Good morning.
The US is attempting to mend fences with key allies after leaked Pentagon documents claimed Washington had been spying on friendly countries including South Korea and Israel.
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his South Korean counterpart today as officials in Seoul denied the possibility that the president’s office could have been the source of leaks over South Korean arms sales to the US.
The disclosure of the highly classified material is Washington’s worst national security breach in many years and included details about Ukraine’s lack of ammunition and US intelligence collection methods used against Russia.
One of the latest leaks claims Egypt was planning to covertly supply Russia with rockets and other munitions, although the US was said to believe the plan had never been carried out, the Washington Post reports.
What did the documents say about South Korea? The unverified documents relating to South Korea, including some apparently based on internal discussions among top South Korean security officials, claimed Seoul was concerned that artillery shells bound for the US could eventually find their way to Ukraine, which would be problematic as it would violate the country’s longstanding policy – supported by a majority of voters – of not exporting weapons to countries at war.
What have they said about it? Officials attempted to play down the significance of the Pentagon documents, whose authenticity has not been independently confirmed. The office of President Yoon Suk-yeol said an initial investigation had concluded there was “little chance” that internal discussions had been intercepted by US intelligence officials, Yonhap news agency said.
Nashville council votes to reinstate expelled Democrat Justin Jones
The city of Nashville’s governing council yesterday afternoon voted unanimously to return the expelled Black lawmaker Justin Jones to the Tennessee state legislature.
The body’s Republican majority state lawmakers had expelled Jones and fellow house member Justin Pearson late last week because they led protests in the chamber demanding gun control after yet another mass shooting in an American school, this one at an elementary school in the city days before.
Moments later, Jones marched to the Capitol several blocks away. He took the oath of office on the steps and entered the building while supporters sang This Little Light of Mine.
A loud round of applause erupted as Jones walked into the chamber with Democratic representative Gloria Johnson, who was also targeted for expulsion but spared by one vote.
What did Jones say in his first statement on the house floor? “To the people of Tennessee, I stand with you.” he said. “We will continue to be your voice here. And no expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us, but it will only galvanize and strengthen our movement. And we will continue to show up in the people’s house. Power to the people.”
US declares journalist Evan Gershkovich wrongfully detained by Moscow
The US state department has officially designated Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia, as being wrongfully detained, signalling that Washington views the espionage charges against him as bogus and that he is being held as a hostage.
“Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia and its ongoing war against the truth,” the state department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said in a statement announcing the designation. “The US government will provide all appropriate support to Mr Gershkovich and his family. We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr Gershkovich.”
The 31-year-old journalist was detained on 29 March in the city of Ekaterinburg, and the Russian security service, FSB, said the following day it had picked him up on suspicion of spying. He was formally charged with espionage on Friday, which Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal deny. He has widely been described as a talented and well-respected journalist.
The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday he had no doubt about the reporter’s complete innocence, but added the formal designation would take a little longer. On Monday afternoon, the national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, was asked about the delay, and referred questions to the state department. Gershkovich was officially deemed wrongfully detained less than three hours later.
What does the formal designation mean? “This distinction will unlock additional resources and attention at the highest levels of the US government in securing his release,” Emma Tucker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, said after the announcement. “We are doing everything in our power to support Evan and his family and will continue working with the state department and other relevant US officials to push for his release.”
In other news …
Several Democratic governors have moved swiftly to protect access to medication abortion in their states after a ruling by a Texas judge late last week threatened access to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone. Massachusetts, California and Washington have pledged to provide medication after a federal judge invalidated 23-year FDA approval
The US and the Philippines have launched their largest combat exercises in decades in waters across the South China Sea and the Taiwan strait, a move that is likely to inflame Beijing. The annual drills will run until 28 April and involve more than 17,600 military personnel.
The US Senate judiciary committee’s Democratic members yesterday unanimously urged the supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, to investigate luxury trips taken by the associate justice Clarence Thomas that were paid for by a wealthy Republican party donor.
A fifth person has died from their injuries after being shot during an attack at a bank in Louisville. Connor Sturgeon, 23, opened fire at his workplace yesterday morning, while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said. He joined the bank as a full-time employee last year.
Don’t miss this: the man who walked around the world – Tom Turcich on his seven-year search for the meaning of life
What does it mean to walk around the world? In a pedestrian circumnavigation, travellers must move around the globe and return to their starting point under their own power. Guinness World Records sets the requirements for a circumnavigation on foot as having travelled 18,000 miles (almost 29,000km), and crossed four continents. Turcich walked 21-24 miles a day for roughly half of the seven years he was away. In total, he walked 28,000 miles (and Savannah, his rescue dog, 25,000 miles), travelled through 38 countries and crossed every continent except Australia, which he could not do because of lockdown restrictions. He is the 10th person to have walked the world, and he assumes Savannah is the first dog to have done so.
“The first two years were about me and the mind. After that it became much more about the world. I started to understand it more. I became more interested in what influences people and why countries are the way they are,” he said.
Climate check: Exxon’s new ‘advanced recycling’ plant raises environmental concerns
ExxonMobil has launched one of the largest chemical recycling plants in North America – but environmental advocates say the technology is a dangerous distraction from the need to reduce plastic production. On the surface, the latest addition to ExxonMobil’s giant petrochemical refinery complex in Baytown, Texas, sounds like it could be a good thing: an “advanced recycling” facility capable of breaking down 36,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic each year. But plastic waste advocates warn that plants like it do little recycling and instead generate hazardous pollutants while providing cover for oil giants to keep producing millions of tons of new plastic products each year. The amount the facility can break down is a drop in the bucket compared with how much plastic ExxonMobil creates.
Last Thing: jump in sales for Taiwan air force badges showing bear punching Winnie-the-Pooh
Taiwanese are rushing to buy patches, popularised by air force pilots, that depict a Formosan black bear punching Winnie-the-Pooh – representing China’s president Xi Jinping – as a defiant symbol of the island’s resistance to Chinese war games. Chinese censors have long targeted representations of Winnie-the-Pooh due to internet memes that compare the fictional bear to Xi. Alec Hsu, who designed the patch and had been selling it at his shop since last year, noticed a spike in orders after Taiwan’s military news agency published a photo on Saturday of the patch on the arm of a pilot inspecting a fighter jet. Hsu said he ordered more patches to meet the increased demand. Customers have included military officers and civilians. “I wanted to boost the morale of our troops through designing this patch,” said Hsu, who owns Wings Fan Goods Shop.
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