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 The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 is no longer a "global health emergency." The announcement comes more than three years after the WHO designated COVID-19 as a pandemic. More: - WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said COVID-19 caused seven million confirmed deaths but noted that the real death toll is "likely" closer to 20 million.
- One in six COVID deaths occurred in the U.S.
- The global death rate for the virus peaked at ~100,000 deaths per week in January 2021.
- Last week, just over 3,500 people died of COVID-19.
- Tedros said COVID-19 is still a threat and warned that WHO could declare another emergency if the death toll rises.
- He said that "a lack of coordination, a lack of equity, and lack of solidarity" hampered the global response to COVID-19 and that lessons learned from the pandemic should inform preparations for future global health crises.
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What the numbers say: The Labor Department reported that the U.S. added 253,000 nonfarm jobs in April, far above the Dow Jones estimate of 180,000. The unemployment rate fell to a 53-year-low of 3.4%, from 3.5% in March. Relevance: Nick Bunker, head of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab, said the three-month moving average for job growth is now 222,000, less than half of what it was a year ago. Still, the moderation in employment growth coupled with a drop in consumer spending could signal that the U.S. is headed for a recession. Why it matters: The figures make another interest rate hike more likely. A strong job market would indicate that the Federal Reserve is failing to cool down the U.S. economy following a campaign of interest rate increases that began in March 2022.
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 Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner mercenary group fighting alongside Russian soldiers in Ukraine, threatened to withdraw his troops from the siege of Bakhmut next week. Prigozhin said the Russian military failed to provide ammunition to Wagner troops, causing heavy losses among his men. More: - Russian forces have been trying to take Bakhmut for more than eight months.
- The protracted fight for the eastern Ukrainian city is believed to have cost both sides thousands of lives.
- A spokesperson posted a video of Prigozhin angrily asking Russian military leaders for ammunition.
- Prigozhin accused "jealous military bureaucrats" of denying his troops ammunition.
- Western military analysts believe that Russia is running low on ammunition as the 14-month-old war drags on.
- Prigozhin, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has frequently criticized Russian generals and military command.
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 GOOD NEWS: The Brooklyn Public Library's (BPL) Books Unbanned initiative offers access to books that have been banned in U.S. schools. According to the American Library Association (ALA), there were 1,269 documented attempts to censor library books and other resources in 2022, a 20-year record. More:
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The GOP-controlled North Carolina legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban. Democratic Governor Roy Cooper plans to veto the bill, but the Republican supermajority in the state's legislature would likely override his veto. More: - Under the proposed legislation, North Carolina would only allow abortions after the first trimester if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest.
- The bill would restrict access to the abortion pill by mandating that a doctor be present when it is administered.
- It would also require those seeking a medical abortion to have an in-person consultation with a doctor within 72 hours before the procedure.
- Since the end of Roe v. Wade, women have traveled from GOP-run states with abortion bans to North Carolina to end their pregnancies. Currently, the state allows abortions until the 20th week of pregnancy.
- According to the Guttmacher Institute, near-total abortion bans have been instituted in 14 states since Roe v. Wade was overturned last June.
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 In its case with the Securities and Exchange Commission, crypto exchange Coinbase is arguing that regulators implicitly approved its business model by allowing the company to go public. Coinbase had to pass a six-month review before its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in April 2021. More: - The SEC is preparing an enforcement action against Coinbase, which will largely be based on the assertion that Coinbase was selling unlicensed securities to consumers.
- Coinbase first received an investigative subpoena from the SEC in December 2020, while the six-month review was taking place.
- Coinbase's lawyers claim the SEC would have rejected the IPO if it believed that "Coinbase's core businesses violated securities law."
- Coinbase's pre-IPO review focused on risk disclosures and did not constitute an implicit approval of the company's business model, securities lawyers told the Wall Street Journal.
Zoom Out: - Coinbase went public at a valuation of $85B but following a crypto slump last year, the company is now worth ~$12B.
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- Former U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn pleaded guilty to bringing a loaded handgun through a TSA airport checkpoint in Charlotte, North Carolina. The April 2022 incident was the second time that U.S. airport authorities prevented Cawthorn from crossing a checkpoint with a firearm.
- The U.N. food agency's world price index for food rose in April for the first time in a year.
- A Ukrainian diplomat posted a video of himself punching a Russian colleague during a meeting of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation assembly.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission awarded a record $279M to a whistleblower. The SEC did not identify the whistleblower.
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 |  | Dr. Daniel Smith is an Inside writer with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow him on Twitter @DJS12321 or email him at Daniel@inside.com. | | | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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