Reuters World News - Germany vote shock, Israel’s Gaza plan, Romania and the Met Gala

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

German conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to garner the parliamentary majority needed to become chancellor in a first round of voting in an unexpected setback for his new coalition. The Israeli government has approved plans that may include seizing the Gaza Strip and controlling aid. What a far-right opposition leader's first round win in Romania's presdential election means for Europe and NATO. And stars shine in tailored looks at the Met Gala's celebration of Black tailoring.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, what an expanded Israeli operation could mean in Gaza. Ful-right support in Romania raises questions about its NATO and EU future. And fashion's biggest night celebrates black dandyism at the Met Gala. It's Tuesday, May 6th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. First to Germany for some breaking news, where Conservative leader Friedrich Meertz has fallen short of the majority he needs to become Chancellor in a vote in Parliament. It's an unexpected setback for his new coalition.

The Bundestag now has two weeks to elect him or another candidate with an outright majority. More on the story as it develops on Reuters.com and the Reuters app. After weeks of faltering efforts to agree a ceasefire with Hamas, Israel plans to intensify military operations in Gaza, possibly seizing the entire territory. Aid distribution, which has been handled by international aid groups and UN organizations, could be transferred to private companies. Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed two months ago, cutting off all supplies to the enclave.

James McKenzie is in Jerusalem and lays out what such an operation could be. mean? If they took over the whole of the Gaza Strip, that would be a very dramatic development, obviously. It's not quite clear what that means. Would it be permanently occupied by Israeli soldiers? That seems to be what they're talking about. Would it include Israeli settlements or anything like that? That's what some of the hardline ministers would like, obviously. But it's just unclear whether or not Israel is really in a position to maintain this kind of long-term occupation of what would surely be just an extremely hostile area. So what happens if Israel takes over food and aid distribution

and hires a company to handle it? The difficulty about that is twofold. One is that the international organizations that have a long experience of distributing food in Gaza and in emergency conditions have the experience and the capacity to do this. It's not quite clear whether the civilian companies that Israeli officials are talking about have that same ability.

The second question is how much aid for Israel would be willing to distribute. They say that Hamas sees large parts of the aid and use it for itself, its own forces, instead of allowing it to get to the civilian population. And that's one of the just justifications they have for imposing this blockade. Multiple explosions and fires in the Sudanese city of Port Sudan early this morning, according to witnesses. The main fuel storage supplying the country has been destroyed. The Trump administration is pushing forward in defending rules easing access to the abortion drug, Mitha Pristone.

It's a legal challenge that began during the Biden administration. The drug is used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegset has ordered a 20% reduction in a number of four-star officers. Hexeth has long been vocal about how the senior most ranks of the military are too big. A US appeals court is rejecting President Donald Trump's bid to revoke the temporary legal status of thousands of migrants. Those affected are Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States. And all of the 133 cardinals expected to take part in the secret conclave to elect a new Pope have arrived in Rome. The race to succeed Pope Francis is seen as wide open, and it starts tomorrow.

Over to China now for markets. Chinese travellers' spending rose 8% year-on-year during the May Day holiday, but was still off pre-pandemic levels. The holiday, one of the country's longest, is closely watched as a barometer of Chinese consumer confidence. China's tourism ministry recorded 314 million domestic trips during the holiday, an increase of 6.5%. But consumption in the world's second largest economy has suffered amid sputtering growth

and a prolonged property crisis, and the fallout from the US-China trade war is set to deepen the pain. Romania's centre-left prime minister has stepped down after far-right leader George Simeon won the first round at the presidential rerun. The Eurosceptic Trump admirer will face a centrist in a runoff for the presidency

in just under two weeks. A European editor Rachel Armstrong is here to tell us what a Simeon win could mean. Simeon, he is quite hard to define. He's in fact part of the same bloc that Italy's Georgia Maloney is in and she has obviously taken a fairly soft, Eurosceptic approach to the bloc that she wants to work within the EU to promote her interests. So there'll be a question mark about whether he will do that and whether he is cognizant with the fact that a lot of his support base comes from Romanians who are working across the EU. And whilst they are probably very disillusioned with their living standards and the cost of living crisis, they do also benefit from being in the

EU, from being able to work in the way that they do. And how would a simian overall victory impact NATO's eastern flank? So Romania has been a really important logistical hub for Ukraine and for NATO during the war. Ukraine's president, Vladimian, Mir Zelensky has already said that they will have to review whether they can continue to train F-16 pilots on fighter planes in Romania. That's been a major venue for that. Romania has also helped Ukraine transport an awful lot of grain to keep Ukraine's economy going during the war. I think what people will want to see is whether Simeon is opposed to all of that logistical support or whether it's more a case of not wanting to send any more money to Ukraine.

And in yesterday's pod, we were talking about the Trump effect in elections around the world. Is this another example of that? So Europe is definitely not following the playbook that we've seen in Australia and Canada when it comes to Trump-giving, centrist, perhaps slightly left-leaning politicians, a boost. Many far-right politicians in Europe are taking a lot of inspiration. from Trump's campaigning style, and that certainly gave Simeon a boost in the Romanian election. Rihanna revealed her third pregnancy.

Farrell Williams sported a jacket with 15,000 pearls, and musician Andre 3000 struck a piano to his back. It was, of course, fashion's biggest night, and celebrities celebrated black style and tailoring at the Met Gala fundraiser. A reporter Ben Kellerman was there. Ben, what was the vibe this year? How did people interpret the theme? So dandyism is a style that's statement in menswear about being impeccably dressed and groomed and wearing perfectly tailored clothes as a part of it. And this year's theme for the Met Gala and the exhibition that runs alongside it at the Metropolitan Museum focuses on the history of black dandyism, which takes that style and those principles as a way of resisting race and clandies.

class barriers and is something that is associated with the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. So I think because of the focus on menswear and I think because designers and the celebrities who were on the red carpet, because they wanted to honor the history that was embedded in that theme, you didn't have quite as many outlandish outfits. You didn't have as many outfits that sort of felt like costumes. And so usually all the coverage is about the women's wear, right? But How did the menswear theme change that? How did they look? So even the outfits that might be considered women's wear,

a lot of them incorporated elements of men's tailoring in them. We saw a lot of dresses that were maybe styled and tailored to look like a suit jacket, but instead of coat tails, the coat tails would extend into a train like a traditional ballgown would. You also had dresses and gowns that sort of had a fun conceptual, take on menswear. So, for example, Demi Moore wore a gown made to look like a necktie that sort of trailed behind her as if it was the train of a gown. And for today's recommended read, an award-winning investigation. Reuters has won the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for a series on the international fentanyl trade, the drug at the heart of a crisis which has

killed more than 450,000 Americans. Here on the podcast, we did a special episode highlighting the investigations. There's a link to the fentanyl Express series and our pod special in today's description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player and we'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.