Month: March 2022

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured while reporting near Ukraine’s capital, the network said Monday. Hall has been hospitalized, however it is not yet clear how he was injured or how severe his injuries are, according to the network.  Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said in a memo to employees: “Earlier today, our correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured while news gathering outside of Kyiv in Ukraine. We have a minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds.”

Hall’s injury comes just one day after another American journalist, Brent Renaud, was shot and killed in Ukraine. Renaud was killed and another journalist was wounded by Russian forces in the town of Irpin outside the capital of Kyiv as they were traveling to film refugees, according to the head of Kyiv’s regional police force.

The State Department Correspondents’ Association President Shaun Tandon said in a statement:  “We know Ben for his warmth, good humor and utmost professionalism. We wish Ben a quick recovery and call for utmost efforts to protect journalists who are providing an invaluable service through their coverage in Ukraine.”

Hall recently said on-air that reporting from Ukraine “is a lot like other stories that we’ve gone through in the digital age in which an image is taken and then played over and over and over again to create some kind of emotional response out of you, because that makes a profit for news companies. This is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response. This is absolutely what’s happening.  It is an absolute catastrophe. And the people caught in the middle are the ones who are really suffering.”

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The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) – the second-largest public school district in the nation — said that it will be keeping a mask mandate in place, despite the end of California’s statewide mask mandate for indoor public places.

Monday, March 14th marked the first day students in California were able to attend school without having to wear a mask. However for over 600,000 students of LAUSD, the indoor mask mandate remains in place as a result of negotiations between the school district and its teachers’ union. LAUSD said it is still working with partners, including United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), to come up with a plan to shift from mask requirements to “strongly recommending” wearing masks indoors. Per a September 2021 agreement, any changes to the district’s health and safety protocols must be negotiated between both the district and the union.

LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a statement:  “I am 100 percent committed to upholding our science-based approach to COVID-19 protocols. I strongly support amending Los Angeles Unified’s previously negotiated agreements to align with current health guidance released by the State of California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.  Los Angeles Unified continues to take a science-based approach to COVID-19 policy and is currently working with labor partners and other stakeholders to transition from required indoor masking to a strong recommendation for indoor masking.”

The teachers union said that LAUSD officials will meet with UTLA leaders again on March 16 to discuss the matter.

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The White House announced on Sunday that U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Rome on Monday to meet with his Chinese counterpart.

National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement that Sullivan will speak to Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and Director of China’s Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi as part of the United States’ “ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication” between the two countries.  Said Horne:“The two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security.”   Horne added that while in Rome, Sullivan will also meet with Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser to the Italian prime minister, “to continue coordinating a storong, united international response to President Putin’s war of choice.”

Sullivan’s visit comes as U.S. officials have criticized China’s response to the war in Ukraine, with Chinese domestic media promoting Russian disinformation and describing the war as a “special military operation.”  On Sunday, Sullivan told CNN’s State of the Union that the United States was prepared to take action against China if it violated sanctions to support Russia.  Said Sullivan: “We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them. We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world.”

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