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In The News

Lysychansk Falls, Copenhagen Mall Shooting, Formula One Scare

​Chinese racing driver Zhou Guanyu’s Formula 1 flipped upside-down in a spectacular accident at the start of the British Grand Prix

Chinese racing driver Zhou Guanyu’s Formula 1 flipped upside-down in a spectacular accident at the start of the British Grand Prix

Joel Silvestri, McKenna Johnson, Lila Paulou, Lisa Berdet and Anne-Sophie Goninet

👋 Olá !*

Welcome to Monday, where most of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region is now under Russian control, three die in a Copenhagen mall shooting, and botanists make a big surprise discovery. Meanwhile, we focus on John Lee, who embodies the change afoot in Hong Kong as it marks 25 years since the UK handover.

[*Portuguese]

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This is our daily newsletter Worldcrunch Today, a rapid tour of the news of the day from the world's best journalism sources, regardless of language or geography.

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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• More Russian progress in Donbas: Russian forces continue to progress in eastern Ukraine and have seized most of the Donbas region after the capture of the strategic city of Lysychansk. Meanwhile, Ukrainians had to withdraw “from their occupied positions and lines,” said an army general staff.

Denmark shooting, searching for motive: A gunman opened fire on the crowd in a shopping mall in Copenhagen , Denmark on Sunday, leaving at least three dead and four wounded. According to the police, a 22-year-old Danish suspect has been arrested but there is not evidence the shooting was terror-related.

• Jayland Walker shooting’s protests: Hundreds of people demonstrated in Akron, Ohio after police released a video that shows police officers shooting more than 60 times at Jayland Walker , a 25-year-old Black man who was killed on June 27 while trying to flee police.

• Chile constitution: The new Chilean Constitution has been finalized and the draft will be handed over to Chile’s President Gabriel Boric. It is set to replace the former constitution, written under Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, and it will then be put to an obligatory referendum on September 4.

• Sanctions on Mali lifted: Economic and financial sanctions on Mali have been lifted by the Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), six months after they were implemented. This comes after military rulers ensured a transition towards democracy.

• Italian glacier collapses, killing six: At least six people died and nine were injured after the collapse of a Mormolada glacier in the northern Italian Alps. Rescuers resume search for victims as 16 people are still reportedly missing. This happened one day after abnormally high temperatures for the season were recorded on top of the summit.

• New giant water lily discovered: A new species of giant water lily has been discovered in the Royal Botanic Garden after being mistakenly identified as another species for years. Victoria Boliviana can grow up to three meters in the wild, and is identified as the largest giant water lily in the world.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

Today’s frontpage of Danish daily Politiken shows police officers leading frightened shoppers to safety during the shooting at Field’s shopping mall in Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon. The shooter, a 22-year-old Danish man whose motives remain unknown, killed three people and critically injured four others.

#️⃣  BY THE NUMBERS

+175.55%

Turkey’s inflation rate has increased by 175.55% in the last 12 months, according to ENAG, an independent group of Turkish economists. The group estimates that the inflation rate increased by 8.31% in June alone, contradicting reports from the Turkish government . Inflation is showing no signs of slowing down as the country faces continued economic pressure from the war in Ukraine, high energy and food prices, and the devaluation of the lira.

📰  STORY OF THE DAY

John Lee and the “mainlandizing” of Hong Kong

The recent festivities to mark 25 years since the British handover to China of Hong Kong also marked the official arrival of the new leader of Hong Kong, John Lee, who will move things even faster and closer to Beijing .

🇭🇰 The scene was set well Friday as Hong Kong marked 25 years of being back under Chinese rule. Streets flooded with Chinese and Hong Kong flags, cheering crowds, history lessons and speeches — and at the center was President Xi Jinping, who arrived on Thursday, for his first visit to Hong Kong since 2017. But the other face to keep track of for Hong Kong’s 25th Handover anniversary looked a bit more tense than Xi's. That is the face of John Lee, who was inaugurated to take over the chair of Chief Executive from Carrie Lam, to be the effective leader of Hong Kong.

👮 The new chief executive is not, in fact, a new face. Lee was Hong Kong's security chief during the 2019-2020 protests, and was the key figure in pushing through the National Security Law. He now becomes Hong Kong's first ever chief executive to rise from the police forces. Lee had gained a reputation as a security hawk without a human touch, but after being hand-picked by Beijing, has been repackaged around his “success story” biography. The public relations pros have given him as an example of a new kind of “Hong Kong elite,” who rose from the grassroots.

🇨🇳⏱️ Of course, the current celebration is itself a reminder that Hong Kong was in fact a British colony. Hong Kong 25 is a watershed, as it is halfway towards 2047, the “expiry date” for the existing legal and political framework for Hong Kong’s future. With the clock ticking, the “New Hong Kong” future is now in the hands of John Lee — with Xi Jingping looking over his shoulder. It is obvious that, under Lee's leadership, pro-establishment forces are taking control of Hong Kong's future, based on the mainland model of development and stability.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📣 VERBATIM

They didn’t tell me anything.

— In an interview with Reuters , Pope Francis dismissed rumors that he might soon retire, and that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said a routine operation last year “was a great success," adding with a laugh that "they didn't tell me anything" about the rumored cancer, which he dismissed as "court gossip."

✍️ Newsletter by Joel Silvestri, McKenna Johnson, Lila Paulou, Lisa Berdet and Anne-Sophie Goninet


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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

After Abbas: Here Are The Three Frontrunners 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 continues to make it difficult to imagine the future Palestinian leader. Still, these three names are worth considering.

Abbas is 88, and has been the leading Palestinian political figure since 2005

Thaer Ganaim/APA Images via ZUMA
Elias Kassem

Updated Dec. 5, 2023 at 12:05 a.m.

Israel has set two goals for its Gaza war: destroying Hamas and releasing hostages.

But it has no answer to, nor is even asking the question: What comes next?

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the return of the current Palestinian Authority to govern post-war Gaza. That stance seems opposed to the U.S. Administration’s call to revitalize the Palestinian Authority (PA) to assume power in the coastal enclave.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here .

But neither Israel nor the U.S. put a detailed plan for a governing body in post-war Gaza, let alone offering a vision for a bonafide Palestinian state that would also encompass the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers much of the occupied West Bank, was created in1994 as part of the Oslo Accords peace agreement. It’s now led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who succeeded Yasser Arafat in 2005. Over the past few years, the question of who would succeed Abbas, now 88 years old, has largely dominated internal Palestinian politics.

But that question has gained new urgency — and was fundamentally altered — with the war in Gaza.

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