The Morning: Biden for democracy

Ukraine takes center stage at the State of the Union.

View in browser|nytimes.com March 2, 2022 By David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick Good morning. Biden delivers a pro-democracy State of the Union. President Biden delivering his State of the Union address.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times 'A more unified West' The signature moments of Joe Biden's rise to the presidency often involved the defense of democracy. He announced his presidential campaign in 2019 by vowing to defeat the threat that Donald Trump posed to American ideals: "The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy — everything that has made America America — is at stake." At the 2020 Democratic convention, Biden began his acceptance speech by quoting the civil rights activist Ella Baker: "Give people light and they will find a way." Five months later, he started his inaugural address with two brief sentences: "This is America's day. This is democracy's day." In each of these moments, Biden was focusing on the threats to democracy within the United States. But before his 2020 campaign, he had spent much of his political career — in the Senate and as vice president — focused on foreign affairs. In his State of the Union address last night, Biden tried to bring together these two strands of his career. He devoted the opening of his speech to a pledge of solidarity with Ukraine's democratically elected government and a promise to hold the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accountable for the invasion. And he cast the war as part of a larger battle. Ukrainian flags in the House chamber.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times "In the battle between democracy and autocracies, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security," Biden said. (Read the transcript.) There is clearly a limit to American support for Ukraine, and Biden acknowledged it. "Let me be clear," he said. "Our forces are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine." Polls show that most Americans would oppose sending U.S. troops to fight in Ukraine. But a strong alliance of the world's democracies would nonetheless be an important and new development. For much of the past two decades, the U.S. and Western Europe have struggled to check the rise of autocracies in China, Russia and elsewhere, even in Central Europe. The U.S. has been distracted by a series of failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and has underestimated both Putin and China's leaders. European countries have refused to spend much money on their own militaries and have chosen to protect their economic ties with Russia rather than confront Putin. The invasion of Ukraine has the potential to be a turning point. Last night, Biden promised that it would be. "When the history of this era is written, Putin's war in Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger," he said. "While it shouldn't have taken something so terrible for people around the world to see what's at stake, now everyone sees it clearly. We see the unity among leaders of nations, a more unified Europe, a more unified West." Biden on Covid … With both symbols and words, Biden signaled that he hoped the country was entering a new phase of the pandemic. He did not wear a mask while walking to the rostrum or during his speech. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris did not wear masks while sitting behind him. Few members of Congress in the audience wore them, either. "For more than two years, Covid has impacted every decision in our lives and the life of this nation. And I know you're tired, frustrated and exhausted," Biden said. "But I also know this: Because of the progress we've made, because of your resilience and the tools that we have been provided by this Congress, tonight I can say we're moving forward safely, back to more normal routines." Biden said his administration would expand availability of post-infection treatments and rapid tests, efforts to prepare for new variants and distribution of vaccines to other countries. He also called for workplaces and schools to remain open. "We can end the shutdown of schools and businesses," he said. "Our kids need to be in school." … and other subjects Biden used much of the rest of the speech to promote his domestic agenda, including lowering prescription drug costs, subsidizing clean energy and raising corporate taxes. "The answer is not to defund the police," Biden said to bipartisan applause. "It's to fund the police." A favorite moment on social media: Justice Stephen Breyer's reaction when Biden praised him. Biden stumbled over several words in the speech, including seeming at one point to say "Iranian" when he meant "Ukrainian." Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, heckled Biden just before he spoke about his son Beau's death from brain cancer. Read five takeaways from the speech, plus other analysis from Times reporters. The many responses The opposition party typically delivers a response to the president's State of the Union address, and Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa did so last night. She accused Biden of taking the country "back in time, to the late '70s and early '80s," citing higher inflation and violent crime. But there were also some more unusual responses last night. In a sign of the current divisions in the Democratic Party, three house Democrats also delivered their own addresses — one by Rashida Tlaib of Michigan (a progressive), one by Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey (a moderate) and one by Colin Allred of Texas (a member of the Congressional Black Caucus). Some other Democrats were unhappy about the spectacle. One of them was Representative Elaine Luria, who represents a military-heavy swing district in coastal Virginia: Analysis "Biden delivered this State of the Union as an unpopular president," FiveThirtyEight's Galen Druke wrote. "This was obviously a bid to reset his standing." "It is striking to see the bipartisan applause for the Ukraine section," says The Washington Post's Megan McArdle. "War brings people together and makes them forget their lesser squabbles." Ezra Klein of Times Opinion calls Biden's failure to connect his remarks on Russia to his plans for the U.S. economy a missed opportunity. "It's great to see a packed room with leaders shaking hands and hugging, mostly unmasked," Dr. Leana Wen tweeted. "What a difference from last year." THE LATEST NEWS Russia-Ukraine War A projectile hit Kyiv's main radio and TV tower on Tuesday, forcing stations off the air.Carlos Barria/Reuters Kyiv was under bombardment this morning, as Russian tanks continued their slow advance to the capital. Russia says it has taken control of Kherson, a strategic city. Ukraine says the battle isn't over. At least 136 civilians and about 2,000 Russian soldiers have died, officials said. Oil prices soared, leading two dozen countries to tap into their emergency reserves. Exxon Mobil will exit a Russian oil and gas project. BP and Shell have made similar moves. Biden said he would close off American air space to all Russian flights. Moscow's stock exchange closed for the third day in a row. Africans in Ukraine said that the authorities had held them at border crossings while letting Ukrainians through. These maps show Russia's shifting strategy. Russian-occupied areas as of 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 28. Ground fighting and airstrikes as of 8:15 a.m. Eastern on Mar. 1. | Sources: New York Times reporting; Institute for the Study of War Other Big Stories Gov. Greg Abbott will face Beto O'Rourke in November. Here are more Texas primary results. Many common at-home tests are effective at detecting Omicron, according to a real-world study. Major League Baseball postponed the start of the season because of a labor disagreement. In a charged case, Israel's Supreme Court said that four Palestinian families could stay in their East Jerusalem homes for now. Two weeks after catching fire, a ship carrying about 4,000 luxury cars has sunk. Opinions Zach Levitt and Gus Wezerek suggest four aid organizations to help Ukraine. Thomas Friedman and Ross Douthat lay out three scenarios for how the Ukraine conflict could end. Subscribe Today A subscription to The New York Times plays a vital role in making this reporting possible. We hope you will support Times journalism by becoming a subscriber today. MORNING READS Tyrannosaurus rex at the American Museum of Natural History.George Etheredge for The New York Times Fossils: Some paleontologists believe the T. rex was three different species. Fashion week: See Virgil Abloh's last show at Off-White. Question to an ethicist: "May I disinherit my right-wing daughters?" A Times classic: The day Prince's guitar wept the loudest. Advice from Wirecutter: This machine cuts snoring in half. Lives Lived: Michele McNally elevated The Times's photojournalism to match its written reporting. "She walked into newsrooms where photography had taken a back seat for too long, and forced it into the fore," Dean Baquet, the executive editor, said. McNally died at 66. ARTS AND IDEAS Zendaya as Rue Bennett in "Euphoria."Eddy Chen/HBO The 'Euphoria' phenomenon, explained The HBO series "Euphoria" — a hyper-stylized take on teenage life that's full of drugs, sex and despair — aired its second-season finale on Sunday. The sophomore season cemented the show's phenomenon status, as viewership swelled and fans turned to TikTok and Twitter to dissect each episode. With dramatic plot twists and dreamy visuals, "Euphoria" is a show that's built to be clipped and shared online. Fans care about the fantastical outfits, the maximalist soundtrack that zigzags from Steely Dan to Tupac, and the glitter-soaked makeup — so much so that the show's head makeup artist is starting her own line. Every generation gets a defining teen show, and "Euphoria" shares DNA with predecessors like "Skins" and "Beverly Hills, 90210," all of which outraged parents. "Euphoria," while still soapy, leans into darker territory with more graphic depictions of addiction, abusive relationships, violence and nudity. For many fans, discomfort is core to the viewing experience. "You're just anxious for an hour straight," one 21-year-old fan told The Times. "When you're watching a horror movie or listening to something that's super high adrenaline, you keep listening because you want to know what's going to happen. You just can't look away." — Sanam Yar, a Morning writer For more: They love the show but hate its creator — why some "Euphoria" fans routinely condemn Sam Levinson, the show's writer. PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook David Malosh for The New York Times This vegetarian take on Southern dirty rice uses mushrooms and black-eyed peas. What to Read In "In Love," the novelist Amy Bloom writes about loving her husband and helping him to end his life after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's. What to Listen to Five minutes that will make you love Wagner. Late Night Stephen Colbert graded Biden's first State of the Union. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday's Spelling Bee was vilifying. Here is today's puzzle — or you can play online. Here's today's Wordle. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Hello in HI (five letters). If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. The Morning will hold a free online live event with two Covid experts on March 9. Send us your video question. Here's today's front page. "The Daily" is about sanctions against Russia. "The Argument" features Alexander Vindman. Claire Moses, Tom Wright-Piersanti, Ashley Wu and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. 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The Morning: A bad start for Russia

But reason to fear what comes next.

View in browser|nytimes.com March 1, 2022 By David Leonhardt Good morning. The start of the war has gone poorly for Russia, but many experts are worried about what happens next. Ukrainian volunteers in a bunker in Kyiv.Lynsey Addario for The New York Times A surprising start The initial days of the Ukrainian invasion have not gone well for Russia. The Russian military has taken no major cities, and video from Ukraine has shown scorched Russian vehicles and dead soldiers. Contrary to what President Vladimir Putin and his aides apparently expected — and what many Westerners feared — Ukraine's government did not fall within a matter of days. But military experts caution against confusing a war's initial days with its likely result. Russia has now begun to use even more brutal tactics, including a bombardment of a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, home to universities and long considered a center of national culture. This morning, a large explosion hit the center of the city. "We're only in the opening days of this, and Putin has a lot of cards to play," Douglas Lute, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told The Times. "It's too early to be triumphalist, and there are a lot of Russian capabilities not employed yet." The Russian military has an established strategy for taking over hostile cities, one it has used in both Syria and Chechnya. The strategy revolves around firing missiles and bombs into residential neighborhoods, both to destroy infrastructure and to terrify civilians into fleeing, before advancing into the city on the ground, as my colleague Steven Erlanger explains. Many analysts predict that Putin will take a similar approach in Ukraine, killing thousands of civilians to avoid a humiliating quagmire. "A big fear among U.S. military officials is that Russia, having suffered initial setbacks, will unleash a huge bombardment of missiles and airstrikes on not only Kyiv, but other cities where there's serious resistance," my colleague Eric Schmitt said. Still, there is a high degree of uncertainty about what will happen in the coming days. Ukrainian troops and civilians continue to resist the invasion. "It's amazing how citizens have fought back," said Valerie Hopkins, a Times correspondent now in Kyiv. They have thrown Molotov cocktails, engaged Russian troops in street fights and even tried to repel Russian tanks with their bodies. "The spirit is very strong," Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, told Michelle Goldberg of Times Opinion. Ukrainians' efforts to defend their country are having an effect. Russia has not yet won control of the airspace over Ukraine, and the Ukrainian military has been surprisingly successful at downing Russian planes and helicopters. "But American analysts have always said air defenses were one of Ukraine's main vulnerabilities," Eric added, "so we'll see how long they can keep it up." The U.S. and its allies are also trying to help Ukraine — albeit without sending troops. Western European countries are sending ammunition, missiles and other equipment, while Turkey has sent drones that seem to have played a role in destroying Russian convoys. The U.S., E.U. and Britain — after initially imposing relatively cautious sanctions against Russia, as I explained last week — have also become more aggressive in the last few days. In line for an A.T.M. in Moscow on Sunday.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times The ruble's rout At the heart of those sanctions are measures to isolate Russian banks, including the country's central bank, effectively strangling the Russian economy by denying it cash. Switzerland yesterday said it was departing from its usual policy of neutrality and freezing Russian assets in its banks, which many oligarchs use. The Biden administration, similarly, said that it was freezing the Russian central bank's assets in the U.S. "The move on the central bank is absolutely shocking in its sweeping wording," Adam Tooze, the director of the European Institute at Columbia University, told The Times. (Tooze goes into more detail about economic warfare on the latest episode of "The Ezra Klein Show.") There are early signs that the sanctions are having some of their intended effects. The ruble has lost about 20 percent of its value versus the euro since Sunday. Russian stocks have plummeted, too. A declining currency reduces the buying power of Russian consumers and businesses, by making all foreign goods more expensive. The falling currency and stock prices also seem to be causing anxiety among many Russians. In some cities, customers have lined up at A.T.M.s, fearful that cash will run out. "Such economic instability could stoke popular unhappiness and even unrest," my colleagues Patricia Cohen and Jeanna Smialek note. Russia "got a bloody nose in the early days of the war," said Michael Kofman, a military expert at CNA, a think tank near Washington. "However, we are only at the beginning of this war, and much of the euphoric optimism about the way the first 96 hours have gone belies the situation on the ground and the reality that the worst may yet be to come." More on Ukraine A convoy of Russian armed forces stretching approximately 40 miles is moving closer to Kyiv. After yesterday's talks between Ukraine and Russia yielded no resolution, the delegations are planning to meet again in coming days. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will investigate possible war crimes in the invasion. Three members of Russia's Parliament publicly criticized the war, a rare show of dissent. The Russian police have arrested hundreds of protesters as demonstrations continue. In signs of Russia's isolation, Shell is pulling out of joint ventures with the gas giant Gazprom, and FIFA suspended the country from international soccer competitions. The shunning of Russia is also happening with canceled concerts, vodkas coming off shelves and more. At least half a million refugees have fled Ukraine, this map shows. The Ukrainian refugee crisis is a chance for the West to live up to its values, David Miliband, a British former foreign secretary, argues in Times Opinion. THE LATEST NEWS The Virus Virginia Broman, 5, getting a Pfizer shot in Albuquerque.Paul Ratje for The New York Times Pfizer's vaccine prevents severe illness in children ages 5 to 11 but offers little protection against infection, data from New York State suggest. California, Oregon and Washington will stop requiring masks in schools. Politics Abortion rights advocates in Washington last year.Tom Brenner for The New York Times Senate Republicans — joined by Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia — blocked an abortion rights bill that would have codified Roe v. Wade. Republican congressional leaders criticized Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar for participating in an event organized by a white supremacist. Conservatives on the Supreme Court seemed skeptical of the E.P.A.'s power to regulate emissions from power plants. The House overwhelmingly passed a bill to make lynching a hate crime. It heads to the Senate. The midterms officially begin today with a primary in Texas. Here are some key themes. Andrew Cuomo is running TV ads in New York recasting himself as the victim of his sexual harassment scandal. Other Big Stories When doomsday climate reports fail to prompt change, what can scientists do? Some want to go on strike. A man fatally shot his three children, as well as an adult accompanying them, at a church in California. Carjacking has made a resurgence in the U.S. over the past two years. Many of those arrested are startlingly young. Opinions President Biden will deliver his State of the Union address tonight. Four Times Opinion columnists drafted the speeches they'd like to see him give. "A good test both of who I was and what I could do": Jimin Kang gave up English for Lent. Subscribe Today A subscription to The New York Times plays a vital role in making this reporting possible. We hope you will support Times journalism by becoming a subscriber today. MORNING READS Biometric devices at a Whole Foods in Washington.Ting Shen for The New York Times High tech: At the grocery store of the future, just scan your palm. Genealogy: When an ancestry search reveals fertility fraud. A Times classic: The benefits of taking the slow road to love. Advice from Wirecutter: How to securely wipe your device. Lives Lived: Leonard Kessler wrote and illustrated hundreds of children's books, including "Mr. Pine's Purple House." He died at 101. ARTS AND IDEAS Horizon Forbidden WestGuerrilla Games Game season comes early There were an unusual number of big-budget video games released over the past two months, including a Pokémon game, the robo-dinosaur adventure Horizon Forbidden West, and Elden Ring, a fantasy epic co-written by the "Game of Thrones" creator George R.R. Martin. Normally, the busiest time for game releases is the holiday season. But several factors came together to make this a packed start to the year. One of them is Covid. When game studios around the world were forced to work from home, it took months to adjust to the new rhythm. Many developers subsequently delayed their games, resulting in an early 2022 pileup. Another factor, as Nicole Carpenter explains at Polygon, is that publishers are discovering that people will buy blockbuster games outside the holiday season. Horizon Zero Dawn, for instance, came out in February 2017 and sold well, which gave Sony confidence that its sequel, Forbidden West, could succeed in February five years later. — German Lopez, a Morning writer For more: A review in The Guardian calls Elden Ring "the finest video game yet made." PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook David Malosh for The New York Times These soy-glazed salmon hand rolls are rich and crunchy. What to Read In Jane Pek's debut novel, "The Verifiers," a sleuth starts researching digital Casanovas and finds herself involved in a possible murder. What to Watch See these 13 movies before they leave Netflix this month. Late Night The hosts talked about the war in Ukraine. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday's Spelling Bee was billboard. Here is today's puzzle — or you can play online. Here's today's Wordle. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Student (five letters). If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David P.S. Forty-three years ago, a satirical Italian newspaper reported that World War III had begun. Officials ordered the issues confiscated. Here's today's front page. "The Daily" is about citizens in Ukraine. Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti, Ashley Wu and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018