👋 Ćao!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the war in Gaza, the Philippines is racing to contain what could be the worst oil spill in its history and Zagreb is now home to a very specific (and elegant) museum. Meanwhile, as the Olympics are set to begin in Paris, Fabrizio La Rocca explores Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s vision for turning the French capital into a model ecological city.
[*Montenegrin]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Argentine daily La Nación dedicates its front page to the chaotic opening match of the Olympic football tournament. The Argentina-Morocco game in the stadium of Saint Étienne ended up with bottles thrown on the field and Morocco fans running onto the pitch to protest a late goal by Argentina in the 16th minute of added time. The match was suspended for nearly two hours and the public evacuated while the goal was reviewed by VAR (video assistant referee). Eventually, it was dismissed and the players returned to the pitch for a final three minutes of added time in front of empty stands. Morocco held on for the victory with 2-1.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Netanyahu to meet Biden to discuss Gaza deal. The Israeli Prime Minister is set to make a long-awaited White House visit Thursday to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden, and likely Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, for talks that are expected to focus on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. This marks Netanyahu’s first White House visit since before former President Donald Trump left office in 2020, and follows his combative speech to Congress on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Israeli forces announced they have recovered from Gaza the bodies of five hostages killed during the October 7 attacks.
• Biden says he’s passing “the torch” to defend democracy. In a televised address from the Oval Office, the U.S. president explained his decision to drop out of the presidential race after determining “the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.”
• Putin meets Syria's Assad in the Kremlin. The Russian president's press service said on Thursday that Vladimir Putin told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he was concerned that tensions are rising in the Middle East, but no further details on their talks were provided. The two leaders last met in March 2023 in Moscow on the anniversary of Syria’s 12-year uprising-turned-civil war, in which Russia has provided significant military support to Damascus.
• Philippines races to contain oil spill as Typhoon Gaemi hits Taiwan. A Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel has capsized off the coast of Manila during the typhoon, prompting fears of the worst oil spill in the country’s history. Gaemi swept through northern Taiwan on Thursday, killing three people, before barrelling west towards China. It is the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years.
• Wildfire spreads to Canada’s Jasper National Park. Authorities reported more than 170 blazes across the western province of Alberta, including near Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies, one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. This outbreak of blazes comes after an unprecedented wildfire season in Canada last year, which saw the destruction of more than 45 million acres. Here’s a testimony from last summer translated from Italian by Worldcrunch from a local in Sicily, which experienced one its worst wildfire seasons ever: Sicily, My Sicily — A Lament From Inside The Inferno.
• Frankfurt airport halts flights amid climate protests. Germany's largest airport canceled more than 100 flights Thursday after climate activists breached security fences. The Last Generation climate group, whose members also blocked Cologne/Bonn airport on Wednesday, have promised multiple demonstrations throughout the week to highlight the link between fossil fuels, such as those used by airliners, and climate change. Read more in this analysis from Les Echos translated from French by Worldcrunch: Trains Or Planes? The Problem With Vilifying Air Travel.
• World’s first necktie museum opens in Croatia. Cravaticum - Museum Boutique of the Cravat, located in the country’s capital Zagreb, features a tie made of bulletproof material, innovative designs by renowned Croatian fashion designer Juraj Zigman, as well as an exhibition on the evolution of ties, which the museum claims were brought to the world by Croatian soldiers in the 17th century.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$243.6 million
Boeing has agreed to pay a fine of $243.6 million as part of a plea deal agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, in which the embattled aviation giant pleaded guilty to a felony charge of defrauding the U.S. government. Boeing was accused of misleading aviation regulators about software that played a role in crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The crash victims’ families have slammed the agreement, arguing that current and former company executives of the company should be criminally charged.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Seine swim? Car free? Paris mayor uses Olympics to showcase her ecological city vision
Mayor Anne Hidalgo made waves last week for swimming in the Seine following a historic effort to clean up the Parisian river. But her biggest environmental footprint is in trying to reshape Paris for a more pedestrian future.
🏊 Videos of mayor Anne Hidalgo swimming in the Seine River have become the defining image of the preparations for the Paris Olympic Games. Over the past eight years, €1.4 billion have been invested to clean the river in time for it to be swimmable for the triathlon, paratriathlon and swim-marathon events it will host. The decision to clean the Seine is only one of many initiatives implemented by the Hidalgo administration since 2014, when she was first elected, part of a broader push to make Paris an example for cities across the globe when it comes to the fight against climate change
🚴 While a clean and swimmable Seine will be the “first legacy” of the Olympic Games according to the mayor, most of the initiatives to make Paris more livable happen on dry land. In an interview given to La Tribune, Hidalgo says that, thanks to Paris 2024, the city will also manage to expand its bike lanes network by 60 kilometers (37 miles), on top of having 50 more hectares (124 acres) of the city center that will be “reclaimed from cars,” with new pedestrian areas and green spaces.
⛔ While others talk of reducing emissions from cars, Hidalgo's long-term vision is to reduce the number of cars. Research shows that car-free policies reduce air and noise pollution, and likely lead to a larger availability of urban green areas, higher levels of active mobility and physical activity, and even a reduction in premature mortality and morbidity. For this reason, more and more cities are implementing this policy to slash car emissions.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
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📣 VERBATIM
“I revere this office, but I love my country more.”
— U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a much anticipated televised address to the nation Wednesday night to explain why he had dropped out of the race for a second term. The 81-year-old didn’t mention the widespread concerns about his age and cognitive abilities, and said he believed he “merited a second term.” But nothing, Biden said could come “in the way of saving our democracy,” including “personal ambition.” “There is a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. That time and place is now.”
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet and Laure Gautherin
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