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US authorities are digging into the internal financial dealings of Barry Silbert’s expansive crypto empire, according to people familiar with the matter.Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are scrutinising transfers between Digital Currency Group Inc (DCG) and an embattled subsidiary that offers crypto lending services, said the people, who asked not to be named because the probe hasn’t been made public. They’re also delving into what investors were told about those transactions.Prosecutors have started requesting interviews and documents, one of the people said. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also conducting an investigation, another person said. The probes are in early phases and neither Silbert, Digital Currency Group, nor any of its subsidiaries have been accused of wrongdoing. Silbert referred a request for comment to a DCG spokesperson. In a statement, the company said: “DCG has a strong culture of integrity and has always conducted its business lawfully. We have no knowledge of or reason to believe that there is any Eastern District of New York investigation into DCG.”Genesis, the subsidiary whose unit offers lending services, said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on specific legal or regulatory matters. “Genesis maintains regular dialogue and co-operates with relevant regulators and authorities when it receives inquiries,” it said.The SEC and US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment. It’s unclear specifically which intercompany activity is drawing scrutiny. Cracks in Silbert’s Digital Currency Group juggernaut started to show after Genesis sustained heavy losses from the collapse last year of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. As the crypto rout deepened in late 2022, scrutiny over the web of financial relationships at DCG intensified. Financial pressure ramped up further following crypto exchange FTX’s sudden and spectacular collapse in November. Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of Genesis, was hit particularly hard and halted customer withdrawals and new loan originations. The freeze remains in place. One of the people familiar with the criminal probe said the investigation into Silbert’s empire began prior to FTX’s implosion. For its part, DCG has said it’s insulated from the troubles at Genesis. In a November letter to shareholders, Silbert disclosed that DCG received about $575mn in loans from Genesis Global Capital that are due this May. He also mentioned a $1.1bn promissory note due in June 2032, resulting from DCG assuming liabilities Genesis had from exposure to Three Arrows. Silbert is DCG’s chief executive as well as the group’s founder.Silbert added that intercompany loans between DCG and Genesis were made in the ordinary course of business and “always structured on an arm’s length basis and priced at prevailing market interest rates.”The reach of DCG, one of crypto’s last-standing empires, is sprawling: In addition to Genesis, it also controls digital-asset manager Grayscale Investments, which helms a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin trust. DCG, which was once valued at $10bn, is also the parent of crypto-mining service provider Foundry Digital, news publication CoinDesk and Luno, a London-based exchange it acquired in 2020.The conglomerate announced on Thursday it planned to shutter wealth manager HQ at the end of this month. DCG also said that Genesis Global Trading Inc., the brokerage unit of Genesis, was laying off roughly 30% of its staff. Cameron Winklevoss, who co-founded Gemini Trust Co, has been publicly clashing with Silbert. Gemini had partnered with Genesis Global Capital to offer the product that lets users earn high yields on their cryptocurrency holdings for which withdrawals remain halted. Customers haven’t been able to pull money from the product known as Earn since mid-November. Winklevoss recently accused Silbert of stalling efforts to resolve the issue and claimed DCG and Genesis are “beyond commingled.”In response, Silbert denied several of Winklevoss’s accusations in a Tweet. He said that DCG had delivered a proposal to Genesis and advisers for Winklevoss on December 29, but didn’t receive a reply. He added that “DCG has never missed an interest payment to Genesis and is current on all loans outstanding.”

US House Speaker candidate Kevin McCarthy took a significant step to securing the gavel yesterday after three days of deadlock as he managed to win over most of the 20 hardline fellow Republicans blocking his path.The party, which has a razor-thin majority in the lower chamber of Congress, was facing worsening infighting after McCarthy lost a historic 11 consecutive ballots for the job.However, the 57-year-old Californian was able to pick up 14 votes among the right-wing defectors in the 12th round yesterday after offering major concessions, in a development that McCarthyites hope will lead to more votes flipping.Seven fellow Republicans still voted against him, leaving him three votes short of the majority needed to win the Speaker’s gavel and prompting his supporters to put his nomination forward for a 13th vote.It was the first time in the tense, draw-out process that McCarthy has actually beaten his Democratic opposite number Hakeem Jeffries, although neither has achieved the outright majority required to win the speakership.The win nevertheless vindicated the incongruous air of confidence McCarthy has exuded all week, even as he was bleeding votes and looking like a busted flush.“We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you,” he promised reporters as he walked into the Capitol yesterday.It was not immediately clear if a 13th ballot would go ahead before the weekend, but McCarthy had earlier indicated that he wanted keep the House open until the Speaker’s race is wrapped up.There have already been more rounds of voting than any Speaker election since the Civil War.Weary lawmakers-elect on all sides had been hoping for a tipping point, but McCarthy hadn’t previously appeared to be making any progress in adding to the Republicans supporters that have stuck with him.Lawmakers-elect had increasingly been voicing frustration about being trapped in Washington day after day.“There’s a lot more at stake than whether Kevin McCarthy’s going to be able to get the gavel,” Republican Kevin Hern told Politico. “We’ve got lives that are being impacted right now, and this is tough for people.” Chip Roy, seen as a figure of stability among the raucous anti-McCarthy group, was given credit for the apparent turnaround after voicing his belief that he could persuade around 10 colleagues to accept the mountain of concessions McCarthy has offered the hardliners.However, Democrats and some of McCarthy’s supporters, in private, are concerned that he is offering his far-right critics radical policy commitments that will make the House ungovernable.Others were complaining that he is handing the hardliners too much power with promises of plum committee posts and changes to the rules that would severely weaken the role of the Speaker.Republicans’ weaker-than-expected performance in November midterm elections left them with a narrow 222-212 majority and gives outsized power to the right-wing hardliners who oppose McCarthy’s leadership.They have railed against McCarthy, accusing him of being soft and too open to compromise with President Joe Biden and his Democrats, who also control the US Senate.The fourth day of voting came as Democrats marked the anniversary of the US Capitol riot by linking the violence to the internecine warfare among House Republicans.“Two years ago, a violent mob – fuelled by hate and a tyrannical president – stormed the Capitol and attacked our democracy,” said No 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark in a statement yesterday. “Tragically, the same extremist forces continue to have a stranglehold on House Republicans. They cannot elect a leader because their Conference is held hostage by Members who peddle misinformation and want to dismantle democracy.”Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the second anniversary of the insurrection – when a mob of defeated president Donald Trump’s supporters ransacked the Capitol – should serve as a “wake-up call” for Republicans to reject extremism.However, he added “the utter pandemonium wrought by House Republicans this week is just one more example of how the extreme fringe of their party, led by election deniers, is pulling them further into chaos”.The top Democrat spoke as President Joe Biden was preparing to award medals at a sombre ceremony acknowledging police officers who defended the Capitol.Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison said that Republicans who continue to amplify Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen remain “present and persistent” threats to democracy.

Humanitarian workers operating in the last opposition-held part of Syria fear a cholera outbreak sweeping the region will deepen further if the United Nations is forced to stop aid deliveries across the border from Turkiye.The area’s 4mn people live in dire conditions and rely heavily on the food and medicine that has been brought across the border since a 2014 UNSecurity Council resolution allowed such deliveries despite the Syrian government’s objections.The Security Council is due to vote on Monday, a day before the current authorisation expires, on renewing it for a further six months.Health workers in the zone, which comprises most of the province of Idlib and parts of Aleppo province in northwestern Syria, fear the consequences should Syria’s ally Russia veto it or place further restrictions on the programme.“The capabilities of the health sector are already very weak, and we suffer from an acute shortage of medicines, medical supplies and serums,” said Dr Zuhair al-Qurat, the head of Idlib’s health directorate.“Stopping cross-border aid will have a multiplier effect on the cholera outbreak in the region,” he told Reuters.Though diplomats say Russia has indicated it will allow the authorisation’s renewal, uncertainty remains. Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters the implementation of the current resolution — adopted in July — was “far from our expectations” and a final decision would be made by Moscow on Monday.Top UN officials, including aid chief Martin Griffiths, have warned that ending the operation would be “catastrophic”.Idlib has recorded more than 14,000 suspected cholera cases and Aleppo more than 11,000 since the outbreak began in September, making them the second and fourth worst-hit in Syria respectively. They are particularly vulnerable because they rely on water from the Euphrates river to drink and irrigate crops, and because the health sector in opposition-held Syria has been battered by more than a decade of war. The UN authorisation allows agencies to bring in hygiene kits, chlorine tablets to disinfect water and equipment for eight cholera treatment centres with more than 200 beds.Non-governmental groups also truck safe drinking water to homes.Without it, international NGOs would not have international legal cover and could not keep up with the pace and quantities of aid needed, three aid workers told Reuters. That is in part because large donor countries trust that aid brought in through the UN will not be politicised, unfairly distributed or seized by hardline armed groups.The chlorine used to disinfect water presents a particular challenge.The chemical has been used in Syria as a weapon of war, prompting concerns among donors that would slow down its procurement for cholera treatment by humanitarian organisations other than the UN, the aid workers said. “These centres and health facilities would be suspended. Supplies...transhipped specifically for the cholera pandemic in the northwest would be interrupted — fluid, serums, injections, oral medications,” said Mohamed Jasem, the International Rescue Organisation’s northwest Syria co-ordinator.Even if the resolution is renewed for another six months, health workers have already suffered from short-term renewals, leaving them unable to plan ahead, said Osama Abou el-Ezz, the head of the Syrian-American Medical Society (SAMS) in Aleppo.

The US labour market stayed strong last month and wage gains cooled, reducing risks of a near-term recession and giving the Federal Reserve room to slow interest-rate hikes.Nonfarm payrolls increased 223,000 in December, capping a near-record year for job growth, a Labor Department report showed yesterday. The advance followed a 256,000 gain in November.Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from a month earlier and 4.6% from December 2021 after November’s previously eye-popping gain was revised lower. The deceleration is likely welcome news for Fed officials, who see wage pressures, particularly in the service sector, as a key hurdle to achieving their 2% inflation goal.The unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 3.5%, matching a five-decade low, as participation inched higher. The median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists had called for a 203,000 advance in payrolls and for wages to climb 0.4% from the prior month. The job gains were led by healthcare and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, and construction. Several sectors were little changed.The S&P 500 rose and Treasuries rallied as investors speculated the easing in wage pressures would lead the Fed to pursue less restrictive policy in the coming months. Separate data showed a gauge of services activity plunged last month.The government figures underscore both the enduring strength of the jobs market and how a persistent imbalance between the supply and demand for labour is keeping upward pressure on earnings. That said, the welcome uptick in participation paired with a slowdown in wage growth suggest some of the tightness in the labour market is starting to unwind.A sustained deceleration in wage growth could offer some comfort to central bank officials that a key part of the inflation puzzle is losing steam.“It’s not that the Fed wants fewer jobs. What they want is lower wage growth, more because they’re worried about persistent inflation,” Randall Kroszner, a former Fed governor and now an economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said on Bloomberg Television.The data “may make it more likely that they go 25 basis points rather than 50 basis points” at the February and March meetings, he said.Looking ahead, central bank officials see the unemployment rate rising by about a full percentage point this year, while many other economists predict the US will slip into a recession.“December’s nonfarm-payroll report seems like a Goldilocks print: An expanding labour force and robust hiring drove down the unemployment rate, but wage growth also moderated... momentum in the labour market may have picked up again after loosening somewhat toward the end of last year,” say Anna Wong and Eliza Winger, economists at Bloomberg.While overall job openings remain high and layoffs low, there are growing pockets of weakness in the labour market, particularly in sectors like technology and real estate. Non-durable goods manufacturing, temporary-help services and information all shed workers in December, the Labor Department report showed.The concentrated nature of payroll gains paired with the fewest hours worked since the onset of the pandemic temper some optimism around the data.Separate figures out yesterday showed a gauge of activity in the services industry contracted in December for the first time since May 2020. The Institute for Supply Management’s measure of services employment shrank for the second time in three months, with respondents noting both trouble filling positions and hiring restraint tied to economic concerns.Just this week, Amazon.com Inc said it plans to cut more than 18,000 employees — the biggest reduction in its history — while the real estate brokerage Compass Inc announced further layoffs. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc show job-cut announcements, while down from the prior month, were up 129% from December 2021.The labour force participation rate — the share of the population that is working or looking for work — ticked up to 62.3%, and the rate for workers ages 25-54 rose.The jobs report is made up of two surveys — one of businesses and the other of households. While the household survey depicted a weaker picture of the job market than its counterpart in prior months, the December figures showed a sharp 717,000 rebound in employment.

Investors are no longer turning a blind eye to risks facing Apple Inc, an about-face that has taken the iPhone maker’s market value below $2tn and threatens more pain for the stock in the months ahead. Until recently, shares of the world’s most valuable company defied much of the gloom that walloped other tech giants in 2022, even as last year represented the worst for the stock since 2008. But now, delays in production of iPhones and concern that demand is weakening as the economy slows are making the stock look more pedestrian by the day. With its valuation still above its average over the past decade, there’s plenty of room to fall. “Apple has been seen as a flight to safety trade and when people kind of throw in the towel that’s when they sell Apple,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “When we reach a bottom, Apple tends to get washed out and cheap and it’s still, if anything, slightly expensive.”Apple shares are priced at about 20 times profits expected over the next 12 months. While that’s down significantly from recent peaks above 30, it’s still above the 10-year average of 17 times, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The sentiment swing in the stock has been swift. As recently as November, Apple was outperforming the S&P 500, a remarkable feat considering other tech giants like Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc. had lost more than a third of their values in 2022. Apple’s strength was rooted in its massive capital returns to shareholders through buybacks and dividends and the belief that its hard-to-leave ecosystem of loyal customers would insulate the company in a potential recession. Faith in that argument is cracking, along with investor optimism that the Federal Reserve will soon provide relief from higher interest rates. Apple shares tumbled 12% in December, compared with a drop of 5.9% for the S&P 500 and 9.1% for the Nasdaq 100. It was Apple’s biggest monthly drop since May 2019. The weakness continued on Tuesday, after Nikkei reported that Apple told several suppliers to make fewer components for a number of products, given weakening demand. Exane BNP Paribas also downgraded the stock, writing that Apple’s growth outlook “seems insufficient to justify a valuation premium to platform peers.” As a result of Covid-related production snarls in China, Wall Street analysts have been cutting estimates for iPhone sales in Apple’s first fiscal quarter, which ended December 31. Last month, JPMorgan Chase & Co reduced its projection for the second time since early November. Analyst Samik Chatterjee now sees about 70mn units sold, down from a prior estimate of 82mn. Still, many of the lost sales have likely just been pushed back to the second quarter as supply constraints ease, he said. Indeed, Foxconn Technology Group has brought the world’s largest iPhone plant to about 90% of anticipated peak capacity, the official Henan Daily reported this week. And analysts have largely stopped trimming their revenue and earnings estimates now.Analysts, though, are still catching up to the stock’s decline. The average target price for the next 12 months has dropped to about $173 from $191 in March.

China is planning to relax restrictions on developer borrowing, dialling back the stringent “three red lines” policy that exacerbated one of the biggest real estate meltdowns in the country’s history.Beijing may allow some property firms to add more leverage by easing borrowing caps, and push back the grace period for meeting debt targets set by the policy, according to people familiar with the matter. The deadline could be extended by at least six months from the original June 30 date, the people said.The easing could mark the most dramatic shift in China’s real estate policy, adding to a clutch of measures issued since November to bolster the battered sector that accounts for about a quarter of the nation’s economy. Within the span of weeks, the government has softened its stance for sectors from chips and coal imports to internet platform businesses, underscoring Beijing’s resolve to refocus on economic growth. “This is a signal from the top regulators in an attempt to help restore market confidence in the real estate sector and create a positive feedback loop between the homebuyers, developers, and the physical market,” said Zerlina Zeng, senior credit analyst at Creditsights Singapore LLC. The offshore yuan surpassed its 200-day moving average for the first time since April after the news.A gauge of real estate stocks rose nearly 1.5% yesterday. Prices for China dollar high-yield notes, a sector dominated by property firms, have reached levels last seen in January 2022 at an average 75 cents on the dollar, according to a Bloomberg index. These notes continued to rally yesterday, according to credit traders. The so-called “three red lines” metrics, that emerged in 2020, were the hallmark of a massive property crackdown by Beijing as it sought to reduce developers’ leverage, lower risk in the financial sector and make homes more affordable as part of President Xi Jinping’s common prosperity push.The measures, which imposed strict debt and cash-flow targets on real estate firms, choked off liquidity for the highest-leveraged developers, contributing to the avalanche of defaults and construction halts that sparked mortgage boycotts and plunging sales across the nation. With access to credit markets largely closed, developers have defaulted on more than 140 bonds in 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Overall, developers missed payments on a combined $50bn in domestic and global debt based on issuance amount. China Evergrande Group, once the country’s biggest developer and a poster child for the property crackdown, was labelled a defaulter in December 2021 after it missed payments on several bonds. Others followed suit, including Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd and Sunac China Holdings Ltd. The defaults crushed what was once the most active and lucrative high-yield bond market in the world. Fears of further contagion meantime weakened consumer confidence and roiled global investors who had long assumed the government would bail out the real estate titans. The crisis spooked buyers, driving home sales down by the most in at least two decades, while home prices declined for 15 straight months.After almost two years of housing market pain, Beijing is changing its stance. Under the new proposal, China will ease restrictions on debt growth for developers depending on how many red lines they meet, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Dubai set out a 32tn-dirham ($8.7tn) economic plan yesterday that includes doubling foreign trade and investment over the next decade to boost its standing as a global financial hub.The emirate, part of the United Arab Emirates federation, is a business and finance centre in the Middle East. It’s already been deepening trade routes and working to attract global firms as it faces growing regional competition.Foreign trade is targeted to reach 25.6tn dirhams by 2033 as the city adds to its global partners. Dubai is also seeking to attract foreign direct investment of around 60bn dirhams annually, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum tweeted.Dubai’s economy continued its post-pandemic recovery in 2022 and grew an annual 4.6% in the first nine months of last year. But its plan for longer-term growth comes as economists forecast a grim global outlook. The International Monetary Fund expects one third of the world economy to be in recession this year with the US, Europe and China all slowing down simultaneously.The emirate is seeking to boost its manufacturing and logistics sector as part of the plan. Government spending will rise to 700bn dirhams over the next 10 years from 512bn dirhams the decade before, it said.The city has been a commercial capital for more than a decade, but Saudi Arabia is also seeking to expand its role as a business and trade hub under Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 development plan.Dubai has adopted legal changes and loosened restrictions to retain its allure to foreign investors and talent. It has introduced visas to allow foreigners to work, live and study without needing a sponsor.While favourable immigration policies and regulation make it easy for firms to set up business in the city, they also come with risks. Dubai is coming under increasing international scrutiny after it attracted crypto heavyweights and Russia’s wealthy as other jurisdictions increasingly sanction and shun them.

India aims to cut spending on food and fertiliser subsidies to 3.7tn ($44.6bn) in the fiscal year from April, down 26% from this year, two government officials said, to rein in a fiscal deficit that ballooned during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.Food and fertiliser subsidies alone account for about one-eighth of India’s total budget spending of 39.45tn rupees this fiscal year, but reductions in food subsidies in particular may prove politically sensitive with elections looming on the horizon.The government expects to budget around 2.3tn rupees for food subsidies in the coming fiscal year, compared with 2.7tn rupees for the current year to March 31, the two officials said.Spending on fertiliser subsidies will likely fall to about 1.4tn rupees, according to one of the officials and a third government official.That compares with nearly 2.3tn rupees this year, the third official added.The officials declined to be named because the information was not public.The finance ministry declined to comment, while the food and fertiliser ministries did not immediately reply to requests for comment.A large part of the savings will come from the end of a Covid-19-era free food scheme, which will be replaced with a lower-spending programme, the first two officials said.That will effectively halve the free rations available to the poor in a year with a series of state elections, while general elections loom in 2024.The government is eager to tame its fiscal deficit, which is targeted at 6.4% of GDP for the current fiscal year.That is far above the average of 4-4.5% over the past decade, excluding the pandemic years when spending surged and the ratio peaked at 9.3%.The government plans to shave at least half a percentage point from the ratio in 2023/24, the first two officials said.The subsidy numbers will be announced on February 1, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the 2023/24 federal budget.The three officials said the latest subsidies estimates for 2023/24 may be adjusted when a final round of discussions takes place, by mid-January.The reduction in fertiliser subsidies is also driven by expectations of lower crude oil prices and the government’s revised gas procurement policy for fertiliser companies, which came into effect earlier this month, two of the officials said.

UK rail staff disrupted the New Year return to work yesterday in the latest strike action by workers in a range of sectors over the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.Britain is in the grip of its worst run of worker unrest since Margaret Thatcher was in power in the 1980s, as surging inflation follows more than 10 years of stagnant wage growth, leaving many workers unable to make ends meet.Repeated rail strikes have crippled the network in recent months while nurses, airport staff, paramedics and postal workers have also joined the fray, demanding higher pay to keep pace with inflation that is hovering around 40-year highs, reaching 10.7% in November.Normally bustling London train stations were quiet yesterday – the first normal working day of 2023 after the New Year break.Network Rail, which operates the UK’s rail infrastructure, warned travellers of “significantly reduced” train services or no services at all in some areas until Sunday.Five days of strike action beginning yesterday were to include two 48-hour strikes by around 40,000 members of the RMT union.The Aslef union will also strike tomorrow.Writer Richard Roques told AFP that the stoppage was “really inconvenient” but that he recognised that the rail workers were defending their livelihoods.Another, retiree Mike Farrelly, however, said he understood the government’s position “in as much as that there’s only so much money to go around”.“I consider that a lot of the strikers are reasonably well paid,” he said, adding that health workers who should be regarded as a special case.Transport Secretary Mark Harper urged the rail unions to return to the negotiating table.“The trade unions decided they wanted to go on strike this week, which is deeply unhelpful, damages the rail industry, damages the interests of the people that work in it,” he told Sky News. “I want to see them back around the table and we can try and hammer out a deal between the employers and the trade unions.”The RMT union, however, accused the government of intervening in negotiations in December to stop a deal.Harper denies the claim.RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the minister had scuppered a potential settlement by insisting on the removal of guards from trains, in favour of driver-only operated trains.The issue is a key one for unions.“So that prevented any move forward on the issue and so that is the direct responsibility of the Secretary of State (Harper),” Lynch said from a picket line at London Euston railway station.Despite escalating pay demands, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to fight calls for inflation-busting rises, insisting the government must stick to more modest increases for public sector workers.“The best way to help them and help everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible,” Sunak told a watchdog panel of MPs late last year.Lynch told AFP that the union was “really sorry that we have had to take this action, that it does impact them (the public) and we understand their frustration, indeed their anger. “But we believe some of that should be directed at the government.”Those striking in 2022 included rail, port, border force and postal workers along with lawyers, nurses and ambulance staff.More stoppages are planned in the coming weeks.

Thousands of Kurds from across Europe travelled to the Paris suburbs yesterday for the politically charged funeral of three of their own killed in a December attack in the French capital.Buses were chartered to bring people from across France and some neighbouring countries to the ceremony in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, local sources said.Tears and cries of “Martyrs live forever!” greeted the coffins, wrapped in the flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish-controlled Rojava territory in northern Syria.The huge crowd followed the funeral on giant screens erected in a car park, showing the coffins surrounded by wreaths beneath a portrait of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.Police and security volunteers were on duty outside a hall hired for yesterday’s proceedings.A xenophobic gunman, William Malet, is suspected of killing two men and one woman in a December 23 attack on the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish community centre in Paris’s 10th district.His victims were Abdurrahman Kizil, singer and political refugee Mir Perwer and Emine Kara, a leader of the Movement of Kurdish Women in France.Arrested after the shootings and formally charged on December 26, 69-year-old Malet told investigators that he had a “pathological” hatred for foreigners and wanted to “murder migrants”, prosecutors said.Malet, a retired train driver, had a violent criminal history and had just left detention over a previous incident.However, many Kurds in France’s 150,000-strong community refuse to believe he acted alone, calling his actions a “terrorist” attack and pointing the finger at a “state sponsor”.“The anger of the people gathered today has again proven to us how much the Kurdish community believes these murders are political,” said a spokesman for the Democratic Council of Kurds in France (CDKF).Yesterday’s funeral recalled another held at the same spot almost exactly 10 years ago after three Kurdish activists linked to the PKK were shot dead, also in Paris’s 10th district.The suspect in the killings died of cancer in pre-trial detention.The PKK, which has waged an almost four-decade armed struggle for greater rights for Turkiye’s Kurdish minority, is categorised as a terror group by Ankara, Europe and the United States.Often described as the world’s largest people without a state, Kurds originate in regions that are spread across Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and Iran.CDKF activists plan a march today in tribute to the December victims, on the street where the shootings took place.

Young acrobats from circus schools across Ukraine dazzled audiences in Budapest this week when the city hosted a Ukrainian youth circus festival to showcase the talents of children forced by the war to train underground or without electricity.After months of practice in their home cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa and Donetsk, the children aged between 6-17 gave more than 30 performances alongside competitors from Hungary, Switzerland, Mexico and Italy at Budapest’s Capital Circus.“As these children are training in air raid shelters by candlelight from morning to night, [we thought] there must be a place where they can show their talent and knowledge,” Budapest Circus director Peter Fekete said.“We must give them faith that it is worth doing the work, it is worth the training, so we stopped our regular programme for two days this January and ... handed over the circus to our Ukrainian friends,” he added.Circus artist Mariia Kravchenko, aged 13, from the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, had trained for the circus festival in unheated shelters amid the Russian attacks.“I trained in the circus in Dnipro but we have the war in Ukraine and I was training with air raid sirens and it was hard,” she said with a faint smile, as she prepared to perform her hula hoop show dressed in Ukrainian colours with flowers in her hair.The Yaskrava Arena Dnipra international children’s circus festival was launched in 2010 by an non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Bright Country (Ukraine).Before the war, it was held every year in December at the Dnipro State Circus.Since it began, more than 1,000 young artists from all over Ukraine, as well as Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Moldova and Poland, have participated in the festival.Winners regularly advance to international festivals in France, Spain and Italy.

Westerners have spent two decades wondering why the Russian people have fallen under the spell of Vladimir Putin. Diplomats, historians, economists, and pundits have all failed to provide a satisfying explanation. But where academics and strategists have failed, perhaps the denizens of Sesame Street, from Kermit the Frog to Elmo, might succeed.It was 1996. My homeland was in the midst of “shock therapy” – the rapid liberalisation and privatisation of its economy by decree, after the Soviet Union’s fall – and I was at Princeton working on my doctorate. One day, a report about Russia on CNN caught my attention. Unusually, it was not about a killing or business takeover or an oligarch’s rise or fall – negative coverage delivered with a holier-than-thou tone that never failed to rankle. Instead, it is a seemingly positive story: the Muppets were headed to Moscow.But listening to the CNN host’s arrogant commentary, my relief quickly gave way to frustration. The establishment of a Sesame Street in Russia was not, apparently, an example of cultural cross-pollination, enabled by the country’s opening. Rather, Miss Piggy and Big Bird would ensure that American democratic sensibilities took root in the hearts and minds of children across the vast post-Soviet space – not just in Russia, but also in Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet republics. I changed the channel.A children’s television show, defined by its positive messages about learning and sharing, was being twisted into propaganda, presented as a form of pedagogical salvation, and used as yet another declaration of America’s Cold War victory. But Russia had its own rich culture, which included not only Tolstoy and the Bolshoi, but also Good Night, Little Ones! a Soviet children’s show as clever and warm-hearted as Sesame Street.Fortunately, the team behind Sesame Street did not succumb to the attitude of moral superiority and cultural contempt that pervaded US news reports and was likely internalised by many ordinary Americans. On the contrary, according to a new book by Natasha Lance Rogoff – who, in the early 1990s, was an executive producer in charge of bringing the Muppets to Russia – the story of the show’s formation for Russian audiences was one of genuine cultural cooperation, not condescension or conquest.In Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia, Lance Rogoff does not shy away from the story’s political thread. She openly admits that USAID and then-senator Joe Biden “spearheaded congressional support for an international Sesame Street,” touting the Muppets as “ideal ambassadors to model democratic values and the benefits of a free-market economy to children in the former Soviet Union.” But she also explains that “translating Sesame Street’s ebullient and idealistic outlook to Mother Russia was not only incredibly difficult, but also incredibly dangerous.”Lance Rogoff’s narrative includes bizarre, sordid, and all-too-human details about the morbid racketeering of the early post-Soviet years, when journalists and businesspeople were murdered on spec and Miss Piggy could be embraced as a role model for the utterly ruthless. Her rationalising, normalising, and modernising of the post-Soviet system reminded me of David Remnick’s insights, in his 1994 book Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, into how Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika transformed Russia.Perhaps most important, Lance Rogoff shows that, even if Russia’s Sesame Street was fundamentally an American show, it was not about America. It certainly was not designed to serve as American propaganda. Instead, it depicted basic human values like friendship and communication – as much for the Russians and Americans who put the show together as for viewers across the former Soviet Union.Watching Sesame Street while on a visit to Moscow in 1996 – not long after seeing that CNN report – I was pleased to encounter a generous, sweet, and very well-produced show, which contained tie-in stories from the American original as well as unique stories with Russian puppets. The show’s creators had clearly worked hard to develop characters that would resonate with Russians, from the problem-solving orange monster Kubik to the imaginative pink Muppet Businka. Zeliboba – a fuzzy, red-nosed house spirit, dressed in a leaf-covered cloak – was probably the most interesting (and certainly the most polarising).Lance Rogoff does sometimes fall prey to cliché. There are too many “Boris and Natasha” moments, with Russians being depicted as cartoonish stereotypes – absurd, bumbling, affected, and heavily accented. For example, one of the female tycoons involved in the show, Irina Borisova, clicks toward a meeting late in Christian Louboutin stilettos. And the late Boris Berezovsky, who was approached for funding, calls “Bik Burd,” an “i-cone” of American culture, “as famous as Elvis Pray-esly.”Nonetheless, Lance Rogoff deserves praise not only for her storytelling, but also for her perseverance and devotion, without which Russian Sesame Street would not have happened. That would have been a loss for Russian children. As Borisova explained when she decided to offer funding, “every self-respecting individual understands that it’s time to do something for Russian children, but unfortunately, very little gets done – except talk.” At a time when Russia was “changing so quickly” – and was “still very violent” – she believed that a “show like Sesame Street could model for our people how to live in a peaceful society.”The key, as Lance Rogoff understood, was to show, not tell – to act in good faith, with decency and humanity, rather than delivering contemptuous, self-aggrandising lectures. In the 1990s, Russians were mimicking all things American. But they were also deeply conflicted, as reflected in the debates Lance Rogoff describes over Rachmaninoff and rock and roll. Russian culture is marked by extremes, and the oscillation between imitating Western models and violently rejecting them is no exception.Russian children watched Sesame Street for nearly 15 years – until 2010. Lance Rogoff says it was taken off the air because Putin no longer saw any use for it. The fact that many other cultural collaborations were also ended at around the same time supports her case. Putin had decided that Russian culture must be of and by Russians – and only he could decide what Russianness meant.In the 1990s, Russian society was so shattered by the breakdown of the communist order that it lost touch with its own values. But that did not mean it was going to become an American knockoff. Sesame Street worked because it embodied universal values. One wonders whether the Russian reality would be different today if more Americans had understood this. — Project Syndicate• Nina L Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School, is the co-author (with Jeffrey Tayler) of In Putin’s Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’s Eleven Time Zones.

After a year of big surprises, led by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the global spike in inflation rates, and the collapse of cryptocurrency ventures, what kind of year will 2023 prove to be? This kind of short-run question is hard to answer, because repercussions of events spread so quickly and unpredictably across our globalised world. But the last 12 months highlighted one major trend that will shape what happens next, in 2023 and beyond: the decline of Russia.Russian aggression is nothing new. Moscow has been invading other countries since the mid-1990s and has occupied parts of Ukrainian territory since 2014. But the brutality of Russia’s attacks since late February far exceeds what is acceptable to most countries. The most recent phase, destroying civilian energy infrastructure, is widely seen as amounting to a war crime. It is unlikely to change the course of the war, which Russia is losing.In the bigger picture, Russia has again entered a period of secular decline, during which it will have limited access to Western investment, technology, or consumer goods. Russia’s empires have collapsed before, in 1917-18 and again when the Soviet Union imploded in 1989-91. In both cases, the collapse took a while to get going, and then proved quite complete. Of course, historically Russia has also been able to reassert control, using its own resources during the Civil War of 1917-22 and getting a lot of help from Western companies during the 1990s.This time, too, we should expect a long struggle for power within Russia, implying serious existential risks for the world, including who ends up controlling Russian nuclear weapons. But the more direct economic impact will be reflected in the world energy market.Demand for Russian fossil fuels is way down. Before its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia produced about 10.8mn barrels of oil per day, of which around 8mn were exported (either as crude or refined products). The sharp decline in Russian economic activity means that more oil is available for export, but the European Union, the United States, and their allies are now buying crude from other suppliers – and the same will be true for refined products from February 2023. The International Energy Agency predicts that Russian oil exports will fall to around six million barrels per day over 2023-24. Over the medium term, India might buy 1-2 million barrels and China could sop up the rest – assuming both countries want to become more dependent on a malevolent and unreliable partner.Purchases by India, China, and a few others can still result in a lot of free cash flow and tax revenue for Russia. Whoever leads Russia will put much of these proceeds into building and buying weapons – including missiles with which it can hit a wide range of countries from long distance. Nato member countries are, one hopes, protected to some extent by the threat of retaliation, but Russia can be expected to engage in sabotage and other deniable attacks on Western energy infrastructure (and similar vulnerable strategic targets). Russia is on its way to becoming the best-financed pariah state ever.During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was careful not to attack Western Europe and the US too directly (and vice versa). Instead, both sides used proxy wars and other forms of pressure. This time, however, we should expect much more direct confrontation. The Russian elite have boxed themselves into a corner, with a bizarre set of beliefs – right-wing nationalism on steroids – and long-range weapons. Giving ground – literally or metaphorically – to these extremists, will only embolden them to take more.The need to limit over time how much cash Russia can spend on aggression is why the price cap on Russian oil exports is so important. The evidence so far is that this is working as intended, enabling India and China to buy Russian oil at a big discount compared to world prices.But further measures are needed, including accelerated investments in renewable energy to reduce world demand for oil. If we continue to depend on Russia and its allies in the OPEC+ cartel, the ability and temptation to disrupt our economies will be immense. There is now a pressing national security dimension to the energy transition.High inflation in the 1970s had multiple causes, beginning with tight economies in the 1960s (and the Vietnam War). But the problems were exacerbated by two oil price shocks, in 1973 and 1979. Opec+ members understand that they have the power to do this again, at a time of their choosing – or the next time Russia asks for a favour.Oil demand and supply are quite unresponsive to oil prices in the short run, but historically quite responsive over 5-10 years. In 2023 and beyond, the West needs to focus more intently on reducing demand for fossil fuels, particularly oil, and increasing the supply of alternative energy sources (outside the control of Russia and Opec). — Project Syndicate• Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a co-chair of the Covid-19 Policy Alliance.

Bad news about the health of the $100tn global economy keeps coming as the world has entered the new year with a weakened momentum.From an economic perspective, for the pessimist, there is plenty to worry about 2023: Price shock, tight money, stalling recovery, war impact, strong dollar, housing bust, supply strains ... the list appears endless.International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva has warned that the global economy faces “a tough year, tougher than the year we leave behind.”“We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession,” Georgieva said on January 1. “Why? Because the three big economies — US, EU, China — are all slowing down simultaneously.”The IMF already warned in October that more than a third of the global economy will contract and that there is a 25% chance of global GDP growing by less than 2% in 2023, which it defines as a global recession.Data published on Saturday showed that China’s abrupt reversal of its Covid Zero policy pushed economic activity in December to the slowest pace since February 2020 as the virus swept through major cities.Purchasing manager index numbers for manufacturing showed negative readings across Europe, Turkiye and in South Korea.The world faces a recession in 2023 as higher borrowing costs aimed at tackling inflation cause a number of economies to contract, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.The global economy surpassed $100tn for the first time in 2022 but will stall in 2023 as policy makers continue their fight against soaring prices, the British consultancy said.Indeed, this was supposed to be the comeback year for the world economy following the Covid pandemic. Instead, 2022 was marked by a new war, record inflation and climate-linked disasters.It was a “polycrisis” year, a term popularised by historian Adam Tooze.Many countries are now grappling with cost-of-living crises because wages are not keeping up with inflation, forcing households to make difficult choices in their spending.Above all, 2022 was the year of inflation.Pandemic price pressures, dismissed as transitory, turned out to be enduring with Russia’s war in Ukraine causing a fresh spike in food and energy costs.Initially slow to react, the Federal Reserve and its fellow central banks were forced to play catch-up. They raised interest rates at the fastest pace in decades.By the year’s end, inflation appeared to be past its peak — but economies were stalling, as tight money began to bite.While, still-tight labour markets have provided some support, recession risks are mounting into 2023 for some of the world’s major economies, including the US and Europe.The coming months are expected to see more rate increases — and a cooling in inflation, though perhaps not by as much as central banks would like. This year is likely to turn tougher for workers, with unemployment forecast to rise.One striking feature of the world economy at the end of 2022 is the difficulty of seeing what’s coming next.In the period from the arrival of Covid to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a much-cited gauge of policy uncertainty has been at the highest levels on record.Make no mistake, 2023 is going to be eventful as well as crucial. Policy makers, businesses and investors need to prepare themselves to pursue different strategies to protect value and seize opportunities.Amid a new order of surging uncertainty, being prepared could make the difference.

The United States has a much higher crime rate than Japan. While the US population is about 2.6 times larger, it recorded 17.2 times more murders in 2019 – 16,425 compared to 950. Needless to say, Japanese tend to enjoy a sense of safety that undoubtedly contributes to our national happiness. So, on July 8, 2022, when former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinz was assassinated at a campaign rally, our world was shaken.But such violence and lawlessness are incompatible not only with Japanese society; they are anathema to any healthy democracy. And it fits into a wider trend. In January 2021, the US witnessed its own shocking act of political violence, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump – at Trump’s urging – stormed the US Capitol, in an effort to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory the previous November. There could be no more blatant attack on US democracy.One might be tempted to dismiss the Capitol riot as a radical act by a relatively small group of extremists – a few thousand out of a population of 300mn. It would be even easier to minimise Abe’s assassination. After all, it was committed by a single gunman with a highly personal motivation: he blamed Abe, who had ties to the Unification Church, for his mother’s financial ruin. His mother was a devout member of the Church, and she had continued to donate to it – donations that the gunman claims were forced – until the family went bankrupt.But in both the US and Japan, the perpetrators of political violence have found sympathisers. The US Capitol insurrectionists have a large base of support, as a significant share of US Republicans – even candidates in the recent midterm elections – still believe the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. It is a short leap from holding that belief to cheering those who aim to “right” the imagined wrong.Some American cultural narratives can also feed vigilantism. The US Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” because a “well-regulated militia” is “necessary to the security of a free state.” This guarantee has not only been interpreted to prevent the introduction of reasonable gun-control laws; it has also nurtured the belief that taking up arms against the government is perfectly reasonable. The ironic result is an assault on “the security of a free state.”In Japan, there has also been sympathy for Tetsuya Yamagami, Abe’s assassin. Yamagami’s family had, indeed, suffered profoundly, and no-one should ever be compelled to donate to a cause. There is also a cultural tie here. One of the most popular Kabuki plays – Kanadehon Chushingura (“Copybook of the Treasury of Loyal Retainers”) – depicts the story of 47 master-less samurai exacting their revenge on the man who had driven their master to suicide. The samurai were executed for their vigilantism, though they come across as the heroes of the story.To be sure, Yamagami’s act will be fairly and strictly judged under Japanese law; it must not bring down Japan’s political system. And in the US, the recent midterm elections showed that the power of Trump and his Big Lie has been weakened significantly, with Trump-backed candidates performing far worse than expected. As a result, while the Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, it was the worst midterm election performance for a party not in control of the White House in a generation. US democracy lives to fight another day.But the fact that the US has narrowly escaped capture by would-be authoritarians does not mean the threat to democracy has passed. Trump is planning his 2024 presidential bid, and there is no reason to think that, if he gains momentum again, the rest of the Republican Party will not fall back in line. Although the congressional January 6 Committee, which was charged with investigating the Capitol riot, recommended that Trump and his allies be barred from holding office, Republican opposition means that the recommendation is unlikely to be heeded. In any case, Trump has plenty of imitators within the party.The conventional wisdom, particularly in liberal circles, is that the arc of history always bends toward peace, tolerance, equality, justice, and democracy. But, as recent assaults on democracy have shown, there is no room for complacency. Those acting in their own self-interest, or in the name of an unjust, bigoted, or otherwise dangerous cause, will always try to resist. Progress must be driven by ideas, developed through political processes, and ultimately enshrined in institutions and policies.Elections alone are not enough. Even under fair election rules, voters may choose a leader who blocks or reverses progress – say, by pursuing a policy agenda that benefits one group at the expense of another. From rolling back anti-discrimination protections to changing tax rules, elected leaders who are so inclined have no shortage of ways to perpetuate inequality. Progress, in all its forms, must be nurtured through the relentless efforts of the people.As Japan and the US have learned firsthand, acts of violence can shape politics. But, if our democracies are to survive, such acts must not be allowed to do so in the ways their authors want. — Project Syndicate• Koichi Hamada, Professor Emeritus at Yale University, was a special adviser to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Toyota’s defending champion Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah took the lead in the Dakar Rally yesterday after Audi’s Carlos Sainz hit trouble on a shortened stage three in the Saudi Arabian desert.Spaniard Sainz had led the Qatari by two minutes and 12 seconds overnight but lost 45 minutes on repairs to the rear left suspension of his electric hybrid car during the run from Al-Ula to Ha’il. The 60-year-old triple Dakar champion then lost more time with navigational problems and dropped out of the top 10.French driver Guerlain Chicherit won the stage for GCK Motorsport, ahead of Argentina’s Orlando Terranova for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team and Overdrive Racing’s Saudi contender Yazeed al-Rajhi. Al-Attiyah leads al-Rajhi by 13 minutes and 19 seconds overall with 11 stages still to come before the rally ends in Dammam on January 15.The racing was cut short for safety reasons before the final checkpoint due to rainstorms preventing medical helicopters from flying, with competitors completing the journey to Ha’il by road.“The degradation in weather conditions has made it no longer possible for the organizers to guarantee the best safety conditions for the competitors, so the crews in the car and truck categories have been halted at CP3 (after 377 km),” a statement from the ASO read. “The rankings for the day will be established from the times achieved at this point.”Up until that point, the primarily sandy trek from AlUla to Ha’il had already produced its fair share of drama, with a number of big names suffering significant time losses. Chicherit bounced back from five punctures on Monday to win yesterday’s third stage, which was shortened from 447 kilometres to 378km due to torrential rain. The 44-year-old Prodrive driver timed 10 hours 56 minutes. “It is wonderful,” said Chicherit. “Of course we are disappointed with what happened yesterday but we have proved what we can achieve if we stay focused.”After losing more than an hour during Monday’s second stage, Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s Sebastien Loeb endured another frustrating day, stopping barely 26km into the stage with a broken tradrod and losing 20 minutes before suffering another two punctures.Loeb is 26th in the overall classification, 1h33m49s adrift of al-Attiyah in the lead.The motorcycling standings also feature a new name as Australian rider Daniel Sanders has moved into the lead. Sanders’s win was ample consolation for the 28-year-old as his time penalty on Sunday for speeding had seen the GasGas rider stripped of the stage victory.Sanders’s ploy of deliberately not topping the stage on Monday so he could avoid being first out on to the course yesterday paid off handsomely. He timed 5min 23sec faster than Argentinian rival Kevin Benavides with American Skyler Howes third, for a second successive stage, 6min 19sec adrift of the winner.“I thought, OK, if I go for the win, I’ll try and push the whole day and win by a lot, and now I’ll focus on tomorrow,” said Sanders, who was winning his fourth career Dakar stage. “Of course, the Aussies have the strongest spirit. We’ve got some good natural desert skills.”Sanders’s chances of overall victory were also boosted as one of the main contenders Ricky Brabec, the 2020 champion, was taken to hospital after crashing in the stage. The 31-year-old American came to grief on his Honda on the 274th kilometre of the stage and was taken to hospital by helicopter for further investigation after complaining of pain in his cervical vertebrae.Brabec, who also finished second in 2021, had been awarded Sunday’s first stage after Sanders and others had been penalised for speeding. He is the second of the main motorcycling contenders to bow out early in this year’s edition - Britain’s 2022 champion Sam Sunderland crashed out on Sunday.ResultsStage 3 Car winner: Guerlain Chicherit (FRA), GCK Motorsport, 3:22:59.General rankings: 1. Nasser al-Attiyah (QAT), Toyota Gazoo Racing, 12:20:35; 2. Yazeed al-Rajhi (SAU), Overdrive Racing, 12:33:54; 3. Simon Vitse (FRA), MD Rally, 12:45:28.Stage 3 Bike winner: Daniel Sanders (AUS), Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing, 4:24:15.General rankings: 1. Daniel Sanders (AUS), Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing, 14:05:38; 2. Mason Klein (USA), BAS world KTM, 14:09:42; 3. Kevin Benavides (ARG), 14:12:31.

Debutant fast bowler Shivam Mavi led an inspired bowling with his four wickets as India edged out Sri Lanka by two runs in a thrilling opening Twenty20 international yesterday.Mavi returned figures of 4-22 to help the hosts bowl out Sri Lanka for 160 in a victory target of 163 and lead the three-match series 1-0 in Mumbai.The 24-year-old Mavi was ably supported by fellow pace bowlers Umran Malik and Harshal Patel as they picked up two wickets each.Axar Patel, a left-arm spinner, held his nerve in a tense last over when Sri Lanka needed 12 for a win and Chamika Karunaratne gave India a scare with his unbeaten 23.Deepak Hooda (41) and Axar (31) set up victory with an unbeaten 68-run sixth-wicket stand that steered India to 162-5 after being tested by the Sri Lankan bowlers.Ishan Kishan came out attacking as he hit Kasun Rajitha for a six and two fours in a 17-run opening over after the tourists invited India to bat.India raced to 26 in the first two overs but soon lost momentum after losing their top and middle-order before Hooda, who hit four sixes in his 23-ball knock, and the left-handed Axar took charge.Debutant Shubman Gill began with a boundary but soon fell lbw for seven to mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana.Sri Lanka hit back with disciplined bowling and Karunaratne sent back Suryakumar Yadav after the batsman mistimed one of his audacious scoop shots to be caught at short fine leg. India lost two more wickets and slipped to 77-4 when wrist spinner Wanindu Hasaranga got the left-handed Kishan out for 37.Left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka added more misery to the opposition batting as he got skipper Hardik Pandya caught behind for 29. In reply, Mavi struck in his first over of international cricket as he bowled Pathum Nissanka for one. He then sent back Dhananjaya de Silva for eight in his next to put India on top. Sri Lanka kept losing wickets with tearaway quick Umran getting Charith Asalanka out for 12 and Harshal struck twice to leave Sri Lanka on 68-5.Harshal cut short Kusal Mendis’ knock on 28 with his medium-pace bowling and then sent back the dangerous Bhanuka Rajapaksa for 10.Skipper Dasun Shanaka and Hasaranga attempted to put the chase back on track in a 40-run partnership but Mavi broke the stand with the wicket of Hasaranga for 21. Shanaka, who made 45, kept up the attack as he hit Umran for a six in the 17th over but the speedster had his revenge two balls later to further dim Sri Lanka’s hopes.BRIEF SCORES India 162-5 in 20 overs (I. Kishan 37, H. Pandya 29, D. Hooda 41, A. Patel 31; W. Hasaranga 1-22, M. Theekshana 1-29) beat Sri Lanka 160 all out in 20 overs (K. Mendis 28, D. Shanaka 45, C. Karunaratne 23; S. Mavi 4-22, U. Malik 2-27, H. Patel 2-41) by 2 runs

Opener Imam-ul-Haq anchored Pakistan with a pugnacious half-century as the home team reached 154-3 at the close yesterday after New Zealand piled up a handy 449 in their first innings of the second Test in Karachi. At the close of day two, Haq was unbeaten on 74 and Saud Shakeel 13 as the home team need another 96 runs to avoid the follow-on. Pakistan started chaotically, losing opener Abdullah Shafique (19), Shan Masood (20) and skipper Babar Azam (24) before the Haq-Shakeel stand added 55 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket. In contrast, New Zealand’s tail wagged furiously, with Matt Henry (68 not out) and Ajaz Patel (35) both scoring Test-bests as they added an invaluable 104 runs for the last wicket. The two-match series is tied after the first Test, also in Karachi, ended in a draw. The National Stadium pitch offered little to the bowlers, but Pakistan did themselves no favours by having skipper Azam, the team’s best batsman, run out. Haq drove Michael Bracewell towards mid-wicket and saw Azam stranded at his end attempting a third run. But Haq took charge with his seventh half-century - even as Shakeel needed 42 balls to get off the mark at the other end. Earlier, Shafique was the first Pakistan wicket to fall when he pulled pacer Henry’s short delivery straight to the hands of Ajaz Patel and Masood gave a catch off Patel. Henry and Patel had combined earlier to lift New Zealand from 345-9. Pakistan batting coach Mohamed Yousuf rued conceding the extra runs. “No doubt that 100-run partnership was not beneficial for us,” said Yousuf, a former batting great. “It should not have happened, but there comes a time when the last wicket becomes tough.” Henry smashed eight boundaries and two sixes in his knock, improving his previous high against Australia at Christchurch in 2016 by six runs. Patel also bettered his previous Test-best of 20 - against England last year - before he was the last wicket to fall, caught off spinner Abrar Ahmed. Henry was delighted at the last pair’s showing. “I think we were very happy with that,” he said. “First and foremost was to score runs and try to press forward. Now we know that it’s going to be a tough work out there.” Naseem took the day’s first wicket when he bowled Ish Sodhi for 11 with a ball that cut through sharply. Blundell, who was 30 overnight, reached his fifty with a boundary and a single off Ahmed. He hit six boundaries in his 51 before being bowled by Ahmed. The spinner then had Tim Southee stumped for 10, before Henry and Patel prolonged the innings, helping New Zealand cross the 400-mark. Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers with 4-149, while Naseem Shah (3-71) and Agha Salman (3-75) were the other successful bowlers. SCOREBOARD New Zealand 1st innings (overnight 309-6) T. Latham lbw b Naseem 71 D. Conway c Sarfaraz b Salman 122 K. Williamson c Sarfaraz b Naseem 36 H. Nicholls c Sarfaraz b Salman 26 D. Mitchell b Salman 3 T. Blundell b Ahmed 51 M. Bracewell lbw b Ahmed 0 I. Sodhi b Naseem 11 T. Southee st Sarfaraz b Ahmed 10 M. Henry not out 68 Ajaz Patel c Salman b Ahmed 35 Extras (b5, lb5, nb5, w1) 16 Total (all out, 131 overs) 449 Fall of wickets: 1-134 (Latham), 2-234 (Conway), 3-240 (Williamson), 4-255 (Mitchell), 5-278 (Nicholls), 6-279 (Bracewell), 7-309 (Sodhi), 8-340 (Blundell), 9-345 (Southee) Bowling: Hamza 21-3-72-0 (2nb), Naseem 24-7-71-3, Hasan 23-4-72-0 (3nb, 1w), Ahmed 37-5-149-4, Salman 26-3-75-3 Pakistan 1st innings Abdullah Shafique c Patel b Henry 19 Imam-ul-Haq not out 74 Shan Masood c Conway b Patel 20 Babar Azam run out 24 Saud Shakeel not out 13 Extras (lb2, nb2) 4 Total (for three wkts, 47 overs) 154 Still to bat: Sarfaraz Ahmed, Agha Salman, Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah, Mir Hamza, Abrar Ahmed Fall of wickets: 1-27 (Shafique), 2-56 (Masood), 3-99 (Azam) Bowling: Southee 10-3-33-0, Henry 12-3-35-1 (1nb), Patel 7-1-30-1, Bracewell 14-3-45-0, Sodhi 4-0-9-0 (1nb) Toss: New Zealand