May 1, 2023

UKRAINE | Today is day 431 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Reports say at least 34 people were wounded early this morning when Russian forces launched a missile attack on the eastern Ukraine city of Pavlohrad. [more]
• Officials in Russia-annexed Crimea said Saturday that at least four oil storage tanks were destroyed when an oil depot in the port city of Sevastopol was hit by two Ukrainian drones. The attack on Sevastopol came a day after at least 23 Ukrainians were killed in a series of Russian missile and drone attacks on Friday. [more]
• In shows of international support for Ukraine, top diplomats from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Friday in the port city of Odesa, while the presidents of both Slovakia and the Czech Republic met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | In two incidents over the weekend:

• Masked gunmen fired into a crowd of mostly teenagers Saturday at an outdoor party at Meadowlark Park near Columbia, South Carolina. Nine people, all aged 16-20, were injured in the shooting and police are still searching for suspects. [more]
• Police are continuing their search for Francisco Oropeza, 38, the man suspected of shooting and killing five neighbors on Friday in Cleveland, Texas, after he was asked to stop firing a weapon in his yard. Authorities say Oropeza, a Mexican citizen, appears to have used an AR-15-style rifle in the attack. [more]

U.S. BANKING | Federal banking regulators announced early this morning that San Francisco-based First Republic Bank has been seized and its deposits and assets sold to JPMorgan Chase Bank. First Republic is the third U.S. bank to fail in 2023. [more]

U.S. DRUG SUPPLY | The Associated Press cites information from the University of Utah Drug Information Service as showing that there were 301 active national drug shortages in the U.S. through the first quarter of 2023 — up about 49% from the same period in 2022. Reports say the ADHD drug Adderall, the diabetes treatment Ozempic, and the antibiotic amoxicillin are among those medications that have or are experiencing shortages. [more]

VIRGINIA | Officials in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, say an estimated 50-100 homes were damaged when a tornado touched down in the city Sunday evening. A state of emergency was declared in the city, but no injuries from the storm have yet been reported. [more]

HOLLYWOOD | Reports say last-minute talks are underway this morning between the Writers Guild of America and film and television studios in hopes a preventing a strike by writers that could be called for as early as tomorrow. [more]

MINNESOTA | Police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, say they have arrested Jackie Rahm Little, 36, in connection with fires set last week at two area mosques in what authorities say was “an attempt to inflict terror onto our Muslim community.” [more]

SYRIA | Amidst ongoing efforts to restore peace and ties among Arab Gulf nations, top diplomats from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt are meeting today in Jordan to discuss potential political solutions to the years-old civil war in Syria. [more]

TURKEY AND SYRIA | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that Turkish forces killed Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State group in Syria, in an operation conducted within Syria on Saturday. [more]

ISRAEL AND WEST BANK | The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least one Palestinian teenager was killed, and several other people were wounded, today when Israeli forces shot at people who reportedly fired on them during a raid in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp near the West Bank city of Jericho. [more]

SUDAN | As civilians and diplomatic personnel continue to flee the country, representatives of Sudan’s warring military and paramilitary forces say they agreed yesterday to extend their humanitarian cease-fire in the African nation for 72 more hours. Both sides have accused the other of cease-fire violations in recent days. [more]

INDIA | Police in the city of Ludhiana in Punjab state, India, say at least 11 people, including three children, were killed yesterday after being poisoned by a toxic gas that is suspected to have been caused by a chemical dump into a sewer system. [more]

PARAGUAY | With nearly all votes counted, preliminary reports on yesterday’s presidential election in Paraguay show Colorado Party candidate Santiago Peña as having received the most votes. Peña’s closest challenger, Efraín Alegre of the Pact for a New Paraguay party, conceded defeat in the election last night. [more]

BASKETBALL | Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry scored 50 points last night to lead his team to a 120-100 win over the Sacramento Kings to advance to the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals. Curry’s 50 points were the most in NBA history in Game 7 of a playoff series. [full playoff bracket] [more]

CHESS | Ding Liren became China’s first men’s world chess champion with his victory over Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi yesterday at the World Chess Championship in Kazakhstan. [more]

MUSIC | Members of the rock group Aerosmith announced today that the band’s farewell tour, entitled “Peace Out,” will consist of 40 shows, starting on September 2 in Philadelphia. Aerosmith, formed in 1970, has won four Grammy awards over the years and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1960, while on a reconnaissance flight deep inside the Soviet Union, a U.S. U-2 plane was shot down and its pilot—Francis Gary Powers, who worked for the CIA—was taken prisoner. The resulting confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union became known as the U-2 Incident.  [more history]