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[Presidential Daily Brief]( Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. Apr 26, 2022 Today Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the risks of nuclear conflict are âconsiderable,â but world leaders dismissed his comments as scaremongering. North Koreaâs Kim Jong Un vowed to speed up his countryâs nuclear weapons program, hinting that he could use the weapons preemptively. Elon Musk agreed to a deal to buy Twitter and vowed to use it to promote âfree speechâ â delighting some and petrifying others. And more than 175 people have been killed in Sudanâs West Darfur region since Thursday. All this and more in todayâs PDB. IMPORTANT Nuclear Conflict? Moscow Cites Real Risk of Nuclear War Asked on Russian state TV whether World War III was imminent, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said, âThe risks now are considerable ⦠NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.â Ukraineâs Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Lavrov of scaremongering, saying that Russia had lost its âlast hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine ⦠This only means Moscow senses defeat.â Britainâs Armed Services Minister James Heappey also played down Larvrovâs âbravadoâ: âI donât think that right now there is an imminent threat of escalation,â said Heappey. (Sources: [Reuters]() Anything You Can Do North Koreaâs Kim Also Ramps Up Nuclear Rhetoric Speaking at a huge military parade in Pyongyang last night, Kim Jong Un said that North Korea will fortify its nuclear arsenal âat maximum speed.â U.S. and South Korean officials confirm signs of new construction at North Koreaâs only known nuclear test site, which has been officially closed since 2018. Kim also hinted that North Korea might not stick to its previously stated intention of only using nuclear weapons for deterrence and defense. âIf any forces try to violate the fundamental interests of our state, our nuclear forces will have to decisively accomplish its unexpected second mission,â he said. (Sources: [Reuters](, [CBS News]() Done Deal Twitterâs Board Accepts Elon Muskâs $44B Takeover Offer Twitter, which hasnât turned a profit in eight of the last 10 years, agreed to sell itself to the worldâs richest man for $54.20 a share â 38% more than it was worth when Musk revealed he was the firmâs biggest shareholder earlier this month. In taking the platform private, Musk has vowed to âtransformâ it by promoting free speech, defeating spambots and âauthenticating all humans.â Bridget Todd, of the womenâs rights group UltraViolet, sees the acquisition as âa massively slippery slope,â as she fears Musk might not be in favor of Twitterâs community standards, which protect users against hate speech. (Sources: [NYT](, [BBC]() Sudan Tragedy More Than 175 Killed in Violence in Darfur Since Thursday On Sunday alone, at least 168 people were killed and 98 wounded as fighting between Arabs and non-Arabs flared in West Darfur. The dead included a reported 17 children and 27 women. The violence first erupted Thursday when two Arab people were killed in the town of Kreinik and quickly spread to the provincial capital of Genena. In one incident, a hospital treating wounded people came under fire. The International Committee of the Red Cross blamed the latest attacks on the mostly Arab, government-backed Janjaweed militia. Which begs the question â can a military government ever bring peace to the region? (Sources: [Al Jazeera](, [NPR]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: Bolsonaroâs back. After being lampooned for his COVID-19 response, President Jair Bolsonaro is touring Brazil in a bid to win back voters â sadly, it seems to be working. (Source: [The Guardian]() Beijingâs turn. Just as Shanghaiâs 26 million residents emerged from the worst of their COVID-19 lockdown, curbs were imposed on parts of the Chinese capital. (Source: [AP]() Show of support. The U.S. is hosting around 40 countries at a defense conference at a U.S. military base in Germany. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said America and its allies will âkeep moving heaven and Earthâ to meet Ukraineâs security requirements. (Source: [DW]()
INTRIGUING Indiaâs âTuber Manâ Combating Food Insecurity and Climate Change With Indigenous Tubers Shaji NM spent over 20 years traversing India to amass his collection of over 200 varieties of tuber, some of which are on the verge of extinction. Tubers, long a staple of Indian cooking, resist climate change by becoming dormant during drought or flood and âresuming tuber growth during favorable conditions,â according to a [2018 paper]( that deems them âvery important for food security.â âI have developed an emotional relationship with the tuber,â said Shaji. âWhen we did not have anything to eat, we had tubers.â Now heâs returning the favor by giving tuber seeds âto anyone who wants them.â (Source: [The Guardian]() Sayonara Worldâs Oldest Person Kane Tanaka Dies at 119 Tanaka â who was born in 1903, the year the Wright brothers made their inaugural flight â died of âold ageâ at a nursing home in Fukuoka, Japan, last week. In 2019 she was recognized by Guinness World Records as the worldâs oldest living person, a title that now goes to Lucile Randon, a 118-year-old French nun who is also the worldâs oldest COVID-19 survivor. Tanaka, who loved chocolates and fizzy drinks, credited her longevity to sleep, family, faith and keeping her mind active by [studying math](. Japan has over 86,000 centenarians, 90% of them women. (Sources: [NPR](, [Reuters]() In She Went Woman Rescued After Falling into Pit Latrine Trying To Get Phone Things went awry for an unnamed woman who dropped her phone into an outhouse latrine in the Olympic National Forest near Seattle. Brinnon Fire Department Chief Tim Manly said she managed to remove the toilet seat and tried lowering herself into the pit secured with dog leashes. âThey didnât work very well and in she went,â said Manly. After trying to get herself out, she used her phone to call 911 and the fire department pulled her out. She was âstrongly encouraged to seek medical attention after being exposed to human waste, but she only wanted to leave,â said Manly. (Sources: [Sky News](, [AP]() Put a Fling on It Postcoital Catapulting Saves Male Spiders From Being Eaten by Mates The morning after can be awkward for humans, but for many spider species the male risks being eaten after sex. Defense mechanisms vary: Some males tear off their own legs as a food offering and others bind the female with silk before sex. A [paper published yesterday]( in the journal [Current Biology](shows that males of the orb-weaving spider Philoponella prominens use their two front legs to catapult themselves to safety after sex. In 152 of 155 successful matings observed by Shichang Zhang of Hubei University, the males used this trick. The three who didnât were eaten alive. (Sources: [Smithsonian](, [The Scientist]() Boxing Clever Ukraineâs Usyk Will Use Joshua Rematch to Fund Relief Effort Olympic boxing gold medalist Oleksandr Usykâs rematch with Britainâs Anthony Joshua wonât only be one of the yearâs most anticipated fights. Usyk will also use the occasion to raise funds for his native Ukraine by selling a collection of 2,000 NFTs created by the artist Dosbrak. Usyk, who hopes to generate more than $1 million from the sale, will donate all funds to the [Usyk Foundation](, a charity he founded to âhelp Ukrainians affected by the Russian aggression.â Last September, the 35-year-old Ukrainian put on a boxing master class to dismantle former world heavyweight champion Joshua at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. (Source: [Reuters]()
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