👋 Guuten takh!*
Welcome to Thursday, where a Houthi attack kills three in the first fatal strike on Red Sea shipping, Indian Prime Minister Modi visits Kashmir for the first time since ending the disputed region’s semi-autonomy and Barbie is gearing up for International Women’s Day. Meanwhile, for Berlin-based daily Die Welt, Nike Heinen meets the German lawyer who’s taking vaccine manufacturers to court, and getting rich in the process.
[*Cimbrian, northeastern Italy]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Slamming the door!" Mexico City-based La Prensa dedicates its front page to the latest protest of the relatives of the 43 students abducted in 2014. Demonstrators broke into the National Palace, where President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was holding a news conference. They rammed a side door with a SUV with '43' spray-painted on it, demanding justice in the still unsolved Ayotzinapa case.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Houthi attack kills three in first fatal strike on Red Sea shipping: Three crew members have been killed in a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden — the first deaths in a campaign of assaults by the Iranian-backed group on merchant vessels. Hours after the attack, U.S. forces conducted strikes on two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Yemen. For further reading on Yemen as a “proxy war,” here’s Worldcrunch’s English edition of a recent analysis by Arabic-language news outlet Daraj.
• Hamas delegation accuses Israel of “thwarting” negotiation attempts: Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri has accused Israel of having “thwarted” all efforts by mediators to reach a deal before Ramadan. The Hamas delegation has left Cairo but the group said ceasefire talks will continue until an agreement is reached.
• Senior Russian officer warns of escalation into full-scale war: Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the Russian army’s Military Academy of the General Staff, has warned that the conflict in Ukraine could escalate into a full-scale war in Europe, saying that the probability of Moscow’s forces becoming involved in a new conflict is increasing “significantly.” Meanwhile, a Russian missile exploded close to a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during their visit in Odessa, amid a deadly attack on the Black Sea port city.
• Senegal sets date for delayed presidential elections: Senegalese President Macky Sall announced the country will hold its delayed presidential election on March 24, following a top court’s ruling that the leader’s plans to hold the vote after his term expires on April 2 were unconstitutional. Sall has also dissolved the government and named Interior Minister Sidiki Kaba as the new prime minister, “releasing” current Prime Minister Amadou Ba from his post to lead the presidential campaign for the president's camp. Here’s a piece on Senegal’s election upheaval and the current state of democracy in Africa.
• Modi visits Kashmir for first time since ending region’s semi-autonomy: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made an official visit to Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir — his first since New Delhi scrapped the disputed region’s semi-autonomy in 2019. The visit comes ahead of the country’s national election due in May, the first since Modi’s government took direct control of the Muslim-majority territory.
• Rust armorer convicted in Baldwin shooting: Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the weapons supervisor on the set of Rust who loaded a gun for actor Alec Baldwin before it fired and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 incident. The 26-year-old faces up to 18 months in jail. Baldwin will also face a manslaughter trial in July.
• New Barbie dolls for International Women’s Day: Toymaker Mattel has unveiled its new series of Role Model Barbie dolls to mark both International Women’s Day on March 8 and the iconic doll’s 65th birthday on March 9. The dolls are modeled after Oscar-winning actresses Helen Mirren and Viola Davis, singers Kylie Minogue and Shania Twain, Mexican director Lila Avilés, Japanese model Nicole Fujita, German comedian Enissa Amani and Brazil’s Maira Gomez, a content creator from the indigenous Tatuyo community. Read all about Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, here.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
21.06 °C
The average global sea surface temperature reached 21.06 °C (69.91 °F) last February, hitting a new record high, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). February 2024 was already the hottest February on record, marking the ninth straight month with such a milestone for respective month. The record temperature also comes a few days after the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned that the world was on the verge of a fourth mass coral bleaching — expected to be the worst in the history of our planet — in the Southern Hemisphere due to ocean rising temperatures. Global warming isn’t just affecting temperatures: Check this recent Ethic article to learn more about its impact on how our food tastes.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
The German lawyer taking on the vaccine industry — by any means necessary
Lawyer Marco Rogert is taking vaccine manufacturers to court, suing them for damages on behalf of thousands of clients. On the surface this is about compensation. But dig a little deeper and you discover failings by the authorities, an alleged conspiracy — and lawyers raking in millions in fees, reports Nike Heinen in Berlin-based daily Die Welt.
⚖️ Rogert is representing people who are experiencing difficulties walking since their COVID vaccination. Some cannot even cross the street without getting out of breath, while others have an irregular heartbeat. “All in all there are 3,048 claimants,” he says. “Most of them have been waiting in vain for decisions from the social welfare office or help promised by the Health Minister, and now they are seeking compensation from the manufacturers of the mRNA vaccines.” From BioNtech and Moderna, that means.
💉 They have every right to take their case to court, but there is a problem. The claims that have emerged so far, over 400 of them, do not look like traditional healthcare cases. They hardly mention those affected, and dedicate more space to expressing fundamental concerns about mRNA vaccines, which Rogert believes should never have been licensed. The written complaint, which Rogert shared with Die Welt, is mostly a summary of the kinds of arguments against mRNA vaccines that are doing the rounds among conspiracy theorists online.
💸 Any plaintiff who loses the case will also be liable for the court costs and the vaccine manufacturers’ legal fees — which, given that the value in dispute is 150,000 euros, could be more than 60,000 euros. While the outcome is uncertain for the plaintiffs, for the lawyers it is win-win. Whatever the result, they are entitled to their fees.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📣 VERBATIM
“The Argentine science and technology system is approaching a dangerous precipice.”
— A letter signed by 68 international Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine, economics, and physics was sent to Javier Milei, expressing grave concern about the new Argentine president’s drastic funding cuts to the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and national universities. Government support for basic research has allowed the country to develop key medical et technological solutions and led to global contributions. “We are discouraged by the consequences that this situation could have both for the Argentine people and for the world,” the letter reads.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Beaten, Stripped Naked, Laughed At: A Palestinian Woman's Horror In Israeli Detention — DARAJ
• The United Nations And Israel: It's Complicated — FRANCE INTER
• Testosterona, A Chilean Writer Confronts The Childhood Trauma Of "Gay Cure" — CLARÍN
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Laure Gautherin
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