Friday,  April 1st, 2022 

Russia, Ukraine agree to Mariupol cease-fire Russian and Ukrainian officials on Thursday announced a temporary cease-fire in the battered southern port city of Mariupol to let civilians out and humanitarian aid in. About 100,000 residents are believed trapped in the besieged city, which was home to 450,000 before Russia invaded Ukraine. Both sides have accused the other of violating local cease-fires intended to let civilians leave through humanitarian corridors. The International Committee of the Red Cross is hoping that the temporary cease-fire will let the convoy of 45 buses reach trapped civilians. “Time is running out to help these people,” said ICRC spokesperson Alyona Synenko. THE GUARDIAN 

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says that Ukraine has sent buses to Mariupol in an effort to evacuate citizens from the city. (BBC News) 

Biden orders oil release  President Biden on Thursday ordered the release of one million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve over 180 days to help bring down crude oil prices driven up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Oil prices fell slightly in anticipation of the announcement. The release — the largest since the emergency stockpile was established in the 1970s — will help offset the loss of about three million barrels per day of Russian oil. “It is still a Band-Aid on a significant shortfall of supply,” said Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, a major Texas oil company. THE NEW YORK TIMES 

Putin tells foreign buyers to pay for Russian gas in rubles  Russian President Vladimir Putin told foreign buyers of Russian natural gas to pay in rubles starting Friday or face supply cuts. Putin said buyers would have to open ruble accounts in Russian banks and use them to pay for their gas. “Nobody sells us anything for free, and we are not going to do charity either,” he said. The decree renewed a demand European countries, who get a third of their gas from Russia, have already rejected. Germany, which has already activated an emergency plan that could include rationing, called Moscow’s move “blackmail.” Energy exports offer Putin his most powerful tool for countering sanctions Western nations have imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  REUTERS 

Russian media censorship agency Roskomnadzor threatens to fine Wikipedia up to 4 million rubles (about US$49,000) if it does not delete information that goes against the Kremlin’s official narrative on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Forbes) 

The city of Bucha, located in the Kyiv Oblast, is recaptured from Russian troops. (Ukrinform) 

Russian sources claim the Ukrainian Air Force hit the city of Belgorod with airstrikes for the second time, hitting several fuel facilities. (AP News) 

Ceasefire talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations resume via video link. (Times of Israel) 

Eight people are killed and 20 more injured during a coal mine collapse in Aleksinac, Serbia. (Al Jazeera) 

Four pilots are killed after a pair of KAI KT-1 Woongbis belonging to the South Korean Air Force crash into each other over a mountain northeast of Sacheon, South Korea. (Deutsche Welle) 

The U.S. CDC announces that the Biden administration have ended Title 42, a series of COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Trump administration to prevent migrants from entering the United States. The measure will take effect on May 23. (CNBC) 

Following a meeting with Indigenous delegates Pope Francis apologizes for the “deplorable conduct” by members of the Catholic Church for actions in the church-run residential school system. (CBC News) 

Inflation gauge jumps to 40-year high The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, rose 6.4 percent in February compared to a year earlier. It was the biggest increase in 40 years. The change reflected sharply higher prices for necessities, including food and gasoline. So-called core inflation, which leaves out volatile food and energy costs, increased by 5.4 percent. The data didn’t cover the full impact of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, which sent oil and gasoline prices soaring. Consumers increased their spending 0.2 percent in February, down from a 2.7 percent increase in January. Adjusted for inflation, consumer spending fell 0.4 percent in February. CNBC 

Russians return Chernobyl to Ukrainians Russian troops left the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant and returned control to Ukrainians on Friday. The move came after Russian soldiers got “significant” radiation doses while digging trenches around the restricted site, Ukraine state power company Energoatom said. Energoatom, which operates the site, did not provide details on how many Russians were exposed to contamination near the plant, which has been closed since suffering the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986. Russian forces seized the site early in their invasion of Ukraine, which started Feb. 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is withdrawing from the north and center of the country to regroup and prepare for new powerful attacks in the southeast. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Kushner interviewed by Jan. 6 committee Jared Kushner appeared virtually on Thursday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Kushner is former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the first known close Trump relative to speak with the panel. Kushner served as one of Trump’s senior White House advisers. During an interview with MSNBC, committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said the interview was “really valuable” to the committee. Luria said Kushner was asked about published reports regarding the days leading up to the Capitol attack. Kushner, who was traveling on Jan. 6, “was able to voluntarily provide information to us to verify, substantiate, provide his own take on this different reporting,” Luria said. MSNBC 

Turkish prosecutor calls for moving Khashoggi trial to Saudi Arabia A Turkish prosecutor on Thursday called for moving the Istanbul trial of the Saudi suspects in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Khashoggi, a frequent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, appeared to have been killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on orders from the “highest levels” of the Saudi government. A U.S. intelligence report released a year ago also said the crown prince approved the operation, which the Saudi government denies. The case increased tensions between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which sharply cut its imports of Turkish goods. REUTERS 

U.S. to let citizens pick ‘X’ gender marker on passports The United States will officially allow citizens to select “X” as a gender marker on their passports beginning next month, Jessica Stern, U.S. diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights, announced on Thursday. Stern called addition of the third, gender-neutral marker a “momentous step” that would recognize “that there is a wider spectrum of humanity than is represented by a binary sex designation on passports.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in June 2021 the U.S. would add a “gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming persons.” He said Thursday the X gender marker being made available to U.S. citizens is a “historic moment” and a “meaningful step towards LGBTQI+ inclusivity.” NBC NEWS 

A Palestinian man throws a Molotov cocktail at Israeli security forces in Hebron, who shoot him dead. (Jerusalem Post) 

Fox News hires Caitlyn Jenner as contributor Fox News Media announced Thursday it had hired former Olympic decathlon champion and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner as a contributor. “Caitlyn’s story is an inspiration to us all,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said. “She is a trailblazer in the LGBTQ+ community.” Jenner came out as transgender and started publicly identifying as a woman in 2015. She ran for California governor last year in a failed attempt to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). She has appeared on Fox News numerous times, and said she was “humbled by this unique opportunity to speak directly to FOX News Media’s millions of viewers.” FOX NEWS 

U.S. hits Russian tech companies with sanctions The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on tech companies and individuals suspected of helping Russia and its military evade economic penalties over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The new sanctions target nearly three dozen people and companies, including supercomputer company T-Platforms, leading Russian microchip maker Mikron, and Serniya Engineering, which the Treasury Department says helped get international technology and goods for Russian military and intelligence services. Treasury said the list included shell companies set up to evade earlier sanctions. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. would “continue to target Putin’s war machine with sanctions from every angle until this senseless war of choice is over.” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

‘Morbius’ predictably slammed with absolutely terrible reviews Leave it to Sony to squander any goodwill gained through Spider-Man: No Way Home within four months. The reviews are in for Morbius, the new Spider-Man spinoff movie from Sony starring Jared Leto, and as you might have expected, they’re absolutely awful. USA Today‘s Brian Truitt declared it the “worst superhero movie since” the infamous disaster Fantastic Four (2015), while Rolling Stone said it’s possibly the “single most anemic Marvel movie ever made,” Mashable called it a “toothless and tedious chore,” and The Playlist said it’s so bad it’s “just kind of depressing.” The film currently holds an unbelievably low 16 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For comparison, 2016’s Suicide Squad has 26 percent. Morbius is one of Sony’s Spider-Man spinoffs like Venom, but it’s not a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — even though the marketing appears entirely built around tricking people into thinking it is. How does Marvel boss Kevin Feige feel about the idea of people walking out of Morbius thinking it’s the latest MCU entry? Probably not great!  ROTTEN TOMATOES 

Bruce Willis’ health raised concerns on set for years, report says Directors who worked with Bruce Willis were concerned about his health for years before he stepped away from acting due to aphasia, an upsetting new report from the Los Angeles Times says. Willis reportedly “has been exhibiting signs of decline in recent years,” and those who worked with him on some of his recent films were unsure if he “was fully aware of his surroundings on set.” Apparently, Willis’ film shoots had to be limited to two days, his dialogue scenes needed to be trimmed, and he had to have his lines fed to him in an earpiece. “Someone would give him a line and he didn’t understand what it meant,” a crew member said. The actor would reportedly sometimes question where he was. “We are all Bruce Willis fans, and the arrangement felt wrong and ultimately a rather sad end to an incredible career, one that none of us felt comfortable with,” director Jesse V. Johnson said. Critic Matt Zoller Seitz suggested the reporting revealed the “financial exploitation of an actor with a debilitating health condition.”  LOS ANGELES TIMESTHE WEEK 

Ashley Tisdale made her husband buy 400 books to fill bookshelves before a video shoot Ashley Tisdale may not be as voracious a reader as her house would lead you to believe. Tisdale gave Architectural Digest a tour of her new home in Los Angeles, and at one point, she showed off some bookshelves. But she couldn’t help admitting they weren’t so full until pretty recently. “These bookshelves, I have to be honest, actually did not have books in it a couple of days ago,” she said. “I had my husband go to a bookstore, and I was like, ‘You need to get 400 books!’” Tisdale says he suggested they should simply be “collecting books over time,” but she wasn’t about to show bare shelves to the world. “I was like, ‘No, no no no, not when AD comes.’” After the moment went viral on Twitter, Tisdale sought to “clear this up,” writing, “There are some of my books from over the years in there but … any interior designer would have done the same.” Well hey, we appreciate the honesty, and shoutout to whichever bookstore made an absolute killing that day. INSIDERARCHITECTURAL DIGEST 

Michael Bay admits he ‘should have stopped’ making ‘Transformers’ movies Steven Spielberg almost saved all of us from a whole lot of pain. Director Michael Bay admitted to Unilad UK he “made too many” Transformers movies, despite advice from Spielberg, who produced the franchise. “Steven Spielberg said, ‘Just stop at three,” Bay said. “And I said I’d stop. The studio begged me to do a fourth, and then that made a billion too. And then I said I’m gonna stop here. And they begged me again.” Bay ended up making five Transformers movies, the most recent of which was 2017’s The Last Knight, and critics widely hated every installment after the first. The franchise is set to return with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in 2023, though Bay won’t be directing this time, having finally taken Spielberg’s advice years too late. “I should have stopped,” Bay said. “[But] they were fun to do.” Well, at least someone had fun. UNILADVARIETY 

Thursday, March 31st, 2022 

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Russian forces have handed over control of the former nuclear power plant back to Ukraine. Russian troops also withdraw from the city of Slavutych, returning to Belarus. (CNBC) 

Two people are killed and 14 more injured as the Israeli Defense Forces raid the city of Jenin in the West Bank in order to capture a suspect linked to Tuesday’s shooting in Bnei Brak. (Times of Israel) (Haaretz) 

The world expo in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which was delayed to October 1, 2021, closes after six months. (AP) 

U.S. President Joe Biden orders the release of up to one million barrels of crude oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months in an attempt to contain inflation. (The Guardian) 

Pakistan disbands ll the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), which was overseeing the COVID-19 response in the country, as the infection’s numbers were at the lowest since the start of the outbreak early in 2020. (Reuters) 

Georgia says plans by the breakaway state of South Ossetia, which is internationally recognized as occupied Georgian territory, to hold a referendum on becoming a part of Russia are “unacceptable”. (Reuters) 

Sri Lanka Police impose an indefinite curfew in the city of Colombo after protesters attempted to storm president Gotabaya Rajapaksa‘s private residence amid anger over worsening economic conditions and power outages in the country. (Al Jazeera) 

Scientists sequence the complete human genome for the first time, more than three decades after the Human Genome Project was first commenced. (CNN) 

The End Friday 

Thursday, March 31st, 2022 

Biden to order massive oil-reserve release President Biden is preparing to announce the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve for up to 180 days to help bring down high gasoline prices. The order could come as soon as Thursday when Biden addresses his plans to fight high pump prices, The Washington Post reported. Oil and gasoline prices have jumped since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, and the United States and its allies hit Moscow with harsh sanctions. Crude oil traded at nearly $105 per barrel on Wednesday, up from $60 a year ago, but fell 4 percent after the plan was reported. The average U.S. price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.24 on Wednesday, according to AAA, up from $3.60 last month and $2.90 last year. THE NEW YORK TIMES 

Germany launches emergency measures in case Russia cuts energy supplies Germany activated a national gas emergency plan on Wednesday to start preparing for possible shortages due to the possibility that Moscow could halt deliveries unless the country pays for Russian natural gas in rubles. Under the “early warning stage,” Germany is warning of possible rationing and setting up a crisis team with federal and state officials, as well as regulators and corporate executives, said Robert Habeck, the economy minister and vice chancellor. The emergency efforts highlight the risk European countries face due to their reliance on Russian oil and gas as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine escalates tensions between Moscow and the West. Group of 7 energy ministers on Monday rejected Russia’s demand for payment in rubles, although Moscow said a workaround would let Germany and other European countries continue paying in euros for now. THE NEW YORK TIMES 

China’s manufacturing, service sectors contract  China manufacturing data released Thursday suggested that lockdowns in areas affected by the country’s latest coronavirus outbreaks had put a dent in factory activity. China’s official purchasing managers index for the manufacturing sector fell to 49.5 in March from 50.2 in February, according to the National Statistics Bureau. The result was in line with the expectations of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The service sector took a similar hit as people avoided malls and restaurants. China’s jump in COVID-19 cases due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant has prompted restrictions in industrial districts, including Changchun in northeastern China and the southern technology hub of Shenzhen, as well as lockdowns in Shanghai, China’s most populous city. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

Energoatom confirms that the Russian forces who occupied the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl have left the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. (Ukrinform) 

NASA astronaut returns with Russians after longest spaceflight for an American Two Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after a historic mission to the International Space Station amid soaring tensions between Russia and the United States over Ukraine. Vande Hei spent 355 days in space, setting a record for the longest single spaceflight for an American. The Soyuz spacecraft touched down under a parachute in a remote area at 7:28 a.m. Eastern, and rescue crews rushed to the capsule, setting up a medical tent to quickly check the astronauts’ health. Rob Navias, a NASA public affairs official, said on a space-agency broadcast that it was “a perfect landing, a bull’s eye touchdown,” with “the crew feeling fine, everything going by the book.” THE WASHINGTON POST 

Russia dismisses talk of progress in Ukraine negotiations Russia on Wednesday downplayed reports of progress at this week’s peace talks with Ukraine as Russian forces intensified their offensive in eastern Ukraine. “No one said that the sides have made headway,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “We can’t point to anything particularly promising.” On Tuesday, Moscow negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss peace once a draft deal was ready. Russia promised to reduce operations around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, to “increase mutual trust,” but renewed shelling in those areas made Ukrainian and Western leaders skeptical. With Russia, Zelensky said, “you can trust only concrete results.” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

Biden tells Zelensky U.S. to give Ukraine another $500 million in aid President Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and told him during the call that the United States would give Ukraine an additional $500 million in “direct budgetary aid” as it battles Russia’s invasion. That would bring total U.S. aid to $2.5 billion, according to Fox News. The two leaders also discussed U.S. efforts to provide security assistance requested by Ukraine, and other ways to help Ukraine’s military, the White House said. Zelensky tweeted that he and Biden “shared assessment of the situation on the battlefield and at the negotiating table,” and “talked about specific defensive support, a new package of enhanced sanctions, macro-financial and humanitarian aid.” The White House also said it would take in up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. NBC NEWS 

Russia investigation origins counter-narrative  The Federal Election Commission fines the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for violating rules with the funding of the Steele dossier, a dossier which made accusations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Both the DNC and the Clinton campaign have agreed not to contest the fines and pay a civil penalty of US$105,000 and US$8,000 respectively. (Business Insider) 

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says that Ukraine has sent buses to Mariupol in an effort to evacuate citizens from the city. (BBC News) 

Australia revokes the most favoured nation status for Russia and Belarus, and will impose 35% tariffs on produce coming from these countries starting on 25 April. (The Guardian) 

A crowd of 91,553 attends the second leg of the quarterfinal between archrivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid at Camp Nou in Barcelona. This set a new record for documented attendance at a women’s sporting event, surpassing the 90,185 attendance at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. Barça won 5–2 on the day and 8–3 on aggregate. (ESPN) 

Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters announces that two firefighters are injured, and five firetrucks were damaged during the wildfire that broke out near the Wears Valley community. (WATE-TV) 

A chartered helicopter heading for Ulupna Island in Victoria, Australia, crashes into Mount Disappointment, killing all five people onboard. (ABC News Australia) 

Micronesian president David Panuelo urges Solomon Islands to not sign a security pact with China, citing “grave security concerns” and arguing that the Pacific islands would be “the epicenter of major confrontation between these major powers”. (Reuters) 

Rock throwing causes a bus to crash into a car in Halhul, West Bank. Two people are injured. (Times of Israel) 

The acting Australian Information Commissioner orders the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to comply with a request by The Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 which the PMO had previously rejected and search the mobile phone of Prime Minister Scott Morrison for correspondence with Morrison’s friend and QAnon conspiracy theorist Tim Stewart, who the Australian Broadcasting Corporation alleged influenced Morrison’s use of the term “ritual abuse” in a speech to survivors of child sexual abuse in 2019. (The Guardian) 

Aides afraid to tell Putin about Ukraine failures Declassified U.S. intelligence indicates that aides misinformed Russian President Vladimir Putin about setbacks in his invasion of Ukraine because they were afraid to tell him the truth, the White House said Wednesday. “One of the Achilles’ heel of autocracies is that you don’t have people in those systems who speak truth to power or who have the ability to speak truth to power,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “And I think that is something that we’re seeing in Russia.” Putin’s isolation due to the pandemic and his public scolding of advisers who disagree with him have contributed to the problem, leaving Putin without accurate information about his army’s failures and the use of conscripts on the front lines in Ukraine. CNN 

Governors in 2 more states sign transgender sports bans  Oklahoma and Arizona on Wednesday became the latest states to ban transgender women and girls from competing as females in state school athletics, from kindergarten to college. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, both Republicans, signed the bans into law. “When it comes to sports and athletics, girls should compete against girls. Boys should compete against boys. And let’s be very clear: That’s all this bill says,” Stitt said to justify the exclusion of trans girls. Arizona’s ban applied to trans girls at both public schools and private institutions that compete against them. Ducey also signed another bill banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. Critics say these bans harm transgender youth who already often struggle with being isolated and excluded at schools. ABC NEWS 

U.S. plans to end Title 42 border policy in May The Biden administration is preparing to lift an emergency public health order imposed early in the coronavirus pandemic to curb immigration over land borders, The New York Times and CBS News reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the plan. Federal officials are expected to announce the change as early as this week. It would take effect in May, making it possible again for asylum seekers to enter the United States without being promptly sent back in the name of fighting coronavirus infections. Federal authorities are bracing for the possibility that the lifting of the order, known as Title 42, will spark a new surge of migrants from Central America and other areas to the southwest border. CBS NEWS 

An Israeli civilian is stabbed with a screwdriver and seriously injured on a bus in Neve Daniel, West Bank. The attacker is killed by another passenger. (Haaretz) 

Meta reportedly paying consultants to turn public against TikTok Meta, the parent company to Facebook, is paying one of the “biggest Republican consulting firms” in the U.S. to try and “turn the public against” online video app TikTok, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The firm Targeted Victory has been working to “undermine” TikTok by implementing a national media and lobbying campaign that places “op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook,” according to the Post. The firm has also been pushing political reporters and local politicians to move against TikTok, Facebook’s biggest competitor. Operatives were “encouraged to use TikTok’s prominence as a way to deflect from Meta’s own privacy and antitrust concerns,” the Post reported. THE WASHINGTON POST 

The Israeli Defense Forces raid the city of Jenin in the West Bank, killing two people and wounding 14 more. The purpose of the raid is to capture a suspect linked to the Bnei Brak shooting two days prior. (Haaretz) 

Bruce Willis, diagnosed with aphasia, retires from acting Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with aphasia and will retire from acting, his family said in an Instagram post Wednesday. The family said his illness was “impacting his cognitive abilities.” According to Mayo Clinic, aphasia “robs you of the ability to communicate.” It can come on abruptly due to stroke or head injury, or slowly from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease. “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him,” said the statement from Willis’ daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, and Evelyn Willis, his wife Emma Heming Willis, and his ex-wife Demi Moore. PEOPLE 

‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ to premiere in August Winter is coming … this summer. HBO has finally revealed when the highly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon will debut: August 21. That’s less than two weeks before Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which premieres on Sept. 2 — meaning the competing fantasy shows will be debuting new episodes at the same time. Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is centered around House Targaryen, and it’s based on George R.R. Martin’s book about the history of the Targaryens, Fire & Blood. Martin is involved in the show, and earlier this month, he said that “what I have seen” from the series, “I have loved.” Any bets on how many more pages of The Winds of Winter he’ll have written between now and House of the Dragon‘s premiere? We’ll be optimistic and guess … 20.   VARIETY 

Ezra Miller allegedly threatened couple in their bedroom after bar incident Things just went from disturbing to even more disturbing in the world of Ezra Miller. The Flash actor this week was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment over an incident at a bar in Hawaii after allegedly “yelling obscenities” and grabbing a microphone from a woman singing karaoke and lunging at a man playing darts. Now, a couple has requested a restraining order against the actor, claiming that after being released on bail, the Fantastic Beasts star burst into their bedroom and said, “I will burn you and your slut wife.” Police reportedly escorted Miller, who allegedly also stole a passport and wallet, off the property. As if that wasn’t enough, The Associated Press reports Miller “has been the source of police calls in Hilo 10 times since March 7.” In case you were wondering, the song the woman was singing that apparently set off Miller was … “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. Maybe Miller just got really mad after remembering Bradley Cooper was snubbed at the Oscars that year, in which case, same.  ROLLING STONE 

Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes says Will Smith should have been kicked out Two out of three 2022 Oscars hosts have now shared their Slap takes. Amy Schumer said Wednesday she’s “still triggered and traumatized” over Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars over a joke about his wife. “The whole thing was so disturbing,” Schumer said, adding, “Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.” Co-host Wanda Sykes used similar language on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “I just felt so awful for my friend Chris,” Sykes said. “It was sickening. I physically felt ill, and I’m still a little traumatized by it.” Sykes went further by slamming the Academy for not immediately removing Smith. “For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, ‘How gross is this?’” Sykes said. “‘This is just the wrong message.’ You assault somebody, you get escorted out the building, and that’s it.” Sykes also revealed what she would have done in that scenario: got up on stage after Smith won Best Actor and joked, “Unfortunately, Will couldn’t be here tonight.”  PAGE SIX 

Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 

A U.S. official says that Russian forces have begun withdrawing from the Chernobyl area and have moved into Belarus. (France 24) 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says more than four million Ukrainians have fled the country since the invasion began on February 24. (France 24) 

U.S. President Joe Biden receives his second booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. (CBS News) 

The U.S. CDC removes their travel warnings for cruise ships, which were imposed during the beginning of the pandemic. However, passengers will still be required to be vaccinated and to test negative for COVID-19. (The Washington Post) 

According to a new study, the antiparasitic drug ivermectin does not prevent hospitalizations from COVID-19. (New England Journal of Medicine) 

Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia says that the Russian and Ukrainian delegations will resume their peace talks online on April 1 after the latest round of negotiations in Turkey has ended. (Reuters) 

The South Korean military says that last week, North Korea tested Hwasong-15 from November 2017, instead of a Hwasong-17. This comes a day after the defense ministry and lawmakers also confirmed this. (DW) 

The United States sanctions the Iranian ballistic missile program. (CNN) 

Tunisian President Kais Saied orders the Assembly of the Representatives of the People to be dissolved, after 116 of the 124 MPs who convened online voted earlier in the day to strip Saied of the “exceptional measures” he had taken on since last July. (Reuters) 

Russia announces that it will ban all usage of software from other countries in government agencies beginning in 2025. Additionally, beginning on March 31, all foreign software purchases for government agencies must be pre-approved by the government. (Reuters) 

It is reported that Russian government hackers have attacked and compromised the servers of Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs since late 2021. (Direkt36) 

The End