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TOPIC: donald trump

Geopolitics

DeSantis, Trump, Twitter: The Medium (#Musk) Is The Message

Republican contender for the U.S. presidency launched his bid on Twitter in conversation with Elon Musk. But the move backfired after numerous technical glitches — not the best start to his campaign.

-Analysis-

The surprise came not from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' declaration of his candidacy, but from the way it was announced last night. No family staging and no declaration on Fox News. No, in 2023, when you're right in the United States, you declare your candidacy on the social network Twitter, in conversation with its owner, billionaire Elon Musk!

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Trump Liable Of Sex Abuse, Pakistan Protests After Khan Arrest, AI Fake News

👋 Salve!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where former U.S. President Donald Trump is found liable in a civil suit of sexual abuse, violent protests rock Pakistan after the arrest of its former Prime Minister, and police in China detain a man accused of using ChatGPT to generate fake news. Meanwhile, German daily Die Welt writes that Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive has actually already begun.

[*Latin]

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World Rolls Eyes At “Nonno” Biden’s Reelection Run

After Joe Biden announced he's running for a second term as U.S. president this week, newspapers around the world began to brace for a rematch of two rather old men.

It was America's "worst-kept secret": U.S. President Joe Biden's announcement this week that he would seek re-election came as no surprise. Still, there was plenty to say around the world about the president officially joining the race for a second term.

Many commentators focused on the president’s (rising) age and (sinking) popularity, with some questioning the Democratic party’s decision to stick with “old, boring and moderate” Biden instead of a more progressive candidate.

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At 80, Biden is the country’s oldest-ever incumbent president, and if re-elected would be 86 by the end of his second term.

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Europe Must Not Be America's "Vassals": The Full Macron Interview After His China Visit

Translated in full from French, here is the exclusive interview French President Emmanuel Macron gave to three reporters on his way back from his trip to China, in which he insisted that Europe needed more autonomy from the United States.

PARIS — "For too long, Europe hasn't built strategic autonomy. Today, that battle has been won.”

In an interview with Les Echos as he returned from his much-publicized visit to China, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that Europe must strengthen its position in the world. “The trap for Europe would be the moment when it clarifies its strategic position, but then gets caught up in... crises that aren’t Europe’s.”

For the French President, strategic autonomy is crucial to avoid European countries being just “vassal states” rather than a third superpower, on the same level as the U.S. and China. "We do not want to engage in a bloc-to-bloc logic," added the French President, who also spoke out against the “extraterritoriality of the dollar.”

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In The News
Emma Albright & Renate Mattar

Trump Pleads “Not Guilty,” Zelensky In Poland, Forbes’ Richest

👋 Talofa!*

Welcome to Wednesday, where former U.S. President Donald Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Warsaw, and Elon Musk is dethroned as world’s richest man. Meanwhile, Ukrainian journalist Anna Akage looks at why Vladimir Putin continues to delay a second round of nationwide mobilization, even as Moscow’s troops continue to suffer major losses in Ukraine.

[*Samoan]

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In The News
Ginevra Falciani, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Inès Mermat

Trump In Court, Finland Joins NATO, Moon Crew Unveiled

👋 Rojbaş!*

Welcome to Tuesday, where Donald Trump is set to appear in court to become the first U.S. president (current or former) to face criminal charges, Finland is officially welcomed into NATO and NASA introduces the four astronauts expected to shoot for the Moon in 2024. Meanwhile, Mykhailo Krygel in Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda writes about how certain cities in Ukraine have been so completely destroyed that its former residents struggle to remember life in it before the war.

[*Northern Kurdish]

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Geopolitics
Dominique Moïsi

Donald Trump: The Third Act Of An American Tragedy

Donald Trump’s indictment is an unprecedented opportunity for him to rally his supporters — almost a godsend. But it could also be good news for U.S. President Joe Biden. What it means for the nation is another story. A view from a French political scientist.

-Analysis-

PARIS — New York City police officers placed on high alert — though the threat to the global city, painfully stricken on 9/11, did not come this time from Islamic fundamentalists, or some kind of revival of gang warfare like in the old days of Prohibition.

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In The News
Emma Albright, Inès Mermat, Ginevra Falciani and Anne-Sophie Goninet

Pro-Kremlin Blogger Killed, Trump Hearing Nears, Paris v. E-scooters

👋 Molo!*

Welcome to Monday, where Ukraine says its army is still defending Bakhmut despite Russia’s claim to have captured the city, former U.S. President Donald Trump is bracing for his scheduled court hearing tomorrow and Parisians say no to self-service scooters. Meanwhile, Portuguese news website Mensagem looks at the benefits of the forests planted two years ago across urban spaces in Lisbon.

[*Xhosa - South Africa]

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eyes on the U.S.
Emma Shortis*

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

The U.S. legal system cannot simply run its course in a vacuum. Presidential politics, and democracy itself, are at stake in the coming weeks and months.

-Analysis-

Events often seem inevitable in hindsight. The indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump on criminal charges has been a possibility since the start of his presidency – arguably, since close to the beginning of his career in New York real estate.

But until now, the potential consequences of such a cataclysmic development in American politics have been purely theoretical.

Today, after much build-up in the media, The New York Times reported that a Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Trump and the Manhattan district attorney will now likely attempt to negotiate Trump’s surrender.

The indictment stems from a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office into “hush money” payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels (through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen), and whether they contravened electoral laws.

Trump also faces a swathe of other criminal investigations and civil suits, some of which may also result in state or federal charges. As he pursues another run for the presidency, Trump could simultaneously be dealing with multiple criminal cases and all the court appearances and frenzied media attention that will come with that.

These investigations and possible charges won’t prevent Trump from running or even serving as president again (though, as with everything in the U.S. legal system, it’s complicated).

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eyes on the U.S.
Ginevra Falciani and Renate Mattar

Indicted! World Reacts To Trump's Entry Into Dark Chapter Of U.S. History Books

Media outlets from Mexico to Montreal, Germany, France, Spain and beyond zeroed in on the long-anticipated news that Donald Trump will become the first current or former U.S. president ever to be charged with a crime.

The news began to spread Thursday afternoon from New York, to all points east and west, north and south: after years of investigations on multiple fronts, former U.S. President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

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The specific charges, not yet known, will be revealed with Trump's arraignment expected early next week. But the very fact that Trump will be arrested (replete with finger-printing and a mug shot — and perhaps handcuffs too) filled front pages around the world on Friday, including Colombian daily El Espectador, which featured a blown-up image of a worried-looking Trump, alongside the single word “Tormented."

Mexican daily La Prensa and Canada's Le Journal de Québec to Le Monde in France and El País in Spain, and dozens of others featured Trump's impending arrest on their respective front pages.

“Donald Trump, an indictment for history,” titled French newspaper Libération.

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Geopolitics
Pierre Haski

Balloons? UFOs? The Real Story Is The Perilous State Of U.S.-China Relations

Let's call it the "war of the balloons": Four unidentified flying objects have now been shot down by fighter jets in one week over North America. But the mystery of the details should not hide the bigger picture of how far U.S.-Sino relations have sunk in the past 10 days.

-Analysis-

PARIS — The first was the infamous Chinese spy balloon discovered over Montana; the next three, whose nature and nationality remain unknown, were spotted and destroyed — one above Alaska, the second above Canada, the third above Michigan.

Canadian aircraft also participated in the operation as part of NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canadian air defense command for North America.

Hoping to save face or avoid blame, or just not to be outdone, the Chinese government said yesterday that a suspicious balloon had been spotted in the Yellow Sea, and that the military was preparing to shoot it down.

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In The News
Emma Albright & Ginevra Falciani

Deadly Strikes On Kyiv, Nine Killed In Israel West Bank Raid, Trump’s Meta Comeback

👋 ආයුබෝවන්*

Welcome to Thursday, where Kyiv is facing a new barrage of Russian missiles, Israel troops kill nine Palestinians in Jenin, and Donald Trump is allowed back on Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, Niccolò Zancan and Giuseppe Legato in Italian daily La Stampa take us to Campobello di Mazara, the quiet Sicilian village where Italy's most-wanted fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro was hiding in plain sight.

[*Ayubōvan - Sinhala, Sri Lanka]

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