👋 Hay!*
Welcome to Monday, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky heads to Saudi Arabia to meet for talks with U.S. officials on ending the war with Russia, Syria reels from days of deadly clashes, and our quiz question today comes from Estonia. Meanwhile, Johanna Jürgens for Die Zeit wonders whether one of the last things separating man from machine isn’t the classic captcha.
[*Aklan, Philippines]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Canadian daily Le Journal de Québec led today with a picture of Mark Carney, the new leader of the Liberal party and the next prime minister of Canada. Carney, who is the first person to have run the central banks of two G7 countries (Canada and the UK), will be taking over for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January after a decade in power. Carney has never held a cabinet position or been a member of parliament, but the distance from politics alongside economic acumen could prove beneficial in the country fighting a likely trade war with the U.S. National elections are scheduled for October.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Zelensky heads to Saudi Arabia ahead of U.S. talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travels to Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, ahead of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials on ending the war with Russia. The United States, once Ukraine's main ally, has upended its wartime policies in its stated pursuit of a rapid end to the fighting, engaging directly with Moscow while cutting off military assistance and intelligence sharing for Kyiv. Read more from Ukrainian media Livy Bereg: What If The Ukraine War Never Ends? That's Where Japan Is With Moscow After 70 Years
• Israeli negotiators head to Doha for fragile Gaza ceasefire talks. Hamas has repeatedly called for immediate negotiations on the next phase of the ceasefire agreement, while Israel prefers that the current phase be extended. This comes after Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza on Sunday, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the territory. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Middle East here.
• Syria’s al-Sharaa launches probe into deadly clashes, vows accountability. Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold anyone involved in harming civilians accountable after days of clashes where Syrian security forces allegedly killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority. The death toll rose to more than 1,000 on Saturday.
• North Korea fires several ballistic missiles as South Korea-U.S. military drills begin. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday that North Korea fired several missiles off the west coast into the sea in its fifth launch event this year. The launch came as South Korea and the U.S. began their annual Freedom Shield joint exercises, scheduled to last until March 20.
• South Korea prosecutors to pursue Yoon's conviction despite jail release. South Korean prosecutors will pursue President Yoon Suk Yeol's conviction for insurrection despite a court decision ordering the release of the impeached leader from prison. Yoon has been on criminal trial since February 20 over allegations he led an insurrection by declaring martial law on December 3.
• Argentina declares three-day mourning as flood death toll rises to at least 16. Authorities are still searching for victims after a year’s worth of rain fell within hours on Friday in Bahia Blanca, inundating neighborhoods. Argentine President Javier Milei will declare three days of national mourning for the deaths, his office said late Sunday, without specifying when the period would begin.
• News Quiz! About 1,000 people from 17 different countries took part in an unusual competition this weekend in Otepää, Estonia. What did they engage in?
A. A toe-wrestling tournament
B. A blood sausage eating contest
C. A sauna marathon
D. A Baltic dancing endurance challenge
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
105%
European NATO countries increased their weapons imports by 105% over the last five years, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. More than 60% of the increase came from the U.S., which the report found to be the world’s biggest supplier of military weaponry. Unsurprisingly, Ukraine came out as the world’s biggest arms importer, with the report citing the conflict with Russia as a main driver of the increase in arms across Europe.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇺🇦 It is likely that there will not be a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia this year — or ever one at all. If negotiations stagnate, they could resemble the post-World War II relations between Japan and the Soviet Union: A peace treaty was never signed.
— LIVY BEREG
🇸🇦 Ten years of arrests and silencing dissent may have been enough to instill fear in the hearts of Saudi citizens, who now comply with the sweeping changes reshaping their country.
— DARAJ
🤖 Artificial intelligence can solve tasks that previously only humans could solve. So what distinguishes us from machines?
— DIE ZEIT
📣 VERBATIM
“Europe is now a dictatorship.”
— Romanian far-right presidential hopeful Călin Georgescu criticized the decision made by the country’s Central Electoral Bureau to bar him from running in May’s election rerun. Georgescu’s run in last year’s first round of the presidential election was mired in reports that Russian-run TikTok accounts had illegally supported his candidacy, which eventually caused the Romanian constitutional court to annul the first round of elections and call for a rerun. In the Central Electoral Bureau’s decision, it said that Georgescu’s bid "doesn't meet the conditions of legality."
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jacob Shropshire
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: C. The small southern Estonian town Otepää hosts the annual European Sauna Marathon, and this year's 14th edition attracted nearly 1000 participants from 17 countries across mostly Europe and even as far as Australia and the United States. The challenge of the Estonia Sauna Marathon is simple and silly: how long can you stand the heat while dressed in a funny costume?