| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Monday, March 21, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Besieged Mariupol refuses to surrender, a Chinese Boeing crashes with 132 on board, and U.S. Supreme Court nominee Jackson faces a Senate showdown | | | | | Today's biggest stories  Pro-Russian troops are seen atop tanks on the outskirts of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, March 20, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AT WAR Ukraine defied a Russian demand that its forces lay down arms before dawn in Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped in a city under siege and already laid to waste by Russian bombardment.
Russia's military had ordered Ukrainians inside the city in the country's southeast to surrender by 5 a.m., saying that those who do so would be permitted to leave through safe corridors.
The European Union should step up sanctions on Russia to target its lucrative energy sector, the foreign ministers of Lithuania and Ireland said at the start of a week of intense diplomacy aimed at agreeing more steps against Moscow.
NATO is back defending against its original nemesis, but this time it's different, as the Baltic region's new NATO members are vulnerable from land and sea. We examine how the alliance is at a turning point.
Olga, a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman seriously wounded while sheltering her baby from shrapnel blasts in Kyiv, recalled the shock as she saw blood covering her child after a missile strike that shattered glass across the room. Photographs of Olga holding her baby have featured widely on social media, in an image encapsulating the heavy toll being paid by civilians.
Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now
|  WORLD NEWS A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in mountains in southern China on a domestic flight following a sudden descent from cruising altitude. Media said there was no sign of survivors.
Hong Kong plans to relax some anti-COVID-19 measures next month, lifting a ban on flights from nine countries, reducing quarantine for arrivals from abroad and reopening schools. The moves, announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, come after a backlash from businesses and residents who see the rest of the world shifting to "living with the virus".
The U.S. Senate begins consideration today of Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, with Republicans expected to pose tough questions about her professional background and judicial philosophy. We look at the varied legal resume Jackson brings.
The Biden administration has formally determined that violence committed against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar's military amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, U.S. officials told Reuters, a move that advocates say should bolster efforts to hold the junta that now runs Myanmar accountable.
Pakistan's government asked the Supreme Court to advise if it could seek lifelong disqualification of dissidents from Prime Minister Imran Khan's ruling party ahead of a no-confidence vote that weakens his prospects of retaining power.
|  A view of Moscow's international business center, also known as Moskva City, March 19, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov BUSINESS President Joe Biden's warning of "consequences" for any aid China may give to Russia's Ukraine war effort could force Chinese President Xi Jinping to choose between a longstanding lucrative trade relationship with the West and a growing strategic partnership with Moscow.
Saudi Arabia regained the spot as China's top crude supplier in the first two months of 2022, having been leapfrogged by Russia in December, while Russian shipments dropped 9% as a cut in import quotas led independent refiners to scale back purchases.
The world's two top central banks will move out of sync in the foreseeable future, as the war in Ukraine has vastly different effects on their economies, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates last week and signalled a string of future moves, just days after the ECB said it was in no hurry to raise its record-low deposit rate.
Egypt's pound fell by almost 14% after weeks of pressure on the currency as foreign investors pulled out billions of dollars from Egyptian treasury markets. The war in Ukraine left Egypt facing higher costs for its substantial wheat import needs as well as a loss in tourism revenue from Russian and Ukrainian visitors to Red Sea resorts.
After global wheat futures soared, U.S. farmer Vance Ehmke was eager to sell his grain. Local prices shot up roughly 30% to nearly $12 a bushel, about the highest Ehmke could recall in 45 years of farming near the western Kansas town of Healy. Instead of reaping a windfall, Ehmke found a commodities market turned upside down.
| | | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Flow of Ukrainian refugees tests central Europe's limits Officials in Central Europe have voiced concern that they cannot comfortably house some of the nearly 3.5 million refugees who have fled Ukraine and are now camped in temporary accommodation. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
