👋 Aang!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where South Korea’s president reverses his martial law edict and faces calls for impeachment, Syrian rebels and government forces clash in the central city of Hama and we learn what people have been searching for on Wikipedia this year. And for Die Zeit, Berlin-based author Norman Ohler shares his experience traveling to Texas to speak for three hours with controversial U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan.
[*Aleut, Alaska]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
A dark sign in Europe: The France-Germany duo is weaker than it’s ever been
For a man of my generation, construction of the European Union was above all defined by the Franco-German duo: a model of successful reconciliation that was the envy and admiration of the world.
But today, it’s not just the Franco-German alliance that has broken down. Each country is sinking into its own multiple set of crises: politically, economically and socially, if not culturally. This happens at the worst possible time, as Europe could tomorrow be caught between the increase in U.S. customs duties and the rising claims that Russia makes over our continent.
In the history of the Franco-German duo, there have been many missed opportunities. In 2017, for example, Germany’s then-Chancellor Angela Merkel didn’t seize the hand extended by French President Emmanuel Macron to her during his first speech at the Sorbonne University. But then, France likewise could have reacted more positively to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer’s speech at Humboldt University in May 2000 on the "ultimate objective of European integration."
What’s new today in the relationship between France and Germany is the severity and simultaneity of their respective crises. The balance of imbalances that defined the Franco-German relationship for so long — with France being stronger geopolitically and strategically and Germany more powerful on the economic and demographic levels — has given way to an odd kind of competition between Berlin and Paris over who is more depressed.
Which country is mired most deeply in self-doubt? The one whose extremes seem the most dangerous, or else, more prosaically, the one where trains now experience the most delays?
In Germany, the “vaccination” against anti-Semitism after the Nazi reign couldn’t last forever. There are now neighborhoods in Berlin where “Jews are not welcome,” or more precisely “where wearing a kippah isn’t recommended,” the Federal Minister of the Interior and Community recently warned. The same warning applies to some neighborhoods on the outskirts of Paris.
What’s troubling is that the negative parallels between France and Germany have only multiplied in recent months. First, there’s the spectacular unpopularity of the countries’ respective leaders Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. [...]
— Read the full article by Dominique Moïsi for Les Echos, translated from French by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
London-based newspaper The Daily Telegraph features a smiling Kate Middleton on the front page as the Princess of Wales returned for the first time to the duties of welcoming a head of state, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in just her third public appearance since revealing her battle with cancer.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• South Korean lawmakers submit a bill to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol. This comes after he declared martial law and then reversed the move hours later, triggering a political crisis in the country. The surprise declaration of martial law in the major U.S. ally late on Tuesday caused a standoff with parliament, which rejected Yoon's attempt to ban political activity and censor the media, as armed troops forced their way into the National Assembly building in Seoul. French writer Pierre Haski says that Seoul offered a lesson for the world for how a democracy preserves itself.
• Syrian military and rebels battle north of Hama. Intense airstrikes overnight drove Syrian rebels back from the edge of Hama, a major city whose fall would pile pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. Rebels have staged a whirlwind advance over the past week, seizing Syria's second city Aleppo and much of the surrounding countryside.
• Georgian injuries and jailings rise in fresh pro-EU protests. More than 300 people have been arrested since mass protests erupted in Georgia six nights ago, and an increasing number of allegations have emerged of violent attacks by police. Demonstrations have continued every night since last Thursday, after ruling party Georgian Dream said it was halting the country's bid to start talks on joining the EU. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused opposition politicians of orchestrating the violence, blaming them for the injuries. Read more in this analysis translated by Worldcrunch: Georgia Election: On Kremlin Interference And Real Fear Of War
• French Prime Minister Michel Barnier could be ousted in a no-confidence vote. This comes just three months after being appointed to run the government by President Emmanuel Macron. Opposition parties tabled the motion after the former Brexit negotiator used special powers to force through his budget without a vote.
• Defendant in shock Italian femicide case sentenced to life. A man who confessed to killing his former girlfriend last year, in a case that shocked Italy and triggered a national debate on violence against women, was found guilty and sentenced to life. A court in Venice issued the ruling, which can be appealed. The body of Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old university student from near Venice, was found dumped near a lake, with multiple stab wounds, in November 2023. To know more about Giulia Cecchettin’s story, read this piece from Italian weekly Internazionale, translated by Worldrunch.
• Biden visits Angolan port city of Lobito soliciting railway plans. U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in the Angolan port city of Lobito on Wednesday, the last day of a trip to Africa, to tout a plan to extend a railway that could channel critical minerals from Congo to the West. The United States has provided a $550-million loan to support the project, which involves rehauling an existing railway through Angola and extending it into Congo's mining heartland as part of the first phase.
• The most popular Wikipedia pages of 2024. Wikipedia has released its annual list of the most-visited pages on the site. A list of deaths in 2024 was the most visited page, gathering more than 44 million views. People also searched for U.S. political figures, celebrities like Taylor Swift and popular American movies, as well as global sporting events and the general election in India. ChatGPT, which was the top visited article in 2023, fell in its ranking to the 12th most visited page.
💬 LEXICON
Fiesta de la Paz
An article from Argentinian news outlet El Cronista, shared thousands of times, has started worrying many a Catholic social media user: The piece claimed that Pope Francis had announced that the Catholic Church would replace Christmas by a Fiesta de la Paz (Feast of Peace), a day dedicated to peace. This turned out to be fake news, forcing several media across the world to debunk. The El Cronista article has since been taken down.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
⚖️ Reports are spreading of Coptic Orthodox Christian men in Egypt who have been trying to trap their wives in compromising situations to force them to give up all their legal entitlements as required by the Church in order to obtain a divorce.
— AL-MANASSA
🎙️ Joe Rogan is considered America's king of podcasters and the voice of hyper-masculinity in the U.S. But what's behind this world of hyper-masculine podcast bros? Berlin-based author Norman Ohler writes about his experience as a guest on Rogan's show.
— DIE ZEIT
📖 Putting authors and artists in categories is inevitably restrictive of literature's essential universality. In South America, there is one, tiresome if profitable label literature seemingly cannot shake off, namely Magic Realism.
— EL ESPECTADOR
📣 VERBATIM
“Give me one example where they have succeeded at preventing war.”
— On the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide, Nobel Peace Prize-winner and activist Nadia Murad denounced global institutions' inefficiency in bringing jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to justice and preventing conflicts and war crimes like her people has suffered. “These international bodies are failing people over and over again. Give me one example where they have succeeded at preventing war, whether it was in Iraq or Syria, Gaza and Israel, Congo or Ukraine,” she said in an interview to the BBC. The Iraqi Yazidi, who was held captive by the terrorist group, sold as a slave to members and raped repeatedly has spent the last 10 years fighting for justice and protection for the victims. She is afraid ISIS will take advantage of the current chaos in the Middle East to spread again, a move facilitated by the impunity institutions give them by not prosecuting them. “They were meant to protect the most vulnerable. They have been more interested in what is best for their parties and their politics.” For more, we offer this article by Daraj: Dakhil And Samia, A Love Story That Survived The Yazidi Genocide.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
South Korean soldiers are seen preparing to enter the main hall of the National Assembly in Seoul after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. During the tense hours that followed, armed forces surrounded the parliament, backed by army helicopters and armored vehicles. To get into the building, lawmakers had to climb walls and hold off troops by activating fire extinguishers. The ones who were able to enter rejected Yoon’s martial law declaration 190-0, including 18 lawmakers from the president’s party. — Photo: Yonhap News/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Laure Gautherin
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