June 28, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 125 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Reports say at least 1,000 people were inside a shopping mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk yesterday when it was struck by a Russian missile attack killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 40 others. The U.N Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the attack. [more]
• In addressing G-7 leaders yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the world's leading industrial nations to make a major push to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine by the end of the year. [more]

NATO | In a move he characterized as "the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced yesterday that NATO will increase its number of high readiness forces on the alliance's eastern European borders to over 300,000 from its current level of about 40,000 troops. [more]

MORE NATO | Officials from both Finland and Sweden say progress has been made in talks with Turkey over Ankara's objections to the Nordic countries' bids to join the NATO alliance. Related talks are expected to continue this week during the NATO summit in Madrid. [more]

JANUARY 6 | A previously unscheduled public hearing of the House January 6 committee will take place at 1 p.m. today to present what committee members say is recently obtained evidence. Prior to the new hearing being scheduled, the next public hearing had been expected to take place in mid-July. [more]

ABORTION | In the wake of last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, petitioners in several states have filed lawsuits seeking to stop many states' so-called 'trigger bans' that forbid or restrict abortions upon Roe being overturned. Judges in Louisiana and Utah have temporarily blocked those states' trigger laws pending further hearings. [more]

SUPREME COURT | The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 yesterday that on-field prayer by a former public high school football coach in Washington state was protected by the First Amendment. In an opinion for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that, "The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike," while in a dissent Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the decision "sets us further down a perilous path in forcing states to entangle themselves with religion." [more]

MIGRATION | Authorities in San Antonio, Texas, say 46 people were found dead yesterday in an abandoned tractor-trailer that is presumed to have been part of a migrant smuggling attempt into the United States from Mexico. [more]

AMTRAK | Three people were killed and dozens of others injured yesterday when an Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago derailed after striking a dump truck that was on the train track in a remote area of Missouri. [more]

G-7 | Leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers wrap up a three-day summit today in Germany and are expected to travel immediately to Madrid for a meeting of NATO leaders. The summit focused largely on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [more]

COVID-19 | Chinese health officials announced today that the COVID-19-related quarantine period for travelers arriving in China from abroad has been reduced to seven days plus three days of home observation -- down from 14 days and seven days of home observation. [more]

SYRIA | U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said today that 306,887 civilians have been killed in Syria's internal conflicts since March 2011. Bachelet noted that the civilian death toll included those killed as a direct result of war operations and not those who died from lack of healthcare or access to food or clean water. [more]

MORE SYRIA | The U.S. military's Central Command says its forces killed senior terrorist leader Abu Hamzah al Yemeni in Syria in an airstrike yesterday. [more]

SRI LANKA | Officials in Sri Lanka said yesterday that fuel sales for private vehicles would be banned in the country through July 10 amidst the South Asian nation's ongoing economic and fuel crisis. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Primary elections are being held today in seven states, including Colorado, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah, to choose candidates for the November general elections. [more]

NUCLEAR ENERGY | Reports say the Czech Republic has signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Co. and France’s Framatome to obtain fuel supplies for a nuclear power plant in a move aimed at reducing the country's dependence on Russian energy and supplies. [more]

CLIMATE | Qatar's state-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy said today that it is joining an industry-led initiative to cut nearly all methane emissions from its operations by 2030. [more]

NAZI TRIAL | A German court today convicted an unnamed 101-year-old man on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder for his service as a guard at the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp during World War II. The man was sentenced to five years in prison. [more]

BUSINESS | Taiwan-based technology company GlobalWafers has announced plans to build a $5 billion silicon wafer production factory in Sherman, Texas, in a move the company says will help ease the U.S. shortage of advanced semiconductors. [more]

BASEBALL | A total of 12 players and coaches from the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners were suspended by Major League Baseball yesterday for their roles in a brawl that took place during a game between the teams on Sunday. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his consort, Sophie, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia, precipitating the outbreak of World War I. Exactly five years later, on this date in 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France, signifying the formal end of World War I. [more history]