👋 ¡Ola!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Israeli troops push into Gaza on the north and south fronts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Kyiv to discuss U.S. aid to Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Baltimore authorities blow up parts of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. Meanwhile, Arabic-language news website Al-Manassa laments Egypt’s anti-migrant racism and how it weakens the country’s position as a leader of the Arab world.
[*Galician, Spain]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
French daily Libération titles “Cannes on a carpet of embers” on today’s front page, as the 2024 Cannes Film Festival opens tonight amid several burning controversies, including rumors that new #MeToo allegations might emerge against prominent industry figures. Meanwhile, a French labor group representing freelance workers at film festivals has called for a strike, asking for better labor laws.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israeli forces press Gaza offensive from north and south. Israeli forces recaptured an area in the north of Gaza from Hamas on Monday, while in the south tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah, leaving Palestinian civilians rushing to find safety. Israeli operations in Rafah have closed a main aid crossing point to Egypt, with humanitarian groups saying this has worsened an already dire situation. Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing from Rafah, where they took sanctuary after evacuating from Gaza in October. A UN staff member was also killed as they were traveling to a hospital in southern Gaza on Monday. While the UN did not say who it thought was responsible, the Israel Defense Forces said that the incident is under review.
• U.S. Secretary of State visits Ukraine as American aid arrives at the front line. Antony Blinken’s visit comes as Ukraine struggles to hold back a mounting Russian offensive near Kharkiv, one of the most significant Russian ground attacks since the start of the war. He met in Kyiv today with Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine’s needs and American aid, and told the Ukrainian President that U.S. military aid is “on its way.” Read more about the American aid package with this piece translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• Georgia’s PM vows to pass “foreign agent” bill today as students walk out. Hundreds of university students in the capital Tbilisi walked out of classes on Monday to join thousands of protesters opposing the bill on “foreign agents.” Opponents to the bill have protested almost every night for a month, with a rally on Saturday being one of the largest Georgia has seen since independence from Moscow in 1991. The bill would threaten the country’s chances of joining the EU, which is supported by a majority of Georgians. Read more about Georgia and its foreign influence bill, translated by Worldcrunch.
• EU signs off on landmark migration and asylum policy reforms. The large legislative package resulted from years of negotiations spurred by irregular immigration in 2015, often from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan. The new legislation, approved by EU economy ministers in Brussels on Tuesday morning, has drawn criticism from both migrant rights charities and nationalist governments, and will harden border procedures and force member states to share responsibility. The pact was pushed hard to be approved ahead of EU elections in June which could see a more right wing parliament elected.
• Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testifies against him. In testimony on Monday, Cohen directly implicated the former U.S. president by telling the courtroom that Trump had asked him several times to keep stories about sex out of the media as Trump ran for president. Cohen is set to continue his testimony today. Cohen’s testimony is crucial to the prosecution, as the money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels was represented as an election expense.
• Australian war crimes whistleblower David McBride jailed for six years. McBride, a former Australian Army lawyer, has been sentenced for revealing information about alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. Supporters of McBride express his concern that the Australian government is more interested in punishing him for revealing information about war crimes than the alleged perpetrators.
• New version of Chat-GPT can teach math and flirt. OpenAI has revealed the latest version of the tech behind AI chatbot ChatGPT, called GPT-40. It’s faster than earlier models and has been programmed to sound chattier and even sometimes flirtatious. During a demo, the AI responded to a compliment by saying “Stop it, you’re making me blush!” The AI can also read images, translate languages, identify emotions, remember previous prompts and teach math. Read more about AI, translated from Italian by Worldcrunch.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$12.5 billion
Melinda French Gates has announced she will be leaving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her then husband Bill Gates more than 20 years ago. She will receive $12.5 billion to commit to her work to support women and families. The foundation, one of the most influential in global public health, will be renamed Gates Foundation with Bill Gates as the sole chairperson.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Anti-migrant racism is undermining Egypt's claim to Arab world leadership
In Arabic-language news website Al-Manassa, an Egyptian journalist writes he’s surprised by the growing and incomprehensible campaign over the past months that raises slogans against Arab “refugees” who were forced by civil wars in their countries — Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Sudan — to reside in Egypt.
🇪🇬 As the largest country in the Arab world, Egypt had no choice but to welcome and receive these people, without forgetting, of course, that millions of Egyptians, in turn, resided in Iraq, financially supporting their families at home amid very difficult economic conditions. As for our dear brothers from Syria, which was destroyed by its bloody dictatorial regime, how can we forget that we were once one country “The United Arab Republic”?
💰 All these Arab guests receive no financial support from the Egyptian government as “refugees.” On the contrary, our government receives aid from several European countries to help provide aid and services to the refugees, as well as to prevent the use of its lands as a launching point for illegal immigration to Europe where racism and xenophobia are growing. But most important is that the recent racist attacks on our guests ignore the positive long-term impact of our role hosting them, a tangible way to restore Egypt’s status as the regional leader. This is what we call “soft power.”
❌ We no longer live in the 1960s and 1970s, and Egypt no longer has as much to offer to those countries economically in light of our ongoing crisis. Indeed, we are a country that has pushed about 10 million citizens to emigrate in search of a livelihood, according to official figures. Indeed, there are new generations in the Arab world who know nothing about Egypt and its historical role in supporting their countries.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“Assistance is now on the way.”
— U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Kyiv, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials amid intensified Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine. Blinken delivered a “crucial package” of U.S. aid and reassured Ukraine of continued support, saying “We also know that in the near term the assistance is now on the way, some of it has already arrived and more of it will be arriving.”
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✍️ Newsletter by Ione Gildroy and Cory Agathe
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