Your Friday Briefing: Mass Shooting in Thailand

Yesterday, a former police officer attacked a child-care facility located in northeastern Thailand with a knife and a handgun. The attack killed 36 people, including 24 children. It was the most brutal mass shooting by a single perpetrator in Southeast Asia.

Witnesses described a terror attack at the Child Development Center Uthaisawan. The attacker shot and stabbed more children than 20, some as young as 2, as well as a teacher eight months pregnant. Live updates are available here.

According to officials, the attacker then shot and killed his wife and their four-year-old child, before killing himself. The toll in Thursday’s massacre surpassed that of an attack in 2020, when a soldier armed with an assault rifle killed at least 29 people at a military base and a shopping mall.

Details Panya Kamrab (34), a former corporal, was identified as the gunman. He was arrested for drug possession charges according to the Royal Thai Police.

Context: Thailand, a majority Buddhist country of about 69 million, has some of Asia’s highest rates of gun ownership, although the levels are far lower than those in the U.S. It also has some of the continent’s highest rates of gun homicide, but mass shootings are rare.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is experiencing growing discontent over the invasion of Ukraine by the pro-war camp.

Yesterday's latest salvo was when a Russian-installed official in Ukraine criticized Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister. The official said Shoigu should consider killing himself because of the Russian Army’s failures in Ukraine.

Last month, it was largely pro-Russian bloggers who were voicing anger over Russia’s military failings. However, prominent officials have been joining the chorus after the Russian forces were forced to retreat from two other front lines in the last week.

A common thread in the rising criticism has been that Russia’s military was unprepared for a real war. Many Russian hawks celebrated Putin’s draft as a way of turning the tide in the war but criticized the military for its poor execution of it.

Background This criticism comes after the ruler in the southern Russian republic Chechnya launched a tirade against military leadership over the weekend. His statement seemed to open the floodgates, especially since the Kremlin did not publicly punish the Chechen leader.

More war news:

• The U.N.’s nuclear agency said it did not recognize Russia’s claim to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

• Swedish investigators say that the evidence in the Nord Stream pipeline’s leaks points to sabotage.

• Tens of thousands upon thousands of Russian men fleding the draft ended up in places that are not usually open to refugees, but will take them, such as Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet territory.

• New arms brokers are making a lot of money as the Biden administration encourages private weapons sales into Ukraine.

Over the past decade China was the preferred lender for many countries, providing funds to governments for the construction of bullet trains, superhighways, and hydroelectric dams. China now has the ability to lend more money, or forgive smaller amounts of debts, as the global economy slows.

The economic distress in poor countries is palpable, given the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with high food and energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The nature of China’s loans is compounding the challenges.

China offers a greater number of loans to poor countries with adjustable interest rates than Western governments and multilateral institutions. Global interest rates are rapidly rising, and debt payments are skyrocketing for those countries that can least afford them. And their weak currencies make it even more costly for many of them to repay China’s loans, almost all of which must be paid off in dollars.

Related: In a upcoming report, the leader of the International Monetary Fund stated that the body would lower its growth projections next year.

Asia

• Toru Kubota, a Japanese documentary filmmaker, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in Myanmar for violating the sedition and communications laws.

• China rejected U.N. Human Rights Agency's request to reexamine abuses against the Uyghur people, and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang area.

World News

• After being politically inactive for over a decade, universities across Iran have been rocked by protests, with students joining the chaos that has gripped the country for the last three weeks.

• President Biden pardoned thousands who were convicted under U.S. Law of marijuana possession.

• The U.S. will start screening passengers flying from Uganda for Ebola.

• According to a Syrian Kurdish security officer, the U.S. Special Operations forces killed an Islamic State leader yesterday in a rare operation within Syrian government territory.

• Two boats carrying migrants collided with Greece and killed more than 20 people.

What's the Other Thing?

• Annie Ernaux was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She is a French novelist/memoirist whose deeply personal books have been read by generations of women.

• France has unveiled its largest energy conservation measures in decades as part of a European effort to save power in the face of Russia's cut in gas supplies.

• Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen have reportedly hired divorce lawyers.

A Morning Read

China's Dr. Li Wenliang was widely known as a hero truth-teller. He was convicted of trying to warn others about coronavirus and was then severely illened by it. New details have been revealed by a video investigation by the New York Times.

Uganda is attempting to contain an Ebola epidemic that has emerged from a virus strain that is resistant to all existing immunizations. A celebrated vaccine that was effective in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 2018-22 outbreak has proved unsuccessful against the Sudanese strain of the virus that is currently driving cases up.

Two vaccine candidates could offer protection against the Sudanese strain, but they have yet to reach the clinical-trial phase, Dr. Patrick Otim, the World Health Organization’s health emergency officer for the Africa region, said during a news conference on Thursday.

Dr. Otim stated that there are approximately 100 doses of each candidate once they have been approved. Manufacturing may be delayed if a successful vaccine is discovered.

The W.H.O. has confirmed that Uganda has reported 44 cases of Ebola. said. Ten people died, including four health workers. There are 20 cases of the virus that have already been identified, and it is possible that there could be more than 30 deaths.

The authorities are still relying on established methods like isolation and contact tracing for now. A mobile lab, erected in the outbreak’s epicenter in the last few days, has cut down the turnaround time for testing to six hours from 24, said Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, the W.H.O.’s representative in Uganda. The virus has now spread to five districts.

“If sufficient resources are there, yes, we can cope,” Dr. Woldemariam said.

— Lynsey Chutel, briefings writer based in Johannesburg

What to Cook

You only need a few everyday ingredients — plus a heavy dose of pumpkin spice blend — to make this overnight pumpkin spice French toast.

What to Read

Sex work, academia and pain that resists diagnosis: Three memoirs recount past harm — consensual and not.

Travel

Here’s what to do when you have 36 hours in New York City.

It's time to play

Play the Mini Crossword, and here’s a clue: “Mourning” bird (4 letters).

Here are today’s Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

All our puzzles are here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. We'll see you next time. — Jonathan

P.S. The word “ecofiction” appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday in a story about a climate novelist who transcends despair.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is on the struggle to control inflation.

You can reach Jonathan and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.