Kia ora and welcome to your Tuesday recap of the key international business and political stories making headlines.
We start in Ukraine, where Russia has proposed a 72-hour ceasefire next month to coincide with the national holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II, Al Jazeera reported.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha was quick to respond: “If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately.” He said Ukraine was ready for a “lasting, reliable, and complete ceasefire” for at least 30 days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russian forces would stop fighting from midnight on May 8. The BBC noted Russia announced a similar 30-hour ceasefire over Easter, but both sides accused each other of hundreds of violations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In other news, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put the responsibility for reaching a trade tariff agreement on China, CNBC reported.
“I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these [Chinese] tariffs are unsustainable,” Bessent said.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that US President Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war had triggered a slump in shipments to US ports. For example, figures showed the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week was down by almost a third on the same period last year.
The BBC reported on comments from UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves. She told the broadcaster that the UK's trade relationship with the European Union was "more important" than the one with the US.
And, over the Ditch, more Australian meat will be sent to China, as the country assessed new opportunities amid the trade war with the US, the ABC reported. Ten Australian sheep and goat abattoirs were granted access to the lucrative export market for the first time over the weekend.
The Australian Meat Industry Council said it was the biggest expansion in Australian sheep meat access to China in years.
In other news, a number of media outlets are covering the results of the election in Canada, with Al Jazeera noting that Mark Carney is ahead of his conservative rival.
Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister and was the frontrunner to lead the country amid the current trade turmoil. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre promised to stand firm against Trump.
Earlier, polls indicated Carney’s Liberals leading with nearly 43%, above the Conservatives at 39%, according to a CBC tracker.
Mark Carney.
Elsewhere, a massive power outage brought parts of Spain and Portugal to a standstill, leaving millions of households and businesses in the dark, CNBC reported.
“We do not yet have conclusive information on the reasons for this [power] cut, so I ask the people, as we have done in past crises, to inform themselves through official channels,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.
“For the time being, there’s no evidence of any civil protection problems. I repeat, there are no problems of insecurity.”
India has signed a deal to buy 26 Rafale marine fighter jets from France, strengthening the country’s naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region, Bloomberg reported.
The deal was valued at US$7.4 billion and included four twin-seater trainer aircraft and the maintenance of 36 Rafale fighters India bought in 2016.
Finally, the Guardian has an exclusive story that former UK prime minister Gordon Brown made a new complaint to police over allegations that Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group obstructed justice.
Brown spoke to police involved in the original phone-hacking inquiry. Brown said detectives alleged there was “significant evidence” that News Group Newspapers deleted millions of emails to pervert the course of justice.
“Today I am making a criminal complaint to the Met [Police] and CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] alleging that I am, along with many others, a victim of the obstruction of the course of justice by News Group.
“This is not an allegation made lightly. It is informed by recently available evidence, and by the statements of senior officers involved in the original investigations into unlawful news gathering, who have now stated to me that they were misled,” Brown wrote.
