👋 Ko na mauri!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where a stunned world reacts to President Trump saying he wants the U.S. to “take over” Gaza and turn it into a beach resort, Islamic spiritual leader and billionaire Aga Khan dies, and a very South Korean thing gets confiscated en masse at airports. Meanwhile, Mikhail Kaluzhsky in independent media Holod focuses on the fate of Russian theater professionals in exile.
[*Gilbertese, Kiribati]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Painful day for Sweden,” headlines Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, which led today with the photos of first responders at the adult school west of Stockholm where 11 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in Swedish history. Another five people were injured at the school, which was for adults who had not finished primary or secondary school. Police say the gunman, who was shot dead, acted alone, but a motive is not yet clear.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• World leaders reject Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza. Saudi Arabia declared its “absolute rejection” Wednesday of President Donald Trump’s declaration that the U.S. should “own” Gaza after kicking out Palestinians from the enclave under an extraordinary plan that he claimed could turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”. Other world leaders, including those in Australia and China, voiced their opposition to such a plan. Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, condemned the proposal as a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
• Ukraine's Zelensky says he is ready for direct talks with Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told British journalist Piers Morgan in an interview posted Tuesday that he wants to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. The return of U.S. President Donald Trump has raised anticipation of negotiations as the third anniversary of Moscow's invasion approaches. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Ukraine-Russia war here.
• U.S. military flying migrants to Guantanamo Bay for first time. This comes as President Trump's administration prepares to potentially house tens of thousands of migrants at the naval base in Cuba. Trump said he wants the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to expand a migrant detention facility at the base to hold more than 30,000 migrants. Meanwhile, a U.S. military plane carrying illegal Indian immigrants landed in India's northern city of Amritsar on Wednesday. Read more here: Handcuffed And Deported – Donald Trump's Brutal Message To The World
• Taliban suspend operation of Afghanistan’s only women’s radio station. This comes after they raided its premises on Tuesday, citing “unauthorized provision” of content and programming to an overseas TV channel, deepening the exclusion of women from public life and society since the group took power in 2021.
• Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte impeached by House of Representatives. The move comes after more than the required number of legislators, many of them allies of the president with whom she has had a bitter political feud, signed a petition to remove her from office. Duterte, the daughter of controversial former President Rodrigo Duterte, has been accused of misusing millions of dollars in public funds and threatening to have President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr assassinated.
• The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, dies. Known for his development work around the world, Karim al-Husseini died in Lisbon at the age of 88. According to the Aga Khan Development Network, an announcement to designate his successor will take place soon.
• News Quiz! South Korean airport officials say they confiscated 11 tons of what product last year?
A. Spicy ramen noodles
B. Snail mucin skincare
C. Kimchi fermented vegetables
D. BTS-themed underwear
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
37.5 hours
Spain’s minority leftist government moved on Tuesday to lower the length of the workweek from 40 hours to 37.5 hours, a change that would affect some 12 million workers. The country’s economy grew by 3.2% last year, but policymakers say that the weakness now is in productivity. The move to 37.5 hours would also fulfill agreements with major labor unions made last year, but the path forward may be rocky, with an unclear legislative path and opponents in the business community.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇸🇾 It appears that Syria’s new rulers, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, are refusing to respond to the social and political demands of former President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, risking a sectarian conflict in the war-torn country.
— DARAJ
🎭 Theater researcher Mikhail Kaluzhsky has mapped and identified key trends of Russia's theater-in-exile and shares what potential futures lie ahead for Russian theater professionals.
— HOLOD
🐟 Currently, the majority of Turkey's fish currently comes from cultivation, also known as fish farming, compared to just 10% two decades ago. The short-sightedness of this shift risks eliminating fishing output from both the farms and the open seas along Turkey's 5,200 miles of coastline.
— OKSIJEN
📣 VERBATIM
“Our homeland is our homeland.”
— Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, pushed back on Donald Trump’s statement that the U.S. would take control of Gaza and relocate Palestinian residents to nearby countries. Trump’s comments came at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where the U.S. president refused to rule out using military force to take over the region. Palestinians, according to Mansour, “want to rebuild Gaza, the schools, the hospitals, the infrastructure because this is where they belong and they love to live there.”
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jake Shropshire
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: C. Security officials enforcing the no-liquids rule at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport (ICN) have been busy seizing a very specific outlawed item: kimchi, a concoction of salted and fermented vegetables that is a staple of every Korean dinner table. Last year, officials at ICN confiscated a total of 10.7 tons of the country’s must-have side dish from passengers violating the ban on liquid in carry-on luggage.