Macron wins re-election, Zelensky meets with top U.S. officials, Musk’s Starlink to offer wifi on HA flights

Notable world news includes the President of France Emmanuel Macron winning re-election, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and SpaceX’s Starlink offering wifi on Hawaiian Airlines flights.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Emmanuel Macron won France's presidential election Sunday, making him the first French president to win a second term since 2002. Macron defeated far-right rival Marine Le Pen by a decisive margin. 58 and 1/2% of the vote is what he won. Supporters celebrated as the results appeared on a giant screen at Paris's [INAUDIBLE] Park beneath the Eiffel Tower, though demonstrations against his re-election did turn violent, leading to a number of arrests.

With economic anxiety at the fore of the campaign, Macron's first priority will likely be passing a relief package to expand pensions, welfare benefits, and energy subsidies before the nation turns its attention to elections-- the next round of elections for the lower house of parliament that happens in June.

Also, on Sunday, secretaries of state and defense, Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. It is the highest level visit by an American delegation since the war started two months ago. The trio discussed the increased need for military aid from the West, as Russian forces build for an offensive in Eastern Ukraine.

And in the south, Russian forces closed in on the last two Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol, holed up in a steel plant alongside civilians. UN Secretary General António Guterres had appealed for a four-day truce during the Orthodox Easter holiday to allow for the evacuation of civilians and delivery of humanitarian aid. The proposal was rejected by Moscow, though, which claimed it was a ruse to allow Ukraine's military to regroup.

And Elon Musk's attempt to buy out of Twitter may be sucking the air out of the room, but his Starlink satellite Wi-Fi network is making deals all its own. Hawaiian Airlines will be offering Wi-Fi provided by Starlink as early as next year. And unlike competitors JetBlue and Delta, Hawaiian does not yet offer that in-flight Wi-Fi. Semi-private charter flight provider JSX made a similar deal last week with Starlink. SpaceX currently has about 250,000 Starlink subscribers. They pay $110 a month for standard service and $500 a month for a premium tier, as well as hardware fees. Sozz.

BRIAN SOZZI: Good to see Hawaiian getting with the times, Julie. Need that Wi-Fi on those planes.