👋 Muraho!*
Welcome to Thursday, where all Gaza City residents are told to evacuate, China flexes its military muscle during NATO’s summit and a man gets caught smuggling 100 live snakes… in. his. pants. We also feature an article by Loola Pérez in Spanish online media Ethic, wondering whether Gen Z young men are actually more sexist than their elders.
[*Kinyarwanda, Rwanda]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
Hamas, Hezbollah and the false myth of victory in bloodshed
The concept of “resistance” adopted by militants in the Middle East has a close relationship with oppression and “divine victory,” which Hamas and Hezbollah both embrace in a false interpretation of the Koran, despite the heavy human and material losses inflicted, writes Samer al-Qarnashawi in Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj.
In correspondence with Hamas leaders outside Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the group’s leader inside Gaza, has reportedly made it clear that his strategy is inspired by both ancient and more recent historical events, according to a recent article by The Wall Street Journal. The report cites Sinwar referencing Algeria’s War of Independence in the middle of the 20th century, but also the battle of Karbala in the year 680, during which Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, al-Hussein Ibn Ali, was killed alongside many of his family members and supporters.
Sinwar, in other words, views that Hamas will triumph in the long term, even if the Palestinian people will suffer many casualties along the way. The Wall Street Journal says it bases its reporting on “private messages,” though Hamas has denied the facts of the article.
But whether the report was true or not, the supposed content of the would-be messages is a reminder of the suffering of Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in 10 months of war, which has also caused mass destruction and an imminent famine as the Israeli war machine's indiscriminate killing and collective punishment continues.
In a June 26 forum at the Zaytouna Center for Studies and Consultations in Beirut, Khaled Mashal, Hamas’ former leader, criticized those who condemned the Palestinian militant group and “waited for the defeat of the resistance.”
He said that the Oct. 7 attack and the ongoing war has finally returned the Palestinian cause to the global arena, and the armed resistance weakens Israel. “Some say that the price of resistance is high, and this is true, as Gaza was destroyed," Meshaal said. "But since when was there liberation, resistance, and the achievement of national goals without a price?” [...]
— Read the full article by Samer al-Qarnashawi for Daraj, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Seoul-based daily The Dong-a Ilbo lends its Thursday front page to the deadly floods that have hit South Korea. The rains were most intense in the southern regions of the country, where four people have died, and widespread damages to property and infrastructures were reported.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel tells everyone in Gaza City to leave, again. The Israeli military has told all residents of Gaza City to evacuate southward to central Gaza, amid intensified operations in the north. Leaflets dropped by aircraft instruct "everyone in Gaza City" to leave what is described as a "dangerous combat zone" via designated safe routes. It is the second time since the war began that Gaza City as a whole has been asked to evacuate. Arabic-language media Daraj recently featured a first-person account, translated by Worldcrunch, of what it’s like in Gaza to be repeatedly uprooted from your home.
• NATO vows “irreversible path” to Ukraine membership. While a formal timeline for it to join the military alliance was not agreed at a summit in Washington, the transatlantic military alliance's 32 members pledged “unwavering” support for Ukraine's war effort. NATO also announced further integration with Ukraine's military and members have committed $43.3 billion in aid in the next year, including F-16 fighter jets and air defense support.
• Taiwan says record number of Chinese warplanes detected amid NATO summit. Taiwan has said it is watching China’s military movements after detecting the most Chinese warplanes near the island in a 24-hour window so far this year, as Beijing conducts drills amid the NATO summit in Washington. China responded Thursday to NATO’s accusation that Beijing was supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine by warning the Alliance not to “bring chaos” to Asia. For more, we offer this analysis by France Inter’s Pierre Haski, translated from French by Worldcrunch: At 75, NATO Faces Existential Questions.
• Biden’s candidacy in crisis as Clooney, U.S. senator call on him to quit. Movie star and top Democratic fundraiser George Clooney and several top Democrats have called on President Joe Biden to step aside as concerns about his age and fitness continue to grow. In a commentary published in The New York Times on Wednesday, Clooney said that he had personally witnessed the 81-year-old Democrat’s decline at a major fundraiser he co-hosted for the president last month.
• Mali junta reauthorizes political activities it suspended in April. The West African country will again allow public activities of political parties and political associations, which it had suspended in April. Here’s a piece earlier this year from German daily Die Welt about the geopolitical stakes of Africa’s Sahel region.
• South Korea to deploy “StarWars” laser weapons targeting North Korean drones. South Korea becomes the world's first country to deploy and operate such weapons in the military, the program has even been called the “StarWars project.” The laser weapons shoot down flying drones by burning down engines or other electric equipment in drones with beams of light for 10 to 20 seconds.
• Man stopped at customs with 100 live snakes in his pants. Customs officers in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen intercepted the man traveling through Futian Port, a checkpoint between Hong Kong and mainland China. During an inspection, officers found six canvas drawstring bags sealed with tape in the pockets of his pants. Officers opened the bags and found that each bag contained a number of live snakes in various shapes and colors.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$76 billion
According to The Athletic, the NBA has just finalized a $76 billion agreement with Disney, Amazon and Comcast. The agreement would bring the league’s games to Amazon Prime Video and NBC, while ABC/ESPN would still have the rights to broadcast the NBA finals. The deal comes as the basketball association has been trying to boost broadcasting revenue over the past years, a desire matched by broadcasters’ willingness to pay more for sports content in order to draw a broader audience to their networks. The deal will be valid for 11 years and it is worth three times more than the current one. TNT and its parent company Warner Bros., which have been a home of the NBA for decades, could still match the deal.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Why antifeminism is spreading among Gen Z
It is not not gray-haired men who feel uncomfortable with feminism, but rather Gen Z boys. So what is causing young men, witnesses of #MeToo, to take sides against feminism? asks Loola Pérez in Spanish online media Ethic.
♂️ Are today’s young people more sexist? Are we on the brink of, or already experiencing, a backlash against feminist values? Can men’s problems be reduced to a crisis of masculinity? Many social scientists agree that an increasing number of young men are mired in discomfort, in a crisis that challenges their identity, self-esteem and the value of their interpersonal relationships.
🔍 In one of its latest surveys, the Spain's CIS public research institute reported that 52% of young people surveyed between 16 and 24 years old “strongly agreed” or “rather agreed” with the following statement, “The promotion of gender equality has gone so far that now men are discriminated against.” The same study also pointed out that women of all generations are more feminist than men, with the difference being greater in the aforementioned age group.
➗ The feminist movement is divided; it is marked by internal struggles and positions that, regarding issues such as prostitution or the recognition of transsexuality, are irreconcilable. Yet there’s still hope for understanding and minimal agreements. To argue that feminism's internal crisis provokes hostility in young men is quite reductionist. Still we shouldn’t neglect how, in recent times, identity implications have conquered the feminist agenda and have led to a change of course in public demands and requirements.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
💬 LEXICON
投毒
Yet another food-related scandal is creating outrage in China, after reports showed that Chinese state-owned company Sinograin — the largest grain storage and transport company in the Asian country — carried cooking oil in the same tanks used to move fuel to cut transportation costs. According to Beijing News, an outlet owned by the Chinese Communist Party, the double use of tanks was widely known in the Chinese transportation industry, calling out a second company for alleged malpractice as well. China Central Television has called the practice "tantamount to poisoning" ( 投毒, pronounced Tóu dú). From our archives, we offer this Economic Observer article, translated from Chinese by Worldcrunch, about the country’s fast food meat scandal.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
IDF forces have once again urged all residents of Gaza City to evacuate southward to central Gaza, as the Israeli army intensifies operations in the north. — Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Why Macron Should Be France's Last All-Powerful President — LES ECHOS
• At 75, NATO Faces Existential Questions — FRANCE INTER
• Why The Fate Of Venezuela's Democracy Should Matter To You — CONFIDENCIAL
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Fabrizio La Rocca
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