Jenin Attack Kills 10, Putin & Xi Tighten Ties, Rare Snow Blizzard

👋 བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།*

Welcome to Wednesday, where Israel launches a major offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping reaffirm their alliance for the Trump II era, and an Australian plant is making a stink. And for independent media Holod, Ivan Filippov looks at how, as the war with Ukraine reaches the three-year mark, Russia is its own worst enemy.

[*Tashi delek - Tibetan]

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🗞️  FRONT PAGE

“Davos rolling with Trump shock,” headlines French weekly magazine La Tribune, delving into the international economic response at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to Trump’s return to power. Among the discussions of the state of the global economy were speeches sounding the alarm about backsliding on climate goals and warnings about tariffs for the global economy, both clearly directed at the series of executive orders Trump signed in his first hours in office.

🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Trump delivers fresh tariff threats to EU and China, puts all U.S. government diversity staff on paid leave. Speaking on the first full day of his presidency, the U.S. president vowed to hit the European Union with tariffs and said he was considering imposing a 10% tariff on imports of Chinese-made goods as soon as next week. The leader also issued an executive order late on Tuesday calling for an end to “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes. Staff in these roles will be placed on paid administrative leave “effective immediately.”

• At least 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Jenin. Israel launched a major military operation Tuesday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, killing 10 and leaving at least 40 more people wounded. On Wednesday, the city’s governor said Israel destroyed roads into Jenin’s refugee camp and hospital. This comes as Israel’s fragile ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza entered its third day. Meanwhile, four people were wounded in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. The suspect, identified as a 28-year-old “foreign national,” was killed by security forces. Read more in this analysis translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: Who Won? The Gaza Truce Sparks A False Debate Across The Arab World.

• Xi and Putin hail tightening ties after Trump’s return. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin vowed to take their bilateral ties to “greater heights” this year in a video conference on Tuesday. The two leaders also discussed the war in Ukraine, with Putin warning Xi that any settlement “must respect Russian interests.” This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would likely impose sanctions on Russia if Putin refuses to enter negotiations to end the war in Ukraine and that Putin was “destroying Russia by not making a deal” in unprecedented critical remarks against the Kremlin leader.

• France issues new arrest warrant for Syria’s Assad. Two French investigating magistrates have issued an arrest warrant against the ousted Syrian leader for suspected complicity in war crimes, the second such move by France’s judicial authorities, a source close to the case said late on Tuesday. The mandate was issued as part of an investigation into the case of Salah Abou Nabour, a Franco-Syrian national, who was killed on June 7, 2017 in a bombing raid in Syria. For more, check this Daraj reportage: Assad Is Gone, But Syria's Mothers Are Still Searching For Their Sons.

• Turkey arrests nine over deadly hotel fire that killed 76. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Wednesday the arrests included the owner of the Grand Kartal Hotel, with questions rising over the safety measures in place. Six prosecutors were appointed by the government to lead an investigation into the blaze, which is believed to have started in the restaurant section of the 12-story hotel located at a ski resort in the western Bolu Mountains. Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan declared Wednesday a day of national mourning following the tragedy.

• South Korea to remove concrete embankments after deadly plane crash. South Korea’s transport ministry announced on Wednesday it will change the concrete barriers used for navigation at nine airports across the country, following last month’s Jeju Air crash which had killed 179 people. While an investigation into what caused the plane to crash is still underway, experts have said that the number of casualties could have been much lower if not for the structure at the end of the runway.

• News Quiz! What’s special about Australia’s titan arum plant, other than its putrid stink which has earned it the nickname “corpse flower”?
A. It only blooms only once every 15 years
B. It’s a carnivorous plant that can eat quokkas
C. It uses its smell to communicate with other plants
D. It glows in the dark
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

+36%

The cost of a permit to scale Mount Everest in the most popular season will go up from $11,000 to $15,000, a 36% hike, in September. About 300 permits are given out each year to climb the largest mountain in the world, and expedition organizers say the increase was expected. The costs haven’t changed in over a decade, and Nepalese officials said that the increase was simply an update to the costs.

📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS

➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

⚠️ None of the major heads of state on the Asian continent has a direct link with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who regularly calls on America's Far Eastern allies to “pay more” for their defense. A professor of geopolitics explains that military risk is a major concern in a region with many hotbeds of tension.
— LES ECHOS

🎖️ Both Russia and Ukraine are waiting to see what stance the new U.S. president and his administration will take on the war and aid to Kyiv. But regardless of Washington’s decisions, Ukraine’s main allies are those ensuring Moscow's military is corrupt and inefficient.
— HOLOD

📖 In 1998, urban historian Mike Davis published Ecology of Fear, exploring the consequences of Los Angeles urban development on the increase of natural disasters. Almost three decades later, his book is still relevant.
— THE CONVERSATION

📣 VERBATIM

“For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”

— Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” Trump has been saying he wanted to change the name since a press conference earlier this month, but Sheinbaum has been pushing back, sarcastically suggesting that, based on old maps of the continent, the U.S. should be renamed to “Mexican America.” This time around, she laughed, and insisted that the U.S. would be alone in the name change.

✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Jake Shropshire