March 2-3
- Fading pro-Palestine protests
- Fluorescent chemistry
- Subway ziplining
- … and much more.
🎲 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ
1. Which European leader angered Moscow by “not ruling out” the possibility of sending NATO troops to Ukraine?
2. What was Joe Biden eating when he shared his hopes for a Gaza ceasefire by March 4?
3. What has tech giant Apple decided to cancel, choosing instead to shift resources to AI?
4. What happened to a train carrying stone chips from Jammu to Punjab, India?
Its cargo vanished / It honked for 10 hours non-stop / It traveled 70 km with no-one onboard / It got mistakenly diverted to Belgium
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
#️⃣ TRENDING
Children crying dramatically over the farcical Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow, Scotland, made the rounds this week. Marketed as a “celebration of chocolate in all its delightful forms,” the event was quickly closed after police showed up, called by furious parents demanding they be refunded. The show, promoted through AI-generated visuals, promised “a chocolate fantasy like never before”; instead, it turned out to be a barely decorated warehouse with a small bouncy castle, not that many sweets in sight, and one awfully sad-looking Oompa-Loompa.
🎭 5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW
• Thousands of artists petition to exclude Israel from Venice Biennale: More than 12,000 artists, curators and museum directors have called for Israel to be excluded from this year’s Venice Biennale art fair over its deadly bombardment of Gaza. “The Biennale is platforming a genocidal apartheid state,” an open letter by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) said. Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano responded that the event, which is scheduled from April 20 to November 24, would not exclude an Israeli presence, calling the protest letter “shameful.”
• Ukrainian sculptor who turns war debris into artworks on display in Paris: Ukrainian artist Mikhail Reva has transformed more than two tons of war debris into artworks which are now on display in the U.S. Embassy’s storied Hotel de Talleyrand in Paris. The works include “The Flower of Death,” which Reva made using rocket fragments from the actual strike on his house in Ukraine.
• Beyoncé becomes first Black woman to hit #1 on Hot 100 with a country song: Beyoncé's “Texas Hold 'Em” reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the first Black woman to reach the U.S. No 1 spot with a country song. The artist has previously topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, despite some country radio programmers’ reluctance to broadcast the song.
• Spain's Seville to charge tourists to visit landmark square: Visitors to the southern Spanish city of Seville may soon have to pay to visit the ornate Plaza de España square, one of its most popular attractions, “to finance its conservation and ensure its safety” amid tourist overload, the city hall said. The announcement has been met with criticism from residents and politicians. The landmark square, which was originally built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition, served as a set of the 1999 film The Phantom Menace of the Star Wars franchise.
• Longtime Disney movie executive steps down: Sean Bailey has stepped down after a decade and a half as motion picture production president at Walt Disney Studios, in a shakeup that follows recent disappointing box office performances. Bailey will be replaced by David Greenbaum, head of Disney's Searchlight Pictures.
✊ Inside the slow-down of Gaza shows of support
As Israel-Hamas war in Gaza enters its fifth month, the momentum for solidarity with the Palestinians, whether individual or collective, has declined in the Arab world. In some countries like Egypt and Jordan, harsh repression from authorities has led to an almost complete end of demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza. But as Ahmed Abdel-Halim writes in Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj, people have also “become accustomed to killings, displacement, and starvation” as the war drags on, and inevitably, they are going back “to their normal daily lives.”
Read the full story: Why Pro-Palestine Protests Have Been Fading In The Arab World
💪🥩 High steaks for the “meatfluencers” trying to save masculinity
“Meatfluencers” like Brian Johnson aka Liver King are telling their followers to eat a carnivorous diet — ideally including raw liver and animal testicles — to cure so-called “diseases of civilization” and become “real men.” But, Matthias Heine argues in German daily Die Welt, men who've fought in real wars like the Roman legionaries and German soldiers knew that eating only meat would actually make them weak. “Eating meat doesn’t make you a man. The more you watch your protein gurus’ videos and talk about your diet, the less of a man you will be,” writes Heine.
Read the full story: Liver Kings, Lion Diets: What's Wrong With The Modern "Meatfluencer" Quest For Manhood
🚦 Buckle up! Or don’t? Italy’s very personal interpretation of road safety
The Italian Ministry of Transport promoted an advertising campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving. However, in two of the three public service announcements produced, neither the driver nor the passengers have their seatbelts on. This sparked jokes and memes across Italy, as well as a reflection from Worldcrunch journalist Agnese Tonghini, about Italy’s “law of the jungle” on the roads and the national divide over the question of seatbelts.
Read the full story: Smartphones, Seatbelts And The Italian Art Of Approximate Road Safety
🔬🎨 BRIGHT IDEA
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have developed innovative fluorescent dyes that change color to visualize different biological environments within cells. These dyes, capable of switching on and off based on their location within cellular structures, enable real-time, high-contrast imaging of cellular processes. Encapsulated in delivery vessels, they switch on via “aggregation-induced emission” and give out light. This invention could revolutionize imaging approaches and provide insights into cellular functions and drug interactions.
🚇 SMILE OF THE WEEK
When inflation hits the freedom to practice any hobby because it is too expensive, you have to get resourceful. At least, we can only guess that’s what happened for this daredevil in the French city of Lyon, who decided the subway was the perfect place to go ziplining.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
⏩ LOOKING AHEAD
• South Korean and U.S. troops will begin their annual joint military drills next week, which they expanded over nuclear threats by North Korea. While a serious nuclear attack seems unlikely, the North could still stage limited provocations along the tense border with South Korea, therefore the alliance will conduct Freedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will meet former U.S. President and longtime ally Donald Trump next week in Florida, according to a person briefed on the plans. Meanwhile, the White House’s National Security Council said it was unaware of any plans for Orbán to visit current President Joe Biden during his trip.
• NASA is delaying its first launch of 2024 to March 2 due to offshore weather concerns near the mission's Florida launch site.
👓 WORLDCRUNCH MAGAZINE
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News quiz answers:
1. French President Emmanuel Macron said that he no longer ruled out sending Western troops on the ground to support Ukraine at an impromptu summit Monday at the Elysee presidential palace, sparking ire from Moscow and backlash from NATO allies.
2. U.S President Joe Biden had an awkward moment on March 4, when he responded to questions from reporters about a timeline for a Gaza ceasefire during a visit to a New York City ice cream shop. Clutching a sugar cone topped with a scoop of mint chip, Biden said "My hope is by next Monday we'll have a ceasefire.” The unfortunate visual for such an important announcement drew criticism.
3. Apple has said it will discontinue its electric Apple Car project, shifting most of the 2,000 employees to focus on the future of AI. The announcement could be seen as a sign that a car revolution isn’t as close as we thought, which is good news for German automakers.
4. A 53-wagon freight train in India traveled 43.4 miles (70 km) without a driver, prompting an investigation by Indian Railways. During a crew change in Kathua, the driver and assistant disembarked while the train started moving downhill, reaching nearly 62 miles (100 km) and passing five stations before being halted.
✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch
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*Photo: Mikhail_reva/Instagram