For today, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and National Public Radio, and to commentary from Declassified UK via Consortium News; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM

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UN chief says it’s time to ‘truly flood’ Gaza with aid and calls starvation there an outrage, by Samy Magda, Amr Nabil and Sam Metz | AP  RAFAH CROSSING, Egypt — UN Secretary-General António Guterres stood near a long line of waiting trucks today and declared it was time to “truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid,” calling the starvation inside the enclave a “moral outrage.” He called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. READ MORE . . .

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FROM MARCH 22  Top U.S. diplomat warns Israel of global isolation if it attacks Rafah, by Humeyra Pamuk and Nidal Al-Mughrabi | Reuters  TEL AVIV — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday that Israel risked further global isolation if it attacks the Palestinian city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Blinken met one-on-one with Netanyahu . . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM MARCH 22  Netanyahu wants ‘total victory’ over Hamas. What would that look like? Reported by Sacha Pfeiffer,Courtney Dorning and Megan Lim | NPR  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he seeks “total victory” over Hamas. Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with Middle East expert Daniel Byman about what that means for Gaza. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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FROM MARCH 22  As famine looms in Gaza, we look at why modern famines are a ‘man-made’ disaster. Reported by Ailsa Chang, Linah Mohammad and Patrick Jarenwattananon | NPR  The United Nations says a famine is imminent in Gaza. Ailsa Chang checks in with Alex de Waal, leading scholar on famines, about the situation in the strip. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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FROM MARCH 20  How Western media built the case for genocide, by Jonathan Cook | Declassified UK / Consortium News  To understand how Western publics are being manipulated, just look to the coverage — especially from those outlets most closely aligned not with the right but with supposedly liberal values. How have the media dealt with . . . READ MORE . . .

For today, links to reports from the Associated Press and to  commentary from SheerPost; others are accessible by clicking on its name below. (GAZA entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM

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Putin says gunmen who raided Moscow concert hall tried to escape to Ukraine. Kyiv denies involvement. From AP.  MOSCOW — Russian authorities arrested the four people suspected of taking part in the attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133 people and believe they were headed to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said today in an address to the nation. Kyiv, meanwhile, strongly denied any . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia launches sweeping attack on Ukraine’s power sector, a sign of possible escalation, by Hanna Arhirova and Jim Heintz | AP  KYIV — Russia unleashed one of its most devastating attacks against Ukraine’s electric sector on Friday, an aerial assault it said was retaliation for recent strikes inside Russia and which could signal an escalation of the war just . . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM MARCH 22  Late-imperial duplicities, by Patrick Lawrence | Original to ScheerPost  As I was saying to Diocletian over Prosecco just last week, it is hard to run an empire these days. You have to lie to people more or less incessantly to keep the troops minding the perimeter in supplies. No falsehood is . . . READ MORE . . .

For today, links to reports from the Associated Press, Tass, Reuters, and National Public Radio and to commentary from Substack; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (GAZA entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM

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NEWER  Russia attacks Ukrainian electrical power facilities, including major hydroelectric plant, by Hanna Arhirova and Jim Heintz | AP  KYIV — Russia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, causing widespread outages and killing at least five people, officials said today. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 60 drones and about 90 rockets . . . READ MORE . . .

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NEWER  A series of blasts in Ukrainian cities. From Tass. MOSCOW — A series of blasts rocked several Ukrainian cities. An air raid alert was declared on the country’s entire territory. As Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko specified, the blasts largely damaged electric power generation, transmission and distribution facilities. Some Ukrainian cities are experiencing problems with water supply and communications. A day before, explosions occurred in Kiev — the city’s . . . READ MORE . . .

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NEWER  Ukraine to drop Ruswsia business blacklist after backlash, by Tom Balmforth and John O’Donnell | Reuters  KYIV / BERLIN — Ukraine will scrap its “sponsors of war” blacklist, the centrepiece of its campaign to pressure companies doing business in Russia, today, after a backlash from countries from to Austria to China, two people familiar with the matter said. The end of the blacklist, which . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian troops advance on towns in eastern Ukraine, where some residents remain. Reported by Joanna Kakissis | NPR  Some Ukrainians are spending their days under the fire of advancing Russian troops. We meet some of the last residents of an eastern Ukrainian town. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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FROM MARCH 21  The iron-clad piñata, by Seymour M. Hersh | seymourhersh.Substack.com  President Biden’s foreign policy problems in the Middle East and Ukraine are daunting, especially in an election year, but the war between Russia and Ukraine could be nearing a military endgame, and not via negotiations. READ MORE . . .

For today, links to reports from the Associated Press and Reuters, and to commentary from CN and the London Review of Books; other articles from both are accessible by clicking on their names below. (UKRAINE entry for this date and an ASSANGE entry are HERE and HERE,) —MCM   

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A Palestinian boy is shot dead after he lit a firework. Israel’s use of deadly force is scrutinized, by Jack Jeffrey | AP  JERUSALEM — A 12-year-old boy in east Jerusalem lights the fuse of a long firework and hoists it in the air. Then, just before it explodes and illuminates the night sky with a burst of red, he is shot in the chest by Israeli police and falls to the ground. READ MORE . . .

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Fighting rages at Gaza’s Shifa hospital as Blinken meets Sisi in Cairo, by Humeyra Pamuk and Nidal Al-Mughrabi | Reuters  CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo today for talks with Arab officials to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel’s prime minister told U.S. Republicans there would be no let-up in the war against Hamas. In Gaza itself, Israel’s . . . READ MORE . . .

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EU leaders gather with Ukraine ammunition production and Gaza aid at the top of their agenda. From AP. BRUSSELS — European Union leaders gathered today to consider new ways to help boost arms and ammunition production for Ukraine and to discuss the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will join the leaders, in part to encourage . . . READ MORE . . .

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Authorized atrocities, by Patrick Lawrence | Special to Consortium News  Israel’s savagery in its determination to exterminate the Palestinians of Gaza — and we had better brace for what is next on the West Bank of the Jordan — marks a turn for all of humanity. In its descent into depravity . . . READ MORE . . .

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The Shoah after Gaza, by Pankaj Mishra | The London Review of Books  For more than seven decades now, the argument among the “darker peoples” has remained the same: why should Palestinians be dispossessed and punished for crimes in which only Europeans were complicit? And they can only recoil with disgust . . . READ MORE . . .

A link to a report from Consortium News; others are accessible by clicking on its name below. (GAZA and UKRAINE entries for this date are HERE and HERE.) — MCM

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FROM MARCH 20  Assange in plea deal talks, by Joe Lauria
 | Consortium News  Lawyers for Julian Assange and officials of the U.S. Justice Department are engaged in talks for a possible plea deal that could see Assange walk out of Belmarsh Prison in London as a free man, according to a report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said the DOJ was considering whether to allow . . . READ MORE . . .

For today, links to reports from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, the Kyiv Post, Tass, and the Kyiv Independent, and to an interview from The Grayzone via ScheerPost and Popular Resistance; other news and commentary are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (GAZA entry for this date and an ASSANGE entry are HERE and HERE.) — MCM

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Russia fires 31 missiles at Kyiv in the first attack in 44 days, and 13 people are hurt, by Hanna Arhirova | AP  KYIV — Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn today in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in 44 days, officials said. Air defenses shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by . . . READ MORE . . .

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Zelensky calls for air defenses after Russian missiles target Kyiv. From AFP. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the West to deliver air defense systems to Kyiv after an overnight Russian missile attack injured 17 in the capital and surrounding region. “Such terror . . . READ MORE . . .

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Kremlin will retaliate if the EU uses profits from Russian assets to arm Ukraine. From Reuters. MOSCOW — Russia will take retaliatory measures in accordance with its own interests and use every legal mechanism at its disposal if the European Union uses profits from frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine, the Kremlin said today. READ MORE . . .

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EU leaders gather with Ukraine ammunition production and Gaza aid at the top of their agenda. From AP. BRUSSELS — European Union leaders gathered today to consider new ways to help boost arms and ammunition production for Ukraine and to discuss the war in Gaza amid deep concern about Israeli plans to launch a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. Ukraine’s munition stocks are desperately low, and Russia . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian army says captured another village in eastern Ukraine. From AFP. Moscow said today that it had captured another village in east Ukraine, around 10 kilometres (six miles) from the city of Avdiivka, which fell to Russian forces last month. It was the second village west of Avdiivka . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia diverts troops from front line to protect Belgorod — Bloomberg, by Petro Zhyzhyian | Kyiv Post  The Russian Ministry of Defense was forced to withdraw military units from the front line to protect Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, which was attacked by . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian servicemen to kill all French soldiers in Ukraine — senior lawmaker. From Tass. PARIS — Russian servicemen will eliminate all French soldiers coming to Ukraine, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said. On March 19, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin said that France was already preparing . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukrhydroenergo’s losses due to Russian attacks amount to over $3 billion, by Kateryna Hodunova | The Kyiv Independent  Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Ukrhydroenergo assessed its losses stemming from Russian attacks at 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion), the company’s press service said today. Since the onset of the full-scale invasion, Russian attacks . . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM MARCH 15  Sweden closing Nordstream investigation is a shocking coverup, says investigator. From The Grayzone via ScheerPost and Popular Resistance. Max Blumenthal of the Grayzone talks with Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who led the first independent investigation to the site of the Nordstream pipelines blast sites, on the Swedish government’s sudden closing of the investigation into the terror attack on the eve of joining NATO. Click HERE for video of interview.

For today, links to Associated Press and Reuters reports and to commentary via Middle East Eye and Global Research; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM  

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Blinken adds Israel stop to latest Mideast tour as tensions rise over Gaza war, by Matthew Lee | AP  JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this week as part of his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East since the Israelis’ war with Hamas began in October, as relations between the two countries have soured dramatically in recent weeks. The visit. . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM MARCH 19  In Gaza, starving children fill hospital wards as famine looms, by Mohammad Salem and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber | Reuters  Twenty-seven children have died of malnutrition and dehydration in recent weeks at the Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza in recent weeks, the health ministry says, and other children have died in the al-Shifa Hospital, also in the north, while in Rafah in the south . . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM MARCH 15  War on Gaza: Torture, executions, babies left to die, sexual abuse… These are Israel’s crimes, by Jonathan Cook | jonathan-cook.net / Middle East Eye / Global Research  The western establishment media has been chock full of the most lurid allegations of savagery directed against Hamas, sometimes with little or no supporting evidence. Claims that . . . READ MORE . . .