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Ukraine relief, Southern union victory and Tesla sales

 
Today's INTERNTATIONAL story

Ukraine cheers House approval of military aid

What happened
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday thanked the U.S. House for passing long-delayed military aid. Saturday's 311-112 vote, with all 112 no votes coming from Republicans, joined $60.8 billion for Ukraine with $17 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Indo-Pacific allies in a $95 billion package approved in separate parts.

Who said what
The U.S. weapons give Ukraine's military a real "chance of victory" and "break the plans of Russia" for an expected "full-scale offensive" in coming weeks, Zelenskyy told NBC News on Sunday. President Joe Biden thanked "both parties in the House" for coming together to pass the "urgently needed national security legislation."

The commentary
The House approved "more than bullets and bombs" for a "battered and bloodied" Ukraine, The New York Times said. "It offered something equally important: hope." Ukraine is grateful, but after six months of rationed munitions and Russian gains, "frankly speaking, it's too late and it's not enough," National University of Kyiv political scientist Olexiy Haran told The Associated Press.

What next?
The Senate will vote on the package Tuesday and Biden said he will sign it immediately. Some of the "ready to go" weapons will reach the battlefield in "less than a week," a U.S. official told The Washington Post. Ukraine "may suffer additional setbacks" as Russia pushes to "exploit the closing window" of Kyiv's shortages, the Institute for the Study of War said, but Ukraine can "blunt" Russia's offensive if the aid "arrives promptly."

 
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Today's LABOR story

UAW scores historic win in South at VW plant

What happened
A Volkswagen auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to join the United Auto Workers union, giving the UAW its first modern toehold in the "right to work" South and its first successful unionization at a foreign-owned automaker in the region. The lopsided 2,628-985 vote followed narrow UAW losses at the factory in 2014 and 2019.

Who said what
Many "pundits have said to me, repeatedly," that the UAW "can't win in the South," UAW President Shawn Fain told the Chattanooga workers Friday. "You all moved a mountain."

The commentary
Unionizing in the South has long been "like cutting a five-acre field with nail clippers: time-consuming, grueling and largely ineffective," Abby Vesoulis said at Mother Jones. Six Southern Republican governors warned last week that unionizing will scare away automakers, but that's unlikely, consultant Fabian Brandt told The Wall Street Journal. "Union membership is the price German manufacturers will have to pay for building cars where they sell."

What next?
After the election is certified, the UAW and VW will start negotiating pay, work hours, and worker safety. The UAW's next big unionization vote is at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance, Alabama, in mid-May.

 
 
Today's BUSINESS Story

Tesla trims prices amid rising competition

What happened
Tesla cut prices on three of its five models and its "Full Self Driving" upgrade over the weekend amid falling sales, last week's recall of its Cybertruck — whose price was not cut — and an intensifying global battle for electric vehicle market share.

Who said what
"Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand," CEO Elon Musk said on X.

The commentary
Tesla "ignited an EV price war" more than a year ago "by aggressively cutting prices at the expense of profit margins," Reuters said. Discounted sticker prices are one way to "try and entice more car buyers," The Associated Press said, but Tesla's "stock price has dropped about 40% so far this year."

What next?
Tesla reports first-quarter earnings Tuesday. Reports that Musk might scrap the automaker's long-awaited small, inexpensive Model 2 have "created more uncertainty over the company's direction," said The Guardian.

 
 

It's not all bad

A dog named Mishka who went on a solo cross-country adventure has been reunited with her owners. The terrier mix went missing in San Diego last July, and her owners searched tirelessly for her. Around Easter, they got the call they had been hoping for: Mishka was found. She was not in California, though; the pup was picked up near Detroit. "How she got here … that's a story only Mishka knows," veterinarian Nancy Pillsbury told The Associated Press.

 
 
Under the radar

An elusive Earth-like planet in our solar system could finally be discovered within the next few years. Known as Planet Nine or Planet X, the hypothetical planet has long been rumored to exist in the outer solar system. Although "several claims to have found an extra planet have been made over the years," so far "none has proven to be true," said the BBC. 

But now, researchers who have spent almost a decade hunting for Planet Nine believe the breakthrough could be close. Last September, astronomers in Japan detected a series of objects that had unusually warped orbits around the Sun in the Kuiper Belt, a "doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies" beyond the orbit of Neptune, said the BBC. Researchers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology speculated that only a massive planet's gravitational pull could explain these "orbital anomalies," said Live Science. 

Then in February, scientists narrowed down the "likely hiding place" of the elusive planet after they "whittled away" 78% of the "hypothetical world's suspected orbital pathway," said astronomer Philip Plait at Scientific American. 

There are "Planet Nine skeptics," said BBC Earth. Some experts believe it "isn't even a planet but a primordial black hole," and other astronomers are convinced that it's "simply natural bias in sky surveys." 

"As a scientist, I can't say one way or another" if the planet exists, said Plait. "But as a human being, I'll readily admit I want it to be out there," because we would "learn so much about this distant region" and it would "advance our understanding of how the solar system formed and evolved over the eons."

 
 
On this day

April 22, 1994

Former President Richard Nixon died at age 81. Nixon, the 37th president, was in office from 1969 to 1974 after serving as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower. Nixon is best known for being the only president in U.S. history to resign, choosing to leave rather than be removed through impeachment after he was implicated in the Watergate scandal.

 
 
TODAY’S newspaperS

The start of former President Donald Trump's first criminal trial is front-page news on Monday. "Trump's prosecutors have evidence, but a steep task," The New York Times says, and Trump has his own challenge: "For the next six weeks, a man who values control and tries to shape environments and outcomes to his will is in control of very little." Pundits once assumed this trial could be a "media bonanza" for the media-savvy former president, Doyle McManus said in a front-page Los Angeles Times column, but "forgetful voters" appear to have forgotten his "misdeeds," and the New York trial could be the "cure for 'Trump amnesia.'" 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Snake delay

Japan's high-speed bullet trains are known for their punctuality and efficiency, but officials found out last week there is one thing that will slow them down: snakes. While the train was still in a Tokyo station, a passenger spotted a 16-inch snake slithering by and notified staffers. The train was immediately pulled out of service as a precaution, and a new carriage was assigned to whisk about 600 passengers off to Osaka, said the Central Japan Railway Company. After a 17-minute delay, they were on their way.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass, Chas Newkey-Burden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Nathan Howard / Getty Images; Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images; John Paraskevas / Newsday RM via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images