Axios

The U.S. and allies will "respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs" if Russia invades Ukraine, President Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Saturday.

Driving the news: A senior administration official told reporters on a briefing call that the White House sensed "no fundamental change" in Russia's posture from the last several weeks.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations expressed solidarity on Saturday with a South Korean diplomat assaulted in an unprovoked attack in New York City earlier in the week.

Details: The diplomat, whose name has been withheld by officials, worked for the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations. An unknown assailant punched the diplomat in the face on Wednesday evening in Midtown in what police told reporters was an “unprovoked” attack.

The U.S. embassy in Mexico on Saturday expressed dismay at the situation journalists experience in the country, which remains one of the most dangerous nations outside of war zones for reporters.

Driving the news: Heber Lopez, director of the Mexican online news site Noticias Web, was murdered earlier this week — the fifth journalist to be killed since the start of the year.

The blockade at the U.S.-Canada border was beginning to dissolve on Saturday, but some protesters still remain after police moved in to try to remove the vaccine mandate protesters, AP reports.

Why it matters: The police intervention was the strongest escalation by authorities after truckers, farmers and other protesters have blocked roads and portions of the busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing for days, cutting off key delivery routes and leading factories to shut down.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said this week that he hopes anti-vaccine protestors in trucks "clog up [U.S.] cities."

Driving the news: "I’m all for it," said Paul, a vocal critic of masking and vaccine mandates. "Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights to you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates."

It's likely more enslaved Black people escaped to Mexico than originally thought, scholars say.

Why it matters: The story of the Underground Railroad to Mexico — loosely organized paths allowing enslaved Black people to escape bondage by fleeing south — exposes a neglected history about the Black experience in the Americas.

The Pentagon is pulling nearly 160 members of the Florida National Guard from Ukraine as top U.S. officials publicly warn a Russian invasion could be imminent.

Why it matters: The withdrawal of the military trainers underscores growing concern among U.S. officials that Russian military forces could invade Ukraine any day.

Nearly 24 million taxpayers are still waiting for their tax returns from last year, the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: The Internal Revenue Service backlog will only add to the slow service and delays already anticipated for the 2022 tax filing season.

Australia has designated koalas an endangered species in parts of the country in order to boost protections for the marsupials amid bushfires and other environmental threats, minister for the environment Sussan Ley announced Friday.

Why it matters: Australia's bushfires killed, wounded or displaced over 61,000 koalas in the 2019-20 season alone. Conservationist groups have criticized the Australian government for failing to address the risks to their habitat.

The Supreme Court on Friday declined a request to intervene by a small group of teachers who challenged New York City’s vaccination mandate for public school employees.

Why it matters: A small group of teachers had argued that the mandate violates their religious freedom because the city limits eligibility for religious exemptions by requiring support from a religious official, among other things.

"Freedom Convoy" protests are hurting workers in the auto sector.

Why it matters: Demonstrations have blocked the flow of commerce on one of the most important corridors between the U.S. and Canada, leading factories to shut down due to supply shortages.

The Biden administration on Friday released its official Indo-Pacific strategy, which warns that there is only a narrow window of time remaining to prevent China from transforming the region into its own sphere of influence.

Why it matters: Biden is the third consecutive president to classify Asia as a top geostrategic priority, hoping to complete the "pivot to Asia" initiated under former President Obama.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday that all Americans in Ukraine should leave within the next 48 hours, warning that the risk of a Russian invasion is now "high" and "immediate."

Why it matters: Sullivan denied an explosive PBS report that the U.S. believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade, but said there is "a credible prospect that a Russian military action would take place even before the end of the Olympics."

Egg producers in the U.S. are quietly in the middle of a transition to cage-free eggs, AP reports.

Driving the news: The percentage of cage-free hens has increased from 4% in 2010 to 28% in 2020, and the number is expected to soar to 70% in the next four years, per AP.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is pressing the Securities and Exchange Commission to propose regulations that would force public companies to disclose climate-related risks and data.

Driving the news: Warren, in a new letter to SEC chairman Gary Gensler, criticizes "unacceptable" delays in the rules.

Russia continues to move troops and military equipment toward the Ukrainian border, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Friday. He warned that Russia could invade Ukraine soon, even during the Beijing Winter Olympics set to end Feb. 20.

Why it matters: Blinken said that American citizens in Ukraine should leave immediately, echoing a State Department advisory that said the U.S. will not be able to evacuate Americans from the country "in the event of Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine."

A group of about 175 Black alumni of Harvard today will deliver a letter to the White House supporting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who sits on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is one of President Biden's top prospects for the Supreme Court.

What they're saying: "We come from the South, North, East, and West. We are civic and corporate leaders, scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, public school teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, and stay-at-home parents, among others," the letter says.

America's economy is booming, but many of us seem to think we're just a hopscotch away from recession. The disconnect may be systemic.

The big picture: This is the byproduct of a politics in which the economy is reflexively disparaged by those out of power.

The CIA has for years secretly conducted mass surveillance programs that include collecting data on Americans, two Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee allege in a newly declassified letter.

Why it matters: Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) raise concerns in the letter to CIA Director Bill Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines dated April 13, 2021, about "serious problems associated with warrantless backdoor searches of Americans."

President Biden said during an NBC interview broadcast Thursday that American citizens in Ukraine "should leave now" due to increasing concerns that Russian troops may soon invade the country.

Why it matters: Biden's comments came as the State Department warned in an advisory that American officials "will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens in the event of Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine" and that this would "severely impact" regular consular services.

President Biden said Thursday in an interview with NBC News that he rejects the results of an Army investigation that reportedly outlines his administration's failure to adequately prepare for and respond to the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan.

Why it matters: The investigation, which was first reported by the Washington Post and obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, found that U.S. military leaders' attempts to plan evacuations of embassy personnel and Afghan allies were met with resistance in the White House and State Department.

Three former executives of a Hawaii-based U.S. defense contractor were indicted Thursday over allegations of unlawful campaign contributions to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and a political action committee that supported her 2020 re-election bid.

Driving the news: "Martin Kao, 48, Clifford Chen, 48, and Lawrence 'Kahele' Lum Kee, 52, all of Honolulu, were employed by a defense contractor prohibited from making contributions in federal elections," per a Department of Justice statement.

Congress has been reaping legislative victories lately thanks in large part to a bipartisan cast of 10-15 senators chipping away behind the scenes.

Why it matters: Membership has fluctuated, but senators from both sides have helped deliver coronavirus relief and infrastructure spending. They also were behind the Senate’s passage Thursday of landmark workplace legislation. Elements also are driving a strengthening of the Electoral Count Act, as well as efforts to restrict lawmakers’ trading of individual stocks.

Republican senators and establishment columnists who brutalized President Biden for the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal are now praising his handling of Russia's threatened invasion of Ukraine.

Why it matters: The endorsements give the president and his team more political space to pursue diplomacy. They also allow a president who ran on his competence and foreign policy experience to reclaim some of that mantle.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) disclosed 417 stock purchases and sales since January 2020 — more than any other current senator, according to an Axios analysis of data from the Senate Stock Watcher.

Why it matters: Rare bipartisan support is building around efforts to ban lawmakers from owning and trading individual stocks — as well as their spouses or immediate family members, in some cases.

A federal judge on Thursday restored federal protections for gray wolves in several parts of the U.S. in a win for wildlife advocates that feared for the wolves' viability.

Why it matters: The Trump administration had removed the protections, claiming the species did not need them anymore since they were no longer subject to active eradication. Wildlife advocacy groups sued, however, arguing that the move left wolves vulnerable to hunters, among other concerns.