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Good evening. Here’s the last one at the end of Thursday.
1. Israel urged President Biden to take a stronger stance on Iran, revealing their division over stopping Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel’s Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid Forced Biden to Leave beyond his public commitment to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon. Lapid stated that all democratic nations must pledge to act: “If they continue to develop their nuclear program, the free world will use force.”
Biden did not repeat that commitment. Instead, he kept talking about preventing Iran from getting a weapon, not about a program that could be designed to develop one. The distinction goes to the heart of the allies’ different approaches to dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Biden will have next meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas tomorrow in Bethlehem before flying to Saudi Arabia. In the past, he has tried to isolate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over human rights violations. utilities, Biden needs his help†
2. At least 23 people have been killed in a Russian attack in central Ukraine officials said. Three children were among the dead.
Emergency services are frantically searching for survivors in the rubble, and dozens are missing. More than 70 people, including three children, were hospitalized, Ukrainian officials said.
The mid-morning attack on an office building in the city of Vinnytsia — which lies hundreds of miles from the disputed Donbas region of eastern Ukraine — is the latest to hit a civilian target with no apparent military objective. The strategy underscores one of Russia’s most brutal psychological weapons: terrorizing civilians†
Individual, American basketball star Brittney Griner appeared before a Russian court after pleading guilty to drug possession.
3. Texas is suing the Biden administration for access to emergency medical abortions.
A presidential order aimed to allow emergency termination of pregnancy if there were complications that posed a threat to the woman’s health or life. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton challenged the executive order, saying: it would “force abortions” in hospitals across the state†
The lawsuit sparked an opening salvo in what will likely be a lengthy legal tug-of-war between the Biden administration and states like Texas that have taken swift steps to ban most abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. to make.
Elsewhere, an Ohio man was charged with: the rape of a 10-year-old girl, whose travels across state lines to have an abortion drew national attention.
4. A changing international political landscape.
Italy’s golden period of stability was then thrown into chaos Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigns in response to a populist uprising against the establishment within his government of national unity.
But as a sign of how traumatic Draghi’s departure would be, the country’s president refused to accept his resignation, essentially freezing the situation for a week and giving Draghi a chance to form a new government.
And in Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned via email days after fleeing the country amid protests and economic turmoil.
5. Young American voters have had enough of their (much) older leaders.
Led by politicians often three times their age, many voters under 30 crave new blood and new ideas. A survey by The Times/Siena College found that only 1 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 like the way President Biden does his job. And 94 percent of Democrats under 30 said they wanted another candidate in two years.
Of all age groups, young voters were most likely to say they wouldn’t vote for Biden or Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch. The numbers are a stark warning to Democrats as they struggle to fending off a beating in the November midterm elections.
In New York, a 38-year-old lawyer and congressional candidate tries eke plot his own path to victory, wearing sports shoes. And in Rhode Island, State Senator Tiara Mack, 28, is using the Twitter campaign #TwerkFor gather supporters.
6. Ivana Trump, a former wife of Donald Trump, has died aged 73.
A glamorous business woman, she helped build his real estate empire and commanded nearly as much media attention as her husband, as they helped define the 1980s as an era of ostentatious excess. Mr Trump announced her death in a statement on his social media platform. New York City police are investigating whether Mrs. Trump fell down the stairs at her Manhattan home.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Ms. Trump was the vice president of interior design for his company and managed one of its most prized properties, the Plaza Hotel, while raising their three children, Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka.
The couple’s divorce in 1990, caused in part by Trump’s affair with Marla Maples, spawned tabloid fodder for weeks. The divorce made Ms. Trump something of a heroine for rejected women everywhere — she even had a cameo in the 1996 film “The First Wives Club.”
7. A summer of extreme weather rages on.
Powerful storms swept through southwestern Virginia, which brought severe flooding and landslides and damaged more than 100 homes, officials said. People were forced to wade through medium-deep water to get to safety, and houses were swept from their foundations.
About 41.7 million people live in areas expected to experience dangerous heat this week in the South, West and Midwest. Follow the heat with our map here†
Other parts of the world are also experiencing exceptionally high temperatures: Britain braces for record highs this weekend, prompting the National Weather Service to issue an extreme weather warning.
8. France without Dijon mustard? Mon dieu!
While France celebrated its most important national holiday, Bastille Day, the disappearance of mustard of supermarkets has caused great unrest. A perfect storm of climate change, the war in Ukraine and Covid have sent consumers scrambling and chefs to call online for reserve supplies of the spice.
The main culprit is a deficiency of the brown seeds that make mustard, well, mustard. At least 80 percent of them are from Canada and a heat wave last year cut seed production by 50 percent. France consumes about 2.2 pounds of mustard per year per inhabitant, making it the largest consumer in the world.
9. “The Devil Wears Prada.” “The mail.” “Big Little Lies.” “Don’t look up.”
Meryl Streep wears glasses with all of the above and creates “hugely satisfying” scenes. Amanda Hess, our critic in general, writes about Streep’s one weird trick with reverence.
“It’s amazing how often our most celebrated film actress has built her performances on one of the most refined bits of the form,” she writes. “I’ve come to see glasses on Streep’s face like a Chekhov rifle: at some point you know they’re coming, and it’s going to be fantastic.”
From our comedy reviewer: Jason Zinoman watched the career of Janeane Garofalo, whose pioneering stand-up career has long been overshadowed. Maybe that’s why she’s still so sharp, he says.
10. And finally, woodpeckers in slow motion.
When you watch a woodpecker repeatedly bang its face against a tree, it’s hard not to wonder how its brain stays intact. Scientists have long believed that structures in and around a woodpecker’s skull absorb the shocks. Woodpeckers have even inspired the creation of shock absorbing materials such as football helmets.
But after that analyzing high-speed images, researchers have found that woodpeckers don’t absorb shock when pecking, which one said would have been “a waste of precious energy for the birds.” And they probably don’t have concussions either, because the pressure created by the impact of their tiny heads is much lower than what a primate concussion would cause.
Have a quick night.
Brent Lewis has assembled photos for this briefing.
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