| | | | | | | Hello! Thanks for sending in your feedback about yesterday’s launch. I may not be replying to each message, but I am reading them all. American voters today got a little taste of what the 2024 election campaign might look like, as President Joe Biden joined a picket line in Michigan, arriving in Detroit a day before Republican rival Donald Trump plans to do the same. Bernd Debusmann Jr, Sarah Smith, and Natalie Sherman explain what makes Michigan a battleground for votes, as well as workers’ rights. BBC Newsnight diplomatic and defence editor Mark Urban spent weeks getting to know the Ukrainian soldiers who committed to fight until the war ends, and Ozzy Osbourne’s music gets the ballet treatment. |
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| | | | | | Questions Answered | | Biden makes history on UAW picket line |  | | President Biden expressed support for the workers’ demands. Credit: Reuters |
| | President Joe Biden has repeatedly touted himself as the most pro-union president in US history. Today, he got the chance to put those words into action. Mr Biden joined members of United Auto Workers (UAW) on the picket line in Michigan, where the union declared a strike targeting Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. |  | | Bernd Debusmann Jr, Sarah Smith, and Natalie Sherman |
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| | What’s the significance of Mr Biden’s visit? | | While US lawmakers - and presidential candidates - frequently appear at strikes to express solidarity with workers, it is considered unprecedented for a sitting president to do so. Plus, Mr Biden's visit to local car workers comes a day before his main electoral rival, Donald Trump, does the same. | | Why is Michigan a focus for both Mr Biden and Mr Trump? | | Republicans and Democrats alike are focusing on the electorally important Midwestern "Rust Belt'', where blue-collar workers such as UAW members form a vital voting bloc. Mr Trump - who has not been invited by the UAW - is skipping tomorrow’s Republican presidential debate in California to visit Detroit, the heart of US car and truck manufacturing. | | Has the UAW indicated which presidential candidate they’ll back in 2024? | | The UAW endorsed Mr Biden in 2020 but has yet to identify a preferred candidate for the 2024 election, saying that the union's support needs to be "earned". In a Truth Social post, Mr Trump vowed that auto workers are "toast" if they do not endorse him and if he does not win the election. | | | |
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AT THE SCENE |  Donbas region, Ukraine | | The Ukrainian soldiers sworn to life on the front line |  | | Yurii was a venture capitalist before enlisting in the army. Credit: BBC | | Ukraine’s 24th Mechanised Brigade has a long history, and has been fighting the Russians since 2014. But since the February 2022 invasion, the unit has grown in size, welcomed volunteers, and vowed to fight until the end. |  | | Mark Urban, BBC Newsnight |
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| | Under the terms of their contracts, volunteers - in common with conscripts - can't walk away and are obliged to serve until the war ends. In the meantime, they are entitled to only 10 days' leave each year. Initially given a rifle and sent to the infantry, a few months later, Yurii was transferred into a military "start-up", the 24th Brigade's strike drone company. Yurii explained how his mother was initially sceptical about him joining up, but once he started guiding drones into Russian trenches, "then she changed her mind", and became proud of him. Bearded, and with a banker's flair for selling a business plan, Yurii told me how the company has to be more ingenious than the Russians because the enemy have so many more drones. One of the officers revealed that although Yurii ranks as a simple private soldier, he basically runs this unit. That rethinking of the usual hierarchy is one of the differences between the pre-2022 army set-up and the force that now fights the Russians. |
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| | The big picture | | Fighting fires with goats |  | | Among goats’ many skills is the ability to keep grazing even in hot weather. Credit: Lucy Sheriff |
| | California has been at the epicentre of battling wildfires, which have become more frequent, more destructive, and larger, since 1980. Goats - and their insatiable appetites to devour the weeds, bushes, low-hanging leaves, and dry brush that are fuel for fires - are increasingly seen as a secret weapon to prevent destructive blazes. | | | | |
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| | | | For your downtime | | More ways to play | | Idris Elba on why starring in a video game was more complex than he expected. | | |
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| | | | And finally... in the UK | | Black metal and ballet might sound like an unlikely combination, but it didn’t stop the Birmingham Royal Ballet from experimenting with the genre to honour one of the city’s biggest musical exports, the Ozzy Osbourne-led band Black Sabbath. See the pictures from opening night, when the band’s guitarist Tony Iommi take the stage. |
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– Sofia |
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