June 6, 2023

UKRAINE | Today is day 467 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukraine and Russia have each accused the other of damaging or destroying the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Russia-controlled Kherson region. Reports say hundreds of thousands of people living downstream of the dam have been warned of the possible need to evacuate, that the region faces a potential ecological disaster from flooding, and that low water levels could eventually affect cooling operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. [more]
• Increased levels of Ukrainian offensive military operations in southeast Ukraine are reported to be continuing for a second day today, with Russian officials saying the Ukrainian moves are the start of a long-anticipated counteroffensive, which Ukraine has not confirmed. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination at a town hall event this evening in New Hampshire, while former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork for his candidacy for the same position yesterday and is expected to kick off his campaign tomorrow in Iowa. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | Officials in California say they are investigating whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was behind the transportation, by private jets, of more than three dozen migrants and asylum seekers from Texas to Sacramento, California, over the past few days. Reports say aid groups in California were not warned of the arrivals and that they are working to arrange housing and food for the migrants. [more]

NEW YORK CITY | A court-appointed federal monitor in New York City  said yesterday that the New York Police Department’s special anti-gun Neighborhood Safety Teams are engaging in unconstitutional policing” by stopping and frisking too many people without justification and that only 41% of associated stops and 26% of searches conducted by the teams were lawful. Mayor Eric Adams’ office said city officials have only recently learned of the monitor’s findings and that there are “serious concerns” about the methodology used to reach the conclusions. [more]

OVERSIGHT | House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said yesterday that a briefing by the FBI on documents purportedly related to an unverified law enforcement tip concerning illegal actions by President Biden and his family did not amount to compliance with a subpoena and that he intends to pursue a contempt of Congress charge against FBI Director Christopher Wray for not turning over the actual documents. [more]

OKLAHOMA | A state school board in Oklahoma voted yesterday to approve the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma’s application to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School, which would be, according to reports, the first publicly funded religious school in the United States. Opponents of the move, including Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, say the board’s move clearly violates the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions’ provisions related to the separation of church and state. [more]

SPYING | Former U.S. FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who was convicted in 2002 on charges related to providing U.S. counterintelligence secrets to the Soviet Union as early as 1985, died in a Florida prison yesterday at the age of 79. [more]

U.S. AND CHINA | Chinese and U.S. diplomats characterized as “candid and productive” talks held in Beijing earlier this week aimed at keeping lines of communication open, deescalating tensions, improving relations, and managing differences between the two countries. [more]

BRAZIL | Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva unveiled a multi-year plan yesterday to end illegal deforestation in the Amazon, achieve net zero deforestation, and return Brazil’s carbon emission commitment to levels promised as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement. [more]

IRAN | Iranian state media cites government officials as saying Iran has developed a new hypersonic missile capable of traveling up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) at 15 times the speed of sound. [more]

AFGHANISTAN | Afghan officials say a provincial deputy governor and his driver were killed, and several other people were wounded, yesterday in a car bombing in in the city of Faizabad in Badakhshan province. Reports say no claims of responsibility for the attack have yet been made. [more]

KENYA | Reports say police in Nairobi, Kenya, fired tear gas yesterday to disperse a crowd of about 500 people taking part in protests against a bill that would increase taxes on fuel and housing. [more]

ARGENTINA | A long-running money laundering case against Vice President Cristina Fernández was dismissed yesterday after prosecutors in Argentina said there was a lack of evidence in the case. Fernández, who also served as president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted of fraudulent administration last year, but was not imprisoned pending an appeal of the conviction. [more]

PRIVACY | Tech giant Microsoft agreed yesterday to pay a $20 million fine to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company illegally collected and retained data on children who signed up for its Xbox video game console services. [more]

CRYPTOCURRENCY | The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its founder of misusing investor funds, operating as an unregistered exchange, and violating multiple U.S. securities laws. [more]

HOCKEY | The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Florida Panthers, 7-2, last night to take a 2-0 lead in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final series. Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1944, led by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, an Allied armada of ships, planes, and landing craft and some 156,000 troops began the invasion of northern France from England — the famous “D-Day” of World War II.  [more history]