Ukraine Refuses to Surrender Mariupol

Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at the growing disaster in Mariupol, the world this week, and more news worth watching from around the world.

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Ukrainian authorities have refused a Russian ultimatum to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol. Whereas offensives elsewhere in the country have stalled, the strategically valuable southern city of Mariupol has seen steady Russian advances. On Friday, Russian forces moved into to the center of the city, finally breaking through three tiers of fortifications.

As heavy fighting continues, reports depict the city as a hell on earth, with locals forced to scout out parks for fresh water and eat dogs for food. City authorities on Thursday said that 80 percent of residential housing in the city has been destroyed; 30,000 people are estimated to have left the city so far, while 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the war.

The dire situation facing Mariupol’s residents extends outside the city, as claims of forced deportations across the border to Russia proliferate. The allegations, which have originated from Ukrainian officials, have yet to be verified but have already been preemptively condemned by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as “unconscionable” and “disturbing.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has already described Russia’s actions in the city as war crimes, and on Sunday he described the siege as a “terror that will be remembered for centuries.”

External pressure to end the conflict is expected to increase this week as U.S. President Joe Biden joins his European Union and NATO counterparts for meetings on Thursday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who has been mediating between his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, told local media on Sunday he was “hopeful” that a cease-fire could soon take hold.

Along with Turkey, Poland and Israel have been singled out as key mediators by Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky and member of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation. In a late announcement on Sunday, the White House confirmed that Biden would also visit Poland as part of his European travels and will hold a bilateral meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Friday.

Monday, March 21: U.S. Senate confirmation hearings begin for Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee to replace Justin Stephen Breyer on the nine-person Supreme Court.

The 56th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change opens and runs until April 1.

Tuesday, March 22: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the Italian parliament via video.

The United Nations marks World Water Day.

Wednesday, March 23: Biden travels to Brussels for a two-day visit. He is scheduled to attend the EU leaders’ summit and an extraordinary meeting of NATO leaders to discuss Ukraine.

The International Energy Agency holds a ministerial-level meeting, with U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and climate envoy John Kerry expected to attend from the U.S. side.

Zelensky addresses the French National Assembly and Senate via video.

Thursday, March 24: European Council leaders’ summit begins in Brussels.

NATO leaders hold extraordinary meeting in Brussels.

Friday, March 25: Biden visits Poland and holds a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faces a no-confidence motion in parliament.

Young people and students around the world hold a global strike to call for more aggressive policies to address global warming.

Saturday, March 26: Today marks seven years since a Saudi-led coalition began its war against Houthis in Yemen.

Malta holds parliamentary elections.

Sunday, March 27: European summer time begins. Clocks go forward one hour.

Modi meets Morrison. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison hold a virtual summit today, after which the two leaders will announce new agreements on trade, technology, and defense. Modi and Morrison are also expected to discuss Ukraine, a war that has shown the limits of the Quad partnership as the two countries remain split on the approach to Russia. 

China’s COVID-19 wave. The Chinese city of Jilin will begin a three-day lockdown of its 4.5 million residents this evening as authorities deal with a wave of new coronavirus infections driven by the omicron variant; 4,000 new infections were reported nationwide on Sunday as cities move to tighten movement restrictions to halt further spread. On Friday, China announced its first recorded COVID-19 deaths since January 2021 after two people died of the illness.

Although China’s cases are high by the country’s standards, they are only a fraction of the U.S. caseload, which averages roughly 30,000 new infections and more than 1,000 deaths each day.

Khan in trouble. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faces a vote of no-confidence in parliament this Friday as the opposition coalition presses its advantage following a string of defections from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Khan called for those wayward lawmakers to return to his party in a rally on Sunday, and he called for a “million-man” rally on March 27 to back his leadership.

EU-U.S. trade. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has called for the revival of discussions on an EU-U.S. trade deal after they ran aground during the presidency of Donald Trump. Speaking to German daily Handelsblatt, Lindner said the Ukraine crisis had highlighted “how important free trade is with partners in the world who share our values” and said any deal must learn from the mistakes of the earlier Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which European critics argued would have lowered food, environmental, and consumer protection standards.

China plane crash. A China Eastern Boeing 737 en route from Kunming to Guangzhou has crashed with more than 130 people on board near the city of Wuzhou in the southern Guangxi province, causing a fire in the mountains, according to CCTV. Rescue teams have been sent to the scene, but there were no reports of the number of dead and injured at the time of writing.

Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, joins Foreign Policy editor in chief Ravi Agrawal for a live and interactive discussion on Russia’s war in Ukraine today at 12:30 p.m. EDT. Subscribers can register here.

And on Tuesday, March 22, join International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath to discuss the current global economic outlook, how the war in Ukraine is fueling inflation, and the world’s post-pandemic recovery. Registration for this public livestream can be found here.

Over the weekend, the Washington Post brought us the delightful, if slightly disturbing, story of Shoji Morimoto, or Rental-san as he is known in his native Japan, the man his clients hire to do nothing. Morimoto has built a business and viral fame on the promise that he will show up when required and simply be: His jobs have included waiting at the end of a marathon so a runner could see a familiar face, silently accompanying a recently divorced woman to lunch, and sitting nearby to prevent a student from slacking off from their studies.

Morimoto feels he fills a niche as a social pressure release valve. “I think when people are feeling vulnerable or are in their intimate moments, they become more sensitive toward people that are close to them, like how they will be perceived, or the kind of actions they will take for them,” he said. “So I think they want to just reach out to a stranger without any strings attached.”