👋 Mbote!*
Welcome to Thursday, where a breakthrough in Gaza is expected soon, China announces new climate goals and today’s quiz question has traveled 12 billion light-years. Meanwhile, Alexander Kauschanski writes in Germany’s Die Zeit about how Estonia’s capital Tallinn is preparing for war.
[*Lingala, DRC and Republic of the Congo]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily News dedicates its front page to the “King of Typhoons,” after Super Typhoon Ragasa battered southern China with fierce winds, torrential rain and high seas. Hong Kong experienced widespread damage on Wednesday, including fallen trees and flooding in many areas. The storm, which is the most powerful tropical cyclone so far this year, has killed at least 17 people in Taiwan.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• U.S. has Gaza peace plan and hopes for breakthrough soon. The United States shared a 21-point Middle East peace plan at this week’s UN meetings and is hopeful for a breakthrough on Gaza in the coming days. Meanwhile more than 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across Gaza as Israeli tanks and troops continued their advance into the heart of Gaza City, which Israel says is the last stronghold of Hamas.
• Russia will expand aggression beyond Ukraine if not stopped, Zelensky warns. Speaking at the UN’s General Assembly in New York, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more countries would be met with Russian aggression unless allies displayed a united front and ramped up support. He said all nations were threatened by a global arms race, as military technology advances, adding that “weapons decide who survives” and calling for global rules on AI. Read more in this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski: Trump’s New Hard Line On Russia: Change Of Heart Or Message To Putin?
• Denmark reopens airports after drone disruption. Denmark said on Thursday that drone incursions that briefly shut two of its airports and affected military installations overnight were hybrid attacks intended to spread fear, but said it did not know who was behind them. The incidents are just the latest in a series of drone incursions over the past few weeks that have exposed the vulnerability of European airspace and the challenges governments face in countering them.
• China announces new climate goal to cut emissions. China will cut emissions by 7-10% by 2035, President Xi Jinping told a high-level climate summit on Wednesday, as the world’s largest carbon-polluting nation announced an ambitious target. This comes as a team of global scientists issued a new report stating that seven out of nine of key “planetary boundaries” have been crossed, one more than last year. They found that the ocean acidity threshold, which could have dire impacts on marine life, has now been breached. For more, we offer this piece: China’s Renewable Push Meets Climate Reality In Africa.
• Sarkozy found guilty of criminal conspiracy in Libya case. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to taking millions of euros of illicit funds from then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy was accused of using the funds from Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.
• Trump hangs autopen photo instead of Biden portrait in new presidential gallery. U.S. President Donald Trump has added a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the exterior of the White House, featuring portraits of each of the previous commanders-in-chief, except for one. Instead of a headshot of his predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump placed a photo of an autopen signing the Democrat’s name.
• News Quiz! Scientists from the UK’s University of Southampton, along with European colleagues, observed a galaxy some 12 billion light-years away with a supermassive black hole at its heart. What were they able to conclude about said supermassive black holes?
A. They’re not that supermassive
B. They’re not black
C. They’re not holes
D. We have no idea what they are
[Answer below]
📣 VERBATIM
“That’s what one would call murder.”
— U.S. airstrikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea are an “act of tyranny,” Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro told the BBC in an interview where he also called for criminal proceedings against U.S. officials if investigations find Colombians were killed in the attacks. U.S. President Donald Trump has cast the strikes, which have reportedly killed 17 since they began this month, as needed to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illegal narcotics into the U.S. “That’s what one would call murder,” Petro said. “There is no need to kill anyone.”
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇪🇪 As Russian jets breach Estonian airspace, Tallinn’s mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski explains how the capital is preparing for war while holding on to faith in NATO protection.
— DIE ZEIT
🥇 Mattia Furlani’s historic win of the World Long Jump Championships was met with nationwide pride, but also the familiar wave of racist posts questioning his Italian identity.
— LA STAMPA
🏠 With an 80% market share in the house-swap space, and explosive growth, HomeExchange, bought and reinvented by two Frenchmen, has become the undisputed champion of house swapping. Will it undercut the American giant’s hold on the market.
— LES ECHOS
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright
Quiz Answer: A. Observing a quasar some 12 billion light-years away, a team of scientists from the UK, Australia and European colleagues found its central black hole to be smaller than previously thought — about “only” 1 billion times the Sun’s mass, roughly one-tenth the size earlier estimates suggested. This may lead astronomers to rethink models of cosmic evolution.
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