WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
India strikes Pakistan, Merz named chancellor, and Godzilla destroys Marvel

 
today's international story

India launches strikes on Pakistan and Kashmir

What happened
India has launched air strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, targeting what it called "terrorist infrastructure" used to facilitate attacks on Indian soil. At least eight people have been killed and 35 injured in the strikes, which came following last month's deadly attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Who said what
"This was a cowardly attack targeting innocent civilians under the cover of darkness," said Pakistani army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that Pakistan would "give a robust response". In contrast, India's Defence Ministry said "no Pakistani military facilities were targeted" and claimed "justice is served". Pakistani officials said they had downed two Indian aircraft and a drone during the exchange of fire.

This is a "dramatic escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals" and comes as a "huge gamble by both countries' leaders", said Anbarasan Ethirajan on the BBC. Military confrontation between India and Pakistan "runs the risk of a rapid escalation that could be difficult to contain", said The New York Times.

What next? 
Analysts say tensions are now at their highest since 2019, when a similar incident brought the two nations to the brink of war. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged "maximum restraint", warning that the world "cannot afford" a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.

 
 
today's politics story

Merz named chancellor after bruising Bundestag setback

What happened
Conservative leader Friedrich Merz (pictured above) has been elected Germany's new chancellor following a dramatic second-round vote in the Bundestag. Merz, 69, failed to secure an absolute majority yesterday morning, falling six votes short in what commentators called a historic embarrassment. After hours of political wrangling, a second vote was held and Merz secured 325 votes – just nine more than required.

Who said what
"No one knows who broke ranks," said Social Democratic Party MP Ralf Stegner, insisting his party backed the coalition. Christian Democrat Jens Spahn urged unity: "The world is watching this ballot." No candidate for chancellor had lost a Bundestag vote since 1949 and there was a "prevailing mood of confusion" in the German parliament after the failure, said the BBC. Europe Minister Gunther Krichbaum blamed the initial defeat on disappointed MPs who had missed out on ministerial posts. Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) leaders called the shaky vote "proof that the coalition lacks legitimacy".

What next?
Merz was eventually sworn in by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. His 17-member cabinet takes office immediately, promising to tackle Germany's economic slowdown and migration policy.

 
 
Today's history story

Burnt Vesuvius scroll reveals secrets after 2,000 years

What happened
The author of a scroll buried under the ash of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago has been identified as a notable Greek philosopher. Researchers X-rayed the papyrus, one of hundreds recovered from a Roman villa in Herculaneum, and virtually unwrapped the charred scroll, revealing the text to be part of an influential multi-volume work, "On Vices", by 1st century BC thinker Philodemus.

Who said what
"It's the first scroll where the ink could just be seen on the scan," said Michael McOsker, a papyrologist at University College London who is collaborating with the researchers at Oxford's Bodleian Libraries, where the scroll is housed. "We didn't even know if it had writing on." The discovery "builds on earlier breakthroughs" of the Vesuvius Challenge, a global competition that offers prizes for progress in reading the scrolls via 3D X-rays, said The Guardian.

What next?
Eighteen other scrolls were scanned in March and another 20 will be imaged this week at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

 
 

It's not all bad

A Scottish islander is giving away his business for free to help save his community. Richard Irvine, 65, built the Colonsay Smokery from scratch and now hopes to hand it over to a family with "entrepreneurial spirit" in order to boost the population of Colonsay, home to just 120 people. Irvine will mentor the new owners of his profitable salmon-smoking business for three months and hopes they'll settle there permanently, helping to revive the local school, which currently has only four pupils.

 
 
under the radar

Pakistan's solar panel boom

A grassroots revolution has helped Pakistan pull off one of the fastest solar revolutions in the world. Even as the nation "grapples with poverty and economic instability", it imported 17 gigawatts of solar panels last year, more than double the previous year, said CNN.

Pakistan's solar panel boom is the result of a "perfect storm" of factors, Waqas Moosa, chair of the Pakistan Solar Association and CEO of Hadron Solar, told CNN. One significant reason is the rise of electricity costs, which have "shot up" 155% over the past three years. Chinese "overproduction" of solar panels has also "lowered costs", said the World Economic Forum, turning Pakistan into the third-largest destination for Chinese exports.

Although the Pakistani government has tried to claim credit for the uptake of solar, it has been "very bottom up", Mustafa Amjad, from the Renewables First think tank in Islamabad, told CNN. Demand from "the people" has pushed markets to import more solar panels.

For some analysts, Pakistan's embrace of solar power "undermines an increasingly popular narrative that clean energy is unaffordable, unwanted" and only possible with "large-scale government subsidies". And for those living in the country, it offers a respite from the expensive and often unreliable energy supplied by the traditional power grid.

The story of solar in Pakistan, particularly the way that uptake has been "driven primarily by market forces and with minimal political support", holds "valuable lessons for other emerging markets", added the World Economic Forum.

 
 
on this day

7 May 1911

Japanese filmmaker Honda Ishirō, best known for directing eight "Godzilla" films including the 1954 original, was born in Yamagata. This year Marvel launched a crossover comic featuring its most high-profile superheroes doing battle with the King of Monsters, a five-issue series named "Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe".

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Daily Mail leads on the trade deal between India and the UK, stating that it will become cheaper to hire Indian workers because they'll be exempt from paying National Insurance. This is a "two-tier" tax deal, says The Telegraph. "Not good enough", says The Mirror, leading on Keir Starmer's refusal to scrap cuts to winter fuel payments, which some Labour MPs say is like "rolling out the red carpet to Reform". Meanwhile, The Sun previews a forthcoming Channel 4 investigation with fresh "bombshell" evidence related to Madeleine McCann and the suspect in her case, Christian Brueckner.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Snake and a train

You've heard of snakes on a plane – now try snake and a train. One of Japan's busiest bullet lines was forced to stop last week after a snake got itself tangled up in a power line, causing an outage. The Tokaido Shinkansen high-speed service between Tokyo and Osaka was suspended for nearly two hours, according to the Central Japan Railway Company. One traveller said he was "fed up with the troubles". "I want them to run on time."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Ross Couzens and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Sajjad Qayyum / AFP / Getty Images; Krisztian Bocsi / Bloomberg / Getty Images; DeAgostini / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.