October 3, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 222 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian officials said yesterday that their forces gained complete control this weekend of the northeastern Ukraine city of Lyman, which has been a key logistics hub for Russian forces, and which is located in the Donetsk region -- one of the four regions that Russia announced it was annexing last week. [more]
• U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday that the U.S. will impose severe costs on individuals, entities or countries that provide support for Russia's planned annexation of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. [more]
• Nine European NATO-member nations -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia -- released a joint statement yesterday supporting Ukraine's application for NATO membership and calling for all NATO members to bolster military aid for Ukraine. [more]

SUPREME COURT | The U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term today with the Court's most recent appointee, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, participating in her first cases. Of note, the Court is once again open to the public after having been closed in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. [October hearing list] [more]

JANUARY 6 | Opening arguments are scheduled to take place today in the seditious conspiracy trial of Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group, and four associates in connection with what prosecutors say was their plot to prevent the transfer of power to newly elected President Joe Biden in January 2021. [more]

SUICIDE | In a report released Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the number of suicides in the U.S. rose to 47,646, or 14 suicides for every 100,000 people, in 2021, up from 45,979, or 13.5 per 100,000, in 2020. [more]

MENTAL HEALTH | The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services announced $314 million in new funding today for expansion of mental health services in schools and emergency departments around the country. Much of the funding is coming from the bipartisan anti-gun violence legislation passed by Congress earlier this year. [more]

HURRICANE IAN | Reports say the death toll from Hurricane Ian has risen to at least 85, including 81 deaths in Florida and four in North Carolina. [more]

INDONESIA | At least 125 people died, and 600 others were injured, Saturday when the crowd at a soccer match in the Indonesian city of Malang stampeded toward the stadium exits after police fired tear gas to disperse fans who were angry over the home team's loss. [more]

PAKISTAN | A new report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that up to 5.7 million survivors of Pakistan's recent catastrophic flooding, which killed at least 1,695 people, will face serious food crises in the coming months. [more]

IRAN | Reports say Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic have submitted multiple proposals for new European Union sanctions against Iran in connection with Tehran's ongoing crackdown on nationwide protests over women's rights. The proposals are expected to be considered by EU foreign ministers at a meeting on October 17. [more]

BRAZIL | Incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face each other in a runoff presidential election on October 30 after neither candidate received at least 50% of the votes in yesterday's national election. [more]

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA | Preliminary results from Sunday's elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina suggest that reformists Denis Becirovic and Zeljko Komsic will win the Bosniak and Croat seats in the country's tripartite presidency, while nationalist Zeljka Cvijanovic will win the Bosnian Serb seat. [more]

U.K. ECONOMY | The British government of Prime Minister Liz Truss announced today that it will abandon plans to cut the 45% income tax rate for the U.K.'s top earners. The announcement came a day after Truss defended the measure, along with other economic plans that prompted U.K. market turmoil and currency devaluation after being announced on September 23. [more]

SOMALIA | Government officials in Somalia say Abdullahi Nadir, a leader of the al-Shabab extremist group, was killed in the country's Middle Jubba region Saturday in a joint operation by Somali armed forces and its international partner forces. [more]

BURKINA FASO | Following Burkina Faso's second military coup in a year, former leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba was forced to flee the country this weekend, and Capt. Ibrahim Traore, 34, was named the West African nation's head of state pending future elections. [more]

U.S. AND VENEZUELA | U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday announced the release from prison in Venezuela and return of seven American citizens in exchange for the release of two Venezuelans imprisoned in the United States. [more]

MEXICO | Hurricane Orlene -- currently a Category 3 storm -- is expected to hit Mexico's Pacific Coast south of Mazatlan late tonight, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. [more]

TURKISH ECONOMY | Government data released today indicates that inflation in Turkey rose to 83.45% in September, compared to the year-ago period -- a 24-year high. [more]

NOBEL PRIZES | Swedish scientist Svante Paabo was named the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine today for his research into the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution. [more]

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE | "Smile" topped the North America box office over the weekend with an estimated $22 million in receipts, followed by "Don’t Worry Darling," and "The Woman King." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | After four decades of Cold War division and with pressure from the German chancellor Helmut Kohl, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to a unified Germany within NATO, leading to Germany's reunification on this date in 1990. [more history]