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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Independence Day as Ukraine marks six months of war: Ukraine celebrates its 31st year of Independence since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a day that comes exactly six months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Celebrations are canceled in Kyiv as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raises concerns of “Russian provocations.”

• U.S. strike in Syria: The U.S. military said it conducted raids in Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, targeting areas used by militias affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). These strikes, ordered by U.S. President Joe Biden, “were aimed at protecting U.S. forces from attack by Iran-backed groups”, an official said.

• Thai Prime Minister suspended by court: Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has been suspended from official duty by a court. This comes after protests and petitions aimed at reviewing his eight-year constitutional term limit, which ended on Wednesday, and demanding his resignation.

• India fires officers for accidentally launching missile: The Indian government has fired three India’s Air Force officers with immediate effect for the accidental firing of an unarmed missile into Pakistan last March. No casualties had been reported at the time and the two rival countries have calmly handled the situation.

• Stuck in the Eurotunnel for hours: Hundreds of Eurotunnel passengers were stranded underground for nearly five hours late on Tuesday after a train, running from Calais to Folkestone, broke down. They were evacuated through an emergency service tunnel and had to leave their vehicles behind.

• Facebook’s weird bug: Many Facebook users have seen strange posts appearing on their feed this morning. The bug filled users with endless comments from unknown accounts originally published on celebrities’ pages. The social media company said it was trying to fix the problem as soon as possible.

• Elton & Britney duet preview: Elton John offered a first snippet of his new duet with U.S. singer Britney Spears at a restaurant in the southeastern French city of Cannes, singing along and livestreaming reactions on his Instagram account.“Hold Me Closer” (a mash-up of Elton's “The One” and “Tiny Dancer”) is set to be released on Friday and will be Britney Spears’ first song since 2016.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

Lisbon-based daily Público pits Ukraine President Zelensky against Russia’s Vladimir Putin as “the war that was supposed to be quick has now been going on for six months.” Here is how other outlets around the world featured the milestone on their front pages, as Ukraine also celebrates its Independence Day today.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

70%

Recent research has revealed that 70% of pubs in the UK are at risk of closing their doors for good this winter, due to the steep rise in energy costs. A group of British independent brewers has called on the government for immediate intervention to rescue the sector.

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

How the Trump universe is backing Bolsonaro’s reelection bid in Brazil

Brazil’s Agência Pública reveals that Gettr, the social network run by Donald Trump's former adviser Jason Miller, has sponsored conservative conferences in Brazil ahead of October’s presidential elections, which Steve Bannon has called the most important in South American history.

🇧🇷 Over the past year, the U.S. social network Gettr has been sponsoring political events that support the re-election campaign of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president. The events have been organized by the Instituto Conservador Liberal (ICL), the think-tank set up by congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son, and Sérgio Sant'Ana, a lawyer and former adviser to the Ministry of Education. Brazil has the second largest audience of Gettr, which has six million users globally, second only to the United States. There are about 750,000 users in the country.

🤝 The company was founded in July 2021 with the support of a foundation linked to Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. He is a partner of Trump's former campaign strategist Steve Bannon, who has had close relations with Eduardo Bolsonaro since 2018 and appointed him as the representative of his international conservative movement in Brazil. Trump's former strategist has already said that Brazil’s election is the "second most important election in the world and the most important election in the history of South America." "Bolsonaro will win unless the election is stolen," Bannon teased.

📵 For the Federal Police, the modus operandi of the network of Jair Bolsonaro supporters involved in the spread of disinformation, as for example in the case of electronic ballot boxes, draws on a communication strategy used in the 2016 U.S. elections and credited to Steve Bannon. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) asked for the "immediate suspension of foreign transfers, of services used for donations, of payment of advertising and registration" of dozens of people who publish threats to Brazilian democracy and are also investigated in the investigation of fake news.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

It is a trial of Peronism.

— Argentina’s former President and current Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who faces 12 years in prison and a lifetime ban from politics as part of a fraud and corruption trial, defended herself in a live social media broadcast, denouncing “a trial of Peronism,” her political movement. She added, “Nothing — absolutely nothing that they have said was proven.”