Reuters World News - Mexico’s first female president, Biden’s Gaza plan, Proud Boys and live shopping

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

A Benjamin Netanyahu aide confirms Israel accepts a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war being advanced by US president Joe Biden. The militant, all-male group Proud Boys is regrouping and regaining strength, stoking concern of extremist violence around the US election. Fashion retailer Zara experiments with live online shopping. Plus Claudia Sheinbaum wins a landslide election victory to become Mexico’s first woman president. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast 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, Mexico elects its first female president. US President Joe Biden's Gaza proposal inches forward, but can it take off? The proud boys gain momentum ahead of the US election. And Zara experiments with live online shopping. It's Monday, June 3rd. 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. Cheering as Mexico elects its first female president.

Claudia Scheimbaum has won a landside victory, taking at least 58% of the vote according to Mexico's electoral authority. It's set to be the highest vote-tally percentage in Mexico's history. The result also draws to an end the most violent election in Mexico's modern history. with 38 candidates murdered. Sunday's election was also marred by the murder of two people at polling stations in Puebla State. The final announcement of the 24 national and provincial election results today

in many ways represents a victory for our democracy as South Africans. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reacting to their own election results. The African National Congress has lost its majority for the first time in 30 years. It's the worst showing ever for the ANC, the party once led by Nelson Mandela, which ended white minority rule in the country. Political parties now have two weeks to work out a power-sharing deal before the parliament meets to choose a new president. OPEC Plus has agreed to extend most of their oil output cuts into 2025.

The group of oil producers is looking to shore up the market. market amid tepid demand growth, high interest rates and rising rival U.S. production. An aid to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war being advanced by U.S. President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work. Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative, though a senior official from the group has said that, quote, Hamas is too big to be bypassed or sidelined by Netanyahu or Biden. Our senior correspondent Dan Williams and Jerusalem has more.

So Dan, what's been the reception of the plan in Israel so far? Given that President Biden said correctly that the plan he was publicly advancing was actually one already passed by Israeli leaders, there was no great surprise in Israel at the announcement, perhaps even a great many Israelis would have welcomed it as a public kick-starting or an opportunity to kick-start efforts to retrieve at least some of the hostages still in Gaza. However, within the coalition government, there has been some vocal opposition, specifically from the right wing, from the far-right wing, given that the way Biden cast this offer, this proposal,

it would appear that Hamas would remain an interlocutor, a negotiating partner for the duration of the implementation. So what's Netanyahu likely to do then? We're hearing that he's already seeking to meet separately with at least one far-right coalition partner, perhaps to talk him into accepting the deal. We are also expecting this week a centrist partner in the emergency government formed in Israel after the October 7th attack by Hamas, which started this war, that part has threatened to leave by the end of this week. It could well be that threat is now eclipsed by what appears to be new movement on this ceasefire proposal.

So Netanyahu may have a reprieve if that centrist's partner, Benny Gunz, decides to stay on. It's also worth noting that Netanyahu has been invited to address both houses of Congress in the coming weeks, potentially. would make him the first foreign leader to have appeared before that American forum four times. And no doubt when that happens, Netanyahu would hope to shore up his international credibility and perhaps to recast this war with Hamas as essentially a battle in a longer war with Israel's main enemy Iran, which is a sponsor of Hamas, is a sponsor of Hezbollah, Lebanon, and of other parties in the Middle East that have been attacking Israel during this war. In the years since I led the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021,

the proud boys have seen their former leaders jailed and at least 70 members charged. But the violent all-male extremist group has regrouped and is regaining strength as Donald Trump tries to retake the White House. And their resurgence is stoking concerns of domestic extremist violence surrounding the election. Reporter Aaron Rosten has been speaking with proud boys members and law enforcement to get to clear a picture of the group. So, Aram, what have they been up to for the past four years? What surprised me as I began working on this is how active the Proud Boys are still.

After January 6th, the chairman at the time, Enrique Tario, he stepped down from his position. And as a rule, the entire grouping of Proud Boys, the movements, decided there would be no leader, no national spokesman. no committee, they were going to decentralize and not coordinate anymore. This way, maybe, you know, maybe each individuals can be charged or small groups can be charged, but it wouldn't reflect on the entire organization, perhaps. Another change was they were much more quiet. They didn't have their political rallies, but it was only really this year that they began getting really

actively in your face political again. What do they believe in? What do they want? They like to say that they're Western chauvinists, they're a men's movement, they'll say, a fraternal organization. But they also have a whole bunch of other issues, and they hate communism, Antifa, they'll say, and they're passionate about Trump. And violence?

Violence is a core part of the proud boys. They do instigate fights with leftists. They often see that as part of their core mission. So it's not necessarily a coherent ideology because it doesn't have to be. It's a movement rather than an ideology.

So what role do they see themselves playing in this election? Oh, I'm not sure they have one in mind yet. I mean, I think the concern that a lot of people have, the law enforcement and the experts who monitor this sort of thing, they believe the proud boys may want to play the sort of role they played before, where they would see themselves as activists for Trump. As a prosecutor said in one of the big leadership trials, the proud boys, they saw themselves as Donald Trump's army. Fashion retailer Zara is dipping its toes into live shopping in the UK, Europe and US,

testing a format that is already wildly popular in China, but that Western shoppers are less accustomed to. The Fast Fashion brand's parent, Inditex, reports quarterly results this week, but it's not yet clear whether Western shoppers are as enthusiastic about live shopping as their Chinese counterparts. Helen Reid is in London. So, Helen, how do these social media live shopping channels, in China currently work? So typically hosts will be influencers who will show off a variety of products to the viewers, and they'll show these products at quite a frenzied pace and be offering discounts and special

promotions as well to viewers. They can also buy the products through the social media platform directly without having to exit the live stream. So tell us a bit about Z. Zara's plans to bring this to Western consumers? What will it look like? So Zara launched a live stream in China in November last year, which has been running every week or so on Duhin, which is the Chinese equivalent of TikTok. With its show that it's launching in the West, in the UK, Europe and US, it will actually host those on its own app and website instead of using a third-party social media platform.

and because Zara said that it wanted to have more control over the aesthetics and make sure that it was in line with its website. Now, experts that we've spoken to also say that it's beneficial to Zara to run this on its own app because it can leverage its own database of registered users and actually boost engagement with its platforms. Bearing in mind that Zara is also competing for attention with customers. is as likely to scroll on TikTok as to open Zara. Now, if you do have any dollars or yuan or euros burning a hole in your pocket to spend on live shopping or not, check out our new episode of Econ World Podcasts coming out this Wednesday. This week's topic is currencies.

That's it for Monday. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. If you haven't listened yet, you can also check out our weekend edition on the situation for frontline troops in Ukraine. And to never miss an episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.