Today, Spain's election leaves the country in political uncertainty. Tens of thousands are evacuated from wildfires in Greece. Benjamin Netanyahu leaves hospital ahead of a crucial vote and Elon Musk rebrands Twitter to X From TLDR News this is your daily briefing for Monday 24th July 2023. Spain has been left in political uncertainty following Sunday's highly anticipated snap election which saw the right wing bloc fail to win the parliamentary majority that many had anticipated.
The main conservative opposition, the People's Party, came out on top with 33.5% of the vote and 136seats, which is 47 more than in 2019. However, its chances of forming a government were dashed as their presumed future coalition partner, the far right Vox, lost 19 seats in ending up on 33. Together that gives the right wing bloc 169 seats, which is short of the 176 required for a majority. Meanwhile, the incumbent centre left Socialist Party, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, defied expectations and increased its vote share to 31.7%, putting them in a close second place to the People's Party.
The Socialists. 122 seats, plus the 31 won by their left wing coalition partner Sumar, puts them on a combined 153seats. The remaining 28seats were won by smaller regionalist and separatist parties, most of whom have supported Sanchez's government over the past few years. But even if we assume that those who supported him support him again, his block still falls short of 176.
This leaves one party in a hugely important position as a potential kingmaker, the pro Catalan Independence party. Juntz won seven seats, which would be enough to give a majority to either the left or right blocs. But support for Juntz would likely only be secured by one major concession, an independence referendum for Catalonia, something that both the Socialists and the People's Party oppose. So what happens now?
Well, for the time being, Pedro Sanchez will remain prime minister and it won't be until September that Parliament reconvenes the largest single party. In this case, the People's Party will be given the first attempt at forming a government which requires party leader Alberto Nunez Feijo to win a prime ministerial investiture vote. If neither he nor Sanchez can cobble together a majority, then Spain will likely have to polls again for its sixth election in eight years. The political uncertainty was evidenced by both main parties effectively claiming victory.
The People's Party hailed their victory for winning the popular votes and most seats, while Pedro Sanchez said Spain had been crystal and resoundingly clear in rejecting the backward right wing bloc. For more on this story, we have two videos that may interest you, one on the election as a whole coming out on the TLBR EU channel on Tuesday, and a video about how the election could impact Gibraltar and Brexit, which is already out on the TLDR UK channel. There's more on the way, but be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to make the daily briefing part of your daily routine. Or just search for us on your podcast app to listen along Parts of Greece are being ravaged by wildfires, prompting mass evacuations, cancelled flights and major firefighting operations on islands including Corfu, Rhodes and Evia.
The the evacuations of 19,000 people from roads, mostly tourists, over the weekend has been described as the biggest evacuation in Greek history. Fires on the island have been burning for six days and things have been made worse by high winds fanning and spreading the flames. 82 fires are burning across the country, 64 of which began on Sunday, which was the hottest day of the summer so far. On Sunday, Egypt announced that it would send three Chinook helicopters with advanced equipment to help Greek authorities fight the fires, joining the likes of Turkey and France, who have already sent aircraft and other forms of assistance.
Meanwhile, holiday companies are launching repatriation flights for the many tourists in Greece who've been forced to leave their hotels and resorts. Weather warnings are still in place in parts of the country, with temperatures set to be in the high 30s and low 40s on Monday. Temperatures are expected to cool by the middle of the week to the low to mid-30s, according to Greece's meteorological service. So that's what's been happening in Europe today.
Let's move and discuss what's been happening in relation to Benjamin Netanyahu. This morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been discharged from hospital following an emergency surgery to fit a pacemaker. This came at an inopportune time for Netanyahu, who is today facing a very controversial vote on his plans to change Israel's judiciary. In the last few days, tens of thousands of protesters have marched from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to protest the changes.
In addition to this, three former army chiefs of staff and dozens of senior Israeli officials signed a letter criticizing the plan, saying this legislation is destroying the common foundation of Israeli society. In essence, reforms would limit the power of the court and give the government control over judicial appointments. The concerns of activists is that this will undermine democracy by weakening the judicial system. They're also concerned that Netanyahu is doing this because he's currently facing corruption charges, which he denies, and that he'll use the newly reformed judicial system to thwart the changes at the time of writing.
The vote is due to take place later today, so we'll update you on what happens in tomorrow's episode of the Daily Briefing. This morning, Elon Musk has started a big rebrand of Twitter, replacing the logo and name to X. Speaking about the rebrand, Twitter Chief executive Linda Yaccarino said x is the future state of unlimited interactivity centered in audio, video, messaging, payments and banking, creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we're just beginning to imagine.
It's clear that the app is designed to be a Western alternative to WeChat, an app used in China that allows its users to perform multiple tasks, from mobile payments to posting social media updates. In essence, it's an everything app. Prior to the rebrand, Musk started a website called X.com, which ended up becoming PayPal. He also owns SpaceX and has called his son, who was born in 2020, Xaea 12, nicknamed X.
The rebrand as of right now appears to be ad hoc, with the website featuring both the new X logo in certain parts and the old Twitter logo in others. It's currently unknown when the rebrand will be completed. In the final uplifting story today we discuss a reduction in pollution in New Zealand. According to Statistics NZ data, climate pollution has fallen 9% in three years.
Last year, the country produced 75.3 million tons of greenhouse pollution. The highest rebrand record in New Zealand was 82.7 million tons, which was released in 2019. Since then, the government introduced a pledge to cut emissions by 50% by 2030. Today's news then appears to be a step in the right direction.
That's all we have time for on YouTube. But the briefing isn't over. That's because I sat down with Jack to discuss our thoughts on Elon Musk's new Twitter rebrand. It's not great, I don't think, is it?
You don't need to worry about the Sims, okay? This is nothing. Who knows, he could be a genius. But.
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