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Airbnb is giving away three nights at Santa Claus’ cabin in Rovaniemi, Finland, to one family (up to two adults and two children) who will also be able to give a hand at Santa’s post office.
💡 SPOTLIGHT
The Red Sea attack shows two scenarios for how the Gaza war goes global
Houthi rebels in Yemen have escalated their maritime attacks in the strategically vital Red Sea. Both their links to Iran, and the decision to target key shipping routes raises the risks for international escalation.
Keep your eye on Yemen. The Houthi rebel group from the war-torn Gulf nation has not attracted the same attention over the past two months as the Lebanese militants of Hezbollah, considered the most immediate risk of setting the spark that could ignite the Hamas-Israel war beyond Gaza.
Yet over the past 48 hours, a major Houthi attack on seaborne targets was launched with ballistic missiles and explosive-landed drones. The U.S. said one of its warships in the area shot down three drones in self-defense during the hours-long assault on the vessels, including the Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer and the Panamanian-flagged bulk carriers Number 9 and Sophie II.
The Houthis claimed the attack in a statement read by their military spokesman, saying the targeted vessels have links with Israel, a claim Israel’s military denied.
“The Yemeni armed forces continue to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea (and Gulf of Aden) until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in the statement.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement that the attacks put at risk the lives of international crews working on the ships. And more broadly, CENTCOM warned that “these attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security.”
The Houthis, a Shia religious movement, seized Yemen's capital of Sanaa in 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government to flee to the south then to exile in Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi takeover prompted a civil war that then developed into a proxy war in 2015 between Saudi Arabia and Iran, after the first formed a military coalition to try to restore the internationally recognized government to power. [...]
— Read the full Worldcrunch article by Elias Kassem.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel intensifies bombardment of southern Gaza, Jabalia camp encircled: The Israeli army says it has encircled the Jabalia refugee camp after destroying what it referred to as “terrorist infrastructure,” as it presses ahead with its offensive of the southern Gaza Strip. Breaking with its long-held apolitical approach, the International Committee of the Red Cross posted a video of its chief, Mirjana Spoljaric, denouncing the “moral failure” of the international community in Gaza, and urging all sides to “deescalate” and find a “political” solution.
• Zelensky to make case for Ukraine funding to U.S. senators: Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky will address U.S. senators via secure video on Tuesday to make his case about why fresh military funds are needed to help Ukraine fight Russia. This comes as the White House is pressuring Congress to pass a supplemental aid package of nearly $106 billion for the wars in Ukraine, Israel and other security needs, and as U.S. officials have warned that all resources available for Kyiv will be exhausted by the end of the year. For more on Zelensky’s current struggles, read this recent article by Ukrainska Pravda translated from Ukrainian by Worldcrunch.
• Record number of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28: As climate activists are staging several small protests at the COP28 climate summit to demand an end to the use of fossil fuels, an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition has revealed that a record number of fossil fuels delegates are attending this year's UN climate talks. The report suggests that 2,456 representatives of the coal, oil and gas industries have been registered for the COP28 — a number that has quadrupled since last year.
• New Zealanders protest new government’s Indigenous policies: Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Wellington on Tuesday to express opposition to the new government's plans to reverse policies that boosted Indigenous rights. The protests coincided with the opening of New Zealand's 54th parliament, following elections in October that saw the election of a new right-leaning government.
• Death toll of Mount Merapi eruption rises to 13, 10 still missing: Rescuers have found two more bodies on the slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano that erupted over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 13. About 75 hikers were caught by a surprise eruption, most of whom have been evacuated. Search efforts for the 10 other missing hikers have resumed on Tuesday after being paused due to a second eruption on Monday.
• Military drone accident kills 85 civilians in Nigeria: Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered an investigation on Tuesday after emergency officials revealed a Nigerian army drone accidentally killed at least 85 civilians gathered for a Muslim festival in a village in northwest Kaduna State over the weekend.
• GTA 6 trailer leaked: U.S. video game publisher Rockstar released a trailer for its much-hyped game Grand Theft Auto 6 a day earlier, after low-quality footage was leaked online. Fans of the street-chase-robbery-brawl galore will have to wait a little while still: GTA 6 isn’t due for release before 2025.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Inconceivable,” titles Lisbon-based daily i. “This country is not for babies” the newspaper writes, citing Portugal’s latest demographic data that included 41,000 more deaths than births across the country last year.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$2,135
On Monday the price of gold hit an all-time high, jumping 3% to reach a height of $2,135 per ounce. The peak in prices was raised by expectations that interest rates would be cut among investors, geopolitical tensions and a weak dollar.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Kunshan, grande! What Starbucks has brewing for China's burgeoning coffee market
A gigantic and multi-faceted new location near Shanghai epitomizes the American giant's ambition to quench China's growing but still-nascent thirst for coffee, reports Frédéric Schaeffer in French business daily Les Echos.
🇨🇳 The “China Coffee Innovation Park” in Kunshan is a symbol of Starbucks’s hefty ambitions in China — it plans to open a location in the country every nine hours between now and 2025. The aim is to have more than 9,000 shops in 300 Chinese cities by then, compared with 6,500 today. “The 9,000 stores are just a milestone,” said Laxman Narasimhan, the company's new boss, who rushed to China at the end of May in the wake of his appointment.
☕ Starbucks opened its first café in Beijing's financial district in January 1999, but the battle for coffee dominance is now being waged in Shanghai. The financial metropolis prides itself on being the coffee capital of the world, with more than 8,500 coffee shops, the highest number in the world. By comparison, Tokyo and London have around 3,500 and New York fewer than 2,000. Two new cafés open every day in this megalopolis of 24 million inhabitants, according to Xu Jian, a researcher at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
📈 At this stage, coffee is still mainly a beverage for elite dwellers of China's megacities, who are aged between 20 and 40, have degrees and high incomes, and are predominantly women. But the beverage is poised for an image makeover. “While developing the habit of drinking coffee, consumers are constantly increasing the frequency with which they consume it, so that coffee is gradually moving from being a 'trendy' drink to an everyday beverage,” notes Deloitte in a study published in 2021.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“No place is safe in Gaza.”
— Philippe Lazzarine, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, has released a safety warning as Israeli bombardment intensifies around Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city. Many displaced Palestinians had fled to Khan Younis seeking shelter.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Airbnb is giving away three nights at Santa Claus’ cabin in Rovaniemi, Finland, to one family (up to two adults and two children) who will also be able to give a hand at Santa’s post office. — Photo: Airbnb
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Turkey-Israel Relations? It's Complicated — But The Gaza War Is Different — WORLDCRUNCH
• Zaluzhny vs. Zelensky: Ukraine's Heavyweight Feud Puts The War At Risk — UKRAINSKA PRAVDA
• How WeChat Is Helping Bhutan's Disappearing Languages Find A New Voice — THE CONVERSATION
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet, Bertrand Hauger and Valeria Berghinz
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