Red Sea Crew Missing, Trump-Brazil Tariff Row, Big Ben Moon

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Seoul-based daily Kyunghyang Shinmun lends its front page to the second detainment of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol over his career-ending attempt to impose martial law in December. The court sent Yoon back to prison citing fears that the ex-leader could destroy evidence linked to the insurrection trial in motion since his first arrest in January. The former president, who continues to defend his martial law decree, faces a maximum life sentence or the death penalty if convicted.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Search for survivors after Houthis sink second Red Sea cargo ship in a week. Rescuers searched Thursday for more than a dozen missing crew members after Yemen’s Houthi rebels sank a ship in the Red Sea as the United States alleged the group may “have kidnapped” those on board. The Houthis released dramatic footage of the sinking of the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned Eternity C, which the rebels targeted with gunfire and explosive drones for hours, killing at least three crew members.

• U.S. sanctions UN expert investigating Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza. The U.S. said it is sanctioning Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, in the Trump administration’s latest bid to punish critics of Israel’s war in Gaza. Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has repeatedly described Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian enclave as a “genocide.” She may face travel restrictions.

• Italy opens Ukraine conference as doubts of U.S. defense help remain. Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine as Russia escalates its war. International business executives and world leaders gathered in Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the U.S. commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Meanwhile, a massive overnight Russian attack has hit Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, killing at least two people and injuring 16 others. The attack involved 18 missiles and about 400 drones, primarily targeting the capital. Read about Ukraine’s “dark summer” from French political analyst Pierre Haski here.

• Trump sets 50% U.S. tariffs on copper, Brazilian imports starting in August. U.S. President Donald Trump said he was planning to impose a 50% tax on goods made in Brazil, escalating his fight with the South American country. He unveiled the plan in his latest tariff letter, shared on social media, in which he also condemned the “Witch Hunt” against Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and called for an immediate end to his trial over coup plotting charges.

• 50 migrants a week could be sent back to France. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are holding talks to discuss a deal for the UK to send some migrants who cross the Channel on small boats back to France. For every migrant sent back, France would send an asylum seeker to the UK, possibly one with a family connection to Britain. That would be a small fraction of the usual number of migrants who cross the Channel every week. For more, read more on how migrants are being treated across Europe: The Migrants Caught In The Escalating Polish-German Border Standoff

• Ferrero reportedly closing in on Kellogg takeover. The Italian candy and chocolate giant Ferrero is nearing a deal to buy U.S. cereal maker WK Kellogg, an acquisition that would combine two of the world’s best known consumer food makers. Shares of WK Kellogg, the company behind Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes, surged about 55% in extended trading, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Ferrero, behind such brands as Nutella and TicTac, could finalize the roughly $3 billion deal as soon as this week. 

• News Quiz! Which iconic puzzle design cannot be trademarked, according to a new EU court ruling?

A. Lego bricks
B. Jenga blocks
C. Rubik’s Cube
D. Tetris shapes
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

$4 trillion

U.S.-based computer chip giant Nvidia, a leading producer of artificial intelligence-powering technology, has become the world’s first company to reach a market value of $4 trillion, increasing their 2023 $1 trillion milestone by fourfold in three years, capped off with a new high in Wednesday trading. Now one of Wall Street’s most-favored stocks with a reported 69% one-year increase in total revenue, Nvidia’s success is a reflection of the ongoing surge in demand for AI apparatus and the market’s faith in its growth.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇷🇺 In Putin’s Russia, dissent is silenced. Yet pro-war “Z” bloggers and influencers insult and lambast military failures constantly, and go unpunished. The state tolerates them because without these defiant voices knitting the war machine’s lifelines, Russia’s offensive would stall.
— HOLOD

💸 From unpaid caregiving and beauty routines to the hidden burden of emotional support, some women are starting to demand compensation for the work they do in relationships.
— DIE ZEIT

✊ A cable car project to Nepal’s Pathibhara temple threatens the livelihood of porters and is seen by the indigenous Limbu community as a desecration of sacred land. Their protests reflect broader struggles over development and indigenous rights in the country.
— GLOBAL PRESS JOURNAL

📣 VERBATIM

“I do not believe AI or my artwork will replace human artists.”

— Ultra-realistic humanoid robot Ai-Da, one of the most advanced in the world, has the expressive and vocal features of an operational human, and is programmed to create artwork using AI algorithms. At the unveiling for its latest portrait of King Charles at Britain’s diplomatic mission in Geneva this week, Ai-Da walked viewers through the piece’s conception, insisting in a slow, deliberate cadence that its work aims not to “replace human artists,” but to foster critical thinking and responsible innovation.