👋 اسلام عليكم*
Welcome to Wednesday, where Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba resigns, anti-whaling activist Paul Watson awaits an extradition decision, and Spain prevents the theft of a whole lot of olives. We also feature a piece by Christophe Palierse for French economic daily Les Echos, checking in on the surprising good health of the luxury cruise tourism market.
[*Ssalamū ‘lekum - Darija, Morocco]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“The horror, once again,” laments La Voix du Nord, a regional daily from northern France, as it lends its front page to the sea tragedy that saw at least 12 migrants die on Tuesday after their boat ripped open on its way across the Channel to Britain. One pregnant woman and six children are among the victims. While 51 passengers have been rescued, two are still missing and two of the survivors are currently in critical condition, in what is the deadliest such accident in the Channel this year.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Ukraine’s foreign minister resigns, Russian air attack kills seven in Lviv. Dmytro Kuleba submitted his resignation on Wednesday, the highest-profile departure so far of a major government reshuffle ordered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Four other Cabinet ministers tendered their resignations late Tuesday. Meanwhile, an overnight drone and missile attack on the western city of Lviv killed seven people, including three children. This comes a day after the war’s deadliest single attack this year, when Russia hit a military institute in the central town of Poltava, leaving at least 50 dead. Follow Worldcrunch’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.
• U.S. charges Hamas leader and other militants over Oct. 7 attack. The Justice Department announced criminal charges on Tuesday against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and several other prominent figures in the Palestinian group in connection with its deadly attack in Israel. The seven charges include the murder of dozens of U.S. citizens, conspiracy to finance terrorism and use of weapons of mass destruction. This marks the first effort by U.S. law enforcement to hold accountable the masterminds of the attack.
• China hosts biggest African summit in years. Chinese leader Xi Jinping will host more than two dozen African leaders at a dinner on Wednesday, kicking off a three-day summit that is Beijing’s biggest since 2018. With this event, China intends to showcase itself as a lead partner for the continent, with promises of cooperation in infrastructure, energy and education. China isn’t the only country courting Africa, says Pierre Haski in this analysis translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• Grenfell Tower inquiry blames UK governments, “dishonest” firms and fire service. The final report on the devastating 2017 London Grenfell Tower blaze, which killed 72 people was published on Wednesday, saying that all deaths were “avoidable.” The 1,700-page report states the disaster is the result of a series of failures by governments, a lack of strategy by the fire service, and companies that “deliberately concealed” the fire risks their cladding and insulation products posed. The fire was Britain’s deadliest blaze in a residential building since World War II.
• Greenland court to decide on extradition of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson. The court in Nuuk will rule on Wednesday whether to keep the 73-year-old American-Canadian in custody pending extradition to Japan over a whaling altercation. Watson was arrested on July 21 when he docked to refuel in the capital of the Danish autonomous territory on his way to “intercept” a new Japanese whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific.
• Uganda’s opposition figure Bobi Wine injured in altercation with police. Wine was shot in the leg by security agents in a northern suburb of the capital Kampala on Tuesday, said his political party, the National Unity Platform. The singer-turned-politician who ran for president in 2021 has emerged as the biggest opponent to veteran President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country for nearly 40 years.
• “Queen of Trash” on trial in Sweden’s biggest environmental crime case. Businesswoman Bella Nilsson, who styled herself as the “Queen of Trash” and was the former CEO of the defunct waste management firm Think Pink, has gone on trial in Sweden with 10 others charged with “aggravated environmental crime.” Think Pink is accused of illegally dumping or burying 200,000 tons of waste in 21 locations between 2015 and 2020.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
465 kg
As the verdeo — olives harvest — season starts in Spain, so does the olive and olive oil trafficking. Near the town of Albaida del Aljarafe, in southern Seville province, the Guardia Civil national law enforcement agency said it has prevented the theft of 465 kg (1,025 pounds) of manzanilla olives, which had already been collected and loaded onto vehicles. The fruits and their “liquid gold” oil have long become an object of interest for criminal gangs and counterfeiters. During the 2023-24 harvest in the Seville province alone, police officers confiscated 150 tons (330,700 pounds) of stolen olives and around 100 five-liter bottles of olive oil that bore fake labels.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💥 Israel and Hezbollah seem to have engaged in a routine theatrical production of responding to attacks in a way that displays their respective fortitude, while being careful not to let one outdo the other.
— DARAJ
☦️ Russia's pro-war influencers often write about Russian President Vladimir Putin, reverently calling him “the Supreme One,” “the Darkest One,” or simply “the Boss” — in a mix of fear and faith.
— HOLOD
⛴️ Despite the pandemic and environmental concerns, cruise lines are heading for a record year. The market is diversifying with luxury hotel groups making inroads with smaller ships and exclusive experiences.
— LES ECHOS
📣 VERBATIM
“At the ballot box, what matters is vote totals, not decibel level.”
— Following German far-right party AfD’s surge in Sunday's regional elections, journalist Mark Schieritz reflects in Hamburg-based daily Die Zeit on the dominant feeling that it constitutes a historical turning point in the country’s politics. Yet the 400,000 AfD voters in Thuringia “do not represent a shift to the right or a desire to overthrow the system: They just represent themselves,” Schieritz writes, noting that in current polls “AfD is only getting 16 to 17% nationwide. And even if the party claims the opposite, they are far from being a majority.” Read Schieritz’s full article for Die Zeit here, translated from German by Worldcrunch.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Laure Gautherin
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