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Shevtsova is one of thousands of Russians who have abandoned their homes and taken shelter in Belgorod, the nearest big Russian city to the border with Ukraine. Russia said it killed more than 70 of them and pushed the rest back across the border. Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the attack, which it cast as internal Russian strife. Alexandra Bespalova, another uprooted resident of Shebekino, said she still supported Moscow's actions in Ukraine, but that Russia needed to do something to protect its own territories. "I always believed that we were right, that our government is right taking Luhansk, the Donbas region, our Russian people under its wing," she said.

Persons: Irina Shevtsova, we’ve, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Lyudmila Rumyantseva, Ramzan Kadyrov, We’ll, Sergei, Shebekino, Prigozhin's Wagner, Vyacheslav Gladkov, Alexandra Bespalova, Mark Trevelyan, Grant McCool Organizations: Russian, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Shebekinsky, Russia's Belgorod, Russia, Ukraine, Belgorod, BELGOROD, Russian, Shebekino, Prigozhin, Russia's, Chechnya, Luhansk

NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) - The Biden administration will abandon a scheme to include the electric vehicle industry in the nation's biofuel blending program and will remove nearly 2 billion credits the ambitious expansion was expected to generate in a final rule set to be released later this month, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The EV program would have been a boost to President Joe Biden's goal of electrifying the motor vehicle industry to fight climate change. The White House declined to comment, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the RFS, did not respond to requests for comment. The White House is currently reviewing a final rule on biofuel blending mandates for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025. Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Jarrett RenshawOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Biden, Joe Biden's, Stephanie Kelly, Jarrett Renshaw Organizations: YORK, Reuters, U.S . Renewable, Tesla Inc, Environmental Protection Agency, Thomson

☆ Everyone is getting less productive, and that's a big problem for the economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Joe Ciolli | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Even though the economy feels largely fine right now, such a decline has been a leading indicator of past recessions. Labor productivity has fallen for five straight quarters on a year-over-year basis, the longest such streak on record. Productivity is important to the economy because it's the primary input for a population's standard of living. As Insider reported in March, major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Kroger are locked in a labor-hoarding war over hourly employees that's pushed pay higher. In the meantime, the decline in productivity is setting off alarm bells for the economy.

Persons: —, Taylor Swift, they're, Larry Summers, Summers, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff, OpenAI's, there's, It's, Paul Tudor Jones, Ed Yardeni, Goldman Sachs Organizations: Service, Airlines, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor, Washington Post, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Stanford, MIT, Fortune, Brookings Institute

June 5 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrencies and shares in crypto and blockchain-related companies tumbled on Monday after the U.S. securities regulator sued crypto exchange Binance, another blow to the industry. The SEC crackdown has prompted some crypto companies to increase compliance, spike products, and expand overseas, moves that some marketwatchers said would likely be accelerated by this latest action against the world's largest crypto exchange. In April, the SEC charged crypto exchange Bittrex Inc with operating an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency, and settled with Kraken in February for $30 million over the exchange's U.S. crypto staking service. Shares of Coinbase (COIN.O) were down 9.1% on the news of the SEC's charges against Binance. Both Coinbase and crypto exchange Gemini launched international exchanges for crypto derivatives in May.

Persons: Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Binance's cryptocurrency, Gary Gensler, marketwatchers, John Reed Stark, Kraken, Bittrex, James Angel, Gemini, Rajeev Bamra, Sinéad Carew, John McCrank, Manya Saini, Hannah Lang, Michelle Price, Leslie Adler, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Reuters, SEC, Washington , D.C, Internet, Coinbase Global Inc, Georgetown University, Binance, Inc, Marathon, Mining, Moody’s Investors Service, Thomson Locations: Washington ,, U.S, New York, Bengaluru, Washington

The deal to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until January 2025 holds non-defense discretionary spending largely flat this year, with a 1% increase in fiscal 2024. SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE OFF LIMITSIn their debt limit negotiations, both President Joe Biden and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed not to touch the main driver of U.S. debt: rising Social Security pension and Medicare health benefit costs. Debt-ceiling negotiations spared cuts to mandatory spending like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security even though these programs cost more than discretionary spending. CBO projects the government will spend $6 trillion on mandatory spending programs in the 2033 fiscal year, up from $4.1 trillion this year. But the plan failed when then-president Barack Obama declined to endorse it, setting up Congress for the debt ceiling battle of 2011.

Persons: Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Julia Nikhinson, Dennis Ippolito, you've, Nigel Chalk, Biden, Brian Riedl, Linda Bilmes, Bowles, Barack Obama, Bilmes, David Lawder, Andy Sullivan, Heather Timmons, Nick Zieminski Organizations: White, REUTERS, WASHINGTON, Republicans, Defense, Southern Methodist University, Congressional Budget Office, Security, Social Security, CBO, International Monetary Fund, Reuters, Democratic, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF, Manhattan Institute, Harvard Kennedy School, Commerce Department, Simpson, Thomson Locations: United States, Washington , U.S, U.S, Washington

☆ I tried 'skiplagging' to save $200 on flight tickets but it was a nightmare experience — and I'll never use this travel hack again
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Jesse Collier | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

I did the latter and tried hidden city ticketing via Skiplagged. That's when I saw an ad for Skiplagged, which championed its hidden city ticketing hack. In my case, the trip was from Los Angeles to New York City to Buffalo. Neither of those options were how I wanted to spend my first couple of days in New York City. Hidden city ticketing is positioned in the travel community as a "travel hack," but I'll tell anyone who asks that it's rarely worth the hassle.

Persons: Jesse Collier, Collier, Becky, you've, Skiplagged, Jess Organizations: Morning, LAX Locations: layover, Los Angeles, New York City, Buffalo, NYC, New York, Central Park

"The fresh water is finished," said Khamis Adel, a lifelong fishermen and indigenous Marsh Arab from Al-Khora in Basra. It's a question asked by many who once lived off Iraq's marshlands, rich waterways which gave birth to civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. As the rivers and marshlands dry out, so too does the economy that they sustain. "Now a fisherman is nothing, they are like beggars," he said, pushing his boat along the canal in humid heat. Even after the 2003 U.S. invasion, when parts of the marshes were flooded again, water levels did not fully recover.

Persons: Essam, Khamis Adel, Mohsen, Hasan Moussa, Hasan, Naame Hasan, Adel, Saddam Hussein, Ahmed Saeed, Issam, Timour Azhari, William Maclean Organizations: REUTERS, UNESCO, of, U.N's, Organization for Migration, WE, Thomson Locations: Iraqi, Basra, Iraq, BASRA, NAJAF, Al, Khora, of Eden, Mesopotamia, Turkey, Iran, Najaf, U.S, Issam Sudani, Timour, Baghdad

☆ Lopez Obrador party poised to gain control of key Mexico state election
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Dave Graham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Delfina Gomez of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), candidate for the governor of the State of Mexico, smiles next to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, leader of MORENA during a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos JassoMEXICO CITY, June 4 (Reuters) - Mexico holds a state election on Sunday that looks poised to bolster President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ahead of the race to succeed him, with his party forecast to capture the last major bastion of the country's old rulers. Lopez Obrador routed the PRI to win the presidency in 2018, and MORENA has since absorbed most of the once-dominant party's strongholds, as well as many of its politicians. Lopez Obrador has frequently criticized some sectors of middle class voters, and Mexico City and the State of Mexico in 2021 dealt MORENA unexpected setbacks in local elections. Sheinbaum, like Gomez, MORENA's State of Mexico candidate, is closely identified with Lopez Obrador and his agenda.

Persons: Delfina Gomez, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, MORENA, Carlos Jasso, Lopez Obrador, Alejandra del, Jose Hernandez, Los Reyes Acaquilpan, Gomez, Del Moral, Claudia Sheinbaum, Marcelo Ebrard, Roy Campos, Consulta, Dave Graham, Aurora Ellis Organizations: National Regeneration, REUTERS, Carlos Jasso MEXICO CITY, Regeneration, Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, Reforma, Mexico City, Mexico City's, Foreign, Thomson Locations: State of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, Carlos Jasso MEXICO, State, Los Reyes, MORENA, Coahuila, MORENA's State, of Mexico

Russia and the United States, by far the biggest nuclear powers, have both expressed regret about the disintegration of the tangle of arms control treaties which sought to slow the Cold War arms race and reduce the risk of nuclear war. Russia's point man for arms control, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said Washington had informed Moscow about the move ahead of going public with it so it was no surprise. But Ryabkov said the pillars of arms control were collapsing and were in a "semi-lethal" condition due to what he cast as the hostile policies of the United States. "Through the fault of the United States, many elements of the former architecture in this area have either been completely destroyed or moved in a semi-lethal state." The New START Treaty, struck in 2011, obliged the United States and Russia to limit deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Sergei Ryabkov, Washington, Ryabkov, Russia's, Jake Sullivan, Sullivan's, Guy Faulconbridge, David Holmes Organizations: U.S, ultimatums, Washington, United, Russian Federation, Cuban Missile, Soviet Union, TASS, 1998, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Russia, ultimatums Russia, U.S, MOSCOW, United States, Moscow, Ukraine, ultimatums, States, Washington, Soviet, unshakable

CNN —Gelje Sherpa was on his way to the top of the world’s highest mountain when he spotted the climber clinging to the rope. The climber, from Malaysia, had “nothing” and was “about to die,” the 30-year-old Nepali mountain guide told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview Thursday. The sherpa has previously carried out more than 55 rescues, some very long operations, but said this was the “hardest in my life.”Ngima Tashi Sherpa carries a Malaysian climber from the death zone at Mount Everest on May 18, 2023. In recent years, as death tolls have risen on the mountain, climbers and experts have also warned of the dangers of overcrowding. Nepal issued permits for a record 478 climbers for this season’s expeditions to Everest, according to the department’s data.

Persons: CNN — Gelje, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “, ”, Gelje, –, ” Gelje, ” Ngima Tashi Sherpa, Bigyan Koirala, There’s, Yubaraj, ” Koirala Organizations: CNN, Reuters, sherpa, Everest, Nepal’s Tourism Department Locations: Mount Everest, Malaysia, Malaysian, Everest, Nepal, Pakistan

☆ Opinion | A Major Problem With Compulsory Mental Health Care Is the Medication
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Daniel Bergner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The New York City chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness — the country’s largest organization representing the mentally ill and their families — has protested on City Hall’s steps against Mr. Adams’s efforts to loosen standards for mandatory care. It is to say that the drugs shouldn’t be considered — as they tend to be now — the required linchpin of treatment. Science hasn’t made great strides in antipsychotics since the drugs were first introduced seven decades ago. Commonly, people abandon their antipsychotic drugs, whether they’re in mandatory treatment or the most sensitive, attentive voluntary programs. This is generally attributed to anosognosia and the disorganization that can come with mental illness, but it might well be seen as an outcome from the weighing of pros and cons.

Persons: —, they’re, that’s, Michelle Funk, shouldn’t, hasn’t, anosognosia Organizations: New, National Alliance, New York, New York City Bar Association, World Health Locations: New York City

☆ Boeing and NASA Delay Launch of Starliner Astronaut Spacecraft Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Michael Roston | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

To get to and from the space station, NASA currently relies on SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk. But NASA has also hired Boeing to build a capsule, so that one can serve as a backup if something goes wrong with the other. Boeing’s Starliner capsule has flown to orbit twice already with no astronauts aboard. “This is just part of the business to have these kinds of issues.”What’s Next: Boeing and NASA will assess repairs. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the Starliner capsule returns to Earth gently under three parachutes.

Persons: Elon Musk, Steve Stich, ”, Mark Nappi, Stich, Nappi, Mr Organizations: NASA, SpaceX, Elon, Boeing, Soyuz, Starliner, Engineers

☆ Sudan's war scatters country's emergent art scene
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Adam Makary | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Abdullah is a member of a youthful art scene that gained momentum from the popular uprising against autocrat Omar al-Bashir and finds itself scattered by war four years later. "We've always been repressed, especially during Bashir's time," said 28-year-old Rahiem Shadad, who co-founded Downtown Gallery in Sudan's capital in 2019. Shadad's gallery has raised just over $8,500 of a $30,000 target to support artists financially during the war. Painter and retired art professor Salah Abdelhay fled to Egypt with his wife and two daughters. Reporting by Adam Makary and Fatma Fahmy Editing by Aidan Lewis and Christina FincherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Rahiem Shadad, Omar al, Bashir, Yasmeen Abdullah, I'd, Abdullah, autocrat Omar al, We've, Shadad, Muhammed Yusuf, Yusuf, Khalid Abdelrahman, Painter, Salah Abdelhay, Adam Makary, Aidan Lewis, Christina Fincher Organizations: REUTERS, Downtown, Thomson Locations: Khartoum, Sudan, Cairo, Egypt, CAIRO, Sudan's, Shendi, Omdurman, Wadi Halfa

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - The bipartisan debt-ceiling deal that could clear Congress as soon as Thursday would stave off an imminent U.S. default, but might deliver less budget savings than Republicans have hoped for, according to nonpartisan budget analysts. The agreement ensures that President Joe Biden will not have to grapple with another debt-ceiling showdown until after the November 2024 election. That is less than the $4.8 trillion Republicans had initially sought, but still the largest deficit-reduction package since a 2011 deal that emerged from a similar debt-ceiling showdown. That would put more $1 trillion of the deal's anticipated savings at risk, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a research group. The deal increases spending on defense and veterans' care, even as it aims to clamp down on other discretionary programs.

Persons: Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, MacGuineas, Biden, Veronique de Rugy, George Mason University's, Penn Wharton, McCarthy, Emily Gee, Andy Sullivan, Scott Malone, Alistair Bell Organizations: Penn Wharton Budget, White, Internal, Service, Office, Republican, SNAP, Social Security, Center for American, Thomson Locations: U.S, Washington

[1/5] Abdessalem Maraouni, a Tunisian university student displays a medicine box of "Celluvisc" at his home in Tunis, Tunisia May 29, 2023. Tunisia imports all medicine through the state-owned Central Pharmacy, which provides drugs to hospitals and pharmacies around the country which offer them to patients at a subsidised rate. Amira said the Central Pharmacy owed about 1 billion dinars ($325 million) to suppliers. Tunisia's Health Ministry and Central Pharmacy did not respond to requests for comment. MEDICINE EXCHANGEFrom the roof of his Tunis house, retired soldier Nabil Boukhili has opened an unofficial medicine exchange for his neighbourhood in coordination with local doctors.

Persons: Maaoui, Faourati, Kais Saied, Naoufel Amira, Amira, Nabil Boukhili, Boukhili, I've, Najia, Abdessalem Maraouni, Kamal, Tarek Amara, Jihed Abidellaoui, Angus McDowall, Ros Russell Organizations: REUTERS, Monetary Fund, Central Pharmacy, Tunisia's Syndicate, Tunisia's Health Ministry, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Tunis, Tunisia, TUNIS, Europe

☆ Exclusive: Mexico mulls benefits of Banamex purchase, eyes synergies with state bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Anthony Esposito | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. lender Citigroup scrapped its sale of the Banamex unit last week and said it will instead list it, a surprise move coming amid talks to sell the business to Mexican billionaire German Larrea's conglomerate Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX). "The Finance Minister has asked us to evaluate the different scenarios in which it might be beneficial for Mexico to acquire the bank," Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio told Reuters. After Citi announced its IPO plans, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the government could acquire up to half of Banamex. Before Citi's u-turn, banking sources said Grupo Mexico had been eyeing the unit for around $7 billion. "Banamex, in fact, has had a significant deterioration in its payment systems, precisely because it was in this sale process," he said.

Persons: Gabriel Yorio, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Yorio, Lopez Obrador, Banamex, Anthony Esposito, Valentine Hilaire, Dave Graham, Mark Porter, Diane Craft Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Citigroup Inc's, Banco, U.S, Citigroup, Grupo Mexico, Finance, Reuters, United, Citi, Welfare Bank, Thomson Locations: MEXICO, Mexico, German, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, expropriate

☆ Fashion High: Inside New York’s Semi-Secret School for Style
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Alex Vadukul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As techno music blasted, one teenager after another stopped to pose for cameras in a cordoned-off area of Gansevoort Plaza in the meatpacking district. Upon their return to a tented area, they exchanged hugs and high fives with their fellow models. After all, wasn’t New York Fashion Week not until September? And why was the audience cheering with the kind of abandon typical of parents at a graduation ceremony? As it happened, the event that took place last Wednesday evening was a graduation ceremony of sorts: This was the annual runway show for the senior class of the High School of Fashion Industries, the only trade-based public school in New York City dedicated to fashion.

Persons: Pastis Organizations: wasn’t New York, High School of Fashion Industries Locations: Lower Manhattan, Gansevoort, meatpacking, New York City

☆ Factbox: Who are the candidates running in the 2024 US presidential election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Ross Colvin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Here is a list of 2024 hopefuls in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Only 1% of Republicans said he would be their preferred 2024 nominee in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted May 9-15. ASA HUTCHINSONThe former Arkansas governor launched his bid for the White House in April with a call for Trump to step aside to deal with his indictment. Biden allies say he is running because he feels he is the only Democratic candidate who can defeat Trump. MARIANNE WILLIAMSONThe best-selling author and self-help guru has launched her second, longshot bid for the White House.

Persons: Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, DONALD TRUMP Trump, Biden, Trump, RON DESANTIS, DeSantis, TIM SCOTT, Scott, NIKKI HALEY, Haley, VIVEK RAMASWAMY, Ramaswamy, MIKE, Pence, Trump's, CHRIS CHRISTIE, ASA HUTCHINSON, Hutchinson, DOUG BURGUM Burgum, JOE BIDEN Biden, MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, ROBERT KENNEDY JR, Kennedy, Robert F, Ross Colvin, Colleen Jenkins, Nick Zieminski, Alistair Bell Organizations: New, Democratic, Republican, REPUBLICAN, Republican Party, Twitter, Trump, Walt Disney Co, Ukraine, TIM, Black Republican U.S, Reuters, United Nations, Biden, U.S . Capitol, Republican White House, Christian, New Jersey, ASA, White House, Microsoft Corp, DEMOCRATIC, White, Democrat, YouTube, Thomson Locations: New Jersey, New York, Florida, South Carolina, Pence, Iowa, Arkansas, U.S

☆ South Africa mulls options on ICC arrest warrant for potential visitor Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Carien Du Plessis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

However, South Africa had on Jan. 25 already invited Putin to the Aug. 22-24 meeting in Johannesburg of BRICS leaders of emerging economies, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. "Because of our legal obligations, we have to arrest President Putin, but we can't do that," Mbeki said. South Africa on Monday issued diplomatic immunity to all leaders attending the meeting and a gathering of BRICS foreign ministers in Cape Town this week. The international relations department said this was standard procedure, however, for all international conferences in South Africa. The governing African National Congress decided in December that South Africa should abandon the process and try to effect changes to the ICC from within.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Zane Dangor, Thabo Mbeki, Mbeki, Obed Bapela, Britain's, Bapela, Clayson Monyela, Omar al, Bashir, Carien du Plessis, Olivia Kumwenda, Alexandra Zavis, Grant McCool Organizations: Criminal Court, ICC, South, Kremlin, Britain's BBC, African National Congress, Thomson Locations: JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Ukraine, Moscow, Johannesburg, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa, Pretoria, Cape Town, African

☆ NATO soldiers on guard in Kosovo Serb town following clashes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Fatos Bytyci | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ZVECAN, Kosovo, May 30 (Reuters) - Dozens of NATO troops secured on Tuesday a municipal building in the Kosovo town of Zvecan, where the previous day 30 NATO soldiers and 52 Serb protesters were injured in clashes. On Monday, Serb protesters in Zvecan threw tear gas and stun grenades at NATO soldiers. The NATO force, known as KFOR, said 30 of its soldiers were hurt in the clashes. In another Serb-majority town, Leposavic, an ethnic Albanian mayor was unable to leave his office for more that 24 hours because of protesters outside, media reported. Tensions have risen since ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo's Serb-majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted.

☆ How US allies can mitigate Trump 2.0
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A return to the White House by Donald Trump would create challenges for the world’s other rich democracies. TRUMP IN POLYCRISISBiden has painstakingly created a consensus with his core allies since Putin invaded Ukraine last year. PREPARE FOR THE WORSTThe world’s other rich democracies - call them the G6 - cannot change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Politicians in other rich democracies can also try to persuade Republican leaders that now is not the time to abandon Kyiv. If other rich democracies adopt a vigorous mitigation strategy now, they’ll be better prepared if Trump does return.

☆ In Tokyo, Skipping the Hot and New for Enduring Haunts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Tom Downey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Continuing my quest, I visited Fukube, another “Q Guide” favorite, located in a bustling neighborhood a couple blocks east of Tokyo Station. The main room, with just a handful of seats in front of a narrow bar counter, was full of suited salarymen. Before, I had savored the feeling each time I entered that Fukube was just as it had been since 1938. The usual images of Tokyo oscillate between two extremes: gilded metropolis of the future and repository of the aristocratic past. The “Q Guide” evokes a different, real, thoroughly proletarian and much more intriguing city, most faithfully depicted in works of art and literature that I love.

May 29 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. It could be a double-edged sword for Asian markets, if not on Monday than in the days and weeks ahead. The economy's post-pandemic lockdown recovery has been weaker than expected, to put it mildly, and inflationary pressures are evaporating. Japanese equity markets open on Monday near the 33-year highs reached last week, while Chinese stocks are languishing near six-month lows. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offers nuclear weapons to nations willing 'to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Mariya Knight Uliana Pavlova Helen Regan | Mariya Knight | Uliana Pavlova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed that nations who are willing “to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus” will be given nuclear weapons, days after confirming the transfer of some tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow to Minsk had begun. “Join the Union State of Belarus and Russia. It was not clear how wide Lukashenko’s invitation to join the Union State extended, and he offered no other specifics. Tactical nuclear weapons are smaller than strategic nuclear weapons – which can decimate entire cities – and are designed for use in a limited battlefield. Strong condemnationsThe United States and the European Union, as well as opposition leaders in Belarus, have denounced the move to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

☆ Russia's being more cautious with its tanks and trying to hide them after heavy losses in battle, but it's shooting itself in the foot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Heavy Russian tank and armored vehicle losses have led Russia to change its tactics, according to a new report. A Ukrainian soldier checks a wrecked Russian tank outside of the village of Mala Rogan, east of Kharkiv, on April 1, 2022. "It is pretty rare to find a Russian tank that hasn't blasted ERA on every single surface they can conceivably get it on, including somewhere it's really counterproductive," Watling said. While ERA is quite effective, the Ukrainians know where the weak points are to one-shot kill a Russian tank, though it's not always easy to get a clean shot off. Destroyed Russian tank is seen outside of Izyum district of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on October 13, 2022.

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