✅  SIGN UP

This is our daily newsletter Worldcrunch Today, a rapid tour of the news of the day from the world's best journalism sources, regardless of language or geography.It's easy (and free!) to sign up to receive it each day in your inbox:

👉 Sign up here

🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Ukrainian forces reach Russian border after reseizing Kharkiv: Ukraine continues to regain more territory in the northeast of the country, and by Monday morning had announced that a battalion had reached the Russian border. This comes after having taken back control of Kharkiv. Russia continues its assault on Donbass, and has renewed missile strikes of the port city of Odessa.

• More Ukrainians returning than leaving across border: The number of people entering Ukraine through its western border now exceeds those leaving the country, according to the State Border Guard Service. The shift, said one official is not only "out of optimism, but also because (people) are experiencing financial difficulties."

— Read all the latest at War in Ukraine, Day 82 —

• Two deadly shootings shake the U.S.: President Joe Biden is expected to travel tomorrow to Buffalo, in the state of New York, after an 18-year-old white supremacist is alleged to have killed ten people Saturday in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The following day, a gunman opened fire during lunchtime at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California, killing one and wounding five before being stopped by churchgoers.

• Mohamud back as Somalia president: Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected yesterday as president of Somalia, a position he already held in 2012-2017. He emerged victorious in a race against incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and is now expected to work towards tackling the country’s famine as well as a rise in Islamist attacks.

• North Korean army mobilized over COVID outbreak: Kim Jong-un has called for North Korean troops to bring medical supplies to the population amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country. All cities have been put on lockdown and South Korea has offered to help to provide assistance to its neighbor.

• Mali withdraws from G5 Sahel: The Malian government has announced it would withdraw from the G5 Sahel security group — a west African alliance also composed of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad and Niger — and its anti-djihadist force. The decision comes as a protest to the other members’ rejection of Mali’s military junta as head of the regional group.

• Shanghai to return to normal life in June: Shanghai authorities have announced its progressive move out of a strict lockdown and aim to return to normalcy starting June 1. The restrictions imposed on the city since the end of March have disrupted the lives of its 26 million inhabitants, as well as the Chinese economy.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

The Buffalo News pays tribute to the ten victims of a mass shooting in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The suspect, an 18-year-old self-confessed white supremacist, reportedly travelled nearly 200 miles from his home to attack a predominantly Black neighborhood. The man surrendered himself to police and was charged with first-degree murder as local and state officials continue to investigate the gunman’s intent.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

51 °C

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, temperatures rose to 51 °C (123,8 °F) over the weekend in Jacobabad, central Pakistan. This is the hottest temperature recorded anywhere on Earth so far in 2022, as South Asia is being hit by an extreme heat wave which could last for days.

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

How millennials and boomers see Putin's nuclear threats differently

Baby boomers who grew up under the threat of nuclear armageddon warn against a nuclear escalation of the war in Ukraine. But the younger generations are not cowed by Putin's blackmail. And that’s a very good thing, writes Peter Huth in German daily Die Welt.

☢️😨 Olaf Scholz is 63 years old. Unlike his parents’ generation, he never saw his homeland reduced to rubble. But his entire generation grew up in the shadow of one overwhelming fear: that the world would be destroyed by nuclear warfare. This fear is so great that it makes all values fall by the wayside; it pushes politicians towards a “compromise” with the contemptible aggressor Putin, who wants his brutal invasion to be seen as a legitimate, unavoidable political action.

✊ Scholz has now changed his mind on the question of sending heavy weapons to Ukraine. It was the liberal Free Democratic Party’s commitment to freedom and the Green Party’s strong values that came through for him – and that means it was the younger generation, because those parties’ support is mainly among those under 35 years old. It is the generation that didn’t experience the greatest moments of fear of nuclear war that has prevailed in the question of how to respond to the invasion of Ukraine. They are unmoved by Putin’s attempt at blackmail.

⚠️ Of course we should try to avoid nuclear war. But we must also remember it is not in our power to stop it. If Putin finds himself cornered, he will use anything and everything as justification for a nuclear attack. That would cause infinite suffering, perhaps millions of deaths. But what would a victory for Putin look like? Would that not also mean the end of civilization? The neo-Soviet empire he would like to establish from Porto to Vladivostok would be barbaric.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

Nobody should trust Putin. We’ve been telling this to our partners for years.

— Latvian Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Artis Pabriks told a Baltic security conference as more countries are reconsidering their role in state defense, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine at their door.