Russia Defies Trump’s Ultimatum, Manhattan Shooting, Portugal’s Casual President

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Colombian paper La Opinión dedicated its cover to former President Alvaro Uribe, who was found guilty of witness tampering on Monday. Uribe, Colombia’s first ex-president to be convicted of a crime, is alleged to have contacted jailed ex-members of right-wing paramilitary groups and asked them to deny having ties with him. The 73-year-old, who was president from 2002-2010, risks up to 12 years in prison and will hear his sentence on Friday.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Russia kills 22 in Ukraine, Moscow remains defiant over Trump threats. Russian missiles hit a prison in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and a medical facility in the central Dnipro region overnight, killing at least 22 people, including 17 inmates, across the country. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump warned he would give Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine and threatened to punish Moscow with sanctions and tariffs. For more, check this Vazhnyye Istorii piece, translated from Russian by Worldcrunch: Distorting Data: How Moscow Has Been Hiding Key Statistics Since The War Began.

• “Worst-case scenario of famine” underway in Gaza, warn UN-backed experts. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the leading international authority on food crises, has issued an alert on Tuesday warning that famine is “currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” with thousands of malnourished children and hunger-related deaths on the rise among the youngest. This comes as international criticism of Israel intensifies over rapidly worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave.

• Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire holds, military commanders hold talks. A ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade appeared to hold Tuesday as tensions linger. Thailand accused its neighbor of “deliberately” violating the ceasefire with attacks in multiple areas early Tuesday, but Cambodia responded there was no firing in any location. Military commanders held talks as displaced residents began trickling back on the disputed border area.

• Five people, including gunman, dead in NYC shooting. A lone gunman armed with an assault-style rifle killed four people, including a New York Police Department officer, inside a Manhattan skyscraper that houses the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL) on Monday evening, before shooting himself dead. The gunman was identified as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas who carried a suicide note in his pocket expressing grievances with the NFL and saying he suffered from CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an Alzheimer’s-like disease has been most commonly associated with football players.

• India reports killing of three militants behind Kashmir tourist massacre. India’s Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah announced on Tuesday that three militants suspected of being involved in a deadly attack on tourists in India-administered Kashmir earlier this year were killed in a gunfight in the disputed region a day earlier. Shah said the militants, who were Pakistani nationals, were killed in a joint operation by the military, paramilitary and police on the outskirts of Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar. Read more about the India-Pakistan conflict in this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski, translated by Worldcrunch.

• At least 38 killed in Beijing after heavy rains cause flooding. Almost a year’s worth of rain has caused flooding and landslides in and around the Chinese capital city, killing at least 38 people by Tuesday as rescue and relief work continues. Some 80,000 people have been relocated from across Beijing, with the flood risk for parts of the capital city, Hebei province and neighboring Tianjin city remaining high until Tuesday evening.

• News Quiz! Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is known for being a down-to-earth and approachable leader. What surprisingly common activity was he caught on camera doing?

A. Queuing up at a supermarket
B. Eating at a McDonald’s
C. Helping tourists take selfies
D. Going to the beach on his own
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

3,600 yuan

China is offering parents 3,600 yuan ($500) per year for each child they have under the age of three, state media announced Monday. This scheme, the first nationwide subsidy aimed at boosting birth rates, is an attempt to help families with the cost of raising a child, amid a falling national birthrate and nearly a decade after the country’s controversial one-child policy. Read more about how governments try (and fail) to make people have babies here.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🤝 From the ancient Greeks to modern times, thinkers and economists have pointed to the economic virtues of sympathy. So what role should empathy have in Argentina’s economy?
— CLARÍN

🌧️ Years of drought followed by sudden floods have unsettled Morocco’s mountainous regions where rainfall has long been seen as a divine blessing. What is at play may be bigger than the heavens.
— DARAJ

🇮🇳 Narendra Modi has officially overtaken Indira Gandhi to become India’s second longest-serving prime minister. But comparisons with the celebrated leader fall short.
— THE WIRE

📣 VERBATIM

“There is no alternative.”

— French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that a two-state solution is the only option for peace between Israel and Palestine on Monday, at the beginning of the three day UN conference co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. The statement follows President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement last week that France will recognize a Palestinian state before the UN in September, drawing backlash from the U.S. and Israel.