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In The News

Greece Train Collision, Nigerian Election Result, Mummy In A Bag

Firefighters and rescuers at work Wednesday morning in Tempe, near the northeastern Greek city of Larissa after a train carrying hundreds of passengers collided with an oncoming freight train.

Firefighters and rescuers at work Wednesday morning in Tempe, near the northeastern Greek city of Larissa after a train carrying hundreds of passengers collided with an oncoming freight train. At least 36 people are confirmed dead.

Ginevra Falciani & Laure Gautherin

šŸ‘‹ Ia Orana!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where a collision between two trains in Greece kills dozens, official results are in of Nigeria’s disputed presidential election and a Peruvian mummy winds up in a delivery bag. Meanwhile, German daily Die Welt looks at why the common belief that ā€œtalking can’t hurtā€ is not true for everyone when it comes to psychotherapy.

[*yo-rah-nah - Tahitian]

āœ…Ā  SIGN UP

This is our daily newsletter Worldcrunch Today, a rapid tour of the news of the day from the world's best journalism sources, regardless of language or geography.

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šŸŒŽĀ  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Dozens killed after two trains collide in Greece: At least 36 people were killed after a head-on collision between a passenger train and a cargo train in central Greece late Tuesday. At least 85 people were injured in what is the country's deadliest rail crash in decades. Investigators have not determined the cause of the crash, which occurred as the passenger train emerged from a tunnel.

• Ruling party wins Nigeria elections: Nigeria’s ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, has won the presidential election on Wednesday, after the most competitive campaign in decades and a chaotic, four-day vote count. The result has been disputed by the main opposition party, after the election was marred by sporadic street violence.

• Finland starts construction of Russia border fence: Finland has begun constructing a 200-kilometer (124 mile) wired fence on its border with Russia to boost security and stem the rising numbers of Russians seeking to escape conscription. Finland, which shares the longest European Union border with Russia, is moving closer to joining the NATO alliance, with a vote scheduled Wednesday on a new bill designed to speed up the country's bid.

• After Italian migrant boat wreck, police arrest three alleged traffickers: Italian authorities arrested three people and are looking for a fourth suspect who they believe trafficked up to 200 migrants aboard a wooden boat that smashed apart on rocks off southern Italy on Sunday, killing at least 65 people. Meanwhile, the Italian Coast Guard is under fire for not rescuing the migrants despite knowing the boat's location many hours before the shipwreck.

• Sunak pushes new post-Brexit plan on Northern Ireland trade: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was in Northern Ireland and then met with his own lawmakers to try to convince them of his new deal with the European Union to ease post-Brexit trade.

• Greta Thunberg detained by Norway police: Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg was twice detained during a demonstration in favor of Indigenous rights in Oslo on Wednesday, with police removing her and other activists from the finance ministry and later the environment ministry.

• Man found carrying mummy in a food delivery bag in Peru: Police discovered a pre-Hispanic mummy, estimated to be between 600 to 800 years old, in a 26-year-old’s food delivery cooler bag in Puno, in southern Peru. The man said he named the remains ā€œJuanitaā€ when speaking to local media, and described them as ā€œa kind of spiritual girlfriend.ā€

šŸ—žļøĀ  FRONT PAGE

Nigeria’s Daily Trust devotes its front page to the results of the country’s presidential elections which saw the victory of ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu with 37% of the vote. The opposition parties have rejected the results as fraudulent, pointing out technological problems that may have hampered the electoral process.

#ļøāƒ£Ā  BY THE NUMBERS

799,728

Japan recorded 799,728 births in 2022 — a new record low in a decades-long decline as the country now faces an increasing elderly population, with one of the highest life expectancies in the world. In comparison, Japan had seen more than 1.5 million births in 1982. The country’s government is expected to set up a new agency in April to work on the issue, with plans to potentially double the spending on child-related programs.

šŸ“°Ā  STORY OF THE DAY

Talking risks: New research finds psychotherapy can have dangerous side effects

It has long been assumed that psychotherapy can do no harm at worst. But new research makes clear that for some people, it can have very serious, even life-threatening, consequences, writes Katja Ridderbusch in German daily Die Welt.

šŸ§‘āš•ļø Across Europe and the United States, experts and politicians alike are concerned that people’s mental health is suffering. The coronavirus crisis has made matters worse. According to data from the World Health Organization, since the start of the pandemic, the number of people diagnosed with anxiety and depression has risen by 25%. As a result, more people are seeking professional help.

šŸ’¬ The efficacy of psychotherapy is now beyond doubt, says Moria Smoski, a clinical psychologist at Duke University in North Carolina. ā€œBut recognizing this means that experts now expect psychotherapy to be evaluated according to a medical modelā€ — in clinical studies that analyze working methods, risks, side effects and interactions. Such analysis clearly shows that the common belief that ā€œtalking can’t hurtā€ is not true.

āš ļø Treating serious trauma such as post-traumatic stress syndrome can involve particular risks, explains psychotherapist Smoski. ā€œHaving to repeatedly confront the traumatizing experiences can trigger extreme reactions.ā€ In serious cases, patients can develop dissociative disorders, splitting off specific memories of traumatic experiences or whole swathes of their personality that are associated with these experiences.

āž”ļø Read more on Worldcrunch.com

šŸ“£ VERBATIM

ā€œThe FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident.ā€

— In an interview with Fox News, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau had reached the conclusion that COVID-19 was the result of a leak from a "Chinese government-controlled lab." He added that China "has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate" efforts to identify the source of the global pandemic. However, this theory is not supported by other US or international authorities, which believe the virus likely jumped from animals to humans. Beijing has reacted to the comment, accusing Washington of "political manipulation" and pointing the lack of credibility of such conclusions.

āœļø Newsletter by Ginevra Falciani, Laure Gautherin and Anne-Sophie Goninet


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Society

Violence Against Women, The Patriarchy And Responsibility Of The Good Men Too

The femicide of Giulia Cecchettin has shaken Italy, and beyond. Argentine journalist Ignacio Pereyra looks at what lies behind femicides and why all men must take more responsibility.

photo of a young man holding a sign: Filippo isn't a monster, he's the healthy son of the patriarchy

A protester's sign referring to the alleged killer reads: Filippo isn't a monster, he's the healthy son of the patriarchy

Matteo Nardone/Pacific Press via ZUMA Press
Ignacio Pereyra

Updated Dec. 3, 2023 at 10:40 p.m.

-Essay-

ATHENS — Are you going to write about what happened in Italy?, Irene, my partner, asks me. I have no idea what she's talking about. She tells me: a case of femicide has shaken the country and has been causing a stir for two weeks.

As if the fact in itself were not enough, I ask what is different about this murder compared to the other 105 women murdered this year in Italy (or those that happen every day around the world).

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

We are talking about a country where the expression "fai l'uomo" (be a man) abounds, with a society so prone to drama and tragedy and so fond of crime stories as few others, where the expression "crime of passion" is still mistakenly overused.

In this context, the sister of the victim reacted in an unexpected way for a country where femicide is not a crime recognized in the penal code, contrary to what happens, for example, in almost all of Latin America.

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