👋 Haaahe!*
Welcome to Friday, where Israel dismisses two officers over the drone strikes that killed seven aid workers in Gaza earlier this week, Samsung records huge profits in the first quarter of 2024, and it’s cherry blossom season in Japan. Meanwhile, for investigative news outlet Agência Pública, Thalíe Ponce reports on the worrying increase of military violence in Ecuador since the country's president declared a state of emergency in January to combat drug cartels.
[*Cheyenne]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Paris-based daily L’Humanité uses its front page to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide which started on April 6 1994. The cover discusses “life after the genocide,” which despite efforts to rebuild the country, remains omnipresent. Nearly a million people were killed during the genocide, meaning that today about 78% of Rwandans are below 35. French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that France “could have stopped the genocide.”
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel reopens routes into Gaza to allow in more aid after tense Biden-Netanyahu call. More humanitarian aid will be allowed in through the Erez crossing, and two other routes after President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that further U.S. military support was contingent on safeguarding the well-being of civilians in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Friday that it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission earlier this week.
• McDonald's will buy back all of its Israeli restaurants. This comes amid a boycott of the brand after it was criticized for giving away thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers. The fast food giant said it had reached an agreement with franchisee Alonyal for the return of 225 outlets across the country employing 5,000 people. It admitted in January the conflict had “meaningfully impacted” its business with widespread protests affecting sales in the Middle East, Indonesia and France.
• The death toll in Taiwan’s earthquake has risen to 12. Rescuers face the threat of further landslides and rockfalls during Friday's continued search for a dozen people still missing. Wednesday's quake of magnitude 7.2 struck the sparsely populated eastern county of Hualien, stranding hundreds in a national park as landslides cut off roads.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is worried about China’s excess manufacturing capacity. Her concern about China’s high industrial output is emerging as the main topic of conversation of Yellen’s four-day visit to China. Yellen said China is too large to export its way to rapid growth and would benefit by reducing excess industrial capacity which is pressuring other economies. Click here for a Die Welt piece on how China's excess capacity threatens Europe’s economy.
• A man who helped an Islamist attacker has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Audrey Mondjehi, 42, was convicted of obtaining a gun used by Cherif Chekatt, who killed five people at a French Christmas market in 2018 in Strasbourg, France. The pair were former prison cell mates.
• Peruvian President Dina Boluarte avoids another impeachment attempt. Since taking over in 2022, opponents have targeted Boluarte for having a luxury Rolex and jewelry collection that experts estimate is valued at nearly half a million dollars. Lawmakers twice rejected motions to bring Boularte’s impeachment up for debate.
• Italian mayor’s desperate call to get his goats. The small Sicilian island of Alicudi is home to only around 100 permanent residents and usually 100 wild goats. But this year, the ratio of humans to animals has become wildly unbalanced. Alicudi mayor Riccardo Gullo is calling on anyone who can help to pitch in to solve the issue: he doesn’t care whether you know anything about raising goats, as long as you have a boat to get them off the island — if you can catch them first.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
+931%
Samsung reports profits for the first three months of 2024 will jump by more than 900%. This comes as the price of chips recovers from a post pandemic crash and demands for AI soar. The tech giant is the world’s largest producer of memory chips, smartphones and televisions. Samsung estimates that its operating profit rose to $4.9 billion in the first quarter of the year.
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📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Executions and torture — the darkest side of Ecuador’s militarization
Since Ecuador’s president declared a state of emergency in January, military violence has increased. For Agência Pública, Ecuadorian journalist Thalíe Ponce talks to the families of three of those who were killed by the military.
🚨 On Jan. 9, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared, by means of an executive decree, a state of "internal armed conflict" in response to the crisis of drug trafficking, violence and organized crime. The situation reached its peak that day when a group of armed men seized a live television channel. As a result, the president classified 21 criminal organizations as terrorists, declared a state of emergency for 60 days and ordered the militarization of the streets and the country's 36 prisons.
⚠️ The decision, although applauded by a large part of the population, immediately caused alarm among society organizations and human rights defenders. It allowed the military to carry out patrols on national territory, something that used to be the responsibility of the police. The decision also authorized the military to detain people and vehicles, carry out operations in the streets and public spaces and even in private spaces, since the guarantee of inviolability of the home was suspended.
⚖️ Since Feb. 2, the lives of Vega's parents, Laura Ipanaqué and Carlos Vega, have changed forever. A housewife and a baker, respectively, they dedicate their days to seeking justice for their second son’s death. When militarization began, they were happy and hoped that insecurity in the country would finally begin to decrease. They couldn't have imagined having to bury their son days later — an active boy full of dreams, who played bass in the church choir and was a lover of music and manual arts.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“In other words, it’s ridiculous.”
— French President Emmanuel Macron dismisses Russian suggestions that Ukraine and France could have had a role in last month’s Moscow concert hall terror attack. Macron’s comments come a day after a phone call between French and Russian defense ministers. Macron said Russia’s comments make “no sense” and don’t “fit with reality.” He also said “It’s a manipulation of information, which is part of Russia’s arsenal of warfare today.” Read more about the Macron vs. Russia standoff here.
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✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Ione Gildroy
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