Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - ‘They could’ve been shot’

Texas state and local police are under siege for their shifting explanations as to why they stood by for an hour and 18 minutes as a gunman shot 21 people dead, including 19 children, inside an elementary school classroom. Heavily armed federal agents reportedly arrived much earlier than previously stated by Texas police, but were prevented by them from entering the school. When asked why a crowd of law enforcement officers gathered outside the school in Uvalde, Texas, didn’t move in earlier, one Texas police official explained that they “could’ve been shot.” Later, police said they thought the gunman was barricaded by himself inside the school, though students calling 911 indicated otherwise. By the end of Friday, Texas police admitted to making the “wrong decision.” Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said: “If I thought it would help, I would apologize.” —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Russian troops are making steady progress in Ukraine’s east on the back of more-concentrated artillery and air power, now controlling almost all of the Luhansk region and threatening to encircle thousands of Ukraine’s most experienced troops. While that’s sparking fears Russia could be poised for a bigger breakthrough, leading to calls from Kyiv for even more powerful offensive weapons, some analysts are warning against drawing conclusions from incremental movements on a relatively small part of the battlefield. Meanwhile, Russia’s blockade of food shipments and the global hunger crisis that could ensue spurred NATO’s potential new Supreme Allied Commander to warn America may need to get involved.

With Viktor Orban standing in the way of the European Union’s proposed ban on Russian oil, some bloc leaders are leaning toward a deal that would ban seaborne oil while temporarily sparing deliveries through a key pipeline to give landlocked Hungary and its leader more time. 

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on Friday, just after Athens assisted the U.S. in seizing an Iranian oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea over alleged sanctions violations.

The US and Taiwan are planning to announce negotiations to deepen economic ties in a fresh challenge to Beijing. The talks would focus on enhancing economic cooperation and supply-chain resiliency. A deal is likely to include areas of trade facilitation, supply-chain work and trade in agricultural products—elements similar to the pillars in the 13-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that President Joe Biden announced during his visit to Tokyo this week. 

Last year, Colombia was roiled by weeks of unrest which left dozens dead at the hands of security forces. It was initially sparked by an attempt to raise taxes, but morphed into a mass protest movement against police brutality, corruption and inequality, among other grievances. Now, the country is on the cusp of voting in an anti-establishment candidate who may steer the country away from Washington.

Gustavo Petro, left, and Federico Gutierrez, during a presidential debate in Bogota on May 23. Photographer: Nathalia Angarita/Bloomberg

Zambia’s new business-friendly president faces a dilemma: risk a political backlash by returning mining shafts seized from an Indian company—one his mines minister labeled the nation’s worst-ever investor—or prolong a three-year dispute over one of its most important assets.

Ankiti Bose, fired last week as chief executive officer of Singapore startup Zilingo, says she’ll keep fighting to clear her name. The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her after an investigation into claims of “serious financial irregularities.” The probe included questions about Zilingo’s accounting practices and payments to several service providers of more than $7 million that were signed by her without the knowledge of senior executives. Once a shining example of the potential for tech startups in Southeast Asia, Zilingo ran into trouble after internal whistleblowers voiced complaints that triggered conflicts between Bose and her longtime backers. Now Zilingo’s very survival is in question. 

Ankiti Bose Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg

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Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour spent 18 months trying to get permission to start a controversial new type of financial exchange, one where instead of betting on equity prices or commodity futures, people could trade instruments tied to the outcomes of real-world events, like proposed legislation, Oscar nominations or even weather forecasts. Seen by regulators as the equivalent of gambling and providing incentive for investors to cheat, the concept had been roundly rejected in the past. But in 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, then controlled by nominees of Donald Trump, called the two entrepreneurs and said yes. 

The Bloomberg Evening Briefing will return on Tuesday, May 31.

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