👋 Hyvää päivää!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Joe Biden has confirmed a threat to halt weapon supplies to Israel, El Niño is exacerbating an intense Asian heatwave and John F. Kennedy’s only grandson mocks his cousin on Instagram. We also travel to Marseille for the latest installment of our Gústo series, to discover what the locals eat in France’s second largest city.
[*Finnish]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Rio de Janeiro-based O Globo dedicates its front page to the aftermath of the unprecedented rainfall and floods that are striking the south of the country. It features two pictures side by side of the Salgado Filho Airport, taken two weeks apart and showing the runways of the airport serving the city of Porto Alegre, the capital of the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul, completely under water. The storms hitting the country for the past week have affected more than 1 million people in 385 municipalities, according to the civil defense, and the death toll has reached 100.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• President Biden links arms shipments to Israel with threat of Rafah assault. A new contingent of Israeli troops have moved early Thursday to the outskirts of Rafah, even U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces launched a major invasion of the southern Gaza city.
• Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill to allow prisoners to fight in the war against Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky must still sign the measure that would respond to the Ukrainian military’s urgent personnel shortage facing an advancing Russian army. Read more about Ukraine’s dilemma of an aging military.
• Xi and Orban meet in Budapest. Chinese President Xi Jinping is meeting Thursday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Xi arrived in Hungary after visiting France and Serbia in his first visit to Europe in five years, with talks on trade and the war in Ukraine high on the agenda in all three countries.
• A general strike begins in Argentina to protest Milei’s policies. Argentine labor unions called for workers to strike for the second time in five months to protest President Javier Milei's austerity agenda. For 24 hours, trains, buses and flight services will largely be shut down.
• A heat wave across Asia is closing schools and killing vulnerable populations. A spate of exceptionally high temperatures across parts of Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh is being made worse by El Niño. Thousands of schools in the Philippines have suspended in-person classes, while authorities in Thailand have warned against outdoor activities, and reported at least 30 people have been killed by heatstroke.
• Spain’s former football federation chief ordered to stand trial for unwanted World Cup kiss. A Spanish High court said Luis Rubiales must face a trial for sexual assault over his kissing of Women's World Cup player Jenni Hermoso without her consent, in a widely broadcast celebration after Spain’s victory in the 2023 tournament. Rubiales denies wrongdoing, and says he is a victim of “social assassination.” Here’s a tally of 11 other troubling cases of machismo in the world of international football.
• JFK’s only grandson is mocking RFK Jr. on Instagram. In an escalation of the Kennedy family feud, Jack Schlossberg, the son of Caroline Kennedy, used homemade videos to defend Joe Biden and to denounce his cousin, who is running for U.S. president as an independent. In an apparent attempt at comedy, the 30-year-old Kennedy heir used accents to make his case, which offended some Instagram users.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
6,000 krona
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been found guilty by a Swedish court of disobeying police orders during an environmental protest in March. The 21-year-old has been fined 6,000 Swedish krona ($549), according to Stockholm District Court. She was also ordered to pay an additional 1,000 crown ($92) in damages. Speaking to the BBC shortly after, Thunberg said "Once again, I think it's painfully clear how absurd it is that it is peaceful climate protestors, like us youth, who are facing repression and are being faced with legal punishments in court for acting against this extremely deadly system, and for trying to change things." More on the tensions and contradictions within the environmental movement in this Les Echos commentary.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Gùsto! How · What · Where Locals Eat (And Drink) In Marseille
France's second largest city and the namesake to its national anthem, Marseille is a place where food is sacred, from Michelin-star restaurants to neighborhood bistros. For Worldcrunch, Cory Agathe has listed the best places to go for drinks, food and cultural enrichment in the Phocean City.
🍽️🎨 With its street art, galleries and designer boutiques, Le Panier is the village within the city, the definition of local Marseille. Wandering around, you'll be immersed in culture, between the Cathéderale La Major, the Vielle Charité and the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM). After so much walking, you'll probably be hungry, and Le Panier won’t let you starve. On the Place des Pistoles, with its beautiful fountain, you'll find a constellation of regional restaurants and their terraces.
🍻🦐 Overlooking the beach, Le Cabanon de Paulette ("Paulette’s Cabin") is a hangout spot for Marseillais. Serving beers and comforting food — especially seafood — prepared by “Mamie Paulette," this spot is perfect for watching the sunset. It's open all day long so it can also be a good place to get a break from all that sunbathing. Be careful though: it's located in the Calanques of Marseille, which can get quite crowded during certain seasons.
🏖️ The Frioul archipelago is the jewel of this Mediterranean city. Pomègues, Ratonneau, Tiboulen and If — the four islands constituting Frioul — are home to incredible fauna and flora, little coves and beaches. In addition to a boat ride that will allow you to observe the depths of the sea, you'll discover village life on the archipelago, with its restaurants, bars and aquaculture farm. The site is also historically charged, with the Chateau d’If, a 16th-century castle that stands on the island of the same name and is full of anecdotes about kings and prisoners. It is now open to visitors and gives an incredible panorama of Marseille.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb but should Iran's existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine.”
— Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran would change its nuclear doctrine and build weapons if the country’s existence was threatened by Israel, as reported by Iran's Student News Network. “In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change,” he warned, adding that Tehran has already signaled it has the potential to build such weapons.
✍️ Newsletter by Laure Gautherin
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