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🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• At NATO summit, a G7 security package for Ukraine: G7 members at the two-day NATO summit in Vilnius will lay out a new security arrangement that would provide a wide range of equipment and intelligence for Ukraine. The announcement follows NATO’s reluctance to declare a timeframe for Kyiv’s entry into the military alliance, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called “absurd.”

• Russian submarine commander shot to death while jogging: Stanislav Rzhitsky, a Russian submarine commander, was shot and killed during a jog earlier this week in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. Nobody has taken responsibility for the death, but Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence disclosed an unusually detailed statement of the circumstances of the shooting. Meanwhile, Russian authorities have so far arrested one man for possession of a silencer gun, and are investigating whether Rzhitsky had been tracked through the Strava running app.

• North Korea fires long-range missile ahead of Japan-South Korea summit: North Korea fired what is suspected to be an intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast Wednesday, just hours before Japan and South Korea were set to meet at the NATO summit in Vilnius to discuss global responses to threats in Asia, including North Korea and its nuclear weapons.

• Thailand’s Prime Minister announces retirement from politics two days ahead of election: Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thailand’s current Prime Minister, announced that he will not seek re-election and will retire from politics. Parliament is set to elect a Prime Minister on Thursday, following a May election where Thais roundly rejected military-backed rule. Prayut concludes his nine-year rule, which began when, as an army chief, he seized power during a coup.

• Japanese Supreme Court’s landmark LGBTQ+ ruling against bathroom restriction: A trans woman’s suit against her government employer for restricting access to women’s bathrooms was supported by Japan’s Supreme Court, marking the nation’s first high court ruling involving LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace.

• Czech author Milan Kundera dies at 94: The acclaimed Czech writer Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died in his Paris apartment after a long illness.

• Indian CEO replaces 90% of staff with AI, faces (human) backlash: Summit Shah, founder of e-commerce company Dukaan, is facing a wave of criticism for a series of tweets where he’d explained his decision to replace 90% of personnel with AI chatbots.

🗞️  FRONT PAGE

“A torn country” is the front-page headline of Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, after thousands of demonstrators took to the street yesterday for a “disruption day” to protest the government’s Supreme Court bill. Protesters blocked Israel’s main airport and highways and clashed with police forces in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The bill, pushed by the governing far-right coalition, is part of a larger judicial overhaul plan that would limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers.

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

27%

More than a quarter of jobs are at high risk from the coming artificial intelligence revolution, according to the OECD in a new report on the impact of AI on the workforce. The Paris-based OECD found that 27% of jobs use easily automated skills that could be replaced with AI, leaving workers fearing for their job stability. The findings of this first-ever study also reveal some surprising positive attitudes among employees already working with AI, with two-thirds praising it for making their tasks less dangerous or tedious.

📰 STORY OF THE DAY

Ukraine's NATO entry is on hold — is the “Israel Model” a viable alternative?

The NATO Summit in Vilnius will confirm that Ukraine's entry to join the alliance must be delayed. U.S. President Biden has implied Ukraine could get similar security guarantees and support as Israel. There are clear pros and cons of such a security model, which did not happen overnight, writes Oleksandr Demchenko in Ukrainian news website Livy Bereg.

🇺🇦🇮🇱 Biden said that before Ukraine becomes a member of the alliance, the United States might consider providing Kyiv with security guarantees based on the “Israel Model.” The Americans understand that there is no consensus in NATO on Ukraine's accession as some countries are still afraid of the prospect of a direct confrontation with Russia. Washington also understands that Moscow will prolong the war just to deter Ukraine's accession to NATO, and even if it loses, Russia will prepare for revenge.

🤝 Over the past half-century, the United States has been helping Israel defend itself, on multiple levels and across different sectors of the military and society at large. The U.S. organizes joint training exercises and provides medical equipment, military technology, surveillance systems, training, and counseling. Cooperation also extends to the information front, where both countries exchange sensitive information on the situation in the Middle East.

⚠️ But it's key to understand that the United States can use security guarantees not only as a carrot but also as a stick. Some prior White House administrations have put pressure on Israel and threatened to cut off defense support and financial assistance during various wars that Jerusalem waged to defend itself or restore its territorial integrity.

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📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

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📣 VERBATIM

“She had a long job of detaching herself from the cult mentality and accepting responsibility for her crimes.”

— Leslie Van Houten, a former follower of notorious cult leader Charles Manson, was released on parole on Tuesday after serving 53 years for participating in the Manson family’s killing spree. Van Houten, now 73, took part in two brutal murders in 1969 in Los Angeles when she was 19, and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison. Her lawyer Nancy Tetreault told the BBC that the granting of parole came after decades of exemplary behavior and Van Houten’s own inner explorations: “It took her a long time. She had decades of therapy. So she felt guilt and deep remorse.” Manson, who died in prison in 2017 without ever expressing remorse, had directed several of his followers to commit nine murders in the hope it would start a race war.