Flagship

Fears grow of Israel-Lebanon conflict

Israel approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon,” the military said, raising concerns of a full-blown conflict with the militant group Hezbollah. Israeli forces have exchanged fire with the Iran-backed outfit almost daily since the start of the war with Hamas, but contact intensified last week. Hezbollah also released what it said was drone footage of an Israeli port, which Israel took as a threat: A minister said the government was “very close to the moment of decision,” saying Hezbollah “will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit” in an all-out war. A senior US diplomat is in the region to find a diplomatic solution. Israel demands Hezbollah pull back from the border, while Hezbollah says it will not sign a deal until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Putin in Pyongyang

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his country’s “unconditional support” for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang. Putin was met by an honor guard, lavish ceremonies, and a large crowd of civilians, as he arrived. The two countries are increasingly isolated, and the US said it was concerned about their “deepening relationship.” North Korea has supplied Russia with weapons, while Russia has reciprocated with space technology that could help Pyongyang’s rocket program. Kim said that the two countries had “an unbreakable relationship of comrades-in-arms,” while Putin vowed to support North Korea against “US pressure, blackmail and military threats.”

China boosts Malaysia ties

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is in Malaysia, hoping to build economic ties between the two countries. The visit celebrates 50 years of diplomatic relations between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, and saw the signing of several pacts, including a five-year deal for trade and economic cooperation in sectors including high-tech manufacturing and the digital economy. Malaysia has remained neutral despite tensions between China and the West: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told the South China Morning Post that Malaysia is “an independent nation” and would not succumb to pressure to stop doing business with either party. Among the deals signed was an agreement for Malaysia to export fresh durian to China: Frozen exports to China of the locally dubbed “king of fruits” have already increased eightfold to $255 million a year.

Hajj death toll reaches 550

At least 550 Muslim pilgrims have died so far during this year’s Hajj to the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca as temperatures soar. At least 323 of the dead are Egyptians, of whom all but one died of heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats told AFP. All Muslims capable of doing so are expected to complete the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once, but Saudi Arabia is seeing ever hotter weather thanks to climate change — the Grand Mosque saw temperatures reach 51.8°C (125°F) on Monday. About 1.8 million devotees made the pilgrimage this year, tens of thousands of them without official Hajj visas, which saves money but is dangerous because they cannot then access the air-conditioned facilities provided en route, The Guardian reported.

Euro instability hits sneakers

The sports shoe manufacturer Golden Goose postponed its initial public offering, citing political turmoil in Europe. The high-end Italian company was scheduled for listing on the stock exchange on June 21, but said the European parliamentary vote and calling of snap elections in France had led to market deterioration. Another luxury clothing manufacturer, Moncler, also saw shares drop 6%, and Paris lost its position as Europe’s biggest stock exchange to London, with total value falling by about $277 billion. The UK had slipped behind its French rival in 2022 when British politics was undergoing a period of instability around the time of Liz Truss’ brief premiership, but despite its own upcoming election, it is seen as more predictable now.

Europe’s real tourist trap

Europe’s touristic appeal is both hiding its dwindling global importance and trapping it in the past, argued the Financial Times’ Janan Ganesh. “Europe commands the world’s interest without trying,” he wrote: Tourism is 12% of GDP in Spain, 8% in Portugal, 7% in Greece. Nowhere can match Europe for “sheer geographic compression of what we can only call good stuff.” But that tourism “saps a place’s incentive to modernise [and] rewards ossification.” Europe may be a tourist trap, but “the entrapped aren’t the visitors… the locals are the ones with the problem, and the problem is a sort of lucrative stagnation.” Partly as a result, Ganesh thinks, “this is the first century in several that Europe won’t shape.”

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Kenya scraps bread tax hike

Kenya scrapped a proposed tax increase on bread after protesters demonstrated across the capital Nairobi. Since arriving in office in 2022 President William Ruto has rolled out a series of unpopular tax hikes in a bid to lessen the country’s debt burden. However critics say the raise could hurt economic growth and increase unemployment. Several countries across Africa are at risk of debt distress as the continent’s debt as a share of GDP last year reached its highest level since at least 2000, according to data by the International Monetary Fund. “In many African countries… debt restructuring is indeed a matter of life and death,” former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote in a report by the charity Christian Aid.

US concerns over Mexican avocados

The US suspended avocado and mango imports from a key Mexican state over security concerns, putting an industry worth more than $2 billion at risk. The decision came shortly after two inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture were attacked and briefly detained by gangs. The suspension could lead to shortages of the fruit in the US, which imports almost 90% of its avocados from Mexico. Gangs have targeted the avocado industry in recent years to expand their rackets beyond drug trafficking amid a less combative approach from Mexican authorities known as “hugs, not bullets.” In response, growers have banded together to create their own militias. “If we don’t organise ourselves, this will never stop,” a farmer in Mexico told The Guardian.

World unready for natural disasters

More than 40% of people in the world said they can do “nothing to protect themselves” in case of a disaster, new data by Gallup showed. Even if they could, many are blindsided: According to the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, 30% said they did not receive a warning before disaster struck. Climate change and El Niño, a warm weather pattern, have made extreme weather more likely and more severe. According to an estimate, natural disasters led to $250 billion in global losses last year alone. Now experts believe that a switch to La Niña, a cold weather pattern that is associated with hurricanes in the Atlantic and increased rainfall in the Horn of Africa, one of the least prepared regions in the world, is likely later this year.

Willie Mays, baseball great, dies at 93

Willie Mays, widely considered one of the greatest baseball players ever, died at the age of 93. Mays twice won the Most Valuable Player award despite missing two seasons in his prime while he served in the US Army during the Korean War. Praised for his leadership both on the field — he was the first Black player to be named captain of a Major League Baseball team — and off it, Mays “captured the ardor of baseball fans at a time when… segregation remained untrammeled in his native South,” The New York Times said. Willie Mays “wasn’t just a singular athlete,” former US President Barack Obama wrote on X. “He was also… an inspiration to an entire generation.”

• Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu goes on trial for terrorism in the capital Abuja.
• French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Portuguese premier Luis Montenegro at the Elysee Palace.
• The documentary Black Barbie is released on Netflix.

The age of the oldest wine ever found in liquid form. The now reddish-brown — but originally white and sherry-like — wine was found in a Roman tomb which was uncovered in Carmona, Spain, five years ago. Chemical reactions have changed its color, but it is “not in the least bit toxic,” according to the archaeologists who found it. They remained, however, unwilling to drink it, because the five liters (1.3 gallons) were found in an urn also containing the cremated bones of the occupant of the tomb, and was a bit murky as a result. “I guess you could filter it and try it,” one told The Guardian. “I’d rather someone else tried it first, though.”

The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s adaptation of the Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle that manages to be set in 1910 Paris, 2014 Los Angeles, and an AI-controlled 2044. Starring a “sphinxlike and inscrutable” Léa Seydoux as Gabrielle, a young woman who is thinking of undergoing a procedure to purify her DNA of “‘affect,’” Bonelloa’s story subverts what has become a rather exhausted sci-fi trope by making the eponymous beast something other than AI, The Guardian’s Wendy Ide writes. Certain elements travel with Gabrielle across the centuries — there are pigeons, dolls, and a man called Louis. But in the end, The Beast’s true nature remains as enigmatic as its central characters, leaving viewers with the sense that it is better “to be contradictory and messy and feel too much than to be consistent,” as Vulture put it.

• Why Trump is ready to go harder on China
• Bitcoin (sort of) grows up.
• Spying fears delay British army badges.