Night Of Heavy Strikes On Gaza, UN Summit In Seville, Pride Record

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

“Biscay seeks shade,” fronts leading Spanish daily El Correo, in reference to the major heatwaves pushing temperatures up to 46 °C (114 °F) in southern Europe this weekend, with authorities in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal enforcing high heat alerts and wildfire prevention. Spain’s national meteorological service reports that June is set to have recorded the country’s hottest month on record, as a recent Lancet Public Health study predicts that under current climate policies, heat-related deaths could quadruple by midcentury.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• ​​Israel steps up Gaza bombardment ahead of White House talks on ceasefire. Palestinians in northern Gaza reported one of the worst nights of Israeli bombardment in weeks after the military issued mass evacuation orders, while Israeli officials were due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the Trump administration. 

• World leaders gather in Seville for UN aid summit amid crisis from U.S. cuts. A UN conference to boost support for global development aid begins on Monday as U.S. funding cuts jeopardize the fight against poverty. At least 50 world leaders will gather in Seville from June 30 to July 3. But the U.S. is skipping out on the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change.

• Ukraine F-16 pilot killed in large-scale Russian attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more support from Washington and Western allies to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses after the attack. Meanwhile, Zelensky signed a decree withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines. The 1997 treaty, joined by more than 160 countries, aims to protect civilians from these mines detonating after a conflict is over. 

• Debate is underway in the Senate on Trump’s major domestic bill, but overnight voting is delayed. The U.S. Senate has begun debating President Donald Trump’s 940-page “Big, Beautiful Bill” of tax breaks and sweeping cuts to healthcare and food programs. The all-night session on Sunday came as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the bill would add an estimated $3.3 trillion to the U.S. debt over a decade. Republican leaders, who reject the CBO’s estimates, are rushing to meet Trump’s deadline of July 4, the country’s Independence Day.

• Turkey battles wildfires in Izmir for second day. Turkey has evacuated four villages and two neighborhoods in its western province of Izmir as firefighters battle wildfires for the second day. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said on Monday that the blaze was fanned overnight by winds reaching 40-50 km/h (25-30 mph).

• Canada rescinds digital services tax after Trump suspends trade talks. Canada has rescinded its digital services tax in a bid to advance trade negotiations with the United States, days after U.S. President Donald Trump called off talks in retaliation for the levy. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a statement on Sunday, said he and Trump have now agreed to resume trade negotiations.

• News Quiz! Which tech-powered event took place in Beijing over the weekend, in a first for China?

A. A holographic K-pop concert 
B. A fully autonomous robots soccer match
C. An AI-directed opera performance
D. A drone show above the Forbidden City

[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

23

Basketball great LeBron James is set to play in a record 23rd NBA season after extending his $53 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers for a seventh year. At 40, James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with a total tally of 42,184, now just 50 games short of breaking the league record for court appearances. The seasoned legend hopes to “make every season he has left count,” his agent told ESPN, especially since now sharing the court with his 20-year-old son Bronny, who was drafted by the Lakers in 2024. 

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇮🇷 Like Spain after Franco, Iran faces a crucial choice between authoritarian decay and democratic renewal. Before time runs out.
— LA STAMPA

⚖️ Eight decades after the UN Charter was signed, the so-called rules-based order is looking pretty battered. Still, the fact that someone breaks a rule doesn’t make it invalid. Law and reality never fully align. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need law.
— DIE ZEIT

🤖 We need awareness of how AI systems work, of how to be critical and how to be able to leverage AI.
— THE WIRE

📣 VERBATIM

“My spirit is not broken. Maybe it’s even stronger.”

— Sergei Tikhanovsky, once a prominent Belarusian opposition blogger, is steadfast after his release on Saturday from over five years of solitary confinement for challenging President Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime. Now freed in exile after a rare U.S. diplomatic visit to the nation’s capital, Tikhanovsky has vowed to continue fighting for democracy in Belarus, wanting nothing more than the release of 1,000 other political prisoners as he speaks on the brutal prison conditions, having lost 132 pounds and barely spoken at all during his sentence. “Physically I’m half the size and half the weight,” he says. “But my spirit is not broken. Maybe it’s even stronger.” Read more about Belarus’ opposition here.