👋 Esama!*
Welcome to Monday, where thousands of Palestinians start returning to north Gaza, Rwanda-backed rebels capture the Congolese city of Goma, and French chefs get beaten by Japan on their home turf. Meanwhile, Raphaël Balenieri for Les Echos reports from Wuhan, the Chinese city coming back to life five years after the COVID-19 epidemic broke out there.
[*Mandika, Senegal, Gambia]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Bogotá-based daily El Espectador laments on the “senselessness” of the tense exchange between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart President Gustavo Petro about the deportation of Colombians from the U.S. Petro had blocked over the weekend the return of deported Colombian migrants on military planes, saying that they were unjustly being treated like criminals. In response, Trump threatened to place high tariffs on the country and to revoke a series of diplomatic ties, which forced the Colombian president to back down, and begin unconditionally accepting migrants back into the country.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Gaza residents start to return north after hostage breakthrough. Tens of thousands of Palestinians began moving along the main roads leading north in Gaza on Monday as Israel opened roadblocks after Hamas agreed to hand over three hostages. Images showed large crowds on the move and witnesses said the first residents arrived in Gaza City in the early morning. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Middle East here.
• Lebanon-Israel ceasefire deal extended until mid-February. Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the U.S. helped broker the truce extension until February 18. This came after Lebanese health ministry said Israeli soldiers killed 22 and wounded 124 over the weekend who were trying to return to their homes in the country's south.
• Congo rebels reach center of eastern city in major escalation. Gunfire was heard today across parts of Goma, the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This came hours after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels said they had seized the city, despite the United Nations Security Council calling for an end to the offensive. The armed group announced the city’s capture in a statement early on Monday, as the DRC government said their advance was a “declaration of war” by Rwanda and the UN said the capture has caused “mass panic” among Goma’s two million residents.
• Russian forces retake village in Kursk border region. Russian troops regained control from Ukraine of the village of Nikolayevo-Darino in Russia's western Kursk region. Moscow's forces have been fighting to eject Ukrainian troops from Kursk since August 6, when Kyiv staged a surprise incursion over the border into Russia. Meanwhile, the EU will be able to renew its sectoral sanctions against Russia after Hungary backed down from its veto threat. For more on the war in Ukraine, read this piece by German media Die Zeit translated into English by Worldcrunch.
• Leaders to hear Auschwitz survivors at 80th anniversary of camp's liberation. Auschwitz survivors are being joined by world leaders on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops. The anniversary at the site of the camp, which Nazi Germany set up in occupied Poland during World War II, was attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Britain's King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and other world leaders.
• Bird feathers found in engines of crashed Jeju Air jet. South Korean officials say they have found evidence that a collision with birds was to blame for a plane crash there in December that killed 179 people. The feathers and blood stains on both engines of the Jeju Air plane were from the Baikal teal, a type of migratory duck that flies in large flocks, according to a preliminary investigation report published on Monday.
• News Quiz! At what world competition did Japan beat France yesterday?
A. Rosé drinking contest
B. Best beef bourguignon
C. World Pastry Cup
D. Eiffel Tower race
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
86.8%
Alexander Lukashenko was elected for his seventh consecutive term as the president of Belarus, reportedly winning 86.8% of a vote that was widely called a sham by the west. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has received regular criticism for cracking down on protests and free speech, locking up political opponents, and allowing Moscow to use parts of the country to prepare for its attempted invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. and members of the EU have said the election was illegitimate, and people within the country say that the existence of opposition candidates is only meant to give the perception of democracy.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇸🇩 After more than 20 months of fighting across Sudan, nearly half the country's population has entered a worsening food shortage crisis. Inexpensive and easy to implement, starvation is a weapon being used by both sides of the conflict.
— AL-MANASSA
😷 Life has resumed its course in Wuhan, where the virus first appeared at the end of 2019. Five years after confinement, the 14 million people of the large industrial city in central China are drowning in economic difficulties. Meanwhile, China has erased this period from its history.
— LES ECHOS
⛷️ As ski seasons grow increasingly shorter and irregular, a debate over the production of artificial snow using water from the Monachil River has taken over Spain’s Sierra Nevada resort.
— LA MAREA
📣 VERBATIM
“This is a frontal assault, a declaration of war that no longer hides behind diplomatic artifice.”
— The Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, said that Rwandan troops were crossing the border into the DRC in support of the M23 rebel group in the eastern part of the country. M23 claimed to have seized Goma, the largest city in the region, and later on gunfire was exchanged between DRC and Rwandan troops. In an emergency meeting, the UN Security Council called for an end to the offensive, but stopped short of naming the Rwandan army or M23.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jake Shropshire
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Quiz Answer: C. The World Pastry Cup. Although the 2025 event was held in Lyon, France, the French team had to settle for silver. Top honors went to returning champions Japan, whose team put together a lemon, pear, marigold and chocolate granita in the shape of an Asanoha (hemp) leaf for their restaurant dessert entry.