• Joe Biden will meet with Nato alliance leaders and the European Commission next week about the situation in Ukraine.
• Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, 24, were killed when their vehicle was struck by incoming fire. Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was also wounded in the incident.
• Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her nomination for Federal Reserve Board following staunch opposition from Republicans.
• The White House is warning of dire consequences should Covid-19 relief funding remain stalled in Congress.

That’s all for today – thanks for following along. You can keep up to date with news from Ukraine here, in our dedicated live blog:

While Joe Biden hasn’t changed his stance on facilitating the Polish fighter jets to Ukraine or establishing a no-fly zone, it looks like there’s still some movement in Congress to exert some pressure.

Sherrod Brown, the chair of the Senate banking committee, has made a comment on Sarah Bloom Raskin:

Joe Biden has issued a statement about Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrawing her nomination from the Federal Reserve Board:

After serving as the second-in-command at treasury and with prior service on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Sarah Bloom Raskin knows better than anyone how important the Federal Reserve is to fighting inflation and continuing a sustainable economic recovery. She has unparalleled experience pursuing solutions to enhance our country’s critical financial infrastructure, with expertise in cybersecurity and climate risk, and protecting consumers in the financial marketplace.

Sarah’s nomination had broad support—from the banking and financial services community, former members of the Board of Governors, multiple Nobel Prize winners, consumer advocates, and respected economists from around the country. That experience and support are among the many reasons why I nominated Sarah to be the vice chair for supervision, a critical role in regulating our nation’s financial institutions.

Despite her readiness—and despite having been confirmed by the Senate with broad, bipartisan support twice in the past—Sarah was subject to baseless attacks from industry and conservative interest groups. Unfortunately, senate Republicans are more focused on amplifying these false claims and protecting special interests than taking important steps toward addressing inflation and lowering costs for the American people.

I am grateful for Sarah’s service to our country and for her willingness to serve again, and I look forward to her future contributions to our country.

I urge the senate banking committee to move swiftly to confirm the four eminently qualified nominees for the Board of Governors—Jerome Powell, Lael Brainard, Philip Jefferson, and Lisa Cook—who are still waiting for an up-or-down vote. This group has the experience, judgment, and talent necessary to lead the Federal Reserve at this critical moment in our economic recovery, and the senate should move their nominations forward.

Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova was killed in the same attack that killed Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and wounded Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall yesterday.

This comes a few days after Brent Renaud, an award-winning US film-maker, was killed reportedly by Russian forces in the town of Irpin. A US photographer, Juan Arredondo, was wounded in the same incident.

More than half of Americans do not think Joe Biden will run for re-election in 2024, a new poll has found.

The poll, conducted by the Wall Street Journal between 2-7 March, revealed that 52% of Americans do not think Biden, 79, will run again in two years while 29% expect him to do so.

41% of Democrats indicated that they think Biden will pursue re-election while 32% said otherwise. 26% remained uncertain.

Biden has said that he plans to run. At the first formal news conference of his presidency, he said: “My answer is yes. I plan on running for re-election. That’s my expectation.”

In December, Biden reiterated his plans to run again, telling ABC News: “If I’m in the health I’m in now, if I’m in good health, then in fact, I would run again.”

In 2021, Biden made history by being the oldest American president sworn in for the firt time. Before that, Donald Trump was the oldest president inaugurated for the first time, at 70.

The WSJ poll also revealed that 49% of Americans expect Trump to run for a third time while 27% did not. Just under a quarter of voters remained unsure.

Among Republicans, 60% believed Trump will pursue reelection.

Asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical rematch, voters were split 45%-45%, unchanged since the WSJ’s previous poll, in November.

Following staunch opposition from the Republicans, Sarah Bloom Raskin has withdrawn her nomination from the Federal Reserve Board, the New Yorker is reporting.

Republicans last month boycotted a meeting to vote the nominations for Federal Reserve Board – including the chair – to the next step in the process because of their opposition to Raskin.

In particular, they were concerned that her views on the climate crisis could harm fossil fuel companies. In addition, she is married to Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, who helped lead the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

But the White House has stood by their nomination, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying yesterday, “She is one of the most qualified individuals to be nominated to this position.”

Though the White House said they would work on garnering bipartisan support for Bloom after senator Joe Manchin announced he would be parting with the Democrats on this vote, Psaki would not confirm any actual Republicans they had on board.

Joe Biden said the US and its allies were overcoming “exceedingly difficult” conditions to get humanitarian supplies into Ukraine.

Speaking at the White House, as he signed the consolidated appropriations act into law, the president said his administration’s priority was to provide essential supplies for civilians suffering during the “rapidly evolving crisis” caused by Russian attacks.

“We’re airlifting emergency relief supplies in staging positions in the region, thermal blankets, water treatment equipment, so they can be shipped into Ukraine,” the president said. “Essentials like soap, laundry detergent, simple sounding things to refugees who fled really with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

“It’s exceedingly difficult to get supplies into Ukraine while the Russian onslaught continues. But we’re managing to get supplies in… thanks to the bravery of so many frontline workers who are still at their posts.”

Biden said the world food program, with US support, had purchased 20,000 metric tons of food “to address the growing needs of individuals affected by this conflict” at refugee reception centers in countries neighboring Ukraine.

“With billions more included in this bill for new humanitarian assistance, we’re going to be able to quickly ramp up our response and help alleviate the suffering that Putin’s war is causing the Ukrainian people in the region.” Biden added.

The US Congress last week passed a $13.6bn aid package for Ukraine, which Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said was more than double what Biden’s administration originally asked for.

• Joe Biden will travel to Brussels next week to meet with the leaders of the Nato alliance and the European Commission about the war in Ukraine.
• The announcement of the trip comes as pressure on Biden grows to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine and to facilitate the transfer of fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s stance on those points have not changed.
• The White House warned of dire consequences if Covid relief funding remains stalled in Congress.
• Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called for the White House to pull their nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin for Federal Reserve board following yesterday’s announcement from Democratic senator Joe Manchin saying he will not vote to confirm her.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the administration is having “ongoing internal discussions about how we can play the most effective role in supporting the large number of refugees who are coming out of Ukraine” but would not reveal anything more about actually bringing refugees to the US.

Psaki said most of the assistance the US has been providing in terms of the refugee crisis has been in the “large number of humanitarian assistance that we are providing not just to Ukraine but to neighboring countries that are providing a haven for refugees as they’re leaving Ukraine.”

When pushed further, Psaki said, “The president would welcome Ukrainians coming here. Currently they can apply through the refugee process, but we’re discussing what other options may exist.”

Russia today announced personal sanctions against Joe Biden and a number of other administration officials, including White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

When asked about the sanctions at today’s press briefing, Psaki responded, “I would first note that President Biden is a junior, so they may have sanctioned his dad, may he rest in peace.”

She continued: “The second piece I would say that won’t surprise any of you is that none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia and none of us have bank accounts that we won’t be able to access, so we will just forge ahead.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki took a moment at the beginning of the briefing to go off on how the US has struck Russia on an economic front since the invasion began:

“We’ve made President Putin’s war of choice a strategic failure,” she said. “The unprecedented cost we imposed with allies and partners have reversed 30 years of economic progress, something that President Putin himself has pushed for, and that has happened in less than a month.

She continued: “It hard at the things that President Putin cares for the most – degrading his military, access to cutting edge technology, an ability to exert power and influence.”

Psaki pointed out that with the central bank reserves, about half of Putin’s war chest has been immobilized. “He can’t use these rainy day funds to support his war in Ukraine,” she said.

Psaki continued: “The ruble is less than penny. It’s the worst performing emerging market currency. The Russian stock market has been closed for nearly three weeks, the longest in its history as they try to prevent a market crash. Inflation in Russia is rampant. Some forecasters are predicting 20% inflation for Russia by the end of the year. Trillions in dollars of businesses have been disrupted by sanctions, putting the Russian financial sector in severe stress. The economic outlook for the country. Forecasters around the world are projecting a collapse for the country.”

In the private sector, major companies either have left or are leaving Russia as world leaders look to “ratchet up pressure on Putin’s oligarchs”. Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, and attorney general Merrick Garland will tomorrow announce the creation of the Russian elite proxies and oligarchs multilateral task force as “a way to go after corrupt gains of some of the individuals closest to Putin,” Psaki said.

In terms of security assistance, the omnibus package that the president is secheduled to sign this afternoon will provide $13.6bn for Ukraine. That comes in addition to the $1.2bn in security assistance already provided, including $550m in the last two weeks. Psaki noted that Biden has also approved four emergency security assistance packages to provide Ukraine with “the type of weapons they are using so effectively to defend their country”.

Despite rising pressure from Congress and the public, Joe Biden remained steady on his stance on establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine and facilitating getting the fighter jets in Poland to Ukraine.

“Nothing has changed about the analysis that the Department of Defense has provided last week,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Because of the challenges in delivery and the impact, providing these would be greater risk than there would be benefit.”

The way the US has been aiding Ukrainians in their fight against Russian aggression is by “providing the type of military assistance and equipment that the Ukrainians have used to push back and fight in the last 19 days. “That is what we will continue to do with the omnibus,” Psaki said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki kicked off today’s press briefing by warning of “dire consequences” should Covid-19 relief funding remains stalled in Congress.

The White House had originally requested $22.5bn in Covid relief funding, which Democrats negotiated down to $15bn. Ultimately, however, the funding had to be taken out of the $1.5tn omnibus package in order for it to pass.

Psaki warned that without the funding, there will be “fewer monoclonal antibodies sent to states, an inability to purchase additional treatments, fewer tests, less surveillance for future variants and a risk of running short on vaccines.”

Democrats have expressed frustration with how the White House has handled the funding issue, but Psaki made it clear that the administration has been communicating with Congress about the funding since January, in more than three dozen calls and meetings and briefings with committees.

“With cases rising abroad, scientific and medical experts have been clear that in the next couple of months, there could be increasing cases of Covid-19 here in the United States as well,” Psaki said. “Waiting to provide funding until we’re in a worse spot with the virus could be too late. We need more funding now so that we’re prepared for whatever.”

Joe Biden will travel to Brussels next week to meet with the leaders of the Nato alliance and the European Commission to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Biden’s planned 24 March meeting at today’s press briefing.

Joe Biden came into the White House vowing to restore American leadership on the world stage. But the tumultuous end to the war in Afghanistan last year shook Americans’ confidence, raising doubts about Biden’s competence and judgment and sending his approval rating tumbling.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given Biden a second chance to demonstrate the steady leadership he promised, raising hopes among Democrats that the White House’s efforts to punish Moscow for its shocking aggression will resonate with voters in this year’s midterm elections.

But Democrats face stiff headwinds in their attempt to defy historical trends and maintain their narrow majorities in Congress. Among their biggest obstacles are Biden’s deep unpopularity and the rising cost of gas, food and rent, for which Republicans have faulted Democrats.

At the Democrats’ annual retreat in Philadelphia last week, party leaders spoke of a world – and an electorate – reshaped by Russia’s invasion of its democratic neighbor. They said the conflict provided a new clarity of purpose – and a new villain: Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

As the war in Ukraine threatens to push already rising gas prices even higher, Democrats are blaming “Putin’s tax hike”. At the same time, they are touting the administration’s role coordinating a worldwide response to Russia, and the devastating impact of economic sanctions, highlighting a contrast with former president Donald Trump, who has continued to praise Putin.

Full story:

The White House is reopening again for public tours.