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Welcome to Wednesday, where the UN worries about the risk of a nuclear accident in Kursk, the Paris Paralympic Games open, and Indonesian men have a very peculiar way of giving thanks for good crops. Also, pan-Arab news outlet Daraj looks at Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's Olympic lessons on gender shaming, pride and politics.
[*Nǐ hǎo - Mandarin Chinese]
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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.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
French sports daily L’Équipe celebrates the launch of the Paralympic Games (shortened “Paras” in French) with a play on words on Ernest Hemingway’s seminal memoir, Paris est une fête (“A Moveable Feast”). After today’s opening ceremony on the Champs Elysées and Place de la Concorde, about 4,400 athletes (including France’s para-triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant and sprinter Nantenin Keita, featured on the front page) will compete through 549 sporting events over 11 days. Discover How The Paris Paralympics Are Driving Engineering And Accessibility Innovation, from French economic daily Les Echos, translated by Worldcrunch.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel launches major West Bank operation. Israeli forces carried out a major raid in the West Bank, targeting four cities at once. The main roads into Jenin have been closed off, two hospitals have been blocked off in Tulkarm and at least nine Palestinians have been killed. Israeli forces are blocking access to Jenin Hospital as the raid continues. The Israeli forces also rescued a hostage from the October 7 attack from an underground tunnel. Qaid Farhan Alkadi spent 326 days in captivity and is the eighth hostage to be rescued. Dive into Hamas’ tunnel network with this piece by Elias Kassem.
• Russia nuclear plant at risk, warns UN; Zelensky to present deal terms to Biden. The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is vulnerable to a serious accident, after Ukrainian forces breached the border three weeks ago and are now fighting Russian troops. The plant lacks a protective dome that could shield it from drones, missiles or other artillery. Meanwhile President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a news conference on Tuesday that he would present a truce plan to U.S. President Joe Biden and presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. “The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war”, Zelensky told reporters.
• Maduro reshuffles his cabinet. Nicolás Maduro has reshuffled his cabinet following his recent election, a move to “speed the changes people need” and “transition everything for this era,” said the Venezuelan leader in a live broadcast. The most notable change is the appointment of socialist party boss, and former ally to Hugo Chavez, Diosdado Cabello as interior minister. Will Maduro get away with his reelection ? Sergio Ocampo Madrid takes a look at Venezuela’s neighbors’ reaction in this piece for El Espectador.
• Revised indictment for Trump, Harris and Walz’s first campaign interview. U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump faces revised federal charges after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment on Tuesday in the election interference case. The updated indictment now related the four criminal counts to Trump’s status as a political candidate, rather than a sitting president. On the Democrats’ side, candidate Kamala Harris and her VP nominee Tim Walz have agreed to their first joint campaign interview with CNN on Thursday. Harris has not sat down with the press since Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed her as the party’s candidate.
• South Korea faces deep fake porn outcry. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called for authorities to “eradicate” digital sex crimes in the country. Deep fake images and videos of South Korean women, including underage girls, were found in Telegram chat rooms.This comes days after French authorities arrested Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov amid an investigation into criminal activities on the platform, including child pornography. To know more about the accusations against Telegram, read the Worldcrunch translation and adaptation of a piece by Russian outlet Important Stories.
• Accident at Delta Air Lines facility kills two. A tire explosion at a Delta Air Lines maintenance facility in Atlanta killed two workers and seriously injured another on Tuesday. The accident occurred while wheel components were being disassembled for a routine maintenance procedure. An investigation has been opened but the cause of the explosion has not been shared.
• Let’s just call it a 3,500-year-old puzzle, then? A four-year-old boy accidentally smashed a 3,500 jar at the Hetch Museum in Haifa, Israel. The rare artifact, displayed at the entrance of the museum without a glass protection, collapsed after the young boy “pulled the jar slightly” to see what was inside. A conservation specialist has been appointed to restore the jar, and the boy and his family have been invited back to the exhibition, as there was no ill intent.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
5 hours 35 minutes
British tennis player Daniel Evans and Russia’s Karen Kachanov have broken the record of the longest match in U.S. Open history in New York, playing for five hours and 35 minutes before the Briton emerged victorious 6-7(6), 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4. The Flushing Meadows record dated back from 1992, when Stefan Edberg edged out Michael Chang in five hours and 26 minutes (still a long shot from the all-time Grand Slam record of 11 hours and 5 minutes between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon 2010).
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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👓 IN OTHER NEWS
🏆 The words "failure" and "success" are slowly destroying modern life.
— CLARÍN
🥊 Check out Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's Olympic lessons on gender shaming, pride and politics.
— DARAJ
🍔 Burgers? In the land of haute cuisine? Perish the thought!
— LES ECHOS
📣 VERBATIM
“We must turn a corner on Brexit.”
— During his visit to Germany, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed his willingness to "fix the broken relationships left behind by the previous government" with the European bloc. "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset our relationship with Europe," he said in a statement. Starmer’s official trip includes a meeting with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier early on Wednesday and a second meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, to discuss a new pact bringing an unprecedented degree of bilateral military cooperation and greater collaboration in areas such as trade and energy.
✍️ Newsletter by Chloé Touchard & Laure Gautherin
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