July 18, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 145 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• European Union foreign ministers are expected to approve a new 500 million euro military aid package for Ukraine today, bringing the EU's total of such aid to more than 2 billion euros since the Russian invasion began. [more]
• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has reportedly ordered military commanders to prioritize destroying Ukraine's long-range missile and artillery weapons, which are being increasingly used to strike Russian supply lines. [more]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his state security chief and prosecutor general yesterday, citing investigations into members of Ukraine's prosecutor’s and state security service's offices suspected of collaborating with Russia. [more]

UVALDE | A Texas House committee report released yesterday on the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, says the law enforcement response to the shooting showed "systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making." [full report] [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | Four people were killed, and two other injured, when a gunman opened fire yesterday at a mall near Indianapolis, Indiana. One of those who died in the incident was the suspected gunman, who was shot by another mall patron. [more]

EUROPEAN CLIMATE | Public service and travel cancellations, as well as wildfires and national emergency declarations, are being seen this week in various parts of western Europe as the region deals with a record-setting heatwave. [more]

JANUARY 6 | A subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. capitol gives the U.S. Secret Service until tomorrow to provide text messages from January 5 and 6 from agents' phones that were reportedly deleted as part of a planned phone replacement program. Secret Service officials say the committee has the agency's full cooperation. [more]

MORE JANUARY 6 | Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in the contempt of Congress trial of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee that sought his records and testimony. [more]

HUNGARY | Protesters against new laws that many see as increasing tax rates on small business owners blocked traffic on one of Budapest's main bridges over the Danube River this morning during rush hour. Protests against the tax law change have taken place for more than a week in the Hungarian capital. [more]

SRI LANKA | Acting Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency today amidst ongoing protests over the government's handling of the South Asian nation's economic crisis. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Data to be released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors is expected to show that sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell seasonally adjusted annual level of 5.36 million properties in June, which would be the fifth straight month of sales rate declines. [more]

ATHLETICS | Four days into the 10-day event, the USA leads the medal count at the 2022 World Athletics Championships being held in Eugene, Oregon, with 14 medals. [full medal count] [more]

GOLF | Australia's Cameron Smith shot a final-round 8-under-par 64 yesterday to win the 2022 British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland. [more]

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE | "Thor: Love and Thunder" topped the North America box office over the weekend with an estimated $46 million in receipts, followed by "Minions: The Rise of Gru" and "Where the Crawdads Sing." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1976, for her performance in the uneven parallel bars at the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci of Romania became the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. [more history]