Your Monday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/17/briefing/russia-draft-paris-protests-xi-jinping.html

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Russia, desperate to shore up its defenses in Ukraine, is rushing thousands of newly drafted, untrained soldiers into combat. Inevitably, some draftees have already been killed or captured, stirring ever harsher criticism of the mobilization effort announced last month and considered a shambles from the start.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, confirmed at a news conference on Friday that 16,000 recruits had already been deployed to combat units, some with as few as five to 10 days of training. The recruits were sorely needed, given that the front in Ukraine stretched for nearly 700 miles, he said, adding that the training would continue there.

Russia’s military is struggling to balance two objectives, military analysts said: deploying enough troops to halt recent Ukrainian advances while rebuilding ground forces decimated during eight months of war. An extreme sign of disorder came on Saturday, when two men from a former Soviet state opened fire at a Russian training camp, killing 11 volunteers.

Analysis: “They are giving them at best basics and at worst nothing and throwing them into combat, which suggests that these guys are just literally cannon fodder,” said William Alberque, the director of an arms control program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a research organization based in London.

In other news from the war:

Several strikes hit the Russian region of Belgorod just across the border from Ukraine yesterday, wounding at least three people.

Despite the war, surrogate mothers and agencies in Ukraine have managed to continue deliveries, and clients are arriving again to pick up their children.

New reporting illuminates the fortitude of three women who were victims of Russian brutality in Bucha, Ukraine.

Xi Jinping defended his hard-line reign yesterday, presenting himself to China’s elite as a leader whose tough policies had saved the nation from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic and who was now focused on securing China’s rise amid multiplying global threats. Xi is poised to claim a groundbreaking third term as the country’s leader at the end of the weeklong Communist Party congress.

In his opening report, Xi pointed to the party’s campaign against corrupt officials, its cleanup of the environment and its crackdown on antigovernment protesters in Hong Kong as key victories. He described Chinese foreign policy as a series of successes in fending off Western “bullying” and protectionism, apparently referring to disputes over human rights, technology and Beijing’s claim on Taiwan.

Xi coupled his praise with a somber warning: that China must stand united behind the party to cope with a world he depicted as increasingly turbulent — and hostile. And though he did not mention the U.S. by name, his distrust of the world’s other great power was an unmistakable backdrop to that exhortation.

“Zero Covid”: Xi made no concessions to critics of China’s lockdowns, mass testing and intrusive surveillance, arguing instead that those policies, and the party’s dominance in nearly all aspects of everyday life, was what was needed to protect China’s 1.4 billion people.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Paris yesterday to protest rising living costs, amid an increasingly tense political atmosphere marked by strikes at oil refineries and nuclear plants. Though the marches were planned before the strikes, the left-wing parties who organized the protests signaled that they hoped to use them to increase pressure on the government.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is simultaneously facing discontent over shortages at gas stations, along with labor strikes and a fierce opposition in the National Assembly, the lower and more powerful house of Parliament, which may try to bring down his government this week over a disputed budget bill.

Inflation in France has surpassed 6 percent, increasing the prices of staples like meat and pasta. Parliament passed an inflation relief package over the summer, but it has not completely offset soaring energy costs, which are rising because of the war in Ukraine.

Strikes: Workers at refineries have been picketing for higher wages in line with inflation, as well as for a greater share of the surging profits of energy giants. But their demands have resonated far beyond refineries, prompting nuclear plant and railroad workers to stop work, as well, or plan to.

Related: Macron promised “a new era” when he was re-elected in April, but new limits on his power and cascading crises have nudged the transformative off the agenda, writes Roger Cohen, our Paris bureau chief.

Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan, who faces political and economic difficulties before elections in the spring, has been ramping up threats against Greece.

The Revolutionary Guards — Iran’s most powerful military force — have paired with domestic police forces in using brutal tactics to try to quash the protests that have rocked the country for weeks.

Investors will get their first opportunity this morning to weigh in on the British government’s rapidly changing plans for the nation’s public finances.

Flooding in the southern Australian state of Victoria has killed at least two people.

Peter Thiel, the billionaire and Republican political patron, appears to be pursuing Maltese citizenship.

A retrospective of the Nigerian artist Moshood Olusomo Bamigboye’s 50-year career is on view at Yale University Art Gallery.

A Georgia inmate is accused of using a contraband phone to impersonate a billionaire, securing more than $11 million in gold coins and then arranging to buy a multimillion-dollar house.

Russian action movies are selling war. Big-budget shoot-em-ups like “Granit,” Touriste” and “Solntsepyok” seek to glorify the actions of the Wagner Group, a private Russian military force with close ties to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

Aimed at the countries where Wagner operates, including Russia, the films serve as a recruitment tool for those with a taste for action and a paucity of job options — people who might be enticed to fight for money.

Ranking every Premier League club’s third kit: The third set is usually a heady cocktail of the experimental and the sublime, and this year is no different, and Arsenal’s players are dressed as well as they are playing.

The ramifications of the Saudi deal to buy Qatar’s beIN: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which also owns Newcastle United, might be about to buy Qatar’s beIN, after years of disputes.

Can Chelsea really hope to get to $1 billion in revenue?: New co-owner Jose E Feliciano has spoken about Chelsea’s ambition to more than double the club’s revenue. But how could Chelsea do it?

From The Times: Delcir Sonda, a Brazilian supermarket magnate, said that he didn’t receive any returns after investing millions in Neymar, the Brazilian soccer star. The relationship between the two men comes under scrutiny in a Spanish court today.

Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer known for books like “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men,” is publishing two novels, his first since 2006. “The Passenger” comes out Oct. 25, followed by “Stella Maris” on Dec. 6.

The books, which have intertwined narratives focusing on a brilliant, tortured young mathematical prodigy and her brother, represent a stylistic and thematic break from McCarthy’s earlier blood-soaked morality tales, Alexandra Alter writes. “But the novels are also recognizably McCarthy’s,” she adds, “laced with transcendent language and profound insights into human nature.”

For more: Read an excerpt from “The Passenger.”

Chocolate soufflés are far simpler than they seem.

Paul Newman’s posthumous memoir, “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man,” sheds light on a seemingly imperturbable Hollywood star.

Five horror movies to stream now.

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Sweet or salty (five letters).

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

You can find all our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. Have a great Monday. — Natasha

P.S. Elizabeth Williamson, a feature writer at The Times, joined “On the Media” to discuss the Alex Jones verdict.

Start your week with a narrated long read about systemic racism in a U.S. school district. You can catch up with Friday’s episode of “The Daily” here.

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