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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus' Foreign Ministry on Tuesday expressed regret over sanctions that the United States reimposed on nine state-owned companies in the ex-Soviet country, citing human rights violations. Belarus has become a target of Western sanctions after authoritarian…

The Biden administration is taking steps to protect the country’s electric system from cyberattacks through a new 100-day initiative combining federal government agencies and private industry. The initiative was announced Tuesday by the Energy Department. It encourages owners and operators of power plants and electric utilities to bolster their capabilities for identifying cyber threats to their networks. It includes concrete milestones for them to put into use technologies so they can spot and respond to intrusions in real time. The effort underscores the heightened concern about the prospects for cyberattacks that disrupt the nation’s power supply. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says it's up to government and industry “to prevent possible harms.”

Facebook is stepping up the enforcement of its rules ahead of the verdict in former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in George Floyd’s death. The social media giant is stepping up its content-moderation efforts. It says it wants to protect peaceful protests and limit content that could lead to civil unrest or violence. Steps it’s taking include identifying and removing calls to bring arms to areas in Minneapolis, which it has temporarily deemed to be a high-risk location and removing material that “praises, celebrates or mocks George Floyd’s death.”

Grammy Award nominated rock & soul duo Black Pumas and Cleveland’s own Machine Gun Kelly will perform at next week’s NFL draft. The league announced its musical acts for the second and third days of the draft, which is back on the road after being all virtual last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A massive stage has been constructed near FirstEnergy Stadium and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to host the three-day event from April 29 to May 1. Black Pumas will perform after the third round is completed on April 30. Machine Gun Kelly will close the festivities the following day.

A top North Carolina GOP lawmaker will not advance a proposal seeking to limit medical treatments for transgender people under 21. The measure put forward by three Republicans earlier this month would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to minors and young adults. State employees would have been required to tell parents if their child expressed desire to be treated in a way that is incompatible with the gender they were assigned at birth. LGBTQ advocates are glad the bill will not go forward but worry about the harm it has already done.

Elizabeth Furse, who represented northwestern Oregon in Congress for three terms in the 1990s, has died. Her husband John Platt says she suffered from complications after she fell. Furse was 84 and died on Sunday. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Furse championed Native American rights and helped five Oregon tribes regain federal recognition. She also worked to advance the rights of women, children and farm workers and advocated for peace and nuclear disarmament. The Democrat was elected in 1992 to the U.S. House representing Oregon’s 1st District without ever having held elected office. She was later the founding director of Portland State University’s Institute for Tribal Government. 

The former top distiller at Jack Daniel’s is opening a new distillery near the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Former Jack Daniel’s master distiller Jeff Arnett and several partners on Tuesday announced the plan to open Company Distilling in Tennessee. Later this year, they will open a 4,000-square-foot tasting room and restaurant in Townsend. A 20,000-square-foot main distillery in Alcoa and a tasting room in Thompson Station, closer to Nashville, will follow next year. The distillery will make straight bourbon whiskey finished with maple wood. Arnett left Jack Daniel's late last year after a nearly 20-year stint with the powerhouse whiskey maker. 

The U.S. government plans to build a new transmission line and make other upgrades to ensure its northern New Mexico nuclear weapons laboratory has enough electricity for current and future missions. Officials say one of the existing lines feeding Los Alamos National Laboratory is expected to reach capacity this summer. The other will likely hit its limit in coming years as the lab ramps up production of key components for the nation's nuclear arsenal. The U.S. Energy Department says it will work with federal land managers to assess the project's potential environmental effects. They're asking the public to weigh in on the scope of the planned review.

The owner of the Daily Mail website is suing Google, saying the tech company’s dominance in online advertising has harmed its business. The suit, filed Monday in federal court in New York, says Google punishes publishers’ search results if they don’t sell enough ad space through Google. Federal and state antitrust authorities have sued Google. The Justice Department alleges that Google abuses its dominance in online search and advertising. A West Virginia newspaper company, HD Media, also sued Google and Facebook in January. Google said the Daily Mail's claims are inaccurate and it will defend itself against them.

Big jumps in sales of prescription drugs and medical devices helped Johnson & Johnson boost first-quarter profit nearly 7%, blowing past Wall Street forecasts. The health care giant on Tuesday raised and narrowed its 2021 financial forecasts. It reported a small drop in consumer health sales versus 2020’s first quarter, when consumers stocked up on over-the-counter medicines as the coronavirus pandemic set in and lockdowns began. Meanwhile, European safety monitors said their review of a handful of blood clots in people receiving J&J's vaccine found it's a very rare risk that's outweighed by the vaccine's benefits. The US review of the clots continues.