A SUBWAY station in Kyiv is used as a bomb shelter as Russian attacks are pressed against Ukraine’s capitol (VOA/Wikipedia).

On the 20th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a ray of hope for peace emerged.

According to the Associated Press, negotiations between the two nations could yield room for a compromise.

The principal demands made by Russia before its invasion included that Ukraine drop its plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and that NATO would agree to never admit to membership.

Published reports have suggested that Ukraine might be willing to forgo its intentions to join that western alliance as long as it could rely on informal defensive help from the United States and others.

In other related news:

• Leaders of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia all visited Ukraine to show their support for their Eastern European neighbor.
• In retaliation for strong economic sanctions from the United States and its Western allies, the Russian government on Tuesday announced it would impose sanctions on President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other American leaders, according to United Press International.

Also in the news …

TWO A.M. becomes 3 a.m. overnight as Daylight Saving Time kicks in each spring (Shutterstock).

If you don’t like changing the clocks twice a year, you now have an ally in the U.S, Senate.

On Tuesday the upper house of Congress voted to make daylight saving time permanent across the nation.

According to CNN, the vote was unanimous, but still must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden to become the law of the land and keep us from having to fall back every fall.

Sports: Women’s March Madness seeds

The NCAA’s women’s Division basketball tournament will commence on Friday. According to The New York Times, the top regional seeds are South Carolina (Greensboro), North Carolina State (Bridgeport), Stanford (Spokane) and Louisville (Wichita).

Final four games will be played in Minneapolis on April 1, and the title game on April 3.

Weather: New England weather in OC?

There’s an old saying about the weather in New England that says, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait few minutes and it will change.” There may not be that much variety in Orange County, but the next few days will offer lots of change. The forecast for Wednesday is for a daytime high of 74 (53 overnight) under partly cloudy skies. That will jump to 81 degrees (52 overnight) on Thursday with mostly sunny skies. But, look out; the thermometer will fall to 76 on Friday and 68 on Saturday with a 24 percent chance of rain.

Business: Oil prices continue to skid

OIL STOCKS, prices are declining.

As worries about inflation begin to ease, oil stocks declined for the second consecutive day on Tuesday and technology companies took the lead on Wall Street, according to the Associated Press.

All three major stock indexes – Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq – posted strong gains and the price of a barrel of U.S. crude petroleum fell from $109 a week ago to under $97.