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Crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace to watch a fly-past by the Red Arrows on the 80th anniversary of VE Day in London, United Kingdom, on May 05, 2025.
HARD NUMBERS: UK celebrates VE Day, Stock volatility boosts European banks, Trump wants Alcatraz reopened, Manhattan hosts Met Gala, Oceania rebuffs Trump’s film-tariff threat
1,300: On Monday, the United Kingdom started celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day, which commemorates the Allied victory of World War II, with a slew of street and tea parties across the country. There was also a 1,300-strong military procession along the Mall, the stretch of road connecting Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. One million people flooded the area on the original VE Day, May 8, 1945.
13 billion: Donald Trump’s tariff bonanza induced a huge amount of stock market volatility, and the largest European investment banks are pleased as punch. This week, UBS, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank posted their largest quarterly revenues in over a decade, reporting a combined €13 billion ($14.7 billion) from equities and fixed income in the first quarter of the year. The stellar performance mirrors the hefty revenues that their American counterparts gathered in the first three months of 2025.
$60 million: Maybe there’s no escape from Alcatraz: Donald Trump wants to reopen the island prison, which was shut in 1963. “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE,” the president wrote on social media. The prison, which sits just over a mile off the coast in the San Francisco Bay, once housed the notorious mobster Al Capone. It is currently operated by the National Park Service, which hosts 1.6 million visitors a year, generating roughly $60 million in revenue.
$75,000: New York City hosted the Met Gala on Monday night. Individiual tickets sold for a cool $75,000, with the money raised going to the Museum’s Costume Institute. Some have used the gala to spread political messages, like when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wore a dress with the message, “Tax the Rich,” to the 2021 iteration.
540 million: The governments of Australia and New Zealand vowed to protect their film industries after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on foreign films. The Oceanic pair have become a popular filming spot for Hollywood filmmakers, in part thanks to lower costs and government tax incentives. Australia alone has spent AU$540 million ($349.4 million) since 2019 to attract international film productions.
FKA Twigs, Stella McCartney, Ed Sheeran and Cara Delevingne pose at the Met Gala, an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute with this year's theme 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion' in New York City, New York, U.S., May 6, 2024.
Gaza protests, union negotiations, and deepfakes: Is the Met Gala a microcosm of the times?
Last night, the Metropolitan Museum of Art rolled out the red carpet for the Met Gala — a star-studded fundraiser hosted by media giant Condé Nast — amid pro-Palestinian protests, union negotiations, and deepfake dresses.
Gaza protests: As celebrities took to the red carpet Monday night, police struggled to contain hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marching down Fifth Avenue to protest the event. Many of the demonstrators came from Hunter College in an evolution of the campus protests that have swept the country – and likely a harbinger of things to come after students leave campus this summer but still strive to make their voices heard.
Union negotiations: Just 12 hours earlier, Condé Nast reached an agreement with unionized employees who were threatening to abandon their jobs at the event if they did not reach an agreement in long-stalled contract negotiations. In a post on X, the union warned on Saturday night that management could “meet us at the table or meet us at the Met on Monday.” The agreement continues a year of union wins and includes wage increases, additional parental leave, and hybrid work protections.
Deepfakes: Meanwhile, many of us who didn’t pay $75,000 for a seat and were watching the red carpet online were bamboozled by a deepfake of Katy Perry in two dresses, both generated by AI. Perry did not attend the gala, but if you were fooled by the deepfake, don't feel too bad; her own mother was too.
The Met Gala is often criticized for being a pedestal for the out-of-touch, but this time, even the force of the mighty Anna Wintour couldn’t insulate the event from the outside world.