The E.U. proposed a total embargo.
Good morning. We’re covering the E.U.’s plan to ban Russian oil, growing U.S. frustration with the politicized Supreme Court and a separatist movement in Pakistan. With no end to the Ukraine conflict in sight, the European Union took a major step on Wednesday toward weakening Moscow’s ability to finance the war, proposing a total embargo on Russian oil. If approved this week as expected, it would be the bloc’s biggest and costliest step yet toward supporting Ukraine and ending its own dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The measure could fly in the face of Russia’s Victory Day holiday on May 9, a grandiose celebration of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany. Western officials fear that President Vladimir Putin could use the event to whip up Russian support for expanding the scope of the conflict. The British defense secretary suggested that Putin might recast what he has thus far called a “special military operation” into an all-out war, calling for a mass mobilization of the Russian people. Here are live updates. In other energy news, the war has shown the fragility of Japan’s resources. But the decision to restart nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster is fraught. State of the war: Other updates: The dust is settling after Politico published a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion that would reverse Roe v. Wade and permit states to ban abortion. Now, Americans are expressing unease that the court has become too political. Polls indicate that its reputation was in decline even before the leak, which was an extraordinary breach of its norms of confidentiality. Over three years of contentious confirmation hearings and disputes, public approval of the court declined 15 percentage points, dropping to the least positive rating in nearly four decades, the Pew Research Center found early this year. “Questions about the court’s legitimacy are more pitched than they ever have been,” one law professor told The Times. Politics: A long-organized triumph for the conservative legal movement appears to be at hand, but the movement’s libertarian and cultural-conservative factions have different priorities.
