January 25, 2023

UKRAINE | Today is day 335 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Germany announced plans today to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and said it will approve requests from other countries to provide Kyiv with German-made tanks. An announcement from the U.S. on providing Abrams tanks to Ukraine is expected as early as today. [more]
• Reports cite Ukrainian military spokesman Sergiy Cherevaty as saying today that Kyiv has withdrawn its forces from in and around the eastern Donbas town of Soledar after weeks of intense fighting in the area. Russia claimed to have captured Soledar earlier this month. [more]

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS | Amidst ongoing investigation of classified documents found at the homes of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, attorneys for former Vice President Mike Pence said yesterday that documents marked as classified were discovered at Pence’s Indiana home last week and that the documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to his home at the end of his term in office. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said yesterday that he will not reappoint Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California to the House Intelligence Committee. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who requested the reappointments, said there was no justification for rejecting them, while McCarthy said the decision was a matter of integrity and security. [more]

GOOGLE | The U.S. Department of Justice, along with eight U.S. states, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google yesterday, saying the company has engaged in unfair and monopolistic activity to maintain its dominance in the online advertising industry. In response, Google parent company Alphabet said the lawsuit is based on a “a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.” [more]

TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS | Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis said yesterday that a decision on whether to bring criminal charges related to an investigation into alleged efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state is “imminent.” [more]

MASS ATTACKS | A new report from the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center says that mass attacks, in which guns are the weapons most often used, are committed overwhelmingly by men, often with histories of mental health symptoms, financial insecurity, or domestic violence, and that about half of such attacks between 2016 and 2020 were sparked by personal, domestic, or workplace disputes, while a quarter were driven by conspiracy theories or hate-driven ideologies. [full report] [more]

ISRAEL AND JORDAN | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first foreign trip since coming back to power last month, made an unexpected visit to Jordan yesterday for talks with the country’s King Abdullah. Talks between the two leaders are reported to have centered on regional security issues and on Israeli-Palestinian tensions. [more]

RWANDA AND CONGO | In an escalation of regional tensions, Rwandan forces fired on a Congolese military aircraft that officials say violated Rwanda’s airspace yesterday. Congo’s government says its plane was in Congolese airspace when attacked. [more]

DOOMSDAY CLOCK | Revealing its annual "Doomsday Clock" measure of how close humanity is to destroying itself, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists yesterday moved the clock up 10 seconds from last year to 90 seconds before midnight. The group cited Russian threats of nuclear war, nuclear weapon proliferation in China, uranium enrichment in Iran, North Korean missile tests, pandemics, disruptive technologies, and climate change as reasons for its worsening measure of existential threats. [more]

PERU | Amidst strengthening of protests in the Peruvian capital of Lima calling for her resignation, President Dina Boluarte yesterday called for a truce between security forces and protesters. [more]

TRAVEL | All flights in and out of Berlin Airport have been cancelled today due to a strike by ground staff over pay issues. Airport officials say about 300 flights to and from the German capitol will be affected. [more]

UGANDA | Development officials in Uganda say oil drilling began yesterday at the environmentally controversial Chinese-operated Kingfisher oil field in the East African country’s Kikuube district and that production is expected to start by 2025. [more]

JAPAN | Reports say two crew members of thirteen rescued have died and that nine others remain missing after the Hong Kong-registered "Jintian" cargo ship capsized early today off Japan’s southwestern coast. [more]

NEW ZEALAND | Chris Hipkins was sworn in as New Zealand’s new prime minister today, succeeding Jacinda Ardern, who resigned unexpectedly last week. [more]

CLOUD OUTAGE | Reports say a major outage of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform this morning has affected many users, with services such as Teams and Outlook disrupted in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The company says it has rolled back a network change it believes to have been responsible for the outage and is monitoring the service restoration. [more]

BASEBALL | Scott Rolen was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Rosen will join Fred McGriff in the Hall’s 2023 class of inductees. [more]

SKIING | American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won her 83rd World Cup race yesterday at Italy’s Kronplatz resort, moving her into first place in career wins for women. Shiffrin needs only three more wins to match the overall wins record — men’s or women’s — held by Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark. [more]

OSCARS | Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced yesterday, with “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” with 11, receiving the most nominations. Best picture nominations include “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Elvis,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Women Talking,” and “Triangle of Sadness.” [full list of nominations] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this day in A.D. 41, Claudius I, who extended Roman rule in North Africa and made Britain a province of the Roman Empire, was affirmed as emperor, raised to the post one day after the murder of his nephew, Gaius Caesar Germanicus (also known as Caligula). [more history]