VOL. 46 | NO. 18 | Friday, May 6, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
At $8.6 million, the house at 1220 Chickering Road speaks to the strength of the Nashville Real estate market as it, like houses priced $7 million less, sold in one day.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates resumed their ascent this week, as the key 30-year loan reached its highest point since 2009.
GUEST COLUMNIST
I recently had a conflict with a developer who is building a multimillion-dollar subdivision near my home.
NEWSMAKERS
The law firm of Weatherly & Dixon PLLC and its partners, James L. Weatherly and Jacqueline B. Dixon, have merged their practices with Lewis Thomason, P.C., says Lisa Ramsay Cole, president and managing shareholder for the statewide firm.
BRIEFS
The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County plans to establish The History & Culture Center of Williamson County in the former McConnell House building in Downtown Franklin.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The traditional “20/4/10 rule” of car buying states that you should make a 20% down payment, have a loan no longer than four years and a total monthly car budget that does not exceed 10% of your take-home pay. But the reality is only 6% of new car shoppers actually followed that advice in March, Edmunds sales data shows.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Your sibling asked you to cover their rent for a couple of months while they were between jobs. Or maybe you loaned a friend a few hundred bucks for a car repair they couldn’t afford.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, the first Republican to hold the office since Reconstruction, says he will not seek another eight-year term as the state's top legal counsel.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The federal Job Corps program says it has launched a recruitment drive promoting free career training and immediate openings at its two Tennessee campuses for low-income people ages 16 through 24.
MIDSTATE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The chancellor of the University of Tennessee Southern plans to retire from his role at the new campus.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — After serving 30 years of a life sentence in Tennessee for the fire that killed his girlfriend, a 65-year-old man has been declared innocent and released from prison.
NASHVILLE (AP) — After serving 30 years of a life sentence in Tennessee for the fire that killed his girlfriend, a 65-year-old man has been declared innocent and released from prison.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black was hospitalized, his health failing, when he gave his son Hugo Jr. an order: Burn the papers. Worried that the publication of certain of his private notes could harm the court or his colleagues, he insisted on their destruction.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Google said Wednesday that it struck licensing deals with 300 news publishers in Europe in its latest effort to comply with a recently introduced European Union copyright law.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Online automotive retailer Carvana Co. says it's letting go about 2,500 workers, roughly 12% of its workforce, as it tries to bring staffing and expenses in line with sales.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota's profit declined 31% in the January-March quarter from the year before, but the Japanese automaker still wrapped up a year of record earnings.
TRANSPORTATION
COPPELL, Texas (AP) — The chief of the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that his agency has quadrupled the number of employees who could bolster screening operations at airports that become too crowded this summer.
COVID-19
BERLIN (AP) — The European Union will no longer recommend medical masks be worn at airports and on planes starting next week amid the easing of coronavirus restrictions across the bloc, though member states can still require them, officials said Wednesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell on Wall Street Wednesday, led by more drops in technology companies, after a report on inflation came in worse than feared.
Kendall Nunamaker and her family of five in Kennewick, Washington, faced impossible math this month: How to pay for gas, groceries and the mortgage with inflation driving up prices?
ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta-based company said Wednesday it plans to build a $2.5 billion aluminum plant near the Gulf Coast in southwest Alabama, where it will mainly produce metal for drink cans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation eased slightly in April after months of relentless increases but remains near a four-decade high, imposing a continuing financial strain on American households.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden wants to put a spotlight on the spike in food prices from Russia's invasion of Ukraine when he travels to an Illinois farm to emphasize how U.S. agricultural exports can relieve the financial pressures being felt worldwide.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Inflation may be soaring, supply chains remain snarled and the coronavirus just won't go away, but America's casinos are humming right along, recording the best month in their history in March.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed economist Lisa Cook on Tuesday to serve on the Federal Reserve's board of governors, making her the first Black woman to do so in the institution's 108-year history.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee asked the Justice Departmen t on Wednesday to investigate whether a Trump administration interior secretary engaged in possible criminal conduct while helping an Arizona developer get a crucial permit for a housing project.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Final congressional approval of a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill seems certain within days as top Senate Republicans said Wednesday they expect strong GOP backing for the House-passed measure, signaling a bipartisan, heightened U.S. commitment to helping thwart the bloody Russian invasion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate fell far short Wednesday in a rushed effort toward enshrining Roe v. Wade abortion access as federal law, blocked by a Republican filibuster in a blunt display of the nation's partisan divide over the landmark court decision and the limits of legislative action.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats' abortion legislation is "very simple," as it would enshrine into federal law the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After fighting for decades over abortion policy, Congress is about to run into the stark political limits of its ability to save — or end — the Roe v. Wade protections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved a resolution Tuesday that will pave the way for letting congressional staff join a union and engage in collective bargaining, a move that proponents say would enhance the ability of aides from low-and-middle-income families to make ends meet in a region with steep housing costs.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — An interminable and unwinnable war in Europe? That's what NATO leaders fear and are bracing for as Russia's war in Ukraine grinds into its third month with little sign of a decisive military victory for either side and no resolution in sight.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House emphatically approved a fresh $40 billion Ukraine aid package Tuesday as lawmakers beefed up President Joe Biden's initial request, signaling a magnified, bipartisan commitment to thwart Russian President Vladimir Putin's bloody three-month-old invasion.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine stopped the flow of Russian natural gas through one hub that feeds European homes and industry on Wednesday, while a pro-Kremlin official in a southern region seized by Russian troops said it would ask Moscow to annex it.
TUESDAY, MAY 10
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche are happy they got a bit of a challenge before sweeping the Nashville Predators.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say they anticipate that an independent investigation of the state's lethal injection methods will result in changes to how those executions are carried out, including how the procedures are staffed.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed legislation Monday to beef up security for Supreme Court justices, ensuring they and their families are protected as the court deliberates abortion access and whether to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
CLEVELAND (AP) — A hearing has begun in federal court in Cleveland for a judge to determine how much CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies should pay two Ohio counties to help them ease the ongoing costs and problems caused by the opioid crisis.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court in New Orleans hears arguments Tuesday about whether President Joe Biden legally suspended new oil and gas lease sales shortly after taking office because of climate change worries.
MEDIA
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Attorneys for a man who once worked as a content moderator for Facebook have filed a lawsuit accusing the company of exploitative and unsafe working conditions.
LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk, who is offering to buy Twitter, has given his support to a new European Union law aimed at protecting social media users from harmful content after he met with the bloc's single market chief.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Volkswagen is holding a job fair aimed at hiring 1,000 production workers for its assembly plant in Tennessee.
HEALTH CARE
Pfizer is starting to put its COVID-19 cash influx to use by spending $11.6 billion to venture deeper into a new treatment area.
ENVIRONMENT
The world is creeping closer to the warming threshold international agreements are trying to prevent, with nearly a 50-50 chance that Earth will temporarily hit that temperature mark within the next five years, teams of meteorologists across the globe predicted.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended mixed on Wall Street Tuesday after a rally in technology companies helped reverse most of an early slide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Parents across the U.S. are scrambling to find baby formula because supply disruptions and a massive safety recall have swept many leading brands off store shelves.
TOKYO (AP) — Sony's fiscal fourth quarter surged 67% to 111.1 billion yen ($852.7 million) from the previous year, as the Japanese entertainment and electronics company racked up profits in video game and movie divisions.
TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo's profit for the fiscal year ended in March was little changed from the previous year, edging down 0.6% to 477.7 billion yen ($3.7 billion), the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises said Tuesday.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington sought to portray a united front against Russia's invasion of Ukraine as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan measure to reboot the World War II-era "lend-lease" program, which helped defeat Nazi Germany, to bolster Kyiv and Eastern European allies.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces pounded away at the vital port of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday, as part of an apparent effort to disrupt supply lines and weapons shipments. On the other end of the southern coast, they hammered a steel plant where Ukrainian fighters are denying Moscow full control of another critical port.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his country's biggest patriotic holiday Monday without a major new battlefield success in Ukraine to boast of, as the war ground on through its 11th week with the Kremlin's forces making little or no progress in their offensive.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned voters unhappy with soaring inflation and his stalled domestic agenda against turning power over to "ultra-MAGA" Republicans in the midterm elections as he increasingly tries to cast former President Donald Trump and his adherents as a political foil.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's appearance before a Senate committee took an unexpected and tense detour into the abortion debate Tuesday when senators questioned her about the potential impact of an abortion ban on the American economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. intelligence officials were questioned Tuesday about why they misjudged the durability of governments in both Afghanistan and Ukraine, and whether they need to reform how intelligence agencies assess a foreign military's will to fight.
MONDAY, MAY 9
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Darcy Kuemper will sit out Game 4 on Monday night with the Colorado goaltender's right eye still swollen from being poked by a stick through his mask.
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — Dave Romney broke a scoreless tie with a goal in the 63rd minute, C.J. Sapong scored in stoppage time and Nashville SC notched its first win in its new home with a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake in MLS play on Sunday.
EAST TENNESSEE
DELANO (AP) — The Ocoee and Hiwassee Rivers in Tennessee are open for the recreation season despite a recent fire at the Ocoee Whitewater Center, officials said.
EDUCATION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Students applying to attend the University of Tennessee next fall will be required to submit standardized test scores, the school said.
COURTS
CHICAGO (AP) — Facial recognition startup Clearview AI has agreed to restrict the use of its massive collection of face images to settle allegations that it collected people's photos without their consent.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — New Era Cap CEO Christopher Koch was arraigned on a felony charge Monday after allegedly driving his vehicle toward a man during an argument, forcing him to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Monday that 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to people with low incomes, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households eligible for free service through an already existing federal subsidy.
COVID-19
WASHINGTON (AP) — As more doctors prescribe Pfizer's powerful COVID-19 pill, new questions are emerging about its performance, including why a small number of patients appear to relapse after taking the drug.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Monday that Russia's war in Ukraine and surging inflation are now the greatest threats facing the global economy, supplanting the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks deepened their losses on Wall Street Monday, sending the S&P 500 to its lowest close in more than a year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation is at a 40-year high. Stock prices are sinking. The Federal Reserve is making borrowing much costlier. And the economy actually shrank in the first three months of this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Housing and Urban Development is doubling the size of its eviction protection program, designed to fund legal assistance for tenants seeking to stay in their homes.
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline jumped 15 cents over past two weeks to $4.38 per gallon.
BEIJING (AP) — China's export growth tumbled in April as global demand weakened, adding to pressure on the world's second-largest economy after Shanghai and other industrial cities were shut down to fight virus outbreaks.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are preparing a plan that would boost President Joe Biden's requested $33 billion Ukraine aid package to nearly $40 billion, and a House vote is possible as soon as Tuesday, two people familiar with lawmakers' thinking said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington sought to portray a united front against Russia's invasion of Ukraine Monday as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan measure to reboot the World War II-era "lend-lease" program that helped defeat Nazi Germany to bolster Kyiv and Eastern European allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has interviewed nearly 1,000 people. But the nine-member panel has yet to talk to the two most prominent players in that day's events — former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
UKRAINE
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin used a major patriotic holiday Monday to again justify his war in Ukraine but did not declare even a limited victory or signal where the conflict was headed, as his forces continued to pummel targets across the country with few signs of significant progress.
UZHHOROD, Ukraine (AP) — Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine, holding a surprise Mother's Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to show U.S. support for the embattled nation as Russia presses its punishing war in the eastern regions.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — More than 60 people were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter, Ukrainian officials said, while Moscow's forces pressed their attack on defenders inside Mariupol's steel plant in an apparent race to capture the city ahead of Russia's Victory Day holiday.
FRIDAY, MAY 6
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — Cale Makar sent a low liner through traffic and then quickly found himself surrounded by happy teammates.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — Guitarist and singer Tommy Castro won in three top categories, including entertainer of the year, at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tennessee.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee will soon strictly regulate the dispensing of abortion pills, including imposing harsh penalties on doctors who violate them, under legislation recently signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Lee on Friday signed off on legislation banning transgender athletes from participating in female college sports.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee and South Carolina are joining five other states in extending health care coverage to women with low-to-modest incomes for a full year after childbirth, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced on Friday.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Public Library is responding to library scrutiny in Tennessee with a goal to distribute 5,000 "I read banned books" library cards this month.
COURTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee man has been charged with assault and other counts during the January 2021 Capitol insurrection.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Big tech companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta would have to comply with tough British rules under a new digital watchdog aimed at giving consumers more choice online — or face the threat of big fines.
ENVIRONMENT
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Deforestation detected in the Brazilian Amazon broke all records for the month of April, and that followed similar new records set in January and February, reflecting a worrisome uptick in destruction in a state deep within the rainforest.
COVID-19
Doug Lambrecht was among the first of the nearly 1 million Americans to die from COVID-19. His demographic profile — an older white male with chronic health problems — mirrors the faces of many who would be lost over the next two years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Thursday strictly limited who can receive Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine due to the ongoing risk of rare but serious blood clots.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market ended an unusually turbulent week with its fifth straight weekly decline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Friday's jobs report for April provided mixed signals on the economic issue most on the minds of Americans: Chronically high inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh met with union organizers at the White House on Thursday as the administration looks to boost unionization campaigns.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. announced Friday it is sanctioning North Korean digital currency mixing firm Blender.io, which the country allegedly uses to launder stolen virtual currency and support cyber crimes.
DoorDash sales soared in the first quarter as it added new customers, putting to rest any question of whether delivery demand will continue as the pandemic wanes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's list of impossible tasks keeps getting longer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to announce on Friday that five major U.S. manufacturers have made commitments to boost their reliance on small and medium American firms for 3D printing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A spokesman for the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol says Rudy Giuliani, who led Donald Trump's court efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, has withdrawn from an interview that was scheduled to take place Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday named Karine Jean-Pierre to be the next White House press secretary, the first Black woman and openly LGBTQ person to serve in the role. Incumbent Jen Psaki is set to leave the post next week.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Amnesty International says it has documented extensive war crimes by Russian forces in communities around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, including arbitrary executions, bombardments of residences and torture.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. says it shared intelligence with Ukraine about the location of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva prior to the strike that sank the warship, an incident that was a high-profile failure for Russia's military.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — More civilians have been rescued from the tunnels under a besieged steel plant in Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said Friday, even as fighters holed up at the sprawling complex made their last stand to prevent Moscow's complete takeover of the strategic port city.
THURSDAY, MAY 5
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — The Nashville Predators will start goaltender Connor Ingram in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.
SPORTS
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The commissioners of the Southeastern Conference and Pac-12 are scheduled to meet with lawmakers in Washington on Thursday to lobby for federal legislation to regulate name, image and likeness compensation to athletes.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Matt Kenseth was doing yardwork when wife Katie came outside with her phone in hand, letting him know he'd just been selected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined to sign off on a bill criminalizing camping by homeless people and in parks and other local public property, but let it become law without his signature.
EAST TENNESSEE
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed against a Tennessee school system and school officials alleging a student was repeatedly sexually assaulted has been dismissed.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Roberts is heading a Supreme Court in crisis.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Walgreens pharmacy chain has reached a $683 million settlement with the state of Florida in a lawsuit accusing the company of improperly dispensing millions of painkillers that contributed to the opioid crisis, state officials said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts, in ordering an investigation into an "egregious breach of trust" in the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion, tasked a relatively unknown court official to carry out what could be one of the most high-profile investigations in decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Little doubt remains about what the Supreme Court plans to do with Roe v. Wade. But uncertainty abounds about ripple effects as the court nears a final opinion expected to overturn the landmark 1973 case that created a nationwide right to abortion.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate will vote next week on legislation that would codify abortion rights into federal law as Democrats mount their response to the Supreme Court's leaked draft decision that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
A new initiative aimed at increasing the number of Black Americans registered as organ donors and combating disparities among transplant recipients was announced Thursday by a coalition that includes the four medical schools at the nation's historically Black colleges and universities.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — It took two trips over state lines, navigating icy roads and a patchwork of state laws, for a 32-year-old South Dakota woman to get abortion pills last year.
MEDIA
Elon Musk has strengthened the equity stake in his $44 billion offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MILAN (AP) — Carmaker Stellantis on Thursday reported higher first-quarter revenues despite lower deliveries, with no significant impact from the closure of its Russian plant due to sanctions.
TRANSPORTATION
Federal officials are promising to add air traffic controllers and take other steps to improve the flow of planes in Florida, which airlines say has become a weak link in the national airspace.
Airbus said Wednesday that its profit in the first three months of 2022 more than tripled to 1.22 billion euros ($1.28 billion), helped by an increase in aircraft deliveries as airlines recover from the worst of the pandemic.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Following through on a campaign promise, the Biden administration on Thursday announced a wide-ranging enforcement strategy aimed at holding industrial polluters accountable for damage done to poor and minority communities.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stanford University will launch a new school focusing on climate change thanks to a $1.1 billion gift from billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, the university announced Tuesday.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — The three major U.S. banking regulators said Thursday they a plan to rewrite much of the outdated regulations tied to a decades-old banking law designed to encourage lending to the poor and racial minorities in the areas where banks have branches.
COVID-19
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, the U.S. came close to providing health care for all during the coronavirus pandemic — but for just one condition, COVID-19.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing sharply lower on Wall Street as worries grow in markets that the higher interest rates the Federal Reserve is using in its fight against inflation will slow the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Some small businesses are still struggling to hire qualified workers, even as Americans return to the U.S. job market in droves.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amid the push to get U.S. boardrooms to look more like companies' customers and employees, advocates are finally seeing just how steep the task will be.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week but the total number of people collecting jobless aid is at its lowest level in more than 50 years.
Boeing Co. said Thursday it will move its headquarters from Chicago to the Washington, D.C., area, where company executives would be closer to key federal government officials.
LONDON (AP) — Energy giant Shell reported record first-quarter earnings after a surge in oil prices, fueling calls for the British government to impose a tax on energy companies' windfall earnings to help consumers struggling with the soaring cost of living.
LONDON (AP) — OPEC and allied oil-producing countries, including Russia, are weighing conflicting forces Thursday as they decide how much crude should flow to volatile global markets. Europe's proposal to phase out Russian oil and other Western sanctions are choking back supply, while COVID-19 shutdowns in China are cutting demand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates — as it did Wednesday — the impact doesn't stop with U.S. homebuyers paying more for mortgages or Main Street business owners facing costlier bank loans.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England raised its key interest rate to the highest level in 13 years on Thursday as policymakers around the world combat inflation fueled by high energy prices, Russia's war in Ukraine and lingering concerns about COVID-19.
MILAN (AP) — Across Europe, rising energy prices are testing the resolve of ordinary consumers and business owners who are caught between the continent's dependence on cheap Russian energy and its revulsion over President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are working toward compromise on President Joe Biden's $33 billion Ukraine aid request, even as signs emerge that Democrats may need to swallow another COVID-19 setback and drop their goal of wrapping pandemic spending into the package.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wasted nearly $2 million when most of the smartphones bought during the pandemic for homeless veterans went unused, according to an inspector general's report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 140 former Justice Department officials, including two past attorneys general, are throwing their support behind President Joe Biden's nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
WASHINGTON (AP) — There is little credible information about the new Disinformation Governance Board.
UKRAINE
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — War-ravaged Ukraine received pledges for $6.5 billion more in humanitarian aid Thursday at an international donor's conference in Warsaw that sought to get Ukrainians urgent help while still planning for the country's post-war reconstruction.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A superyacht that American authorities say is owned by a Russian oligarch previously sanctioned for alleged money laundering has been seized by law enforcement in Fiji, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's military said Thursday that it recaptured some areas in the south and repelled Russian attacks in the east, as a bloody battle raged at a steel mill in Mariupol where Ukrainian troops are holed up in tunnels and bunkers, fending off a Russian onslaught.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Complaining that the West is "stuffing Ukraine with weapons," Russia bombarded railroad stations and other supply-line targets across the country, as the European Union moved to further punish Moscow for the war Wednesday by proposing a ban on oil imports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday asked the Justice Department to investigate whether a Trump administration Interior secretary engaged in possible criminal conduct while helping an Arizona developer get a crucial permit for a housing project.