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Daily Briefing

Donald Trump is in New York for his court appearance, heavy fighting continues in Bakhmut, and Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy.

Plus, South American chefs celebrate Amazon cooking with worm chili and tree bark.

By Kate Turton

Today's Top News

Former US President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower in New York City, April 3, 2023. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

Trump makes history in New York

Donald Trump, the ex-president and frontrunner to be Republican nominee in 2024, will appear in court today, in a watershed moment ahead of next year's presidential election. Indicted last week, he becomes the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges.
Trump hush money case: What is an indictment? An arraignment? A gag order?
Trump has widened his lead over his rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Some 48% of self-described Republicans say they want Trump to be their party's nominee, up from 44% in a March 14-20 poll.

Fighting continues in Bakhmut, while Finland joins NATO

Fighting raged in and around Bakhmut as Ukraine mocked Russian claims to have captured the administrative center of the eastern Ukrainian city, saying Russian forces had raised a victory flag over "some kind of toilet". Follow the latest from the war in Ukraine here.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-km border with Russia, is set to join NATO later today, just over a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, partly in response to what Russia said was the alliance's aggressive expansion eastward. Sweden has also applied to join the military alliance.
China warned US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy not to "repeat disastrous past mistakes" and meet Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, saying it would not help regional peace and stability, but only unite the Chinese people behind a common enemy.
China is for the first time keeping at least one nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine constantly at sea, according to a Pentagon report - adding pressure on the United States and its allies as they try to counter Beijing's growing military.

Business & Markets

A replica model of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket sits in a media area at Newquay Airport, Britain, January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after the satellite launch company failed to secure the long-term funding needed to help it recover from a January rocket failure.
German insurers Allianz and Munich Re have renewed cover for the damaged Russia-controlled Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, five sources with knowledge of the matter said, indicating that its revival has not been ruled out after an alleged sabotage attack.
Credit Suisse is expected to face shareholder anger at what will be its final annual general meeting after the bank was rescued last month by rival UBS. The hastily arranged takeover, for which Switzerland invoked emergency legislation, bypassed Credit Suisse shareholders and largely wiped out the value of their holdings.
More chocolate than ever is eaten globally, but a flagship program launched in 2019 that promised a living wage to growers in top cocoa producers Ivory Coast and Ghana has left many worse off, data and interviews with growers, traders and industry experts show.

Ukraine's tech entrepreneurs fight war on a different front

A pigeon takes flight in Chasiv Yar, near the frontline, in the eastern region of Donetsk, Ukraine, April 2, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Mour

Eugene Nayshtetik and his five co-workers shuttered their company developing medical and biotech startups to join the defense forces days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Within two months, their commanders agreed it would be more useful if they swapped their military gear for computers.

With the government's blessing, Nayshtetik and his team of engineers moved to neighboring Poland where they raised initial funding from a Polish company, Air Res Aviation, to develop a new drone for the Ukrainian military.

Reuters spoke to more than a dozen entrepreneurs, as well as Ukrainian and Western officials, who said the shift to military innovation in Ukraine's once-thriving technology sector has bolstered the country's out-manned and out-gunned armed forces.

And Finally...

Marsia Taha, head chef of Bolivian restaurant Gustu, and Virgilio Martinez, head chef and owner of Peruvian restaurant Central, prepare a dish of their own creation with ingredients from the Amazon, at restaurant Gustu, in La Paz, Bolivia March 31, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Morales

In the high altitudes of Bolivia's La Paz, some of South America's top chefs are paying homage to regional Amazonian culinary ingredients including gusanillo, or worm chili, tree bark that tastes like garlic, and honey from stingless bees.

The new collaboration between Bolivian chef Marsia Taha and Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez is seeking to raise awareness of the region's incredible - and at times unusual - foods, and the indigenous communities at the forefront of collecting them.

Read more here: South American chefs celebrate Amazon cooking with worm chili and tree bark

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