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

–   –   –

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 . . .

–   –   –

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 . . .

–   –   –

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 . . .