👋 ሰላም ሃለው*
Welcome to Tuesday, where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt for talks on Gaza, Russia announces a new major military draft, and a British zoo is looking for a capybara on the lam. From Beirut-based, Arabic-language media Daraj, we also feature an article about The Goat Life, a new Indian movie on Netflix that is causing major controversy across Gulf countries over its depiction of abuses suffered by migrants under the “kafala” system.
[*Selam halewi - Tigrinya, Eritrea and Ethiopia]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Porto-based daily Jornal de Notícias dedicates its front page to the wildfires raging in central and northern Portugal. Two people died, dozens of houses burned and several villages had to be evacuated by authorities. Police also shut a stretch of the main highway Monday between Lisbon and Porto while 12 water-bombing aircrafts have been deployed and thousands of firefighters are battling at least 20 fires across the country.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Blinken heads to Egypt to discuss Gaza ceasefire. This marks the U.S. Secretary of State’s 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago. Blinken will discuss efforts to reach a deal “that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. Meanwhile, Israel updated on Tuesday its formal war goals, adding the safe return of its citizens to their homes near the border with Lebanon. For more, check this article translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: Why Israel’s All-Out War In Lebanon Looks More Likely Than Ever.
• Putin orders third increase in troop numbers, army to become second largest after China. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its troop numbers by 180,000 in a new decree that will take effect on Dec. 1. This would bring the total of active servicemen to 1.5 million, making Russia’s army the second largest in the world after China. This marks the third time Putin has expanded the armed forces’ ranks since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
• Meta bans Russian state media over “foreign interference activity.” The company said in a statement late Monday it was banning Russian state media outlets including Rossiya Segodnya and RT from its apps Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. The announcement comes days after the U.S. Justice Department announced charges against two RT employees for funneling nearly $10 million into a U.S. company through shell entities.
• Trump back on campaign trail after apparent assassination attempt. The former U.S. President is traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to continue his campaign trail before the November elections following what seems to have been a second attempt on his life last weekend. The suspect, who reportedly hid for 12 hours at Trump’s Florida golf course, was charged with two gun-related crimes on Monday. Meanwhile, Democrat candidate Kamala Harris heads to the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. Read more in this article from Die Zeit, translated by Worldcrunch: Votes Or Violence? What Trump Assassination Attempts Reveal About U.S. Democracy Right Now.
• “I’m a rapist,” admits Frenchman in mass rape trial. Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old Frenchman accused of drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of men to abuse her for over a decade, admitted to all charges against him in his first hearing on Tuesday since the trial opened on Sept. 2. “They all knew, they cannot say the contrary,” Pelicot said, referring to the 50 co-defendants who are accused of raping his now ex-wife Gisèle. Read more about how Gisèle Pelicot, who requested that the trial be open to the public, has redefined victimhood in this piece translated from German by Worldcrunch.
• Typhoon Yagi’s death toll doubles to more than 220 in Myanmar. Some 77 people remain missing, the military government reports, while the UN warns that as hundreds of thousands of acres of crops are destroyed, more than half a million people in the war-torn country are in urgent need of food. Typhoon Yagi, which has swept through northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, has killed more than 500 people across the region so far. Meanwhile in central Europe, mass flooding caused by storm Boris has prompted Poland to deploy more than 5,000 troops and evacuate more than 40,000 people from the town of Nysa. The death toll has risen to 18.
• Zoo calls for help to locate missing capybara. The Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Telford in the UK announced in a Facebook post that “beloved capybara” Cinnamon had disappeared last Friday after escaping from its habitat and entering the woodlands within the zoo’s premises. The facility asked the public to report any sightings, warning that the large rodent shouldn’t be approached.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
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U.S. rapper Kanye West, a.k.a. Ye, performed in China for the first time in 16 years at the Wuyuan River Stadium, in the southern Hainan province. The show had been announced just days earlier, and more than 42,000 tickets sold out within minutes. Surprisingly approved by the country’s censors — who had denied performing right to many foreign artists such as Maroon 5, Justin Bieber or Bon Jovi — the rapper treated his Chinese fans to a marathon 74-song setlist that included the unreleased song “Everybody” where Ye was joined on stage by his four children.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
♀️ The women who resist repressive regimes in Iran and Afghanistan deserve the support of the international community.
— FRANCE INTER
🇪🇹🇷🇺 From Russian support for its economy to Soviet scholarships for Ethiopian students, Ethiopia’s widespread appreciation for Moscow has deep historical roots.
— GAZETA WYBORCZA
🎥🗯️ A new Indian movie released on Netflix which exposes the abuses against migrants under the “kafala” system has been stirring up widespread controversy, especially in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
— DARAJ
📣 VERBATIM
“All good here.”
— This was one of the last messages from the five-person crew of the Titan submersible before it imploded in June 2023 while it was descending towards the wreck of the Titanic. As U.S. Coast Guard officials started a two-week inquiry to uncover the facts of the incident, a number of pieces of evidence were presented during a hearing by investigators, including the final communications with the mother ship, the Polar Prince, a recreation of the journey, a historical overview of the Titan and images of the sub after the tragedy. One hour into the dive and approximately an hour before the implosion, the crew signaled that the descent was going well.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Laure Gautherin
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