👋 Alii!*
Welcome to Monday, where Ukraine hits two new bridges in Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says this may be “the last opportunity” for a ceasefire deal in Gaza, and the Duchess of Sussex scores big in Colombia. Meanwhile, Ariana Moreira in Mensagem looks at the ways Portugal’s capital Lisbon could be more sustainable from a tourism perspective.
[*Palauan, Republic of Palau]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
French daily Le Parisien pays tribute to actor Alain Delon, who died at 88 on Sunday, calling him “the last samurai” in reference to one of his most famous movies, The Samurai (1967). Considered a film legend and icon of French cinema’s golden era, Delon appeared in almost 90 movies and received global praise for his many roles, from hitman to boxer to charismatic conman.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Ceasefire talks and investigation over prisoner abuse in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said now is “maybe the last opportunity” to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza, after meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday. Blinken aims to intensify diplomatic pressure to achieve a breakthrough deal later this week. Meanwhile, Israel has opened an investigation of Israeli soldiers suspected of sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner. The UN has received several reports of alleged torture of Palestinian detainees since October 2023. Read more on the stakes of the ceasefire deal in this piece by Pierre Haski for France Inter.
• New Mpox variant and cases trigger global concern. The Philippines reported on Monday a new case of the virus in a man with no history of foreign travel. It is the first case in the country since December and was detected by heightened government surveillance following the outbreak in Africa reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) last week. The virus, which spreads easily through routine close contact, is accompanied by symptoms of fever and a distinct skin rash.
• Ukraine destroys third bridge in Kursk. Moscow said on Monday that Ukraine had struck and damaged a third bridge over the Seym River in the Russian region of Kursk a day earlier. Also on Sunday, Ukraine air forces reported the destruction of a second strategic bridge over the river. Since launching a surprise cross-border offensive on Aug. 6, Ukrainian forces said they have seized more than 80 settlements and 1,150 square km in the area. The attacks aim to disrupt Russian supply lines and to create a “buffer zone,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky. They mark the largest attack on Russia since World War II. For more on Ukraine’s strategy we offer this article by Maxim Kireev for German daily Die Zeit.
• U.S. and South Korea kick off military drills. The yearly summertime large-scale exercise that aims to strengthen the combined capabilities of U.S. and South Korean troops started today on the Korean Peninsula. The drills started hours after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry published a statement declaring the exercises “provocative” and justifying Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. The U.S. and South Korea describe these joint exercises as defensive and have upgraded their training to cope with North Korea’s heightened and evolving threats.
• X suspends activities in Brazil. The social media platform formerly known as Twitter announced it will close its operations in Brazil following a clash with Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. X claims that de Moraes threatened to arrest the company’s legal representatives in Brazil if they didn’t comply with his “censorship orders.” The Supreme Court Justice had ordered that accounts accused of spreading disinformation be blocked while they are under investigation, and ordered a 100,000 reais ($19,774) fines per day for any account reactivated by X. Elon Musk’s company did not clarify how it would continue to provide services to Brazilians after the suspension of its operations.
• Thailand’s king endorses new prime minister. King Maha Vajiralongkorn endorsed Paetongtarn Shinawatra as Thailand’s new prime minister on Sunday, two days after her election by the country’s parliament. The daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn becomes the youngest Thai prime minister and the third of her family to occupy this position. Her government faces several challenges, including reforms of the economic and universal healthcare systems. More about the state of democracy in Thailand here.
• ¡Hola Meghan! The Duchess of Sussex spoke Spanish at an “Afro women and power” event in Cali, Colombia on Sunday, where she and her husband, Prince Harry, wrapped up a visit to the country. “I would like to speak Spanish because we are in your country [...] and I can feel this embrace from Colombia,” said Meghan Markel, who also called Vice President Francia Marquesa “my friend.” While she was a student, Meghan interned in the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires and studied in Madrid where she developed her Spanish-speaking skills.
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📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Could Porto's sustainable tourism experiment work in Lisbon?
The cities of Amsterdam and Bruges may inspire the Portuguese capital to reinvent its approach to tourism. As Porto launches an experimental new vision map designed to disperse tourist flows, could Lisbon do the same? asks Ariana Moreira in Portuguese news website Mensagem.
🇪🇸 🏢 Barcelona recently announced a historic decision: It will not be issuing new licenses for short-term rentals, and the current ones will not be renewed after November 2028. But the capital of Spain’s Catalonia region is not the only city taking such initiatives. Recently, several European capitals have started considering ways to discourage tourism, or at least make it more sustainable. In Portugal, the city of Porto is setting an example with an experiment of “territorial and interesting quarters.” Where does Lisbon stand in this story? In 2023, more than 20.2 million overnight stays were recorded in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with more than 75% of the guests being foreigners.
🇵🇹 🏖️ The charms of Porto are no longer a secret; the coastal city in northwest Portugal saw a 41.8% increase in the number of available beds from 2017 to 2022. In 2022, around 4.8 million overnight stays were recorded — surpassing pre-pandemic levels (4.5 million overnight stays in 2019). It is believed that tourist pressure is increasingly causing the closure of various historic and traditional shops. In this context, the "Yours Truly, Porto" project was created to disperse tourist flows. It includes the analysis of international tourism sector trends, drawing inspiration from World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recommendations for dealing with overtourism. This new vision of the city will allow for the individualization of promotion strategies and investment attraction for each quarter, based on identity, competitiveness factors, attractiveness, and the tourism offer, responding to the needs, potentialities, and idiosyncrasies of each “micro-destination” within Porto.
🔎 💬 The strategy is seen positively by Jorge Ferreira, a professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and a researcher in Tourism Geography. He believes that something similar could be considered for the capital city, Lisbon. But Ferreira warns against transferring the model designed for Porto, which has a smaller population (around 237,000 people) than Lisbon — although both have "basically the same population density." In the capital, these dynamics are also diverse, and from a more sustainable tourism perspective. Ferreira believes that the city "needs to be promoted more as a territory extending to other municipalities, including the south bank of the Tagus River, especially for the attractiveness of its beaches, gastronomy, nature, etc.," as well as the cities of Sintra and Mafra, UNESCO Cultural Heritage.
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