👋 Mari mari!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon, Mexico’s new President Claudia Sheinbaum gets sworn in, and a junk dealer has a Picasso. Meanwhile, for Gazeta Wyborcza, Dominika Wantuch takes us on a horse-drawn buggy tour of the secretive and fascinating life of the Amish community in Minnesota.
[*Mapuche, Chile and Argentina]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
The Jiefang Daily celebrates the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on October 1, 1949. The official daily of the Shanghai committee of the Chinese Communist Party reports on the speech Chinese leader Xi Jinping made ahead of a state banquet, in which he emphasized the new era and great future although warning of “rough seas ahead”, while reiterating his pledge to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon ground raids. Israel said intense fighting erupted with Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Tuesday after its paratroopers, commandos and armored units launched raids at the start of a ground incursion. The operation follows intense airstrikes that have devastated the group's leadership, including assassinating its chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 21 people in Gaza on Tuesday, as the Israeli military said it had been targeting command centers used by Hamas. Read this piece by French analyst Dominique Moisi, explaining the aftermath of Nasrallah’s death.
• Joe Biden plans survey of devastation in North Carolina as Helene death toll tops 130. Emergency workers are continuing to work around-the-clock to clear roads, restore power and cellphone service, and reach people left stranded by Hurricane Helene. The storm has killed at least 133 people and hundreds more were still unaccounted for four days after Helene initially made landfall. Meanwhile, election officials across the South were making emergency preparations to ensure displaced residents would be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
• UN extends Haiti security mission for another year. The United Nations Security Council has extended the mandate of a multinational police mission to Haiti for another year, as the Caribbean nation struggles with a surge in gang violence and instability.The resolution, adopted unanimously on Monday, extended the Kenyan-led policing mission, which is seeking to assist the Haitian National Police in taking back control of areas under gang control, until October 2, 2025. For more about the gang violence in Haiti, read this piece translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• More than 20 children feared dead in Thailand bus crash. A bus carrying dozens of primary school children crashed and caught fire just outside the Thai capital of Bangkok. Sixteen children and three teachers are reported to have escaped, but 22 pupils and three teachers are still unaccounted for, according to the country's transport minister.
• Three dead and 15 hurt in Shanghai Walmart stabbing. Chinese police said they arrested a 37-year-old man surnamed Lin at the scene, adding that he had come to Shanghai to “vent his anger due to a personal economic dispute.” The incident took place at a shopping mall in Songjiang, a densely populated district in the city's south-west, which is also home to several universities.
• Claudia Sheinbaum to be sworn in as Mexico’s first female president. The ally of former President AMLO has promised to protect an expanded social safety net and fight for the poor like her predecessor, but is facing pressing problems. The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician will receive a country with a number of immediate challenges, foremost among them high levels of violence, a broken economy and hurricane-battered Acapulco. For more on Sheinbaum, read this piece published by La Marea, in English via Worldcrunch.
• Painting found by Italian junk dealer in cellar is original Picasso. Luigi Lo Rosso came across the painting back in 1962, while clearing out a cellar in Capri, and decided to bring it home to Pompeii, where he hung it in his living room. It remained there until Lo Rosso’s son Andrea started asking questions after studying an encyclopedia of art history — which eventually led to the calling of experts. The work is believed to be a portrait of Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter who was Picasso’s mistress and muse.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
133,000
In an effort to boost its number of troops, Russia is planning on drafting 133,000 men aged from 18 to 30, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 30. A new round of fall conscription will be held between October and January. Meanwhile, Russia will increase its defense budget by nearly 30% next year to reach 13.5 trillion rubles ($145 billion).
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇮🇱 The death of Hezbollah’s leader makes the U.S. and Iran look like powerless spectators of an unraveling tragedy that is beyond their control. Yet, given its demographics and geography, Israel desperately needs allies.
— LES ECHOS
🗳️ Another far-right party has come out ahead in national elections of a European Union member state, this time in Austria. It is a direct challenge to the EU’s founding ideals at a moment when global uncertainty requires a strong democratic voice.
— DIE ZEIT
🧑🌾 They live without electricity, they cannot look in the mirror, and their education ends at age 14. Who are the Amish? What is their lifestyle really like?
— GAZETA WYBORCZA
📣 VERBATIM
“I pled guilty to journalism.”
— In his first public remarks since he was released last June, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange explained the reason he had been freed from London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison was because he pleaded guilty to journalism, and not “because the system works.” “I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was," he declared as he was invited to provide evidence on his detention and conviction, and on their effects on human rights at the legal affairs and human rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. The whistleblower continued his testimony warning that “the criminalization of newsgathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere.”
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Laure Gautherin
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