👋 Aloha!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Mark Carney’s Liberal Party wins the Canadian election for the fourth consecutive time, Zelensky calls Putin’s announcement of a three-day ceasefire “a new attempt at manipulation” and our daily quiz question comes from a Dutch museum. Meanwhile, Claus Leggewie in German daily Die Zeit unpacks the collapse of the unlikely alliance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
[*Hawaiian]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“Total chaos” — Spanish daily La Razón lends its front page to a massive power outage that affected Spain, parts of Portugal and even parts of southern France on Monday. This unprecedented blackout disrupted essential services, including hospitals, police stations, and transportation systems, leaving much of the country in darkness. Portugal’s grid operator, REN, attributed the outage to a rare atmospheric phenomenon caused by extreme temperature fluctuations, leading to instability in high-voltage lines. These oscillations then caused disturbances across the interconnected European network. Georg Zachmann — a senior fellow at a Brussels think tank — blames the cascading disconnections of European power plants as the cause. The affected regions — including Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon — gradually started regaining electricity by the evening.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Liberal party wins Canadian elections. Canada’s Liberal party won yesterday’s parliamentary elections, delivering the newly-chosen Prime Minister Mark Carney a full term. It’s still too close to call whether the Liberals will get an outright majority, but national broadcasters declared the Conservative party the loser of the election, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre saying “hard lessons were learned.” The Conservatives were ahead by a wide margin until recent months, when U.S. President Donald Trump began publicly declaring intentions to annex Canada and imposed tariffs on America’s neighbor to the north. For more on this from Worldcrunch: Why Carney Won — Canada Elections Swayed By Trump, Gender And Generational Divide.
• Zelensky calls Putin’s proposed truce “manipulation.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a three-day ceasefire in early May “a new attempt at manipulation.” Putin called yesterday for the ceasefire to celebrate the anniversary of the end of World War II. This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to see a permanent ceasefire between the two countries. Of the more than 20 attempted ceasefires since the start of the conflict, none have been successful, and some were broken within minutes of taking effect. For more on how the war in Ukraine is affecting the rest of the world, check out this piece from French public radio station France Inter.
• The Hague hears case on Gaza humanitarian aid. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing a case about Israel’s obligation to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been entirely stopped since March. The hearing comes at the request of the UN General Assembly, which asked for guidance after Israel banned the UN agency for Palestine, UNRWA, from operating. UNRWA has been a main source of aid to those in Gaza, with observers warning about food shortages without it, but Israel claims the organization has been infiltrated by Hamas.
• U.S. to give tariff carveouts to automakers. The Trump administration said it plans to waive certain tariffs for American automakers, intending to ease the burden of import taxes on the companies. The new rules would reportedly mean automakers are exempt from paying levies on raw materials like steel or aluminum, and would be able to receive a reimbursement on the tariffs paid for imported auto parts.
• India closes tourist destinations in Kashmir. The Indian government ordered more than half of the tourist destinations in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir to be closed to the public starting Tuesday. The decision came after an attack last week that killed 26 tourists in the region, specifically targeting Hindus. India accused Pakistan of funding and encouraging militants in Kashmir, a claim that Pakistan denies, but has nonetheless put the two countries’ diplomatic relationship on rocky ground.
• Jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activists freed. Four pro-democracy former lawmakers in Hong Kong were freed after four years in prison for violations under a Beijing-imposed national security law that criminalized questioning or undermining the authority of the central government. The four released on Tuesday were part of a group called the “47 democrats” who were jailed in a landmark first trial of the law, which was imposed in 2020.
• News Quiz! A museum in Rotterdam announced it is taking down a painting by Mark Rothko that is worth €50 million. Why?
A. A child scratched the paint
B. The varnish was found to be toxic
C. The work was a fake
D. Visitors complained it was too abstract
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
€103.1 billion
A new study has estimated the annual cost of work-related stress across the European Union to be €103.1 billion. Conducted by the European Trade Union Institute, the analysis highlights expenses stemming from absenteeism, reduced productivity, and healthcare, with employers bearing costs for cardiovascular diseases linked to psychosocial work factors. Responding to the findings, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) emphasizes that such stress not only affects individual well-being but also imposes a significant economic burden on societies.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
The unlikely alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk didn’t make it past the 100-day mark of the new presidency. What’s really to blame?
— DIE ZEIT
Despite his distance from traditional centers of power, Pope Francis strengthened the Church’s role as a global mediator, a legacy now highlighted by the remarkable Trump-Zelensky encounter at his funeral.
— LA STAMPA
Courts in Colombia ruled against a company that had fired a worker for not joining its “invigorating” dance therapy sessions. It’s about basic freedoms, religious and otherwise.
— EL ESPECTADOR
📣 VERBATIM
The world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide.
— In its annual report, which looks at global infringements of the World’s Human Rights, Amnesty International stated that Israel is carrying out a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, citing the mass forced displacement of the population and the deliberate creation of a humanitarian crisis. The human rights group stated that Israel had shown “specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” amounting to genocide.
✍️ Newsletter by Jacob Shropshire & Rein Arnauts
Quiz Answer: A. The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the Netherlands said it was considering “next steps” for treating Rothko’s “Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8” after a child damaged the painting during an “unguarded moment.” The painting, valued at up to €50 million, is not the first Rothko to be damaged, and experts say the complicated makeup of the paint makes them particularly susceptible to the environment and possible damage.
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