July 25, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 152 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian officials say a Russian missile strike destroyed a grain silo in the port city of Odesa on Saturday, despite both Ukraine and Russia signing a U.N.-backed agreement on Friday to allow grain shipments from the port to resume. Russian military officials deny striking any grain storage facilities, saying only military targets were hit. [more]
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a speech Saturday that Western sanctions against Russia have failed and that the war in Ukraine "can be ended only with peace talks between Russia and America.” [more]
• U.S. officials on Friday announced a new  $270 million military aid package for Ukraine, which includes additional medium range rocket systems and tactical drones. The latest aid package brings the total of U.S. aid to Ukraine to $8.2 billion since the Russian invasion began. [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | Reports say two people were killed and at least five others injured when gunfire broke out yesterday at a Los Angeles park where a car show was being held. Police have not suggested a motive for the shooting and no arrests have been made. [more]

MONKEYPOX | The World Health Organization declared the ongoing outbreak of monkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern" on Saturday -- the organization's highest level of alert. To date, more than 16,000 cases of the disease have been detected in more than 75 countries in the current outbreak. [more]

MORE MONKEYPOX | The European Commission has approved Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic's smallpox vaccine for use against monkeypox. The approval is valid in all European Union member states, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, according to a statement from the company. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in California's Mariposa County after a wildfire located near Yosemite National Park spread significantly over the weekend. Reports say the fire had burned more than 15,000 acres, put thousands of homes in danger, and forced thousands of people to evacuate as of Sunday evening. [more]

CANADA | Pope Francis arrived in Canada yesterday for what he has termed a "penitential pilgrimage," during which he is expected to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by Catholic missionaries during the forced assimilation of generations of Native children at residential schools. [more]

JAPAN | Sakurajima volcano, located on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu erupted yesterday, prompting alerts and calls for evacuations in the region, including in Kagoshima Prefecture and Kagoshima City. [more]

MYANMAR | The government of Myanmar confirmed today that it has carried out the country's first executions in almost 50 years, hanging a former lawmaker, a democracy activist, and two other political prisoners accused of roles in a killing after the military took power last year. [more]

COVID-19 | The number of Australians hospitalized due to COVID-19 infections hit an all-time high of 5,450 today. Health officials say coronavirus infections have increased steadily since June, when the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants became dominant. [more]

KENYA | Authorities say at least 30 people died yesterday when a bus traveling from Meru to the Kenyan capital Nairobi fell off a bridge and plunged into a river. [more]

GREECE | Residents of multiple villages in southern Greece were evacuated yesterday due to the country's latest wildfire, which broke out Sunday morning to the southeast of the famous archaeological site of Ancient Olympia. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | At a two-day meeting that begins Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its benchmark overnight interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to a target range of 2.25% to 2.50%. [more]

DATA SECURITY | U.S. cellular service provider T- Mobile agreed on Friday to pay $350 million to settle a class action lawsuit over a data breach in which the personal information, including names and social security numbers, of nearly 80 million U.S. residents was stolen from its servers in a cyberattack. [more]

TRAVEL | The ver.di service workers' union today called for the ground staff of German airline Lufthansa to strike on Wednesday ahead of the next round of the union's pay negotiations with the airline. [more]

BASEBALL | Seven new members were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday, including Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, former Twins teammates Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva, the late Minnie Miñoso, former Dodgers star and Mets manager Gil Hodges, and Black pioneer players Buck O’Neil and Bud Fowler. [more]

CYCLING | Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard won the 109th Tour de France yesterday, finishing ahead of his nearest rival, Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, by more than three-and-a-half minutes. [more]

GOLF | Brooke Henderson won the Evian Championship yesterday in Evian-les-Bains, France. The win was Henderson's second women's major tournament title. [more]

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE | UFO thriller "Nope" topped the North America box office over the weekend with an estimated $44 million in receipts, followed by "Thor: Love and Thunder" and "Minions: The Rise of Gru." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1978, Louise Brown, the first human conceived using in vitro fertilization, was born in England. [more history]