👋 Ko na mauri!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Russia’s Kursk region declares a state of emergency as Ukraine launches a cross-border attack, Israeli forces step up raids across the occupied West Bank and Paris’ skies won’t see any “flying taxis” during the Olympics. Meanwhile, Greece-based journalist Ignacio Pereyra reflects on the necessity of highlighting our hidden talents and unseen efforts that shape our daily lives.
[*Gilbertese, Kiribati]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Austrian tabloid Heute devotes its front page to the “Terror alert!” that has led to the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna, over fears of terrorist attacks. On Wednesday, authorities announced they had arrested two suspected extremists who had made “preparatory actions” for an attack on an upcoming event in the capital city. As the pop superstar was scheduled to play at the Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of her Eras Tour, organizers had to call off the concerts, as a security measure, to the fans’ great displeasure. And on a lighter note, read more about parenting trouble, trouble, trouble at Taylor Swift’s concerts here.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• State of emergency declared in Russia’s Kursk region as Ukraine launches incursion. The rare cross-border attack by Ukrainian troops continued on Wednesday. Russian officials said at least five civilians had been killed and 31 wounded, six of them children, since the start of the raid. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack as a “major provocation” by Ukraine.
• Israel forces step up attacks across the occupied West Bank. At least seven Palestinians, including two children, were wounded in the raids, which included the Qalqilya refugee camp near Nablus on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Turkey filed a request with a UN court to join South Africa’s lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. More on the topic in this Daraj article, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: How The Big Lie About Israel's "Most Moral" Army Has Come Crashing Down.
• Ex-Catalan leader Puigdemont returns to Spain despite arrest warrant. Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has returned to Spain after seven years of self-imposed exile and despite a pending warrant for his arrest. Large crowds of supporters turned up to greet the politician in Barcelona on Thursday. Puigdemont fled Spain in 2017 following his role in a failed independence bid for the wealthy region.
• Widespread rioting on pause in UK after show of unity. A heavy security presence across Britain and a "show of unity" by local communities prevented, on Thursday, a repeat of the widespread rioting seen over the past week. The riots, which involved racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants, were fueled by misinformation over a July 29 stabbing attack that killed three young girls in Southport, northwest England. A wave of false online posts wrongly identified the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant.
• Tunisian President Saied unexpectedly replaces prime minister as elections near. Tunisian President Kais Saied has sacked Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani and replaced him with Social Affairs Minister Kamel Madouri. The dismissal comes ahead of Tunisia’s Oct. 6 presidential election, in which Saied is seeking another term, and amid widespread discontent over continuing water and electricity outages in many parts of the country. Read more about Kais Saied here: Tunisia's Crackdown On African Migrants — Straight From The President.
• G7 ambassadors to miss Nagasaki atomic bomb memorial over Israel's exclusion. The mayor of Nagasaki has defended his decision not to invite Israel to Friday’s memorial for those killed in the 1945 atomic bombing after ambassadors from countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, said they would no longer attend the event. Their absence could embarrass Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, set to attend the annual event, which typically draws less attention than ceremony held in Hiroshima three days earlier to mark the first-ever use of nuclear weapons.
• Paris scraps plans for Olympic “flying taxis.” Test flights of so-called flying taxis, futuristic drones capable of transporting people, have been scrapped in Paris during the Olympics as the certification for the engine has not come through, its promoters told AFP on Thursday. German manufacturer Volocopter has been conducting test flights in the Paris region for several years and had lobbied hard for authorization from European authorities in time for the Olympics. More about the Paris Olympics and tech here!
💬 LEXICON
Cruisezilla
Cruise ships have more than doubled in size since the year 2000, according to report by Transport & Environment (T&E, a European umbrella for non-governmental organizations working for sustainable transport in the continent) that denounces these Cruisezillas (a combination of “cruise” and “Godzilla,” the famous Japanese dragon-like monster). If this trend continues, the ships could soon be eight times the size of the Titanic by 2050. The ever-increasing size of these vessels also means they consume more fuel — on which they’re exempt of duties — and thus reject more carbon emissions, at a time of climate emergency. Check out this article on the case of the Royal Caribbean cruise ship company who bought a state concession in the Italian coastal city of Fiumicino to try to build its own port.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Our hidden talents — and how they go unnoticed in a world obsessed with results
In a world fixated on visible outcomes, we often overlook the hidden talents and unseen efforts that shape our daily lives. But less visible skills, and the complex journeys behind every achievement, are equally important, writes Greece-based journalist Ignacio Pereyra.
💪 We tend to focus on the results, which are often visible to all, but we are rarely witnesses of the process. We are quick to judge a finished book, a free-kick goal, the end of a university career, but we pay little or no attention to the hours of writing, the training needed to improve a shot or the years of study. We see the final picture — Messi with the World Cup, Marta with the Ballon d'Or, Jon Fosse with the Nobel Prize for Literature, or Matthew Perry dead — but we have little idea of the path each one has taken to reach that moment.
🥧 It's a bit embarrassing to talk about one's supposed talents, but these are skills that are somewhat invisible. I'm sure you too have a talent that you're proud of but that few people know about, don’t you? For example, I'm good at reheating stale bread and making it taste and feel like it is freshly baked. The same with pies, which taste like they are fresh out of the oven. I also tend to be good at propagating some plants.
🛠️ It also gives me great pleasure to restore a piece of furniture or to give a second or third life to a piece of wood I pick up in the street. There are many shelves, desks, stools and bookcases at home that I created. I love it when somebody asks me where I bought them and I boast that I literally took them out of the trash.
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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📣 VERBATIM
“This is becoming too hot to handle.”
— Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Europe’s climate monitoring program C3S, is warning about the exponential increase of temperatures worldwide over the past months, with the latest report predicting that it is “increasingly likely” 2024 will be the hottest year on record. Although the month of July registered “only” as the second warmest, it only breaks a 13-month period when each month surpassed its temperature record for the time of year. From January to July global temperatures were 0.70 °C above the 1991-2020 average.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• What The Debate Over Haniyeh’s Assassination Reveals About Syria And Gaza — DARAJ
• Exploitation Of Land And Locals? The Controversy Plaguing East African Oil Projects — LA MAREA
• Witnessing The Olympic Summer Miracle Of "Ferragosto" — DOTTORÉ!
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Laure Gautherin
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