Today we'll be discussing some of the biggest stories, including Nokiagate and Biden's invocation of the Defense Production Act, China's house prices, but first, Ukraine's wonder weapon.

The Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, has today claimed that Russia doesn't have what the Russians have called a "wonder weapon." Simply put, the Kremlin claimed that they possessed a laser that was able to blind satellites up to 1,500 kilometers above the earth within seconds. Yuri Borisov, the deputy prime minister, claimed that the weapon was called Perezvet and was being widely deployed. Outside of these claims, very little is actually known about the weapon. This has led Zelensky to claim that in the propaganda of Nazi Germany there was such a term as "wonder waffer". The more it became that they had no chance in the war, the more propaganda there was about the wonder weapon that would be so powerful that it would provide a turning point in the war. Perhaps that's where we are now with Russia.

African civil society groups urged the UN to do more about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's tiger region, where some 5 million tigrayans are in urgent need of food. Since declaring a ceasefire in March, Abhi Ahmed's government has allegedly limited humanitarian access to the region while expelling journalists and UN officials who go against the government line. In the letter to the U.N secretary general on Wednesday, 12 African civil society groups, including Kampala-based Atrocities Watch Africa and Nigeria's Center for Democracy and Development, called on him to provide leadership in ending the ongoing war in Ethiopia and likened the crisis in Grey to the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

While scandals like Partygate and Beergate have been in the British headlines for months, a new scandal dubbed Nokia Gate has emerged in the Netherlands. Yesterday, a newspaper alleged that Dutch prime minister Mark Reuter's has been deleting text messages from his phone every day for years. Reuter's in his own words, not a big fan of smartphones and, as such, has to delete messages from his old-fashioned Nokia phone because it only has capacity for 20 text messages, the paper reports. Ministers are required by law to keep correspondence to ensure public accountability. Reuter's denies breaking the law because he uses "real-time archiving," meaning he decides which messages are relevant and forwards them to civil servants before raising them. Dutch lawmakers from across the political spectrum have reacted with anger to the story, and a parliamentary debate is likely to be held today.

Staying in Europe for story for, the european commission has set out its 300 billion euro plans to end the EU's reliance on Russian fossil fuels. The plan titled RePowerEU has four main focuses; saving energy, diversifying supplies, accelerating the rollout of renewables and financing new infrastructure like liquefied natural gas terminals. RePowerEU includes proposals to increase the EU's renewable energy target to 45% by 2030 up from the current 40% target increase the energy efficiency targets from nine percent to 13% and to phase in a new legal requirement for solar panels on new residential buildings by 2029. While the commission has said the plan will be the speed charging of our European green deal, it's also acknowledged that at least in the short term fossil fuels will still play a big part, as evidenced by the financing of new oil and gas infrastructure.

Moving to the US in story 5, and it's fair to say that no one really expects baby formula milk to be in the news but anyway here we are. President Joe Biden has had to step in following the February closure of a Michigan factory, which caused a nationwide shortage of the substance. Yesterday, he invoked the defense production act, which forces producers to prioritize contracts needed for national defense over others. The White House said of the situation, the president is requiring suppliers to direct needed resources to infant formula manufacturers before any other customers who may have ordered that good. Directing firms to prioritize and allocate the production of key infant formula inputs will help increase production and speed up in supply chains. The US is also going to try and import more formula milk, which will act as a bridge until its domestic production becomes high enough again to stop the shortage.