Thursday morning news - April 28, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kristen Flavin. 

Evacuation efforts, gas supplies, and nuclear fears in Ukraine » Russia has agreed in principle to allow a UN team to evacuate civilians from a besieged steel mill in Mariupol. But negotiators are still working out the logistical details.

A UN spokesman told reporters on Wednesday the plan depends on cooperation from Moscow and Kyiv to guarantee the mission’s safety. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.

ZELENSKYY: [Speaking Ukrainian]

During his daily message to the nation, Zelenskyy thanked the European Commission for removing all duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports for the next year. He said that will help stave off a looming economic crisis in the country.

Europe continues to show strong support for Ukraine, even in the face of Russian retaliation. Countries are rallying to share energy resources amid Russian threats to cut off all supplies. Ursula von der Leyen is the European Commission president.

VON DER LEYEN: We have, as you know, also reached an agreement with the United States to provide additional LNG imports this year and the following ones. And we are working hand-in-hand with our member states to secure alternative gas supplies from other partners, too.

Russia stopped delivering natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Tuesday and threatened to cut off other nations that continue to give Ukraine military aid.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency is worried about the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. Russia currently controls the facility.

Rafael Mariano Grossi is the IAEA director-general. He says UN regulators are seeking immediate access to assess damage and make repairs.

GROSSI: And all of this is not happening. So the situation, I have described it and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is. So, this is a pending issue, this is a red light blinking.

Russian missiles have already come dangerously close to several nuclear facilities, a dangerous situation Grossi said could not continue.

Former Marine freed in prisoner swap with Russia » A former U.S. Marine jailed for three years in Russia is back home. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: Trevor Reed gained his freedom Wednesday after U.S. officials announced an unexpected prisoner swap with the Kremlin.

In exchange for Reed, Washington released Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko. He was serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

Reed’s family said the swap happened at an airport in Turkey with both prisoners walking across the tarmac at the same time, just like in the movies.

The Biden administration said it based the swap on a specific set of circumstances that did not affect Washington’s approach to the, quote “appalling violence in Ukraine.”

Russian police arrested the 30-year-old American in 2019 after he allegedly assaulted a police officer following a night of heavy drinking. The U.S. government called his detention unjust. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison.

Two other Americans remain behind bars in Russia. WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Mayorkas defends immigration policies at House hearing » House lawmakers grilled Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday. Both Republicans and Democrats voiced concern about next month’s proposed end to the Title 42 immigration rule. The pandemic-era policy allows border officials to turn migrants away due to a public health emergency.

Mayorkas admitted more people will seek entry at the southern border.

MAYORKAS: With the Title 42 public health order set to be lifted, we expect migration levels to increase as smugglers seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants. We will continue to enforce our immigration laws.

The Biden administration has requested funding to hire 300 more border patrol agents. But Mayorkas said a significant increase in migrants would further strain a system already stretched to the breaking point.

While lawmakers looked to the Biden administration for answers, Mayorkas said lawmakers are responsible for finding a solution.

MAYORKAS: We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain. It is not built to manage the current levels and types of migratory flows. Only Congress can fix this.

The Biden administration wants to end Title 42 on May 23rd. But a federal judge put that timeline in doubt after he issued a temporary stay on Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will insist on voting to keep Title 42 in place.

Fauci says U.S. out of pandemic phase » The COVID-19 pandemic is officially over, at least in the United States. That’s the assessment of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci gave his diagnosis during an interview on PBS NewsHour.

FAUCI: We are certainly, right now, in this country out of the pandemic phase. Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.

But Fauci was quick to add that our battle with COVID-19 is not over because the virus will never be eradicated. He predicted Americans will need periodic, regular vaccines to help keep serious disease at bay.

Although case counts remain low, Fauci said the official numbers likely undercount the actual amount of infections. But he called that a good sign because people who are infected aren’t sick enough to seek testing or treatment.

New York court rejects Dem’s congressional maps » New York’s highest court has rejected new congressional maps widely considered to favor Democrats. The decision is a major blow to their bid to keep Republicans from retaking the U.S. House in November. WORLD’s Paul Butler has more.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: The New York Court of Appeals ruled the Democratic-led legislature lacked the authority to redraw congressional and state Senate maps. Lawmakers took over the redistricting effort after an independent commission failed to reach a consensus on new maps.

But, the judges said lawmakers gerrymandered the maps to favor Democrats. And they ruled that violated a 2014 state constitutional amendment designed to remove politics from the process.

A lower court will now start the process over. And that’s likely to force the state to postpone primary elections from June to August.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

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

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