BIG Wrap

(New York Times) Nearly five years to the day that an unprecedented heat dome descended on the Pacific Northwest, dozens of lawyers coalesced in a Portland courtroom this week to debate an extraordinary lawsuit that attempts to hold oil companies responsible for the deaths that resulted. The $50 billion lawsuit argues that the deadly heat dome — the most extreme heat event in the region’s recorded history — was a result of the defendants’ decades-long...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) The IRGC says its forces have destroyed eight US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, with the attacks described as retaliation for recent US attacks on Iranian facilities. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the Strait of Hormuz remains under total Iranian control for the next 30 days and any US attacks will only exacerbate the precarious situation.   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/6/28/iran-war-live-trump-threatens-tehran-as-us-bombs-sirik-qeshm-for-2nd-day

(Al Jazeera Media Network) International rescue teams have joined an urgent search for survivors in Venezuela, where people remain trapped under collapsed buildings after two devastating earthquakes on Wednesday. Countries from across the Americas – including Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Cuba and the United States – as well as the United Nations, continued on Friday to send search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the quakes. “To the Venezuelan people, to those whose loved...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States Supreme Court has sided with the maker of Roundup weedkiller in a ruling expected to block thousands of lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people the product could cause cancer. The ruling on Thursday was tied to a case that came before the justices after a tidal wave of litigation that included some multibillion-dollar verdicts against the global agrochemical manufacturer Bayer, a Germany-based company that acquired Roundup when it bought its original producer...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Iran will not be permitted to charge tolls or fees for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz under any final agreement with Washington, exposing one of the biggest points of friction in negotiations aimed at ending months of conflict across the Middle East. The dispute comes after Iran announced it would waive planned transit fees through the strait that crosses through its territorial waters...

(BBC News) Forty people have drowned in heatwave-related deaths in France since last Thursday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said, as temperatures hit record levels in several major cities and the heatwave reaches a peak in several European countries. "It's not something to be taken lightly, going swimming in unsupervised areas during a heatwave," Sports and Youth Minister Marina Ferrari told French radio. France, along with Spain and Italy, has been hardest hit by the heatwave...

(BBC News) France has issued red heatwave alerts for around half the country including Paris for Monday as a heatwave pushes temperatures towards record levels. On Sunday, temperatures in the southwestern city of Bordeaux hit 40C (104F). Earlier, French authorities banned alcohol consumption in public places during the annual Fête de la Musique, a national music festival that draws millions to the streets across the country. "For all events organised by the state and its agencies, instructions have been...

(BBC News) Italy's Giorgia Meloni has again hit back at US President Donald Trump on social media after he questioned her political popularity and repeated his claim that she asked "over and over" for a photo together. Trump said on Saturday that the prime minister was "doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity". He also accused her of not supporting US efforts to prevent Iran "from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon". In a statement...

(BBC News) The Iranian military says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz again over Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon. Iran said Israel's strikes in Lebanon are a breach of Tehran's agreement with the US to end the war. "Do not approach the Strait of Hormuz; otherwise, your security will be jeopardised," Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said. The US-Iran deal includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – a shipping channel through which about 20%...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Israel has continued to attack Lebanon after the new ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect, raising fears that Tel Aviv is trying to wreck the fragile agreement tied to wider efforts to end Middle East hostilities. On Friday, officials and diplomats from the United States and the Gulf separately told news agencies that the two sides agreed that a ceasefire would start at 4 pm local time (1300 GMT). Despite the ceasefire, at...