Financial Times - Henry Foy, Paola Tamma and Amy Kazmin / Meloni and Macron jostle over influential EU economic job
 

• France and Italy are jostling for a senior economic post in the next European Commission, a fight heightened by personal animosity between the two countries’ leaders. 

• The EU’s 27 leaders gather in Brussels on Thursday for a crunch summit on the bloc’s top jobs, where Ursula von der Leyen needs their support to secure a second term as commission president. 

• Capitals including Paris and Rome have signalled their portfolio preferences within the next commission as a price for their support.

• French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are at loggerheads as they are both vying for the same prize: a powerful commission vice-president in charge of trade, competition and industrial policy.
   

Related article: Euractiv - Aurélie Pugnet / EU countries to advance defence industry policy talks despite French opposition

The Washington Post - Rael Ombuor / 5 killed as Kenyan police crack down on tax protests; Parliament set afire
 

• At least five people were killed during street protests over a new tax proposal Tuesday in Kenya’s capital as police fired on protesters after thousands stormed into Kenya’s Parliament and set part of it on fire, according to human rights groups. 

• In a post on X, Amnesty Kenya said 31 people were injured, including 13 hit by live bullets and others hit by rubber bullets and launcher canisters; 11 suffered minor injuries. The five people killed had been treating the injured, the group said. 

• The protests targeted Kenya’s president, William Ruto, who, despite being lauded in Washington during a recent state dinner hosted by President Biden, has become deeply unpopular at home over tax hikes that have enraged the middle class. His ruling party pushed through a new tax bill Tuesday as the protests mounted.

• The legislation, dubbed Finance Bill 2024, was introduced in Kenya’s Parliament for debate in May. It calls for increases in taxable incomes, excise duties and value-added taxes, and introduces new income tax categories to the country’s finance laws.

   

SCMP - Lawrence Chung / Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese coastguards in tense stand-off near Quemoy
 

• The mainland Chinese and Taiwanese coastguards have been involved in a tense stand-off near Quemoy, the latest flare-up near the Taiwan-controlled island also known as Kinmen. 

• The incident came after four coastguard ships from mainland China were patrolling in waters just 5 nautical miles from the island’s defence outpost, according to the Taiwanese coastguard. 

• It said the vessels entered the restricted waters at around 6am on Tuesday. Two vessels approached from the north of Beiding Islet, while the other two entered waters south of Fuxing Islet. 

• Taiwanese Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the mainland Chinese boats were attempting to challenge Taiwan’s boundary claims around Quemoy.

   

The New York Times - Aaron Boxerman / Israeli Military Must Draft Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Supreme Court Rules
 

• Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, a decision that threatened to split Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government amid the war in Gaza. 

• In a unanimous decision, a panel of nine judges held that there was no legal basis for the longstanding military exemption given to ultra-Orthodox religious students. Without a law distinguishing between seminarians and other men of draft age, the court ruled, the country’s mandatory draft laws must similarly apply to the ultra-Orthodox minority. 

• In a country where military service is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis, both men and women, the exemption for the ultra-Orthodox has long prompted resentment. But anger over the group’s special treatment has grown as the war in Gaza has stretched into its ninth month, requiring tens of thousands of reservists to serve multiple tours and costing the lives of hundreds of soldiers. 

• “These days, in the midst of a difficult war, the burden of that inequality is more acute than ever — and requires the advancement of a sustainable solution to this issue,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

Our opinion reads for today:

• Project Syndicate - Jeffrey Frankel / Tariffs on Chinese Cleantech Jeopardize the Green Transition
• Foreign Policy - Alan Elrod / The U.S. Right Is Copying Hungary’s Attack on Adoption