Snow at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) buffer strip of land between North and South Korea, as both countries have issued cold weather warnings amid extremely low temperatures.
👋 Lumela!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Volodymyr Zelensky aims to crackdown on corruption, seven are killed in the second California mass shooting in three days, and Ticketmaster blames hackers for its recent Taylor Swift debacle. Meanwhile, Ana da Cunha in Lisbon-based news website Mensagem says world cities ought to rethink urban planning to better fit their aging, dementia-prone populations.
[*Sesotho, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Several Ukrainian Officials resign: Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, resigns as Volodymyr Zelensky shakes up the government in Kyiv in what an aide to the president called an answer to public calls for “justice.” Several of the resignations were linked with corruption allegations.
• Suspect held in another mass shooting in California: In a second shooting in three days in the largest U.S. state, 7 people were killed in the town of Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco. The victims were all Chinese-American farm workers. Suspect Zhao Chunli, 67, was arrested after driving to a police station where he was found with a semi-automatic pistol that may have been used in the attack.
• Former Lebanon Prime Minister charged in Beirut explosion: Lebanon’s former PM, Hassan Diab, along with two former ministers, have been charged with homicide in the 2020 Beirut port explosion. Other top officials were also charged in connection with the blast.
• Ardern makes final appearance as prime minister: New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern made her final public appearance as prime minister on Tuesday. Ardern’s final act as leader was to join her successor Chris Hipkins and other lawmakers to attend celebrations at the Rātana meeting grounds, the home of an Indigenous Māori religious movement. This comes after her surprise resignation announcement last Thursday.
• Myanmar military accused of war crimes in Germany suit: Survivors of military abuses in Myanmar have filed a criminal complaint in Germany, asking prosecutors to investigate and bring to trial those responsible for committing war crimes during crackdowns on opponents of the February 2021 coup, and against the Rohingya minority. The complaint was lodged in Germany because of its universal jurisdiction laws.
• North Korea issues extreme cold alert: North Korean authorities have warned of extreme weather conditions as a cold wave is arriving in the Korean Peninsula. Temperatures could go as low as -30 °C (-22 °F) in the northern regions. South Korea too has issued a cold wave warning and northern China has been experiencing record low temperatures.
• Ticketmaster blames Taylor Swift debacle on cyberattack: Last November, Ticketmaster faced major problems during ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s U.S. tour. According to Joe Berchtold, president of Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, the cause was a cyberattack.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Brazil has declared a medical emergency after hundreds of indigenous people died from malnutrition in a densely forested reserve in the northern state of Roraima. At least 16 indigenous people were airlifted yesterday to receive treatment. The dire situation is linked to water pollution caused by mining and logging, as well as food scarcity. As daily O Globo writes on its front page, the country’s federal police (PF) will launch an investigation into what it calls the “Yanomami tragedy.” On Sunday, newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took to Twitter to accuse his predecessor, far-right Jair Bolsonaro, of genocide against the rainforest tribe.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
1,550 km²
A massive iceberg measuring 1,550 square kilometers (598 square miles) — the size of Greater London — has detached from the Antarctic ice shelf. Researchers said the split, the second of its kind to occur in two years, is not due to climate change but is a natural process called “calving.”
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Aging cities of the future — how urban planning can factor in for dementia
As the population ages, the likelihood of diseases such as dementia increases. That means we need to rethink how we design and build cities for the future. A look up close from Ana da Cunha in Lisbon-based news website Mensagem.
🧓 For Maria Manuela Maia, there are routes in Lisbon that are hard to forget, like the one that connects her home to the parish. But there are others where memory fails her. “Manuela is more or less autonomous,” says Orlando, her husband. “But the problem is when you change streets. Then she no longer knows where our house is.” Maria Manuela was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when she was about 60 years old.
📈 In Portugal, INE data indicate that between 2018 and 2080, the number of elderly people will increase from 2.2 to 3 million. Around 128,000 elderly people lived in Lisbon in 2021, 23.5% of the city's population. As you age, the likelihood of developing dementia increases, although cases are increasingly occurring earlier (from around the age of 30). According to a study published this year, by 2050 it is estimated that there will be around 350,000 people with dementia in Portugal.
🏙️ In the 1990s, the world began to wake up to the problem of dementia, with Japan creating the first “communities friendly to people with dementia.” In 2018 the campaign “Friends in Dementia” was launched in Portugal, with the aim of creating local communities friendly to people with dementia. But the problem goes beyond all this. For social worker Marisa Mendes, the big problem is security. “When we go out with users, we have some difficulty in terms of accessibility, and, as some have limited mobility, there is a risk of falling.”
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“Sweden should not expect support from us for NATO.”
— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sweden should not expect Turkey to back its NATO membership, after a copy of the Koran was burned on Saturday during a far right-wing protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Erdogan called the burning “a disgrace” and said that those behind it “can no longer expect any benevolence from us regarding their application.” The Swedish government, which had quickly condemned the Koran burning, is seeking to join NATO in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine; but it requires Turkey’s approval to do so. Meanwhile, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto hinted that his country, also looking to join the alliance, may consider doing so without Sweden.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Why Russia Is Suddenly Deploying Air Defense Systems On Moscow Rooftops — WORLDCRUNCH
• Shame Of A Nation: History Will Judge Germany For Holding Back Tanks From Ukraine — DIE WELT
• Hey ChatGPT, Are You A Google Killer? That's The Wrong Prompt People — UNDARK
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Hugo Perrin, Bertrand Hauger and Anne-Sophie Goninet
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