👋 Khulumkha!*
Welcome to Friday, where Turkey halts trade with Israel over Gaza, mudslides kill at least 29 in southern Brazil, and Boris Johnson gets turned away from a polling station after forgetting his ID. Meanwhile, Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj analyzes how Jordan’s identity dilemma may play in favor of Hamas’s interests in the country.
[*Kokborok, India and Bangladesh]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Panama City-based daily Panamá América dedicates its front page to unemployment in the country, ahead of the presidential elections this Sunday. Experts warn that the successor of President Laurentino Cortizo will face challenges in addressing the country's issues, including ideological diversity in the National Assembly, corruption and environmental concerns.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Turkey cuts ties with Israel, Netanyahu calls out Erdogan. Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel on Thursday, the Turkish trade ministry said in a statement, citing “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in Palestine. The ministry said Turkey would implement the measures until “the Israeli Government allows a sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.” Israel’s foreign minister accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of acting like a “dictator.” Read more about Erdogan and Turkey with this piece translated from Turkish by Worldcrunch.
• Gangs in Haiti launch fresh attacks, days after a new prime minister is announced. The gangs laid siege to several neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince in one of the biggest attacks since Fritz Bélizaire was announced as Prime Minister on Tuesday. Attacks began late on Wednesday and continued as hundreds fled the violence, which included gunfire and fires.
• Rains, mudslides kill 29 in southern Brazil. An estimated 60 people are also missing in what local Governor Eduardo Leite says is the state of Rio Grande do Sul’s “worst disaster,” adding that the number of dead is expected to rise. Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, and more than 10,000 people are displaced. Rescuers and soldiers have been trying to free families trapped in their homes and people stranded on rooftops. Forecasts warn that the state’s main river could rise to four meters on Friday.
• The EU and U.S. urge Georgia to drop contested “foreign agents” bill. The bill would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, which opponents call authoritarian and compare to Russian laws. Crowds have protested against the bill nightly for weeks, outside the parliament in Tbilisi. On Thursday, thousands of protesters stopped traffic in the capital in a peaceful protest. Is Georgia “a new Ukraine?” asks France Inter’s Pierre Haski, translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• U.S. President Joe Biden calls India and Japan “xenophobic.” Biden grouped the U.S. allies with Russia and China as countries that “don’t want immigrants.” The criticism comes just weeks after he called the U.S.-Japan alliance “unbreakable” during a state visit from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The White House says no offense was meant to either country.
• Paris inaugurates water storage basin to clean up River Seine. The Seine is set to be used for marathon and triathlon swimming at the summer’s Olympics, however, there are concerns on the safety and quality of the water. Last year, swimming tests had to be canceled due to poor water quality including untreated sewage. The reservoir, which can hold the equivalent of 20 Olympic swimming pools of water, will collect excess rainwater and prevent bacteria-laden wastewater from entering the river. Read more about Paris’s Olympic plans, translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting ID. New rules requiring photo ID to vote were introduced by Johnson’s government in the Elections Act 2022, and were rolled out last year, with local elections in May 2023 being the first time voters needed to show ID. Johnson later returned with ID, and was able to cast his ballot in Oxfordshire, where voters chose, on May 2, a police and crime commissioner. Local elections across the UK have so far seen the ruling Conservative party lose three councils and over 100 councilors.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$110 billion
Apple exceeded modest expectations with its quarterly results and forecast, unveiling a record $110 billion share buyback program and a 4% increase in its cash dividend. CEO Tim Cook expressed optimism about future revenue growth. Apple's performance suggests potential recovery in the smartphone market, although it faces challenges from competitors and regulatory issues. Notably, iPhone sales fell 10.5% in the fiscal second quarter, but Apple highlighted growth in certain markets, including China.
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📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Why Jordan is in a bind with Hamas
Iran has some influence over Hamas, but not like Hezbollah in Lebanon or other Iranian-backed groups in the region. Hamas, instead, has more links with Jordan, the birthplace of some of its top leaders, reports Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj.
🇯🇴 Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official who is also a Jordanian citizen, told Iran’s al-Alam TV that Hamas leaders would go to Jordan if they were expelled from their exile in Qatar. He said Hamas is part of the Jordanian people and the Kingdom is its natural place. This sums up the complex and long-standing relationship between Jordan and Hamas — a relationship that has been further complicated by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
❌ Jordan viewed Abu Marzouk’s comments as provocative. Tehran likely pressured Hamas to make these statements on its airwaves after Jordanian air defense intercepted Iranian drones over Jordan’s airspace on their way to Israel. Angered by Amman's move, Tehran indicated that it would not stay silent. Those close to Hamas pointed out that Abu Marzouk’s comments were “not coordinated” with the group’s leadership, and that he spoke as a Jordanian citizen, and his country is his last refuge.
🗯️ The Jordanian identity dilemma appears to haunt and poses real challenges to the Kingdom. More than half of the leaders of Hamas — an non-Jordanian organization — are Jordanian citizens. As part of the Iranian system of influence in the region, Hamas has become a source of tension between Iran and Jordan. Those tensions had already reached alarming levels before Oct. 7, when the Jordanian army revealed attempts to smuggle weapons from Syria to the West Bank through Jordan.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
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📣 VERBATIM
“I'm not ruling anything out.”
— French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated, in an interview with The Economist, published on May 2, that he still considers the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine if Russia were to break through Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv requested such assistance. In the interview, he doubled down on similar remarks made earlier this year, and emphasized that his refusal to rule out sending troops serves as a strategic warning to his counterparts.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
A Long March-5 rocket, carrying China’s Chang'e-6 spacecraft, has successfully launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. The 53-day mission aims to collect samples of lunar soil and rocks from the far side of the Moon — a first — and return them back to Earth. — Photo: Guo Cheng/Xinhua/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• A New Ukraine? How Georgia Has Been Swept Into Russia-Europe Power Struggle — FRANCE INTER
• When The Ice Is Gone: Russia's Vision For Arctic Development — KOMMERSANT
• When A Baby Is Born, So Is A Father — RECALCULATING
✍️ Newsletter by Ione Gildroy and Cory Agathe
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