10 things you need to know today: April 19, 2023

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1. Fox News agrees to pay Dominion $787.5 million in defamation settlement
2. Kansas City man who shot teen Ralph Yarl surrenders
3. Putin, Zelensky visit troops near Ukraine war front lines
4. Moscow court upholds reporter's pretrial detention
5. Sudan fighting continues despite 24-hour ceasefire
6. Omicron-targeting vaccine becomes main COVID shot
7. McCarthy rallies Republicans behind debt-limit proposal
8. Republicans block Democrats' attempt to replace Feinstein on committee during illness
9. 4 Americans, 3 Russians charged in alleged propaganda campaign
10. Bear that killed jogger in Italian Alps captured

published 19 April 2023

1. Fox News agrees to pay Dominion $787.5 million in defamation settlement

Fox News on Tuesday agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit that accused the conservative news channel of publicizing false claims that the voting-equipment company's machines switched votes from former President Donald Trump to President Biden in the 2020 election. The agreement came as the trial started with jury selection. The settlement allows Fox to avoid a high-profile trial in which its stars, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Maria Bartiromo, and top executives, including Executive Chair Rupert Murdoch, were expected to be called to testify. Before the trial, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled Fox couldn't justify airing false statements about Dominion by claiming they were newsworthy because Trump had made them.

Andrew Lester, the 84-year-old white Kansas City man accused of shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, who is Black, surrendered Tuesday afternoon to face two felony charges, a Clay County, Missouri, sheriff's spokesperson said. Lester is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action for shooting Yarl, an honor student who mistakenly rang Lester's doorbell when he was sent to pick up his twin younger brothers but went to the wrong house. Lester admitted to detectives he opened fire "within seconds" of seeing Yarl at his door, claiming he feared for his safety. Yarl's mother, Cleo Nagbe, told CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King her son was recovering but crying "buckets of tears" trying to come to terms with what happened to him.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited their rival forces in battle zones this week as Ukraine gets closer to its anticipated spring counteroffensive. Putin flew by helicopter on Monday to Ukraine's southern Kherson province and eastern Luhansk province, where the Russian National Guard has its headquarters. Zelensky visited troops near the front lines on Tuesday, the latest in a series of stops to bolster morale ahead of a push Kyiv hopes will mark a turning point in its effort to fight off Russia's invasion and reclaim occupied territory. Ukraine has started receiving long-promised advanced weapons, including a Patriot surface-to-air guided missile system Germany's federal government website said was delivered in the past week.

A Moscow court on Tuesday denied Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's appeal to end his pretrial detention ahead of his trial on spying charges, which the newspaper and the State Department say are false. Gershkovich was arrested during a reporting trip. Russia says he broke espionage laws by obtaining government secrets on a weapons factory. The hearing wasn't open to the public, but one of Gershkovich's lawyers, Maria Korchagina, said Gershkovich, 31, was prepared to "assert his right for free journalism" and "to defend himself." The State Department has designated Gershkovich as "wrongfully detained," meaning the U.S. government believes he is being held for political reasons.

Fighting continued in Sudan on Tuesday despite a 24-hour ceasefire brokered by diplomats. Millions of civilians have been trapped by the fighting between the army forces led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the North African nation's de facto leader, and his former deputy, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. Nearly 200 civilians reportedly have been killed since the fighting erupted over the weekend. The two generals, former allies, reportedly are locked in a struggle for control that diplomats fear could lead to civil war in Africa's third largest country. The conflict has disrupted a push to get a transition to democracy back on track after decades of dictatorship and war.

Federal health officials on Tuesday updated their coronavirus vaccine goals, authorizing a second booster of updated Pfizer and Moderna bivalent RNA vaccines for people at high risk of COVID-19, including those over 65 or with weak immune systems. They also approved a single dose of the updated vaccine, which targets the original and Omicron variants, for those seeking a shot for the first time. The change could be followed by other updates to simplify the vaccination policy, possibly including a plan to administer a shot a year for most people. "The agency believes that this approach will help encourage future vaccination," said Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA division overseeing vaccines. "COVID-19 continues to be a very real risk for many people."

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gathered House Republicans on Tuesday to urge them to get behind his proposal to let the national debt limit rise in exchange for limiting future spending hikes to 1 percent annually. Despite frequent infighting, the GOP caucus has reacted positively to the plan, although it hasn't been finalized. "There is no 'this,'" said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.). "We're discussing what the 'this' will be." A GOP plan would have no chance in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but Republicans believe that by passing it in the House they can force Democrats to start talks. President Biden has said Congress must raise the debt limit to avoid a catastrophic debt default, accusing Republicans of using the nation's wellbeing as a bargaining chip.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked Democrats' request to temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calf.) on the Judiciary Committee with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) while Feinstein, 89, recovers from shingles. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked for unanimous consent to make the change, which Feinstein requested after facing pressure from fellow Democrats to give up her seat on the committee, or even resign. Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, opposed temporarily replacing Feinstein, effectively dooming the request. Feinstein's absence has left the Judiciary Committee deadlocked, with an even number of Democrats and Republicans, meaning Democrats have been unable to advance about 15 judicial nominees to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote.

Federal authorities have charged four U.S. citizens affiliated with a Black power movement and three Russians with pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda and secretly spreading discord to illegally influence elections, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday. The Americans and two Russians were added to an existing case against the third Russian, Aleksandr Ionov, in a Tampa, Florida, federal court. Prosecutors accuse Ionov of founding a Moscow-backed organization to secretly influence U.S. elections. The four Americans are members of the African People's Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which has offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis. Omali Yeshitela, chair of the organization, was among the U.S. citizens charged. "Russia's foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said.

Italian authorities on Tuesday captured a bear that killed a jogger in the Italian Alps in early April. The 26-year-old jogger, Andrea Papi, was the first person killed by a bear in recent years. The animals are protected in Italy, but their numbers have been increasing since they were reintroduced in the region two decades ago. The bear, a 17-year-old female known as JJ4, was caught near the scene of the attack, above the town of Caldes on the slopes of Mount Peller in the Brenta Dolomites. The incident sparked fear in the region, and officials had ordered the bear to be shot on site. Its parents were brought to northern Italy from Slovenia. In 2020, it attacked and injured a man and his son as they hiked on Mount Peller.

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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.