👋 Салом*
Welcome to Friday, where five were hospitalized after an “ambush” on hundreds of Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picks his White House chief of staff, and Hindu devotees celebrate Sun divinities on the banks of Brahmaputra River. From La Marea, we also feature a look by Amador Iranzo on Valencia and the emotional — if not physical — toll left by the catastrophic floods in eastern Spain on the city.
[*Salom - Uzbek]
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“What happens after the collapse,” German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung wonders on its front page, following the disintegration of the country’s governing “traffic light” coalition on Wednesday evening. In power since 2021, the alliance — of Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) — fell apart after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s sacked FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner, prompting other liberals to step down from the cabinet. To find out more about the first casualty of Donald Trump’s new world, read this piece on Worldcrunch, translated from German to English.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Republicans on track to win U.S. House, Trump picks Susie Wiles as chief of staff. President-elect Donald Trump’s Republicans are now only seven seats short of an overall majority in the House of Representatives, putting them on track to control both chambers of Congress next year. Trump announced on Thursday that Susie Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, will be his White House chief of staff. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his win, calling him a “courageous man” and saying he’s ready for dialogue with him. Read more in this analysis translated from French by Worldcrunch: Trump, Unchecked: U.S. Foreign Policy With No Adults In The Room.
• Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam. Five people were hospitalized and at least 62 arrested after hundreds of fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team attacked in the Dutch capital city on Thursday night as they were leaving the stadium following a Europa League game against Dutch side Ajax. Prime Minister Dick Schoof condemned “antisemitic attacks” while Israel sent two commercial planes to the Netherlands on Friday to repatriate the hundreds of soccer fans.
• Israel Katz sworn in as Israel's new defense minister. The former Israeli foreign minister and longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in before parliament on Thursday, following the shock dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over persistent disagreements during Israel’s war in Gaza. Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70% of the 8,119 victims it has verified in the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza were women and children.
• China announces $1.4-trillion debt package to boost economy. The country’s central government said on Friday that it had approved a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) plan to bolster its ailing economy by allowing local governments to swap out their hidden debt, with Finance Minister Lan Foan signaling further stimulus in the pipeline. The world’s second-largest economy has faced over the past year strong deflationary pressures amid weak demand, a property crisis and mounting financing strains on local governments. Read more in this Die Zeit analysis translated from German by Worldcrunch.
• Italy sends eight more migrants to Albania despite processing issues. An Italian navy ship docked at the Albanian port of Shengjin on Friday with eight migrants who will be processed there after they were intercepted in international waters. This comes a month after a first group of 12 migrants was denied entry following a failed vetting process. This marks Italy’s second transfer of migrants since two migrant processing centers started operating in October. For more on this topic, check this La Stampa article translated from Italian by Worldcrunch.
• India's 26-year ban on Salman Rushdies' Satanic Verses lifted. A court in India has lifted a three-decade ban on the India-born British author’s controversial novel, after authorities were unable to produce the original order prohibiting imports of the controversial novel. The Satanic Verses had been banned by India in 1988 after some Muslims viewed it as blasphemous.
• Voice of AOL’s iconic greeting dies at 74. Elwood Edwards was a U.S. graphics and camera operator at local Cleveland television station WKYC who voiced the ubiquitous AOL email alert “You’ve Got Mail.” Edwards recorded four phrases in 1989, for what was then a little-known company called America Online, that would eventually be heard by hundreds of millions of people and become a staple part of the AOL experience.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$1.3 million
A painting by an AI robot of the World War II codebreaker Alan Turing has sold for a record $1.3 million at auction. The portrait, titled “A.I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing,” was created by Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist. Sotheby's said there were 27 bids for the digital art sale, which had been originally estimated to sell for between $120,000 and $180,000. British mathematician Turing was a pioneer of computer science and known as the father of artificial intelligence.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
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📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🌐 Trump’s victory is not just a democratic shift: It marks a turning point during a time of global power realignment.
— FRANCE INTER
🇩🇪 Following the collapse of Germany's governing” traffic light” coalition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and former Finance Minister Christian Lindner are pointing fingers at each other — hardly a wise move as Donald Trump's reelection sends a chill through democracies worldwide.
— DIE ZEIT
🏙️ The city of Valencia has not been physically affected by the floods that caused more than 200 deaths in eastern Spain, but the region's capital city is not the same.
— LA MAREA
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📣 VERBATIM
“The world is still underestimating climate risks.”
— On the eve of COP29 in Baku, António Guterres warns the world is still underestimating the risk of catastrophic climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse, acknowledging that the rise in global heating is on course to rise past 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Speaking to The Guardian, the UN secretary general added, “It is absolutely essential to act now. It’s absolutely essential to reduce emissions drastically now.”
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