Mariupol mayor says 5,000 civilians killed, MLB Opening Day is here: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Mariupol mayor says 5,000 civilians killed in Ukraine city
Russia has pulled back troops from cities in Ukraine's north and west, as it prepares a new offensive on the eastern Donbas region. Plus, prosecutors did not file charges against the police officer who killed Amir Locke, Hechinger Report higher education reporter Olivia Sanchez talks about students struggling with math amid the pandemic, we give a sneak peak at the 'Women of the Year' podcast and it's Major League Baseball Opening Day!
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Thursday, the 7th of April 2022. Today's staggering new death toll numbers in Ukraine, plus no charges for the officer who killed Amir Locke and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- The army in the West African country of Mali, along with foreign soldiers suspected to be Russian, recently killed an estimated 300 men according to Human Rights Watch. Some of those killed were suspected Islamic extremist fighters but most were civilians. It's the worst single atrocity reported in Mali's 10-year armed conflict against Islamic extremists.
- A draft leaked online of an agreement between China and the Solomon Islands is raising eyebrows in the South Pacific. The security agreement is expected to be signed soon and would give Chinese warships the green light to stop there for so-called logistical replenishment. China could also send military or police to the Solomons to maintain social order. The country switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019.
- The Masters tees off today. The golf tournament begins this morning with honorary starters at 7:40 a.m. Eastern Time, but all eyes are on Tiger Woods. He's said to tee off just after 1i:30 a.m. Eastern, but has called himself a game-time decision. He's less than 14 months away from a serious car crash.
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The mayor of Mariupol, Ukraine, said yesterday that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed there during Russia's invasion. Mayor Vadym Boichenko said that 210 of those killed in the city were children. He added that a staggering 90% of Mariupol's infrastructure has been cut. Russian attacks on the city by the Sea of Azov in Ukraine's southeast have systematically cut it off from food and resources, and it appears Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian housing complexes with shelling. In recent days more civilians have been leaving their basements and other shelters where they've been hunkered down for weeks. British defense officials estimate about 160,000 of the city's pre-war population of 430,000 remain. People like this resident named Gennadiy who described recent violence there.
Taylor Wilson translating for Gennadiy:
"Everybody dispersed. One man managed to run away to a hallway. Someone ran away to a bathroom. In general, everybody ran away to a basement. We have been in a basement for 20 days or more."
Taylor Wilson:
Russia has especially focused on Mariupol in order to secure a continuous land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. Russia has completed its pullout of some 24,000 troops from around the capital Kyiv and also Chernihiv in the country's north central region. They're next expected to start up a new, aggressive offensive in Ukraine's eastern, mostly Russian speaking Donbas region. Ukrainian authorities are urging people there to evacuate now before a new offensive.
The scene Russia is leaving behind in Ukraine's north is only this week becoming clear. Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of 410 civilians have been found around Kyiv and Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, yesterday, accused Russia of interfering with an international investigation into possible war crimes by removing corpses and trying to hide other evidence. Many of Russia's accused war crimes appeared to have happened in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. Police and city officials yesterday were inspecting the remains of those killed. Cemetery manager, Serhiy Matyuk.
Taylor Wilson translating for Serhiy Matyuk:
"They were simply killing civilians. They were abusing and killing. How many have we collected? About 300. Many are still being buried in gardens and yards. I think it will take a while to know the exact number."
Since this is an audio medium, you can check out a comprehensive visual story at USATODAY.com of just what the destruction in some of these Ukrainian towns and cities looks like. We have a link in today's show description.
Meanwhile, in response to alleged atrocities outside Kyiv, the US has announced new sanctions on Russian banks and against Russian president Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters. Associated Press reporter, Josh Boak, has more.
Josh Boak:
If you look at what happened, they're going to block Sberbank, which handles about a third of Russian transactions, from being able to do business with the rest of the world. They're also blocking Alfa Bank, which is Russia's largest private bank. This represents a new stage in the sanctions because these are the institutions used by Russians, not just the Russian elite. However, these penalties also apply to the Russian elite and more particularly their children. The Biden administration is going after the two adult daughters of Russian president, Vladimir Putin. This is a very interesting move forward because often Russian oligarchs use their children as a means of hiding assets from authorities.
The ban on new investments in Russia is a key part of the new sanctions. However, it's almost a lagging indicator because more than 600 businesses have already said they're not going to do business in Russia. That's really important because you're going to deprive the Russian economy of the oxygen it needs from abroad to keep running. The EU is taking steps to ban coal, but the big question is whether or not oil and natural gas will also be banned. Because in the long term, even if they immediately need Russian energy, they know that that dependence could ultimately produce vulnerabilities.
These are hard questions, but this is the nature of war in the economy right now. We tend to think about war merely through military tactics, but it is about resources. It is about technology. It is about supply lines and the ability to replenish them. When you talk to administration officials, they would say that these sanctions have been transmitted to Russia at a very quick pace through the markets. However, these sanctions are really going to start biting in five, maybe even six months, and that's when we should judge them.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find daily updates on the war in Ukraine at USATODAY.com.
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Prosecutors have announced that they will not file charges against the Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Amir Locke during a no-knock raid in February. Officer Mark Hanneman shot Locke three times less than 10 seconds after a SWAT team entered the apartment where Locke was sleeping. A warning, the following clip is graphic.
Police:
Face forward! Police! ... Face forward! ... Down on the ground!
Taylor Wilson:
In the video, Locke starts to rise while wrapped in a blanket on the couch and holding a gun with his finger off the trigger. Locke's family said he legally owned the gun to protect himself. The officer fired two shots at his chest and one in the wrist. The officer, Hanneman, was placed on administrative leave after the shooting. He was hired in 2015 and had three complaints against him that were closed with no discipline. A fourth complaint against him from 2018 is still open. Officers from the Minneapolis Police Department were carrying out a search warrant as part of a Saint Paul homicide investigation, but Locke was not listed on the warrant and did not live in the apartment where he was killed. Locke's 17-year-old cousin and another teenager have been charged in the homicide investigation involved the shooting death of Otis Elder in January. As for Locke's death, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison made a joint statement yesterday.
Michael Freeman:
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office, Minnesota Attorney General's Office and an independent expert each separately and independently have arrived at the conclusion that charges cannot be brought in this case. This death is a tragedy and was not necessary, but we're honor-bound under our ethical rules only to charge cases in which there's sufficient admissible evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, and we believe it's there. To charge a case like this would simply be wrong.
Keith Ellison:
Amir Locke's life mattered. At 22 years old, he was only starting out. One thing Amir was not, Amir was not a suspect. Our investigation found no evidence that he had any role in the homicide investigation that brought the police to his door at 6:48 on February 2nd. Amir was a victim. He never should have been called a suspect.
Taylor Wilson:
But Locke's mom, Karen Wells, said the fight is just beginning.
Karen Wells:
Right now the Minneapolis police officer that executed my baby boy on 2/2/22, be prepared for this family because every time you take a step we're going to be right behind you. This is not over. You may have been found not guilty, but in the eyes of me, being the mother who I am, you are guilty. Continue to have your restless nights because I know you do. You were probably restless before they decided to not charge you today, but you're going to continue to be restless because the spirit of my baby is going to haunt you for the rest of your life.
I am not disappointed. I am disgusted with the city of Minneapolis. My son was protecting himself thinking he had to protect himself from all the crime that is out of control, Mayor Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, that you can't control. So my son decided that if he's going to go back and forth and do Instacart and DoorDash, he needed to bear arms, the legal way. He listened to myself and his father. He did the right thing. But at the end of the day, the Second Amendment, it doesn't matter to him. He has too much melanin.
Taylor Wilson:
Locke's family has called for a ban on no-knock warrants. That reopens a debate that followed the police killing of Breonna Taylor in 2020. The SWAT raid that killed Locke, who, like Taylor, was Black, was initially not going to be carried out as a no-knock, but the Minneapolis Police Department later insisted. Starting tomorrow, though, they will be prohibited from no-knock search warrants except under a handful of exceptions.
Locke's death sparked multiple days of protests in the Twin Cities in February. The area previously became the epicenter of national protests against racial injustice after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. The Minneapolis Police Department survived a push to replace it with a Department of Public Safety last year but still faces a Justice Department investigation of its policies and practices.
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Students in the US whose last year's of high school were disrupted by the pandemic are struggling with math, in particular, the foundational college math courses they often need to succeed later in college and in life. Olivia Sanchez, a higher education reporter with The Hechinger Report, has more.
Olivia Sanchez:
College students who were juniors when the pandemic hit were in a unique spot because their high school was just a little bit more than halfway through, so virtually half of their high school was disrupted even if they had the opportunity to return to in-person learning in their senior year or in any capacity. While they were online, many students and professors say that the education they were receiving isn't comparable to what they would have received if they were in the classroom. That is due to just the completely different format, the attention that teachers could give to students, the attention that students actually had to give to their studies when there was so many other factors in their lives like financial struggles, health struggles with their family and loved ones to housing and food insecurity. I think that for a lot of students school fell lower on the priority list than it otherwise would have been if they were learning in person. Specifically with math which builds on itself as students move through their education, losing ground in that sort of vital time in their education is putting many students behind as they're entering college.
I think that a lot of people I talk to for this story are pretty optimistic about what can be done to help students recover these losses. I do think that's because it's the only choice to be optimistic. This is a problem that a lot of people feel has to be addressed. Otherwise the stakes are pretty high on the personal level for students, on a community level, and for our country as a whole. So professors and educators are kind of scrambling to figure out how they can support their students, how they can help their students, again, recover those losses without lowering the standards so that the students are prepared to move on and succeed in the next courses and not just give them an A and shuffle the problem to the next professor.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find more of Olivia on Twitter, @oliviarsanchez, and for great education coverage, check out hechingerreport.org.
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I want to take a second today and fill you in on a great Paste BN podcast celebrating our women of the year. This year's nominees have been champions of change around the country. You can hear from some of them in our Women of the Year podcast. It's hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Schultz.
Connie Schultz:
They are titans of industry, sports, philanthropy, and so much more. They are vulnerable and energetic for their ambition. And they are far from finished. With success comes power, and these women carry as they climb. I'm Connie Schultz. Please join me for Paste BN'S celebration of women, some you know.
Simone Biles:
Pushing mental health to the forefront was a huge thing. I honestly didn't realize in that moment the impact that it would have.
Connie Schultz:
And some you should know.
Janet Murguía:
I believe it's so important to encourage young people to try to move through this darkness and keep their sights set on a bigger dream.
Connie Schultz:
Paste BN'S Women of the Year. Intimate portraits of outstanding women, available every Thursday in April wherever you get your podcasts.
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Happy Opening Day. America's national pastime, baseball, returns today, at least Major League Baseball does. The season begins after a delayed start because of negotiations between players and owners on a new collective bargaining agreement, and that agreement will change the game. The designated hitter will now be used in the National League not just in the American League, and the playoffs have been expanded. The season's delay also meant a shorter spring training preseason than usual. Plus, there's a new team name this year, the Cleveland Guardians.
As for what'll happen on the diamond, the Atlanta Braves are trying to become the first team to repeat as champions since the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998 to 2000, but the Braves are not the odds-on favorites to win it all. That would be the Los Angeles Dodgers who did so in 2020.
Opening day begins with the Milwaukee Brewers taking on the Cubs in Chicago with first pitch set for 2:20 p.m. Eastern Time on MLB Network. You can also watch the Cincinnati Reds take on the defending champion Braves at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2. For coverage all season long, stay with Paste BN Sports.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. We're here seven mornings a week on whatever your favorite podcast app is. If you're on Apple Podcasts, we ask that you please take a few seconds to drop a five star rating and review if you have a chance. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, I'm back tomorrow with more 5 Things from Paste BN.