(US) Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-Russia has appointed a new general to unify its campaign. The move comes as Russia persists with its push in southeastern Ukraine, where residents continued to flee on Saturday a day after a missile strike on a train station there killed at least 52 people. In a strategic shift, Moscow assigned Gen. Aleksandr V. Dvornikov, whose forces were accused of targeting civilians in Syria, to lead its operation.
-Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain promised more aid in an unannounced trip to Kiev. Residents continued fleeing eastern Ukraine.
-Citizens are denouncing one another, illustrating how the war is feeding paranoia and polarization in Russian society.
-As record numbers of migrants have surged to the US-Mexico border, the White House has furiously debated how — and whether — to unravel Trump-era policies.
-The Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has had an uncommonly tumultuous first three months on the job, drawing criticism from all over the political spectrum.
-The Parliament of Pakistan has ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan. The country will now face early elections after days of brinkmanship in which Mr. Khan tried to dissolve Parliament to head off the no-confidence vote.
-Many cities and counties sin Michigan say that shoring up local public health systems is crucial to recovering from the pandemic and addressing health disparities.
-Evidence suggests that survivors of Covid have higher chances of developing cardiovascular disease. But experts say there are ways to minimize the risk.
-President Emmanuel Macron’s advantage over the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen has evaporated over the past month as his failure to engage has irked voters.
-The French are choosing their president in April, an election that is crucial for France and key for Europe. President Emmanuel Macron is favored to win, but the race has gotten closer.
-The State Department could not compile a list of gifts for 2020, making it difficult to determine whether officials did anything improper.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-The UK and the EU have pledged more financial support to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia and rebuild after the conflict, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.
-The FT, based on local sources, alleges that the last Russian troops in Bucha found themselves cornered by advancing Ukrainian forces in late March and began shooting civilians.
-The airline industry dismissed the idea the pandemic and climate worries would permanently change the way people moved around the world, and that decades of near-continuous growth were at an end. Now, there is growing evidence it was right.
-As petrol and food prices steadily increased, voters started to realize that Putin’s war in Ukraine was not just a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster, but one that would have an impact on their daily lives in France. One candidate understood this better than all the others: the “far-right” politician Marine Le Pen.
-Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will visit Algeria on Monday to sign a new gas supply deal, as Rome strives to reduce its dependence on Russian fuel following the invasion of Ukraine.
It is the latest in a series of moves made by European countries to secure alternative fuel sources as they seek to cut Russia off from the global economy in punishment for the war.
-Market turmoil driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising inflation has sharply divided the hedge fund industry, with macro hedge funds celebrating one of their best-ever starts to a year while technology and growth funds rack up double-digit losses.
-As outrage over the war in Ukraine grows, European leaders are under mounting pressure to expand sanctions against Russia and end the EU’s decades-long dependence on the country’s oil and gas once and for all.
But an analysis of the top 10 global producers shows just how difficult it would be to remove Russian gas from the European energy mix without imposing stringent curbs on industrial consumption that could crush economic growth.
-Imran Khan was voted out as Pakistan’s prime minister early on Sunday, ending weeks of political uncertainty that had fueled a devaluation of the rupee, dragged down the country’s stock market and forced the central bank to raise interest rates.
-Russia’s central bank cut interest rates on Friday in a bid to cushion the economy from the impact of western sanctions, saying the recent rebound in the ruble had eased inflationary pressures.
-The German government has announced an aid package to support companies hit by the fallout of the Ukraine war and the sanctions against Russia, the leading energy supplier to the Eurozone’s biggest economy.
The measures include a new €100B program of short-term loans from state-owned KfW development bank for energy companies struggling to cover the vastly increased cost of insuring themselves against higher oil and gas prices.
-French president Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader who is challenging him for the presidency, traded insults and accusations on the final day of an increasingly bitter election campaign ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday.
-The White House’s top Asia official is preparing to travel to the Solomon Islands in a rare high-level visit that underscores alarm in Washington over the Pacific nation’s security pact with China. Kurt Campbell will fly to the Solomon Islands this month, according to four people familiar with the plan. He is expected to travel with Daniel Kritenbrink, the top state department Asia official. Their visit comes as the small Pacific nation emerges as a strategic battleground between the US and China.
-The expected appointment of John Lee, 64, as Hong Kong’s fifth chief executive since the former British colony reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 was all but assured this week after the incumbent, Carrie Lam, announced that she would not seek a second five-year term. Even before Lee confirmed his desire to replace her, the Chinese Communist party’s representatives in the territory instructed a 1,500-seat, “patriots only” election committee to back him in the May 8 vote.
THE NEW YORK POST
-A government watchdog is demanding the US Attorney probing Hunter Biden in Delaware investigate tens of millions in anonymous donations from China to the University of Pennsylvania, where an academic center is named for his father, President Biden.
-Hunter Biden’s access to lucrative financial opportunities also came with expectations — including kicking back as much as 50% of his earnings to his dad, text messages on his old laptop show. “I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” Hunter Biden groused to daughter Naomi in January 2019. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike pop, I won’t make you give me half your salary.” Pop is Joe Biden.
-Amazon on Friday called for a re-run of an election after workers at a Staten Island warehouse voted to create the company’s first US union, claiming in a statement that actions by the US labor board and worker-organizers suppressed the vote and denied staff their voice.