Your Monday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/21/briefing/your-monday-briefing.html

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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Monday.

1. Ukraine rejected Russia’s demand that soldiers defending the embattled city of Mariupol surrender at dawn this morning, as a powerful blast in the capital, Kyiv, reduced a sprawling shopping mall to rubble. At least eight people were reported killed, though the toll will likely rise.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in Mariupol, a strategic southern port city which has been without food, water or electricity for weeks. Conditions worsened further over the weekend, with reports of street battles and Russian forces taking control of three neighborhoods.

The deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, Andrei Paliy, died in combat in Mariupol, according to the governor of Sevastopol, the Crimean city where the fleet is based. Paliy is one of several high-ranking Russian officers who have been killed in action in Ukraine.

2. President Biden is making his biggest diplomatic push of the war.

Before heading to Brussels on Wednesday for a meeting of NATO leaders, Biden spoke on the phone with the leaders of Germany, Italy, France and Britain. He assailed Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians and discussed providing assistance to refugees.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, called for renewed peace talks, but said that he would reject any agreement recognizing the independence of two Russian-backed separatist enclaves. Poland will propose a NATO peacekeeping mission, an idea the U.S. has opposed, at the alliance’s meeting this week.

Military experts raised alarms that, with the war not going well for Russia, President Vladimir Putin could detonate a smaller nuclear weapon. Biden warned that Russia is also exploring cyberattacks against the U.S. in retaliation for recent sanctions.

3. A plane crashed in southern China with 132 people on board.

The plane, a Boeing 737-800 NG operated by China Eastern Airlines, went down in the mountainous Guangxi region. Flight records indicate it was flying steadily until it descended more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute.

The Boeing 737-800 NG is different from the Boeing 737 Max, which was taken out of service after deadly crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019. There are about 4,200 737-800 NG planes in service worldwide, including almost 800 in the U.S.

No survivors have been found; rain, which had been forecast, held off for much of the night but could come Tuesday.

4. The Supreme Court nomination hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson began as Democrats championed her breadth of experience.

Senators acknowledged the historic nomination of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and hinted at forthcoming lines of inquiry. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee suggested, without evidence, that she was closely linked to progressive groups, and vowed to examine her work as a public defender.

Jackson has already passed the Senate’s confirmation test three times for appointments to lower courts; Democrats can confirm her without a Republican vote. Here’s what to expect in these hearings, an analysis of her rulings, and a look at how she got here.

5. Babies and children under five were hospitalized with coronavirus at much higher rates during the latest U.S. surge than at any other point in the pandemic. The highly transmissible Omicron variant is thought to explain the increase.

The shift was especially apparent in children of color, who are likelier to have parents in public-facing jobs, and to live in poverty and in multigenerational households.

In other virus news, the Food and Drug Administration will convene a meeting of its outside advisory panel on Covid vaccines in April, to discuss the U.S. booster strategy. But regulators may rule on applications from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for emergency authorization of second booster shots before then. In England, vulnerable adults are already eligible for second boosters.

6. Public companies must disclose how their work affects the climate, the top U.S. financial regulator said in an initial ruling.

If approved after a 60-day notice period, the Securities and Exchange Commission rule would require companies to share information about the direct and indirect impact of their operations on the climate, as well as their overall carbon footprint.

In other business news, the Federal Reserve chairman said the central bank could quickly raise interest rates and withdraw support from the economy to bring inflation under control — a move akin to the Fed hitting the brakes rather than merely taking its foot off the accelerator.

Finally, if cryptocurrency has you confused, take a look at our latecomer’s guide to it.

7. Red-crowned cranes have rebounded from near extinction in Japan.

Some fifty years ago, just three dozen or so were left in the country. But after decades-long efforts, there are now some 1,900 cranes in the town of Kushiro, on the island of Hokkaido. A global conservation group now designates them as “vulnerable” rather than “endangered.”

Named for the discs of red skin on their heads, the cranes symbolize loyalty and longevity and are a major tourist draw. But climate change is degrading their wetlands, and they rely mostly on humans for food. The next step is helping them survive independently in the wild. When scientists have decreased the cranes’ artificial feedings, the birds have invaded local farms to eat.

“They are beautiful birds,” said one farmer on Hokkaido, “but when I think about them in relation to my work, I don’t like them so much.”

8. The men’s round of 16 is set. The women’s gets decided tonight.

Eight games tonight will determine who moves on in the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball tournament. Twelfth-seeded Belmont faces an in-state power, Tennessee, at the latter’s home arena — a mecca for the sport. The No. 2 seed Connecticut, another top program, has star Paige Bueckers back; she’ll try to crack Central Florida’s top-ranked defense.

In the men’s bracket, St. Peter’s, a No. 15 seed, metaphorically sprouted from a crack in the Jersey City, N.J., asphalt to become this year’s Cinderella. They would be an even more unlikely team to make the round of 8, but with top teams and conferences showing weakness, the field is wide open. The men’s tournament resumes Thursday.

9. Get to know these 10 grapes.

Altesse makes floral white wines. Mandilaria, an often-dismissed Greek grape, is fascinating when used with a light touch. Pecorino, which largely disappeared in the mid-20th century, is sharp, energetic and herbal.

For many reasons, these varieties have either been unfairly shunned or are little known outside their home regions, writes Eric Asimov, the Times wine critic. But they make joyful wines.

Also in food, The Times has a new newsletter, Where to Eat: New York City, which features Nikita Richardson’s recommendations, from new places to beloved classics.

10. An annotated copy of the first Marvel comic book sold for $2.4 million via auction.

The book, Marvel Comics No. 1, dated 1939, was discovered stashed in an old filing cabinet. It’s the “pay copy,” in which the publisher recorded what he owed the illustrators. One comic books expert called it equivalent to a first-edition novel by Charles Dickens in which he documented his royalties.

The comic includes short stories about an undersea mutant, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch (not to be confused with the Fantastic Four character created in 1961). The unidentified buyer is a longtime comic collector in his 40s living outside the U.S.

Have a marvelous evening.

Eve Edelheit compiled photos for this briefing.

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