👋 Hæ hæ!*
Welcome to Wednesday, where U.S. President Donald Trump swears at Israel and Iran for not respecting the ceasefire, rejects a report stating that the U.S did not destroy the Iranian nuclear program, where seven Israeli soldiers are killed in Gaza, and our daily quiz question is all about social media. Meanwhile, Worldcrunch’s Hagar Farouk explains how in the Arab world, some see the burkini as an elegant compromise between faith and freedom, while for others, it’s a social threat.
[*Icelandic]
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🗞️ FRONT PAGE
“What the f***” asks German daily Die Welt, in self-censored English, on its front page, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump cursing live on TV about Israel and Iran for ceasefire violations. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing. Do you understand that?” Trump said Tuesday morning, speaking to reporters at the White House.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Trump rejects report that U.S. did not destroy Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S.-brokered Iran-Israel ceasefire was holding into a second day as President Donald Trump lashed out against the media in response to a leaked Pentagon intelligence report that indicates that U.S. attacks on Iran only delayed Tehran’s nuclear production by a few months. Trump insisted that U.S. military strikes on Sunday “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program before leading the way to a rapid ceasefire overnight Monday. Meanwhile Iran executed three men charged with spying for Israel early Wednesday. Read more in this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski: Trump Stopped The Iran-Israel War — Why He Won’t Do The Same For Russia-Ukraine.
• NATO leaders to back Trump’s defense spending target. NATO members are expected to back U.S. President Trump’s increased defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP as they meet for a second day in the Hague on Wednesday, with hopes of addressing rising security concerns from Russia and dispelling Trump’s doubts about his commitment to the alliance. While all leaders supported the spending pledge, Spain pushed back on the full target, and Ukraine’s role was downplayed, with President Volodymyr Zelensky sidelined from Tuesday’s main meeting.
• Seven Israeli soldiers killed in carrier explosion. Seven Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, Israel’s military reports on Wednesday, when an explosive device planted in their armored vehicle detonated. Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for a separate missile and machine gun ambush nearby that killed several other Israeli soldiers taking cover inside a residential building.
• Research finds millions at risk as global child vaccination rates decline. Global childhood vaccination rates are faltering due to economic inequality, COVID-19 disruptions, and rising misinformation, with more than 13 million children missing all vaccines between 2020 and 2023, according to a report published in The Lancet on Wednesday. Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) immunization program’s success in saving an estimated 154 million lives over the past 50 years, foreign aid cuts and global instability now threaten to increase the number of dying children for the first time in decades.
• Zohran Mamdani wins Democratic primary in New York mayoral race. Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and state legislator, won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, securing 43.5% of the vote to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 36.4%. If he maintains his lead through the ranked-choice vote counting, Mamdami — campaigning on progressive policies like rent freezes and free public transit — could become the city’s first Asian and Muslim mayor, now set to face independent incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa in November’s general election.
• India celebrates sending its first astronaut into space after 41 years. Shubhanshu Shukla has become the second Indian in space after 41 years and the first to reach NASA’s International Space Station, launching the Axiom-4 mission from Florida on Wednesday alongside astronauts from Poland and Hungary in a landmark international collaboration. During two-week stay on the ISS, he is set to conduct seven Indian-led scientific experiments, marking a major milestone in India’s push toward its own human spaceflight program by 2027.
• News Quiz! What’s happened on social media, for the first time in 12 years?
A. A photo beat an Instagram Reel in total views
B. PewDiePie fell off YouTube’s top 10
C. Reddit overtook Facebook in monthly traffic
D. Rihanna posted on TikTok
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
27.9%
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla’s new car sales in Europe fell 27.9% in May from a year earlier, even as fully-electric vehicle (EV) sales in the region jumped 27.2%, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Tesla’s European sales have now fallen for five straight months as customers switch to cheaper Chinese EVs and, in some cases, protest against Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s politics. Overall car sales in Europe rose 1.9%, with the strongest growth coming from plug-in hybrids and cars powered by alternative fuels.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🤝 After 12 days of intensive conflict, U.S. President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire halting the most dramatic direct confrontation between Israel and Iran in decades. Both nations agree to abide by the truce, yet each vows retaliation if any breaches occur.
— THE CONVERSATION
🧕 To many Middle Eastern women, the burkini is an elegant compromise between faith and freedom. But to others, it’s a social threat.
— WORLDCRUNCH
🗨️ From boardrooms to barroom debates, knowing what to say in the moment can change everything. You’re either born with the skill or not, right? A writer from Germany’s Die Zeit weekly joins a Berlin debate club to test whether quick wit can be trained.
— DIE ZEIT
💬 LEXICON
La French touch
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for French electronic music, also referred to as “la French touch,” to be granted UNESCO Cultural Heritage status. Originating in the 1990s, the “French touch” is a distinctive style of house music pioneered by French artists. Among the most iconic representatives of the genre — characterized by its use of filter and phaser effects, often applied to samples from late 1970s and early 1980s European disco tracks — is the now-retired, robot-helmet-wearing duo Daft Punk.
✍️ Newsletter by Ava Arcoleo & Cecilia Laurent Monpetit
Quiz Answer: B. PewDiePie has officially dropped out of YouTube’s top 10 most‑subscribed channels for the first time in 12 years. The 35-year-old Swedish YouTuber — real name Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg — rose to global fame in the early 2010s through his gaming videos, but stepped back from frequent uploads in recent years to focus on personal projects. PewDiePie is still followed by 110 million people; in comparison, MrBeast, the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, boasts 408 million subscribers.
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