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This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

Volodymy Zelensky, Ukraine's president, said that Russia's three-day unilateral

sea spire was another attempt at manipulation and called for an immediate truce.

Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, announced a ceasefire in Ukraine from May 8th to coincide

with the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. During the period, Mr. Putin

is expected to host foreign leaders, including China's

President Xi Jinping, for commemoration events. Millions of people in Spain and Portugal were

without electricity after a huge power cut. Power is now being restored to several regions. Portugal's electricity

operator said extreme variations in temperature in Spain contributed to the outage, while the European

Commission ruled out a cyber attack as the cause. Airports, metro systems and some online banking

services were shut down by the power cut.

Voting began in Canada's election. Donald Trump urged Canadians to choose him as their leader

and get rid of the, quote, artificially drawn line between the two countries.

The American president's threats have inspired a surge in patriotism in Canada.

Our forecast model suggests the leader of the Liberals, Mark Carney, who wants to stand up

to Mr. Trump, is overwhelmingly likely to win.

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