 The White House called Russia's incursion into eastern Ukraine "the beginning of an invasion" as President Biden unveiled sanctions against Russian financial institutions and individuals. He also announced the movement of troops and equipment already in Europe to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – former Soviet republics and current NATO allies – to bolster defensive positions. Biden emphasized, however, that the U.S. has no intention of openly fighting Russia. Russian lawmakers gave President Vladimir Putin authorization to use military force outside of the country hours after he had ordered ground troops into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine. More: - Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations and NATO applauded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's decision to stop authorization of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline connecting Germany and Russia.
- As of yet, Russia has only invaded the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, though a full-scale invasion of Ukraine through the country's northern border with Russia and through Belarus remains possible. In his Tuesday speech, Biden said there was still an opportunity to avert this "worst case scenario."
- According to Washington Post columnist James Hohmann, a full invasion of Ukraine would be the largest incursion of ground troops in the world since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the greatest such movement in Europe since the end of World War II.
- Russia could, however, face a significant insurgency should the Kremlin try to take the capital Kyiv or overthrow the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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 William Bryan, Gregory McMichael, and Travis McMichael The three white men who killed Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020, and were convicted of murder late last year, have been found guilty of hate crimes by a federal jury. The jury found that Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan were motivated by race when they confronted Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was jogging down the street. They were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping and the McMichaels were found guilty on counts of "brandishing or discharging a firearm during a violent crime." More: - The McMichaels and Bryan now face additional life sentences on top of the life sentences levied in their Georgia state trial. Only Bryan will be eligible for parole after 30 years.
- Defense attorneys argued that the men thought Arbery had committed a crime and that their actions were not motivated by race. Evidence presented by prosecutors, and accepted by the jury, showed the men held derogatory and hateful views of Black people.
- Before the trial, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected a plea deal from the defendants which would have resulted in 30-year sentences to run concurrently with their state sentences.
- After leaving the courtroom, Arbery's mother Wanda Cooper-Jones suggested that the symbolic conviction would give their family some sense of closure. "We as a family will never get victory because Ahmaud is gone forever," she said.
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 Soccer players on the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) have settled their equal pay lawsuit with the U.S. Soccer Federation for $24M. Not only will the group of women receive back pay, but men and women will now receive equal pay in all future matches. On NBC's "Today," soccer star Megan Rapinoe called this moment "an incredible turning point in women's sport," and argued that the settlement would help women athletes ensure equal pay in the future. More: - The lawsuit was filed by 28 USWNT members in March 2019, but the issue was first brought to national attention in 2016, when Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, and Becky Sauerbrunn filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
- The USWNT won the World Cup in Paris in 2019. But FIFA, soccer's governing body, only awarded $30M in total to the competing teams, with $4M going to the winner. By contrast, the men's teams were awarded $400M in total, with $38M going to the champion.
- As part of the settlement, the U.S. Soccer Federation will pay $22M to the women who filed the lawsuit and put $2M into an account to support player opportunities and charitable efforts after they retire.
- Now that U.S. Soccer has agreed to equal pay, the group is turning its attention to FIFA to level the playing field in its tournaments, Rapinoe said on "Today."
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 GOOD NEWS: High-frequency sound waves could be used to quickly turn stem cells into bone cells, growing new bone in some patients far more efficiently, Australian researchers found. Scientists at RMIT University in Melbourne believe that their microchip device – which directs 10 MHz sound waves at mesenchymal stem cells – could be easily and cheaply replicated at scale. Once stem cells are stimulated by the device, they can be injected into a patient where they quickly start growing new bone. The process would be most efficient in someone with osteoporosis or who has recently suffered a bone injury. Their study was published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Small.
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 Hong Kong's entire population of 7.5 million will be required to undergo coronavirus testing three times in March as the city deals with its worst COVID-19 surge since the start of the pandemic. Before omicron, Hong Kong had been largely successful in containing the coronavirus, never previously surpassing 130 daily cases in a 7-day average. The city is now averaging more than 5,000 cases per day, with mainland Chinese health workers and supplies being dispatched to help manage the outbreak. More: - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam postponed the city's elections, scheduled for March, to May 8 as the government works to deal with the high number of omicron cases.
- She has served as Hong Kong's chief executive since 2017 and has not yet announced if she will seek another term.
- Lam is also expected to soon announce a decision to shorten the duration between second and third doses of vaccines. According to Hong Kong's official data, 76.2% of the city's population has received at least two doses.
- Restrictions on flights from the U.S. and several other countries into Hong Kong, and a ban on dining at restaurants after 6 p.m., will be extended until April 20.
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 The Supreme Court will not hear former President Donald Trump's challenge to the Jan. 6 House committee's acquisition of some of his White House documents, officially ending his legal efforts to shield them. The court had already declined to intervene after Trump's lawyers filed an emergency request to keep the documents in the hands of the National Archives. The committee already has those documents, and the National Archives continues to process requests for other records from Trump's White House and the office of former Vice President Mike Pence. More: - The Supreme Court did not give a reason for denying Trump's request.
- A lower court determined in December that Trump could not challenge President Biden's decision not to invoke executive privilege over the previous administration's documents. The Supreme Court's denial means that ruling will stand.
- The committee investigating the riots of Jan. 6, 2021, have asked for and received visitor logs, phone records, and other notes from that day involving the Trump White House.
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- Billionaire Carl Icahn is urging McDonald's to pressure its pork suppliers to improve living conditions for pigs.
- The Supreme Court will hear a case brought by a Colorado web designer who says she should not have to design wedding websites for same-sex couples. Her actions are in violation of a Colorado anti-discrimination law.
- Meta launched its Reels video product on all global Facebook accounts on Tuesday, ramping up its ongoing battle with TikTok for user eyeballs.
- The fossils of a large Jurassic-era pterosaur, which had an estimated wingspan of 2.5 meters, have been discovered on the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland.
- Spotify's "Car Thing," the company's first hardware device, is now on sale for $90.
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 |  | Jonathan Harris is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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