👋 Nyob zoo!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Israeli strikes kill Lebanese troops as France promises a $108-million aid package, Russian President Vladmir Putin meets with UN chief António Guterres and the first ever dinosaur fossils were discovered in Hong Kong. We also feature a German look at new studies that help explain why we experience déjà vu.
[*Nyaw zhong - Hmong, China, Vietnam, Laos]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
With Muslim Brotherhood emboldened, Jordan facing new risks of Hamas infiltration
AMMAN — Jordan's government increasingly finds itself forced to confront an emboldened Islamist movement, which has begun to publicly demonstrate its ability to mobilize popular opinion against the regime.
This came amid security concerns about the presence of what one Jordanian political and security source called "Hamas sleeper cells within the Muslim Brotherhood," that are loyal to Iran and are waiting for the right opportunity to strike in order to destabilize the regime.”
The new government and the regime's “deep state” establishment were reportedly shocked by the mobilization rallied by the Islamist movement last Friday, after it welcomed, with unprecedented boldness, the ultimately unsuccessful infiltration operation into Israel from the south of the Dead Sea.
The operation was carried out by two young men affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Israeli forces killed both men. The Islamic Action Front — the longstanding political party of the Muslim Brotherhood — hailed the operation as “heroic,” which some Jordanian officials viewed as a claim of responsibility.
The initial Friday statement was followed by a call to join what they called “the wedding of the two martyrs, Hesab Abu Ghazaleh and Amer Al-Qawas.”
But in the evening another statement was released, this time from the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Using diplomatic language, the group said the operation was “heroic, but an individual act,” and that it “came as a reaction from Jordanian youth, to avenge the ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Islamic holy sites.”
The Brotherhood's general supervisor Murad al-Adaylah told Daraj that the group issued the statement to end the confusion that resulted from the Action Front's initial reaction: “Praising is not claiming responsibility. We praise every act of resistance against the Israeli occupation, because it is permissible in international law and divine laws.”
A Jordanian politician, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the details of the operation indicate that "the Brotherhood has people who carry out military operations using Jordanian territory, and in coordination with the Qassam Brigades (Hamas' military wing), without the knowledge of the Jordanian authorities ... The operation was not individual at all.”
— Read the full article by Rana Sabagh for Daraj, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
A terror attack in Ankara makes the front page Thursday of Turkish daily newspaper Hürriyet. At least five people were killed and 22 injured when a man and woman launched an attack on a state-run aerospace company on Wednesday. The two attackers were killed, and Turkey's Defense Minister Yasar Guler said investigators suspect the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was behind it, despite no group having claimed responsibility. Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria in retaliation, killing 12 Syrians civilians, including two children.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel strikes Lebanese troops, France hosts aid conference. Three Lebanese troops were killed by Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Thursday, as the soldiers were evacuating wounded people on the outskirts of the village of Yater. In France, President Emmanuel Macron opened an international conference to raise funds and mobilize humanitarian aid for Lebanon, promising a “massive” aid package of €100 million ($108 million). “The war must end as soon as possible,” Macron said. Here’s a displaced Lebanese writer recounting how he and his family were forced to flee, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch.
• Putin to meet UN chief for first time in over two years at BRICS. On the final day of the summit in Kazan, Russia, Russian President Vladmir Putin warned against “illusory” attempts to defeat Moscow on the battlefield ahead of his meeting with United Nations chief António Guterres. The pair are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine as well as the escalating crisis in the Middle East. Putin and Guterres last saw each other in the first weeks of the offensive against Ukraine, when the UN chief traveled to Moscow during Russia’s siege of Mariupol. Read more in this analysis translated from French by Worldcrunch: How Putin Uses BRICS To Wield Power — And Avoid Pariah Status.
• U.S. confirms North Korea has troops in Russia for possible Ukraine combat. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, adding that it would be “very, very serious” if they were preparing to fight alongside Moscow in Ukraine. Meanwhile, South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday his government “won’t sit idle” and vowed a response to North Korea’s move. Check this Die Zeit article translated from German by Worldcrunch: Why North Korea's Entry Into The Russia-Ukraine War Is Really About China.
• Tropical Storm Trami leaves more than 20 dead in the Philippines. The storm made landfall Thursday on the northeast coast of Luzon, the country’s most populous island, causing widespread flooding and landslides. The government shut down schools and offices for the second day on the island. At least 150,000 people were forced to evacuate.
• Striking Boeing workers reject wage deal. The strike by 33,000 workers at the troubled aviation company will continue after 64% of the members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union voted on Wednesday against an offer that included a 35% wage increase for IAM members over a four-year contract. According to an estimate from Standard & Poor’s, the strike, which started on Sept. 13, is costing the manufacturing giant $1 billion a month on top of its ongoing losses.
• Venezuelan pro-democracy figures win EU Parliament’s Sakharov Prize. María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s leading pro-democracy figure and Edmundo González Urrutia, former opposition candidate who had to flee the country for exile in Spain after disputed presidential elections, were announced as the winners of this year’s Sakharov prize at the European Parliament on Thursday.
• First-ever dinosaur fossils found in Hong Kong. Local government officials announced on Wednesday that the fossils were found on Port Island, an uninhabitable expanse of rocks in the northeastern waters of the city, and likely originated from a “large aged dinosaur” from the Cretaceous period.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$327 million
In South Korea, the city authorities of Seoul have announced they will spend 451.3 billion won (around $327 million) in the next five years to ”create a city where no-one is lonely.” Every year, thousands of South Koreans die alone every year, a phenomenon known as “lonely deaths” and part of a larger problem of isolation from society. The initiative will include counselors, in-person visits and consultations, more green spaces and activities to encourage people to connect.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇮🇷 Could Mohammad-Mahdi Mirbagheri, a zealous revolutionary among Iran’s Shia clergy, become the country’s next supreme leader?
— KAYHAN-LONDON
🏥 North Dakota’s last abortion clinic was forced to move to neighboring Minnesota two years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal protection of this right. Ahead of the presidential election, the fight for women's rights is rallying Democrats.
— LES ECHOS
🤔 How does déjà vu happen? Are they memories of a past life? Is it extrasensory perception that allows us to see into the future? Researchers are now trying to understand this uncanny phenomenon.
— DIE ZEIT
📣 VERBATIM
“Yes, I do.”
— At a CNN town hall, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked if she believes that Donald Trump “is a fascist” She answered in the affirmative after Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly gave a series of interviews recounting episodes of the former president seeking personal powers and sharing his admiration for Adolph Hitler. “[Trump] certainly falls into the general definition of a fascist, for sure,” said Kelly. The former Republican president reacted on his platform Truth Social, saying “John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General [...].”
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Army members secure the President's building with barricades in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Student protesters are calling for Mohammed Shahabuddin's resignation, following his controversial remarks about former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country in August. Shahabuddin told a newspaper that he had no evidence that Hasina had resigned before leaving amid student-led mass protests at the time. The demonstrators have accused the president of violating his oath of office and not telling the truth. — Photo: MD Mehedi Hasan/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Chloé Touchard
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