The UN General Assembly on Thursday approved a resolution calling for Russia to "immediately, completely and unconditionally" withdraw its forces from Ukraine.
Why it matters: The resolution is non-binding, but it carries symbolic weight by signifying Russia's continued isolation on the world stage ahead of Friday's one-year anniversary of the start of the war.
Chile and Argentina this week offered citizenship to hundredsof Nicaraguans recently exiled by the government of President Daniel Ortega.
The big picture: The citizenship offers, which Spain has also made, come as human rights groups decry the move by Nicaragua's government to strip over 300 opposition figures of their citizenship.
Marcela Guerrero, the Whitney Museum's first Latina senior curator, says she'll use her newplatform to elevate underrepresented voices in art.
Why it matters: The Whitney Museum of American Art is one of several mainstream cultural institutions where U.S. Latinos have made inroads in the past few years despite decades of being excluded from the art world.
Declines in maternal mortality rates around the world have stalled on a global level in recent years, according to a new report from the World Health Organization.
Why it matters: An estimated 287,000 women died from pregnancy-related complications in 2020, which is approximately 800 deaths every day — or one every two minutes, according to the report.
Oman announced on Thursday that it was opening its airspace to all civilian carriers, including Israeli planes.
Why it matters: The announcement will allow Israeli airlines to significantly shorten eastbound flights to India and China by flying over Saudi Arabia and Oman.
The Palestinian Authority is threatening to pull out of a security summit with the U.S., Israel, Jordan and Egypt after 11 Palestinians, including civilians, were killed in an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, three U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials told Axios.
Why it matters: The security summit, scheduled to take place on Sunday, is meant to formalize the understandings recently reached between Israel and the Palestinians that led to the postponement of a UN Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The Pentagon released Wednesday a photo of a suspected Chinese government surveillance balloon it says was snapped by an American U-2 pilot flying just above the device over the "Central Continental United States" on Feb. 3.
Why it matters: The balloon that was shot down off the South Carolina coast the following day escalated tensions between the U.S. and Chinese governments and forced Secretary of State Tony Blinken to postpone his planned trip to Beijing.
The suspect in the deadly Colorado Springs LGBTQ night club shooting that left five people dead last November told police at the scene that the shooter was hiding, officers testified Wednesday, per the Sentinel.
Driving the news: Anderson Lee Aldrich, who is on trial facing multiple murder and hate crime charges, had at their home a rainbow-colored shooting target, a rough sketch of Club Q and parts to build AR-15 style guns, the Colorado Sun reports.
Former Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata, who was deeply involved in mediation efforts between Kyiv and Moscow last year, recently told Axios he doesn’t see any chance there will be a deal to end the war in Ukraine anytime soon.
What he's saying: If both sides think time is on their side, a deal won't be possible, Hulata said in his first time speaking about Israeli policy toward the war since leaving the Prime Minister's Office in early January. "It was true in the beginning of the war, and it is still true today."
A bipartisan delegation of Israeli lawmakers met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv this week and called on the Israeli government to change its policy and provide Ukraine with military assistance.
Why it matters: It was the first time that Israeli lawmakers from both sides of the aisle issued a statement calling on the government to approve the sale of defensive military systems to Ukraine.
At least 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others were wounded during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, according to Palestinian health officials.
The big picture: The deadly operation adds to already escalating tensions in the region.
The war in Ukraine has been defined in part by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military's miscalculations on and off the battlefield.
The big picture: A year on, Russia's military appears to have learned some lessons and made tactical adjustments, but those changes don't address bigger problems, indicating the Kremlin doesn't appear to fully understand where and how it went wrong, experts say.
