UAE Warns Israel Over West Bank, Lisbon Cable Car Crash, Holy Whip

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Portuguese weekly Diário de Notícias dedicates its front page to the “Tragedy in Lisbon,” after the city’s famous Gloria funicular derailed and killed at least 15 people, injuring 23 others. Authorities have ruled the event as an accident, saying an investigation would be launched into what caused the 140-year-old streetcar to lose control and crash into a building.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Kim Jong-un says North Korea will “fully support” Russian army. After a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Beijing, the North Korean leader pledged his support for Russia as a “fraternal duty,” calling the ties between the two nations “special.” The meeting took place aside a historic gathering of both leaders with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first encounter between the three countries’ leaders since the Cold War, as China commemorated the formal surrender of Japan in WWII. For more, read this France Inter piece, translated from French by Worldcrunch: Xi Jinping Weaponizes History To Send A Warning To Trump.

• UAE warns Israel’s West Bank annexation is a “red line.” Senior United Arab Emirates official Lana Nusseibeh said that by annexing the occupied West Bank, Israel would cross a “red line” and “end the pursuit of regional integration.” The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said it welcomed the UAE’s message, while Israel has yet to react. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently proposed a plan to annex roughly four fifths of the West Bank. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas has reiterated its readiness for a deal that would see all Israeli hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a plan that was criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as “yet another spin by Hamas.” 

• Ukraine allies hold talks, hope for U.S. backing. Global leaders are meeting for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris today to discuss future security guarantees should a ceasefire be reached with Russia. The “coalition of the willing” has been meeting for months, but has stalled as Europe continues attempts to persuade the U.S. to get involved. French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that Europeans “are ready” to offer security guarantees to Ukraine once a peace accord is signed. Read more about it here. 

• France fines Google, Shein for cookie law violations. France’s data protection authority fined search giant Google $380 million and fast-fashion platform Shein $175 million for breaching internet cookie laws, by failing to secure users’ consent before setting cookies on their browsers, enabling the companies to collect data on the users’ internet activity. Shein said it would appeal the fine, which they called “totally disproportionate,” while Google said it would study the decision. 

• Peru ex-president given new 13-year corruption sentence. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, 79, has been sentenced to 13 years and four months in jail for money laundering. In his second corruption conviction, Toledo was found to have used bribe money from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to buy high-value real estate and funnelled funds through an offshore company in Costa Rica. This follows a 20-year prison sentence Toledo received last October for accepting up to $35 million in bribes. 

• Florida aims to become first U.S. state to ban vaccine mandates. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state’s plans to ban vaccine mandates for school children, comparing them to “slavery.” Officials did not specify details or deadlines concerning the plans. Repealing some of the mandates will require a vote by the Republican state legislature. Doctors and health groups have frequently criticized Ladapo for spreading misinformation. 

• News Quiz! The Portrait of Contessa Colleoni by Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, a painting that was stolen back in 1940 by the Nazis, was finally recovered in Argentina. Where was it first spotted a week ago?

A. On online photos of a local bar
B. Hanging on a wall in a house listing
C. On an Instagram photo of a yard sale
D. In a TV ad
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

$1.62 billion

Australia has agreed to pay the small Pacific island nation of Nauru AUD $2.5 billion ($1.62 billion) over 30 years to resettle a group of former detainees who have “no legal right to remain in Australia.” Under the secretive deal signed last week, Nauru will host a group of 354 noncitizens, known as the NZYQ cohort, who previously faced indefinite immigration detention because their visas had been cancelled on “character grounds” but who could not be returned to their home countries — either because they faced persecution, were stateless, or because those countries refused to accept them. Human rights lawyers, refugee advocates and Australia’s Greens party have called the deal “discriminatory, disgraceful and dangerous.”

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

👵🏻 In China, “fashion grandmothers” are the hottest influencers sweeping social media with their elegant and trendy style challenging stereotypes of older women. 
— LA STAMPA

🕌 An elderly couple had to flee their home in Pakistan after their son was unjustly accused of violating blasphemy laws, which forbid actions offensive to Islam, but are increasingly being exploited.
— RELIGION UNPLUGGED 

🫲 From South Africa to Singapore to France, the question of when or where adults can physically discipline children continues to fuel debate. To spank, or not to spank?
— WORLDCRUNCH