The longest battle of the war in Ukraine
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has been forced to use more of its professional recruits in Bakhmut to replace enlisted prisoners, who are perishing by the thousands as the battle for the city drags on, a Ukrainian official said. The claim suggested that Ukraine sees an opportunity in Bakhmut, despite the heavy casualties it has suffered.
Ukrainian officials have claimed that nearly 30,000 of Wagner’s 50,000 troops have deserted or been killed or wounded, many around Bakhmut. That number could not be independently verified, and Ukraine has not disclosed its own losses in the region. Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Ukraine had lost more than 11,000 troops in February.
As the fight for Bakhmut appears to be entering a decisive phase, both sides are trying to justify their staggering losses in a minor city of limited strategic value by presenting them as benefiting their cause. Each makes essentially the same claim: that the fighting there is worth the horrific cost because it is wearing down the enemy.
Analysis: If Ukraine can eliminate Russia’s prisoner soldiers in Bakhmut, it will not have to face waves of attacks from those soldiers elsewhere, some experts said.
France’s fight over pensions
Unions across France went on strike yesterday for the sixth time in the past two months, disrupting trains and flights and closing classrooms as a fight rages against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the legal retirement age to 64 from 62. Most French people oppose the proposal, according to public opinion polls.
Neither side has shown any sign of backing down. The unions want to start continuous, disruptive strikes, while Macron hopes to get the bill — a cornerstone of his re-election campaign that he says is necessary to balance the pension system’s finances as more baby boomers retire and live longer — passed by the end of this month.
6 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid
A raid by the Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, aimed at arresting a suspect in the fatal shooting of two Jewish brothers last month, spiraled into violence that left six Palestinians dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The suspect, Abd al-Fattah Kharousha, was listed as among the dead by Palestinian officials. He was connected to the Islamist militant group Hamas, according to the group and an Israeli military spokesman. The Palestinian media reported that he had been released in December 2022 after nine years in Israeli prisons.
The Israeli military operation yesterday ended in a deadly firefight. The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces had used shoulder-fired missiles against a residence in the Jenin refugee camp, where Kharousha was barricaded. Gunmen fired toward the Israeli forces, who responded with live fire, the statement said.
Casualties: Hospitals in Jenin were treating at least 16 Palestinians for injuries, and two members of an Israeli special forces unit were injured in the fighting, officials said. At least 72 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of 2023, and at least 15 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
THE LATEST NEWS
Around the World
The Chinese government has for decades been conducting a campaign to steal American trade secrets and intellectual property. While weapons and military equipment have always been a focus, China’s espionage expanded in the 1980s and beyond to target commercial technologies as diverse as pesticides, rice seeds, robotic cars and wind turbines.
In March 2017, a LinkedIn message to an engineer at G.E. Aviation set off a series of events that would end up giving the U.S. government a look inside Chinese economic espionage, culminating in the first conviction of a Chinese intelligence official on American soil.
Related: China’s leader, Xi Jinping, used unusually blunt language this week to criticize the U.S. and its allies for what he described as a campaign to block China’s rise.
SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC
The ‘embarrassing’ meltdown of Manchester United’s captain: In a crushing defeat to Liverpool, Bruno Fernandes flopped, yelled and shoved a referee.
With the threat of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour had to evolve: The PGA Tour has a winning strategy against LIV. The Arnold Palmer Invitational was proof.
A perfect season for Red Bull in Formula One? Max Verstappen’s domination in Bahrain, where he led for all but three laps, cemented his tag as the title favorite.
ARTS AND IDEAS
A cheeky app for South Africa’s power crisis
South Africa has declared a “state of disaster” over an electricity crisis that has caused nationwide power outages of up to 10 hours a day, and millions are turning to a smartphone app to help them navigate the blackouts.
The app, known as EskomSePush, plays on the name of South Africa’s state power utility, Eskom, and some vulgar Afrikaans slang. Recently rebranded as just ESP, it sends out alerts 55 minutes before the power is scheduled to go off.
The app was created by the software developers Dan Southwood-Wells and Herman Maritz in 2014, when scheduled power outages were becoming more widespread and disruptive. But it has really taken off in the past year, with nearly two million downloads.
Southwood-Wells and Maritz know they’re tapping into national frustration, and so they try to inject some humor into the app’s outage notices, such as by including an image of a braai, the South African equivalent of a barbecue, to let users know they won’t be using their stoves for several hours. “We try to make light of a dark situation,” Maritz said. — Lynsey Chutel, a Briefing writer in Johannesburg.
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook
P.S. Iran cut diplomatic ties with Britain after Britain’s government refused to denounce Salman Rushdie and “The Satanic Verses,” The Times reported 34 years ago today.
“The Daily” is on Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a rising Republican star.
You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
