Today we'll be discussing some of the biggest stories, including updates from the supreme court and North Korea's covid aliens, but first let's talk about Russia retreating from snake island.

Yesterday, Russia retreated from the strategically important snake island, an island in the west of the Black Sea which was captured by Russia in the early days of the invasion of Ukraine. Now snake island is actually a very dangerous place to be and surprisingly not because of dangerous snakes. The island is actually vulnerable to attack by land sea and air and as such is very risky to maintain, in fact the troops garrisoned there have literally been described by military experts as sitting ducks. So if the island is small and hard to defend, then why are Russia so keen to take it early on in the war and defend it for so long? Well ultimately the island is just very strategically important as Russia controls Crimea and a large stretch of the Black Sea controlling snake island as well allows them to effectively blockade a number of port towns most notably Odessa which severely limits Ukraine's exports. Clearly these advantages weren't enough in the end though, although Russia claims that their embarrassing defeat on snake island was merely a gesture of goodwill.

Next let's move to the US where the supreme court have had a busy couple of days issuing some major rulings and swearing in Kitanji Brown Jackson before ultimately going on to recess. Before they left, though, in a major 6-3 ruling yesterday, the court significantly curbed the ability of the environmental protection agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. And unfortunately for Biden, this complicates his plans to tackle climate change and puts more pressure on congress to actually pass climate legislation. However, stalled negotiations on congressional climate action among democrats, particularly with West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, mean that there's no clear end in sight when it comes to climate action. However, there was another ruling which was a win for Biden, that's because the court ruled that the White House can end the trump era remain in Mexico policy that required people seeking asylum on the US's southern border to stay in Mexico while their claim was being decided. Biden's been trying to end this policy since he first came into office, so he'll be pleased that the supreme court were on his side with this one.

Next up, North Korea has today claimed that covet entered their country via alien things near the border. Okay no it's not the kind of aliens you're imagining they meant objects such as balloons coming over to the north from South Korea, something that does actually happen quite a lot. Basically, those in the south try to fly humanitarian aid and leaflets over the border in order to try and help and inform those in the north. Obviously, this is something that the North Korean leadership isn't happy about, and it's likely they've created this fiction about the balloons carrying COVID to try and discourage citizens from approaching anything that comes over the border. Specifically, North Korean authorities have urged citizens to report any strange objects that have come from the south so that an anti-epidemic team can properly dispose of it.

Moving to Europe just two days after agreeing to support Sweden and Finland's application to NATO, Turkey's president has seemingly ridden back this support. Talking at the close of the NATO summit in Spain, Erdoğan stressed that turkey could still block their recession if the two countries go back on their commitments and this is a big risk because for Sweden and Finland to join NATO all 30 member states must approve their recession. Something that Erdoğan is making clear isn't a given, noting that if the two do not fulfill their duties, then of course there is no way we would send it to our parliament. Turkey initially blocked the two countries applications on the grounds that they were in Turkey's eyes supporting kurdish groups that it considers to be terrorist organizations, most notably the Kurdistan workers party known as the PKK. Sweden and Finland subsequently agreed to address turkey's concerns and review turkey's demands for extradition, but it seems that even this might not have been enough to convince Erdoğan.

Finally, from today same-sex couples in Switzerland are legally allowed to get married that comes after Swiss voters approved the marriage for all amendment in the country's civil code back in September of last year, but the law didn't actually come into force until today. Previously gay and lesbian couples could enter into registered partnerships, but these didn't confer the same rights as marriage such as joint adoption of children or obtaining citizenship, with the law now in effect Switzerland joins most other western European countries in allowing same-sex marriage will be a little later than many others. Of the major western European countries, only Italy still doesn't allow it, though civil unions are available in the country.