👋 Saqarik!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Vladimir Putin is welcomed in Mongolia despite an ICC arrest warrant, the trial of Volkswagen’s former boss opens over the 2015 diesel emissions scandal, and transgender sprinter Valentina Petrillo makes Paralympic history. For French daily Les Echos, Marie-Josée Cougard also starts *spreading* the news about a brand new kind of vegan-certified Nutella.
[*Kʼicheʼ, Guatemala]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Tel-Aviv-based daily Haaretz dedicates its front page to the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an Israeli-American and one of the six hostages reportedly killed by Hamas last Friday. The ceremony at a Jerusalem hilltop cemetery gathered thousands, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who spoke at the service and asked Goldberg-Polin’s parents for forgiveness for failing to return their son home alive. The newspaper also reports on the evolution of the protests across the country in the wake of mass demonstrations and strikes calling for a ceasefire with Hamas and a deal for the safe return of the remaining hostages.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Russian attacks kill three and target railway infrastructure. An eight-year-old boy was among two people killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region overnight. A third person died in a missile attack on the central city of Dnipro, Ukrainian officials said. Russia also attacked railways infrastructure in two regions and an energy facility in the northern region of Chernihiv. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has arrived in Mongolia, his first visit to an International Criminal Court (ICC) member since it issued a warrant for his arrest last year. The Russian president was welcomed by Mongolia's leader at a lavish ceremony in the Asian nation's capital, Ulaanbaatar, on Tuesday.
• Polio vaccination targets surpassed for Gaza children. The World Health Organization said that it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Tuesday, day three of a mass campaign, and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10. The campaign, which was hastened after the discovery of the first polio case in a baby last month, relies on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in specific areas of the enclave.
• Judge issues arrest warrant for Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo González. This comes after the country’s recent presidential election and was requested by the public prosecutor's office, loyal to Nicolás Maduro. Meanwhile on Monday, the United States seized a plane used by the Venezuelan president and flew it from the Dominican Republic to Florida after determining that its purchase violated U.S. sanctions. Read more about the fate of Venezuela’s democracy in this article, translated from Spanish to English.
• Pope Francis arrives in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Tuesday. This kicks off the pontiff’s longest and farthest trip to the Asia Pacific region. He is expected to highlight environmental concerns and the importance of interfaith dialogue during the 12-day trip, which will also see him travel to Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Timor-Leste. Francis turns 88 in December and has been battling a spate of health issues. Read more about Pope Francis in this article by Italian daily La Stampa, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
• School bus plows into crowd killing at least 11 in China. At least five students died and several others were injured. The bus appears to have rammed into the students and parents as they were standing outside the gates of a school in Tai’an city. The driver “lost control” of the vehicle, state media report, and was taken into custody as police investigate the cause of the incident. It is unclear if the incident was intentional.
• Former Volkswagen boss faces trial for “Dieselgate” role. After several delays, the criminal trial of former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn for his role in the “Dieselgate” scandal has opened in Germany. The trial began on Tuesday, nine years after the German auto giant admitted to cheating emissions tests, triggering global chaos in the industry. Winterkorn, accused of conspiracy to commit fraud, faces up to 10 years in jail.
• Transgender sprinter makes Paralympic history. Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympics. On the track at Paris’ Stade de France, Petrillo, 50, finished second in her heat of the T12 400 meters for the visually impaired, qualifying for the semi-finals. For more on the Paralympics, read this piece from Les Echos, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
NZ$100
New Zealand has announced that starting Oct. 1, it would triple its tourist tax, with the country’s International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL) going from NZ$35 ($22) to NZ$100 ($62). Introduced in 2019 to help cover the costs of environmental protection around the country, this tax is charged once to most international visitors upon requesting an NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) or applying for a tourist visa — whose price will also jump from $131 to $211.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇮🇷 Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has recently shifted his harsh rhetoric against Israel, another sign that Iran is trying to salvage a status quo in the region.
— DARAJ
🚸 The experimental four-day school week is expanding to multiple countries around the world. But will it really help reduce student stress and increase engagement in class time?
— WORLDCRUNCH
🍫🌰 A milk-free vegan version of the famous Nutella spread hits the shelves this week in three European countries, and the first taste tests are in!
— LES ECHOS
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Laure Gautherin
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