March 5, 2022 4:26 am
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian state media say Russia’s military has begun a temporary cease-fire in two areas of Ukraine to allow civilians to evacuate. It would be the first breakthrough in allowing people to escape the war. The Russian Defense Ministry says it agreed on evacuation routes with Ukrainian forces to allow civilians to leave the strategic port of Mariupol in the southeast and the eastern city of Volnovakha. The vaguely worded statement didn’t make clear how long the routes would remain open on Saturday. Ukraine has called the need for humanitarian corridors “question No. 1” amid fears of food shortages. Residents of Mariupol have experienced growing misery as days of shelling knocked out most phone service.
March 5, 2022 4:22 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The board of another big public pension system in Pennsylvania will sell off its Russia-related investments, amid bipartisan calls from lawmakers and top state officials to respond to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Friday’s vote by the board of the State Employees’ Retirement System affects roughly $7 million of the $40 billion in assets the system reported having at the start of 2022. That exposure amounts to 0.02%. The board’s resolution also bars new investments in assets related to Russia. On Thursday, the board of the $72.5 billion Public School Employees’ Retirement System took a similar vote to divest of nearly $300 million directly invested in Russia and Belarus.
March 5, 2022 4:20 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – An Amtrak engineer has been acquitted of charges related to a high-speed derailment that left eight people dead and hundreds injured in Philadelphia in 2015. The jury cleared 38-year-old engineer Brandon Bostian of causing a catastrophe, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. He had been charged once for each injury and death. Bostian’s lawyer describes him as having a perfect work record until he was distracted by people throwing rocks in the area just before the crash. The train was going more than 100 mph on a 50 mph curve when the train derailed. Amtrak had earlier settled the civil litigation for $265 million.
March 4, 2022 2:46 pm
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A federal judge has blocked an effort by voters to disqualify North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn from seeking reelection by alleging his involvement with the rally that preceded the U.S. Capitol riot in January 2021 made him ineligible. U.S. District Judge Richard Myers in Wilmington issued a preliminary injunction during a court hearing Friday. Myers declared the state’s candidate challenge process didn’t apply to a portion of the 14th Amendment designed to prevent congressmen who had fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War from returning to Congress. Cawthorn spoke at the Jan. 6 rally and voted against certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
March 4, 2022 4:32 am
DETROIT (AP) – Face masks will be optional for U.S. union auto workers, as long as their factories are in counties that are not at high risk for the novel coronavirus. A task force of officials from Ford, General Motors, Stellantis and the United Auto Workers union decided to drop a mask requirement at a meeting on Thursday. The union says in a statement that the group decided to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in making masks optional, regardless of vaccination status. Automakers will tell workers when the changes are effective at their plants. More than 150,000 workers represented by the UAW began wearing masks at work in May of 2020, when factories reopened after an eight-week shutdown at the start of the pandemic.
March 4, 2022 4:29 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is ordering new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and others in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle as Russian forces pummel Ukraine. Those targeted by the new sanctions include Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov, one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals and a close ally of Putin. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke late Thursday as Russian forces shelled a nuclear plant in the eastern Ukraine city of Enerhodar. They urged Russia to “cease its military activities” in the area and allow firefighters to access the damaged site.
March 4, 2022 4:27 am
The Russian parliament has passed a bill introducing sentences of up to 15 years in prison for intentionally spreading “fake” information about military action. Russian state news agencies reported Friday the passing of the bill in the third and final reading. The development came amid a crackdown by Russian authorities on independent media and criticism of last week’s invasion of Ukraine. Spreading what Russian authorities deem to be false information is punishable by up to three years in prison, or 15 years if it is deemed to have “severe consequences.” The bill also bans calling for sanctions to be implemented against Russia.
March 4, 2022 4:26 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian firefighters have extinguished a blaze at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant. The fire was ignited by Russian shelling. Russian forces have seized control of the site and are pressing their campaign to cripple the country despite global condemnation. Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said that no changes in radiation levels have been recorded so far after the Zaporizhzhia plant came under attack. No casualties have been reported. But the blaze caused worldwide concern. The shelling of the plant came as the Russian military advanced on a strategic city near where the plant is located, and gained ground in their bid to cut off Ukraine from the sea.
March 4, 2022 4:24 am
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) – A powerful bomb has exploded inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 30 worshippers and wounding dozens more, many of them critically, police said. The explosion occurred as worshippers had collected in the Kucha Risaldar mosque in Peshawar’s old city for Friday prayers. Ambulances rushed through congested narrow streets carrying the wounded to Lady Reading Hospital, where doctors worked feverishly. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
March 4, 2022 4:23 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s biggest public pension system will begin to sell off its investments in Russia and Belarus. The board voted unanimously Thursday to divest in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The $72.5 billion Public School Employees’ Retirement System is one of the nation’s biggest public pension funds. It’ll target what it says is almost $300 million directly invested in Russia and Belarus. That’s less than one-half of 1% of the fund’s total assets. Belarus has been a key ally of Russia in its attack on Ukraine. The board’s motion also decreed that the system will make no future investments in Russia or Belarus.
