Welcome back to TLDR's Daily Briefing for Wednesday 2nd April 2025. In today's episode, we cover Israel's intentions to seize large areas of Gaza, Myanmar's ruling military's attack on a Chinese Red Cross aid convoy, and the global response as leaders brace for Trump's upcoming Liberation Day. But first, voters rebuke Elon Musk in a record-breaking state election.
In a setback for Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Liberal Judge Susan Crawford won Tuesday's election to a vacant seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in what was the most expensive judicial race in United States history. Crawford's victory, securing herself a 10-year term, means the liberal majority has been maintained on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has cases on voting rights, redistricting, and abortion pending.
But beyond the impact of the outcome on Wisconsin, a key presidential swing state, the election took on a whole new level of significance and drew in nearly $100 million in campaign spending. It's evolved into something of an early referendum on not just Donald Trump's administration, but more crucially on Elon Musk's political role.
Musk, who claimed that the race could determine the future of America and Western civilization through his support behind the conservative candidate Brad Schimmel, spending millions to boost his candidacy. and redeploying tactics he used to help Trump win last year, including by controversially handing out million-dollar checks to voters and offering $100 each to Wisconsinites who signed a petition opposing, quote, activist judges.
But Musk's big bet on the Wisconsin Supreme Court election and his putting himself front and centre ended in defeat, with Crawford winning comfortably with 55% to Schimmel's 45%. Schimel was not the only person to enjoy billionaire backing. Crawford benefited from significant donations from billionaires, including investor George Soros, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzkler, and others. However, they were all outspent by Elon Musk.
Democrats seized on Musk's intervention in the race and helped turn the race into a proxy fight for national politics and an unofficial referendum on Musk's role. Turnout was reportedly the highest ever for a Wisconsin Supreme Court election. In her victory speech, Crawford said, Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy. Adding, Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.
Schimel conceded defeat and said that he and his team didn't leave anything on the field. Musk's response was less gracious. He posted on X that, quote, the long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary. He also referred to the result of Tuesday's concurrent referendum that approved enshrining the requirement for voter ID into the Wisconsin state constitution, claiming that this was the most important thing.
Although it's worth pointing out that this was not the campaign he spent tens of millions on, and that voter ID has been a requirement in Wisconsin since 2016, so the referendum does not change the law, but does make it harder to be repealed. You're listening to TLDR's Daily Briefing. If you want more explainers on what's happening in the world then you should check out TLDR's other channels.
Today, we released videos on Australia's upcoming election, why Norway might be considering a new EU membership bid, and the latest episode of our World Leader Leaderboard podcast. You can find those videos linked in the description or show notes for this episode, or by searching for Teal. on YouTube or Nebula.
In a significant escalation of the ongoing conflict, Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, announced today that Israeli forces will seize large areas of Gaza to establish buffer zones, and he has ordered residents in those regions to evacuate. This announcement represents the latest intensification of military operations in Gaza following Israel's resumption of hostilities against Hamas last month, which ended a two-month ceasefire.
Since then, Israel has cut off critical supplies of food, fuel, humanitarian aid and medicine to the 2.2 million people living in the enclave. While Katz didn't specify the exact extent of the land Israel plans to capture, the Israeli human rights organization Gisha reports that the Israeli defense forces have already established buffer zones along Gaza's borders, seizing approximately 17% of the since the conflict reignited in October 2023.
Myanmar's military reported that it had fired warning shots at a vehicle convoy belonging to the Red Cross Society of China, which was delivering aid to central regions devastated by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake last Friday, claiming the convoy failed to notify authorities of its movements. The Tang National Liberation Army, an armed rebel group, alleged that military troops targeted the Chinese relief convoy in eastern Shan State, where clashes continue between rival ethnic armed groups.
While Myanmar's junta announced it is investigating the incident, it denied directly targeting the vehicles. Meanwhile, China's foreign ministry confirmed that its rescue team was safe and called on all parties involved in Myanmar's civil conflict to facilitate aid to the area's hardest hit by the earthquake, which has already claimed the lives of over 2,800 people.
and that number is likely to rise. Finally, today Trump is finalizing what looks set to be America's most expensive tariffs since the Great Depression of the 1930s. These measures are expected to disrupt global trade, adversely affect the economic output of America's trading partners, and increase the cost of goods for US consumers. The announcement is slated for 4pm Washington DC time, with the White House indicating that tariffs on all countries will take immediate effect.
This has assuaged some concerns in the markets, which have recently experienced a sharp decline in the S&P 500 index. In Europe, while specific details remain scarce, Brussels anticipates that Trump will impose tariffs ranging from 20% to 25% on all EU exports to the US. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, stated that the EU has a strong plan to retaliate, although it still hopes for a negotiated solution, which at this point looks increasingly unlikely.
That's all for today. We'll be back with you tomorrow so make sure you're subscribed wherever you listen. in the meantime you can check out the latest episode of our podcast the world leader leaderboard where we discuss which heads of government are doing well and who's doing badly every week you can find the link in the podcast description
This was a TLDR News production, hosted by Georgina Finlay, written by Rory Taylor and Nadja Lovadinov, and produced by Scarlett Wachon. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back again tomorrow.