A personal essay to expand your world
Young women will save us.
I know everyone is focused on U.S. politics and the slew of news about Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions these days. Even people who don’t live in the United States seem to be texting me about that. However, to pull you out of the doom-scrolling cycle for a second, I want to call your attention to something that gives me hope for the future: young women.
I have gotten to the age *ahem* at which younger women have started approaching me for advice. Sometimes, it’s about whether to move abroad (do it!). Others, it’s about breaking into writing or journalism. Whatever the topic, I always try to make time for them.
I remember being a 20-something recent graduate and harassing, sometimes borderline cyberstalking, anyone whose career I found interesting. Maybe I even met some of you that way. Some people were lovely and generous with their time. They often became lifelong friends or mentors. Others completely blew me off. I promised myself that if I ever got to a point where I could provide others with some guidance, I would always say yes.
I have been blown away by some of the young women I have spoken with recently. They are so smart. They are ambitious. They’re going to take huge risks to live meaningful lives, and they’re going to make our world better.
One of those women is Acacia Gabriel, whose personal essay about traveling through Asia was published in Lazo Magazine earlier this week. Acacia explores issues of ethnicity, identity, and privilege in a straightforward yet powerful way.
She wrote, “My anger reminds me that my feelings are valid. It’s evidence that my emotions make me powerful, not weak.” I wanted to jump up and pump my fists in the air.
Her essay raises fundamental questions about how we conceive of ourselves and who gets to have the self-expanding experience of travel. I was honored she entrusted Lazo with her story.
Read it by clicking here.
I’m going to be straightforward. Lazo Magazine needs more money to continue commissioning journalism and personal essays from around the world. If you can upgrade to become a paid subscriber to this newsletter or donate to Lazo Magazine, all your money will go to paying writers. Thank you!
What I’m writing:
• I looked at how Donald Trump’s election win is paving the way for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and Gaza. This article is unlocked and free to read.
My weekly news blurbs:
What I’m reading:
• Interest in South Korea’s 4B feminist movement, which rejects dating, marriage, sex, and childbirth, has risen in the United States amidst Donald Trump’s election win, the New York Times reports.
• Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and advised him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reports.
• Russia will “welcome” negotiations on the Ukraine war if initiated by Trump, Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations said, stressing that any talks need to be based on the “realities” of Russian advances. Reuters has the story.
• The incoming Trump administration will focus on achieving peace in Ukraine rather than enabling the country to regain territory, a former Trump adviser told BBC News.
• Ukraine is prioritizing the security of an eventual ceasefire agreement over the retention of territory amid Trump’s push for an accelerated negotiation timetable, the Washington Post reports.
• Ukraine could develop a rudimentary nuclear bomb within months if Donald Trump withdraws U.S. military assistance, according to a briefing paper prepared for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence. The Times of London has the report.
• A car bombing in Crimea killed a senior Russian naval officer, the Guardian reports. An official in Ukraine’s security services told local media the agency had orchestrated the attack, saying the target was a “war criminal” who ordered missile strikes on civilian targets.
• The Biden administration will allow American defense contractors to deploy to Ukraine to help the country’s military fix U.S.-provided weapons systems for the first time since the 2022 invasion, CNN reports.
• Russia assembled a force of 50,000 soldiers in preparation for a Russian-North Korean offensive intended to reclaim territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region, the New York Times reports.
• Reuters has a report on how Russians are informing on each other over the war in Ukraine.
• A Russian court sentenced two Russian soldiers to life in prison for killing a Ukrainian family after breaking into their home in a rare prosecution over atrocities committed by Moscow’s soldiers, the New York Times reports.
• NATO jets intercepted multiple Russian aircraft “not adhering to international norms” in the airspace off the Norwegian coast, the Hill reports.
• A new Russian church is raising suspicions in the Swedish town of Västerås, amid fears Moscow could use it as cover for future intelligence or sabotage operations, Politico Europe reports.
• Some 5,000 people demonstrated outside the Lithuanian parliament in protest of the Social Democrats’ decision to go into coalition with a party whose leader is on trial for allegedly making antisemitic statements. Jacobin has a primer.
• The main parliamentary factions in Germany agreed to a snap election in February 2025, the Guardian reports.
• French prosecutors asked for the far-right French lawmaker Marine Le Pen to be found guilty of embezzlement, sentenced to prison, and barred from running for public office for the next five years over accusations of illicit use of European Parliament funds for internal party spending, Politico Europe reports.
• Legal doubts about Giorgia Meloni’s plan to send asylum-seekers to Albania deepened after an Italian judge ruled that seven Bangladeshi and Egyptian men must be taken to Italy and can’t be detained in the Western Balkan country while their asylum applications are decided. The Financial Times has the story.
• Greece’s Syriza party split into separate factions and could be about to lose its status as the country’s main opposition, Politico Europe reports.
• Israeli authorities completed the demolition of a village at the heart of a years-long struggle by members of the country’s Arab Bedouin minority against relocation plans, the Associated Press reports.
• A Human Rights Watch report accuses Israel of using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of civilians in Gaza. The report concluded that Israel’s actions may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and, at least in buffer zones and security corridors, “ethnic cleansing.”
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aide Ron Dermer told Trump that Israel is rushing to advance a ceasefire deal in Lebanon as a “gift” to the President-elect, the Washington Post reports.
• Israeli ministers are insisting on retaining the capacity to strike Lebanon at any moment as part of ceasefire conditions, Reuters reports. Several diplomats said it would be “all but impossible” to convince Hezbollah or Lebanon to accept the demand.
• A well-known Iranian human rights activist, Kianoosh Sanjari, killed himself in protest over Tehran’s imprisonment of four political activists, the BBC reports.
• The Haitian prime minister was ousted by a transitional council tasked with restoring order, deepening the country’s constitutional crisis, the Washington Post.
• Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump are drawing up plans to carry out mass deportation, including how to pay for it and weighing a national emergency declaration that would allow the incoming administration to repurpose military assets to detain and remove migrants, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The Japanese Parliament voted for Shigeru Ishiba to stay on as the country’s Prime Minister despite the Liberal Democratic Party’s loss of majority last month, the New York Times.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com
Cristina. You give me hope! Keep up the great work.
May I call you?