👋 Bone die!*
Welcome to Friday, where Israel’s Defense Minister unveils plans for the future governance of Gaza, Oscar Pistorius is released from prison, and one of the best-selling mangas calls time after 43 years. Meanwhile, Hector Abad Faciolince in Colombian daily El Espectador ponders what can be done about an age-old street problem in Bogotá.
[*Sardinian, Italy]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel reveals Gaza plans as shelling continues: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has revealed proposals for the future governance of Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas is over. He says there would be limited Palestinian rule in the territory and that Hamas would no longer control Gaza, adding Israel would retain overall security control. Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza continued with dozens of people killed in the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
• North Korea fires artillery shells towards South's border island: North Korea has fired more than 200 rounds of artillery shells off its west coast, towards the South's Yeonpyeong island. South Korea ordered civilians to seek shelter on the island before holding live fire drills of its own.
• Putin offers citizenship to foreigners who fight for Russia in Ukraine: President Vladimir Putin issued a decree allowing foreign nationals who fight for Russia in Ukraine to obtain Russian citizenship for themselves and their families. The order said people who have signed contracts during what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine can apply to get Russian passports for themselves and their spouses, children and parents. Last month, Worldcrunch translated this report by independent Russian outlet Vazhnyye Istorii on the Russian army’s "convalescent" units that aim to send disabled soldiers back to the front.
• Iowa school shooting kills one, injures five: On the first day back from summer break, a student fatally shot a 12-year-old, and injured five others, at a high school shooting in the U.S. state of Iowa. The shooter took his own life.
• U.S. readies aid for Japan earthquake as 200+ people still missing: The United States said on Friday it is preparing military logistical support and aid for regions in Japan devastated by the earthquake that killed 94 people, forced about 33,000 people to leave their homes, and has left nearly 250 people missing. The critical 72-hour period to find survivors when the quake struck ended late on Thursday.
• Pistorius released on parole: Former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius has been released on parole from a prison in South Africa nearly 11 years after he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Officials confirmed Pistorius was “at home” on Friday morning.
• China spent over $5.5 million at Trump properties while he was in office: The Chinese government and its state-controlled entities spent more than $5.5 million at properties owned by Donald Trump while he was in office, the largest total of payments made by any single foreign country known to date, according to financial documents cited in a recent report from House Democrats.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Houthis are driving up inflation,” titles Dutch daily NRC, reporting on how recent attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on merchant vessels in the Red Sea have caused trade disruptions and shipping costs and oil prices to rise. Carriers have already diverted more than $200 billion in trade over the past several weeks away from the crucial route to avoid the attacks.
💬 LEXICON
キャプテン翼
Japanese publisher Shueisha Inc. announced that the beloved soccer manga series Captain Tsubasa will end in April 2024. The series will come to a close after a 43-year run and 90 million copies sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling mangas of all time. Its author, Yoichi Takahashi, mentioned the digitization of the creative process and his declining health as the reasons behind this decision.
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📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Urine trouble: Bogotá's dirty little problem traces back to ancient Rome
On climate and peace negotiations, Colombia's president has lots to say. But has he ever seen the filth which late-night drinkers leave on streets and at doorsteps nearly every night? asks Hector Abad Faciolince in Bogotá-based daily El Espectador.
🚻 On a local street which I know too well, the façade of one building touches its neighbor's back wall form a sharp angle. The result is a corner that makes a perfect little urinal for drunkards at night. After one meeting, residents of both buildings agreed that it was the city that should clean up the pee and other, less-liquid human emissions. A letter was written to the mayor, asking him to send a cleaner every dawn with a hose, to restore this hapless public urinal — and informal vomitorium — into the clean little corner it should be.
🧹 I say vomitorium thinking of the Roman empire. We usually only think of the Roman emperors' conquests or of Julius Caesar and his famous Commentaries on the Gallic War. Yet one of the dictator-for-life's best known and most controversial edicts was simple: he ordered all Romans to sweep and clean outside their homes. It did resolve an enormous problem of the mountains of trash, filth and the stench of men and animals engulfing the city and its imperial pretensions.
🚽 Decades later, the emperor Vespasian is remembered, particularly in Turin where I went to university, for ordering public urinals built. We get no such luck or attention to detail from the rulers of our time. Our imperial presidents are only concerned with saving the world from burning up soon, or bringing total peace to this country. Down here at street level in Bogotá, we're left with some very basic, and malodorous problems. Who should clean the streets?
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back.”
— June Steenkamp said in a statement that her family is “serving a life sentence” reacting to the release on parole of paralympian Oscar Pistorius in South Africa, 11 years after he murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, June’s daughter. Pistorius was convicted of murder in 2015 after shooting Reeva Steenkamp four times through a door. The conditions for his release include confinement, a ban on alcohol consumption, restriction on speaking to the media and therapy. Although June Steenkamp said she accepted the decision, the parole board’s decision to release Pistorius after having served more than half of his 13-year sentence has sparked debates.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Why Hezbollah Chief Nasrallah Could Become Iran's Next Supreme Leader — KAYHAN-LONDON
• Ukraine Needs You, Now — A Soldier's Note To The Poets And Smartphone Scrollers — UKRAINSKA PRAVDA
• Here's A Scientific Guide To Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions — THE CONVERSATION
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Cory Agathe and Anne-Sophie Goninet
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