2022年4月14日星期四

Thursday Briefing: Ukraine says its missiles struck Russian flagship

Thursday, April 14, 2022

by Rossalyn Warren

Hello

Here's what you need to know.

Ukraine says its missiles struck Russian flagship, Britain to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, and satellite images show widespread torching of villages in the central part of Myanmar.

Today's biggest stories

A sailor looks at the Russian missile cruiser Moskva moored in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Ukraine 10, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AT WAR

The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet was seriously damaged and its crew evacuated today, following an explosion on board that Ukraine said was caused by a missile strike. The loss of the missile cruiser would be a blow for Russia, as it readies for a new assault in the eastern Donbas region that is likely to define the outcome of the conflict.

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies warned NATO that if Sweden and Finland joined the U.S.-led military alliance, then Russia would have to bolster its defences in the region, including by deploying nuclear weapons.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine, expanding the scope of the systems provided to include heavy artillery ahead of a wider Russian assault expected in eastern Ukraine.

And Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas says Russia already has nuclear weapons in the Baltic region. Anusauskas said that nuclear weapons have been deployed in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea since before the current crisis.

Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now

Young boys play the game "Honour of Kings" by Tencent, during an event inside a shopping mall in Handan, Hebei province, China August 5, 2018. Picture taken August 5, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

BUSINESS

Russian companies and global banks including BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and JPMorgan could profit if Moscow moves to de-list Russian companies' depositary receipts from foreign exchanges, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's largest social and gaming firm, said it will shut down a service that allowed Chinese gamers to access overseas platforms to play unapproved foreign games, in a sign of tightening compliance as Chinese regulators more closely scrutinize the industry.

BlackRock has projected that by 2030 at least three quarters of its investments in companies and governments will be tied to issuers with a scientific target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, up from 25% currently.

Singapore and South Korea both tightened monetary policy earlier today, hot on the heels of rate hikes in Canada and New Zealand, as global policymakers moved quickly to prevent soaring inflation from derailing a fragile world economic recovery.

And a Reuters poll has shown China's economic growth is likely to slow to 5.0% in 2022 amid renewed COVID outbreaks and a weakening global recovery, raising pressure on the central bank to ease policy further.

President Cyril Ramaphosa meets with people who lost family members during flooding in Clermont, Durban, South Africa, April 13, 2022. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

WORLD

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda to be processed. Britain's interior minister Priti Patel has traveled to Rwanda, where she will give details of the plan to set up a holding center.

Dozens of satellite images, reviewed by Reuters, show widespread torching of villages in the central part of Myanmar. The photos, largely confirming the local media reports, are among the strongest evidence to date that the military is using widespread arson to step up its assault on resistance in the central Sagaing region, where residents have told Reuters there is armed opposition to the junta.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to help the victims of devastating east coast floods, as the death toll rose to 306 from heavy rains that washed out roads and disrupted shipping in one of Africa's busiest ports.

During a massacre that lasted four days, Mali massacre survivors say that while most of the soldiers who killed civilians were Malian, there were also white mercenaries involved in killings, who they say 'spoke Russian.' The white men were the first to get out of the helicopters and open fire on fleeing residents, four onlookers said.

Spanish authorities took down 'Europe's biggest' cannabis farm, destroying 415,000 hemp plants worth up to 100 million euros ($108 million). While the sale and consumption of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound, is legal across Spain and most of Europe, Spanish law still prohibits the cultivation of cannabis plants for anything other than industrial uses.


U.S.

The man suspected of setting off smoke bombs and shooting people inside a New York City subway car, injuring 23 people, was arrested on Wednesday. He alerted police to his general whereabouts himself, in a call he placed to a tip line from a McDonald's fast-food outlet.

U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the release of new records from Donald Trump's presidency to the congressional committee probing last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a government letter.

Kentucky has effectively suspended legal abortion access, as the legislature enacted a sweeping anti-abortion law that took effect right away. The impact of the law makes Kentucky the first U.S. state without legal abortion access since the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established the right to end a pregnancy before the fetus is viable.

The Justice Department has settled claims in four civil lawsuits brought by Black Lives Matter demonstrators who said their rights were violated after they were violently cleared from a park near the White House in June 2020.

And the actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of forcibly touching a woman at a New York nightclub in 2018, as part of an agreement with prosecutors that spares the Oscar-winning actor any immediate jail time.

Quote of the day

"This calendar system has lasted for at least 2,200 years, maintained by the Maya during times of incredible change, stress and tragedy."

David Stuart

University of Texas professor

Earliest evidence of Maya calendar found inside Guatemalan pyramid

Video of the day

Explainer: Key policy differences between Macron and Le Pen

The French will decide on April 24 whether to re-elect pro-business centrist President Emmanuel Macron or blow up decades of mainstream consensus in favor of far-right Marine Le Pen. Here's what to expect from them on major issues.

And finally…

Ugandan filmmaker eyes new Africa narrative after Disney animation deal

REUTERS/ Abubaker Lubowa

Ugandan film producer Raymond Malinga, whose work will feature in an upcoming Disney anthology of animated films from across Africa, hopes the project will bring African animation to the world.

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