Kenya Protests, WSJ Spy Trial In Russia, Same-Sex Zoom Wedding

💡 SPOTLIGHT

Gaza diary: No person or place is safe when a genocide is underway

As the war in Gaza nears nine months, bombardments continue, even in the camps where displaced people live. Death and fear are everywhere, as is hunger. Palestinian human rights activist Moustafa Ibrahim is also displaced now. In this personal essay published by Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj, he addresses the hopelessness that people in Gaza face as they see Israel committing genocide.

Abu Kamal, a 50-year-old Palestinian, has been living in terror since he was forced to flee the Saudi neighborhood in the western side of the city of Rafah earlier in May.

Abu Kamal has been displaced for many years, after his family's home on the border strip was destroyed in 2001, at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, when Israeli warplanes bombed the area and razed Palestinian homes built on the Palestinian-Egyptian border.

In 2013, after years of suffering, he and his family were given a home in the Saudi neighborhood. Abu Kamal now fears that his previous suffering will be repeated — he moved from one house to another, running after United Nations agencies and NGOs to secure his rent.

Abu Kamal follows the news of Rafah with great fear. He calls his neighbors and friends to find out the places which the Israeli army invaded, the houses that have been destroyed, and the identities of their owners.

Abu Kamal's situation is like that of all forcibly displaced people, who live in fear of repeated displacement and of the destruction of their homes.

This feeling has accompanied me too for the past nine months, during which I lived as a displaced person moving from place to place. It is harsh to be without a home and forcibly displaced. You live with a sense of deficiency, fear and instability, you lose your privacy and long for your things and for yourself too. [...]

— Read the full article by Moustafa Ibrahim for Daraj, translated into English by Worldcrunch.

🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Haitian daily Le Nouvelliste dedicates its front page to the arrival of the first contingent of Kenyan police in Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of officers flew to the island Tuesday to launch a United Nations-backed mission to combat powerful armed gangs who are now controlling almost 80% of the capital. Over half a million people have been displaced because of the violence and nearly five million are facing severe food insecurity. “Kenya's sole purpose is to serve as agents of peace,” Kenyan Foreign Minister Monica Juma said during a press conference, with the protection of civilians and state institutions being a priority, as well as opening up routes for movement of people, goods and humanitarian aid. Earlier this year, French writer Pierre Haski provocatively asked: What if Haiti can’t be saved?

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Pentagon chief calls for urgent diplomacy to avoid Israel-Hezbollah war. United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that a diplomatic solution is needed to avoid a war between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Israeli forces shelled several areas across Gaza on Wednesday, and residents reported fierce fighting overnight in Rafah in the south of the Palestinian enclave. For more, read this analysis by France Inter’s Pierre Haski, Why All-Out War Between Israel And Hezbollah Has Never Been Closer.

• U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich’s trial begins in Russia. The closed-door trial of the 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter on charges of espionage has started 15 months after he was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich, who appeared with his head shaven by prison authorities, has said he was just doing his job, with accreditation from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• NATO picks Netherlands' Mark Rutte as next boss. The outgoing Dutch Prime Minister was elected on Wednesday, succeeding Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg. Rutte will face the challenge of sustaining allies' support for Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion while guarding against NATO's being drawn directly into a war with Moscow.

• Julian Assange’s family awaits his arrival in Australia. The Wikileaks founder’s father, children and wife, Stella, gathered in Australia's capital Canberra ahead of his expected evening arrival by private jet. Assange was released by a court on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law. 

• Kenyan protesters promise more rallies. Kenyan protesters vowed on Wednesday to keep up their demonstrations against new tax hikes, a day after police opened fire on crowds trying to storm parliament, leaving at least eight people dead and many wounded. Supporters of the week-old protest movement took to X, using the hashtag #tutanethursday, or “see you on Thursday” in a mix of Swahili and English.

• Niger in mourning after terror attack kills 21. An attack by a “terrorist group” killed 21 Nigerian soldiers near the country's border with Burkina Faso on Tuesday. Three days of national mourning will begin from Wednesday, the ministry said, speaking of the security forces’ “unshakeable determination” to “continue this fight for sovereignty.”

• A U.S. officiant marries 10 same-sex couples in Hong Kong via video chat. Ten same-sex couples got married in the United States over the internet from Hong Kong, which does not formally recognize such unions but offers them legal protections. The event Tuesday was timed to mark Pride Month, with a registered officiant from the American state of Utah making their marriages official. Here’s a Worldcrunch video marking 20 years since the first same-sex marriage in the U.S.

📰 STORY OF THE DAY

How the Paris Paralympics are driving engineering and accessibility innovation

Since 2021, engineers at the aerospace group Airbus have been working with the French National Sports Agency to build better equipment for disabled athletes, reports Léa Colombo in Paris-based daily Les Echos.

🧑‍🦽 For years, Airbus has been working to optimize equipment for Paralympic athletes. This venture was launched by Christophe Debard, an engineer with a passion for sport. "When you have a physical handicap, like me who has a leg amputation, and you walk down the street, you can get looks of pity. On the contrary, when I do sports, people are often impressed. It's a good way of regaining confidence in disability and rediscovering pleasure," explains Debard, who founded Humanity Lab, where Airbus employees volunteer to work on projects related to disabilities or education.

🚴🚴 For the champions of France's para cycling team, Airbus has developed a small revolution: a one-piece tandem. Whereas conventional tandems are designed in two blocks, with one seat for the able-bodied guide and the other for the visually impaired or blind athlete, the Airbus creation, fashioned from a single piece, ensures greater synchronicity for the duo. In doing so, Airbus also spares the athletes and their teams the mental burden imposed by time.

🏆 With the help of Airbus, France has climbed back to the top of the list of best-prepared countries in terms of para sports equipment. While the test has yet to be confirmed at the Olympic Games, and at forthcoming international competitions, the country is nevertheless catching up with some of its European competitors: Germany and England, the leading figures of parasport since the London 2012 Paralympic Games, where almost 2.4 million (of 2.5 million) tickets were sold.

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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

81

The Kremlin announced on Tuesday Russia had restricted access on its territory to 81 media outlets of EU member states and EU-wide media operators for “systematically disseminating false information about the progress of the special military operation.” The ban includes news agencies, such as France’s AFP and Spain’s EFE, TV channels, newspapers, internet publications and broadcasting corporations. The measure is seen as a retaliation for EU’s recent ban within the bloc on four Russia-linked media outlets accused of spreading Kremlin propaganda.

📣 VERBATIM

“Donald Trump and the vagaries of his actions and policies threaten this stability and the U.S.’s standing in the world.”

— Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel prize for economics in 2001, and 15 other laureates have signed a letter warning about the danger the re-election of former United States President Donald Trump would represent for the U.S. economy. According to the experts, it would stoke instability and revive high inflation with “fiscally irresponsible budgets”. In their joint statement, first reported by Axios, the experts say the economic agenda of U.S. President Joe Biden, is "vastly superior" to Trump's.

📸 PHOTO DU JOUR

Kenyan police are spraying protesters with water cannons in Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi, during demonstrations opposing the Finance Bill 2024. It would include a 2.75% levy on income for the national medical insurance plan, as well as increased taxes on vegetable oil and fuel, weighing heavily on the daily life cost for millions of citizens. — Photo: Kanyiri Wahito/ZUMA Press Wire

👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH 

• A Far Right Surge In Europe Could Mean The End Of Russia Sanctions — FRANCE INTER

• For Algerians Of France, Fears Of A Far Right Victory Are Existential — TSA

• Sheinbaum's Choice: AMLO's Easy Oil Or Her Own Hard Climate Science— CLIMATE TRACKER

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