November 29, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 278 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• NATO foreign ministers are meeting in Bucharest, Romania, today to discuss ongoing military and infrastructure support for Ukraine. Reports say attendees are likely to announce new pledges of nonlethal support, including fuel, generators, medical supplies, and cold weather equipment. [more]
• Amidst ongoing efforts to repair damage from Russian attacks, Ukrainian national power grid operator Ukrenegro said today that about 30% of the country’s electricity demand is still not being met. [more]

MARRIAGE LEGISLATION | The U.S. Senate is expected to vote today on legislation aimed at protecting same-sex and interracial marriage. The Respect for Marriage Act would not mandate that states legalize such marriages, but would require them to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed. [more]

FIRST AMENDMENT | Saying that “publishing is not a crime” and warning of the undermining of America’s First Amendment and freedom of the press, five major international publishers — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, DER SPIEGEL, and El País — published an open letter today calling for the U.S. to end its prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for the 2010 release of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables. [more]

BUFFALO SHOOTING | The gunman who killed 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in May pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of murder and hate-motivated terrorism. Payton Gendron, 19, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Two Federal Reserve officials — John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed — suggested yesterday that the Fed may need to continue its key interest rate increases longer than expected in order to reduce inflation closer to its 2% target. [more]

U.S. RAIL STRIKE | President Joe Biden yesterday called for Congress to pass legislation that would impose the terms of an agreement between rail unions and companies in order to avert a December 9 rail strike deadline that Biden says would devastate the U.S. economy. [more]

IMMIGRATION | The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today on challenges to a September 2021 Biden administration policy that prioritized the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants that pose public safety threats rather than more broad enforcement that applied to all illegal immigrants. [more]

HAWAII | Officials on Hawaii’s Big Island warned residents yesterday to be ready to evacuate if the Mauna Loa volcano eruption, which began Sunday, grows and lava begins to flow toward populated areas. [more]

ARIZONA | Republican officials in Arizona’s Cochise County refused yesterday to certify the results of county residents’ votes in the 2022 election, saying they want further information on the certification of ballot-counting machines. State election officials have warned that statewide vote counts are required to be approved by next week and that votes from Cochise County may have to be excluded if they are not received in time. [more]

CHINA | Reports say multiple universities in China have begun sending students home amidst widespread protests against the government’s “zero COVID” restrictions and calls for the removal of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. [more]

PAKISTAN | On the same day that former spy chief Gen. Asim Munir took command of Pakistan’s armed forces, the Pakistani Taliban, also known as TPP, yesterday ordered its followers to resume attacks in Pakistan. A cease-fire agreement between the TPP and the Pakistani government had been in place since May. [more]

GERMANY AND QATAR | Under a 15-year agreement announced today, Qatar will provide Germany with liquefied natural gas beginning in 2026. The agreement was sought as part of Germany’s efforts to end its reliance on Russian-supplied gas. [more]

AUSTRALIA | Officials from UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature have recommended that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef be added to a list of endangered World Heritage sites and say more needs to be done to prevent pollution and climate changes from affecting the world’s largest coral reef. [more]

DATA PROTECTION | Following an investigation into large amounts of personal data made available online, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission yesterday fined Facebook parent company Meta 265 million euros for violating European Union data privacy rules. [more]

CRYPTOCURRENCY | Amidst ongoing uncertainty in the cryptocurrency market and the collapse of the FTX exchange, U.S. cryptocurrency lender BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday and crypto exchange Bitfront announced this week that it will cease operations in a few months. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the partition of Palestine into two separate states—an Arab and a Jewish one—that would retain an economic union. [more history]