Your Wednesday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/briefing/gorbachev-ukraine-inspectors-baghdad.html

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Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformist leader who oversaw the end of the Soviet Union, has died at 91.

His rise to power set in motion a series of revolutionary changes that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time.

Abroad, he was hailed as a hero. At home, he promised and delivered greater openness — glasnost — as he implemented his policy of perestroika to restructure his country’s society and faltering economy. And although it was not his intention to liquidate the Soviet empire, he presided over an extraordinary five months in 1989 when the Communist system imploded from the Baltics to the Balkans.

Vladimir Putin: The Russian president has called the collapse of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” Putin sees the war with Ukraine as part of his battle to undo Gorbachev’s legacy.

Reaction: Gorbachev lived long enough to see the East-West divide revived during the war in Ukraine. He is being lionized by the West, but is reviled by some in Russia.

Interview: In a 2016 interview with The Times, Gorbachev was defiant: “Russia needs more democracy,” he said.

U.N. nuclear experts arrived in Kyiv yesterday with plans to inspect the imperiled nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia “within days.”

Their path to get to the facility in southern Ukraine is still unresolved. A senior Ukrainian adviser said that Russian forces had fired on possible routes to the facility. The shelling seemed intentional, he said, but he expressed hope that the 14 inspectors would reach the plant “one way or another.”

As delays continue, fears of an atomic accident continue to grow. Conditions at the Russian-controlled plant have been unraveling for weeks. Yesterday, the E.U. announced plans to give Ukraine 5.5 million potassium iodine tablets, in case of a radiation leak.

Analysis: Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, appears to be using the facility to scare Ukraine’s leaders and to warn the West to stay out of the conflict.

Fighting: Yesterday, Ukraine claimed to have broken through Russian defenses at multiple points in the southern Kherson region. It could be the beginning of a broad and coordinated counteroffensive.

Other updates:

The Vatican yesterday called Russia an aggressor for the first time.

Russia halted the flow of its natural gas into Germany earlier today, a temporarily shutdown that it says is necessary for maintenance. But German companies, wary of Russia’s threat, are finding unique ways to cut their dependence on natural gas.

The E.U. is divided over whether to impose visa restrictions on Russians.

Muqtada al-Sadr, an influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, called for protesters to leave Baghdad’s Green Zone yesterday, after two days of deadly violence that left 24 dead.

Witnesses and Iraqi security officials confirmed that shooting had stopped after his call. But the turmoil has raised fears that Iraq is caught in a perilous cycle with no functioning government — and no common ground to make one.

Notably, the tensions flared between different Shiite political factions, highlighting long-building friction at the heart of Iraqi politics. Sadr leads one faction, which is mistrustful of Iran and espouses Iraqi nationalism.

Other groups are backed by Iran, and some of them are Shiite militias that answer more to Iran’s Shiite theocracy than to Iraq’s government.

Context: Iraq is a majority Shiite country, but Shiites faced years of harsh repression under Saddam Hussein. They came to political power after the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Details: Sadr’s followers took to the streets of the capital after he announced on Monday that he planned to retire from politics. They fought with security forces, which include members of the Iranian-backed militias that Sadr opposes.

Xi Jinping is poised to win five more years in power as China’s top leader at the next Communist Party congress, set to open on Oct. 16.

Mississippi’s capital does not have access to safe drinking water.

India’s Supreme Court declared that same-sex parents, single parents and blended families deserve equal treatment, its latest ruling to push back against conservative social norms.

U.S. life expectancy fell precipitously during the pandemic, from an average of nearly 79 years in 2019 to 76 in 2021. It is the sharpest two-year decline in nearly 100 years.

Gay men in Singapore are celebrating the coming repeal of a colonial-era law that criminalized sex between men.

In the U.S., the death of a man training to be a Navy SEAL has exposed a culture of brutality, cheating and drugs.

Cameron Smith, the world’s second-ranked golfer, will join LIV Golf, a series financed with Saudi money.

Tax collectors in France are using A.I. to spot unreported swimming pools on satellite pictures. They’ve found more than 20,000 since October, yielding an expected $10 million in taxes.

A Canadian news network abruptly dismissed a veteran journalist, Lisa LaFlamme. She said the company that owns CTV made “a ‘business decision’ to end my contract.”

Her dismissal has opened a debate over sexism and ageism in the workplace: LaFlamme, 58, had recently stopped dyeing her hair and had decided to let it go gray.

How Premier League clubs decide where to loan their young talent: As the summer transfer window draws to a close, clubs will be frantically getting their last-minute business done. Money is still tight because of the pandemic, so the top-flight loan market is a requisite for adding quality to a squad.

How Mikel Arteta rebuilt Arsenal in 100 games: From his first Premier League game in charge in 2019 to his 100th last weekend, the last two and a half years have brought plenty of changes under Arteta, and it has not always gone smoothly. Here is a deep look at a transformational process.

Inside Scott Parker’s abrupt Bournemouth dismissal: After just four Premier League games, the club parted ways with Parker under rather tense circumstances. Here’s why it happened, from the board’s anger at his post-match comments, to frustrations around transfers during transfers during a tense summer.

The Athletic, a New York Times company, is a subscription publication that delivers in-depth, personalized sports coverage. Learn more about The Athletic.

Alexei Ratmansky, one of the greatest living choreographers, spent his childhood in Ukraine. Since Russia invaded in February, he has thrown himself into supporting Ukraine and its dancers, creating a home for them in the Netherlands.

Before the Russian invasion, Ratmansky had not seen himself as a political artist. But he immediately left his post in Moscow working at the Bolshoi Ballet, and he said he was unlikely to return while Vladimir Putin remained president.

Now, he is helping build the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, a company of Ukrainian ballet dancers who have fled the war, in a repurposed conservatory in The Hague.

The company will perform in London with “Giselle,” a classic French ballet. “We picked it because it is something that they know, and that requires a large number of dancers,” Ratmansky said, “but also because it is not Russian.”

Read more about the choreographer’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This guacamole recipe mixes avocado with the sweet grilled corn of esquites. J. Kenji López-Alt suggests you use a mortar and pestle.

Can CBD help with insomnia?

In “The Marriage Portrait,” Maggie O’Farrell imagines the girl who may have inspired “My Last Duchess,” a poem by Robert Browning.

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: “Monastery head” (five letters).

And here’s today’s Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. Thanks for joining me. — Amelia

P.S. Astead Herndon will host “The Run-Up,” a Times podcast about the 2022 midterm election cycle.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is on the adolescent mental health crisis in the U.S.

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