👋 Salut!*
Welcome to Friday, where a Thai court dismisses the prime minister, the U.S. names a new CDC director and today’s quiz question is about a woman fined 110 euros by a French train operator. Meanwhile, Marco Revelli in Italian daily La Stampa writes about his time with author Primo Levi and how that has shaped his view of what is happening in Gaza.
[*Romanian]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
With children about to head back to school, Czech daily Deník N wonders “How to integrate children from Ukraine” and dedicates its front page to the tens of thousands of children asylum seekers who will start primary school on Monday, Sept. 1. Ukrainian refugees have faced difficulty acclimating to the Czech school system and, as the Russia-Ukraine war rages on, educators will be tasked with figuring out how to adapt them to the classroom.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Thai prime minister removed over leaked call. Thailand’s Constitutional Court dismissed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra today for violating ethics in a leaked June telephone call with Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen, in which Shinawatra seemed to cave to Sen. Weeks after the call, a deadly border dispute broke out between the two countries and lasted five days. Shinawatra, who apologized for the call, saying she was trying to avert war, is the fifth prime minister removed by the court in 17 years.
• European leaders condemn deadly Russian strike on Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has strongly condemned Russia’s strike on Kyiv, which killed at least 23 people, including four children, and damaged the EU’s delegation office. Von der Leyen called the strikes “another grim reminder” that Russia will “stop at nothing to terrorize Ukraine.” Meanwhile, the U.S. approved an $825 million arms sale to Ukraine, following President Donald Trump’s efforts at fostering diplomacy and ending the Russia-Ukraine war, which appear to have been sidelined. Read more in this Die Zeit article translated from German by Worldcrunch: How Putin Has Cornered Himself Into A Forever War In Ukraine
• U.S. names RFK Jr deputy new CDC director. The White House chose Jim O’Neill, current deputy to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., as the new director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The appointment came a day after Susan Monarez was forced out of the position because she was “not aligned with the president’s agenda,” the White House said in a statement. Lawyers representing Monarez, who served as director for a month, argued her firing was illegal and that Kennedy went after her for refusing “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives.”
• Indonesian students to continue protests after driver killed. A motorcycle ride-sharing driver was hit by a police vehicle and killed in Jakarta as student protesters near parliament clashed with law enforcement Thursday. In a video message, President Prabowo Subianto, called for a probe into the driver’s death. The protests, which are against issues including lawmakers’ pay and education funding, are set to continue with another called for Friday afternoon.
• UK, France and Germany to restore UN sanctions on Iran. The UK, France and Germany have moved to impose a “snapback” of UN sanctions on Iran, which were lifted in a 2015 nuclear deal that the three countries accused Iran of violating. Iran’s foreign minister responded in a letter to the EU policy chief, arguing the countries have “no legal jurisdiction” to reimpose sanctions and that Russia and China are on Iran’s side. For more, read this analysis by France Inter’s Pierre Haski, translated from French by Worldcrunch.
• 33 Colombian soldiers freed from captivity in Amazon. A group of 33 Colombian soldiers were set free after being held against their will for three days in the guerilla-controlled Amazon. After violent clashes between soldiers and guerillas, which left 10 dead, the troops were prevented from leaving by local villagers who blocked the roads, demanding the return of a killed rebel’s body. President Gustavo Petro called the incident a kidnapping, while the country’s Ombudsman’s office urged people not to stigmatize the community.
• News Quiz! On a Paris-Brittany train, a woman was fined 110 euros by French rail operator SNCF. What unusual reason led to the penalty?
A. Her cheese sandwich was too smelly
B. She started doing parkour in first-class
C. Her cat was meowing too much
D. She was listening to free jazz
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$21 billion
Taiwan’s government estimates that last year China spent $21 billion on military drills in the Taiwan Strait, the East and South China Sea and the Western Pacific, nearly 40% more than in 2023. Taiwanese surveillance and intelligence came to this estimate by tracking Chinese military activity, including aircraft and ships, and calculating the cost of fuel and other expenses. Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement to Reuters that Chinese military expansion is “severely undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
📖Marco Revelli writes about how the Holocaust, together with his memory of time spent with author Primo Levi, helped shape his moral horizon — and how watching Israel’s war in Gaza is destroying that foundation.
— LA STAMPA
🤲 Practitioners want legal recognition, critics call it pseudoscience. Can osteopathy really heal?
— DIE ZEIT
🌊 Experts in flood mitigation see U.S.’s federal flood maps as a national system that’s decades behind. A disbanded FEMA advisory group was supposed to help.
— UNDARK
✍️ Newsletter by Gabrielle Nadler
Quiz Answer: C. A French woman named Camille was reportedly fined 110 euros by French rail operator SNCF after passengers complained that her cat, Monet, was meowing too much during a Paris-Vannes train trip. Despite keeping the cat in an approved carrier and buying the required pet ticket, a fellow traveler’s complaint led to the penalty, which Camille and Monet now have three months to contest.
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