Calls To Dismantle Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Thai Prime Minister Suspended, Norwegian Surprise

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

While southern Europe is struggling with a severe heatwave, a polar wave has hit Buenos Aires and the rest of Argentina, reports Argentine daily Clarín on its front page. Temperatures have ranged between 2 and 10 degrees Celsius in the capital since the weekend, and some towns even saw snow falling, for the first time in 12 years. As a response, some schools have closed down. The strange weather is expected to last until the middle of the week. 

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Global charities appeal for U.S.-backed Gaza aid group shut down. More than 130 international charities and NGOs have called for the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to disband on Tuesday, as the Palestinian death toll at aid sites mounts to over 500 people since the GHF began operation in May. This appeal comes in wake of Israeli forces killing at least 74 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday in fatal air strikes at a crowded cafe, and more open gunfire at food supply sites, which the Israeli military says it continues to investigate. Read more about the situation in Gaza in this French analysis by Pierre Haski, translated and adapted by Worldcrunch.

• ​​U.S. lifts sanctions on Syria ahead of possible Israeli relations with Damascus. U.S. President Trump has officially lifted sanctions on Syria, calling it “transformed” under Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government, and hoping to reintegrate the nation into international economic affairs. A rare window of negotiations has opened after the Israel-Iran war, with Israel expressing interest Monday in normalizing ties with Syria, which Trump has also cited as a factor in lifting sanctions. Read more about the historic Al-Sharaa-Trump Meeting in this Daraj piece translated from Arabic and adapted by Worldcrunch.

• ​Thai Prime Minister suspended on pending ethics trial. Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended from office Tuesday, pending a breach of ethics investigation over a leaked phone call regarding border disputes with a senior Cambodian leader. Released in wake of the latest border dispute between the two countries, the conversation outraged thousands of nationalist protesters over Paetongtarn’s perceived attempts to ease tensions by appealing to Cambodian President Hun Sen, while the Prime Minister claims her only intentions were to preserve peace. 

• ​​U.S. Senate marathon vote continues over massive budget bill. The U.S. Senate is holding a marathon vote on President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” with the decision stalled as the Republican majority remains split on welfare cuts. If passed, the Bill — whose proposed extension of Trump tax breaks to $3.8 trillion could leave 12 million Americans without health insurance coverage and add $3.3 trillion to U.S. debts — will return to the House of Representatives for a vote on the Senate’s version as early as Wednesday morning. 

• ​​Police clashes escalate in Istanbul over Turkish journalist arrests. Demonstrations have erupted in Istanbul following the arrests of Turkish journalists at satirical Leman magazine for publishing a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad that allegedly “insulted religious values.” Scuffles with police began when angry protesters attacked a bar frequented by Leman employees, and soon escalated into mob clashes. Tuncay Akgun, the journal’s editor-in-chief, said the article was misinterpreted as a religious depiction, and merely featured a fictional character under the same name — which more than 200 million people share in the Islamic world. 

• ​​Factory fire death toll in India reaches 39 as investigators probe the site.The death toll from an explosion on Monday at big pharmaceutical company Sigachi Industries’ factory in southern India has risen to at least 39, officials report on Tuesday, as officials continue to clear the site of debris and investigate the incident. The plant, which creates a chemical vital to pharmaceutical and food manufacturing, has yet to have provided an explanation for the explosion, which witnesses describe as sounding like a bomb blast.

• News Quiz! What life-changing event were thousands of Norwegians recently misled to believe?

A. That they’d been registered as Swedes
B. That they’d won the lottery
C. That the country had been bought out by Donald Trump
D. That the Nobel Peace Prize was suspended
[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

156

During the palace’s annual briefing on royal finances on Monday, King Charles III decided to decommission the Royal Train — after 156 years of service. The first royal train of the United Kingdom, commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1869, is a suite of nine rail cars that can be hitched to commercial locomotives. The decision comes as the train’s maintenance contract expires in 2027, and it would need a serious upgrade for the more advanced rail systems today. Additionally, operating costs were too heavy, especially considering Buckingham Palace is looking to remodel its infrastructures. 

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇺🇸 In an era where every tweet from the White House sets global agendas, Donald Trump has mastered a brash spectacle, luring us into endless commentary. Behind the daily uproar lies a calculated strategy to reshape America’s alliances and democratic safeguards.
— LE NOUVEL OBS

💻 The online world is now a second home to so many people, with the effect of streamlining and distorting the human activity of communication.
— CLARÍN

🪞 From social media filters to salary bumps, an exploration of how the beauty advantage plays out across cultures — and why pretty average looks might be just the right amount.
— DIE ZEIT

📣 VERBATIM

“Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy.”

— On Monday, former U.S. President Barack Obama criticized the final-day dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Trump administration, during a joint statement with former President George W. Bush. The six-decade-old agency, created by President John F Kennedy, was one of the first and most fiercely targeted for government cuts by Trump, with staffers abruptly locked out of systems and offices and terminated by mass emailing. A study conducted by The Lancet further implies grave consequences, concluding that the decision can cause up to 14 million deaths worldwide.