Thursday morning news - April 21, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden administration holds Ukraine talks, levies new sanctions on Moscow » President Biden huddled with military leaders at the White House on Wednesday to talk over efforts to support Ukraine.

BIDEN: Weapons and ammunition are flowing in daily, and we’re seeing just how vital our alliances and partnerships are around the world.

Biden said U.S. allies are also stepping up and NATO has never been more united.

Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted Poland’s defense chief for meetings at the Pentagon and he praised Poland’s efforts to back Ukraine.

AUSTIN: You have performed the absolutely essential role of facilitating the delivery of security assistance from the United States and other NATO allies and partners around the globe.

Russia continues its new offensive in eastern Ukraine and remains on the verge of fully capturing the port city of Mariupol.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Dept. announced more sanctions. The new measures hit a Russian commercial bank, the country’s virtual-currency mining industry, and another Russian oligarch.

Russia test-fires new intercontinental ballistic missile » Meantime, the Russian military says it has successfully test fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Vladimir Putin hailed the Sarmat launch, claiming the new missile has no foreign equivalents and that it’s capable of penetrating any missile defense.

He said it would make the West “think twice” about any military aggression toward Russia.

The test launch comes after a series of nuclear threats by Putin in recent months.

But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said—his words—“Such testing is routine,” adding, “We did not deem the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies.”

He also said Russia did give the United States advance notice about the launch—in line with a nuclear arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the Sarmat missile launched from northern Russia and its practice warheads successfully struck mock targets on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Governors form border ‘strike force’ » The governors of more than half the states in the country are forming a new border security “strike force.”

The alliance will allow states to share intelligence on threats to their states that may emerge from the porous southern border.

Twenty-six states will exchange information about state-level crimes that are linked to border security. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said governors are stepping up …

DUCEY: Working with law enforcement, our fusion centers, and intelligence that we have at the state level to go after these drug cartels to stop this dangerous poison of fentanyl from streaming over our border. The number one leading cause of death for youths in southern Arizona is fentanyl.

Ducey is leading the effort, alongside fellow GOP governor, Greg Abbott of Texas.

Republicans continue to sound alarms about the Biden administration's plan to end Title 42 next month. That’s a pandemic measure that allows the government to limit who is allowed into the country.

DUCEY: DHS’ own numbers say that would be 18,000 people a day additional streaming over the border. That’s 6.5 million in a year.

Last month, the Border Patrol arrested 210,000 migrants at the southern border. That was the highest monthly total in two decades.

Arizona fire forces residents to flee » An Arizona wildfire doubled in size Wednesday, a day after heavy winds kicked up a towering wall of flames near a northern Arizona tourist and college town.

Flames ripped through two-dozen structures and sent residents of more than 700 homes scrambling to flee.

Coconino County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeronimo Vasquez told reporters…

VASQUEZ: On behalf of Coconino County, we have declared a local emergency.

The blaze raced through an area of scattered homes, dry grass and Ponderosa pine trees on the outskirts of Flagstaff Tuesday. Wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour helped fuel the fire.

But it was moving northeast away from the more heavily populated areas of Flagstaff and toward Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.

Investigators have not yet determined how it started.

Court halts South Carolina plan for firing squad execution » South Carolina’s highest court on Wednesday issued a temporary stay, halting what was set to be the state’s first-ever firing squad execution. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The order by the state Supreme Court stops—at least temporarily—the planned execution of Richard Bernard Moore one week from tomorrow.

Moore received a death sentence for the 1999 killing of a convenience store clerk in Spartanburg.

Attorneys for the 57-year-old had sought a stay as they legally challenge the constitutionality of South Carolina’s execution methods, which also include the electric chair.

Moore’s lawyers also wanted time to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether Moore’s sentence was proportionate to his crime.

The state of Utah has carried out three firing squad executions since 1976. It is the only state over the past four decades to do so.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org.

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