👋 Saluton!*
Welcome to Friday, where the UN's top court is set to deliver an interim ruling in South Africa's genocide case against Israel, Russia extends the custody of a Wall Street Journal reporter by two months and a long lost painting by Gustav Klimt resurfaces. Meanwhile, the Moscow correspondent of French daily Les Echos meets with former journalist and city councilor Yekaterina Duntsova, who is emerging as a new leader in Russia’s anti-Putin camp.
[*Esperanto]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Bogotá-based daily Publimetro devotes its front page to Colombia’s “fight against fire” after President Gustavo Petro declared a “situation of disaster and calamity” due to wildfires raging across several parts of the country. The fires are the result of hot and dry conditions linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is likely to get worse.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Russian court extends detention of WSJ reporter Gershkovich: A Moscow сourt extended the custody of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by two months on Friday as he awaits trial on spying charges that he denies. He has the right to appeal within three days. Previous appeals to be released from Moscow's Lefortovo prison while awaiting trial have been refused.
• UN top court to call on Israel to stop military action in Gaza: The UN's top court is to decide whether to issue emergency measures ordering Israel to halt its operations in Gaza. The session of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) happening on Friday is part of a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israel is committing genocide. Meanwhile, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and his Israeli counterpart are to meet with Qatari officials to try to broker a second deal to secure the release of captives being held in Gaza and a pause in hostilities.
• Turkey signs off on Sweden’s NATO membership, focus shifts to Hungary: Turkey has published a measure approving Sweden's membership in NATO in its official gazette. Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has agreed to meet his counterpart from Hungary, the only NATO member yet to ratify his country’s membership in the military alliance.
• Kenya court blocks police deployment to Haiti: The Kenyan High Court has blocked the government from deploying police officers to fight gangs in Haiti. The judge argued that the deployment would be illegal as the National Security Council lacks the legal authority to send police outside Kenya. Last year, Kenya had volunteered to lead a multinational security force in Haiti to fight gang violence.
• U.S. carries out first execution with nitrogen gas: Kenneth Smith, a convicted murderer, has become the first person to be executed by asphyxiation with nitrogen gas in the United States. Officials said 58-year-old Smith was pronounced dead at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama late Thursday after witnesses said he thrashed violently on the gurney for up to 25 minutes. The UN condemned the execution on Friday.
• King Charles in hospital for prostate treatment: King Charles has been admitted to hospital for treatment for an enlarged prostate, stated Buckingham Palace. He has made his health problem public in order to send a message to other men to get their prostates checked.
• Gustav Klimt portrait found after almost 100 years: A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, that was believed lost for 100 years, has been found in Vienna. Portrait of Fraulein Lieser once belonged to a Jewish family in Austria and was last seen in public in 1925 and the family of the current owners have had the painting since the 1960s. The im Kinsky auction house estimates the painting's value at more than $54 million.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$9.7 billion
Mining giants Vale and BHP and their joint venture Samarco were ordered to pay 47.6 billion reais ($9.67 billion) in damages, a Brazilian court ruled, following the 2015 collapse of the Fundão dam in the southeast of the country that killed 19 people and severely polluted the Rio Doce River. A report released a year later had found that the collapse of the dam was due to design flaws. Judge Vinicius Cobucci said the money would be put in a state fund and used for projects and initiatives in the area affected by the incident, which is considered to be one of the country's worst environmental disasters.
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📰 STORY OF THE DAY
The Russian opposition's new face? How Yekaterina Duntsova “dared” to challenge Putin
A former journalist and city councilor, Yekaterina Duntsova, 40, has gained surprising popularity among Russians opposed to Vladimir Putin and its offensive in Ukraine. After being barred from the March presidential election, she tells Les Echos that the next step is to create a party opposed to Putin.
🗳️ Yekaterina Duntsova’s sights are set on the next elections (local elections next September) and ultimately the 2030 presidential race. She will be 46 years old. Putin, who will be 77 years old, will be able to run again, 30 years after coming to power. “I never voted for him. We must end elections without choice in Russia," Duntsova says in her calm voice. As a former journalist and city councilor, she says she felt the need “to move on to another stage” and, along with friends who are similarly eager for political alternatives, “had the idea of daring to run against Putin."
🚨 With a network of local support “from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok," she also has links abroad among Russians who have gone into exile. In less than four months, her channel on Telegram (the most popular social network in and outside the country) has grown from a few dozen followers to more than 300,000. However, Duntsova's political path is already full of obstacles. She has been summoned to the local prosecutor's office after declaring her candidacy and was briefly arrested by traffic police after leaving a public meeting.
✊ By saying she is "for peace," Duntsova does not hide her opposition to the Kremlin's "special military operation" launched almost two years ago in Ukraine. Cautious, the rebel is careful about the words she uses. For months now, police arrests and legal proceedings have been increasing against any voice denouncing the official narrative. Duntsova says she has not received a court summons for her stance. “But who knows what the judges are up to," she quips.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“I kept being told that I’m not Japanese, but I am absolutely Japanese.”
— In an interview with CNN, Ukrainian-born model Karolina Shiino weighs in on the debate on cultural identity raised by her victory at the Miss Japan contest this week, after some questioned the pageant judges’ decision to pick a winner with European heritage. Shiino, who has lived in Nagoya since she was 5 years old and has since become a naturalized citizen, acknowledged she has faced difficulties being accepted in Japan because of her appearance, but said she hoped her win could change views on what it means to be Japanese.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Netanyahu's "Israel From The River To The Sea" — And The Paradox Of Palestinian Hope — DARAJ
• Africa Has The Whole World Knocking — What's An Old Colonist Like France To Do? — FRANCE INTER
• I'm A Real Italian And Pineapple On Pizza Is Just Fine With Me — WORLDCRUNCH
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Anne-Sophie Goninet
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