👋 Häj ą̊ dig!*
Welcome to Thursday, where Lebanon’s prime minister is optimistic about a ceasefire, even as Israel strikes historic city of Baalbek, the death toll in Spain’s flash floods is rising, and light and fright coincide as Diwali and Halloween both kick off today. Meanwhile, in Warsaw-based Gazeta Wyborcza, Marta Glanc explores why Polish singles who swiped left on dating apps are now back on Tinder.
[*Elfdalian, Sweden]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Italian daily Il Tempo dedicates its front page to the “Renzi affair,” in which several political figures, including former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, have been spied on in a large-scale data trafficking operation. Milanese investigators dismantled a network of hackers suspected of breaking into into national sensitive databases like that of the tax authorities of the Ministry of the Interior, to resell information to customers.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel strikes historic Lebanese city amid hopes for ceasefire. At least 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes around Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek on Wednesday, hours after tens of thousands of residents fled in response to evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he hopes a ceasefire deal with Israel could be announced within days after speaking with the U.S. envoy for the Middle East, Amos Hochstein, who is due to travel to Israel on Thursday.
• Russian airstrike hits Ukraine’s Kharkiv, killing child. Russian forces struck a residential building in the country’s second-largest city early Thursday, killing a 12-year-old boy and injuring scores of other people. Meanwhile, the U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs urged North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia. Moscow’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia responded that reports of Pyongyang's forces on the front lines in Ukraine were “mere assertions.”
• Rescue operations underway to find Spain flood survivors, death toll expected to rise. Rescuers in the Valencia region are racing to find those unaccounted for after flash floods sparked by torrential rain killed at least 95 people, local authorities said Thursday. It’s not clear how many are missing but some 1,000 troops have been deployed.
• Elon Musk due in court to defend $1 million election giveaway. The tech billionaire has been ordered to attend a Thursday hearing to respond to a lawsuit over payments made by his political campaign group, America PAC, to voters in the U.S. election’s battleground states. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit earlier this week to try and stop the America PAC sweepstakes, arguing it’s “indisputably an unlawful lottery.” Read more in this Die Zeit reportage translated from German by Worldcrunch: Meet The Palm Beach Billionaires Bankrolling Trump's Return To The White House.
• Two Mexican journalists killed within 24 hours. An entertainment reporter in the western city of Colima was killed inside a restaurant she owned on Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after journalist Mauricio Solís was shot dead after conducting a sidewalk interview with the mayor of the city of Uruapan. Mexico has been ranked as one of the deadliest countries for journalists by press freedom groups.
• Taiwan shuts down as Typhoon Kong-rey makes landfall. Super Typhoon Kong-rey, one of the most powerful storms to threaten the island in decades, hit Taiwan’s east coast on Thursday, killing at least one and injuring at least 73. The government reported the typhoon knocked out power to nearly half a million households and that hundreds of flights were canceled.
• Let’s celebrate “Diwaloween!” For the first time this century, Diwali and Halloween are falling on the same day on Thursday, meaning that some might celebrate both the Hindu festival of light and the night of spooks and scares, i.e. Diwaloween. Check our roundup of 11 real-life haunted spots around the world.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
87 minutes
North Korea's latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) reached a new record that makes it theoretically capable of striking the U.S. mainland, according to American officials. The missile reached an altitude of 7,000km (4,349 miles) and recorded an 87-minute flight, the “longest flying time of any missile so far” according to Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani.
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇨🇳 After the fall of the Soviet Union, China has become the United States’ ideological adversary. But why do American politics always seem to need an external enemy?
— DIE ZEIT
⛏️ A $2.4 billion project to exploit lithium deposits in Serbia's Jadar Valley could cover 90% of Europe's current lithium needs. But the plan has sparked protests across the country and created an unlikely coalition of opposition.
— OBCT
👨❤️👨 A psychologist-turned-matchmaker founded the Dating Agency to help Polish singles tired of looking for love on dating apps. But today, many are back on Tinder.
— GAZETA WYBORCZA
📣 VERBATIM
“We should remain optimistic that in the coming hours or days, we will have a ceasefire.”
— Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mekati said a ceasefire with Israel could be announced within days, after Israeli public broadcaster Kan published a draft agreement providing for an initial 60-day truce. The leaked proposal, written by Washington, includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon within the first week of the ceasefire.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Chloé Touchard
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