Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would require crypto financial-service businesses to get a special license to operate, calling it premature and costly. 

Newsom on Friday declined to sign the legislation known as the Digital Financial Assets Law, which was passed by the state assembly and senate last month. While the governor said he shares the bill’s intent to protect Californians from financial harm and provide clear rules for the industry, his administration has been conducting research and gathering input on the right approach. 

“It is premature to lock a licensing structure in statute without considering both this work and forthcoming federal actions,” Newsom said in a statement. “A more flexible approach is needed to ensure regulatory oversight can keep up with rapidly evolving technology and use cases, and is tailored with the proper tools to address trends and mitigate consumer harm.”

The bill would require a loan of “tens of millions of dollars” from the general fund during the first several years, a “significant” commitment that needs to be accounted for in the state’s annual budget process, Newsom added. 

The bill had been opposed by some industry advocates including the Blockchain Association, a crypto lobbying group, which said last month the proposed legislation “creates shortsighted and unhelpful restrictions that would impede crypto innovators’ ability to operate and push many out of the state.” 

New York similarly requires crypto businesses to get a “BitLicense” in order to conduct digital-asset activities in the state and issued the first of these license in 2015. However, the practice has been heavily criticized by some crypto enthusiasts, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has ambitions of making New York a digital-asset hub.

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — For years, asset allocators had it easy: Buy the biggest American tech companies and watch the returns rack up. 

Those days are gone, buried under a crush of central bank rate hikes that are rewriting the play books for investment managers across Wall Street. TINA — the mantra that investors had no alternatives stocks — has given way to a panoply of actual choices. From money market funds to short-dated bonds and floating-rate notes, investors are now locking in low-risk returns that, in some cases, exceed 4%.

The change has been underway since the summer, but picked up speed in September as investors came to terms with still-hot inflation data and a tight labor market that will force the Fed to pin rates at the highest levels since the housing crisis. After Chair Jerome Powell’s comments Wednesday, there’s little doubt the central bank expects at least a mild recession to curb inflation. 

“We have gone through the inflection point of bonds offering more value than equities, thanks to the pricing in and delivery of large rate hikes, and a re-emergence of inflation risk premia in the bond market,” said Peter Chatwell, head of global macro strategies trading at Mizuho International Plc. “We would expect the earnings downside risks to make those equity risk premia even less generous in the coming months.”

Unwilling to risk cash in a stock market that, by one measure, is swinging more wildly than any time since at least 1997. Investors are instead settling for two-year Treasuries yielding the most since 2007. One-year notes pay out nearly as much, and while both are trailing the latest inflation readings, it’s better than the 20% rout in the S&P 500 this year. 

All told, fixed income is yielding the biggest rewards relative to equities in more than a decade. Right on cue, investors have been pouring record sums of money into short-duration exchange-traded funds while a record of 62% of global fund managers are overweight cash, according to a Bank of America survey. They have also reduced their exposure to stocks to an all-time low.

“Cash and short-term fixed income increasingly offer lower volatility and high yield within a cross-asset portfolio,” Morgan Stanley’s chief cross-asset strategist, Andrew Sheets, wrote in a note. The new appeal of those alternatives is one reason he recommends credit over equities.

The shift is increasingly showing up in flows into and out of funds. Government bond ETFs have gathered more inflows in September than their equities counterparts for just the second instance in three years. Sovereign bonds now account for 22% of all ETF and mutual fund buys over the past year, while allocations to stocks now net out to 2% in that time, according to Deutsche Bank AG. 

The foundation of the post-pandemic rally — ultra-low interest rates and monetary stimulus — has crumbled. In its place now stand elevated borrowing costs and tighter financial conditions that have forced investors into cash-preservation mode.

That’s evident even among those willing to wade into the stock market. They are favoring companies with strong balance sheets and high-dividend yields. Cash-rich companies continue to see strong inflows, take the Pacer US Cash Cows 100 ETF which has seen only positive monthly inflows in 2022 totaling $6.7 billion year-to-date. Companies with steady income streams are also still attractive for investors with the $36 billion Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF getting a $10.6 billion cash injection so far this year.

The Fed’s aggressive hawkishness has increased the threat of recession and diminished the odds of soft landing. That opens the door for longer-dated bonds to soon become more attractive too, especially if the Fed shows signs of slowing the pace of tightening.

“When rates have peaked, it would make sense to move out along the maturity curve in anticipation of bond yields coming down,” said Chris Iggo, chief investment officer of core investments at AXA Investment Managers.

For HSBC’s chief multi-asset strategist Max Kettner, short-duration bonds have become a better option than equities but a clear shift from inflation worries to growth concerns would be the trigger for an even broader move to fixed income. For now, the HSBC strategy team led by Kettner has moved to bigger overweight position in cash and cut equity exposure to maximum underweight in August.

Even the “you only live once” day trading crowd hasn’t been able to profit from any equity dips.

“We are definitely seeing a regime shift,” Kettner said. “The TINA and YOLO world of 2020/21 has been basically brought to an abrupt halt by the combination of slower growth and higher inflation.”

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

Saturday marks seven months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine. This week, President Vladimir Putin ordered another 300,000 troops conscripted into what he’s termed a “special military operation.” Russian occupation authorities began drafting men in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukrainian officials said.  

Voting continues in four occupied territories on whether to join Russia. The referenda have been slammed by Kyiv and its allies as shams, as Moscow attempts to annex a large swath of its neighbor including some of its most productive farmland and industrial areas. Putin will deliver a state-of-the-nation speech on Friday, days after voting is due to end. 

Envoys from over a dozen European countries traveled to Izyum in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday, visiting a mass burial site from which hundreds of bodies have been exhumed since the area was recaptured from Russian troops this month. 

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

• Putin’s Conscripts Won’t Win His War But May Drag It Out
• Putin Stages ‘Votes’ to Annex Occupied Ukrainian Territories 
• Russians Confront New Normal as Annexation Voting Continues
• Zelenskiy Says China’s Position on Russian Invasion ‘Ambiguous’
• EU Rushes to Agree on an Oil Price Cap After Putin’s Threats 
• Russia’s Lavrov Scorns West by Arriving Late at UN, Walking Out

On the Ground

Russian forces fired missiles at infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Ochakiv port, Ukrainian southern military command said on Facebook. Moscow’s troops fired missives at Mykolaiv, and a bakery and residential buildings were shelled in Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Kyiv’s forces reasserted control of bridges across the Dnipro in the Kherson region and destroyed reserves of Russian weapons nearby. In the city of Kherson, a concentration of Russian weapons and machinery was attacked, as well as several control posts, officials said. The Ukrainian army downed six Iranian drones Shahed and one Mohajer-6 drones, the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Facebook.  

(All times CET) 

 

Putin to Address Parliament Sept. 30 (5:42 p.m.)

President Vladimir Putin will give an address to the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, on Sept. 30, RIA Novosti reported, citing a person from the parliament whom it didn’t identify. 

Putin addresses the body annually on the situation in the country and on the main directions of domestic and foreign policy. This year’s speech will follow days after annexation votes in four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia. 

Moscow Plans One-Time Payments to Draftees (5:30 p.m.)

Deputies from the ruling United Russia party and the Communist Party submitted the bill to be reviewed by the parliament on a one-time payment of 300,000 rubles ($5,184) to all Russians, who will be drafted to fight in Ukraine, according to the parliament’s disclosure.

The drafted people will also be offered waivers of paying interest on mortgages and consumer loans for the duration of their service. Housing and communal services will also be cancelled during this period.

As many Russian trying for flee from mobilization abroad or at home already Russia has offered salaries for draftees equal to those that contracted military staff gets, which is several times the Russian average. The average real salary in June was 66,500 rubles, according to statistic service

Eight Grain Vessels Sail From Ukraine’s Ports (3:45 p.m.)

Eight ships carrying a total of 131,300 tons of agricultural products to Africa, Asia and Europe were set to leave the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk on Saturday, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said on Facebook. Six ships sailed early in the morning and formed a caravan, with two more were on the way.

Since the safe-transit agreement brokered by Turkey and the UN was reached between Ukraine and Russia in late July, 221 ships have left Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea with 4.7 million tons of agriculture products, chiefly grains. 

Russia Shakes Up Army; Mariupol General Advances (12:07 p.m.)

Russia’s defense ministry announced personnel changes among its generals. No explanation was given for the move, days after President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 reservists in an escalation of the now seven-month conflict.  

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for the supply and logistics, the ministry said in its official Telegram channel. General Dmitry Bulgakov leaves the post for another, unspecified job, it said. 

Mizintsev was sanctioned by the UK in March for what it called his “reprehensible tactics” in combat including “atrocities” against the Ukrainian people during the siege of the southern city of Mariupol — as well as shelling civilian centers in Aleppo, Syria, in 2015-16. 

European Envoys Visited Izyum Mass Graves Site (11 a.m.)

Ambassadors from over a dozen European countries visited Izyum in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday and saw mass grave sites uncovered found when Kyiv’s troops recaptured the area. Some 436 bodies have been exhumed, including children. 

The visit also took in the site of a multi-story residential building destroyed by a Russian bomb, killing 53 people.   

“The world must know the truth about the bloody crimes of the occupiers. That is why it is extremely important that today foreign diplomats were able to see with their own eyes what the Russian occupiers leave behind,” said Andrii Sybiha, deputy head of Ukraine’s Office of the President.  

Zelenskiy Says China’s Position on Russian Invasion ‘Ambiguous’ (10:26 a.m.)

Ukraine’s president said he would like to renew relations with China, whose position on the Russian invasion he termed “ambiguous.” 

“I would like them to help Ukraine,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with a French newspaper. A call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “would be difficult today.”

The comments came after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Ukrainian counterpart this week during the UN General Assembly in New York. 

Russia Tries to Slow Kyiv’s Advance With Dam Hits, UK Says (8:30 a.m.) 

Russian forces targeted the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyi Donets River this week following a hit a week ago to another major dam upriver in Kryvyi Rih, the UK defence ministry said in a Twitter update. 

“Ukrainian forces are advancing further downstream along both rivers. As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points,” the UK said. 

Zelenskiy Says Russian Presented UN With ‘Lying Propaganda’ (8 a.m.) 

Ukraine’s president said he had a “really positive” response to his speech to the UN General Assembly this week, where he outlined proposals for security guarantees.  

Zelenskiy said he met via video conference with representatives of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, among others, as part of the week’s activities. 

“And what did Russia present? Once again, lame excuses, complaints and constant lying propaganda,” Zelenskiy said in a nightly address to the nation on Friday.   

 

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — NASA is standing down from its Artemis I mission to the moon next week, as a tropical storm off the coast of South America creeps toward Florida and the agency’s launch site for the Space Launch System rocket.

The US space agency said it will decide on Sunday whether to roll the rocket and spacecraft back from the launch pad to its primary hangar, the Vehicle Assembly Building.

“During a meeting Saturday morning, teams decided to stand down on preparing for the Tuesday launch date to allow them to configure systems for rolling back the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building,” NASA said in a blog post Saturday. 

The decision to delay comes after NASA completed a key fueling test on Sept. 21 of its Space Launch System rocket, the massive vehicle that will send an uncrewed capsule around the moon. The fueling test was meant to determine if NASA had successfully fixed a leak that stymied an attempt to launch the rocket on Sept. 3. 

During the test, two hydrogen leaks emerged as engineers fueled the SLS rocket, as well as other technical issues. While one of the leaks eventually abated after some troubleshooting, the second leak that cropped up later in the test would have prevented a launch if NASA had hoped to fly that day. 

Despite the troubles, NASA was able to completely fuel the rocket, and the agency claimed that the mission team had met all of the objectives for the test. 

“It was a very successful day,” John Blevins, the chief engineer for the SLS rocket at NASA, said during a press conference on Friday. “I think all the secondary objectives were met, not just the primary objectives.”

NASA had held out hope on Friday that a launch attempt was possible for Sept. 27 despite forecasts showing the newly formed Tropical Depression Nine heading toward Florida. The depression strengthened into a tropical storm late Friday. 

“It’s not even a named storm,” Tom Whitmeyer, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development, said during the press conference. “It’s Tropical Depression Number Nine. It’s very early in.”

The SLS rocket is designed to handle wind gusts as strong as 74 knots at the launchpad. It takes NASA roughly three days to prepare and return the SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

(Updates with NASA tweet after fourth paragraph.)

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — On Monday evening, a robotic NASA spacecraft is programmed to ram itself into a distant asteroid at 14,000 miles per hour (25,500 kilometers per hour) in deep space to demonstrate the agency’s future ability to defend Earth from hazardous space rocks. 

It’s a fast action scene straight out of a sci-fi movie:  The spacecraft, named DART, will first spot an asteroid the size of a football stadium named Dimorphos as a single pixel in its camera. About an hour later, if all goes as planned, DART will smash into its target with enough force to nudge the big space rock ever so slightly off course. The scene will play out nearly 7 million miles from Earth.

To be clear: Dimorphos doesn’t pose any threat to Earth, but the DART mission is the first physical test in space of one of NASA’s primary tenets: planetary defense.

If DART can successfully push the asteroid off course, it could prove a viable defense strategy if scientists discover an asteroid headed toward Earth with enough size and heft to hit with potentially catastrophic consequences. Scientists have identified most of the gigantic asteroids that could wipe out the planet, and none of those known objects pose a threat. What they’re worried about is the thousands of smaller asteroids similar in size to Dimorphos, flying in space near Earth that could one day cross its path. One of those colliding with Earth could cause devastation more powerful than any nuclear weapon ever tested on this planet.

“This would be regionally devastating over a populated area, a city, a state, or a country,” Nancy Chabot, the coordination lead for DART at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said. “So you might not be talking global extinction, but you still want to be able to prevent this if you could.” Astronomers believe they’ve only found less than half of the asteroids in that category circulating near Earth.

The DART spacecraft, built at Johns Hopkins University and launched in November of 2021, is tiny compared to Dimorphos. “You’re talking about something the size of a golf cart running into something the size of a stadium,” Chabot said. “So you can see that this is all about a small nudge.”

But NASA thinks that’s all that will be needed to do the trick. That’s because, over time and distance, the tiny change in trajectory will multiply many fold, enough to ensure the huge space rock would, were Earth in its path, whiz safely by.

Dimorphos, measuring about 525 feet (160 meters), is part of a two asteroid system, thus the DART name, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. It’s a moonlet of a larger asteroid called Didymos, which is roughly 2,550 feet (780 meters) wide.

The two-asteroid system will  help scientists measure the nudge DART gives Dimorphos. From Earth, they’ll be able to calculate how Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos changes over time. Right now, the asteroid takes nearly 12 hours to complete one orbit, but it’s possible DART could change that by several minutes. 

As soon as DART’s task is complete, astronomers using radar and optical telescopes will  get to work observing the asteroids from Earth. NASA expects to figure out the results of the crash in a matter of days or perhaps weeks after the impact. “I would be really surprised if it took more than three weeks,” said Tom Statler, the program scientist for DART at NASA.

A future European mission, called HERA, will also launch in the next couple of years and meet up with the two asteroids to fully survey the system and how it’s changed.

Researchers will also get an immediate glimpse of how DART’s smash-up plays out, thanks to multiple cameras that will capture the show. The same onboard camera used to help navigate the vehicle through space and hone in on the asteroid will record the spacecraft’s impact in near real-time, sending back images roughly once every second. A small cube-shaped craft deployed from DART and built by the Italian Space Agency will also capture the crash with two of its own cameras from a safe distance. NASA said it would share footage of the impact in the days after the collision.

DART is just testing one way in which NASA or another space agency could try to defend Earth from asteroids. Another method the agency said it may consider would involve sending a spacecraft to linger near a hazardous asteroid to use its  gravity to tug on the space rock’s path. A separate option could entail blasting engine thrusters at an asteroid for long periods to push it off its path.

“This demonstration will start to add tools to our toolbox of methods that could be used in the future,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer, said. “And we need several of them because the circumstances that we might face could be quite different.” 

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

French media mogul Stephane Courbit joined a list of bidders for a stake in French television company Groupe M6, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Courbit’s bid comes with backing from shipping tycoon Rodolphe Saade and businessman Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, according to the person. Courbit’s offer follows a previous one already reported by Bloomberg News Friday wherein MFE-MediaForEurope NV, the broadcaster controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has teamed up with French telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel for the same asset, according to people familiar with the matter.

The two bidding parties so far have presented a non-binding offer for German media group Bertelsmann SE & Co.’s roughly 48% stake in M6, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Representatives for MFE, Niel, Courbit and his backers declined to comment.

Bertelsmann is selling its stake in M6 after a plan to merge the company with Television Francaise 1 SA failed to overcome antitrust hurdles, the people said. The deal to combine France’s two biggest television operators raised concerns the combined company would become dominant in advertising and TV service distribution.

The plan’s collapse was also a blow to French construction and telecommunications conglomerate Bouygues SA, which is TF1’s biggest shareholder. A tie-up would have been a defensive move to create a stronger player in the market to go up against the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime platform.

Courbit is a TV production entrepreneur whose media company FL Entertainment listed in Amsterdam earlier this year and is behind such TV hits as Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders and MasterChef via Banijay. He’s teamed up for this M6 stake offer with Saade, whose fortune derives from the control of CMA CGM SA and de Lacharriere.

Niel is the founder of telecom group Iliad SA, through which he has invested across Europe. He’s been looking to expand his model based on low costs and low prices. This month, his Atlas Investissement vehicle took a 2.5% stake in British telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc. Earlier this year, Niel also tried — via Iliad– to buy the British phone carrier’s Italian unit but his offer, which was backed by private equity Apax Partners LLP, was rejected.

(Adds with new bidding party led by Courbit from 1st paragraph)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

French media mogul Stephane Courbit joined a list of bidders for a stake in French television company Groupe M6, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Courbit’s bid comes with backing from shipping tycoon Rodolphe Saade and businessman Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, according to the person. Courbit’s offer follows a previous one already reported by Bloomberg News Friday wherein MFE-MediaForEurope NV, the broadcaster controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has teamed up with French telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel for the same asset, according to people familiar with the matter.

The two bidding parties so far have presented a non-binding offer for German media group Bertelsmann SE & Co.’s roughly 48% stake in M6, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Representatives for MFE, Niel, Courbit and his backers declined to comment.

Bertelsmann is selling its stake in M6 after a plan to merge the company with Television Francaise 1 SA failed to overcome antitrust hurdles, the people said. The deal to combine France’s two biggest television operators raised concerns the combined company would become dominant in advertising and TV service distribution.

The plan’s collapse was also a blow to French construction and telecommunications conglomerate Bouygues SA, which is TF1’s biggest shareholder. A tie-up would have been a defensive move to create a stronger player in the market to go up against the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime platform.

Courbit is a TV production entrepreneur whose media company FL Entertainment listed in Amsterdam earlier this year and is behind such TV hits as Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders and MasterChef via Banijay. He’s teamed up for this M6 stake offer with Saade, whose fortune derives from the control of CMA CGM SA and de Lacharriere.

Niel is the founder of telecom group Iliad SA, through which he has invested across Europe. He’s been looking to expand his model based on low costs and low prices. This month, his Atlas Investissement vehicle took a 2.5% stake in British telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc. Earlier this year, Niel also tried — via Iliad– to buy the British phone carrier’s Italian unit but his offer, which was backed by private equity Apax Partners LLP, was rejected.

(Adds with new bidding party led by Courbit from 1st paragraph)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

Saturday marks seven months since Russian forces invaded Ukraine. This week, President Vladimir Putin ordered another 300,000 troops conscripted into what he’s termed a “special military operation.” Russian occupation authorities began drafting men in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said men in occupied areas should avoid mobilization “by any means.” 

Voting continues in four occupied territories on whether to join Russia. The referenda have been slammed by Kyiv and its allies as shams, reminiscent of a ballot in Crimea in 2014 ahead of annexation, as Russia attempts to annex a large swath of its neighbor including some of its most productive farmland and industrial areas. 

Envoys from over a dozen European countries traveled to Izyum in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday, visiting a mass burial site from which hundres of bodies have been exhumed since the area was recaptured from Russian troops this month. 

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

• Putin’s Conscripts Won’t Win His War But May Drag It Out
• Putin Stages ‘Votes’ to Annex Occupied Ukrainian Territories 
• Zelenskiy Says China’s Position on Russian Invasion ‘Ambiguous’
• EU Rushes to Agree on an Oil Price Cap After Putin’s Threats 
• Russia’s Lavrov Scorns West by Arriving Late at UN, Walking Out
• Abramovich Met Saudi Prince for Russia-Ukraine Prisoner Exchange
• Wheat Rises to Two-Month High as War Again Threatens Black Sea Deal 

On the Ground

Ukraine’s General Staff said that in the past day, Russian forces launched five missile and 14 airstrikes, carried out more than 60 rounds of anti-aircraft strikes at military and civilian objects on the territory of Ukraine. More than 60 settlements were affected. Units of the Ukraine Defense Forces repelled enemy attacks in several areas, while aviation made 25 strikes. Eighteen areas of Russian army manpower and military equipment as well as seven positions of anti-aircraft missile systems were hit, Ukraine said. The figures can’t be verified. Russian occupation authorities began drafting men in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. 

(All times CET) 

Russia Shakes Up Army; Mariupol General Advances (12:07 p.m.)

Russia’s defense ministry announced personnel changes among its generals. No explanation was given for the move, days after President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 reservists in an escalation of the now seven-month conflict.  

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for the supply and logistics, the ministry said in its official Telegram channel. General Dmitry Bulgakov leaves the post for another, unspecified job, it said. 

Mizintsev was sanctioned by the UK in March for what it called his “reprehensible tactics” in combat including “atrocities” against the Ukrainian people during the siege of the southern city of Mariupol — as well as shelling civilian centers in Aleppo, Syria, in 2015-16. 

European Envoys Visited Izyum Mass Graves Site (11 a.m.)

Ambassadors from over a dozen European countries visited Izyum in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Friday and saw mass grave sites uncovered found when Kyiv’s troops recaptured the area. Some 436 bodies have been exhumed, including children. 

The visit also took in the site of a multi-story residential building destroyed by a Russian bomb, killing 53 people.   

“The world must know the truth about the bloody crimes of the occupiers. That is why it is extremely important that today foreign diplomats were able to see with their own eyes what the Russian occupiers leave behind,” said Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Ukraine’s Office of the President.  

Zelenskiy Says China’s Position on Russian Invasion ‘Ambiguous’ (10:26 a.m.)

Ukraine’s president said he would like to renew relations with China, whose position on the Russian invasion he termed “ambiguous.” 

“I would like them to help Ukraine,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with a French newspaper. A call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “would be difficult today.”

The comments came after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Ukrainian counterpart this week during the UN General Assembly in New York. 

Russia Tries to Slow Kyiv’s Advance With Dam Hits, UK Says (8:30 a.m.) 

Russian forces targeted the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyi Donets River this week following a hit a week ago to another major dam upriver in Kryvyi Rih, the UK defence ministry said in a Twitter update. 

“Ukrainian forces are advancing further downstream along both rivers. As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points,” the UK said. 

Zelenskiy Says Russian Presented UN With ‘Lying Propaganda’ (8 a.m.) 

Ukraine’s president said he had a “really positive” response to his speech to the UN General Assembly this week, where he outlined proposals for security guarantees.  

Zelenskiy said he met via video conference with representatives of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, among others, as part of the week’s activities. 

“And what did Russia present? Once again, lame excuses, complaints and constant lying propaganda,” Zelenskiy said in a nightly address to the nation on Friday.  

Russia Exempts Workers in Some Sectors From Military Draft (12 p.m.)

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that workers in certain segments would be excused from the draft ordered Wednesday by President Vladimir Putin.

The exemptions apply to people working for IT companies, information and communications services, media, and organizations responsible for the stability of the national payment system and financial market infrastructure. Companies and organizations in these industries should submit lists of employees to apply for exemptions, the ministry said in a Telegram post. 

It earlier said university students also won’t be called up. The announcement comes amid signs some Russians are rushing to flee the country or otherwise avoid the prospect of being sent to join the war in Ukraine.

Russia Stages ‘Referendums’ to Annex Occupied Lands (9:40 a.m.) 

Russia on Friday began staging UN-condemned “votes” on annexing the roughly fifth of neighboring Ukraine it occupies in a step that marks a new escalation in the spiraling conflict between President Vladimir Putin and the US and its allies.

State media reported overwhelming support for accession to Russia in the four regions that its troops partially control. In Moscow, officials vowed to move quickly to finalize the absorption of the territories.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the votes a “violation of the UN Charter and international law.”  

Putin’s Conscripts May Merely Drag Out His War (9:31 a.m.) 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to draft in 300,000 reservists to reinforce his troops in Ukraine is likely to extend the war rather than influence its outcome.

Still, it could buy him time to execute a wider strategy — including exacerbating Europe’s energy crisis and threatening a nuclear strike on unspecified targets — aimed at undermining foreign military and financial support for Kyiv’s war effort.

Read more: Putin’s Conscripts Won’t Win His War But May Drag It Out 

 

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

Australian authorities are investigating reports alleging that customers’ personal data are being sold online after the Australian unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. was hit by a major cyberattack earlier this week.

Federal police on Saturday confirmed its personnel were “using specialist capability” to monitor the dark web and a number of other forums as concerns mount about the scale of the data breach and the millions of Optus customers that may have been affected. 

Personal information including names, birth dates, phone numbers and email addresses are among data that may have been exposed, SingTel said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange Thursday. The attack may have exposed the addresses and identification-document details of a smaller number of customers, it said.

Already, there are fears about theft of data, after an alleged threat was made by hackers to sell millions of customers’ data unless Optus paid $1 million in ransom. The post has not been officially verified.

READ: Optus Probes Cyberattack That May Have Exposed Customer Data

Optus said on Saturday that it’s in the process of contacting individuals that have had their personal details directly impacted and is working with relevant authorities. A spokesperson for the company said “the attack is likely to trigger a number of claims and scams from criminals seeking to benefit financially.”

No passwords or financial details have been compromised, Optus said.

A spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police said authorities would not hesitate to take action if individuals are found to have broken the law, with penalties of as long as ten years for buying stolen credentials.

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — A 17-year-old teenager in England was charged with computer misuse and breaches of bail, according to a statement from City of London Police.

The unidentified suspect was apprehended in Oxfordshire, southeast England, Thursday on suspicion of hacking. The UK’s National Cyber Crime Unit aided in the investigation, according to the statement.

“The teenager has been charged with two counts of breach of bail conditions and two counts of computer misuse,” Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan said in the statement on Twitter. The suspect will appear at a specialist youth court later on Saturday.

Recent breaches have affected Uber Technologies Inc., in which an intruder infiltrated the company’s network and sent messages to employees. The company later blamed a notorious extortion group called Lapsus$ for that incident.

In another case, a hacker breached the gaming company Rockstar Games and leaked videos from Grand Theft Auto VI, a highly anticipated title from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.

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