October 5-6
- Austro-Hungarian redux
- EV safety innovation
- Leaning Tower of Pisa prankster
- … and much more.
🎲 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ
What do you remember from the news this week?
1. Hashem Safieddine has been tipped to replace slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. How are they related?
2. The People's Republic of China marked the anniversary of its founding by Mao Zedong — how many years ago?
3. Which high-profile activist said “I pled guilty to journalism” in their first public declaration since June?
4. On September 30, the UK closed its last… coal power station / fish-and-chip shop / gallows / top-hat factory
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
#️⃣ TRENDING
Au revoir, boys — and welcome to Tanaland, an idealistic imaginary safe place without men that’s become the latest French TikTok trend. The name comes from the word “tana,” a shortened version of the Spanish swear word “putana” (meaning “slut”), popularized by French rapper Niska in his songs. To clap back at the wave of misogyny, women have turned it into a utopic imaginary world and film themselves packing up their bags and leaving for this female eldorado, where sisterhood prevails and men aren't allowed.
🎭 5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW
• Oasis drops dynamic pricing for North American tour. By ditching the controversial feature, which raises the price of concert tickets at times of high demand, the British band hopes to avoid the “unacceptable experience” of fans in the UK. When Oasis’ UK dates went on sale, ticket prices increased from £150 to more than £350, sparking controversy and prompting the UK’s competition regulator to launch an investigation into Ticketmaster. The band, which announced its reunion this summer after a break of almost 16 years, will play in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. in 2025.
• Painting found by junk dealer in Capri cellar is original Picasso. Luigi Lo Rosso discovered the portrait when clearing out the cellar of a home in Capri in 1962 and brought it home to Pompeii, where it hung in his living room for a few decades. The family eventually sought the advice of a team of experts following questions from the junk dealer’s son, who had studied an encyclopedia of art history. After years of investigations, a graphologist confirmed that the signature on the painting was Picasso’s. The portrait, today valued at €6 million ($6.6 million), is believed to be a distorted image of Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter who was a mistress and muse to the famous artist.
• Chanel back at Grand Palais for Paris Fashion Week. The famous French fashion house returned to Paris’ soaring glass and steel monument this week to present its spring-summer runway show for the first time in four years. The site was closed for renovations before reopening for the Paris Olympics fencing competition this summer. The collection, which featured tweed looks and handbags resembling bird cages, was designed by the brand’s studios as it awaits a new designer following the departure of Virginie Viard in June.
• Japan opens world’s first Nintendo museum. The interactive space set in the gaming company’s former factory complex in Uji, which opened this week, features an exhibition with rare consoles, prototypes, interactive games and experiences going through Nintendo’s 135-year history. But if you plan to visit, beware: tickets are allocated via a lottery system and are sold out three months in advance.
• Daniel Day-Lewis to make comeback for movie directed by his son. The three-time Oscar winner is ending his retirement from acting seven years after his last movie to perform in his son Ronan Day-Lewis’ directorial debut. The 67-year-old British actor will star in Anemone alongside Sean Bean and Samantha Morton, U.S. independent production company Focus Features confirmed. Day-Lewis had quit acting after playing in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film Phantom Thread, saying “it was something I had to do.”
🙌 SMILE OF THE WEEK
A bit of fun from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Italy, where a tourist mocked his fellow travelers by high-five photobombing their optical illusion efforts, as they pretended to hold the world-famous leaning tower up.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💥 Nearly a year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with a regional crisis that escalates by the day, one element is missing in action: the Arab countries. The explanation lies in the transformation of regional dynamics in recent years, which could be undermined by these crises.
— FRANCE INTER
🤝 Will Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), join forces with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán following his electoral victory? That is the worst-case scenario.
— GAZETA WYBORCZA
🇷🇴 Romania’s latest elections have revealed surprising support for the far right from two unlikely demographics: young people and the global diaspora of Romanians living abroad.
— EAST JOURNAL
🐢 Focusing on quality and not quantity is at the heart of Ecuador’s tourism model to preserve the exceptional Galapagos archipelago and its unique fauna.
— LES ECHOS
👪 With families shrinking almost everywhere in the world, we tend to have fewer cousins than in past generations. But cousins “are more important than many people assume,” researchers say.
— DIE ZEIT
🔋 BRIGHT IDEA
South Korean company LG Chem announced it developed a new ultra-thin material that could significantly reduce the risk of fires in electric vehicle batteries. The new material, about 1 micrometer thin, is located in the battery between the diodes and the current collector. LG chem tested EV with new material and found that 70% of batteries did not catch fire in comparison to standard batteries in which all of them caught fire. LG Chem plans to complete safety verification for mobile devices, and continue testing on large-capacity EV batteries until next year.
👓 WORLDCRUNCH MAGAZINE
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⏩ LOOKING AHEAD
• Monday marks the one-year anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel by Hamas, which sparked the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. Keep up-to-date with the latest development and analysis about what’s at stake in the Middle East here.
• The Nobel Prize announcements will take place from Oct. 7 to 14, including the Nobel Peace prize next Friday.
• On Sunday, Tunisians will head to the polls for the first round of a presidential election which opposition critics say is rigged in favor of President Kais Saied. Read more about the elections in the region here.
• Last orders, people! Sunday marks the last day of Oktoberfest.
News quiz answers:
1. In the aftermath of the recent assassination of longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, his cousin’s name, Hashem Safieddine, surfaced as the most likely successor at the head of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group. In an overnight attack in the early hours Friday, Israel reports that Safieddine was the intended target of an airstrike in the southern outskirts of Beirut, although it is not yet clear whether he or other top Hezbollah leaders were killed.
2. The People's Republic of China celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding on October 1, 1949. In a speech ahead of a state banquet, Chinese leader Xi Jinping emphasized the new era and great future although warning of “rough seas ahead,” while reiterating his pledge to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan.
3. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the reason he had been freed from London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison last June was because he pleaded guilty to journalism, and not “because the system works.”
4. The UK closed its last coal power station, ending over 140 years of coal power in the country. This makes Britain the first G7 nation to end coal-fired power production, as part of efforts to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch
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*Photo: Nintendo museum