Newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is making his maiden appearance on the international stage with a strong signal of support for Ukraine as he attends the NATO summit in Washington. After he and other European leaders met American lawmakers, Starmer sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday. They embraced and leaned in close, smiling, before holding private talks. Afterward, he reaffirmed Britain’s full-throated backing for Kyiv as it battles Russia’s invasion. Starmer said he and his new Labour government would “use our opportunity here with our allies to make sure that that support is agreed” by NATO’s members.

Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel from the Shas party emphasized the need for equal conscription into the IDF, asserting that “wearing a black kippah should not be a reason for exemption from military service.”
Speaking at the annual conference of the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University on Wednesday, Arbel stressed the importance of drafting every eligible individual, emphasizing the need to follow state laws.
This position is particularly significant given that the Shas Party has traditionally opposed mandatory IDF service for chareidi Torah students.

Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 Celsius) or greater amid a lengthening hot spell that is expected to broil much of the U.S. into the weekend. The temperature climbed to 115 shortly after 1 p.m. at Harry Reid International Airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days set in July 2005. And the record could be extended, or even doubled, by the weekend. Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking that Nevada’s largest city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented, with forecasters calling it “the most extreme heat wave” since the National Weather Service began keeping records in Las Vegas in 1937.

President Joe Biden met Wednesday with the executive council of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of trade unions, in an effort to shore up support from a critical constituency as he beats back continued calls to step aside in the 2024 campaign. “I think of you as my domestic NATO — not a joke,” the 81-year-old Democrat told the crowd gathered at headquarters. He extolled the power of unions and told them of his longstanding support for them, telling the crowd even Wall Street was acknowledging the power of unions, as he once again articulated his vision for an economy built “from the bottom up and middle out.” “I said I’m going to be the most pro-union president in American history,” Biden told the cheering crowd. “Well guess what?

Former President Donald Trump has issued a challenge to President Joe Biden: an 18-hole golf match at Trump’s Doral course in south Florida. Trump made the offer at a rally on Tuesday, even offering to give Biden 10 strokes a side and donating $1 million to a charity of Biden’s choice if he were to lose. The challenge comes after a heated discussion about their golf handicaps during their June 2 debate in Atlanta. Trump, an avid golfer, questioned Biden’s claim of having a golf handicap of six, which Biden later corrected to an eight. Trump’s handicap has been recorded as low as 2.5.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed the Knesset on Wednesday, revealing that 60% of Hamas terrorists have been eliminated after nine months of conflict in the Gaza Strip. In response to a question from Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal regarding Israel’s continued supply of electricity to Gaza, Gallant emphasized the military’s significant progress in weakening the terror group. According to Gallant, the Israeli military has successfully eliminated at least most of 24 Hamas battalions, dealing a substantial blow to the organization’s capabilities. Despite this progress, Gallant acknowledged that the war is ongoing, and Israel remains committed to achieving its goals.

According to a new report from Channel 12’s Amit Segal, an officer in the Israeli Air Force has admitted that refusals to serve due to the Judicial Reform protests harmed the air force’s readiness.
Lt. Col. Yaniv Even, commander of the Air Control and Flight School, admitted that there were reservists in sensitive positions within the IAF whose readiness was degraded due to missed training time.
Even said: “As soon as some time passes, you realize that the training needs to happen quickly,”
“There were quite a few reservists who were unfit for the task. And we needed to quickly build a training program for them, based on the knowledge we learned in the war, and put them through it one after the other.”