June 8-9
- Cairo’s City of the Dead in peril
- Coral-friendly innovation
- Rhabarberbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbier (not a typo)
- … and much more!
🎲 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ
What do you remember from the news this week?
1. Which country has President Zelensky accused of helping Russia sabotage the upcoming Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland?
2. Claudia Sheinbaum became Mexico’s first woman president. By what acronym was her predecessor known?
3. Chipmaker Nvidia became the world's second-most valuable company — just behind what other tech giant?
4. What has Finland’s police started to use to ward off rowdy youth from its beaches? Water guns / Strobe lights / Classical music / Herring smells
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
#️⃣ TRENDING
Rhabarberbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbier is making TikTok users dance to a German song about rhubarb, served by Barbara to rhubarb-loving barbarians, who drink beer while their beards are barbered. This tongue-twisting rap by a Berlin duo proves stereotypes wrong: Germans can be funny and their language not aggressive. This alliterative story of Barbara and the bar she opened with the cake that made her famous are now on everyone’s lips, having beaten out, for a brief moment on some online streaming charts, Beyoncé!
🎭 5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW
• Coldplay claims to have beaten eco-touring targets. In 2019, the British pop band announced that they would not perform again until they had learned how to become more environmentally friendly. In 2021, Coldplay created a 12-point plan to cut their carbon footprint by 50%, setting a new example for the entire music industry. They have exceeded targets, reaching a 59% reduction in carbon using things like kinetic dance floors that help air condition the room and taking public transportation to their shows while avoiding planes as much as possible.
• In memoriam: American actress and singer Janis Paige passed away on June 2 at 101, leaving behind her legacy as a legend of Hollywood and Broadway; American rapper Brother Marquis, whose real name was Mark D. Ross, of the 2 Live Crew, passed away at the age of 58 of unknown causes on June 3; British singer Colin Gibb who was a core member of the band Black Lace, dies at the age of 70 after having retired just a month before; and French artist Ben, best known for his ironic painted slogans, died by suicide at his home in Nice just hours after the death of his wife Annie Vautier, 85, on June 5.
• “Strange manuscript” of Albert Camus’ The Stranger sells at auction. A unique handwritten 140-page manuscript of the French writer’s seminal novel has sold for $650,000 at auction in Paris on Wednesday. The “strange manuscript,” which was written two years after the book was published in France and was backdated by the author, may have been in an attempt by Camus to raise funds by creating a handwritten copy for a wealthy fan.
• Dubai Opera sets attendance record with 2023-24 season. Some 250,000 guests attended shows at the venue during the season that has just ended, the highest number of attendants since it opened in 2016. The more than 100 productions and 200 performances included The Phantom of the Opera, Matilda The Musical as well as the UAE premieres of the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala and Rome Opera Ballet. “The past season has been a testament to Dubai Opera's role as a House of Cultures, and we are extremely proud to have set a new attendance record,” said the opera’s head, Paolo Petrocelli.
• Mr. Men and Little Miss children's book series welcomes new characters. Some 50 years after English author Roger Hargreaves wrote and illustrated Mr. Tickle, his son Adam is adding two new characters to the classic series: Mr. Fib, who lies to impress people, and Little Miss Surprise, who loves nothing better than… well, surprises.
⚰️ Rescuing Cairo’s City of the Dead
In the past few years, Egyptian authorities have demolished hundreds of tombs and mausoleums in Cairo as part of plans to build a network of highways through the capital city’s centuries-old cemeteries. For Mohanad Abdelazeem, it has become clear that the ruling government is trying to establish a policy of “development” through copying other models like Dubai. In an analysis for Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj, the journalist and researcher, whose father is buried in Cairo’s City of the Dead, argues that what’s missing in this model is “the intersection of the economy and urbanism, in addition to the thousands of people living in the cemeteries.”
Read the full story: Death In Cairo: My Father’s Grave And The Ghosts Of Middle East Development
👶 Why are South Koreans having so few kids?
In 2023, South Korea's fertility rate fell to 0.72, well below one child per family, among the world’s lowest, and an all-time low for the industrialized Asian nation. Despite the government’s move to increase subsidies, the decline persists. In Chinese-language digital media The Initium, Yu Meixia looks at different factors at the roots of the country’s low birth rate, from social exclusion to difficulties for mothers to juggle work and family and women’s fear of losing their jobs.
Read the full story: Are We Anti-Kids? A Deep Dive Into South Korea's Plummeting Fertility Rate
⛪ Amen to those church conversions
To prevent unused churches from falling into disrepair and to make use of these large empty spaces, thousands worldwide are being converted into pizzerias, breweries, skate parks and even nightclubs. From a converted chapel in London that hosts a 25m pool instead of pews to the Spanish desecrated Church of Santa Barbara which was transformed into a paradise for skateboarders, here is a tour of these sacred spaces-turned businesses.
Read the full story: Skate Park, Nightclub, AirBnB: The World's Most Creative "Conversions" Of Churches
🤿🪸 BRIGHT IDEA
Marine biologists from the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy have developed the first of its kind eco-friendly putty that secures coral fragments to reef rock, allowing the transplantation of new coral colonies. The newly developed putty is made entirely of environmentally benign biodegradable ingredients and has shown promising results after 12 months of observation. Commercial epoxy-based putties typically used for coral restoration were designed for household repairs containing harmful compounds that persist as pollutants in the ocean.
🤪 SMILE OF THE WEEK
As Tennessee Rep. John Rose stood at the podium to give his speech on the U.S. House floor, his 6-year-old son Guy started making silly faces to the camera, sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes — or as AP put it, altogether “hamming it up.” Enough to make us forget that his father’s speech was about how Donald Trump, after being indicted, should still be allowed to run for office?
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⏩ LOOKING AHEAD
• Voters across the EU continue to head to the polls this weekend for the European elections. The polls officially began on Thursday in The Netherlands and will close at 11 p.m. on Sunday, with Italy being the last to vote. If forecasts are correct, this election will see a sharp shift to the right in many countries, with far-right populist parties gaining seats across the EU.
• The 50th G7 summit will begin on Thursday in Fasano, Puglia. Leaders of the seven member States, as well as the presidents of the European Council and European Commission will meet for two days in southern Italy — a location chosen by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — to discuss current global issues.
• The French Open finals will take place this weekend. In the women’s final on Saturday, Poland’s Iga Swiatek will try to win her fourth title in Paris against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini. And whoever wins the men’s singles final on Sunday will be a first-time Roland Garros champion.
⁉️ WHAT THE WORLD
From China's “Waterfall Gate” to a Despacito/French pop-rock mixup, take a quick world tour of the internationally weird!
News quiz answers:
1. President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Manila to urge leaders to attend an upcoming Swiss-organized global peace summit, which he says China is attempting to pressure other countries not to attend. China claims neutrality in the conflict, yet its growing trade with Russia since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war has softened the blow of Western sanctions.
2. Claudia Sheinbaum, the hand-picked successor of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was elected as the next president of Mexico, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Her predecessor, who left office with a 60% approval rating, was also known simply by the acronym AMLO.
3. Nvidia became the world's second-most valuable company on Wednesday afternoon, when the chip maker's market capitalization hit $3.012 trillion, putting it just ahead of Apple at $3 trillion — but behind Microsoft.
4. To prevent young people from celebrating the end of the school year and potentially wreaking havoc on beaches, Finnish police have started repelling the youth by blasting out classical music on loudspeakers. Already tested in other parts of the world, this method “has been proving its worth in Espoo for the past six years,” a police officer said.
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*Photo: Dubai Opera/IG