My weekly reading list.
And a postcard.
The pace of meetings in South Korea was so unrelenting that I really struggled to keep up with the news while I was there. It felt like I was sucked into some time warp in which ten days away seemed like six months. After a 15-hour flight back to Washington, which included a lot of turbulence and several shrieking babies, my brain didn’t understand why everyone around me was suddenly speaking English. The only experience I can compare it to was when I moved back to the United States after nearly a decade without stepping foot in the country. The shock of return was that intense. I guess that happens when you cram two days of activities into every day for over a week. You lose track of who you are or what your regular life and surroundings are like. For a strange 24-hour period after landing, the city where I spend so much time felt wholly new and foreign. I was a tourist in my own land.
On Friday, I and the other U.S.-based journalists I was traveling with met at the East-West Center’s headquarters in Washington with a group of Korean journalists who traveled through the United States while we were in their country. We spent the day swapping ideas, asking each other questions about our countries, and discussing the challenges journalists face when reporting across borders. I thought the Korean journalists asked delightful questions, like why don’t you just get rid of the electoral college, and why are you so serious about Halloween?
I tried my best to stay on top of things while on buses, in airports, and in hotel rooms. It was, after all, a very consequential news week. There were significant, world-altering events in almost every part of the globe. I added as many as I could to the section below. I’ll share my reporting from South Korea in this space over the next few weeks.
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What I’m reading:
• Israel carried out a strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. U.S. President Joe Biden released the following statement: “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.”
• Israel said it was readying troops for a potential ground incursion into Lebanon, as it called up more reservists, the Washington Post reports.
• Israel's killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time Hezbollah leader, has transformed an already complex and deadly regional conflict, with a broad array of potential outcomes for Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and beyond, NPR reports.
• ProPublica reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration concluded in April that Israel had deliberately blocked aid deliveries into Gaza. However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not accept the findings.
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Israel’s July assassination of Hamas’s political leader in Tehran will not go unanswered, the Washington Post reports. Pezeshkian said Iran’s response to the killing was delayed because of U.S. warnings that a Gaza ceasefire deal was imminent, which he called misleading.
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps banned its members from using any type of communication devices after last week’s deadly pager and two-way radio attacks, Reuters reports.
• Israel concealed explosives inside the batteries of pagers sold to Hezbollah using technology so advanced that it was virtually undetectable, CNN reports.
• Norway issued an international wanted notice for a man linked to a Bulgaria-based company that may have been involved in the Hezbollah pager explosions, the Associated Press reports.
• An Egyptian warship delivered a consignment of military cargo to Somalia, the BBC reports. It is the second delivery of its kind in a month, as relations between Somalia and its neighbor Ethiopia deteriorate.
• The State Department approved the potential sale of 720 Stinger missiles to Egypt for $740 million.
• The Sudanese army launched a major offensive against the Rapid Support Forces, frustrating U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire on the sidelines of the United Nations summit, the BBC reports.
• A Marxist candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, won Sri Lanka’s presidential election, “riding a wave of popular anger at the established political order,” the New York Times reports.
• Sri Lanka’s new president dissolved the country’s parliament and called for a parliamentary election in November in an apparent effort to consolidate power after his election victory, ABC reports.
• Russia “has established a weapons program in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine,” according to two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents analyzed by Reuters.
• Russia signed a telecommunication and satellite deal with three West African countries led by military juntas, the New York Times reports. The partnership between Russia’s space agency and the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger bolsters the countries’ ties to the Kremlin.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured a Pennsylvania ammunition plant as he kicked off a U.S. visit, during which he presented Biden with his blueprint to defeat Russia, CNN reports.
• Zelensky’s visit to the munitions factory in Biden’s hometown of Scranton in the swing state of Pennsylvania angered Republicans, who claimed they were not invited to the event. House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested the visit was a campaign event “designed to help Democrats.” He demanded that Ukraine fire its popular ambassador to Washington, who set up the visit, the Independent reports.
• Meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy for the first time in five years, former U.S. President Donald Trump complained about his 2019 impeachment and said if re-elected, he would work to end the Russia-Ukraine war with a deal “that’s good for both sides,” NBC News reports.
• Ukraine banned using Telegram on official devices issued to government and military personnel to “minimize” Russian threats, the BBC reports.
• The United States signed a $920 million direct loan agreement with Romania to support its defense modernization program, Reuters reports.
• Austrians are set to head to the polls Sunday in a pivotal parliamentary election, with the Freedom Party positioned to potentially form a far-right government for the first time since World War II, the New York Times reports.
• French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled his new government dominated by centrist and conservative parties, the BBC reports.
• Shootings by Swedish gang members are spreading around the country and beyond its borders, undermining citizens’ sense of security and increasing the pressure on the government to act, Politico Europe reports.
• British authorities are investigating a cyberattack that displayed “Islamophobic messaging” on a public train Wi-Fi system serving 19 stations across the country, the New York Times reports.
• An Argentinian court ordered the “immediate” arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his interior minister for alleged crimes against humanity against dissidents, including torture, homicides, and forced disappearance, the Associated Press reports.
• A prominent economist in China vanished after he allegedly criticized leader Xi Jinping’s management of the economy in a private chat group, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Japan’s ruling party chose Shigeru Ishiba as its new leader, positioning the former defense minister to become Japan’s Prime Minister next week, the BBC reports.
• Myanmar’s ruling military junta invited the country’s resistance forces to lay down their arms and participate in upcoming elections, the New York Times reports.
• Lawyers and families of jailed Tunisian opposition leaders called on the International Criminal Court to investigate a crackdown on political opposition and claims of migrant abuse, the Associated Press reports.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com