👋 Hei!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where Russia attacks two Ukrainian hospitals, Benjamin Netanyahu vows to resume Gaza fighting “in full force,” and our quiz question comes from under the sea. Meanwhile, José Ignacio Martínez Rodríguez in La Marea reports on what is causing the worrying temperatures reached in Botswana's Okavango Delta.
[*Norwegian]
✅ SIGN UP
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.
It's easy (and free!) to sign up to receive it each day in your inbox: 👉 Sign up here
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Paris-based daily Libération lends its front page to the “annihilated ceasefire” in Gaza after Israel launched a new attack on the Gaza Strip at dawn on Tuesday, killing more than 400 people in just a few hours. It was the largest wave of air strikes in Gaza since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19. Talks to extend it have failed to reach an agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night that combat had resumed “in full force” as a return to Israel's primary aims — to return the hostages and "get rid" of Hamas — but families of hostages have criticised the decision, saying it showed the government had given up on their loved ones.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Russia attacks two Ukrainian hospitals after Putin-Trump call. Russia and Ukraine launched air attacks damaging each other’s infrastructure, with Moscow carrying out drone strikes on two hospitals in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, Ukrainian officials said. This came within hours of the Tuesday call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy infrastructure but rejected a fuller ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he expects a phone call with Trump today, marking their first direct talks since Zelensky’s tense visit to the White House. Read more in this Die Zeit analysis translated from German by Worldcrunch: Power, Money, Manipulation: What's Really Going On Between Trump And Putin.
• Israel hits Gaza with fresh strikes, vows to fight “in full force.” Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials in the strip said. The Israeli army said it targeted a Hamas military site in the north. The strikes came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said fighting would resume “in full force,” adding that this was “just the beginning.”
• Istanbul mayor and key Erdogan rival arrested in corruption probe. Turkish authorities detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday on an array of charges including corruption and aiding a terrorist group. The arrest comes days before the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is scheduled to hold a primary election, where Imamoglu was expected to be chosen as its candidate for the 2028 presidential election. Read more in this Oksijen piece translated by Worldcrunch: How Democracy Slips Into Dictatorship — A Warning From The Turkish Playbook.
• Presidents of Rwanda and DR Congo hold talks in Qatar, call for ceasefire. Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame held direct talks mediated by Qatar on Tuesday for the first time since Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized two major cities in eastern DRC. In a joint statement, the leaders called for an “immediate ceasefire” in eastern DRC. For more, check this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski: What's Reigniting War In Congo? Rare Minerals And Rwandan Genocide Ghosts.
• Trump administration releases last trove of JFK assassination files. The U.S. government has released thousands of pages of government files about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, following an executive order in January by President Donald Trump that required unredacted files in the case to be made public. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the release consisted of approximately 80,000 pages of previously classified records.
• Hungary's parliament passes law banning LGBTQ+ pride, sparks protests. A new anti-LGBTQ+ law banning Pride events was passed by Hungary’s parliament on Tuesday, triggering a large demonstration on the streets of the capital Budapest and the blockade of the Margaret Bridge over the Danube River. The law will also allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify those attending the festivities. Organizers said they planned to hold this year’s Pride march despite the ban.
• News Quiz! The “Psychrolutes marcidus” has been crowned New Zealand’s Fish of the Year. What is it known for?
A. It can smile
B. It’s been dubbed the world’s ugliest fish
C. It is the most colorful fish
D. Its scales make it look like a kiwi fruit
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$32 billion
Google parent company Alphabet announced a deal to buy rapidly-growing cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion, in what would be the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition. New York-based Wiz, which makes cybersecurity software for cloud computing, has enjoyed enormous growth since launching just five years ago. The Wiz acquisition ranks as the seventh-biggest takeover of a private U.S. firm on record, according to Dealogic.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
☎️ After more than two hours of talks with Trump, Putin agreed only to a partial truce on energy infrastructure and laid out his conditions for moving forward — chief among them, an end to Western aid for Ukraine. Who knows if Trump pushed back at all.
— FRANCE INTER
🇺🇸🇷🇺 What do Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have in common? A shared worldview alone no longer explains it.
— DIE ZEIT
🌡️ In Botswana's Okavango Delta — declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 — warming trends over the past two decades are approximately twice the global average.
— LA MAREA
📣 VERBATIM
“We need to have more soldiers to fight this war.”
— Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has urged the U.S., Europe and Brazil to deploy military forces to combat drug cartels, calling Ecuador’s gangs "international narco-terrorists." Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Noboa also called on U.S. President Donald Trump to consider Ecuadorian criminal organizations like Los Lobos as “terrorists,” which is what Washington did in the past for Mexican and Venezuelan cartels. This declaration comes as violence has soared in Ecuador in recent years, with gangs battling to control drug trafficking routes.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Cécilia Laurent-Monpetit
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: B. The Psychrolutes marcidus, simply known as the blobfish, which has been dubbed the world’s ugliest animal for its soft, lumpy appearance, has made a stunning comeback by becoming New Zealand’s Fish of the Year. Held by the Mountain to Sea Conservation Trust, the annual competition aims to raise awareness for the country’s freshwater and marine life.