Monday, April 18

• District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle overturned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mask mandate on public transportation. The mandate covered airplanes, trains, taxis, ride-share vehicles and transit hubs.
• Sung Kim, the United States’ special envoy for North Korea, said that the U.S. and South Korea agree on the need for “a strong response” to North Korea’s recent series of missile tests, but said “the door on diplomacy” is not yet closed.
• A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, announced that the U.S. plans to begin training Ukrainians on how to operate howitzer artillery systems. The official said training began Wednesday.

Tuesday, April 19

• An anonymous senior defense official, speaking to the Washington Post, announced that seven planes carrying U.S. weapons for Ukraine headed to Europe as part of an $800 million weapons package that the White House authorized the previous week. CNN Politics reported on how the U.S. has few ways to track these weapons and that, per current U.S. officials and defense analysts, some of these weapons may, in the long run, wind up in the hands of other militaries and militias that the U.S. did not intend to arm.
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with a delegation of U.S. officials including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, traveled to Panama City, Panama, for a two-day conference discussing “ongoing efforts to improve bilateral and regional cooperation on irregular migration and forced displacement,” according to the State Department. The conference included foreign ministers from more than 20 nations. Blinken also met with Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen and Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes.
• The administration of President Joe Biden restored federal regulations that require rigorous long-term environmental review of large infrastructure projects like highways, pipelines and oil wells, which were scaled back by the administration of former President Donald Trump in an effort to fast-track projects and create jobs. “Restoring these basic community safeguards will provide regulatory certainty, reduce conflict and help ensure that projects get built right the first time,” said Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory.

Wednesday, April 20

· Anthony Coley, the Justice Department's director of public affairs, announced that the Justice Department will appeal a ruling that ended the government order requiring travelers to wear masks on public transit, saying the mask mandate for travel “remains necessary to protect the public health.”

• A United Kingdom court formally issued an order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S. to face spying charges for publishing classified information.
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Chinese counterpart, General Wei Fenge, for the first time. “Secretary Austin and General Wei discussed U.S.-PRC [People’s Republic of China] defense relations, regional security issues, and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. A later press release from the Chinese government said, “China has always advocated peace and opposed war.”
• The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian people and entities, including the Russian commercial bank Transkapitalbank and the virtual currency mining company BitRiver, hoping to target Russia's evasion of existing sanctions. “Treasury can and will target those who evade, attempt to evade, or aid the evasion of U.S. sanctions against Russia, as they are helping support Putin’s brutal war of choice,” said the Treasury’s under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Brian Nelson.
• Top finance officials from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. walked out of a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies, or G20, in protest of Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine. The officials left while Russian delegates were speaking. White House press secretary Jen Psaki described the walkout as “an indication of the fact that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Russia have become a pariah on the global stage.”
• Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) met with Pakistani leaders including President Arif Alvi in the first visit by a member of Congress since a new coalition government came into power after the removal of former premier Imran Khan.

Thursday, April 21

• The Department of Homeland Security extended a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for non-U.S. citizens crossing land or ferry terminals at the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada.
• Biden announced another $800 million package for new military aid to Ukraine to “accelerate” assistance to the country in response to the new phase of Russia’s invasion focused on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. The package includes heavy artillery weapons and tactical drones. Biden said the U.S. will provide a further $500 million in direct economic assistance to the Ukrainian government and impose a ban on Russian ships in U.S. ports.
• The Department of Homeland Security announced a “new streamlined process” that it says will make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to be resettled in the U.S. The process allows Ukrainians to apply for “humanitarian parole,” which does not provide a pathway to residency or citizenship, but allows people to stay and work in the U.S. for two years.
• In an eight-to-one decision with Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the minority, the Supreme Court ruled that people living in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico are not entitled to the same federal welfare benefits provided to citizens living in the country’s 50 states. The ruling goes against a Puerto Rico resident who argued that not receiving the benefits for low-income elderly and disabled Americans known as Supplemental Security Income violated his constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
• The Justice Department charged former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez with drug and weapons offenses, accusing Henandez, who was later extradited to the U.S., of abusing his power to run Honduras like a “narco-state,” according to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Henandez then made his first U.S. court appearance on Friday.
• Human Rights First released a report showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has imprisoned tens of thousands of asylum seekers in violation of U.S. and international law, a practice that the rights group calls “inhumane, unnecessary, and wasteful.”

Friday, April 22

• In celebration of Earth Day, Biden signed an executive order to strengthen the protection of the country’s old-growth forests. The order creates the first inventory of old-growth forests on federal lands and calls for expanding reforestation efforts and forging partnerships to grow forests outside of U.S. government-owned lands.
• Newly released testimony obtained by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol revealed that Trump White House officials and members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus strategized via phone call about a plan to direct thousands of angry marchers to the Capitol building. The planning phone call included Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff; Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer; and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
• Russia issued a new round of retaliatory sanctions against western powers, most notably a travel ban on Vice President Kamala Harris and several Biden administration officials. The list altogether includes 29 Americans and 61 Canadians.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) testified in a challenge from state voters trying to block her from seeking re-election for her role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. She said still believes Trump won the 2020 presidential election, but that she does not advocate violence.
• Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called on the U.S. to fully comply with bilateral agreements between the two countries on migration and to stop “violating the rights of Cubans to travel” in the region. “Cuba reiterates that the U.S. should cease hindering and violating the rights of Cubans to travel to third countries of the region and calls for comprehensive and non-selective compliance with the bilateral migration accords,” Rodriguez said.

Saturday, April 23

• Former Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah conservative who was the longest-serving Republican and the sixth longest-serving senator in the history of the Senate, died at 88 due to complications from a stroke.

Sunday, April 24

• Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin visited Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the first visit to Ukraine by U.S. officials since the war with Russia began on Feb. 24. Blinken and Austin pledged new assistance worth $713 million for Zelenskyy’s government and other countries in the region. “We want to see Ukraine remain a sovereign country, a democratic country, able to protect its sovereign territory,” Austin said.

· Biden accepted an invitation to visit Israel from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, although neither side gave a date for the trip. The two leaders spoke so Bennett could brief Biden on ways “to stop the violence and incitement in Jerusalem” that have occurred during the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.