Turkey’s NATO Green Light For Sweden, Israel Protests Reignite, Hottest Week Ever

Demonstrators protest and block traffic near the Teddy Stadium during a nationwide Day of Disruption in Jerusalem.

Michal Kubala, Chloé Touchard, Michelle Courtois and Anne-Sophie Goninet

👋 Lumela!*

Welcome to Tuesday, where the NATO summit kicks off in Vilnius after Turkey OKs Sweden's bid to join, Israel’s controversial judicial reforms spark fresh protests and after the official hottest month and day ever, meteorologists register a record-breaking week. Meanwhile, Portuguese digital magazine Mensagem looks at how global warming, with its heat waves, could also incite violence in cities.

[*Sesotho, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe]

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🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• NATO Summit opens after Erdogan’s green light for Sweden: A key NATO summit is underway in Vilnius, Lithuania that will focus largely on the war in Ukraine and a likely invitation for Kyiv to join the alliance after the war is over. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed France will supply Ukraine with long-range SCALP missiles, to support the ongoing counteroffensive. On the eve of the summit, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to support Sweden's bid to join the bloc, after months of obstructing the Nordic country’s accession.

• Drone attacks hours before NATO summit: Ukraine's military said Russia launched 28 kamikaze drones on the southern port of Odessa and Kyiv this morning. This came just hours before the start of the NATO summit in Lithuania that will focus on how to support Ukraine in its defense from Moscow’s invasion.

• Israeli protests reignite over Netanyahu judicial reforms: In Israel, protesters took to the streets early Tuesday after the parliamentary coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave initial approval to the bill aimed at curbing the Supreme Court’s oversight powers. Protesters have taken to blocking major highways and faced off with police.

• ASEAN talks focus on Myanmar: The foreign ministers of the Asian regional pact ASEAN convene in Indonesia, with talks primarily focused on how the bloc should reengage with the ruling junta in Myanmar.

• Hottest week ever: Last week was the Earth's warmest on record, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization. The average global temperature broke 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 °F) for the first time ever for the 7-day period. This follows reports marking this past June as the hottest month on record, while the hottest day ever record is being repeatedly shattered as the effects of both global warming and El Nino kick in.

• New Zealand starts trial into 2019 White Island volcano disaster: A trial opened Tuesday in the deadly 2019 eruption of a volcano near New Zealand that killed 22 tourists. Prosecutors argue the three bosses of the company managing the White Island volcano failed to properly prepare and warn visitors of the dangers of visiting the site.

• Menu options divert flight: A United Airlines flight en route from Houston to Amsterdam was diverted to Chicago after a business-class passenger became violent because his meal preference wasn’t available. In Chicago, the passenger was escorted off the plane, which then continued to Amsterdam.

🗞️ FRONT PAGE

Swedish daily Göteborgs-Posten dedicates its front page to what NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called an “historic day,” after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he was backing Sweden’s bid to join NATO. The decision comes after months of tensions between Erdogan and his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson. In return, Sweden has agreed to support Turkey’s EU accession process.

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

€650 million

Damage caused by riots and recent urban violence throughout France — following the death of Nahel Merzouk, a teenager killed by a police officer in Nanterre on June 27 — will cost insurers 650 million euros, rather than the 280 million anticipated last week, an industry federation has estimated. Nine-tenths of "the cost of this urban violence will go to the 3,900 properties of professionals and local residents affected," said Florence Lustman, president of France Assurances. The remainder of the cost mainly goes towards damage to private vehicles.

📰 STORY OF THE DAY

Scorcher! How the heat waves of climate change could fuel urban violence

Another collateral effect of global warming could be that rising temperatures feed existing tensions in cities around the world. Starting from Lisbon, but investigating related studies around the world, Portuguese digital magazine Mensagem reports.

🌡️ Heat waves will increase, not only in number but also in intensity and duration. More heat waves, for more days, with higher temperatures — in Lisbon, Beijing, São Paulo and in Berlin and everywhere in the world, cities will get hotter and hotter. In a warming scenario — perhaps the most appropriate expression here is really overheating — the risk of drought increases, the risk of forest fires increases, the risk of illness and death increases.

🏙️ In this scenario, cities assume particular prominence. The risks of the overheating of cities are already well known, and many of them are already quantified. There are, however, other less obvious risks. One of them has to do with the possible effects of rising temperatures on hate speech, harassment, and voluntary homicide, resulting, therefore, in a risk of increased social conflicts.

🤬 Several theories have been proposed to explain the relationship between heat and antisocial behavior. One of them, of a biological nature, proposes that an increase in temperature increases discomfort, frustration, impulsivity and aggression, in addition to interfering with cognitive abilities. In the case of indoor environments without cooling, these effects end up being exacerbated, which may lead to aggressive behavior, both physical and verbal, online and in real life.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

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

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📣 VERBATIM

“His Majesty the King is entirely comfortable with that kind of contact.”

— The first meeting of U.S. President Joe Biden with King Charles III since the British monarch took the throne appeared to have taken place without a hitch. Yet royal watchers were chattering about Biden’s break with royal protocol, patting the back of the new King, which defies the rule of no touching. A source at Buckingham Palace said Tuesday: “His Majesty the King is entirely comfortable with that kind of contact — and what a wonderful symbol of warmth and affection it was between both the individuals and their nations.”