 The civilian death toll is increasing across Ukraine. While official numbers from around the country are not available, reports emerged Thursday of 53 people killed in attacks by Russian forces in the city of Chernihiv, and 21 killed during shelling of Merefa, near Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials estimate that 2,500 civilians have died so far in Mariupol, though some who were sheltering in a bombed-out theater in the city were emerging Thursday from the building's basement. More: - About 1,300 people were estimated to be sheltering in the Mariupol theater; the precise number of survivors is unknown.
- One of the individuals reportedly killed in Chernihiv was a 68-year-old American man who was there with his partner, who was being treated for multiple sclerosis.
- U.S. intelligence officials also estimate that Russia has suffered 7,000 military casualties since invading Ukraine more than three weeks ago. (This estimate is a little more than half of the 13,500 estimated by Ukraine and 14 times the 498 suggested by Russia.)
- More than three million refugees have fled Ukraine over the last several weeks, about two-thirds of whom have arrived in Poland.
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 Jeff Zients The Biden administration's COVID-19 czar, Jeff Zients, is stepping down in April. He will be replaced by Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a prominent online voice for pandemic analysis. The selection of Jha, a general physician and health scholar, indicates that the Biden administration is preparing its COVID-19 response to transition into a long-term effort addressing an endemic virus. More: - Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to President Biden, credited Zients with successfully rolling out vaccines to the U.S. in 2021, with research suggesting that the vaccination campaign prevented up to 279,000 COVID-19 deaths.
- However, his work was frequently criticized, as both the delta and omicron variants appeared to surprise the White House, and federal recommendations on masks and social gatherings were inconsistent.
- In announcing his new position, Jha tweeted that the U.S. is likely to see "more variants" and "more surges of infections."
- The rapidly spreading omicron subvariant BA.2 is now responsible for about 23% of U.S. infections.
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 WNBA star Brittney Griner will stay detained in a Russian jail until at least May 19, based on a Moscow court ruling reported by Russian state news agency Tass. Griner has been held in Russia since Feb. 17, after authorities allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. Russian investigators reportedly requested an extended detention period, which a Moscow court granted. More: - Griner is one of women's basketball's top stars, the winner of two Olympic gold medals and one WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury.
- She has typically spent the offseason playing basketball in Russia, where she earns $1M per season, more than four times what she makes per year in the WNBA.
- Griner left Russia after her UMMC Ekaterinburg team's final game before a two-week league break. She was arrested on her flight back to Russia.
- The State Department and Griner's family have been working behind-the-scenes to ensure her release, though little information has been released publicly.
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GOOD NEWS: The U.S. House and Senate successfully closed a loophole that allowed federal officers to claim that detainees in their custody could consent to sex. Passing as part of last week's bipartisan appropriations bill, the Closing the Law Enforcement Consent Loophole Act also requires that states receiving federal grants report complaints about sexual encounters between law enforcement and detainees annually to the Department of Justice. The law only applies to federal officers; the loophole is still in place in a number of states and local municipalities. More: - The move to close the loophole stems from the case of Anna Chambers, who claims she was assaulted by two NYPD officers while she was in their custody at the age of 18.
- Rape and kidnapping charges were dropped against the officers, after their defense attorneys suggested that Chambers had consented.
- In 2018, New York passed a bill saying that individuals in police custody cannot consent to sex with officers.
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The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage crossed 4% just over a year after reaching a record low of 2.65%, according to Freddie Mac. The lender's weekly average of 4.16% was recorded before the Federal Reserve's Wednesday announcement of a quarter percentage point interest rate increase, though that is likely to nudge mortgage rates higher. The average rate last crossed 4% in May 2019; it hit the low of 2.65% in January 2021. More: - According to Bankrate's national survey of large lenders, the average rate on 30-year mortgages reached 4.4% this week, the highest in three years, though they remain historically low.
- The Fed's Wednesday decision will also increase interest rates on credit cards and car loans.
- Mortgage lenders were already seeing a decline in new homebuyers as the average rate has increased over the last few months.
- Applications for mortgages fell 3.9% in February year-over-year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
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 Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in "No Time To Die" Amazon has closed its $8.5B acquisition of MGM, the tech giant announced Thursday. Amazon said there will not be layoffs at the movie and TV studio, and all employees would be welcomed under the banner of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, which spent $13B on original video and music content in 2021. European regulators approved the deal and a deadline for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to challenge it passed uneventfully. More: - Amazon now has ownership over the "Rocky" and "James Bond" franchises, as well as the 2021 films "Licorice Pizza" and "House of Gucci."
- The deal covers 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows, according to Amazon, many of which will be available to stream on Prime Video.
- The studio will reportedly seek to start new franchises based on classic MGM intellectual property, which also includes "The Pink Panther," "Stargate", "Silence of the Lambs," and "Robocop."
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- President Biden met virtually on Thursday with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, who tested positive for COVID-19 while visiting Washington, D.C. Martin is isolating at Blair House, across the street from the White House.
- Citigroup now covers travel expenses for employees who need to leave their state to get an abortion, after states like Texas passed restrictive reproductive health laws.
- Aimee Mann says she was dropped as the opening act on Steely Dan's upcoming tour, potentially, Mann suspects, because "they thought their audience wouldn't like a female singer-songwriter."
- Disney employees are planning a walkout next Tuesday across the U.S. in protest of the company's slowness to oppose a Florida bill that bans some public school instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Delta Air Lines said most of its 75,000 employees will receive a 4% pay raise, their first since before the pandemic.
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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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