September 21-22
- Ukraine’s secret schools
- Fishing innovation
- French poet mystery elucidated
- … and much more.
🎲 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ
What do you remember from the news this week?
1. In what country were the pagers that exploded across Lebanon reportedly manufactured?
2. What’s the name of the deadly storm (sharing a name with a former British prime minister) that has wreaked havoc across Europe?
3. Over what article of clothing was a Hong Kong man sentenced to 14 months in jail for sedition — the first person to be sentenced under the territory’s new, stricter national security law?
4. What has food container company Tupperware announced this week? It is filing for bankruptcy / GPS-trackable lids / “Eau de Tupp” fragrance / Nuclear bomb-resistant containers
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
#️⃣ TRENDING
A deepfake video of former U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris singing in Mandarin has gone viral on Douyin, a Chinese social media app. The presidential candidates can be seen singing “I love you, China. My dear mother,” or “I cry for you, and I also feel proud for you,” in front of a mic. The series of AI-generated videos received thousands of likes and reposts. Back in May, other AI videos featuring Biden and Trump singing about friendship had also gone viral in China.
🎭 5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW
• Record number of female writers in Booker Prize shortlist. Five women and one man have been named in the 2024 shortlist of the prestigious prize, a record in its 55-year history. This year’s list includes authors from five countries represented, including the Netherlands for the first time with Yael van der Wouden’s debut novel The Safekeep. The Booker Prize is open to works of fiction written in English by authors anywhere in the world and published in the UK or Ireland.
• Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail on sex trafficking charges. A New York federal judge ruled that the hip-hop mogul would remain in custody after prosecutors argued he was a “serious flight risk.” The 54-year-old artist was arrested earlier this week, accused of running a “criminal enterprise” that engaged in crimes including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. Combs pleaded not guilty to the charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
• Dubai gallery opens Andy Warhol exhibition. The Foundry gallery is hosting artworks by the late pop art icon as part of “The Glam Factory” exhibition, which will offer “a new reading of Andy Warhol’s work through the lens of our digital era and here in Dubai,” said curator Nada Ghandour. The show, which features over 100 of Warhol’s original pieces, will run until Oct. 31.
• The Sims to be adapted into a movie and produced by Margot Robbie. Gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) has officially confirmed that a film based on the hit video game series is in the works, in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios and Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap. EA’s vice president Kate Gorman said the movie will be “very much rooted in The Sims universe” and will include “a lot of lore” from the game — one of the best-selling live simulation video games ever — including the infamous pools without ladders.
• French Renaissance poet identified in coffin at Notre-Dame. France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research believes that the remains of French poet Joachim Du Bellay are inside one of the two leaded coffins which were discovered under the transept crossing of Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral in April 2022. The coffins were found as part of thorough archaeological investigations that were launched following the fire that ravaged the cathedral in April 2019. It was known that Du Bellay, a famous poet who died at the age of about 35 in 1560, was buried in Notre-Dame but the exact location had remained a mystery.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💥 The pager attacks in Lebanon could mean we’re on our way to losing the basic trust in devices that have become essential to our lives.
— DARAJ
🇮🇱 Israel’s fight for self-defense has crossed the boundaries of international humanitarian law. The country now faces the risk of losing the war not just on moral and legal grounds, but also from a strategic perspective.
— DIE ZEIT
⚡ A project led by Indian conglomerate Adani to build a wind farm on a Sri Lankan island is causing concern, particularly for the local ecosystem.
— LES ECHOS
💻 Some Ukrainian teachers, parents and administrators continue to teach online and in secret in Russian-occupied territories, facing potential serious consequences if they are discovered.
— VAZHNYYE ISTORII/IMPORTANT STORIES
🧓📱 Grey-haired influencers are gaining millions of followers on social media, fighting back against ageist stereotypes and redefining what it means to grow older.
— WORLDCRUNCH
😻 SMILE OF THE WEEK
With its many museums and the famous CN Tower, Toronto is one of Canada’s leading tourist destinations. But did you know it also has… cat tours? The free Toronto Cat Tour offered this summer allowed tourists to wander through the city’s streets while admiring the fluffy pets with their masters at their homes. Cat lovers, be patient: The next tour isn’t scheduled until 2025!
🐟 BRIGHT IDEA
A new fishing device made of a flexible tube instead of usual trawl nets is making headlines: It allows fish to keep swimming inside the tube and makes it easier for fishermen to remove bycatch. FloMo was a creation of Precision Seafood Harvesting, a partnership of big seafood companies, which won the top prize at the Tesco Agri T-Jam Competition for its invention. The competition aims to reward sustainable solutions for the UK's supermarket chain. The product has already received regulatory approval in New Zealand and will go through trials with Tesco partners.
👓 WORLDCRUNCH MAGAZINE
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⏩ LOOKING AHEAD
• Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to New York next Tuesday as world leaders gather to engage in the annual high-level General Debate, as part of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky plans to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump in Washington D.C. next week, to present his “victory plan” in the war against Russia.
• Sri Lankasns are set to pick their next president this Saturday. Two of the leading presidential candidates have expressed an interest in reworking Sri Lanka’s $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout, which it received after the country’s catastrophic economic collapse.
• Earth is getting a second (albeit tiny) moon next week, as Asteroid 2024 PT5 — roughly the size of a bus — begins its two-month orbit around our planet.
News quiz answers:
1. A Taiwanese brand alleged that thousands of pagers that exploded across Lebanon were manufactured in Hungary. The country’s government however refuted these claims, saying the devices “have never been in Hungary.”
2. Storm Boris has caused widespread flooding and torrential rain in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Austria, Germany and northern Italy, killing at least 24 people.
3. A Hong Kong man was sentenced to 14 months in jail for wearing a T-shirt with protest slogans that were deemed “seditious.” The 27-year-old is the first person to be convicted under the city’s tough new national security law.
4. The food storage container firm Tupperware has announced it is filing for bankruptcy as the 78-year-old company struggles to survive in the face of sliding sales.
✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch
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*Photo: SceneNow