FirstFT: Putin launches retaliation over Crimea bridge explosion

Vladimir Putin has described Russia’s air strikes on Ukraine, its most intensive for the reason that early weeks of his seven-month invasion, as retaliation for the bombing of the bridge linking Russia to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

Talking at a gathering of his safety council yesterday, the Russian president accused Kyiv of a “terrorist assault” on the Kerch bridge, broken by an explosion on Saturday, and stated “leaving such against the law and not using a response is simply unattainable”.

Although Putin claimed the targets had been navy, vitality and communications property, early footage and proof of the injury confirmed {that a} playground and a bridge in central Kyiv had been hit, in addition to civilian infrastructure throughout the nation. Russia’s defence ministry stated its strikes “hit all of the assigned targets”.

The Russian military has been shedding floor in areas of south-eastern Ukraine that Putin unilaterally claimed as a part of Russia final month. On Saturday, Moscow suffered a blow to its status after the assault on the bridge, a logo of the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, which it had claimed to be properly guarded.

The strikes killed at the least 10 individuals and injured at the least 60, Maryanna Reva, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s police, stated on state tv, citing preliminary particulars.

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Thanks for studying FirstFT Asia. Now, right here is the remainder of at this time’s information — Emily

5 extra tales within the information

1. China chip shares fall arduous owing to US export controls Shares in high Chinese language chipmakers shed $8.6bn in market value yesterday as new US export controls threatened to hinder Beijing’s plans for technological self-sufficiency.

2. EY accused of whitewashing suspicious trades Whistleblowers have accused EY of whitewashing suspicions of money laundering and tax evasion in an investigation it performed this 12 months for longstanding consumer Leonteq. The fintech firm stated it had “a strict zero tolerance coverage concerning non-compliant enterprise behaviour” and that each one allegations had been “managed, monitored and reported with due care and course of”.

3. Tesla hits China gross sales document Tesla’s gross sales in China have hit a new monthly high, reportedly promoting 83,000 automobiles in September, simply as Elon Musk garnered reward from Beijing for proposing to resolve the geopolitical disaster over Taiwan by inserting it in a particular administrative zone just like Hong Kong.

4. Iranian celebrities fan flames of anti-regime protests Protests over the loss of life of Mahsa Amini have widened to incorporate calls for a secular, democratic government. The unrest has been amplified by social media and, in some circumstances, celebrities with massive on-line followings.

5. Ex-Fed chair Bernanke wins Nobel economics prize Ben Bernanke, the previous US Federal Reserve chair, has been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in economics along with Douglas Diamond of the College of Chicago and Philip Dybvig of Washington College, for his or her work on the position of banks within the financial system and monetary crises.

• Extra US financial system information: JPMorgan Chase chief government Jamie Dimon predicted the US financial system will probably tip into a recession next year, warning the downturn threatened to spark “panic” in credit score markets.

The day forward

G7 name with Ukrainian president Leaders will maintain an emergency meeting with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to debate Monday’s Russian missile assaults on Ukrainian cities.

UAE president to satisfy Putin Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan will travel to Moscow to satisfy his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at this time, the UAE state information company has reported. The go to comes days after Opec’s oil output reduce, which was made regardless of US strain in opposition to the transfer.

Meta Platforms’ Join occasion The corporate will maintain its annual showcase of new augmented and virtual reality products, together with the a lot touted headset codenamed Mission Cambria. (TechCrunch)

International Monetary Stability Report IMF publishes its report assessing the worldwide monetary system and markets.

What else we’re studying

The risk to freedom of expression in India India’s clamorous public sq. and disquisitive journalistic and mental tradition has been some extent of satisfaction for a lot of residents. However some now decry a clampdown on freedom of expression that, they are saying, has widened past media organisations and journalists to public intellectuals, think-tanks and comedians, too.

Why I’d somewhat have Liz Truss than Xi Jinping as a frontrunner The twentieth nationwide congress of the Chinese language Communist social gathering can be all the pieces that the Tory social gathering convention was not: choreographed, disciplined and united in help for an omnipotent chief. However the democratic British mess is preferable to China’s authoritarian mannequin, writes Gideon Rachman.

The brand new guidelines for enterprise in a post-neoliberal world Over 40 years in the past, the Reagan-Thatcher revolution was born. Taxes had been slashed, unions had been squashed, markets had been deregulated and international capital unleashed. However financial pendulums swing and, over the previous couple of weeks, it’s develop into fairly clear that something remotely associated to trickle-down theory is now political Kryptonite, writes Rana Foroohar.

Chinese language tech teams financial institution on digital influencers Virtual idols are having a moment. Over the previous 12 months, Chinese language funding and tech teams have ploughed a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into firms that develop digital influencers, which thought of a safer choice than human celebrities who may very well be deemed too politically outspoken or having questionable morals.

Why Musk didn’t exit his Twitter bid Earlier than out of the blue indicating final week that he needed to finish the buyout on the unique phrases, Elon Musk had apparently been wavering on his deal to purchase Twitter. However the US court docket ruling over generic drugmaker Akorn serves as a lesson of how arduous it will be for any company acquirer in related circumstances, to stroll away, writes Sujeet Indap.

Podcast

The Prince, Sue-Lin Wong’s chilling collection in regards to the Chinese language president Xi Jinping, is “a Machiavellian story of energy”. The brand new podcast from the Economist charts Xi’s rise through the ranks and the primary world occasions, from the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath to the autumn of the Soviet Union, that helped form his world view.