Evening Briefing: Ukrainians fight to defend Kyiv

February 25, 2022

By Remy Tumin

Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Friday.

A residential building in southern Kyiv was hit by missiles early Friday.Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

1. Ukrainians battled for their capital on the second day of a Russian invasion.

Officials warned residents of Kyiv to "prepare Molotov cocktails" as Russian troops advanced on the capital. Ukrainian troops blew up a bridge to slow Russia's advance. Thousands of Ukrainians fled across the border to Poland as a mass exodus gathered pace. Here are the latest updates.

As missile strikes hit the capital, President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said he remained in Kyiv, called on Ukrainians to defend their city. "The president is here," he said in a video posted on social media.

"Only 72 hours ago, Kyiv was a modern European metropolis, with bustling cafes and clubs so popular that people from Berlin came," our reporter wrote from Kyiv. "Today, the streets are barren and everything is closed."

Russian forces were not advancing as quickly as U.S. intelligence had estimated they would, a Pentagon official said. NATO leaders agreed to deploy more troops to eastern members of the alliance.

Our photographers are capturing the invasion.

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The Ukrainian military on Friday in Kharkiv, Ukraine.Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

2. The U.S. and the E.U. announced they would freeze the personal assets of Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the Russian leader's invasion of Ukraine.

The rare step of imposing personal sanctions on a world leader is provocative, but they are largely symbolic as the status of Putin's financial holdings has been cloaked in mystery. His money is not believed to be held in the U.S.

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The decision was made after consultation with European leaders. Yet unlike Europe and Britain, which did not impose a travel ban on the officials, the Biden administration is expected to prevent Putin from traveling to the U.S., Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the White House on Friday.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times

3. President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She could make history as the first Black woman to serve as a justice.

"For too long our government, our courts haven't looked like America," Biden said. "I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation."

The confirmation battle is expected to be fierce. Democrats hope it will be won by early April. Few Republicans are likely to back her.

Jackson, 51, who was born in Washington and grew up in South Florida, is a liberal-leaning jurist who is a well-regarded federal appeals court judge. She also served as a public defender, a rarity among Supreme Court candidates.

Jackson's nomination is groundbreaking, but it's unlikely to reshape the Supreme Court's conservative trajectory in the short term.

A gas station in Brooklyn, New York.Amir Hamja for The New York Times

4. A key inflation gauge is still rising, and war could make it worse.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Fed's preferred inflation measurement, increased from a year earlier at the fastest pace since 1982. The January data was a fresh reminder that inflation remains stubbornly high as Russia's invasion of Ukraine sends oil and other commodity prices higher and promises to continue to boost inflation.

Sanctions on fuel exports could seriously hurt Russia. But both the U.S. and Europe remain hesitant to impose them because of the potential damage to their own economies.

Catching a train in Chicago. A statewide mask mandate in Illinois will end Monday.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

5. The C.D.C. is relaxing its guidance for indoor mask wearing and social distancing in an effort to help the U.S. move to "a new normal."

The new guidelines will no longer rely only on the number of cases in a community to determine the need for restrictions. Instead, they will direct counties to give more weight to hospitalizations as a key measure of risk. With hospitalizations declining across the nation, a great majority of Americans may soon be able to remove their masks.

C.D.C. scientists have done extensive modeling over the past few weeks to devise a formula to calculate whether the risk to a county's residents is low, medium or high.

In other virus news:

The White House will make masks and virus tests more accessible to people with disabilities to help those especially vulnerable to Covid.
More than 5 million children have lost a caregiver to the pandemic, a new study found.

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Donald Trump and Melania Trump on his last day in office.Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

6. The Jan. 6 committee is expanding its investigation into Donald Trump's destruction and removal of White House documents.

In a letter to the national archivist, the House committee demanded more information about classified material found at Trump's property in Florida and about reports that aides had discovered documents in a White House toilet during his time in office.

The letter also sought information about the findings of any federal inquiries into the classified material and any communications with Trump about the Presidential Records Act or White House policies on record-keeping.

Passengers in the bridge of the Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World Resort.Todd Anderson for The New York Times

7. Disney is taking visitors to a galaxy far, far away … in Orlando, Fla.

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is equal parts luxury hotel, interactive theater, theme park ride, food as entertainment, digital scavenger hunt and role-playing game. Guests "board" a 275-year-old space liner called the Halcyon and travel to a "Star Wars" planet and back. All "journeys" are two nights.

But it will cost you: Passage for a family of four runs roughly $6,000. A tricked-out suite can cost up to $20,000. The sum has prompted some "Star Wars" fans to accuse Disney of price gouging.

On the stretch of beaches along Mexico's Riviera Maya, there have been a number of gang-related incidents. But that hasn't stopped the vacationers.

Joel Kim Booster, Cole Escola, Jaboukie Young-White and Matt Rogers are part of a new wave of comics.From left: Mindy Tucker; Kevin Yatarola/Joe's Pub; © IFC Films/Courtesy of Everett Collection; Mindy Tucker (2); Kevin Yatarola/Joe's Pub

8. These comics are redefining American humor.

For years, gay male performers were left out of the comedy landscape or tokenized within it. Now, building on a long tradition of antic gay humor, a new wave of entertainers has adopted a for-us, by-us approach. "None of these performers occupy a niche, because they don't have to," Mark Harris writes in T Magazine. "Gay comedy isn't niche anymore."

For our critic Jason Zinoman, a sense of humor is integral to his Jewish identity. But dark times are raising existential questions about comedy. He took a closer look at antisemitism, Jewish culture and identity and the implications of what we find funny.

Dante's in Manhattan uses Branca Menta in its Grasshopper cocktail.Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times

9. It may sound silly, but don't be afraid to order a Grasshopper.

The green, creamy, minty cocktail of decades past is the latest trend to hitch itself to the nostalgia bandwagon, and it's spreading its wings in creative new variations. Some menus hew to the classic recipe that was made popular in the 1950s — cream, crème de cacao and crème de menthe — but most are giving the drink an updated spin.

"I will order a Grasshopper anywhere I see one," said Brian Bartels, who owns a tavern in Madison, Wis. "That's my Achilles' heel."

Mardi Gras is Tuesday. Whether you'll be in New Orleans or ending a long day of video meetings, here are 12 recipes (and a playlist) to celebrate Carnival season.

Ouch, fishy, fishy.Mark Conlin/Alamy

10. And finally, a fish with a suit of armor.

The Pacific spiny lumpsucker is the stuff of nightmares: Its scales are not scales at all but spiked studs made of enamel (like your teeth) that cover nearly its entire body. The fish can vary in size between something like a golf ball and a human head. Now, scientists have a better understanding of how these predators developed such armor and how they use it.

The diminutive fish is a terrible swimmer, but its armor shields it from predators and the tumultuous environment between the high- and low-tide lines. The lumpsucker's habit of staying put also allows the males to be stay-at-home dads — aggressively guarding eggs until they hatch. Male lumpsuckers also glow a bright red.

Have a robust weekend.

Eve Edelheit compiled photos for this briefing.

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