Good morning. We’re covering Russia’s looming control over Sievierodonetsk and China’s forceful statements on Taiwan. |
 | | Ukrainian soldiers are struggling to hold off Russian forces in the east. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times |
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Russia closes in on Sievierodonetsk |
Ukraine has poured troops and resources into holding the city, its last holdout in Luhansk. Capturing Sievierodonetsk would give President Vladimir Putin a key victory in his bid to control the industrial Donbas region, which includes Luhansk. Civilians in Lysychansk, a neighboring city, are leaving. |
Ukrainian troops in the east are suffering heavy casualties — at least 100 soldiers are dying each day — and running short on ammunition. The country’s leaders are pressing the U.S. and other Western allies for longer-range weapons as Russia targets artillery supplies: Moscow said it had destroyed American and European antitank and antimissile systems in a military warehouse in western Ukraine. Here are live updates. |
Diplomacy: American efforts to expand support for Ukraine beyond the West have stalled. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was working to shore up backing for Ukraine’s application to join the E.U. |
Africa: The worst drought in four decades, and a sharp rise in food prices caused by the war in Ukraine, have left almost half of Somalia’s people facing acute food shortages. |
Russification: The Kremlin began formally issuing Russian passports to Ukrainians living under occupation in the south on Saturday, even as Moscow’s forces confront a growing insurgency there. |
 | | “Taiwan independence is a dead end, a delusion,” Gen. Wei Fenghe said.Roslan Rahman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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China’s saber rattling on Taiwan |
China’s defense minister said that Beijing wouldn’t “flinch from the cost” of defending its claims to Taiwan if the island takes a decisive step toward independence. |
At a regional security forum in Singapore, the defense minister, Gen. Wei Fenghe, said that China sought peaceful unification with Taiwan. But he added that “no one should ever underestimate the resolve and capabilities of China’s armed forces” and that China would “resolutely smash any schemes for Taiwan independence.” |
Wei’s statements came a day after meeting with the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. Afterward, Austin spoke to assembled leaders at the forum, and warned China against what he called “provocative and destabilizing” military activities near Taiwan. |
Background: Officials and experts disagree over how imminent a military clash over Taiwan might be. But most believe that the danger is rising as China moves closer to amassing the equipment and skills needed to invade the island. |
Details: Austin said the Biden administration did not support Taiwan independence and remained committed to a “one China” principle, which acknowledges — but does not endorse — Beijing’s position on Taiwan. Wei indicated that Chinese leaders did not believe such reassurances. |
 | | Muslim protestors in Uttar Pradesh threw stones at the police on Friday.Ritesh Shukla/Reuters |
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Muslims protest Indian comments |
Two young protesters were killed in eastern India on Friday, at one of several demonstrations by Muslims across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives to protest comments by Indian government officials. |
Last week, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party made speculative comments on a television talk show about the relationship between the Prophet Muhammad and his youngest wife. |
Those comments, and another one by a party official, prompted outrage: Seventeen Muslim nations condemned the remarks and lodged official diplomatic protests. Even Iran and Saudi Arabia, which rarely agree on anything, summoned meetings with India’s envoys in their capitals to complain. |
Context: Modi has often been accused of stirring anti-Muslim sentiment or remaining silent after Hindu nationalists have attacked Muslims. But this time, India’s government raced to try to contain the growing diplomatic fallout. |
Details: In Uttar Pradesh, an Indian state governed by one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s most vociferous Hindu nationalists, the police fired tear gas and charged protesters with batons, NDTV reported. Authorities also demolished the homes of several people thought to have participated in protests, Reuters reported. |
Bangladesh: The country did not condemn the comments — its leader, Sheikh Hasina, enjoys close political ties with Modi. Still, thousands took to the streets in Dhaka, the capital, to criticize the Indian officials and their own government, The Associated Press reported. |
 | | Migrants traveling from Venezuela to the U.S.Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times |
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- A caravan of 6,000 migrants, many from Venezuela, set off toward the U.S. border from southern Mexico, as leaders from across the Americas met to discuss migration and other issues.
- Jeanine Añez, Bolivia’s former president, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a trial that has raised concerns about politicians using the courts to target opponents.
- Burglars stole a fortune in U.S. dollars from South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa. He never reported the theft, raising questions about corruption and a lurid cover-up.
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 | | Thousands of people across the U.S. protested against gun violence on Saturday. Al Drago for The New York Times |
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- Democratic officials have expressed doubts about whether President Biden should run for re-election.
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 | | The church in Laguna Woods, Calif., where the shooting happened.Mark Abramson for The New York Times |
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David Chou and Pastor Billy Chang were born in the 1950s in Taiwan. Chou’s parents, who had fled the mainland, saw Taiwan as forever a part of China; Cheng’s family had lived on the island for centuries, and he grew to believe that Taiwan had its own identity. |
The Saturday Profile: Ganesh Devy is racing to document India’s languages (and its 12,000 years of history) as the government pushes a Hindi-first agenda. |
How plastic became ‘vegan leather’ |
The marketing masterstroke comes from an influential rating system that ranks plastic products like vegan leather and polyester — which are made from fossil fuels — as more environmentally sound than natural fibers like cotton, wool and leather. |
The system, named the Higg Index, is on its way to becoming a de facto global standard. It was introduced in 2011 by some of the world’s largest fashion brands and retailers as an effort to help shrink their environmental footprint. |
But some experts question whether the index accurately reflects factors like methane emissions from fossil fuels or microplastics shed by fabrics. (The fashion industry is responsible for as much as 8 percent of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide, the U.N. estimates, more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.) |
Nor is it clear that using vegan leather cuts down on waste. Americans, for instance, still eat lots of beef, and in 2020 a record number of hides from slaughtered cattle went to landfills. |
 | | Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Frances Boswell. |
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“Lost Illusions,” an adaptation of a Balzac novel, shows the brazen immorality of 19th-century Parisian literary life. |
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Amelia |
The latest episode of “The Daily” is on Chesa Boudin’s recall in San Francisco. |
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