The Reuters Daily Briefing Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Reuters

The Reuters Daily Briefing

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

by Linda Noakes

Hello

Here's what you need to know.

North Korea conducts its longest-range missile test yet, Musk and Zelenskiy have a Twitter showdown, and a weakened Truss faces a fight for credibility

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Today's biggest stories

Ukrainians ride an armored vehicle in Donesk region, October 3 2022. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian defenses in the south of the country while expanding their rapid offensive in the east, seizing back more territory in areas annexed by Russia and threatening its troops' supply lines.

Will Russia use nuclear weapons? Here are President Vladimir Putin's warnings explained.

Swamped by panic-stricken requests for help to avoid being drafted, Russian lawyers say they are working flat out to offer advice to those at risk of being sent to fight in Ukraine.

In an abandoned tower block damaged by Russian shelling in Ukraine's second city, Olga Kobzar plans to tough out winter for as long as she can without electricity, water and central heating by lighting the gas stove in her kitchen for warmth. We spoke to Ukrainians bracing for a grim winter.

Elon Musk asked Twitter users to weigh in on a plan to end the war that drew immediate condemnation from Ukrainians, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who responded with his own poll. Musk proposed U.N.-supervized elections in four occupied regions that Moscow last week moved to annex after what it called referendums.

Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now

People walk across the plaza of the U.S. Supreme Court building on the first day of the court's new term in Washington, October 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

U.S.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a major legal battle that threatens to further undermine a landmark federal voting rights law as the state of Alabama defends a Republican-drawn electoral map faulted by judges for diluting the clout of Black voters.

Republicans in the tightest Senate races are getting help from deep-pocketed allies who are unleashing a late advertizing blitz, potentially neutralizing their Democratic rivals' fundraising advantage heading into the November 8 midterm elections.

Former president Donald Trump sued CNN for defamation, seeking $475 million in punitive damages and claiming the network had carried out a "campaign of libel and slander" against him.

A Michigan township official who promotes false conspiracy theories of a rigged 2020 election could face criminal charges related to two voting-system security breaches, according to previously unreported records and legal experts.

Prosecutors were set to continue questioning their first witness in the trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and his associates for their alleged role in the storming of the Capitol, following a first day of testimony about a "chaotic" scene with lawmakers in tears.

WORLD

Nuclear-armed North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile further than ever before, sending it soaring over Japan, for the first time in five years, and prompting a warning for residents there to take cover. In response to the test, U.S. and South Korean warplanes practised bombing a target in the Yellow Sea.

Lawyers for Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, facing a U.S. lawsuit over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, told a court the crown prince's appointment as prime minister last week ensured him immunity from prosecution.

Police in Haiti fired tear gas at thousands of protesters marching in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, against Prime Minister Ariel Henry's government and its handling of crippling fuel shortages and soaring prices.

British interior minister Suella Braverman will set out plans today for new powers which would ban migrants who cross the English Channel from claiming asylum, a government source said.

The first round of Brazil's presidential election has come and gone with no final victor, but some big losers have emerged: opinion pollsters.