The world in brief

2022-08-24

America urged its citizens to leave Ukraine, saying it believes Russia will step up strikes
against civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days. The
statement from the American embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, follows a Ukrainian

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government ban on public celebrations of the country’s independence day on Wednesday.
That day will also mark six months since Russia’s invasion.

America’s private-sector activity contracted for a second month in August, according to

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S&P Global’s flash survey of purchasing managers. The service sector recorded a steeper
rate of decline than industry as inflation choked demand. The dollar and short-dated US
government bond yields reversed their recent climb amid fresh concerns about America’s
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economy.

Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, accused the company of failing to protect
user data and lying about its security problems, according to Whistleblower Aid, the
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organisation that helped file his complaint to regulators. The accusation comes ahead of
a court battle in October between Twitter and Elon Musk, a tech billionaire, over a failed
deal to buy the social media platform for $44bn.

Malaysia’s Federal Court upheld the conviction of Najib Razak, the former prime minister,
on charges related to a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at 1Malaysia Development
Berhad, a state fund. Mr Najib was found guilty in July 2020 of illegally receiving about
$10m from a former unit of 1MDB, charges that he denies. He was sentenced to 12 years
in jail and a 210m ringgit ($46.8m) fine.

America’s National Archives recovered 700 pages of classified material from Donald
Trump’s Florida home in January, according to a letter from the agency to the former
president’s lawyer. These included documents “at the highest levels of classification”,
more of which were seized by the FBI this month. Mr Trump is suing the Department of
Justice over an investigation into the confidential documents: he wants a third-party
“special master” to review the evidence and the FBI to return some items removed during
the raid, which he has called politically motivated.

A former police officer in Kentucky pleaded guilty to helping falsify a search warrant for a
raid that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor, a black medical technician, in 2020.
Kelly Goodlett is also accused of covering up the falsification immediately after the
botched no-knock operation, in which Taylor was shot six times. Her death, along with
that of George Floyd, sparked mass protests over police violence against black Americans.
Three other Louisville police officers face charges connected to the incident.

Australia’s government will allow the construction of a fertiliser plant near an

important Aboriginal heritage site on Western Australia’s Burrup peninsula. Some of the
rock carvings, which include what are thought to be the oldest images of a human face,
can now be moved to allow for construction. The plant’s backers, Perdaman Industries,
said the A$4.5bn (US$3.1bn) urea plant will create 2,000 local jobs.

Fact of the day: 2,700, the estimated number of people killed because of terrorist violence
in Mali so far this year, 40% more than in all of 2021.

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