Judy Woodruff:
U.S. and South Korean warplanes also conducted joint military drills today off South Korea's west coast as a show of strength.
Ukrainian military forces built on their current momentum in Southern Ukraine today. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that they'd liberated dozens of settlements this week alone, in spite of Russia's efforts to annex the area. Meanwhile, Russia's upper house rubber-stamped a plan to annex four Ukrainian regions. And Ukraine's President Zelenskyy signed a decree that formally rules out any direct talks with Russia on account of the illegal annexation.
In Indonesia, an investigation into a deadly stampede after a soccer match found that delays in unlocking stadium gates contributed to the chaos. At least 131 people died in the crush on Saturday after police fired tear gas, hoping to control rioting fans. Hundreds panicked and tried to escape through narrow exits that could only fit two people at a time.
Back in this country, a Michigan judge dismissed criminal charges against seven former state government officials linked to the Flint water crisis. They include two former health officials blamed for nine deaths from Legionnaires' disease. The ruling comes three months after the Michigan state Supreme Court said that a one-judge grand jury had no authority to issue the indictments.
Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who is a staunch abortion rights opponent, has denied a report that he paid for a girlfriend's abortion in 2009. The Daily Beast Web site published the story after the woman provided a payment receipt for the procedure and a get-well card from Walker. He called the accusation a — quote — "flat-out lie."
This year's Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to a trio of scientists for their pioneering work in quantum information science. The recipients include American John Clauser, Alain Aspect of France, and Austrian Anton Zeilinger.
Clauser said the news took him by surprise.
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