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| Good morning, Daily Briefing readers! Happy Friday and congrats on making it through another work week. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine resumed via video Friday. Economists are expecting another strong jobs report this morning. The Final Four of the NCAA women's basketball tournament should see two competitive games in Minneapolis tonight. |
| It's Steve with Friday's news. |
| 🛢The largest release from the reserve in its nearly 50-year history: President Joe Biden has ordered the release of up to 180 million barrels of oil from the nation's emergency reserves over the next six months in a bid to provide relief to Americans from gas prices that have soared. | More: What is the strategic petroleum reserve? |
| 🏀 Title IX at 50: Even the teams in the Elite Eight of the NCAA women's basketball tournament struggle to get equitable resources. |
| 📺 "Humbled by this unique opportunity": Fox News has hired Caitlyn Jenner and announced she'll start with an appearance on Sean Hannity's nightly show. |
 | | Caitlyn Jenner attends the Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin in Beverly Hills, California, on September 7, 2019. | | Photo by Getty Images for Comedy Central; USA TODAY graphic | |
| 🏀 Title IX at 50: Even the teams in the Elite Eight of the NCAA women's basketball tournament struggle to get equitable resources. |
| 🗳 More trouble for Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn: North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has endorsed Cawthorn's primary opponent. The 25-year-old congressman "has fallen well short of the most basic standards Western North Carolina expects from their representatives," Tillis said. |
| 🥜 Check your Skippy peanut butter: The company has recalled select products because "they may contain a small fragment of stainless steel from a piece of manufacturing equipment." |
| 📺 "Thank you for letting me into your homes": After almost 10 years on the air, anchor Craig Melvin got choked up during his final MSNBC show. |
 | | NBC News' Craig Melvin in October 2017 | | Noam Galai, Getty Images for Save The Childr | |
| 🏈 Former Buccaneers coach speaks out: Bruce Arians denied there is a rift with quarterback Tom Brady and said his retirement from coaching was about "succession." |
| ✅ Fact check: Short-term global temperature fluctuations do not negate climate science or the planet's overall warming trend. |
| 👩 Humankind: On her days off, one Las Vegas ER nurse pampers patients by brushing and braiding their hair and listening. |
| 📰 How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz to test your knowledge. |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, White House correspondent Michael Collins breaks down President Biden's decision to free millions of barrels of oil from emergency reserves. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
| Here's what's happening today: |
Russian forces depart Chernobyl; Ukraine-Russia peace talks resume |
| Russian military troops departed the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear power plant early Friday, handing control back to Ukrainians . Moscow took control of Chernobyl over a month ago. According to Ukrainian officials, Russian troops destroyed a new laboratory at the plant working to improve management of radioactive waste that had "highly active samples and samples of radionuclides" last week. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, which are south of the besieged northern city of Chernihiv and located along one of the main supply routes between the city and Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, according to Britain's Defense Ministry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office confirmed to the Associated Press that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators resumed talks via video Friday. The latest round of talks came three days after their last meeting in Turkey. |
| 🌍 Thursday news recap: Russia pulling back to resupply, US says; expect 'even more suffering' in Ukraine, NATO chief warns |
| ✅ Fact check: Ukrainian jet tore off road sign during 2020 exercise, not Russian invasion |
Despite obstacles, another solid month of US hiring in March is expected |
| Defying a pandemic and supply chain disruptions, the U.S. economy has cranked out more than 400,000 jobs every month for nearly a year — a significant winning streak in uncertain times. And despite surging inflation, the hiring wave likely continued last month in the face of yet another jolt: Russia's war in Ukraine, which has unsettled the economic outlook and catapulted gasoline prices to painful levels. The Associated Press reports that economists surveyed by the data provider FactSet expect the Labor Department's March jobs report out Friday morning to show that employers added 478,000 jobs. That would mark a drop from the 678,000 jobs added in February. However, economists also forecast that the unemployment rate dipped from 3.8% to 3.7% and that would mark the lowest unemployment rate since just before the pandemic struck two years ago, when joblessness reached a 50-year low of 3.5%. |
Just for subscribers: |
| ⛽ Will gas prices ease with President Biden's oil release from the strategic reserve? "I don't want to say it's insignificant, but it's not the amount we need," one expert said. |
| ⚕ Millions of people could lose health insurance coverage when the COVID-19 emergency ends: Federal aid to states to boost Medicaid rolls during the pandemic is set to end April 16. |
| 💲 "A rollercoaster": People of color made economic gains in the last decade. But the COVID-19 pandemic likely stalled many of those moves forward. |
| 🚗 "It's still a tight market": The rental car shortage that upended travel plans in the summer of 2021 is far from over. |
| 🔴 Column from Christine Brennan: Tiger Woods playing in the 2022 Masters would be a gift to golf and it's stunning that we're even talking it, just 13 months after his devastating car accident. |
 | | Tiger Woods and daughter Sam Alexis Woods pose during the 2022 World Golf Hall of Fame Induction at the PGA TOUR Global Home on March 9, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. | | Sam Greenwood, Getty Images | |
Traveling to Canada? Skip the COVID test (if you're vaccinated) |
| Vaccinated tourists going to Canada will no longer need to get a pre-departure COVID test starting Friday. The change, announced March 14, is the latest easing of travel restrictions by Canada, which originally closed its borders to nonessential travel after the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. People who have received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of Johnson and Johnson's vaccine at least 14 days before arriving in Canada are considered fully vaccinated; boosters are not necessary. Travelers who are not fully vaccinated are only allowed entry under certain circumstances and will need to test for coronavirus before and after arrival and quarantine for 14 days. Canada also will continue random testing of travelers. |
Grammys weekend: Music's biggest night heads to Las Vegas |
| 🎶 Records could be set: From Taylor Swift to BTS, these are all the ways history could be made at the 2022 Grammy Awards. |
| 🎶 Grammy predictions: We've got who will win at Sunday's awards – and who should. |
| 🎶 Key Grammy details: Here's how to watch, who's performing and what's happening during the awards show. |
 | | Billie Eilish at the 2022 Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27, 2022 | | Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY | |
It's April Fools' Day. You've been warned. |
| If you're not a fan of pranks, this tip is for you: Friday is April Fools' Day. The first day of April, though not a public holiday, is traditionally celebrated as the day to pull practical jokes, hoaxes or hijinks on others . (By custom, jokesters will yell "April Fools!" at the successful completion of the ruse.) In recent years the business world has gotten in on the action with prank press releases, from Velveeta delving into skincare to Green Giant cauliflower-flavored Peeps just in time for Easter. So be advised: If it sounds too wild to be true ... it's "April Fools!" |
| 🃏 Why is April Fools' Day on April 1? What to know about the unofficial prank holiday |
| 👩 More from Humankind: Watch these sweet pranks caught on camera to get you in the April Fools' Day spirit. |
What to watch this weekend: |
| 📽 A wide variety of new offerings: Critic Brian Truitt has a guide to new movies that'll satisfy every cinematic taste, plus some noteworthy theatrical films making their home video debut on demand. |
| 📽 Review: Even with vampire Jared Leto, the lifeless 'Morbius' is a soul-sucking superhero effort. |
| 📽 "I want some hard laughs": Directror Judd Apatow talks about his new book and his new COVID-era comedy "The Bubble," which is out on Netflix. |
Heavyweight battles in the women's Final Four |
| Cinderella was not invited to the Final Four of this year's NCAA women's basketball tournament. Of the quartet of teams squaring off Friday in Minneapolis, three were No. 1 seeds entering the tournament: South Carolina, Louisville and Stanford. The fourth is is a No. 2 seed and a perennial powerhouse in Connecticut. But what the matchups lack in surprise they make up for in star power. South Carolina looks to go wire-to-wire after being ranked No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports women's basketball coaches poll all season long, against a Louisville program hungry for its first-ever title (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). Stanford and all-time coaching wins leader Tara VanDerveer seeks to repeat as champions, but will have to go through UConn's superstar sophomore Paige Bueckers and legendary coach Geno Auriemma (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). The winners of Friday's games will face each other in the championship game Sunday night. |
| 🏀 Column from Nancy Armour: Let me know when NCAA goes beyond window dressing and gets serious about gender equity. |
| 🏀 Opinion: Combining the men's and women's Final Four is an idea worth trying |
| 🏀 USA TODAY's Women of the Year: Stanford's Tara VanDerveer says she has an 'obligation' to mentor. |
 | | Stanford's Lexie Hull (left), coach Tara VanDerveer and Lacie Hull celebrate after beating Texas in the regional final. | | James Snook, USA TODAY Sports | |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories yesterday |
| 🔵 "My heart breaks for this young boy's family": A student in custody after fatally shooting a classmate at a South Carolina middle school, police say. The victim and shooter were both 12-year-old males. |
| ⚾ "I have a broken heart": Former manager Mike Shildt bares his soul about being fired by the Cardinals after a stunning playoff run in 2021. |
| 🐾 "How weird is that?" A man taking a walk on an Australian beach found an "alien" that looked like a "dehaired possum." |
| 💉 Roll up those sleeves again: Those who got Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine should seriously consider a Pfizer or Moderna booster, experts say. |
| 🥞 Global supply of maple syrup affected: The mastermind of a syrup heist must pay a $9 million fine for stealing tons of the pancake topper. |
USMNT awaits its World Cup fate |
| Soccer fans around the world will be watching as the 2022 men's World Cup draw is Friday (noon ET, Peacock, Telemundo, Universo, and FIFA.com). After failing to qualify for the 2018 tournament, the U.S. national team is officially in as the Stars and Stripes clinched a spot Wednesday, despite a loss to Costa Rica. The draw will determine which other nations the U.S. will face in group play during an unusual World Cup. Typically held during the summer, this year's event will begin Nov. 21 due to the oppressive heat in host nation Qatar. |
| ⚽ 'Unacceptable': Ahead of World Cup draw, Qatar and FIFA criticized over workers' rights, criminalization of homosexuality |
| ⚽ Everything you need to know: Seeding, pots, and more for 2022 FIFA World Cup draw |
📸 Photo of the day: Maple Leafs' Matthews celebrates his 50th goal 📸 |
 | | Toronto Maple Leafs forward John Tavares congratulates teammate Auston Matthews after Matthews scored his 50th goal of the year during the Maple Leafs' win over the Winnipeg Jets Thursday, March 31, 2022. | | John E. Sokolowski, USA TODAY Sports | |
| Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 50th goal of the season and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 7-3 on Thursday night. |
| Matthews scored Toronto's sixth goal of the game into an empty net with 2:06 left in regulation. He moved past Leon Draisaitl (49 goals) of idle Edmonton for the league goal lead and became the first Maple Leafs player to reach the milestone since Dave Andreychuk scored 53 in 1993-94. |
| Head here to see more of the best photos of the 2021-22 NHL season. |
| Contributing: The Associated Press |
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