The New York Times - Yonette Joseph / U.S. Vetoes Palestinian Bid for Recognition as Full U.N. Member State
 

• The United States blocked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday from moving forward on a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, quashing an effort by Palestinian allies to get the world body to back the effort. 

• The vote was 12 in favor of the resolution and one — the United States — opposed, with abstentions from Britain and Switzerland. 

• The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, had described the bid for full-member status as an effort “to take our rightful place among the community of nations.” 

• After the vote, Mr. Mansour, visibly upset, delivered a passionate address asserting the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

   

The Guardian - Hannah Ellis-Petersen / Voting begins in India’s election with Modi widely expected to win third term
 

• Voting has begun in India’s mammoth general election, as Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority amid allegations that the country’s democracy has been undermined since it came to power 10 years ago. 

• India’s elections are the largest democratic exercise in the world, with more than 969 million voters, amounting to more than 10% of the world’s population. The voting began at 8am on Friday, when polling opened at 102 constituencies across the country, and will continue over the next six weeks, in seven phases, until 1 June. All the results will be counted and declared on 4 June. 

• The elections have been described by analysts at the most predictable polls India has held in decades, with Modi and his BJP widely expected to win a third term in power. 

• While surveys show Modi to be India’s most popular political leader by a wide margin, political opponents have also accused the government of “skewing the pitch” of the election and eroding the integrity of India’s democracy and its electoral processes.

   

Politico - Christian Oliver, Ali Walker and Jamie Dettmer / Iranian air defenses shoot at attack near Isfahan
 

• Iran said its air defenses had opened fire at what seemed to be a limited attack over the central city of Isfahan on Friday, as fears grow of an all-out war with Israel. 

• An Iranian commander told the official IRNA news agency that the batteries had made an interception at about 4 a.m., explaining blasts heard to the northeast of the city. 

• "We have not had any damage or incidents," said Brigadier General Siavash Mihandoost. 

• Iran's state media played down the attack saying three "birds" had been shot down and insisting flights were resuming to normal. Hossein Dalirian, spokesperson for Iran's National Center for Cyberspace, also said the attack was confined to three small "quadcopter" drones and insisted the country had not been struck from outside its borders.

   

Financial Times - Philip Georgiadis / European carbon trading catching less than quarter of airline emissions, data finds
 

• Less than a quarter of airline emissions were caught by Europe’s carbon trading schemes last year, according to new data that illustrates the limitations of one of the key tools to fight pollution from aviation. 

• Airlines and other carbon-intensive industries are charged under emissions trading systems in the EU, UK and Switzerland, which require companies to buy allowances to cover the carbon dioxide they give off. 

• But the schemes only apply to flights within the region and do not capture emissions from long-haul flights, which burn the most fuel. Airlines are also handed annual free allowances under the system. 

• In all, only 22 per cent of emissions from flights departing from Europe were caught by the regional carbon trading schemes in 2023, according to a report by Transport & Environment, an environmental campaign group.

Our opinion reads for today:
 

• Foreign Affairs - Nataliya Gumenyuk / Brave New Ukraine 
• Foreign Policy - Steven A. Cook / Arab Countries Have Israel’s Back—for Their Own Sake 
• The Economist / Reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z 
• Bloomberg - Matthew Brooker / Privatization's Failures Are Stacking Up for the UK