🚫 Minneapolis teachers celebrate tentative deal to end strike

Teachers in Minneapolis reached a tentative agreement early Friday to end a more than two-week strike over pay and other issues that idled some 29,000 students and around 4,500 educators and staff in one of Minnesota’s largest school districts.

Across the country, unions are seizing the opportunity posed by tight labor markets to recover some of the power they lost in recent decades. And experts expect to see more labor gains as the country emerges from the pandemic.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering changes that could make it easier for federal workers and contractors to unionize.

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📉 A third of Americans polled expect their finances to get worse this year

Between slowing wage growth, widespread supply chain problems and sky-high inflation, it's no surprise most Americans aren't feeling great about the economy. The reading comes after government data showed the average hourly wage rising by just $0.01, or 0.03%, in February

Thirty-two percent of surveyed adults in a poll expect their finances to worsen over the next 12 months, the University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers said in a Friday report. That's the largest-recorded share since the survey started in the mid-1940s.

The only two periods to feature bleaker financial sentiments since the survey was first conducted were the recession of the early 1980s and the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

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🎵 Spotify suspends services in Russia

Spotify removed content from RT and Sputnik News and closed its office in Russia earlier in March, but this new step goes further by shutting down the streaming service across the entire country. The company also said in March that its paid subnoscription service would no longer be available in Russia.

“After carefully considering our options and the current circumstances, we have come to the difficult decision to fully suspend our service in Russia.” The company expects for service to be fully-suspended by early April, a spokesperson said.

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❌ YouTube has blocked the channel of Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus.

▪️ Recently, the pranker channel published several videos with British Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace, as well as Home Secretary Priti Patel. Both conversations were conducted by the pranksters on behalf of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

▪️ While Wallace revealed that the UK was running out of NLAW missiles amid deliveries to Ukraine, Patel suggested that Britain was ready to deprive Russians of basic rights.

▪️ The prankers have already confirmed the blocking and provided a link to their Rutube account.

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❗️ The Russian MoD's latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ The Russian armed forces are fighting for the liberation of Novomikhailovka and Novobakhmutovka, striking strongholds and reservists.

▪️ Kalibr missiles destroyed a warehouse with ammunition and weapons in the Zhitomir region of Ukraine on March 25.

▪️ An "Onyx" cruise missile destroyed a fuel base in the Nikolaev region, supplying a grouping of Ukrainian troops in the south of the country with fuel.

▪️ 117 military installations of Ukraine were hit over the past 24 hours, including command posts, one S-300 air defence system, and three installations of multiple launch rocket systems.

▪️ Russian air defences shot down two Ukrainian Su-25s and one Su-24, as well as 6 drones in the air over Vishnevo.

▪️ A tactical Tochka-U missile complex was destroyed by the Russian armed forces in the air over the village of Vasilievka.

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⚡️ One civilian dead, 54 injured, including four children, in DPR over past day - People's Militia

📹 The Russian armed forces delivered more than seven 7 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the residents of a settlement near Chernigov.

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📹 Footage depicting a strike by Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea on Ukrainian military depots in the Zhitomir region.

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📹 The Russian Defence Ministry has published footage showing the destruction of a Ukrainian command post by Ka-52 helicopters.

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⚡️ The Russian armed forces destroyed a Ukrainian Buk air defence system near Kiev using an Iskander missile, the Russian MoD says

⚡️📹 The Russian MoD has shown footage of the destruction of a Ukrainian Buk air defence system

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⚡️ Turkey holds talks with Moscow and Kiev over a mine in the Bosphorus Strait, coordination continues - Ministry of Defense

📍 A Maryland judge has ruled that a district map drawn up by the state's General Assembly is an unconstitutional gerrymander that unfairly favours Democrats.

▪️ In a 94-page ruling, Judge Lynne Battaglia ordered the Democratic-controlled state legislature to try again to draw a new congressional district map by 30 March.

▪️ She claimed that the current document supports the argument that "the voice of Republican voters was diluted and their right to vote and be heard with the efficacy of a Democratic voter was diminished".

READ THE FULL STORY

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☺️ Centenary University will offer the world's first master's degree programme in "Happiness Studies", said its President Bruce Murphy.

👏 Approved by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Murphy said he feels positive about the programme "designed to promote well-being and resilience in the midst of current world stress".

🤑 Centenary University's programme will "explore the implications of happiness for individuals, the workplace, and our broader society", according to the college's announcement. It's set to launch virtually in the fall and will cost students $17,700.

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⚡️ The Finnish railway company VR Transpoint is suspending the reception of trains from Russia from March 27 due to sanctions against Russian Railways

⚡️📹 A deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Marine Corps Battalion in civilian clothes has been detained on the road out of Mariupol.

He said that servicemen from the 503rd Marine Corps Battalion had left their combat positions and were trying to break out of the encirclement in small groups.

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