Gaza Aid Sites Close, U.S. Doubles Steel Tariffs, Mexico City Floods

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

“Public opinion has given the president a special mission,” headlines South Korea’s daily The Herald Business, as the country’s new president Lee Jae-myung was sworn in Wednesday after winning a snap election. Lee won a thumping victory over conservative Kim Moon-soo, a member of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol’s former party. He secured 49.4% of the vote, far ahead of Kim’s 41.2%. Lee is taking the helm of a nation deeply divided after Yoon’s disastrous attempt to declare martial law last December, a development experts say has deeply shaken the country’s collective sense of democracy. Read more about this in today’s France Inter piece translated by Worldcrunch: Sunshine, Nukes And Lee: The High-Stakes Balancing Act For South Korea’s New President

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Gaza aid sites close for the day. Aid distribution centers in Gaza have been temporarily closed for the day on Wednesday after the Israeli military declared access roads “combat zones.” This comes after at least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire near a site on Tuesday. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial U.S. and Israel-backed aid network which began operating last week, cited the closure as part of planned efficiency improvements. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is set to vote on a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access. Read how cigarette smugglers in Gaza manage to thrive despite Israeli restrictions.

• Trump doubles steel and aluminum tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump doubled steel and aluminum tariffs on Wednesday, escalating trade tensions with close partners including Canada, Mexico and the EU, just as global leaders gather for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and G7 talks in Paris. The OECD has downgraded global growth forecasts, warning the U.S. economy will suffer the most from the trade war, while countries like Mexico and the UK scramble to secure exemptions and avert further hikes. Amid these tensions, Trump ally Elon Musk criticized the U.S. president’s major tax and spending bill in a series of posts on Tuesday. His comments reflect broader Republican divisions over the bill’s tax cuts, defense spending, and debt ceiling increase. For more on, read Colombian daily El Espectador’s analysis on whether Trump’s tariffs mark the end of globalization.

• Iran’s Khamenei rejects U.S. nuclear proposal. Iran’s supreme leader firmly rejected Washington’s demand that it halt uranium enrichment, insisting the fuel development is essential for Iran’s energy independence and national sovereignty. In a speech on Wednesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the U.S. proposal as contrary to the ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution and emphasized that Iran will not seek Washington’s approval on this issue. He stopped short, however, of halting negotiations with the U.S. over a possible nuclear agreement. 

• Russia advances into Sumy region as Ukraine strikes Crimean bridge. Russian forces have expanded their offensive in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, capturing the village of Andriivka on Tuesday, and bringing the region’s capital within range of attack drones. Ukraine is preparing defenses amid rising civilian casualties and mandatory evacuations, and continues to resist with strategic strikes, targeting the Crimean Bridge for the third time since 2022 with an underwater explosion.

• Dutch government collapses after far-right party withdraws. The Dutch government has collapsed after far-right leader Geert Wilders withdrew his party from the coalition on Tuesday in a dispute over asylum policies. The move prompted Prime Minister Dick Schoof to step down and offer the cabinet’s resignation. Despite accusations from former coalition partners that Wilders engineered the crisis for personal gain, he vowed to grow his party and become prime minister in the next election, likely held this autumn. While migration will dominate the upcoming campaign, Wilders’ gamble is risky as his party controlled asylum policy for nearly a year without major success, and his actions may alienate potential coalition partners.

• Five countries elected onto UN Security Council. Bahrain, Congo, Liberia, Colombia and Latvia have won seats on the United Nations Security Council in uncontested elections on Tuesday. The five countries will start serving two-year terms in January. Each new member emphasized its commitment to peace, humanitarian aid and addressing global conflicts such as those in Ukraine, Gaza and Africa. Despite these efforts, the 15-member council remains deeply divided due to the veto powers held by the five permanent members, and longstanding calls for reform to better reflect current global realities have yet to succeed.

• News Quiz! The Netherlands’ national museum in Amsterdam has a new object on display. What is it?

A. An encased 25-year-old banana 
B. A sculpture made out of bubble gum
C. A 200-year-old condom
D. The world’s first selfie-stick
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

686,061

The number of births in Japan fell below 700,000 for the first time in 2024 — the lowest figure since records began in 1899 — according to Health ministry data released on Wednesday. The data also shows that Japan’s total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman is expected to have — also fell to a record low of 1.15. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called the situation a “quiet emergency,” pledging family-friendly measures like more flexible working hours and the revitalisation of rural regions to try and reverse the trend, in a country that has the world’s second-oldest population.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

⚖️ Laila Soueif, the mother of a jailed British-Egyptian activist, has not eaten in more than 240 days in an effort to free her son. Her hunger strike paints a tragic picture of the cost of activism in modern Egypt.
— DARAJ

🇵🇱 Poland’s new president Karol Nawrocki, a political outsider backed by the far right, won with a campaign echoing Donald Trump. His victory closes the door on liberal reforms and paves the way for a nationalist comeback.
— DIE ZEIT

♀️Nothing in cities and spaces is random. Bathroom lines, street names and the maps we use every day also tell a story of inequality. Feminist geography seeks to make visible what is often overlooked and proposes a more equitable way of inhabiting space.
— EL ESPECTADOR

📣 VERBATIM

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”

— Tech billionaire Elon Musk escalated his criticism of a broad tax and spending bill that is currently in the U.S. Senate. The legislation, which President Donald Trump has dubbed the “big beautiful bill,” was passed by the House of Representatives in late May and is set to add $3 million to the U.S. deficit over 10 years. “Shame on those who voted for it,” Musk said in a post on X on Tuesday. This comes just days after Musk resigned from his role as an official government employee at the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump saying then that Musk had done an “incredible service.”