💡 SPOTLIGHT
History returns? The ominous reality of D-Day's 80th anniversary
From Ukraine to the South China Sea, images of war are highly reminiscent of the horrors of the past. As the world marks 80 years since the Normandy landings of World War II, geopolitical analyst Dominique Moïsi wonders if history is bound to repeat itself.
"All history is contemporary history." Benedetto Croce's phrase seems to perfectly apply to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the Normandy beaches on Thursday, just as we've done every 10 years: 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014, 2024.
Forty years ago, during the Cold War, during the time of Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand, June 6th was a reminder of the righteousness of the cause of freedom and the importance of transatlantic relations. "Pacifism is to the West and euro missiles to the East," the French president had aptly noted.
In 1994, the Berlin Wall had fallen, and freedom had triumphed in Europe, even if it was not the "end of history," and war had returned to the Balkans. November 9, 1989 seemed almost like an extension, if not a confirmation, of the message of June 6, 1944.
As early as 1985, German President Richard Von Weizsäcker recognized that for his country, defeat had meant liberation from Nazism. In 2004, for the first time, a German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, was present at the June 6th commemorations. The past has not only transcended: After the Iraq war — in which neither Paris nor Berlin had participated — the past was there to aid the present.
In 2014, after Russia's invasion of Crimea — an event that should have been seen as a much more serious warning than it was at the time — a new problem was emerging. Would Europe always be able to count on America? Or would the lessons of June 6, 1944, begin to fade? [...]
— Read the full article by Dominique Moïsi for Les Echos, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Calcutta-based daily Sanmarg opens with the electoral blow to Modi’s supermajority dreams. “Majority for NDA, shock for BJP,” titles the Hindi-language daily. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the BJP, only managed to secure 240 seats in the lower house (294 in total with his National Democratic Alliance coalition). That is compared to the 303 won in 2019. It is also a far cry from the 400 seats Modi set as a goal with the NDA. While the alliance will have the numbers to govern India for the next five years, the BJP doesn’t do so on its own, and it will therefore likely be limited by its coalition partners.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Israel announces a new military campaign against Hamas in central Gaza. Palestinian medics said on Wednesday that at least 44 people had been killed in airstrikes there, complicating expected talks between mediators for a ceasefire deal. Meanwhile, Slovenia became the fourth EU country to recognize a Palestinian state after its parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the war in Gaza here.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to be sworn-in for a third term on June 8. This comes after key allies pledged their continued support a day after a humbling election results that saw his party lose its majority in parliament. Modi will for the first time need the support of regional allies whose loyalties have faltered over the years, which could complicate the government's reform agenda.
• Joe Biden lands in France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The U.S. president arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning for a trip that is designed to underscore his commitment to allies in Europe and contrast his vision of democracy with that of his 2024 political opponent Donald Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron and King Charles III will also attend the ceremony in Normandy on Thursday. Read more about D-Day’s 80th anniversary in this article, translated from French into English.
• Russia’s Foreign Minister calls French military instructors in Ukraine a “legitimate target.” Sergey Lavrov’s comments come after Ukrainian officials revealed they were seeking training assistance for their troops from France. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Congolese counterpart on Tuesday, Lavrov also dismissed the Ukraine conference due to take place in Switzerland in July. For more on France’s relationship with Ukraine, check out this article.
• A gunman has been shot and arrested outside the U.S. embassy in Beirut. The attack on the embassy on Wednesday morning was carried out by a Syrian national, according to the Lebanese military. The incident comes amid heightened tensions across the region as Israel continues its war in Gaza.
• Australia abandons legal battle with X to remove church stabbing video. Declared a terror incident by police, the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in April took place in a suburb of Sydney, during a worship service that was being livestreamed. Australia's eSafety Commissioner, an independent regulator, threatened X and other social media companies with large fines if they did not remove videos of the stabbing. The Federal Court had temporarily ordered X to hide the videos, but the social media platform refused to comply saying the order was not valid.
• Finland uses classical music as a party repellant. To prevent young people from celebrating the end of the school year and potentially wreaking havoc on beaches, Finnish police have experimented with an innovative measure: repelling the youth by blasting out classical music on loudspeakers. Already tested in other parts of the world, this method “has been proving its worth in Espoo for the past six years,” a police officer said.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Israel-Egypt tensions risk boiling over in Gaza's buffer zone
The killing of an Egyptian soldier by Israeli fire on the border with Gaza, and Israel’s control of a buffer zone has increased tensions between Israel and Egypt, which finds itself in a difficult position, reports Reid Mattar in Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj.
🇪🇬 Residents of al-Ajamaeen, a village in Egypt’s southwestern province of Fayoum, held funeral services for Abdallah Ramadan Ashri, an Egyptian soldier who was killed on May 27 in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces on the border between Egypt and Gaza. Yet the Egyptian military did not name the soldier, as it usually does, and did not elaborate on his duties. The military also did not hold an official military funeral service for Ashri, which is customary for troops killed in the fights against militants in Sinai Peninsula in recent years
🗯️ “Is Egyptian blood cheap?!” one user wrote of the lack of response from the Egyptian government to Ashri's death. Egypt said the initial investigation found that the soldier was killed following his response to a shoutout between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants on the border area, according to Egypt's state-linked Al Qahera News. The announcement also sparked uproar on social media, where users say the findings suggest that Egypt was trying to prove that the soldier was killed by a stray bullet, which could be fired by Palestinian militants.
🇮🇱 In an effort to calm upset, Egypt's military has reiterated that it protects the country's borders and that its forces are fully prepared for any scenario. The military has yet to announce the extent of forces’ readiness, as well as the security of the eastern borderline and the soldiers stationed in the area along with Gaza and Israel. Despite media rhetoric that Egypt is ready for any aggression by Israel, the government is still confused in the face of Israel’s geographical aggressions.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
5.2 million
In the first four months of 2024, Istanbul welcomed an estimated 5.2 million visitors — a new record high for the Turkish city. The figure represents a 10% increase compared to the same period last year, an important boost for Turkey, on track with its declared goal of raking in $60 billion in revenue and attracting a total of 60 million tourists over 2024. Most of the tourists who visited the metropolis spanning across two continents over the past four months came from Russia, followed by Germany and Iran.
📣 VERBATIM
“This conference in Switzerland has no meaning.”
— Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov minimized the importance of Ukraine’s upcoming peace and security conference, set to take place in July in Switzerland. Speaking at a news conference with the Republic of Congo Foreign Minister Jean Claude Gakosso, while on a diplomatic tour of the African continent, Lavrov added that the conference’s only goal was to “preserve this anti-Russian bloc which is in the process of crumbling.”
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
King Charles banknotes officially entered circulation in the UK today. They will circulate alongside Queen Elizabeth II banknotes. — Photo: Bank of England.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• After Zelensky Lashes Out At China, All Eyes Are On Normandy — FRANCE INTER
• Are We Anti-Kids? A Deep Dive Into South Korea's Plummeting Fertility Rate — THE INITIUM
• Skate Park, Nightclub, AirBnB: The World's Most Creative "Conversions" Of Churches— WORLDCRUNCH
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