Aid Trucks Reach Gaza, Suspect Charged In D.C. Shooting, Japan’s Sea Of Pink

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

German daily Frankfurter Rundschau lends its front page to the military “call-up in Lithuania,” as day after Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius launched a new armored brigade in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius with the aim of protecting NATO’s eastern flank. “We are prepared. Anyone who threatens an ally must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory,” Merz said during the ceremony. Some 400 German military staff personnel have already moved to Lithuania to set up the brigade, which will comprise 4,800 troops and 2,000 vehicles, including dozens of tanks.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Suspect charged with murder of two Israeli embassy workers. A Chicago-born man accused of killing two Israeli embassy staff members outside a Jewish museum in Washington D.C. was charged on Thursday in federal court with two counts of first-degree murder, as well as murder of foreign officials and related firearm charges. Elias Rodriguez, 31, told police on the scene “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” The attack is being investigated as a hate crime, and more charges are expected. Meanwhile, France dismissed Israeli accusations that European governments are fueling anti-Israeli violence, after Israel’s foreign minister said antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement was “done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.”

• Israeli military says 107 aid trucks entered Gaza as forces attack hospital. A total of 107 aid trucks carrying flour, food, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs were allowed to enter the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Israeli military said. Meanwhile Palestinian hospital officials said that Israeli tanks and drones attacked the Al-Awda hospital, the last partially functioning hospital, in northern Gaza overnight. It was not immediately clear if there were fatalities. This comes as pressure from close allies is mounting on Israel following a nearly three-month blockade of supplies into the enclave. Read more in this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski.

• Iran and U.S. hold new round of nuclear talks in Rome. Iran and the United States are set to begin a fifth round of high-stakes nuclear talks in Rome on Friday, with enrichment emerging as the key issue. However, two Iranian sources have told CNN the talks seem unlikely to lead to an agreement, due to Washington’s insistence that Tehran dismantle its uranium enrichment program. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that no enrichment would mean “we do NOT have a deal.” For more, check this analysis translated from Persian by Worldcrunch: A “Manageable Enemy” — How Iran’s Regime Is Kept Alive By Western Fears And Cynicism.

• Trump blocks Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has blocked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students on Thursday, forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the school in a post on X of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.” Harvard responded the move was “unlawful” and called it a “retaliatory action.”

• Former DR Congo President Kabila stripped of immunity over treason charges. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s senate has voted to strip former President Joseph Kabila of his honorific immunity. This follows accusations that he backed the M23 rebel group, which has seized several towns in the mineral-rich east of the country with Rwandan support. The former president, who led the country between 2001 and 2019, has been living outside the country, in South Africa, for the past two years.

• Rescue efforts underway for workers trapped in South Africa gold mine. South African mining company Sibanye Stillwater said on Friday that rescue efforts were underway for 289 mine workers trapped underground at its Kloof gold mine near Johannesburg. All workers are safe and accounted for, a spokesperson said, and the company is “busy with making safe and shaft exam procedures” to hoist the workers out to surface.

• News Quiz! A man in Norway woke up to find something unexpected had crashed into his yard. What was it?

A. a sleigh pulled by reindeer
B. a blue whale
C. a container ship
D. a Swedish bus

[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

£101 million

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signed a deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back a key military base for £101 million ($135 million) a year. Under the agreement, Mauritius would gain sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago but would allow the U.S. and UK to continue operating a military base on the island of Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years. The UK had purchased the islands for £3 million in 1968, but Mauritius has argued it was illegally forced to give them away to gain independence from Britain. Starmer said the deal amounts to a “net cost” of £3.4 billion after adjusting for factors including inflation.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇮🇱 A growing number of Israelis oppose the ruthless war in the Gaza Strip and fear their country’s international isolation. Increasing criticism from Europe is fueling this sentiment, which, for now, has not stopped Benjamin Netanyahu from escalating the conflict.
— FRANCE INTER

⚖️ Intense maneuverings are underway to trigger Ukraine peace talks in Rome. The first question: Can Vladimir Putin even go to Italy without being arrested?
— LA STAMPA

💇‍♀️ Amid the ruins of Gaza City, women gather in a hair salon not to escape war, but to reclaim fragments of life, beauty, and selfhood. In a city scarred by loss, they color sorrow with dye, memory and quiet defiance.
— DARAJ

📣 VERBATIM

“When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice.”

— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the leaders of the UK, France and Canada of “emboldening Hamas” as he spoke after Thursday’s attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington D.C. Days earlier, the three countries had condemned Israel’s expanded offensive in Gaza as “disproportionate” and described the humanitarian situation as “intolerable,” a statement that was widely viewed as the strongest criticism of Israel’s military action since the war in Gaza began. All three countries denounced the Washington killings, which saw embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, shot dead at an event hosted by the Capital Jewish Museum.