Sunday's victory was less resounding than in 2017, when Macron (already head-to-head with Le Pen) became France's youngest ever elected president. His first term left France in a deeply fractured state, as many French international newspapers noted on Monday by highlighting the challenges ahead for Macron on their front pages:
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• Putin’s Azovstal surprise: While most had been awaiting an imminent Russia assault on the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, Russia President Vladimir Putin made the surprise announcement Thursday that his military would hold off on attacking the facility. Speaking on TV with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the Russian president said the army would instead seal off the industrial port area “so that not even a fly can escape.”
• Russia flexes nuclear-capable missile, Washington downplays test: The Russian military has celebrated the successful test of its Sarmat inter-continental ballistic missile. Russian President Putin stated that this nuclear-capable missile will make countries think twice before threatening Russia, while Washington downplayed the launch as a “routine test.”
— Read all the latest at War in Ukraine, Day 57 —
• Australia will not oppose Assange’s extradition: After a UK court allowed the extradition of Australian activist Julian Assange to the United States on Wednesday, the Australian Government said it trusts the British justice system. The decision is now in the hands of UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, although Assange can choose to appeal.
• Macron-Le Pen debate gets heated: As the French presidential race comes to a close, President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen faced each other in a debate on national television. They traded barbs on the economy, immigration, Le Pen’s links with Russia, and Macron’s first term. French voters will cast their ballots this Sunday for the second round of the election.
• Fatal plane crash in Haiti: A small commercial plane crashed on a busy street in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday afternoon, killing at least six people and injuring many. Officials said the plane suffered engine failure on its way to Jacmel, shortly after its departure from the capital city’s airport.
• Delta & Omicron infections within 20 days: A 31-year-old Spanish healthcare worker was infected twice with COVID-19 within a record 20 days. She first caught the Delta variant in late December, and then the more contagious Omicron in early January, the shortest span between infections.
• Queen gets a Barbie doll for her birthday: As Queen Elizabeth II turns 96 today, Mattel releases a Barbie doll representing the Queen to mark her 70 years on the throne (Platinum Jubilee), the longest reign in British history.
“Still not up to the challenge” titles Libération on its front page, underlining far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s apparent lack of command on the topics du jour as she faced off last night with incumbent President Emmanuel Macron (whom the French daily described as “often arrogant”) in a televised debate..
The state of New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau has the production company behind the movie Rust with a maximum fine of $136,793 for “willful and serious” violations of workplace safety procedures. In October, U.S. actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot dead cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza with an on-set gun.
French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who is within striking distance from incumbent Emmanuel Macron ahead of Sunday’s election, has been forced to answer questions about her pro-Russia stance that dates back at least a decade.
🤝 Le Pen has repeatedly expressed warm support for Russian President Putin in the past. Back in 2011, Marine Le Pen expressed her admiration for Putin in Russian daily Kommersant, praising “his vision of the world.” She officially met him for the first time on April 24, 2017, where they were photographed shaking hands and smiling, just ahead of the French presidential elections. Their meeting raised suspicions about Russian support for European and U.S. far-right parties, despite Putin’s insistence he did not interfere with foreign elections.
💰 In 2014, as the Front National (the former name of Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party) needed funds to finance her presidential campaign, it secured a loan worth $9 million from the First Czech-Russian Bank (FCBR), a bank linked to the Kremlin. At the time, Le Pen defended the loan, saying that French banks had refused to lend money to her party because of its fascist past.
❓ At the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Le Pen was forced to answer questions about her past support of Putin. She quickly condemned the invasion, saying “Vladimir Putin was wrong, he crossed the line.” She tried to distance herself from her past ties with the Russian president, claiming he “has changed,” though she “does not regret” her previous positions.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
There comes a time when silence is betrayal.
— Ukrainian tennis player Elina Monfils (née Svitolina) released a statement in the wake of Wimbledon organizers’ decision to ban Russian players from competing in the Grand Slam event. "We don't want them banned completely," she told BBC Radio 5, but added that "If players don't speak out against the Russian government then it is the right thing to ban them.”
✍️ Newsletter by Lila Paulou, Lisa Berdet, Anne-Sophie Goninet, Emma Albright and Bertrand Hauger
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
This is our daily newsletter Worldcrunch Today, a rapid tour of the news of the day from the world's best journalism sources, regardless of language or geography.
It's easy (and free!) to sign up to receive it each day in your inbox: 👉 Sign up here
• Russian warship sinks, Moscow to step up attacks on Kyiv: Ukraine is celebrating what it says was a missile strike that caused Moskva, a Russian Cold War flagship, to sink. Although Russia did not acknowledge the Ukrainian strike, blaming the sinking on an accident on board, Russia’s Defense Ministry today vowed to ramp up attacks on Kyiv, notably by targeting a missile-repairing factory in the capital.
• Zelensky’s address after 50 days of war: In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his fellow Ukrainians’ resilience, having survived 50 days of war when Russia “gave us a maximum of five.”
• Russia on edge of default: Russia may be declared in default after attempting to service its dollar bonds in rubles, according to Moody’s credit rating. If declared in default, it would mark Moscow’s first major default on foreign bonds in more than a century. The Kremlin blames the West’s sanctions for the potential default.
• Jerusalem clashes: Israeli police and Palestinians clashed at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, resulting in 152 Palestinians and 3 police injured, and some 400 Palestinians detained. The violence comes on the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which coincides with the first night of Judaism’s week-long Passover holiday, and Good Friday for Christians.
• Shanghai COVID eviction clashes: Shanghai citizens clashed with police after being forced to surrender their homes to be used as quarantine facilities. Residents were dragged out of their homes, some were arrested, and many accuse the police of violence, as residents begged them to stop.
• Guilty verdict of British national in ISIS beheadings: El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, faces possible life in prison after being found guilty in a U.S. court of lethal abduction and conspiracy to commit murder. The London resident was said to have participated in the abduction, torture and killing of several Islamic State (ISIS) hostages in Syria 10 years ago.
• Kebabs are out of this world: A Turkish restaurant sent a plate of Adana kebab to space with a helium balloon. After five hours and a maximum altitude of 38 kilometers, the balloon and its tasty passenger splashed back to Earth in one piece.
Stockholm-based daily Aftonbladet features a photograph of an angry Vladimir Putin as it devotes its Friday front page to the announcement that Russia would reinforce its presence in the Baltic Sea if Finland or Sweden were to join NATO. On Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council (and Russian president from 2008 to 2012) said if Finland or Sweden were to join the military alliance, it would jeopardize the “nuclear-free status of the Baltic.”
That’s the reported value of what U.S. authorities believe to be the biggest ever cryptocurrency heist allegedly pulled off by a group of hackers called “Lazarus,” linked to the North Korean government.
Instead of ending ICU treatment and allowing relatives to say goodbye peacefully, doctors often keep patients alive for too long. The pandemic has forced us to revisit eternal dilemmas and shown that Intensive Care Units are often unprepared to confront tough ethical questions, reports Michael Brendler in German daily Die Welt.
⚖️ The question of who should be connected to life-support devices is one of the most ethically difficult questions in medicine. Because family members understandably want their loved one's life to be saved. They are highly emotional and do not want to lose their father, mother or child. And doctors also want to save lives. But deciding when to end treatment is difficult. If a living will is available, it often does not help. Moreover, the decision involves not only medical factors but also fundamental ethical values.
❓ Politics, society and medicine must finally face up to the long-repressed question, physician Uwe Janssens says: Where do we draw the line? When is it better to turn off the equipment because the patient is facing unnecessary suffering?
⚠️ Survival in itself is not a treatment goal, Uwe Janssens says. Neither is doing everything medically possible. "It's about doing what's in the patient's best interest. To envisage a therapeutic goal that they consider desirable in that situation." And sometimes it may "only" be alleviating suffering and pain. A physician who avoids asking these questions risks not only harming their patient because there is no such thing as treatment without side effects. Said doctor also endangers the well-being of other people.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
We tried Emmanuel Macron and we didn’t like it, and Le Pen in power — we don’t even want to try it, it is a repulsive possibility.
— A French student from the prestigious political sciences institute Sciences-Po told AP, as hundreds of university students are blocking buildings on several campuses in Paris to express their anger over the choice they face in France’s presidential election. The protesters feel that neither incumbent centrist Emmanuel Macron nor far-right candidate Marine Le Pen would be able to address their concerns over environmental and social issues. “We can’t accept five more years of austerity and pollution,” the student added.
✍️ Newsletter by Lorraine Olaya, Anne-Sophie Goninet, Lila Paulou and Emma Albright
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