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Penn State Nittany Lions (12-15, 7-12 Big Ten) at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (17-12, 11-8 Big Ten)
Piscataway, New Jersey; Sunday, 12 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Penn State hits the road against Rutgers looking to stop its seven-game road skid.
The Scarlet Knights are 13-3 in home games. Rutgers is 8-5 when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents and averages 11.2 turnovers per game.
The Nittany Lions are 7-12 in Big Ten play. Penn State is 7-6 in games decided by 10 or more points.
The teams square off for the second time in conference play this season. Penn State won the last meeting 66-49 on Jan. 11. Sam Sessoms scored 17 points to help lead the Nittany Lions to the win.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ron Harper Jr. is averaging 15.8 points and 6.1 rebounds for the Scarlet Knights. Clifford Omoruyi is averaging 8.9 points over the last 10 games for Rutgers.
Jalen Pickett is scoring 13.0 points per game with 4.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists for the Nittany Lions. Sessoms is averaging seven points over the last 10 games for Penn State.
LAST 10 GAMES: Scarlet Knights: 6-4, averaging 63.9 points, 28.9 rebounds, 9.4 assists, 6.4 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 45.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.4 points per game. | null | null | null | null | null |
UMass-Lowell River Hawks (15-15, 7-11 America East) at UMBC Retrievers (16-13, 11-7 America East)
Baltimore; Sunday, 1 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: The UMBC Retrievers face the UMass-Lowell River Hawks in the America East Tournament.
The Retrievers are 9-4 on their home court. UMBC has a 1-1 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The River Hawks are 7-11 against America East opponents. UMass-Lowell ranks fourth in the America East with 31.6 rebounds per game led by Max Brooks averaging 6.2.
The teams meet for the third time this season. UMass-Lowell won 88-71 in the last matchup on Feb. 12. Ayinde Hikim led UMass-Lowell with 20 points, and Keondre Kennedy led UMBC with 19 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Yaw Obeng-Mensah is averaging 7.1 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Retrievers. Kennedy is averaging 2.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UMBC.
Allin Blunt is averaging 11.2 points for the River Hawks. Hikim is averaging 14.8 points over the last 10 games for UMass-Lowell. | null | null | null | null | null |
Portland Pilots (17-13, 7-7 WCC) vs. Santa Clara Broncos (20-10, 10-5 WCC)
Paradise, Nevada; Sunday, 12:30 a.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Santa Clara hosts the Portland Pilots after Josip Vrankic scored 30 points in Santa Clara’s 102-89 victory against the Portland Pilots.
The Broncos are 14-4 on their home court. Santa Clara has a 1-2 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The Pilots are 7-7 in WCC play. Portland is third in the WCC with 26.3 defensive rebounds per game led by Tyler Robertson averaging 5.3.
The teams meet for the second time this season. The Broncos won 102-89 in the last matchup on Feb. 26. Vrankic led the Broncos with 30 points, and Moses Wood led the Pilots with 23 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Keshawn Justice is shooting 42.3% from beyond the arc with 2.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Broncos, while averaging 13 points and seven rebounds. Jalen Williams is shooting 53.3% and averaging 10.9 points over the past 10 games for Santa Clara.
Robertson is shooting 41.3% and averaging 15.1 points for the Pilots. Wood is averaging 11.7 points over the last 10 games for Portland.
Pilots: 7-3, averaging 78.8 points, 31.3 rebounds, 16.1 assists, 3.9 steals and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.2 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
A poster showing Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen outside barracks at the Forbidden City in Beijing on March 4 as China's 3,000-member ceremonial parliament prepares to open its annual session Saturday. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
Beijing’s annual work report traditionally includes a couple of paragraphs declaring that the government will continue working toward the unification of Taiwan. This is the first year since President Xi Jinping came to power a decade ago that this section of the annual report includes a time frame — “in the new era” — although it’s unclear how long a period this means.
Foreign-policy circles have been awash in discussions about whether Xi might follow Putin’s example and invade Taiwan. Some point out similar ambitions in both leaders to build their empires, unfazed by criticism from the West. But others cite notable differences, including Taiwan’s key role in global supply chains and the island’s location near key U.S. allies such as South Korea and Japan.
China’s annual work report is also watched by the business sector for its economic growth target. This year it was set at around 5.5 percent, which would be the second-lowest rate of gross domestic product growth since the 1990s (The lowest was 2020′s 2.3 percent GDP growth, as China went into lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic). China said its economy rebounded to 8.1 percent growth in 2021.
Li also said one of the goals this year would be to control coronavirus infections in a “targeted” way, suggesting an approaching loosening of the draconian policies that have kept China’s coronavirus infection count close to zero, but have weighed on the economy and upended daily life. | null | null | null | null | null |
“It appears to be linked back to some internal decision by the administration to resettle people in large numbers here without any policy or public discussion,” he said, arguing that the District should tell longtime residents how many voucher recipients move to their neighborhood and whether people released from prison are getting housing assistance to live there. “This is a very liberal community that embraces the idea of helping the poor, but … the crime numbers overall are way up and you’ve had this mass relocation program at the same time.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher attend a ceremony for the unveiling of Zoe Saldana's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, May 3, 2018. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
“I have always considered myself an American, a proud American.… But today, I have never been more proud to be a Ukrainian,” Kunis said in the video, sitting next to Kutcher.
The Hollywood couple have so far raised almost $15 million of their $30 million target as of Saturday, on their GoFundMe page seeking humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees.
More than half of Ukraine’s refugees have fled to Poland and others to neighboring countries such as Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia, according to U.N. data.
The funds raised by the couple will be donated through Flexport.org, which is supporting logistics and supplies to refugee sites in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova, and through Airbnb.org, which is providing free, short-term housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine.
“The people of Ukraine are strong and brave,” Kunis said. “We need to support the people of Ukraine. Please help us.”
Other celebrity couples have also pledged funds, including actors Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively, who said they would match $1 million of donations to help refugees fleeing Ukraine. | null | null | null | null | null |
The House panel has built a potential criminal case against the former president, but the Justice Department needs to know it can win.
Barbara McQuade is a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Former President Donald Trump at a rally, in Conroe, Tex., on Jan. 29. (Go Nakamura/Reuters)
This week, the volume rose when the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack filed a brief in court laying out evidence that builds a potential criminal case against former president Donald Trump. The brief was filed in a civil dispute with Trump lawyer John Eastman over whether the attorney-client privilege protects certain documents the committee has subpoenaed. The committee argued that what is known as the crime-fraud exception to the privilege applies to the documents because evidence supports a “good-faith belief” that crimes “may” have been committed — namely, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Prosecuting Trump would set a risky precedent. Not prosecuting would be worse.
The brief lays out evidence the committee has gathered from 550 witnesses over the past six months. The pieces begin to form a picture: Trump pressured Mike Pence to abuse his powers as vice president to obstruct the transfer of presidential power while knowing that claims of election fraud were false. The brief goes on to list the many ways Trump knew the claims were false — he was told so by his own campaign team, the cybersecurity director at the Department of Homeland Security, his own attorney general and his successors, the Georgia secretary of state and 60 judges who rejected his claims in court, to name just a few. In a decision suspending the law license of Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, one judge noted that there was not a “scintilla” of evidence of fraud. From the complete absence of such evidence, and repeated statements from trusted sources, at some point it becomes reasonable to infer that Trump knew his claims were false.
The committee’s work seems practically gift-wrapped for Garland: Here’s what you need to hold the former president of the United States accountable for his crimes. You’re welcome. It’s not that simple, however. Garland’s job is harder than the committee’s. If you come at the king, as the saying goes, you best not miss. Is this the assurance Garland needs that he won’t miss?
The committee’s mission is legislative — to find the facts and identify gaps in the law that should be filled to prevent the events of Jan. 6 from ever occurring again. Garland and his Justice Department prosecutors, by contrast, assess the facts to decide whether to file criminal charges. And it’s a decision that requires more than just a good-faith belief that crimes may have been committed. Before charges may be filed, Justice Department policy requires evidence from which it is probable that a conviction can be obtained and sustained.
Even before a charging decision can be made, however, an investigation must be initiated. To do that, the department requires only “predication” — an allegation, report or facts indicating possible criminal activity. Many have wondered out loud whether Garland has begun such an investigation into Trump’s role in the events of Jan. 6. They suggest that had he done so, news would certainly have leaked, and yet there has not been so much as a whisper. I nonetheless believe that yes, the Justice Department must be investigating.
There have been some hints. On Jan. 5, Garland spoke about progress on Jan. 6 cases as the anniversary of the attack approached. In his remarks, Garland promised to hold accountable “all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, [emphasis added] accountable under law, whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.” These words are broad enough to encompass Trump and others who may have planned to obstruct the election certification by fraudulent means.
Garland also explained that day the way Justice Department makes complex cases, resolving “more straightforward cases first because they lay an evidentiary foundation for more complex cases.” To date, more than 700 defendants have been charged, mostly with lower-level offenses such as trespassing and property damage, though some have been charged with more serious offenses, like assaulting police officers and obstructing an official proceeding.
Jan. 6 wasn’t an insurrection. It was vigilantism. And more is coming.
Shortly after Garland delivered those remarks, the department announced the indictment of 11 defendants for seditious conspiracy for attempting to use force to obstruct the lawful transfer of presidential power, the most serious charges to date. On Wednesday, one of those defendants, Joshua James, entered a guilty plea and agreed to cooperate, including by testifying before a grand jury. Prosecutors do not offer cooperation credit before they know that a defendant has information that is valuable in the prosecution of others. According to court records, James provided security to Trump associate Roger Stone during Trump’s rally on Jan 6, an intriguing fact suggesting that he may have information to implicate Stone or others in Trump’s inner circle. Is this what Garland means when he says DOJ resolves more straightforward cases to build to more complex ones?
There is one other thing Garland said on Jan. 5 that calms my concerns about whether DOJ is investigating despite its silence. The department’s normal policy is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. This policy is designed to protect the integrity of the investigation and the reputation of the target. Former FBI Director James B. Comey came under fire for violating this policy in 2016 when he openly discussed the decision to investigate Hillary Clinton over the use of a private email server. On Jan. 5, Garland said that the best way to ensure DOJ’s independence, integrity and fairness “is to have a set of norms to govern our work.” And — here is the money line — “we adhere to those norms even when, and especially when, the circumstances we face are not normal.” So if DOJ is investigating Trump, the last thing it would do is say so.
It’s true that good reasons counsel against charging a former president. First, the inevitable claims of partisan politics alone would be harmful to the public trust in the Department of Justice, the restoration of which is Garland’s primary mission. Second, investigating a former president for crimes committed while in office sets a dangerous precedent, usually seen only in authoritarian regimes. One could imagine a future President Trump charging Joe Biden or even Hillary Clinton for fabricated criminal offenses. Third, there is the litigation risk of losing the case — is it possible to find a jury of 12 people who could agree unanimously beyond a reasonable doubt to convict Trump of any crime, or, as he once famously said, could he “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” without repercussion?
But equally good reasons — maybe even better ones — argue for criminal charges that would advance a substantial federal interest in protecting the integrity of American elections. In a democracy, there is no right more sacred than the right to vote. Trump’s constant refrain about voter fraud alone has caused harm to public confidence in our elections. A candidate with a slightly more sophisticated plan and a more effective disinformation campaign could succeed next time in overturning the will of the people.
Garland will not make any investigative decisions based on the public outcry. I am equally confident that he is not ignoring what we all are beginning to see. | null | null | null | null | null |
Netflix’s ‘Pieces of Her’ doesn’t blindly follow the book. Author Karin Slaughter couldn’t be happier.
By Stephanie Merry
Toni Collette, left, as Laura Oliver and Bella Heathcote as Andy Oliver in “Pieces of Her.” (Mark Rogers/Netflix)
Karin Slaughter’s 2018 thriller, “Pieces of Her,” is nearly impossible to put down, but that doesn’t mean it’s a natural fit for an adaptation. While the novel opens with a riveting scene involving a nice suburban mom dispatching an active shooter with the dexterity of a trained assassin, much of the story unfolds in the mind of her daughter, 31-year-old Andy, as she embarks on a road trip to solve the puzzle of her mother’s fractured past. As Andy learns, Laura Oliver, the protective speech pathologist who raised her, has a lot to hide.
Shots ring out, and a daughter’s world is forever changed in ‘Pieces of Her’
Netflix’s new eight-episode adaptation, starring Toni Colette as Laura and Bella Heathcote as Andy, departs regularly from the source material: The grisly encounter that sets the plot in motion is mercifully less nauseating than the novel; one major character is added; and one villain, securely incarcerated in the book, instead remains at large. But, as Slaughter explained a couple days before the series premiered on Friday, the spirit of the novel remains intact. That was a huge relief for the author, whose nervousness over the show could be alleviated only by hours on her treadmill. During a phone conversation from her home in Atlanta, Slaughter talked about her involvement in the new series and why she thinks it works so well.
Q: How involved were you, if at all, in the making of the series?
A: I was as involved as I wanted to be, because this is not my area of expertise, but I was delighted to learn some new things, because I’m just curious about everything. I was more involved on being a resource for, “Why did this character do this?” Or, “What were you thinking when this happened?” Or “What was your motivation?” And I got to read scripts and I got to be on set for one day. That was really cool. It was in downtown Atlanta. It was 100 degrees, and we were outside for the most part, and Bella, one of the beautiful people in the show, was saying, “Oh, well, it’s going to be better in Savannah, right? Because it’s a moist heat?” And I said, “Well, not if your skin is on fire.”
Q: You mentioned being excited to learn new things about making a series. Anything leap to mind?
A: So Minkie [Spiro] is the director on all the episodes. And you know, she’s a very short person like me. So both of us were looking up at all these big guys who were wrangling all this stuff on the set, but they were using Matchbox cars on a table to show where the cars went. And, you know, here we are with all this sophisticated equipment and computers and cameras, and they’re literally just using Matchbox cars. I love details like that.
Q: Maybe you can use that for one of your next novels.
A: I’ll leave it to Mike Connelly to write about the world of Los Angeles. But yeah, it was really cool just to see how they work with the extras. And you know, there are hundreds of people on set for this thing that was in my head while I was in my pajamas writing it a few years ago.
Q: What really struck me about the series was how similar and how different it was from the book, different enough that I wasn’t sure what was going to happen even though I read the novel.
A: Charlotte [Stoudt] is the person I spoke with — and she’s the showrunner and writer — and I said to her, I know you can’t have Andy sitting in a car for three episodes traveling across the country and being upset and thinking, even though I can do that in several chapters. You have to have things happen. But it was really important to keep the spirit of the characters and the emotional story between the mother and daughter, because that’s the real heart of the book for me. It’s kind of, in a way, a love story between a mother and daughter. And it’s about trauma and how it can really be passed down genetically. Andy has no idea of all these things Laura was up to, but she’s inherited that trauma in some silent ways and in some really visible ways, like where her life is at the moment where she’s just stalled out. So I was pleased with how they managed to do that and to bring the two of them together. And I don’t like stories that have every single strand tied up. I mean, obviously the big strands are tied up, but they left it at a place where I felt like, yeah, I’m just super-pleased. I love everything about it, actually.
Q: How was watching the series for the first time?
A: I love to be on the treadmill when I’m stressed out. And I’ve been so anxious about this, I’ve been on the treadmill for like two hours a day. No kidding. And so I just watched it on the treadmill. I binged it over the course of a few days.
‘Criminal,’ a grisly thriller by Karin Slaughter, shows her wonderful way with characters
Q: What were you most nervous about?
A: I just really want my readers to be happy. I mean, I can’t control reviewers. Let’s be honest, this is a story about a mother and daughter, and a lot of guys aren’t into stories about mothers and daughters. So I know a lot of male reviewers might not key into it. I wasn’t too worried about that. it was mostly that a lot of my readers I’ve had from the first book, and I feel a real responsibility toward them and I want them to love it because I just think it’s my job to be the gatekeeper for these stories and I don’t want to disappoint them.
Q: And this isn’t your only book that’s in the works for an adaptation, right?
A: Yeah, my Will Trent series is hopefully going to pilot soon. It’s a very different experience. Netflix just says, “Yes, we’ll take it. Go film all the episodes.” But the network says, “We’re going to do a pilot and see if we like it.” So it’s a different process. I will say, I have friends who’ve gone through this and it’s just been a war story, but it was really as easy as it could be. And even my film agent said to me, “Don’t expect this to happen every time.”
White supremacists are the eerily relevant villains in Karin Slaughter’s new novel
Q: I was curious how the story came to you. Was it in a flash or slowly? Was it characters first or plot?
A: It really started with my dad getting older and telling me stuff about his life that I did not want to know. Like, I remember my stepmother saying something about the mirrors he had on his headboard, and I was like, “Nope, no. Don’t want to hear it.” I think everybody realizes at some point that their parents had a life before them. And it’s really horrifying in some ways. So I wanted to explore that and to put it through the lens of a mother-daughter relationship where this woman, Laura, has been lying for almost her entire life. I mean, even back to when she was a young woman inside her family, she was a liar. But she’s also got these complexities and this really good side of her. And then, you know, she basically reinvents herself with her daughter. And that, to me, was fascinating because a lot of women reinvent themselves over their lifetimes.
You know, in your 20s, you’re just kind of freaked out and you’re like, “Oh my God, I’m going to have to be an adult someday,” and then in your 30s, you’re like, “This is the day. I’ve got to start being an adult: I’ve got to work out, I’ve got to sleep.” And in your 40s, you’re like … “If I make it through the day and no one dies, I’m winning.” And Andy is a millennial — so let’s be honest, your 20s are really your 30s now if you’re a millennial — and trying to figure out who she was and what to do with her life. Kind of weirdly the best thing that happens to her is she finds out that her mother was in a homicidal cult. Which I don’t recommend for all millennials. But, you know, it really helped Andy find her legs. | null | null | null | null | null |
Uncovering biological causes of a mysterious condition: Stuttering
Holly Nover grew up trying to hide her stutter.
“I was very self conscious,” said the 40-year-old mom from St. Johns, Fla., whose 10-year-old son Colton also has a speech impediment. “So I developed habits to switch my words so it wouldn’t be noticed.”
For centuries, people have feared being judged for stuttering, a condition often misunderstood as a psychological problem caused by things like bad parenting or emotional trauma. But research presented at a science conference last month explores its biological underpinnings: genetics and brain differences.
“By understanding the biology, we’re going to decrease the stigma. We’re going to increase the acceptance,” one of the speakers, Gerald Maguire, said in an interview with the Associated Press. He’s a California psychiatrist who is involved in testing potential medications for stuttering based on the science.
Globally, 70 million people stutter, including President Biden, who has spoken publicly about being mocked by classmates and a nun in Catholic school for his speech impediment. He said overcoming it was one of the hardest things he has ever done.
Stuttering has been documented as far back as ancient China, Greece and Rome. But no one had any idea what caused it until modern genetic science and brain imaging began providing clues.
Researchers identified the first genes strongly linked to stuttering over a decade ago. Imaging studies peered into the brains of adults and older children, and in the past few years, University of Delaware speech disorder researcher Ho Ming Chow started looking at 3-to-5-year-olds. That is around the age many children begin stuttering, with about 80 percent outgrowing it.
Chow said the imaging shows slight brain differences in young children who keep stuttering, compared with those who recover and those who never stuttered. He discussed his research last month at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
For example, Chow and his colleagues found genetic mutations related to stuttering are associated with structural abnormalities in the corpus callosum, a bundle of fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain and ensures they can communicate; and the thalamus, a relay station that sorts sensory information to other parts of the brain. Past research has also linked stuttering to the basal ganglia, brain structures involved in the coordination of movement.
“We know stuttering has a really strong genetic component,” Chow said. Although several genes may be involved and the exact genetic causes may vary by child, “they probably affect the brain in a similar way.”
Chow’s colleague Evan Usler stutters, and he likened it to involuntary wrist spasms during golf. He said the latest evidence shows it’s a disorder of the cognitive control over speech.
Still, many people incorrectly believe people stutter because they are nervous, shy or suffered childhood adversity — and if they just tried harder, they could stop.
“We have a long way to go” to change such beliefs, University of Maryland researcher Nan Bernstein Ratner said. “There’s still a lot of mythology out there.”
Speech therapy is the mainstay of stuttering treatment. But the medicines being tested could be approved for stuttering in the next few years, first for adults and later for kids, said Maguire, who has stuttered since childhood. | null | null | null | null | null |
By Jeff Sturgeon, The Roanoke Times | AP
Tom Kennedy, community resource specialist with 211 Virginia, takes a phone call from people around Virginia seeking financial and other crisis assistance and connects them to helpful agencies from a call center at Council of Community Services, on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in Roanoke, Va. People whose lives were upended by the pandemic have turned to 211 in large numbers. The phone line rings 700 to 900 times a day, up from 300 to 400 before the pandemic, according to a representative of the Council of Community Services in Roanoke, which operates 211 Virginia for the Virginia Department of Social Services. (Scott P. Yates/The Roanoke Times via AP)
ROANOKE, Va. — Tom Kennedy, one of the state’s 211 operators, told a caller seeking help with an unpaid rent that he liked her name. | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: The atrocities inflicted on Ukrainian civilians must not go unanswered
Victoria Zmiinko hugs her daughter Stasya in a metro station in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine on Feb. 24. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
The fog of war is proverbial. Seven days after Russia’s invasion, it hangs heavy over Ukraine. Many crucial facts about the war — who controls which cities; the reasons a massive Russian convoy has stalled north of Kyiv, the capital — remain unknown or unknowable. The greatest imponderable of all remains the ultimate outcome, for Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the world. What has already become crystal clear, however, is the horrific harm Russian President Vladimir Putin is inflicting on Ukraine’s civilian population.
Mr. Putin’s bombs, missiles and rockets have repeatedly struck residential areas of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, as everyone has been able to witness on amateur videos far too numerous to dismiss as propaganda — though the Kremlin, of course, is trying. A monitoring mission from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 227 civilians killed, including 15 under the age of 18, and 525 injured, as of midnight March 1. This figure undoubtedly represents an underestimate. But to the extent civilian deaths and injuries havebeen limited, it might be only because many Ukrainians have been taking cover in basements and subway tunnels, hardly a sustainable solution.
At least 1 million have fled the country, according to the United Nations, which sees a likely total of 4 million — nearly one-tenth of Ukraine’s prewar population. This of course does not include those displaced within the country. Nor does it take account of the looming humanitarian crisis as food, medicine and fuel begin to run out in encircled cities such as Mariupol, whose mayor has already announced that Russian forces have cut off electricity and water. In talks on Thursday, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reportedly reached tentative agreement on creating “humanitarian corridors” for civilians in such cities. But the Putin regime has a long record of making and then breaking such war-zone deals.
Cold statistics cannot express the pain and grief of millions of flesh-and-blood human beings. Oblivious to that, Mr. Putin emerged on Russian television Thursday, speaking of a “special operation” that is “going according to plan.” This was patently untrue, given the evident failure of Russia’s initial airborne attacks on Kyiv and other setbacks inflicted by Ukrainian resistance. The kernel of truth is that — as he apparently indicated in a phone call to President Emmanuel Macron of France — his plan is to conquer Ukraine, period.
Mr. Macron finished the call convinced “the worst is yet to come.” He might be right: Having failed in his initial deployments, which appear to have been premised on the false belief Ukrainians would either not resist, or even welcome, his troops, Mr. Putin seems to be escalating destructive violence to break Ukraine’s will. Past Putin-led Russian assaults, which reduced to rubble the Chechen city of Grozny in 1999 and the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2015, suggest how far he will follow this logic. On Russian television, Mr. Putin asserted that “nationalist and neo-Nazi formations … are using civilians as human shields” — possibly granting himself a license to order even more indiscriminate fire as his troops advance.
Alas, the Russians are making gains in the southern part of the country, along the Black Sea coast, threatening to cut off Ukrainian forces. All the more reason for the United States and European allies to speed humanitarian relief to Ukraine’s people and weapons to its military, lest Mr. Putin actually win — and escape the accountability for aggression and atrocity he so richly deserves. | null | null | null | null | null |
“It’s time to remind the government, not just here in the U.S. but across the world, that they work for us.” Brian Brase, one of the organizers, said. “This convoy, and these truckers, believe in freedom and your right to do, to think, to act and say what you feel. At this point, it is the civic duty of the American people to stand up. Freedom takes sacrifice, and since it’s been lost, it is this convoy that will begin to stand up and take it back.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The Ukrainian president’s message was “close the skies or gives us planes,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement after the call, which lasted just under an hour.
Zelensky, wearing a green military T-shirt, spoke to the lawmakers from a desk and chair in a well-lit room, with the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag behind him — a change from some recent interviews where the president appeared to be in a dark underground bunker. | null | null | null | null | null |
The livery of an Amtrak train car. (Jon Cherry/Bloomberg News)
Amtrak service between D.C. and Philadelphia was temporarily halted early Saturday because of a freight derailment north of Baltimore, authorities said.
Twenty Norfolk Southern cars loaded with coal derailed in Harford County early Saturday, the company said in a statement and tweet. No one was hurt and the material does not pose a danger to responders or the community, the company said.
Representatives of Norfolk Southern and Amtrak, which share the track, and federal authorities were on-site Saturday, according to the statement. The cause of the derailment had not been determined.
Amtrak will operate a modified schedule between New York and Philadelphia, including limited Acela Service between New York and D.C. and limited Northeast Regional Service between New York and D.C., and points south.
Customers affected by the changes will be rescheduled to different trains, Amtrak said in a statement. Anyone seeking to change their reservation can call 1-800-USA-RAIL. | null | null | null | null | null |
All other WNBA players are out of Russia and Ukraine, according to a WNBA spokesperson.
The WNBA said in their own statement, “Brittney Griner has the WNBA’s full support and our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States.”
Cannabis cartridges are devices that contain marijuana in an oil form that can be inhaled by a component that heats the oil in to a gaseous state. | null | null | null | null | null |
Moore is one of 10 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in the June primary
Prince George's County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) has endorsed Wes Moore for Maryland governor. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) on Saturday declared her support for Wes Moore in his bid to become Maryland’s next governor, giving him a coveted endorsement in the crowded Democratic primary.
Alsobrooks, who leads one of the most populous counties in the state, is the highest-profile elected official in Maryland to back Moore in his first bid for public office. She is also the second county executive to endorse the author and former nonprofit chief. Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) announced his support for Moore six months ago.
Alsobrooks called Moore “the leader we need in this moment.”
“I have seen Wes Moore connect with people and bring them together to chart a vision for the future,” she said in a statement. “It is clear Wes Moore has the vision, integrity, and the ability to move our state forward and deliver for families in Prince George’s County and across Maryland.”
The announcement coincided with a rally in Upper Marlboro, where Moore and his running mate, Aruna Miller, opened a field office.
Moore drew early support from several elected officials from the Baltimore region, including longtime state Sen. Delores G. Kelley (D-Baltimore County) and Del. Stephanie M. Smith and Sen. Antonio L. Hayes (D-Baltimore City). He also has won the backing of several elected officials in the Washington region, including Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando (D-At Large), state Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) and Susie Turnbull, former state Democratic Party chair and former candidate for lieutenant governor.
Alsobrooks, once considered a possible gubernatorial candidate herself, decided last May not to enter the race, and instead chose to run for reelection. Her support could provide significant help for Moore in voter-rich Prince George’s County.
“This movement we are building is about bringing together great leaders across the state and working with communities to make Maryland a place where we do not leave people behind,” Moore said in a statement. “I have long admired County Executive Angela Alsobrooks as a fierce fighter for Prince Georgians, and I am so honored for her support.”
Alsobrooks’s endorsement of Moore is expected to be a blow to other Democrats vying for the nomination, especially former Prince George’s County executive Rushern L. Baker III, who is making his second straight bid for governor. Baker served two terms leading the county before Alsobrooks took office.
Nancy Pelosi endorses Tom Perez in Maryland governor’s race
Baker won the backing of nine of the 11 members of the Prince George’s County Council last summer. But it is unclear how much momentum Baker’s campaign has. According to January fundraising reports, Baker took in about $128,000 from October to January, and listed $63,000 as cash on hand. Campaign officials said Baker raised the required in-state donations needed to qualify for seed money from public financing.
Moore collected about $4 million from April to January, the largest fundraising haul in the field. Among his rivals for the nomination, he was followed by State Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez and former U.S. education secretary John B. King Jr., who each reported a little more than half of Moore’s total. But Moore is also spending more, according to recent reports.
The other Democrats in the 10-way race are former Maryland attorney general Douglas F. Gansler, former Anne Arundel County executive Laura Neuman, former nonprofit executive Jon Baron, former Montgomery County Council candidate Ashwani Jain, and socialist activist Jerome Segal.
Democrats are seeking to reclaim the governor’s mansion from Republicans, who have won three of the past five gubernatorial elections even though Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state by a 2-to-1 margin. Independents make up about 20 percent of Maryland’s electorate, and their numbers have been growing in recent years. | null | null | null | null | null |
“It appears to be linked back to some internal decision by the administration to resettle people in large numbers here without any policy or public discussion,” he said, arguing that the District should tell longtime residents how many voucher recipients move to their neighborhood, including how many people released from prison are getting housing assistance to live there. “This is a very liberal community that embraces the idea of helping the poor, but … the crime numbers overall are way up and you’ve had this mass relocation program at the same time.” | null | null | null | null | null |
For years, right-wing nationalist politicians pronounced a dewy-eyed admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a strongman they couldn’t resist. It wasn’t only Donald Trump who rhapsodized about Mr. Putin’s supposed “strength” and “traditional” values. It was also leaders of similarly inclined movements in France, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and elsewhere.
Her eyes having been opened, she now asserts the invasion is “unjustifiable.” Another French right-winger, Éric Zemmour, who also scoffed at the odds of a Russian attack, and made no secret of his admiration for Mr. Putin, has undergone a similar awakening. | null | null | null | null | null |
The report states that Griner was stopped by customs control at Sheremetyevo International Airport in February upon arrival in Moscow from New York when a service dog reacted to the presence of drugs. The two-time Olympic gold medalist’s luggage was searched and run through X-ray equipment and vape cartridges of liquid cannabis oil were found.
All other WNBA players are out of Russia and Ukraine, according to a WNBA spokesperson. Several prominent WNBA stars are on the rosters of Russian teams including Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, Jonquel Jones, Natasha Howard and Arike Ogunbowale.
The WNBA said in its own statement, “Brittney Griner has the WNBA’s full support and our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States.”
Cannabis cartridges are devices that contain marijuana in an oil form that can be inhaled by a component that heats the oil into a gaseous state.
Griner is listed on the roster for UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia and has played on the team for seven seasons starting in the 2014-15 WNBA offseason. She is a seven-time WNBA all-star after being the No. 1 overall pick in 2013 and is one of the world’s most recognizable women’s basketball players. Many WNBA players spend the offseason playing overseas to supplement WNBA salaries that are not competitive with their male counterparts. Griner is set to have a base salary of $227,900 with the Mercury for the 2022 season.
“We are aware of the situation in Russia concerning one of our members, Brittney Griner,” the Women’s National Basketball Players Association said in a statement. “Our utmost concern is BG’s safety and well-being. On behalf of The 144, we send our love and support. We will continue to closely monitor and look forward to her return to the U.S.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Russian invasion raises stakes in fight over state media broadcasts
On Tuesday, a prominent trade group that represents thousands of television and radio stations made a rare plea to broadcasters across the country to stop carrying Russian state media.
The call to action by the National Association of Broadcasters was “somewhat surprising,” wrote Alex Weprin of the Hollywood Reporter, given its “vocal support of freedom of speech and the First Amendment.”
But just days prior, lawyers for the NAB called on the courts to reject a federal order that would require broadcasters to identify and disclose when programs they have leased are sponsored or provided by a foreign government.
The standoff between the NAB and regulators at the Federal Communications Commission predates the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it has gained fresh significance in the wake of the war in Europe.
“In light of recent events this effort, which is all about transparency, has taken on new importance. It’s time for these rules to go into effect,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told The Technology 202.
In April, the FCC voted unanimously to adopt an order that would mandate broadcasters to disclose that programs they have leased are sponsored or provided by a foreign government at the time of the broadcast or independently verify they are not.
In August, the NAB and other industry groups filed a petition objecting to the order, arguing that the agency overstepped its authority and that the new rules would be “unnecessary and overly burdensome.” The issue of undisclosed foreign entities driving programs, broadcast groups argued at the time, was “above all” associated with “social media and the Internet.”
Just because a program runs on a broadcast network doesn’t mean the two sides struck a deal. Programs can be brokered through a complex web of arrangements with third parties that lease out time on networks, which may not fully know what they are airing.
The two sides filed final briefs in the federal district court in Washington last week and are slated to head into oral arguments next month. The case will decide the fate of the more stringent FCC disclosure rules.
The NAB said Wednesday that it “unequivocally supports” disclosures for programs sponsored by foreign governments, such as broadcasts of the television network RT or radio outlet Sputnik, just not the proposed FCC rules for vetting those arrangements.
But FCC leaders argue that it’s a sensible solution to address concerns about American consumers unknowingly being exposed to messaging from foreign governments, an issue that has gained massive attention over the past week.
“The wisdom of that targeted disclosure requirement is even more clear today, in light of the Russian government’s propaganda machine, which has gone into overdrive with their invasion of Ukraine,” FCC member Brendan Carr told The Technology 202.
While there are few known examples of programs with ties to Russia on American airwaves, the FCC warned in its news release announcing the order in April that “foreign governmental entities are increasingly purchasing time on domestic broadcast stations.”
Social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, have taken a slew of steps in recent days to make it more evident when consumers are engaging with content from Russian state media, including by labeling their accounts and posts. Amid mounting scrutiny from European officials, technology companies have blocked access to the outlets in certain countries.
The pressure campaign has recently spilled over into the television and streaming space, with DirectTV, Roku and others dropping Russian state media outlets such as RT from their services. But concerns remain about how far companies should go to make sure they are not unwittingly serving as mouthpieces for Russian propaganda.
While the First Amendment “protects freedom of speech,” it “does not prevent private actors from exercising sound moral judgment,” LeGeyt said. As the war unfolds overseas, it’s an issue American businesses are increasingly being forced to confront at home. | null | null | null | null | null |
Man killed on I-97 in Anne Arundel while checking on friend
A 33-year-old Annapolis man was killed late Friday on Interstate 97 in Anne Arundel County after he left his car to check on a friend, Maryland State Police said in a statement Saturday.
Shortly before midnight Friday, Maria Ines Cortes-Gutierrez, 40, of Glen Burnie, was driving on I-97 when she stopped her car, which did not have its lights on, near the Crownsville exit. Her friend Victor Antonio Diaz Aguilera, who was driving a separate car, stopped and ran across the highway to check on Cortes-Gutierrez, who was seated in her vehicle, police said.
At that time, the driver of a third car swerved to avoid Cortes-Gutierrez’s car, but struck Aguilera, who was declared dead at the scene, according to the statement. Cortes-Gutierrez was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and was taken to the Anne Arundel County Detention Center, police said. The driver of the third vehicle was not charged.
The case remains under investigation and police ask that anyone with information contact the Annapolis Barrack at 410-267-5800. | null | null | null | null | null |
Robin Ficker, a defense attorney, loses law license following disbarment process
Robin Ficker talking to voters after an event in 2018. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Robin Ficker was disbarred from practicing law under a ruling from the state’s top court after a complaint initiated by the Attorney Grievance Commission.
The Maryland Court of Appeals said in its ruling Thursday that Ficker has been the subject of a long history of complaints of professional misconduct that expand over three generations of the bar counsel.
Ficker, in a three-way race for the Republican nomination, said in an email Saturday the ruling was “a political decision by recent political appointees. … My clients love me. It is judges and lawyers complaining.”
An outspoken and colorful perennial candidate, who has launched bids for various state and local offices, Ficker is running for governor with a plan to cut the sales tax by 2 cents.
According to the ruling, the disbarment stems from a case in which Ficker failed to appear for trial and made other missteps.
Ficker said the case is from “more than 3 years ago, was a driving without a license case I was doing for free where the client did not show and still has not shown up.”
According to the 39-page ruling, Ficker has been disciplined for professional misconduct eight times. The past charges date back to 1990 and range from failure to appear in court, failure to adequately prepare for cases and lack of candor to the court. They resulted in reprimands and suspensions.
Trump endorses Maryland lawmaker in governor’s race
Ficker, who was once a legendary sports heckler, also works in real estate. He is competing against former Maryland commerce secretary Kelly Schulz, an ally of Gov. Larry Hogan, and Del. Daniel Cox (R-Frederick), who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump, for the Republican nomination. | null | null | null | null | null |
People arrived at Budapest's Western Railway Station from Zahony, Hungary, after crossing the border at Zahony-Chop as they fled Ukraine on March 3. (Janos Kummer/Getty Images)
Jessica Orakpo, 23, a medical student from Nigeria, and her friend Nataizya Nanyangwe, 24, an economics student from Zambia, both enrolled at universities in Ternopil, in western Ukraine, decided that the time had come, in the face of Russia’s invasion of the country, for them to leave.
They piled into a cab bound for the Polish border, some 136 miles away, at around 8 a.m. last Saturday. After two hours, they hit wall-to-wall traffic. The cab couldn’t go any further.
Several African and South Asian citizens in Ukraine have said they’ve seen different treatment of those who are non-White and non-Ukrainian and trying to leave the country, a situation that has been confirmed by the top U.N. refugee agency and other official authorities.
Orakpo and Nanyangwe say they were among those set apart and denied evacuation from Ukraine because they are African.
As they walked, Orakpo and Nanyangwe had taken breaks to rest by the road, lying on the blankets. After walking for close to 12 hours, they made it to a school’s basketball-court-turned-shelter, where they were able to rest, thanks to a traffic warden who offered to drive them there. “He sees that I’m very tired, and I was so grateful to him. Till this day, I’m very grateful to that guy,” Orakpo said.
The next day, they made it to a bus stop in the town of Mostyska, where buses were taking people to the Polish border. When they got there, Orakpo told The Washington Post, officials started allowing only women with children and pregnant women. The first bus took off, then the second. Pets and their owners were being loaded onto a third bus, without any noncitizens being allowed to board. Orakpo pleaded to be allowed on the bus and was initially ignored. She speaks a bit of Ukrainian, so she said she was pregnant so she could be considered.
“I don’t know what is happening on the Ukrainian side of the border, but we let everyone in regardless of nationality,” a spokesperson for the Polish border guards told France24.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told The Post that there were “isolated cases” of African citizens being mistreated at the border. “I don’t think it’s something done systematically,” he said.
The African Union released a statement condemning the treatment of African citizens at Ukrainian border crossings. “Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach [of] international law.”
He called reports on social media of the treatment some Nigerians have received at the border from Ukrainian officials “harrowing” and “deplorable.” Onyeama added: “The question is, how do you know whether these were sort of just rogue officials or whether there was any kind of state sanction to what they were doing?” He reiterated that the Ukrainian minister insisted there had been a directive to let everybody leave.
Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, announced Wednesday an emergency hotline for foreign students trying to leave the country. At least one international student, a medical student from India who was lining up for food in the city of Kharkiv, has died as a result of the invasion, prompting the Indian Embassy to issue an alert asking all Indian students to leave the country immediately.
According to a study released by the Ukrainian government in late 2020, tens of thousands of students from abroad attend school in Ukraine each year, with the highest number from India. Ten percent come from Morocco, while others come from countries including Nigeria, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
Orakpo was a few months away from graduating before the conflict started; her graduation was scheduled for June 23. She is limping from all the walking and has blood clots in both her legs, she says. Her plan was to move to the United States after graduating, maybe to Baltimore, to do her residency. | null | null | null | null | null |
But some outlets are refusing to be silenced. In response to the ban, the BBC posted a statement on its website that said, “access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia,” attaching instructions on how to circumvent the media blackout by accessing BBC content through two apps: Psiphon, a censorship circumvention tool; and Tor, an anonymous browser. Voice of America also vowed, in a statement, to “promote and support tools and resources that will allow our audiences to bypass any blocking efforts imposed on our sites in Russia.”
In a related move, a spokeswoman from The Washington Post said that the publication would remove some bylines and datelines from certain stores, to “help protect our Moscow-based journalists,” while the organization seeks “clarity about whether Russia’s new restrictions will apply to international news organizations.”
RFE/RL, which operates in 23 countries, has a history of reporting in tightly-controlled media environments, and has led digital-literacy campaigns in several countries. An RFE/RL employee, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to comment on behalf of the organization, told The Post that the organization had shown people in Afghanistan how to wipe information from their phones in case they were stopped at Taliban checkpoints, and had taught Ukrainians how to use VPNs.
In Russia, RFE/RL has set up multiple mechanisms to evade censorship. Its mobile app has censorship circumvention tools built into it, and the organization has made so-called mirror websites that reproduce whatever is on the official homepage. If the state blocks one mirror site, it’s easy to make another. “It’s like this cat-and-mouse game,” the staffer said. “But we’re just a very, very fast mouse.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Taliban minister makes appearance
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s acting interior minister — designated a terrorist by the United States — said in a rare public appearance that security police guilty of misconduct in Afghanistan were being penalized after a string of abuse allegations.
Haqqani attended the graduation ceremony of the first class to complete police training since the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan. The event marked the first time Haqqani has given statements to the media since being named interior minister.
It also was the first time Haqqani’s face was shown in photographs published by official Taliban government channels. In an October appearance, photos of the influential and reserved figure were blurred.
He said his government was committed to the Doha peace agreement signed between the Taliban and the United States in February 2021 that brought an end to the war in Afghanistan.
Officials vow to find Pakistani mosque bombing organizers: Pakistani officials vowed to hunt down and arrest the masterminds behind a deadly mosque attack in Pakistan on Friday that was claimed by an Islamic State affiliate. The assault killed 63 people and wounded nearly 200. The militant group said in a statement that the lone suicide bomber was from neighboring Afghanistan. The Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan.
Chinese premier's pledge draws rebuke from Taiwan: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged to advance peaceful growth in relations with Taiwan and "reunification," but he said his government firmly opposes any separatist activities or foreign interference, drawing a firm rebuke from Taipei. Speaking at the opening of the annual meeting of China's parliament, Li said Beijing stands by the "one China" principle. China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, has increased military activity near the island over the past two years. "Taiwanese public opinion firmly opposes the political framework, military intimidation and diplomatic suppression imposed by China," Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council responded.
S. Koreans battle massive wildfire: Thousands of South Korean firefighters and troops battled a large wildfire that tore through an eastern coastal area and temporarily threatened a nuclear power station and a liquefied natural gas plant. The fire, which began Friday morning on a mountain in the seaside town of Uljin and has spread across more than 14,800 acres to the nearby city of Samcheok, destroyed at least 159 homes and 46 other buildings and prompted the evacuation of more than 6,200 people. | null | null | null | null | null |
NORMAN, Okla. — Aniya Thomas shot 8 of 11 from the field and scored 10 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter, Taiyanna Jackson added 17 points and Kansas gave up a 13-point second-half lead before the Jayhawks used a late run to beat No. 19 Oklahoma 73-67 on Saturday in the regular-season finale for both teams. | null | null | null | null | null |
RFE/RL, which operates in 23 countries, has a history of reporting in tightly controlled media environments and has led digital-literacy campaigns in several countries. An RFE/RL employee, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to comment on behalf of the organization, told The Post that the organization had shown people in Afghanistan how to wipe information from their phones in case they were stopped at Taliban checkpoints, and had taught Ukrainians how to use VPNs. | null | null | null | null | null |
It used to be said that there was a ‘Black seat’ on the Supreme Court. But Black legal perspectives are far too diverse to be represented by any single figure.
February 25, 2022 at 5:05 p.m. EST
Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom President Biden has nominated to the Supreme Court, speaks during an announcement ceremony with Biden and Vice President Harris at the White House on Feb. 25. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
It goes without saying that racial identity is not monolithic. Even as they share particular traits, individuals may harbor wildly different views on various issues. But since 1967, and Thurgood Marshall’s appointment, there has been only one Black voice at a time on the U.S. Supreme Court — first that of the civil rights hero, then that of Clarence Thomas, the staunch conservative selected in 1991 to replace Marshall.
This is why President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Black woman, to the high court is so important. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Jackson would bring a range of professional experiences that would diversify the court. If confirmed, she would be the first justice since Marshall to have worked in criminal defense, and she also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she spoke out about the disparity in crack and powder cocaine sentences. She would be the first justice to have clerked at all three levels of the federal judiciary. And, to judge from her written opinions and public statements, she would serve as a weighty counterpoint to Thomas, demonstrating to the country the vast diversity of Black viewpoints.
That she would provide an alternative perspective is critical. Many in the Black community are adamant that Thomas does not speak for them. That may be true, but as the only African American on the court, Thomas has frequently surfaced issues of race in the court’s decision-making that his White colleagues have glossed over. For example, in Kelo v. New London, the court in 2005 upheld a city’s use of eminent domain in conjunction with an economic revitalization project. The taking of private property, the court mused, was a small price to pay for the economic growth that the project would spur — economic growth that would benefit the residents of the city’s “blighted” urban landscape. In a lone dissent, Thomas offered a stinging counterpoint to this rosy narrative of urban progress. Far from benefiting members of minority groups, the government’s use of eminent domain, he contended, resulted in the destruction of “predominantly minority communities” and the displacement of Black people and other marginalized Americans.
Likewise, in a controversial gun rights case in which gun-control advocates emphasized the impact of firearms-related violence on minority communities, Thomas wrote separately to provide a racialized account of the Second Amendment. He drew a straight line connecting, in his view, weak protections for gun rights today to the terror that Black Americans experienced in the South during Reconstruction and beyond. Because Black citizens were routinely denied their Second Amendment rights, they were uniquely vulnerable to “a wave of private violence designed to drive blacks from the voting booth and force them into peonage, an effective return to slavery.” To underscore the point, Thomas detailed the violent lynchings and deaths of numerous Black men, including Emmett Till in 1955. His message was clear: The “use of firearms allowed targets of [racial] violence to survive.”
As the only Black member of the court, Thomas’s views on race and racism may carry particular weight with his colleagues. After all, he — and he alone — is positioned to explain, drawing on personal experience, the impact of racism on the Black community. And his conservative bona fides make it hard to dismiss his views as “wokeness” run amok.
Consider the court’s decisions on burning crosses. In a 1992 free-speech case involving a cross-burning, the court struck down the hate-crime ordinance under which the litigants had been charged, finding it an impermissible imposition on free speech. A new addition to the court at the time, Thomas said nothing at oral argument and in the opinions. The decision invalidating the ordinance was unanimous. A little over a decade later, though, the court revisited the free-speech implications of cross-burning. This time, Thomas had more to say at oral argument, chiding one of the advocates for “understating” the impact of cross-burning. The burning cross, he recounted, was a well-worn symbol of white supremacy, designed to intimidate and terrorize. Thomas’s words, coming as they did from a Black man raised in the South, seemed to change the tenor of the debate. Justices and advocates alike referenced Thomas’s remarks as they acknowledged cross-burning’s associations with racialized violence and intimidation. While the court again struck down the challenged law as impermissibly intruding upon free speech, it conceded that cross-burning with the intent to intimidate would not be entitled to First Amendment protection.
Some may dispute whether Thomas’s intervention shaped the debate in the cross-burning case, but it is clear that his perspective as the only Black person in the room was hard to dismiss.
If Jackson is confirmed, which seems likely, Thomas’s authority on questions of race at the high court will be diminished — a healthy development. Next term, the justices will hear a critical challenge to affirmative action, and, depending on what happens in the Mississippi abortion case currently pending, there may be yet more opportunities to consider the scope and substance of the right to abortion. On both of these issues, Thomas has been incredibly vocal — and his views have been presented in racialized terms. He is a stalwart critic of affirmative action, arguing that such programs “stamp minorities with a badge of inferiority and may cause them to develop dependencies or to adopt an attitude that they are ‘entitled’ to preferences.” He has dismissed claims about the supposed benefits of diversity in education as a product of “faddish social theories” at odds with a constitutional commitment to equal protection of the laws. His opposition to reproductive rights is well known, though recently, his rhetoric has grown more aggressive: He has associated abortion with the eugenics movement of the 1920s and has voiced concern about the eradication through abortion of minority groups.
As an African American raised in the wake of the civil rights movement, Jackson — who, at 51, is 22 years younger than Thomas — may have a markedly different view of the benefits and burdens of affirmative action. Likewise, as a Black woman and a working mother, her take on reproductive rights may stand in stark contrast to that of Thomas. She has spoken movingly (and humorously) of the “whiplash” she experienced in her dual roles as a federal judge and a mother of teenagers. As conservatives bear down on abortion rights, Jackson’s experiences navigating the joys and difficulties of working motherhood may inform her contributions to the court’s deliberations.
To be sure, Justice Sonia Sotomayor routinely has sought to elevate the perspectives of people of color — and specifically women of color — in the court’s debates. But the addition of a Black woman to the court’s diminished liberal wing could amplify these efforts. Serving as a counterweight to Thomas, Jackson would make clear, through her presence and her arguments, that the Black experience is anything but one-dimensional. | null | null | null | null | null |
Estonian soldiers take part in a drill as part of NATO's "Enhance Forward Presence" operation at an army camp near Rakvere on Feb. 6. (Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images)
A. This is an open question. We have to answer it.
With Estonia’s President Karis:
A. It’s not only Washington. The whole Western world was a bit naive in that sense. We do have experience from the past, and that’s why we are quite cautious and able to read between the lines. Now the whole Western world does understand what kind of president Putin is. It took a while, I agree. Luckily now it’s a different situation. | null | null | null | null | null |
The battle for Kyiv through the eyes of a local artist
By Sergiy Maidukov
Sergiy Maidukov is an illustrator in Kyiv.
Sergiy Maidukov for the Washington Post
Illustrator Sergiy Maidukov lives in Kyiv. His family fled the city after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started, but he stayed behind, working with some foreign correspondents covering the war and drawing what he saw on the streets. In the first few days, he was able to get around easily, he says. But then the situation “became much tougher, and it is suspicious if you are standing [on] the street of [an] empty city and making pictures.” A police or military car will pull up and stop you then, Maidukov writes, “because we have confirmed Russian sabotage groups here.”
He sent these scenes from Ukraine’s capital on Wednesday and Thursday.
Russia’s disgraceful war against Ukraine has meant new rules for daily life — and a new depth of feelings for me.
There’s no part of my world here that the war hasn’t influenced. Kyiv, my city, is wearing antitank metal crosses, sandbags and thousands of concrete blocks, at every road crossing and scattered every 500 yards or so.
When you approach one of these points, you need to show your documents. Tension is high: No smiles, no waving. About every fifth person on the street is a military man, armored policeman or member of the Territorial Defense Forces. All are armed. If you stop to pull out something from a rucksack, 90 percent of the time, a police or military car or foot patrol will show up to check what it is.
I’m living at my friend Illia’s place. Two of his other friends have moved in there, too. It is important not to be alone these days — for me, especially after twilight.
We are all trying to volunteer to help. Mostly, we’re delivering different military and humanitarian stuff from Point A to Point B by car. My main route, which is full of checkpoints and traffic, takes a few hours and a lot of work to get through. My documents are registered to the separatist region of Donetsk, which makes me suspicious now, even though I’ve lived in Kyiv since 2006. It means I get additional questions, asked in a sharper tone.
This past week, I spent two days as a driver and interpreter for two French journalists to earn money and connect them with Ukrainian fighters or volunteers. Some days, I don’t find any tasks that need my help. I tried to sign up as a cook for one place that is preparing food for our soldiers, but they already had enough people. The other option was that my friend and I could go to the left bank of the Dnieper River on foot carrying food, because the traffic was too heavy on the only available bridge. But that was canceled, too.
I plan things on a short horizon: each day at a time. Tomorrow, I’ll start my day again looking for things I can do for Kyiv. We have the best and bravest soldiers on Earth. And we have your priceless support.
Ukraine will stand. Kyiv will stand. | null | null | null | null | null |
Paul VI rode a fourth quarter surge to a VISAA Division I title. (Michael Errigo/The Washington Post)
PETERSBURG, VA. — For the second time in a week, the Paul VI boys’ basketball team laughed and hugged and took turns getting a touch on a newly acquired trophy.
Days after they won the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference tournament, the No. 1 Panthers returned to their championship routine at Virginia State University on Saturday afternoon following a 56-52 win over No. 4 St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes in the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division I title game.
“We have a young team, so being able to win a championship earlier this week carries over to today,” senior guard Dug McDaniel said. “Our guys were ready and knew what to expect.”
The Panthers were not the only team on the floor with a conference championship under its belt. The Saints won the Interstate Athletic Conference last month. On Saturday, they seemed hungry for a chance to prove their season, their conference and their roster were superior.
St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes (20-4) led for much of the afternoon, riding a balanced scoring approach and a tight defense that seemed to rattle Paul VI for much of the first half. But the Panthers (29-4) hung around and finally made their move in the fourth quarter, taking their first lead of the second half with three minutes remaining in the game. From there, back-to-back defensive stops and four free throws from sophomore Ben Hammond helped them ice it.
Wilson's Darren Buchanan Jr. commits to Virginia Tech
“They were fighting a little more for it at first,” Hammond said. “But we found the energy and got it done. ... We fight for each other, and at the end of the day we get wins.”
If Paul VI faced any kind of championship hangover this week, you could hardly blame it. Saturday was the team’s sixth game in eight days, and Monday’s WCAC final saw the Panthers beat No. 3 Bishop McNamara in dramatic fashion as freshman forward Jaquan Womack gave his team the win with a last-second lay-in.
The team’s VISAA journey started two days later with a quarterfinal matchup against Virginia Beach’s Catholic High. The Panthers trailed by as many as 10 and squeaked by with a one-point win. They looked more like themselves in Friday’s semifinal as they pounded IAC contender Episcopal. By the time Saturday’s championship tipped, their minds were set on making this a two-trophy week.
“It’s hard to find the energy sometimes in a stretch like this,” junior forward DeShawn Harris-Smith said. “But we’re all competitors. So when you line up for a championship game, that kicks in, and we do what we do.”
Georgetown Visitation and Sidwell Friends advance to the DCSAA girls' basketball final
Paul VI girls’ make it 15 straight
In the VISAA Division I girls final, No. 6 Paul VI kept tradition alive by beating St. Anne’s Belfield, 60-48, to earn the program’s 15th consecutive state title.
“We’ve overcome so much adversity to get to this point,” senior forward Jaelyn Talley said. “It’s been all about adjusting and staying focused for us this year. And we got it, so hopefully the next few years they can continue the streak.”
The Panthers, playing without Coach Scott Allen because of a family matter, bounced back from a disappointing WCAC tournament to send their seniors off with a win.
“It was a big weight off our back to end this season in the way those seniors have earned,” acting coach Jeff Benjamin said. “The last time those kids had a normal school year was their freshman year, so they deserve this.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Iowa State: Despite consecutive losses to end the regular season, the Cyclones’ 20 wins are already a plus-18 turnaround from last season. That is a school record and the most ever for a Big 12 team with a first-year coach. (T.J. Tozelberger). ... Iowa State shot 47.5% overall from the field, remarkable considering 14 missed shots in a row over a span of 8 1/2 minutes when falling behind in the first half. | null | null | null | null | null |
Britain’s BBC, along with other news organizations, has turned to tech tools such as the app Psiphon to circumvent Russian censorship of its content. (Frank Augstein/AP)
Russia’s Internet censorship agency announced on March 4 that it plans to block access to Facebook throughout the country. (Reuters)
RFE/RL, which operates in 23 countries, has a history of reporting in tightly controlled media environments and has led digital-literacy campaigns in several countries. An RFE/RL employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on behalf of the organization, told The Post that the organization had shown people in Afghanistan how to wipe information from their phones in case they were stopped at Taliban checkpoints, and had taught Ukrainians how to use VPNs. | null | null | null | null | null |
It helped that captain Alex Ovechkin continued to chase history with a three-point night. He gave the Capitals a 4-2 cushion with a power-play goal early in the third period, his 34th of the season and 764th of his career. Ovechkin is three goals shy of passing Jaromir Jagr for third in NHL history.
While Washington jumped out to a 2-0 lead midway through the first period after goals from Tom Wilson and Dmitry Orlov, the Kraken tied the score early in the second period.
Late last month, Ovechkin delivered an antiwar message after his home country’s invasion of Ukraine. Ovechkin has voiced support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past. Since his comments, in which he did not directly sever ties with Putin, instead saying he hopes that the war will be over soon and there will be “peace in the whole world.”
Before Saturday’s game, a blown-up photo of Putin and Ovechkin — the star’s Instragram profile picture — was featured in a large sign behind the Capitals’ bench. The sign said, “Alex Go Back to Russia.” The person holding the sign was wrapped in a Ukraine flag.
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby was recalled by Washington on Friday from the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey, Pa. The Capitals see the 24-year-old winger as a replacement for Carl Hagelin on the Capitals’ fourth line. Hagelin is out indefinitely after he was struck in the eye with a stick Tuesday. He had surgery later that day and is still being evaluated.
Jonsson-Fjallby has one assist in 10 games with Washington this season. He made his NHL debut in November. In Hershey, he has 16 goals and 18 assists in 44 games. | null | null | null | null | null |
Mandatory Credit: Photo by ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (12832531g) Russian people buy furniture and household goods at IKEA hypermarket in St. Petersburg before the store closes. The Swedish brand announced it was closing its chain in Russia from March 4, as part of the economic sanctions imposed by Western countries following the invasion of Ukraine. (Anatoly Maltsev/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
The situation is reminiscent of the hyperinflation of the early 1990s, when President Boris Yeltsin liberalized prices as a prerequisite for the creation of a market economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a worried Muscovite confided in 1992 in a journal that is now preserved in an archive of diaries by ordinary Russians: “Prices are outrageous! From 2 to 11 rubles [in one year] for a loaf of black bread.”
In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, high-quality food staples became more widely available and relatively affordable. After 2015, though, inflation began creeping back due to low oil prices and Western sanctions for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Prices rose further during the pandemic due to global supply chain disruptions.
This is the case due to two competing economic facts. On the one hand, the Russian economy and Russian citizens’ daily economic realities are closely tied to global financial markets — leaving them vulnerable to pain inflicted by sanctions.
Here is the logic of why Russia’s integration into the world economy has the potential to make sanctions hurt. Although sanctions are currently focused on Russia’s ties to global financial markets, for regular Russians the effects of sanctions look similar to price shocks in global energy markets.
The stability fund that has helped shore up the ruble is the most well-known of these policies. But there are others aimed specifically at keeping food prices low. The “Food Security Agenda,” first adopted in 2010 and updated in 2020, seeks to increase Russia’s self-sufficiency in grains, meat, dairy and other staples.
The Putin government has deployed other measures to keep food prices low on occasions when political concerns appeared more important than letting markets determine prices. During the run-up to the 2021 parliamentary elections, government imposed steep export duties on wheat, effectively diverting grain from global markets to domestic markets to cap food prices at home.
Why do these competing economic forces matter? They matter because they will affect how economic sanctions that limit the Russian economy’s ties to global markets are felt by Russian citizens. Even though Russia is an authoritarian state, and sanctions are meant to primarily target elites, the West is also counting on ordinary Russians who are feeling the fallout from sanctions to act as catalysts for change.
The Russian opposition has been almost entirely suppressed by the state, with antiwar protesters arrested by special police forces and the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, in prison. Meanwhile, a large share of the population is influenced by state-owned media outlets that portray the war as a liberation and do not report on casualties. | null | null | null | null | null |
“We’re starting to see some good signs of the kind of hockey we want to play down the stretch here," Nick Jensen said. "One of the biggest is work ethic; I think that’s one thing that’s been really good. ... Not everything is perfect right now, but it’s going in the right direction.”
It helped that captain Alex Ovechkin continued to chase history with his three-point night. He gave the Capitals a 4-2 cushion with a power-play goal early in the third period, his 34th of the season and the 764th of his career. Ovechkin is three goals shy of passing Jaromir Jagr for third in NHL history.
“It’s just nonstop,” Tom Wilson said of Ovechkin’s scoring prowess. “Every time he’s in a game, every time he’s on the ice, on the bench, if we don’t get a shift, he’s like, ‘Let’s go.’ When we’re out there, he’s like, ‘Let’s go.’ He wants to score again. ... He just has a drive that I’ve never seen before, and it shows in his game.”
While Washington jumped out to a 2-0 lead midway through the first period after goals from Wilson and Dmitry Orlov, the Kraken tied the score early in the second period.
“I think Vitek has looked really good," Capitals Coach Peter Laviolette said. "... He seemed like he was in control tonight.”
Late last month, Ovechkin delivered an antiwar message after his home country’s invasion of Ukraine. Ovechkin has voiced support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past. In his recent comments, he did not directly sever ties with Putin, instead saying he hopes that the war will be over soon and there will be “peace in the whole world.”
Before Saturday’s game, a blown-up photo of Putin and Ovechkin — the star’s Instagram profile picture — was featured in a large sign behind the Capitals’ bench. The sign said, “Alex Go Back to Russia.” The person holding the sign was wrapped in a Ukraine flag.
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby was recalled by Washington on Friday from the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey, Pa. The Capitals see the 24-year-old winger as a replacement for Carl Hagelin on the fourth line. Hagelin is out indefinitely after he was struck in the eye with a stick Tuesday. He had surgery later that day and is still being evaluated.
Jonsson-Fjallby has one assist in 10 games with Washington this season. He made his NHL debut in November. In Hershey, he had 16 goals and 18 assists in 44 games.
“I thought he was really good. You notice his speed out there," Laviolette said of Jonsson-Fjallby. “I thought he did a good job on that line. ... For him to jump back in, first few shifts it looked like he was finding his way out there. But as the game went on, you noticed his speed, and he played good defense. Then off the rush he was able to attack and get a couple looks.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Teenager slain in Wheaton, Montgomery police say
A suspect is found in Metro station, according to authorities
A teenager was fatally shot near the Metro station in Wheaton on Friday evening and a suspect has been arrested, Montgomery County police said.
Devin Dickey,17, of Silver Spring was shot near Georgia Avenue and Reedie Drive about 6:45 p.m., police said. He died at a hospital, they said.
Police said Cardel Chaney, 20, of Silver Spring was found in the Metro station. He was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the death, they said. | null | null | null | null | null |
‘People’s Convoy’ plans to slowly loop around the beltway Sunday
Organizers of the “People’s Convoy” said late Saturday that their armada of trucks, cars and SUVs would circle the Beltway Sunday morning and into the workweek at the minimum speed limit to slow traffic without stopping it and to get their message to lawmakers.
Brian Brase, a convoy organizer, said in an interview that the plan is to drive around the Beltway twice before returning to the Hagerstown Speedway, where the protesters have spent the weekend so far. Each day this week, the convoy will repeat this ritual until the group’s demands are met, Brase said.
He said organizers are working with local enforcement to identify weekday times that would have a minimal impact on traffic. They will drive the minimum legal speed limit and increase the number of loops around the Beltway each day to pressure lawmakers and public officials.
Sunday “is a show of just how big we are and just how serious we are,” Brase, a 37-year-old truck driver from northwest Ohio who helped organize the convoy, said. “But it’s very easy to get rid of us.” Brase has said the group wants an end to the national emergency declaration in response to the coronavirus — first issued by President Donald Trump in March 2020 and later extended by President Biden — and for Congress to hold hearings investigating the government’s response to the pandemic.
The convoy plans to roll out of Hagerstown at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Brase said. It could take a while for a group that large to arrive on the Beltway.
Many of the protesters in Hagerstown Saturday had made a 2,500-mile journey from Southern California. They say they want to hold lawmakers accountable for the government’s pandemic responses. But many in the western Maryland city also expressed support for Trump and disgust for Biden. | null | null | null | null | null |
FILE - Alabama state troopers attack voting rights demonstrators in Selma, Ala., in this file photo from March 7, 1965. Despite being known worldwide as a beacon of voting rights, the city and surrounding Dallas County had one of the worst voter turnouts in Alabama for the 2020 presidential election, and some are trying to increase voter participation. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP) | null | null | null | null | null |
Georgia State Panthers (16-10, 9-5 Sun Belt) vs. Appalachian State Mountaineers (19-13, 12-6 Sun Belt)
Pensacola, Florida; Sunday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Georgia State visits the Appalachian State Mountaineers after Kane Williams scored 23 points in Georgia State’s 65-62 win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves.
The Mountaineers have gone 11-4 at home. Appalachian State averages 66.9 points while outscoring opponents by 4.6 points per game.
The Panthers are 9-5 in conference matchups. Georgia State scores 70.2 points while outscoring opponents by 5.7 points per game.
The teams meet for the third time this season. The Panthers won 58-49 in the last matchup on Feb. 12. Jalen Thomas led the Panthers with 16 points, and Adrian Delph led the Mountaineers with 12 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Delph is averaging 17.2 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Mountaineers. Donovan Gregory is averaging 12.5 points over the last 10 games for Appalachian State.
Corey Allen is shooting 32.1% from beyond the arc with 2.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Panthers, while averaging 13.4 points and 1.7 steals. Williams is shooting 43.4% and averaging 13.8 points over the past 10 games for Georgia State. | null | null | null | null | null |
Wright State Raiders (19-13, 15-7 Horizon) vs. Cleveland State Vikings (20-9, 15-6 Horizon)
Indianapolis; Monday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: The Cleveland State Vikings and Wright State Raiders meet in the Horizon Tournament.
The Vikings are 15-3 on their home court. Cleveland State leads the Horizon with 38.1 points in the paint led by Craig Beaudion averaging one.
The Raiders are 15-7 against Horizon opponents. Wright State has an 8-8 record against opponents over .500.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Cleveland State won 71-67 in the last matchup on Jan. 29. Torrey Patton led Cleveland State with 25 points, and Tanner Holden led Wright State with 24 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Patton is averaging 14 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals for the Vikings. D’Moi Hodge is averaging 15.4 points and 2.3 steals over the past 10 games for Cleveland State.
Holden is shooting 49.9% and averaging 20.1 points for the Raiders. Grant Basile is averaging 18.8 points over the last 10 games for Wright State.
Raiders: 7-3, averaging 74 points, 32.8 rebounds, 13.6 assists, five steals and two blocks per game while shooting 43.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.2 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Samford Bulldogs (21-10, 10-8 SoCon) vs. Furman Paladins (21-11, 12-6 SoCon)
Asheville, North Carolina; Sunday, 6:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Ques Glover and the Samford Bulldogs visit Mike Bothwell and the Furman Paladins in SoCon play Sunday.
The Paladins have gone 12-3 at home. Furman is the top team in the SoCon with 17.8 assists per game led by Jalen Slawson averaging 3.8.
The Bulldogs are 10-8 in conference matchups. Samford ranks third in the SoCon with 9.5 offensive rebounds per game led by Jermaine Marshall averaging 2.6.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Samford won 83-75 in the last matchup on Feb. 24. Glover led Samford with 22 points, and Bothwell led Furman with 21 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Slawson is averaging 14.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocks for the Paladins. Alex Hunter is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Furman.
Jaden Campbell is shooting 38.0% from beyond the arc with 1.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Bulldogs, while averaging 10.1 points and 1.5 steals. Glover is shooting 51.4% and averaging 18.0 points over the last 10 games for Samford. | null | null | null | null | null |
Wofford Terriers (19-12, 10-8 SoCon) vs. Chattanooga Mocs (25-7, 14-4 SoCon)
Asheville, North Carolina; Sunday, 4 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Chattanooga hosts the Wofford Terriers after David Jean-Baptiste scored 20 points in Chattanooga’s 71-66 victory over the Citadel Bulldogs.
The Mocs are 12-3 in home games. Chattanooga ranks fourth in the SoCon with 23.8 defensive rebounds per game led by Malachi Smith averaging 4.9.
The Terriers have gone 10-8 against SoCon opponents. Wofford is sixth in the SoCon scoring 73.1 points per game and is shooting 46.5%.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Chattanooga won 71-60 in the last matchup on Jan. 27. Smith led Chattanooga with 18 points, and B.J. Mack led Wofford with 18 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Smith is averaging 20.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals for the Mocs. Jean-Baptiste is averaging 11.8 points over the last 10 games for Chattanooga.
Mack is averaging 16.4 points and six rebounds for the Terriers. Max Klesmit is averaging 2.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Wofford. | null | null | null | null | null |
Winthrop Eagles (23-8, 14-2 Big South) vs. Longwood Lancers (25-6, 15-1 Big South)
Charlotte, North Carolina; Sunday, 12 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Winthrop faces the Longwood Lancers after Cory Hightower scored 20 points in Winthrop’s 76-67 victory against the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs.
The Lancers have gone 16-1 in home games. Longwood is second in the Big South with 10.3 offensive rebounds per game led by Leslie Nkereuwem averaging 1.9.
The Eagles are 14-2 against Big South opponents. Winthrop is fifth in the Big South with 32.1 rebounds per game led by Hightower averaging 5.6.
The teams play each other for the second time this season. Longwood won the last meeting 92-88 on Jan. 29. Justin Hill scored 29 to help lead Longwood to the win, and Sin’Cere McMahon scored 17 points for Winthrop.
TOP PERFORMERS: Hill is scoring 14.4 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the Lancers. DeShaun Wade is averaging 12.4 points and 2.5 rebounds while shooting 50.0% over the last 10 games for Longwood.
D.J. Burns is averaging 15.1 points for the Eagles. Hightower is averaging 13.2 points over the last 10 games for Winthrop.
Eagles: 10-0, averaging 77.8 points, 33.7 rebounds, 12.8 assists, 4.6 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 49.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.8 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
DENVER — Johnny Gaudreau ended what had all the feel of a playoff game with a breakaway goal early in overtime.
“I wouldn’t be happy either if the coach is pulling me out of the net,” Bednar explained. “I don’t expect him to be happy about it. ... Sometimes you have to make tough calls as a coach.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Northern Kentucky Norse (19-11, 14-6 Horizon) vs. Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons (21-10, 15-6 Horizon)
Indianapolis; Monday, 9:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons play in the Horizon Tournament against the Northern Kentucky Norse.
The Mastodons have gone 15-2 at home. Purdue Fort Wayne is third in the Horizon scoring 74.7 points while shooting 46.4% from the field.
The Norse are 14-6 against Horizon opponents. Northern Kentucky leads the Horizon allowing just 65.6 points per game while holding opponents to 43.0% shooting.
The teams play each other for the third time this season. Northern Kentucky won the last meeting 59-49 on Jan. 29. Sam Vinson scored 17 to help lead Northern Kentucky to the win, and Bobby Planutis scored 18 points for Purdue Fort Wayne.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jarred Godfrey is averaging 15.4 points, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals for the Mastodons. Jalon Pipkins is averaging 13.9 points and 1.5 steals over the past 10 games for Purdue Fort Wayne.
Marques Warrick is scoring 16.3 points per game and averaging 2.9 rebounds for the Norse. Vinson is averaging 1.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Northern Kentucky.
LAST 10 GAMES: Mastodons: 10-0, averaging 79.8 points, 30.2 rebounds, 13.0 assists, 9.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 47.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.1 points per game.
Norse: 8-2, averaging 72.8 points, 32.5 rebounds, 12.6 assists, 7.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 48.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 60.0 points. | null | null | null | null | null |
Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (15-14, 8-9 Sun Belt) vs. Troy Trojans (20-10, 10-6 Sun Belt)
Pensacola, Florida; Sunday, 6 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Louisiana visits the Troy Trojans after Jordan Brown scored 31 points in Louisiana’s 79-72 win against the Texas State Bobcats.
The Trojans have gone 10-3 in home games. Troy is 7-5 in games decided by at least 10 points.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 8-9 against Sun Belt opponents. Louisiana is second in the Sun Belt with 35.7 rebounds per game led by Brown averaging 8.6.
The teams meet for the second time this season. Louisiana won 69-59 in the last matchup on Jan. 23. Kobe Julien led Louisiana with 17 points, and Efe Odigie led Troy with 14 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Zay Williams is averaging 8.1 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Trojans. Odigie is averaging 12.3 points over the last 10 games for Troy.
Brown is averaging 15.3 points and 8.6 rebounds for the Ragin’ Cajuns. Jalen Dalcourt is averaging 1.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Louisiana. | null | null | null | null | null |
Sandbags and steel barricades are placed in a road leading up to Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in downtown Odessa, Ukraine, on March 4, 2022. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
The city’s 7 p.m. curfew is strict. Its downtown streets, known for stunning, delicate architecture, are now lined with stone barriers and antitank “hedgehogs” fashioned out of metal bars. Throughout the city, the now-famous response from the nearby Snake Island border guards — “Russian warship, go f--- yourself” — is posted on billboards around the city. | null | null | null | null | null |
Many German politicians were convinced that the Russian president was bluffing about Ukraine
By Marina E. Henke
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center, holds a news conference Feb. 24 in Berlin. (Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg News)
Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, but one thing is already clear. Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved — albeit inadvertently — what nobody else could: a revolution in German security and defense policy.
In a remarkable session of the Bundestag on Feb. 27, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced measures that many believed impossible only days earlier. These include a $113 billion defense fund to modernize the German military — anchored in Germany’s Basic Law so that it cannot be used for any other purpose in the future — and an increase in annual defense spending to more than 2 percent of gross domestic product.
For comparison, the current level is below 1.5 percent. For the past 20 years, defense spending had averaged 1.3 percent of GDP. The announced increase translates into an annual defense budget of about 71 billion euros ($78 billion), up from about 47 billion euros ($50 billion).
In addition, the German government will supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, a move it previously rejected as incompatible with German law. Germany will also purchase armed drones — an issue that sparked a highly controversial debate last year.
Scholz also announced that Germany would indefinitely suspend the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project and build two LNG terminals instead. And the German government, reportedly the last holdout among European Union members on this financial sanction, gave its go-ahead to exclude major Russian banks from the SWIFT global banking communication network.
What explains this monumental shift?
On Feb. 25, NATO leaders met virtually to discuss events in Ukraine. According to German accounts, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke first: “The Russian attack on Ukraine was cold blooded and planned way in advance. We need to take into consideration that Putin does not stop in Ukraine. An attack on a NATO ally, while far-fetched, is not implausible.”
Statements like this no doubt put mounting pressure on Scholz and the new German government. In the same meeting, President Biden declared: “Everyone needs to do more and share the burden.”
Until that point, Germany’s policy on the Ukraine crisis had been erratic, to say the least. High-ranking officials within Scholz’s Social Democratic Party were convinced Putin would not invade. They were sure the military buildup on the Ukrainian border was just posturing.
Many of these German politicians knew Putin personally. They had advocated for continued dialogue with Russia and friendly relations, despite the Russian annexation of Crimea, Russia’s indiscriminate bombing in the destruction of Homs and Aleppo in Syria, and the buildup of a massive Russian military force along the border with Ukraine. In January, Germany’s decision to send 5,000 helmets to Ukraine drew widespread ridicule, and Eastern European leaders pleaded with Germany to wake up to the threat — but most of these politicians just shrugged their shoulders.
For these Germans, Russia’s Feb. 24 attack on Ukraine felt like a personal betrayal. But when Stoltenberg declared that Putin was a potential threat to all of Europe, their entire worldview collapsed. Feelings of guilt and shame for having trusted Putin and misread the situation thus became important factors that help explain the monumental shift in German security and defense policy. Former German defense minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer put it the following way: “I’m so angry at ourselves for our historical failure.” To some extent, this shift is a compensation for these past mistakes.
Stoltenberg’s warning of a plausible Russian attack on a NATO country also triggered fear. Army Inspector Alfons Mais — the highest-ranking general in the German Armed Forces — stated in his personal capacity that Germany’s defense forces were pretty much “empty-handed.” Decades of neglect had led to a German inability to do anything militarily to stop Putin’s aggression.
Snap polls indicated that 69 percent of Germans feared the conflict in Ukraine could expand and lead to World War III. Hundreds of thousands of Germans joined peace rallies in various cities in Germany, as anxiety superseded long-established pacifism there.
A ‘Nixon goes to China’ moment?
Scholz took notice and responded in full force. Germany’s new governing coalition, made up of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the liberals, is also driving the shift in foreign policy. It is the “only Nixon could go to China” logic, now turned on its head.
While only a hawk like Richard M. Nixon could have met China’s Mao Zedong 50 years ago, only a dovish Social Democratic chancellor, a Green foreign minister and a liberal finance minister could do what a conservative government in Germany could not. In particular, the Social Democrats and the Green Party had for years opposed all of the steps Scholz has taken. And only the Social Democrats and Greens could reverse course now.
So far the German public strongly supports the defense spending proposal. Surveys indicate that 78 percent of the German population supports the government’s announcements. Nevertheless, when the cold reality hits, with expected budget shifts away from social spending and toward defense, some backlash is to be expected.
The youth group of the Green Party has already declared its skepticism, alluding to the fact that the government made these decisions without any political or social debate. They insist that for every additional euro Germany spends on defense, an additional euro must also go to diplomacy, humanitarian aid and development cooperation. Yet, as long as the war in Ukraine rages, it is unlikely that they will openly attack the chancellor.
For the Green Party, the Ukrainian crisis also offers a sudden policy opportunity to accelerate Germany’s energy shifts. It can now sell its energy transition project with additional security policy needs. It is an argument that also works for the liberal party, which has renamed renewable energies “freedom energies” — replacing coal and gas for wind and solar is now not only a climate goal, but also a security necessity to diminish Germany’s dependence on Russia.
The sudden turnaround in Germany’s defense and security policy will have far-reaching consequences — for Europe, for NATO and for Germany’s domestic politics. The full extent of these consequences, of course, won’t be fully understood for quite a while.
Marina E. Henke (@mephenke) is professor of international relations at the Hertie School in Berlin and director of the school’s Center for International Security (@hertie_security). She holds a PhD from Princeton University and has published widely on topics related to European security and defense policy and transatlantic relations. | null | null | null | null | null |
‘People’s Convoy’ plans to slowly loop around the Beltway on Sunday
Organizers of the “People’s Convoy” said late Saturday that their armada of trucks, cars and SUVs would circle the Beltway on Sunday morning and into the workweek at the minimum speed limit to slow traffic without stopping it and to get their message to lawmakers.
Brian Brase, a convoy organizer, said in an interview that the plan is to drive around the Beltway twice before returning to the Hagerstown Speedway, where the protesters have spent the weekend so far. Each day this week, the convoy will repeat that ritual until the group’s demands are met, Brase said.
Sunday “is a show of just how big we are and just how serious we are,” said Brase, a 37-year-old truck driver from northwest Ohio who helped organize the convoy. “But it’s very easy to get rid of us.” He has said the group wants an end to the national emergency declaration in response to the coronavirus — first issued by President Donald Trump in March 2020 and later extended by President Biden — and for Congress to hold hearings investigating the government’s response to the pandemic.
Many of the protesters in Hagerstown on Saturday had made a 2,500-mile journey from Southern California. They say they want to hold lawmakers accountable for the government’s pandemic responses. But many in the Western Maryland city also expressed support for Trump and disgust for Biden.
“We just have a message that we want heard,” he said. We’re not going anywhere until it’s heard.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The harms of lead pipes have long been understood, but industry PR efforts and fiscal concerns led America to embrace them anyway
By Mikael Wolfe
Caroline Reinhart
Workmen in Newark prepare to replace older water pipes with copper ones in October 2021. (Seth Wenig/AP)
Although Congress passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill, it won’t adequately fund needed upgrades to bring the nation’s drinking water infrastructure into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2021 Lead and Copper Rule. Lead exposure from all sources from paint to pipes in the United States prematurely kills 412,000 people each year, about as many as died of covid-19 in 2021. Globally in 2019 it shaved 21.7 million years off peoples’ life spans.
How and why did the nation’s drinking water infrastructure become so lead-based and thus toxic? The dangers of this material have been understood since the 19th century. Yet many municipalities embraced lead enthusiastically, persuaded by cost-benefit analysis and the public relations efforts of the lead industry. Even as scientific evidence mounted against using lead in the mid-20th century, the practice continued. But because it disproportionately harmed poor, Black and other marginalized communities, fiscal calculations outweighed concerns about public health.
Before the Civil War, most U.S. potable water piping used iron. But soon industrialization enabled the mass use of lead to replace iron pipes and lay new pipes. This was an easy choice since lead was cheaper, lasted twice as long and was a much more flexible metal than iron. Consequently, by the turn of the 20th century, more than 70 percent of population-dense cities, including New York, Chicago, Detroit and Boston, used lead service pipelines to deliver water to residents.
But even as municipalities were embracing lead pipelines in the late 19th century, medical journals and popular press articles warned of the public health consequences of ingesting lead. This prompted many cities and towns to prohibit or reduce the use of lead in pipes, even though the alternatives were more costly. New York City, for example, stopped using lead for pipes because many builders’ unions demanded that copper be used instead. But in cities that were built or grew a lot between 1900 and 1940, areas with cheaper housing and weak unions continued to install lead pipes.
This history coincided with the Great Migration of African Americans from the Deep South to northern, Midwestern and western cities from the 1910s through the middle of the century. Black Americans along with other people of color moved to urban centers where de facto segregation and redlining disproportionately forced them to live in housing serviced by lead pipes.
Fearing that public knowledge and awareness of the growing problem of lead poisoning in drinking water threatened their core business model, in 1928 the Lead Industries Association (LIA), a trade organization, launched a massive campaign to convince governments at the local, state and federal levels to continue using lead.
With the onset of the Great Depression soon thereafter, the LIA helped change the metal’s reputation from a potential poison to an economically beneficial material whose effects on public health were minimal or unknown. The LIA lobbied plumbers’ organizations, local water authorities and federal officials. It distributed “educational” newsletters and books that praised the advantages of lead over other materials and provided practical advice on the installation and repair of lead pipes.
In 1938, LIA agent Robert Dick enumerated the campaign’s accomplishments, which included nine cities and towns revising their codes to call for lead for pipes and 48 cities and towns working on revising their codes. Two years later, the LIA was boasting that “lead plumbing is now included in many Federal government master specifications where it had been excluded for many years.”
A 1957 memo written by an industry doctor revealed how the industry deliberately used racial and ethnic prejudice to counter the “adverse publicity” of childhood lead poisoning. They framed it as a “problem of slum dwelling and relatively ignorant parents” from “Negro and Puerto Rican families.”
Yet, independent scientists continued to find that lead in water caused many detrimental health consequences and even death. Geochemist Clair Patterson at MIT published a paper in 1965 demonstrating that acceptance of lead levels as normal and safe was founded on nothing more than an unproven assumption. The paper garnered the federal government’s attention. But the LIA denied it by falsely claiming that “lead is normal” as late as 1970 — the year that President Richard Nixon established the EPA.
Although Nixon supported the EPA and signed landmark environmental legislation such as the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1971, he delegated much of the EPA’s work to the states. Many state politicians failed to recognize or address environmental racism perpetuated by the lead and other polluting industries.
Eventually, greater awareness of environmental racism sparked a movement in the 1980s centered on environmental justice. Anti-lead activists wanted to address the failure of federal and state governments to pass and implement effective and equitable legislation to retrofit all lead service lines. In 1986 Congress paid heed and amended the Safe Drinking Water Act to prohibit “the use of pipes, solder or flux that were not ‘lead free’ in public water systems or plumbing in facilities providing water for human consumption.”
Despite this federal prohibition, lead service pipe replacements in low-income communities undertaken after 1986 were often only partial retrofits that could sometimes even increase lead levels by stirring up sedentary lead.
As a result, in 1991 the EPA established a Lead and Copper Rule that set a maximum limit of 15 parts per billion of lead in drinking water, even though it knew no amount of lead was safe. When the problem of poisoning from lead pipes persisted, in 1996 Congress prohibited “the introduction into commerce of any pipe, pipe or plumbing fitting or fixture that is not lead free.”
And yet, lead remained in millions of service pipes and therefore in the drinking water they delivered to tens of millions of unsuspecting urban and rural residents.
Faced with a budget crisis and inaction at the state and federal level, Flint’s 2014 crisis finally raised sustained national media attention to how such purely fiscal calculations could seriously endanger public health. Indeed, Scientific American reported in 2019 that while “poverty remains a potent predictor of lead poisoning, the victims span the American spectrum — poor and rich, rural and urban, black and white.”
Without significant government investment in these communities to fully replace drinking water infrastructure, residents will continue to be forced to drink lead-contaminated water.
Recognizing that the LIA’s lead promotion campaign beginning in 1928 and misguided government policy exacerbated this tragedy, the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act guarantees $10 billion for a long overdue full retrofit of all estimated 10 million lead service lines nationwide, with the potential to unlock another $65 billion.
Even though fully retrofitting these pipelines would cost about $28 billion to $47 billion in total, and take years to complete, it would help redress the historic wrong epitomized by the water crises that have struck Flint, Newark and many other cities and communities in recent decades. | null | null | null | null | null |
‘Madness’ isn’t a common leadership trait
By Roseanne W. McManus
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, second left, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia and First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov, left, in Moscow on Feb. 27, 2022. (Alexei Nikolsky/AP)
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson noted that Putin may not be acting rationally. And French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with the Russian leader last month, reportedly was struck by the change in Putin’s demeanor.
Some analysts argue that Putin wants to be viewed as insane because it will help him achieve his goals. My research helps to explain how Putin developed a sudden reputation for madness but casts doubt on whether it will benefit him.
In an analysis I did of madness reputations based on press reports, I found that less than eight percent of leaders in office from 1986-2010 were ever accused of insanity — and that’s counting even casual language. Press reports labeled less than two percent of leaders as madmen with any regularity.
It’s not just a Putin problem. ‘Personalists’ like him are behind much of the world’s bad behavior.
Putin was not among these. Indeed, my coding — which focused on major English-language news sources around the globe — turned up not a single description of Putin as irrational between 1999 and 2010. What’s happening now reflects a major turnaround in Putin’s reputation.
My ongoing research suggests that most leaders acquire madness reputations through wacky or emotional behavior that appears spontaneous. Kim Jong Un’s relationship with basketball great Dennis Rodman is a good example.
Until recently, Putin had not displayed such behavior. But some observers noted that his behavior at a recent summit meeting and a televised Russian government meeting appeared bizarre.
Strange behavior isn’t always enough to convince people that a leader will behave insanely when it comes to using military force. For example, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s madness reputation waned over time when he did not follow through on his emotional tirades with forceful action.
Putin, in contrast, has shown his willingness to use force in a situation where many Western analysts predict that it could go badly and undermine his domestic support. He is also apparently willing to target civilians, suggesting that his values fall outside of typical Western norms. This has helped to cement his madness reputation.
But what about the ‘madman advantage’?
The classic “madman theory” holds that being viewed as crazy is beneficial for international leaders because it makes their threats credible and causes their enemies to back down. The theory was first proposed by Daniel Ellsberg, but got its name from President Richard Nixon. Nixon believed that his reputation as an out-of-control anti-communist with a hand on the “nuclear button” would make the North Vietnamese beg for an end to the Vietnam War.
Is Putin using a similar strategy? If U.S. officials fear that Putin might be crazy enough to do anything, including use the nuclear weapons that Putin recently put on alert, then they might be more cautious about aiding Ukraine and sanctioning Russia.
It’s often bad to be mad
Despite the claims of the madman theory, my research finds that most types of perceived madness don’t actually increase the likelihood that a leader’s adversaries will back down. More often than not, madmen do not get their way. Here’s why.
First, it is not always predictable what madmen will do. Putin’s relatively sudden switch from two decades of more subtle efforts to influence Ukraine to an all-out invasion makes him seem unpredictable and erratic.
But erratic leaders may or may not escalate conflict. Therefore, while the appearance of madness can give them some credibility boost, their threats are not always as credible as those of leaders who can convey calm certainty about what they will do. This limits their ability to prevail over opponents who are willing to run some degree of risk. For example, my research shows that U.S. officials did not bow before Khrushchev’s 1958 threat over Berlin, even though they thought there was some chance he would follow through.
What about credible commitments?
An even bigger problem for perceived madmen is that they cannot make credible commitments to peace. As Andrew Kydd explains, persuading an adversary to concede to demands requires not only credible threats, but credible assurances.
Madman typically cannot make such credible assurances. A leader who is viewed as being either a megalomaniac or out of touch with reality cannot promise peace — nobody will believe it. Even if his opponents gave him whatever he asked for today, an unpredictable mental state or insatiable desire for more gains could make the mad leader turn around and attack the next day regardless.
For this reason, opponents will often resist making concessions to perceived madmen. Since they view conflict with such leaders as virtually inevitable, they prefer to fight in the present rather than make concessions that would weaken them for a future fight. My research suggests this is why the United States sought to remove Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gaddafi from power rather than compromise with them.
There are now signs that Western officials have begun to view Putin along similar lines. Biden said that Putin wants to “reestablish the former Soviet Union,” and the White House press secretary said that Putin has “ambitions beyond” invading Ukraine. Of course, Russia’s military strength and nuclear capability make it very unlikely that the United States would seek to topple the Russian leader, as it did Saddam and Gaddafi. Still, fears about Putin’s future ambitions and mental instability will create an incentive for Western leaders to stand firm against him, lest he grow even more dangerous.
Ultimately, Western governments will weigh the present risks of escalation against the future danger posed by Putin in deciding how firm that line will be. But the perception that Putin is a madman is more likely to harm than help him as they make this calculation.
Roseanne W. McManus is an associate professor at the Pennsylvania State University and author of “Statements of Resolve: Achieving Coercive Credibility in International Conflict” (Cambridge University Press, 2017). She is working on a second book on the madman theory. | null | null | null | null | null |
Trump focuses on foreign policy in speech to GOP’s top donors
The former president mused about Ukraine, China, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin during an 84-minute speech in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — Former president Donald Trump mused Saturday to the GOP’s top donors that the United States should label its F-22 planes with the Chinese flag and “bomb the s--t out of Russia.” He also praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “seriously tough,” claimed he was harder on Vladimir Putin than any other president, reiterated his false claims that he won the 2020 election, urged his party to be “tougher” on supposed election fraud, disparaged a range of prominent party opponents and called global warming “a great hoax” that could actually bring a welcome development: more waterfront property.
“The reason Ukraine is in this situation, the reason we have world chaos like we are, is the United States has been completely and totally distracted,” Haley said. “… We have to stop this national self-loathing that’s happening in our country.” | null | null | null | null | null |
The board undertook a much-needed review and implemented an overhaul of the admission process that sought to be more equitable without sacrificing academic rigor. But the reforms, which resulted in a class of 2025 that is the most diverse in recent memory — including more representation of Blacks, Hispanics and low-income students — have now been put in jeopardy by a federal-court decision that has upended the admissions process.
What is given short shrift in the judge’s ruling is that the policy, as attorneys for the school board pointed out, was blind to race, gender and national origin. It jettisoned an anachronistic entrance exam and application fees that were barriers to economically-disadvantaged students and put in place a holistic approach that emphasized student grade-point averages and advanced math requirements. Just as prestigious universities have moved away from test scores as an absolute determinant of student ability, so did the Fairfax school board seek to better define the metrics of merit. | null | null | null | null | null |
WASHINGTON — Russia's invasion of Ukraine has set off the largest mass migration in Europe in decades, with more than 1.5 million people having crossed from Ukraine into neighboring countries — “the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II,” the head of the U.N. refugee agency tweeted on Sunday. Nearly all the refugees have gone to other countries in Europe, where they have generally encountered a warm welcome. But some may eventually need permanent resettlement in the United States if they are unable to return to Ukraine. | null | null | null | null | null |
The weapons the United States has provided to Ukraine’s military, and that continue to flow into the country, would be crucial to the success of an insurgent movement, officials said. The Biden administration has asked Congress, infused with a rare bipartisan spirit in defense of Ukraine, to take up a $10 billion humanitarian aid and military package that includes funding to replenish the stocks of weapons that have already been sent. | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: As criminals unleash more violence in Mexico, the president goes on the offensive — against the press
Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador gestures during a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on Feb. 10. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters)
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador keeps stepping up his attacks against the press — an alarming development in the Western Hemisphere’s most dangerous country to be a journalist. Just this year, five journalists have already been killed.
Recently, in a brazen (and likely illegal) act of intimidation, López Obrador publicly divulged what he said were the sources of income of Carlos Loret de Mola, a Mexican reporter and contributing columnist for The Post’s Spanish-language Post Opinión section who has uncovered alleged corruption scandals. In the following days, López Obrador demanded that other journalists disclose their income. He insinuated that the journalists in the group (in which I was included) were members of a shadowy conservative cabal.
His obsession with characterizing journalists as political enemies not only adds to the deadly climate of intimidation in Mexico, but also reveals the populist leader’s brazen efforts to obscure the fact that the country is becoming more and more dangerous, with various regions now resembling war zones.
Last weekend, in the southern state of Michoacán, a large convoy of heavily armed men reportedly rode into the town of San Jose de Gracia and barged into a funeral. They then lined up a group of people against a wall and shot them. The exact number of dead is still unclear, but the purported execution, in a hail of bullets, was apparently caught on video.
Just a few days prior, dozens of heavily armed men drove into Caborca, Sonora, near the border with the United States, and opened fire, terrorizing the community. At least two people were killed.
This carnage is reminiscent of other massacres that have shaken Mexico throughout the country’s drawn-out war against drug cartel violence. In 2010, sicarios, or hit men, killed 13 people at a drug rehabilitation center in Tijuana. Then, in 2014, 43 student teachers from the town of Ayotzinapa in Guerrero, another southern state in Mexico that has suffered years of bloodshed, were kidnapped by a criminal organization, in cahoots with the local authorities. At least 38 of them were killed.
The Tijuana and Ayotzinapa massacres changed the course of the administrations of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto. Public debate in Mexico changed, as well. Back then, as Mexico’s most prominent opposition figure, López Obrador did not mince words. “Ayotzinapa is an impossible case to close without achieving justice,” he tweeted in 2014. “They will fail if they try to manipulate or have impunity prevail.”
But now, about seven and a half years later and in power, López Obrador has reacted to the San José de Gracia massacre in a starkly different way. At first, he questioned the veracity of the reports and suggested journalists had jumped to conclusions, despite the fact that local authorities and television crews had visited the site and found evidence of the massacre, including blood stains and bullet casings.
On Tuesday, a few minutes before his own national security officials confirmed details of the carnage, López Obrador still made sure to cast doubt over the motives of the press. “Anything that happens, like these regrettable events, they amplify it!” he said. “There’s a lot of misinformation because the conservatives are desperate and set on attacking us. Most media outlets act like a choir, against the transformation we are carrying out.”
As the journalist Jorge Ramos, one of López Obrador’s recent targets, explained: “To inform on the violence in Mexico is not an attack on the president. It’s meant to highlight the country’s problems,” Ramos wrote. “That is what journalists do.”
López Obrador sees it differently. He sees independent journalists as political opponents. That’s why he even likes to offer his own version of “alternative facts.”
Mexico is facing a struggle unlike anything the country has seen in its battle against organized crime. López Obrador’s term is already projected to be the bloodiest in the country’s modern history. Just in the first three years of his administration, more than 100,000 Mexicans have been killed.
The president’s choice to continue using his time, effort and powerful platform to intimidate journalists, rather than focus on denouncing and persecuting criminals and solving the country’s violent upheaval, is morally inexcusable and a dereliction of his duty to protect all Mexicans — not just the ones who like him and his political party. | null | null | null | null | null |
It was time for Ukraine to “show a more constructive approach that fully takes into account the emerging realities,” he said, according to the Kremlin, an apparent reference to Ukraine’s military and territorial losses since Russia’s invasion. Speaking by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Putin said the war was “going according to plan” and on time. He denied Russia was responsible for the civilian casualty toll, according to a Russian readout of the call.
A spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry said Sunday that the military had struck and disabled Ukraine’s Starokostiantyniv military air base, about 150 miles southwest of Kyiv early Saturday, using “long-range, high precision weapons. The airport was among dozens of targets, including a Russian-made air defense system owned by Ukraine, the spokesman said.
Later Saturday, in a video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a missile strike on Vinnystia, about 70 miles southeast of the air base, had “completely destroyed the airport.”
In Irpin, outside Kyiv, video published Sunday showed a man wearing a yellow arm band, usually worn by Ukrainian forces, and carrying a gun over his shoulder standing across from a church and sidewalk crowded with people carrying suitcases. He takes a few steps toward an intersection before an explosion rips through the middle of the street.
The area is covered in smoke. Someone runs out of the building and drags the man with the yellow armband out of the street. Soldiers sprint across the intersection to people collapsed on the ground, and someone shouts “Medic!”
Fahim reported from Istanbul, Cahlan from Washington and Ryan from Tallinn, Estonia. Jennifer Hassan in London and Danielle Paquette from Dakar, Senegal contributed. | null | null | null | null | null |
Of course, this is not the first time Trump has proposed bombings (however seriously) that might run afoul of the law. Back in 2020, he spoke of bombing Iranian cultural sites, setting off a rush of assurances from top administration officials that the U.S. military would be doing no such thing: | null | null | null | null | null |
Highlights across the country include Mark Morris, Lil Buck, American Ballet Theatre and ‘Reframing the Narrative’ at the Kennedy Center
Black ballet dancers will be celebrated in a six-day series at the Kennedy Center called “Reframing the Narrative,” which includes performances by Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballethnic Dance Company, out of East Point, Ga., and Memphis’s Collage Dance Collective, along with other Black-identifying ballet dancers from across the country. The series is curated by Theresa Ruth Howard, formerly of Dance Theatre of Harlem and Armitage Gone Dance and the founder of the Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet website, and Denise Saunders Thompson, president and chief executive of the International Association of Blacks in Dance. | null | null | null | null | null |
For years, Republicans have prided themselves on, and lectured others about, the primacy of local control. Yet in prohibiting counties and cities from enforcing mask mandates regardless of community conditions, Mr. Youngkin has neutered local authority.
He did so, ostensibly, in the name of parental choice. Yet parents do not get to decide whether their children can legally go to school without a host of vaccinations, or sit unbelted in a moving vehicle. Parents cannot determine that their children are safe to drive a car on the highway at age 12, or carry a concealed weapon at age 14. Parental choice is a facile argument in the context of public health and safety.
No one likes wearing masks, and Americans are rightly fed up with restrictions of all kinds arising from the pandemic. But exasperation, even the sort put to use in eliciting hearty cheers on the campaign trail, is not a rational basis for public health policy. | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: Learning about discrimination is the first step to combating it
A "Black Lives Matter" sign is displayed in the front yard of a home in Louisville in August 2020. (Joshua Lott for The Washington Post)
After reading Brian Broome’s March 2 Wednesday Opinion column, “Why I don’t complain about racism to White people,” I want him to know that I am more than willing — nay, eager — to know about the racism he has faced and to learn how he manages to abide it. I am also guessing that he might be endangering himself and others with even a mild rebuke.
Mr. Broome has to know that there are many White people who can feel that fear because of religion or gender, and not just from law enforcement but from neighbors and fellow citizens, and can understand. And there are many millions more who are empathetic and share the revulsion at such bigotry.
Let us know, tell us, enlist us. We can resist together and work to change minds, hearts and attitudes. We can raise and welcome new generations who have not been tainted by bigotry and hate. But if we don’t hear about it, and we don’t talk about it, we can’t make it the exception rather than the rule.
Helen Dalton, Potomac | null | null | null | null | null |
Opinion: Tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is shortsighted
A contractor works on crude oil pipeline infrastructure at the U.S. Energy Department's Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Tex., on June 9, 2016. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg)
The United States’ decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a short-term solution to a long-term problem [“U.S., other nations tap oil reserves in response to high prices, invasion,” March 2, news]. As the world responds to Russia’s unwarranted and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we must not forget that our overdependence on fossil fuels enables authoritarians such as Russian President Vladimir Putin to wield oil as a weapon against our country and our allies.
The higher energy prices caused by this conflict are further proof that we need to swiftly move to a 100 percent clean economy and flee the global, violent volatility of fossil fuels. Investments in electric cars, trucks and buses, and the tax credits for clean-energy expansion — such as those touted by President Biden in his State of the Union address last week — will help accelerate the production of cheaper, cleaner energy in the United States that isn’t impacted by foreign supply chain disruptions and conflicts overseas.
Mr. Putin wants to wield oil as a weapon. It’s time to disarm him — not with more oil, but with more clean energy.
Sarah Mason, Washington
The writer is deputy executive director of Clean Energy for America.
It is no surprise that during a midterm election year, President Biden must include appealing to both sides of the party line as part of his political agenda. The solution to an inevitable spike in crude oil prices in the midst of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine should not be temporary gasoline tax cuts.
In his State of the Union address, Mr. Biden said, “We’re the only nation on Earth that has always turned every crisis we’ve faced into an opportunity.” So then, why are we not turning the current crisis into an environmental opportunity? Instead of cutting gasoline taxes, which will only increase the rate of fossil-fuel consumption throughout the country, why are we not using this as an opportunity to economically incentivize the use of renewable energy? It is the responsibility of the president to continue striving for progress, and this should not include hypocritical and counterproductive tax cuts that perpetuate climate issues.
Alexandra Hoen, Washington | null | null | null | null | null |
People visit Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's “In America: Remember,” a memorial for Americans who died due to the coronavirus disease in Washington, Oct. 1, 2021. (Leah Millis/Reuters)
What strikes me about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) performative excoriation of a group of high school students this week is how completely it undercuts his boastfulness about the “freedom” Floridians enjoy.
This was not DeSantis’s concern. It’s not that he wants people to be free to wear masks if they feel more comfortable doing so or if they’re worried about infecting loved ones. He advocates a rejection of masks, because rejecting masks aligns with the Republican base. Contrast DeSantis with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) who in December lifted state-level mandates in favor of people deciding for themselves and assuming their own risks. The students around DeSantis were told to remove their masks or not be seen with the governor. If they want to wear them, fine, he said — but it’s ridiculous.
If we consider the population-adjusted number of covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began, we can see a rough pattern emerge. New England and the West Coast, both heavily Democratic, have been less-hard hit than the Deep South. But a number of red states haven’t been and a number of blue states have. The distinctions are often subtle. | null | null | null | null | null |
The Biden administration has been wise to reject a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine, even though one of the people who has called for it is Ukraine’s redoubtable president, Volodomyr Zelensky. There would be no way to enforce such a measure without large-scale deployment of U.S. and other NATO aircraft, and their engagement in direct combat with Russian forces. This would dramatically escalate the war in pursuit of relatively marginal benefits: most of the damage being done to Ukraine right now is from ground-launched artillery and missiles, not from high-explosive weapons delivered by Russian aircraft. Indeed, Ukraine has already had some success shooting down helicopters and planes with its own arms, including mobile antiaircraft missiles supplied by NATO. | null | null | null | null | null |
114 Rohingya refugees flee Myanmar by boat
Over 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar arrived by boat on the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province in the early hours of Sunday, a nongovernmental organization at the scene said.
Authorities were unsure how long the 114 refugees, including 35 children, had been at sea, but some needed medical assistance when they arrived in Bireuen, Aceh, Nurul Yana Daba, a volunteer for the NGO Aksi Cepat Tanggap, told reporters.
Mukhtar, a local resident, said the Rohingya refugees walked into his village to seek help.
Alfian, a local official, said villagers arranged food for the refugees but did not expect they would stay long at his village.
Houthis to handle dangerous oil tanker
Yemen’s Houthi movement has signed an agreement with the United Nations to deal with a decaying oil tanker threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the war-torn country’s coast, a Houthi official said.
Palestinian killed by Israeli police after stabbing: Police shot and killed a Palestinian attacker on Sunday after he stabbed an officer in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police said. In a statement, police said the attacker approached officers who were stationed in the Old City and stabbed one of them, injuring him lightly. The officers opened fire and shot and killed the man, identified as a 19-year-old resident of east Jerusalem. Israeli media reported a second officer was also lightly wounded as a result of the gunfire. Police released a photo of a knife lying on a cobblestone alley in the ancient Old City, with blood splattered nearby. | null | null | null | null | null |
In the long run, the United States can’t contain both Russia and China. Europe’s resolute opposition to Putin’s war provides an opening for a strategic shift.
By Stephen Wertheim
Stephen Wertheim is senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of “Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 19. (Sven Hoppe/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)
When a great power takes a gamble, the world shakes. By ordering an attack on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed a chain of reactions whose endpoint no one can yet foresee. Already apparent, however, is one consequence for the United States. Overstretched to begin with, America has just seen its strategic burden increase. Just as suddenly, however, a new solution is coming into view: Europe is ready to take on greater military duties.
Before the war, many Americans, including some political leaders, had determined to be more realistic about their country’s strategic ambitions in an increasingly competitive world. Sensibly, President Biden had sought to stabilize relations with Russia and reduce U.S. war-making in the greater Middle East while turning attention and resources toward managing a rising China. But Putin’s Russia has refused to be sidelined. By invading Ukraine, it has caused NATO’s eastern flank, with four countries bordering Russian territory, to demand reinforcements — and the United States has risen to the task. Biden has sent 14,000 American troops to Europe since the crisis began, bringing the total to 100,000.
Providing temporary reinforcements is the right decision today in the face of Russia’s bald aggression. But the United States should resist the inclination to revive its role as the military protector of Europe, especially since Europe is awakening to its responsibilities. Britain is sending troops to the Baltic states and Poland. France is pushing “strategic autonomy” for the European Union. And days after halting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline supplying natural gas from Russia, Germany reversed a long-standing ban on providing military assistance and sent weapons to Ukraine. Germany also vowed to spend more than 2 percent of its economy on defense, finally committing to meet NATO’s target. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared his country, and Europe, to have reached a “historic turning point.”
Both Americans and Europeans would benefit if Scholz’s words prove true. In the coming years, European states should move to take the lead in their collective defense, and the United States should do everything possible to encourage them. To stake the defense of Europe on the United States, over the next decade and beyond, would be to answer Putin’s rash gamble with a slow-moving gamble of our own.
It might seem as though the United States will remain able and willing to protect all of NATO’s 28 European countries far into the future. After all, America has orchestrated Europe’s defense for the past eight decades. Yet it did so under two markedly different conditions.
During World War II and the Cold War, the United States sought to stop totalitarian powers from conquering the region. An Axis or Soviet takeover of Europe would have closed off the entire continent to liberal, American-style interaction and influence, and put the Western Hemisphere on the defensive.
After the Cold War, however, as the Soviet threat collapsed, the United States recommitted to Europe not because the stakes were high but arguably because they were low. Threats were so negligible that it seemed U.S. leadership could keep things that way through modest exertion — and spread democracy to boot. Expanding NATO eastward, American officials convinced themselves that what had been a military alliance was more comparable to a political club, one that need not become an adversary of Russia.
Russia’s assault on Ukraine ends that chapter and begins a new one. The prospect of further Russian aggression in Eastern Europe cannot be dismissed as negligible, as it was in the 1990s or 2000s. At the same time, Russia poses far less a threat to overrun Europe and threaten American security or prosperity than the Soviet Union did. After all, the Russian economy is roughly one-fifth the size of that of the European Union, and that was before the severe sanctions of the past week. Although Russia has built a formidable military, one that enables it to launch wars like that in Ukraine, NATO’s European members collectively outspend Russia on defense. During the Cold War, by contrast, the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact boasted land forces superior in number to those of NATO (including the U.S. share), and the gap between its economic output and that of Western Europe was several times smaller than Russia’s shortfall today. In the security environment now emerging, with Russia menacing Eastern Europe, the United States is set to face major costs and the ultimate risk: great-power war between nuclear peers. Yet the threat Russia poses remains one that Europeans could handle themselves, with America acting as a supporter rather than the leader.
The United States remains a superpower. Why shouldn’t it be the main counterweight in Europe to Moscow? There are two reasons both the United States and Europe would be better off if it declined this role. One lies in Beijing, and the other in Washington.
The United States has already identified China as its primary rival, embarking on “strategic competition” with the world’s number-two power. Taking on China and Russia at once would be unwise and likely impossible. True, the Pentagon has previously planned to fight two wars at once, but those wars were envisioned as “regional” conflicts against small states like Iran, Iraq or North Korea. In practice, the United States had difficulty prosecuting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously. China and Russia represent challenges of a far greater magnitude, which explains why the Pentagon abandoned its two-war standard in 2018, even as its budget has grown. If the United States doubles down on European security while leading the charge in Asia, it may either fall short in both places or default on its commitments in Europe just when they come due.
America’s domestic divisions must also be taken seriously. The Republican front-runner for 2024, former president Donald Trump, initially called Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a “genius” move. How reliable, then, is America’s commitment to Europe? Even in better times, it would remain uncertain whether a U.S. president would place the American people in peril for the sake of repelling a Russian attack in Eastern Europe — for example, potentially trading a nuclear attack on Boston to protect the Estonian capital of Tallinn. Under present circumstances, it would be folly for Europe to trust its fate to doubtful promises, and wise for the Biden administration to Trump-proof American alliances.
Today, even smaller European countries like Belgium, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are ferrying arms to Ukraine, while perpetually neutral Switzerland is freezing Russian assets. Yet proclamations of a “new Europe” are premature. If the United States does not galvanize and incentivize its allies to step up, they are unlikely to make the profound changes needed to build a European security architecture that can last.
In the coming months, the administration could formulate a multiyear but time-limited plan to transition to a European defense led by Europe. Such a plan would build on the work of the British-Baltics-Polish coalition that reinforced Eastern Europe before the war, but it must also involve the major Continental powers of Germany and France, whose participation is key to forging a durable order. By publicizing the plan, and doing so while passions remain high, the United States and its allies could create a credible commitment on both sides of the Atlantic.
Europe would have to act quickly to redress its strategic deficits relative to Russia, which are real but too often exaggerated. The European members of NATO already possess around two dozen armored and mechanized brigades, enough to make a Russian offensive difficult in the early stages and allow Europe to prevail through its overwhelming economic and demographic advantages. The most urgent task is to improve the readiness and sustainability of European forces. German determination and funding will go a long way toward that end. In particular, Europe must develop certain critical capabilities, such as surface-to-air missile batteries, combat-support assets, and air-refueling systems — all essential for high-end operations, and at present possessed mostly by the United States.
During the transitional period, U.S. military would continue to provide command-and-control functions and logistics support so as not leave an opportunity for Moscow to exploit. The Biden administration would, however, begin to shift command of NATO to European leadership, and deepen its support for E.U. defense efforts, which previous administrations sought to suppress. As European forces steps up, the United States could bring most of its personnel home, with some air and naval forces remaining.
Europe would also need to grow its defense-industrial base, both to develop cutting-edge technologies and to create enduring political support for higher spending. Since 2017, the E.U. has implemented promising new measures to increase and coordinate investments in defense. If the E.U. could borrow 750 billion euros to fund pandemic recovery, it could borrow billions more to finance new defense capabilities. Here, as elsewhere, the United States would have to take concerned action just to keep from getting in its allies’ way. To allow European industry to grow, the White House and Congress ought to be less aggressive in facilitating sales of U.S.-made military equipment. The profits of domestic contractors should yield to the vital defense needs of the United States and Europe.
In another era, the prospect of letting Europeans lead Europe’s defense would have caused an outcry in some quarters of Washington. Even today, it will cause controversy. But political reality suggests it is necessary. Biden has a once-in-a-generation chance to realign America’s strategic priorities while demonstrably strengthening Europe’s defenses. By doing so, he could inspire bipartisan unity. He could forge a path that his successors could follow, regardless of party or personality, by building a Europe-led, U.S.-supported order to preserve the next decades of peace and prosperity across the Atlantic. | null | null | null | null | null |
Lesya Filimonova and Valeriy Filimonov are wedded close to the front line in Kyiv on Sunday. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
Before the war, Filimonova worked as the head of a scout organization. Filimonov led an information technology company. They joined the force, Filimonova said, “because here we have everything we love, and we have to defend it. We have no intention of giving it away to the enemy.”
The wedding began, as they often do, with the bride walking down the aisle. In this case, the aisle was a small patch of grass off a busy road in Kyiv, next to a checkpoint and a parking garage where men and women in uniform rushed to arrange caviar and salmon hors d’oeuvres.
Expecting mothers spend the night in a maternity ward bunker
The newlyweds each held a thin candle as Karan went through the rites, which included spreading incense and having the couple hold hands and walk in a circle together. When the Orthodox ceremony reached the moment at which a crown is traditionally held above the bride’s head, an attendee raised a military helmet above her instead.
“As chaplain I cannot use any weapon. So I’m left with my words and prayers,” Karan said in an interview. “My weapons are different, like liturgies, confessions, prayers or even wedding ceremonies like this one.” He added, “My duty is to be with soldiers who are fighting for our land and provide them with spiritual support.”
Before the ceremony, Karan said, the couple made their confessions. “They tried to purge their hearts and minds,” he said. “Indeed, they really wanted to get married.”
A stressed elephant and an abandoned lemur at the zoo in Kyiv
The ceremony was also marked by a significant amount of patriotism. Shortly after the couple kissed, the crowd called out in unison, “Glory to the family! Glory to the family! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes! Glory to the nation! Death to the enemies! Ukraine above all!” | null | null | null | null | null |
Last week,the ICC announced that it will “immediately proceed” to investigate possible war crimes unfolding in Ukraine. And on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the decision, saying “we have seen the use of cluster bombs,” as well as reports of other types of weapons used that “are in violation of international law.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Washington media has a long history of cooking up overbaked puff pieces on murderous autocrats — especially when those autocrats are key U.S. allies. The Atlantic’s April cover story, “Absolute Power,” about MBS — which was written by Graeme Woodand included interviews conducted along with the magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg — is part of this tradition, a case study in everything that is wrong with access journalism and the immoral fixation on powerful, brutal men.
It would have been one thing for the Atlantic to drill MBS on his role in Jamal’s assassination. Instead, MBS was allowed to denigrate Jamal, saying he wasn’t important enough to kill. “Khashoggi would not even be among the top 1,000 people on the list.” | null | null | null | null | null |
A Russian military convoy southeast of Ivankiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 28. (Maxar Technologies/AP)
This shared understanding did not emerge full-blown after the Soviet Union broke the American nuclear monopoly in 1949; it was a hard-won result of dangerous confrontations in Berlin, Korea and Cuba. A small direct clash did take place in October 1950, early in the Korean War, when American warplanes accidentally crossed the Soviet border, strafing an air base they believed to be in North Korea. This incident may have contributed to the Soviet decision to join the Chinese intervention in Korea that began the next month. | null | null | null | null | null |
With 11 people living in Ihor Mozhayev’s house, it was unusually full when it was hit.
Earlier on Friday, her mother, grandmother, husband and the family friend drove out in their car to stock up on food and other supplies. About 3 p.m. they were pulling up in front of their spacious house on a quiet street lined with other houses. Mozhayev was resting on a couch in the living room.
His wife, Anna, and the others had died inside the car, which exploded into flames. Masha, who couldn’t walk because a drunk driver hit her eight years ago, was also dead. So was the boyfriend of Mozhayev’s niece. | null | null | null | null | null |
On March 6, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces are preparing to bomb Odessa, while the effects of bombing were evident nearby Kyiv. (Zach Purser Brown/The Washington Post)
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Russian forces destroyed key airfields in central Ukraine and pounded the besieged port city of Mariupol on Sunday, Russian and Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow pressed ahead with its invasion in defiance of new Western economic threats and fierce resistance from Ukraine’s outgunned defenders.
The newest assaults by Russian warplanes, missiles and artillery came as fresh waves of refugees poured across Ukraine’s northern border, and amid renewed pleadings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for international military help to “close the sky” to Russian bombers.
For the second consecutive day, Russian shelling ruptured a temporary cease-fire in Mariupol, blocking efforts to evacuate civilians in the Black Sea city where more than 200,000 residents remained trapped, according to a tally by relief agencies. In Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, at least eight people, including two children, were killed in an artillery barrage as families were preparing to board buses to flee the area.
More than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have fled to neighboring countries over the past 10 days, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said Sunday. He tweeted that the mass exodus is “the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.” Grandi recently predicted that more than 4 million people could be displaced by the conflict in the weeks to come.
The relentless attacks have prompted new warnings from the Biden administration and several NATO allies of harsher economic measures against Russia — including potentially imposing restrictions against oil exports, which are an essential pillar of Russia’s economy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration was in “very active discussions” with European partners on possibly blocking Russian oil sales, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers suggested that such a move would receive bipartisan support in Congress.
“What Vladimir Putin is doing is not only terrible violence to men, women, and children, he’s doing terrible violence to the very principles [that] keep peace and security around the world,” Blinken said during a visit on Sunday to Moldova, Ukraine’s southwestern neighbor that is now worried that it could be Putin’s next target. “We can’t let either of those things go forward with impunity, because if we do, it opens a Pandora’s box that we will deeply, deeply regret.”
Russian forces attacked two key aviation facilities: Ukraine’s Starokostiantyniv military air base, about 150 miles southwest of Kyiv, and a commercial airport at Vinnystia, about 70 miles to the southeast. While the damage could not be independently assessed, the attacks could deprive Ukraine of usable airstrips as the country presses Western allies to send fighter planes to combat Moscow’s invasion.
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the military had struck the air base with long-range, high precision weapons, effectively disabling it. Among the targets was a Russian-made air defense system owned by Ukraine, the spokesman said.
“Almost all combat-capable aviation of the regime in Kyiv has been destroyed,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement following the attacks.
Zelensky confirmed in a video message that the strike on Vinnystia had “completely destroyed the airport.”
In the same message, Zelensky, who has repeatedly urged NATO to help him defend his country against Russian warplanes, again called for assistance in fighting an air war.
“We repeat every day: Close the sky over Ukraine. Close it for all Russian rockets. For all Russian military aviation. For all these terrorists. Make a humanitarian airspace,” Zelensky said. “We are people, and this is your humanitarian obligation to protect us.”
For the second time in 24 hours, Russia was accused of violating cease-fire agreements intended to evacuate civilians from besieged cities. In Mariupol, the city council said evacuations were not possible because “Russians began to regroup their forces and to shell the city heavily.” A temporary truce to allow people to leave there and other places broke down less than 24 hours earlier.
Blinken said Sunday that the United States is exploring how it might supply Ukraine with fighter jets from NATO nations. “I can’t speak to the timeline but I can just tell you that we’re looking at it very, very actively,” Blinken said.
But Russia warned Sunday that foreign countries hosting Ukrainian combat aircraft could be viewed by Moscow as parties to the conflict.
“We know for a fact about Ukrainian combat planes which earlier flew to Romania and other neighboring countries,” Konashenkov said Sunday. “We would like to point out that the use of the network of airfields of those countries for the stationing of Ukrainian combat aviation for the further use against the Russian Armed Forces could be viewed as the involvement of those countries in the armed conflict,” he said.
Associated Press photos of the aftermath show civilians — including children — killed in the attack. Lynsey Addario, a photographer working for the New York Times who witnessed the attack, said in a message posted on Twitter that “at least three members of a family of four were killed in front of me.”
Fahim reported from Istanbul, Warrick and Cahlan from Washington, and Ryan from Tallinn, Estonia. Jennifer Hassan in London and Danielle Paquette in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report. | null | null | null | null | null |
Harris commemorates ‘Bloody Sunday’; Cuomo appears to hint at a political comeback
Harris commemorates 'Bloody Sunday'
Vice President Harris visited Selma, Ala., on Sunday to commemorate a defining moment in the fight for the right to vote, making her trip as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered.
Harris took the stage at the foot of the bridge where in 1965 White state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers trying to cross. She called the site hallowed ground on which people fought for the “most fundamental right of America citizenship: the right to vote.”
On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, state troopers beat and tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators, including activist John Lewis, who became a Georgia congressman. The images of violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — originally named for a Confederate general — shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Fifty-seven years later, Democrats are trying to update the landmark law and pass additional measures to make it more convenient for people to vote. A key provision of the law was tossed out by a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The new legislation, named for Lewis, who died in 2020, is part of a broader elections package that collapsed in the U.S. Senate in February.
Cuomo appears to hint at a political comeback
Just six months after he resigned from office in disgrace over sexual harassment allegations, former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo appeared to be hinting at a political comeback in remarks at a Brooklyn church on Sunday.
In a campaign-like stop, the Democrat delivered a speech in which he condemned “cancel culture.” The public appearance, his first since leaving office, came after Cuomo’s campaign launched a digital and television advertising campaign pushing a similar message: He was driven from office unfairly.
Cuomo quoted the Bible several times as he described his travails, then went on the offensive to attack the “political sharks” in Albany who, he said, “smelled blood” and exploited the situation for political gain.
He resigned in August, days after an independent probe found he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women and that he and aides worked to retaliate against an accuser. On Sunday, Cuomo acknowledged his behavior wasn’t appropriate but quickly added that nothing he did violated the law.
“I’ve learned a powerful lesson and paid a very high price for learning that lesson,” he said. “God isn’t finished with me yet.”
Cuomo hasn’t said he’s running for office but is still sitting on a multimillion dollar campaign war chest he could use to finance another run.
Several district attorneys in New York said that they found Cuomo’s accusers “credible” but that the available evidence wasn’t strong enough to press criminal charges against him.
Fla. wildfires force nursing home evacuation: Huge wildfires in the Florida Panhandle forced veterans in a nursing home to evacuate Sunday alongside residents of more than 1,000 homes in an area still recovering from a Category 5 hurricane three years ago. Firefighters battled the 9,000-acre Bertha Swamp Road fire and the 841-acre Adkins Avenue fire, which have threatened homes and forced residents of at least 1,100 houses in Bay County, Fla., to flee over the weekend. The Adkins Avenue fire destroyed two structures and damaged 12 homes Friday. On Sunday, a third fire developed, forcing the evacuation of a 120-bed, state-operated nursing home in Panama City. Public transit was being used to move the residents at the Clifford Chester Sims State Veterans' Nursing Home. Buses also were on standby in case the 1,300 inmates at the nearby Bay County Jail needed to be evacuated to other facilities. | null | null | null | null | null |
Class AA girls’ championship game: Quakers 69, Cubs 41
Sidwell Friends cruised past Georgetown Visitation for the DCSAA Class AA title Sunday. (Terrance Williams for The Washington Post)
Kiki Rice wandered through the postgame revelry inside George Washington’s Smith Center with a large glass trophy in her left hand and a small snippet of the net in her right. The Sidwell Friends senior had led her team to a 69-41 win over Georgetown Visitation in the D.C. State Athletic Association Class AA girls’ basketball championship game, and her face was slightly pink from exertion and maybe a bit of embarrassment over the MVP trophy she had earned.
Rice again was the selfless focus of the Sidwell offense, a role she has perfected. She finished with 10 points and 10 assists Sunday as the No. 1 Quakers earned the first state title in program history to wrap up a dominant campaign.
In a season in which Sidwell moved to the top of the D.C. area and the nation, the Quakers beat every local opponent by double digits.
“That’s so important to us,” Rice said. “Always great to go out of town, but we had to assert our dominance here at home. To win the league, to win states — that’s what we’ve always talked about.”
When they played in this championship game in 2020, falling to St. John’s, the Quakers looked like a young team destined to rise to local prominence. Instead, they took the pandemic year to grow into a juggernaut and have played this season at a level well beyond that. Even still, Sunday brought a major milestone.
“For any high school team, the overall goal is to win the state championship,” junior forward Khia Miller said. “Day-to-day, we don’t think about being the number one ranked team in the country — we think about winning a championship.”
Sidwell Friends, with an ideal starting five, evolves into the nation’s top girls’ basketball team
Against the No. 8 Cubs (23-5), Sidwell (28-0) slowly took control. After a low-scoring first quarter, the Quakers clamped down and got out in transition to start building their lead. They gave up just four points in the second and led by 13 at halftime. Sophomore guard Leah Harmon finished with a game-high 24 points.
“We feel we could’ve won that game a few years ago,” Miller said. “But [the loss] makes it even better to come back as an older team and win it now.”
While the possibility of a national tournament remains, Sunday brought Rice’s final game in the D.C. area. A star on the soccer field and the basketball court, she has garnered the type of buzz rarely seen at the high school level. After Friday’s DCSAA semifinal victory at Georgetown University, the UCLA commit spent 30 minutes wading through a crowd of young fans asking for an autograph or a picture.
Rice joined this program as a promising prospect ready to lift it to the top of the Independent School League, which the Quakers hadn’t won outright in some time. She will leave Sidwell having helped take it as high as it could go.
“I’m going to miss the atmosphere, the fans,” she said. “I can’t wait to come back to D.C. as one of them and watch this team.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Weather Service tornado warnings were delayed during deadly Iowa outbreak
Due to dissemination problems, some warnings didn’t reach the public until seven minutes after they were issued
Cleanup efforts are underway in Winterset, Iowa, on March 6 after a tornado tore through the area on Saturday. (Bryon Houlgrave/The Des Moines Register/AP)
Seven people are dead following an onslaught of tornadoes across Iowa on Saturday. Amid the life-threatening weather, a dissemination problem at the National Weather Service meant tornado warnings were delayed in reaching the public.
A total of 17 tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service in Des Moines on Saturday. Tornado warnings, which connote an immediate threat to life from a tornado and urge sheltering, trigger wireless emergency alerts that notify residents of incoming danger.
However, up to seven minutes elapsed between the time meteorologists at the Weather Service issued warnings and when the public could access them, potentially shortening or eliminating the window for taking action.
“The local offices were issuing the products in a timely fashion, but a dissemination delay affecting all [Weather Services] offices nationwide caused the products to be transmitted a number of minutes later,” Daryl Herzmann, a systems analyst with Iowa State University, said in an email. He created a popular site used by meteorologists that archives National Weather Service advisories, watches and warnings.
Susan Buchanan, the Weather Service’s director of public affairs, wrote that “a technical issue caused a delay of between 2-7 minutes for some transmissions,” noting that “system engineers quickly took action as soon as the problem was detected.” She emphasized that warning lead times averaged approximately 20 minutes during the outbreak.
“The National Weather Service is investigating this issued to determine the root cause and prevent it from happening in the future,” she wrote.
A stabilizing force: Outgoing Weather Service director reflects on tenure
Herzmann wrote that the “issue started at about 2:15 p.m. CST and lasted until about 6:10 p.m. CST,” coinciding with the peak of the tornado event.
The Des Moines Weather Service issued its first tornado warning at 3:22 p.m. Central time; it was delayed by 2 minutes and 47 seconds, according to Herzmann.
As the tornadic storms intensified, the delays in warning dissemination grew.
At 4:11 p.m. Central time, the Weather Service was sounding the alarm about a “confirmed tornado … located near Green Valley Lake,” but it took 9 minutes and 17 seconds for that alert to be broadcast, Herzmann found. The Weather Service said the maximum delay was closer to seven minutes. That was the same storm that would kill six people near Winterset in Madison County, including two children younger than five, just over 20 minutes later.
At 4:34 p.m., a downwind warning was issued for the Winterset tornado, which five minutes later the Weather Service would call “confirmed large and extremely dangerous.” It took nearly six minutes for that alert to reach the public, however, Herzmann found.
The Des Moines Weather Service, aware of the issue, took to social media to tweet warnings and notified local television stations. But unless the public was tuned to Twitter or their televisions sets, they wouldn’t know about the warnings.
Problems continued as the tornado passed through southeastern parts of the Des Moines metro area and approached Interstate 80, with delay times ranging between four minutes and seven minutes.
“I don’t know if this impacted Weather Radio, but every other dissemination vehicle was impacted,” wrote Herzmann.
Weather radio was inaccessible in west-central Iowa as the transmitter tower in Denison, Iowa, suffered a “communications failure” Friday that knocked it “off the air.” There was no word of the transmitter being back online by Sunday.
The Weather Service office in Des Moines was still surveying the damage from the tornado in Winterset on Sunday evening, which will be rated at least EF3 on the 0 to 5 scale for twister intensity, corresponding to maximum winds of at least 136 mph. It declined to speak on the dissemination issue.
“There were known issues with dissemination, the details of which are available with National Weather Service public affairs,” Alex Krull, meteorologist with the Des Moines office, said in a phone call.
National Weather Service Central Operations in College Park, Md., didn’t inform core partners about the issue until 5:43 p.m. Central time — hours after the problem began — at which point the killer tornado had already razed a swath from Winterset to Interstate 80.
510 pm: Confirmed tornado on the ground in Norwalk. Again, this is an extremely dangerous situation! #iawx
Herzmann and others were concerned about what impact the delays may have had during the outbreak.
“I am sick that the local offices had to deal with this and what implications it may have had for those in the path of the tornadoes yesterday,” he tweeted on Sunday. Others echoed his sentiment.
“This is beyond unacceptable & is becoming more common,” tweeted Rob Lightbown of Crown Weather Service, a private forecasting company, who referenced a similar outage last week that prevented snow squall warnings in the Northeast from going out to the public correctly. During that episode, television meteorologists were forced to manually draw boxes on maps, since National Weather Service shapefiles didn’t display.
“Tornado warnings were delayed getting to the public yesterday during a killer tornado event,” tweeted Greg Diamond, a meteorologist and weather producer for Fox Weather. “This is a huge problem.”
Extremely dangerous situation on the south side of Winterset. Take cover now! #iawx https://t.co/467kljwNHN
The Weather Service has been plagued by technical infrastructure problems in recent years, with regular issues that obstruct the access of certain products and ease of communications, including during high-end weather events.
Weather Service Internet systems are crumbling as key platforms are taxed and failing
Websites briefly went down for some users during the height of last year’s severe weather season, and NWS Chat — a chatroom used by emergency management and broadcast entities to connect with Weather Service meteorologists — kicks users out when the system becomes clogged.
During a rare “high risk” tornado outbreak on March 15, 2021, the National Weather Service in Birmingham announced it would be reverting to the instant messaging software Slack instead of relying on NWS Chat. The office was reprimanded by Weather Service headquarters and forced it to use NWS Chat.
Significant technical issues within the Weather Service information dissemination date back to at least 2013. | null | null | null | null | null |
The Biden administration has been wise to reject a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine, even though one of the people who has called for it is Ukraine’s redoubtable president, Volodymyr Zelensky. There would be no way to enforce such a measure without large-scale deployment of U.S. and other NATO aircraft, and their engagement in direct combat with Russian forces. This would dramatically escalate the war in pursuit of relatively marginal benefits: most of the damage being done to Ukraine right now is from ground-launched artillery and missiles, not from high-explosive weapons delivered by Russian aircraft. Indeed, Ukraine has already had some success shooting down helicopters and planes with its own arms, including mobile antiaircraft missiles supplied by NATO. | null | null | null | null | null |
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks about a bill to ban Russian energy imports on Thursday, March 3. (Mariam Zuhaib/Associated Press)
Officials including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) called Sunday for a U.S. ban as part of the ongoing bid to hinder the Russian economy over its invasion of Ukraine.
As recently as Thursday, the White House had downplayed the possibility of blocking imports from the world’s third-largest energy producer. U.S. oil futures shot up above $125 a barrel on Sunday evening as traders worried about the worldwide effects of such a ban.
“It’s anathema I think to many of us in Congress that while we are sanctioning them and trying to cripple their economy that we would help them in any way by purchasing their petroleum,” Schiff told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. this weekend already topped an average of $4, according to AAA, the first time that’s happened since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. President Biden and other world leaders last week authorized the release of 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves to increase supply. | null | null | null | null | null |
Lee Jae-myung, center, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, poses with his supporters during a presidential election campaign in Seoul, South Korea on March 3, 2022. Just days before March 9 election, Lee and Yoon Suk Yeol from the main conservative opposition People Power Party are locked in an extremely tight race. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon). (Ahn Young-joon/AP) | null | null | null | null | null |
With a double-digit lead secure, Michigan State began its tradition of allowing each senior to acknowledge the roaring crowd and kiss the Spartan logo at center court with a push-up. Michigan State had struggled over the past month, but Sunday at Breslin Center, the Spartans had a dominant start and held off Maryland’s rally for a 77-67 victory that made Tom Izzo the winningest coach in Big Ten history.
Barring a stunning run in the conference tournament, Maryland’s tumultuous season will end in a few days. As the No. 10 seed, the Terps (15-16, 7-13) will face the seventh-seeded Spartans again at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Indianapolis. Maryland has lost to Michigan State (20-11, 11-9) twice this season, but the Terps and interim coach Danny Manning found optimism in Sunday’s second half, when they outscored Michigan State 41-31.
Hall, scoring a team-high 17 points, led the Spartans’ effort off the bench. Michigan State got 33 points from its reserves. The Terps only got six from their bench.
Here’s what to know from Sunday’s regular season finale:
Before tip-off, the Terps secured a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament. Penn State suffered a 59-58 loss to Rutgers, which meant Maryland could finish no worse than a tie for 10th in the Big Ten. The Terps won the tiebreaker with Penn State because they won the lone meeting between the teams. | null | null | null | null | null |
A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record, confirmed to The Post that a U.S. delegation was in Venezuela on Sunday. The White House declined to say whether the White House is considering jump-starting oil imports as part of those talks. | null | null | null | null | null |
With a double-digit lead secure, Michigan State began its tradition of allowing each senior to acknowledge the roaring crowd and kiss the Spartans logo at center court with a push-up. Michigan State had struggled over the past month, but Sunday at Breslin Center, the Spartans had a dominant start and held off Maryland’s rally for a 77-67 victory that made Tom Izzo the winningest coach in Big Ten history.
Barring a stunning run in the conference tournament, Maryland’s tumultuous season will end in a few days. As the No. 10 seed, the Terps (15-16, 7-13) will face the seventh-seeded Spartans again at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Indianapolis. Maryland has lost to Michigan State (20-11, 11-9) twice this season, but the Terps and interim coach Danny Manning found optimism in Sunday’s second half, in which they outscored Michigan State 41-31.
Hall, who scored a team-high 17 points, led the Spartans’ effort off the bench. Michigan State got 33 points from its reserves. The Terps only got six from their bench.
Here’s what else to know from Maryland’s loss:
Before tip-off, the Terps secured a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament. Penn State suffered a 59-58 loss to Rutgers, which meant Maryland could finish no worse than a tie for 10th in the Big Ten. The Terps won the three-way tiebreaker with Penn State and Northwestern. | null | null | null | null | null |
Sidwell Friends’ Caleb Williams beats Wilson at the buzzer for another DCSAA title
Class AA boys’ championship game: Quakers 46, Tigers 45
Sidwell Friends' Caleb Williams gets a group hug after Sunday's win over Wilson. (Terrance Williams for The Washington Post)
Three years ago, Caleb Williams was a short middle-schooler sitting behind the Sidwell Friends bench at the D.C. State Athletic Association Class AA boys’ basketball championship game. When the Quakers won on a buzzer-beater in overtime to announce themselves as one of the D.C. area’s top teams, Williams jumped to see snippets of the on-court celebration.
At that moment, Williams decided he wanted to help Sidwell continue to make history. The sophomore accomplished that goal with his own buzzer-beater in Sunday night’s DCSAA title game.
With just moments remaining at George Washington’s Smith Center, Williams grabbed his teammate’s miss and finished a reverse layup as the buzzer sounded on No. 2 Sidwell’s 46-45 win over No. 7 Wilson.
“I brought that dog out from inside me,” said Williams, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound guard. “It’s crazy how we can be in the same exact situation. Playing on the biggest stage possible is something that I really try to take pride in.”
Sidwell’s three-pointer at the overtime buzzer in 2019, at Entertainment and Sports Arena, also came against Wilson. That was the Quakers’ first DCSAA crown. Sidwell (29-1) has grown since, this season claiming its first Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference title since 2016 and finishing on a 27-game winning streak.
Wilson (27-5) led 42-32 with 5:52 remaining Sunday. The Quakers have one of the area’s fiercest defenses, and they emphasized that strength in huddles down the stretch. The players assured one another that their shots would start falling.
The Quakers cut their deficit to 45-44 with 6.6 seconds remaining. Wilson appeared in control until it fumbled an inbound pass, giving Sidwell the ball with 5.5 seconds left.
Sidwell’s play was designed for Williams to attack the basket, but with him tightly defended, guard Christian Gamble attempted a three-pointer from the left wing. Williams, in the paint, counted down the seconds in his mind as he boxed out. Williams’s defender watched the shot miss the rim as he jumped and put the ball in off the backboard.
Williams, who had a game-high 20 points and 12 rebounds, began turning to run back on defense when the buzzer sounded and his teammates mobbed him.
“That team we had [in 2019], no one expected us to do anything that whole season,” Gamble said. “We won, but we still didn’t earn any respect. People just thought it was a fluke. But this year, this team is so talented, and they’re going to be great still next year.”
Gamble has played for the Quakers for four years, and Williams has watched Sidwell’s ascent since his older brother, Jelani, began attending the Northwest Washington private school in 2013. As he and his teammates cut down the net and posed for photos with the championship trophy, Williams signed autographs on children’s basketballs. He hopes to inspire the next generation to shine for Sidwell.
“We’re not leaving,” he said. “We’re going to keep building that culture and building that legacy for the guys after us.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Porzingis played on a minutes restriction in his Wizards debut Sunday, his first game since a right knee bone bruise sidelined him Jan. 29. But Coach Wes Unseld Jr. had a strategy: deploy Porzingis for about five minutes alongside the starters at the beginning of each quarter but save enough so the team could finish with him on the court. With less than three minutes to play, the Wizards were leading the feisty Indiana Pacers by just six points. The 7-foot-3 Latvian known as “the Unicorn” was not staying on the bench.
With added insurance from its prize trade-deadline acquisition, Washington beat Indiana, 133-123, on Sunday night at Capital One Arena in an energetic affair that had both the crowd and Wizards players buzzing. Judging by Porzingis’s confidence, his three-point shooting, the dunks he slammed home and the chase-down block he executed, no one would have been able to tell it was his first time playing with many of his teammates.
“It’s been a smooth transition all the way around,” he said with a grin.
With 25 points, Porzingis led seven Wizards in double figures during a horse race with the Pacers, who shot 51.8 percent to Washington’s 52.3. He was giddy afterward, a perma-grin on his face as he spoke of the joy of taking the court again after a long time away and the first-day-of-school excitement he feels about joining the Wizards. At one point during his postgame news conference, Porzingis literally licked his chops when discussing playing alongside Kyle Kuzma.
In that sense, it was not hard to pinpoint what Porzingis brings to Washington in the short term. The former all-star gave the Wizards (29-34) a desperately needed jolt as they fight for a spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament — the gleaming reward that is a shot at a playoff run without Bradley Beal.
“It was phenomenal,” said Kuzma, who had 23 points. “Teams can’t just load up on me, having that extra guy out there that causes a lot of threat to defenses. With him, he’s so versatile. ... There’s a reason why they call him ‘the Unicorn.’ ”
Porzingis’s tantalizing talent is the obvious benefit of his addition for Washington. But trying to suss out what he means to the franchise in the long term can be headache-inducing — if only because, with or without him, the Wizards are still frozen in uncertainty.
Block out the sound of a lively crowd cheering Porzingis as he checked out for the final time. Take a leap and assume Beal re-signs this summer, an outcome he gave legs to last week when he said he was leaning toward staying in D.C. Could Porzingis be the permanent co-star that Beal has been missing?
Perhaps — if Porzingis stays healthy, if he regains the confidence that seemed to wobble in Dallas and if he and Beal fit together on the court as Unseld hopes they do. The Wizards can’t be sure of that last part until next season because of the wrist injury that will keep Beal in a cast for at least six more weeks.
“I feel good here, honestly,” Porzingis said, giggling as he spoke. “... Hopefully we’ll have Brad next season. I don’t know what the situation is, but I would love to play with him and Kuz and the rest of the guys. I think there are some exciting things to look forward to.”
Beyond securing a firm “yes” from Beal, Washington’s front office will have to dedicate a good chunk of its summer vacation trying to fill its perennial vacancy at point guard. Add one more unknown element to the list.
But Sunday, for two hours, those unknowns faded into the distance as Porzingis drew oohs and ahhs from a ... slightly more robust crowd than the groups that left multiple sections completely empty at Washington’s previous two home games.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 19 points for the Wizards and Malcolm Brogdon led the Pacers (22-44) with 27, but Porzingis was the star of the show.
Spencer Dinwiddie, now with Dallas, was the latest to speak up, saying Saturday that he felt hurt that some of the blame for the Wizards’ chemistry problems landed on his shoulders. He said, among other things, that the organization asked him to ease up on scoring after the first part of the season and focus more on passing.
The guard limped to the locker room in pain with just over two minutes left in the first half after landing awkwardly and appearing to roll his ankle. Neto is no stranger to bumps and bruises — given an inch of space, he typically hurls his body into the lane with abandon — but Sunday’s incident looked grim. Unseld said he was moving well after the game and will be day-to-day. | null | null | null | null | null |
A demonstrator waves an American flag as trucks drive southbound on I-495 while circling the Washington Beltway during “The People's Convoy” event in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., on Sunday, March 6, 2022. Photographer: Craig Hudson/Bloomberg (Craig Hudson/Bloomberg)
The People’s Convoy, a group of hundreds of trucks, cars and SUVs protesting the government’s response to the pandemic, plans to leave the Hagerstown Speedway on Monday about 9:30 a.m. and head to the Capital Beltway for a second day of demonstrations in the D.C. area, an organizer said.
Organizer Brian Brase said the group, which circled the Beltway twice on Sunday, aimed to loop around once Monday. He said the group plans to occupy two lanes instead of one as an “escalation” of Monday’s demonstration. They will drive the minimum legal speed limit, he said.
Many of the protesters in Hagerstown on Saturday had made a 2,500-mile journey from Southern California, while others joined the effort during the journey.
On Sunday night, Brase mentioned meeting with “members of both the House and Senate,” but declined to answer questions about whether those plans were confirmed, who they would meet with or where those meetings would happen.
Brase again said the group is coordinating with local law enforcement to avoid impeding traffic, while also acknowledging that “obviously there’s a natural disturbance. We’re hoping one lap by two lanes so we get back here sooner before rush hour or anything like that.”
The plan comes after a demonstration Sunday, where the convoy looped the Beltway twice. Brase called it a “success,” claiming that the group stretched the entirety of the Beltway.
That was not how it appeared on the Beltway, a 64-mile highway. Although the convoy started out in a formation that stretched about 30 miles, it became diluted after merging with normal traffic.
Brase said the group still does not have plans to go into D.C. or to stop driving on the Beltway. He added: “We do not want to impede traffic any more than necessary to get our message across.”
The convoy vehicles were better organized Sunday night, with big rigs lined in rows near the entrance to the speedway parking. Behind them were RVs and motor homes, campers, and then cars and pickup trucks. That will allow the convoy to stay closer together as they drive on Monday, he said.
The group expects another convoy of about 500 vehicles from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to join the convoy at the speedway overnight, he said. | null | null | null | null | null |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyla McMakin had 22 points and six steals, Tra’dayja Smith went 5 for 5 from 3-point range and finished with 21 points, and No. 2 seed Longwood beat top-seeded Campbell 86-47 on Sunday night to win the Big South Conference tournament and clinch the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history. | null | null | null | null | null |
A demonstrator in Bethesda waves an American flag on March 6 as trucks drive down Interstate 495 while circling the Washington Beltway during the “People’s Convoy” event. (Craig Hudson/Bloomberg News)
The “People’s Convoy,” a group of hundreds of trucks, cars and SUVs protesting the government’s response to the pandemic, plans to leave the Hagerstown Speedway about 9:30 a.m. Monday and head to the Capital Beltway for a second day of demonstrations in the D.C. area, an organizer said.
Many of the protesters in Hagerstown, Md., on Saturday had made a 2,500-mile journey from Southern California, while others joined the effort along the way.
On Sunday night, Brase mentioned meeting with “members of both the House and Senate,” but he declined to answer questions about whether those plans were confirmed, whom they would meet with or where those meetings would happen.
Brase said the group still does not have plans to go into D.C. or to stop driving on the Beltway. He added, “We do not want to impede traffic any more than necessary to get our message across.”
The convoy vehicles were better organized Sunday night, with big rigs lined up in rows near the entrance to the speedway. Behind them were RVs and motor homes, campers, and then cars and pickup trucks. That will allow convoy motorists to stay closer together as they drive on Monday, he said.
The group expects another convoy of about 500 vehicles from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to join them at the speedway overnight, he said. | null | null | null | null | null |
Ten days into a conflict that is shifting alliances and upending the world order, the repercussions are hitting most directly in countries such as Moldova — post-Soviet nations that balanced for years between East and West, and are now realizing the middle ground is untenable.
In Moldova, the war has accelerated the drive to align fully with Europe. On Thursday, the country signed an application to join the European Union, in what its prime minister described as a vote for “freedom.” Moldova has also strained to accommodate more than 250,000 Ukrainian refugees who have crossed its borders, the prime minister noted. In a visit Sunday to Moldova’s capital, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the country a “powerful” example of a democracy moving forward, not backward.
But while Moldova has never felt closer to Europe, it has also never felt more vulnerable to the Kremlin. Russian troops are pushing toward port cities along Ukraine’s southern coast, including Odessa, 30 miles from Moldova’s border. Several days ago, addressing his security council, Belarus’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, displayed a battle map that showed an arrow pointing toward Moldova.
Security analysts say Russia’s sluggish progress so far in Ukraine could reduce the chances that Putin seeks to enlarge the scale of the invasion. Mihai Popsoi, the vice president of Moldova’s Parliament, said in an interview that intelligence officials see no indications of a direct threat — “although [Lukashenko’s] map might have you question my words,” he said. Still, he said, every former Soviet nation is antsy. Moldova, which remains outside NATO and its security guarantees, has already closed its airspace and declared a state of emergency.
“Things can go south any day,” Popsoi said.
But there has been one legitimate signal of the potential for tension. One day after Moldova applied for E.U. membership, Transnistrian leaders issued a statement making clear they had no interest in following. They reiterated a demand to create “two independent states.”
Transnistria was born out of a brief early 1990s war amid the Soviet collapse — Moldova wanted independence and to outlaw Russian as an official language; Transnistria wanted to maintain Soviet ties. But in the long aftermath, after the war ended in a stalemate, Russian leaders, including Putin, have seen it in their interests to help prop up the Transnistrian government with subsidies.
To many Moldovans, Transnistria has become an easy-to-deride U.S.S.R. time capsule. It’s a place of Lenin statues, hammer-and-sickle flags and once-grand Soviet architecture in decay. Transnistria has also paid a price for its relative isolation. Unrecognized by the United Nations, it has a currency, the ruble, that is virtually worthless outside its borders. International bank cards don’t work at Transnistrian ATMs. Salaries are low. For all of Russia’s influence, the biggest power in Transnistria is a monopolistic company, Sheriff, that operates with scant oversight and controls everything from the gas stations to the supermarkets to the soccer club.
Those complexities make it harder to pinpoint Transnistria’s role in a potential conflict. Some Transnistrians have Russian passports, for instance; many others have Moldovan. Most of Transnistria’s exports go to the E.U. Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky said Sunday that Transnistria “does not pose a military threat, and does not hold plans of an aggressive nature.”
Transnistrian newspapers and television channels scarcely mention the conflict — and people who live there have gotten the signal that the topic is off-limits. In one Transnistrian village this weekend, three friends — fellow musicians — who had gathered to eat kielbasa and drink vodka were happy to talk about their families. Or Soviet times. Or the music they played: Ukrainian, Russian and Moldovan tunes from the 1970s and 1980s. But they resisted any questions about their feelings on the war or Russia.
Moldova’s aim to join the E.U. now adds some urgency to finding a way out of settlement talks that have been deadlocked for years. While Cyprus managed to join the E.U. despite a territorial dispute, many experts say Moldova would give credibility to its E.U. bid by resolving a frozen conflict that includes Russian troops. “Particularly from the point of view of security,” said Iulian Groza, an expert on foreign policy, European affairs and good governance and a member of Moldova’s security council.
But the path toward membership figures to be long. In the same week Moldova applied for E.U. membership, so did Georgia — both prompted by a dramatic plea from Ukraine for “immediate membership.” They join a list of countries, including Albania and North Macedonia, that have been trying to join the bloc for years, while encountering resistance from Brussels over the idea that the 27-nation club has already admitted too many members with corruption and weak rule of law.
More than two-thirds of Moldovans support the idea of E.U. membership. But many young people, who grew up after the Soviet collapse, say their country has urgent vulnerabilities that a years-long process will not be able to solve. In Chisinau this past week, at a modern work-share studio paid for in part with U.S. government funding, the employees of a cryptocurrency company sat around a table and spoke with fear about the prospect of war spilling over. In such a scenario, they said, Russian troops in Transnistria could easily enter the fight. They said Moldova’s own military is weak and small. They believe Moldova could fall under Russian control with alarming speed.
So many people had plans to leave that the company, in the coming days, would no longer occupy its work-share space.
A war in Moldova was still unlikely, they said. But seeing what had happened in Ukraine, even low-probability outcomes now felt like something worth hedging against. | null | null | null | null | null |
Russia-Ukraine live updates Ukraine to contest Russia’s justification for invasion at top U.N. court as bombardment continues
Australian prime minister: Ukraine invasion a ‘wake-up call’ of dangers posed by others, including China
By Michael E. Miller2:00 a.m.
SYDNEY — Australia’s prime minister called the invasion of Ukraine a “major wake-up call” for liberal democracies as he urged them to stand together in the face of “autocratic regimes,” such as Russia and China.
“A new arc of autocracy is instinctively aligning to challenge and reset the world order in their own image,” Scott Morrison said Monday in a video address from his Sydney residence, where he is isolating after testing positive for the coronavirus last week. He repeatedly drew parallels between Russian and Chinese aggression, saying Vladimir Putin’s claims to parts of Ukraine had “a chilling reverberation with similar lectures that I’ve been on the receiving end of about situations in the Indo-Pacific and what people claim to be theirs.”
The war in Ukraine had not impacted the “tense” situation in the Taiwan Strait, Morrison said, but Australia faces the “most difficult and dangerous security environment” since World War II.
Morrison used his speech to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, to announce a plan for a new naval base on the country’s east coast that will support nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS partnership struck last year with the United States and the United Kingdom. The $7.5 billion base will also “enable the regular visiting of U.S. and U.K. nuclear-powered submarines,” he said.
The prime minister said missiles that he promised Ukraine last week were now “on the ground” and that Australia had fast-tracked 1,700 visas for Ukrainians since the crisis began. Asked after his speech whether he was confident Ukraine would emerge from the war independent and whole, however, Morrison said no.
“I’m not confident of that outcome at this point,” he said. “Nor can Mr. Putin be confident of the outcome he thought would come so easily.” | null | null | null | null | null |
Taliban arrest Canadian aid worker amid widening crackdown on activists and foreigners
Nadima Noor, shown here on June 4, 2021, is a 38-year-old dual Canadian-Afghan national who runs a small humanitarian organization in Afghanistan. (Susannah George/TWP)
It is unclear whether she has been charged with a crime. Her family has not been informed of any formal charges and the Taliban refuse to comment publicly on the matter. Just over six months after the Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan, there is a widening crackdown on Afghans and foreigners alike across the country. Targeted arrests are on the rise, and once detained, many are held for months. Two journalists working for the United Nations are the only foreigners so far released.
The first female dual-national arrested by the Taliban since the group took control of Afghanistan last year, Noor and her colleague now bring the total number of Westerners in Taliban custody to eight, according to the intelligence officer. The majority of the Westerners imprisoned are British citizens, but an American is also among those held.
“These arrests are a lesson to all the foreigners in Afghanistan who are not obeying the rules,” said the officer, who has direct knowledge of Nadima’s arrest. He said she may not be formally charged but said the group’s full investigation would reveal any wrongdoing once complete.
Noor was arrested by Taliban intelligence, a unit that technically falls under country’s Interior Ministry but appears to operate with near total autonomy. Like the other foreigners, she is being held at the ministry, her brother said, but the chain of command is unclear.
A Kabul-based diplomat with direct knowledge of ongoing negotiations said the lack of formal communication between different arms of the Taliban often makes its difficult to gather information when anyone is arrested. Most arrests occur without formal charges, and some people have been held for days before the relevant diplomatic missions or even the Taliban’s own Ministry of Foreign Affairs was notified, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the press.
The Taliban has not publicly requested an exchange or swap for the foreigners held, but two of the countries involved conducted separate diplomatic visits to Kabul in an effort to secure their release, a second Taliban intelligence official said. Both visits were unsuccessful.
Afghan journalists, activists, professors and political analysts have come under increased pressure in recent months. Some 20 Afghan female activists remain in prison despite repeated international pressure for their release.
Mohsini became a frequent guest on political talk shows after the group’s takeover. But then last week Taliban intelligence threatened Shams Amani, the host of a show, with arrest if he continued to broadcast Mohsini’s appearances.
“The Taliban want us to censor us,” Amani said. “After that we only have two choices: stop appearing on television or start speaking in support of the Taliban.”
Mohsini posted on Facebook late Sunday that he was safely back with his family, but the once-outspoken professor didn’t immediately respond to requests for an interview.
“It’s natural that if you go somewhere new, you need time to get to know the people,” Shakir Nasir, a senior Taliban police commander, said of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and other Afghan cities.
“But over time we have recognized who is good and who is bad,” he said, referring to the increase in arrests in recent months and the launch of massive house-to-house search operations that have sparked pockets of anger and resentment. | null | null | null | null | null |
Man fatally stabbed in Bethesda, police say
Police describe incident as domestic.
A man was fatally stabbed Sunday night at a house in Bethesda, Montgomery County police said.
They said another man was taken into custody in the stabbing, which they described as domestic in nature.
Officers went to a house on Lambeth Road about 9:31 p.m. after receiving a report that a stabbing had just occurred, police said.
The victim was taken to a hospital where he died, according to police.
No names or ages were provided in an initial account. The relationship between the two men was not specified.
Police said they were actively investigating and there was no report of any charges.
Lambeth Road is a residential street west of Old Georgetown Road and about three-quarters of a mile northwest of the heart of downtown Bethesda. | null | null | null | null | null |
Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (16-14, 8-9 Sun Belt) vs. Georgia State Panthers (17-10, 9-5 Sun Belt)
Pensacola, Florida; Monday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Georgia State takes on the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns after Corey Allen scored 29 points in Georgia State’s 71-66 victory over the Appalachian State Mountaineers.
TOP PERFORMERS: Allen is averaging 14.1 points, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals for the Panthers. Kane Williams is averaging 11.6 points over the last 10 games for Georgia State. | null | null | null | null | null |
Cal Baptist takes on UT Rio Grande Valley in WAC Tournament
BOTTOM LINE: The Cal Baptist Lancers and UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros meet in the WAC Tournament.
The Lancers have gone 14-5 at home. Cal Baptist is fifth in the WAC scoring 71.9 points while shooting 44.3% from the field.
The Vaqueros are 3-15 against WAC opponents. UT Rio Grande Valley is eighth in the WAC scoring 71.1 points per game and is shooting 44.0%.
The teams meet for the second time this season. The Lancers won 80-72 in the last matchup on Feb. 13. Taran Armstrong led the Lancers with 18 points, and Justin Johnson led the Vaqueros with 38 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ty Rowell is averaging 11.9 points and 3.2 assists for the Lancers. Armstrong is averaging 11.2 points over the last 10 games for Cal Baptist.
Johnson is averaging 18.1 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Vaqueros. Xavier Johnson is averaging 1.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for UT Rio Grande Valley. | null | null | null | null | null |
BOTTOM LINE: The Clemson Tigers square off against the NC State Wolf Pack in the ACC Tournament.
The Tigers have gone 11-5 at home. Clemson is sixth in the ACC with 24.5 defensive rebounds per game led by David Collins averaging 5.8.
The Wolf Pack are 4-16 in conference matchups. NC State leads the ACC with 9.9 offensive rebounds per game led by Dereon Seabron averaging 2.6.
The teams square off for the second time this season. Clemson won the last matchup 70-65 on Jan. 8. PJ Hall scored 20 to help lead Clemson to the victory, and Seabron scored 27 points for NC State.
TOP PERFORMERS: Collins is averaging 10.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals for the Tigers. Al-Amir Dawes is averaging 2.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Clemson. | null | null | null | null | null |
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Fairfield -2.5; over/under is 133.5
BOTTOM LINE: The Fairfield Stags and Canisius Golden Griffins square off in the MAAC Tournament.
The Stags are 6-9 in home games. Fairfield has an 8-4 record in games decided by 10 points or more.
The Golden Griffins have gone 7-13 against MAAC opponents. Canisius is 8-12 against opponents with a winning record.
TOP PERFORMERS: Taj Benning is scoring 10.7 points per game with 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Stags. Supreme Cook is averaging 10.3 points and 8.9 rebounds while shooting 46.8% over the last 10 games for Fairfield.
Armon Harried is scoring 11.3 points per game with 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists for the Golden Griffins. Jordan Henderson is averaging 13.8 points and 2.9 rebounds while shooting 41.5% over the last 10 games for Canisius. | null | null | null | null | null |
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (19-11, 12-6 Summit) vs. North Dakota State Bison (22-9, 13-5 Summit)
Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Monday, 9:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: North Dakota State hosts the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles after Rocky Kreuser scored 22 points in North Dakota State’s 82-62 victory over the Denver Pioneers.
The Bison are 12-3 on their home court. North Dakota State has a 5-2 record in one-possession games.
The Golden Eagles are 12-6 against Summit opponents. Oral Roberts ranks fifth in college basketball with 28.1 defensive rebounds per game led by Francis Lacis averaging 5.0.
The teams square off for the third time this season. North Dakota State won the last matchup 77-59 on Feb. 18. Sam Griesel scored 22 to help lead North Dakota State to the win, and Issac McBride scored 23 points for Oral Roberts.
TOP PERFORMERS: Griesel is averaging 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Bison. Kreuser is averaging 16 points and 7.9 rebounds over the past 10 games for North Dakota State.
Max Abmas is shooting 38.9% from beyond the arc with 3.8 made 3-pointers per game for the Golden Eagles, while averaging 22.7 points and 3.8 assists. McBride is averaging 13.6 points over the past 10 games for Oral Roberts. | null | null | null | null | null |
Manhattan squares off against Rider in MAAC Tournament
BOTTOM LINE: The Manhattan Jaspers and Rider Broncs square off in the MAAC Tournament.
The Jaspers have gone 8-5 at home. Manhattan has a 7-8 record against opponents over .500.
The Broncs are 8-12 in MAAC play. Rider has a 4-6 record in games decided by 10 or more points.
The teams meet for the third time this season. The Jaspers won 84-78 in the last matchup on Feb. 20. Jose Perez led the Jaspers with 23 points, and Allen Powell led the Broncs with 17 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Perez is averaging 18.8 points and 4.5 assists for the Jaspers. Josh Roberts is averaging 10.9 points over the last 10 games for Manhattan.
Dwight Murray Jr. is averaging 12.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists for the Broncs. Powell is averaging 14.5 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 35.7% over the past 10 games for Rider. | null | null | null | null | null |
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Marist -2.5; over/under is 142
BOTTOM LINE: The Marist Red Foxes play the Quinnipiac Bobcats in the MAAC Tournament.
The Red Foxes are 7-6 on their home court. Marist ranks second in the MAAC with 24.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Matt Herasme averaging 4.0.
The Bobcats are 7-13 against MAAC opponents. Quinnipiac is 1-2 in games decided by less than 4 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jao Ituka is scoring 15.5 points per game and averaging 3.1 rebounds for the Red Foxes. Ricardo Wright is averaging 12.1 points and 4.2 rebounds over the last 10 games for Marist.
Kevin Marfo is averaging 9.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and four assists for the Bobcats. Jones is averaging 1.7 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Quinnipiac. | null | null | null | null | null |
Martin leads Florida Atlantic against Florida International
BOTTOM LINE: Florida Atlantic visits the Florida International Panthers after Alijah Martin scored 34 points in Florida Atlantic’s 84-76 win against the Florida International Panthers.
The Panthers have gone 11-5 at home. Florida International has a 6-7 record in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Owls are 11-7 against C-USA opponents. Florida Atlantic is sixth in C-USA scoring 74.1 points per game and is shooting 45.3%.
The teams square off for the third time this season. Florida Atlantic won the last meeting 84-76 on March 5. Martin scored 34 to help lead Florida Atlantic to the win, and Javaunte Hawkins scored 21 points for Florida International.
Martin is averaging 14.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals for the Owls. Michael Forrest is averaging 2.1 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Florida Atlantic. | null | null | null | null | null |
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Pittsburgh -1.5; over/under is 129.5
BOTTOM LINE: The Pittsburgh Panthers and Boston College Eagles meet in the ACC Tournament.
The Panthers have gone 8-11 in home games. Pittsburgh gives up 68.1 points to opponents and has been outscored by 6.1 points per game.
The Eagles are 6-14 in conference play. Boston College has a 1-1 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Boston College won 69-56 in the last matchup on Jan. 30. Makai Ashton-Langford led Boston College with 21 points, and Femi Odukale led Pittsburgh with 16 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: John Hugley is averaging 14.7 points and 7.9 rebounds for the Panthers. Mouhamadou Gueye is averaging 7.9 points and 1.7 blocks over the past 10 games for Pittsburgh. | null | null | null | null | null |
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