March 28, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 33 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates [more]:

• Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected to resume this week in Turkey, even as fighting continues to escalate in all regions of the country.
• In an interview with independent Russian journalists today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government may be willing to assume a neutral status as part of any deal to end the war in Ukraine, but that such a concession would need to be approved in a referendum.  Russian communications officials have warned media against airing the Zelensky interview in Russia.
• Following a speech in Poland on Saturday in which U.S. President Joe Biden said that Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power,” the White House clarified that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.
• City officials in Mariupol say about 300 people were killed in the March 16 Russian bombing of a city theater that was being used as a shelter.
• Col.-Gen Sergei Rudskoi, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, said Friday that Russian forces are concluding the first stage of operations in Ukraine and that they will now concentrate on the liberation of the eastern Donbas region, which he says is the main goal of the invasion.
• In a video address to the Doha Forum international conference in Qatar on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for energy-producing countries to increase output to limit Russia’s ability to use its oil and gas to threaten other nations.
• Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, said this morning that evacuation corridors from several cities will not be utilized today due to intelligence reports warning of possible Russian "provocations" along the routes.

COVID-19 | Chinese health officials say Shanghai, with a population of 26 million people, will begin a mass lockdown today due to a resurgence of COVID-19 infections. The lockdown will be China’s largest since the beginning of the pandemic. [more]

MORE COVID-19 | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue authorization this week for a second booster dose of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccines for Americans 50 years of age and older. [more]

COLORADO | Wildfires south of Boulder, Colorado, are listed as about 21% contained, according to officials, and most evacuation orders that affected nearly 20,000 people over the weekend have been lifted. [more]

CANADA | Indigenous leaders from Canada will meet with Pope Frances this week in Rome and are expected to press for a papal apology for historical abuses against them by Catholic priests and school workers at state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century until the 1970s, which more than 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend. [more]

ISRAEL | The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack Sunday in the Israeli city of Hadera in which two police officers were killed and four others wounded. The attack came on the eve of a meeting of Israeli, Arab, and U.S. officials in the city. [more]

CYBERSECURITY | The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday added Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky to its list of firms that are considered to be risks to U.S. national security. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska has announced his resignation from office after being convicted of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national. [more]

TAXES | In a budget proposal expected to be released today, U.S. President Joe Biden intends to call for a minimum 20% tax on U.S. households worth more than $100 million, which represent about 0.01% of American households. [more]

JANUARY 6 | The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to vote tonight on potential contempt charges against former Trump administration advisors Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino for their refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoenas. [more]

NCAA BASKETBALL | With regional championship games completed this weekend, the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball championship Final Four is set. Kansas will play Villanova and Duke will play North Carolina this coming weekend to determine the national championship matchup. [more]

OSCARS | “CODA” was named best picture at last night’s 94th Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, California. Other winners included Will Smith (best actor, “King Richard”), Jessica Chastain (best actress, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), “Summer of Soul” (best documentary feature), and Jane Campion (best director, “Power of the Dog”). [full list of winners] [more]

MORE OSCARS | Best actor winner Will Smith struck presenter Chris Rock onstage at last night’s 94th Academy Awards ceremony after Rock made a comment about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, during the broadcast. [more]

R.I.P. | Taylor Hawkins, drummer for the band Foo Fighters, died Friday at the age of 50 while on tour with the band in Colombia. No cause of death has been released. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | Built as Byzantium about 657 BC, then renamed Constantinople in the 4th century AD after Constantine the Great made the city his capital, the Turkish city of Istanbul officially received its present name on this date in 1930. [more history]