The Economist.

Hello, you're listening to the free edition of the world in brief from The

Economist. As a reminder, if you subscribe to the economist, you'll get access to a deeper look at the day ahead, updated three times a day.

If you're already an economist subscriber, visit Economist.com slash Espresso,

or visit our Espresso app to start listening.

Here's today's free edition. This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

A Russian Air Strike killed at least 16 people and injured many more in Churneheave, a city in the north of Ukraine.

The city's acting mayor condemned Russia for engaging in, quote, terrorist activity.

Russia has stepped up its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, overwhelming the country's air defences.

Ukrainian politicians renewed their call for more military support following the attack.

Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has said American lawmakers could vote on

aid for Ukraine later this week.

America will reimpose oil sanctions on Venezuela,

which was given a six-month reprieve on the condition

that it hold broadly democratic elections this year.

Nicholas Maduro, the country's autocratic president, has instead banned the main

opposition candidate from running, the Biden administration told most oil companies operating there to wind down business by May 31st.

The IMF forecast that America will record a fiscal deficit of 7.1% next year.

According to the IMF's fiscal monitor, a twice yearly analysis of public finances, the average fiscal deficit

for countries in the rich world is 2%.

The report was also highly critical of large budget deficits in China, Britain and Italy.

...