Good morning. A top Russian general appears to have known about the mutiny in advance. Also, China’s plan to increase its exports. |
 | | Gen. Sergei Surovikin and President Vladimir Putin in December.Mikhael Klimentyev/Sputnik |
|
Who knew about Russia’s mutiny? |
My colleagues in Washington reported that Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who was once Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, knew about the planned revolt. Yesterday, a Kremlin spokesman called The Times’s reporting, based on interviews with U.S. officials, “speculations” and “gossip,” but did not deny it. |
Gen. Viktor Zolotov, the leader of Russia’s National Guard and President Vladimir Putin’s former bodyguard, said that there had been leaks from Prigozhin’s camp. |
U.S. intelligence officials knew about the mutiny but kept silent because they thought that, if they said anything publicly, Putin would accuse them of orchestrating a coup. |
If Surovikin was involved in the planning of the revolt, it would be the latest sign of the infighting that has characterized Russia’s leadership since the war in Ukraine started. Notably, Prigozhin has substantial links to Russia’s elite. And U.S. officials said that he would not have rebelled unless he believed that others in positions of power would come to his aid, a sign that other generals might have supported his mutiny. |
More details: President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus said Putin considered killing Prigozhin, Belarusian state media reported. |
- The death toll from the strike on a popular restaurant in Kramatorsk has climbed to 11.
|
- The Pentagon said it would send an additional $500 million in weapons, including 55 armored vehicles and equipment for clearing minefields.
- A Times analysis shows how Ukraine’s terrain is impeding its counteroffensive.
|
 | | Testing fuel cell units at SinoFuelCell in Shanghai.Qilai Shen for The New York Times |
|
To juice the economy, China looks to exports |
Beijing has allowed its currency, the renminbi, to decline about 7 percent against the dollar since mid-January, making the relative cost of its goods cheaper abroad and potentially setting off a rebound in exports. |
But a flood of Chinese products may provoke blowback in countries that are worried the exports could erode their own economies and cost workers their jobs. In Europe, a key market for Chinese goods, officials are concerned about China’s surging trade surplus. E.U. countries are already struggling to cope with an influx of Chinese cars, and are wary of Beijing’s ties to Russia. |
A new salvo in the chip battle: The U.S. is considering more curbs on tech exports to China — this time on chips that are essential to A.I. News of the potential crackdown sent tech stocks diving. |
The Curse of 35: Many Chinese think that employers won’t hire people over 35, the columnist Li Yuan writes. It’s not clear how much truth there is to the idea, which is circulating on social media, but the rumors are making some potential workers feel defeated. |
 | | Workers at a factory in Coimbatore, India.Atul Loke for The New York Times |
|
India’s graduates are desperate for jobs |
India’s economy is growing at about 6 percent per year, which is a global bright spot. But as India overtakes China to become the most populous nation, that growth is creating job imbalances. |
As more students graduate each year, competition for high-paying positions is fierce. My colleagues traveled to the northern city of Patna, where young people take classes to position themselves to land a government job. It’s a long shot: Nearly 1,800 people apply for each of the top-tier jobs. |
But India also needs workers for manufacturing jobs, which have open positions that they need to fill. The owner of an aluminum die casting factory in Coimbatore, a city thousand miles to the south of Patna, is turning to automation: He said he can’t find enough capable and reliable people to work. |
 | | Demonstrators burned cars and clashed with riot officers in the suburbs of Paris.Zakaria Abdelkafi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
|
- New Zealand is trying to be free of rats by 2050, the BBC reports.
- South Korea’s method of tallying age is now in line with the method used most often in the rest of the world.
|
 | | Smoke over Pittsburgh yesterday.Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via Associated Press |
|
 | | “The Aquidaban” is the only ferry in one of South America’s most remote stretches.Maria Magdalena Arrellaga for The New York Times |
|
Hundreds of people in a remote part of Paraguay have long relied on a single river boat as their ferry, supermarket, freight shipper and bar. On board are Mormon missionaries and Mennonite farmers, Indigenous chiefs and Japanese chefs. |
But as new roads cut into its business, this cultural crossroads may disappear. |
Which is ‘kiki’? Which is ‘bouba’? |
If you said the shape on the left was “bouba,” about 93 percent of Times readers would agree. |
Welcome to the “kiki/bouba” effect, a psycho-linguistics experiment that explores the relationship between nonsense words and abstract shapes. It’s not so clear why so many of us are in accord, but it might have something to do with the “acoustics” of the two words — or the shapes our mouths make when we say them. |
 | | Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
|
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Amelia |
|
