Our daily international lap

🇺🇦 A major dam partially collapsed in Russia-occupied Ukraine. Thousands of residents in eastern Ukraine were evacuated yesterday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying a total of 80 towns and villages may be flooded following the breach of the Kakhovka dam (which upheld the country’s largest water reservoir by volume). Ukrainian officials accused Russia of sabotaging the dam, while the Kremlin said the collapse occurred due to Ukrainian shelling – though neither side’s claims could be independently verified as of last night. Targeting dams is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions because of the danger to civilians.

🇺🇳 Five new countries were elected to the UN Security Council yesterday. The Security Council is the only UN body that can make legally binding decisions like imposing sanctions and authorizing use of force. It has five permanent, veto-wielding members – the US, UK, China, Russia, and France – along with ten additional members that are voted in every two years. Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, and South Korea all ran unopposed for four of the open council spots, while Slovenia handily defeated the Russian-allied Belarus in the only contested election.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 English think tank Autonomy unveiled the country’s first universal basic income pilot program. The plan will give an unconditional ~$2,000 per month to 500 English residents who have spent time living in the care system (aka a children’s home or foster family), then evaluating their physical and mental health over the two years of UBI income and comparing it to a control group who didn’t receive any money. It mirrors similar pilot programs currently being conducted in a handful of other countries, including the US, Wales, and Kenya.