the united states and around the world, i m christine romans. we begin with breaking news on what s now the second biggest bank failure in u.s. history. most of first republic bank is now being bought by jpmorgan chase in a deal arranged by the federal deposit insurance corporation. the fdic. cnn s clare sebastian live in london for us. clare, this deal announced just a short time ago. all weekend, we ve been waiting for word what would happen to first republic. we knew it couldn t continue as a concern here. fdic would have to step in. and you went to bed thinkiing first republic is your bank, it s now jpmorgan chase, right? yeah, christine, all 84 branches of first republic will reopen this morning as branches of jpmorgan. this is different than silicon
years. north korea issued several warnings against the scheduled drill last month. in the bloody battle for bakhmut, the head of russia, private military from wagner admits that they re fiercely fighting for any meter. in the meantime, president zelenskyy in his military address touting the accomplishments in the region. translator: in less than a week, starting from march 6th, we managed to kill more than 1100 enemy soldiers in the bakhmut sector alone which is russia s irreversible loss, a loss right there. near bakhmut. cnn s clare sebastian live in london for us this morning. clare, is bakhmut still, i guess, on the verge of collapse here? yeah, christine, it s interesting we don t get the same sense that we did in the last couple of weeks really that ukraine may be on the verge of surrender. fighting is still very intense. but, for example, the study of war, a think tank which tracks these movements says that the
meaningful spring offensive, and can meanwhile regroup to their own spring counteroffensive. christine. clare, thank you for that. clare sebastian in london for us. three women are missing for weeks in mexico after crossing the border to go to a flea market. the latest in that investigation ahead. plus, the stars coming out in los angeles hoping for a gold statue. this year s oscars winners, nextxt.. what s the #1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists? it s neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the lookf fi lines in 1-week, deep wnkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® every day, millions of things need to get to where they re going. and at chevron, we re working to help reduce the carbon intensity of the fuels that keep things moving.
president putin was doing that yesterday. if you look at the situation militarily on the ground, it s clear that this is not laying the groundwork for talks. just the news out in the last hour that no humanitarian corridors would be open today clearly shows that the offensive is ramping up. and russia even gave the sense earlier in the week president putin meeting with the austrian chancellor, didn t even respond according to an austrian official to the austrian chancellor s suggestion that zelenskyy would be willing to meet face-to-face. so it is clear he is really not in the mood for negotiations at the moment. and it s also clear when he says they re here helping people, he is not. this is helping nobody. clare, thank you. clare sebastian live in london. we ll take a short break. when we come back, though, the british prime minister fined for breaking the covid lockdown rules. but the political costs could be much higher. the partygate, the fallout and the reaction in a moment.
well, russian president vladimir putin defending his brutal war in ukraine, vowing to press on until it s mission accomplished. during a news conference where the belarusian president, mr. putin said talks with ukraine have reached adead-end. the military operation will continue until it s fully completed and the objectives that were set at the beginning of this operation are achieved. we are helping people. we re saving them from nazism in the first place. and on the other hand, we re protecting russia, taking measures to protect russia s security. and it s obvious that we had no choice. it was the right thing to do, and i have no doubt the objectives will be achieved. let s bring in cnn s clare sebastian live in london. let s be clear. they did have a choice. there is no denazification going on here. it s absolutely ridiculous. and why is he now saying peace talks are a dead-end? yeah, so that is something