Attacks kill

4 in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say a Russian drone attack on Odesa has killed two women and a toddler. The attack heavily damaged an apartment block, with rescuers pulling four people from the rubble. Eleven people were hospitalized, including a pregnant woman and two children.

Russia has targeted civilian areas in Ukraine since its invasion over four years ago, killing more than 15,000 people, says the United Nations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for partner countries to provide more air defenses.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones have targeted Russian oil facilities. Russia’s Defense Ministry claims air defenses downed 50 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Guthrie back

on ‘Today’

NEW YORK (AP) — Savannah Guthrie has returned to NBC’s “Today” show anchor desk for the first time since her mother’s disappearance more than two months ago. Guthrie said “it is good to be home.” Guthrie has acknowledged being a changed person a little over a week ago.

She also says it’s hard to go forward not knowing what happened to her mother. There has been no sign of the 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie since she was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1. Authorities continue to believe she was abducted in the middle of the night.

But they have not released any new evidence in weeks.

US stocks

drift higher

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market drifted higher in tentative trading ahead of a deadline President Donald Trump has set to bomb Iranian power plants. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Like stock indexes, oil prices seesawed through the day amid continued uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran and how long it will slow the global flow of crude oil.

Bannon wins

Court order

WASHINGTON (AP) — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon has won a Supreme Court order that’s expected to lead to the dismissal of his criminal conviction for refusing to testify to Congress. Prodded by President Donald Trump’s administration, the justices on Monday threw out an appellate ruling upholding Bannon’s conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol attack.

The move frees a trial judge to act on the Republican administration’s pending request to dismiss Bannon’s conviction and indictment “in the interests of justice.”

The dismissal would be largely symbolic. Bannon served a four-month prison term after a jury convicted him of contempt of Congress in 2022.