January 18, 2023

UKRAINE | Today is day 328 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said yesterday that his country will join the U.S. and Germany in plans to train and arm Ukraine with advanced Patriot missile defense systems. [more]
• Speaking at a news conference today in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. and European allies are seeking a “final solution to the Russian question” in the same way that Adolf Hitler sought a "final solution" to eradicate Europe's Jews. [more]
• Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi was among 18 people killed when a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten today in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary. Authorities say three children were also among those killed and that a total of 29 people were injured in the crash, for which the cause is not yet known. [more]

DEBT CEILING | The U.S. will reach its debt limit tomorrow, according to the Treasury Department, raising concerns about a potential debt default amongst politicians, economists, and business leaders. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has urged Congress to increase the limit before tomorrow, says there are “extraordinary measures” that can be used to push off any default until the summer. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Damage from weeks of severe weather that caused flooding, road closures, mudslides, and at least 20 deaths in California, is spread across 41 of the state’s 58 counties, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. [more]

MINNESOTA | Attorneys for former Hamline University adjunct art professor Erika López Prater said yesterday that she is suing the university after having been dismissed from her position following Muslim student complaints about the presentation of depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a global art course. University officials say they are reviewing their actions, but have not directly addressed the lawsuit.  [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Former President Donald Trump will reportedly make his first public campaign appearance for the 2024 presidential race on January 28 in Columbia, South Carolina, where he will be joined by the state’s U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Henry McMaster. [more]

ABORTION | Responding to a Texas-based lawsuit claiming that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration improperly approved the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone in 2000, the FDA said yesterday that there is no basis for second-guessing the approval and that removing the drug from the market, as the lawsuit seeks, would force patients seeking abortions in many cases to undergo unnecessary and more invasive surgical abortion. [more]

U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS | Meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He yesterday in Zurich, Switzerland, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged to manage differences between the two countries and “prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict.” [more]

BRAZIL | Authorities in Brazil have presented their first charges against people involved in the January 8 riots that saw supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro storm government buildings in the capital Brasilia. The office of the country’s prosecutor-general says the first 39 people charged are accused of armed criminal association, violent attempts to subvert the democratic state of law, staging a coup, and damage to public property. [more]

JAPAN | The Tokyo High Court today upheld the 2019 acquittal of three former Tokyo Electric Power Company executives who had been charged with negligence in connection with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown. [more]

DAVOS | Speaking yesterday at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, without mentioning any specific countries or political parties, warned against the rise of far-right political movements inside the European Union, especially in countries where “far-right forces have the support of the main conservative parties.” [more]

GREEN ECONOMY | European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday outlined her “Green Deal Industrial Plan” for the European Union, which is aimed at facilitating subsidies for green industries and promoting EU-wide efforts to invest in cleaner technology and industry. [more]

PAKISTAN | Political supporters of former Pakistani President Imran Khan today dissolved the provincial assembly in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where they held a majority of seats. Critics say the move, which came just days after a similar dissolution took place in the Punjab province, is intended to deepen the country’s political crisis in an attempt to force early parliamentary elections. [more]

GERMANY | Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was among those arrested yesterday as police continued efforts to clear anti-mining protestors from several sites in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. [more]

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT | Prosecutors investigating a corruption scandal in the European Parliament, which led to the removal from office of former parliament vice president Eva Kaili last month, say former assembly parliamentarian Pier Antonio Panzeri, who is among other suspects in the Qatar-linked scandal, has agreed to become an informant against others in return for a lighter punishment. [more]

FRANCE | The Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home in Toulon, France, says French nun Lucile Randon, known as Sister André and listed by the Gerontology Research Group as the world’s oldest person, died today at the age of 118. [more]

TECH LAYOFFS | Reports say tech giant Microsoft plans to reduce its workforce by about 5%, or 11,000 jobs, starting today, with the company’s human resources and engineering divisions expected to be the hardest hit. [more]

TENNIS | Defending champion and No. 1 seeded Rafael Nadal lost to 65th-ranked Mackenzie McDonald today in the second round of the Australian Open after suffering a mid-match hip injury. [more]

ENTERTAINMENT | Actress Sally Field will receive a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards. Field, 79, is a two-time Oscar winner and has been recognized previously with the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honor. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1911, the first aircraft landing on a ship's flight deck was performed by American pilot Eugene Ely on the battleship Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay. [more history]