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

Russian warplanes, artillery widen attack, hit industry hub

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s airplanes and artillery widened their assault on Ukraine on Friday, striking airfields in the west and a major industrial hub in the east, as Moscow’s forces tried to regroup from recent losses and their onslaught fast reduced crowded cities to rubble.

American defense officials offered an assessment of the Russian air campaign, estimating that invading pilots are averaging 200 sorties a day, compared with five to 10 for Ukrainian forces, which are focusing more on surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and drones to take out Russian aircraft.

New commercial satellite images appeared to capture artillery firing on residential areas between Russian forces and the capital. The images from Maxar Technologies showed muzzle flashes and smoke from the big guns, as well as impact craters and burning homes in the town of Moschun, outside Kyiv, the company said.

In a devastated village east of the capital, villagers climbed over toppled walls and flapping metal strips in the remnants of a pool hall, restaurant and theater freshly blown apart by Russian bombs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “created this mess, thinking he will be in charge here,” 62-year-old Ivan Merzyk said. In temperatures sinking below freezing, villagers quickly spread plastic wrap or nailed plywood over blown out windows of their homes.

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Live updates: Ukraine says shelling damaged cancer hospital

The latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine war:

LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials accused Russia damaging a cancer hospital and several residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv with shelling from heavy artillery.

The hospital’s head doctor, Maksim Beznosenko, said several hundred patients were in the hospital during the attack but that no one was killed. The assault damaged the building and blew out windows.

Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Mykolaiv, located 470 kilometers (292 miles) south of Kyiv, in an attempt to encircle the city.

Ukrainian and Western officials earlier accused Russia of shelling a maternity hospital in the southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Three people died in that attack.

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EXPLAINER: Russia is not a ‘most favored nation.’ What now?

WASHINGTON (AP) — In escalating the U.S. drive to squeeze Russia’s economy, President Joe Biden moved Friday, with European and other key allies, to revoke Moscow’s “most favored nation” trade status. His administration also banned imports of Russian seafood, alcohol and diamonds.

And the U.S. is cutting the flow the other way, too: It’s barring the export of expensive watches, cars, clothing and other luxury American products to Russia.

Congress is expected to act swiftly to pass legislation to formalize the downgrade of Moscow’s trade status. The U.S. revocation of Russia’s long-standing most favored trade status is only the latest in a series of economic and financial sanctions that have been leveled against Russia in response to its brutal war against Ukraine.

By itself, the downgrade of its trade status won’t have an immediate far-reaching effect on the Russian economy. But combined with the other sanctions the United States and its allies have imposed, the idea is to intensify the pressure on President Vladimir Putin and force a pullback of his Russian forces.

Here is a deeper look:

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Amid Mariupol horror, a newborn rests in her mother’s arms

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Newborn Veronika curled against her mother’s side on Friday, as if to hide from the horror around them — the war that tore apart the Mariupol maternity hospital where she was meant to greet the world.

On the eve of giving birth, her mother, Mariana Vishegirskaya, had to flee the hospital when a Russian airstrike hit.

Her brow and cheek bloodied, she clutched her belongings in a plastic bag as she navigated down the hospital’s debris-strewn stairs in her polka dot pajamas on Wednesday.

Images of the desperate mothers and medical workers from the Children’s and Women’s Health hospital shocked the world, as the bombing took Russia’s war against Ukraine to a sickening new level.

Taken to another hospital, Vishegirskaya and another woman who escaped the bombing have since given birth, their babies delivered to the sound of shellfire. A strike hit the new site where they were taken, too.

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Ohio officer cleared in shooting of teenager Ma’Khia Bryant

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Columbus police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant last year has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, Ohio prosecutors announced Friday.

Bryant was killed in April by Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon as she swung a knife at a young woman, just seconds after pushing another woman to the ground. Bryant was Black and Reardon is white. Police were responding to a 911 callmade from Bryant’s foster home about a group of girls threatening to stab members of the household.

The killing led to a Justice Department review of the police department in Ohio’s capital city.

Bryant was shot four timesand died from her injuries. The coroner listed the cause of death as a homicide — a medical determination used in cases where someone has died at someone else’s hand, but not a legal finding. It doesn’t imply criminal intent.

Bryant’s killing further heightened tensions in Ohio’s capital city over fatal police shootings of Black people, and also cast a light on the state’s foster care system.

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2 years into pandemic, world takes cautious steps forward

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — With COVID-19 case numbers plummeting, Emily Safrin did something she hadn’t done since the pandemic began two years ago: She put her fears aside and went to a concert.

The fully vaccinated and boosted restaurant server planned to keep her mask on, but as the reggaeton star Bad Bunny took the stage and the energy in the crowd soared, she ripped it off. Soon after, she was strolling unmasked in a trendy Portland neighborhood with friends.

Two years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, changing the world overnight, relief and hope are creeping back in after a long, dark period of loss, fear and deep uncertainty about the future.

“Everyone was supposed to be vaccinated or have a negative test, and I said, ‘What the heck, I’m just gonna live my life,’” Safrin said of her concert experience. “It was overwhelming, to be honest, but it also felt great to be able to just feel a little bit normal again.”

The world is finally emerging from a brutal stretch of winter dominated by the highly contagious omicron variant, bringing a sense of relief on the two-year anniversary of the start of the pandemic.

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AP PHOTOS: 2 years of images tell the story of the pandemic

It has been two years since families who were happily planning futures or settling into their golden years had everything cruelly yanked away by an enemy they could not prepare for: COVID-19.

A 24-year-old first-time mother in Lima, Peru, sobbing because the baby girl she just delivered would never meet her father. A 64-year-old California woman embracing her husband through tears and his last breaths in a hospital COVID-19 unit. Then there were the dead who had to be temporarily buried in a trench in New York City’s Hart Island, with only workers clad in protective gear nearby.

Friday marks the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus a full-on pandemic, a pivotal moment in an outbreak that would go on to kill more than 6 million people around the globe.

Images taken by Associated Press photographers since then capture the devastation and disruption from the pandemic in every corner of the world.

From the onset of the pandemic, simple errands suddenly required well thought-out game plans. In Wuhan in central China, residents in one neighborhood had to climb onto chairs to order meat or vegetables from masked vendors behind special barriers. A woman in Argentina settles for holding her elderly father’s hand through a plastic sleeve because physical contact at his senior living facility is forbidden. A Maryland woman’s grandchildren clamor to help release doves at her funeral, which was delayed for two months because of social distancing protocols.

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Texas clinics’ lawsuit over abortion ban ‘effectively over’

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday dealt essentially a final blow to abortion clinics’ best hopes of stopping a restrictive law that has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state since September and will now fully stay in place for the foreseeable future.

The ruling by the all-Republican court was not unexpected, but it slammed the door on what little path forward the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed Texas clinics after having twice declined to stop a ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

It spells the coming end to a federal lawsuit that abortion clinics filed even before the restrictions took effect in September — and were then rejected at nearly every turn, and in nearly every court, for six months.

“There is nothing left, this case is effectively over with respect to our challenge to the abortion ban,” said Marc Hearron, attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which led the challenge against the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8.

Although Texas abortion clinics are not dropping the lawsuit, they now expect it will be dismissed in the coming weeks or months.

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US rolls out more sanctions after North Korea missile tests

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions Friday after North Korea had tested parts of its biggest intercontinental ballistic missilein two recent launches, a sign it is likely to fire that weapon soon to put a spy satellite into orbit in what would be its most significant provocation in years.

The Treasury Department noted a March 4 ballistic missile launch in unveiling restrictions against three Russian-based entities that aided ongoing development of North Korea’s military capabilities. The companies are Apollon, Zeel—M and RK Briz; two individuals tied to those companies will also be sanctioned.

The sanctions block access to any U.S. assets held by these companies, as well as Apollon director Aleksandr Andreyevich Gayevoy and Zeel—M director Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Chasovnikov, who also controls RK Briz.

Separately, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it detected signs that North Korea was possibly restoring some of the tunnels at its nuclear testing ground that were detonated in May 2018, weeks ahead of leader Kim Jong Un’s first summit with then- President Donald Trump. The ministry didn’t say whether it believes the North was restoring the site to resume tests of nuclear explosives.

North Korea’s neighbors detected two ballistic launches last week. North Korea later said it was testing cameras and other systems to be installed on a spy satellite but didn’t disclose what missiles or rockets it used.

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No indictment for Texans QB Watson over sex assault claims

HOUSTON (AP) — A grand jury on Friday declined to indict Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson following a police investigation sparked by lawsuits filed by 22 womenwho have accused him of sexual assault and harassment.

The grand jury’s decision came about a year after the women first filed their suits, accusing Watson of exposing himself, touching them with his penis or kissing them against their will during massage appointments. One woman alleged Watson forced her to perform oral sex.

Houston police began investigating Watson in April 2021 after a criminal complaint was filed. The FBI also was reviewing the allegations.

Prosecutors presented evidence and testimony to the grand jury for over six hours on Friday related to nine criminal complaints against Watson, Johna Stallings, chief of the adult sex crimes and trafficking division with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said. She declined to say what possible charges were presented to the grand jury for consideration.

“We respect the grand jury’s decision,” Stallings said.