👋 Mandi!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Israeli special forces reportedly enter a hospital in Khan Younis to rescue Hamas-held hostages, Japan loses its spot as the world’s third largest economy, and a sardine marks the end of carnival season in Spain. Meanwhile, Pavel Lokshin in German daily Die Welt reports on how Russia’s Baltic neighbors are gearing up against a potential offensive from Moscow.
[*Friulian, Italy]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
The Kansas City Star dedicates its front page to the “tragic turn” for what was meant to be a “day of joy” for thousands of football enthusiasts, as a shooting marred the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade. Three suspects are being detained in connection to the shooting that killed one and wounded 21 others. Read more about U.S. gun violence here.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israeli special forces storm Nasser hospital in Khan Younis: The Israeli military has entered the besieged Nasser hospital in Khan Younis to carry out a “precise and limited mission” after receiving “credible intelligence” that Hamas is holding hostages at the main hospital in southern Gaza. This comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press on with a “powerful” assault on Rafah, despite pleas from other countries and global leaders to reconsider. Meanwhile, at least ten civilians were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, in the deadliest attack in more than four months of cross-border exchanges. Follow Worldcrunch’s coverage of the Middle East conflict here.
• Russia targets Kyiv with missiles, Zelensky to travel to Paris: Russian forces have launched new missile strikes in Kyiv and several Ukrainian cities across seven regions on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said, injuring at least 11 people and damaging infrastructure and residential buildings. In the Russian city of Belgorod, at least four people were killed in an air attack that struck a shopping center. Meanwhile, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace in Paris on Friday, to sign a bilateral security agreement.
• Police take 3 in custody following Kansas City shooting: Three suspects are being detained in Kansas City, Missouri, in connection to a shooting at the Super Bowl victory rally, which left one dead and 21 others wounded. Thousands of fans had gathered with the Kansas City Chiefs to celebrate the team's NFL triumph when gunshots turned the festive occasion into a scene of panic. Investigators have yet to determine a motive.
• Japan slips into recession, Germany overtakes as third-biggest economy: Japan has unexpectedly fallen into a recession after its gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by a worse-than-expected 0.4% in the last three months of 2023 and its economy shrank by 3.3% in the previous quarter. This has allowed Germany to overtake Japan as the world’s third largest economy. The UK also reported Thursday that its economy had slipped into recession in the final quarter of 2023.
• Greek parliament to vote on legalizing same-sex marriage: Greece’s parliament is set to vote on Thursday to legalize same-sex civil marriage and adoption in a first for an Orthodox Christian country, despite blacklash from the Greek Orthodox Church. Read more on LGBTQ+ rights on Worldcrunch.
• India’s top court scraps controversial election funding tool: India’s Supreme Court has struck down a seven-year-old election funding scheme that allowed people to make anonymous donations to political parties, without any limits, calling it “unconstitutional.” Electoral bonds had been launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2018, in an attempt to make political funding more transparent, but critics say it has done the opposite.
• Private company launches Moon lander to attempt historic first: Intuitive Machines, a private Houston-based company, has launched its first lunar lander to the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a bid to make the first U.S. landing since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago and the first achieved by a privately owned spacecraft. Nicknamed Odysseus, the lander is expected to spend a week in space before attempting to touch down on the Moon on Feb. 22.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
47%
Rising temperatures, droughts, deforestation activities and fires could spell the end of almost half the Amazon rainforest by 2050, according to scientists from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research. Their study warns that the next decades may represent a “tipping point” for the “planet’s lungs,” highlighting how the Brazilian part of the rainforest is already emitting more carbon than it absorbs.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
How the Baltics are building new defense forces against a Russian invasion
With Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas put on Russia's Most Wanted list, Tallinn is drawing up clear plans on how it intends to secure its border with Russia — an idea it shares with Latvia and Lithuania. But the three small countries don't have the territorial or strategic depth to absorb an attack the way Ukraine did, which is why they ultimately rely on NATO, writes Pavel Lokshin in German daily Die Welt.
⚠️ The calls by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for greater defense capabilities are accelerating. The three countries' defense spending is above the NATO target of 2% and is set to rise to 3%. The countries have been warning for years that their territory should not just be a "tripwire" for the Russian army. In the event of war, the attackers must be beaten back immediately instead of betting on recapturing lost territory in a counter-offensive. This is why the Transatlantic Alliance is strengthening the NATO "Enhanced Forward Presence" mission in the three countries, which has been in place since 2017.
🚨 But the Baltic countries believe that expanding existing capacities is not enough. Leaders in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius now want to build a joint line of defense on the eastern border with Russia and Belarus. So far, Estonia has announced that it wants to defend its almost 300-kilometer-long land border with Russia with 600 bunkers, which are to cost 60 million euros. Lithuania and Latvia have similar plans. The defensive line is intended to cast in concrete the NATO promise to fight for every meter of Alliance territory. The Baltic heads of state were clearly inspired by the Surovikin Line in southeastern Ukraine.
💥 There are however doubts about the effectiveness of this "Baltic line" in the event of a Russian attack, as the situation in the Baltic states and on the front in eastern Ukraine are not comparable. If Russia were to start a war in the Baltic states, there would be a massive attack, with columns of tanks rolling towards the border, missile strikes against military and civilian targets, and helicopter missions in the hinterland — if one can even speak of a hinterland in the small Baltic states.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📣 VERBATIM
“He is a more experienced, predictable person.”
— In a TV interview with pro-Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his preference for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, calling the former “more experienced” and “predictable,” as well as “a politician of the old school.” Putin still stated that he thought the Biden administration’s views on the Ukraine war were “badly flawed and wrong.” For more, we offer this recent op-ed by Christoph B. Schiltz for German daily Die Welt, on why the West fears Putin winning — and losing — in Ukraine.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• What Indonesia's Election Means For Democracy — And The U.S.-China Duel — FRANCE INTER
• Democracy v. Technocracy? What Plato, Orwell And TikTok Say About Our Future — LA STAMPA
• From Italy, A Valentine's Day Ode To The Quickie — FRAMMENTI RIVISTA
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Agnese Tonghini
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