👋 ආයුබෝවන්*
Welcome to Tuesday, where dozens are killed in Gaza ahead of Antony Blinken’s meeting with Israeli leaders, France gets its youngest ever prime minister and Germany mourns its soccer Kaiser. Meanwhile, Riham Abu Aita for Arabic-language independent digital media platform Daraj looks at jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who many believe is capable of achieving reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas movements.
[*Ayubōvan - Sinhala, Sri Lanka]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Dozens killed in Gaza as Blinken meets Israeli leaders: At least 57 deaths were reported at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital in the last 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, ahead of a meeting of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Israel's President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. U.S. officials say they have urged Israel “to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians.”
• Gabriel Attal becomes youngest French prime minister: France’s President Emmanuel Macron appointed Gabriel Attal as his new prime minister on Tuesday, making the 34-year-old the youngest ever prime minister in modern French history. Attal, who has been serving as Education Minister, will replace Élisabeth Borne who resigned on Monday evening after less than two years in office as Macron is reshuffling his government to try to reboot the final three years of his presidency.
• China satellite launch triggers Taiwan alert days before key election: Taiwan’s Defense Ministry issued an island-wide air raid alert after China launched a satellite over its southern airspace ahead of presidential and legislative elections on Saturday. Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu described the launch as part of a pattern of harassment towards the island and said Beijing’s tactics “continue to remind the people in Taiwan that there is a danger of war between Taiwan and China.” For more, we offer this recent article from The Initium, translated from Chinese by Worldcrunch: Why Taiwan Backs Israel Even If Its Own Struggle Mirrors Palestine's.
• Ecuador declares state of emergency, curfew after gang leader escapes prison: Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa declared a nationwide 60-day state of emergency and a nightly curfew after the convicted leader of powerful gang Los Choneros vanished from his maximum security cell in Guayaquil. José Adolfo Macías Villamar, better known as “Fito,” was sentenced in 2011 to 34 years in prison for various crimes including drug trafficking and murder.
• Report finds loose bolts on Boeing 737 MAX planes: United and Alaska Airlines both said bolts in need of “additional tightening” and “loose hardware” were found during inspections on some of their Boeing 737 MAX 9, after a so-called door plug component blew out mid-flight from such an aircraft last week. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said the plane’s cabin panel had been recovered without the four bolts, and could not yet tell whether it was properly attached.
• Norway set to greenlight controversial deep-sea mining: Norway is on the brink of becoming the world’s first country to approve the controversial practice of commercial-scale deep-sea mining, as a parliamentary vote on Tuesday is expected to pass without hindrance after securing cross-party backing. Deep-sea mining aims at accelerating the extraction of precious metals crucial for green technologies but environmental scientists have warned of potential devastation for marine life.
• Tiger Woods and Nike split up after 27 years: Tiger Woods and sportswear giant Nike have ended their long-term partnership after more than 27 years, the 15-time major golf champion announced on social media. Woods had signed his first $40-million contract with Nike in 1996 upon turning professional as a 20-year-old and renewed it repeatedly, even amid a major sex scandal, becoming one of the most lucrative partnerships in sports history.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer has died aged 78 from natural causes. Berlin-based tabloid daily Bild dedicates its front page to the man who collected 103 caps for West Germany, winning the 1974 World Cup. “We will miss him,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X, mourning the Munich-born “Kaiser” (Emperor) that inspired generations of German soccer enthusiasts.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Barghouti revisited? Why Israel won't release the “Palestinian Mandela” — even after Oct. 7
Palestinians believe that Marwan Barghouti is capable of uniting the Palestinians and achieving reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas movements. He may be the only figure who is able to lead negotiations and achieve peace, but Israel will not release him because it doesn't really want either, reports Riham Abu Aita for Arabic-language independent digital media platform Daraj.
🇵🇸 Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Al-Barghouti, 64, hails from the village of Kobar, in Ramallah. He is a leader of the Fatah movement and one of its most prominent symbols. He joined the movement's ranks at the age of 15, and has survived several assassination attempts. He studied political science at Birzeit University and obtained a master's degree in international relations. He later obtained a doctorate in political science from inside prison in 2010 from the Institute of Research and Studies of the Arab League.
✊ Barghouti believed in negotiations as a path to achieving peace, and was a supporter of signing the Oslo Accords. But with the continued injustice of the occupation and its failure to adhere to the agreement, he emerged in the Second Intifada (the Palestinian uprising) in 2000 and became a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
🤝 Since October 7, Barghouti's name has come up frequently in answer to the question of who will be the successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Could he be the key to resolving the Palestinian cause after the end of the war on the Gaza Strip? Is he the only one capable of uniting the Palestinian people and ending the division through his good relations with Hamas?
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
💬 LEXICON
보신탕
The slaughter and sale of dogs for their meat could soon become illegal in South Korea, where 보신탕 (“boshintang,” dog meat stew) is still a thing. The meal, however, is only popular among some old people, whereas younger generations are increasingly opposed to the centuries-old tradition. The parliament is backing a new law banning the farming and trade of this meat by 2027, with sentences going up to three years in prison for those guilty of butchering dogs. According to government statistics, South Korea counted around 1,600 dog meat restaurants and 1,150 dog farms in 2023. They will have three years to submit a plan to phase out their businesses.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
+122%
London-based NGO Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) reported a 122% increase of civilian casualties killed or wounded by explosives in 2023, reaching the highest number of fatalities in a decade. The war in Gaza alone accounts for 920 incidents out of the 7,307 around the world during the year, causing the death of 9,334 people out of 15,305 in total. State actors were responsible for 77% of the explosive attacks with other conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia also contributing to this rise.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• The Forgotten War: Sudan’s Toll Is On Scale With Gaza And Ukraine — DARAJ
• Benjamin Netanyahu's Legendary Survival Instinct Faces The Ultimate Test — FRANCE INTER
• Flight Attendants Have No Exit From Midair Internet Fame — And Infamy — THE CONVERSATION
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet, Cory Agathe, Agnese Tonghini and Laure Gautherin
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