News
PBS NewsHour – March 24, 2022 (16:51)
PBS NewsHour, March 23, 2022 – 8:00 am (ET)
CNN, – March 23, 2022
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first full day of questioning featured explanations of her approach as a judge, discussions of abstract legal concepts that can be pivotal in controversial Supreme Court cases, and her defense of a sentencing record that Republicans have claimed wasn’t adequately harsh on certain crimes.
Democrats gave Jackson plenty of opportunity to push back on the GOP attacks, while letting her discuss the background that will make her a unique addition to the Supreme Court.
Republicans, who on Monday vowed to take a high-minded tone in the proceedings, nonetheless grilled Jackson on the issues that resonate with their culture war messaging ahead of this year’s midterms.
CNN, – March 23, 2022
The US government has formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday.
The official US declaration that Moscow’s troops had violated the laws of conflict comes after Blinken, President Joe Biden and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman all said it was their personal opinion that war crimes have taken place.
“Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement.
“Our assessment is based on a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources,” he said.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is likely to be confirmed as a justice on the US Supreme Court, but her confirmation hearing demonstrates how conservatives are winning the ideological war over the Constitution.
Jackson has preferred to call her approach to interpreting the Constitution a “methodology” rather than a “philosophy,” but the gist of the two terms is similar. Jackson’s description of her approach is consistent with how conservatives have sought to define the judicial role for a generation or two.
She has spoken of the “limited” role of the judiciary and her desire to “stay in (her) lane” as a judge rather than as a legislator. Jackson has said further that she begins her analysis of the Constitution and laws always with the “text.” She has gone out of her way not to embrace a belief in a “living Constitution,” an interpretative method based on the idea that the meaning of the Constitution must be seen in light of changing conditions in society at large.
To people unversed in the history of constitutional debates, these terms may seem uncontroversial, even generic. But they come with a lot of baggage. Conservatives have charged over the years that liberal judges have been “activists” who “legislate from the bench.” The proper role of the judge, according to many conservatives, is to defer to the democratically elected branches of government.
PBS NewsHour, (30:00)
PBS NewsHour – March 23, 2022 (30:00)
Associated Press, March 23, 2022 – 6:00 pm (ET)
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-europe-nato-e35e54b40359e52f3ffd4911577b669a
PBS NewsHour, March 23, 2022 – 2:00 pm to 2:30 pm (ET)
PBS NewsHour – March 23, 2022 (05:14)
NPR, – March 23, 2022
The southeast Ukraine city of Mariupol has been battered by Russian airstrikes in recent weeks. Among the buildings hit have been a maternity hospital, a theater and an arts school. At least 2,000 civilians have died and some 80% of homes have been destroyed, according to city officials. Some 7,000 people were evacuated by convoy from Mariupol on Tuesday.
The result is a harrowing humanitarian crisis, as Ukrainians shelter in basements and safe passage out of the city for civilians is limited and sporadic.
Why is this city so important? There are several reasons — for the Russian military and for the people of Ukraine.
NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce fighting by the country’s fast-moving defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.
A senior NATO military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.
When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.
CNN, – March 23, 2022
On Monday, after intense fighting, Ukrainian forces regained control of Makariv, a town west of Kyiv that had been battered by Russian airstrikes.
It’s tempting to view this small victory for Ukrainian forces as a shift of momentum in the battle for Kyiv: In better times, this suburb would be only an hour’s drive to Khreshchatyk, the capital’s central boulevard.
Kyiv once appeared to be the primary objective of what the Kremlin must have envisioned as a swift regime-change operation. The capital has been rocked by explosions in recent days, but it is far from encircled.
On the Azov Sea, the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol — despite being surrounded and mercilessly pummeled, block by block, by Russian firepower — still eludes Russian control. Its defenders rejected an ultimatum to surrender by Monday morning, thwarting a Russian effort to finalize a land bridge linking Crimea with the separatist republics of the eastern Donbas region.
