Gazans “Voluntary Departure”, Bangladesh Riots, Australian Fauna IVF

👋 Avuxeni!*

Welcome to Thursday, where Israel orders its army to prepare for the “voluntary departure” of Gaza residents’, Bangladesh protesters torch ousted prime minister’s family home and the warmest January on record baffles climate forecasters. Meanwhile, Ricardo Iacub for Clarín makes the mental health distinction between “alone” and “lonely.”

[*Tsonga, South Africa and Mozambique]

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🗞️  FRONT PAGE

“Trump-esque Riviera” headlines German daily Die Tageszeitung, leading with images of rubble and debris from destroyed buildings in Gaza. After U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise declaration that he wanted the U.S. to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, and take over the coastal enclave to transform into a “Riviera,” White House and State Department officials tried to walk the statement back on Wednesday.

🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Israel orders army to prepare for Gaza residents’ “voluntary departure.” Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow the “voluntary departure” of residents from Gaza, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would aim to take control of the strip. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the proposal to resettle Gaza’s population would only be temporary, after pushback from key Middle East nations and widespread global condemnation of the proposal.

• Panama denies U.S. claims over free canal passages. The Panama Canal Authority on Wednesday denied making changes to allow U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, after the U.S. State Department claimed it had agreed to such a move. The Panama Canal, one of the busiest trade passages in the world, has become a focal point of the Trump administration, with the U.S. president repeatedly voicing his desire to retake control of the waterway. Read more in this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski: We'll Take Greenland, Canada And The Panama Canal! What's Driving Trump's Neo-Imperialism?

• Trump signs order to ban transgender women and girls from female sports. LGBTQ+ rights groups condemned the U.S. president’s executive order signed on Wednesday that attempts to exclude transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports competitions. Under the directive, federal government funding will be denied to educational institutes that allow trans girls and women to participate in female sports and use female locker rooms.

• Bangladesh protesters torch ousted prime minister’s family home. Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh have demolished and set fire to the home of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Wednesday evening, as well as those of other members of her party. The attack was triggered by news that Hasina would give a speech online to supporters from exile in neighbouring India, where she fled last August after a deadly student-led uprising against her 15-year rule.

• January sets “surprising heat record” despite forecasts for cooler 2025. Last month was the world’s warmest January on record, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported on Thursday, with temperatures 1.75 °C above pre-industrial levels. Climate scientists had expected January 2025 to be cooler after a warming El Niño event peaked in January 2024 and conditions gradually shifted to an opposing, cooling La Niña phase. Read more about how our bodies could adapt to global warming’s rising temperatures.

• Argentina to ban hormone therapy for trans children. The country’s government has decided to ban gender change treatments and surgeries for minors, as well as impose limits on trans women being housed inside women’s prisons. The announcement Wednesday came days after President Javier Milei questioned “feminism, diversity, inclusion, abortion, environmentalism and gender ideology” in a speech in Davos, Switzerland.

• News Quiz! For the first time, Australian scientists have produced an embryo through in vitro fertilization (IVF) of which animal?
A. A koala
B. A kangaroo
C. A Tasmanian devil
D. A shrimp
[Answer below]

💬 LEXICON

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Today is Waitangi day in New Zealand, which celebrates Te Tiriti o Waitangi, or “The Treaty of Waitangi,” which was a founding document signed between the British Crown and the majority of Māori tribes in 1840. The treaty has come into focus recently as a minority group in the ruling coalition proposed legislation to reinterpret it, with protesters arguing that this legislation was an attack on the rights of indigenous people.

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

➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇪🇺 In a world of growing tensions, the European machine seems increasingly inadequate. In the face of unpredictable adversaries and allies alike, the ability to know how to play what you're dealt may be the key to protecting the interests of the Old Continent.
— LES ECHOS

🗺️ From war zone risks to head-scratching tourists, the manipulation of the GPS navigation system by hackers can wreak havoc on our modern habits of relying on real-time digital mapping apps. The surest alternative may be going back to paper maps.
— DIE ZEIT

😞 Research has shown how isolation or loneliness can cause mental and physical ailments. Being alone is an objective state but feeling lonely is a fuzzier predicament. One recurring trait among lonesome people is a sense that nobody really cares about them anymore.
— CLARÍN

📣 VERBATIM

“This is proof that the unilateral ceasefire that has been declared was, as usual, a ploy.”

— A spokesman for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) criticized the M23 rebel group for breaking their own unilateral ceasefire by launching a new armed offensive this morning. The rebel group has also been heavily supported by Rwanda, and security sources have said Rwandan troops are involved in this new offensive. The Congolese foreign minister also criticized the international community for a lack of action on the issue so far, saying, “We see a lot of declarations but we don't see actions.”

✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Jake Shropshire