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In The News

New Russia Sanctions, Scotland’s Sturgeon Quits, Quake Survivors

two more survivors were miraculously pulled alive from the rubble of the powerful earthquake that struck Turkey nine days ago
Renate Mattar & Inès Mermat

👋 Ke aal aee!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where the EU debates hitting Russia with a 10th sanctions package, Nicola Sturgeon announces her surprise resignation after eight years as Scotland’s leader and rescuers are still pulling survivors out alive nine days after the Turkey-Syria earthquake. We also feature a report on a group of anti-Putin Russians who are supplying drones to Ukraine’s army, convinced that neutrality and “pacifism” is not an option in this war.

[*Dogri, Jammu and Kashmir, India]

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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• EU debates 10th package of sanctions against Russia: Representatives of EU countries are meeting in Brussels to discuss a new batch of sanctions against Russia. These are expected to include a ban on exports of “critical” goods worth 11-billion euros, and target Iran for helping Russia by blacklisting entities linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

• Nicola Sturgeon to quit as Scotland leader: After more than eight years in the role, Nicola Sturgeon has announced her surprise resignation as Scotland’s first minister, saying she felt she couldn’t “give this job everything it demands and deserves for another year.” Sturgeon said she would remain in office until the election of her successor.

• First UN aid convoy enters Syria: A first UN aid convoy of 11 trucks has entered rebel-held northwestern Syria from Turkey after the Bab al-Salam crossing was opened on Tuesday, as the death toll from last week’s earthquake passes the 40,000 mark.

• Philippines summons China envoy over laser dispute: Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos has summoned China’s ambassador to discuss reports that a Chinese coast guard ship used a “military-grade laser light” against a Philippine vessel in the South China Sea, temporarily blinding a crew member. The U.S. has backed the Philippines and described China’s conduct as “provocative and unsafe.”

• Berlusconi acquitted in Bunga Bunga case: An Italian court acquitted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was accused of bribing 24 witnesses to lie about his “Bunga Bunga” parties in an underage prostitution case from more than a decade ago.

• Boy who was rescued from Thai cave dies in UK: Duangpetch Promthep, captain of the Thai boys’ football team that had been rescued from a cave in the Chiang Rai province in 2018, has died in the UK, reportedly from a head injury. The 17-year-old had been enrolled in the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicester last year after winning a scholarship.

Jo-jo-jo Joker face: Lady Gaga shared the very first shot from the set of Joker: Folie à deux, the sequel to Todd Philipp’s 2019 Joker where she’ll be sharing the screen with Joaquin Phoenix.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

Shanghai-based Jiefang daily features Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi shaking hands with Xi Jinping on its front page today — the first state visit to China by an Iranian leader in more than 20 years — as both countries are looking to cement trade ties and reinforce investment cooperation.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

470

Air India has announced it will be purchasing 220 planes from Boeing and 250 from Airbus. It’s the largest such order in history, as the Tata-owned airline looks to respond to the rapid expansion of air travel in Asia. After speaking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Joe Biden called the agreement "historic."

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

“Pacifism is not an option” — meet the anti-Putin Russians supplying drones to Ukraine

Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine face a tough moral question: How far are they prepared to go? Around the world, a group of Russians are organizing and raising money to send much-needed drones to help Ukrainian forces fight the Russian invasion, reports Irina Dolinina in Russian-language independent website Vazhnyye Istorii/Important Stories.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 Many Russians feel deeply conflicted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Some have walled themselves off from the news, believing that they are powerless to change anything. Others have refused to fight, left the country and stopped paying taxes — and others have sent humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians. A small few, however, have decided to help the Ukrainian army directly.

🎖️ The Ukrainian Drone Forces volunteer group, which is run by Russians and supplies civilian drones to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was formed by two volunteers from Canada and Kyiv in April 2022. They bought one drone for the territorial defense of Kharkiv, then another and another, figuring out as they went which drones were most needed, and establishing closer ties with the Ukrainian military. “The confidence of Ukrainians in us is extremely valuable,” says Natalya, a 48-year-old scientist.

💊 The group has raised over €25,000 in donations from around the world — even transfers from Russians still in Russia, often via proxies for safety. “It is important to emphasize that drones are not weapons. They are the ‘eyes’ (of the military),” Natalya says. In addition to reconnaissance and artillery adjustment, the drones the group sends to the front help Ukrainian soldiers to find and recover the wounded. Medicines and supplies can also be loaded onto drones and sent to the front.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

“I'm not expecting violins here, but I am a human being as well as a politician.”

— During a news conference in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that she was stepping down as Scotland's first minister. Speaking of the "physical and mental impact" the role had on her for the past eight years, she said she could not devote the required 100% of her energy to leading the country anymore, choosing to spend more time with her family. "Please know that being your first minister has been the privilege of my life," she added.

✍️ Newsletter by Renate Mattar, Inès Mermat, Bertrand Hauger, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Laure Gautherin


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Society

How Colombia's "Prosperity Preachers" Squeeze The Masses, With The State's Blessing

In traditionally Catholic Colombia, Protestant preachers have learned to effectively combine marketing and religion to make themselves enormously wealthy. And thanks to political lobbying and religious freedom, they are exempt from the law and taxes.

Image of a man in a suit, Esteban Acosta, a self-proclaimed apostle, giving a speech at ​La Unción Christian Community Church, a big screen behind him projecting his speech.

Esteban Acosta, a self-proclaimed apostle, giving a speech at La Unción Christian Community Church, in Cartagena, Colombia.

Karem Racines

CARTAGENA — Outside the La Unción Christian Community Church, in this coastal city in Colombia, hundreds of believers gather to tour the city and bring their “message of salvation” to others. On a white crane, there are six speakers, microphones, recording equipment and about ten people identified as "STAFF".

A drone flies over and records the scene. When everything is ready, Pastor Esteban Acosta goes up to the platform and leads the chants.

The followers, of different ages and economic backgrounds, look animated, holding posters and colored balloons. They are spread out between the current location of the church and its new location, being built across the street. In the old structure, the prized Cartagena land, which cost "a million dollars in credit" according to the pastor, there is room for 2,000 people.

In the new temple, with tinted windows and a marble floor, another 2,000 people will fit. Everything is financed by the "generous contributions" of the parishioners.

Esteban Acosta, a self-proclaimed apostle, and his wife, pastor Lisbeth Bello, convince their followers to make donations in exchange for religious favors, while they amass fortunes to afford a life of luxury. They use marketing strategies and a repetitive message with a simple promise: the more money they give to God through them, the more progress they will have on earth as a reward. They call it the "prosperity gospel."

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