Gaza Strikes Kill 94, South Korea Revises Martial Law, Space Gastronomy

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🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

“Whew, it’s hot,” headlines Warsaw-based daily Gazeta Wyborcza featuring a photo of a man dunking his head in a fountain, as Poland swelters under Europe’s early summer heatwave. The brutal temperatures have claimed at least eight lives across the continent — killing two people in Spain, two in France and two in Italy — triggered health alerts and forest fires, and forced the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant. After days of record breaking highs, cooler temperatures are expected to phase in from the Atlantic on Thursday.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• At least 94 Palestinians killed in Gaza, including 45 waiting for aid. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday that airstrikes and shootings left at least 94 Palestinians dead in Gaza overnight, including 45 who were attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid. Five people were killed on outside sites associated with the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while 40 others were killed waiting for aid in other locations across the Gaza Strip. The deaths come as Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible ceasefire. Read more in this Daraj analysis, translated from Arabic by Worldcrunch: The Simple Reason The Gaza War Keeps Going: Both Israel And Hamas Don’t Want It To End.

• Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” heads to final vote in U.S. House. U.S. President Donald Trump’s mega-bill on tax and spending is heading for a final vote in the U.S. House of Representatives after skeptical Republican holdouts fell into line and agreed to allow Trump’s agenda to come to the floor. A roll call that started late Wednesday finally closed almost six hours later, and final passage is expected later Thursday morning. The president said he wanted the bill signed by July 4, when the U.S. celebrates Independence Day.

• South Korea revises governing martial law rules. South Korean lawmakers have approved on Thursday a revision to the rules around martial law, now barring any attempt to hinder lawmakers from entering the National Assembly. This comes after former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law order in December, which had shocked the country and sparked a political crisis. The new rules also bans the military and police from entering the National Assembly without the approval of its speaker. From the Worldcrunch vault, here’s an analysis of Yoon’s power grab, translated from French by Worldcrunch.

• Rescue efforts underway after ferry sinks off Bali. Rescuers are searching for 30 people who are missing after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali late Wednesday, killing four people. As of Thursday afternoon, 31 people had been rescued from the boat’s 53 passengers and 12 crew members. Authorities are investigating the cause of the sinking.

• Wildfire forces mass evacuations on Greek island of Crete. More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from hotels and homes on Greece’s southern island of Crete, as hundreds of firefighters are battling a fast-moving wildfire stoked by gale-force winds on Thursday. The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in rugged forested terrain near the town of Ierapetra and spread rapidly, with a front now extending over at least 6 kilometers (3.7 miles).

• Liverpool star Diogo Jota dies in car crash. Liverpool soccer star Diogo Jota has died in a car crash in Spain with his younger brother overnight on Thursday, according to local police. The 28-year-old, who got married two weeks ago, also played for Portugal’s national team, helping it win the Nations League last month. The Spanish civil guard said the brothers’ car “left the road due to a tire blowout while overtaking” and that the vehicle “caught on fire and the two occupants were killed.”

• News Quiz! The European Space Agency announced that French gastronomic staples will be sent to astronauts aboard the International Space Station next year. What stellar specialties are on the menu?

A. Snails and frog legs
B. Beef Bourguignon and gratin dauphinois
C. Ratatouille and cassoulet
D. Lobster bisque and foie gras

[Answer below]

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

$80 billion

Microsoft has taken action on plans to invest $80 billion in AI development, confirming on Wednesday that it will lay off as many as 9,000 workers — 4% of its 228,000 person global workforce — to balance costs. The largest of their recent employee cuts this year, the scale-down is becoming a pattern among American corporations investing in AI talent this year. Read more about the threat of artificial intelligence on job cuts in this piece by Le Figaro, translated from French and adapted by Worldcrunch.

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

☸️ The Dalai Lama has warned his followers against any attempt to name his successor outside the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, a veiled reference to the Chinese Communist Party, which seeks to control the reincarnation process of the 90-year-old spiritual leader.
— FRANCE INTER

🇺🇸🇱🇾 Just as Trump did not read Leo Tolstoy, he most likely also never thought to look to Muammar Gaddafi as his model. Yet in both their cases, absolute narcissism is a requirement for their power and inimitability.
— DARAJ

🖌️ While billionaire Jeff Bezos turns Venice into a vanity set, the Prado museum in Madrid is currently featuring a major exposition of legendary Venetian painter Paolo Veronese. Art, power and decadence intertwine in the city that learned to live from its own sinking.
— ETHIC

📣 VERBATIM

“Oh, this makes me physically ill.”

— U.S. pop star Aubrey O’Day reacted angrily on Instagram to the verdict in the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial on Wednesday, in which the music mogul was convicted of a prostitution-related offense but acquitted for more serious counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. Formerly part of the music group Danity Kane that was signed to Combs’ Bad Boy Records, O’Day expressed sympathy for the trial’s plaintiff, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, writing “Cassie probably feels so horrible. I’m gonna vomit.”