Hey there! It’s Monday, and what a beautiful day. We could also see temperatures near 50 degrees on Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Gas prices in Chicago are rising — and it could get worse

Fueling up is getting more expensive, and it’s unclear how long the pain at the pump will last as the U.S. faces a high level of inflation, reports my colleague Charmaine Runes.

She found that a gallon of gas on average cost $2.75 in Chicago around this time last year. The average price last week was $3.84 — with some gas stations charging more than $4 per gallon.

And that was before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to send prices soaring even more. Russia is a dominant supplier and exporter of crude oil and natural gas, and analysts are concerned the war could cause disruptions, resulting in spikes in prices.

Even if you don’t drive a car, your wallet is still being stretched. The Consumer Price Index, which monitors the price of goods and services, rose by 6.8% over the last year in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area. And wages aren’t keeping up. [WBEZ]

2. Illinois’ mask mandates are lifted, leaving businesses and school districts to decide their next steps

Today kinda feels like “the mask mandate is dead, long live the mask mandate.”

Illinois’ statewide mask mandate for schools and many businesses ended today. That means individual school districts and businesses can decide for themselves whether to require masks or go mask optional.

In Chicago, public schools will still require masks, though Block Club Chicago reports “officials said an announcement on that rule could be coming soon.” [Block Club Chicago]

At the United Center, masks will be optional but sports fans will have to show their vaccinations cards or a negative COVID-19 test to get in. [Chicago Sun-Times]

The end of the mandates come as infections continue to plunge in Chicago. City officials reported a seven-day average of 250 cases per day on Friday, down 30% from the previous week. The number of hospitalizations is also declining, and the positivity rate is 1.4%. [COVID Dashboard]

3. Ukraine seeks to join the EU as first round of talks with Russia end with no breakthrough

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today urged the European Union to grant his country immediate membership into the bloc in response to Russia’s invasion.

The move came as delegates from Ukraine and Russia met in neighboring Belarus for the first round of cease-fire negotiations. The talks lasted just under five hours and ended with no results.

Meanwhile, the value of Russia’s ruble collapsed today as sanctions levied by the U.S. and its allies shook the Russian economy. [NPR]

Military leaders tell The Washington Post that tactical mistakes and steady resistance from Ukrainians risk putting the Kremlin in a protracted fight. [WaPo]

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness” is raising questions about his state of mind — and it illustrates how quickly the war could escalate.

“I personally think he’s unhinged,” said former U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper. [New York Times]

The New York Times takes a behind-the-scenes look at “10 consequential days” of the Biden administration.

“This guy’s really going to do it,” President Joe Biden told an aide after watching a speech from Putin last Monday. [NYT]

4. Climate change is accelerating so quickly that it could overwhelm our ability to adapt, a U.N. report warns

A major new report from the United Nations says greenhouse gas emissions must be rapidly reduced or both humanity and nature may be too overwhelmed to adapt to a hotter planet.

Heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires, disease outbreaks and other dire effects of climate change are rapidly mounting, causing billions of people on every continent to suffer, the report from nearly 300 scientists says.

“People are now suffering and dying from climate change,” says Kristie Ebi, one of the lead authors of the report and an epidemiologist at the University of Washington. [NPR]

5. Former Lightfoot ally says she won’t support the mayor’s reelection bid

Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, once a key ally of Mayor Lori Lightfoot on the City Council, said in a recent interview that she will “absolutely not” back the mayor for reelection.

“I’m tired of being ignored. I’m tired of not getting phone calls returned. I’m tired of letting the inmates run the asylum. Yeah, no. Absolutely not,” Garza said in an interview on The Ben Joravsky Show podcast. “I have never met anybody who has managed to piss off every single person they come in contact with — police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing, and that’s it. I said it. That’s it. I don’t care.”

Lightfoot has not formally announced she will seek reelection, but she is widely expected to run.

As the Chicago Tribune points out, Garza’s comments offer a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes gripes council members share about Lightfoot. And they raise questions about who council members will support in the upcoming mayoral election. [Chicago Tribune]

Here’s what else is happening

• President Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address tomorrow night. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver the Republican Party’s response. [NPR]
• The first trial of a defendant charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol began this week. [AP]
• TikTok bumped up the maximum length of videos to 10 minutes. [Variety]
• A museum in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood will have nearly 2,500 insects on display. [Block Club Chicago]

Oh, and one more thing …

Renowned Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt is the first artist commissioned by the Obama Foundation to create a piece for the presidential center on the city’s South Side, reports WBEZ’s Natalie Moore.

The piece, called “Book Bird,” depicts a bird emerging with upright wings out of a book. The golden sculpture will be installed in the reading garden outside of a Chicago Public Library branch that’s part of the presidential center.

“The bird coming out of the book was a symbol of things expanding, rising up,” Hunt said.

Hunt, one of the nation’s foremost African American sculptors, was raised on the city’s South Side, where his mother was a librarian. Inspired as a child by visits to local museums — including the Field Museum and the Art Institute — and arts classes he attended, Hunt decided to become a sculptor.

He studied at the School of the Art Institute and would go on to become the first African American sculptor to be honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

I can’t stop thinking about Hank the Tank, the 500-pound bear that was believed to have broken into at least 28 homes in California. (Turns out he got a bad rap.)

But I’d like to know, what is a funny, weird or great experience you’ve had with an animal?

During high school, my brother came home one night after hanging out with friends. We could hear him scream before he ran into the house, where he told us that he saw a creature that was half-monkey, half-boy in our backyard.

We busted out laughing and later pieced together a theory that he actually saw a skunk with its tail raised.

Feel free to email or tweet me, and your response might be shared in the newsletter this week.