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Mariupol is under siege. Civilians are paying the price. · Apple News Today

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  Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Tuesday, March 15th. I'm Shumita Basu.
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  Duarte Geraldino, Narrating: And I'm Duarte Geraldino. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
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  Basu: Leaders from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia are traveling to Ukraine's capital today to show solidarity with the country. Russian attacks on Kyiv have intensified again, with strikes hitting residential neighborhoods. Meanwhile, further south and to the east, the city of Mariupol has been the target of Russian forces for the past few days. Ukraine's government says thousands of civilians there have been killed. It says electricity, heat, and water have been scarce, with people trapped for weeks under Russian shelling. A convoy of civilian cars was able to escape yesterday. It was the first successful evacuation after a week of attempts.
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  Geraldino: Aerial footage shows bombed out building and massive damage. An advisor to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, told NPR what he's seeing…
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  Petro Andryushchenko: It's absolutely terrible. It's absolutely destroyed now. It's more like ruin from a historical movie about WWII.
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  Basu: "Washington Post" correspondent Loveday Morris is in Ukraine, and she told us why Russian forces are hitting Mariupol so hard…
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  Loveday Morris: Mariupol is hugely important to Russia because it sits between Crimea, which Russia annexed back in 2014, and the areas of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russian-backed separatists. If Russia controls Mariupol, it has a land bridge between the two, so that makes it of huge importance.
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  Morris told us there is nationwide interest in what's been happening in this city…
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  Morris: Last week we had the bombing of the children's hospital and the maternity hospital, and those really searing images that came out from at that. There's been very little Reporting from Mariupol, obviously, because it's completely cut off.
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  Geraldino: That makes it challenging to know what's going on there. Morris says she's been able to get a window into what's happening through a woman who's from there. She was out of town when the attack began, now she's cut off from her family.
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  Morris: She spoke to her daughter and her husband, and they told her they were sheltering underground with 4,000 other people and there was very little in the way of food or water. There was water being brought round because they were in such a large shelter with so many people, but it was not clean water. Her husband said they were running out of food and it was a really desperate situation.
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  That woman said she wanted to try to get there to be with them, but her husband told her "don't come."
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  Basu: The pandemic has been rough on the economy in a lot of ways. For many of us, it changed the way we're spending and saving money. New reporting in "The Hill" highlights one area that's, surprisingly, rolling in money right now: state governments. States across America are racking up tax revenue, way more than they planned for. It's a windfall that some warn could go as quickly as it came.
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  Geraldino: We've talked a lot about factors that are causing both wages and prices to go up right now. Regular folks don't necessarily win with that particular combination of factors because, even if you earn more money, inflation forces you to pay more for almost everything you want to buy. But this combo is actually a big deal for states. When both salaries and retail prices go up, people pay more in personal income taxes, and states, they bring in more revenue from sales taxes.
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  Basu: "The Hill" explains how big a turnaround this is for states. In the beginning of the pandemic, there were mass layoffs and lockdowns. That had local leaders worried about terrible budget shortfalls. But the economy recovered. The National Conference of State Legislatures calls it "a total 180."
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  Geraldino: But that turnaround doesn't mean all is well. One state budget expert points out states are raking it in in part because people's spending habits changed during the pandemic. That was good for state tax revenue growth. But if this behavior switches back, states could be in for a nasty surprise.
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  Basu: Many states are now facing a kind of nice problem to have, which is: what to do with all this extra money? Some of these decisions fall on party lines. States under Democratic control are considering one-time direct payments to taxpayers. Republicans are pushing for tax cuts.
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  Geraldino: That state budget researcher has a warning for policymakers: double-digit revenue growth won't last forever. Lawmakers shouldn't let fat accounts now tempt them into making moves that'll hurt later.
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  Basu: Maybe you've seen video of giant boats running nets through the ocean just to pull out plastic garbage. All that human trash pollutes the water and makes life worse for sea creatures, so maybe it feels good to see someone scoop it out. But those flashy efforts to take plastic out of the ocean might do more harm than good.
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  Geraldino: Vox's environmental reporter, Benji Jones, he makes that argument. This is his specialty, y'know, counter-intuitive, surprising takes. He's the one that often tells people who are looking one way that the real story is actually somewhere else.
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  Basu: And, to be clear, he's not saying we shouldn't worry about plastic trash in the ocean. It is a real problem. But some of the things we're trying to do about it are futile, and maybe even damaging.
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  Geraldino: Marine scientists say ocean trash operations often use nets that can hurt sea creatures. It's hard to pick up plastic bottles without accidentally trapping fish, turtles, or other animals we want to protect. There's this misconception that there's a giant patch of plastic, all stuck together in the ocean. But here's the real deal: scientists say plastic pollution is spread out so its hard to snag without the risk of sea creatures getting caught up in the nets.
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  Basu: Also, sending big ships into the ocean uses fuel. That creates pollution which does environmental damage of its own.
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  Geraldino: Scientists tell "Vox" a better strategy is to focus on preventing plastic from getting into the ocean in the first place. Cleaning up trash from beaches can play a part, and there's very little carbon footprint. You can just walk out there and pick it up.
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  Basu: In many ways, the biggest problem is how much plastic we are using overall. When we use a lot of single-use plastic bags or takeout containers, some of them are bound to end up in the water. If we really want cleaner oceans, we have to change our behavior on land.
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  Geraldino: College basketball tournaments get underway this week. Remember last time how the NCAA was so heavily criticized for treating its men and women players differently? A Twitter post from a woman on Oregon's team captured that inequality. One photo showed this sprawling weight room for the men, filled with high-end gear. The other showed the women's training room. There was just a single rack of dumbbells and a couple of yoga mats.
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  Basu: So, the NCAA has gone ahead and made a bunch of changes this year. They're increasing the size of the women's field to have the same number of teams as men. Men's and women's teams will get the same souvenirs and lounges. There's also equal access to the names "Final Four" and "March Madness."
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  Geraldino: Yeah, this is an interesting one. Did you know that before this year, those famous phrases were officially only allowed to refer to men's games? This year, there will now be a men's Final Four and a women's Final Four, and both can be branded "March Madness."
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  Basu: "USA Today" sports columnist Nancy Armour says fans of women's sports should be skeptical. In many ways, the changes the NCAA is making are superficial. She wants to see the organization market and promote the women's tournament rather than treating it, like she says, like an "afterthought." She says the new moves are "a good start, but that's all they are, a start."
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  Geraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
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  Basu: And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News+ partners
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  Geraldino: We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
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