On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Talks to summarize as Russia pushes west in Ukraine
Russian missiles hit a military base near the Polish border on Sunday. Plus, reporter Celina Tebor talks about Russian censorship laws, the Courier-Journal’s Veda Morgan talks to Black women two years after Breonna Taylor’s death, USA TODAY Sports’ Mackenzie Salmon gives some March Madness advice and it’s Pi Day.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Buenos dias. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Monday, the 14th of March 2022. Today Russia’s Ukraine invasion nears Poland. Plus, two years since Breonna Taylor’s killing, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines.
- Iran has claimed responsibility for a missile strike that hit near a US consulate complex in Northern Iraq. It said it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard this week.
- William Hurt has died. The actor who won an Oscar for a Kiss of the Spider Woman was 71.
- And Tom Brady is coming back. The quarterback is coming out of his short retirement and will return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next season.
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Russia has expanded its invasion in Ukraine. The country slammed a military training base in Western Ukraine with missiles yesterday, just a few miles from the Polish border. At least 35 people were killed. The base had been used as a major hub for cooperate between Ukraine and NATO countries supporting its defense. And the attack marks a major shift from Russia’s focus on the Eastern half of the country. Russia continues to struggle to take the capital of Kyiv, but is in many of its suburbs as of this morning. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky again called yesterday for NATO to establish a no fly zone over Ukraine.
Taylor Wilson translating for Volodymyr Zelensky:
“But the West remains steadfast against that out of fears of escalating the war to the nuclear level.”
A fourth round of talks is expected today between Ukrainian and Russian officials. They’ll plan to focus on the latest routes to safely move supplies around the country. The Southern city of Mariupol remains largely cut off, despite earlier talks of aid convoys. The United Nations has recorded at least 596 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, though it believes the true toll is much higher.
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As Russia grows increasingly isolated from the Western world as a result of sanctions, the Kremlin has in some ways embraced the isolation, pushing out non-Russian speech and press. And reporter Celina Tebor says citizens can face jail time for using words like “war” and “invasion” when talking about Ukraine.
Celina Tebor:
So Russia has been imposing censorship on its citizens and the free press for quite some time now. It has passed several laws limiting free speech and free press, saying that they will impose fees or fines, or threatening jail time for any journalists or even individuals who are publishing things or saying things that go against the Russian government’s narrative. But most recently, beginning on Friday, March 4th, Russia passed a new “fake news” law. And that law basically threatens up to 15 years of prison time for anyone, any individual, any journalist, who promotes or publishes information that doesn’t go along with the lines of what Russia is saying about their invasion in Ukraine. And that is actually part of the law. So Russia isn’t calling the invasion an invasion, they’re calling it a specialized military operation. And if a journalist, for example, or an individual calls it an invasion or a war, that’s technically breaking the law and that could land someone in prison for up to 15 years.
This law is just a way to prevent free speech from flowing, and social media is one of the easiest ways for information to get out throughout Russia. Basically this new law doesn’t only punish professionals or journalists, but it punishes any individuals, including those who are on social media, who are speaking about the invasion or the war in Ukraine. So in response, there were apps like TikTok who announced that they would not be publishing any new videos coming out of Russia or any livestreams saying that this new law left them basically no choice to do so in order to protect their users and their employees. And previously, before Russia passed this law, they also banned Meta, which is Facebook, and they banned Twitter as well. And so they’re banning some social media sites and then using laws to basically force other social media sites to stop publishing information from Russia. And so this is just one other way that they are using censorship to kind of control the narrative of what they’re doing in Ukraine.
Taylor Wilson:
For Celina’s full piece, check out today’s episode description.
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Two years after she was killed, Black women see themselves in Breonna Taylor. Veda Morgan is the Senior Director for Engagement at the Courier-Journal in Louisville, part of the USA TODAY Network. She has more on the anniversary of Breonna’s death than her.
Veda Morgan:
Yesterday marked two years since Louisville police shot and killed Breonna Taylor while serving a search warrant at her home. Her death sparked protests around the world, but it affected no one more than the black women who saw themselves reflected in her. USA TODAY recently asked black women in Breonna’s hometown what her death de ella has meant to them. Here’s some of what they had to say.
Interview #1:
To answer the question, how has Breonna Taylor’s death continued to affect me personally as a Black woman? I would say that it is something you feel in the air. It’s something I’m reminded of every day. It’s something that I am reminded of every time I pass a mural of Breonna’s face and see that it has been painted over. It’s a question of value. And the truth is I oftentimes do not feel valued as a black woman in my community. Black and brown people are some of the only people in America that can be innocent and be killed and we question whether or not they deserved to die. And the very fact that we, two years after Breonna’s death still have to have conversations about whether or not she as a Black woman deserved to die, I think she says everything about how we are valued in our community and in our society.
Interview #2
I have been impacted by the Breonna Taylor killing in a way that affected my heart, my way of thinking. It made me embrace women in my family, my friends, my neighbors, because I think we are still very vulnerable in this country. And I see that, although I’ve advocated for changes in the Louisville community, those changes have been slow to come. But what that has also done is made me committed to continue to advocate for women, for children and for safe neighborhoods, because I believe that we should all be safe inside and outside our home. No one has the right to take that away from us for any reason. And accountability is now what I advocate for in the city of Louisville.
Veda Morgan:
Messages from 17 black women in Louisville can be heard now on the USA TODAY app. Visit the augmented reality section to listen to their stories in their own voices.
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The fields are set for the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments, which tip off this week. In the women’s bracket, South Carolina, Stanford, Louisville, and NC State claimed the top regional seeds. And in the men’s tournament it’ll be Gonzaga, Baylor, Arizona, and Kansas. The men’s tournament tips first with play-in games beginning Tuesday. So to get you ready for March Madness, USA TODAY Sports Mackenzie Salmon has some tips for filling out that bracket.
Mackenzie Salmon:
Don’t pick the defending champ to win it all. Yep, Baylor is the top seed and look primed for a repeat. However, in the last 30 years, only one defending champ has repeated, and that was Florida in ’07. And since Florida, not a single defending champ has even gotten past the Sweet 16. Good luck to you Baylor.
Do pick 11s over 6s. While everyone obsesses over the 12-5 matchup, an even safer upset pick is 11 over 6s. In fact, in the last 11 years, the 11 seeds have a winning record over the 6 seeds. Just last year, two 11s beat 6s, where only one 12 beat a 5. Don’t go all chalk. On average, one to two 1 seeds make the Final Four. But don’t get too carried away. Only twice have we seen zero 1 seeds make the Final Four, and in 11 of the past 14 seasons, a 1 seed has won it all.
So in short, pick two 1 seeds you trust the most to make it to New Orleans. Pick one to win it all. Do consider first four teams to do well. Since the start of the First Four in 2011, two First Four teams have gone all the way to the Final Four in VCU in 2011 and UCLA last year. In fact, 2019 is the only year that a First Four winner failed to win a game in the round of 64. What does that mean? That the momentum and winning in the First Four matters. So pick at least one team playing early to cause some noise.
Taylor Wilson:
For more coverage of both tournaments and a breakdown of yesterday’s Selection Sunday, stick with USA TODAY Sports. And be sure to play our USA TODAY bracket challenge. You can find a link in today’s episode description.
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Happy Pi Day. Today’s the annual celebration of the mathematical constant called pi, the ratio of a circle circumference to its diameter and the ratio is rounded to today’s date 3.14. But it can technically go on forever and according to Guinness World Records, the most accurate value is more than 62 trillion digits. That was calculated last August by the University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. The concept of pi has been around for about 4,000 years when it was used by ancient Babylonians. And Pi Day goes back to 1988 and physicist Larry Shaw. He brought the idea to the San Francisco Exploratorium. Albert Einstein was born on Pi Day and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking died on the day back in 2018. And of course like many made up American holidays, there are plenty of deals on food and more all over the country today. Check out our money section for a full list.
And you can find 5 Things on whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show. And I’m back tomorrow with more than 5 Things from USA TODAY.
www.usatoday.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism