April 7, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 43 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates [more]:

• The U.N. General Assembly is scheduled to vote today on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council. [more]
• New U.S. sanctions against Russia announced yesterday include measures against leading financial institutions Sherbank and Alfabank, two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and senior members of Russia's security council. [more]
• Ahead of its first-quarter earnings release, energy company Shell says its withdrawal from Russia over the invasion of Ukraine has already cost the company as much as $5 billion. [more]
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says his country will pay for Russian gas in rubles, breaking with other European nations who have rejected the payment terms demanded by  Russian President Vladimir Putin. [more]

SUPREME COURT | The U.S. Senate is expected to vote to confirm the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court today. Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the Court. [more]

MINNEAPOLIS | Prosecutors in Minnesota have declined to file charges against a Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Amir Locke while executing a no-knock search warrant in February. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Police in Sacramento say the shooting in the city last weekend that killed six people and wounded 12 others was a gunfire exchange between rival gang members and that at least five shooters took part in the exchange of fire. [more]

EDUCATION | U.S. President Joe Biden, in a widely anticipated move, announced yesterday that the pause on payments for federally-backed student loans has been extended through August 31. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Economists at Germany’s Deutsche Bank  predicted this week that the U.S. will experience a minor recession starting in late 2023, driven by rising interest rates and increases in unemployment. [more]

MORE U.S. ECONOMY | White House economic advisor Brian Deese said yesterday that the shortage of semiconductors probably reduced U.S. GDP by a full percentage point in 2021. [more]

JANUARY 6 | The House voted yesterday to hold Trump administration officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack. [more]

ENVIRONMENT | The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday overturned a lower court ruling that would have blocked a Trump administration rule limiting the power of states and Native American tribes to block pipelines and other energy projects that could  pollute rivers, streams and other waterways. [more]

PUERTO RICO | As many as 350,000 households in Puerto Rico were without power last night following a fire at one of the U.S. territory’s largest power plants. [more]

YEMEN | President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ceded power to a presidential council today in the latest move aimed at supporting international efforts to revive negotiations to end Yemen’s ongoing civil war  in which several factions are vying for power. [more]

ETHIOPIA | In a joint report, humanitarian groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused armed forces from Ethiopia's Amhara region of crimes against humanity and waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Tigrayans. [full report] [more]

JAPAN | Officials in Japan say the country’s COVID-related entry ban on nonresident foreign nationals will be lifted starting tomorrow for people from 106 nations, including the U.S., U.K, and India. [more]

COVID-19 | The European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Control yesterday jointly approved a second booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 80 and older. The agencies said it is too early to make a determination on a second booster dose for other age groups. [more]

MORE COVID-19 | Lawmakers in Germany are debating a proposal that would require all people aged 60 and older in the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19. [more]

ENERGY | The International Energy Agency has announced that its 31 member nations plan to release 120 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to battle high gasoline prices around the world. The IEA oil release includes 60 million barrels from the previously announced U.S. strategic oil reserve release plan. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | The World Health Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, was formally established on this date in 1948. [more history]