News Wrap: OPEC drastically cuts oil production to boost sagging prices

Judy Woodruff:

In the day's other news: OPEC is cutting oil production by two million barrels a day to boost sagging oil prices. The alliance of oil-producing countries made that announcement at a meeting in Vienna. The move will likely cause a spike in gas prices for consumers.

White House officials called the decision shortsighted, especially as the global economy is already reeling from the impact of Russia's war on Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed documents today to annex four regions of Ukraine. This comes as the Russian military is losing its grip on some of the areas Putin is trying to claim as his own. Ukraine reported new advances against Russian forces in Kherson, Kharkiv, and Donetsk.

Elsewhere, residents in Kyiv were angered by the illegal annexation.

Sofia Moroz, Kyiv Resident (through translator):

For me, it's strange. There is sovereignty. There is a country. There is a year when we became independent. There is a state, borders, ministries. I can't understand why people decided to change it like that.

Judy Woodruff:

A Kremlin spokesman insisted that territories that have been recaptured by Ukraine in recent days will be returned to Russian control.

Aid workers and Tigray forces in Ethiopia today confirmed that as many as 65 people were killed in an airstrike in the country's Northern Tigray region. It happened yesterday at a school that was sheltering people displaced by the two-year-long internal conflict. Survivors of the strike fled to the nearby town of Shire about 15 miles from the blast.

A malfunctioning South Korean ballistic missile blew up as it hit the ground today during a live-fire drill with the U.S. The missile crashed inside an air force base near the city of Gangneung, where there were no reports of injuries. The joint military drill was a reprisal for North Korea's nuclear-capable ballistic missile that flew over Japan the previous day.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken call the North's provocations dangerous and reckless.

Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: I think what we're seeing is that, if they continue down this road, it will only increase the condemnation, increase the isolation, increase the steps that are taken in response to their actions.

Judy Woodruff:

Hours later, North Korea launched two more ballistic missiles toward its own east coast. It has now conducted seven test firings in 12 days.

A U.S. federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling against the legality of DACA. That's the Obama era program for young immigrants, but it sent the case back to a lower court to consider new Biden administration rules. For now, the 594,000 existing DACA recipients can still renew their status.

Wall Street closed lower today after its two-day rally lost some steam. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 42 points to close at 30274. The Nasdaq fell 28 points and the S&P 500 slipped seven.

A Russian cosmonaut has launched from the U.S. for the first time in 20 years, this time with the private firms SpaceX. She rocketed to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida, along with two NASA astronauts and another from Japan. They're due to arrive tomorrow and stay for five months.

This year's Nobel Peace — Nobel Prize, that is, in chemistry went to three scientists for developing a way to snap molecules together. The groundbreaking work of Americans Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless and Danish scientist Morten Meldal has been used to design better cancer treatments and to map DNA.

Bertozzi, who is based at Stanford University, described the moment she heard the news.

Carolyn Bertozzi, Nobel Prize Winner:

I was sound asleep, as a person is at 2:00 a.m., usually, and I got jarred awake by the phone. At first, I thought it was some dream or something. But then I kind of — then the adrenaline kicked in. And then it was like, oh, my God.

Judy Woodruff:

Her fellow American prize winner, Barry Sharpless, is now the fifth person to receive a Nobel twice. He also won the chemistry Nobel Prize in 2001.

And the family of the cinematographer who died on the "Rust" film set has agreed to settle their wrongful death lawsuit. Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed by actor Alec Baldwin last October. He insists that it was an accident. The exact terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but Hutchins' husband will take over as executive producer when the film resumes production in January.