1 UKRAINE
Bombardment of Kyiv ranks among war’s most ferocious
Authorities were assessing the damage after Russian forces carried out a massive strike of “exceptional intensity” on Kyiv on Monday night, in one of the biggest attacks on the capital since last year’s invasion.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said Kyiv’s defenders had shot down all 18 Russian rockets and drones. The city had came under an intense and sweeping attack from the “north, south and east”, by missiles fired from air, sea and land, he said.
Air defence batteries intercepted six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, the most potent long-range weapon in the Kremlin’s arsenal. They had also stopped nine cruise missiles, three ballistic missiles, six kamikaze drones and three unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Ukraine’s military high command.
The attacks came amid continued speculation about the timing of a Ukrainian counterattack against Russian forces. On a tour of European capitals this week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed Kyiv could defeat Russia by the end of this year with western help.
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2 UNITED STATES
Border crossings fall after Title 42 rules are scrapped
Crossings at the border with Mexico dropped 50% after Title 42 restrictions ended last Thursday and the Biden White House implemented an arguably tougher immigration policy, US homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. Speaking to reporters, Joe Biden called the border situation “much better than you all expected”.
Mayorkas’s and Biden’s remarks were a defence of the policy that replaced the expired measure allowing border officials to expel migrants to their home country or Mexico without hearing their asylum claims, ostensibly to limit the spread of Covid-19. The rules now bar migrants from asylum if they do not request refugee status in another country before entering the US.
3 UNITED STATES
DeSantis endorsed by 37 sitting Iowa Republicans
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, rolled out a hefty list of endorsements from Iowa lawmakers as he visited the crucial early-voting state in an attempt to garner support for his potential presidential campaign. The Super Pac Never Back Down announced endorsements from 37 Republican Iowa state senators and representatives.
In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Amy Sinclair,
