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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech at BusinessEurope conference in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2020.
Hard Numbers: Von der Leyen seeks reelection, Israel GDP plummets, Ukrainian troops captured, Something’s smelly in Cape Town, Moïse’s widow indicted
20: Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel's GDP has plummeted by nearly 20%. The biggest economic hits came from the government calling 300,000 reservists away from their jobs to Gaza, relocating 120,000 Israelis away from the border, and restricting Palestinian West Bank workers from working in the country.
1,000: Up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops appear to have been captured during Russia’s takeover of the east Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. The loss is a sign of military supplies dwindling in the absence of new US funding, damaging morale, and Ukraine’s ability to hold the line.
19,000: After searching for days to locate the source of the “unimaginable stench” that engulfed Cape Town, South African officials finally found the culprit: a ship transporting 19,000 live cattle from Brazil to Iraq. The ship is set to depart soon, but the country is seeing an uptick in livestock bound for the Middle East passing through Cape Town as an alternative to the Red Sea route amid Houthi violence there.
51: Martine Moïse is among 51 people indicted for alleged involvement in the July 2021 assassination of her husband, then-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Attorneys for Mrs. Moïse, who was wounded in the attack, denied the charges and questioned the legitimacy of the 122-page indictment, which doesn’t provide evidence of her direct involvement.
Noa Kirel from Israel performs during the grand final of the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, Britain, May 13, 2023.
Could Israel be disqualified from Eurovision 2024?
The search is underway for representatives from each of the 37 countries participating in the 2024 Eurovision song contest. The competition’s slogan might be United by Music, but as always, politics are never far from the stage.
This year, the controversy concerns Israel. Calls are growing for the country to be kicked out over its assault on the Gaza Strip, which has drawn accusations of war crimes and genocide. Many are citing as a precedent the 2022 expulsion of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Israel’s entry: 20 year oldEden Golan was selected after performing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” to a hall of empty chairs, meant as a tribute to the Gaza hostages. Israel has been in Eurovision since the 1970s and has won four times — most recently in 2018.
Could Israel be expelled? Entries can be fined or disqualified for bringing politics onto the stage. But Israel’s expulsion is unlikely at this point. The final say rests with Eurovision officials, and so far they’re singing an evasive tune, saying, “Comparisons between wars and conflicts are complex and difficult and, as a nonpolitical media organization, not ours to make.”
Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu
Biden finally invites Bibi, sort of
The invitation – which pointedly excluded any details on time or place – arrived as Israeli President Isaac Herzog was in Washington looking to ease strained bilateral ties. But it also comes right as Netanyahu faces a fresh wave of protests and strikes over his fast-advancing plans to trim the remit of Israel’s powerful judiciary.
The Biden administration, along with a number of prominent American Jewish groups, has blasted the judicial reforms, which critics say will undermine Israel’s democracy. The White House is also at odds with Netanyahu over his government’s plans to vastly increase settlement construction in the West Bank.
Against that backdrop, Biden’s invitation is welcome news for Bibi, who has faced criticism that his hardline policies risk imperiling ties with Israel’s most important ally.
But while the invitation is a small salve for US-Israel ties, it seems unlikely to calm the volatile situation in Israel itself. Protesters who see themselves in a fight for Israel’s democracy won’t be much moved by a vague invitation from Biden. And Netanyahu has shown little inclination to back down on his plans, despite months of tension with the US already.
Wade Brennan from Sarasota County Mosquito Management Services shows a mosquito that is capable of harboring malaria
Hard Numbers: Malaria makes moves in the US, Kramatorsk death toll, Britons go hungry, Brazil notches 19th century growth number, Israel’s politics crimp tech funding
20: The CDC has detected the first locally transmitted cases of malaria in the US in 20 years. Four of the cases were in Florida, the fifth in Texas. Aren’t those genetically modified mosquitos supposed to be preventing this? THEY HAD ONE JOB!
11: The death toll has climbed to 11 after Russia struck a patron-filled restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday. More than 60 people were injured in the blast. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have arrested a local resident who they say fed the Russians information in the lead-up to the strike.
1 in 7: These days a whole lot of Britons don’t have enough to eat. A new study reveals that 1 in 7 people in the UK faced hunger last year because they didn’t have enough money to buy food. That’s more than 11 million people. The UK, which is the world’s sixth largest economy, has recently seen its worst food price inflation since the 1970s.
0.52: Brazil’s population grew an average of 0.52% per year between 2010 and 2022, according to new census figures. That’s the slowest clip for Latin America’s most populous nation since 1872. Brazil’s birth rates have been steadily declining since the 1960s as the country industrialized. For comparison, the US population grew just 0.4% in 2022.
65: Fundraising by Israel’s world-renowned tech sector plummeted by 65% in the second quarter of 2023 as political upheaval over PM Bibi Netanyahu’s court reform plans spooked investors. For a look at the tech sector’s outsized role in that story, see our piece here.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu attends Arnon Milchan's video testimony
Latest twists and turns in Bibi’s trial
In one of the more damning moments of Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, Arnon Milchan, a billionaire Hollywood mogul, took to the stand (virtually) on Monday to say his piece.
A longtime friend of the PM, Milchan testified for the prosecution and said that during Bibi’s previous tenure (2007-2016) he sometimes gave gifts to the PM and his wife – most commonly cigars and champagne – in exchange for business and tax favors.
By saying that the Netahyahus had at times requested kickbacks, the powerful media tycoon undercut the PM’s claim that this case comes down to nothing more than one friend giving some gifts to another.
Quick recap: Bibi, who has ruled over the right-wing Likud Party for decades, is currently facing three separate criminal cases for bribery, corruption, and breach of trust. Milchan, who has produced scores of blockbusters including “Pretty Woman” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” is a key witness in just one of them.
Milchan’s testimony, which he’s giving via video link in the UK, where he lives, will go on for several more days. Still, this isn’t the most serious case facing the PM – that one is known as Case 4,000 and linked to allegations that Bibi greenlit regulatory decisions to benefit a telecoms giant in exchange for favorable media coverage.
Crucially, Bibi got some good news related to that case in recent days, with reports that judges overseeing Case 4,000 have in recent days called on the prosecution to seek a plea deal owing to insufficient evidence.
Given the sluggish nature of Israel's judicial system (and the PM’s stonewalling tactics) even if negotiations over a deal fall through, some legal experts say that proceedings, including appeals, could drag on until as late as 2029.
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett speaks next to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid at the Knesset in Jerusalem.
What We're Watching: Bennett throws in the towel in Israel, Petro wins in Colombia, Macron loses majority in France
Israel faces fifth election in three years
Israelis are headed to the polls, again, for the fifth time in just over three years. After almost two months of being on the brink of collapse following a number of high-profile defections that made it lose its parliamentary majority, the fragile eight-party coalition government led by PM Naftali Bennett is set to disband. In the coming days, Bennett and his main coalition partner, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, intend to dissolve the Knesset (parliament) and call a fresh election in October or November. Lapid will serve as caretaker PM once Bennett steps down, but Bennett will retain the Iran portfolio as part of the power-sharing agreement. Former PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, who now heads the opposition, celebrated the demise of an unwieldy government whose members could pretty much only agree that they didn't want him as prime minister. Bibi, for his part, is (surprise!) gunning for a return to power despite being on trial for corruption. Will his rightwing Likud Party win enough seats and allies to cobble together a majority to form a government, or will Israel's political deadlock continue with no end in sight?
Colombia lurches left
For the first time in its history, South America’s third-largest economy will have an avowed leftist as president. Gustavo Petro, the former mayor of Bogota who was a guerrilla rebel in his youth, won the presidency decisively on Sunday, defeating upstart real-estate tycoon Rodolfo Hernández by more than 700,000 votes. Petro finally got lucky in his third run for president by promising big changes to a country wracked by the economic impacts of the pandemic, rising violence, and two recent waves of protests over inequality. He has pledged to redistribute wealth, wean the country off of oil and coal exports, and build a more inclusive society in one of the world’s most unequal countries. His running mate, Francia Márquez, becomes the first vice president of African descent in South America. When he takes office in August, Petro will immediately face stiff resistance from the country’s conservative business and political elites and will have to work hard to broaden his coalition in a fractious congress where he does not hold a majority. He may also encounter pushback from the US, Colombia’s closest ally, over his plans to legalize certain drugs, revise the US-Colombia free trade pact, and normalize ties with Venezuela.
Macron’s agenda hits major snag
Whiplash alert in French politics. Two months after getting re-elected as president, Emmanuel Macron saw his party lose its parliamentary majority by a bigger-than-expected margin in Sunday's second round of legislative elections. Macron's centrist Ensemble (Together) Party secured only 245 seats, not even close to the 289 it needed for a majority in the National Assembly. Nupes, a progressive coalition led by the far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, came in second with 131, while Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally got its best result ever with 89 seats. What does this mean for Macron, and for the country? The French president will now need the support of establishment conservatives to advance his reform agenda, because both Mélenchon and Le Pen oppose his plans to boost the government’s financial health by pushing the standard retirement age from 62 to 65, on top of more basic reforms meant to cut public spending and help businesses weather tough economic times. "France now faces the prospect of a period of prolonged political instability — with a war raging in Ukraine and the growing threat of an economic downturn at home," tweeted Eurasia Group's top Europe analyst Mujtaba Rahman.Note: The original version of this article incorrectly listed the Israeli government coalition as having seven parties, not eight.
Models of oil barrels seen in front of a "stop" sign and the EU and Russia flag colors.
Hard Numbers: EU bans (most) Russian oil, Israel-UAE trade deal, crowdfunded drone for Ukraine, Pokemon zero-COVID protest
2/3: After weeks of tense negotiations, EU leaders agreed late Monday to an embargo on two-thirds of the oil the bloc now imports from Russia. But there's a catch: holdout Hungary will likely get an indefinite exemption in order to drop its veto.
96: On Tuesday, Israel and the UAE will sign a landmark free trade agreement, Israel's first with an Arab country. The agreement will eliminate 96% of tariffs between the two countries, which normalized ties less than two years ago under the Abraham Accords.
5 million: Lithuanians chipped in 5 million euros ($5.4 million) in an online crowdfunding drive to buy a Bayraktar TB2 military drone for Ukraine. The Turkish-made UAVs are making a difference on the battlefield for the Ukrainians because they enable high-precision airstrikes.
200: A Pokemon character who always has a headache has become one of China's most in-demand toys because people are using it to vent about the government's zero-COVID policy. Plastic figures of Psyduck, given away in KFC children's meals, are being resold for $200 after going viral on social media.
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Malaysia ups palm oil exports, al-Shabab strikes in Somalia, split verdict on marital rape in India, journalist killed in West Bank
Hard Numbers: Malaysia ups palm oil exports, al-Shabab strikes in Somalia, split verdict on marital rape in India, journalist killed in West Bank
162: Indian women’s rights groups are reeling after a New Delhi court failed to deliver a verdict in a case that could have overturned a 162-year-old law permitting marital rape. The Indian Penal Code says sex "by a man with his own wife" does not constitute rape. The case will likely be appealed before the Supreme Court.
40: After Indonesia recently banned palm oil exports amid surging global commodity prices, Malaysia has stepped up its deliveries to try to fill the void. It ramped up deliveries by 40% in the first 10 days of May compared with the same period in April. Still, it won't be able to meet the demand left by Indonesia, which accounts for 60% of global palm oil exports.
4: At least four people were killed in a terror attack near the airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Al-Shabab, a militant group that has wreaked havoc across the Horn of Africa in recent years, claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred as candidates were heading to the airport just days before the country’s presidential election.
25: Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American journalist who has worked for Al Jazeera for 25 years, was shot and killed while covering an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin. The network has blamed Israeli troops, but Israel’s PM Naftali Bennett said she was likely killed by Palestinian gunmen. Israel says it will investigate and hand over its findings to the Qatari government, which owns Al Jazeera.