👋 नमस्ते*
Welcome to Monday, where a Hezbollah drone attack kills four Israeli soldiers while Lebanon reports 51 dead by Israeli strikes across the country on Sunday, the Nobel Prize in Economics honors work on why nations prosper and Hindu gods and goddesses go for a dip as part of Bangladesh’s Durga Puja festival. And if you’re struggling with insomnia, this Die Zeit piece by Bente Lubahn promises to put you right to sleep (in a good way).
[*Namaste - Nepali]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Spanish daily El País dedicates its front page to the thousands of people who rallied in Madrid on Sunday to demand affordable housing and lower rents. Young people “led the protest,” reports the newspaper, and protesters called for the resignation of Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Deadly Hezbollah drone attack in northern Israel, U.S. to send troops. Four soldiers were killed and 58 injured in a Hezbollah drone attack targeting an army base in northern Israel late Sunday, one of the deadliest attacks against Israel by the militant group since the beginning of the war one year ago. In Lebanon, the health ministry reported that 51 people were killed across the country on Sunday by Israeli air strikes. Meanwhile, the U.S. said it will send troops as well as an advanced U.S. anti-missile system to Israel “to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks.” Read more in this OpEd translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: Netanyahu Is Killing Us To Set Us Free? Logic, Grief And Resistance In Beirut.
• China launches new round of war games around Taiwan. Beijing deployed planes and ships around the rival island nation on Monday, saying it was a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces.” The exercises come just days after Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te’s first National Day speech in which he said China had no right to represent Taiwan. The military drills mark China’s fourth large-scale exercise in two years as the country refuses to rule out force in its efforts to control the island. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called on Beijing “to act with restraint.”
• Zelensky says North Korea transfers soldiers to Russia. The Ukrainian president said in his evening address on Sunday there was “increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like in North Korea,” and that Pyongyang wasn’t only transferring weapons but also troops to bolster Russia’s army. Back from a tour of European capitals, Zelensky once again appealed for more support to Ukraine to prevent “a bigger war.”
• Nobel prize in economics awarded for work on differences in prosperity between nations. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson, a trio of economists, received the prize on Monday for their “studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” “Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why,” the Nobel committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
• Iceland heads for snap election after coalition government collapses. The country’s prime minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, called for elections to be held on November 30 after dissolving Iceland’s three-party coalition government. Recent volcanic eruptions have displaced several thousand people, putting increased pressure on the country’s strained economy.
• NASA to probe Jupiter moon for signs of life, SpaceX makes history. The Europa Clipper is due to blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday for a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, which scientists believe could hold an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Starship rocket completed a world’s first on Sunday when its giant pair of mechanical arms “caught” the returning first-stage booster after a test flight.
• A new “Golden Owl” quest and a movie for 2025. Michel Becker, the co-creator of the French “Chouette d’Or” treasure hunt, announced in a video posted on YouTube on Sunday the release of a movie in April 2025 to reveal all of the quest’s details, including the location of the buried statuette, and that a new treasure hunt will start from April 24. Becker also confirmed that someone managed to solve the 11 puzzles to find the replica of the golden owl last week, ending the world’s longest treasure hunt after 31 years, and said the winner wished to remain anonymous and that the statuette was now “far from France.” Learn more about the “Golden Owl” quest in this article translated from French by Worldcrunch.
📣 VERBATIM
“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here.”
— The New Yorker magazine published excerpts of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's memoir Patriot, ahead of the book release next week. According to publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Navalny began working on the book while recovering from his poisoning in 2021, and kept writing while in prison. In March 2022, he wrote “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here [...] I'll never see my grandchildren.” Navalny's death was announced by Russian authorities on February 16, 2024. Read more about Navalny’s “complicated legacy” here.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💥 Israel’s devastating war on Gaza shows no signs of ending. Not only does it seem that this war will continue for many years, but it may also expand to include Iran and the United States.
— AL-MANASSA
🇱🇧 By calling on the Lebanese to rise up against Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to bring about the emergence of “another Lebanon,” in which the pro-Iranian movement will not have the major role it has had until now.
— FRANCE INTER
😴 “Sleep problems still puzzle researchers.” Many people want to sleep better, but available solutions either have little effect or severe side effects. Ultimately, there's really only one approach that seems to work.
— DIE ZEIT
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
2:09:56
Kenyan runner Ruth Chepngetich broke the women's marathon world record by completing the Chicago Marathon in 2:09:56 — nearly two minutes faster than the previous best. She became the first three-time women’s winner of the Chicago marathon, and dedicated her victory to men's world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died last February in a car accident.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Chloé Touchard
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