The Chinese government is scrubbing the country's internet of sympathetic or accurate coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and systematically amplifying pro-Putin talking points, Axios China author Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian writes.

• Why it matters: China's use of its propaganda and censorship muscle helps insulate Beijing from domestic backlash against its support for Putin — and leaves its citizens with an airbrushed, false version of events, similar to what's seen in Putin's state-controlled Russia.

What's happening: Chinese media outlets were told to avoid posting "anything unfavorable to Russia or pro-Western" on their social media accounts, and to only use hashtags started by Chinese state media outlets, according to a leaked censorship directive.

• Online comments expressing sympathy for Ukraine have been deleted — even the anti-war speech given by the Paralympic Committee president during the opening ceremony was censored on Chinese TV.
• Pro-Putin social media posts on Chinese social media were allowed to proliferate, as were posts blaming the U.S. and NATO for the conflict.
• Chinese state media have widely aggregated content from Russian outlets.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of himself in his presidential office in Kyiv last night, declaring in the face of multiple alleged assassination attempts: "I'm not hiding. And I'm not afraid of anyone."

• Why it matters: Zelensky's nightly addresses, in which he details Russian attacks and honors fallen heroes, have become appointment viewing for news and inspiration, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

"You know, we used to say: Monday is a hard day," Zelensky said as he filmed out his window on Bankova Street on the 12th day of the invasion.

• "Now there is a war in the country, so every day is Monday."

More than 2 million refugees have now fled Ukraine.

• Russia claims it is allowing "humanitarian corridors" for the safe passage of civilians, but Ukrainian officials have reported multiple instances of shelling along those routes in the last 24 hours.
• Ukraine's infrastructure minister said the country has suffered about $10 billion in damage since Russia's invasion began.
• Zelensky pledged to continue peace talks until the war ends — and to rebuild Ukraine until there is "no trace" of the "hatred that the enemy brought to our cities with shelling and bombing."

Axios Ukraine dashboard.

Fast-growing cities — including Miami, Orlando and San Diego — are gobbling a growing slice of U.S. tech workers, Axios' Erica Pandey reports.

• Why it matters: The rise of remote work has lured tech talent from coastal hubs, chipping away at established tech hubs' dominance.

Two new datasets — a report from Brookings and LinkedIn data tracking tech migration — paint a similar picture: Tech jobs flocked to a handful of new hubs, many of them in the Sun Belt, during the pandemic.

• Miami was among the biggest winners: It saw a 30% increase in the net flow of workers in the software and IT sector who moved into the region in 2021, up from a 15% gain in 2020, according to LinkedIn.

7 of the 10 fastest-growing cities for tech worker inflows in 2021 were Sun Belt cities, including San Antonio, San Diego, Orlando and Jacksonville.

• Charlotte, Tucson and Virginia Beach saw big gains at the beginning of the pandemic, according to Brookings, as did a handful of college towns, including Lawrence, Kan.

Reality check: The big tech hubs — particularly the Bay Area, New York and Seattle — continue to hold the bulk of the jobs. As tech companies invest in new offices and call workers back, the jobs that moved out of the superstar cities could come back.

• New York has fared especially well: Its tech sector grew more during 2020 than in the years just before the pandemic, according to Brookings. LinkedIn data show that boom continuing.

Between the lines: Texas and Florida, which are home to several of the cities luring tech workers, don't have state income tax.

• Miami has aggressively courted tech workers. Miami Hack Week in January involved roughly 1,000 attendees working on projects in homes across the city sponsored by companies.

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For International Women's Day, The Economist is out with a glass-ceiling index showing four Nordic countries as the best places for working women — based on metrics that include gender pay gap, parental leave and the cost of childcare.

• The U.S. is 20th.

A number of Black people living in Ukraine, many of them exchange students, report being blocked as they tried to board trains to escape the war, Axios' Fadel Allassan reports.

• Why it matters: The racist incidents — some documented on video, as the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine flooded Twitter — added individual agony to the desperate nationwide exodus.

Zoom in: Among the more than 2 million people who have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion is Alexander Somto Orah, a 25-year-old Nigerian student who told Axios he witnessed three separate incidents of racial discrimination against evacuees by Ukrainian authorities during the long journey from Kyiv to Warsaw.

1. At a Kyiv train station, police officers said they'd prioritize entry to women and children, Orah said. But they denied access to a group of African women — some of whom were pregnant — even as African men pleaded with authorities to let them pass.
2. At a station in Lviv, officers said only Ukrainian nationals could pass, "but I saw them take only white people," Orah said. The authorities didn't respond when he and others confronted them to ask how they knew who was Ukrainian without checking passports, he recalled.
3. At the Ukraine-Poland border, white and nonwhite people were separated by a barricade, Orah said.

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The Senate yesterday sent President Biden legislation designating lynching as a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history. The House had overwhelmingly passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act.

• Why it matters, from Axios' Russell Contreras: Since the Civil War, lynchings have taken the lives of hundreds of innocent Black men, Mexican Americans and Asian Americans.

The backdrop: Over the past century, some 200 bills have been introduced to try to explicitly ban lynching in America.

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A bipartisan group of senators is introducing a bill to prevent Russia from liquidating gold to withstand sanctions, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.

• Why it matters: Russia's gold stockpile could be a lifeline. A measure to close the loophole is another indication Congress is looking to get ahead of the Biden administration on punitive measures.

The backdrop: Beginning in 2014 — when the U.S. slapped new sanctions on Russia for invading Crimea — Russia upped its gold purchases.

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Neighbors of Ambassador John Bolton, national security adviser under President Trump, have been telling us for a few months about the growing Secret Service presence outside his suburban Maryland home.

• Now we know why:

"At least two Iranians belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' covert-action Quds Force have been plotting to assassinate" Bolton, the Washington Examiner reports.

• Why it matters: Iran blames Bolton in part for the "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran by Trump, who withdrew from President Obama's nuclear deal.

The plot has been "supported by significant Revolutionary Guard reconnaissance activity and involved an effort to recruit an assassin on U.S. soil," the Examiner says.

• "The intelligence community became aware of the plot at an early stage ... Significant FBI assets were ... deployed to disrupt the plot."

Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, in a New York Times feature about Axios, revealed expansion plans for Axios HQ, our Smart Brevity software for organizations ... Axios Pro, our subscription service for hyper-relevant industry news ... and Axios Local — now in 14 cities, with 25 by July.

• Why it matters: "America is screwed if we don't restore fast a common connection, a common truth and a common reality," VandeHei said. "This can only be done closer to people's homes, professions and workplaces."

The 1,365-word article, by media reporter Kate Robertson, was written in Axios style — with a "Why it matters" up top, then "Between the Lines" and "Go Deeper."

• "The company's executives think its short-format writing will build back trust in the media among busy audiences and can teach corporate America to quit its long-winded jargon," Robertson writes.

The article notes that Axios recently hired Jamie Stockwell, a Times deputy national editor, to oversee Axios Local.

• Read the article (subscription).

ESPN is launching Fantasy Women's Basketball ahead of the 2022 WNBA season, Axios Sports editor Kendall Baker has learned.

• Why it matters: It's the first season-long, full-scale fantasy game dedicated to a major women's sports league. The game will be available in early April ahead of the season opener on May 6.

The backdrop: WNBA had exponential viewership growth in 2021, as women's sports grow in investment and exposure.

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