USA

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Joe Biden has now said Russia’s war in Ukraine amounts to “genocide,” accusing President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”

“Yes, I called it genocide,” he told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday shortly before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”

Last week, Biden stopped short of saying Russia’s actions amounted to genocide.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia’s initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine’s contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express.

NEW YORK (AP) — As the year began, New Yorkers shuddered at a subway crime straight out of urban nightmares — the death of a woman shoved onto the tracks by a disturbed stranger. The city’s new mayor vowed to “make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system.”

But commuters Tuesday morning faced an attack that evoked many riders’ deepest fears. A rush-hour train car filled with smoke as it pulled into a Brooklyn station. Gunshots — at least 33 of them — rang out, wounding at least 10 people.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 12 (APP): The Asia and Pacific region’s economic recovery from COVID and other global shocks, must be anchored in an inclusive “new social contract”, to protect the vulnerable in the years ahead, according to a report published on Tuesday by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 12 (APP): The World Trade Organization (WTO) has cut its goods trade growth forecast for this year by about a third to 3 per cent, warning that the decline in commodity exports caused by the Ukraine war could cause mass hunger in developing countries.

UNITED NATIONS, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN Security Council — which on Monday held a session on the plight of women and children in Ukraine — will hold another meeting next week on the humanitarian situation there, in a bid to keep pressure on Russia despite its veto power over the powerful body, diplomats said.

The new meeting, proposed by France and Mexico, will “focus on refugees, third-country nationals and human trafficking,” said a diplomat on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shirley Troutman, a judge on New York’s highest court, was working last week when her daughter texted messages that included a clapping hands emoji. Soon, her phone was buzzing with other celebratory messages. The applause and the excitement was for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who last week was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court and will become its first Black female justice.

Jackson will become the court’s 116th member. That’s special for Troutman, who is the 116th member of her court too.

(AP) --- Boeing has removed 141 airplanes from its backlog of pending orders, many of them because of what it termed geopolitical considerations including restrictions on sales because of sanctions like those imposed on Russia for its war against Ukraine.

The big aircraft manufacturer said Tuesday it took 38 net new orders for planes in March, most of them single-aisle 737 Max jets. Air Lease Corp. placed an order for 32 Maxes.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg sent lawmakers a pair of defiant letters urging them to vote against impeaching him for his conduct before and after he struck and killed a pedestrian on the shoulder of a highway.

Troopers have said Ravnsborg was distracted before the September 2020 crash that killed 55-year-old Joseph Boever. Ravnsborg initially told authorities he thought he had struck a deer or other large animal. He went back the next day and found Boever’s body.

BOSTON (AP) — Russian military hackers attempted to knock out power to millions of Ukrainians last week in a long-planned attack but were foiled, Ukrainian government officials said Tuesday.

At one power station, the hackers succeeded in penetrating and disrupting part of the industrial control system, but people defending the station were able to prevent electrical outages, the Ukrainians said.