Tuesday morning news - March 1, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Zelensky: Russia guilty of war crimes in Ukraine » ZELENSKY: [SPEAKING IN UKRAINIAN]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow is guilty of war crimes after Russian attacks killed more than a hundred civilians, including at least 16 children.

Russian forces shelled Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood.

And a 17-mile convoy of invading tanks and other vehicles closed in around Kyiv. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters…

KIRBY: They continue to want to move on Kyiv, to capture Kyiv, to take Kyiv. And although we don’t know everything about this convoy, it is certainly in keeping with what we believe to be their intent with respect to the capital city.

Ukrainian diplomats met with Russian officials near the Belaursian border on Monday, but the talks went nowhere. Zelensky said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions.

For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war. Moscow announced that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert.

PUTIN: [SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN]

And Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, stepping up his rhetoric, referring to the U.S. and its allies as an “empire of lies.”

Western powers continue pushback against Russia » Meantime, Ukraine and the West continued to plead their case to the United Nations. Martin Griffiths is UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

GRIFFITHS: As we feared, as we all feared, civilians are already paying the price. The scale of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, even in these very early days, is alarming.

The UN General Assembly is slated to vote this week on a draft resolution that would strongly condemn Russia’s invasion. Such a resolution would have no teeth, but it would send a strong message.

Russia found itself increasingly isolated five days into its invasion.

As far-reaching Western sanctions take hold, the ruble is plummeting. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the sanctions threatened to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians.

Max Nefyodov is a city council member in Kyiv. He said sanctions are important for multiple reasons.

NEFYODOV: Sanctions are important in the near term. They are going to really harm the Russian military machine, but it’s also very important to show to average people that their life is not going to be the same, and they should actually rise to what is happening.

In another blow to Russia's economy, oil giant Shell said it is pulling out of the country because of the invasion and is pulling the plug on joint business ventures with Russian companies.

Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, in a major blow to a soccer-mad nation, Russian teams were suspended from all international soccer competitions.

Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union. It was a largely symbolic move for now, as that’s a process that could take years.

Pandemic fears are fading along with omicron: AP-NORC poll » The omicron wave is fading away, and so are Americans' worries about COVID-19. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: New infections are now around 50,000 per day, the lowest level since July. Hospitalizations and deaths are also down sharply. And a new poll suggests public concern about the virus is down to match.

An Associated Press-NORC study surveyed a diverse sample of about 1,300 people. It found that just 24 percent now say they’re “extremely” or “very” worried about themselves or a family member getting COVID-19.

Another 34 percent say they’re somewhat worried.

And about 41 percent say they’re not really worried about it.

Signs the nation is ready to move on from COVID-19 are everywhere. Statewide mask mandates have all but disappeared, and on Friday, the CDC said it's no longer recommending indoor masking for most Americans.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

UN secretary-general calls for urgent action on climate report » A panel of scientists convened by the United Nations just published a report on the impact of climate change on the planet, past, present, and future.

Its findings have prompted strong reaction from officials, some scientists and climate activists ahead of this year's U.N. climate conference, known as COP27.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report’s findings demand action from global leaders.

GUTERRES: Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone now. Many ecosystems are at the point of no return now. Unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world’s most vulnerable on a frog march to destruction now.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that man-caused global warming must be limited to just another couple tenths of a degree. It said if greater warming is allowed, disasters will worsen, with the effects being “potentially irreversible.”

IPCC scientists said if the temperature increases just over 3 more degrees Fahrenheit, mankind in the year 2,100 will experience five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves we do now.

But some critics of future climate modeling note that many past projections proved to be way off base.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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