👋 Mhoroi!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where Hamas names Yahya Sinwar as its new chief, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris officially introduces her vice presidential running mate Tim Walz and a new study unlocks the mystery of Indonesia's extinct “Hobbit” people. Meanwhile, Ahmad Al-Sawy in Arabic-language news website Al-Manassa looks at what Egypt doesn’t get about the concept of competition, whether in politics or soccer.
Erratum: Earlier today, we accidentally sent out one of our special “Summer Reads” newsletters slated for next Monday. Apologies — and enjoy the sneak preview!
[*Shona, Zimbabwe]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Havana-based daily Granma writes on its front page that “Mijaín is Cuba,” after Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijaín Lopez made Olympic history as he became the first athlete to win five consecutive individual gold medals in the same event. After defeating Chile's Yasmani Acosta Fernandez 6-0 in the 130-kg final of the Paris Olympics, the 41-year-old immediately retired, symbolically placing his shoes in the center of the mat. “If any human work could be closer to perfection, it would be that that has just ended here, with his fifth consecutive Gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. However, the most important thing for him is ‘to feel proud of being Cuban and give back to Cuba everything it taught me,’” writes the Cuban newspaper.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Hamas names Yahya Sinwar as new overall leader. After two days of long negotiations in Doha, Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as its new overall chief, replacing Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Tehran last week. Since 2017, Sinwar has served as the group's leader in Gaza. He will now become leader of its political wing. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sinwar has the power to ensure that a ceasefire deal is reached stopping the war in Gaza and freeing hostages.
• Ukrainian forces launched cross-border attack into Russia, Moscow says. Ukraine struck Russia's Kursk region with drones and rockets on Wednesday as part of what Russian officials said was a major attempt to go through the Russian border. Russia has advanced this year after the failure of Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive to achieve any major gains, and has taken 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of territory from Ukrainian forces according to Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia's security council. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here.
• Thai court dissolves reformist party that won election. A Thai court has ordered the dissolution of the Move Forward reformist party that won the most seats and votes in last year’s election but was blocked from forming a government. The ruling also banned the party’s young former leader Pita Limjaroenrat and 10 other senior figures from politics for 10 years. The verdict from the Constitutional Court was expected, after its ruling in January that Move Forward’s campaign promise to change royal defamation laws was unconstitutional.
• Democrats Harris and Walz campaign together for first time as White House ticket. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her newly selected vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, campaigned for the first time together on Tuesday in Philadelphia, kicking off a multi-day tour aimed at introducing Walz to the national stage. For more, check this recent article on Kamala Harris from Italian daily La Stampa, translated by Worldcrunch.
• Yunus appointed as head of government in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's protest leaders said they expect members of an interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, to be finalized on Wednesday. This comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled to India following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising. Bangladesh's president appointed Yunus, who was recommended by student leaders, as the head of the interim government late on Tuesday.
• Beijing, Manila and allies launch drills near South China Sea flashpoint. China’s military has launched military drills near a territory in the South China Sea over which it contests sovereignty with the Philippines. The Southern Theatre Command said on Wednesday that it had carried out air and sea combat patrols “near Huangyan Island,” the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal, to test “strike capabilities.” The exercises appear to be a response to same-day military maneuvers by the United States, Australia, Canada and the Philippines. Read more about the region here.
• Tiny arm bone unlocks mystery of Indonesia's extinct “Hobbit” people. Twenty years ago, scientists discovered fossils of an early human species that stood about 3.5 feet (1.07 meters) tall on the Indonesian island of Flores. Now, a new study suggests that the ancestors of the diminutive Homo floresiensis, nicknamed “Hobbits” after the fictional characters in The Lord of the Rings, were even shorter. The latest findings of the 88mm (3.5 inches) bone suggests the Hobbits’ ancestors, thought to have lived some 700,000 years ago, were about 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall.
📣 VERBATIM
“We tried peace for two years, now, it is war.”
— X/Twitter owner Elon Musk has announced he is suing major companies (Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Orsted), alleging that they unlawfully conspired to boycott the social media platform, depriving it of “billions of dollars” in advertising revenue. The firms had suspended their advertising on the platform then known as Twitter in 2022, just after Musk bought it, amid concerns that he was not serious enough about removing harmful online content. The platform’s advertising revenue subsequently slumped by more than half. More about the controversial entrepreneur here, courtesy of France Inter’s Pierre Haski: Elon Musk And The Tech Right: Trump's Indispensable Allies For November.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
From sports to politics, what Egypt doesn't understand about competition
Egypt disqualified a track cyclist from the Paris Olympics following an incident of unsportsmanlike behavior. But there is general confusion in Egyptian society — whether in politics or soccer — over the concept of competition, writes Ahmad Al-Sawy in Arabic-language news website Al-Manassa.
🚫 An Egyptian track cyclist was disqualified from the Paris Olympics by the Egyptian Olympic Committee on July 14, after a video surfaced that appeared to show her knocking a competitor off her bicycle during the national championship in April. While she insists it was an accident, the incident has raised questions about her sports ethic and fair play mindset; she continued the race with indifference to her fallen colleague.
⚖️ In general, there is confusion about the concept of competition in Egyptian society, which denounces it in the first place. Anyone who is at the forefront of any field finds it shameful and perhaps impudent for someone to think about competing with him according to specific rules. The basic principle of political competition is that it is conducted in accordance with the constitution and the law, in order to gain the confidence of voters to establish the government.
⚽ This aversion to competition also applies to sports, especially soccer, Egypt's most popular sport. Teams should compete according to specific rules and regulations and equal opportunities, but many insiders indicate that fair competition does not exist in Egypt's soccer system. A friend explained to me how a senior military commander, who was known as a big fan of Cairo’s Zamalek soccer club, intervened in managing the Egyptian league in the 1990s to ensure that Zamalek came out on top.
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#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
34.38%
With a scary 34.38% injury rate, BMX is officially the most dangerous Olympic sport, a study by the website Casinority has found. Using data from the British Journal of Sports Medicine on all Summer Games between Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020, researchers ranked the sports by injury rate, with some surprising results: table tennis was found to be riskier than equestrian. But BMX cycling remains the most perilous sport, with a peak injury rate registered at the Rio 2016 Olympics where 37.5% of athletes sustained traumas.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Laure Gautherin
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