Vance In Israel, Japan’s First Female PM, Diwali Pollution

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Bogotá-based daily El Espectador devotes its front page to the meeting between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and John McNamara, the U.S.’ acting ambassador in Colombia, amid a diplomatic spat with U.S. President Donald Trump over the flow of illegal drugs. Petro recalled his ambassador in Washington, Daniel García-Peña, after Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on the country’s exports on Monday. Tensions between the U.S. leader and his Colombian counterpart have been escalating since the U.S. deployed warships in the Caribbean and launched missiles to destroy vessels it claims were trafficking drugs.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Israel identifies remains of hostage, Hamas says it is committed to ending war. U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel on Tuesday to bolster the fragile Gaza truce. He is set to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said they would be discussing regional “security challenges” and “diplomatic opportunities.” Meanwhile, Israel said it has identified the body of a hostage released by Palestinian militants overnight, while the chief Hamas negotiator said the group remains determined to implement the ceasefire agreement to end the two-year war.

• Ukraine and EU leaders accuse Putin of stalling, reject land concessions for peace. Ukraine’s president and European leaders on Tuesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of stalling for time in diplomatic efforts to bring his invasion of Ukraine to an end, and opposed any move to make Kyiv surrender land captured by Russian forces in return for peace. Read more about how to build peace in Ukraine in this piece from Livy Bereg.

• Myanmar military arrests more than 2,000 people at infamous scam center. The military also confiscated 30 Starlink satellites from the sprawling KK Park scam center on the border with Thailand. The compound was used by international criminal syndicates to carry out illegal gambling, money laundering, and online romance and investment scams.

• U.S. chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky dies unexpectedly at 29. Naroditsky became a grandmaster, the highest title in chess aside from World Chess Champion, at the age of 18. Years earlier, the California-born player won the Under 12 world championship and spent his teenage years writing chess strategy books as he climbed the world rankings. No cause of death was given.

• French ex-president Sarkozy goes to jail for campaign finance conspiracy. Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first French ex-president to go to jail, as he starts a five-year sentence for conspiring to fund his election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. 

• Amazon outage “resolved” after Snapchat and banks among sites impacted. Amazon Web Services (AWS) said late Monday that it had resolved a massive outage that knocked some of the world’s largest websites offline for much of the day. More than 1,000 apps and websites were impacted by problems that Amazon said were at the heart of the cloud computing giant’s operations in the United States.

• News Quiz! Sanae Takaichi, 64, a hardline conservative dubbed Japan’s “Iron Lady,” has become the nation’s first female prime minister. Which of the following statements about her is correct?

A. She used to be a heavy metal drummer
B. She is an avid Labubu collector
C. Her father is a famous sumō wrestler
D. She speaks 12 languages
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

56

Fireworks for the Hindu festival of Diwali worsened air pollution in India’s capital city New Delhi, with levels of cancer-causing PM 2.5 microparticles hitting 846 micrograms per cubic meter in some areas in the early hours of Tuesday — 56 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum. This comes after the country’s Supreme Court relaxed a ban on the use of fireworks during the festival earlier this month, in particular less-polluting “green firecrackers” which are designed to emit fewer particulates. However, environmental groups have expressed doubts about the efficacy of the supposedly greener explosives.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇺🇦 At a cultural diplomacy forum in Kyiv, Nobel laureate and human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk urged the world to see culture as a force for justice and freedom — and as essential to building a lasting peace.
— LIVY BEREG

✊ Donald Trump’s ultimate battle isn’t abroad — it’s at home. From campuses to city halls and the military, resistance is rising as America’s institutions push back against his power grab.
— LE NOUVEL OBS

🙄 From cluttered Instagram stories to casual drinking and questionable taste, Gen Z weighs in on why Millennials can be equal parts endearing … and annoying.
— DIE ZEIT