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WASHINGTON (AP) — Global finance leaders are putting the growing crisis over food insecurity and skyrocketing food prices at center stage as members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank meet in Washington and grapple with the brutal effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge’s decision to strike down a national mask mandate was met with cheers on some airplanes but also concern about whether it’s really time to end one of the most visible vestiges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The major airlines and many of the busiest airports rushed to drop their requirements on Monday after the Transportation Security Administration announced it wouldn’t enforce a January 2021 security directive that applied to airplanes, airports, taxis and other mass transit.

UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Ukraine crisis could plunge more than one fifth of humanity, or up to 1.7 billion people, into poverty and hunger, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

“We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. The crisis could plunge up to 1.7 billion people, more than a fifth of humanity, into poverty and hunger on a scale not seen in decades,” Guterres said in an interview with the Czech Seznam Zpravy publication.

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - A second Global COVID-19 Summit will be held virtually next month for countries to discuss efforts to end the pandemic and prepare for future health threats, according to a joint statement on Monday.

"The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling COVID-19 worldwide," the White House said in a news release with the Group of Seven and Group of 20 nations.

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - Humanitarian ceasefires between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine are not on the horizon right now, but may be possible in a couple of weeks, the U.N. aid chief said on Monday.

Martin Griffiths made the comments in a briefing to reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York on his attempts to arrange local ceasefires in Ukraine so that desperate civilians could be evacuated from embattled areas and to provide badly needed assistance.

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will convene a high-level panel on Tuesday to discuss the global response to an ongoing food security crisis exacerbated by Russia's war against Ukraine, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The meeting will include the heads of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, as well as ministers representing the G7 and G20 countries and technical experts from international financial institutions, it said on Monday.

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell and the State Department's top official for Asia will travel this week to the Solomon Islands, the White House said on Monday, amid concerns that the Pacific Island country is making a security pact with China.

NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America posted a 12% decline in first-quarter profits from a year earlier, a decline that was much less than the ones its rivals had reported the previous week. The nation’s second-largest bank was helped by higher net interest income and no noticeable exposure to Russian assets.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said it earned a profit of $7.1 billion, or 80 cents a share, compared with a profit of $8.05 billion, or 86 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. The results were better than what analysts had forecasted, according to FactSet.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking a key step toward ensuring that federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing — issuing requirements for how projects funded by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package source their construction material.

HAMPTON, S.C. (AP) — Authorities in South Carolina are investigating a shooting at a nightclub early Sunday that wounded at least nine people. It was the second mass shooting in the state and the third in the nation during the Easter holiday weekend.

The shootings in South Carolina and one in Pittsburgh, in which two minors were killed early Sunday, also left at least 31 people wounded.