Researched by: Aarthi Ramnath, Anannya Parekh & Aakriti Anand
A European election shocker
The context: The EU is governed by the European Parliament—made up of 720 MEPs who represent the 27 member states. They are directly elected by citizens of their countries.
What happened now: In elections held over the weekend, rightwing parties scored great gains—at the expense of centrist parties—especially in France and Germany. Shocked by the result, President Emannuel Macron has called a snap election—to reestablish his political authority. Why this matters:
A rightwards shift inside the European Parliament may make it tougher to pass new legislation that might be needed to respond to security challenges, the impact of climate change or industrial competition from China and the United States.
Reuters has lots more on the political fallout.
War on Gaza: The sacking of Nuseirat
The IDF rescued four Israeli hostages—and killed 226 Palestinians to do so. Another 400 are wounded. The assault on the refugee camp in Nuseirat is being termed as “one of the single bloodiest Israeli assaults” on Gaza.
Residential blocks were destroyed, tanks menaced the streets and grievously wounded Palestinians, some without limbs, writhed in pain on the dusty roads of the camp’s central market, according to videos and images of the raid. Many of them never reached local hospitals, health officials said. But even then, medical facilities decimated by the war often have little ability to treat injured patients.
According to doctors and eyewitnesses, the forces prevented ambulances from reaching hospitals. The Wall Street Journal’s headline for this event: “How Israel Pulled Off a High-Risk Hostage Rescue.” High risk for whom? (Al Jazeera)
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv: Opposition leader Benny Gantz has resigned from the war cabinet. Gantz had threatened to walk out of the unity government if PM Netanyahu did not put forward a credible post-war plan for Gaza—by June 8. Bibi failed to do so. Why this matters: It’s the first open rift within the political establishment since the October 7 attacks. And rumours are, the White House prefers Gantz—who is also calling for an election. (CNN)
T20 World Cup: The latest update
India vs Pakistan thriller: The boys in blue beat Pakistan by six runs in low-scoring nail-biter in New York. We suffered a mid-innings collapse—and ended up with an underwhelming 119 runs—despite Rishabh Pant (42 off 31 balls). But Pakistan managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Right when they only needed 48 runs with eight wickets in hand, the batting fell apart—with the assistance of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. The Hindu has a match report. New York Times has a fun piece on the ‘pop up’ stadium in Long Island—which was built solely for the World Cup—and will be torn down right after.
One of the viral moments during the match was when an aircraft flew a banner with the message ‘Release Imran Khan’ across the stadium. See the vid below. FYI: this isn’t the first time fans and supporters of Khan have unfurled banners at cricket matches.
An endearing moment was when Jaspreet Bumrah’s wife Sanjana Ganesan interviewed him post match:
New Zealand vs Afghanistan surprise: The Kiwis were bowled out for 75 runs by Rashid and Farooqi—both of whom nabbed four wickets apiece for 17 runs. With this win, Afghanistan are at the top of their table. BBC News has the match report. See a ‘perfect yorker’ by Trent Boult below.
As for defending champion England: They lost to Australia by 36 runs in a one-sided match on Saturday. Australia has moved to the top of Group B, with two wins from two matches. (The Hindu)
Meanwhile, at the French Open: Carlos Alcaraz won the men’s title—scoring a 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Alexander Zverev. It is his first French Open title—and third Grand Slam win. On the women’s side, Poland’s Iga Świątek beat Jasmine Paolini—dominating 6-2, 6-1—to win her third consecutive French Open title. You can watch her celebrating her win with her father in the vid below. NPR has more on Alcaraz.
Musk has salary problems
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package—largest in the US—was approved by the company board. But shareholders are not happy—and may not ratify it. Norway's $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund said it will vote against the eye-watering amount. It holds a 0.98% stake worth $7.7 billion. One reason for this lack of enthusiasm: According to Sherwood News, unsold Teslas—being stored in parking lots—can be seen from space. Reminder: In an earlier court ruling—in a lawsuit brought by investors—a judge also ruled against the package. He said the "unfathomable sum" was unfair to shareholders. (Reuters)
Alarming news about displacement in Sudan
The context: Sudan has been in a civil war since April 2023 thanks to a power struggle between two generals—Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (see: this Big Story).
What happened now: According to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 9.9 million people have been internally displaced across Sudan this week and this number is likely to cross 10 million people soon. To put it into perspective:
Imagine a city the size of London being displaced. That’s what it’s like, but it’s happening with the constant threat of crossfire, with famine, disease and brutal ethnic and gender-based violence.
The sad bit: more than half of those displaced are women, and more than a quarter are children under age five. The UN has also warned that the country is at an “imminent risk of famine”— with 3.6 million malnourished children. In total, about 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Out of this, more than two million have been able to cross into neighbouring countries, including Egypt and Chad.
Why this matters: According to World Food Programme’s (WFP) Michael Dunford, the country is “on the verge of collapse”, and getting humanitarian aid to the displaced people is extremely challenging because of the lack of global attention. (Al Jazeera)
Bizarre charges against Caravan reporters
The context: In August 2020, three Caravan reporters—Shahid Tantray, Prabhjit Singh, and a woman journalist—were assaulted by a rightwing Hindu mob in Northeast Delhi. They were investigating a complaint that three Muslim women were sexually assaulted in the local police station. The journalists filed detailed complaints at Bhajanpura police station right after the assault. We have more on the sexual assaults in our Big Story.
What happened now: Nearly four years later, the journalists have received a police complaint accusing them of this:
[A] woman from Subhash Mohalla in Northeast Delhi’s Gonda area... alleged that journalists Prabhjit Singh and Shahid Tantray accompanied by their female colleague, pushed her, vitiated communal harmony between two communities, instigated another community by giving them money, and made lewd gestures towards a group of women, during a reporting assignment on August 11.
Point to note: This FIR is dated three days after the one filed by the journalists—which namechecked a BJP leader. Also: The magazine had no clue about its existence until one of the reporters received a notice last month. (NewsLaundry)
The best restaurant in the world is…
Disfrutar in Barcelona, Spain—which was #2 in 2023. Spain has two others in the top five—Asador Etxebarri ( #2) in Atxondo and Diverxo (#4) in Madrid. The Parisian Bruno Verjus was ranked #3 and Maido in Lima took #5. Sadly, there are no restaurants from India on the list. But the Indian restaurant in Bangkok—Gaggan—jumped from #17 to #9 this year. CNN has the complete list.
Four things to see
One: Boeing’s greatly jinxed Starliner finally docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday—and hamari Sunita Williams made a rocking entry. (Economic Times)
Two: An Air India plane headed for Thiruvananthapuram was taking off from Mumbai—when an IndiGo plane coming from Indore touched down on the same runway. Both pilots said that they were acting on instructions from the air traffic control. The employee has been suspended—and aviation authorities have launched a probe. (NDTV)
Three: Oxford University has finally agreed to return a 500-year-old bronze statue of Tamil poet and saint Thirumangai Alvar back to India. It was likely looted from an Indian temple. FYI: the Indian authorities first made the claim for restitution back in February 2020. (The Guardian)
Four: A rocket-firing toy version of Boba Fett from the ‘Star Wars’ franchise was recently auctioned off for an absurd sum of $525,000—making it the most expensive vintage toy in the world. It beat out a $302,000 diamond-wearing Barbie to claim the title. Though the Barbie has it beat in the look department. FYI: This is one of two hand-painted toys created by the company Kenner in 1979—but never rolled out because it was considered a choking hazard. (Gizmodo)
