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Daily Briefing

The US will lift the COVID-19 border restrictions known as Title 42, Pakistan arrests Imran Khan's party leaders, and Zelenskiy says more time is needed before Ukraine's counteroffensive.

Plus, how Turkey's deadliest quakes in modern times may have unleashed a health catastrophe for a generation.

By Edson Caldas

Today's Top News

Migrants are seen after crossing the Rio Bravo with the intention of turning themselves in to US Border Patrol agents, May 9, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

US NEWS

The United States is set to lift the COVID border restrictions known as Title 42, a major shift that has drawn tens of thousands of migrants to the US-Mexico border, straining local communities and intensifying political divisions. Here's what happens now. The Reuters World News podcast hears from both sides of the border as officials grapple with an increasing number of migrants.
A standoff in Washington over raising the debt ceiling overshadowed a meeting of Group of Seven finance leaders starting today, heightening US recession fears as central banks seek a soft landing for the global economy. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Congress to raise the $31.4 trillion federal debt limit and avert an unprecedented default.

AROUND THE WORLD

Pakistani authorities arrested senior leaders of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party as the government called on the army to help end widespread and deadly protests sparked by Khan's arrest. Tensions remained high in the nation with paramilitary troops and police on the streets in major cities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine is holding fire until more Western armored vehicles arrive before it starts its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory. "We still need a bit more time," Zelenskiy said. Separately, this report looks at how some Russians ended up in a far-right militia fighting in Ukraine.
Around 24 people, a majority of them children, were injured when a temporary pedestrian bridge collapsed in the Finnish city of Espoo, just outside the capital Helsinki. The injuries were not life threatening. Police said the bridge had been built from plywood while construction was ongoing in the area.
A suspect was detained after a shooting at a Mercedes-Benz plant in southwestern Germany left two people dead, adding to pressure on the country to tighten its already-strict gun laws. The suspect was identified as a 53-year-old man.

Business & Markets

China's consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in more than two years in April, while factory gate deflation deepened, suggesting more stimulus may be needed to boost a patchy post-COVID economic recovery. The CPI rose 0.1% year-on-year, the lowest rate since February 2021, and cooling from the 0.7% annual gain seen in March.
The Bank of England raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.5%, taking borrowing costs to their highest since 2008 with its 12th consecutive rate rise, as it seeks to curb the fastest inflation of any major economy.
Google is rolling out more artificial intelligence for its core search product, hoping to create some of the same consumer excitement generated by Microsoft's update to rival search engine Bing. Google already has a Bard chatbot that competes with ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI. We have an explainer on when to Google and when to Bard.
In more AI news, key EU lawmakers agreed changes to draft rules to rein in generative artificial intelligence and proposed a ban on facial surveillance. Following the deal by two European Parliament committees, the plenary will now vote on the draft next month. Here's what governments around the world are doing to regulate AI tools.

Turkey's toxic dust

A boy sits in rubble in the aftermath of earthquakes in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Feb. 18, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Asbestos, silica, mercury and lead are among thousands of toxins released by the huge earthquakes in February that killed more than 54,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Reuters spoke to a dozen experts who said that plumes of dust released from demolished buildings are carrying poisons into rivers and plants, lungs and organs, risking serious health problems for years to come.

These graphics show how Turkey's deadliest quakes in modern times may have unleashed a health catastrophe for a generation.

And Finally...

Ouma Katrina Esau, the last known fluent mother-tongue speaker of the indigenous N|uu language, April 18, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander

When she was a girl in South Africa's Northern Cape, Katrina Esau stopped speaking her mother tongue after being mocked by other people and told it was an "ugly language". Now at age 90, she is the last known speaker of N|uu, one of a group of indigenous languages in South Africa that have been all but stamped out by the impacts of colonialism and apartheid.

Read more here: Last known speaker fights to preserve indigenous language

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