World

Your Thursday Briefing: Finland and Sweden May Join NATO

We’re covering NATO’s potential expansion and the presidential campaign of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Philippines.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, left, and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin giving a press conference in Stockholm on Wednesday.Credit…Paul Wennerholm/TT NEWS AGENCY, via Associated Press

Finland and Sweden consider joining NATO

Finland and Sweden are considering whether to apply for NATO membership in the coming weeks and are widely expected to join, underscoring how the invasion of Ukraine has backfired for President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Instead of crushing Ukrainian nationalism, he has enhanced it. Instead of dividing NATO and blocking its growth, he has united and perhaps enlarged it.

The prime ministers of the two nonaligned Nordic countries held a press conference in Stockholm today, with Finland’s leader saying a decision could be made “within weeks.”

Meanwhile, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia visited Ukraine on Wednesday in a sign of support, as investigators accelerated their efforts to collect evidence of reported Russian atrocities outside Kyiv. An initial report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe found “clear patterns” of violations of international law by the Russian military.

In other developments:

  • Ukraine says Russian soldiers have laced large swaths of the country with land mines and booby traps that can kill or injure civilians.

  • U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on China to persuade Russia to end the war, warning that staying on the sidelines could jeopardize China’s standing in the global economy.

  • Ukrainian activists and Western countries have begun using Cold War tactics to pierce the propaganda bubble in Russia.

  • Since the start of the war, Russian tech workers have left by the thousands, which could have a lasting impact on the economy.


The National Covid Memorial Wall in London is a place for victims’ families to mourn.Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Half a billion Covid cases

The coronavirus pandemic, now in its third year, has reached a monumental scale across the world. Countries have now logged 500 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, including more than 200 million in this year alone.

Compared with two weeks ago, cases are down 34 percent to about 1 million per day, and deaths are down 24 percent to about 3,700 per day.

But the true numbers are almost certainly much higher because of a lack of sufficient testing in many countries, including the United States. A W.H.O analysis estimated that 65 percent of Africans had been infected as of September 2021 — nearly 100 times the number of confirmed cases on the continent.

Heath experts and regional authorities have voiced concerns that the lack of adequate testing could limit the world’s preparedness. “If you don’t test,” said one epidemiologist, “then you don’t know what variants you have.”

In other pandemic developments:

  • The C.D.C. said it would extend a mask requirement on planes and public transit, which had been set to expire, for an additional two weeks.

  • New Zealand welcomed thousands of tourists from Australia as it begins to reopen to international travelers.

  • Beijing has stuck with a zero-Covid strategy that could end up hurting everyone, our New New World columnist writes.

  • As many as 200,000 U.S. children have lost a parent to the coronavirus. Grandparents are stepping up to raise them.


Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at a presidential campaign rally in Santa Rosa, in the Philippines, in March.Credit…Jes Aznar for The New York Times

The son of a Philippine dictator may soon be president

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has spent much of his life defending his family’s name against accusations of greed and corruption during his father’s brutal rule, from 1965 to 1986. Now he is the clear front-runner in next month’s presidential election.

Marcos, known by his boyhood nickname “Bongbong,” is poised to rewrite the history books in more ways than one. Targeting young voters with no memory of martial law or the killing of political prisoners during his father’s regime, Marcos has cast off criticisms as “fake news” and spurned presidential debates, instead choosing to rely on social media to spread his message.

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting,” said Maria Ress, a Nobel Prize-winning journalist who is an outspoken critic of Marcos. “If facts don’t win, we’ll have a whole new history.”

Storm deaths: Landslides caused by Tropical Storm Megi, the first such storm this year, buried a remote community in the Philippines’ central Leyte Province, leaving at least 48 people dead.

THE LATEST NEWS

Around the World

Record prices for fuel helped drive inflation, but less volatile items have also had sharp price rises.Credit…Neil Hall/EPA, via Shutterstock
  • Britain’s inflation rate hit 7 percent, the highest it has been in 30 years.

  • Both President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, his far-right challenger, are seeking to appeal to voters on the left after the traditional left-wing candidate lost in the first round of voting.

  • Scores of truck drivers in Mexico set up a blockade to protest new safety inspections ordered by the Texas governor. The clash has already snarled traffic on a major international bridge for days.

What Else Is Happening

  • Police in New York City captured a man accused of shooting 10 people on a Brooklyn subway after a manhunt. We have live updates on the situation.

  • Israel’s oldest museum, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, is dramatically shifting its strategy: from chronicling Israeli history through art to presenting a broader range of art, including work from Palestinian artists.

A Morning Read

McKinsey & Company at 3 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.Credit…John Taggart for The New York Times

The consulting firm McKinsey & Company works for many of the world’s biggest companies, as well as for governments in the United States, Europe and Asia. A Times investigation found that working on both sides of the fence was part of McKinsey’s pitch. In the U.S., it allowed employees who worked for opioid makers and other pharmaceutical companies to also consult for the F.D.A., raising stark questions about conflicts of interest.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Credit…Angie Wang

A Renaissance music primer

In “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love …,” The Times asks musicians, critics and experts to recommend songs in a certain musical style. The latest edition explores a lesser-known area: Renaissance music.

“We wanted to shine a light on music you’re most likely not going to hear at your local symphony,” Zachary Woolfe, The Times’s classical music critic, told us. “There’s an incredible variety in the compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries, but this selection focuses on some of the most beautiful choral writing ever made.”

The songs on the list evoke the experience of life centuries ago. In many of them, celestial harmonies sound as though they are echoing in a cathedral. Others are fun and surprising: “Come, sirrah Jack, ho,” a jaunty ode to drinking and smoking, is like a night in a tavern, with singers vouching that the tobacco — which is “very, very good” — is “perfect Trinidado.”

Listen here.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

Fortified with miso, a plate of creamy buttered noodles is effortlessly flavorful.Credit…Andrew Purcell for The New York Times

What to Cook

Food photo goes here

Try this five-ingredient creamy miso pasta.

What to Read

In her memoir, “Healing,” Theresa Brown recalls what she learned from her own treatment for breast cancer.

What to Scroll

Here are five Ukrainian art accounts to follow on Instagram.

Now Time to Play

Play today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: ___ of time (five letters).

Here’s today’s Wordle.

And here is today’s Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.


That’s it for today’s briefing. Tell us about your experience with the newsletter in this short survey here. Thank you! — Matthew

P.S. The Times won the top award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing in five categories.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is about the next phase of the war in Ukraine.

You can reach Matthew and the team at [email protected].

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