https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/17/national-cherry-blossom-festival-event-guide/



March 19

Tidal Basin Welcome Area and Stage: Serving as the official front door to the festival, the National Park Service’s Welcome Area is the place to pick up maps, souvenirs and Junior Ranger activity books.

Minyo Blooms at National Harbor: Minyo Crusaders play a traditional Japanese folk music called minyo, but turn the style on its head by layering propulsive Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms under the haunting melodies.

Cherry Blossom Family Celebration at the Smithsonian American Art Museum: Head outside of the American Art museum in Chinatown for taiko drumming and koto performances and Les the DJ spinning Japanese pop and soul records, and stick around for family crafting and coloring.

March 20

Opening Ceremony at Warner Theatre (virtual): All free tickets have been claimed for the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s grand opening event, but the show will be streamed live through the festival’s YouTube channel.

Credit Union Cherry Blossom Virtual Run: All the race bibs are taken for the annual Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run and 5K Run-Walk on April 3, but organizers are hosting a virtual run that allows anyone to run 10 miles or five kilometers anywhere in the world through April 17.

March 26

Blossom Kite Festival: For years, the Cherry Blossom festival has welcomed spring by filling the Washington Monument grounds with kites of all shapes and sizes.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/17/business/china-russia-sanctions-friction-intl-hnk/index.html

Hong Kong (CNN Business)China is quietly distancing itself from Russia's sanction-hit economy.

Letting the ruble drop
China's currency, the yuan, doesn't trade completely freely, moving instead within bands set by officials at the People's Bank of China (PBOC). Last week, they doubled the size of the ruble trading range, allowing the Russian currency to fall faster.

Sitting on reserves
The most significant help China could offer Russia is through the $90 billion worth of reserves Moscow holds in yuan, ...
However, "the reputational risk of potentially breaching Western sanctions would be a huge step for the PBOC to take and therefore makes it highly unlikely," ...

Withholding aircraft parts
...Earlier this month, a top Russian official said that China has refused to send aircraft parts to Russia as Moscow looks for alternative supplies.

Freezing infrastructure investment
The World Bank has halted all its programs in Russia and Belarus following the invasion of Ukraine. It hadn't approved any new loans or investments to Russia since 2014, and none to Belarus since 2020.
More surprisingly, perhaps, is the decision by the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to do the same. In a statement earlier this month, it said it was suspending all its activities related to Russia and Belarus "as the war in Ukraine unfolds."

People’s Convoy’ drives through D.C. after permit for organized demonstration downtown partially denied

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/03/14/peoples-convoy-protests-dc-beltway/



Police blocked interstate exits in Washington into downtown as hundreds of trucks, cars and SUVs protesting the government’s response to the pandemic rode into the city to start a second week of demonstrations.

D.C. police said exits were being blocked as the “People’s Convoy” encountered severe traffic when it approached the District. The convoy entered the city via the 14th Street Bridge on Interstate 395, then continued to Interstate 695 before crossing the Anacostia River. The convoy was then expected to return to the Beltway before going back to Hagerstown.

“I believe we’re making a good statement today,” said one truck driver who live-streams under the name ZOT. “We’re right in the swamp now and creating a horrible mess down here.”

Police asked for patience, saying authorities were trying to prevent the convoy from exiting the highway.

“These rolling road closures are occurring in real-time as they are needed, and will be lifted as soon as they are no longer necessary,” said an alert from D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/10/peoples-convoy-protest-ted-cruz/

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) visited the “People’s Convoy” at the Hagerstown Speedway on Thursday and rode shotgun in the lead truck, with plans for the vehicle to head into to Washington for a news conference, while the rest of the convoy circles the Capital Beltway to protest pandemic health restrictions aimed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“The convoy is not [going into D.C.],” Brian Brase, the group’s organizer, said from inside the lead truck. “The convoy’s going to continue its normal operation. This truck will be going into D.C.”

Though many pandemic-related restrictions at the federal and local levels have been blocked or rescinded, the convoy organizers have rallied supporters by calling mandates an infringement on their freedoms.

“There ain’t no ignoring a senator riding in the lead truck,” Brase told the crowd at the Hagerstown Speedway earlier. “That’s basically an endorsement of what we’re doing.”

https://dcist.com/story/22/03/08/dc-health-lifts-school-mask-mandate/



D.C. Health lifted its indoor mask mandate for schools on Tuesday, shifting the decision to require face coverings in schools – or not – to education leaders.

The updated guidance does not necessarily mean students in the District will immediately be able to attend school without a mask. D.C. Public Schools, the city’s traditional school system, and individual charter operators may still choose to maintain their mandates.

D.C Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said in a statement the 51,000-student school system will keep its mandate for the time being. Ferebee said the district will engage with the Washington Teachers’ Union and other groups representing school workers before moving forward with any decisions.

“Our highest priority is ensuring a safe and supportive environment for our students to learn and grow,” Ferebee said. “For the immediate time being, masks are still required indoors at all D.C. Public Schools for students, staff and visitors.”

The school system lifted its outdoor mask requirement last week.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bgmp/russian-influencer-posts-tiktok-showing-how-to-drive-abandoned-apcs



This is Nastya Tuman, a car mechanic and influencer in Russia. According to a profile on Yandex, she learned to drive at the age of 18 and began working on cars because she was tired of mechanics ripping her off. Now she and her husband run multiple YouTube channels and social media accounts where she fixes cars and explains the basics of maintenance.

Tuman’s video comes at a time when reports are flooding social media about Russian soldiers running out of fuel or outright abandoning tanks and APCs in Ukraine. On Feb. 28, Russia’s state telecommunications regulator demanded that TikTok take steps to censor military content on its platform. The video went viral on Twitter Monday with some describing it as footage of a Ukrainian explaining how to pilot abandoned Russian military vehicles. That’s not quite what’s going on.

The video of Tuman in an APC is actually a year old. On February 23, 2021, she posted a video on Instagram of her driving a BTR-series APC in honor of Defender of the Fatherland Day. The short video walks through the basics of starting up the APC and shows her briefly driving it.

On Feb. 27, Tuman posted a video to her TikTok account showing the same footage but with a different introduction. She’s pictured outside of the APC. “If you happen to find a free or abandoned armored personnel carrier, here’s a life-hack on how to start it,” she says in Russian. Then, like in the February 2021 video, she walks through the basics of operating the vehicle.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/01/business/oil-ukraine-russia-putin/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Russia faces the specter of a full-blown financial meltdown. Punishing sanctions leveled by the West have sent the ruble crashing to record lows, shuttered Moscow's stock market and made Russian assets toxic on the world stage.

The White House has even taken aim at Vladimir Putin's financial fortress, removing access to at least a chunk of Russia's $630 billion rainy-day fund that was designed to cushion the economic blow of this very crisis.
Now comes the big question: How will Putin — who is also facing sanctions on his personal wealth from the West — fire back in what is rapidly morphing into economic warfare?

There is growing concern that Putin could retaliate by using not just natural gas but also crude oil as a weapon against the West.
"Russia's energy supplies are very much at risk, either due to being withheld by Russia as a weapon or swiped off the market due to sanctions," Louise Dickson, senior oil market analyst at Rystad Energy, wrote in a report Monday.

The worldwide supply of oil was already failing to keep up with demand. If Russia, the world's No. 2 oil producer, intentionally held back supply, it would likely send oil prices skyrocketing, dealing a painful blow to consumers around the world.