March 22, 2022

*) Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to discuss deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is prepared to discuss a commitment from Ukraine not to seek NATO membership in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops. Zelenskyy repeated his call for direct talks with Russian President Putin and said that unless he meets with Putin, it is impossible to understand whether Russia even wants to stop the war. The Ukrainian president also said that Kiev will be ready to discuss the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbass region after a cease-fire and steps toward providing security guarantees. *) Biden says Putin is weighing use of chemical weapons in Ukraine US President Biden has said, without evidence, that Russia’s accusations that Kiev has biological and chemical weapons are false and indicate that Putin is considering using them himself. "Now he's talking about new false flags he's setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true," Biden said. "They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That's a clear sign he's considering using both of those." *) No survivors found in China Eastern plane crash No survivors have been found as rescuers searched the wreckage of a China Eastern plane carrying 132 people that crashed in southern Guangxi. The Boeing 737-800 was flying at 8,840 metres when it entered a steep, fast dive around 0620GMT, according to data from FlightRadar24.com. A rescue worker speculated that passengers and their belongings had been "totally incinerated" from the intensity of the blaze. *) Rohingya praise US for recognising their genocide in Myanmar Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have welcomed the announcement by the United States that it considers the violent repression of their largely Muslim ethnic group in Myanmar a "genocide." As news of the announcement by the US spread across the sprawling camps in Bangladesh that are now home to about one mill