-Volodymyr Zelensky inviting Putin to a normal-length negotiating table
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The Kremlin has moved to crack down on dissent about the war in Ukraine, further sealing Russia off from the rest of the world as the chaotic onslaught continues.
- The Russian government blocked access to Facebook and Twitter on Friday, as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s effort to control information about the invasion and squash anti-war activism. Announcing the Facebook ban, Russia’s communications agency Roskomnadzor cited 26 cases of “discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook,” and Facebook’s more recent steps to restrict Russian state-controlled media outlets. Russia also blocked access to the websites of several major foreign news organizations.
- Putin also signed an extreme new censorship law that Russia’s legislature advanced earlier on Friday, which threatens up to 15 years of prison time for anyone who shares “false information” about the war in Ukraine. (Even calling it a war, instead of a “special military operation,” could now be a crime.) The BBC announced that it had temporarily suspended its news operations in Russia after parliament approved the law. “This legislation appears to criminalize the process of independent journalism,” BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement. CNN and Bloomberg News have also said they’ll limit activity in Russia.
- Here’s the kind of “fake news” that Putin would rather Russians not see: The world “narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN on Friday. Russian forces seized control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Thursday night, starting a terrifying fire just 1,500 feet from a reactor, which has since been extinguished. The UN nuclear watchdog said Friday that there had been no radiation leaks, but that it might be advisable for Russia to abstain from shelling nuclear reactors in the future.
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As the invasion enters its second week, there doesn’t seem to be any target that Russia’s unwilling to attack.
- The vast Russian convoy threatening Kyiv has made little progress—because Ukrainian forces have directly attacked it and blown up a bridge in its path, according to a U.S. defense official—but Kyiv residents crowded the city’s main train station on Friday, fearing the kind of catastrophic destruction that Russia has inflicted on Kharkiv and Mariupol. NATO on Friday said that it wouldn’t risk direct war with Russia by establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, drawing criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- In a, uh, less cautious approach, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) fired off a Thursday tweet calling for someone to assassinate Putin: “The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.” (Big demands from Donald Trump’s most spineless sycophant!) Graham’s suggestion drew backlash from members of both parties. In other Republican rifts, former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to take an extremely belated swipe at Trump’s praise for Putin during a Friday speech to top GOP donors: “There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin. There is only room for champions of freedom.”
A third round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations is in the works, but Putin’s intensifying attacks on urban areas, dangerous seizures of nuclear power plants, and silencing of dissent don’t allow much hope for a ceasefire. That leaves Western powers to balance two urgent, conflicting responsibilities: Helping a besieged democracy defend itself, without lighting the fuse of a broader war.
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Check out the latest episode of X-Ray Vision! This week, Jason and Rosie dive deep into Matt Reeves’ The Batman with comedian and podcaster Pete Holmes, discuss what sets the film apart from previous iterations, and why it’s so good. Plus, they offer a variety of recommendations for folks to read, watch, and play after they see the film. New episodes of X-Ray Vision drop every Friday. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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Trump adviser and crime genius Roger Stone let Danish documentary filmmakers record his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the Washington Post revealed on Friday. Footage shows Stone coordinating post-election protests and texting with the leaders of far-right groups who participated in the attack on the Capitol. A few hours before the violence began, the tapes make clear, the Oath Keeper who this week pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy was hanging out in Stone’s suite at the Willard. A Stone aide blocked filmmakers from entering the suite during the height of the attack, claiming that Stone was napping; when a cameraman finally got inside, Stone was talking on the phone. Stone’s also on tape implicating Jared Kushner in a scheme to sell pardons for well-connected felons, lobbying for pre-emptive pardons for GOP lawmakers who tried to block the certification of the election (and for himself), and denouncing Donald Trump in an Inauguration Day rant. You hate to see it.
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- The U.S. economy added a whopping 678,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported on Friday, as the Biden Boom continues.
- Florida lawmakers have approved a bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks, sending it to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for his promised signature. The bill includes no exceptions for rape or incest.
- Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) appealed a ruling that temporarily blocked Texas from investigating a trans teen’s parents for child abuse, putting on hold a hearing to consider a statewide injunction of all such investigations.
- The Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, reversing a lower court decision. The three liberal justices dissented.
- The January 6 committee has issued a subpoena to Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s rally-organizing fiancée, after she abruptly cut off a voluntary deposition last week.
- A suicide bomber struck inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, during Friday prayers, killing at least 56 people and wounding 194 others.
- Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has doubled down on his toxic GOP agenda in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, god bless him, after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly disowned it in a Tuesday press conference.
- A Trump-appointed federal judge has approved a request from Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) for a preliminary injunction barring the North Carolina State Board of Elections from determining whether Cawthorn is ineligible to run for reelection because of his January 6 involvement.
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams has lifted the city’s school mask mandate and vaccine requirements for indoor venues starting Monday, citing a steep drop in COVID cases.
- The International Cat Federation has banned Russian cats from its competitions. Sure, it sounds silly, but show us one Russian cat who's denounced Putin. You can't.
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The California convoy on its way to Washington, DC, has picked up hundreds of cars, several more trucks, and a batshit new conspiracy theory. The group is preparing for its final protest somewhere in DC on Saturday, with no clear animating purpose: The vaccine and mask mandates that it was rebelling against have largely been repealed as the Omicron wave subsides. The convoy is now just sort of Vaguely Pissed Off, and QAnon elements within the group have rushed in to fill the COVID grievance gap with an anti-Ukraine conspiracy theory. The theory alleges (content warning: very dumb content ahead) that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are secretly collaborating on a military operation targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci’s secret laboratories in Ukraine, where Fauci is secretly creating bioweapons. The convoy now includes one of the hardest-core QAnon contingents, the folks who gathered in Dallas to see JFK Jr. reveal that he had faked his death, and extremism experts don’t love the looks of it.
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A federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. can’t use Title 42, a Trump-era public health policy, to expel migrant families to countries where they could be persecuted or harmed.
People around the world have begun booking Airbnbs in Ukraine as a way to send cash to Ukrainians.
Thousands of Florida students walked out of class on Thursday to protest the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
President Biden got a significant boost in his approval ratings after the State of the Union.
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