Ukraine thwarts Russian advances; fight rages for Mariupol

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces battled continuing Russian efforts to occupy Mariupol and claimed to have retaken a strategic suburb of Kyiv on Tuesday, mounting a defense so dogged that it is stoking fears Russia’s Vladimir Putin will escalate the war to new heights.

“Putin’s back is against the wall,” said U.S. President Joe Biden, who is heading to Europe this week to meet with allies. “And the more his back is against the wall, the greater the severity of the tactics he may employ.”

Biden reiterated accusations that Putin is considering resorting to using chemical or biological weapons, though Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. has seen no evidence to suggest that such an escalation is imminent.

The warnings came as attacks continued in and around Kyiv and Mariupol, and people escaped the battered and besieged port city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of not only blocking a humanitarian convoy trying to take desperately needed aid to Mariupol but seizing what another Ukrainian official said were 15 of the bus drivers and rescue workers on the aid mission, along with their vehicles.

Zelenskyy said the Russians had agreed to the route ahead of time.

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US, Ukraine quietly try to pierce Putin’s propaganda bubble

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Ukraine have knocked back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to falsely frame the narrative of his brutal war, but they are struggling to get a more accurate view of theKremlin’s invasion in front of the Russian people.

While the Russian military suffers thousands of deaths and fails to capture key cities, Putin is intensifying his two-decade crackdown on information. The Kremlin has shut down Russia’s last three independent media outlets, barred major social media platforms, created new laws against journalists who defy its propaganda and insisted on calling the war a “special military operation.”

The result is a Russian public with little to no access to any alternative to Putin’s own anti-Ukraine, anti-Western narrative. It’s a heat shield for Putin against any backlash to the war and Western sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy.

Breaking through Putin’s propaganda bubble is a key strategic goal for Ukraine and its Western allies. They have tried a series of actions, overt and subtle, to reach ordinary Russians, from encouraging the use of software that circumvents internet blocks to having government briefings for TikTok influencers. The hope is independent voices still operating in Russia, those from the West, and direct pleas from Ukrainians can convince the masses that they’re being lied to about the war next door.

The question is no longer “what we do to stop disinformation,” former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said, it’s how to promote information inside Russia. “Very hard question,” he added.

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Jackson pushes back at GOP critics, defends judicial record

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully defended her record as a judge Tuesday, pushing back against Republican assertions that she was soft on crime and declaring she would rule as an “independent jurist” if confirmed as the first Black woman on the high court.

In a marathon day and evening of questioning that lasted more than 13 hours, Republicans aggressively pressed Jackson on the sentences she has handed down to sex offenders in her nine years as a federal judge, her advocacy on behalf of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, her thoughts on critical race theory and even her religious views. At one point, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas read from children’s books that he said are taught at her teenage daughter’s school.

Several GOP senators grilled her on her child pornography sentences, arguing they were lighter than federal guidelines recommend. She said she based the sentences on many factors, not just the guidelines, and said some of the cases had given her nightmares.

Could her rulings have endangered children? “As a mother and a judge,” she said, “nothing could be further from the truth.”

In what Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., described as “a trial by ordeal,” Jackson attempted to answer GOP concerns and also highlight the empathetic style on the bench that she has frequently described. The committee’s Republicans, several of whom have their eyes on the presidency, tried to brand her — and Democrats in general — as soft on crime, an emerging theme in GOP midterm election campaigns.

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AP FACT CHECK: Republicans skew Jackson’s record on crime

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators characterized Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s judicial views as extremist and soft on crime, using her confirmation hearings to air a line of conservative grievances that relied at times on distortions of her record.

Over the first two days of hearings, Jackson was the subject of misleading rhetoric on critical race theory, her pandemic-era rulings and the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees she represented as a public defender.

And Democrats and Republicans tangled over whether she had ever called President George W. Bush and his defense secretary war criminals. Both sides left out important detail in those exchanges.

A look at how some claims compare with the reality:

GUANTANAMO

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Scientists worry virus variant may push up COVID cases in US

With coronavirus cases rising in parts of Europe and Asia, scientists worry that an extra-contagious version of the omicron variant may soon push cases up in the United States too.

Experts are also keeping their eyes on another mutant: a rare delta-omicron hybrid that they say doesn’t pose much of a threat right now but shows how wily the coronavirus can be.

The U.S. will likely see an uptick in cases caused by the omicron descendant BA.2 starting in the next few weeks, according to Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute.

“It’s inevitable we will see a BA.2 wave here,” he said.

One reason? After about two months of falling COVID-19 cases, pandemic restrictions have been lifted across the U.S. Many people are taking off their masks and returning to indoor spaces like restaurants and theaters.

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Tornado strikes New Orleans as storms move into Deep South

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, ripping down power lines and scattering debris in a part of the city that had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.

Other tornadoes spawned by the same storm system hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma, killing one person and causing multiple injuries and widespread damage.

A video taken by a local television station showed a large black funnel visible in the darkened sky looming among the buildings in the eastern part of New Orleans.

The tornado appeared to start in a New Orleans suburb and then move east across the Mississippi River into the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Bernard Parish — both of which were badly damaged by Katrina — before moving northeast.

Reggie Ford was nearby when the tornado struck. He drove from the area, only to return once it passed, to offer help to anyone who needed it. So far, he says, the streets are eerily quite, only filled with fresh devastation from the twister.

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AP PHOTOS: Day 27: Ukraine war forces more unwanted goodbyes

Tears fell, hands waved and voices uttered unwanted goodbyes yet again Tuesday as the ceaseless Russian war on Ukraine forced more refugees to flee their homes.

Images captured by photographers for The Associated Press on Day 27 of the conflict reflect the pain and heartbreak of both those leaving and those left behind.

In the southern city of Odesa, a woman and her young child, both struggling not to break down, look out the window of a departing train as the woman’s grandmother, a tissue pressed up against her face, bids them goodbye from the platform. In the western city of Lviv, a bearded man places his hand up to the outside of a train window, while a young child sobs from the other side moments before they are to part from one other.

A woman who has fled Ukraine sits amid throngs of other refugees after arriving at a train station in Poland, her head in her hand and her eyes staring resignedly into space.

For many of the displaced, their first stop inside Ukraine is Lviv, a western city with a rich cultural heritage that so far has remained far from the fighting. Residents of the city have extended a warm welcome to the migrants and encouraged them to become more acquainted with their new home. On Tuesday, the Lviv National Philharmonic presented a live perfomance by a chorus in the city’s downtown. In one of the city’s bars hangs a well-used punching bag bearing the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Disney in balancing act as some workers walk out in protest

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Even though only a small percentage of Walt Disney Co. workers participated in a walkout Tuesday, organizers felt they had won a moral victory with the company issuing a statement denouncing the anti-LGBTQ legislation that sparked employee outrage.

Throughout the day, pockets of employees staged demonstrations at various sites across the country, including near Orlando’s Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Animation Studios in California. According to a Disney official, there had been no interruptions in any operations.

Disney employed 190,000 workers last October, with roughly three-quarters working in its theme parks division.

The debate forced the company into a balancing act between the expectations of a diverse workforce and demands from an increasingly polarized, politicized marketplace.

On one side are LGBTQ advocates and Disney employees calling for the walkout in protest of CEO Bob Chapek’s slow response in publicly criticizing Florida legislation that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Thelegislation awaiting the governor’s signature bars instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

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Ash Barty retires from tennis at age 25; won 3 Grand Slams

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — World No. 1-ranked Ash Barty has announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 25.

Barty said in an emotional video posted Wednesday on social media: “I’m so happy and I’m so ready. I just know at the moment in my heart for me as a person this is right.”

The announcement comes less than two months after she won her home Australian Open, her third Grand Slam singles title.

“It’s the first time I’ve actually said it out loud and, yeah, it’s hard to say,” Barty told her former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua in the video interview. “But I’m so happy, and I’m so ready.

“I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level any more. I am spent.”

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Oscar Preview: Five big questions ahead of Sunday’s awards

NEW YORK (AP) — The Academy Awards have always loved a comeback story. This year, the Oscars are attempting to star in one, too.

On Sunday, the Academy Awards will try to bounce back from a 2021 ceremony that was plagued by pandemic restrictions, a botched ending and record-low ratings. The 94th Academy Awards will return to their usual home, Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, and be broadcast live on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. EDT. (It’s also possible to stream it live on services like Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV and on ABC.com with provider authentication.)

How much of the Oscars’ downturn should be chalked up to COVID-19? How much is it the new normal? These are just some of the questions that hang overan Academy Awards that feels like a crossroads for one of America’s most enduring pop-culture institutions, and still the most-watched annual show outside the Super Bowl.

Can the Will Packer-produced awards shrug off the pandemic, reverse years of declining ratings for network TV award shows and coalesce a big-tent event for a fast evolving movie landscape? In the interminable run-up to the springtime Oscars, many in the industry have been skeptical. Which leads us to the first of five questions heading into the show.

WILL THE OSCARS’ LATEST MAKEOVER WORK?