Ukraine

• Presidents Putin and Xi met yesterday, and the readout makes it sound like it was a fairly friendly meeting, but Xi may have subtly rebuked Putin for his invasion of Ukraine: in their public remarks after the summit, Putin noted (and "appreciate[d]") the "balanced position of our Chinese friends in connection with the Ukrainian crisis" - but Xi didn't mention Ukraine at all. Analysts read that to mean Xi had made his point in their private conversation and didn't want to embarrass Putin by raising it publicly.
• For the second time, Russia lashed out with attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in retaliation for Ukraine's progress pushing Russian forces back. This time, Russia bombed the civilian water system in Kryvyi Rih, leading local officials to order an evacuation. Pres. Zelensky chided the Russian saboteurs as "weaklings who fight civilians."
• Pope Francis spoke about the war in Ukraine, noting that it could be "morally acceptable" for countries to arm Ukraine's self-defense - as long as they're not doing so to provoke more war, for profit, or to get rid of weapons they don't need.

• Pres. Biden signed an executive order expanding the power of the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S. (CFIUS) to allow it to scrutinize pending transactions that could give foreign companies or governments - cough, China - access to Americans' personal data. CFIUS is believed to be monitoring TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned social media app, for potential vulnerabilities, and this order will give it broader reach to do so.

• The latest ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia seems to be holding. Both sides raised their death tolls from the last week's skirmishes: Azerbaijan says it lost 71 troops, and Armenia says it lost 105.
• U.S. Speaker of the House Pelosi is traveling to Yerevan in a politically-motivated show of support for Armenia (her California district has many Armenian-American voters).

• Mexican police arrested a serving general for his alleged involvement in the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from a radical teaching college. Gen. José Rodríguez Pérez was a colonel in 2014 but was since promoted; two other unnamed army officers have also been arrested on similar charges this week, and there's a warrant out for the arrest of a fourth.

• The Ethereum blockchain platform completed a long-awaited "merge" that will switch its verification mechanism from an electricity-intensive proof-of-work system to proof-of-stake, which should use 99.95% less energy.
• Energy usage is the only significant change to expect from the "merge": transaction fees will remain the same, and while transaction speeds will improve ever so slightly, most users won't notice the difference.

• Fighting broke out in a disputed section of border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and both sides accused the other of bringing tanks and mortars to the fight. Early reports say three have died in the first two days of fighting.