👋 Allo!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where the U.S. shuts down its embassy in Kyiv over risks of a “potential significant air attack,” French farmers rekindle protests, and the tennis world bids adiós to one of its greatest champions. Meanwhile, Beirut-based Daraj links the poignant videos of a Lebanese musician to Roman Polanski's The Pianist.
[*Seychellois Creole]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Spanish sports daily Marca gives many, many front-page “thanks” to the country's tennis champion Rafael Nadal, after the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles played the 1,307th and final match of his 20-year-long career. In front of a packed crowd at the Palacio de Deportes arena in Malaga, the 38-year-old Spaniard lost 6-4 6-4 to Dutch player Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup on Tuesday. “It has been 20 years of a professional career in which you have carried me through the good times, and in the bad you pushed me to keep playing,” Nadal told supporters in an emotional post-match speech. He retires as the second-most successful men's singles player of all time, behind Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• U.S. embassy in Kyiv shuts down, Biden approves land mines use in Ukraine. The U.S. closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital after receiving “specific information of a potential significant air attack,” following rising tensions with Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden has approved providing antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine, days after lifting restrictions on the use of long-range missiles inside Russia.
• Netanyahu visits Gaza, announces reward for hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to Gaza on Tuesday and announced a $5 million reward for the return of each Israeli hostage still held by Hamas. In a video published by his office, Netanyahu said the IDF military had “achieved excellent results toward our important goal — that Hamas will not rule in Gaza.” Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 Palestinians in Gaza, including a rescue worker.
• Trump picks Linda McMahon as education secretary. U.S President-elect Donald Trump has picked WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to lead his Department of Education. Trump announced the choice on Truth Social, saying she would use "her decades of leadership experience" to "empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers.” McMahon is a long-time Trump ally and has donated millions of dollars to the Republican presidential campaign.
• Hong Kong's pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai testifies. Jimmy Lai is set to take the stand on Wednesday for the first time since his trial started a year ago. The former media mogul and founder of now-closed Apple Daily newspaper faces two counts of collusion with foreign forces for which he has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted. Lai was arrested in August 2020 under Hong Kong's national security law for supporting the pro-democracy movement and criticizing China's leaders.
• Bitcoin rises to new record. Bitcoin reached a record high of $94,078 in the latest trading session. The rise is driven by a significant rally for the crypto currency following Donald Trump's reelection and reports of his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, being in talks to buy Bakkt, a crypto trading firm.
• SpaceX launches Starship rocket, fails to repeat booster catch. SpaceX launched its latest test flight of the Starship megarocket on Tuesday, but the reusable booster made a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to the launch pad. U.S President-elect Trump was at the launch with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, who supported the Republican candidate throughout his campaign and was recently appointed as co-leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency.
• Cambridge Dictionary reveals Word of the Year. “To manifest,” meaning “to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief doing so will make it more likely to happen,” is the Word of the Year for 2024 in the Cambridge Dictionary. Publishing manager Wendalyn Nichols said it won because “its use widened greatly across all types of media due to events in 2024.” It is now time to manifest next year's winning word.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$121 million
The winning bid on a painting by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte surpassed expectations at a Christie’s auction in New York on Tuesday. L’Empire des lumières (“The Empire of Light”) sold for more than $121 million, when its estimate was only $95 million, smashing the auction record for the artist’s work. Previously owned by late American interior designer Mica Ertegun, the 1954 canvas depicts a single street lamp lighting up a house and parts of its surrounding at dusk.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇮🇷 U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he is not out to topple Iran's revolutionary regime, but his administration may, at the very least, seek intolerable concessions to the West from Tehran, or sink it with sanctions if it refuses.
— KAYHAN-LONDON
🌐 The G20 remains the last forum where opposing powers can still talk to one another. But with the return of the “America First” policy, what comes next is uncertain.
— FRANCE INTER
🎹 A video in the summer of 2023 showed Julia Alli playing the piano in her home southern Lebanon. In the fall of 2024, a new video emerges of Israeli soldiers in the rubble of that home and piano. The contrast also links to the story of Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning Holocaust drama The Pianist.
— DARAJ
📣 VERBATIM
“It is now within our grasp.”
— U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein expressed confidence about an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war following talks with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut. The White House representative traveled to Lebanon after the government and Iran-backed Hezbollah said they agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal, if some details were settled. “I came back because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein told a press conference after the meeting. “It is now within our grasp. As the window is now, I hope the coming days yield a resolute decision.” Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen confirmed talks with Lebanon but said that Israel would agree only if all its demands were met, including pushing Hezbollah away from the border.
✍️ Newsletter by Chloé Touchard & Laure Gautherin
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