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Sign up here• Israel tells Palestinians to evacuate as it resumes bombardment on Gaza: Israel has ordered Palestinians to evacuate several more areas as it continues its bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli military declared on Monday that it was defining “safe areas” for Gaza civilians to minimize harm to them. However, hundreds more Palestinians have been killed since the war resumed on Friday, and it is still unclear where civilians might seek safety. Follow Worldcrunch’s coverage of the war between Hamas and Israel here.
• Multiple commercial vessels attacked in Red Sea: Three commercial vessels came under attack in international waters in the southern Red Sea, according to the U.S. military, as Yemen's Houthi group claimed drone and missile attacks on two Israeli vessels in the area. The Carney, an American destroyer, responded to distress calls and provided assistance following missile and drone launches from Houthi-controlled territory.
• Eleven hikers killed as volcano erupts in Indonesia: Eleven hikers have been found dead near the crater of Indonesia's Marapi volcano after it erupted over the weekend. Three people were rescued on Monday but the search for 12 others missing has been suspended due to a small eruption. There were 75 hikers in the area at the time of the eruption but most were safely evacuated. Read this La Stampa piece, translated from Italian, on the inexact science of predicting volcanic eruptions.
• Venezuelans vote to claim Guyana-controlled oil region: Venezuelans have voted in favor of claiming a disputed oil-rich territory long controlled by neighboring Guyana. More than 95% approved establishing a new state in Essequibo, officials say. Caracas says the region has been part of Venezuela since independence from Spain 200 years ago, but Guyana says it was awarded to what was then British Guiana in the late 19th Century. The dispute flared up again in 2015 after a major offshore oil discovery.
• Netherlands accused of war crimes for supplying military supplies to Israel: A Dutch court is set to hear a case accusing the state of complicity in war crimes in Gaza due to its supply of parts for Israeli bombers. Launched by human rights organizations against The Netherlands, the case, which opens on Monday, says that the Dutch state is complicit in the alleged war crimes due to the export of F-35 fighter jet parts.
• Spotify to cut 17% of its global workforce: Swedish music-streaming giant Spotify has announced it is cutting 17% of its workforce, about 1,500 jobs, as the company seeks to clamp down on costs. Chief executive Daniel Ek said he had made the “difficult” decision with economic growth slowing “dramatically.” Spotify employs about 9,000 people.
• British wanna-be driver fails 59 tests before passing: A driving student who failed the written test 59 times before passing has been praised for their “amazing” commitment. The person, who has not been named, spent £1,380 and a total of 60 hours taking tests in Redditch, UK, and apparently had trouble with nerves. And now, on to the driving test!
“Was the terrorist attack avoidable?,” asks French daily Le Parisien on its front page, reporting on the man suspected of stabbing a German tourist to death and injuring two near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday evening. The 26-year-old, who was later arrested, was on the French security services' watch list and had been sentenced to four years in prison after making plans to travel to Syria to join Islamic State. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the suspect had an “acute mental illness” and that there was a “failure” in his psychiatric treatment.
Rizz
Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, picked the very GenZ slang word rizz (short for “charisma”) as its 2023 word of the year. This synonym of “charm,” or “style,” widely used on social media, can also work as a verb: to “rizz up,” meaning to flirt or seduce a potential romantic partner. The word went viral earlier this year when Spiderman actor Tom Holland, in an interview with Buzzfeed, admitted that he thinks he has “no rizz whatsoever.” Rizz notably beat other contenders like “beige” (boring), “Swiftie” (Taylor Swift fan) and “prompt” (instructions given to an AI program) as this year’s choice.
After Abbas, after the war: three top choices to be the next Palestinian leader
Israel and the West have often asked: Where is the Palestinian Mandela? The divided regimes between Gaza and the West Bank continue to make it difficult to imagine the future Palestinian leader. Still, these three names are worth considering.
🇵🇸 Currently in an Israeli prison, Marwan Barghouti has long been seen as a frontrunner to succeed the aging Abbas as the PA’s president. He was expected to run a prison-cell candidacy in the July 2021 presidential elections. But the vote never happened. Dubbed as “the Palestinian Mandela,” Barghouti was born in the village of Kobar in the occupied West Bank in 1962. He played a central role in the protests that grew to the First Intifada, or uprising, in the 1980s.
🤝 Hussein al-Sheikh is the main go-between for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to negotiate civilian matters in the occupied West Bank, in his capacity as chairman of the PA’s General Authority of Civil Affairs. A member of Fatah’s central committee, al-Sheikh was born in 1960 in Ramallah, and spent 11 years behind bars in Israel between 1978 and 1989. During his time in the prison, he became fluent in Hebrew. For years, he was lauded by Israeli and Western officials as a pragmatic figure who has been able to compromise and find a common ground.
🗯️ Another name floated to lead a revitalized Palestinian Authority is Mohammad Dahlan. An influential but polarizing Palestinian figure, Dahlan is a former head of the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security in Gaza and a senior member of Fatah opposed to President Abbas. He was a member of the group’s Central Committee until tensions with Abbas exploded and he was expelled from the group in 2011. Since then, he has lived in exile in the United Arab Emirates.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
“We very much believe and respect the science.”
— Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the Emirati politician serving as the president of the COP28, has clarified his stance on climate science, as climate talks are ongoing in Dubai. Last month, al-Jaber (who is the minister of industry of the United Arab Emirates, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and chairman of UAE energy company Masdar) said in an online event that he believed there was "no science" backing the global aim of keeping the rise of temperature to 1.5 °C. Read this Ethic piece on the controversy surrounding the COP28 president, translated from Spanish by Worldcrunch.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Bertrand Hauger
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