Front Line Shifts in Russia’s and Ukraine’s Battle for Bakhmut, Analysts Say

Ukraine insisted Saturday that its forces were fending off Russian attacks in Bakhmut, even as Western analysts said that Moscow’s forces had captured most of the city’s east and established a new front line cutting through its center. Despite the Ukrainian military’s assertion, it was becoming increasingly clear that its grip on the city was tenuous and that Russian forces were making new gains. While the battle for Bakhmut has ground on, Russian attacks elsewhere in Ukraine have continued unabated. In the Kherson region, Ukrainian officials said that Russian shelling Saturday killed three people and wounded two others.

In World Cup Run-Up, Qatar Pressed U.N. Agency Not to Investigate Abuses

With a series of raids and arrests this winter, Belgian authorities unearthed what they said was a dirty deal at the heart of the European Parliament. Politicians are charged with pocketing money to praise the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar and downplay its labor rights abuses in the run-up to the World Cup. Well before any cash is known to have changed hands in that scheme, however, Qatar embarked on a yearslong campaign of political maneuvering that helped turn the International Labor Organization, the United Nations’ workers’ rights watchdog, from critic to ally, an examination by The New York Times found.

Chinese-Brokered Deal Upends Middle East Diplomacy and Challenges U.S.

There is a peace deal of sorts in the Middle East. Not between Israel and the Arabs, but between Saudi Arabia and Iran. And brokered not by the United States but by China. The Americans, who have been the central actors in the Middle East for the past three-quarters of a century, now find themselves on the sidelines during a moment of significant change. The Chinese, who for years played only a secondary role in the region, have suddenly transformed themselves into the new power player. And the Israelis, who have been courting the Saudis against their mutual adversaries in Iran, now wonder where it leaves them.

High-Tech Gamble That Turns Water Into Fuel

Pilbara, a flat parcel of the Australian Outback, is poised for an imminent transformation. A consortium of energy companies led by BP plans to cover an expanse of land with as many as 1,743 wind turbines, along with 10 million or so solar panels. But none of the 26 gigawatts of energy the site expects to produce will go toward public use. Instead, it will be used to manufacture a novel kind of industrial fuel: green hydrogen. Proponents hope green hydrogen will clean up not only mining but other industries by replacing fossil fuel use in steel making, shipping, cement and elsewhere.

Activist’s Flight Reveals Widening Repression in Algeria

When Amira Bouraoui, an Algerian-French pro-democracy activist, boarded a plane to France from Tunisia last month, she thought her ordeal had finally come to an end. She had already failed twice to flee Algeria, where her activism had put her in the government’s crosshairs. Her third attempt, by illegally entering neighboring Tunisia, resulted in her being arrested and threatened with deportation. Only a last-minute offer of consular protection from France saved her. Her case is part of what academics and human rights groups have described as an intensifying crackdown on civil society by an Algerian government sliding toward authoritarianism.

Oscar-Nominated Film Depicts Road to Justice in Argentina

For years, the bones of a man had been kept inside a box on a laboratory shelf with hundreds of other boxes containing unidentified human remains believed to belong to victims of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. More than 30 years since his discovery in a mass grave, he is on the verge of being identified. The identification of victims is part of a broader effort to deliver justice and accountability 40 years after the end of the dictatorship, a traumatic chapter that is in the spotlight again because of “Argentina, 1985,” a film that has earned an Oscar nomination for best international feature.

Biden Administration Expected to Move Ahead on a Major Oil Project in Alaska

In one of its most consequential climate decisions, the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska. Alaska lawmakers and oil executives have pressured the White House to approve the project, but the proposal has also galvanized climate activists, many of whom would view the decision as a betrayal. While the decision is not yet final and could be amended, it illustrates the tensions Biden faces as the urgency of climate change collides with the realities of the war in Ukraine and the instability it has created in global energy markets.

Inside Ron DeSantis’ Politicized Removal of an Elected Prosecutor

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis travels the country promoting a new book and his expected presidential campaign, he repeatedly points to his ouster of local prosecutor as an example of the muscular and decisive way he has transformed Florida — and could transform the nation. He casts Andrew Warren as a rogue ideologue whose refusal to enforce the law demanded action. But a close examination of the episode reveals a sharply different picture: a governor’s office that seemed driven by a preconceived political narrative, bent on a predetermined outcome, content with a flimsy investigation and focused on maximizing media attention for DeSantis.

Highest Heating Costs in Years Strain Many in New England

Across New England, where more households rely on oil for heat than anywhere else in the nation and cold weather can persist well into April, families with fixed or limited incomes have been hit with exceptionally high heating bills this winter. In Maine, program administrators say they expect to approve 15% to 20% more applications for heating assistance in the 2022-23 season than the previous year, while in New Hampshire, applications filed from last fall through mid-February were up 35% over last year, according to the state’s Department of Energy.

Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Sets Off Blame Game in Tech Industry

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday set off panic across the technology industry. But crypto executives and investors — who have endured a year of nearly constant upheaval — seized on the moment to preach and scold. But the tone quickly shifted as a major crypto company revealed late Friday it had billions of dollars trapped in Silicon Valley Bank. The finger-pointing went in both directions. Some tech investors argued the crypto world’s procession of bad actors and overnight collapses had conditioned people to panic at the first sign of trouble, setting the stage for the crisis at Silicon Valley Bank.

New Jersey Governor Sets His Sights Beyond Term Limits and Trenton

It was a whirlwind few days for New Jersey’s term-limited governor, Philip Murphy. On a Tuesday in mid-February, he publicly chided Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, by name, calling his education policies “shameful.” The next day at noon, he proposed requiring all new cars sold after 2035 to be electric, following California’s lead. By early Thursday, Murphy, a Democrat, had made an unannounced stop in Ukraine en route to a security conference in Germany. Back home in New Jersey, the message was clear: The governor’s slow-windup romance with Washington was now a full-boil courtship.

Stripping Confederate Ties, the U.S. Navy Renames Two Vessels

The Naming Commission, a committee created by Congress in response to a 2020 public backlash against Confederate memorials, identified two ships to be rechristened in the Navy’s fleet. One, a warship named USS Chancellorsville, after the Confederate Civil War victory in Virginia, will be renamed the USS Robert Smalls, after a mariner who commandeered a Confederate ship to freedom from slavery. The other, a Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship called the USNS Maury, after Matthew Fontaine Maury, a U.S. Navy commander who joined the Confederate navy and who is known as “Pathfinder of the Seas,” will be rechristened the USNS Marie Tharp, after the ocean cartographer who helped document continental drift.

By wire sources