👋 Dia dhuit!*
Welcome to Friday, where tensions rise between Netanyahu and Israel’s military leadership, the U.S. and China have held their first informal nuclear talks in five years with an eye on Taiwan, and the movie world mourns the death of Donald Sutherland. Meanwhile, Marina Sardiña in Spanish monthly magazine La Marea reports from Mexico’s Chiapas mountains, where indigenous midwives with ancestral knowledge ensure safe childbirth that the State fails to provide.
[*Gaelic]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Mark Rutte is really going to NATO,” titles Dutch daily NRC. The departing Dutch Prime Minister has been the frontrunner for the organization’s top job for months, but opposition coming from Romania prevented NATO members from finding an agreement. With Romanian president Klaus Iohannis having officially withdrawn from the race, Rutte is now set to be appointed as new NATO secretary general. His term would start on Oct. 1, when current secretary general Jens Stoltenberg's mandate expires.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israeli military spokesman remark on Hamas sparks tensions with Netanyahu. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a familiar face at televised IDF briefings, has exposed a widening rift between the country’s political and army leadership, questioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of destroying Hamas in Gaza as a condition for the war to end. After nine months of war, Hagari told Israel’s Channel 13 broadcaster that the task was impossible. Meanwhile, Israeli forces shelled Rafah and other areas across Gaza and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Follow the latest developments and international analysis of the war in Gaza here.
• South Korea summons Russian ambassador as tensions rise with North Korea. South Korea's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Russian ambassador in protest of a pact between Russia and North Korea signed in Pyongyang this week. First vice foreign minister Kim Hong-kyun conveyed Seoul's stance on the pact and military cooperation between Russia and North Korea to Georgy Zinoviev, the top Russian envoy to Seoul.
• U.S. and China hold first informal nuclear talks in 5 years, eyeing Taiwan. Reuters has reported that the U.S. and China resumed semi-official nuclear arms talks in March for the first time in five years, with Beijing's representatives telling U.S. counterparts that they would not resort to atomic threats over Taiwan. The Chinese representatives offered reassurances after their U.S. interlocutors raised concerns that China might use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons if it faced defeat in a conflict over Taiwan.
• At least five killed in southeast Turkey wildfires. Dozens have also been injured as wildfires swept through several villages in southeastern Turkey. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca reported the deaths from the overnight blaze between the cities of Diyarbakir and Mardin on Friday. The fire started with the burning of crop stubble.
• One person killed, over 200 injured in Kenya tax protests. This comes amid the government’s plans to raise $2.7 billion in additional taxes. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters in the capital Nairobi, the five rights groups, which include Amnesty International and the Kenya Medical Association.
• Actor Donald Sutherland dies at 88. The Canadian-born star of films including Mash, The Hunger Games and Don't Look Now, has died after a long illness. His son, the actor Kiefer Sutherland, said: "With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film.
• China’s famed panda breeding center bans 12 tourists for life over bad behavior. Aged 26 to 61, the dozen tourists have been issued lifetime bans from the center for behavior that included “either throwing bamboo shoots, lollipop sticks, cigarettes, eggs or bread and spitting into the outdoor play area of the pandas on different occasions,” read a WeChat post. For more, read From Mao To Now, How Pandas Became China's Not-So-Secret Diplomatic Weapon.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$6.4 million
That’s the amount of money a car company will have to pay the Italian government for selling Chinese-made cars as “Made in Italy.” DR Automobiles, a car manufacturer based in the Southern Italian region of Molise, was selling its EVO and DR brands claiming they were made in Italy, even though most of the manufacturing process happens in China and most of the components are bought from Chinese car companies. Only a minor part of manufacturing operations happen in Italy, and they mainly concern assembly and finishing work. Italian outlet Pagella Politica reports that DR Automobiles sold around 32,000 cars in the Italian market in 2023, representing around 2% of total car sales in the country.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
The indigenous midwives of Chiapas expand safe childbirth in Mexico
Erasing the practice of midwifery through legislation seems impossible, yet fear persists in Mexico, which counts at least 16,000 midwives, trusted by thousands of women every year, especially peasant and indigenous women, reports Marina Sardiña in Spanish monthly paper magazine La Marea.
👶 Lucía, a 49-year-old Tzeltal, has been helping women in her community give birth for three decades. Her own first child died due to complications during childbirth. For her second child, she held on tightly to a tree near the house and pulled the baby out with her own hands. Since then, this traditional midwife has not stopped learning, practicing and sharing with other midwives and nurses in the region. Her mission is to prevent maternal and infant deaths — a job that has no schedule or breaks.
🇲🇽 In the indigenous communities of the Chiapas mountains, the number of health centers can be counted on one hand. Chiapas is the Mexican state with the highest percentage of the population living in poverty. It is also the second state with the highest maternal mortality and the first in teenage pregnancies. There are no schools, too few hospitals and not enough money in the pocket of peasant and indigenous women to go there. Where the state fails to provide, is where women like Lucía come in, ancestral midwives or Tam Unem, in the Tzeltal language
⚖️ On March 26, the reform to Mexico's General Health Law came into force, allowing traditional midwives to issue birth certificates: “The birth certificate will be issued by medical professionals, traditional midwives and people authorized to do so by the competent health authority.” It's a small recognition for midwives, but also a way to fulfill the right to identity of children: In this region, thousands of children are not registered or documented because they were born in the arms of a midwife.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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💬 LEXICON
풍산개
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un bonded over their love for animals, a second feature the two share on top of being ruthless dictators. As a sign of friendship, the North Korean leader gifted his Russian counterpart two Pungsan dogs (풍산개 in Korean), a local breed. The gesture is only one in a series of amicable exchanges between the two leaders within the context of Putin’s official visit to North Korea, which also led the two to sign a new strategic partnership agreement. After the puppy exchange the two leaders took turns driving a Russian-made limousine around Pyongyang.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Eid al-Adha In Gaza: No Peace, No Sheep, No Sign Of Hope — DARAJ
• The Gruesome Death Of An Indian Worker In Italy — And The True Crimes Of Undocumented Labor — LA STAMPA
• Genes vs. Heat: How Our Bodies Could Adapt To Global Warming's Rising Temperatures — LES ECHOS
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Fabrizio La Rocca
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