A&M is looking to keep its five-game win streak alive when the Bulldogs take on Grambling.
The Bulldogs are 6-2 on their home court. Alabama A&M is 3-8 in games decided by 10 points or more.
The Tigers are 8-7 against SWAC opponents. Grambling gives up 71.2 points to opponents and has been outscored by 5.5 points per game.
The teams square off for the second time this season in SWAC play. Grambling won the last matchup 58-50 on Feb. 8. Cameron Christon scored 12 points to help lead the Tigers to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jalen Johnson is averaging 15.7 points and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs. Cameron Tucker is averaging 11.2 points over the last 10 games for Alabama A&M.
Christon is averaging 13.2 points for the Tigers. Shawndarius Cowart is averaging 13.1 points over the last 10 games for Grambling. | null | null | null | null | null |
Alcorn State hosts Mississippi Valley State after Gordon's 22-point outing
Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils (2-24, 2-14 SWAC) at Alcorn State Braves (13-15, 12-4 SWAC)
Lorman, Mississippi; Thursday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Mississippi Valley State faces the Alcorn State Braves after Devin Gordon scored 22 points in Mississippi Valley State’s 93-79 loss to the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions.
The Braves have gone 4-3 in home games. Alcorn State is fifth in the SWAC shooting 32.5% from downtown, led by Tajah Fraley shooting 66.7% from 3-point range.
The Delta Devils are 2-14 in conference matchups. Mississippi Valley State has a 1-2 record in one-possession games.
The teams square off for the second time this season in SWAC play. Alcorn State won the last matchup 79-71 on Feb. 8. Justin Thomas scored 16 points points to help lead the Braves to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Thomas is averaging 10.3 points, four assists and 1.9 steals for the Braves. Keondre Montgomery is averaging 1.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Alcorn State.
Elijah Davis is averaging 4.3 points for the Delta Devils. Caleb Hunter is averaging 15.9 points over the last 10 games for Mississippi Valley State.
Delta Devils: 1-9, averaging 71.9 points, 27.7 rebounds, 9.9 assists, 6.6 steals and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 42.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 79.6 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
American Eagles (10-21, 5-13 Patriot) at Navy Midshipmen (19-10, 12-6 Patriot)
Annapolis, Maryland; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: American visits the Navy Midshipmen after Stacy Beckton Jr. scored 23 points in American’s 69-63 victory over the Holy Cross Crusaders.
The Midshipmen are 7-6 on their home court. Navy ranks third in the Patriot in rebounding with 33.6 rebounds. Greg Summers leads the Midshipmen with 4.9 boards.
The Eagles are 5-13 in conference games. American is eighth in the Patriot with 12.1 assists per game led by Elijah Stephens averaging 2.6.
The teams meet for the third time this season. The Midshipmen won 55-46 in the last matchup on Feb. 17. Tyler Nelson led the Midshipmen with 14 points, and Beckton led the Eagles with 13 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Summers is averaging 8.8 points for the Midshipmen. John Carter Jr. is averaging 12.9 points over the last 10 games for Navy.
Beckton is scoring 13.7 points per game and averaging 4.6 rebounds for the Eagles. Colin Smalls is averaging 8.7 points and 2.1 rebounds over the last 10 games for American. | null | null | null | null | null |
UL Monroe Warhawks (13-17, 5-13 Sun Belt) vs. Arkansas State Red Wolves (17-10, 8-7 Sun Belt)
BOTTOM LINE: The Arkansas State Red Wolves play in the Sun Belt Tournament against the UL Monroe Warhawks.
The Red Wolves are 11-3 in home games. Arkansas State is the top team in the Sun Belt with 16.0 assists per game led by Caleb Fields averaging 4.6.
The Warhawks are 5-13 against Sun Belt opponents. UL Monroe gives up 74.1 points to opponents and has been outscored by 1.8 points per game.
The teams play each other for the third time this season. UL Monroe won the last meeting 60-59 on Feb. 4. Andre Jones scored 21 to help lead UL Monroe to the victory, and Norchad Omier scored 23 points for Arkansas State.
TOP PERFORMERS: Omier is scoring 17.2 points per game and averaging 12.0 rebounds for the Red Wolves. Avery Felts is averaging 1.4 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Arkansas State.
Jones is scoring 15.3 points per game with 3.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists for the Warhawks. Russell Harrison is averaging 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds over the last 10 games for UL Monroe.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wolves: 4-6, averaging 63.7 points, 31.5 rebounds, 14.0 assists, 8.1 steals and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 42.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.1 points per game.
Warhawks: 3-7, averaging 66.6 points, 28.4 rebounds, 12.1 assists, 6.6 steals and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.8 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Loyola (MD) Greyhounds (14-15, 8-10 Patriot) at Boston University Terriers (20-11, 11-7 Patriot)
BOTTOM LINE: The Boston University Terriers play in the Patriot Tournament against the Loyola (MD) Greyhounds.
The Terriers have gone 10-4 at home. Boston University has a 5-2 record in one-possession games.
The Greyhounds are 8-10 in Patriot play. Loyola (MD) is 7-6 in games decided by 10 points or more.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Boston University won 67-50 in the last matchup on Jan. 20. Walter Whyte led Boston University with 15 points, and Cam Spencer led Loyola (MD) with 19 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Javante McCoy is averaging 17.1 points for the Terriers. Sukhmail Mathon is averaging 15.1 points and 10.1 rebounds over the last 10 games for Boston University.
Kenny Jones is averaging 8.8 points, 4.6 assists and 1.5 steals for the Greyhounds. Spencer is averaging 11.9 points over the last 10 games for Loyola (MD).
LAST 10 GAMES: Terriers: 7-3, averaging 71.7 points, 33.8 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 5.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 47.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.2 points per game.
Greyhounds: 2-8, averaging 58.4 points, 31.8 rebounds, 11.3 assists, 7.3 steals and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 38.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.6 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Florida Atlantic Owls (16-13, 9-7 C-USA) at Florida International Panthers (15-14, 5-11 C-USA)
Miami; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: C-USA foes Florida International and Florida Atlantic square off on Thursday.
The Panthers are 11-4 on their home court. Florida International is 7-5 when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents and averages 12.8 turnovers per game.
The Owls are 9-7 in C-USA play. Florida Atlantic ranks fourth in C-USA with 33.4 rebounds per game led by Alijah Martin averaging 5.4.
The Panthers and Owls face off Thursday for the first time in C-USA play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Eric Lovett is shooting 35.5% from beyond the arc with 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Panthers, while averaging 9.6 points. Tevin Brewer is shooting 45.8% and averaging 11.3 points over the last 10 games for Florida International.
Bryan Greenlee is averaging 9.6 points and 3.3 assists for the Owls. Michael Forrest is averaging 10.4 points over the last 10 games for Florida Atlantic. | null | null | null | null | null |
Georgia Southern Eagles (12-15, 5-11 Sun Belt) vs. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (16-12, 8-8 Sun Belt)
Pensacola, Florida; Thursday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers play in the Sun Belt Tournament against the Georgia Southern Eagles.
The Chanticleers have gone 11-6 at home. Coastal Carolina leads the Sun Belt in rebounding, averaging 37.0 boards. Essam Mostafa leads the Chanticleers with 9.4 rebounds.
The Eagles have gone 5-11 against Sun Belt opponents. Georgia Southern is eighth in the Sun Belt with 23.4 defensive rebounds per game led by Andrei Savrasov averaging 3.6.
The teams play each other for the third time this season. Coastal Carolina won the last meeting 79-58 on Feb. 12. Vince Cole scored 28 to help lead Coastal Carolina to the win, and Elijah McCadden scored 14 points for Georgia Southern.
TOP PERFORMERS: Cole is scoring 15.4 points per game with 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists for the Chanticleers. Rudi Williams is averaging 15.6 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 47.1% over the past 10 games for Coastal Carolina.
McCadden is shooting 48.8% and averaging 11.6 points for the Eagles. Kamari Brown is averaging 8.5 points over the last 10 games for Georgia Southern.
LAST 10 GAMES: Chanticleers: 6-4, averaging 67.9 points, 35.5 rebounds, 12.0 assists, 7.0 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 41.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.6 points per game. | null | null | null | null | null |
Bucknell Bison (9-22, 5-13 Patriot) at Colgate Raiders (20-11, 16-2 Patriot)
Hamilton, New York; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Colgate hosts the Bucknell Bison after Tucker Richardson scored 23 points in Colgate’s 74-69 victory over the Navy Midshipmen.
The Raiders have gone 12-1 at home. Colgate scores 75.3 points while outscoring opponents by 7.7 points per game.
The Bison are 5-13 in conference games. Bucknell gives up 78.9 points to opponents while being outscored by 7.6 points per game.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Colgate won 83-69 in the last matchup on Feb. 3. Ryan Moffatt led Colgate with 24 points, and Xander Rice led Bucknell with 18 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jack Ferguson averages 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Raiders, scoring 11.9 points while shooting 39.1% from beyond the arc. Richardson is shooting 48.0% and averaging 10.6 points over the past 10 games for Colgate.
Andrew Funk is shooting 36.2% from beyond the arc with 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Bison, while averaging 17.8 points. Rice is shooting 45.4% and averaging 10.2 points over the last 10 games for Bucknell. | null | null | null | null | null |
Central Arkansas Sugar Bears (11-19, 7-9 ASUN) at Jacksonville Dolphins (19-9, 11-5 ASUN)
Jacksonville, Florida; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Central Arkansas faces the Jacksonville Dolphins after Collin Cooper scored 21 points in Central Arkansas’ 74-73 win against the Stetson Hatters.
The Dolphins are 14-0 in home games. Jacksonville averages 67.0 points and has outscored opponents by 8.4 points per game.
The Sugar Bears have gone 7-9 against ASUN opponents. Central Arkansas is sixth in the ASUN with 8.8 offensive rebounds per game led by Jared Chatham averaging 2.1.
The teams meet for the second time this season. The Dolphins won 79-59 in the last matchup on Jan. 29. Tyreese Davis led the Dolphins with 22 points, and Cooper led the Sugar Bears with 17 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kevion Nolan averages 2.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Dolphins, scoring 14.0 points while shooting 37.0% from beyond the arc. Bryce Workman is averaging 9.7 points and 5.4 rebounds over the past 10 games for Jacksonville.
Camren Hunter is averaging 14.3 points, 3.3 assists and 1.6 steals for the Sugar Bears. Eddy Kayouloud is averaging 15.7 points and 7.1 rebounds while shooting 52.0% over the past 10 games for Central Arkansas.
LAST 10 GAMES: Dolphins: 8-2, averaging 67.9 points, 35.4 rebounds, 11.9 assists, 4.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 45.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 58.5 points per game.
Sugar Bears: 5-5, averaging 73.1 points, 34.1 rebounds, 15.1 assists, 7.2 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 43.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.7 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (21-10, 10-6 ASUN) at Bellarmine Knights (17-13, 11-5 ASUN)
Louisville, Kentucky; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: FGCU visits the Bellarmine Knights after Tavian Dunn-Martin scored 26 points in FGCU’s 81-72 victory over the North Alabama Lions.
The Knights are 8-4 in home games. Bellarmine is 7-11 against opponents over .500.
The Eagles are 10-6 against ASUN opponents. FGCU ranks ninth in the ASUN allowing 72.9 points while holding opponents to 43.0% shooting.
The teams meet for the second time this season. Bellarmine won 74-63 in the last matchup on Jan. 30. CJ Fleming led Bellarmine with 23 points, and Dunn-Martin led FGCU with 24 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Dylan Penn is scoring 16.3 points per game and averaging 4.2 rebounds for the Knights. Fleming is averaging 20.5 points and 2.2 rebounds over the last 10 games for Bellarmine.
Dunn-Martin averages 3.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Eagles, scoring 21.4 points while shooting 36.4% from beyond the arc. Kevin Samuel is averaging 11.8 points, nine rebounds and 2.8 blocks over the last 10 games for FGCU. | null | null | null | null | null |
Marist Red Foxes (14-13, 9-9 MAAC) at Canisius Golden Griffins (9-20, 5-13 MAAC)
BOTTOM LINE: Canisius plays the Marist Red Foxes after Jordan Henderson scored 25 points in Canisius’ 72-67 win against the Quinnipiac Bobcats.
The Golden Griffins have gone 7-5 in home games. Canisius is third in the MAAC with 13.0 assists per game led by Ahamadou Fofana averaging 3.3.
The Red Foxes are 9-9 in MAAC play. Marist scores 70.1 points while outscoring opponents by 3.2 points per game.
The teams square off for the second time in conference play this season. Marist won the last matchup 71-70 on Feb. 13. Jao Ituka scored 22 points to help lead the Red Foxes to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Henderson averages 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Golden Griffins, scoring 11.4 points while shooting 34.3% from beyond the arc. Armon Harried is shooting 38.2% and averaging 11.7 points over the past 10 games for Canisius.
Ituka is averaging 15.2 points for the Red Foxes. Ricardo Wright is averaging 12.1 points over the last 10 games for Marist. | null | null | null | null | null |
Robert Morris Colonials (8-23, 5-16 Horizon) at Cleveland State Vikings (19-9, 15-6 Horizon)
BOTTOM LINE: Kahliel Spear and the Robert Morris Colonials visit D’Moi Hodge and the Cleveland State Vikings on Thursday.
The Vikings are 14-3 on their home court. Cleveland State averages 75.6 points and has outscored opponents by 6.1 points per game.
The Colonials are 5-16 in Horizon play. Robert Morris ranks third in the Horizon shooting 34.8% from deep. Matt Mayers leads the Colonials shooting 44.4% from 3-point range.
The teams play each other for the third time this season. Cleveland State won the last meeting 75-68 on Jan. 23. Hodge scored 22 to help lead Cleveland State to the win, and Brandon Stone scored 14 points for Robert Morris.
TOP PERFORMERS: Hodge is scoring 15.4 points per game with 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists for the Vikings. Torrey Patton is averaging 13.2 points and 5.1 rebounds over the past 10 games for Cleveland State.
Spear is shooting 54.8% and averaging 14.6 points for the Colonials. Michael Green III is averaging 9.0 points over the last 10 games for Robert Morris. | null | null | null | null | null |
Indiana State Sycamores (11-19, 4-14 MVC) vs. Illinois State Redbirds (12-19, 5-13 MVC)
BOTTOM LINE: The Illinois State Redbirds and Indiana State Sycamores play in the MVC Tournament.
The Redbirds have gone 11-6 at home. Illinois State is 5-14 against opponents with a winning record.
The Sycamores are 4-14 in MVC play. Indiana State is 7-14 against opponents over .500.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Illinois State won 86-66 in the last matchup on Feb. 26. Antonio Reeves led Illinois State with 28 points, and Zach Hobbs led Indiana State with 15 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kendall Lewis is averaging 9.4 points and 5.7 rebounds for the Redbirds. Reeves is averaging 12.6 points over the last 10 games for Illinois State.
Xavier Bledson is averaging 9.2 points and 3.8 assists for the Sycamores. Cooper Neese is averaging 9.5 points over the last 10 games for Indiana State.
LAST 10 GAMES: Redbirds: 2-8, averaging 67.9 points, 27.2 rebounds, 12.4 assists, 7.4 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 48.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.7 points per game.
Sycamores: 2-8, averaging 69.0 points, 25.6 rebounds, 12.6 assists, 4.4 steals and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 44.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 82.0 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Iona visits Manhattan, looks for 25th victory this season
Iona Gaels (24-5, 16-2 MAAC) at Manhattan Jaspers (14-14, 7-12 MAAC)
Riverdale, New York; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Iona will aim for its 25th win of the season when the Gaels play the Manhattan Jaspers.
The Jaspers are 7-5 in home games. Manhattan is third in the MAAC scoring 70.9 points while shooting 44.2% from the field.
The Gaels are 16-2 in MAAC play. Iona leads the MAAC with 15.9 assists. Elijah Joiner paces the Gaels with 3.4.
The teams play for the second time this season in MAAC play. Iona won the last meeting 88-76 on Jan. 15. Tyson Jolly scored 16 points to help lead the Gaels to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jose Perez is averaging 18.5 points and 4.5 assists for the Jaspers. Anthony Nelson is averaging 10.9 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 39.8% over the last 10 games for Manhattan.
Joiner is averaging 11.8 points and 3.4 assists for the Gaels. Jolly is averaging 14.2 points over the last 10 games for Iona. | null | null | null | null | null |
Army Black Knights (15-15, 9-9 Patriot) at Lehigh Mountain Hawks (12-18, 10-8 Patriot)
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: The Lehigh Mountain Hawks and Army Black Knights square off in the Patriot Tournament.
The Mountain Hawks are 8-7 in home games. Lehigh has a 4-12 record in games decided by at least 10 points.
The Black Knights are 9-9 in conference matchups. Army is 8-10 in games decided by 10 points or more.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Lehigh won 84-71 in the last matchup on Jan. 27. Tyler Whitney-Sidney led Lehigh with 19 points, and Jalen Rucker led Army with 18 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Evan Taylor is averaging 13.1 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Mountain Hawks. Nic Lynch is averaging 1.3 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Lehigh.
Rucker is shooting 40.3% and averaging 16.8 points for the Black Knights. Aaron Duhart is averaging 0.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Army.
LAST 10 GAMES: Mountain Hawks: 5-5, averaging 75.0 points, 32.6 rebounds, 16.0 assists, 5.2 steals and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 48.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.1 points per game.
Black Knights: 3-7, averaging 66.0 points, 32.0 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 7.2 steals and 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 41.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.7 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Lipscomb visits Liberty following McGhee's 47-point showing
Lipscomb Bisons (14-18, 6-10 ASUN) at Liberty Flames (21-10, 12-4 ASUN)
Lynchburg, Virginia; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Liberty faces the Lipscomb Bisons after Darius McGhee scored 47 points in Liberty’s 100-93 overtime win over the Kennesaw State Owls.
The Flames have gone 12-2 in home games. Liberty ranks second in the ASUN at limiting opponent scoring, giving up 64.3 points while holding opponents to 40.6% shooting.
The Bisons are 6-10 in ASUN play. Lipscomb allows 77.6 points to opponents while being outscored by 2.8 points per game.
The teams meet for the second time this season. Liberty won 78-69 in the last matchup on Feb. 9. McGhee led Liberty with 29 points, and Ahsan Asadullah led Lipscomb with 16 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kyle Rode is averaging 9.2 points and 4.3 assists for the Flames. McGhee is averaging 28.5 points over the last 10 games for Liberty.
Asadullah is scoring 15.5 points per game with 9.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists for the Bisons. Will Pruitt is averaging 10.7 points over the last 10 games for Lipscomb.
Bisons: 5-5, averaging 73.8 points, 34.3 rebounds, 15.1 assists, 5.2 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 43.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.5 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
UT Arlington Mavericks (11-17, 7-10 Sun Belt) vs. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (13-14, 8-9 Sun Belt)
Pensacola, Florida; Thursday, 12:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns and UT Arlington Mavericks play in the Sun Belt Tournament.
The Ragin’ Cajuns have gone 7-6 in home games. Louisiana is 7-10 against opponents with a winning record.
The Mavericks are 7-10 against Sun Belt opponents. UT Arlington averages 13.4 turnovers per game and is 5-6 when winning the turnover battle.
The teams meet for the third time this season. The Mavericks won 80-77 in the last matchup on Feb. 12. David Azore led the Mavericks with 25 points, and Jordan Brown led the Ragin’ Cajuns with 21 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Trajan Wesley is averaging 4.7 points for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Brown is averaging 15 points and 8.8 rebounds over the last 10 games for Louisiana.
Javon Levi is averaging 5.4 points, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals for the Mavericks. Azore is averaging 23.4 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 42.3% over the past 10 games for UT Arlington.
LAST 10 GAMES: Ragin’ Cajuns: 4-6, averaging 70.9 points, 34.4 rebounds, 12.8 assists, 6.9 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 44.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.9 points per game.
Mavericks: 3-7, averaging 67.0 points, 30.4 rebounds, 13.3 assists, 8.4 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 41.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.4 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Maryland-Eastern Shore hosts Delaware State after Fragala's 24-point outing
Delaware State Hornets (2-24, 0-13 MEAC) at Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks (10-14, 5-8 MEAC)
Princess Anne, Maryland; Thursday, 7:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Delaware State visits the Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks after Dominik Fragala scored 24 points in Delaware State’s 80-67 loss to the Coppin State Eagles.
The Hawks have gone 5-4 in home games. Maryland-Eastern Shore is eighth in the MEAC with 22.0 defensive rebounds per game led by Nathaniel Pollard Jr. averaging 3.9.
The Hornets are 0-13 in conference play. Delaware State has a 0-3 record in games decided by less than 4 points.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. Maryland-Eastern Shore won 58-50 in the last matchup on Feb. 10. Pollard led Maryland-Eastern Shore with 14 points, and Myles Carter led Delaware State with 18 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Pollard is averaging 8.7 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Hawks. Kevon Voyles is averaging 1.8 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Corey Perkins is averaging six points, 3.3 assists and 1.6 steals for the Hornets. Carter is averaging 21.0 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 50.0% over the past 10 games for Delaware State.
LAST 10 GAMES: Hawks: 5-5, averaging 65.9 points, 31.2 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 10.3 steals and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 41.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.0 points per game. | null | null | null | null | null |
Quinnipiac Bobcats (12-14, 7-11 MAAC) at Monmouth Hawks (18-11, 10-8 MAAC)
West Long Branch, New Jersey; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Quinnipiac visits the Monmouth Hawks after Matt Balanc scored 22 points in Quinnipiac’s 72-67 loss to the Canisius Golden Griffins.
The Hawks have gone 8-5 at home. Monmouth ranks eighth in the MAAC shooting 31.9% from deep, led by Klemen Vuga shooting 50.0% from 3-point range.
The Bobcats are 7-11 in MAAC play. Quinnipiac is 1-1 in one-possession games.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. Monmouth won 76-63 in the last matchup on Feb. 6. Walker Miller led Monmouth with 22 points, and Tyrese Williams led Quinnipiac with 14 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Nikkei Rutty is averaging 3.3 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Hawks. Miller is averaging 15.5 points over the last 10 games for Monmouth.
Balanc is averaging 14.5 points for the Bobcats. Dezi Jones is averaging 12.6 points over the last 10 games for Quinnipiac. | null | null | null | null | null |
Temple Owls (16-10, 9-6 AAC) at Houston Cougars (25-5, 14-2 AAC)
Houston; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 14 Houston hosts the Temple Owls after Fabian White Jr. scored 28 points in Houston’s 71-53 victory against the Cincinnati Bearcats.
The Cougars have gone 15-1 in home games. Houston is third in the AAC scoring 73.6 points while shooting 46.6% from the field.
The Owls have gone 9-6 against AAC opponents. Temple is 3-1 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The teams play for the second time this season in AAC play. Houston won the last matchup 66-61 on Jan. 2. White scored 15 points points to help lead the Cougars to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kyler Edwards is scoring 13.6 points per game with 5.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists for the Cougars. White is averaging 10.6 points and 1.5 blocks over the past 10 games for Houston.
Jahlil White is averaging 7.3 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Owls. Zach Hicks is averaging 1.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Temple.
Owls: 6-4, averaging 70.6 points, 35.6 rebounds, 9.5 assists, 6.3 steals and 3.4 blocks per game while shooting 40.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.4 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
No. 20 Illinois takes on Penn State after Cockburn's 27-point game
Penn State Nittany Lions (12-14, 7-11 Big Ten) at Illinois Fighting Illini (20-8, 13-5 Big Ten)
Champaign, Illinois; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 20 Illinois faces the Penn State Nittany Lions after Kofi Cockburn scored 27 points in Illinois’ 93-85 victory over the Michigan Wolverines.
The Fighting Illini have gone 11-3 in home games. Illinois is third in the Big Ten scoring 76.9 points while shooting 46.0% from the field.
The Nittany Lions have gone 7-11 against Big Ten opponents. Penn State is 1-2 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The Fighting Illini and Nittany Lions face off Thursday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Cockburn is averaging 21.5 points and 10.7 rebounds for the Fighting Illini. Alfonso Plummer is averaging 9.1 points over the last 10 games for Illinois.
Jalen Pickett is scoring 12.8 points per game with 4.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists for the Nittany Lions. Sam Sessoms is averaging 7.1 points and 1.7 rebounds while shooting 42.2% over the past 10 games for Penn State. | null | null | null | null | null |
No. 6 Kansas faces TCU, seeks 5th straight home win
TCU Horned Frogs (19-9, 8-8 Big 12) at Kansas Jayhawks (23-6, 12-4 Big 12)
Lawrence, Kansas; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 6 Kansas will try to keep its four-game home win streak intact when the Jayhawks take on TCU.
The Jayhawks have gone 14-1 in home games. Kansas is 21-5 against opponents with a winning record.
The Horned Frogs have gone 8-8 against Big 12 opponents. TCU is the Big 12 leader with 36.2 rebounds per game led by Emanuel Miller averaging 6.3.
The teams square off for the second time in conference play this season. TCU won the last matchup 74-64 on March 2. Mike Miles scored 19 points to help lead the Horned Frogs to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ochai Agbaji is averaging 20.1 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Jayhawks. Christian Braun is averaging 1.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Kansas.
Damion Baugh is averaging 10.4 points and 4.2 assists for the Horned Frogs. Miles is averaging 10 points over the last 10 games for TCU. | null | null | null | null | null |
Howard Bison (16-11, 9-4 MEAC) at Norfolk State Spartans (20-6, 11-2 MEAC)
BOTTOM LINE: Norfolk State hosts the Howard Bison after Kris Bankston scored 21 points in Norfolk State’s 75-46 win over the North Carolina Central Eagles.
The Spartans are 11-0 on their home court. Norfolk State ranks third in the MEAC with 12.6 assists per game led by Joe Bryant Jr. averaging 3.5.
The Bison have gone 9-4 against MEAC opponents. Howard averages 77.7 points and has outscored opponents by 8.2 points per game.
The teams square off for the second time in conference play this season. Norfolk State won the last meeting 77-74 on Jan. 15. Bryant scored 24 points points to help lead the Spartans to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Bryant is averaging 16.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists for the Spartans. Jalen Hawkins is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Norfolk State.
Kyle Foster is scoring 16.0 points per game with 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists for the Bison. Elijah Hawkins is averaging 13.2 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 36.4% over the past 10 games for Howard. | null | null | null | null | null |
Oakland Golden Grizzlies (20-11, 12-7 Horizon) at Wright State Raiders (18-13, 15-7 Horizon)
Fairborn, Ohio; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Wright State plays the Oakland Golden Grizzlies after Grant Basile scored 20 points in Wright State’s 71-61 victory against the Robert Morris Colonials.
The Raiders have gone 11-3 at home. Wright State is second in the Horizon with 36.9 points per game in the paint led by AJ Braun averaging 0.9.
The Golden Grizzlies are 12-7 against conference opponents. Oakland has a 4-1 record in games decided by less than 4 points.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Wright State won 78-74 in the last matchup on Feb. 19. Basile led Wright State with 26 points, and Jalen Moore led Oakland with 20 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Trey Calvin is averaging 13.9 points, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals for the Raiders. Basile is averaging 21.1 points over the last 10 games for Wright State.
Jamal Cain is averaging 20 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals for the Golden Grizzlies. Micah Parrish is averaging 2.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Oakland.
Golden Grizzlies: 4-6, averaging 69.9 points, 27.5 rebounds, 13.1 assists, 11.5 steals and 1.6 blocks per game while shooting 43.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.6 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Rodgers leads Kennesaw State against Jacksonville State after 22-point game
Kennesaw State Owls (13-17, 7-9 ASUN) at Jacksonville State Gamecocks (20-9, 13-3 ASUN)
Jacksonville, Alabama; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Kennesaw State faces the Jacksonville State Gamecocks after Spencer Rodgers scored 22 points in Kennesaw State’s 82-73 victory over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.
The Gamecocks are 10-3 in home games. Jacksonville State averages 74.6 points while outscoring opponents by 7.4 points per game.
The Owls have gone 7-9 against ASUN opponents. Kennesaw State is fifth in the ASUN with 9.4 offensive rebounds per game led by Demond Robinson averaging 2.0.
The teams play each other for the second time this season. Jacksonville State won the last matchup 70-64 on Jan. 28. Darian Adams scored 22 to help lead Jacksonville State to the victory, and Chris Youngblood scored 19 points for Kennesaw State.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jalen Finch is averaging 9.2 points and 4.5 assists for the Gamecocks. Adams is averaging 18.0 points over the last 10 games for Jacksonville State.
Youngblood is averaging 13.7 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Owls. Rodgers is averaging 11.8 points over the last 10 games for Kennesaw State. | null | null | null | null | null |
California Golden Bears (12-17, 5-13 Pac-12) at Arizona State Sun Devils (12-16, 8-10 Pac-12)
Tempe, Arizona; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Cal plays the Arizona State Sun Devils after Jordan Shepherd scored 28 points in Cal’s 53-39 victory against the Stanford Cardinal.
The Sun Devils have gone 7-6 in home games. Arizona State gives up 68.3 points and has been outscored by 3.3 points per game.
The Golden Bears have gone 5-13 against Pac-12 opponents. Cal has a 1-3 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The teams play for the second time this season in Pac-12 play. Cal won the last meeting 74-50 on Jan. 3. Shepherd scored 16 points to help lead the Golden Bears to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: DJ Horne averages 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Sun Devils, scoring 12.1 points while shooting 36.6% from beyond the arc. Jalen Graham is shooting 52.1% and averaging 8.4 points over the past 10 games for Arizona State.
Joel Brown is averaging five points and 3.3 assists for the Golden Bears. Shepherd is averaging 9.7 points over the past 10 games for Cal. | null | null | null | null | null |
Little Rock Trojans (8-18, 3-11 Sun Belt) vs. South Alabama Jaguars (19-10, 9-7 Sun Belt)
BOTTOM LINE: The South Alabama Jaguars square off against the Little Rock Trojans in the Sun Belt Tournament.
The Jaguars are 13-2 in home games. South Alabama is third in the Sun Belt scoring 71.4 points while shooting 45.7% from the field.
The Trojans are 3-11 in Sun Belt play. Little Rock ranks eighth in the Sun Belt shooting 32.4% from 3-point range.
The teams play each other for the second time this season. South Alabama won the last meeting 77-46 on Feb. 11. Jay Jay Chandler scored 14 to help lead South Alabama to the win, and Isaiah Palermo scored 16 points for Little Rock.
TOP PERFORMERS: Charles Manning Jr. is averaging 15.7 points and 3.6 assists for the Jaguars. Chandler is averaging 15.2 points over the last 10 games for South Alabama.
Jovan Stulic averages 1.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Trojans, scoring 7.8 points while shooting 43.0% from beyond the arc. Myron Gardner is shooting 43.2% and averaging 10.6 points over the past 10 games for Little Rock.
Trojans: 1-9, averaging 58.2 points, 25.6 rebounds, 9.9 assists, 7.0 steals and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 39.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.5 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
UAPB visits Jackson State after Williams' 34-point performance
Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions (7-22, 5-11 SWAC) at Jackson State Tigers (9-18, 7-9 SWAC)
Jackson, Mississippi; Thursday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UAPB plays the Jackson State Tigers after Shawn Williams scored 34 points in UAPB’s 93-79 win against the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils.
The Tigers have gone 4-2 at home. Jackson State ranks eighth in the SWAC with 27.4 points per game in the paint led by Jayveous McKinnis averaging 1.5.
The Golden Lions have gone 5-11 against SWAC opponents. UAPB is ninth in the SWAC scoring 27.1 points per game in the paint led by Trey Sampson averaging 1.4.
The teams play for the second time this season in SWAC play. Jackson State won the last meeting 60-47 on Feb. 8. Terence Lewis II scored 14 points points to help lead the Tigers to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: McKinnis is scoring 11.7 points per game with 9.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists for the Tigers. Lewis is averaging 13.1 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 52.3% over the past 10 games for Jackson State.
Williams is averaging 16.6 points and 3.6 assists for the Golden Lions. Dequan Morris is averaging 16.6 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 54.1% over the last 10 games for UAPB. | null | null | null | null | null |
UIC visits Purdue Fort Wayne following Johnson's 21-point showing
UIC Flames (14-15, 9-10 Horizon) at Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons (20-10, 15-6 Horizon)
Fort Wayne, Indiana; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UIC faces the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons after Kevin Johnson scored 21 points in UIC’s 80-69 victory over the Milwaukee Panthers.
The Mastodons are 14-2 on their home court. Purdue Fort Wayne is 2-0 in one-possession games.
The Flames have gone 9-10 against Horizon opponents. UIC ranks seventh in the Horizon shooting 32.3% from 3-point range.
The teams square off for the second time this season. Purdue Fort Wayne won the last matchup 73-66 on Feb. 13. Damian Chong Qui scored 20 to help lead Purdue Fort Wayne to the victory, and Damaria Franklin scored 17 points for UIC.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jarred Godfrey averages 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Mastodons, scoring 15.1 points while shooting 38.6% from beyond the arc. Jalon Pipkins is shooting 50.0% and averaging 14.9 points over the past 10 games for Purdue Fort Wayne.
Franklin averages 1.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Flames, scoring 18.0 points while shooting 30.3% from beyond the arc. Johnson is averaging 12.3 points and 3.6 assists over the last 10 games for UIC.
LAST 10 GAMES: Mastodons: 9-1, averaging 76.8 points, 29.3 rebounds, 14.9 assists, 9.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 48.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.5 points per game.
Flames: 7-3, averaging 76.6 points, 33.6 rebounds, 13.3 assists, 5.9 steals and 5.0 blocks per game while shooting 44.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.0 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Vaughn, Rider Broncs square off against the Fairfield Stags
Rider Broncs (11-17, 7-11 MAAC) at Fairfield Stags (13-16, 7-11 MAAC)
Bridgeport, Connecticut; Thursday, 7:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Dimencio Vaughn and the Rider Broncs visit Taj Benning and the Fairfield Stags in MAAC action.
The Stags are 5-9 on their home court. Fairfield is sixth in the MAAC with 24.1 defensive rebounds per game led by Supreme Cook averaging 5.1.
The Broncs are 7-11 against MAAC opponents. Rider is eighth in the MAAC scoring 67.4 points per game and is shooting 40.2%.
The teams square off for the second time this season in MAAC play. Fairfield won the last meeting 76-65 on Jan. 29. Benning scored 24 points points to help lead the Stags to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Benning is scoring 11.1 points per game with 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Stags. Cook is averaging 11.1 points and 8.3 rebounds over the last 10 games for Fairfield.
Dwight Murray Jr. is averaging 12.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists for the Broncs. Allen Powell is averaging 15.4 points over the last 10 games for Rider. | null | null | null | null | null |
South Carolina State Bulldogs (15-14, 7-6 MEAC) at North Carolina Central Eagles (14-14, 7-5 MEAC)
Durham, North Carolina; Thursday, 7:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Justin Wright and the North Carolina Central Eagles host Antonio Madlock and the South Carolina State Bulldogs.
The Eagles have gone 8-2 at home. North Carolina Central scores 73.1 points and has outscored opponents by 4.4 points per game.
The Bulldogs are 7-6 in MEAC play. South Carolina State is fifth in the MEAC scoring 72.0 points per game and is shooting 39.1%.
The teams square off for the second time this season in MEAC play. South Carolina State won the last meeting 74-68 on Feb. 8. Madlock scored 20 points to help lead the Bulldogs to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kris Monroe is shooting 36.7% from beyond the arc with 1.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Eagles, while averaging 10.5 points and six rebounds. Wright is shooting 51.4% and averaging 18.6 points over the last 10 games for North Carolina Central.
Rahsaan Edwards averages 1.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Bulldogs, scoring 8.2 points while shooting 34.2% from beyond the arc. Madlock is shooting 40.2% and averaging 12.4 points over the past 10 games for South Carolina State. | null | null | null | null | null |
China expresses concern over civilians in Ukraine after citizen wounded during evacuation, urges de-escalation
Women walk by a large Ukranian flag with the slogan "We Stand With Ukraine" written on it in Chinese characters on the outside wall of the Canadian Embassy on March 1, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Wang’s remarks were some of the sharpest China has made about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Beijing has been loath to directly criticize. While Wang told Kuleba there has been no change in China’s stance, he did dwell more on the loss of life than in other recent statements from Beijing, as well as the potential for further harm to civilians.
“China deplores the outbreak of conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and is extremely concerned about the harm to civilians,” China Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a phone call with Dmytro Kuleba, who requested Beijing’s assistance in negotiating a ceasefire, according to a readout from the Chinese Foreign Ministry late Tuesday.
The call came as China has been struggling to get its citizens safely out of the embattled country. One Chinese national was injured by gunfire while trying to leave Ukraine, with his condition now stabilized, China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. Ukrainian police helped escort other Chinese to the border.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, China has been carefully balancing between its burgeoning relationship with Moscow against a Western-led world order and its longstanding stated commitment to noninterference in other nations’ affairs.
Beijing’s position is under close watch: China is believed to have more influence over Russia than anyone else, due the two nations’ growing security and economic ties. As Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to invade, the United States called on China to use its influence over Moscow to urge a diplomatic solution. | null | null | null | null | null |
Southern Utah Thunderbirds (18-10, 12-6 Big Sky) at Idaho State Bengals (7-21, 5-14 Big Sky)
Pocatello, Idaho; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Tevian Jones and the Southern Utah Thunderbirds visit Tarik Cool and the Idaho State Bengals on Thursday.
The Bengals have gone 5-7 at home. Idaho State is fifth in the Big Sky in team defense, allowing 71.5 points while holding opponents to 46.7% shooting.
The teams square off for the second time in conference play this season. Southern Utah won the last meeting 86-74 on Jan. 22. Jason Spurgin scored 17 points to help lead the Thunderbirds to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Cool is averaging 12 points for the Bengals. Robert Ford III is averaging 10.9 points over the last 10 games for Idaho State.
Jones is shooting 31.1% from beyond the arc with 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Thunderbirds, while averaging 14.6 points. John Knight III is shooting 47.5% and averaging 13.2 points over the past 10 games for Southern Utah.
LAST 10 GAMES: Bengals: 4-6, averaging 69.6 points, 30.3 rebounds, 12.1 assists, 4.1 steals and 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.5 points per game. | null | null | null | null | null |
Oregon Ducks (18-11, 11-7 Pac-12) at Washington Huskies (14-15, 9-9 Pac-12)
Seattle; Thursday, 10 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Washington hosts the Oregon Ducks after Terrell Brown scored 20 points in Washington’s 77-66 loss to the UCLA Bruins.
The Huskies have gone 10-6 in home games. Washington is ninth in the Pac-12 scoring 67.6 points while shooting 40.8% from the field.
The Ducks are 11-7 in Pac-12 play. Oregon ranks ninth in the Pac-12 with 23.1 defensive rebounds per game led by N’Faly Dante averaging 3.9.
The teams square off for the second time in conference play this season. Oregon won the last meeting 84-56 on Jan. 24. Will Richardson scored 21 points to help lead the Ducks to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Emmitt Matthews Jr. is shooting 42.1% and averaging 11.3 points for the Huskies. PJ Fuller is averaging 0.9 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Washington.
Richardson is scoring 14.6 points per game with 3.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Ducks. De’Vion Harmon is averaging 7.7 points over the past 10 games for Oregon. | null | null | null | null | null |
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (15-9, 9-4 Big West) at UCSB Gauchos (15-10, 7-5 Big West)
Santa Barbara, California; Thursday, 10 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: UCSB takes on the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors after Amadou Sow scored 26 points in UCSB’s 70-61 win over the CSU Northridge Matadors.
The Gauchos are 10-3 in home games. UCSB ranks sixth in the Big West with 23.8 defensive rebounds per game led by Sow averaging 5.2.
The Rainbow Warriors have gone 9-4 against Big West opponents. Hawaii averages 69.6 points while outscoring opponents by 5.3 points per game.
The teams square off for the second time this season in Big West play. Hawaii won the last meeting 65-62 on Jan. 30. Junior Madut scored 16 points to help lead the Rainbow Warriors to the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ajay Mitchell is averaging 12.2 points and four assists for the Gauchos. Sow is averaging 15.9 points and 8.2 rebounds over the last 10 games for UCSB.
Noel Coleman is shooting 44.0% and averaging 14.8 points for the Rainbow Warriors. Kamaka Hepa is averaging 1.9 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Hawaii. | null | null | null | null | null |
Nicholls State Colonels (19-10, 9-3 Southland) at Texas A&M-CC Islanders (19-10, 6-6 Southland)
Corpus Christi, Texas; Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Nicholls State visits the Texas A&M-CC Islanders after Jitaurious Gordon scored 33 points in Nicholls State’s 83-81 loss to the SE Louisiana Lions.
The Islanders have gone 9-3 at home. Texas A&M-CC has a 1-1 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The Colonels have gone 9-3 against Southland opponents. Nicholls State scores 79.0 points while outscoring opponents by 8.2 points per game.
The teams square off for the third time this season in Southland play. Nicholls State won the last meeting 83-80 on Feb. 12. Gordon scored 21 points to help lead the Colonels to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Trey Tennyson averages 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Islanders, scoring 12.4 points while shooting 37.1% from beyond the arc. Isaac Mushila is averaging 14.4 points and 9.9 rebounds over the last 10 games for Texas A&M-CC.
Gordon is scoring 21.1 points per game with 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Colonels. Latrell Jones is averaging 12.6 points and 5.7 rebounds over the last 10 games for Nicholls State. | null | null | null | null | null |
SEATTLE — Seattle University removed the interim tag and made Chris Victor its permanent head coach on Tuesday.
CHICAGO — The U.S. Soccer Federation has reached an eight-year multimedia rights agreement with Turner Sports that will put broadcasts of both men’s and women’s national team games on TNT, TBS and HBO Max. | null | null | null | null | null |
Worried about the state of democracy? Here are some reasons to be optimistic instead.
These factors help countries return to democracy after an authoritarian spell, our research finds.
By Miguel Angel Lara Otaola
A person departs U.N. headquarters on Tuesday. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
In its recently published its 2021 Democracy Index, London-based newspaper The Economist finds that the state of democracy around the world fell to a record low. Similarly, the NGO Freedom House reported in 2021 that countries where freedom declined outnumbered those where it gained. And the intergovernmental organization International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), where I work, found that 2021 was the first time since we began tracking that the world has seen five consecutive years of a negative democratic trend, as you can see in the figure below.
Here’s what all these organizations are finding: The number of authoritarian countries is increasing, both absolutely and when compared with the number of democratic countries. And authoritarian tactics — from questioning election results to attacks on civil society and the media — are on the rise. The United States is not an exception.
But this pessimistic picture accounts for part of the story. Democracy is not as weak as headlines — which usually focus on bad news — might make us believe. While we’ve certainly seen democratic backsliding over the last decade, we can find optimism with a longer-term perspective and by looking at resilient institutions.
Reasons to be optimistic about democracy
A long view on democracy is helpful. One century ago, democracies made up only 14 percent of countries worldwide. Today, different measures estimate between 44 and 59 percent of governments are democratic.
Moreover, democracy continues to expand. Since 2000, 25 countries from regions all over the world have transitioned to democracy, from Peru to the Gambia.
In addition, democracy has proven more resilient than authoritarianism. Out of all democratic countries that existed in 1975, 92.1 percent remain democratic today. Only three no longer qualify as democratic: Turkey, Thailand, and Venezuela. Moreover, political scientist Nancy Bermeo shows the current mix of democratic backsliding can be more easily reversed than in the past. Specifically, countries with toppled democracies remain autocratic for much less time than in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
Africa has had 8 coup attempts in recent months. What's behind the coup 'epidemic'?
What we can learn from nine countries that transitioned back to democracy
Since 2000, nine countries have transitioned back to democracy after an authoritarian spell. For instance, in Nepal, a united opposition ended King Gyanendra’s almost absolute rule — resulting in democratic transition. More recently, in Bolivia, mass protests led to a new election management body and a fresh election date.
To learn more about returns to democracy, I analyzed data from International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy Indices for these and seven other countries that transitioned back from authoritarianism after 2000: Fiji, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
Drawing on 12 different datasets composed using different methods (observational data, expert surveys, in-house coding, and composite measures), IDEA’s Global State of Democracy Indices measure democracy by looking at 16 attributes that range from clean elections to media integrity, as you can see in the figure below.
How to recover from democratic breakdown
During these nine countries’ transition periods from authoritarianism to democracy, they lost some ground on certain democratic attributes, but others remained stable or even improved.
During the authoritarian spell, what declined most were formal institutions designed to keep government in check. These institutional checks and balances include, for example, clean elections, effective parliament, judicial independence and predictable enforcement.
Take Fiji, which endured a long non-democratic spell that started in 2000 with a civilian-led coup against the Mahenda Chaudry government and ending in 2013-14 when the country introduced a new constitution and held parliamentary elections. During Fiji’s democratic downturn, and especially after the 2006 coup, the military declared a state of emergency and abolished or controlled many key institutions.
This included the Great Council of Chiefs, which functioned as an electoral college, nominated members to the Senate and approved constitutional changes. During this period, Fiji’s score on checks on government, including an effective parliament and an independent judiciary, decreased from 0.53 to 0.27 on a 0 to 1 scale on the Global State of Democracy Indices.
On the other hand, in this group of countries the democratic attributes that remained stable or even increased generally involved independent organizations that monitor government actions. Such autonomous checks and balances include things like civil society participation — citizen involvement in political and non-political associations and in public debates — free political parties, civil liberties, and media integrity.
For example, Nepal’s democracy broke down between 2001 and 2008 during a civil war between the government and an armed Maoist insurgency. While at times the government declared states of emergency and ruled by decree, several groups nevertheless worked on restoring peace and democracy.
Toward the end of the conflict, for instance, Maoist rebels, opposition parties and civil society organizations united to end the monarchy and organize elections. During this period, Nepal’s civil society participation score — by which we measure the extent to which organized, voluntary, self-generating social life is dense and vibrant — increased from 0.64 to 0.74 on a 0 to 1 scale.
The countries that returned to democracy after an authoritarian spell, scored higher on autonomous checks and balances than those that did not.
More important, during the period of democratic downturn we found that while institutional checks decrease significantly, those autonomous checks declined less, remained steady or even increased. This suggests that autonomous checks and balances may be better at withstanding authoritarian pressures than government institutions.
Republicans and Democrats have split over whether to support multiethnic democracy, our research finds
Investing in autonomous groups pays off
These countries show us that democracy is resilient and that countries can and do return to democracy. They also show that authoritarian spells do not affect all aspects of democracy equally. While authoritarian governments quickly erode the independence and effectiveness of state institutions in checking their power, independent groups tend to be more resilient.
Even amid the pandemic, protest and civic action have persevered. Protests in places like Belarus, Cuba, Eswatini and Myanmar confirm that the spirit of democracy is not as weak as headlines might make us believe. Democracy is not only resilient, but very much alive.
Miguel Angel Lara Otaola (@malaraotaola) is a senior democracy assessment specialist at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and a board member of the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP). He earned his PhD in politics at the University of Sussex. | null | null | null | null | null |
People walk at a trading center also known as Russia Market in Beijing on March 1. (Wu Hong/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
As Russia’s largest trading partner and one of the few countries globally that has not condemned President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing’s ability to undermine the Western economic coercion used to press Moscow into a cease-fire is being closely scrutinized by the United States and its allies.
China’s public stance has been to repeat its long-held opposition to sanctions imposed outside of the United Nations framework, and its statements on Ukraine have charted a narrow course between support for Russia’s position by blaming NATO and the United States while claiming Beijing remains neutral and respects the sovereignty of all countries, including Ukraine.
Without making public statements, some Chinese institutions appear to be quietly adhering to sanctions and there are few signs of significant attempts to create a lifeline for the Russian economy. According to Bloomberg News, two of China’s biggest commercial banks, Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), in recent days restricted financing or purchases of Russian commodities.
China’s announcement in February to lift restrictions on Russian wheat imports received a lot of attention, but it was just the fulfillment of a pledge made much earlier after concerns about the presence of dwarf bunt fungus found in previous shipments had been resolved.
However, surging gas prices caused by the Ukraine conflict may give China pause, after analysts were already predicting lower imports for the year. Beijing may also be wary of replacing U.S. gas imports with Russian ones, after it is already missing purchase targets under a “phase one” trade deal made in early 2020 with the Trump administration.
“China would risk losing access to technologies from the West if it ignores restrictions on Russia. And the West has far more to offer than Russia in terms of semiconductors, software, and high-end industrial goods,” said Dan Wang, a Shanghai-based technology analysts for research firm Gavekal Dragonomics.
Even for Russia, which has been more proactive than most in using yuan for deals, only 17.5 percent of trade between the two countries was settled in yuan in 2020, and China’s ICBC bank operates a lone CIPS clearing station in Moscow. | null | null | null | null | null |
Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, left, and Magnus Carlsen of Norway, right, compete during the FIDE World Championship in Dubai on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)
For half of the 20th century, Soviet and Russian players dominated chess, winning all but one World Chess Championship, the game’s most prestigious tournament. During the Soviet era, grandmasters like Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov were treated as celebrities. Even today, Russia boasts some 239 grandmasters — by far the most of any country.
But the international organizing chess body this week dealt a blow to the country where the game has been historically ingrained in its national identity. In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the International Chess Federation on Sunday pulled tournaments from Russia and Belarus, a move that experts described as historic.
In addition to pulling tournaments — including the prestigious Chess Olympiad — FIDE also said that Russian and Belarusian players will not be allowed to display their flags in tournaments, and the federation will terminate all sponsorship deals it holds with Russian and Belarusian state-owned enterprises. It also said that two Russian players who publicly voiced support for the invasion could face discipline.
“This is a naked act of aggression against a sovereign country and … it involves two very important chess nations,” he added, referring to Russia and Ukraine. “I mean, these are two of the strongest chess nations in the world.”
The sanctions being imposed by FIDE coincide with actions by other international sporting organizations amid Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine, which Belarus is supporting. FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, and the Union of European Football Associations on Monday suspended Russia from international competition, as the International Olympic Committee recommended that sporting organizations bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in events. Organizations representing hockey, ice skating, tennis and other sports have placed varying restrictions on the country as the United States and the European Union seek to cut Russia off from the international financial system.
FIDE, meanwhile, stopped short of banning Russians from participating in tournaments. Asked whether FIDE could impose more restrictions, Short said the organization has been “very widely praised for the actions it has taken already — even from its perennial critics.”
Putin’s rationale for invading Ukraine will “be harder and harder to sustain with ordinary Russians when they’re seeing apolitical international sports organizations … locking their country out,” Fish told The Post.
A world chess Cold War is brewing as Russian chief blames U.S. contingent for ‘fake news’ resignation
In the 1920s, a “chess fever” overtook the Soviet Union as the government sponsored programs and set up chess clubs from Moscow to the Siberian countryside, Russian FIDE master Andrey Terekhov wrote in an essay published on Chess24.com, a chess platform and publication. The game was ever-present in factories, cafeterias and schools, according to Hudson.
Chess later became a way for the Soviets to exert international power — to demonstrate the “superiority of the Soviet system,” Hudson said, and Russia came to “dominate” FIDE.
FIDE’s connection to Russia continued after the fall of the regime, Wired reported. For 23 years beginning in 1995, Russian businessman and politician Kirsan Ilyumzhinov served as the organization’s president. He was accused of being close to the Kremlin, which he has denied, as FiveThirtyEight reported. In 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Ilyumzhinov for providing financial support to the Syrian government. | null | null | null | null | null |
Deafheaven will perform at the Black Cat. (Robin Laananen)
Deafheaven made their bones as the most prominent proponents of “blackgaze,” a fusion of black metal’s demonic shrieks, rapid-fire riffage and pneumatic percussion with the dreamy atmospherics of shoegaze. Across five albums, the band’s music has oscillated between those two impulses, and on 2021’s “Infinite Granite,” the pendulum swung fully to the latter. Mostly devoid of blast-beat drumming and the screamed vocals of frontman George Clarke, the album is the closest thing to a straightforward rock record that Deafheaven has ever recorded, if just as epic. Clarke’s lyrics — intelligible for the first time — grapple with lockdown insomnia and familial trauma with an outlook that is as black as ever, as he sings, “What does daylight look like in this chaos of cold?” March 5 at 8 p.m. at Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. blackcatdc.com $25-$28.
It’s been years since Tyler, the Creator and his teenage compatriots in Odd Future attempted to take over pop music and pop culture like a bazooka aimed at traditional ideas about “good taste.” The 30-year-old multihyphenate has come a long way since then, especially since embracing the anything-goes retro-futurism of his idol, Pharrell Williams. Tyler leveled up with 2019’s “Igor,” a brokenhearted concept album that spanned the soul-funk spectrum, and on last year’s “Call Me If You Get Lost,” he focused his energy into a record that serves as a reminder that he’s one of the most gifted and entertaining rappers of his generation. Hosted by DJ Drama like the iconic “Gangsta Grillz” mix-tape series, the album sees the newly fashioned “Tyler Baudelaire” looking where he’s been and pondering where he’s going. March 7 at 7 p.m. at Capital One Arena, 601 F St. NW. capitalonearena.com. $380.75-$480.75.
When Pink Siifu released “Negro” in April 2020, he couldn’t have known that, just weeks later, yet another Black man would be murdered by police, sparking protests against racist violence and police brutality across the United States and the world. In that way, the album — an avant-garde dispatch informed by everything from free jazz to hardcore punk to rap — and its cathartic attack on police, politicians and all agents of American racism proved timely and not just timeless. That iconoclasm continues on the sprawling “Gumbo’!”, on which the Alabama-born, Cincinnati-raised, Los Angeles-based artist adds ingredients like cooking its titular stew. Less noisy and more rap-focused than its predecessor, the album forgoes samples of Malcolm X and police reports for DMX and church sermons, tapping Dungeon Family legend Big Rube to inscribe the name Pink Siifu on the lineage of Black American music. March 9 at 7 p.m. at Songbyrd, 540 Penn St. NE. songbyrddc.com. $20.
The Microphones
As The Microphones, Phil Elverum is no stranger to gazing into the abyss of mortality. His well-regarded 2003 album “Mount Eerie” — also the alias the singer-songwriter adopted for the next decade and a half — is a concept album about life, death, being torn apart by vultures and subsequently understanding the universe. That unflinching stare continued on his most recent albums, which were written and recorded as he grappled with the death of his wife, artist Geneviève Castrée, at age 35. In 2020, he assumed his old recording moniker to release “Microphones in 2020,” a one-song, 44-minute 44-second album that swims in similarly existential waters. On it, Elverum looks back at his formative years, at moments that exist together or not at all, making something new from old memories. “I remember my life as if it’s just some dreams that I don’t trust,” he sings, “burning off, layered thick, a cargo that I haul, wounds and loves unresolved.” March 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Miracle Theatre, 535 Eighth St. SE. themiracletheatre.com. Sold out.
Note: Proof of coronavirus vaccination is required for admittance to some of these shows. Check venue websites for details. | null | null | null | null | null |
Time and the war in Ukraine
How are the great powers thinking about the future?
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Feb. 7. (-/AFP/Getty Images)
Social media has led too many observers to approach international relations with a short attention span. Just a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, there were widespread reports that the military action was “bogged down.” While this claim has some truth to it, some perspective is needed. Even quick military actions often take weeks or months to be successfully completed. And anyone familiar with U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century knows that initial victories can sour over time.
The point is that no one should expect quick and decisive denouements in international relations. Some grand strategies require considerable amounts of patience to bear any fruit. In my day job I am trying to think more about how great powers think about the future, and whether they believe it to be favorable to them or not.
A week into the war in Ukraine, it is impossible to judge how this conflict will play out. It is worth considering how Russian, European, Chinese and American expectations of the future of great power politics led to this point, and how this war might alter or reinforce those expectations.
Before the invasion, it seemed that Russia expected a future in which it would be able to achieve its strategic goals through the threat and/or use of military force. Moscow viewed the West as fractured and in decline and China as its strategic partner. A week in, there might be a need for some recalculation. Moscow is facing unprecedented sanctions, a united NATO, a united European Union and a Germany that is now committed to taking Russia’s military statecraft seriously. Furthermore, Russian reversals on the battlefield and in the information space have tarnished its war-fighting reputation.
Even if Russia eventually defeats Ukraine, its relative power is now on the wane under the weight of sanctions, military losses and the military buildup of its adversaries. Russia’s reputation for adroitly using its power is in shambles. Moscow’s primary hope for the future is that the coalition aligned against it starts to fray because of internal discord.
China might also need to recalculate. Xi Jinping’s decision to cement ties with Putin had a certain authoritarian logic. No doubt Chinese economic growth and U.S. foreign policy fatigue fostered an impression that the future was more favorable to China. As a county with similar irredentist territorial claims, it is little wonder that China has implicitly supported Russia’s position on Ukraine. It is even possible that China’s leadership viewed Russia’s actions in Ukraine as a useful distraction given the recent U.S. focus on the Indo-Pacific.
China will also be learning from the past week. Its implicit support for Russia might make life a bit more awkward. A unified NATO will also pose some challenges to a China that was quite eager to use economic statecraft to divide and conquer. The most interesting question — one for which I have no answer — is how China views the array of sanctions now being imposed on Russia. Do these sanctions deter Chinese bellicosity? Does it provide the preview for what to expect if China contemplates similar actions? How will it react as Taiwan also moves down the learning curve on Ukraine?
The biggest change might be in Europe’s expectations about the future. Up until last week, Europe seemed split about how to deal with Russia, with Franco-German skepticism about U.S. warnings regarding Putin. No longer. As my Washington Post colleagues Michael Birnbaum, Missy Ryan, and Souad Mekhennet report, “over just a handful of days, Europe has been shocked out of a post-Cold War era — and state of mind — in which it left many of the democratic world’s most burning security problems to the United States.”
The interesting question for Europe going forward is how the countries involved will bolster their hard power capabilities. Will it happen through NATO or the European Union?
As for the United States, grand strategy documents in recent years had focused on the threat posed by great power competition and the need to build back better alliances and partnership. This worldview suggested a challenging future for the United States.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a clear manifestation of that challenge. At the same time, U.S. warnings that it was going to happen have restored some much-needed credibility to the U.S. intelligence community. The response also seems to have galvanized the exact coalition of allies and partners that the United States will need for the near future. And as the Post story suggests, it is “increased European spending and troop reinforcements on the continent [then] that would allow the United States to take up its long-planned shift toward Asia.”
The long-term question for the United States is whether its internal polarization will sabotage these efforts. That question is sure to occupy the minds of Chinese, Russian and European strategists for years to come. | null | null | null | null | null |
The long history of Russian imperialism shaping Putin’s war
Russia’s imperial history is driving Putin, but today’s global order may not reward him
By Lynne Hartnett
Lynne Hartnett is associate professor of Russian history at Villanova University and the author of "Understanding Russia: A Cultural History" (The Great Courses, 2018).
Activists hold a placard depicting Vladimir Putin and reading “Empire must die” at a Feb. 22 rally outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)
The world is trying to make sense of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s violent invasion of Ukraine. But his attack is not rooted in any rational calculation of costs and benefits.
Instead, Putin is making an ill-conceived gambit to reclaim his nation’s stature as an imperial power and assert Russia’s prestige, authority and will on the world stage. Putin has positioned himself as a frustrated representative of an aggrieved fallen empire — for example, lamenting “the paralysis of power and will” that led to the complete “degradation and oblivion” of the Soviet Union in 1991. Though this grievance seems situated within what Putin has called the tragedy of the Soviet collapse, his imperial inspiration extends even deeper into the country’s past. As Putin described it in a 2012 speech, the revival of Russian national consciousness necessitates that Russians connect to their past and realize that they have “a common, continuous history spanning over 1,000 years.”
Putin understands the post-Soviet global order through the prism of Russia’s long history. And that history is inextricably tied to Russia’s dynamic imperial mission both in the past and today.
The first “Russian” state was established in present-day Kyiv in the 9th century. But Kievan Rus’ fell into ruin with the Mongol conquest of the 13th century, becoming a decentralized group of principalities that each owed fealty and tribute to the Mongol khans.
By the late 15th century, though, the principality of Moscow, led by Grand Prince Ivan III, turned the tables of fortune on the Mongols. Ivan, known to history as Ivan the Great, renounced his land’s subordination to the Mongols and declared the sovereignty of Russia. Ivan then subdued his neighbors, annexed their territory and centralized Moscow’s authority.
Ivan the Great came to power less than a decade after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Cultivating his imperial standing with his marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Ivan claimed Byzantium’s legacy for Muscovite Russia and adopted the title of czar for himself. As czar, he asserted Russia’s international influence and stature by establishing diplomatic relations with foreign powers and building the Kremlin to serve as an architectural manifestation of Russia’s new imperial power.
By the start of the 16th century, the Russian czars firmly conceived of their land as a great empire. For them, Moscow was the Third Rome — the heir to the Roman and Byzantine empires. Though their imperial predecessors’ empires had fallen, the Russian czars resolved to hold absolute power to ensure the dynamic and continued expansion of theirs.
In the 1550s, the czar known later as Ivan the Terrible extended his country’s territory along the southern Volga down to the Caspian Sea. Twenty-five years later, Ivan sponsored expeditions that initiated several decades of conquest and colonization of Siberia and large swaths of Central Asia.
By 1648, Russia had moved across a continent and reached the Pacific coast to become an enormous state with an unrivaled land mass. It was a full-fledged colonial enterprise.
In 1654, Czar Alexis seized the territory that lay between Russia and the Dnieper River. This included much of present-day Ukraine, including Kyiv. While the dominions around Moscow were known as Great Russia or simply Russia, much of what is present-day Ukraine was deemed Little Russia in a clear reflection of its peripheral, colonized status.
Alexis’s son Peter the Great took Russia’s imperialist mission to new heights. With a revamped army and newly founded navy, Peter the Great defeated Sweden and expanded his empire in every direction. In recognition of his military victories and territorial conquests, Peter in 1721 declared Russia to be an empire and he, its emperor.
Several decades later, another great, the Empress Catherine, pushed the empire’s boundaries farther west through the partitions of Poland. Catherine also took advantage of the weakening power of the Ottoman Empire to expand Russia southward and create the region of Novorossiya, which included the southern sections of present-day Ukraine. She then solidified Russia’s position on the Black Sea by annexing Crimea in 1783.
Many of Russia’s imperial conquests were hard-won. In 1818, when Russian forces attempted to conquer the Northern Caucasus, they encountered a population that refused to be subdued. In answer to the guerrilla warfare that the indigenous population unleashed against the invaders, Russia burned villages to the ground, incinerated forests and took civilians as hostages. Although by 1864 Russia had incorporated the region into its empire, ethnic and religious tensions percolated and would erupt in a new wave of violence over a century later with the Chechen Wars in the 1990s.
Convinced that Russia’s status as a global power depended on its expansive empire, Russian czars — safe and secure in their St. Petersburg palaces — expended vast sums of money and the lives of young Russian soldiers to maintain imperial glory. Territory was purchased with the lives of both conquering armies and their resisters while Russian rulers transformed the cities of the metropole with monuments erected to honor imperial victories and expansion.
When Russia erupted in revolution in 1917, the empire collapsed. Initially, the Bolsheviks expressed antipathy toward imperialism. Indeed, they contended that regions like Ukraine that declared their independence would be free from the weight of empire. But the dislocation that came with the end of World War I did not bring the worldwide socialist revolution that Vladimir Lenin expected. As a socialist island in a sea of global capitalism, the Russian Empire was resurrected by Lenin and the Bolsheviks within the federal structure of the Soviet Union. For the next 70 years, Russia’s traditional imperial mission became entangled with the expansionist aims of communism.
To meet the surging economic and military power of the United States, the Soviet Union in the late 1940s established satellite states throughout Eastern Europe, with communist governments overseen by Moscow. Using tanks, artillery and repression, the Soviets kept the communist bloc until the 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev could no longer use military force to retain power. The Soviets’ imperial project was in peril.
These liberatory impulses unleashed a ripple effect within the Soviet Union itself, with the Baltic States and the Caucasus calling for independence from Moscow. By the end of 1991, nationalist sentiments within the assortment of nations that the Soviet Union had inherited from the czarist imperialist state led to demands for autonomy and spelled the end of the U.S.S.R.
When Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Federation in 1999, he claimed that his country was entitled to exert a privileged influence over the post-Soviet states. Yet many of these nations balked at the local cronyism and corruption that seemed to come with Moscow’s continued influence. In the early 2000s, popular uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan — collectively deemed the Color Revolutions — demonstrated these countries’ spirit of independence and, thereby, the limits of Russia’s and Putin’s control of the region.
For Putin, this equated to an inglorious lack of prestige and power. Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity that overthrew Putin’s supporter, President Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014 only intensified this perception. The Russian president’s decision to move into eastern Ukraine and annex Crimea was the opening salvo to reclaim the power that imperial failure had eroded.
Beyond economic sanctions, Putin faced little consequence for this 2014 power play, and his geopolitical machinations surged. Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Donald Trump’s subsequent derision of NATO probably convinced Putin of his ability to extend Russia’s global sway without substantial obstacles.
Over the past several years, as Putin has increasingly constricted Russian civil society, limited his country’s independent media and news sources, and imprisoned domestic opposition leaders, he has enhanced his ability to pursue his aims unencumbered. Reviving the imperialist dreams of his czarist forebears, Putin moved to reclaim the empire that he believes was unjustly pilfered from Russia.
But the determined resistance of the Ukrainian people to Russian aggression has shown the folly of Putin’s vision of renewed imperial grandeur. Having found independence from Moscow in the years since 1991, Ukrainians have no desire to return to their previous colonial status. Despite Russia’s superior military might, the Ukrainian people have made a stand for their sovereignty and their freedom, earning support and respect around the world.
Conquest and glory have thus far eluded Putin and his forces. Instead of finding renewed prestige through the global order, Putin finds himself isolated and condemned, and his 21st-century version of Russian imperialism vilified and reviled rather than championed. | null | null | null | null | null |
The same ideas that have harmed D.C. for more than a century are again rearing their ugly head
By Vincent Femia
Vincent Femia is a PhD candidate in the history of science at Princeton University.
Black Voters Matter and other civil rights, voter rights and racial justice organizations hold a rally in D.C. in June 2021 in support of D.C. statehood. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.) recently remarked that D.C.’s elected officials are “unfit to properly maintain our nation’s capital,” evoking a long and deeply troubling history.
Clyde and other House Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), have announced plans to restrict D.C.’s autonomy and possibly even attempt to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act if the GOP wins back the majority in November’s midterm elections. They point to rising rates of homicides, homelessness and carjackings — a trend shared by many major cities during the pandemic — to justify their extreme proposal. The solution, according to House Republicans, is to further erode the small amount of democracy that exists in the nation’s capital.
Given that D.C. residents have long lacked political rights, and that many Washingtonians have fiercely fought for D.C. statehood, a serious proposal to eliminate political rights might come as a shock. But it exposes how without full rights, D.C. residents can easily lose the rights they do have. It also echoes the strain of antidemocratic and anti-Black politics from the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras that has haunted D.C. ever since.
On Jan. 8, 1867, Radical Republicans in Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson’s veto and pushed through a bill that gave Black men in D.C. the right to vote. The law made D.C. the first place in the country to enfranchise Black men. Within months, Black men became nearly 50 percent of registered voters. Although the city charter barred Black officeholders, and therefore there were no Black candidates on the ballot in June 1867, Black Washingtonians enacted significant political change, pushing Republicans into positions of power they never before held in the city.
This changing tide in D.C. politics, however, was short-lived. A movement to overhaul D.C.’s government quickly emerged, supported by both Democrats and moderate Republicans. This movement called for the integration of the municipal governments of Washington City, Georgetown and Washington County and the creation of a new government filled with presidential appointees. Its proponents argued that local mismanagement and a runaway debt demanded these changes.
Both the debt and mismanagement were legitimate problems warranting criticism. But the support for presidential appointees controlling D.C. signaled that these complaints were a smokescreen camouflaging the true motivation for supporters of consolidation — they disdained Black men having the right to vote and wanted to roll it back.
By 1871, local Republicans had become too politically divided to oppose the bipartisan consolidationists. The new Republican president, Ulysses S. Grant, also supported the consolidation movement, favoring its business-focused agenda. Accordingly, Congress passed the Organic Act, consolidating D.C.’s three municipal governments under a territorial government.
The new system included a locally elected lower House of Delegates and a nonvoting representative in the U.S. House, but the presidentially appointed governor, upper Legislative Council and Board of Public Works held the majority of power in the territorial government. Alexander “Boss” Shepherd ruled the territorial government as head of the Board of Public Works and then as appointed governor of D.C. Amid strikes and protests from Black Washingtonians, who had strongly opposed consolidation, the Shepherd regime launched an overly ambitious and excessively expensive redevelopment of the city.
In 1874, a joint, bipartisan congressional investigative committee exposed the excessive spending and outright corruption of the Shepherd-led territorial government. But rather than faulting the presidentially appointed officials, conservatives blamed the corruption and spending on the expanded franchise. They had long feared that universal suffrage would lead to social chaos and economic crises. The situation in Washington offered vindication, they believed.
In a swift response, Congress created a commission government for D.C. that eliminated all popular representation, and in 1878 they made it permanent. In the words of historian Kate Masur, this move conveyed Congress’s “lack of faith in the capacity of [D.C.] residents to govern themselves.” This lack of faith had a distinctly racist cast to it, one which built upon long-standing notions of political and economic fitness. Newspapers around the country observed that it was the “newly-emancipated and very ignorant freedmen” who burdened local government with corruption and economic woes. The Panic of 1873 and the retrenchment of Reconstruction policies exacerbated such sentiments, ensuring D.C.’s full disenfranchisement.
After the establishment of the commission government, Black Washingtonians spoke politically through mass meetings, in churches and parades, and by issuing demands through institutions such as the Bethel Literary and Historical Association (founded in 1881). Both the National Woman’s Party and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the two leading organizations pushing for women’s suffrage by 1920, were based in D.C., but nobody in D.C. gained the right to vote after the passage of the 19th Amendment.
Government chemist Harvey Washington Wiley, a longtime D.C. resident and architect of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, put into words the anger antidemocratic rule over the capital city provoked. He warned that if the “autocratic system” remained in place, eventually D.C. would “reissue the Declaration of Independence and set up a government of its own on the same lines as the Colonists did.”
Time proved Wiley somewhat correct. The commission government lasted for a century. Washingtonians also could not vote for president until 1961. Only when they refused to settle for the status quo in the middle of the 20th century did anything change. In 1973, Congress passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which provided for an elected mayor and city council. Congress also passed a constitutional amendment granting D.C. full congressional voting rights in 1978, but the states did not ratify it.
D.C’s loss of home rule in the 19th century, while a product of its unique political status, fit within a broader, national repudiation of Black and urban voters. Calls for restricting the franchise echoed around the North, while discriminatory Black Codes, and subsequently Jim Crow laws, disenfranchised Black Americans all across the South. D.C. found itself to be the most extreme casualty of this backlash.
In the 20th century, the undemocratic rule in D.C. allowed for the passage of many policies that hurt Washingtonians, especially Black Americans residing in the capital. City Beautiful planners, for example, demolished low-income housing in the first decade of the century without much concern for providing new housing options in the city. Rep. William Natcher (D-Ky.) was able to deny the city funds for subways in the 1960s until he secured new highway proposals. Even in 2022, D.C. residents must participate in the responsibilities of citizenship, including taxation and Selective Service registration, without the full rights of citizenship.
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Tex.) told the Daily Caller that it is unacceptable to allow Mayor Muriel E. Bowser to treat D.C. as her own “social experiment.” Yet, Congress has treated D.C. as an experimental site for centuries. Whether it was the elimination of home rule or congressional Republicans’ banning funding for a D.C. needle exchange program between 1998 and 2007 — which contributed to D.C.’s alarmingly high rate of HIV/AIDS — D.C. has remained at the mercy of Congress and other vested interests. Most perniciously, that means people with zero accountability to D.C.’s residents set policy, which they often base on the political sentiments back home in places with very different sensibilities from D.C.
The Republican threat to repeal the Home Rule Act of 1973 is not idiosyncratic or trivial. It represents a concerning antidemocratic strain in Republican politics. Not so unlike conservatives in the 1870s who desired a severely limited electorate, or, shockingly, no electorate at all, elected Republicans have engaged in continued voter suppression — especially of voters of color like those who predominate in D.C. and other cities — and many even supported overturning a presidential election in 2020.
Their behavior demonstrates that D.C.’s history is not an outlier, nor is the city divorced from the realities of American life. On the contrary, it often spotlights broader trends, precisely because D.C. has been repeatedly told that it is a city unfit to govern itself. | null | null | null | null | null |
Booting Russia from the SWIFT banking system will inflict pain on all sides
By Aaron Klein
People stand in line to withdraw U.S. dollars and euros from an ATM in St. Petersburg on Friday. The U.S. and Europe have imposed severe financial sanctions on Russia in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)
As Russian tanks roll through Ukraine, the United States and its European allies are responding to Russia’s military aggression through a sweeping set of economic sanctions, including the unusual step of cutting Russian financial institutions off the global financial system by kicking them out of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system. Weaponizing the financial and payments system is working better than many predicted, and President Biden rightly took credit for his administration’s leadership in the State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Sweeping sanctions were the right opening strategy here. But our time working in government on sanctions issues also taught us that this approach poses clear risks — ones which the U.S. and its allies must prepare for and confront as the conflict drags on.
Although the war just began last week, this much is clear: It is being fought on parallel military and economic battlefields. Russia is far stronger militarily than economically — hence President Vladimir Putin’s decision to rely on traditional military measures that plays to his nation’s strength. The West’s decision to respond economically follows the strategy of attacking your opponent’s weakness while acknowledging that political and military reality makes a kinetic war between NATO or some of its members and Russia impossible now. The result is a sometimes bewildering volley of military and economic attacks taking place on the streets of Ukraine and in Russian and global markets.
Economic warfare is not new. Past economic boycotts and embargoes were designed to harm a country economically by stopping physical trade in an era before globalization and financialization took hold. The global war on terror relied on targeted sanctions aimed at specific entities and people and organizations, logical tactics for fighting terrorism. Steps like cutting Russian financial actors out of SWIFT are predicated on the notion that access to payments is a prerequisite for a nation’s economy to work these days.
In the blizzard of sanctions, why is SWIFT so important? Each country has a central bank that plays the role of payment system coordinator, networking that nation’s banks. In the absence of a global central bank, SWIFT in essence plays the role of coordinating between various nations’ central banks and the more than 10,000 banks around the world to process payments.
The economic disruption for Russia from being cut out of SWIFT can be seen in the sharp, approximately 30 percent drop of the ruble, which occurred only after the SWIFT announcement. This happened even though Russia’s central bank sharply increased interest rates in an attempt to keep money in the nation. The sanctions from the West have both destabilized Russia’s currency and spiked internal interest rates there, seriously disrupting Russia’s economy.
American leadership is crucial in this financial war because of the dollar’s role as the world reserve currency. While some individual banks may find it lucrative to engage bilaterally with Russian counterparts, they will have to weigh that risk against potential retaliation from the United States. U.S. officials have the ability to cut off any financial institution’s ability to clear transactions in dollars. It is hard for banks in Russia or anywhere to exist without doing any business in the world’s reserve currency.
For all those reasons, and because of the interconnectedness of the world economy, the sanctions campaign against Russia is working surprisingly well — so far. But globalization also means that the casualties in such warfare can go both ways. Cutting Russia out of the economic system will reverberate internationally. The recoil will, for example, likely mean higher prices for gas everywhere, with all the other negative economic consequences that follow.
The answers will depend both on the magnitude of the economic consequences and on domestic politics within each country. Recent U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were long, with many casualties, but they resulted in relatively little direct economic upheaval at home. Russia’s small economic stature (it is less than 2 percent of global GDP) may mean relatively little lasting financial discord in the U.S.; more in Europe is likely because of Russia’s energy relationship. U.S. equity markets fell sharply when the war started, rebounded at the end of the week and were down Monday and Tuesday.
The U.S. also risks losing some control over the financial and payment system that we gained in part because of European instability in the 20th century — and that has supported our prosperity and power since then. China has been developing its own CIPS system as an alternative to SWIFT. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology offer banks ways to move payments without using dollars or SWIFT. The very success of the weaponization of the legacy financial system by the United States and its allies may drive Russia and others into an alternative, decentralized mode of finance that by its very nature will resist control by any government.
Like any form of war, its financial variant is a terrible thing to behold. The consequences for average Russians and likely many others around the world will be painful, although obviously not as much so as the munitions raining down upon Ukrainians. For that reason, we strongly support these countermeasures and the measured tone the president took about sanctions in the State of the Union. But any triumphalism about them today is as premature as last week’s pessimism. | null | null | null | null | null |
Here’s what the research tells us.
By Cullen Hendrix
A wheat field during the summer harvest on a farm in Tersky village, near Stavropol, Russia, on July 9, 2021. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a grave humanitarian and global security crisis, for many reasons. One that’s gotten less attention: Because Russia and Ukraine are pivotal sources exporters of energy and food globally, the world may soon face crises in fuel and food prices. Even before the invasion, global food prices were at near record highs since the Food and Agriculture Organization began keeping track in 1960, and oil prices were well above their 30-year average.
Will the conflict drive fuel and food prices even higher, and for how long? The answer is complicated. Oil and gas prices are likely to rise and fall often in the coming days and weeks, but with little change to prices over the long term. The world’s supply of food, on the other hand, may tighten. Ukraine supplies 8 percent and 13 percent of the world’s exported wheat and maize — and that harvest will be disrupted. Russia supplies 18 percent and 39 percent of exported wheat and rapeseed oil, but if Russia restricts exports or nations around the world refuse to transport or import its products, that too may exacerbate hunger worldwide.
Russia’s invasion and global energy markets
Oil and gas are the two most widely traded commodities in global markets. Those markets — and the speculators who make money off bets on prices going up or down — respond skittishly to political crises in major exporting countries. Consider the 1973 Arab oil embargo, during which major oil exporters deliberately slashed exports to punish Western importers like the United States and Great Britain for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Gasoline prices skyrocketed.
Today, Russia is the world’s second-largest oil and gas exporter and Ukraine is a major transit route for the Russian gas that heats homes and fuels economies across Central and Western Europe. Prices for Brent crude, the most widely traded oil benchmark, shot up from $96 to $97 per barrel on Feb. 23 to over $105 by midday on Feb. 24 as the breadth of the Russian offensive became clear. Several days on, oil prices are trading in a narrow but volatile band of $97 to $107 a barrel.
Despite these recent price increases and volatility, the conflict’s effect on oil prices is likely to be short-lived. Economists Massimo Guidolin and Eliana La Ferrara analyzed the effects of conflict on oil spot prices (i.e., price per barrel right now) and futures prices (for delivery months from now). They looked both at conflicts within one country, as in the Syrian civil war, and between countries, as with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They didn’t find much evidence that conflicts in oil-exporting nations sent up prices; when it did, effects lasted only for a few weeks.
In my own work, I have found no evidence that conflict in oil-producing countries systematically drives up prices. While there are several reasons, what’s key is that other major oil producers respond to price spikes by increasing supply both to reap short-term windfall profits and to avert sending the global economy into recession. Since economies are just emerging from the pandemic recession, other major exporters may be especially focused on this.
It's hard for Russia to invade Ukraine when its soldiers don't want to be there
Russia’s invasion and food prices – more lasting effects
But this war will hit Ukraine’s food exports harder, both immediately and for some time. Ukraine has already halted grain exports and closed its ports until the war ends. The goal is to ensure adequate food supplies, to stop rampant panic buying that has left grocery shelves bare. Whether shipments will be disrupted over the longer term depends on whether the war will continue into the summer harvest season, when Ukraine’s winter crops — winter wheat, barley, rye, and rapeseed, planted in the late fall — are harvested.
War could disrupt these crops in one of several ways. First, militaries often intentionally destroy crops as part of a strategy to starve and coerce occupied peoples — like the Ukrainians — into submission. Second, war’s violence can destroy or divert resources like tractors, combines, processing facilities, and food transport infrastructure. Already a Russia attack in the Black Sea destroyed a Cargill-chartered cargo ship; Ukraine has also reported that Russians destroyed the world’s largest cargo plane, the Antonov AN-225 Mirya, which for decades has handled emergency food and medical supply airlifts. Third, farmers and agricultural workers may leave their fields to join the armed forces, seek shelter, or flee fighting.
While Russian agriculture won’t be disrupted by fighting, Russia has intentionally banned its own exports in the past with the goal of keeping food prices lower at home. This time, however, Russia is unlikely to cut off bulk grain exports. It’s one of the few products — along with energy — exempted from Western sanctions, in large part due to the disastrous effects such sanctions would have for global hunger.
But Russia also produces a large proportion of another major agricultural product: fertilizer. It has already moved to ban exports of ammonium nitrate, one of the world’s most widely used fertilizers. That will hurt crop growth in Argentina, Brazil, and other major food exporting countries. And since fossil fuels are still critical part to moving food from farm to market and table, increases in fuel prices will be passed to food consumers.
Unlike oil production, which can be ramped up quickly, farms can’t go back in time and plant extra crops to make up for Ukraine’s lost production. The spike in global hunger could be a disaster — and may have grave political consequences as well. Food price protests have hit developing and middle-income countries in the past, notably during price spikes in the Great Recession of 2007-08 and 2010-11. That can especially hurt stability in democracies and semi-democracies, especially at a time when so democracy is in retreat in so many parts of the world.
In other words, the ripple effects of Russia’s anti-democratic invasion may be more anti-democratic still.
Cullen S. Hendrix is a professor of international studies at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. @cullenhendrix | null | null | null | null | null |
Western allies plan to confiscate yachts, jets, luxury apartments from Russian elites in hopes of undercutting Moscow over invasion
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a 2019 news conference in Moscow. (Pavel Golovkin/AP)
Senior Biden administration officials are preparing to dramatically expand the number of Russian oligarchs subject to U.S. sanctions, aiming to punish the financial elite close to President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine, according to three people briefed on internal administration deliberations.
For instance, the White House is weighing imposing new sanctions on Alisher Usmanov, the owner of an iron and steel conglomerate who Forbes has estimated to be worth more than $15 billion, the people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal deliberations not yet made public. Usmanov was placed under sanctions by E.U. officials Monday. The U.S. sanctions would also probably include travel restrictions and the seizure of overseas assets that could run into the billions.
How U.S. sanctions take a hidden toll on Russian oligarchs
America’s sanctions are expected to be more complicated than those imposed by the E.U., targeting not just the individuals but also their family members and companies they own, according to a White House official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal deliberations. President Biden said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night that the U.S. would join with Europe to “seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.”
A Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment. Usmanov’s company Metalloinvest, a mining firm, said in a statement that it considers the sanctions against him to be “ungrounded and unfair.” Usmanov also released a statement accusing the E.U. of “false and defamatory allegations damaging my honour, dignity and business reputation.”
In addition to the sanctions released Monday by the E.U., Western leaders vowed this week to create a new “transatlantic task force” of law enforcement to help identify, and freeze, the assets of Russian oligarchs in violation of those sanctions.
Russia’s billionaires control roughly 30 percent of the nation’s wealth — compared with roughly 15 percent in Germany and the United States — and have about as much financial wealth stashed in offshore foreign accounts as the entire Russian population has in Russia itself, according to a 2017 paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Many of them have served at high levels of Putin’s government, or played an instrumental role in providing financing either for the Russian president personally or the Kremlin’s efforts abroad, according to E.U. officials.
The U.S. sanctions measures work by adding the Russian officials, business executives, companies and other groups to a list of “specially designated nationals,” maintained and published by the Treasury Department. Any entity or person appearing on that list will see their U.S. assets frozen, and Americans are generally barred from financial transactions with them.
A Washington Post investigation in 2021 based on a trove of financial records showed how existing U.S. sanctions hit their Russian targets. But it also underscored their limits, demonstrating how Russian money continues to move around the global financial system, often through secret accounts.
“It’s hard to express how massive a sea change this is for Western policy. The sanctions against these oligarchs are unprecedented in their scope and size; many of them were presumed to be untouchable,” said Paul Massaro, an anticorruption adviser to congressional lawmakers. “It will shake the rogue Putin regime to its core.”
But the West’s attempts to punish Russia’s financial elites face major logistical hurdles and carry the risk of further retaliation from the Kremlin. Some experts said they also might drive Russia’s business elites to be more, not less, supportive of Putin — while also potentially inadvertently hitting oligarchs who have opposed Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.
At least in the United States, the effort to freeze or seize assets of Russians close to Putin is also likely to be stymied by a U.S. legal structure that allows anonymous actors, often using illicit funds, to form companies and purchase real estate and other assets under a strict veil of secrecy, said experts and transparency advocates.
Further complicating matters is that some of the oligarchs oversee global operations the United States and European Union may be uneasy about undermining. Typically, sanctions on foreign business elites lead to the seizure of their assets and of corporate holdings. But that can have a major impact on business operations involving commodities important to the world economy. Punitive measures could also hit Russian owners in the country’s gas-export sector, which the U.S. and Europe have generally sought to exempt from sanctions.
“If the goal is to both trap their ill-gotten gains while peeling them off President Putin, it’s not clear it has always worked that way,” said Adam Smith, a partner at Gibson Dunn and a former Obama administration sanctions official. “The record of sanctioning oligarchs is mixed.”
In 2017, Congress mandated that the Treasury Department provide a list of Russian oligarchs, though not that those oligarchs be subjected to sanctions. A Treasury spokesperson later said that the resulting unclassified list, published in 2018, was derived from a Forbes ranking of wealthy Russians.
But with a U.S. military response off the table, the momentum behind the sanctions effort has become unstoppable. The European Union on Monday unveiled a broader list of Russian officials newly placed under sanctions that included Usmanov, the mining magnate; Mikhail Fridman, the owner of a conglomerate that includes one of Russia’s biggest banks; and Nikolay Tokarev, CEO of a major Russian oil and gas company.
A spokesman for Fridman strongly disputed the allegations that he had supported Putin as “malicious and deliberate falsehoods … the product of historical fantasies and conspiracy theories dreamt up by private individuals with their own agendas.” Fridman, who was born in western Ukraine, said he opposes the war, Reuters reported on Sunday. Oleg Deripaska, another Russian billionaire the United States placed under sanctions in 2018, joined Fridman in rejecting the war effort.
Metalloinvest, the mining company owned by Usmanov, also said the company will not be affected by the E.U. impositions because the sanctions against Usmanov “are of a personal character.” Tokarev did not respond to a request for comment sent through his company, Transneft.
More sanctions may be on the way. A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants the Biden administration to impose sanctions on the “Navalny 35,” a list of Putin allies identified by a group tied to Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. That would amount to a dramatic expansion in the number of individual Russian business elites targeted for sanctions.
Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), one of the sponsors of that legislation, told The Post he has spoken in recent days with the administration and congressional leadership about reviving the expanded list of sanctions. Malinowski said he is also studying legal changes that could allow oligarchs’ confiscated assets to be given to Ukraine to assist in that country’s reconstruction, something he said is illegal under current law.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has also called for changing disclosure rules among private equity firms, hedge funds and venture capital funds so they would have to disclose potentially substantial amounts of offshore money. Wyden has pushed the Treasury Department to take that step, although it is unclear how much Russian money is held in these kinds of firms.
“In a war partly about morale on both sides, seeing Russian oligarchs’ yachts seized and sold at auction — seeing police at their villas, at their luxury apartments — will give Ukrainians and Russians who hate Putin a huge boost,” Malinowski said. “This is one of the ways in which we can weaken the support structure of this regime. … The more we can make the sanctions feel like a shock and awe campaign, the better.”
Key to the sanctions effort will be the new international task force — details of which remain vague — to identify and track where Russian oligarchs are parking their assets. Without that information, the sanctions can be evaded given that the oligarchs’ finances may go undetected.
Treasury is working to implement a law passed by Congress in January 2021 to put an end to anonymous shell companies that can be used for illicit ends by requiring companies registered in the United States to disclose their owners to the federal government. The law exempted 23 types of entities from the requirement, including investment funds and venture capital fund advisers. But the Treasury Department regulation that would implement the law has not been enacted, meaning any anonymous shell companies owned or controlled by Russians can still benefit from a veil of secrecy.
Transparency advocates have praised the beneficial ownership effort, though they have noted that many more measures are needed, including accountability for law firms that help set up offshore companies and trusts that do not report suspicious activities to law enforcement, as well as stronger measures that would require art dealers and others to know their true customers’ identities. They also noted that the Treasury Department agency implementing the rule, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, needs a large funding boost, which has been held up amid debates in Congress over a longer-term government spending bill.
Lawmakers call for crackdown on financial ‘enablers’ after Pandora Papers revelations
“We need to take stock of our own role in enabling corrupt leaders from around the world to steal from state coffers and enjoy their illicitly obtained wealth here,” said Shruti Shah, president of the Coalition for Integrity, which advocates for anticorruption measures.
But the appetite in Congress may be materializing for those kinds of changes.
“Many of us on the Hill have said to the administration, ‘If there are any legal authorities that you need to strengthen your hand in going after the oligarchs, let us know,’” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-M.D.) said. “Because we do want to move quickly.”
Tony Romm contributed reporting to this story. | null | null | null | null | null |
In the summer of 1996, sunflowers were planted by officials at the Pervomaysk missile base in southern Ukraine to mark the removal of nuclear weapons from the country.
“The ceremony celebrated Ukraine’s abandonment of the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, which it inherited in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union,” The Washington Post reported at the time.
On Facebook, people and small businesses in the United Kingdom are using the platform to share the ways in which they are supporting Ukraine and the more than half-million people forced to flee.
One florist in Leeds, England, shared photos of arranged sunflower bouquets, urging people to buy them so that the proceeds could be given to charity.
“All money taken will be donated to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal,” the shop, called Arts and Flowers, wrote.
Its owner, Kirstie Cale, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she felt compelled to help.
“We have to do something,” said Cale, 51. “Anything is better than nothing.”
She said she just wanted to “do her bit,” and that the shop was selling bouquets and single flowers and putting together a display of sunflowers inside the store. | null | null | null | null | null |
A Far Cry’s ‘Then and Now,’ Simone Dinnerstein at FSO, and three world premieres at Cathedral Choral Society
The Grammy-nominated self-conducting chamber orchestra A Far Cry will perform at Dumbarton Oaks. (Yoon S. Byun)
Classical fans rejoice! Live music is back, and a busy spring season is in full bloom. You can get the long view of the season’s brightest highlights in this weekend’s Spring Arts Preview, but spring has a lot more in store. Check this space at the start of every other month for a regular helping of solid classical options to fill your weekends.
Folger Consort
The early music ensemble-in-residence of the Folger Shakespeare Library returns with a pair of spring concerts at St. Mark’s Church on Capitol Hill. On March 4-6, they’ll explore music from the earliest “Viennese School” — the court of Maximilian I — with a focus on works by 16th-century composer Ludwig Senfl, performed in new arrangements by composer David Froom and featuring tenor Steven Soph. And April 22-24, the Consort presents “The Roman de Fauvel: Politics and Counterpoint in Medieval France,” which will feature a world premiere by composer Juri Seo. And for those who like to come to class prepared, tune into the online seminars offered on the Wednesday before each concert. Tickets available for online and in-person attendance. Various times. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 301 A St. SE. folger.edu. $35 in-person.
I Have Something To Say
The Cathedral Choral Society originally intended to present “I Have Something to Say” in 2020 as a reflection on the centennial of the 19th Amendment. Two years and one pandemic later, the context of voting rights is especially charged, as are the program’s three world premieres from Augusta Read Thomas, Lisa Bielawa, and Jessie Montgomery (whose piece imagines a dialogue between Greta Thunberg and Sojourner Truth). Bielawa’s work, “Voter’s Litany,” is based on the work of artist Sheryl Oring, who like Bielawa, employs the public as both instrument and medium. Oring will stage her installation “I Wish To Say” in the nave of Washington National Cathedral, where attendees can dictate their own postcard to be sent to the White House. The program also features a pair of pieces by composer and suffragist Dame Ethel Smyth and organ works by Nadia Boulanger played by Renée Anne Louprette. March 13 at 4 p.m. Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW. cathedralchoralsociety.org. $10-$93.
Scattered and silenced by the pandemic, choral groups are trying to find their voice
A Far Cry
The Grammy-nominated self-conducting chamber orchestra comes to Dumbarton Oaks on April 3 for “Then and Now,” a wide-ranging program of classical and contemporary fare. A trio of concertos by Bach, Stravinsky and Barber dovetail with contemporary pieces from Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery and the world premiere of a new commission by 2021 Dumbarton Oaks early-career musician David Crowell honoring the 75th anniversary of concerts at Dumbarton Oaks. (The following Sunday, April 10, Dumbarton Oaks hosts Sandbox Percussion.) April 3 at 4 p.m. Dumbarton Oaks, 1703 32nd Street, NW. afarcry.org, doaks.org. Ticket prices TBA.
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
On March 12, Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak joins the FSO under music director Christopher Zimmerman for a program of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Brahms’s Third Symphony. And on April 23, pianist Simone Dinnerstein (who recently released her third album of the pandemic, “Undersong”) joins the orchestra to play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”) as well as Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 and the regional premiere of Robert Carl’s “White Heron.” Performances begin at 8 p.m. George Mason University’s Center for the Arts, 4374 Mason Pond Dr., Fairfax. fairfaxsymphony.org. $45-$70.
The company returns with a full production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” conducted by Adam Turner, directed by Kyle Lang and featuring Richard Ollarsaba as Count Almaviva, Symone Harcum as Countess Almaviva, Alisa Jordheim as Susanna and Federico De Michelis as Figaro. The regionally touring show with open at its home base in Norfolk March 25-27; at the Carpenter Theatre in Richmond on April 1 and 3; and at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax on April 9-10. Various times. vaopera.org. $45-$115 for performances at George Mason.
The vast majority of in-person tickets for the Phillips Collection’s spring concerts sold out in January. But the museum countered the limited capacity of its storied Music Room by offering each of its Sunday Concerts as a live stream. Among the March/April highlights: Jupiter Ensemble presents an all-Vivaldi program on March 6; countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo gives a recital on March 20 (a replacement program following the cancellation of Shanghai Quartet) and the violin and marimba duo Vision Duo (Ariel Horowitz and Britton-René Collins) bring a contemporary program enhanced by Collins’s arrangements of Ella Fitzgerald and Astor Piazolla on April 24. Live streams start at 4 p.m. phillipscollection.org. $15 virtual tickets ($10 for members).
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
The ASO, led by music director José-Luis Novo, launches its new in-person concerts at the Music Center at Strathmore with a mini-festival of Great Romantic Concertos. On March 6, violinist Vadim Repin performs Shostakovich’s first violin concerto along with works by Michael Abels, Gabriela Lena Frank and Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier Suite.” The series continues April 10 with Spanish Peruvian violinist Leticia Moreno performing Mendelssohn’s violin concerto, and concludes May 8 with Russian pianist Olga Kern taking on Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto. Concerts begin at 3 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. annapolissymphony.org, strathmore.org. $10-$64.
Alexandria Symphony Orchestra
Music director James Ross leads a program of Bach (Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major and the Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor), Vivaldi (the Concerto in B minor for Four Violins) and a pair of tangos from Astor Piazzolla (“Summer” and “Spring” from his "Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria on March 19. Violinist Dylana Jenson joins the orchestra for Samuel Barber’s violin concerto, as well as Brahms’s first symphony and a work by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra percussionist Brian Prechtl on April 23 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center, and April 24 at the George Washington Masonic Memorial. Various times. alexsym.org. $5-$85.
21st Century Consort
Folger Consort co-director Christopher Kendall’s contemporary ensemble returns to St. Mark’s Episcopal on April 9 for “Perpendicular Expression,” an adventurous and thoroughly contemporary program featuring a world premiere from composer Hilary Tann, as well as music from Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon, Jamaican composer and pianist Eleanor Alberga, and a pair of pieces by Paul Schoenfield. April 9 at 5 p.m. (preconcert discussion begins at 4 p.m.). St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 301 A St. SE. 21stcenturyconsort.org. Free. | null | null | null | null | null |
In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, Yad Vashem, together with the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, asked that the United States not sanction Abramovich, a major donor to the memorial and other Jewish causes. They said that sanctioning him would cause harm to Jewish institutions which rely on him for donations, according to Israeli press.
Jerusalem has refused several requests from Ukrainian President Zelensky, including the transfer of military equipment.
“Our responsibility is to do everything we can to prevent bloodshed. It’s not too late,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a joint statement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Our policy is measured and responsible.”
Yad Vashem, itself, did issue a “vehement condemnation” of the missile strike on Tuesday night.
The donation was in the “eight figures,” according to Yad Vashem’s spokesperson Simmy Allen.
Lapid told the ministers that the U.S. and European countries were planning to apply sanctions to Russian oligarchs believed to be part of Russian President Putin’s inner circle, including a number who are Jewish and have interests in Israel. He said that ministers who promised favors for them could cause diplomatic damage to Israel, added the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Over the weekend, Fridman described the war as a “tragedy” and said that war “can never be the answer.” But in a news conference with journalists in London said that he would not directly criticize Putin’s invasion of Ukraine so as to avoid reprisals against his employees.
Following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2015, a community of wealthy dual Israeli-Russian citizens immigrated to Israel in part to avoid the resulting American sanctions.
Sophie Shulman, an Israeli-Russian journalist focusing on the oligarch community in Israel, said that Jewish-Russian oligarchs have taken on Israeli citizenship, purchased homes, invested in Israeli tech companies, but usually did not live permanently in Israel. Many would come to celebrate Passover in the Negev Desert, said Shulman. | null | null | null | null | null |
Stuck in Ukraine, a ‘Dancing With the Stars’ alum broadcast his 5-day escape to 1.1 million Instagram followers
So began Chmerkovskiy’s five-day odyssey to escape his native Ukraine, where he lived until age 14, when his family emigrated to the United States. He had been back in his homeland working on “World of Dance UA,” a reality competition series, CNN reported.
The train was packed. Chmerkovskiy wrote that he had squeezed into a cabin meant for three people but then housing four adults and seven children. The car, designed for up to 30 people, was holding more than four times that number.
Chmerkovskiy said that, at one point in his journey, he’d watched a young boy say goodbye to his father.
“What finally broke me is when I was watching an eight-ish year old boy, hysterically crying and not wanting to let go of his father. Verbatim: ‘if you stay I want to stay too because if they kill you I won’t be able to help.'”
On Tuesday, Chmerkovskiy popped back on Instagram to tell everyone that, after a 23-hour train ride and 36 hours without sleep, he’d escaped to Warsaw. Chmerkovskiy said he’d witnessed a lot on his journey — including Russian attacks on civilians — but he said it wasn’t the time to get into that.
Chmerkovskiy called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “maniac” and thanked everyone who’d helped him flee, saying he was “overwhelmed with gratitude.”
“I literally only just forgot about those ‘always on the edge’ feelings and actually started worrying about things like bbq grills,” he wrote. “I’m crying as I’m typing this because all man deserves to worry about [is] ‘bbq grills’ and not … war.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The United Nations resolution lays out an ambitious plan for developing a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024.
A delegate looks at a 30-foot monument dubbed “turn off the plastic tap” by Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong, made with plastic waste collected from Kibera slums, at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Gigiri, Nairobi, Feb. 28, 2022. (Monicah Mwangi/Reuters)
“With plastic pollution getting worse every day, there is no time to waste,” said Rwanda's Minister of Environment Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya. “This decision is a historic milestone in the global effort to prevent our planet from drowning in plastics.”
Wednesday’s resolution came on the third day of the biennial United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, which over 150 countries are attending. It calls for the creation of an intergovernmental negotiating committee to hash out details of a treaty by the end of 2024.
The committee’s mandate includes all phases of the plastic life cycle — from design and production to waste management. It comes at a time when the world produces billions of pounds of plastic waste annually — some 353 million tons in 2019, according to a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report, and amid mounting scientific concerns about issues such as marine plastic debris and the potential impact of microplastics.
Some countries, states and municipalities have taken action to curb plastic waste. Rwanda, for instance, has had a plastic bag ban on its books for more than a decade. In the United States, Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have led congressional efforts on plastic pollution, including the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, which former president Donald Trump signed into law in 2020. But this latest move represents the most concerted international effort yet to tackle the plastic problem.
Activists welcomed the agreement as well. “It has all the critical components we thought were necessary at this stage in the process,” said Erin Simon, head of business and plastic waste at the World Wildlife Fund. | null | null | null | null | null |
In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, Yad Vashem, together with the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, asked that the United States not sanction Abramovich, a major donor to the memorial and other Jewish causes. They said that sanctioning him would cause harm to Jewish institutions that rely on him for donations, according to Israeli media.
Lapid told the ministers that the United States and European countries were planning to apply sanctions to Russian oligarchs believed to be part of Putin’s inner circle, including a number who are Jewish and have interests in Israel. He said that ministers who promised favors for them could cause diplomatic damage to Israel, added the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a community of wealthy dual Israeli Russian citizens immigrated to Israel in part to avoid the resulting American sanctions. | null | null | null | null | null |
The measure at the United Nations lays out an ambitious plan for developing a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024.
A delegate looks at a 30-foot monument dubbed “Turn Off the Plastic ap” by Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong, made with plastic waste collected from Kibera slum in Nairobi and exhibited at the United Nations Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital on Feb. 28, 2022. (Monicah Mwangi/Reuters)
For the first time, the international community has agreed on a framework to curb the world’s growing plastic problem. A resolution adopted Wednesday by the United Nations lays out an ambitious plan for developing a legally binding treaty to “end plastic pollution.”
“With plastic pollution getting worse every day, there is no time to waste,” said Rwandan Environment Minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya. “This decision is a historic milestone in the global effort to prevent our planet from drowning in plastics.”
Wednesday’s resolution came on the third day of the biennial United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, where more than 150 countries are represented. It calls for the creation of an intergovernmental negotiating committee to hash out details of a treaty by the end of 2024.
“This is just an amazing show of what the world can do when we work together,” said U.S. delegate Monica Medina, the assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs. Choking back tears, she added, “It is the beginning of the end of the scourge of plastic on this planet … I think we will look back on this as a day for our children and grandchildren.”
The committee’s mandate includes all phases of the plastic life cycle — from design and production to waste management. It comes at a time when the world produces billions of pounds of plastic waste annually — some 353 million tons in 2019, according to a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and amid mounting scientific concerns about issues such as marine plastic debris and the potential impact of microplastics.
Millions of tons of plastic end up in the oceans each year, leading to alarming images of turtles and other wildlife caught in the waste. Even Mount Everest has not escaped microplastics pollution. The United States contributes most to this deluge, according to a National Academy of Sciences study, generating about 287 pounds of plastics per person.
Some countries, states and municipalities have taken action to curb plastic waste. Rwanda, for instance, has had a ban on plastic bags for more than a decade. In the United States, Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have led congressional efforts on plastic pollution, including the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in 2020. But this latest move is the most concerted international effort yet to tackle the problem of plastic pollution.
Environmental activists and industry representatives alike welcomed the agreement. “It has all the critical components we thought were necessary at this stage in the process,” said Erin Simon, the head of business and plastic waste at the World Wildlife Fund. In a statement, the International Council of Chemical Associations, a trade association, wrote, “We commend the governments that spent long days finding common ground to develop a meaningful resolution to address plastic pollution.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Stuck in Ukraine, a ‘Dancing With the Stars’ alum broadcast his five-day escape to 1.1 million Instagram followers
So began Chmerkovskiy’s five-day odyssey to escape his native Ukraine, where he lived until age 14, when his family immigrated to the United States. He had been back in his homeland working on “World of Dance UA,” a reality competition series, CNN reported.
“What finally broke me is when I was watching an eight-ish year old boy, hysterically crying and not wanting to let go of his father. Verbatim: ‘if you stay I want to stay too because if they kill you I won’t be able to help.' ”
On Tuesday, Chmerkovskiy popped back on Instagram to tell everyone that, after a 23-hour train ride and 36 hours without sleep, he had escaped to Warsaw. Chmerkovskiy said he had witnessed a lot on his journey — including Russian attacks on civilians — but he said it wasn’t the time to get into that.
Chmerkovskiy called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “maniac” and thanked everyone who had helped him flee, saying he was “overwhelmed with gratitude.”
“I literally only just forgot about those ‘always on the edge’ feelings and actually started worrying about things like bbq grills,” he wrote. “I’m crying as I’m typing this because all man deserves to worry about ‘bbq grills’ and not … war.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, endured another night of airstrikes, with social media videos, which could not be immediately verified, purporting to show explosions at the regional police headquarters and in residential areas. Russian paratroopers had landed and engaged Ukrainians in a firefight at a medical center, a local official said. | null | null | null | null | null |
6 MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING (Riverhead, $30). By Marlon James. The second novel in the Dark Star trilogy chronicles the life of Sogolon the Moon Witch.
8 HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH (Bloomsbury Publishing, $28). By Sarah J. Maas. The Crescent City series continues as rebels gather strength to fight against the powerful Asteri rulers.
9 CALL US WHAT WE CARRY (Viking, $24.99). By Amanda Gorman. A collection of poetry by the presidential inaugural poet.
10 THE SWIMMERS (Knopf, $23). By Julie Otsuka. After a recreational pool closes, a former swimmer’s dementia progresses as her estranged daughter returns.
6 HOW TO BE PERFECT (Simon & Schuster, $28.99). By Michael Schur. The creator of the television series “The Good Place” attempts to answer ethical questions.
7 TASTE (Gallery Books, $28). By Stanley Tucci. The actor and cookbook author shares the stories behind his recipes.
10 THESE PRECIOUS DAYS (Harper, $26.99). By Ann Patchett. Essays from the best-selling writer highlight important relationships in her life.
Rankings reflect sales for the week ended Feb. 27. The charts may not be reproduced without permission from the American Booksellers Association, the trade association for independent bookstores in the United States, and indiebound.org. Copyright 2022 American Booksellers Association. (The bestseller lists alternate between hardcover and paperback each week.) | null | null | null | null | null |
In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, Yad Vashem, together with the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, asked that the United States not sanction Abramovich, a major donor to the memorial and other Jewish causes. They said that sanctioning him would cause harm to Jewish institutions that rely on him for donations, said Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan, who said that Abramovich was the museum’s second largest private donor, after the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam.
“Mr. Abramovich has contributed to worthy causes for more than a decade,” Dayan said. “As far as I know, Mr. Abramovich doesn’t have any links to Mr. Putin.”
Lapid told the ministers that the United States and European countries were planning to apply sanctions to Russian oligarchs believed to be part of Putin’s inner circle, including a number who are Jewish and have interests in Israel. Lapid said that ministers who promised favors for them could cause diplomatic damage to Israel, added the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
After Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a community of wealthy dual Israeli Russian citizens immigrated to Israel in part to avoid the resulting American sanctions. | null | null | null | null | null |
For Women’s History Month: 5 new novels that celebrate female accomplishments
‘The Paris Bookseller’ by Kerri Maher and ‘The Diamond Eye’ by Kate Quinn are among several great new works of historical fiction
Collage of historical fiction. (Berkley; Sourcebooks; William Morrow)
Throughout history, women’s contributions to the arts and sciences, their communities and their countries have often been glossed over or ignored. These well-researched works of historical fiction celebrate their courage, accomplishments and fighting spirit.
‘The Paris Bookseller,’ by Kerri Maher
In 1919, Sylvia Beach opened Shakespeare and Company, the first English-language bookstore in Paris. She is also celebrated as the original publisher of Joyce’s “Ulysses,” the once-banned book now considered one of the 20th century’s greatest works. Maher vividly reimagines the indomitable Beach, who struggled for years to get “Ulysses” published and even found ways to smuggle it into the United States after courts deemed it to be pornography. Beach knew “Ulysses” was a work of art, and she soldiered on even while being belittled by (male) American publishers. In one poignant scene, Maher has Beach declaring: “Censorship is not commensurate with democracy. Or art,” a comment that still rings true.
‘Sisters of Night and Fog,’ by Erika Robuck
Review: Kate Quinn, "The Huntress"
'The Diamond Eye,’ by Kate Quinn
Equal parts historical fiction and riveting thriller, Quinn’s latest novel celebrating heroic women is inspired by the life of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a legendary Soviet sniper credited with killing more than 300 enemy fighters during the Soviet struggle against the Nazi invasion during World War II. Quinn’s imagination and thorough research turn this account of an extraordinarily talented woman into a highly cinematic action novel that honors all women in the military. Its tension is palpable as Quinn depicts the horrific loss of life on the Russian front and the nerve-racking confrontations that pit Pavlichenko against Germany’s best marksmen. Quinn’s Pavlichenko is multidimensional: a patriot, a librarian, a loving mother and a woman who faced prejudice in the primarily male Soviet military. A fascinating parallel story recounts Pavlichenko’s visit to the United States to plead for American war aid and the real-life friendship she shared with Eleanor Roosevelt. (Available March 29)
‘Her Hidden Genius,’ by Marie Benedict
‘The Tobacco Wives,’ by Adele Myers
Carol Memmott is a writer in Austin | null | null | null | null | null |
Five myths about Yellowstone
No, Theodore Roosevelt didn’t create the park.
Megan Kate Nelson is author of "Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America."
Tourist line the boardwalk of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Now one of the most iconic landscapes in the United States, Yellowstone was long a place of myth and rumor for most Americans. This changed in the summer of 1871, when the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden took a team of scientists into the area for the first time, determined to, as he put it, “strip the region of all romance.” Eight months later, Congress preserved Yellowstone as the world’s first national park. Despite this, and although 4 million people visit every year, misperceptions about its founding and its features persist.
Theodore Roosevelt created Yellowstone National Park
Visitors to Yellowstone might be forgiven for associating the park with Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, after all, is the most well-known conservationist to hold the nation’s highest office. An entire region of the park bears his name, encompassing the bison-rich Lamar Valley, Mount Washburn and Tower Fall, as well as the Roosevelt Lodge. The Roosevelt Arch, constructed at Yellowstone’s northern entrance to give the boundary a sense of grandeur, was dedicated by the president during his two-week trip to the area in 1903.
But Roosevelt did not create Yellowstone. More than 30 years before his visit, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, establishing the first national park in the world. He did so at a pivotal moment in the Reconstruction era, when the federal government was testing its power and reach in both the South and the West. The legislation had a precedent in the 1864 Yosemite Valley Grant Act, which gave lands to the state of California to manage. That the federal government could and would preserve lands “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” was a new idea in 1872, one rooted in post-Civil War beliefs in unifying national projects and a federal government striving for higher ideals.
A group of Montana adventurers came up with the idea for national parks
In the 1890s, Nathaniel Langford, the first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, told a story that went like this: In the fall of 1870, Langford and several other civic leaders from Montana gathered around a fire near the confluence of the Firehole and Gibbon rivers, a spot known as Madison Junction. They discussed the future of the region, and at one point, Cornelius Hedges, the U.S. attorney for the Montana Territory, suggested that “there ought to be no private ownership of any portion of that region, but that the whole of it ought to be set apart as a great national park.” After Langford published this account again in 1905, the campfire story became the official origin story of Yellowstone. In 1910, a sign was placed at Madison Junction announcing, “Here was first suggested the idea of setting apart this region as a National Park.” The National Park Service’s first annual report in 1917 embraced the story, lauding the “broad, unselfish, public-spirited” conversation that brought the “splendid patriotic national park plan to the attention of Congress.”
It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that Yellowstone’s historians decided to investigate that account. They found no written references to it before Langford’s late-19th-century writings. Instead, they found an 1871 letter from A.B. Nettleton, a public relations man for the Northern Pacific Railroad, that attributed the idea for the park to a Pennsylvania congressman who was a booster for the railroad. The Northern Pacific’s tracks would run north of Yellowstone, and the company stood to gain cachet and increased ridership if the park came to pass.
Indigenous peoples were afraid of Yellowstone
When Hayden and his scientific team entered Yellowstone in the summer of 1871, he was relieved that his cohort had no run-ins with any Indigenous parties. Hayden’s subsequent accounts of his expedition made no mention of any Indigenous inhabitants, which probably led many Americans to believe that native people had vanished from Yellowstone. “Owing to the isolation of the park,” Yellowstone’s second superintendent, Philetus Norris, wrote in 1877, “…and the superstitious awe of the roaring cataracts, sulphur pools, and spouting geysers over the surrounding pagan Indians, they seldom visit it.” The idea that Indigenous peoples were afraid of Yellowstone persisted for more than a century.
But Hayden and his team followed trails pounded out by native peoples and their ponies throughout Yellowstone. They found signs of Shoshone, Bannock, Crow and other Indigenous camps in every part of the basin. These native peoples used Yellowstone as a hunting ground and a thoroughfare that would bring them to the bison herds of the Great Plains. They continued to do so after Congress passed the Yellowstone Act in 1872.
Yellowstone park officials have recently begun to acknowledge this fact, and this year they plan to begin integrating Indigenous histories into their tourist literature and park infrastructure.
The Yellowstone Act was not contentious
In most histories of Yellowstone and the West, as well as on National Park Service websites, the passage of the Yellowstone Act is relayed with a matter-of-factness that obscures the debates that swirled around it. In “West From Appomattox,” historian Heather Cox Richardson argues that “the establishment of Yellowstone National Park reflected the new accord in American politics,” while journalist George Black, in “Empire of Shadows,” notes that while the act required some lobbying, “the speed of its passage and the idealism that drove it … were nothing short of astonishing.”
The passage of the law was bipartisan, but it was not close to unanimous. In the early 1870s, most Americans believed in the sanctity of the preemption and homestead laws, and the right of White men to take whatever lands they wanted and put them into production. “I do not know why settlers should be excluded from a tract of land,” Sen. Cornelius Cole (R-Calif.) protested during debate over the act, “in the Rocky Mountains or any other place.”
In the end, the Yellowstone Act passed because the GOP held a large majority in both houses. And back then, Republicans’ belief in the reach and power of the federal government extended to the preservation of public lands.
Yellowstone’s wildlife is completely wild
Many visitors are drawn to Yellowstone’s geothermal features, but they also aim to see the park’s charismatic animals: bison, elk, moose, bears and wolves. Many assume that these creatures are “wild,” a term that suggests an untouched and uncultivated state. An article on the Yellowstone National Park Lodges website claims, “Each season, birds and mammals pulse in and out of Yellowstone’s critical wildlife habitat in an annual cycle of movement that is as old as the land itself.” Yellowstonepark.com holds that it is “the right national park” to see “real wildlife … in their natural habitat.”
In truth, they are managed populations, tracked and culled and bred to keep Yellowstone’s ecosystem in balance. White and Indigenous hunters killed thousands of bison, elk and moose within the park’s boundaries. By 1877, these animal populations had declined so precipitously that Norris, the park’s second superintendent, suggested a program of captive breeding and display that would render its animals “permanently attractive and profitable to the park.”
Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook or follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. | null | null | null | null | null |
The response Markarova received in the United States on Tuesday night is in line with a trend in recent days: Ukrainian ambassadors are being greeted with overwhelming support and standing ovations from world leaders. The latest came Wednesday when Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom, was given a rousing welcome by members of Parliament, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions inside the House of Commons. While clapping is usually frowned upon in the chamber, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle gave his instant approval at the applause for Ukraine — a rare display of cross-chamber unity.
The embrace for Ukrainian ambassadors comes as Russian forces are continuing their deadly assault on Ukrainian cities. In the Black Sea port of Kherson, Russian tanks entered the city, reportedly without water after hours of attack, was at a point where the mayor said Kherson was “waiting for a miracle” to stay out of enemy hands. As Russian forces were faced with stiff resistance from Ukrainian military members and civilian defenders throughout the country, a massive convoy of Russian tanks and combat vehicles remained stalled about 20 miles north of Kyiv’s center as the invading force grappled with fuel and food shortages.
But the response from world leaders to diplomats has not just been limited to applause. When it comes to Russian diplomats, the reaction has been icy. During a speech Tuesday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, diplomats from the European Union, United States and Britain walked out in protest of the invasion.
As Ukrainian ambassadors continue to make public appearances throughout the invasion, Biden on Tuesday night summed up what the United States and the rest of the world has shown so far: “We, the United States of America stand with the Ukrainian people.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The exasperation of that comment drove home how frustrated Biden was that this remained a topic of conversation. And there’s a reason for that: In 2020 and 2021, some analysis suggests it hurt Democrats electorally. House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) blamed the “foolishness” for Democrats not doing better in 2020. And the November 2021 elections were pretty brutal for candidates who supported defund or defund-adjacent ideas. | null | null | null | null | null |
But instead of a gradual climb, now those changes will come all at once: Starting this year, eligible workers will be provided with 12 weeks of paid parental leave, family and medical leave — with a cap of 12 weeks in a year, according to a letter from acting chief financial officer Fitzroy Lee. It represents a sharp increase from the current benefit of eight weeks of parental leave, six weeks of family leave and six weeks of personal leave, for a maximum of eight weeks per year. Private-sector workers are also guaranteed two weeks of paid prenatal leave.
Lee noted in his letter that the Department of Employment Services, which administers the program, is figuring out how quickly it can implement the new changes, which could be as soon as July 1. | null | null | null | null | null |
The internal probe was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with The Post as part of an international reporting project.
The company continued to do so even after an engineer was kidnapped in 2014, making exorbitant cash payments to a cargo company that bypassed customs officials by “passing through ISIS controlled territories,” according to investigators. | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: There is something familiar about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainians take shelter in a subway station in Kyiv on Feb. 24. (Viacheslav Tarynskyi/Reuters)
Like most Americans, I stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and hope for an end to this unnecessary and unjust war of choice started by Vladimir Putin. But it should be noted that Russia is mostly following the playbook that the United States wrote during its war in Iraq. We created trumped-up claims against the Iraqi regime. Our government stated that those false claims represented an existential threat to our nation. We surrounded Iraq, implemented a military campaign of shock and awe, deposed its government, and installed one that was pro-America in its place.
We are all concerned about the tragedy of civilian deaths in Ukraine but ignore the fact that, by some accounts, up to 207,000 civilians were killed during the war we started in Iraq. It seems to me that the United States created this political environment in which Russia is operating. Maybe we as Americans should be a bit more introspective about how we treat the world — and a bit more contemplative about our responsibility in laying the groundwork for this war — before we point fingers at others who act in the same manner that we do.
Jess Endicter, Silver Spring
Vladimir Putin is being incredibly shortsighted in his invasion of Ukraine. In the long term, it will weaken, rather than strengthen, Russia. Even if Mr. Putin achieves his goal of conquering Ukraine and placing it under Russian control, and even if he grabs a few more former Soviet countries, his gambit will backfire.
Right now, Mr. Putin and his supporters might have calculated that Russia can withstand any sanctions and achieve its objectives. This loses sight of the bigger picture. Europe, Russia’s biggest energy client, will, in the short term, continue to buy fossil fuels from Russia. However, a united Europe is determined to accelerate its move toward alternative energy sources, something that would have been inevitable in the long run but that Mr. Putin’s invasion has hastened.
Fast-forward 10 or 20 years. Then, the world will not be dependent on fossil fuels. How many countries will be clamoring to buy Russian cars or Russian computers? How many people will be clamoring to travel to Russia or buy Russian vodka? What will an isolated Russia offer the world? Who will want to do business with it once they no longer have to? Russia will be akin to North Korea, a poor, isolated country that spends what little resources it has on military expenditures to keep its dictator in power while its people suffer and the rest of the world ignores it, except when it makes military threats. I doubt this is the great Russian empire that Mr. Putin envisions, but this is likely to be the Russia he creates. I doubt Russians will remember him as “Putin the Great” for creating this.
John Leddo, Leesburg | null | null | null | null | null |
When we look back on this period in conservative politics, two things are likely to stand out: culture war grievances turned up to a fever pitch, and a newly unrestrained use of power, with Republican politicians everywhere inventing novel ways to target enemies and accomplish their goals.
In the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds touted “the pro-parent, pro-family revolution that Republicans are leading."
Recently, state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion stating that various types of gender-affirming care for transgender children “can legally constitute child abuse” under the Texas Family Code. That includes puberty blockers that temporarily delay the onset of puberty.
Paxton also stated that among others, “teachers, nurses, doctors, day-care employees, employees of a clinic or health care facility that provides reproductive services” have a duty to report to the state any child they think is receiving such care. He added: "A failure to report under these circumstances is a criminal offense.”
These Republicans conflate permanent surgical interventions that are seldom performed on minors with common and reversible therapies like puberty blockers. So if you’re a teacher with a trans student whose family is supporting them, you’d better report them to the state government.
The investigations have begun; the first was of a DFPS employee who asked her supervisor what to do about the fact that her own daughter is trans. The employee was placed on leave, then investigators showed up at her family’s door demanding her daughter’s medical records.
This has terrified families with trans kids around Texas, as The 19th, a news organization focused on gender, politics, and policy, reports:
The ACLU has already filed suit against the governor and the head of DFPS to stop the investigations. Even if we’ve seen only a small number of investigations so far, this amounts to a campaign of terror against these families, precisely because they’re giving their kids the love and support they need to navigate an emotionally difficult process.
It’s no surprise that Ken Paxton is the one spearheading this crackdown. Paxton is an unusually repugnant figure; he was a high-profile attendee of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, he was indicted for securities fraud, and he was accused by his own aides of bribery and abuse of office.
You don’t like Roe v. Wade? Why not essentially outlaw abortion in your state by creating a vigilante system to use against providers? Turns out the Supreme Court will give you the thumbs-up. Mad that liberal protesters stopped traffic for an hour? Pass a law granting civil immunity to people who run protesters over with their cars. Pine for the days when textbooks said slaves were happy and well-fed? Make it illegal for teachers to tell students hard truths about race.
One day, Republicans may move beyond what they’re doing now, just as they prefer not to talk about their opposition to marriage equality. But in the meantime, they’re going to victimize a lot of people. | null | null | null | null | null |
The first 2022 primary in the nation happened Tuesday in Texas.
The results can help us interpret the state of the Republican Party one year into full Democratic control in Washington, given how red the state is. But Democrats also flexed their muscles. Here are four big moments that could signal broader trends, if they continue in other primaries.
This felt like one of the most telling moments of the primary. Rep. Van Taylor (R) represents the Dallas suburbs, and unlike most of his Texas Republican colleagues, he voted to certify the 2020 election results rather than challenge them. He also voted, alongside some other Republicans, to create a bipartisan commission outside of Congress to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. (That effort failed, and Democrats in Congress are leading the effort, which Taylor opposed.)
Trump wouldn’t endorse Taylor, and he got four primary challengers, each declaring him a traitor to the party. And now he’s the only Republican incumbent member of Congress in Texas who won less than 50 percent of the vote on primary night, meaning he has to go through a runoff in May.
That’s despite, as the Dallas Morning News reports, Taylor championed how conservative he is. He campaigned as “one of just six House members with a 100% score from Heritage Action and “A” grades from the NRA and National Right to Life.” He aired an ad of him alongside Trump at a border wall.
Taylor is still well positioned to keep his seat. He won with 48.7 percent of the vote; he’ll be facing former local judge Keith Self, who won 26.5 percent of the vote.
But his runoff underscores that devoted Republican voters who feel like Trump has been crossed don’t forget easily.
That’s Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). But the rest of Trump’s statewide loyalists — Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller (R) — did just fine.
Paxton got only 43 percent of the vote, which means he will be in a runoff with the No. 2 in the primary, George P. Bush. (Yes, of that Bush family. His dad was governor of Florida; his uncle and grandfather were both presidents.)
Bush has been the state land commissioner, an elected office in Texas, and he decided to challenge Paxton, who has spent the past few years mired in serious scandal.
Paxton is facing a federal investigation, and he’s indicted in Texas court for securities fraud. His top aides have accused him of abuse of office and bribery; he fired whistleblowers in his office; the top Senate Republican in Texas, John Cornyn, said he’s “troubled” about the allegations.
But Paxton made national news when he led an outlandish, long-shot lawsuit to try to overturn Trump’s loss in four states. The Supreme Court quickly rejected it, but more than half of House Republicans supported it.
Bush, aware of the Trump-ification of his party, has been trying to step away from his family name — “Texans know me as my own man,” he told The Post’s Dan Balz. But the runoff will inevitably be framed as a Trump-endorsed loyalist and a Republican establishment figure.
Immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros challenged him from the left, and she had the support of liberal heavyweights like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who all traveled down to Texas to campaign with Cisneros.
Democrats were also divided on the best approach to take in a potentially competitive congressional district in South Texas. On the Democratic side, the race will go to a runoff between more moderate Army veteran Ruben Ramirez and liberal activist Michelle Vallejo.
By nearly a 2-to-1 margin at the top of the ticket, notes University of Virginia’s Kyle Kondik.
What does that mean for the biggest race in Texas this fall, the governor’s race? The biggest name on the Democratic side was Beto O’Rourke. The former presidential candidate, Senate nominee and congressman was convinced by national Democrats to run for governor. He easily won his primary.
Democrats contend that new, more-restrictive voting rules made it harder to vote. The new law makes it harder for older people to vote by mail (which could hurt Republicans in Texas) and took away some voting methods popular with people of color (which could hurt Democrats and Republicans).
And they say they’ll be ready in November to show that Texas continues to march toward blue, if slowly. On the state legislative level, Democrats characterized many Republicans who won their primaries as extreme: One, state Sen. Angela Paxton (whose husband is the attorney general), attended a Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6 in Washington.
But Republicans, buoyed by a national environment favoring them, are feeling pretty good about the first primary of the season. They keep outvoting Democrats and using the tools they have, like redistricting, to draw them out of power. “The EPA should be down here protecting Democrats as an endangered species,” Republican consultant David M. Carney told The Post’s David Weigel. | null | null | null | null | null |
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) drives as Utah Jazz forward Royce O’Neale (23) defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022, in Phoenix. The Jazz defeated the Suns 118-114. (AP Photo/Matt York)
PHOENIX — All-Star guard Devin Booker has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocol and will miss the Phoenix Suns’ game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. | null | null | null | null | null |
Florida International University has received $12.8 million to design a facility that will test a structure’s ability to withstand 200 mph winds and a 20-foot ocean surge.
The massive cyclone narrowly avoided Florida but compelled scientists there to consider the scenario of a Dorian-like storm hitting home, especially in a world in which such storms are becoming more intense due to climate change.
“Dorian, for us, was a near miss from which we should be learning a whole hell of a lot,” said Richard Olson, head of FIU’s Extreme Events Institute.
In January, FIU was the recipient a four-year, $12.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to design a facility that will subject makeshift homes and other structures to winds up to 200 mph and a storm surge up to 20 feet. The surge is the storm-driven rise in ocean water above normally dry land at the coast.
The array of fans will sit at one end of a 200-foot-long wave basin, with a test structure resting on a turntable at the opposite end. Fans will produce high-powered winds, like those seen in a hurricane, thunderstorm, or tornado, while paddles or pistons will generate waves. Pressure sensors, accelerometers, strain gauges, and other instruments will measure the impact of wind and water on the test structure. “We want to see how much it can withstand before it breaks up,” Chowdhury said.
NICHE will build on research conducted using FIU’s Wall of Wind, a set of fans that can pelt solar panels, traffic lights, small buildings and other unlucky test objects with winds up to 157 mph — the minimum speed of a Category 5 cyclone. The Wall of Wind was built to simulate the power of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, which inflicted $27 billion in damages in South Florida and killed 65 people. It can’t, however, replicate the winds or floods associated with a new generation of Dorian-like storms.
“We have facilities that can look at the impact of wind loads on structures. We have facilities that can look at the impact of store surge and waves on structures,” said Joy Pauschke, NSF program director in the division of civil, mechanical, and manufacturing innovation. “But we don’t have a facility that can look at the coupled interaction of having both the wind loads and the wave loads on structures.”
Existing testing sites can only test these elements in isolation and only accommodate relatively small test objects. FIU’s Wall of Wind is around 20 feet wide and 14 feet high, large enough to overwhelm a low-rise building with powerful gales, but too small to test a multistory home. The Large Wave Flume at Oregon State University can test storm surges by sending powerful waves down a narrow channel to crash into barriers on the other end, but like the Wall of Wind, it is limited in scale.
“Eventually the research finds its way, for example, into building codes,” Pauschke said. An NSF-funded shake table at UC San Diego, for instance, has been rattling structures up to five stories tall to test their fitness for earthquakes, with the results informing new construction technologies and design codes.
NICHE will involve a “dream team” of disaster specialists, Olson said, including experts from the University of Florida, Oregon State, Stanford, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Colorado State and Wayne State, as well as Aerolab, a manufacturer of wind tunnels.
Scientists will first produce a prototype that will consist, perhaps, of just two fans overlooking a small reservoir. They will then use the data collected from this prototype, as well as from computer models and real-life storms, to create their final design. “You need this team because this expertise just doesn't come from one university,” Chowdhury said. | null | null | null | null | null |
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