Blinken visits Kyiv as a Russian missile kills 17
At the least 17 individuals had been killed yesterday in a Russian strike on Kostyantynivka, a metropolis in jap Ukraine that’s near the entrance strains, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated. The assault, one of many deadliest strikes in Ukraine in months, got here hours after the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced go to.
The assault hit an outside market round 2 p.m., a time when it’s normally bustling with exercise, Ukrainian officers stated. A baby was amongst these killed, in keeping with the prime minister, and the inside minister stated 32 individuals had been injured.
In Kyiv, Blinken introduced greater than $1 billion in new U.S. assist to Ukraine, together with $665.5 million in army and different safety help. He famous that a lot of the help was supposed not for the present combat however for long-term safety and rebuilding Ukrainian society. In complete, the U.S. has pledged greater than $70 billion in monetary, humanitarian and army help to Ukraine.
The go to from Blinken, who met with Zelensky, got here because the Ukrainian counteroffensive within the southeast gained some traction after three months of grueling combating. Ukrainian troops have damaged by a essential line of Russia’s defenses in a single location, Ukraine’s Military has stated, and are turning their consideration to breaking by in one other closely defended patch of territory.
China’s financial hunch is testing Xi’s agenda
Financial setbacks in China — gloomy customers, sluggish personal funding, excessive youth unemployment and extra — are rising as maybe probably the most sustained problem to Xi Jinping’s agenda in over a decade in energy.
The current troubles have fed an unusually candid home debate in regards to the route of financial coverage beneath Xi, particularly his growth of the state’s management over the economic system. Proponents of the personal sector argue that such statist insurance policies are taking China down a lifeless finish.
Xi now faces a tangle of inauspicious selections. To spur development, he could must open up new sectors for personal entrepreneurs and buyers, or supply monetary assist to debt-saddled native governments. Or he could must push by painful steps that some specialists say are wanted to repair the economic system, equivalent to introducing new taxes.
Africa’s first local weather summit
Leaders from throughout Africa referred to as for an pressing restructuring of the way in which wealthier nations have interaction with the continent as they concluded an inaugural local weather summit yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya.
In a declaration, the leaders careworn that Africa is primed for management on clear vitality and environmental stewardship. However to make that occur, the world’s industrialized nations, that are largely liable for the air pollution that’s inflicting local weather change, should first unlock entry to their wealth by investments, the declaration stated.
A brand new Rolling Stones album
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wooden — the band’s three present members — offered particulars yesterday about their first document of latest materials in 18 years.
The anticipated 12-track “Hackney Diamonds” will likely be launched on Oct. 20, and is the group’s first album of authentic materials because the launch of “A Larger Bang” in 2005. It’s additionally the primary because the drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021.
Followers of the Stones, which shaped in 1962 and are considered one of rock’s most enduring acts, have been awaiting a brand new album since “Blue & Lonesome” in 2016, which featured a dozen blues covers. Though the Stones have stated “Hackney Diamonds” marks a “new period,” Philip Norman, who wrote a serious biography of the group, stated he was anticipating a traditional Stones sound.
“That is the Stones we all know and a few of us have liked for the previous six a long time,” he stated.