Good morning. It's Monday, Nov. 17, and we're covering protests in Mexico, stolen statues from a Damascus museum, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
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Thousands of people turned out for anti-government protests across Mexico on Saturday. In Mexico City, officials say 120 people were wounded, 100 of them police officers, as a small group of rioters sought to dismantle the barrier protecting the National Palace.
Protesters decried corruption and crime, with many criticizing President Claudia Sheinbaum for failing to contain the country’s ongoing drug-fueled violence. The rallies came weeks after the assassination of Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, the mayor of Uruapan in Mexico’s western Michoacán state. Rodríguez was known for being outspoken in his efforts to crack down on drug cartels. He was shot during Day of the Dead festivities Nov. 1; officials identified his suspected killer as a 17-year-old with a methamphetamine addiction tied to organized crime.
Sheinbaum last week accused far-right groups and international actors of using bots to promote the rallies. They are the latest in a wave of Gen Z-fueled demonstrations across the world that have forced regime change in Nepal and Madagascar. |
The 2026 class of US Rhodes Scholars was announced yesterday, with 32 students selected for the prestigious postgraduate program. The winners will join roughly 70 others from around the world, with full financial support to pursue advanced studies at the University of Oxford.
Placement in the world’s oldest international scholarship program is highly competitive, with an acceptance rate of around 1% (almost 2,800 students applied, with 965 advancing to the second round). Twenty-two different schools are represented, with Harvard, MIT, Yale, and West Point each boasting three winners (find bios here). Participants often enter high-level leadership positions in various fields, with alumni ranging from famed astronomer Edwin Hubble to NFL player-turned-neurosurgeon Myron Rolle.
The program was established in 1902 through the will of Cecil Rhodes, who amassed his fortune during the “Scramble for Africa.” He founded the diamond conglomerate De Beers, as well as Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia). |
The theft of six Roman-era statues from Syria’s national museum was likely the result of an individual, not an organized gang, investigators said last week. Officials have not publicly identified a suspect or motive as of this writing.
The update comes after Syria’s ministry of culture posted images of the missing pieces (see here). Each nude statue depicts Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and measures between 6 and 9 inches tall. The museum discovered they were missing early Monday, Nov. 10, when staff found a door had been broken from the inside. The collection is among the museum’s oldest and most valuable, though experts maintain the pieces would be difficult to sell on the black market.
The National Museum in Damascus was established in 1919 and also hosts clay cuneiform tablets with the oldest known complete alphabet system. It reopened fully earlier this year after years of partial closure during Syria’s civil war. |
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Historybook: Suez Canal opens (1869); Actor Danny DeVito born (1944); Former US national security adviser Susan Rice born (1964); Arnold Schwarzenegger sworn in as governor of California (2003); First known case of COVID-19 traced to man who visited Wuhan, China (2019).
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1440 Trivia: How many bacteria are in the human gut? Check back tomorrow for the answer (or dig for it here).
... and vote on tomorrow's trivia topic: Ancient Rome or Taylor Swift.
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