Also, why economists are alarmed about China’s demographic crisis.
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Jan. 18, 2023, 4:11 p.m. ET
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“I started to yell the name of my daughter, too, because I didn’t know where she was,” said one mother, whose daughter survived the crash.Credit…Ed Ram/Getty Images
Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Denys Monastyrsky, was one of at least 14 people who died yesterday in a helicopter crash. He is the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to die since Russia invaded last year. An investigation is underway, but there were no initial signs that the aircraft had been shot down.
The helicopter crash also damaged a kindergarten in a suburb of Kyiv. It happened at 8:20 a.m., a time when parents typically drop their children off at the school. There were conflicting death tolls, but officials said that a child had been killed.
Monastyrsky’s death deals a blow to a ministry that has played a critical role in the war effort: He oversaw police and emergency services and handled rescue efforts after missile strikes. His top deputy was also killed, as well as other pivotal figures in Ukraine’s wartime leadership.
Davos: In a video address to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, called for a moment of silence to remember the victims, then made a passionate speech.
“Tragedies are outpacing life. The tyranny is outpacing democracy,” Zelensky said. “The time the free world uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill.”
Crimea: The U.S. has long refused to give Ukraine the weapons it needs to target Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. But that stance is starting to soften, despite the risk of escalation. Kyiv is looking to strike Russia’s land bridge, a critical supply route that connects Crimea to Russia through the occupied cities of Melitopol and Mariupol.
The median age in China has already surpassed that of the U.S. and could rise above 50 by 2050. Credit…Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
A shortage of factory employees in China — driven by a more educated workforce and a shrinking number of young people — could raise costs for consumers outside China, potentially exacerbating inflation in countries that rely heavily on imported Chinese products. The shrinking population could also mean a decline in spending by Chinese consumers, which could hurt global businesses that rely on China.
Within China, a plunging birthrate poses a major threat to its embattled real estate sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of its economic output. And a shrinking work force may struggle to support China’s aging population. A 2019 report predicted that the country’s main pension fund, which many older Chinese residents rely on for income, would run out of money by 2035.
Self-inflicted crisis: China sped up its demographic struggles with its one-child policy, which was in effect from 1980 until 2016. Now, the government’s recent attempts to induce a baby boom have failed, as the high cost of housing and education deter potential parents.
“Hope,” Maria Ressa said yesterday, after the verdict. “That is what it provides.”Credit…Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
Ressa is an outspoken critic of both Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, and current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Her uphill battle to keep publishing her news site, Rappler, has become emblematic of the Philippines’ declining press freedoms.
This recent case was the first high-profile test of whether her legal troubles would continue under Marcos; other cases are pending. The new president has benefited from online disinformation and tried to play down the brutality of his father’s dictatorship decades ago, but has declined to attack the country’s mainstream media, as Duterte did.
Rafael Nadal, who has won 22 Grand Slams, lost in the second round.Credit…Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Aryeh Deri, left, is a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The court ruled that Deri should be removed from his posts.Credit…Pool photo by Ronen Zvulun
Meera Shankar, center, rents rooms to women, with no curfew or visiting rules.Credit…Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
If women were represented in India’s formal work force at the same rate as men, some estimates suggest, the country’s economy could expand by an additional 60 percent by 2025.
But housing is a major obstacle. Many single women pay more, for a narrower selection of apartments, and brokers often make them promise to never bring men over, drink or live alone.
Lives lived: Sister André, the world’s oldest known person, died at 118. The French nun lived through two world wars, survived Covid and was said to enjoy a daily dose of wine and chocolate.
Urban Hawker is unlike any other food court in Midtown Manhattan.Credit…Rachel Vanni for The New York Times
A vivid bazaar of Singaporean dishes has opened in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, adapted from a grand concept by Anthony Bourdain. Urban Hawker, the food hall, puts cooks front and center: Most of the 17 vendors relocated from Asia to New York to work there.
One standout is Hainanese chicken rice, perhaps the country’s most recognized dish. Pete Wells, our New York restaurant critic, says it’s “fleshier, softer, more voluptuous than you’d think boiled poultry could be.” Other stalls prepare dishes that started out somewhere else but have adapted to or been adopted by Singaporeans, like biryanis and Malaysian coconut stew.
“You get an overview of Singaporean food unlike any you’ll find in a restaurant,” Pete writes, adding, “The stalls preserve and spotlight the separate origins of the dishes.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is finalizing a massive package of military aid for Ukraine that U.S. officials say is likely to total as much as $2.6 billion. It’s expected to include for the first time nearly 100 Stryker combat vehicles and at least 50 Bradley armored vehicles to allow Ukrainian forces to move more quickly and securely on the front lines in the war with Russia — but not the tanks that Ukraine has sought.
The officials said the numbers could change as the Biden administration goes through final deliberations on the package. An announcement is expected this week when defense leaders from the U.S., Europe and other regions gather in Germany to discuss military support for Ukraine. The aid is also expected to include thousands of rounds of ammunition, including rockets for air defense systems.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid has not yet been made public.
The decision to send the Strykers, which could be delivered within weeks, comes on the heels of announcements by the British to send Ukraine battle tanks, which have long been sought by Ukrainian leaders. The Strykers and Bradleys are armored personnel carriers.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters Wednesday that a new phase of the war is shaping up as Russia gets more deeply entrenched, and that Ukraine will need mechanized infantry to break through those lines.
“The Russians are really digging in. They’re digging in. They’re digging trenches, they’re putting in these dragon’s teeth, laying mines. They’re really trying to fortify that that FLOT, that forward line of troops,” Kahl said. “To enable the Ukrainians to break through given Russian defenses, the emphasis has been shifted to enabling them to combine fire and maneuver in a way that will prove to be more effective.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told political leaders that Western supplies of weapons must outpace Russia’s attacks, urging the world to move faster because “tragedies are outpacing life; the tyranny is outpacing democracy.”
The Stryker can transport a full squad of nine infantry troops and a crew of two. It is equipped with a 30 mm gun, a machine gun and/or a grenade launcher, and can travel up to 60 miles per hour (nearly 100 kilometers per hour). It runs on eight wheels, which makes it more nimble, speedy and fuel efficient than the Bradley, which is more heavily armored and carries fewer troops.
The first shipment of 50 Bradleys was announced two weeks ago. Known as a “tank-killer” because of the anti-tank missile it can fire, the Bradley runs on tracks, making it more useful in muddy terrain than the Stryker.
Ukraine has for months sought to be supplied with heavier tanks, including the U.S. Abrams and the German Leopard 2 tanks, but Western leaders have been treading carefully. The United Kingdom announced last week that it will send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, but the U.S. and others have held off.
Germany is facing pressure to send the Leopard 2 tanks, and Poland has expressed readiness to provide a company of Leopard tanks. But, Polish President Andrzej Duda stressed during his recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Lviv that Poland would only do so as part of a larger international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv.
The Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukrainian forces, and France has said it would send AMX-10 RC armored combat vehicles to Ukraine, designated “light tanks” in French. U.S. officials say there is still no movement to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
Laura Cooper, the deputy U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, said this month that Ukrainian troops have become better at maintaining and sustaining complex armored vehicles, and they will get additional training. But, she said, tanks, such as the more complex, gas-guzzling, heavily armored Abrams, would require much more maintenance and other training.
The influx of tanks and armored carriers comes as Ukraine faces intense combat in eastern Ukraine around the city of Bakhmut and the nearby salt mining town of Soledar. The battles are expected to intensify in the spring.
In addition to the Bradleys, the previous U.S. aid package included 100 M113 armored personnel carriers and 55 mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles, or MRAPS. Those types of armored carriers, along with the Strykers, will better protect Ukrainian troops who are fighting a brutal campaign against Wagner forces, made up in large part of convicts from Russian prisons.
The U.S. Army has a large number of Strykers available to send. Just last year, the Army announced plans to convert its Stryker brigade combat team in Alaska to a more mobile, infantry unit better suited for frigid arctic regions.
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Associated Press writer Tara Copp contributed to this report. Baldor reported from Brussels.
Solomon Pena poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest by the Albuquerque Police Department in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. January 17, 2023. Metropolitan Detention Center/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.
Election conspiracy theories drove a defeated Republican candidate in New Mexico with a criminal past to hire gunmen to attack homes of Democratic legislators, marking a dangerous new level of political violence, officials said on Wednesday.
Solomon Pena, 39, faced his first court hearing at 1:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) on charges he masterminded and took part in a string of drive-by shootings since Dec. 4 aimed at wounding or killing Democratic officials in Albuquerque, according to police.
Pena carried out the attacks, in which no one was hurt, after he lost a November state House of Representatives race and then visited the homes of county commissioners and state legislators to dispute his 47-percentage-point defeat.
Republican supporters said he returned to a life of crime after serving seven years in prison on a 2008 conviction for leading a burglary ring targeting Albuquerque businesses.
Adriann Barboa, a Bernalillo County commissioner who had bullets come through her front door in a Dec. 4 attack, said Pena was driven by political rhetoric from the top of government justifying violence in response to rigged elections.
“Pena is an election denier. He weaponized those dangerous thoughts to threaten me and others,” Barboa said in a statement.
Pena was not immediately available for comment.
The string of shootings follows other recent acts of politically motivated violence, including the attack in San Francisco on the husband of then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But sets a precedent with an aspiring politician named as the suspected mastermind.
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly said it had backed Pena, a political novice, in the belief the former U.S. Navy medic and political science graduate had left crime behind.
“We bet on the wrong horse,” the group said in a statement. “There is no place for violence in our politics.”
Pena, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, was allowed to run after a judge ruled that since he was qualified to vote he could hold office. Under New Mexico law, felons can have voting rights restored after serving sentences.
Three year-old Hasnet Walizada, whose family escaped from Afghanistan, watches videos on a mobile phone at their home in Epping, New Hampshire, U.S. July 28, 2022. Mohammad and Miriam Walizada and their family fled Afghanistan in August 2021 and are settling in the United States with the help of the Sponsor Circle program. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo
Groups of Americans will be able to directly sponsor refugees for resettlement in the United States under a new program launching on Thursday, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters, a step that could bolster admissions and reduce government costs.
Under the pilot program, which will be called the Welcome Corps, groups of at least five people will be expected to raise a minimum of $2,275 per refugee assigned to them by the government, one of the people said. The sponsor groups will also be required to pass background checks and create a support plan.
The program will aim to find U.S. sponsors for 5,000 refugees in fiscal year 2023, which ends on Sept. 30, another of the sources said.
The individual sponsorship program for refugees – similar to a model used in Canada – is part of a broader effort by U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to provide opportunities for Americans to support foreigners seeking protection.
Earlier this month, Biden rolled out a humanitarian entry program that allows up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter via “parole” if they have U.S. sponsors and travel by air. The administration also used parole to admit Afghans and Ukrainians and piloted sponsor programs to support them in the United States.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Welcome Corps program will bring in refugees through the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program, which takes referrals from the United Nations and U.S. embassies. Biden set a cap of 125,000 refugee admissions this fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2022, but only 6,750 arrived from October-December, according to program data.
The United States greatly curtailed refugee entries under Republican former President Donald Trump, who portrayed them as a security threat. Admissions have yet to rebound to pre-Trump levels.
Sasha Chanoff, founder of RefugePoint, which identifies people in need of resettlement, said the sponsorships could be one of the most significant developments for the U.S. refugee program since it began in 1980.
“It invites Americans to get involved in new ways,” he said.
Traders work on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Wednesday after weak economic data and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials sparked worries that the central bank will keep tightening policy, perhaps enough to cause a recession.
Before the market opened, U.S. economic data showed retail sales and producer prices declined more than expected in December. Also production at U.S. factories fell more than expected in December and output in the prior month was weaker than previously thought.
“It seems that investors are finally coming to the conclusion that getting inflation under control is not a free lunch and that all the tightening the Fed has had to do to get inflation moving in the right direction, comes with economic costs,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede.
“Investors may have had this false belief that this soft landing scenario was a higher probability event than it actually is.”
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 62.12 points, or 1.56%, to end at 3,928.85 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) lost 138.17 points, or 1.25%, to 10,956.95. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 615.67 points, or 1.81%, to 33,296.63.
With Wall Street’s major averages showing gains so far for 2023, Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA research, said some investors saw the week data as an opportunity to take profits.
“The market was overbought. Today’s economic data served as a trigger to initiate a profit taking spell and the groups with most profits to take have been the ones that have done best last year,” said Stovall.
Earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester stressed on the need to raise rates beyond 5% to bring inflation to heel.
The Fed commentary also highlighted the disparity between the U.S. central bank’s estimate of its terminal rate and market expectations, which were of the rate peaking at 4.88% by June. Traders are now betting on a 25-basis point rate hike in February.
Investors are also focused on the fourth-quarter earnings season as a window into how corporate America is doing against the backdrop of higher interest rates.
Analysts now expect year-over-year earnings from S&P 500 companies to decline 2.6% for the quarter, according to Refinitiv data, compared with a 1.6% decline in the beginning of the year.
IBM Corp (IBM.N) shares were in the red after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company’s shares to “equal weight” from “overweight”.
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) shares rose after reporting data which demonstrated the effectiveness of its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc (PNC.N) shares tumbled after the company missed estimates for its fourth-quarter profit.
The United Nations headquarters building is pictured though a window with the UN logo in the foreground in the Manhattan borough of New York August 15, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES)
The United Nations on Wednesday called out inefficiencies in the operation of a deal allowing Ukraine Black Sea grain exports, but did not lay blame for a backlog of more than 100 ships in Turkish waters waiting on travel approval and inspections.
Under the deal agreed by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations in July, ships are inspected in Turkish waters on their way to and from Ukraine. The four parties work together to approve and inspect ships traveling under the agreement.
“The United Nations urges all parties to work to remove obstacles for the reduction of the backlog and improve operational efficiencies,” it said in a statement.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield last week accused Russia of a “deliberate slowdown of inspections,” saying that 5 million tonnes of food a month should be moving under the agreement.
The Russian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thomas-Greenfield’s remark.
“We have been pushing to get more inspections. We’ve been pushing to make sure that the inspections proceed quickly and thoroughly,” deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said. “Everything has to be done with the cooperation of all the parties, and we’re trying to do everything we can to move it faster.”
Since November, three inspection teams have been deployed daily and so far this month have concluded 5.3 inspections a day, said the United Nations, adding: “In the last two weeks, the average waiting time of vessels between application and inspection is 21 days.”
It said some 3.7 million metric tonnes in Ukrainian exports moved under the deal in December, up from 2.6 million in November, while during the past two weeks nearly 1.2 million metric tonnes of exports shipped.
The package deal also includes facilitating Russia food and fertilizer exports, including ammonia, and the United Nations has been trying to negotiate a restart of Russian ammonia shipments via a pipeline to a Ukrainian Black Sea port.
“The parties negotiating on how to get ammonia to the market through the Togliatti/Yuzhny pipeline are still in discussions and are yet to reach an agreement,” the United Nations said.
Ammonia is a key ingredient in nitrate fertilizer. Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbor had stalled Ukraine’s Black Sea exports of foodstuffs and also shut down the ammonia pipeline.
The section will focus on how people can take action to address the climate crisis in their homes, businesses, and communities.
One Planet will include stories from Insider’s entire global newsroom.
In September 2022, Insider published its first Climate Action 30 list, featuring 30 global leaders working toward climate solutions. Honorees were invited to use the Insider platform to issue calls to action that would inspire our audience to think and take action.
“I urge global leaders to take an intersectional approach to climate justice and consider that people of color face the brunt of the climate crisis,” Leah Thomas, one of the honorees and the author of “The Intersectional Environmentalist,” told Insider.
Another finalist, Georges Tijbosch, the CEO of MiQ, said: “We must focus on high-impact actions. Perfect cannot be the enemy of the good as we transition to a renewable future.”
Today, Insider is launching a new destination — One Planet — that draws inspiration from the messages of Climate Action 30.
One Planet is Insider’s new hub for climate news, analysis, and action
One Planet aims to report on progress to combat the climate crisis and surface tangible steps that every person can take to drive change — at home, in the workplace, and in their communities.
The One Planet destination will feature stories from around the world on everything from sustainable travel and products to environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, considerations in investing and large-scale transition. We will cover climate justice and the Global South, as well as spotlight breakthrough technology and leaders who are innovating in their fields.
Our reporting will be enhanced with photography and video storytelling to bring these pressing issues and opportunities to life. The project will also convene in-person and virtual events adjacent to the world’s biggest global climate activations, such as COP28 and Climate Week NYC.
Underpinning One Planet will be the spirit of entrepreneurship and the innovations and technologies that will unlock climate progress.
“As the publication for people who want to make life better, Insider’s goals for One Planet are threefold: to help our audience understand what’s happening to our world — both on the personal and macro level — due to climate change; to identify and scrutinize potential solutions; and to hold powerful people who say they are solving these problems to account,” said Nicholas Carlson, Insider’s global editor in chief.
Journalists from across Insider’s global newsroom will contribute to One Planet
One Planet will be led by editor Lily Katzman, who also edited the Climate Action 30 project. Insider’s sustainability coverage is helmed by senior editor Tim Paradis and senior reporter Catherine Boudreau, though contributors to this section will span the newsroom, as well as our bureaus in London and Singapore.
For Earth Month in April, One Planet will feature a report on sustainable-technology innovation and partnerships, a gallery of women in climate leadership, and a guide to travel that’s good for you and the planet.
“One Planet is a place where readers can come to feel educated and inspired to make an impact in their own world, whether big or small,” Katzman said. “Through this newsroom-wide initiative, we have the opportunity to think about climate action holistically across our business, life, news, and service divisions, while exploring new formats that empower our readers to make change.”
The newly released court document reveals what investigators found in Kohberger’s home, including “8 possible hair strands,” and stains described as “reddish/brown,” and a “dark red spot,” among others.
Should we pray for the State of Israel? I certainly think so, but some of my rabbinic colleagues have proclaimed that, in light of their disagreement with Israel’s new governing coalition, their congregations will stop reciting the usual prayer for the State of Israel. That prayer was written in 1948 by some combination of Chief Rabbis Isaac Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel and edited by Noble laureate Shai (S.Y.) Agnon. For decades, its prominent recitation on Shabbat and holiday mornings has been de rigueur at Zionist congregations.
“How can we pray for the success of a government with which we disagree so vehemently? How can we claim that the State of Israel represents the ‘first flowering of our redemption’ (reishit tz’michat ge’ulateinu)? This is not the redemption we have been praying for!” So claim those who have stopped reciting it.
This is hardly the first time that people who disagree with an Israeli government have proposed omitting the prayer. The suggestion has been made several times by both the right and the left. In the early nineties, when Israel was in negotiations with the PLO for what became the Oslo Accords, prominent religious right-win Zionist rabbis proposed omitting the prayer. In 1995, with Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination, rabbis on the left began omitting it. In 2005, some on the right again omitted it in relation to the disengagement from Gaza. And now, with the ascendance of a far-right government, the pendulum has swung once again.
But this misguided proposal is based on two mistakes.
First, the prayer is not about any government. There are prayers about governments which have been recited for centuries by diaspora Jewish communities. Commonly known as “Prayer for our Government” or the “Prayer for our Country,” they are explicit petitions to God that He bless the leaders of government. Often, such a prayer was mandated by the governments themselves, and congregations recited it whether or not they supported their foreign rulers (imagine praying for the Tsar during times of pogroms).
However, the beautiful prayer that we recite for Israel is hardly a prayer for Israel’s government. It is a prayer for peace in the state, its inhabitants, the land, the nation; it is a prayer about the Jewish people’s national and spiritual aspirations. It is decidedly not a prayer about a specific individual or the preservation of any government. One line in the prayer does beseech God to send His light and His truth to Israel’s leaders and ministers – but wouldn’t we wish that for any government?
Second, the expression that declares Israel to be a part of the redemptive process includes many qualifications. The prayer does not ask God to bless the State of Israel “which marks our redemption” or even “which marks the flowering of our redemption.” There are two qualifications to redemption: reishit (the beginning of) tz’michat (the flowering or budding) ge’ulateinu (our redemption). The Chief Rabbis wisely qualified any attributions of redemption so as to not make any bold theological claims. Whatever the government may be, it is self-evident that the ingathering of the Jewish people to the land of Israel in which we govern ourselves is of great historic and national significance.
I understand, in principle, how one could view the state as having no religious or redemptive significance. However, it is not reasonable to believe that Israel represented the earliest stages of a national redemptive process with one government but not the next. Which government happens to be elected and what their specific policies might be have little to do with the religious significance of the state of Israel and our support for it.
The fact is that we commemorate and celebrate partial successes. The exodus from Egypt was only a first step toward redemption, and we celebrate Passover. Shavuot too celebrates a first step — there was no guarantee the Israelites would keep the Torah and fulfill its commandments. Similar caveats are true for the rabbinic holidays of Hanukkah and Purim. The story of the Jewish people in the land of Israel does not conclude with the standing of the state today. But it is an important part of our story, one worth celebrating.
Actions of any government that run counter to our values and ideals must give us pause, and we have every right to disagree and protest in response. But one government or another does not change the significance of the state of Israel in broader Jewish history, and we don’t need to stop saying that it is the beginning of the beginning of a process. We certainly should not stop praying for the state, its people, our land, or for God’s light to help those who lead it.
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