| | | | | | | Presented By Walmart | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Apr 03, 2022 | | Hello, Sunday. Grammy Awards are in Vegas tonight. Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,197 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Jennifer Koons. ⚡ Breaking: In Sacramento, six people were killed and 10 were injured in a mass shooting as bars and nightclubs were closing. Get the latest. 🔮 Coming Tuesday: Our debut What's Next Summit, with CEOs and top thinkers on "Electric Everything," plus the future of cities, work, finance and tech. Register to watch. | | | | | | 1 big thing — Zelensky: "This is genocide" | | A soldier snaps a comrade posing with a destroyed Russian tank in Bucha, Ukraine, yesterday. Photo: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters Russia retreated from Kyiv, leaving evidence of what Ukraine is calling a civilian massacre — and numerous European officials called atrocities that should be investigated as war crimes. - News photos show unarmed Ukrainians — a threat to no one — strewn in the street, shot dead with their hands bound.
On CBS' "Face the Nation," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced what he called the effort to eliminate "the whole nation," and said: "This is genocide." - "We are citizens of Ukraine and we don't want to be subdued," he told Margaret Brennan. "This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated. And this is happening in the Europe of the 21st century."
The big picture: Ukraine says its forces have retaken all areas around the capital, reclaiming complete control of the region for the first time since Russia invaded on Feb 24, Reuters reports. Ukrainian servicemen check streets for booby traps in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha. Photo: Vadim Ghirda/AP Ukrainian troops used cables to pull the bodies of some civilians off streets, for fear Russian forces left them booby-trapped. (AP) You're going to hear a lot about Bucha: The mayor of Bucha, a town 20 miles outside the capital, said 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army. Reuters saw victims in a mass grave and still lying on the streets. - Secretary of State Tony Blinken told Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union" that the Bucha images are "a punch to the gut. ... [W]e've come out and said that we believe that Russian forces have committed war crimes and we've been working to document that."
Europe unites on "war crimes": U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Russia's "indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians ... must be investigated as war crimes." - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN this is "brutality against civilians" not seen in Europe for decades.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted today that the images emerging from Bucha are "unbearable." "Those responsible for these war crimes must be held accountable," she added in another tweet. |     | | | | | | 2. 🗞️ Friedman: Ukraine is the first real World War | | A Ukrainian soldier celebrates at a checkpoint in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv yesterday. Photo: Rodrigo Abd/AP N.Y. Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes that he's "beginning to wonder if this conflict isn't our first true world war — much more than World War I or World War II ever were": - "In this war, which I think of as 'World War Wired,' virtually everyone on the planet can either observe the fighting at a granular level, participate in some way or be affected economically."
- "This has quickly turned into 'the big battle' between the two most dominant political systems in the world today: free-market, 'rule-of-law democracy versus authoritarian kleptocracy,' the Swedish expert on the Russian economy, Anders Åslund, remarked to me."
Read the column (subscription). | | | | | | | | 3. 🌞 COVID milestone: New low for hospitalizations | | This sign indicates face masks are mandatory at this busy crossing in Berlin. Photo: John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. have plunged to their lowest levels for the first time since comprehensive national data became available, AP reports: - The average number of Americans hospitalized with COVID in the past week nationwide dropped to 11,860 on Friday — the lowest since 2020, and a steep decline from the peak of 145,000+, set in mid-January.
- The previous low was 12,041 last June, before Delta took hold.
- Some hospitals are going days without a single COVID-19 patient in the ICU for the first time since early 2020.
🥊 Reality check: Another wave is coming (Omicron subvariant BA.2). - Headline from London yesterday: "UK hits record COVID-19 levels; nearly 5 million infected."
One of the top trending stories on The New York Times this weekend is: "A New Wave of Covid-19 Is Coming. Here's How to Prepare" (subscription). - Spoiler: Watch stats on your area rather than wait for official warnings ... stock up on tests and masks ... get boosted ... get a pulse oximeter (available on Amazon).
| | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart is providing affordable care for diabetes patients | | |  | | | | By working directly with Novo Nordisk, one of the top insulin manufacturers in the world, Walmart is bringing innovative solutions to improve access to insulin for diabetic customers. The goal: Provide quality, affordable insulin options to help diabetic customers get the treatment they need. | | | | | | 4. 📷 1,000 words | | Photo: Ding Ting/Xinhua via AP As part of China's futile "zero COVID" policy, people with mild and asymptomatic cases quarantine on Friday at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. | | | | | | | | 5. 🏀 Coach K leaves the court | | Coach K and guard Jeremy Roach after losing to UNC. Photo: Stephen Lew/USA Today Sports For the 48th time over 47 years of unparalleled coaching, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski took the slow walk to midcourt and shook the hand of the North Carolina coach who beat him, AP's Eddie Pells writes. - With Coach K retiring after this season, this was the 258th, most consequential and — just maybe — the very best meeting between these teams, whose arenas are separated by 11 miles down Tobacco Road, from Durham to Chapel Hill, N.C.
"I'm sure at some time, I'll deal with this in my own way," said the coach, 75. After that, he found his wife, Mickie, and they made the slow, sad walk, hand in hand, off the floor of the New Orleans Superdome. - Last night's 81-77 setback — in the national semifinals against his archrivals, with Duke often ahead — marked Coach K's last loss.
⚜️ Laissez les bons temps rouler ... The N.Y. Times' Jonathan Martin (a birthday boy today), wrote from New Orleans: "Rarely in sports history has there been a convergence of a contest with the hype of the Duke-North Carolina showdown ... and a host city so desperately in need of the game-of-the-century buzz, and revenue, that comes with it." What's next ... Women's Final Two: South Carolina vs. UConn tonight, 8 ET in Minneapolis ... Men's Final Two: UNC v. Kansas tomorrow night. | | | | | | | | 6. 🎭 About last night: Gridiron funnies | | Rule No. 3 of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest association of journalists, is: "The Gridiron singes, but it never burns." But New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) detonated a hot one at last night's white-tie annual dinner — the first in three years. - The dinner is one of Washington's last off-camera occasions. But a little bird gave us a fill, and Sununu's dig is the one everyone's talking about.
The GOP governor told the sold-out crowd of 630 journalists about former President Trump: - "I don't think he's so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he's ain't getting out."
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, former Rhode Island governor and a rising Democratic star, knew her audience: A month ago, during the State of the Union, I was the designated survivor. That's a very strange situation. It's mostly a formality. But still: If something terrible happens, YOU could suddenly become the PRESIDENT. That probably explains why Pete Buttigieg kept calling to ask if he could do it instead. I know I shouldn't pick on Pete. He's a great guy and he's not even here to defend himself! I just owed Amy Klobuchar a favor. Raimondo then turned to Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who was scolded last week by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy for claiming to have been invited to a D.C. orgy: And here I was, thinking it was cool to be invited to the Gridiron Dinner. | | | | | | | | A message from Walmart | | Walmart reinforces commitment to affordable diabetes care | | |  | | | | Approximately 14% of Walmart shoppers have diabetes. Recently, the retailer announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk, one of the top insulin manufacturers in the world, to help cash-paying diabetic patients save up to 75% off insulin costs. Read more. | | | | 📬 Invite your friends to sign up here to get their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |  | It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 200 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | | |
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