December 23, 2022

UKRAINE | Today is day 302 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• North Korea has supplied rockets and missiles to the Russian private military company Wagner Group for use in Ukraine in violation of U.N. sanctions that prohibit the import or export of weapons by Pyongyang, according to a statement yesterday by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. In response, North Korea today denied supplying weapons to Russia. [more]
• Russia could cut its oil production by 5-7% in early 2023 in response to price caps adopted by Western countries as part of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, according to a statement today by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. [more]

JANUARY 6 | The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol released its final report overnight, concluding that former President Donald Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and that he failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. [full report] [more]

U.S. BUDGET | Ahead of a midnight Friday deadline, the House is expected to vote today to pass the $1.7 trillion federal government funding bill that funds the government through the end of the 2023 fiscal year. The bill was passed by the Senate yesterday. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Revised data from the Commerce Department shows that the U.S. gross domestic product — a key measure of broad economic output — rose at a higher-than-expected annual rate of 3.6% during the July to September quarter. [more]

ARIZONA | Under an agreement reached between Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and the Biden administration, Arizona will stop building a makeshift border wall made of shipping containers along a section of the state’s U.S.-Mexico border that is on federal land and, additionally, will remove containers already installed in the remote San Rafael Valley. [more]

WEATHER | As dozens of U.S. states brace for winter storms and severely cold temperatures across the country this weekend, some 1,600 domestic flights have already been cancelled for today and Amtrak has cancelled service on more than 20 train routes, mostly in the Midwest. [more]

NATO | Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said yesterday that talks between Sweden and Turkey on the Nordic country’s application to join the NATO alliance are progressing well and that his country hopes to become a NATO member by the time of the July alliance summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Turkey and Hungary are the only two members of the 30-nation alliance that have not yet approved membership applications from Sweden and Finland. [more]

NORTH KOREA | Reports say North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast today — adding to its record number of such launches this year. [more]

U.K. TRAVEL | U.K. government employees who check passports at British airports begin a strike today that is expected to last through the end of the year. Government officials say military and other public sector workers will assist in airport screening to ease disruptions to travel. [more]

PAKISTAN | Police in Islamabad say two suspected militants and a police officer were killed this morning when a car bomb exploded near a residential area of the Pakistani capital. Reports say at least three other police officers and seven passersby were also wounded in the explosion. [more]

PARIS | French television network BFM TV reports that at least two people were killed, and several others were wounded, when an unidentified gunman, who was later arrested, opened fire near a Kurdish cultural center in central Paris this morning. The incident and the shooter’s motives are currently under investigation. [more]

SOCIAL MEDIA | Facebook parent company Meta agreed yesterday to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the social media company of improperly allowing third parties to access users’ personal information. The lawsuit was triggered by the 2018 discovery that Facebook allowed the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access personal data on as many as 87 million people that was collected via an online personality quiz. [more]

CRYPTO | Cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail bond yesterday while he awaits trial on fraud charges associated with the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange company. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1968, 82 crewmen of the USS Pueblo were released after being held in captivity for 11 months by North Korea, which claimed the U.S. Navy intelligence ship had crossed into its waters. [more history]