Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Portugal’s election leaves the country uncertain of its future but heartens Europe’s radical right

Summary: The general election Portugal held over the weekend has ended inconclusively, but a far-right party that’s only been around for about five years—the Chega, or “Enough” party—gained a substantial amount of power, surging from just 12 parliamentary seats in 2022 to 48 seats this time around.

Context: It’ll likely be several weeks before one of the country’s main parties is able to form a coalition government, but the rise of more extreme versions of conservative politics in Portugal over the past few years mirrors what some other European nations have seen, and that rightward lean could substantially impact the European Parliamentary elections that will be held in June, possibly tilting the whole of EU policy toward a more populist, traditionalist orientation.

—The Associated Press

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Russia sacks naval commander after humiliating Black Sea losses

Summary: Russian President Putin has reportedly fired the country’s naval commander, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, following a series of very public, at times quite substantial losses to Ukrainian attacks in the Black Sea.

Context: Evmenov has been in charge of Russia’s navy since 2019, and he’s being replaced by the commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet, Alexander Moiseev; Russia has tallied a series of small, but symbolically important victories on the ground in Ukraine in recent months, but their offensive push has reportedly stalled over the past few weeks, and their performance in the Black Sea has been a lot less impressive, Ukraine managing to sink and shoot down several high-value warships and aircraft, in turn forcing the Russian navy to move its fleet from the area to avoid being targeted, which has significantly reduced the fleet’s value in the conflict.

—Financial Times

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead

Summary: A former Boeing employee who became a whistleblower, John Barnett, was found dead of what seems to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound over the weekend.

Context: Barnett retired from the company in 2017 after working at Boeing for several decades, and he filed a whistleblower complaint about quality-control and safety issues that same year, also alleging that Boeing had retaliated against him for his complaint; in 2022, a judge denied a motion from Boeing to dismiss Barnett’s complaint about the harassment campaign the company purportedly deployed against him, and all of this is especially newsworthy right now because of all the issues planes made by Boeing have faced in recent years, and because of speculation by some that Barnett’s death may not have been a suicide—though it’s important to note that there’s currently no evidence at all that foul play was involved.

—The Washington Post

As the US invests in further efforts to get aid to Gazan citizens (in the face of counter-efforts by the Israeli government that have kept aid from flowing at a scale necessary to stave-off starvation), there are questions as to whether air-drops and an impending influx of maritime shipments will make much of a dent in the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in the region.

—Financial Times

$1.4 billion

Valuation of canned water company Liquid Death after closing a $67 million round of financing.

This is a company that sells water in cans with a heavy metal-inspired design, and the company says they had $263 million-worth of retail sales through registers in 2023, alone.

—Food Dive

Trust Click

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