👋 Alò!*
Welcome to Friday, where Vladimir Putin lays out conditions for a Ukraine ceasefire, Armenia and Azerbaijan finalize a peace deal draft, and today’s quiz question is courtesy of Christopher Nolan. Meanwhile, for daily El Espectador, Daniel Ruge Chamucero dreams up a near-future where Colombia’s superstar Shakira rescues the economy through so-called “Shakinomics.”
[*Haitian Creole]
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Mexican daily La Prensa led today with a photograph of a matador taunting a bull in Mexico City as the city congress is set to discuss new rules that would outlaw animal cruelty in bullfights. Only four of Mexico’s 32 states have outlawed killing bulls in the controversial cultural practice, with the mayor of the city, who proposed the new regulation, saying that Mexico City, “cannot maintain cruelty as a spectacle, and even more the prolongation of suffering and death of an animal for entertainment.”
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• New drone attacks overnight as Putin questions Ukraine ceasefire plan. Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out multiple conditions in order for Russia to accept a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine reported new enemy drone attacks overnight, with several people injured in the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
• Russia, China call on U.S. to drop Iran sanctions. Representatives of Iran, Russia and China have urged United States President Donald Trump’s administration to end sanctions imposed against Tehran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, while calling for the resumption of the multilateral talks on the issue.
• Armenia and Azerbaijan finalize draft peace deal to resolve conflict. Officials from the neighboring South Caucasus countries say that they had agreed on the text of a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict. The two post-Soviet countries have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
• U.S. judges order Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired workers. Federal judges in California and Maryland have ordered U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to reinstate thousands of probationary federal workers who lost their jobs as part of mass firings carried out at 19 agencies.
• British man killed in hit-and-run incident involving motorcade of Kenyan president. The man, who has been named as 79-year-old Edgar Charles Frederick, died after being struck in the accident on a main road in the capital, Nairobi. They say he was driving a support vehicle that was travelling as part of President William Ruto's official convoy of cars.
• Philippines’ ex-leader Duterte to make first ICC appearance in The Hague. The Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte will make a first appearance at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face charges of crimes against humanity in The Hague over his war on drugs that rights groups said killed as many as 30,000 people.
• News Quiz! Photos have leaked from the set of Christopher Nolan’s next movie, featuring Tom Holland. Slated for 2026, of which classic story is it a retelling?
A. Moby Dick
B. Don Quixote
C. The Odyssey
D. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
28 years
Donatella Versace said she is stepping down from her position of nearly three decades as CEO of Versace, transitioning to the new role of chief brand ambassador and passing the baton to Dario Vitale. It marks the first time that the Versace empire will be run by someone outside of the Versace family, with Donatella taking over for her brother Gianni after he was assassinated in 1997. “I will remain Versace’s most passionate supporter. Versace is in my DNA and always in my heart,” said Donatella Versace.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇷🇺🇺🇸 Zelensky immediately agreed to the 30-day ceasefire without conditions, but Putin took his time responding — essentially delivering a “no” to the U.S. proposal. Negotiations between Washington and Moscow are ongoing, but much hinges on Donald Trump’s mood.
— FRANCE INTER
⚖️ Trump’s media company Truth Social and the far-right video platform Rumble have joined forces in a U.S. lawsuit against a Brazilian judge. The case, packed with conspiracy theories and legal acrobatics, is less about law and more about politics.
— AGÊNCIA PÚBLICA
🌟 In a not-so-distant future, Latin Americans will find they too were wealthy like their overbearing northern neighbor, only their “capital” consisted of art, music and resilience, combined in one of their biggest assets home-bred superstar Shakira.
— EL ESPECTADOR
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📣 VERBATIM
“Our country’s democratic resilience is being tested.”
— South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok called for calm ahead of the country’s Constitutional Court decision on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The court ruling, which is over Yoon’s December martial law declaration that was immediately overturned by Korea’s national assembly, is expected to draw crowds from both the pro and anti-Yoon camps. Choi said that the government was mobilizing all available police to Seoul, and that unlawful behavior surrounding the decision would not be tolerated.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jacob Shropshire
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Quiz Answer: C. Tom Holland's look for The Odyssey is unveiled in new photos from the set of Christopher Nolan's film based on Homer’s epic from Ancient Greece. Also expected to take part in the film are Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal are all thought to be part of the star-studded cast.