Your Wednesday Briefing: Ukraine gains ground in south

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Yesterday, a brigade of Ukrainian marines appeared to have expelled Russian forces from a town in the Kherson region in the south. Ukraine has made recent gains in the east and northeast as its strategy of attacking two locations at once has left Russia off balance.

But the wins have come with a sad twist: Much of the land Ukraine has reclaimed is nearly empty and in ruins.

Lyman, a strategically important hub, was retaken just a day after Russia declared it had been annexed. But many blocks of the city had been obliterated. About 5,000 residents remained out of a prewar population of 22,000.

In nearby Sviatohirsk, almost every window was blown out of the Roche Royal hotel, and soldiers patrolled empty streets among ruins. “We are liberating land, but without people on it,” a private in the Ukrainian Army said.

In a surprise move, Elon Musk proposed buying Twitter at his original price: $54.20 a share.

The potential deal, a victory for Twitter, would end the acrimonious legal fight between the billionaire and the social media company. In a short statement, Twitter said it had received Musk’s letter and reiterated the company’s intention to close the deal.

Musk struck an agreement with Twitter in April to buy the company for $44 billion. In July, he declared that he no longer intended to complete the acquisition because he believed Twitter’s service was overrun with spam. Soon after, Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the purchase.

The drama has created existential challenges for Twitter, cratering its share price, demoralizing its employees and spooking its advertisers. The litigation was set for a showdown in court this month, and Musk is scheduled to be deposed on Thursday and Friday.

Reaction: Twitter’s shares rose more than 12 percent on the news, before a halt in trading. If Musk does take over Twitter, one of his first big moves with the company could be allowing former President Donald Trump to return.

Around 7:30 a.m. yesterday, residents in northern Japan woke up to alarms bleating from cellphones and public speakers, warning them to seek shelter. North Korea had fired an intermediate range ballistic missile that flew about 2,800 miles (about 4,500 kilometers), the longest distance ever traveled by a North Korean weapon, according to officials in Tokyo and Seoul.

The last time North Korea launched a weapon over Japan was in 2017, when Donald Trump was the U.S. president and Kim Jong-un seemed intent on escalating conflict with Washington.

While other countries have been preoccupied with Russia’s war in Ukraine and global economic woes, North Korea has struggled to reclaim a place in the spotlight. The flyover reminded the Japanese public of the rogue nuclear threat close to home.

Background: Since January, North Korea has carried out 23 missile tests. The provocations have become so frequent that many Japanese had ceased to pay attention until the launch yesterday. The missile landed in the Pacific Ocean.

Asia Pacific

Four British women have been chosen from over 4,000 people to staff a remote U.K. outpost: the outpost on Goudier Island, Antarctica.

There is no running water on the island, which has the surface area of a soccer field and about 1,500 Gentoo penguins. But the mail still comes: The world’s most southerly post office expects as many as 70,000 letters in five months.

Lives lived: Loretta Lynn’s plucky songs and inspiring life story made her one of the most beloved American country musicians of her generation. She died yesterday at 90.

The Japanese band Les Rallizes Dénudés, which emerged in the late 1960s, has long been a group more heard about than actually heard, its reputation resting more on legend than fact. One crucial piece of the band’s notoriety: Its original bassist was part of a Marxist group that hijacked a Japanese passenger plane and flew it to North Korea in 1970.

Over the years, Rallizes fans have pored over bootleg recordings and sheets of guitar feedback and tried to decipher the band’s cryptic lyrics on social media. Now, after decades of intrigue — and almost three years since the death of Takashi Mizutani, the band’s reclusive leader — the Rallizes are getting the archival treatment. Recordings from 1973 called “The Oz Tapes” were reissued earlier this year, and reissues of the band’s three official albums will come later this fall.

“I never thought this could touch foreigners’ hearts so deeply,” said Makoto Kubota, who played with the Rallizes in the ’70s.

To this day, the band remains enigmatic. Mizutani almost never spoke to the media and was a cipher to his band mates. Even the meaning of the band’s name is obscure. But unearthing the Rallizes archives may get fans closer to the mystery.

What to Cook

Fitness

Jumping rope gives you a great workout in half the time of a run.

Now Time to Play

Play the Mini Crossword, and here’s a clue: Father Christmas (5 letters).

Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

Correction: A photo caption in yesterday’s newsletter misidentified Brazilian voters. They supported Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, not Jair Bolsonaro.

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

P.S. To cover Pakistan’s devastating floods, our colleague Christina Goldbaum traveled by boat.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is on the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming term.

You can reach Jessica, Amelia and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.



Source : Nytimes

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