Good morning. We're covering Western tank pledges to Ukraine and natural gas shortages in China. |
 | | Experts think that Leopard 2 tanks could be critical for Ukraine. Felix Schmitt for The New York Times |
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Yesterday, Germany and the U.S. pledged to send tanks to Ukraine after weeks of diplomatic maneuvering. The pledges could unlock a wave of additional aid ahead of an expected escalation of fighting in the spring. |
The decision by Germany to authorize other nations to transfer their own Leopards prompted officials in Finland, the Netherlands and Spain to say that they would seek to send tanks to Ukraine, or that they were open to doing so. |
Diplomacy: Germany made clear that it would send the Leopards only if the U.S. sent the Abrams. Yesterday, President Biden and Olaf Scholz, Germany's leader, coordinated their announcements after weeks of negotiations. |
 | | China's meteorology agency issued nationwide warnings this week of very cold weather.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Natural gas runs short in China |
China's national government has told local governments to provide heat, but it has not given them money to pay for it. Mass-testing campaigns in the final days of "zero Covid" drained their coffers. As a result, provincial and municipal governments have reduced customary subsidies for natural gas, which used to keep a lid on heating bills. |
Now, gas is effectively being rationed, with households receiving the minimum needed for cooking food but very little for heat. Tens of millions of people are angry, and their frustration has spilled over to social media. "Nothing seems to be working, partly because nobody seems to have much cash," one expert said. |
Weather: China, like Europe, has long relied on Russia for some of its gas. But Europe has had an unusually warm winter, which has pushed gas prices lower there and helped countries get through the squeeze. In China, by contrast, unusually bitter temperatures have pushed gas prices higher. |
Opinion: It's in the best interest of the U.S. to help China develop new treatments to blunt Covid's spread, Michael V. Callahan argues. |
 | | Efforts to suppress "India: The Modi Question" have actually whipped up interest.Arun Chandrabose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Modi suppresses a documentary |
"India: The Modi Question" focuses on the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, which killed about 1,000 people, most of whom were Muslim. Critics accused Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, of clearing the way for the carnage, or turning a blind eye to it. One major revelation in the film: A previously unreported British investigation found Modi "directly responsible" for the mass killings. |
Modi's government is getting help from international social media companies. Alphabet, YouTube's parent company, cooperated with India to block segments from appearing on the site. Even Twitter, which has historically resisted barring content at India's direction, also blocked posts linking to the footage. |
Reaction: Students are enduring police detention and attacks from masked men to set up screenings. "By doing this," a student activist said, "they are making this documentary more popular, and now everyone wants to watch it." |
Details: Modi's government is deploying "I.T. rules," passed in 2021, that allow it to suppress virtually any online information. The government has historically used the laws in its ongoing crackdown on press freedom. |
 | | "This is the biggest privilege and responsibility of my life," Chris Hipkins said after he took office as New Zealand's prime minister.Marty Melville/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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- Chris Hipkins is now New Zealand's prime minister. He said the cost of living was his "absolute priority," The Guardian reports.
- A short seller accused the Adani Group, a conglomerate founded by India's richest man, of pulling off "the largest con in corporate history." The news sent shares of its companies tumbling.
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 | | Io is caught in a pressurized, explosive dance.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM |
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- After extensive harm-reduction campaigns, deaths from cars and cigarettes in the U.S. have fallen. Nicholas Kristof suggests applying that model to gun violence.
- A short documentary by Theresa Traore Dahlberg shows the daily claustrophobia of life as an ambassador's wife based in Burkina Faso.
- Afghans trained by the U.S. are now fighting for Russia, writes Thomas Kasza, an American soldier.
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 | | The convex mirrors, once more closely associated with interstates than influencers, have become home decor.Marilyne Moja Mwangi for The New York Times |
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Now, they're into the traffic mirror. (Some commenters on TikTok praise them as "bus driver core," though the fish-eye look recalls the 1990s, which Gen Z often emulates.) "It looks funny," a 24-year-old said. "But it looks funny on purpose." |
Lives lived: Balkrishna Doshi, the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Prize, helped develop Indian modernism. "We wanted to find our own identity," he said. He died at 95. |
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, arrived in Africa this week for his second diplomatic tour in less than a year. While Russia has relied on a longstanding diplomatic network on the continent, Ukraine has far fewer embassies there. |
Still, as the war in Ukraine nears the end of its first year, many African countries have remained neutral. Lavrov's visit began in South Africa, with stops in Botswana and Eswatini before he headed to Angola, an important oil producer. Along the way, he extended invitations to a Russia-Africa summit in July. The trip overlaps with tours by two top U.S. officials: the ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. |
Yellen, who was visiting Senegal, Zambia and South Africa, warned that Russia's "barbaric aggression" was hurting African economies, particularly through rising food prices. |
Thomas-Greenfield said, "Africa is key to pressuring Russia because we need to send a strong, unified message to Russia that what they are doing in Ukraine is unacceptable." |
Lavrov is expected to be back in the coming weeks for a planned visit to North Africa. —Lynsey Chutel, a Briefings writer in Johannesburg |
 | | David Malosh for The New York Times |
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For an easy salad, let a mustard vinaigrette soak into raw broccoli. Then, add Cheddar. |
On the Times podcast "The Ezra Klein Show," a Johns Hopkins professor argues that China is an "autocracy with democratic characteristics." |
Play the Mini Crossword, and here's a clue: Fuzzy fruits (five letters). |
That's it for today's briefing. See you next time. — Amelia |
P.S. "The 1619 Project," a six-part limited docuseries based on the Times project on race and slavery in the U.S., premiers on Hulu today. |
"The Daily" is on a Times investigation into nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. |
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