AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Relief for Kyiv? Russia vows to scale back near the capital

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced Tuesday it will significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war came into view at the latest round of talks.

Ukraine’s delegation at the conference, held in Istanbul, laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of other nations.

Moscow’s public reaction was positive, and the negotiations are expected to resume Wednesday, five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the country.

Amid the talks, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Moscow has decided to “fundamentally … cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations.”

He did not immediately spell out what that would mean in practical terms.

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Many in Mideast see hypocrisy in Western embrace of Ukraine

JERUSALEM (AP) — Within days of the Russian invasion, Western countries invoked international law, imposed crippling sanctions, began welcoming refugees with open arms and cheered on Ukraine’s armed resistance.

The response has elicited outrage across the Middle East, where many see a glaring double standard in how the West responds to international conflicts.

“We have seen every means we were told could not be activated for over 70 years deployed in less than seven days,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told a security forum in Turkey earlier this month.

“Amazing hypocrisy,” he added.

The U.S.-led war in Iraq, which began 19 years ago this month, was widely seen as an unlawful invasion of one state by another. But Iraqis who fought the Americans were branded terrorists, and refugees fleeing to the West were often turned away, treated as potential security threats.

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Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents typically say a few words before they turn legislation into law. But Joe Biden flipped the script Tuesday when it came time to put his signature on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.

He signed the bill at a desk in the White House Rose Garden. Then he spoke.

“All right. It’s law,” said the president, who was surrounded by Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress and top Justice Department officials. He was also joined by a descendant of Ida B. Wells, a Black journalist who reported on lynchings, and Rev. Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till.

Biden said it’s “a little unusual to do the bill signing, not say anything and then speak. But that’s how we set it up.”

He thanked the audience of civil rights leaders, Congressional Black Caucus members and other guests who kept pushing for the law for “never giving up, never ever giving up.”

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US opens second COVID boosters to 50 and up, others at risk

Americans 50 and older can get a second COVID-19 booster if it’s been at least four months since their last vaccination, a chance at extra protection for the most vulnerable in case the coronavirus rebounds.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for that age group and for certain younger people with severely weakened immune systems.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later recommended the extra shot as an option but stopped short of urging that those eligible rush out and get it right away. That decision expands the additional booster to millions more Americans.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC’s director, said it was especially important for older Americans — those 65 and older — and the 50-somethings with chronic illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes to consider another shot.

“They are the most likely to benefit from receiving an additional booster dose at this time,” Walensky said.

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8-hour gap in Trump’s Jan. 6 White House phone records

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has identified an almost 8-hour gap in official White House records of then-President Donald Trump’s phone calls as the violence unfolded and his supporters stormed the building, according to two people familiar with the probe.

The gap extends from a little after 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, and involves White House phone calls, according to one of the people. Both spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.

The committee is investigating the gap in the official White House log, which includes the switchboard and a daily record of the president’s activities. But it does not mean the panel is in the dark about what Trump was doing during that time.

The House panel has made broad requests for separate cell phone records and has talked to more than 800 witnesses, including many of the aides who spent the day with Trump. The committee also has thousands of texts from the cell phone of Mark Meadows, who was then Trump’s chief of staff.

The committee’s effort to piece together Trump’s day as his supporters broke into the Capitol underscores the challenge that his habitual avoidance of records laws poses — not only to historians of his tumultuous four years but to the House panel, which intends to capture the full story of the former president’s attempt to overturn the election results in hearings and reports later this year.

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EXPLAINER: Alopecia ‘strips people of their identity’

Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that affects millions of people around the world. But to many women — and to Black women, in particular — it is much more. It’s about beauty and race, about culture and about the uncertainty that the disorder creates around people’s perception of themselves.

So during the 94th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night, when comedian Chris Rock threw a pointed joke at Jada Pinkett Smith about her hair loss that some felt was insensitive, the event exposed many layers of feeling for those who wrestle with the disorder.

It also threw a spotlight on the disorder, which is little discussed but fairly common and affects a wide range of people, including children.

Actor Will Smith, who stunned millions when he walked onstage and slapped Rock over the joke about Pinkett Smith, has since apologized to the comedian, the academy and viewers.

Here are some of the things about alopecia that are reverberating:

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Calif. group votes to limit reparations to slave descendants

California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations voted Tuesday to limit state compensation to the descendants of free and enslaved Black people who were in the U.S. in the 19th century, narrowly rejecting a proposal to include all Black people.

The vote was split 5-4 with some members pleading with the commission to move ahead with a clear definition of who would be eligible rather than studying the issue for months.

““Please, please, please I beg us tonight, take the first step,” said Amos Brown, vice chair of the task force.

Those favoring a lineage approach said that a compensation and restitution plan based on genealogy as opposed to race has the best change of surviving a legal challenge. They also said that Black immigrants who chose to migrate to the U.S. in the 20th and 21st centuries did not share the trauma of people who were kidnapped and enslaved.

They also opened eligibility to free Black people who migrated to the country in the 19th century, given possible difficulties in documenting genealogy and the risk at the time of becoming enslaved.

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AP PHOTOS: Day 34: Shattered lives in war-torn Ukraine

People displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine wait in line for food and a place to sleep outside the capital of Kyiv. Others who have fled to Poland bundle against the cold after crossing the border.

Five weeks into the war, thousands are dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians have left the country. Many residents couldn’t bear to leave their pets behind — including one wounded brown dog in Poland — despite the risky evacuation.

One resident covers her home’s shattered windows in the port city of Mikolaiv after Russian attacks, which blasted a gaping hole in a nine-story government building there, killing at least 12 people.

A man rides a bicycle past a body covered with a rug on the outskirts of Mariupol. Elsewhere in the besieged southern port, a woman cooks outside apartment buildings damaged by shelling.

Ukrainian soldiers near the western city of Lviv go through training exercises, firing their guns at makeshift targets. Some others take up positions in earthen trenches north of Kyiv, where Russia’s advance has been stalled for weeks.

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EXPLAINER: Why bond yields may be warning of a recession

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the more reliable warning signals for an economic recession is starting to shine.

The “yield curve” is watched for clues to how the bond market is feeling about the U.S. economy’s long-term prospects. On Tuesday, a closely followed part of the yield curve gave investors some cause for concern.

WHAT IS THE YIELD CURVE?

At the center of the investing world are Treasurys, the IOUs the U.S. government gives to investors who lend it money. The yield curve is a chart showing how much in interest different Treasurys are paying.

On one end are shorter-term Treasurys, which get repaid in a few months or a couple years. There, yields closely follow expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with overnight interest rates. On the other end of the chart are longer-term Treasurys, which take 10 years or decades to mature. Their yields tend to move more on expectations for economic growth and inflation further into the future.

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Bills deal renews debate over public dollars for arenas

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York looks poised to become the next place to give a huge subsidy to a professional sports arena, despite questions about whether the civic pride of having a team justifies giving so much public money to a private business.

Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a deal Monday that would give the Buffalo Bills $850 million in public funds to help the team build a new $1.4 billion stadium. In return, the Bills would agree to play in Buffalo’s suburbs for at least 30 years.

The deal, which still needs approval from the state legislature, immediately renewed a debate about government’s role in supporting privately-owned businesses.

Just three years ago, a deal to that would have given Amazon nearly $3 billion in tax and other incentives to build a headquarters for 25,000 workers in New York Cityfell apart amid a backlash from activists and progressive politicians who called it a giant corporate giveaway.

Some similar criticism rolled in over the Bills deal.