Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Plan, Peru Spurns Sheinbaum, Nepal Harvest

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Peruvian daily La Razón dedicates its front page to the vote of Peru’s Congress to declare Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as persona non grata in the country. This comes days after Peru announced it was severing ties with Mexico after its government granted asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, under investigation over a 2022 coup attempt. Chávez has taken refuge in the Mexican embassy in Lima and continues to deny allegations that she played a role in ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo’s plan to dissolve congress.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Tesla shareholders approve record $1 trillion pay package for Musk. Tesla investors overwhelmingly backed a compensation plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The deal grants Musk up to 423.7 million Tesla shares over 10 years if the company hits an $8.5 trillion valuation as well as other key performance targets. Musk, who takes no salary, said the package ensures he retains control as Tesla pivots toward AI and robotics, despite a year of falling profits and slowing EV demand. Read more about Elon Musk and Tesla here.

• Major IDF strikes on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces hit multiple Hezbollah sites across southern Lebanon, targeting weapons depots and military infrastructure built in civilian areas. The attacks come as Beirut advanced plans to disarm the Iran-backed group. Lebanon condemned the strikes, which reportedly killed at least one and injured several, accusing Israel of jeopardizing peace efforts nearly a year after the ceasefire between the two countries began. Meanwhile in Gaza, Israel has vowed to destroy all Hamas tunnels, as reports of truce violations continue to emerge.

• North Korea and Russia deepen military cooperation. Senior North Korean and Russian defense officials reveal they met in Pyongyang earlier this week to expand military ties. The talks coincided with South Korean intelligence reports of North Korean recruitment and training for possible troop deployments to Russia, as Moscow and Pyongyang continue to align over the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, North Korea launched another ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast.

• China unveils its most advanced aircraft carrier. China has inaugurated its third and most sophisticated aircraft carrier, a major step in Xi Jinping’s military modernization drive. The Fujian, equipped with an electromagnetic launch system, joins the Chinese fleet as Beijing seeks to project naval power and challenge U.S. dominance in the Pacific. For more, we offer this analysis by German weekly Die Zeit’s Matthias Nass, translated from German and adapted by Worldcrunch: No New World Order: Xi’s Alliance Of Autocrats Can’t Rival The West.

• UN lifts sanctions on Syria’s al-Sharaa ahead of Washington visit. The UN Security Council voted 14-0, with China abstaining, to remove sanctions against Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his interior minister. The largely symbolic move follows U.S. efforts to restore ties after al-Sharaa’s 2024 overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sharaa is scheduled to visit Washington next week for talks with President Donald Trump. Read this Daraj article about the last al-Sharaa/Trump meeting.

• Typhoon Kalmaegi devastates Vietnam after tearing through Philippines. At least five people were killed in Vietnam as Typhoon Kalmaegi batters the region with powerful winds and floods, having already killed at least 188 in the Philippines in recent days. The storm triggered mass power outages, damaged thousands of homes and wiped out crops before weakening inland. Vietnam mobilized over 260,000 soldiers for rescue operations, while the Philippines braces for another incoming storm, Fung-won.

• News Quiz! Which highly anticipated video game has been delayed — again — until November 2026, due to the developer wanting more time to perfect it?

A. The Elder Scrolls VI
B. Red Dead Redemption 3
C. Grand Theft Auto 6 
D. Tetris 2
[Answer below]

💬 LEXICON

Vibe coding
Collins Dictionary has chosen the phrase “vibe coding” as its 2025 Word of the Year, as it “perfectly captures how language is evolving alongside technology,” said managing director Alex Beecroft. Coined by Andrej Karpathy (former AI director at Tesla and founding engineer at OpenAI), the term refers to “the use of artificial intelligence prompted by a natural language to assist with the writing of computer code.” “Vibe coding” succeeds last year’s word “brat,” popularized by British singer Charli XCX.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇪🇺 A warning from Monica Minardi, president of the Italian branch of Doctors Without Borders, on how EU and Italian policies dehumanize migrants, empower Libyan abuses, strip reception services, and dodge safe legal routes as the “Fortress Europe” deal is silently renewed.
— LA STAMPA

🗳️ As Democrats secured a series of victories across the U.S., what lessons will Donald Trump draw? Or will he instead be tempted to take an authoritarian leap forward, as many of his opponents fear? Three key lessons from an election that may have changed everything in the United States.
— FRANCE INTER

🏋️ Balancing family, work and self-expectations, our 40-something writer realized that forcing a fitness routine wasn’t the answer — for now.
— DIE ZEIT