| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Thursday, April 21, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. China's Xi proposes a 'global security initiative', thousands flee an Arizona wildfire, and Serena Williams joins a bid to buy soccer club Chelsea | | | | | Today's biggest stories  Smoke rises above an Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 20, 2022 RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AT WAR President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the biggest battle of the Ukraine war, declaring the port of Mariupol "liberated" after nearly two months of siege, despite hundreds of defenders still holding out inside a giant steel works.
In a televised meeting with his defense minister inside the Kremlin, Putin said there was no need for a final confrontation with the last defenders who were boxed in after surviving nearly two months of Russia's siege.
In a show of strength two months into its assault on Ukraine, Russia test-launched a new nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile which Putin said would make Moscow's enemies stop and think.
Denmark's prime minister pledged to send more weapons to Ukraine during a trip to Kyiv, where she and her Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez were meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a gesture of support. European Council President Charles Michel pledged European solidarity with Ukraine during a surprise visit to Kyiv yesterday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said any peace talks over Ukraine are likely to fail, as he compared holding talks with Putin to negotiating with a crocodile.
Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a "global security initiative" that upholds the principle of "indivisible security", although he gave no details of how it would be implemented. In talks over Ukraine, Russia has insisted that Western governments respect a 1999 agreement based on the principle of "indivisible security" that no country can strengthen its own security at the expense of others.
Here's what you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict right now
| BUSINESS A longtime Russian business associate of American tobacco giant Philip Morris - a billionaire whose holdings included a major stake in a weapons plant supplying Russia’s military - has been sanctioned in Europe for aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a Reuters review of business registries and sanctions lists.
With even the most dovish U.S. central bankers now calling for a key interest rate to hit its "neutral" level by year's end to tame high inflation, the Federal Reserve appears headed for perhaps its swiftest shift in monetary policy since the 1960s, with all the risks that ride along with such an abrupt change.
Billionaire investor William Ackman liquidated a $1.1 billion bet on Netflix, locking in a loss of more than $400 million as the streaming service's stock plunged following news that it lost subscribers for the first time in a decade.
Tesla results surged past Wall Street expectations, as higher prices helped insulate the electric vehicle maker from supply chain chaos and rising costs. The results should also trigger $23 billion in new payouts to CEO Elon Musk, already the world's richest man. Meanwhile, Musk's The Boring Company has raised $675 million in a Series C funding round, which now values the tunneling enterprise at $5.675 billion.
Former tennis world number one Serena Williams and seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton have joined Martin Broughton's bid to buy English Premier League soccer club Chelsea, a source close to the bid told Reuters. The club was put up for sale by owner Roman Abramovich before sanctions were imposed on the Russian oligarch.
|  French President Emmanuel Macron and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen sit prior to taking part in an election debate, in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, April 20, 2022
WORLD
French President Emmanuel Macron and challenger Marine Le Pen will be back on the campaign trail today after the far-right candidate failed, in a high-stakes TV debate, to deliver the knockout blow she needed ahead of Sunday's vote. Here's how Macron cemented his presidential frontrunner status with a combative debate performance.
Israeli police blocked hundreds of far-right Jewish protesters from marching toward Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Old City's Muslim quarter, amid rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel carried out air strikes in central Gaza after a rocket launched from the Palestinian territory landed in Israel, Hamas officials and Israeli military sources said.
Hong Kong reopened gyms, beauty parlors, theme parks and cinemas for the first time in more than four months, as authorities relax some of the world's most stringent COVID restrictions.
China said the black boxes of a Boeing 737-800 jet that crashed last month were badly damaged, leaving virtually no publicly available clues to explain its violent plunge into a wooded hillside, killing all 132 people on board.
An explosion at a Shi'ite mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif killed or wounded at least 20 people, a local Taliban commander said. The explosion came two days after blasts tore through a high school in a predominantly Shi'ite Hazara area in western Kabul, killing at least six people and wounding 11.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an explosion that it said killed or injured 30 people at a market where alcohol was sold in Taraba State, Nigeria, marking an expansion of the area where the extremist group operates in the country.
U.S.
The U.S. Justice Department appealed a judge's ruling ending a mask mandate on public transportation and airplanes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the measure was still needed. Delta Air Lines said it plans to restore flight privileges to about 2,000 customers who were barred from flights after failing to comply with mask rules.
A wind-driven Arizona wildfire almost tripled in area after burning dozens of structures and forcing thousands to flee their homes in a drought-hit rural area. The blaze, dubbed the Tunnel Fire, swept northeast over largely unpopulated hills and valleys 14 miles north of Flagstaff.
Well over a year after voters said yes to legal weed, New Jersey is finally about to start getting high on its own supply. State residents 21 and older can lawfully buy marijuana from today, after a decade-long effort by advocates to legalize recreational use and end years of racially unbalanced criminal prosecution.
A security scare at the U.S. Capitol prompted the evacuation of Congress after a small airplane from the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute demonstration team flew over a baseball game. House speaker Nancy Pelosi called the alarm an "outrageous and frightening mistake" by the Federal Aviation Administration.
South Carolina's Supreme Court temporarily halted the execution of a condemned man planned for next week that would have been the first firing-squad execution in the United States in more than a decade.
Actor Johnny Depp will face questioning from attorneys for ex-wife and actress Amber Heard today after the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star accused her of making false accusations that ruined his reputation and career.
| | | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Czech firm 3D-prints barriers for Ukrainian army The company will also send printers to Ukraine to help rebuild homes after the war. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
