👋 Hyvää päivää!*
Welcome to Friday, where Syrian insurgents advance on Homs, France’s president digs in his heels and we get to meet Apex, the spiky Stegosaurus. And for Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Alicja Zboińskan unpacks what’s leading GenZ to choose manual labor over their parents’ white-collar careers.
[*Finnish]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Frankfurter Rundschau lends its front page to the ongoing protests in Georgia, where mass anti-government demonstrations have rocked the country for more than a week. It’s “Georgia’s last chance” for a democratic future within the European Union, the German daily writes, in the wake of the government’s recent decision to halt EU membership discussions until 2028, which sparked outrage, protests, and subsequent police crackdown.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Syrian rebels near Homs in another major offensive. Rebel forces, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), are advancing on Homs — Syria’s third-largest city — threatening a key route to Damascus. This follows the rebel capture of Hama, where inmates were freed from the central prison. Thousands have fled Homs amid the assault, while HTS vows to “build Syria” and repatriate refugees. Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad will increasingly need to rely on Russia and Iran for support, though both countries are occupied with other conflicts.
• South Korea's ruling party leader called for President Yoon’s ouster. Speaking after a Friday meeting of the conservative People Power Party at the parliament on Friday, leader Han Dong-hoon said his longtime ally Yoon had ordered the arrest of prominent politicians, and must be removed from power after his attempt to impose martial law earlier this week.
• Macron digs in heels, vows to name new French PM within days. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will name a new prime minister “in the coming days,” after Michel Barnier resigned following a no-confidence vote in parliament. In a 10-minute address to the nation on Thursday, he rejected opposition pressure to stand down, vowing to stay in his post “fully, until the end of the mandate” in 2027. Paris daily Les Echos reflects on the link between the upcoming reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral and “notre drame” of French politics.
• Thousands rally in Romania ahead of Sunday’s high-stakes presidential run-off. Supporters of pro-EU, left-leaning reformist Elena Lasconi gathered in Bucharest Friday, as the far-right surprise frontrunner Călin Georgescu stated in a BBC interview that he would end all aid to Ukraine if elected.
• Venezuela cuts off power and water to Argentine diplomatic residence. Leading opposition figures to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had taken refuge in the residence in Caracas after facing arrest warrants earlier this year.
• Trump picks Musk ally as AI and crypto tsar. President-elect Donald Trump has named venture capitalist David Sacks to a newly created post as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency tsar. Sacks is the latest confidant of Elon Musk to be pulled into Trump’s team for his second term.
• New York museum shows off new Stegosaurus star. The American Museum of Natural History unveiled "Apex," one of the most complete specimens ever discovered of the plant-eating dinosaur Stegosaurus. Known for the upright plates on its back and a spiky tail, the 11-foot (3.4-meter) tall, 20-foot (6-meter) long skeleton hails from the Jurassic Period.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
78
That's the number of countries that will benefit from the World Bank's record $100-billion support initiative for the poorest nations. With $23.7 billion in donor contributions — slightly more than $23.5bn pledged during the last fundraising round in 2021 — the World Bank is leveraging crucial funding for health, education, and climate resilience, aimed at developing countries, particularly across Africa.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇱🇧 It's been one week since the ceasefire in Lebanon was announced, and residents of the south continue to return to their homes. So why is there so little faith in the agreement?
— DARAJ
📱 Romania’s out-of-nowhere far right presidential candidate has become the latest case study showing just how much sway social media platforms can have over elections.
— DIE ZEIT
🧑💼 “I don’t want to end up like my father.” An increasing number of young people are looking to the trades for better work-life balance, increased compensation and a break from the patterns set by their parents.
— GAZETA WYBORCZA
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📣 VERBATIM
“They must understand that we would be ready to use any means.”
— In an interview with right-wing U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that although Moscow doesn't seek war with the U.S., it will defend its interests “by any means” against Ukraine and countries “who provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime.” This, Lavrov added, includes the use of hypersonic weapons, to prevent the “strategic defeat of Russia.” Here’s the English edition of a recent piece by Holod, a Russian media-in-exile, reflecting on the meaning of the Russian flag.
✍️ Newsletter by Roy Greenburgh & Bertrand Hauger
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