| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Friday, May 13, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Twitter shares slump as Musk puts his acquisition on hold, Ukrainian forces thwart a Russian armored column, and UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed has died | | | | | Today's biggest stories  Smoke rises from what appears to be a makeshift bridge across the Siverskyi Donets River, eastern Ukraine, in this handout image uploaded on May 12, 2022 RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AT WAR Ukrainian forces destroyed a pontoon bridge and parts of Russian armored column as it tried to cross a river in the Donbas region, video footage released by Ukraine's military showed, and a Russian naval ship was set afire in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has driven Russian troops back from the second-largest city of Kharkiv in the fastest advance since Kremlin forces pulled away from Kyiv and the northeast over a month ago.
A Ukrainian court is expected to begin hearing the first war crimes case arising from Russia's invasion after charging a captured Russian soldier with the murder of a 62-year-old civilian.
The top Democrat and Republican in the U.S. Senate joined forces in a rare moment of unity in an attempt to pass $40 billion in aid for Ukraine, only to be stymied by a single Republican lawmaker: Senator Rand Paul.
The Vatican's number two, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said that supplying weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian aggression is morally legitimate under certain conditions, citing the Catholic Church's teaching on 'just war'.
Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now
|  Elon Musk arrives at the Met Gala in New York City, May 2, 2022 BUSINESS Elon Musk put his $44-billion deal for Twitter "temporarily on hold" while he awaits data on the proportion of its fake accounts, sending shares in the social media platform plunging. In his latest tweet, Musk referred to a Reuters story from May 2 that said Twitter had estimated that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter.
Tesla has put on hold plans to sell electric cars in India, abandoned a search for showroom space and reassigned some of its domestic team after failing to secure lower import taxes, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Traders in the world's largest markets are having to navigate wild intra-day swings and shrinking deal sizes as central banks rapidly withdraw stimulus measures, in a small-scale reminder of a pandemic-driven financial seize-up just two years ago.
Cryptocurrencies nursed large losses, with bitcoin trading near $30,000 and set for a record losing streak as the collapse of TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin, rippled through markets.
Shanghai's COVID lockdown is wreaking havoc on companies' dividend-payment paperwork and bankers say it is delaying summertime dollar buying as some firms are unable to collect the signatures and company seals needed to process FX contracts.
South Korea was the first country to launch a fifth-generation mobile network in 2019, heralding a warp-speed technological transformation to self-driving cars and smart cities. Three years on, the giddy promises are unfulfilled.
|  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chairs a Worker's Party meeting in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on May 12, 2022
WORLD
At least one person confirmed to have COVID has died in North Korea and hundreds of thousands have shown fever symptoms, state media said, offering hints at the potentially dire scale of country's first confirmed outbreak of the pandemic. Here's how North Korea's outbreak could ignite a major health crisis.
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has died, the Ministry of Presidential Affairs said. He was also ruler of Abu Dhabi emirate.
A Chinese intelligence ship was tracked off Australia's west coast within 50 nautical miles of a sensitive defence facility, Australia said, raising concern amid an election campaign about China's assertive behavior in the region.
Sri Lanka's main opposition party joined anti-government protesters in rejecting the appointment of a new prime minister, and insisted the president resign because of the country's disastrous economic crisis.
Israeli forces resumed raids in the occupied West Bank area of Jenin, where a prominent Palestinian journalist was shot dead this week, wounding at least 11 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Shireen Abu Akleh's funeral procession in the Old City of Jerusalem today is expected to draw thousands.
Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party said it would block the election of a speaker for the Northern Ireland Assembly, in a move that would shut down the British-run province's newly elected legislature.
U.S.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, and four other lawmakers received subpoenas from the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters. The committee issued the subpoenas to try to secure the lawmakers' testimony after they had rejected voluntary cooperation with the investigation.
The Democratic Party's hopes of picking up a much-needed U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania are likely tethered to a 6-foot, 8-inch tall tattooed and goateed liberal who eschews suits for hoodies and once met with President Joe Biden wearing basketball shorts. John Fetterman, 52, the state's lieutenant governor, is surging in opinion polls ahead of the May 17 Democratic Senate primary.
A bill in the Louisiana legislature aiming to charge women and their doctors with murder for obtaining or providing abortion services was withdrawn from consideration amid outrage and a successful effort to amend it.
A man charged with last month's mass shooting in a New York subway, one of the most violent attacks in the history of the city's transit system, is expected to enter a not guilty plea in Brooklyn federal court today. Frank James, 62, is scheduled to be arraigned on charges related to the April 12 gunfire and smoke bomb attack that injured 23 people.
California regulators rejected a $1.4 billion desalination plant on environmental grounds, dealing a setback to Governor Gavin Newsom, who had supported the project as a partial solution for the state's sustained drought.
| | | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Luxury London store launches real-time crypto price tags Fashion designer Philipp Plein has opened a flagship store accepting payments in cryptocurrencies. | | | | And finally… One giant leap for Earth plants  Scientists have grown seeds in soil from the moon - samples retrieved during NASA missions in 1969 and 1972 - in an achievement that heralds the promise of using earthly plants to support human outposts on other worlds. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
