Crypto News: Under strain

Migrants are on the move again across Europe, and the timing couldn't be worse for governments facing mounting crises.

Rising energy bills, potential winter rationing and higher food costs already have leaders braced for tough choices. Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal is not just to take control in Ukraine (on that score he's failing) but also to sow discord in Europe, turning countries against each other in the competition for resources.

Key reading:

When government budgets are sagging under debt and the need to defray rising prices, the desire to share what you have with others fades.

There are newly-installed or incoming far-right, anti-immigration governments in Sweden and Italy, along with the existing chill of authoritarianism in Hungary. Poland flung its doors open to many thousands of Ukrainian refugees but remains less than welcoming of migrants from elsewhere.

That's hardly the environment for open arms. Yet migrants and refugees are likely to keep coming, potentially evoking the 2015-16 European migration crisis but without the heft of an Angela Merkel-type leader to find a way through.

Food shortages, climate change and intolerance toward dissent are seeing migrants seeking to leave their homes in Africa, Asia and the Middle East to travel to Europe, causing disquiet even in countries that serve as transit points. Some EU nations have reinstalled border checks.

Hundreds of thousands of those on the move are now Russians fleeing Putin's military draft, an exodus that's already causing frictions on Russia's periphery in countries like Georgia and Kazakhstan while stirring unease in the Baltic states and eastern Europe.

It raises the question: Do you accept Russians as you would any people fleeing persecution?

The net result in Europe is a sense of turning inward, of hunkering down. That will ripple through everything from domestic politics to European unity to support for Ukraine. — Rosalind Mathieson

Russians carrying luggage toward the border with Georgia on Sept. 25. Source: AFP/Getty Images

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Taking territory | Putin is due to sign documents annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine into Russia at a Kremlin ceremony today, a move UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned as a violation of international law. Even as the president escalates the conflict, Ukrainian, Western and even Russian analysts say his forces risk defeat in a key pocket of the Donbas region he's claiming.

Ukraine said at least 23 civilians were killed and 28 wounded near the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia in a Russian missile strike today.
Russians mobilized to fight in the war are buying up everything from camping gear to body armor, worried Putin's undersupplied army won't provide them with even the basics at the front.

Pressure builds | Prime Minister Liz Truss held emergency talks today with the UK's independent fiscal watchdog, the Office of Budget Responsibility, after announcing massive unfunded tax cuts that sent the pound and government bonds tumbling. In office for less than a month, she'll face her Conservative Party's annual conference this weekend with her economic plans in tatters and the Labour opposition holding a record poll lead.

Chinese holidaymakers are bracing for more disruption during a weeklong break as the government tightens controls to contain Covid outbreaks before the Communist Party's top leaders hold a crucial meeting in Beijing. Passenger trips by road are set to plunge by about 30% from a year ago during the National Day break, according to government data.

Dividing lines | US Democrats are targeting the erosion of abortion rights and Republicans are focusing on the cost of living in the battle for voters in North Carolina, where a close Senate race could help determine who controls the chamber. A boon in finance and high-tech jobs and changing demographics have turned North Carolina from reliably Republican to a critical swing state.

Amazon vote | Brazil's presidential election on Sunday holds importance for the world's biggest rainforest and global consequences for climate change. If incumbent Jair Bolsonaro wins, deforestation and illegal gold mining seem certain to expand, while Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appears intent on taking steps to slow the burning in the Amazon and earn the confidence of investors abroad.

Bolsonaro and Lula traded insults in a televised debate that marked their final face-off before the election, with polls putting the opposition leader well ahead.

Bolsonaro, left, and Lula. Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg

Surprise contender | A third-party presidential candidate trying to capitalize on widespread discontent in Nigeria said in an interview he'll scrap multibillion-dollar fuel subsidies and restructure debt to free up funds to tackle insecurity and boost investment if he wins February's election. Peter Obi has emerged as the politician with the best chance of upending the two-party status quo that has ruled Africa's most populous nation for more than 20 years.

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President Joe Biden declared an emergency in South Carolina with Hurricane Ian threatening to carve a new path of destruction through the US state today following the devastation in Florida.
The US Senate passed a stopgap funding bill, sending it to the House on the eve of the deadline to avert a shutdown of most government agencies.
Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha will remain in office after the highest court ruled he hadn't breached a constitutional term limit, handing him a victory before elections that must be called by March.
Hostilities in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region escalated as air strikes and the mobilization of troops either side of the border with neighboring Eritrea forced tens of thousands more people to flee.
Mongolia is facing a worsening foreign currency crunch following Russia's war in Ukraine and a slump in China's economy, forcing local banks to restrict dollar sales to customers.
The Solomon Islands has joined 13 other Pacific nations in signing a wide-reaching US-led partnership agreement, after early indications it would refuse.

Pop quiz (no cheating!) In which country was the daughter of a former president arrested for "inciting rioters"? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... A whirlwind tour of Japan and South Korea this week was a microcosm of the state of Kamala Harris's US vice presidency: an ambitious effort still beset by the occasional high-profile gaffe. She attended the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, delivered a careful denunciation of China and visited the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean peninsula. Yet the clip circulating on cable news the next morning featured an unfortunate slip of the tongue after she said the US had a "strong alliance" with "the Republic of North Korea."