👋 Bonghjornu!*
Welcome to Friday, where Russia launches massive missile and drone attacks on Ukraine, a U.S.-backed aid group closes all its distribution sites in Gaza and our daily quiz question is about a mission not-so-impossible for Tom Cruise. Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Ortiz for Colombian daily El Espectador looks at the dangers lurking behind the global proliferation of rats.
[*Corsican]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
To celebrate the 150th birthday of seminal German author Thomas Mann, the daily Frankfurter Rundschau speaks with literary historian and Mann biographer Tilmann Lahme. “He did not live, he wrote,” Lahmne quips about the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, whose books such as Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, or Death in Venice helped shape modern German literature. Lahme discusses Mann’s political views, personal interrogations and the repressed homosexuality of the “genius who was not allowed to love,” as his biographer puts it.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Russia kills at least three in “massive” air attacks on Ukraine. Russian launched an intense missile and drone barrage at the Ukrainian capital and other parts of the country early on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding 49, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said the attack used more than 400 drones and more than 40 missiles. This comes after a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, conveyed via U.S. President Donald Trump, that Moscow would respond to Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian airbases. Read more in this Die Zeit analysis, translated from German by Worldcrunch: A Timely Reminder Of What Ukraine’s Defeat Would Mean For The Rest Of Us.
• Gaza aid group says all distribution sites closed after shootings. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group handing out aid in the enclave, said on Friday that all its distribution sites were closed until further notice and that a reopening date would be announced later. This comes after a series of deadly shootings in the vicinity of its operations. The organization has been criticized by the UN for alleged lack of neutrality, which it denies. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in a short video that Israel is arming clans in Gaza that he says are opposed to Hamas, saying it “only saves the lives of Israeli soldiers.” For more, check this Daraj reportage translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch.
• Israel strikes Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israel has carried out a series of air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, saying it was targeting Hezbollah’s drone production. The attack on Thursday night marks the fourth time Israel has bombed Lebanon’s capital since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah went into effect in November.
• U.S. imposes sanctions on ICC judges over investigation into Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on four judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday over the tribunal’s investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and in the West Bank. The ICC slammed the unprecedented move, saying it was “a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution.”
• Trump-Musk bromance broken in public row. Tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and his former adviser Elon Musk have hit a breaking point, with each trading insults after the tech billionaire criticised Trump’s centerpiece tax and spending bill. Trump has threatened to cut off government contracts to Musk’s companies while the billionaire said the U.S. president should be impeached and accused him of being named in government files related to the crimes of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
• Japan’s latest moon landing mission fails. Japan aborted its mission to achieve its first soft landing on the Moon on Friday after Tokyo-based firm ispace said it lost contact with its spacecraft, which likely crashed. The company had hoped to make history as only the third private firm — and the first outside the United States — to achieve a controlled arrival on the lunar surface.
• News Quiz! Tom Cruise has been awarded a Guinness World Record for a stunt he performed 16 times for the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Which one?
A. Backflips on top of a moving train
B. Free climbing without a harness
C. Motorcycle speed-driving on buildings
D. Burning parachute jumps
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
359 meters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the volatile Kashmir region to inaugurate the Chenab Bridge, the world’s highest railway bridge — standing at 359 meters (about 1,180 feet) tall — and unveil a new rail link connecting Kashmir with the rest of India. Modi’s trip follows recent deadly cross-border clashes with Pakistan. The bridge, part of a larger infrastructure push under the prime minister’s leadership, symbolizes efforts to integrate the disputed region, although critics have warned of environmental risks and questioned the safety of such massive construction projects. For more, we offer this analysis by Sameer Bajaj for The Wire: How Modi Is Using Architecture To Build His “New India” Political Legacy.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇺🇦 With Russian troops slowly but steadily advancing, and Western support wavering, we should be well aware that a Ukrainian defeat would trigger mass displacement, destabilize Europe and hand Putin a historic opportunity.
— DIE ZEIT
🇺🇸 China is blocking exports of rare earth material in response to the U.S. trade war, which is now beginning to affect Western industries. Indeed, the American position is weakened just as negotiations are set to resume. Will Trump chicken out again?
— FRANCE INTER
🐀 Rats, which can transmit deadly diseases, seem to have proliferated everywhere, unchecked. Is the anthropocene a mere prelude to a nightmarish, golden age of rats?
— EL ESPECTADOR
📣 VERBATIM
“Open your heart a little to this opportunity.”
— On a state visit to France, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva urged French President Emmanuel Macron to support the stalled EU-Mercosur trade deal, calling it a vital response to rising global protectionism. The proposed agreement between the EU and four South American countries faces strong opposition from French farmers, who fear it would harm domestic agriculture, particularly the beef, poultry and sugar industries.
✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Bertrand Hauger
Quiz Answer: D. The Guinness Book of World Records announced that American movie star Tom Cruise now holds the title for the “most burning parachute jumps by an individual,” with a record 16 jumps performed for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. “Tom doesn’t just play action heroes — he is an action hero!” Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, said.
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