👋 Håfa adai!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Kamala Harris is now virtually assured to be the Democratic nominee to face Donald Trump, Israel’s Netanyahu signals a Gaza hostage deal may be close and Brazilian sharks test positive for cocaine. We also feature a piece in Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that explains why Russians are sending house cats to the front lines in Ukraine.
[*Chamorro - Guam]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Kamala Harris, obviously.” Since Joe Biden's announcement of withdrawal from the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris has been the talk of the press worldwide. For French daily Libération, her candidacy brings solid new hope for the Democrats.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Kamala Harris wins enough support for Democratic nomination. The U.S. vice-president will campaign in Wisconsin on Tuesday for the first time as a presidential candidate. Harris has received the endorsement of more than the 1,976 delegates, which would be enough to win the nomination in Democrats’ candidate for president and challenge former leader Donald Trump. The vice-president has raised more than $100 million for her campaign since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid Sunday.
• Netanyahu signals deal to free Gaza hostages could be near. The Israeli prime minister told families of dozens of hostages held in Gaza that a deal to secure their release could be near, his office said on Tuesday. This comes as Israeli forces pressed on with another raid into Gaza's southern area of Khan Younis after ordering evacuations, killing at least 70 Palestinians, Gaza medics reported.
• Hamas and Fatah sign agreement in Beijing for joint post-war governance of Gaza. Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Fatah and 12 other smaller Palestinian groups, have signed a “national unity” declaration after three days of intensive talks in China, agreeing to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern post-war Gaza. China, which seeks to play a mediating role in the conflict, had previously hosted Fatah and Hamas in April.
• Ukrainian drone attack kills one in Russian port. Five others were also wounded after several drones targeted a passenger ship at the Port Kavkaz in southern Russian, regional authorities reported. Meanwhile, a Russian drone attack overnight struck a critical infrastructure facility in Ukraine’s Sumy Region. Follow our coverage of the war in Ukraine here.
• Founder of South Korea’s Kakao arrested for alleged stock price rigging. Kim Beom-su, the billionaire founder of tech giant Kakao Corp, is accused of conspiring to inflate the stock price of K-pop juggernaut SM Entertainment during its acquisition last year and prevent its takeover by rival entertainment agency Hybe Corp. Kakao, which runs South Korea’s largest chat app, already went on trial in 2023 for alleged wrongdoing during the same acquisition.
• Scientists discover “dark oxygen” produced in deep ocean. At depths of 5 kilometers, researchers found that oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. This discovery challenges the long-held assumption that oxygen was only generated through photosynthesis. It also raises new concerns about the proposed deep-sea mining ventures, which seek to collect the nodules containing metals like lithium, as the dark oxygen also supports life on the seafloor.
• “Cocaine sharks” found in Brazil. Scientists have found that 13 sharpnose sharks from the shores near Rio de Janeiro tested for high levels of cocaine in their muscles and livers, with concentrations as much as 100 times higher than in previously tested aquatic creatures. Researchers believe the drug probably originated in drainage from illicit labs where cocaine is manufactured or through excrement of drug users.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
€2,425,310
The city of Venice, Italy has collected more than two million euros from a temporary €5 entrance fee for visitors, in an experiment to limit the massive flux of tourists. The 29-day reservation entrance fee, which began on April 25 and ran on selected days until July 14, brought in €2,425,310 (around $2.64 million), according to Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro. The city initially expected to collect around €700,000. A total of 3,618,114 individuals made reservations, of whom 1,398,084 were exempted from payment because they stayed in hotels.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Why Russia is sending house cats to the Ukraine war front lines
Rodents in the trenches are making life difficult for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers on both sides, and leading authorities and activists send house cats to the front lines, reports Wiktoria Bielaszyna in Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
🐈 “Soldiers complain to me that mice are bothering them,” Vladimir Maligyn, the head of a local patriotic-military group, said to Russian state television channel TNV about the wartime role that the cats are meant to play. “Cats saved the Hermitage [a state art museum] during the war, so I thought to myself: Why not send cats to our boys as well?” According to the TNV report, so far, four cats have been “mobilized” to the army from Tatarstan, but activists are preparing to send more.
🐀 Rodents make life seriously difficult not only for Russian soldiers. International media regularly remind us about the plague of rats and mice in the trenches on both sides of the front line. The U.S.-based multinational news channel CNN recently reported that "The front lines are swarming with rats and mice that spread diseases that cause vomiting and bleeding from the eyes, and also weaken combat effectiveness." The Ukrainian authorities say the problem has also been brought to their attention.
🔌 Both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers admit in conversations with the media that animals destroy helmets, damage communication cables, and eat food, medicine, clothing and leather products. They also chew through wires. "Sometimes, in just one unit, the damage caused by mice and rats can amount to tens of thousands of dollars," they said. Ihor Zahorodniuk, a researcher at the National Museum of History of Ukraine, told CNN that the losses could be much greater. "If they bite the wires, it may lead to loss of communication, which may even cost their lives," he said.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“If we have fun by killing an animal, we will have fun by killing human beings.”
— Colombian President Gustavo Petro has enacted a law banning bullfighting, ending what he called the “right to kill” animals for entertainment, drawing a provocative parallel to human murder. He celebrated the signing at the bullring in the capital Bogotá, renamed the Santamaria Cultural Square, where a crowd including animal rights activists had gathered, chanting “No more 'ole'!.”
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• My Fellow Palestinians, We Must Be Free To Criticize Hamas — DARAJ
• Why Poland's New Government Isn't Keeping Its Pledge On Abortion Rights — WORLDCRUNCH
• Is Grandma A "Childcare Slave"? The Risk Of Grandparent Babysitting Burnout — CLARÍN
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Laure Gautherin
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