Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including Russia said it wants to seize all Ukrainian territories on the Black Sea; Philadelphia dropped its indoor mask mandate just three days after reinstating it; Wall Street recorded a fourth straight week of losses, and more.

National

Stock market sees fourth straight week of losses, as Fed and earnings disappoint

A series of gains early in the week for Wall Street were wiped out on Friday, one of the worst days of the month, as the Federal Reserve’s focus on inflation has investors dismayed.

A currency trader holds his head at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Biden marks Earth Day with executive order to protect old-growth trees

As wildfires risk the future of maturing forests, President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday, coinciding with Earth Day, to inventory the number of old-growth trees in the U.S.

A dead 450-year-old oak lies in Bialowieza National Park, Poland, one of Europe’s last remaining and best-maintained old-growth forests. (Photo by Konrad Kurzacz Pimke via Wikipedia)

Sandy Hook families skeptical of Infowars’ bankruptcy filing

The families who won a defamation judgment against radio host Alex Jones told a bankruptcy judge Friday that they intend to bring an emergency challenge against the petitions for bankruptcy protection filed by Jones’ companies.

Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones rallies pro-Trump supporters outside the Maricopa County’s Office on Nov. 5, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Matt York/AP)

Regional

Honduran ex-president presented in Manhattan court for two decades of narco-bribery

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández faced a U.S. court for the first time on Friday, presented in front of a federal judge in New York City one day after his arrest and extradition here to face federal drug trafficking charges.

Several dozen Hondurans gathered outside of the Manhattan federal courthouse on April 22, 2022, in support of the arrest and extradition of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who allegedly took cartel bribes while the county became a violent narco-state. (Josh Russell/Courthouse News Service)

Masks off: Philadelphia doubles back on mandate

Just three days into a reinstated mask mandate, Philadelphia is shelving the rules on the basis that serious Covid-19 infections are already lower than where they were a week ago.

A sign requiring masks as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus on a store front in Philadelphia, is seen Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

International

Russia says it wants all of southern Ukraine, war rages in east

After nearly two months of bloodshed and destruction, the war in Ukraine saw further escalation Friday as Russia said it wanted to seize Ukrainian territories on the Black Sea to connect Crimea with Russian-speaking parts of Moldova.

Firefighters work inside a building destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Parliament launches misconduct inquiry into Boris Johnson

The fragile position of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been further weakened after Parliament overcame the Conservative government’s large legislative majority to force what is now the third inquiry into pandemic restriction rule-breaking in the heart of government.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves as he boards a plane for a visit to India on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (Ben Stansall/Pool Photo via AP)

New EU climate change report warns of increased greenhouse gases and record temperatures

It was a wild weather year for Europe in 2021, and if the continued spike in greenhouse gas emissions is any indication, there will be more wild weather on the way.

Infographic on the summer 2021 weather in the European Union. (Copernicus Climate Change Service via Courthouse News)

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