March 11, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 16 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine [more]. Here are your updates:

• Russian forces appear to be expanding their areas of operation, with new bombing attacks being reported in and around the cities of Dnipro, Ivano-Frankiivsk, and Lutsk in central and western Ukraine.
• Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows that the miles-long convoy of Russian military vehicles and weaponry that has been staged north of Kyiv for more than a week has largely dispersed in moves toward the east and west of the capital city.
• Reuters cites internal communications from Facebook parent company Meta as saying that the social media platform will temporarily change its hate speech policy in some countries to allow posts on the platform to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion. Russian embassy officials in the United States have strongly condemned the policy change. [more]
• Goldman Sachs announced yesterday that it is suspending its operations in Russia, becoming the first major US bank to do so.
• U.N. officials say more than 2.3 million people have fled the war in Ukraine for other countries, and that an estimated 1.9 million have been displaced within the country.
• The U.N. Security Council will meet today at the request of Russia to discuss Kremlin allegations that the U.S. is supporting the development of chemical and/or biological weapons within Ukraine. U.S. and Ukrainian officials have strongly denied the allegations and say the Russian claim may signal Russian plans to use such weapons in Ukraine.
• Reports say legislation has been drafted in Russia that would allow the Russian government to seize the assets of western companies that have suspended operations in the country over the invasion of Ukraine.

COVID-19 | Today marks two years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. More than 6 million deaths globally have been linked to the pandemic.  [more]

COVID-19 | China has ordered a lockdown in the northeastern city of Changchun amidst a new spike in COVID-19 cases. Non-essential businesses have been closed and transport links suspended in the city of 9 million residents. [more]

2020 CENSUS | The U.S. Census Bureau says data indicates that 0.24% of the U.S. population was missed in the 2020 census, compared to 0.01% in the 2010 census. The agency also noted that minority populations and very young children were unaccounted for at disproportionately high levels. [more]

IRS | The Internal Revenue Service said yesterday that it intends to hire as many as 10,000 new workers to help in efforts to reduce a backlog of tens of millions of tax filings. [more]

AMAZON | A congressional subcommittee has accused e-commerce giant Amazon of lying about the company's use of data from third-party sellers and has requested that the Department of Justice investigate Amazon for possible criminal antitrust activities. [more]

NORTH KOREA | U.S. defense officials say North Korea has conducted multiple tests of a new long-range ballistic missile in recent weeks, likely in preparation for full-scale tests in the near future. [more]

COLOMBIA | U.S. President Joe Biden has announced his intention to designate Columbia as a major non-NATO ally of the United States and that the two countries will cooperate on a framework to mitigate the hemisphere's migration crisis. [more]

TRAVEL | Multiple news outlets cite unnamed government sources as saying that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will extend the mask mandate for travelers on mass transit through April 18. The current mask mandate was set to end on March 18. [more]

ECONOMY | The U.S. Labor Department said yesterday that consumer inflation in the United States rose 7.9% over the past year, and 0.8% from January to February of this year. [more]

R.I.P. | Actor Emilio Delgado, who was featured as a regular on the children's television show "Sesame Street" for 45 years, died yesterday at the age of 81. [more]

BASEBALL | Major League Baseball players and team owners reached a labor agreement yesterday, ending a 99-day player lockout. With the agreement, the league has announced that training camps will open today and the regular season will start April 7. [more]

NCAA BASKETBALL | Sunday is “Selection Sunday” for the March Madness college basketball tournament. [more]

CHICAGO | A judge yesterday sentenced actor Jussie Smollett to 150 days in jail for lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack that a jury found Smollett had orchestrated himself. [more]

TIME CHANGE | This coming Sunday, March 13, marks the beginning of daylight saving time in the United States. Clocks will reset one hour ahead at 2am Sunday morning. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | Following a vote in the parliament, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from the U.S.S.R. on this date in 1990. [more history]