Ukraine

• Russia's Wagner Group says it has captured Bakhmut "in the legal sense" - although Ukraine's military denies the city has fallen.

• A prominent, pro-war Russian military blogger, Maksim Fomin, was killed in a targeted attack on a cafe in St. Petersburg where he was speaking.
• Ukrainian officials suggested that Russian foes targeted Fomin for his political views, but Russia will probably accuse Ukrainian operatives of either carrying out or commissioning the attack.

• According to the NYT, Pres. Tshisekedi directly intervened with Pres. Biden last year to ask him to lift U.S. sanctions on Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who was accused of involvement in over $1 billion in corrupt oil and mineral deals in DRC. Gertler remains sanctioned.

• OPEC unexpectedly cut its production targets by 1.16 million barrels per day, which is only about 1% of global oil supplies - but enough to stoke new concerns about inflation and cause oil prices to spike 8%. Saudi will shoulder about half of the total cuts.

• Finland will formally join NATO in the coming days, now that Turkey has signed off on its accession.