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🌎  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 “Juanita” when speaking to local media, and described them as “a kind of spiritual girlfriend.”

🗞️  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.

#️⃣  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.

📰  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.

🧑⚕️ 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.

💬 The efficacy of psychotherapy is now beyond doubt, says Moria Smoski, a clinical psychologist at Duke University in North Carolina. “But recognizing this means that experts now expect psychotherapy to be evaluated according to a medical model” — in clinical studies that analyze working methods, risks, side effects and interactions. Such analysis clearly shows that the common belief that “talking can’t hurt” is not true.

⚠️ Treating serious trauma such as post-traumatic stress syndrome can involve particular risks, explains psychotherapist Smoski. “Having to repeatedly confront the traumatizing experiences can trigger extreme reactions.” 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.

📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

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📣 VERBATIM

“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident.”

— 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.