Russian strikes are now hitting western Ukraine. This as Vladimir Putin says negotiations are being held on a daily basis.
Filling up at the pump is putting a dent in our wallets.
More and more people are signing up to give the gift of life.
A dog is reunited with the first responders who rescued her from a fire last year.
St. Faustina
“O my Lord, inflame my heart with love for You, that my spirit may not grow weary amidst the storms, the sufferings and the trials.”
Most Reverend Robert J. Brennan’s Homily from Friday’s Mass on 3/11/22
Currents News Staff
Russian forces are expanding their offensive in Ukraine to the west for the first time.
Meanwhile, Pres. Biden announced the US, along with the G7 and European Union, will move to suspend normal trade relations with Russia.
Currents News Staff
Commuters are continuing to pay more at the pump to fill up their tanks as gas prices continue to rise.
One gas station in California was charging $7.35 per gallon for regular unleaded.
While prices at most stations have not jumped that high, commuters across the country are feeling the stress.
Currents News Staff
We’re learning more about that boat carrying hundreds of Haitian migrants to Florida over the weekend.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection now says it was not a case of human smuggling.
They determined this by examining the type of boat used, an old wooden boat. Smugglers typically use speedboats or cabin cruisers.
Some of the migrants who tried to swim to shore needed medical assistance.
One person who knows all about the plight of Haitian migrants and the treacherous journeys many of them take to get to the U.S. is Vanessa Joseph.
She’s an immigration attorney at Catholic Legal Services in Miami and joins Currents News.
There’s outrage after the Russian attack on a Ukrainian maternity hospital that killed three people including a child.
Students at St. Mark’s Catholic Academy in Sheepshead Bay are thinking of their peers in Ukraine.
Eighth graders at St. Joseph The Worker Catholic Academy are showing off their robotics skills.
Currents News Staff
The latest round of talks between Russia and Ukraine ended without progress Thursday.
The meeting held in Turkey failed to establish a 24-hour ceasefire or humanitarian corridor for civilians.
These talks happened at the same time U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met with Polish officials in Warsaw to assure America’s commitment to its NATO allies, and as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive bill that includes billions in aid to Ukraine.
Currents News Staff
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Just a day after a U.S. House commission’s hearing on holding Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for “war crimes and aggression against Ukraine,” his military forces carried out an airstrike on a maternity hospital in Mariupol in the East European country.
The March 9 attack, which left three people dead, including a child, and injured 17 others brought condemnation from around the world. AP reported those injured included “women waiting to give birth, doctors and children buried in the rubble.”
“You will definitely be prosecuted for complicity in war crimes,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address directed at Putin. “And then, it will definitely happen, you will be hated by Russian citizens — everyone whom you have been deceiving constantly, daily, for many years in a row, when they feel the consequences of your lies in their wallets, in their shrinking possibilities, in the stolen future of Russian children.”
In Washington, U.S. Rep Chris Smith, R-N.J., as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, presided over the March 8 hearing, the first in the House of Representatives over holding the Russian leader accountable for his invasion of Ukraine that began Feb. 24.
“We are here to recommit to assisting Ukraine during its darkest hour and to honor those who are sacrificing their lives defending their beloved country from an unprovoked, barbaric invasion by Putin and the Russian Federation,” Smith said in opening the hearing. “We are also here to hold Putin and Russian officials to account.”
He added that those gathered for the hearing joined “the free world in honoring the extraordinary courage and tenacious leadership” of Ukraine’s president.
What is happening to Ukraine is “the largest and most lethal attack in Europe since World War II, and the world has been shocked by the massive death and destruction unleashed by Putin,” Smith said.
He compares Putin’s action’s to Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, which began World War II.
“President Putin — and others responsible for this ongoing and ever-expanding mass murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity — must be held to account and prosecuted for their crimes,” the Catholic congressman added.
“The time to act for justice and accountability is now,” Smith said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Smith has introduced a House resolution supporting the “investigation and prosecution of the crime of aggression and other international crimes committed by officials of the government of the Russian Federation against the government and people of Ukraine.”
The resolution also calls on President Joe Biden to direct the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations “to use the voice, vote and influence of the United States to immediately promote the establishment of an appropriate regional or international justice mechanism to investigate and prosecute possible international crimes” stemming from the invasion.
It also urges Biden to convene “the world’s democracies for the purposes of establishing such an international justice mechanism” as soon as possible.
Among the witnesses testifying at the hearing was David Kramer, managing director of global policy for the George W. Bush Institute and former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.
Echoing Smith, he called the current situation in Ukraine the “gravest crisis in Europe since WWII” and emphasized the importance of swift and united actions by the international community.
“The refrain ‘never again’ emerged in the wake of the Holocaust, and Ukrainians are wondering whether that pledge applies to them,” said Kramer.
Among other witnesses were David Crane, founding chief prosecutor for the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone, and Jane Stromseth, the former deputy to the U.S. State Department’s ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice.
Crane spoke of the need for global “leadership” to “bring the world together” and called for “a tribunal that has an appropriate mandate.”
“Strongmen around the world are watching, like crocodiles, as to what we do about the international crimes committed by the Russian invasion of the Ukraine,” said Crane.
“Let’s go and put some bad guys in jail, shall we?” he said.
Stromseth said that “international law is on our side … the question now is how the international community will respond.”
She added that “failure to stand up to those who order and commit such crimes will only embolden their sense of impunity” and emphasized “a strategy of mutually reinforcing accountability — that is, accountability through multiple complementary mechanisms grounded in the fundamental principles of international law.”
Whichever mechanism proves to be most effective at holding Putin accountable, Smith said “we’ll find a way to get it done.”
“Failure to do so would be gross negligence,” said Smith.
By Jessica Easthope
At St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy it’s robots to the rescue, on a mission to solve a problem that affects more than 64 percent of Americans – package theft.
“The average person always experiences some kind of difficulty and package theft is one of those difficulties we could solve with our technology,” said eighth grader Edmon Saleeb.
The school’s eighth grade robotics team is on its way to the First Lego League Challenge city championship. The theme of the competition is cargo connect – they were asked to find a problem and then build and program a robot that could solve it.
The team didn’t have to look farther than their front doors.
“I knew it was like a global thing happening and since I’ve experienced it personally I guess I wanted to get really into it,” said team member Kellianne Wilson.
In 2021 a survey by SafeWise found that 210 million packages vanished from porches all across the country, but the team’s solution – is air tight. They came up with a QR code scanner that would allow delivery people into a mailbox or locker outside of a home instead of having to go in.
Robotics coach and technology teacher Lisa Nitzsche says the team is letting faith and technology lead the way.
“It really ties in with caring for others and thinking of others,” she said.
And this team is the total package.
“For Edmon he’s able to calculate how many degrees the robot should go and I mostly do the writing,” said Kellianne.
They’re preparing for the competition and for life after elementary school.
“A lot of the robotics skills they’re learning, the teamwork, the problem solving, using different technologies, doing the research is preparing them for further from here,” said Lisa.
The team will be competing against 75 other teams in the citywide championship on March 13.