TRUMP TRIUMPHS, CRUZ QUITS
The improbable and, in the view of some prominent Republicans, unacceptable, has come to pass: It will be Trump. The Washington Post reports that short of some unforeseen twist, the controversial real estate tycoon Donald Trump will become the GOP’s presidential nominee after a landslide victory in Indiana yesterday pushed his delegate tally to 1,047 out of the required 1,237.
- TED WALKS Following the early results’ publication, second-placed Ted Cruz suspended his campaign (and accidentally punched and elbowed his wife). “I said from the beginning I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight, I’m sorry to say, it appears that path has been foreclosed,” the Texas Senator told his supporters. Ohio Governor John Kasich, who arrived third in share of the vote, is still running.
- GOP IN JEOPARDY Though Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus called on the party to unify around Trump, some are already starting to consider supporting likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November.
- SANDERS SURPRISES The Vermont Senator rebounded from a series of defeats, but his victory in Indiana is unlikely to change the outcome of the Democratic race.
DILMA AND LULA IN (MORE) TROUBLE
Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot has asked the country’s Supreme Court to open an investigation against President Dilma Rousseff, former President Lula da Silva and Attorney General José Eduardo Cardozo, accusing them of obstructing the course of justice in the ongoing corruption scandal at Petrobras, Estado de S. Paulo reports. The news will be a blow to Dilma, who’s awaiting a Senate decision on her possible impeachment, and to Lula’s hopes of returning to the top job. According to Janot, Lula played a key role in the scheme to obstruct the Lava Jato (“car wash”) operation and “still has control over the most relevant decisions” despite being “formally outside of the government.” Read more in English from The Guardian.
— MY GRAND-PERE’S WORLD
Soviet Tenacity — Sofia, July 1965
$43.5 BILLION
Federal prosecutors in Brazil filed a 155-billion-real ($43.5 billion) lawsuit against the mining companies responsible for last November’s dam collapse that unleashed a tsunami of toxic mud, killing 19 and caused severe damage to the ecosystem. This is one of the biggest civil lawsuits ever in Brazil and it matches the mind blowing cleaning costs. A report published in National Geographic Brazil says that the toxic waste could even have wiped out animal species in the affected regions.
CANADA WILDFIRE
Huge wildfires are burning across Western Canada, forcing unprecedented evacuations. Here’s the front page from the Edmonton Journal.
— WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
The success story of a Kurdish shepherd who came to New York and made a fortune with his Greek yogurt recipe — a capitalist fairy tale of a new genre, told by Massimo Gramellini for La Stampa: “Soon, Chobani yogurt became a fixture in refrigerators up and down the East Coast, making Ulukaya a billionaire and allowing him to hire some 2,000 employees, most of them chosen from a pool of immigrants without jobs, people with a background similar to his own.
The shepherd recently shared two pieces of news with his flock: First, that Chobani was about to be listed on the stock exchange; and second, that Ulukaya intended to give his employees 10% of the total shares.”
Read the full article, A Yogurt Story, When Immigrant Dreams Feed American Capitalism.
WATER SCARCITY THREATENS ECONOMY
Photo: Prabhat Kumar Verma/ZUMA
Worsening water scarcity, fueled by climate change, could have a severe impact by 2050 on the GDPs of regions such as the Middle East and the Sahel in Africa, the World Bank warns in a new report. The international organization says that scarcity could provoke migrational movements as well as conflicts and warns that there may be up to two-thirds less water available in cities by 2050, partly because of “competition from other uses,” for example energy and agriculture.
— ON THIS DAY
Whether you prefer Hepburn or Thatcher, this is a day to remember: Here’s today’s 57-second shot of history.
VERBATIM
“Angela Merkel filleted me, served me for tea to a highly strung despot and made me into a German Ai Weiwei.” German satirical comedian Jan Böhmermann, who is being prosecuted in his country for reading out a poem that insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made his first public comments since the controversy started in an interview with weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
— MORE STORIES, EXCLUSIVELY IN ENGLISH BY WORLDCRUNCH
- In Argentina, “Social Fridges” Curb Food Waste And Feed The Hungry — Clarin
- Censorship And Self-Censorship In Times Of Crisis — Les Echos
- Erdogan v. Davutoglu? Internal Tension At Top Of Turkish Politics — Cumhuriyet
EUROVISION INVASION
For the first time in history, American viewers will be blessed with a dose of a very particular kind of European culture: The final of the Eurovision song contest in all its glorious weirdness will be broadcast live on U.S. television. You’re welcome, America.
