September 28, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 217 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Russian media reports that referendums held in four Ukrainian regions showed overwhelming support for joining Russia, with 93% of ballots cast in Zaporizhzhia, 87% in Kherson, 98% in Luhansk, and 99% in Donetsk supporting annexation. The referendums have been widely condemned as illegal and illegitimate by the international community. [more]
• Statements from officials in Finland, Georgia, and Kazakhstan indicate that some 194,000 Russians have fled to those three countries since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of military reservists last week. [more]

HURRICANE IAN | The U.S. National Hurricane Center says that Hurricane Ian has strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches Florida's southwest coast. A state of emergency has been declared for all of Florida and hundreds of thousands of the state's residents are under evacuation orders. Sporting events have been cancelled, schools and airports closed, and NASA has again delayed its Artemis 1 mission due to the approaching storm.  [more]

JANUARY 6 | A public hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol scheduled for this afternoon has been postponed due to Hurricane Ian. No new date for the hearing has yet been announced. [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | Police in Philadelphia say five high school football players were shot yesterday by unknown assailants following a scrimmage game at Roxborough High School. One victim died and the others are hospitalized and listed in stable condition. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | The Biden administration said yesterday that will keep the U.S. cap on refugee immigration admissions for the 2023 budget year at 125,000. It is the same level that was in place for the 2022 fiscal year, which ends September 30, though only some 20,000 refugee admissions have taken place, excluding approximately 180,000 Ukrainian and Afghan refugees who were admitted under special programs. [more]

EUROPEAN ENERGY | European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said today that all available information on leaks detected in two underwater natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea suggests the pipelines were deliberately sabotaged. The leaks were detected yesterday in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which are used to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany, though neither pipeline has been used for delivery recently due to the war in Ukraine. [more]

CUBA | Most of Cuba's 11 million population remains without power this morning in the wake of Hurricane Ian, which hit the island country yesterday as a Category 3 storm. [more]

IRAN AND IRAQ | Iran's Revolutionary Guard carried out missile and drone attacks today on groups it calls terrorists in northern Iraq's Kurdish region, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA. [more]

SAUDI ARABIA | A royal decree issued by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz yesterday named Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the country's Prime Minister, a post traditionally held by the king. [more]

WEST BANK | The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that at least four Palestinians were killed and 44 others wounded in an Israeli military arrest raid on the occupied West Bank town of Jenin today. [more]

ELECTRIC VEHICLES | The U.S. Department of Transportation yesterday issued final approval and released $1.5 billion in initial federal funding to states for a nationwide network of electric vehicle charging stations along the nation's interstate highways. The program aims to provide charging stations about every 50 miles along interstates. [more]

HAWAII | The Hawaii Department of Health announced yesterday that it has fined the U.S. Navy $8.7 million for repeatedly discharging untreated or partially treated sewage into state waters from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam between 2020 and 2022. [more]

NORTH KOREA | South Korean military officials say North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast today. The launch comes two days after the start of joint South Korean and U.S. naval exercises off the coast of South Korea and three days after the North's most recent missile test. [more]

INDIA | The Popular Front of India Muslim organization has been banned by India's government, which accuses the group of funding terrorist activities, training its supporters in the use of weapons, and supporting anti-India activities. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1928, Scottish medical researcher Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first effective antibiotic. [more history]