👋 Pialli!*
Welcome to Monday, where the ceasefire holds between Israel and Hamas after the first hostage-prisoner exchange, Donald Trump is set to be sworn in, and the news kicker quiz is about a lonely sunfish in a Japanese aquarium. Meanwhile, L.A.-based French writer Jacky Golder in Les Echos takes a steamy look at how erotica is back on the silver screen.
[*Nahuatl, Mexico]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Finally home,” rejoices Israel daily Maariv, after the first three of 33 hostages taken by Hamas were released on Sunday as the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect. In exchange, Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners, the first of about 1,900 that Israel agreed to release. Meanwhile, in Gaza, displaced Palestinians have been returning to their homes, but many are finding those homes were destroyed in the 15 months of conflict.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Gaza truce holds, as remains of 47 bodies recovered in Rafah. Gaza’s civil defense agency said the search for up to 10,000 bodies continues on the second day of the ceasefire. This comes the day after Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war. The truce allowed Palestinians to return to destroyed neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Middle East here.
• Donald Trump will be sworn in as U.S. president on Monday. Trump has promised to push the limits of executive power, deport millions of immigrants, secure retribution against his political enemies and transform the role of the U.S. on the world stage. Trump's inauguration completes a comeback for a political disruptor who survived two impeachment trials, a felony conviction, two assassination attempts and an indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss. Read more on Trump’s relationship with China in this analysis, translated from German to English.
• South Korea's Yoon shuns questioning. South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol refused on Monday to be questioned by investigators under a probe into whether he committed insurrection, as dozens of his supporters faced being charged over a violent rampage on a court building. Yoon became the first incumbent South Korean president to be arrested last week over his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.
• At least 80 people killed in northeast Colombia as ELN peace talks fail. The death toll has climbed since the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN) launched an assault in the northeastern Catatumbo region Thursday. The attack was aimed at a rival group composed of ex-members of the now-defunct FARC armed group who kept fighting after it disarmed in 2017.
• China executes man found guilty of killing at least 35 people in car attack. The November massacre is thought to be the deadliest terror attack in the country in the past decade. Fan Weiqiu, 62, injured dozens more when he drove his car into people exercising outside a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai. State media said a second man was executed for a separate attack that came days later. Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people in a stabbing spree at his university in the eastern city of Wuxi.
• News Quiz! How to help a lonely sunfish in a closed-down aquarium? A sunfish was believed to be missing its human audience during a temporary closure of the Kaikyokan aquarium in Shimonoseki, Japan. How did the aquarium try to help?
A. Bring in school kids to visit
B. Set up photos of humans in front of his tank
C. Change his diet to include plankton and algae “comfort food”
D. Show him clips of Free Willy
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$5.7 billion
Billionaires saw their wealth grow by $5.7 billion per day in 2024 — three times faster than 2023 — according to an Oxfam report ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The group predicts that unchecked wealth accumulation could produce five trillionaires within a decade, five times the number they predicted just a year ago. Meanwhile, global poverty rates have remained largely stagnant since 1990, with billions living on less than $6.85 a day. Oxfam is calling for higher taxes on the ultra-rich and measures to break up monopolies as inequality takes center stage at Davos, where the world's top businesspeople and economic officials gather to discuss the future of the global economy. For more, we offer this article: Meet The Palm Beach Billionaires Bankrolling Trump's Return To The White House
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
💥 What exactly is left of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis? Will they ever manage to recover from the crushing defeats they suffered this past year? If so, what will it mean for the future of the Middle East?
— DIE ZEIT
🇮🇶🇸🇾 Despite the Ba'ath Party's defeats in Iraq and Syria and the atrocities and crimes he committed, Saddam Hussein still maintains a favorable standing in the hearts of many. Jordanian writer Hassan Zayed looks at these paradoxes.
— DARAJ
🎥 After the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers and Haline Reijn’s Babygirl, sexual themes and scenes are making a comeback in the movies after years of veritable chastity.
— LES ECHOS
📣 VERBATIM
“We have to save it.”
— U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to protect TikTok’s access to the American market once he returns to power later today. TikTok, which briefly was unavailable to American users for download, returned on Sunday with a public message of thanks to the incoming president appearing on the platform for the more than 170 million Americans who use it.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jake Shropshire
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: B. In a photo posted by Yamaguchi prefecture, the lonely sunfish is seen swimming in front of photos of human faces attached to a row of uniforms. The fish, who hadn’t been eating enough, appeared to be back in better health.