Le Weekend: Mosul Rebirth, Cooling Sunscreen, Banksy Badger

⬇️  STARTER 

Blackmail, extortion, blown-up ATMs: The price of trying to get cash in Gaza

Mohammed Odeh, a Palestinian Authority civil servant in Gaza, is paid a monthly salary of 2,700 shekels ($750). But he has to pay 23% to a money broker to receive it in cash in the war-torn strip after transferring the salary from his bank account to the broker’s.

Odeh is one of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who have been blackmailed by brokers to receive their salaries in cash due to the near-total closure of banks, most of which have been destroyed over the 15 months of war. According to the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), many banks were destroyed in Israel’s bombing campaign, and that financial operations have stopped across Gaza. And most ATMs were out of service.

As financial services stopped, brokers’ business flourished across Gaza. They have become the sole alternative through which civil servants receive their salaries in cash. Through fake accounts on social media, brokers offer cash for a commission that reached up 30% of the requested amount. The practice is criminalized under the Palestinian law and the Monetary Authority has said it will impose penalties on those involved in extortion and exploitation.

Yet no measures have been announced against such brokers who are still active in Gaza.

“During the war, the prices of basic commodities such as flour, oil and sugar doubled. And a family of five needed $2,000 a month to meet their food needs if they were available in the markets,” Odeh said.

After the Israeli military invaded Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis in December 2023, Odeh stopped using the ATM in his area, and began to rely on brokers to receive his salary in cash. Every time Odeh was exploited and extorted by the brokers, paying a commission that reached 30% of his salary.

“I transfer my monthly salary to the bank account of the broker who in turn gives it to me in cash after deducting the commission,” he said. [...]

— Read the full article by Mohamed Abu Shahma for Daraj, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch.

🎲  OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ

What do you remember from the news this week?

1. What did Donald Trump say he wanted to turn Gaza into, that would be “magnificent”?

2. Which European country was rocked by the worst mass shooting in its history?

3. Which carmaker is suing India over an “impossibly enormous” tax demand of $1.4 billion?

4. What has Spain recently moved to put in place?
Vegan paella option on all menus / 37.5-hour working week / Kid-friendly bullfighting / Compulsory siesta

[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]

#️⃣  TRENDING

It’s a mystery that has social media users going bananas: For the past year or so, in Beeston, central UK, plates of peeled bananas have started popping up in the street, only to disappear as quickly as they've come. According to the residents, the plates of 16-20 fruits arrive overnight around the beginning of every month. Inquiries on their origins have so far proven "fruitless,” as the BBC quips.

🎭  5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW

• French actress Juliette Binoche to head jury at Cannes Film Festival. The Cannes Film Festival announced it had chosen one of France’s most celebrated actors to preside over its 78th edition which will take place in May. Juliette Binoche, who gained international fame for her performance in The English Patient in 1996, will succeed Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who served as jury president last year. “In 1985, I climbed the steps for the first time with the enthusiasm and uncertainty of a young actress. I never imagined returning 40 years later,” the 60-year-old actress said.

• Portrait concealed under Titian masterpiece found in Cyprus. Researchers in Cyprus have discovered a hidden portrait that lay undetected for centuries beneath Ecce Homo (“Behold, The Man” in English), a 1570 oil painting by the Renaissance master depicting Jesus standing next to Pontius Pilate. The portrait, which Titian painted over, shows an unidentified man with a thin moustache, quill in hand, standing next to a stack of papers or books — “a banker, a lawyer, some professional man in his workspace,” according to the researcher. A rendering of the hidden work is now on display in the city of Limassol.

• Mosul’s historic buildings reopen after ISIS destruction. Historic landmarks in the Iraqi city, including the famous leaning al-Hadba minaret, the al-Tahera Church and the Dominican al-Saa'a Convent, are reopening following a massive renovation project organized and funded by UNESCO. Mosul had suffered years of devastation resulting from its takeover by the extremist Islamic State group when the project started in 2017, a year after IS was defeated and driven out of the city.

• Russian to relaunch Soviet-era Eurovision rival. Following Russia’s ban from competing in Eurovision in 2022 after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered the revival of Intervision, the Soviet-era alternative to the song contest that last took place more than 40 years ago. Presidential envoy Mikhail Shvydkoi said the competition would take place in autumn and that “almost 20 countries” had agreed to participate, including Brazil, Cuba, India and China. Launched under the former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the Intervision Song Contest was held sporadically in Czechoslovakia and Poland from the 1960s to the 1980s as the eastern bloc’s response to Eurovision.

• Netflix distances itself from Emilia Pérez actor amid controversy. In an effort to salvage the film’s Oscar prospects, sources tell Variety that the streaming giant has stopped talking directly with Karla Sofía Gascón as the Spanish actor tries to defuse the blowback over offensive social media posts. Gascón, who made history as the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards, is no longer expected to travel to the U.S. for the critical second phase of the Oscars campaign. The actor has apologized for the posts viewed as Islamophobic and racist but has refused to withdraw from the Oscar race.

🦡 SMILE OF THE WEEK

Natural History Museum's 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award was awarded this year to British photographer Ian Wood, for his picture of a badger looking at a Banksy graffiti version of... a badger. The picture, shot in St Leonards-on-Sea shows the animal contemplating the street art in the glow of a streetlight. A record 76,000 votes were counted for the awards, and the museum's director highlighted the picture's role in "underscoring the importance of understanding urban wildlife.”

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇦🇫 The Taliban closed a radio station broadcasting from Kabul and aimed at women — yet another act in its unprecedented isolation of half of Afghanistan's population. While the world is not turning a blind eye, it lacks the means to put pressure on the Taliban.
— FRANCE INTER

🇺🇸 “What Trump is attempting is nothing short of a revolution, or even a coup d'état.” In economics, disruption describes an ordinary process: innovations replace outdated technologies. But in politics? It takes on a far darker meaning.
— DIE ZEIT

🍷 Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese products, Europe is expecting similar announcements. France, whose wines and spirits are a traditional target in trade conflicts with the EU, is particularly at risk.
— LES ECHOS

🎭 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

😞 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

☀️ BRIGHT IDEA

Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University, Beijing, led by Professor Rufan Zhang, have developed a sunscreen that lowers body temperature by up to 6.1 °C (11 °F). The innovative lotion contains modified titanium dioxide nanoparticles, flesh-colored iron oxide pigments and polydimethylsiloxane to block UV and infrared rays. The SPF 50 sunscreen is said to remain effective for 12 hours, in addition to being water-resistant.

👓 WORLDCRUNCH MAGAZINE

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⏩  LOOKING AHEAD

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the U.S. next week and meet with President Donald Trump. Modi will be one of the first foreign leaders to meet Trump at the White House during his second term, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit and a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba slated for this week. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the three-year war in Ukraine could be unveiled at the Munich Security Conference next week.

• The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant announced it will start dismantling treated water tanks next week, in order to clear space needed to store nuclear fuel debris extracted from the reactors. The step is a milestone as Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) moves ahead with a decades-long project to dismantle the plant, which went into meltdown after it was hit by a tsunami back in 2011.

• U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance is set to attend the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence, held in Paris on February 10 and 11. This event will bring together heads of state and government, international organizations and companies of all sizes, representatives from academia, researchers, non-governmental organizations, artists and other members of civil society, to discuss AI-related issues and opportunities.

News quiz answers:

1. U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed the U.S. should take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” calling the vision “magnificent” — while sparking international outrage.

2. Sweden has suffered the deadliest mass shooting in its history after a gunman opened fire at an adult education center in the city of Örebro, killing at least 10 people.

3. German car maker Volkswagen has announced it would be taking legal action against Indian authorities over a $1.4 billion tax demand, calling the sum “impossibly enormous.”

4. Spain has agreed to cut the legal working week from 40 hours currently to 37.5 hours, with no change in salary.

✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch

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*Photo: Ismael Adnan/dpa/ZUMA