The War Room: The Senate yesterday approved $40 billion in emergency military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, bringing the total American financial commitment for the war to roughly $54 billion in just over two months. 

  As the US and western allies keep giving Ukraine the money and weapons to fight, it appears increasingly likely that Russia will annex and declare ownership of the territory it’s taken. The Russians in the eastern Donbas are already requiring residents to use Russian money and they’re changing the street signs to Russian language.

  Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin visited occupied territory this week speaking of plans to take over vital infrastructure, including Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. “I believe the region’s future is to work in our friendly Russian family,” Khusnullin said. “I came here to provide maximum opportunities for integration.”

  Russian occupation authorities announced plans to remove what’s left of  the Azovstal Steel Plant and turn Mariupol into a resort city. It’s an odd choice given the economic power of the destroyed plant that once employed 10,000 people while producing every year 7,000 tons of steel, 6 million tons of iron, and 4.5 million tons of rolled metal. 

  Although the Russians are digging in to defensive positions and planning to stay, they’re not home free. They could still face a Ukrainian counter-offensive. For now, neither side is prevailing. Interestingly, The NY Times reports according to a senior Pentagon official, heavy losses and stiff Ukrainian resistance are forcing Russian troops to fight in smaller formations and seek less ambitious objectives.

  Back in Russia, the government is recognizing a shortage of manpower and moving to raise the age for military service beyond 40.

War Crimes: The New York Times has obtained video showing Russian paratroopers in the Ukrainian town of Bucha leading eight men to their execution. The videos were taken by a civilian witnesses and a security camera.

  Drone footage taken later shows the bodies behind a building, one of the men in a bright blue shirt that was distinctive as the men had been led away at gunpoint.

Roe to the World: The Oklahoma Legislature yesterday passed a bill that prohibits nearly all abortions starting at the moment of fertilization, which would make it the nation’s strictest abortion law.

  Once Gov. Kevin Stitt signs it, the law would allow private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion. Stitt has vowed to make his state the most anti-abortion in the nation and this would do it. State Representative Jim Olsen, a Republican, said on the floor of the Oklahoma House, “There can be nothing higher or more critical than the defense of innocent, unborn life.” 

  Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not support overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in the US, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

Viral News: Depending on who’s counting the number varies, but it seems clear that the US has topped one million deaths from Covid-19. The NY Times database says it 1,000,013, dead, but Johns Hopkins University lists the number as 1,001,606. Either way, it’s the most Covid deaths of any country in the world and the virus is resurging in the US.

  Cases are rising in every state with the country averaging 100,000 new cases a day. New cases are up 52 percent over the past two weeks, although deaths are down 17 percent.

  The CDC now says children 5-11 should get a booster shot.

The Shooting Gallery: Two people were killed and eight wounded in a shooting last night near Loyola University in downtown Chicago. The gunman who opened fire around 10:40 pm was arrested and his gun recovered by the cops.

  All the wounded were listed in “grave” or “serious” condition. There’s no word so far on what sparked the shooting.

  The Washington Post reports that investigators are picking through the online Discord account of the Buffalo mass murderer. 

  The Post says 15 users joined a live chat by Payton Gendron shortly before he opened fire at a Tops market in a predominantly black neighborhood. The invitation to the chat also allowed users to click through to a live stream of the attack.

  Gendron has been indicted by a grand jury and pleaded not guilty.

The Spin Rack: The ruling Taliban in Afghanistan have ordered women news presenters to cover their faces while on air. The ruling comes two weeks after all women in the country were ordered to cover their faces in public, or be punished. — A street on New York City’s only Army base named General Lee Avenue after the Confederate leader will be re-named for First Lt. John Earl Warren Jr., a Black Brooklynite who died saving others in Vietnam and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. — Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, a familiar face during the weeks of the Ukraine war, will move to the White House in a senior communications role, the Washington Post reports. Kirby would take a secondary position to the new White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre. 

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