| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Thursday, April 28, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Russia steps up its assault on east Ukraine, China is still playing whack-a-mole with COVID, and will Musk U-turn on his Twitter buyout? Plus, join a briefing with Reuters editors on the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. | | | | | Today's biggest stories  Smoke rises following a military strike on a facility near the railway station in the frontline city of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Jorge Silva RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AT WAR Russia stepped up its assaults on eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv said, and President Vladimir Putin threatened "lightning-fast" retaliation against any Western countries that intervene on Ukraine's behalf.
More than two months into an invasion that has flattened cities but failed to capture the capital Kyiv, Russia has mounted a push to seize two eastern provinces in a battle the West views as a decisive turning point in the war.
A Ukrainian soldier holed up in a steel works in Mariupol said his forces would fight for as long as needed and he urged world leaders to find a way to save civilians and the hundreds of troops trapped in Russia's "medieval" siege.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said it would be legitimate for Ukrainian forces to target Russian logistics to cripple their supply of food, fuel and munitions but they were unlikely to use British weapons to do so. Tensions between Britain and Russia increased this week when Moscow accused London of provoking Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia.
U.S. ex-Marine Trevor Reed arrived back in the United States after being freed by Russia in a prisoner swap. The exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko was not part of broader diplomatic talks and did not represent an American change in approach on Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
Here's what you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict right now
|  The vote tabulator from Cross Village Township is shown on a video taken by three men who tried to illegally 'clone' it as they searched for evidence of fraud in Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. REUTERS illustration
U.S.
Eighteen months after Donald Trump lost the White House, loyal supporters continue to falsely assert that compromised balloting machines across America robbed him of the 2020 election. To stand up that bogus claim, some Trump die-hards are taking the law into their own hands -- by attempting, with some success, to compromise the voting systems themselves.
Trump has appealed a $10,000-a-day fine and a judge's contempt ruling over his failure to comply with a subpoena for documents in a case about his business practices, his lawyer said.
In a blow to Democrats' chances of maintaining a majority in the U.S. Congress, New York's highest court ruled the state's new congressional map was unconstitutionally designed to favor Democrats and ordered the lines redrawn.
President Joe Biden said American teachers are being unfairly targeted in "the culture wars," and warned against book banning in an event at the White House. Across the United States, more than 1,000 titles, mostly addressing racism and LGBTQ issues, have been removed from school libraries in recent months.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has appealed his conviction and sentence for the murder of George Floyd, arguing that the judge in his case abused his discretion and made multiple errors during the trial. An inquiry prompted by Floyd's murder found a pattern of unlawful, "discriminatory policing" in Minneapolis and little accountability for offenders, a state report said.
WORLD
Beijing closed some public spaces and stepped up checks at others, as most of the Chinese capital's 22 million residents turned up for more mass COVID-19 testing aimed at averting a Shanghai-like lockdown.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Saudi Arabia today, marking the culmination of a months-long effort to repair ties with Riyadh that included Ankara dropping a legal case on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.
India's northwestern Rajasthan state scheduled four hours of power cuts for factories, making it at least the third state to disrupt industrial activity to manage surging power demand amid an intense heat wave.
Many schools in Colombo were shut and several train stations deserted as teachers and train drivers joined mass walkouts demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government quit over Sri Lanka's worst financial crisis in decades.
Nigeria's Senate passed a bill imposing jail terms of at least 15 years for paying a ransom to free someone who has been kidnapped, and made abduction punishable by death in cases where victims die. Armed gangs operating mostly in northeastern and north-central states have for more than a decade spread terror through kidnappings.
| BUSINESS Investors speculating over whether Elon Musk will complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter sent the social media company's shares to their lowest level since the deal was announced two days ago. It wouldn't be surprising if the deal was called off, say Breakingviews columnists Lauren Silva Laughlin and Gina Chon.
Facebook rebounded from a drop in users early this year and its parent Meta posted a profit ahead of Wall Street targets, defying low investor expectations with a quarterly report that sent shares up 20%.
Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang was released on bail after pleading not guilty to U.S. criminal charges over the meltdown of his New York private investment firm, which left global banks with $10 billion in losses. We look at the rise and fall of Hwang's 'house of cards'.
Barclays has put its $1.25 billion share buyback plan on hold until talks with U.S. regulators over a major trading blunder have been resolved, piling early pressure on the British bank's new Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan. Barclays disclosed on March 28 that it had exceeded a U.S. limit on sales of structured products, triggering a loss and a potential restatement of its 2021 accounts.
Unilever raised prices by over 8% in the first quarter and warned more hikes were on the way as the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream lifted its cost inflation forecast for the second half of the year due to the Ukraine conflict.
| | | REUTERS EDITORS BRIEFING With the U.S. midterm elections a few months away, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown a wrench into foreign policy, energy prices, inflation and the economy. Join a briefing with some of our expert journalists today at 10am EST/3pm BST to hear how the war is impacting U.S. politics. | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  The robots designed to mimic real life Ameca was built to have highly engaging human facial gestures, Pedia_Roid can simulate signs of a medical emergency, and Ai-Da is a hyper-realistic AI ‘robot artist’ | | | | And finally… Young South Koreans dread revival of work dinners  The end of social distancing has revived South Korea's time-honored office ritual of after-work gatherings, but an increasing number of young workers consider it an obsolete tradition. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
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