Your Friday Briefing: School shooting in Thailand

By Jonathan Wolfe

Good morning. We’re covering a mass shooting in Thailand and growing Russian dissent.

School shooting in Thailand

A former police officer armed with a handgun and knife attacked a child-care facility in northeastern Thailand yesterday, killing 36 people, including 24 children. It was the deadliest mass shooting ever carried out by a lone perpetrator in the Southeast Asian nation.

Witnesses described a scene of terror inside the Child Development Center Uthaisawan, as the attacker shot and stabbed more than 20 children, some as young as 2, and fatally stabbed a teacher who was eight months pregnant. Follow live updates here.

The attacker then shot and killed his wife and their 4-year-old child before killing himself, according to officials. The toll in Thursday’s massacre surpassed that of an attack in 2020, when a soldier armed with an assault rifle killed at least 29 people at a military base and a shopping mall.

Details: The gunman was identified as Panya Kamrab, 34, a former corporal who was fired from the police force in June after he was arrested on drug possession charges, according to the Royal Thai Police, the national police force.

Context: Thailand, a majority Buddhist country of about 69 million, has some of Asia’s highest rates of gun ownership, although the levels are far lower than those in the U.S. It also has some of the continent’s highest rates of gun homicide, but mass shootings are rare.

Rising Russian discontent

President Vladimir Putin of Russia is facing growing dissent over the invasion of Ukraine from within the pro-war camp.

The latest salvo came yesterday, when a Russian-installed occupation official in Ukraine upbraided the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu. The official said Shoigu should consider killing himself because of the Russian Army’s failures in Ukraine.

Last month, it was largely pro-Russian bloggers who were voicing anger over Russia’s military failings. But after Russian forces were forced to retreat in two other sections of the front line in the last week, prominent officials have increasingly joined the chorus.

A common thread in the rising criticism has been that Russia’s military was unprepared for a real war. Many Russian hawks celebrated Putin’s draft as a way of turning the tide in the war but criticized the military for its poor execution of it.

Background: The criticism comes after the ruler of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya published a tirade against the military leadership over the weekend. His statement appeared to open the floodgates, especially after the Kremlin did nothing in public to punish the Chechen leader.

More war news:

• The U.N.’s nuclear agency said it did not recognize Russia’s claim to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

• Swedish investigators say that the evidence in the Nord Stream pipeline’s leaks points to sabotage.
• Tens of thousands of Russian men fleeing the draft have ended up in places that normally receive few refugees but are willing to take them, like Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet territory.
• New arms brokers are cashing in as the Biden administration quietly encourages private weapons sales to Ukraine.

China’s debt diplomacy

China was the lender of choice for many nations over the past decade, doling out funds for governments to build bullet trains, hydroelectric dams, airports and superhighways. Now, as the global economy slows, China has the power to cut those nations off, lend them more money or forgive small portions of their debts.

The economic distress in poor countries is palpable, given the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with high food and energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The nature of China’s loans is compounding the challenges.

China issues a far greater number of loans to poor countries at adjustable interest rates than Western governments or multilateral institutions do. With global interest rates rising swiftly, debt payments are soaring when these nations can least afford to pay. And their weak currencies make it even more costly for many of them to repay China’s loans, almost all of which must be paid off in dollars.

Related: The leader of the International Monetary Fund said the body would downgrade its growth projections for next year in an upcoming report.

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THE LATEST NEWS

• Myanmar sentenced the Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota to 10 years in prison for violating sedition and communications laws.
• China defeated calls for further scrutiny by the top U.N. human rights agency over abuses targeting the Uyghur people and other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region.

• Universities across Iran have erupted in protests after being politically dormant for more than a decade, with students joining the unrest that has convulsed the country for the past three weeks.
• President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under U.S. law.
• The U.S. will begin screening air passengers from Uganda for Ebola.
• U.S. Special Operations forces killed an Islamic State leader yesterday in a rare operation inside Syrian government territory, according to a Syrian Kurdish security official.
• More than 20 people are believed to have died after two boats carrying migrants sank near Greece.

• The Nobel Prize in Literature went to Annie Ernaux, a French novelist and memoirist whose intensely personal books have spoken to generations of women.
• France unveiled its biggest energy conservation measures in decades, part of an effort in Europe to save power as Russia cuts gas supplies.

• Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen have reportedly hired divorce lawyers.

Dr. Li Wenliang was widely regarded in China as a heroic truth-teller. He had been punished by the authorities for trying to warn others about the coronavirus, and then, in a terrible turn, became severely sickened by it. A New York Times video investigation reveals new details about his death.

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ARTS AND IDEAS

Ebola spreads in Uganda

Uganda is racing to contain an Ebola outbreak driven by a strain of the virus that is resistant to existing immunization shots. A celebrated vaccine that was effective in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 2018-22 outbreak has proved unsuccessful against the Sudanese strain of the virus that is currently driving cases up.

Two vaccine candidates could offer protection against the Sudanese strain, but they have yet to reach the clinical-trial phase, Dr. Patrick Otim, the World Health Organization’s health emergency officer for the Africa region, said during a news conference on Thursday.

Once approved, there are roughly 100 doses of one of the candidates that are ready to be administered, Dr. Otim said. If a successful vaccine is identified, manufacturing may bring another delay.

Uganda has recorded 44 Ebola cases, the W.H.O. said. Ten people have died, four of them health workers. The death toll could be as high as 30, with 20 probable cases who succumbed to the virus before it could be identified.

For now, the authorities are reliant on proven methods, like contact tracing and isolation. A mobile lab, erected in the outbreak’s epicenter in the last few days, has cut down the turnaround time for testing to six hours from 24, said Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the W.H.O.’s representative in Uganda. Still, the virus has spread to five districts.

“If sufficient resources are there, yes, we can cope,” Dr. Woldemariam said.

— Lynsey Chutel, briefings writer based in Johannesburg

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

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Play the Mini Crossword, and here’s a clue: “Mourning” bird (4 letters).

Here are today’s Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Jonathan

P.S. The word “ecofiction” appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday in a story about a climate novelist who transcends despair.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is on the struggle to control inflation.

You can reach Jonathan and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

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