VOL. 46 | NO. 11 | Friday, March 18, 2022
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week as the key 30-year loan vaulted over 4% for the first time since May 2019.
UT SPORTS
Candace Parker saw the NCAA men’s tournament brackets released Sunday and immediately went to social media to provide her analysis.
NEWSMAKERS
The Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration has elected four new Board members, including James E.K. Hildreth, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Meharry Medical College.
BRIEFS
Cryoport, Inc., a temperature-controlled supply chain solution company for the life sciences industry headquartered in Nashville, has announced its board of directors has unanimously authorized a repurchase program, under which Cryoport may repurchase up to $100 million of its outstanding common stock and/or convertible senior notes.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Consumer appetites for small SUVs seem insatiable, and – as electrification reaches every corner of the automotive landscape – a spotlight has appeared over compact EV SUVs.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
There’s no one like you. For most of your life, you’ve been told how unique you are, how wonderful, how important – all true. You’re one of a kind, singular, like no one else on Earth. And in the new book, “The First, The Few, The Only” by Deepa Purushothaman, that probably goes at work, too.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Expanding access to credit is a worthy goal. Too many people can’t get a mortgage or an emergency loan at a reasonable rate because they can’t show a solid credit history. They might pay more for insurance or make large security deposits to get utilities or rent an apartment.
CAREER CORNER
It’s been two years since we were sent home from work for two weeks. We were collectively wrong about the two weeks, but many workers have been relieved. We learned so much about work during that period.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Some bad habits affect our physical health, like smoking, nail biting or eating too much junk food. But others take a toll on our financial health.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have traded for wide receiver Robert Woods in a deal sending a sixth-round pick in the 2023 draft to the Los Angeles Rams.
PREDATORS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield both scored twice, and the shorthanded Los Angeles Kings scored three times in the first 11 minutes to defeat the Nashville Predators 6-1 on Tuesday night.
SPORTS
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donovan Sims had 17 points as Middle Tennessee got past Abilene Christian 85-69 in the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational on Tuesday night.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Adam Kunkel made a layup with 57.1 seconds left to give Xavier the lead en route to a 75-73 win over Vanderbilt in the NIT quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — Singers Mavis Staples and Ronnie Milsap and keyboardist Booker T. Jones lead a versatile group of musicians named to this year's class of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
NASHVILLE AREA
Metro Nashville plans to acquire the Global Mall at the Crossings, formerly known as Hickory Hollow Mall, and announced a new vision for Southeast Nashville property.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Republican House speaker says he and other state lawmakers have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in an intensifying federal investigation, following a former lawmaker's guilty plea to wire fraud in an alleged political consulting kickback scheme that implicates the speaker's scandal-plagued predecessor.
MEMPHIS (AP) — The state of Tennessee could scale back its financial oversight of a majority-Black town near the site of a planned Ford truck plant if it meets certain goals by this summer, a move that comes after the state takeover drew national attention, officials said Wednesday.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee education officials have announced $50 million in grants to expand a tutoring program.
REGION
Forget "The Wizard of Oz." Tornadoes are causing far more deaths and destruction east and south of Kansas these days. And they're often doing it in the dark of night.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson returned to the Senate for a third day of hearings Wednesday as Republicans try to paint her as soft on crime and Democrats herald the historic nature of her nomination to become the first Black woman on the high court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not just Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson who is being scrutinized. Senators are also being watched at this milestone moment in history considering the first Black woman for the high court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court declined to say Wednesday whether 73-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas remains in the hospital, though he had been expected to be released by Tuesday evening.
REAL ESTATE
Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan Wednesday intended to end racial and ethnic discrimination in the appraisal of home values, part of a broader federal effort to address a wealth gap that systemic inequality has perpetuated.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A joint venture between Stellantis and South Korea's LG Energy Solution plans to build a large electric vehicle battery factory in Windsor, Ontario, employing about 2,500 people just across a river from Detroit.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is warning that it has seen increased interest by Russian hackers in energy companies since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, though it is offering no indication that a specific cyberattack is planned.
ENVIRONMENT
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Litter collection devices will soon be installed along the Tennessee River to help keep the waterway cleaner, officials said.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine works in babies, toddlers and preschoolers the company announced Wednesday -- and if regulators agree it could mean a chance to finally start vaccinating the littlest kids by summer.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Wednesday, giving back nearly all of the gains they made a day earlier, as crude oil prices rose sharply again.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is looking to the United States to help reduce its reliance on Russian energy and will be discussing major shipments of liquefied natural gas over the next two years during a meeting with President Joe Biden on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said new forms of digital money such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins present risks to the U.S. financial system and will require new rules to protect consumers.
The United States has agreed to lift tariffs on British steel and aluminum, mending a rift between allies that dates back to the Trump administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Baby formula maker Abbott failed to maintain sanitary conditions and procedures at the Michigan manufacturing plant recently linked to a cluster of infant illnesses, according to findings released Tuesday by federal safety inspectors.
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's securities regulator announced Wednesday that it is barring the use of cryptocurrencies for payment of goods and services.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday. She was 84.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out Wisconsin state legislative maps that were preferred by the state's Democratic governor and selected by Wisconsin's top court, making it unclear what the boundaries will be for the fall election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thanks to a sudden $140 million cash infusion, officials in Broward County, Florida, recently broke ground on a high-end hotel that will have views of the Atlantic Ocean and an 11,000-square-foot spa.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Capitol will reopen to the public on Monday for guided tours for limited groups of people who have registered in advance, congressional officials said, two years after the coronavirus pandemic prompted the cessation of such visits.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday made a formal determination that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine and said it would work with others to prosecute offenders, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce fighting by the country's fast-moving defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With Europe facing its most precarious future since World War II, President Joe Biden will huddle with key allies in Brussels and Warsaw this week as they try to prevent Russia's war on Ukraine from spiraling into an even greater catastrophe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Russia escalates its war in Ukraine and stories of civilian casualties and destruction in cities reach the United States, support has risen for a major American role — and so has fear of the threat Russia poses to the U.S.
One month into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, fire rained down on a shopping mall and high-rise buildings in Kyiv, as the outnumbered Ukrainian military waged intense battles to defend the capital and other key cities from falling under Russian control.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Even before Air Force One touches down in Brussels to bring President Joe Biden to three Ukraine summits on Thursday, Western allies have already found what they are looking for — that all too rare sense of unity.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — One month of war, still defiant. With its government still standing and its outnumbered troops battling Russian forces to bloody stalemates on multiple fronts, Ukraine is scarred, wounded and mourning its dead but far from beaten.
TUESDAY, MARCH 22
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Monday said his administration is "willing to work" with the Tennessee Titans as they plan for a new stadium but held off committing to any specific dollar amount that the state could help to fund the project.
PREDATORS
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored two goals in the third period of a five-point performance, and Matt Duchene added two power-play goals in the final minutes of the Nashville Predators' 6-3 victory over the skidding Anaheim Ducks on Monday night.
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A freshman got Tennessee back to the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years, returning the Lady Vols to a spot they had been to so many times before in the women's NCAA Tournament.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are nearing final passage of legislation that would allow students and staffers to sue public colleges and universities if they feel they've been unfairly punished for not accepting "divisive concepts."
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing Republican senators' pointed questions, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully defended her record as a federal judge Tuesday and declared she will rule "from a position of neutrality" if confirmed as the first Black woman on the high court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first full day of questions for Supreme Court nominee Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson delved quickly into some of the big ones, a grueling marathon of debate around President Joe Biden's historic pick.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators characterized Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's judicial views as extremist and soft on crime, using her confirmation hearings to air a line of conservative grievances that relied at times on distortions of her record.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday convicted an elected official from New Mexico of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden's presidential election victory.
REAL ESTATE
MacKenzie Scott has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its U.S. affiliates — the largest publicly disclosed donation from the billionaire philanthropist since she pledged in 2019 to give away the majority of her wealth.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution plans a $1.7 billion expansion in western Michigan that will add up to 1,200 jobs by 2025, officials announced Tuesday.
BERLIN (AP) — Electric car manufacturer Tesla opened its first European factory Tuesday on the outskirts of Berlin in an effort to challenge German automakers on their home turf.
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. securities regulators say they have legal authority to subpoena Tesla and CEO Elon Musk about his tweets, and that Musk's move to throw out a 2018 court agreement that his tweets be pre-approved is not valid.
TRANSPORTATION
BEIJING (AP) — China is, along with North America and Europe, one of the world's top three air travel markets. It has dramatically improved safety since a string of deadly crashes in the 1990s and 2000s.
MEDIA
BuzzFeed is reorienting and shrinking its news division as the digital media company best known for its lighthearted quizzes strives to increase its profitability.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — With an urgent funding request stuck in Congress, a federal agency says it can no longer cover COVID tests and treatments bills for uninsured people and will stop taking claims at midnight Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Tuesday and oil prices eased as investors remained focused on the outlook for inflation.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African court has suspended construction work on a huge new business park that will house Amazon's Africa headquarters in Cape Town after a challenge by Indigenous groups who say the development will spoil an area that's sacred to them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that the Federal Reserve would raise its benchmark short-term interest rate faster than expected, and high enough to restrain growth and hiring, if it decides this would be necessary to slow rampaging inflation.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to announce new sanctions against Russia on Thursday while in Brussels for meetings with NATO and European allies, according to a top national security aide.
MEDYKA, Poland (AP) — The president of Poland compared Russia's attacks on Ukraine to Nazi forces during World War II, saying Tuesday that besieged Mariupol looks like Warsaw in 1944 after the Germans bombed houses and killed civilians "with no mercy at all."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Ukraine have knocked back Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to falsely frame the narrative of his brutal war, but they are struggling to get a more accurate view of the Kremlin's invasion in front of the Russian people.
The battle for Ukraine's cities thundered across its suburbs Tuesday, with the Ukrainian military saying it forced Russian troops out of a strategically important Kyiv neighborhood, while Russian forces took partial control of three northwest suburbs where there's been fighting for weeks.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces fought off continuing Russian efforts to occupy Mariupol and claimed to have retaken a strategic suburb of Kyiv on Tuesday, mounting a defense so dogged that it is stoking fears Russia's Vladimir Putin will escalate the war to new heights.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted of fraud and contempt of court and sentenced to nine years in a maximum security prison on Tuesday, in a trial Kremlin critics see as an attempt to keep President Vladimir Putin's most ardent foe in prison for as long as possible.
MONDAY, MARCH 21
TENNESSEE TITANS
Tennessee's newest tight end Austin Hooper says he only wants a chance to compete with his third NFL team.
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A visit to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame drove home to the Belmont Bruins what the Tennessee Lady Vols mean, especially in March.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 32 points, Liam Robbins made several plays down the stretch — including a blocked shot with 0.4 seconds left — to help Vanderbilt beat No. 1 seed Dayton 70-68 in overtime Sunday in the second round of the NIT.
NASHVILLE AREA
NEW YORK (AP) — The game show that made famous the phrase "Come on down!" is coming on down to you.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University is expanding a technology program for underserved students in Africa to four additional countries.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Clarence Thomas remains hospitalized in Washington after being diagnosed with an infection but does not have COVID-19, the Supreme Court said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is telling senators she would defend the Constitution and decide cases "without fear or favor" if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — History was made Monday the instant Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After meeting privately with almost half the members of the Senate, it's time for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to testify publicly this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed, as is expected, she would be the first Black woman to sit on the high court in its more than 200-year history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court, worked for seven years as a judge on the federal trial court in Washington, D.C., before Biden appointed her to the appeals court that meets in the same courthouse. Senate hearings on her nomination begin Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it won't review the case of a Seattle-based Christian organization that was sued after declining to hire a bisexual lawyer who applied for a job. A lower court let the case go forward, and the high court said Monday it wouldn't intervene.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An elected official from New Mexico headed to trial Monday with a judge — not a jury — set to decide if he is guilty of charges that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds on the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies would be required to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions they produce and how climate risk affects their business under new rules proposed Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a drive across the government to address climate change.
BERLIN (AP) — Countries scrambling to replace Russian oil, gas and coal supplies with any available alternative may fuel the world's "mutually assured destruction" through climate change, the head of the United Nations warned Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that the Federal Reserve would raise its benchmark short-term interest rate faster than expected, and high enough to restrain growth and hiring, if it decides this would be necessary to slow rampaging inflation.
Stocks ended modestly lower on Wall Street Monday after giving up an early gain and bouncing around for much of the day.
Warren Buffett, who started the year bemoaning the lack of potential acquisitions for his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, announced Monday that it would acquire the insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion.
Russia's central bank cautiously reopened bond trading on the Moscow exchange Monday for the first time since the country invaded Ukraine, with the price of Russia's ruble-denominated government debt falling and sending borrowing costs higher.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Violent repression of the largely Muslim Rohingya population in Myanmar amounts to genocide, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, a declaration intended to both generate international pressure and lay the groundwork for potential legal action.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has added a stop in Poland to his trip this week to Europe for urgent talks with NATO and European allies, as Russian forces concentrate their fire upon cities and trapped civilians in a nearly month-old invasion of Ukraine.
UKRAINE
MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court banned Facebook and Instagram on Monday for what it deemed extremist activity in a case against their parent company, Meta.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries on Monday accused Russia's military of committing war crimes in Ukraine, but appeared unlikely to impose new sanctions on Moscow despite a clamor across Europe for those responsible for attacks on civilians to be held to account.
The battle for Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol raged on Monday, as Ukraine rejected a Russian offer to evacuate its troops from the besieged city and Russian bombardment continued.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Mariupol's defenders held out Monday against Russian demands that they surrender, the number of bodies in the rubble of the bombarded and encircled Ukrainian city remained shrouded in uncertainty, the full extent of the horror not yet known.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just days before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, President Joe Biden quietly dispatched a team to European Union headquarters in Belgium.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18
PREDATORS
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Flyers capped an emotional night for captain Claude Giroux with a comeback victory.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — Five people, an album, five singles and a book have been chosen to join this year's Blues Hall of Fame class.
STATEWIDE
Three current and former members of the Tennessee National Guard are safe and accounted for, despite a Russian newspaper's false report that the men were killed while fighting in Ukraine.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Volkswagen is recalling more than 246,000 SUVs in the U.S. and Canada because faulty wiring harnesses can make them brake unexpectedly, sometimes while in traffic.
REAL ESTATE
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in February as competition for a near-record low number of properties on the market drove prices higher and rising mortgage rates kept would-be buyers on the sidelines.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the nation yearning for a new normal after its long struggle with the coronavirus, U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra warned Thursday that vaccines, tests and treatments will be "stuck on the ground" unless Congress provides the additional funds the White House has demanded.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Drugmaker Moderna asked the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to authorize a fourth shot of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose for all adults.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks rose for a fourth day in a row Friday, closing out their biggest weekly gain since November 2020.
BERLIN (AP) — The International Energy Agency says the world could quickly reduce global oil demand by 2.7 million barrels a day by cutting down on car and plane travel, helping easing the supply crunch caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal labor board is seeking to reinstate an Amazon employee who was fired in the early days of the pandemic after leading a protest calling for the company to do more to protect workers against COVID-19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's campaign to unite the globe against the Russian invasion of Ukraine is being challenged not only by adversaries such as China but also by the world's most populous democracy, India.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Belgian businessman sanctioned by the U.S. over allegations of illicit gold trade in Congo said Friday the action undermines efforts to improve transparency in a region seeing rising official exports of the mineral.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Black people who wear hairstyles like Afros, cornrows or tightly coiled twists should not face bias in society, school and the workplace, the U.S. House said Friday in voting to make it explicit that such discrimination is a violation of federal civil rights law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Key figures for a war half a world away, President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping spoke for nearly two hours on Friday as the White House looked to deter Beijing from providing military or economic assistance for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
UKRAINE
GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. migration agency said Friday that nearly 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine, on top of the 3.2 million who have already fled the country.
Vladimir Putin appeared at a huge flag-waving rally at a packed Moscow stadium Friday and lavished praise on his troops fighting in Ukraine, three weeks into the invasion that has led to heavier-than-expected Russian losses on the battlefield and increasingly authoritarian rule at home.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Friday denounced the "perverse abuse of power" on display in Russia's war in Ukraine and called for aid to Ukrainians who he said had been attacked in their "identity, history and tradition" and were "defending their land."
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his country's troops at a huge flag-waving rally in Moscow as Russian forces strike Ukrainian cities from a distance again, pounding the capital of Kyiv and the country's west.
NEW YORK (AP) — Facing stiff resistance in Ukraine and crippling economic sanctions at home, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using language that recalls the rhetoric from Josef Stalin's show trials of the 1930s.
RZESZOW, Poland (AP) — As Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth week, aid agencies continue to ramp up their efforts to bring much-needed relief supplies to civilians affected by the fighting, and also to over 3.2 million refugees who have fled the country since the conflict began.
THURSDAY, MARCH 17
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Dolly Parton is still on the list of this year's nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame despite the country icon asking to be removed because she hasn't "earned that right."
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans released seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones after one season Thursday, designating him as a post-June 1 release to create much-needed salary cap space.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Senate Speaker Randy McNally on Thursday said he does not support legislation that would ban abortions and allow almost anyone to file civil lawsuits against violators and collect damages.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have confirmed the governor's appointment of a businessman to the State Board of Education despite lawsuits over his company's sale of ammunition online, including the bullets used in a mass shooting at a Texas high school.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two Tennessee legislative panels have approved appointing former U.S. Rep. Phil Roe to serve on the Austin Peay State University board of trustees.
MEDIA
Amazon announced Thursday it has closed its acquisition of Hollywood studio MGM, two days after European regulators said the deal "would not significantly reduce competition" in European markets.
NEW YORK (AP) — Chris Cuomo wants an arbitrator to award him $125 million for his firing from CNN, alleging his bosses knew full well how he advised his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and suggested they did the same themselves.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Tech bosses face criminal prosecution if they fail to comply with proposed British rules aimed at ensuring people are safe online, the U.K. government said Thursday as it unveiled the draft legislation in Parliament.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
GENEVA (AP) — Nearly three dozen companies worldwide will soon start making generic versions of Pfizer's coronavirus pill, the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool that negotiated the deal said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputy Natalie Quillian are leaving the administration next month, the White House announced Thursday. They will be replaced by Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street extended a rally into a third day on Thursday, even as oil prices jumped back above $100 per barrel.
NEW YORK (AP) — They're pouring out vodka, boycotting Russian restaurants and even leaving threatening voicemail messages at Russian businesses.
Koch Industries is planning to continue running two glass manufacturing facilities in Russia, saying it doesn't want to hand over the plants to the Russian government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs continue to fall amid a strong job market rebound.
Russia's war in Ukraine will disrupt commerce and clog up supply chains, slashing economic growth and pushing prices sharply higher around the globe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Thursday.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England raised its key interest rate Thursday for the third time since December as it pushes ahead faster than other central banks in combating a global wave of inflation that is set to accelerate following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
BEIJING (AP) — Washington has expelled another state-owned Chinese phone carrier from the U.S. market over national security concerns amid rising tension with Beijing.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional oversight committee said Thursday it has opened an investigation into a partisan audit of the 2020 election results that is taking place in New Mexico and was authorized by a Republican-led county commission.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Banking Committee approved Jerome Powell's nomination to a second four-year term as chair of the Federal Reserve Wednesday, just hours after the central bank began what will be a difficult effort to combat inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the war in Ukraine rages on, diplomats trying to salvage the languishing 2015 Iran nuclear deal have been forging ahead with negotiations despite distractions caused by the conflict. They now appear to be near the cusp of a deal that would bring the U.S. back into the accord and bring Iran back into compliance with limits on its nuclear program.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden set out to finally complete the "pivot to Asia," a long-sought adjustment of U.S. foreign policy to better reflect the rise of America's most significant military and economic competitor: China.
UKRAINE
NEW YORK (AP) — PayPal said Thursday that its users will now be able to send money to Ukrainians, both in the war-ravaged country as well as those now refugees across Europe.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its fourth week on Thursday, with Russian forces largely bogged down outside major cities and shelling them from a distance, raining havoc on civilians.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Announcing tough sanctions against Russian oligarchs over the war in Ukraine was step one.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy are men of different generations, countries and styles — and with very different missions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden flatly called Russia's Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" for the unfolding onslaught in Ukraine, where hospitals and maternity wards have been bombed. But declaring someone a war criminal is not as simple as just saying the words. There are set definitions and processes for determining who's a war criminal and how they should be punished.