The Washington Post - Samhmidt, Ana Vanessa Herrero and María Luisa Paúl / Maduro declared winner of disputed Venezuelan election

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s electoral council declared the authoritarian socialist the winner of Venezuela’s election Sunday despite partial results and independent exit polling that suggested opposition candidate Edmundo González had captured twice as many votes. 

• The Venezuelan opposition, which sent thousands of ordinary citizens to monitor voting centers across the country Sunday, swiftly rejected the results and said it had records showing a clear victory by González. The election outcome was immediately challenged by a host of foreign leaders, including U.S. officials. 

• The pro-government electoral council, delivering results shortly after midnight Monday, said Maduro won with 51 percent of the vote to González’s 44 percent. 

• Latin American leaders, including some leftists with friendly ties to Maduro, cast doubt on the results. In a post on social media, Colombi ’s foreign minister called for an independent verification and audit of the vote count “as soon as possible.”. 
   

Bloomberg - Dan Williams / Israel Hits Hezbollah for Golan Attack But Eyes Gaza Truce
 

• Israel attacked Hezbollah targets on Sunday and threatened further retaliation for a rocket strike that killed 12 youngsters while signaling openness to a proposed Gaza truce that could also calm the second and more combustible front with Lebanon. 

• In the worst single-incident of civilian losses for Israel since militant Palestinians from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip stormed into its southern villages and army bases on Oct. 7, a rocket exploded in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, killing 12 children and teenagers during a soccer game and wounding 44 others. 

• Hezbollah denied responsibility. 

• David Barnea, director of Israel’s Mossad spy service and its principal cease-fire negotiator, flew to Rome on Sunday to meet his US counterpart, CIA director William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, an Israeli official told Bloomberg. The two Arab countries have served as mediators between Israel and Hamas.
   

Politico -  Victor Goury-Laffont / Meet Lucie Castets, the French PM-hopeful vowing to be a thorn in Macron’s side
 

• The French left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) has put forward as their choice for prime minister a previously unknown municipal technocrat who didn’t even have a Wikipedia page until her announcement was publicized.  
• Lucie Castets — a 37-year-old graduate of the prestigious École nationale d’administration, like President Emmanuel Macron — has served as the city of Paris’ Chief Financial Officer since last October, following a decade in senior government roles. A member of the Socialist Party during her youth, Castets quickly transitioned to activism, leading a collective of civil servants advocating for public services. 
• Shortly after Castets’ candidacy was announced on Tuesday, the French president in an interview dismissed her chances of becoming PM and reiterated his call for a political pause during the Olympic. 
• Macron, whose coalition lost more than a third of its representation during the snap elections, reiterated his claim that “no one” had won the vote and seemed to argue a Castets government would immediately be toppled. The left controls 193 seats in the National Assembly, short of the 289 threshold needed for an absolute majority, which would make it vulnerable to votes of no confidence. 
   

Financial Times - Andy Bounds / EU prepares two-step trade plan to tackle Donald Trump
 

• Brussels is developing a two-step trade strategy to deal with Donald Trump, offering the Republican a quick deal if he wins a second term as president, and targeted retaliation if he opts for punitive tariffs instead. 

• EU officials see the carrot-and-stick approach as the best response to Trump’s pledge to impose a 10 per cent minimum tariff, which they estimate could reduce EU exports by around €150bn annually. 

• After Trump introduced tariffs on €6.4bn of imports of steel and aluminium from the EU and elsewhere in 2018 on national security grounds, the EU hit back with rebalancing tariffs of a value of €2.8bn. 

• Jan Hatzius, chief economist of Goldman Sachs, recently forecast that a tariff war would damage the EU more than the US. It would cost 1 per cent of EU GDP, compared with 0.5 per cent of the US. However, it would also add 1.1 per cent to the inflation rate in the US, compared with 0.1 per cent in the EU.

   

Our opinion reads for today: 

• Foreign Affairs - Vali Nasr and Narges Bajoghli / A More Normal Iran? 

• Bloomberg - Tobin Harshaw / Paris Is Burning and the Fire’s Made of Coal