Crypto News: A Balloon roils US-China ties, strikes hit UK: Weekend Reads

A Chinese surveillance balloon spotted at high altitude over sensitive US nuclear sites prompted the US to postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Beijing. China said it drifted into American airspace by accident.

US President Joe Biden and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy met privately to discuss how to reach an agreement on averting a debt crisis.

President Vladimir Putin warned the US and its allies they can't defeat Russia, rallying domestic support for his invasion of Ukraine in a speech marking a key victory in World War II.

Labor unions in the UK emerged emboldened from the country's worst day of strikes in a decade, threatening further coordinated action to force the government's hand in pay negotiations.

Dig into these and other top political stories from the past seven days in this edition of Weekend Reads. — Karl Maier

The balloon floating over Montana on Wednesday. Photographer: Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette

Click here for this week's most compelling political images. And if you're enjoying this newsletter, sign up here.

From China to Big Sky: The Balloon That Unnerved the White House
The balloon's journey across the ocean has gripped the world's attention and forced the top US diplomat to cancel his trip to Beijing. As Peter Martin, Jenny Leonard and Jennifer Jacobs write, its fate remains uncertain — as do the delicate relations between two superpowers grasping for ways to ease tensions and get talks back on track.

The balloon now floating at 60,000 feet over the continental US is part of a broader Chinese spying program that's seen many such devices sent over the nation, US officials say.

US-China Talk of Better Ties But Things Keep Getting Worse
Two months after Biden met Xi in Bali with a promise to arrest a slide in ties, the world's two biggest economies have been unable to halt a cycle of suspicion and provocation. As Iain Marlow, Jenny Leonard and Rebecca Choong Wilkins explain, that's renewing doubts whether the relationship will ever return to normal.

Putin's War in Ukraine Pushes Ex-Soviet States Toward New Allies
Putin invaded Ukraine partly to assert Russia's regional dominance. Nearly a year on, the Russian president has achieved the opposite. Officials from ex-Soviet states in central Asia and the Caucasus say the war has prompted their governments to look for ways to reduce dependence on Moscow by turning to rival powers.

As Russia Gears Up for New Push, Ukraine Waits for More Weapons
A Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine appears imminent even as Kyiv holds out for more weapons deliveries for its own push in the south in the spring, according to assessments from US and European officials. Yet Natalia Drozdiak, Alberto Nardelli and Jenny Leonard write that neither side is likely to gain much ground soon.

Georgia's president said Russia must be required to abandon its nearly 15-year-long occupation of her nation's territory as part of an eventual peace deal to end the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

Rescue workers at a destroyed apartment building following a Russian strike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Photographer: Yasuyoshi Chiba/Getty Images

The Adani Group's Crisis Shakes Investors' Faith in India
A damning short-seller attack has left billionaire Gautam Adani battling the worst crisis of his corporate life. It's also raising bigger, darker questions about India's credibility as a global growth engine and a destination for international investors.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, considered a close ally of Adani, has shown few signs of worry — or at least that's the impression it's giving to the markets.

Sunak's Rocky Premiership After 100 Days of Strikes and Scandal
After a wave of strikes and scandals in his governing Conservative Party, which is sitting about 20 points behind in most polls, the hard work is just starting for Rishi Sunak. Kitty Donaldson writes that the International Monetary Fund now forecasts that Britain faces the bleakest two years of any major industrial nation.

The Bank of England said workforce drop-outs have become an economic dead weight that has left the UK facing its bleakest outlook in generations.

Macron Digs In as Hostility to French Pension Reform Mushrooms
Emmanuel Macron is sticking to his plan to raise the retirement age, a signature step in his pro-business revamp of the French economy, despite swelling opposition, William Horobin and Ania Nussbaum report. The president says raising the lower limit to 64 is a reform that would bring France in line with other European countries, steady its deficit-ridden finances and improve the economy's capacity to grow and create jobs.

Russia's Footprint Grows in Africa as France Leaves Burkina Faso
France's plan to withdraw its military from Burkina Faso is the latest sign of the former colonial power's collapsing influence in West Africa after being kicked out of Mali last year following a decade-long fight against Islamist militants. Neil Munshi, Katarina Hoije and Samy Adghirni write the pullout is being eagerly exploited by Russia, which has used the Wagner Group to gain a foothold in the region.

French soldiers in northern Burkina Faso in 2018. Photographer: Michele Cattani/AFP/Getty Images

Understanding the Shadow War Between Israel and Iran
Of the many conflicts in the Middle East, the one between Iran and Israel is the most potentially explosive. As Ethan Bronner explains, they have mostly sought to avoid open confrontation that would risk escalation to all-out war, preferring to act with plausible deniability. But lately, the clashes have become more conspicuous.

Iran blamed Israel for a drone attack on an ammunition depot last weekend and said it had the right to respond.
Israeli warplanes bombed parts of the Gaza Strip early Thursday after a bloody month in which animosity between Palestinians and Israel has soared.

Scholz Seeks to End China's Lithium Dominance in South America
Chancellor Olaf Scholz used a trip to Latin America to help Germany to secure supplies of the lithium needed for electric vehicles from Chile, the world's second-biggest source after Australia. Arne Delfs and James Attwood report that China normally buys much of the South American nation's output.

German Energy Reprieve Too Little, Too Late to Save Factory Jobs
Germany has seen a surge of optimism that the worst of the energy crisis has passed. But as William Wilkes writes, some of the country's biggest industrial producers are poised to cut thousands of jobs and shift investment abroad because they don't expect Berlin to reliably provide the energy they need at prices close to those they once paid for Russian pipeline gas.

Peru's Top Diplomat Sees 2023 Elections as the Way to End Crisis
Peru is committed to new elections this year as the way out of the political crisis roiling the nation, its top diplomat said. But interim President Dina Boluarte won't cave in to protesters' demands for her to quit until a fresh vote has been organized, Foreign Affairs Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi told Daniel Flatley in an interview.

And finally … Roughly the size of France with 3 million inhabitants, Botswana is one of the least-densely populated nations, better known for the Okavango Delta and game safaris. But Brandon Presser experienced a different sort of adventure — four-wheeling over a primordial lake bed in search of surreal rock formations and sleeping under the stars undimmed by urban light pollution. And it's increasingly attractive to a new generation of sub-Saharan travelers: moneyed millennials.