👋 Ẹ n lẹ!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where Europe agrees to impose a 16th round of sanctions against Russia, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is charged with plotting a coup back in 2022, and today’s quiz question comes from the Philippines. Meanwhile, in Le Nouvel Obs, political analyst Pierre Haski draws parallels between the second Trump presidency and McCarthyism-era communist witch hunts.
[*Yoruba - Nigeria, Benin, and Togo]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
São Paulo-based daily O Estado de S. Paulo led today with a photo of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as he, along with 33 others, were charged with plotting a coup following the election that removed him from power in 2022. The attorney general in charge of filing the case brought five charges against Bolsonaro for the alleged plot, which included a plan to poison incoming President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro’s legal team said that he had never been linked to a “movement that aimed to deconstruct the Democratic Rule of Law.”
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• EU agrees new sanctions on Russia amid Trump's push for negotiations. The European Union agreed on Wednesday to impose a 16th round of sanctions against Russia in an effort to keep up pressure in the face of U.S. talks with Russia. The wide-ranging package, which includes a ban on aluminum imports, is set to be adopted by EU foreign ministers on Monday to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, following talks in Riyadh between the U.S. and Russia on Tuesday, blaming him among other things for Moscow’s invasion. Meanwhile, Zelensky postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia this week until March 10, a decision linked to the U.S.-Russia talks. Kyiv has repeatedly said it won't recognize any agreement about Ukraine made without it. Read more on Europe’s stance against the U.S. and Russia: Facing Trump And Putin, Europe Requires True Unity — And Courage
• Hamas will free six living Israeli hostages on Saturday. A top Hamas official has said the militant group will also return the bodies of four others on Thursday, a surprise acceleration in releases apparently in trade for Israel’s allowing mobile homes and construction equipment into Gaza. The six are the last living hostages set to be freed during the ceasefire’s first phase in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Meanwhile, reconstruction efforts in Gaza will require more than $50 billion after 15 months of Israel’s war, according to a new assessment by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Middle East here.
• U.S. condemns moves by Chinese navy helicopter in South China Sea. The United States ambassador to Manila has condemned “dangerous” maneuvers by a Chinese navy helicopter that threatened the safety of a Philippine government aircraft patrolling a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippine Coast Guard reported that the Chinese helicopter had flown within 3 meters (10 feet) of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists.
• Pope spends peaceful night in hospital after pneumonia diagnosis. Pope Francis, who is spending his sixth day at Rome's Gemelli hospital for treatment of a respiratory infection, is alert and ate breakfast on Wednesday, the Vatican said in its latest update on the 88-year-old pontiff's health. Tests have confirmed that Francis has developed pneumonia in both lungs and that respiratory infection also involves asthmatic bronchitis. Read more by Italian media La Stampa, translated into English by Worldcrunch: Pope Francis Is Back In The Hospital — Is It Time For Him To Resign?
• Man who threw pipe bomb at Japan’s ex-PM Kishida gets 10 years in prison. The Wakayama District Court found Ryuji Kimura, 25, guilty of attempted murder in the April 15, 2023 attack on Japan’s former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a campaign event. The court said Kimura was aware of the potential for a fatality in his attack, which came less than a year after the assassination of former premier Shinzo Abe, and called it a serious challenge to democracy.
• Scores of whales to be euthanized after mass stranding in Australia. Australian authorities are euthanizing about 90 false killer whales that survived a mass stranding on a remote beach in Tasmania. A team of experts at the site said complex conditions have made it impossible to save the whales, which are part of a pod of 157 that had beached near Arthur River, in the island's northwest. The rest had died shortly after the stranding.
• News Quiz! Authorities in central Manila in the Philippines are offering citizens a cash reward of one peso ($0.02) every time they do what, for health and sanitation reasons?
A. Capture or kill mosquitoes
B. Wash their hands
C. Pick up trash on the beach
D. Get a COVID test
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
3.1%
NASA bumped up the likelihood that an asteroid called 2024 YR4 — which is estimated to be big enough to level a city — would hit the Earth in 2032. Despite 3.1% being the highest likelihood of an asteroid strike of this size, experts say that as astronomers spend more time monitoring the object, the percentage will likely go down dramatically.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇺🇸 Donald Trump's second term as U.S. president is proving far more ideological, imperial and aggressive than the first, awakening memories of the 1950s communist witch hunt at home and shaking relations with European allies abroad.
— LE NOUVEL OBS
🏳️🌈 The Canary island of Fuerteventura is a popular seaside tourist destination, but further inland are the remains of Spain's dark past of LGBTQ+ persecution during the regime of dictator Francisco Franco.
— LA MAREA
🇪🇬 Trump's proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza and resettle the 2.1 million Palestinians living there has pushed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to delay his trip to the White House. But Trump holds some big cards that Cairo knows it will have to face.
— DARAJ
📣 VERBATIM
“You could have made a deal.”
— U.S. President Donald Trump hit back at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s complaint that he has been left out of talks between the U.S. and Russia over ending the war. Speaking to reporters in Florida ahead of the meeting in Riyadh this week, Trump also called for Ukraine to hold elections, echoing a key demand from the Kremlin, and appeared to blame Ukraine for the conflict sparking in the first place.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jake Shropshire
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: Answer A. Authorities in one of the Philippines’ most densely-populated urban centers are offering a cash reward for mosquitoes in an attempt to stop the spread of the mosquito-borne viral infection dengue fever. Carlito Cernal, village chief of Barangay Addition Hills in central Manila, announced the bounty of one peso (less than two U.S. cents) for every five mosquitoes. The move follows a recent spike in cases of dengue in the Philippines.