New Trump Tariffs Hit, Bolsonaro Appeals House Arrest, Summer Joust

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

French regional daily La Dépêche du Midi lends its front page to the wildfire that spread across France’s southern Aude region, burning an area larger than Paris, in the country’s largest wildfire this summer. The fire broke out on Tuesday and was still “very active” on Wednesday, said local officials in a statement. One person was killed and 13 others were injured due to the fire, which has burned 13,000 hectares and which Prime Minister François Bayrou called a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale.”     

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Trump’s new tariffs on more than 90 countries come into effect. The sweeping “reciprocal” rates announced by the White House a week ago – just before a previous Aug. 1 deadline was due to elapse – came into place as of a minute past midnight Washington time on Thursday. Earlier, the U.S. president hit India with a 50% tariff, which will take effect on Aug. 27 unless it stops buying Russian oil. Read more from German daily Die Zeit, translated into English by Worldcrunch: Does Trump Even Care About The Deals He Makes?

• Indonesia readies island medical facility for 2,000 wounded Gazans. The Southeast Asian country has sent humanitarian aid to Gaza after Israel started its offensive in October 2023 and plans to allocate the facility on its currently uninhabited island of Galang, situated off its island of Sumatra and south of Singapore, to treat wounded Gaza residents and temporarily shelter their families.

• Trump and Putin to meet in coming days, Kremlin aide says. It follows U.S. President Donald Trump saying there was a “good chance” he could meet the Russian and Ukrainian leaders together in person “very soon” to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. A deadline Trump has set for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more sweeping sanctions is due to expire on Friday.

• Thailand, Cambodia border tensions continue as talks conclude in Malaysia. As Thai and Cambodian officials meet for talks in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to confirm a fragile ceasefire, sources on the ground say troops continue to build up on both sides of their disputed border. Malaysia helped mediate a truce on July 28 that brought to an end five days of clashes between Cambodian and Thai forces.

• Brazil’s Bolsonaro appeals house arrest order. Lawyers for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro appealed on Wednesday a house arrest order imposed against him earlier this week. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the order on Monday citing Bolsonaro’s failure to comply with restraining orders for allegedly courting U.S. President Donald Trump’s interference in the case. Read more about the Bolsonaro trial in this piece from Agência Pública, now on Worldcrunch.

• Third-hottest July on record worsens droughts, floods and fires. The world experienced its third-hottest July on record last month, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday. Parts of Asia and Scandinavia suffered record-high temperatures even as the global average lowered slightly.

• News Quiz! Archaeologists have made a new discovery about Pompeii, the ancient Roman city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. What did they learn? 

A. It was built atop a dinosaur cemetery
B. It had a public transportation system
C. Survivors returned to live among the ruins
D. The eruption spared all the bakeries

[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

3,3 kilometers

Italy has given its final approval to build the world’s longest suspension bridge, from the island of Sicily to the southwest region of Calabria, spanning 3.3 kilometers (2.05 miles). Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the project, which costs 13.5 billion euros ($15.6 billion), is an “investment in Italy’s present and future.” The bridge still needs approval from the Italian Court of Auditors and national and EU environmental agencies.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇸🇻 Getting El Salvador’s compliant parliament to legislate and scrap presidential term limits is the latest and sure-fire sign that President Nayib Bukele has no intention of ending his no-nonsense rule any time soon.
— EL ESPECTADOR

⚖️ Lebanese authorities had promised the investigation into the Beirut port explosion would be completed within five days. Five years later, Daraj reports on what is still holding up this case.
— DARAJ

🍻 A diocese in the UK found that many people lacked the confidence and faith to walk into a conventional church — so it decided to take the church to wherever people were, including pubs.
— RELIGION UNPLUGGED

📣 VERBATIM

“I won’t humiliate myself.”

— Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters he sees no point in engaging in tariff talks with the U.S. President Donald Trump, whose 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods went into effect on Wednesday. Lula said he did not believe that Trump wanted to negotiate on tariffs, but that “the day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won’t hesitate to call him.” Lula further said Brazil is not going to announce reciprocal tariffs soon. The U.S. tariffs against Brazil come as Trump ally and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is on trial for his plot to overturn the 2022 election, heightening tensions between the two countries. Lula said Bolsonaro should face additional charges for allegedly provoking Trump’s heightened tariffs on Brazil.