👋 Γειά σου*
Welcome to Wednesday, where China’s economy outperforms expectations, Russia sentences allies of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Israel says its troops will not leave Gaza, Lebanon or Syria any time soon. We also look at how Gulf nations’ petrodollars are raising uncomfortable questions about Egypt’s sovereignty.
[*Yassou – Greek]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Algerian daily El Watan lends its frontpage to the increasing “crisis” in the relationship between France and Algeria. The French presidency announced Tuesday it will expel 12 Algerian diplomats and recall its ambassador, in response to the North African country’s ordering the departure of 12 French diplomatic staff over the weekend. This comes after Algeria protested against France’s Sunday indictment of three Algerians, including a consular official, on suspicion of involvement in the 2024 kidnapping of Algerian opposition activist Amir Boukhors in a Paris suburb. Relations between the two countries started to deteriorate when French president Emmanuel Macron supported Morocco’s position over that of Algeria over the disputed Western Sahara region last year.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
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China’s economy outperforms forecasts, but stocks drop anyway. Global stock markets were sliding again Wednesday after the U.S. put tighter export controls on technology companies like Nvidia, which fell 6.3% in after-hour trading. Asian markets closed and European markets opened with losses for the second straight day. The news that China outperformed expectations in its first quarter GDP growth (5.4%, above the anticipated 5.1%) couldn’t counter fears that the escalating trade war with the U.S. could put an end to the momentum. In its next step in the trade war, China replaced its trade negotiator with Li Chenggang, its envoy to the World Trade Organization, in what is seen as a stiffening hardline stance among economic leadership in the country.
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Israel troops not leaving Gaza, Lebanon or Syria. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the Israeli military will remain in Gaza and buffer zones in Lebanon and Syria “indefinitely,” changing tack from evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized. Families of hostages still held by Hamas slammed the comments, saying that Israel was “choosing to seize territory over the kidnapped.” Katz also reiterated that no humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza as a way of mounting pressure to reach a ceasefire. Meanwhile, at least 19 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since early Wednesday morning.
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Navalny allies sentenced. Four journalists were convicted by a Russian court of extremism for working for the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, an organization founded by former opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The organization is labeled by the Russian government as an extremist group, but the journalists maintained their innocence and argued that they were facing prosecution simply for doing their jobs. Navalny, who was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main political rival for years, died in an Arctic penal colony while serving a sentence for similar charges of extremism.
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Peru convicts former president and first lady. Peru’s former president, Ollanta Humala, and his wife Nadine Heredia were convicted by a Lima court of accepting illegal funds from a Brazilian construction company to finance his 2006 and 2011 elections. The court sentenced both of them to 15 years in prison after the three-year trial, but Heredia is likely to seek exile in Brazil, which has offered her and her son asylum.
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Sudanese paramilitary forms breakaway government. Sudan’s opposition Rapid Support Forces (RSF) officially announced a breakaway government after two years of a civil war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 13 million people. The move by RSF leadership is a direct challenge to the administration headed by the Sudanese army.
- New protocol to respond to pandemics. Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic killed millions globally and roiled the international economy, countries under the World Health Organization agreed to a landmark agreement on responding to future pandemics. The goal of the accord is to avoid the mistakes made during the pandemic in 2020, establishing a system aimed at sharing pathogen data quickly so that pharmaceutical companies can create pandemic-fighting products more quickly. The agreement came as the U.S. made massive cuts to foreign aid programs and threatened tariffs on pharmaceutical products.
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News Quiz! A widely-anticipated livestream has launched from Sweden. What is the livestream filming?
A. Snow melting
B. Paint drying
C. A very tall candle burning
D. A moose migration
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
15 hours and 30 minutes
Switzerland’s Nicolas Hojac and Austria’s Philipp Brugger have shattered the speed climbing record for completing the north faces of an iconic trio of Swiss mountains — the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, both renowned for their challenging conditions and technical difficulty. Their achievement took almost 10 hours less than the previous record set more than two decades ago. The North Face of the Eiger, a sheer 1800-meter limestone wall cloaked in snow and ice, has notably been the stage for many dramatic and historic ascents.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
Gulf nations have positioned themselves as essential partners in Egypt’s would-be economic revival. Yet, this assistance often comes with strings attached, raising uncomfortable questions about Egypt’s sovereignty.
— WORLDCRUNCH
🎖️ Obsessed with the military as a child, then a pacifist as a young man, Andreas Öhler explores what it now means to defend peace in a world that may no longer allow it.
— DIE ZEIT
💻 Researchers in Norway and the U.S. are training artificial intelligence to address cybergrooming. Will it work?
— UNDARK
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Charak Puja, also known as Neel Puja, is a traditional Hindu festival primarily observed in parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva and celebrated with prayers for prosperity and protection. One of the key rituals of this festival involves the act of body suspension, where devotees are suspended through hooks in their flesh, spinning around high poles, as can be seen here in Dhaka, Bangladesh. — Photo: Syed Mahabubul Kader/ZUMA
📣 VERBATIM
“The terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex”
— The UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled Wednesday that the UK equalities law defines a woman as someone born biologically female. This ruling means that a transgender person with a certificate that recognizes them as female should not be considered a woman for equality purposes. But the court added that its ruling “does not remove protection from trans people,” who are “protected from discrimination on the ground of gender reassignment.” The case stems from a 2018 law passed by the Scottish Parliament on female representation on public bodies’ boards, that included transgender women in its definition of women. It had been challenged by women’s right group For Women Scotland, arguing that its redefinition of woman went beyond parliament’s powers.
✍️ Newsletter by Jacob Shropshire and Cecilia Laurent Monpetit
Quiz Answer: D. Millions are expected to tune into an annual Swedish livestream of the Great Moose Migration. Public broadcaster SVT has been streaming the around-the-clock livestream for several weeks each year since 2019, and last year more than nine million people tuned in to see the animals cross the Ångerman River in northern Sweden to get to pastures where they will graze in the summer.
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