A man carries a wounded boy after clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesting the "Flag March".
👋 Bonjour!*
Welcome to Friday where Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to show up in person at the Hiroshima G7 summit, violence erupts again over Israel’s flag day holiday and tennis legend Rafal Nadal says he’s out of this year’s French Open (with an announcement about next year). We also feature a reportage from Brazilian news media Agência Pública on the continuing influence of Nazi ideology in parts of the country’s far right.
[*French]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Zelensky to address G7 leaders in person in Japan: The Ukrainian president Zelensky will attend the G7 summit in Japan in person, expected to ask for more weapons and help from the world’s largest economies. The G7 leaders have already reaffirmed their commitment to defend Ukraine against Russia by stepping up the West's economic sanctions.
• Russian hunker down in Ukrainian nuclear plant: According to witnesses, Russian forces have retreated to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine in anticipation of a counteroffensive in the region. The city is now surrounded by trenches, mines and surveillance cameras.
• China’s Xi reveals ambitious development plan for Central Asia: Chinese President Xi announced a new plan to support development and cooperation in Central Asia, including building new infrastructure to boost trade and a new role for Chinese power to counterbalance Russian influence in the region.
• Greek elections reopen immigration debate: In the run-up to the Greek elections, the subject of immigration has come to the fore as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged to extend the border wall with Turkey by 2026. A promise similar to what Trump said for Mexico, his opponent, former leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has condemned the policy as a non-solution to the immigration issue.
• Iran executes 3 men for involvement in protests: Iran has executed three men, Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi, accused of deadly violence during last year's anti-government protests. The executions were strongly condemned by human rights groups.
• Nurses strike in South Korea after presidential veto: Thousands of South Korean nurses went on strike after President Yoon Suk-yeol revoked a bill to improve wages and working conditions after doctors and nurses' aides protested against the bill over concerns that it would affect their jobs.
• Salman Rushdie makes first public appearance since stabbing attack: The British author Salman Rushdie made a public comeback Thursday evening at a writers' advocacy organization gala in New York City, nine months after a stabbing attack that nearly took his life.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“A *land (clay) without its king." The French sports daily L'Equipe dedicates its front page to Rafal Nadal's announcement that he won’t play in the upcoming French Open. The record 14-time winner at the Roland Garros tournament dropped out because of a lingering hip injury, and revealed he will probably retire in 2024. *The use of terre in the headline has a double meaning in French: it’s both “land” and the tournament’s famous red clay courts.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$864 million
The Walt Disney Company announced it was abandoning plans to build a campus, estimated at $864 million, in response to political tensions over a bill by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that would restrict the teaching of topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida elementary schools. This decision is part of a "counter-offensive" against the end of the special status Disney has enjoyed in the state since the 1960s.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Why Is This Brazilian Town Displaying Nazi Photographs?
In the town of Dona Emma, Brazil, photos of Nazi flags and Hitler supporters are displayed in the entrance of a public building. A journalist from independent Brazilian media Agência Públicavisited the state of Santa Catarina to look into the area’s long history of extremist groups and hate speech, including strong support for ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.
📖 Carlos Bartel, a history professor at the Instituto Federal Catarinense (IFC) says that extremist speech is gaining more and more strength in the region where Dona Emma is located, and that cases of racism and neo-Nazism are frequent, but often relativized or minimized.
❗ In the municipality there were several cells of the Nazi party. The most important figure in the region was the physician Friedrich Kröner. He was a doctor and a member of the Nazi party — and got funding from the Nazi party to build a hospital for the Hamonia Colony and then for the town of Hamonia, of which Dona Emma was part.
💬 “We are left with this shadow threatening us. It is a very difficult situation from the psychological point of view, because we are there to teach and not to worry about criminal filings. Soon we will have to earn additional compensation for life risks.”
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“We need an orgy of frog bashing.”
— The British press is eating up revelations of the reported ire directed last year at French President Emmanuel by then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson after Macron had criticized Johnson’s handling of the Ukrainian refugee crisis following Russia’s invasion. Johnson’s former press secretary Guto Harri said the Prime Minister called Macron the ‘C’ word and “Putin’s lickspittle” and demanded an “orgy of frog-bashing.”
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Triumph Of Immunity: Why Assad's Return To The Arab League Matters — FRANCE INTER
• Who Is Maïwenn? Meet The Controversial French Director Who Hired Johnny Depp — WORLDCRUNCH
• New Survey Of LGBTQ+ Russians Finds Steep Rise In Homophobia Since War Began — AGENTS MEDIA✍️ Newsletter by Yannick Champion-Osselin, Chloé Touchard, Marine Béguin and Jeff Israely
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