People gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, to witness a “hybrid” eclipse that was also visible from Australia and East Timor. This hybrid eclipse is a type of solar eclipse that creates an annular or a total solar eclipse, depending on where onlookers stand in relation to the Moon.
👋 Kumusta!*
Welcome to Thursday, where at least 80 are killed in a stampede during a food distribution event in Yemen’s capital Sana’a, climate scientists worry that the return of the El Niño may lead to record high temperatures, and Oceania is treated to a “hybrid” solar eclipse. Meanwhile, Vera Mantengoli in Italian daily La Stampa hopes that counting beds in Venice can be a wake-up call about over-tourism in la Serenissima.
[*Cebuano, Philippines]
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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• At least 78 killed in crush at Ramadan charity event in Yemen: At least 78 people have been killed in a crush at a school in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during a distribution of charity for Ramadan. Hundreds of people had crowded into the school to receive donations which amounted to about $9 (£7) per person. Those responsible for the distribution of the funds have been detained and an investigation is underway, the interior ministry said Houthi rebels have run the city since they drove out the government in 2015.
• In Sudan, residents flee capital Khartoum as fighting continues: Thousands of civilians have fled Sudan's capital and foreign nations are trying to evacuate their citizens, amid a fifth day of fierce fighting that brought the death toll to close to 300. Witnesses reported people leaving Khartoum in cars and on foot on Wednesday morning, as gunfire and deafening explosions rocked the city.
• World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Niño returns: The world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of the warmer El Niño weather phenomenon, after three years of La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which generally lowers global temperatures.
• Russia expands war recruitment drive with video ad calling for “real men”: The Russian military has launched a video campaign to lure more professional soldiers to fight in Ukraine which challenges those interested to show they are "a real man" and swap what it casts as hum-drum civilian life for the battlefield. The ad follows a report from British military intelligence suggesting that Moscow is seeking to recruit up to 400,000 professional soldiers — on a volunteer basis — to bolster its forces in Ukraine.
• India court rejects Rahul Gandhi’s appeal against conviction: An Indian court has rejected opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's appeal seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case. The decision extends the uncertainty over whether he can contest in national elections due next year. Mr Gandhi has been sentenced to two years in jail for 2019 comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname at an election rally.
• Moonbin: K-pop star dies at age of 25 in suspected suicide: K-pop star Moonbin has died at the age of 25, his record label has announced. He was found unresponsive by his manager at his apartment in Seoul on Wednesday night. He was a child actor and model in the 2000s before joining the popular boy band Astro in 2016.
• Succession penthouse is on sale for $29 million: The triplex apartment of Kendall Roy — Jeremy Strong's character in HBO's Emmy-winning hit show, Succession — located at 180 East 88th Street, Manhattan, New York City, is now on sale for $29 million.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth pays tribute to cultural icon Yehonatan Geffen who died at the age of 76. The songwriter, poet, author and journalist was known for his countless songs and poems for both children and adults, as well as his newspaper columns dissecting the ills of the Israeli right-wing leaders and the occupation of the West Bank.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Tourists are about to literally take over Venice
A special counter installed in Venice shows that places to sleep for visitors will literally outnumber those for locals in Venice for the first time in the coming weeks or months. Housing activists hope it will finally be a wake up call for the city, reports Vera Mantengoli in Italian daily La Stampa.
🇮🇹🛏️ Tourists in Venice have always seemed to be everywhere. But now, for the first time, locals are about to be reduced to minority status. The stunning fact for the iconic lagoon city is confirmed by a special "tourist bed counter" installed in the windows of a secondhand bookstore, MarcoPolo. As of this week, there are 48,596 beds for tourists versus 49,365 residents. At this rate, the ratio of one tourist per one resident may be just weeks away.
🏠 “Soon there is going to be a tourist per resident,” said Matteo Secchi of "pro-Venice" website Venessia.com. Venessia.com demands that whoever opens a tourist tenancy should be required to be a resident or that, for every new tourist tenancy, new public housing should be made available.
⚖️ The purpose of the counter is to instill in those who pass by the question: Is it possible not to turn the city into a tourist village? A question that is not obvious given that the city administration has not yet done anything, despite having the means to intervene in the regulation of tourist leases. In other Italian cities that are beginning to have similar problems, support is growing for imposing limits on tourists as a national law, but it still has a long way to go.
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#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$2.2 billion
Research by UK newspaper The Guardian revealed that King Charles III's assets have significantly increased his wealth to an estimated £1.8 billion ($2.2 billion). Items include diamond-encrusted jewels, private properties, paintings by Monet, Rolls-Royces and a collection of rare stamps. However, it is currently impossible to ascertain the full value of the monarch's personal fortune, as it is not subjected to public scrutiny.
📣 VERBATIM
“I was so badly injured that I lay for months in a kind of artificial coma, because otherwise my body couldn’t have dealt with it all.”
— Die Aktuelle is facing serious backlash after the German weekly magazine ran what it advertised as Formula One great Michael Schumacher’s “first interview” since his 2013 skiing accident — an “interview” actually generated through AI-powered chatbot. The family of the former Ferrari driver, who hasn’t been seen his public since the accident left him severely injured, is considering legal action against the magazine.
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• How Natural Disasters Threaten The "Madan Sara," The Women Driving Haiti's Economy — GLOBAL PRESS JOURNAL✍️ Newsletter by Ginevra Falciani, Emma Albright, Sophie Jacquier, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Bertrand Hauger
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