Your Thursday Briefing: A Deadly Helicopter Crash in Ukraine

Ukrainian minister dies in a crash

Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Denys Monastyrsky, was one of at least 14 people who died yesterday in a helicopter crash. He is the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to die since Russia invaded last year. An investigation is underway, but there were no initial signs that the aircraft had been shot down.

The helicopter crash also damaged a kindergarten in a suburb of Kyiv. It happened at 8:20 a.m., a time when parents typically drop their children off at the school. There were conflicting death tolls, but officials said that a child had been killed.

Monastyrsky’s death deals a blow to a ministry that has played a critical role in the war effort: He oversaw police and emergency services and handled rescue efforts after missile strikes. His top deputy was also killed, as well as other pivotal figures in Ukraine’s wartime leadership.

Davos: In a video address to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, called for a moment of silence to remember the victims, then made a passionate speech.

“Tragedies are outpacing life. The tyranny is outpacing democracy,” Zelensky said. “The time the free world uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill.”

Crimea: The U.S. has long refused to give Ukraine the weapons it needs to target Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. But that stance is starting to soften, despite the risk of escalation. Kyiv is looking to strike Russia’s land bridge, a critical supply route that connects Crimea to Russia through the occupied cities of Melitopol and Mariupol.

China’s self-inflicted crisis

Economists are alarmed by China’s recent news that deaths outnumbered births last year for the first time in decades, a situation arriving sooner and more sharply than many experts had forecast.

China’s declining population threatens its position as the most populous country. Its shrinking work force could also hobble the global economy and erode its strength in coming decades. And the government’s efforts to reverse or slow the trend may be too little, and too late.

A shortage of factory employees in China — driven by a more educated workforce and a shrinking number of young people — could raise costs for consumers outside China, potentially exacerbating inflation in countries that rely heavily on imported Chinese products. The shrinking population could also mean a decline in spending by Chinese consumers, which could hurt global businesses that rely on China.

Within China, a plunging birthrate poses a major threat to its embattled real estate sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of its economic output. And a shrinking work force may struggle to support China’s aging population. A 2019 report predicted that the country’s main pension fund, which many older Chinese residents rely on for income, would run out of money by 2035.

Self-inflicted crisis: China sped up its demographic struggles with its one-child policy, which was in effect from 1980 until 2016. Now, the government’s recent attempts to induce a baby boom have failed, as the high cost of housing and education deter potential parents.

A victory for Maria Ressa

In a rare legal win, Maria Ressa, the Philippine journalist and Nobel laureate, was acquitted of tax evasion yesterday.

Ressa is an outspoken critic of both Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, and current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Her uphill battle to keep publishing her news site, Rappler, has become emblematic of the Philippines’ declining press freedoms.

This recent case was the first high-profile test of whether her legal troubles would continue under Marcos; other cases are pending. The new president has benefited from online disinformation and tried to play down the brutality of his father’s dictatorship decades ago, but has declined to attack the country’s mainstream media, as Duterte did.

Background: Philippine authorities began hounding Ressa under Duterte. Rappler aggressively covered his bloody campaign against drugs and drug traffickers, which helped Ressa win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

THE LATEST NEWS

Asia Pacific

• Rafael Nadal, the top seed, is out of the Australian Open. He lost yesterday after he injured his hip.

• After speculation that it would pivot, Bloomberg reports that the Bank of Japan maintained its policy of aggressive sovereign bond purchases and negative interest rates. DealBook has an explainer.

• A Qantas flight traveling from New Zealand to Australia landed safely yesterday after a midflight engine failure, The Guardian reports.

Around the World

• Israel’s Supreme Court blocked the ministerial appointment of a politician who was convicted of tax fraud, as a fight over the judiciary intensifies.

• The U.S. could soon default on its debt. That would be an outright catastrophe, analysts say.

• Nemat Shafik, who runs the London School of Economics, will be the first woman to lead Columbia University.

• Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 people, its largest cut in roughly eight years.

A Morning Read

If women were represented in India’s formal work force at the same rate as men, some estimates suggest, the country’s economy could expand by an additional 60 percent by 2025.

But housing is a major obstacle. Many single women pay more, for a narrower selection of apartments, and brokers often make them promise to never bring men over, drink or live alone.

Lives lived: Sister André, the world’s oldest known person, died at 118. The French nun lived through two world wars, survived Covid and was said to enjoy a daily dose of wine and chocolate.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Singapore’s eats, in New York

A vivid bazaar of Singaporean dishes has opened in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, adapted from a grand concept by Anthony Bourdain. Urban Hawker, the food hall, puts cooks front and center: Most of the 17 vendors relocated from Asia to New York to work there.

One standout is Hainanese chicken rice, perhaps the country’s most recognized dish. Pete Wells, our New York restaurant critic, says it’s “fleshier, softer, more voluptuous than you’d think boiled poultry could be.” Other stalls prepare dishes that started out somewhere else but have adapted to or been adopted by Singaporeans, like biryanis and Malaysian coconut stew.

“You get an overview of Singaporean food unlike any you’ll find in a restaurant,” Pete writes, adding, “The stalls preserve and spotlight the separate origins of the dishes.”

Check out Pete’s review, which has more mouthwatering photos than we can fit in the newsletter. And here is a recipe for Hainanese chicken with rice.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to Cook

Wonton soup comes together in 10 minutes.

What to Read

A new, unabridged volume of Franz Kafka’s diaries, which he ordered a friend to burn, offers revelation upon revelation.

What to Watch

“Beautiful Beings” is a brutal Icelandic drama about boyhood and bullying.

Exercise

Here are tips to become a morning exercise person.

Now Time to Play

Play the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Superstitiously curse (four letters).

Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

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

P.S. Wordle’s editor, Tracy Bennett, discussed “passionate” fans and how she picks words on The Today Show.

“The Daily” looks at facial recognition software.

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