Your Friday Briefing: A Million Refugees

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We’re overlaying Russia’s advances in southern Ukraine and a mass exodus from the warfare.

Russian forces superior in southern Ukraine on Thursday because the quantity of people that fled Ukraine reached a million, every week into Russia’s invasion. Observe our reside updates.

Mariupol, a port metropolis on the Sea of Azov, continued to carry out regardless of a large Russian bombardment that had minimize energy, water and warmth. After capturing the town of Kherson, Russian forces have been shifting towards Mykolaiv, considered one of Ukraine’s three largest ports.

Russia’s advance on the capital, Kyiv, nevertheless, seemed to be stalled for a 3rd day because the Kremlin despatched extra troops into the nation, in accordance with a U.S. protection official.

The U.N. predicted that 10 million Ukrainians — roughly 1 / 4 of the inhabitants — may very well be displaced, together with about 4 million who might cross borders. Half one million kids have fled into neighboring international locations, UNICEF stated.

With the warfare in Ukraine escalating, the U.S. and its allies are concentrating on key allies of President Vladimir Putin: Russian oligarchs.

It isn’t straightforward to freeze and seize these billionaires’ far-flung and hidden belongings. Within the U.S., a brand new staff has been created within the Justice Division, often known as Process Pressure KleptoCapture, to pursue the belongings of “these whose felony acts allow the Russian authorities to proceed this unjust warfare,” the legal professional common stated.

Different international locations are taking motion as nicely: France, Germany, Japan and Britain have all introduced plans to grab the billionaires’ belongings, like yachts, or to discourage enterprise dealings with them, a few of whom have been positioned on a sanctions record.

One among Russia’s greatest recognized oligarchs, Roman Abramovich, confirmed this week that he was making an attempt to promote his Chelsea soccer membership, days after British lawmakers moved to move new laws concentrating on rich Russians.

Tech controls: U.S. firms can be barred from exporting sure delicate objects that may assist protection, aerospace and maritime industries in Belarus, the Biden administration introduced, after it took the identical steps for Russian industries final week. The boundaries additionally apply to worldwide firms that use U.S. know-how.

Arts world: Vladimir Potanin, considered one of Russia’s richest males, stepped down as a trustee of the Guggenheim Museum. Anna Netrebko, a celebrity Russian soprano, will not seem on the Metropolitan Opera after failing to adjust to the corporate’s demand that she distance herself from Putin.


New Zealand is being walloped by a significant outbreak of the Omicron variant, with the virus spreading at what often is the quickest fee on the planet.

The nation reported 23,194 new instances on Thursday, a as soon as unthinkable quantity in a small island nation that held off main outbreaks for years. The document each day case depend till just lately was within the low tons of.

The explosion in instances has come as the federal government, underneath political stress, loosened its strict pandemic laws and because the extremely transmissible Omicron diminished the effectiveness of the controls that remained.

Quotable: “That is the primary time most New Zealanders are coping with Covid-19 in their very own houses,” stated Siouxsie Wiles, a microbiologist on the College of Auckland.

Associated: The final of Australia’s strict pandemic-era border restrictions have been lifted.

Asia Pacific

The corporate that oversees the property of Dr. Seuss, the pen identify of Theodor Seuss Geisel, introduced this week that it could be publishing a brand new sequence of youngsters’s books impressed by the writer’s unpublished sketches. The books, which can be launched beginning subsequent 12 months, can be written and illustrated by a bunch of rising artists from numerous backgrounds.

The announcement got here a 12 months after the corporate determined to cease publishing six of Geisel’s lesser-known books due to their racist content material, a choice that divided public opinion on the time.

Every e-book will embody an authentic, unpublished sketch by Dr. Seuss and a notice from the artists explaining how they have been impressed by it. Two such sketches, launched forward of the books’ publication, embody a picture of three colourful, smiling hummingbirds, and one other of a mouse-like creature with fuzzy, elongated ears.

What to Cook dinner

The trick to this one-pot pasta with sausage and spinach is seasoning the pasta water with cumin.

What to Learn

In her new novel, “Glory,” NoViolet Bulawayo, the primary Black lady from Africa to turn into a finalist for the Booker Prize, writes a couple of nation on the cusp of revolution.

What to Watch

The administrators Bong Joon Ho and Ryusuke Hamaguchi speak concerning the best-picture Oscar nominee “Drive My Automotive.”

Now Time to Play

Right here’s right this moment’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: There are 10 in a decade (5 letters).

Right here’s right this moment’s Wordle. (In the event you’re nervous about your stats streak, play within the browser you’ve been utilizing.)

And right here is right this moment’s Spelling Bee.

You’ll find all our puzzles right here.


That’s it for right this moment’s briefing. See you subsequent time. — Melina

P.S. The Occasions photojournalist Lynsey Addario spoke to CNN about capturing the warfare’s affect on Ukrainians.

The newest episode of “The Each day” is about Russia’s altering technique.

Manan Luthra wrote right this moment’s Arts and Concepts, and Nancy Wartik contributed writing. You possibly can attain Melina and the staff at [email protected].

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