U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel and efforts to prevent the conflict from escalating further.
👋 Håfa adai!*
Welcome to Friday, where Israel tells people in northern Gaza to evacuate, while Hamas tells them to stay. Meanwhile, a teacher is killed in a knife attack at a French high school, and one bodacious mother bear gets crowned in Alaska. We also offer an analysis of what’s at stake in the Polish election slated for this weekend, and the looming shadow of a “Polexit.”
[*Chamorro - Guam]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Gaza evacuation order, Blinken in Amman: Israel’s military told the United Nations that everyone living north of the Wadi Gaza nature reserve should relocate “southwards” within the next 24 hours — a demand that the UN has called "impossible". Just hours later, Hamas authorities told people in Gaza to stay where they are. Meanwhile U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the King of Jordan and the head of the Palestinian Authority to continue efforts to defuse the mounting war in the Middle East.
• Teacher killed in knife attack at French school: A teacher has been killed and two other people severely wounded in a knife attack at a French high school in the northern city of Arras on Friday morning. The attacker has been arrested. Police, who have opened a terror probe, say the attacker shouted Allahu Akbar (“God is great” in Arabic during the attack). The killing appears to echo the 2020 beheading of a teacher north of Paris.
• Steve Scalise drops out of U.S. Speaker race: Republican congressman Steve Scalise announced he was ending his bid to become U.S. House Speaker after failing to find enough support to win a vote of the full chamber, plunging the paralyzed institution deeper into crisis. Read more about How The Chaos In Washington Emboldens Moscow And Beijing.
• Australia prepares for landmark vote on Indigenous Voice: Australians will head to the polls on Saturday to say “yes” or “no” to alter the country’s 122-year old constitution to recognize Indigenous people through the creation of a new parliamentary advisory board. The referendum campaign has stirred divisions, with reports of hate speech and racism fuelled by misinformation on social media.
• Microsoft gets UK green light for biggest ever gaming deal: UK regulators have approved Microsoft's revised offer to buy Call of Duty-maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion after initially blocking the bid in April. When completed, the deal will mark the gaming industry's biggest-ever takeover.
• Seven dead in suspected migrant smuggling car crash in Germany: At least seven people were killed and several others injured after a minivan carrying more than 20 migrants overturned in the southern German state of Bavaria on Friday. The driver, a suspected human trafficker, attempted to evade police at a road check before losing control on a motorway.
• Mama bear wins Alaska’s Fat Bear Week contest: A mother bear nicknamed Grazer has been crowned Fat Bear Week's queen of corpulence in the annual contest organized by Alaska’s Katmai National Park, which gathered 1.4 million votes from 100 countries. The competition aims at celebrating the resiliency of the preserve’s brown bears which are preparing to hibernate by stocking up on salmon.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Australian daily The Canberra Times dedicates its front page to the upcoming “Indigenous Voice” referendum. The referendum asks voters to answer “yes” or “no” to an alteration to the Australian Constitution that would recognize Indigenous Australians. The newspaper reports that some of Canberra’s leading Indigenous figures are calling for unity and support in what would constitute a major step forward in aboriginal rights in the country.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
-6.2%
Both exports and imports have sunk in China over the month of September, as compared to last year. The customs data reports that, coincidentally, both values decreased by precisely 6.2%, further marking China’s destabilized economy. For more, we offer this article by Argentine daily Clarin: Why China's Faltering Economy Is Such Bad News For The Global South.
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📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Will Poland leave the EU? Historic election sparks “Polexit” fears
The Polish government has frequently clashed with the European Union, stoking fears that a “Polexit” may be on the horizon, depending on the results of the country's upcoming election where a far-right anti-EU party could play the role of kingmaker.
🗳️ On Sunday, Polish voters will go to the polls in what opposition leader Donald Tusk called “the most important election since 1989," when Poland held the first free elections after the fall of communism. The election follows a bitterly-fought campaign between the right-wing ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), and the liberal-centrist opposition, Civic Coalition (KO). Poll numbers remain close, with 37% of voters supporting PiS, and 30% supporting the main opposition coalition.
🇵🇱🇪🇺 Konfederacja (Confederation), a far-right party, is marked as a potential kingmaker, to form a coalition with the current conservative ruling party. This has prompted a range of fears about policies that Konfederacja could impose on a future government — chief among them is the specter that it could push PiS to follow the UK's Brexit, and pull out of the European Union. It's a scenario that some have dubbed: Polexit.
🗯️ Since the PiS government came to power in 2015, Poland has had a fraught relationship with the European Union. But despite frequent clashes with the EU, Poles continue to be widely supportive of EU membership, and view it as a positive force. In a 2022 Pew Research Survey, over 80% of Poles responded that the EU promotes democratic values and prosperity.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“We achieved something much more human, more transcendent.”
— Spanish soccer icon Jenni Hermoso has spoken for the first time since her World Cup victory was overshadowed by the controversial unsolicited kiss of then football chief, Luis Rubiales. In a speech in Mexico, where she plays for the Pachuca team, Hermoso said that besides the team’s victory on the pitch, the events of the World Cup final turned out to be an important landmark in women’s larger fight for equality and respect. And here are 11 Other Cases Of Football's Die-Hard Machismo And Sexual Aggression.
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• How China Fell In Love With Syria's First Lady — THE INITIUM
• Gùsto! How · What · Where Locals Eat (And Drink) In Chicago — WORLDCRUNCH
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet, Valeria Berghinz and Michelle Courtois
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