10 things you need to know today: April 10, 2023

Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson

(Image credit: AP Photo/George Walker IV)

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1. Russia shells Ukrainian cities despite Easter calls for peace
2. 2 ousted Tennessee lawmakers plan to reclaim their seats
3. Leaked documents say Ukraine air defenses dangerously low on ammunition
4. Macron says Europe shouldn't follow U.S. or China on Taiwan
5. Israeli jets respond to rocket fire with strikes in Syria
6. Barr: Prosecutors have strong evidence against Trump in documents case
7. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra slams abortion drug ruling
8. Saudi Arabia, Houthi representatives discuss Yemen peace
9. Jon Rahm wins his 1st Masters championship
10. Super Mario Bros Movie dominates weekend box office

published 10 April 2023

1. Russia shells Ukrainian cities despite Easter calls for peace

Russian forces on Sunday continued shelling several cities in Ukraine's industrial east, as well as in Kharkiv province in the northeast and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, despite Easter pleas for peace from Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The shelling killed at least seven civilians, Ukrainian officials said. Zaporizhzhia, home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, is one of four Ukrainian provinces Moscow illegally annexed in September, but Russian forces have been unable to drive out Ukrainian troops. The war's longest battle has centered on Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk. Russian forces and Wagner mercenaries have reportedly made it to the city's center after more than eight months of fighting, but Ukrainian troops continue their resistance in the high-attrition fight.

Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black former Tennessee state lawmakers expelled by Republican colleagues last week, said Sunday they will push to be reappointed, then reelected to their seats. Nashville's metro council will consider temporarily filling Jones' seat in a Monday meeting, and is considered likely to reappoint Jones, The Associated Press reports. The Shelby County Commission is also expected to meet soon on filling the vacancy left by Pearson, who is from Memphis. Republicans voted to remove Pearson and Jones over their participation in a protest on the House floor in favor of passing tighter gun laws in response to a deadly shooting at a Nashville Christian school that left three children and three adults dead.

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U.S. officials and leaked Pentagon documents indicate that Ukraine is running perilously low on ammunition its air defenses need to protect against barrages of Russian drones and missiles, The New York Times reported Sunday. A leaked U.S. assessment from February projected that Ukraine's stocks of missiles for Soviet-era S-300 and Buk air defense systems, its main defense against fighter jets, could run out within weeks, which would let Moscow start using fighter jets it has kept out of the fight for fear of losing them. The Pentagon and the Justice Department are investigating the dozens of images posted online that apparently show highly classified documents on the Ukraine war and other geopolitical hot spots.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, on the way back from a three-day state visit to China, that Europe should pursue a policy on Taiwan that does not follow the United States or China. "The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction," Macron said. He advocated "strategic autonomy" to make Europe a "third superpower." Hours after Macron's flight took off from Guangzhou for Paris, China began military exercises around Taiwan, a democratic island Beijing considers a renegade province, in response to a visit by Taiwan's president to Central America and the U.S.

Israeli fighter jets launched strikes against military targets in Syria on Sunday in response to rocket fire from Syrian territory into the Golan Heights hours earlier. State media in Syria reported explosions near Damascus, the capital. Israel said it hit the rocket launchers with artillery and drone strikes, then targeted a Syrian army compound, military radar, and artillery with the airstrikes. Violence, including rocket fire into Israel from Lebanon and Palestinian territory, has escalated between Israel and Palestinian groups in the last week following Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Two British-Israeli sisters, Maia and Rina Dee, ages 20 and 15, were killed Friday when suspected Palestinian gunmen shot up their car as the family drove through the Jordan Valley on a family holiday.

Bill Barr, who served as attorney general under former President Donald Trump, said Sunday that his former boss played "games" with investigators trying to recover classified documents Trump took with him to Florida when he left the White House. Barr has criticized a New York prosecutor's indictment of Trump in connection with hush money payments to a porn star, but he said on ABC's This Week that Trump's resistance to returning the secret documents he was keeping at his Mar-a-Lago estate could constitute obstruction of justice. Trump faces a Justice Department special counsel investigation into his handling of the classified papers. "He had no claim to those documents," Barr said. "I think he was jerking the government around."

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Sunday that the Biden administration expects an appeals court or the Supreme Court to reverse Friday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that seeks to ban the abortion medication mifepristone nationwide. The Biden administration has appealed the ruling, which argues the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved mifepristone 20 years ago. Kacsmaryk, known for his anti-abortion views, is trying to substitute "his personal opinion for that of scientists and medical professionals" who have found the drug safe and effective, Becerra told CNN. A competing ruling by a federal judge in Washington state ordered authorities not to restrict access in at least 17 states where Democrats sued seeking to keep it available.

Saudi and Omani representatives held talks with Houthi officials in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, on Sunday in a sign of possible progress toward a lasting ceasefire in the country's eight-year civil war. Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition against the Houthis, has been involved in direct talks with the Houthis for months. But the discussions have quickly moved closer to a resolution since China brokered a diplomatic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which has supported the Houthis since they seized parts of Yemen in 2014. The United Nations is pushing a parallel peace effort to end a conflict it says has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Jon Rahm of Spain came from behind Sunday to win his first Masters championship and become the first European golfer to win both the U.S. Open and the Masters. Rahm, 28, started the day four strokes behind American Brooks Koepke after they finished the last 12 holes of their rain-delayed third round. Koepke was still two strokes ahead when they started their final round later in the day. But Rahm ultimately finished four strokes ahead of a mistake-prone Koepke and 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, who shot a 65 in the final round, matching the low score of the tournament and becoming the oldest runner-up in Masters history. "We all dream of things like this as players," Rahm said after his victory.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie led the domestic box office, pulling in $146 million in its opening weekend. The animated movie by Illumination, Nintendo, and Universal has earned $204.6 million in its first five days of release, surpassing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($106 million) to score the biggest opening of the year. It is also the second biggest debut ever for an animated film, and the highest grossing debut for Illumination, overtaking 2015's Minions, which had $115.7 million in ticket sales in its opening weekend. The Super Mario Bros. Movie also made $173 million at the international box office, bringing its global total to $377 million. "This is great news for theaters," said senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.