US likely to have six rate hikes this year, two more in 2023 - Atlanta fed chief

"I predict six rate hikes this year and two more next year", Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta Fed, told a live-streamed event. "I am comfortable with more aggressive rate hikes if the data suggests that's appropriate".

🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺 The United States is sending some of the Soviet-made air defense systems, which it acquired as part of a clandestine program decades ago, to Ukraine to help it fight Russia, The Wall Street Journal reports.

❗️The weapons are decades old and include the SA-8. The US obtained them to “examine” the technology used by the Russian military and help with training American forces.

❗️🇺🇸🇨🇳✈️ The Boeing Company said it was in contact with the US National Transportation Safety Board after the 737 crash in China. "Our technical experts are prepared to assist with the investigation led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Boeing said.

🇺🇸🇺🇦 Ukrainian nationalists have attacked a children's hospital in Donetsk, destroying it, the famous Donbass volunteer of the first wave, and now a military commissar who tied his fate with Donbass, former US soldier Russell Bentley tells Sputnik.

👀 Joe Biden says there is “evolving intelligence” that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks against the US

❗️ DPR air defence systems intercepted two Tochka-U missiles over Makeevka, DPR authorities report

US condemns Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia over weekend

"We condemn the weekend attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Iran-supported Houthis and will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory", Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

⚡️ Russian MoD: Kiev ordered nationalist battalions to disguise as civilians to leave Mariupol

US believes it is important to maintain channels of communication with Russia - US State Department

❗️ Catch up with the Russian MoD's latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️At 2am on March 20, Kiev turned down proposals for evacuation from Mariupol

▪️Some 6,267 Ukranianians requested evacuation to Russia in one day

▪️In Odessa and Chernigov, patients are being discharged from hospitals so that nationalists can equip the facilities with fire points

▪️In Nikolaev men are shot on the spot if they refuse to join Ukrainian territorial defence fighters

▪️Some 16,054 people were evacuated from dangerous areas of Ukraine, DPR and LPR to Russia in one day, without participation of the Kiev authorities

⚡️ Psaki: White House has not explored option of Biden visiting Ukraine

Latest on Arkansas Car Show Shooting

🔹 One man was killed and 27 people were wounded when two people got into a gunfight during a car show that’s part of an annual community event in a small southeast Arkansas town, authorities said Sunday.

🔹 A person who left the scene of the Saturday evening shooting has been arrested on unrelated charges and is being questioned about the shooting in Dumas, Arkansas State Police Col. Bill Bryant said.

🔹 “All we know at this time, there was two individuals that got in a gunfight,” Bryant said at a Sunday afternoon news conference. He said several children were among the wounded, including two under the age of 2.

🔹 The car show is part of a community event held each spring called Hood-Nic, which is short for neighborhood picnic.

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🛢 Workers go on strike at northern California refinery owned by Chevron

More than 500 workers at a Chevron Corp. refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area went on strike early Monday in a contract dispute. It came after workers voted down Chevron’s most recent contract offer and the company refused to return to the bargaining table.

If the strike shuts down the refinery, which seems likely, it could negatively affect the already high gasoline prices in California, a state with highest regular gas price in the nation, at $5.86 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.

Chevron representatives complained that in Richmond, where the refinery is located, the union’s demands “exceeded what the company believes to be reasonable and moved beyond what was agreed to as part of the national pattern bargaining agreement.”

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📊 Pence distances himself from Trump as he eyes 2024 campaign

Last month, Pence called out Trump by name, saying his former boss was “wrong” to insist that the former US VP had the power to unilaterally overturn the results of the 2020 election — a power vice presidents do not possess.

Pence has spent the past several months traveling the country, delivering policy speeches, raising money for midterm candidates and visiting early-voting states, while working on a pair of books. In the coming months, he is planning a return visit to Iowa, which holds the party’s first nominating contests of the presidential election cycle.

His political group, Advancing American Freedom, announced a $10 million ad campaign to support an expansion of American energy production. Still, early polls show that Trump remains the decisive favorite among GOP voters if the one-term US president chooses to mount another run. Without Trump in the race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis so far appears to be an early favorite.

🌪 Multiple tornadoes leave damage across southern US

Tornadoes, hail and strong winds followed a front that inched its way across parts of Texas Monday. There were multiple tornadoes spotted across North and Central Texas in areas like Jacksboro, Luling and Round Rock.The tornado ripped through a high school with kids inside in Jacksboro, Texas. Fortunately, everyone was reportedly safe. 

Hail came down in San Antonio. Residents in that area snapped photos of pea and golf ball-sized hail that fell throughout the day.  The line of thunderstorms is nearing its way to the Houston area where a tornado watch remains in effect until 10 p.m. local time and flash flooding remains a concern until Tuesday morning.

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📡 Russian media must mark the Meta company as an organization banned in the country, Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

🗣 "According to Article 4 of the Russian law "On Media", when distributing information, Russian media are obliged to mark such an organization and its social networks in their editorial materials. The marking must contain an indication that its activities in Russia are prohibited," it said.

Roskomnadzor said the responsibility for the media for the lack of such marking comes after the Russian Ministry of Justice includes an extremist organization in the corresponding list.

🗣 "Russian media are not allowed to display the logo of the Meta Platforms Inc. organization and its social networks Facebook and Instagram either," it said.

Roskomnadzor said it will exclude Instagram and Facebook from the register of social networks, and the Meta company from the list of foreign entities operating in the internet in Russia.

🚫 Moscow's Tverskoy Court on Monday banned Facebook and Instagram in Russia for extremist activity, but made an exception for WhatsApp.

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