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Sources

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

Violent protests have broken out in Pakistan between security forces and supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan after he was arrested Tuesday. Protests are erupting nationwide, and at least one person has been killed in the city of Quetta.

Violent protests have broken out in Pakistan between security forces and supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan after he was arrested Tuesday. Protests are erupting nationwide, and at least one person has been killed in the city of Quetta.

Yannick Champion-Osselin & Emma Albright

đź‘‹ 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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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• New U.S. military aid package to Ukraine, French journalist killed: Arman Soldin, a 32-year-old French reporter for the AFP news agency, was killed in an attack near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Soldin is believed to be the 11th media worker to be killed in the conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S. pledged a new $1.2 billion military package to Ukraine for air defense launchers, missiles and radar systems, while France calls on the EU to designate as a terrorist organization the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit accused of multiple war crimes.

• Jury finds Trump sexually abused and defamed New York woman: Former U.S. President Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. The jury awarded her $5 million in a judgment. Trump, who did not attend the trial and plans to appeal, called the result a “disgrace” and “political witch hunt.”

• Violent protests in Pakistan after Khan arrest: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran appeared in court today on corruption charges. An estimated 945 people were arrested in the Punjab province after his party the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) called for protests in the capital and a nationwide shutdown.

• Deadly shooting near Tunisian synagogue:Four people were killed when a guard from a local naval base opened fire at a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba during an annual Jewish pilgrimage to Africa's oldest synagogue.

• Sudan doctors turn to social media: Sudanese doctors are being forced to turn to social media to reach patients as hospitals and health facilities struggle to function or close completely due to the ongoing violence. Volunteers have set up 24-hour helplines on messaging platforms including WhatsApp, staffed by hundreds of doctors and specialists.

• Tuberculosis spike rocket amid world conflicts: Health officials gathered for a UN meeting in New York have shared their concern regarding new tuberculosis outbreaks sparked by ongoing fighting, and the ensuing collapse of health systems, in Ukraine and Sudan, as well as by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• China detains man for using ChatGPT to spread fake news: Police in China have detained a man they accuse of using ChatGPT to create fake news and spreading it online. China’s state media has called this the country’s first criminal case related to the AI chatbot. According to a statement from the police, the suspect allegedly used ChatGPT to generate a fake report about a train crash, which he then posted online.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

Brazilian daily Folha de SĂŁo Paulo pays tribute to Rita Lee, renowned Brazil rock singer-songwriter, who has died at 75 after a two-year battle with lung cancer. The artist, an icon of the politically charged Tropicalia movement, sold more than 55 million records during a six-decade career.

💬  LEXICON

Malaisant

The French Larousse and Le Petit Robert dictionaries have unveiled the 150 additions to their 2023 edition. This year’s inductees include words related to climate change ("vélorution", short for bike-revolution, or “écoanxiété”) as well as many Anglicisms ("flexoffice", “home staging”) — picks that some traditionalists may find pretty “malaisant” (awkward).

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

Ukraine's counteroffensive will be no blitzkrieg — and it has already begun

The West has been eagerly awaiting Ukraine's counteroffensive, but is mistakenly convinced it will be a major tank assault. Kyiv has already launched the first actions, as it also tries to lower its allies' expectations of rapid victory, reports Clemens Wergin for German daily Die Welt.

🇺🇦 The counteroffensive "has long been taking place," military expert Marcus Keupp of ETH Zurich also told Deutschlandfunk radio. "Many have the images of World War II in their heads, that is, that the offensive begins when the tanks advance. That's nonsense, because that's the conclusion of the offensive, not its beginning."

đź’Ą For weeks, the Ukrainians have been carrying out preparatory measures to soften up and test Russian positions. The Ukrainians have significantly intensified their drone attacks on Russian fuel depots over the past week in an effort to disrupt supplies for Russian troops on the front lines. A total of four Russian fuel depots were either damaged or destroyed last week.

⚠️ Whatever the Ukrainians manage to achieve in the end, the important thing is for the actions to be perceived as a success, not a failure. And the higher the expectations in the West for the Ukrainian offensive, the more likely the actual results will disappoint. This is precisely why Kyiv is trying to dampen the rampant optimism.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

“We will not be intimidated.”

— Amid icy relations between China and Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Canada would not be intimidated by China's actions after the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat. Facing the "reciprocal countermeasure" taken by China, the Canadian Prime Minister said he wants to show that he takes China's behavior very seriously and make this case an example of dissuasion.

✍️ Newsletter by Yannick Champion-Osselin, Emma Albright, Marine Béguin, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Chloé Touchard


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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Drones On Moscow: Vladimir Putin On The Defensive Like Never Before

In another scenario, Putin could be bragging about Russia's control of Bakhmut after nearly a year of fighting, and the bombing of the Ukrainian Intelligence’s headquarters, which was recently acknowledged by Kyiv. But instead he must retreat to the ultimate home front after drone attacks in the capital.

Drones On Moscow: Vladimir Putin On The Defensive Like Never Before

An apartment building damaged by a drone strike in Moscow.

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — In February of last year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed his invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation,” he was telling Russians that it would be over quickly. Now, 15 months later, drones are striking apartment buildings in Moscow, bringing a whiff of war to inhabitants of the Russian capital, who had so far thought they’d been spared.

The psychological shock is far greater than the military impact.

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It is a symbol of the failure of the Russian president’s Ukraine campaign. Pro-war nationalist bloggers were quick to criticize the lack of air defense, which allowed the drones to strike Moscow. But if they had really wanted to taunt the government, they could have compared it with the performance of the Ukrainian air defense which, thanks to Western equipment, knocks down most of the Russian drones and missiles fired at Kyiv.

In the same vein, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the mercenary outfit Wagner and rival to Russia's military commanders, commented on his Telegram channel: “The people have a right to ask these questions," and, in a message aimed at the military establishment, added a pointed note: “May your houses burn."

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