 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he has withdrawn some troops from the Ukrainian border, though NATO allies say they have not yet seen evidence of a pullback. The move is seen as a signal that Russia may be attempting to deescalate tensions at the border, though military analysts warned that it's too soon to draw conclusions and that the withdrawal, if it is happening, is taking place in regions where it would be easy to redeploy troops. Putin again said that he wants to continue negotiations but is remaining firm on his demands that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO and that the defensive alliance remove some of its presence in Eastern Europe. More: - In an afternoon address, President Biden said the U.S. was committed to "high-level diplomacy," but that it was prepared for other contingencies. He said that a Russian invasion remains "distinctly possible," and warned that about 150,000 Russian troops still surround Ukraine.
- Biden said the U.S. had not yet verified that any Russian military units had returned to their bases.
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and other experts cautioned that Russia has previously moved forces while leaving heavy weapons in place for a potential redeployment.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, at a joint press conference with Putin, said Tuesday that diplomacy had not been exhausted and that Ukraine would not be joining NATO at any time in the near future.
- However, Putin said that verbal assurances that Ukraine will not join the body aren't sufficient and that Russia wants the matter permanently resolved in the short term.
- Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers passed an appeal to Putin to recognize Russian-backed separatist territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states. Putin has baselessly accused Ukraine of carrying out a genocide against ethnic Russians in these regions.
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 The families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre have settled with Remington, the company that made the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting, for $73M. Though a 2005 federal law prevents families from suing gun manufacturers for wrongful death, the legal team targeted an exception to this law: holding Remington partly accountable for the deaths due to its marketing strategy. The settlement marks the first time a U.S. gunmaker has accepted any liability for a mass shooting. More: - The Dec. 14, 2012 mass shooting took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 26 people were killed, including 20 children.
- The plaintiffs' lawyers argued that Remington promoted the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle as a militaristic combat weapon, in violation of Connecticut law.
- Remington has filed for bankruptcy twice in the last several years.
- Despite the settlement, the families plan to make public thousands of internal Remington documents that they believe prove Remington was intentionally negligent in its marketing efforts.
- The families first sued Remington in 2014, and a Supreme Court rejection of an appeal by the company in 2019 allowed the case to move forward.
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 Virginia Giuffre has reached a settlement in her sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew, according to new court documents. In a letter sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan, the parties state that they will seek to have the case dismissed within 30 days, and that Prince Andrew will make a significant donation to Giuffre's charity in support of sexual abuse victims. The settlement amount was not disclosed. Read the full letter to Judge Kaplan here. More: - The statement says that Andrew "regrets his association with" financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
- Giuffre alleged that she was trafficked by Epstein in 2001, when she was 17, and that Andrew sexually assaulted her.
- While Andrew admitted no wrongdoing in the statement, he "[accepted] that [Giuffre] has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks."
- Judge Kaplan previously refused to dismiss the lawsuit and Andrew was scheduled to give a statement under oath on March 10.
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 GOOD NEWS: A six-foot long boat launched by New Hampshire middle school students in October 2020 has been discovered in Norway. The Rye Riptides, covered in student artwork, was found 462 days after it launched by a sixth grader near Dyrnes, a village on the Norwegian island of Smøla. The boat lost its hull and keel, but its deck and its cargo hold — which contained photos, coins, leaves, and acorns — survived, albeit covered in goose barnacles. More: - Karel Nuncic, the sixth-grader who found the boat, shared the cargo with his classmates, and they are planning a call soon with the students at Rye Junior High in Rye, New Hampshire.
- The teacher who helped the students launch the boat has since retired, but some of the students continued to track it, though its GPS went quiet for long stretches over the last 16 months.
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 The Senate Banking Committee's Republican members boycotted Tuesday's vote on President Biden's Federal Reserve nominees. Specifically, the members have accused Sarah Bloom Raskin, nominated to be the Fed's Vice Chair of Supervision, of ethics violations after she left the Obama administration, in which she was Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Raskin has rejected those allegations. The boycott threatens to halt Biden's ability to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board. More: - During her confirmation hearing, Raskin was asked about using personal contacts to allow the payments firm Reserve Trust to gain access to the Fed master account. She denied any wrongdoing and the Kansas City Fed said that Reserve Trust made appropriate changes to get access to an account.
- Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been nominated to a second term at his post, and he has broad bipartisan support, though his confirmation process will also be postponed if the vote can't take place as scheduled.
- Ranking member of the committee Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said he wants "straightforward and honest answers" from Raskin before voting on her nomination. Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said Toomey's actions "put our economic recovery at risk."
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also said he wanted Biden to find a "more mainstream, more bipartisan candidate" than Raskin to serve in the post.
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 Wordle players may have noticed a discrepancy Tuesday as some individuals were getting different answers than others. This comes as a result of the game moving from its original hosting platform at Powerlanguage.co.uk to The New York Times' website. Players who had already switched over to the NYT version of the game were getting different answers than those who had not refreshed their browser at powerlanguage.co.uk. Since purchasing Wordle at the end of January, the NYT has removed some words as potential guesses and altered future answers of the game. More: - Many Wordle players expressed frustration on social media, concerned about losing their consecutive day streaks.
- Having the same answer for all Wordle players is critical to the games' success, as users can easily share their results with other players.
- The NYT has removed the ability to guess certain five-letter words within the game, including vulgarities, sexual words, as well as "slave," "lynch," and "wench."
- The Times says users playing on a cached version of the old website can refresh their browsers to receive the same answer as most players.
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- More than 101 million people watched Super Bowl LVI on television and another 11.2 million streamed the game. That's an increase over last year's Super Bowl, which was viewed by 92 million people on television.
- Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly is resigning after weeks of criticism over his handling of the protests that have snarled much of the city over the past three weeks.
- The 94th Academy Awards, which will air on Sunday, March 27, on ABC, will be hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes.
- Pregnant women who get vaccinated against coronavirus pass on some immune protection to their newborn babies, according to CDC data.
- In a story reminiscent of a Samuel L. Jackson film, an AirAsia plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing after a snake was found stuck in the aircraft's overhead lights.
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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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