👋 Bok!*
Welcome to Monday, where Donald Trump gives his first interview after surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt, Rwandan voters head to the polls, and Buckingham Palace kicks off tours of the royal balcony (but no waving to the crowd allowed). Meanwhile, Michèle Warnet in French daily Les Echos has a snapshot of iconic camera maker Leica.
[*Croatian]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Spanish sports daily Mundo Deportivo celebrates a great day for Spanish sports, after Sunday’s victories for the national team in the Euro Football Championship and tennis star Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles at Wimbledon. Spain’s football team defeated England 2-1 with a late goal to claim its record fourth European tournament victory. It was England’s second straight loss in the Euro finals, continuing its drought in major football trophies that dates back to 1966. Several hours earlier, Alcaraz, 21, won his second straight Wimbledon trophy defeating tennis legend Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Trump says he'll “bring country together” at Republican convention after shooting. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has said he was "supposed to be dead" after Saturday’s assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. In his first interview since the attack, Trump told conservative tabloid The New York Post he felt that he had been saved "by luck or by God." Trump is scheduled to speak at the Republican convention starting today in Milwaukee. U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the assassination attempt in a primetime address Sunday from the White House, telling Americans that politics must never be a "killing field". Meanwhile, the U.S. Secret Service is investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot. See how international newspapers have reacted to the shock moment history for the past 48 hours here.
• Hamas says Gaza cease-fire talks haven’t paused. Hamas said Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks were ongoing and the group’s military commander Mohammed Deif was in good health, a day after the Israeli military targeted Deif with a massive airstrike that local health officials said killed at least 90 people, including dozens of women and children. Deif’s condition was still unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night “there still isn’t absolute certainty” he was killed. Follow our international coverage of the war in Gaza here.
• Pakistan government says moving to ban Imran Khan’s PTI. Pakistan plans to ban former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. The decision was based on a number of factors, including the charge that Khan's PTI had received foreign funds from sources that are illegal in Pakistan, as well as rioting by the party's leadership and supporters last year that targeted military installations, Minister Attaullah Tarar said. Jailed since August, Khan was on Saturday acquitted, along with his third wife, on charges that they married unlawfully but he will not be freed after authorities issued new orders to arrest him.
• Rwandans have begun voting in the country’s presidential and legislative elections. They are expected to extend longtime leader Paul Kagame’s rule for another five years. Polling stations opened on Monday across the East African country, where more than nine million people are registered to participate.
• Xi tackles slow growth as economy “hits the brakes.” China’s economy slowed more than expected in the June quarter, just as the country's top leaders gathered for a key meeting to address its declining growth. The world’s second-largest economy expanded 4.7% in the three months to June, falling short of expectations after a stronger start in the first three months of 2024. The government's annual growth target is around 5%. For more, we offer this recent article on China’s “industrial overcapacity”, translated from German by Worldcrunch.
• Car bomb kills five, injures 20 outside restaurant in Somalia's capital. The bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Sunday night as people were watching the final of the Euro 2024 football tournament on TV. The al-Qaeda-linked armed group, Al Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the attack via an affiliated radio station, saying the bombing targeted a place where security and government workers meet at night.
• Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony room is opening to the public for the first time. However, visitors will not be able to step out onto the balcony itself.The 45-minute guided tours, running from July 15 to August 31, have already sold out, despite a cost of around £75 ($97).
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
16
Argentina’s national team won a record 16th Copa America title on Sunday, after defeating Colombia 1-0 in the final. Forward Lautaro Martinez scored in extra time to give Argentina its third consecutive football title, after winning the previous edition of the tournament in 2021 and the World Cup in 2022. The match in Miami was marked by chaos and violence as organizers blamed supporters of trying to access the stadium without tickets, while fans criticized the organizers for a lack of efficiency, delaying the kickoff by more than 80 minutes. Meanwhile, Argentina’s star player Lionel Messi, likely appearing for the last time in his career in a major international tournament, was forced by an injury to leave the pitch early.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Eye of the century: what's made the cameras of Leica so iconic
Manufactured in Wetzlar, Germany, for almost 100 years now, Leica cameras are sometimes worth more second-hand than new. Around them, a global community of passionate enthusiasts has begun in recent years to grow again, reports Michèle Warnet in French daily Les Echos.
🎞️ Everything began with the acquisition of a precision optics institute by Ernst Leitz I in Wetzlar in 1865. By 1906, the company became the world's leading microscope manufacturer. Engineer Oskar Barnack joined in 1911. The fervent photography enthusiast was worn out by the heavy tripod-mounted cameras of the time. Cinema gave him an idea. He cut the large 48x36mm film in half. Instead of a vertical run in the camera, he rotated it for horizontal movement in a small box, adding a Leitz lens.
📸 World War I put the invention on hold. Ernst Leitz I died in 1920, succeeded by his son. Seeking growth avenues in a war-torn Europe in 1924, he recalled Barnack's disruptive innovation. Visiting the United States, Ernst Leitz II discovered the "mass market" and saw the portable camera as the perfect product. The Leica, a contraction of Leitz and Camera, Series I (or Series A) was released in 1925. In the first year, 900 cameras were sold, nearly 1,600 in the second year, and by 1933, the 100,000th Leica was delivered.
👀 "Leica wrote a history of photography," says historian Hans-Michael Koetzle, author of the book commemorating the 100th anniversary of Barnack's invention. "No more need for a studio, just good shoes and the theater of the street," Koetzle says. The camera became an extension of the eye and arm."It's the only camera where the viewfinder is at the edge of the body. When the right eye aims, the left eye still sees the entire scene, missing nothing," says photographer Joel Meyerowitz, demonstrating on his Leica.
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📣 VERBATIM
“We need to fully support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
— Hungary’s minister for EU affairs János Bóka told pan-European outlet Euronews that his country’s support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is “beyond question,” adding that “a sustainable security architecture is not possible without engaging Russia through diplomatic channels." Hungary is an outlier in the EU, being the only country pushing for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine. This rhetoric has often resulted in explicit pro-Russian attitudes by Hungarian authorities, especially Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The country has opposed sanctions targeting Russia on multiple occasions and vetoed military aid to Ukraine, while Orbán has explicitly backed a Chinese peace plan that does not foresee an end to Russian occupation of Ukrainian sovereign soil.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Trump Assassination Attempt: How Close Is The U.S. To Civil War? — THE CONVERSATION
• Assad Aide's Fatal Car Crash: Was She The Latest Target Of The Syrian Regime? — DARAJ
• How The "Ratatouille Curse" Has Been Poisoning Haute Cuisine — LUCY SULLA CULTURA
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Fabrizio La Rocca
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