👋 Kia ora!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Hurricane Milton wreaks havoc across Florida, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is on a EU tour to ask for more weapons and this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature goes to South Korea’s Han Kang. Have you ever tried the Reformer Pilates fitness regimen? We’ve got the story of its unlikely German origins from Julian Frisse writing for Hamburg-based daily Die Zeit.
[*Māori]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Finally, honest football again,” tongue-in-cheekily titles German daily Die Tageszeitung, reacting to the announcement that Austrian energy drinks producer Red Bull was hiring former Liverpool and Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp as head of global soccer from January 2025. Beyond sarcasm, the move was met with downright outrage by German media, with some saying it’s “a deal with the devil,” as Red Bull has caused controversy for several years in German soccer for its multi-club ownership model. The decision made by Klopp, who was considered one of the most respected figures in German and European soccer, is seen as motivated by money. The daily concludes that “the traditional world of football is dying.”
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israeli strike kills 5 rescue workers in south Lebanon. An Israeli strike killed five emergency workers in southern Lebanon, as Israel pressed its major offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah and warned Lebanese civilians in the south not to return home. Meanwhile, at least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the Rufaida school in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. Follow Worldcrunch’s coverage in the Middle East.
• Zelensky embarks on European tour in search of more military aid. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Volodymyr Zelensky in Downing Street on Thursday, as the Ukrainian president seeks to gain more European support for his country's war effort. After the UK, Zelensky is due to visit France and Italy on the same day, before meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Meanwhile, EU envoys agreed on Wednesday to give Ukraine up to 35 billion euros as part of the bloc's share in a larger planned loan from the Group of Seven nations (G7) backed by frozen Russian central bank assets. Read this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski to know more about European aid to Ukraine.
• Hurricane Milton brings tornadoes and flash floods to Florida. The latest U.S. storm has left a trail of destruction in Florida as it whipped up tornadoes and brought torrential rains and raging winds that destroyed homes and knocked out power for millions of people across the southern U.S. state. While the National Hurricane Center said on Thursday that the storm, which made landfall on the state’s western coast hours earlier, had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, it was still barreling through Florida with wind speeds of 150 km/h (93mph).
• Ratan Tata, “titan” of Indian business, dies at 86. Ratan Tata, a former chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Sons, died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday night. Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran confirmed Tata’s death and described him in a statement as his “friend, mentor, and guide.” He did not provide a cause of death.
• The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to South Korean author Han Kang. Kang, whose works include The Vegetarian, was praised for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
• Rafael Nadal will retire from tennis at the end of this season. The 38-year-old will represent Spain in his final appearance at next month's Davis Cup Finals in Malaga. Nadal, who has won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, has struggled with various injuries over the last few years.
• Teen breaks record by climbing Earth's highest peaks. A Nepalese teenager has broken the world record for the youngest mountaineer to summit Earth’s 14 highest peaks. Nima Rinji Sherpa, 18, stood atop Tibet’s Mount Shishapangma on Wednesday, becoming the latest of just a few dozen people to have climbed all of the world’s “eight-thousanders,” the 14 mountains that the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognizes as more than 8,000 meters (26,246 feet) above sea level.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
-73%
Earth’s wildlife populations have fallen on average by a “catastrophic” rate of 73% in the past 50 years, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Living Planet Report 2024 released on Wednesday. The report is based on the Living Planet Index which tracks 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles around the world and shows that populations are plummeting. According to the report, habitat degradation and loss is the biggest threat to wildlife, followed by overexploitation, invasive species, disease, climate change and pollution.“It really does indicate to us that the fabric of nature is unraveling,” said Rebecca Shaw, WWF’s chief scientist, warning that this decline will likely have cascading effects, including on “human health and well-being.”
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇾🇪 The Houthis took control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa a decade ago in a religious coup masquerading as a revolution. Yet the Houthis have begun to speak more openly and boldly about their vision for the future of Yemen.
— DARAJ
🇺🇦 “People should always be a priority.” The Ukrainian village of Blyzniuky, which has welcomed many people displaced by the war, is working to integrate its new residents through work opportunities, psychological support and activities for children.
— LA STAMPA
💪 Invented 100 years ago in Germany, the Pilates Reformer is the most sought-after piece of fitness equipment at the moment. But why exactly does everyone want to do gymnastics on this device that looks so uncomfortable?
— DIE ZEIT
📣 VERBATIM
“The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent the people of Taiwan.”
— In his first National Day speech, Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te said he will “uphold the commitment to resist annexation or encroachment” on the island’s sovereignty, in a thinly-veiled reference to China’s claim over the territory. The president, who was elected in January and is portrayed as a “separatist” by Beijing, expressed his pride in Taiwan’s democracy but at the same time, promised to maintain “the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” and to cooperate with China on some issues such as climate change. Read more about the risk of confrontation between China and Taiwan in this analysis translated from French by Worldcrunch.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Anne-Sophie Goninet
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