October 7, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 226 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Speaking at a New York fundraising event yesterday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Russia's recent comments about possibly using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine have raised the world's risk of nuclear “Armageddon” to its highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. [more]
• Reports say the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia earlier this week has risen to 11. [more]

NOBEL PRIZES | Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian international human rights organization Memorial, and independent Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties have been named the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Prize Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen said the committee wished to honor the three winners for championing "human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence in the neighbour countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine." [more]

MARIJUANA | U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday issued a proclamation pardoning Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana in violation of federal law. In a statement, Biden said the pardons will help to address barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities associated with the convictions, which have affected black and brown Americans disproportionately, and that he is urging all state governors to issue similar pardons with regard to state marijuana possession offenses. [more]

JANUARY 6 | Jeremy Joseph Bertino, 43, of North Carolina -- a member of the far-right Proud Boys group -- pleaded guilty yesterday to the federal charge of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Proud Boys' actions aimed at stopping the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election. Additionally, Bertino has reportedly agreed to cooperate with investigations into the Proud Boys' involvement in the January 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. [more]

HURRICANE IAN | The death toll from Hurricane Ian has risen to at least 101, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, with 92 deaths in Florida, five in North Carolina, three in Cuba, and one in Virginia. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Labor Department jobs data due to be released later this morning is expected to show that employers added 250,000 jobs in the U.S. in September, according to economists surveyed by the data firm FactSet. [more]

LAS VEGAS | Police in Las Vegas have arrested Yoni Barrios, 32, on charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with a series of knife attacks along the Las Vegas Strip yesterday in which two people were killed and six others were wounded. [more]

GLOBAL ECONOMY | Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said yesterday that the IMF has lowered its projections for global economic growth for this year and next year, with 3.2% growth projected for 2022 and 2.9% growth projected for 2023. [more]

COVID-19 | World Health Organization data released this week says that the number of new weekly coronavirus cases decreased by 6% globally during the week of September 26 to October 2, 2022, compared to the prior week, with about 2.9 million new cases reported, and that coronavirus-related deaths fell by 12% over the same period, with just over 8,300 fatalities reported. [more]

RUSSIA | The U.N. Human Rights Council voted yesterday to appoint an independent expert to examine the human rights record of Russia, which the Council accused of creating a "climate of fear" through repression and violence. [more]

KOREA | South Korean and U.S. naval forces, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, began a two-day round of drills today off the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. The drills come amidst heightened tensions following increased levels of North Korean missile tests over the past several weeks. [more]

THAILAND | Police in Thailand have identified the gunman who killed 36 people, including 24 children, at a day care center yesterday in Nongbua Lamphu province as Panya Kamrap, 34 -- a former police sergeant whose son had previously attended the day care center. Kamrap, who killed himself following the attack, was due to appear in court on drug charges today. [more]

AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA | At a meeting in Prague, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia have reportedly agreed to facilitate a civilian EU mission aimed at calming border tensions between the two countries that have seen 155 soldiers from both sides killed in recent months. [more]

CRYPTOCURRENCY | Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the cryptocurrency firm Binance, said today that hackers have stolen $100 million to $110 million from a Binance-linked blockchain called BNB Chain. [more]

BASEBALL | Attendance at Major League Baseball games rose to 64.6 million fans for the 2022 regular season, which ended on Wednesday, up from 45.3 million who attended games in 2021, according to data from baseball-reference.com. The 2022 attendance level was still down some 6% from pre-pandemic levels. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1944, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, at which the United States, China, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom formulated proposals for a world organization that became the basis for the United Nations, concluded in Washington, D.C. [more history]