👋 Ke aal aee!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where an Israeli strike on a humanitarian tent camp in Gaza kills at least 40, Ukraine targets Moscow in the biggest drone attack yet, and actor James Earl Jones dies. Meanwhile, Anne Feitz for Les Echos wonders whether the nebulous technique of cloud seeding is such a good idea.
[*Dogri, Jammu and Kashmir, India]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Brazilian daily O Globo features a green-ish Rio Pinheiros on its front page, after the color of the river that flows through São Paulo changed over the weekend, due to the proliferation of algae. This was caused by low levels of water in the tributaries of the Rio Pinheiros, following a severe drought — one of the most recent impacts of the climate crisis the city and the country are facing, as the front page also laments “the world's worst air in São Paulo.”
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Ukraine launches biggest drone attack to date on Moscow. Ukraine struck in and around the Russian capital on Tuesday, killing at least one woman, and destroying dozens of homes, forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow. Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry says Russian troops captured the town of Krasnohorivka in eastern Ukraine and three villages in different parts of the Donetsk region.
• Dozens killed, wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza tent camp. At least 40 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza. Residents said three missiles hit a tented camp crowded with displaced Palestinians. The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked what it called “a number of senior Hamas terrorists” operating there — a claim Hamas denied. Read more about the humanitarian situation in Gaza in this Daraj article, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch.
• Harris, Trump set for Tuesday debate. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump are set to face off in a debate Tuesday night that may be the only such showdown before the Nov. 5 presidential election. This will be the first time the two candidates meet, and they have never even spoken on the phone before. They are set to trade barbs with each other for 90 minutes while answering questions from two ABC News anchors, David Muir and Linsey Davis. Follow our international coverage on the U.S. elections here.
• EU top court rules against Apple, Google. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday that Google had violated antitrust laws and that Apple needed to pay the European Union €13 billion ($14.3 billion) in back taxes. Both cases are seen as an effort by Brussels to close tax loopholes exploited by the U.S. tech giants.
• Nearly 200 environmentalists killed in 2023 globally, with most in Latin America. A recorded total of 196 environmental activists from around the world were killed in 2023, watchdog Global Witness said Tuesday, with Colombia ranking as the deadliest country, and Latin America remaining the most dangerous region of the world for environmental activists, with 85% of the killings occurring there. The report also alerted readers of a “crackdown on environmentalists across the UK, Europe and the U.S.,” warning that “laws are increasingly being weaponized against defenders.”
• Actor James Earl Jones dies at 93. He was known for his imposing stage and screen presence and his commanding voice defined Star Wars villain Darth Vader. Jones, who had had diabetes for many years, died on Monday at home. Check out this video featuring top Star Wars moments in 10 languages.
• Polaris Dawn mission blasts off. Four astronauts have launched into space with the mission to make the first privately-funded spacewalk. The mission is being bankrolled by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is also mission commander. Read more about the Polaris Dawn mission and other space conquests in this article.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
599,600
Russia recorded its lowest birth rate since 1999 in the first semester of 2024. According to data published by the statistics service Rosstat, only 599,600 children were born over the first six months of 2024 — that is 16,000 fewer than over the same period last year. With mortality on the rise due to aging and the war in Ukraine, Russia's natural decline of population accelerated this year, a situation which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described as “catastrophic for the future of the nation.”
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇷🇺🗳️ After U.S. authorities exposed a large-scale Russian operation aimed at influencing European governments, Germans see the consequences in its recent regional elections in Saxony and Thuringia.
— DIE ZEIT
♀️ There’s a noted rise in femicides in Tunisia, and the authorities say women should stay quiet.
— AL-MANASSA
🌧️ In the context of persistent droughts, cloud seeding is attracting growing interest. But is this technology really effective? And are we sure it’s not harmful to the environment?
— LES ECHOS
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Watching over the damage left by Ukrainian drones in the town of Ramenskoye just southeast of Moscow. On Tuesday, Kyiv targeted the Russian capital with an estimated 144 drones, at least 20 of which were reportedly shot down. At least one woman was killed, and dozens of homes were destroyed in Ukraine’s largest such attack to date. — Photo: Sergei Bulkin/TASS/ZUMA
📣 VERBATIM
“I’ve never seen such a level of death and destruction.”
— The UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the urgency of a ceasefire in Gaza in an interview with The Associated Press. “The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations,” he said, adding that if the UN would be available to support any cease-fire through its military monitoring mission in the Middle East, Israel is unlikely to accept any role of the global organization in Gaza.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright and Laure Gautherin
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