Feb. 24-25
- Live, from Rafah
- 2.31-second goooooooooal
- Waiting for (an elderly, South Korean) Godot
- … and much more.
🎲 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ
1. Which South American leader accused Israel of committing "genocide" against Palestinian civilians in Gaza?
2. What 3-letter acronym did Joe Biden use to describe Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a campaign fundraiser?
3. What country's stock market broke its 1989 all-time record high, despite indicators that it was falling into recession?
4. Which unusual beverage has Starbucks added to its menu in China to mark the Lunar Year in China? Duck frappuccino / Hot chicken chocolate / Beef macchiato / Braised pork latte
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
#️⃣ TRENDING
In a matter of days, a TikTok video has significantly boosted the sales of “crookies,” a pastry that combines elements of a croissant and a cookie, sold at the Louvard bakery in Paris’s 9th arrondissement. The rapid success is prompting its creator, Stéphane Louvard, to adjust his production process, a reality observed among other professionals that have seen their work gain rapid and sudden fame on social media. “When I started marketing this product in 2022, I was selling about 20 per day. Now, it's around 1,800,” the baker said.
🎭 5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW
• One biopic for each Beatle: Oscar-winning British director Sam Mendes announced he will make four separate films about The Beatles, one for each member of the iconic band. The movies, which have the blessing of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of the late John Lennon and George Harrison, are set to be released in 2027. This marks the first time the artists and rights holders Apple Corps have granted full life-story and music rights for a scripted film.
• Greek minister slams Alexander the Great Netflix show over gay relationship: Greece’s Minister of Culture has criticized a Netflix drama-documentary Alexander: The Making of a God, calling it “extremely poor-quality fiction” and “low content, rife with historical inaccuracies,” referring in particular to the show’s depiction of a romantic relationship between the Macedonian king and his confidant Hephaestion. The nature of their relationship has long been speculated on, with History Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones noting in the documentary that “same-sex relationships were quite the norm throughout the Greek world.”
• Senior actors draw theater crowds in Seoul: The latest production of Samuel Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot featuring a veteran cast at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul is drawing crowds, selling out all 50 shows. “In my 65 years of acting career, this kind of experience is new. It feels like dreaming,” said Park Geun-hyung, 83, who plays the role of Vladimir alongside Shin Goo, 87, who portrays the character of Estragon.
• Trial over handwritten “Hotel California” lyrics begins in Manhattan: The trial of three men accused of conspiring to illegally acquire and sell handwritten pages inscribed with the first known iterations of the Eagles’ legendary rock song “Hotel California” has started in Manhattan this week. The notepad of about 100 pages of draft lyrics was allegedly stolen before the men bought it, prosecutors said.
• Chile reopens probe into mysterious death of Pablo Neruda: An appeals court in Santiago has ordered the reopening of the investigation into the death of Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, who died in 1973 just 12 days after military dictator Augusto Pinochet took power in a coup. A first investigation had led a group of experts to conclude in 2017 that Neruda, who was a member of the Chilean Communist Party's Central Committee at the time, did not die of cancer, as the government officially stated. Although the panel could not determine what killed Neruda, it said it wasn’t ruling out “third parties” being involved.
🇵🇸 The Palestinian civilians trying to escape Rafah
As Israel insists on launching a ground offensive on Gaza’s packed city of Rafah, many of the 1.4 million mostly temporary residents are consumed by plans for what their next move will be. Mada Masr talks to Al-Araj, a Palestinian man in his 40s and a father of three, who is searching for enough money to finance his family’s move to central Gaza — or at least, part of his family. “The experience of war has proven that it is better to be separate, so that if the bombing affects us, the family will not be annihilated all at once,” he tells the independent Egyptian online newspaper.
Read the full story: Counting Shekels, Fearing The Worst: How It Feels To Be In Rafah Right Now
🍰👀 Is it gâteau?
Cakes and dishes that imitate something other than their own form. While culinary trompe-l'œil is not new, it is becoming more widespread, popularized in France on social networks by Cédric Grolet. The star pastry chef has even teamed up with an Italian specialist in professional cake molds to launch a collection in his name. Now it's no longer unusual to come across an apple- or lemon-shaped cake in a bakery in a medium-sized French city, reports Ezéchiel Zérah in Paris-based daily Les Echos.
Read the full story: Fake Cakes And Tasty Trompe-l'œils: A French Touch On The New Culinary Craze
🧸 Meet “kidults,” the grown-ups who may save a struggling toy industry
The surge in toy sales sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has tailed off, and the industry is now in a serious crisis, registering a 5% decrease in revenue last year while Germany’s giant Playmobil is in the red for the first time in its history. LEGO, Mattel and others see a potential lifeline in a new target: adults who play. “Three in four of those surveyed said that buying toys gave them a sense of comfort and distracted them from the worries of everyday life, and just as many buy toys to remind them of their childhood, so they have strong sentimental value,” writes Carsten Dierig in Berlin-based daily Die Welt.
Read the full story: Can LEGO-Loving "Kidults" Give A Dwindling Toy Industry The Boost It Needs?
💫 BRIGHT IDEA
Dr. Nia Amara, an astronomy professor at UC Santa Cruz, has started using a 3D printer to better study “stellar nurseries”, i.e. the birth of stars that are still a bit of a mystery to astrophysicists. With the 3D printing of the globe that forms after gas and dust come together to create a star, scientists will be able to fully visualize the processes involved in star formation, studied only through infrared and radio telescopes so far.
⚽⏱️ SMILE OF THE WEEK
Ryan Hall, a player for the London-based Croydon FC soccer team, may well have scored one of the fastest goals in history timed at 2.31 seconds in a game against Cockfosters FC. (And if fast-paced soccer is your thing, you may be interested in Kings League: created by Gerard Piqué, this social-media friendly take on the beautiful game is gaining attention among younger audiences).
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
⏩ LOOKING AHEAD
• Hungary's parliament is set to vote on Sweden's NATO membership application on Monday. Sweden applied for the membership two years ago, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Hungary, the only NATO member yet to ratify Sweden's accession, previously delayed the vote due to disagreements over criticism of Hungary's rule of law.
• Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, expected to visit South Korea next week, marking his first visit in over a decade. While the details of the trip have not been unveiled, industry sources speculate a meeting with Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong, focusing on potential artificial intelligence partnerships.
• From Feb. 25 to 27, the city of AlUla in northwestern Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural edition of the AlUla Future Culture Summit. The event, organized by the Royal Commission for AlUla in collaboration with the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture, will gather 150 global cultural leaders, policymakers, tech entrepreneurs, and artists to address pressing cultural issues.
👓 WORLDCRUNCH MAGAZINE
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News quiz answers:
1. Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that the Gaza war is happening between extremely prepared soldiers and civilians, having “no parallel in other historical moments, other than when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked that “the comparison between Israel to the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler is crossing a red line.”
2. U.S. President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “SOB” during a San Francisco fundraiser. Biden has intensified his verbal attacks on Putin, blaming him for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
3. Japan's Nikkei 225 surged by 2.19%, reaching a closing value of 39,098.68 on Thursday. This surpasses its previous record set in December 1989. Despite the recent announcement of the country entering a recession, international investors are flocking back to the benchmark index due to corporate earnings and the upswing in Asian technology shares.
4. Starbucks has released a new drink in China, with an unusual combination: a braised pork latte, made out of Dongpo Braised Pork Flavor Sauce with espresso and steamed milk, as well as pork breast meat as a garnish to mark the Lunar New Year.
✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch
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*Photo: nel_food_addict_75/Instagram