👋 Saluton!*
Welcome to Friday, where France’s train network is hit by “massive attack” just hours before the Olympic opening ceremony, Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris and Tokyo experiences extreme high temperatures. Meanwhile, Kazakh news agency Fergana sheds light on the increasing crackdown of pro-Russian separatists in Kazakhstan.
[*Esperanto]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
As France launches the 2024 Olympic Games, so is the French Press! Left-wing daily l’Humanité describes the event as “le Grand Pari” (the big bet), a play on words with the “Grand Paris,” the Greater Paris, a big urban renovation plan which includes the capital and its suburbs to create one huge metropolis. Indeed, the global sport event will happen in the middle of social and governmental unrest and feature an unprecedented — and controversial — security plan. Video surveillance, artificial intelligence… Discover how the Paris Olympics are leading the way to new security technologies, with a possible cost on civil liberties.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• French high-speed train lines hit by “malicious acts” before Olympics ceremony. The country’s rail company SNCF has denounced a “massive attack aimed at paralyzing the network” after a series of fires targeted the French high-speed network. This has disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of people just hours before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics. An investigation has been opened by the Paris prosecutor but for now there’s no immediate sign of a direct link to the Olympics.
• Obamas endorse Kamala Harris. Former President Barack Obama and ex-First Lady Michelle Obama said in a joint statement they believe the vice president and Democratic nominee has “the vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands,” and that “she gives us all reason to hope.” It was the last outstanding major Democratic endorsement, as the former president had wanted to remain neutral until a consensus was reached in the party.
• After meeting Harris, Netanyahu to meet Trump for the first time since 2020. The vice president said she would “not be silent” on the suffering in Gaza after meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, signaling a shift in U.S. policy on the war in the Palestinian enclave. The Israeli Prime Minister will visit Harris’ opponent, former U.S. president Donald Trump today. It will be the first encounter in nearly four years.
• Mexican drug lord “El Mayo” and El Chapo’s son arrested in Texas. The leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and one of the world's most powerful drug lords, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, and the son of his ex-partner, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, were arrested by U.S. federal agents in El Paso on Thursday. Both face multiple charges for funneling huge quantities of drugs to U.S. streets, including fentanyl. Read more about how the fentanyl epidemic is hitting Europe in this Internazionale article translated from Italian by Worldcrunch: Fentanyl Is Spreading In Europe — Inside Italy's Looming Opioid Crisis.
• Venezuelan presidential candidates wrap up campaigns with final rallies. Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez and incumbent President Nicolas Maduro held their final rallies on Thursday before the presidential elections scheduled Sunday. Gonzalez said he trusts the country's military will ensure respect for the result of the ballot. For more on the elections, here’s an analysis from Nicaragua’s Confidencial translated from Spanish by Worldcrunch: Nicolas Maduro: The Eternal Fear Of A Dictator Before His People.
• At least 26 villagers killed by gang in remote Papua New Guinea. Eight people remained missing on Friday after a “group of 30 young men” killed 26 villagers, including 16 children, in three remote villages in Papua New Guinea’s north. This marks the latest escalation in tribal violence in the South Pacific island nation related to contested land ownership, and which has inflamed due to an influx of mercenaries and automatic weapons.
• Debt-ridden Indian laborer finds $100,000 diamond. Raju Gond, a laborer from central India, said his life has “changed forever” after he unearthed a 19.22-carat diamond valued at about $95,500 from a mine in Krishna Kalyanpur. “The first thing I’ll do is pay back debt of ($6,000). Then we will invest in all children getting educated, building homes, buy some land and maybe a tractor too,” he said.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
8.8 million
The Hungarian Tourism Agency has reported a record number of tourists in the country in the first 200 days of this year. From January to mid-summer, about 8.8 million guests stayed in Hungarian accommodation establishments — an increase of nearly 12% compared with 2023. Hungary’s capital city Budapest accounted for 37% of the overnight stays.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Why Kazakhstan is cracking down on pro-Russian separatists
In Kazakhstan, prison sentences are regularly handed down for separatist activity. Yet the defendants in such cases are overwhelmingly “online separatists” — people far removed from politics and activism. Who are they and why does the state consider them such a threat? asks Anna Kozyreva in an analysis for news agency Fergana.
🇷🇺 Pro-Russian sentiment in the north of Kazakhstan, a region in close proximity to their “big neighbor,” is not a recent phenomenon. From the moment Kazakhstan gained independence, forces who wanted to seize part of its territory have periodically appeared, citing history, language and other factors, but none of their attempts found widespread support among the population.
⚖️ Kazakhstan did not and does not experience any fear in relation to the Crimean events, as President Tokayev stated in an interview with German media in 2019. Nevertheless, in April 2014, less than a month after Crimea “returned to its native harbor,” Kazakhstan decided to toughen its punishment for calls for separatism. Deputies introduced this article in the draft of the new Criminal Code for its second reading (the document was initially considered without it).
🇰🇿 At the dawn of the country’s independence, ethnic Kazakhs made up about 40% of the population, approximately the same percentage as Russians. Now, the share of the titular ethnic group in Kazakhstan has exceeded 70% and continues to grow. This means that it is the Kazakhs who determine the social climate in the country and influence all public processes, including interethnic relations.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
— During a press conference following her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kamala Harris appeared to signal a shift in the U.S. stance on the situation in Gaza, saying she would not be “silent” on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave. “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” she told the press.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Israel's "War Of Extermination" Keeps Burning — Why Has International Outrage Gone Quiet? — DARAJ
• Paris Is First Olympics With AI Surveillance, A New Civil Liberties Threat To Us All — LA MAREA
• Bigoted Botany: The Politics And Science Of Canceling Racist Plant Names — DIE WELT
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Laure Gautherin
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