August 2, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 160 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said today that Russia has destroyed six U.S.-made HIMARS missile systems in Ukraine since the start of its military operations in February. Ukraine's military is thought to operate up to 12 of the systems throughout the country. [more]
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday that Russia appears to be using Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as a "nuclear shield" by having its troops based at the plant fire on nearby Ukrainian forces, which cannot return fire due to the risk of damaging the plant and causing a nuclear accident. [more]
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that the number of border crossings from Ukraine has surpassed 10 million since the Russian invasion began. [more]

AFGHANISTAN | U.S. President Joe Biden announced yesterday that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike Sunday in downtown Kabul. Al-Zawahri was one of the masterminds of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. [more]

TAIWAN | U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is widely expected to visit Taiwan today as part of her week-long Asian tour, though no official announcement of such a visit has been made. Pelosi would be the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to visit the island in more than 25 years. China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has characterized the potential visit as inflammatory, and has threatened unspecified retaliatory measures if it takes place. [more]

ABORTION | Residents of Kansas are voting in a referendum today on a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state's constitution -- the first such state-wide vote since the June decision by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. [more]

NUCLEAR WEAPONS | U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced yesterday that he will travel to Hiroshima, Japan, this week to mark the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing. The announcement came at the start of the 10th review conference of the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty being held in New York. [more]

JANUARY 6 | Guy Reffitt, the first person involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to go to trial rather than take a plea agreement, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison by a federal judge yesterday. A Washington, DC, jury convicted Reffitt on five felony charges related to the Capitol attack in March. [more]

KENTUCKY | Governor Andy Beshear said yesterday that the death toll from recent flooding in eastern Kentucky has risen to 37, and the number of people still unaccounted for is in the hundreds. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Five states -- Missouri, Kansas, Michigan, Arizona, and Washington -- are holding primary elections today to choose candidates for November's general elections. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | The Treasury Department released data yesterday showing that it is seeking to borrow $444 billion in the current fiscal quarter -- an increase of $262 billion over what the department estimated in May. Reports say much of the increase is due to lower tax collection forecasts and the Federal Reserve's move to scale back its holdings of Treasury notes. [more]

MONKEYPOX | The governors of California and Illinois declared states of emergency to coordinate efforts to address the ongoing outbreak of monkeypox in their respective jurisdictions yesterday. A similar declaration was made in New York over the weekend.  [more]

SOUTHEAST ASIA | A meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, along with diplomats from the United States, China, Russia and other world powers, begins today in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Major topics of discussion at the conference are expected to include the ongoing violence in Myanmar, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and China's influence in Southeast Asia. [more]

SIERRA LEONE | Doctors across the west African nation of Sierra Leone began taking part in an indefinite strike yesterday over pay and benefits issues. [more]

TRAVEL | British Airways announced today that it is suspending ticket sales for shorter flights from London's Heathrow Airport for about a week in an effort to ease travel disruptions caused by increased demand and staff shortages. [more]

FOOTBALL | Art McNally, the former NFL head of officiating, will become the first on-field official to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night. McNally, 97, officiated games for nine years before taking over the officiating department league-wide in 1968 and working there until his retirement in 2015. [more]

TENNIS | In her first singles appearance in nearly a year, seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams lost to Rebecca Marino in the opening round of the Citi Open tournament yesterday in Washington, DC. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | Iraq invaded Kuwait on this date in 1990, and Saddam Hussein's subsequent refusal to withdraw his troops sparked the Persian Gulf War. [more history]