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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to the latest edition of the Weekend Briefing. The house recommends the Reuters World News podcast.

A woman walks past a Signature Bank location in Brooklyn, March 20, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Everybody's fault but mine

Memos will be written: The Fed and the FDIC issued reports on what went wrong and where supervisors blew it in the run-up to the two biggest bank failures in years. They promised tougher oversight and both stopped short of naming senior leaders. Breakingviews columnist John Foley's take: "Culture in an institution goes right to the top. Accountability, in this case, does not."
Bodies will be wanted: Staffing shortages strained supervisory resources in the years before SVB and Signature Bank collapsed, the reports said. In related news, the FDIC is preparing to put First Republic Bank under receivership, which would bring the 2023 U.S. bank-failure count to three.

'My neighbors are gone. No one is left'

Big strikes: Russian missiles killed more than two dozen civilians as they slept. Kyiv's preparation for a counteroffensive awaits what its defense minister said was, "God's will, the weather and a decision by our commanders."
Food deal: The European Commission has a deal to allow the transit of Ukrainian grain to resume through five EU countries that imposed restrictions on cheap imports. On a separate note, treason now can get you a lifetime prison sentence in Russia.

Sudan war rolls over truce pledges

Unending hell: Air, tank and artillery strikes rocked Khartoum, mocking a 72-hour truce extension between the army and the RSF paramilitary group.
Gum arabic: About 70% of the world's supply of gum arabic, a key ingredient in sodas, candy and cosmetics, comes from acacia trees in the Sahel region, which includes Sudan. Pepsi and Coke don't exist without it, and emergency supplies won't last for long as it becomes harder to secure.

North Dakota governor signs strict abortion bill

Felony: The state's new abortion ban makes performing an abortion a felony. It creates an exception for rape and incest, but for only the first six weeks of pregnancy. Vermont and Washington took steps to protect the availability of medication abortions if a lawsuit challenging federal approval for the drug mifepristone prevails in court.
Keep an eye on these: Here is a snapshot of pending and passed state legislation seeking to restrict or protect abortion access. Separately, Montana's governor enacted a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, days after a transgender lawmaker protesting the bill was barred from the floor of the legislature.

The bottle let me down

Whiskey sour: Remy Cointreau predicted flat sales on soft U.S. demand, Cuervo maker Becle narrowed its sales forecasts and Pernod Ricard is pinning its hopes on a thirstier China.
Retail chaser: The world's top consumer-goods companies are paying less for their raw materials and energy, but it may take time before shoppers see significantly lower price tags for household goods.

Before I forget…

Italy's prospects for foreign-born workers remain scant, no matter how qualified they are. This comes as the country deals with a stagnant economy and an aging, shrinking population while worrying about migrants and the erosion of its language and culture. This didn't stop the tourism ministry from passing off Slovenia as Italy in a recent promotion video.

Children account for most of the 109 bodies recovered from mass graves linked to a cult in Kenya.

An unnamed middleman in Mumbai provided a raw material used in Indian-made cough syrups that have been linked to the deaths of more than 70 children in Gambia.

China may give single women IVF access as the government tries to stem the country's population decline.

Nepal granted a record number of Mount Everest climbing permits for this year. That means more traffic jams than ever at the death zone near the summit.

British anti-monarchists will gather along the procession route for King Charles III's coronation by a statue of King Charles I, whose beheading in 1649 led to a short-lived republic.

A Dutch court ordered a man to stop donating sperm. Judges said he fathered as many as 600 children around the world, leading to fears of accidental incest and leading me to think it's time to read "The Holcroft Covenant" again.

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