👋 Hæ hæ!*
Welcome to Monday, where Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 20, Slovakia’s leader pays a controversial visit to Vladimir Putin and Rome takes anti-overtourism measures to protect its restored Trevi Fountain. Meanwhile, Susanne Kippenberger for Die Zeit takes us on an architecture tour of 1920s Germany, which could teach us a thing or two about how to tackle the perennial housing crisis.
[*Icelandic]
💡 SPOTLIGHT
Why did the Palestinian authority raid a West Bank refugee camp? Ask Donald Trump
The Palestinian Authority's "security” operation at the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank did not go as the leadership had planned. Established in 1953, the camp is located in the outskirts of Jenin city in the northern West Bank. It houses about 25,000 people who are refugees or descendants of refugees uprooted from their homes elsewhere in Palestine or today’s Israel when the latter was established in the 1948 Mideast war.
Over years, the camp turned into a stronghold for armed Palestinian groups opposing Israel’s occupation, particularly Saraya al-Quds, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. The Jenin Battalion is part of Saraya al-Quds.
Palestinian Authority (PA) forces raiding the camp over the weekend encountered violent resistance from the militants present in the camp, which has been repeatedly raided by Israeli forces. The PA — an Fatah party-controlled government body that has partial administrative authority over parts of the occupied West Bank — was also criticized by other Palestinian groups, which view the PA as acting on behalf of Israel.
In the first hours of its campaign, the PA forces killed Rabhi Shalabi, 19, and took responsibility for his killing. They also killed Yazid Ja’aysah, commander of the Jenin Battalion affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group. Ja’aysah was one of the key militants in Jenin and was wanted by the Israeli military.
Commenting on the killing of Shalabi, PA spokesperson Brigadier General Anwar Rajab said they were handling “the repercussions of the incident in a way consistent with the law, and ensuring justice and respect for rights.”
“After following up and reviewing all the details, circumstances and conditions of the incident, the National Authority announces that it bears full responsibility,” Rajab said in a statement on Dec. 14, according to the Palestine News and Information Agency WAFA. He said the PA security services were working to end what he called “the state of chaos and security chaos” in Jenin, and that they aim to “thwart any attempts that serve the occupation's goals.” He also said they aim at preventing “the Gaza scenario.”
He said the PA managed to foil a “catastrophe” in Jenin, when they seized an explosive-laden vehicle prepared by “outlaws.”
The spokesman for the Jenin Battalion, meanwhile, said the PA operation aims at disarming the resistance groups, vowing that they won’t allow this to happen. “What is wanted is the head of the resistance, and despite that, we are with the rule of law and its application. But where is the law in the raids of the occupation army in the West Bank?” [...]
— Read the full article by Mohamed Abu Shahma for Daraj, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Three days after the Magdeburg Christmas market attack which killed five and wounded hundreds, German daily Frankfurter Rundschau shares the “sadness and anger” of a country trying to understand what has led to such a tragedy. The arrest of the suspect, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and who has been living in Germany for almost two decades, has stirred up tensions over the issue of immigration and extremism. “If we want to prevent extremism, we need to fight polarization,” the newspaper writes.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• At least 20 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. Palestinian medics said on Monday that one of the overnight strikes hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people. The Israeli military responded it only strikes militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians. This comes after Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of the last ones still partly functioning in the besieged area on the northern edge of Gaza.
• Turkey’s foreign minister meets with Syria’s de facto leader. Hakan Fidan met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of Syria’s new administration, in Damascus on Sunday, promising help with the political transition and rebuilding the war-torn country following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. Both called for the lifting of all international sanctions against Syria. Read more in this Al-Manassa analysis translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: With Assad Gone, Turkey And Israel Plan To "Share The Cake" In Syria.
• Slovak prime minister meets Putin in rare visit by EU leader. Robert Fico made a surprise visit to Moscow on Sunday for talks with the Russian president, becoming only the third Western leader to meet Putin since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The leaders were said to discuss supplies of Russian gas to Slovakia. Fico’s trip was condemned by the major Slovak opposition parties and by Slovakia’s neighbouring EU and NATO ally, the Czech Republic. From the Worldcrunch vault, here’s a piece from French analyst Pierre Haski after Fico’s election victory: Why Slovakia's Robert Fico Is Good For Putin — And Even Better For Orban.
• France holds day of mourning for Mayotte cyclone victims. One minute of silence was observed in public offices across the country on Monday in honor of the victims of Cyclone Chido on Mayotte, the most devastating storm to hit the French overseas territory in 90 years. The provisional toll stands at 35 deaths more than one week since the disaster, but authorities say it could be in the hundreds or even thousands, as survivors are still struggling without water, communication and electricity. The Elysée Palace said that the composition of Prime Minister François Bayrou’s new government would not be announced before 6 p.m. on Monday, out of respect for the national day of mourning.
• Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates. The U.S. president commuted the sentences for 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row on Monday, weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. Unlike executive orders, clemency decisions can’t be reversed by a president’s successor. Trump had restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause during his 2017-2021 term, but Biden had put them on hold when he took office in January 2021.
• Nissan and Honda officially begin merger talks to create world’s No. 3 automaker. The Japanese automakers confirmed on Monday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding and that Nissan’s strategic partner Mitsubishi had also agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. Honda’s president Toshihiro Mibe said the aim was to have a formal merger agreement by June 2025 and to complete the deal by August 2026.
• Rome sets up queuing system as Trevi Fountain reopens. The mayor of Italy’s capital city Roberto Gualtieri announced on Monday that a new system has been installed to have visitors line up to see the landmark, which re-opened on Sunday after a three-month restoration. The mayor also said city authorities were considering charging a modest entry price to finance the upkeep of the historic fountain, which is one of Rome’s most visited spots with about 10,000 tourists each day. Read more in this Worldcrunch original about an Italian village struggling with overtourism: Portofino, Avanti! Italian Village Sets "No Stopping" Zones To Keep Tourist Crowds Moving.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
518 days
Ugandan athlete Deo Kato has finally arrived in London after running all the way from South Africa to raise awareness about racism, becoming the first person to finish the 8,230 miles journey from Cape Town. Beginning July 24, 2023, Kato ran the equivalent of nearly 180 marathons, traveling through war zones, facing racism and severe illness in Europe, and was even detained for several weeks in a South Sudanese prison. Despite the hurdles, Kato said this experience has restored his faith in humanity.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
⚖️ Reducing sentences in family violence cases isn’t uncommon in Egypt. So women struggle from both: their families and the courts.
— AL-MANASSA
🚸 Russia's Parliament has approved a law that would limit migrant children’s access to schools. It contradicts basic decency, international law and the Constitution. It is also bad for Russians.
— HOLOD
🏙️ Germany needs new housing. The country can tackle this eternal crisis by taking lessons from its past, in particular the 1920s Weimar Republic.
— DIE ZEIT
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
A memorial was set in front of Magdeburg’s St. John's Church, in tribute to the victims of the Dec. 20 attack on the German city’s Christmas market, which saw a car plough into a crowd. The suspect, a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia killed at least five and injured hundreds.— Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa/ZUMA
📣 VERBATIM
“Every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama.”
— Through a statement released on X, Panama’s conservative president José Raúl Mulino responded to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threat to regain control over the Panama Canal, saying that the passage would remain Panamanian. "Every square meter of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will continue belonging [to Panama],” Mulino said. Writing on his social network Truth on Saturday, Trump had accused Panama of charging excessive fees to use the Central American passage and threatened to reassert U.S. control over the Canal. “It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the moral and legal principles of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” the Republican wrote.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Laure Gautherin
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