Monday, Feb. 21

· President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to a summit over the Ukraine crisis as long as Russia does not invade Ukraine, per a statement from the office of French President Emmanuel Macron. These tentative plans were scuttled the following day when Russia began to take actionable steps toward invasion.

· China announced new sanctions on United States defense contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin after the U.S. approved a $100 million deal for the two firms to provide maintenance for Taiwan’s missile defense systems.

· As central bankers face what they describe as the “hottest” inflation since 1982, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman recommended implementing a quarter to half percent increase in federal interest rates in March if new data on inflation come in too high.

Tuesday, Feb. 22

· Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after Russia recognized two separatist regions in Ukraine as independent entities, which the U.S. interpreted as a signal for invasion. “Now that we see the invasion is beginning and Russia has made clear its wholesale rejection of diplomacy, it does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time,” Blinken said.

· Biden announced the “first tranche” of sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. “We’re implementing sanctions on Russia’s sovereign debt. That means we’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Biden said. The measures also target two large financial institutions and Russian “elites,” who Biden said, “share the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well.”

· The Supreme Court rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to block the release of White House records related to last year’s attack on the Capitol to a House committee investigating the incident, marking the formal end of the line for Trump’s legal fight against their release.

· The State Department restricted the importation of cultural and historical items from Afghanistan to “prevent illicitly trafficked materials from entering the U.S. art market, thus reducing the incentive for pillage of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage and combating profit from the sale of these cultural objects by terrorists and criminal organizations.” These items include ceramics, paintings, glass, ivory, ancient textiles, tiles and wood pieces.

Wednesday, Feb. 23

· Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $450 million in competitive grants from Biden’s infrastructure law would go toward congested U.S. ports in an effort to reduce bottlenecks that have slowed the flow of goods and pushed up costs.

· The State Department announced sanctions on alleged members of a network financing Yemen’s Houthi rebels, explaining that the network “has transferred tens of millions of dollars to Yemen via a complex international network of intermediaries in support of the Houthis’ attacks.”

· The first offshore wind lease sale under Biden received record-setting bids from companies seeking to participate in Biden’s plan to address global warming and decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, as well as create a new domestic industry offering thousands of jobs. The sale is for the development of wind energy farms in areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey.

· Biden sanctioned Nord Stream 2 AG, the company in charge of building Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. “These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine,” Biden said. “As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate.”

Thursday, Feb. 24

· Biden made a call to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he reaffirmed the U.S.’s alliance with Ukraine after Russia launched an overnight invasion of the country, vowing that the U.S. will “continue to provide support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”

· Biden announced further sanctions against Russia as a way to impose a “severe cost” on the country for its invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions target four Russian banks including the country’s largest bank, Sberbank, which collectively hold more than $1 trillion in assets, as well as six other financial institutions. The sanctions also impose export control measures that halve Russia’s high-tech imports. “Putin is the aggressor; Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said.

Friday, Feb. 25

· Biden nominated appeals court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. “For too long, our government, our courts, haven’t looked like America,” Biden said. “It’s time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications.”

· On top of other sanctions against Russia, the White House said it would soon sanction Putin directly. “In alignment with the decision by our European allies, the United States will join them in sanctioning President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov and members of the Russian national security team,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

· The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new COVID-19 guidelines that dramatically ease when people are required to wear masks indoors by breaking down areas into low, medium and high risk categories based on hospital capacity and cases, then making masking recommendations according to these categories.

· The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control moved to relax sanctions on the Taliban by issuing a measure that allows money transfers for taxes, fees, import duties and the purchase or receipt of permits, licenses or public utility services to civil servants in government agencies including ministries led by Taliban officials.

· The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said that it would force television personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Trump’s eldest son Donald Jr., to testify after she abruptly ended a voluntary interview with the panel.

Saturday, Feb. 26

· No news to report.

Sunday, Feb. 27

· After Putin declared that he was putting his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness,” the American ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield reminded the Security Council that Russia was “under no threat” and criticized Putin for “another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all.”