We report on a Ukrainian counter-offensive and an attempt by the European Central Bank to curb inflation.
Ukraine launches counter-offensive in the south
Ukrainian officials said their troops used long-range missiles and artillery on Thursday to attack more than 200 Russian targets in the south. The attacks destroyed six ammunition depots, the military said.
The effort – significantly bolstered by a flow of powerful Western weapons – has strained Moscow’s military infrastructure and supply lines in and around Kherson province, which were captured by Russian forces in March. The increasing scale of Ukraine’s attacks in the south is in line with preparations for a ground offensive.
Ukraine’s military success comes as it once again tries to convince the world it can defeat the Russians. Officials point to successes such as a recent Ukrainian artillery strike on a bridge critical to Russian supplies.
But despite Ukrainians’ newfound optimism, military analysts and Western officials said it was far too early to predict a turnaround in fate, and a long battle seems more likely.
Although he is fully vaccinated and boosted twice, the positive test raises health concerns for the 79-year-old president. He will be given Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used to minimize the severity of Covid-19, and will isolate himself in the White House. Biden will “continue to fully perform all of his duties during that time,” his press secretary said.
Biden’s positive test also underscores how Covid remains an ongoing threat in the US, even as much of the country tries to get past the pandemic. Fueled by the BA.5 subvariant, cases and hospitalizations have skyrocketed.
More virus news:
The increase – by a larger-than-expected half a percentage point – marked an abrupt end to eight years of negative interest rates that were intended to make banks borrow generously, although the increase keeps the bank’s key rate at zero percent. European equities ended the day roughly where they started, after investors reacted positively to the ECB’s aggressive move to tame inflation.
In countries that use the euro, inflation is rising at the fastest rate in generations, reaching 8.6 percent in June. The increase was largely driven by rising energy and food prices. The ECB has a particularly difficult task: balancing the economic weaknesses and indebtedness of 19 different countries.
Recession concerns: Wall Street’s most talked about recession indicator, the yield curve, is sounding its loudest alarm in two decades. Its reversal has preceded every recession in the US for the past half century, and it is happening now.
What’s next: The ECB introduced a new instrument — the Transmission Protection Instrument — to keep bond markets under control. It doesn’t want to use it.
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ART AND IDEAS
The Difficulty of Austen. to adjust
The best Jane Austen adaptations are true to the plot of the novel and confident in their own worlds. Neither is a movie version of ‘Persuasion’ on Netflix, writes Sarah Lyall.
The problem is not that the film takes liberties, Sarah writes. Many Austen iterations do: “Fire Island” places “Pride and Prejudice” in a contemporary vacation home with a group of gay men looking for love. But the new “Belief” deviates from the novel’s cautious pace, allowing characters to reveal their feelings early on. And it blends its 19th-century setting with modern phrases (“If you’re a five in London, you’re a 10 in Bath,” says one character).
In an interview, the film’s director, Carrie Cracknell — a drama prodigy who co-directed a major London theater before she was 30 — defended her choices: “One of the great hopes I had for the film was to draw in a new audience to Austen, and to make them feel like they really recognize the people on the screen.”
