UN To Vote On Gaza Ceasefire, Kimmel Off Air, Skipping Stone Scandal

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Argentine daily Diario Hoy dedicates its front page to the mass protests that erupted in Buenos Aires on Wednesday against President Javier Milei’s sweeping austerity measures. Tens of thousands of Argentines took to the streets to demand increased funding for public universities and pediatric hospitals, which have been hit hard by Milei’s deep budget cuts. The libertarian president, who’s also dealing with the fallout from a corruption scandal and a legislative defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections earlier this month, faces high-stakes midterm elections in October.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• U.S. expected to veto UN Security Council’s Gaza ceasefire resolution The United Nations Security Council is slated to vote Thursday on a new resolution demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as increasing humanitarian access, despite the looming threat of another U.S. veto. Meanwhile, Israel’s military said on Wednesday it was opening an additional route for 48 hours that Palestinians could use to leave Gaza City, as local health authorities said the Palestinian death toll from the two-year war between Israel and Hamas has surpassed 65,000. 

• Saudi Arabia, Pakistan sign mutual defense pact. Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact late on Wednesday as Gulf Arab states grow increasingly wary about the reliability of the United States as a security guarantor in the wake of Israel’s strike on Qatar last week. The pact, which defines any attack on either nation as an attack on both, marks “an institutionalization of long-standing and deep cooperation” between the two countries, a Saudi official said.

• Trump meets with Starmer after state banquet. U.S. President Donald Trump and UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer are meeting at the latter’s country residence Chequers to discuss tech investment, steel tariffs and more. This comes after Trump told gathered royals the second state visit was one of the “highest honors of my life” during a state banquet on Wednesday evening. Trump’s visit sparked a “Trump Not Welcome” protest through London.

• Syrian foreign minister in Washington for first official U.S. visit. Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani will visit Washington on Thursday for his first official trip to the U.S. capital since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad in December. The top Syrian diplomat will meet with local lawmakers to discuss the lifting of the remaining sanctions against Syria. This comes as several senior U.S. diplomats focused on Syria have been abruptly let go from their posts in recent days. Read more about Syria-U.S. relationships in this Daraj analysis, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch.

• Jimmy Kimmel show pulled off air over Charlie Kirk comments. ABC has taken the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show off the air “indefinitely,” a spokesperson for the Disney-owned network said in a statement, over comments Kimmel made about the shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. Earlier this week, the talk show host said U.S. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement was trying to score political points off Kirk’s killing. Trump called ABC’s move “great news for America.”

• Air India crash victims’ families sue Boeing and Honeywell. The families of four passengers killed in the June 12 crash of an Air India Boeing 787 have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against the planemaker and aircraft parts maker Honeywell, saying that the accident resulted from allegedly faulty fuel switches. The lawsuit accuses the companies of doing “nothing” despite being aware of the risks of the aircraft’s design. The crash had killed 260 people.

• News Quiz! A cheating scandal has rocked this year’s world stone skipping championships held in Scotland. What are some participants accused of doing?

A. They shaped the stones to make them more circular
B. They replaced the stones with expertly disguised scones
C. They used remote-controlled stones
D. They coated their stones with Teflon for extra glide
[Answer below]

📣 VERBATIM

“Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary.”

— The German Foreign Ministry warned Iran on Wednesday that it had yet to take the necessary steps to stop United Nations sanctions being reimposed over its nuclear program, while the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said that “the window for finding a diplomatic solution” was “closing really fast.” The comments follow a call Iran had with representatives of France, Germany and the United Kingdom as well as Kallas. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded hours later that the slapping of UN sanctions back on Tehran was “lacking any legal or logical justification.” The process to reimplement sanctions on Iran will take effect at the end of September unless the Security Council agrees to stop it.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🚫 China has banned imports of semiconductors from the American company Nvidia, marking a new episode in their technological war with the United States.
— FRANCE INTER

🧠 Some patients “come back to life” shortly before dying: they regain consciousness and control of their minds and interact with their families as they normally would. It is an illusion, but one with interesting scientific implications.
— ETHIC

🎙️ Paris Calling, Worldcrunch’s new podcast series, where each installment introduces you to a notable person, from somewhere in the world, in their own voice, in English. In this episode: Chantal Lamarre, a well-known Canadian comedian, actor, and TV presenter.
— WORLDCRUNCH