Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here.
A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
The U.K.’s Labour party won the general election in a historic landslide win, ending the Conservative’s 14-year hold on power. Early today, outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded his party’s defeat – the worst ever in its 190-year history – and resigned. Center-left Keir Starmer will now become prime minister. Jack Blanchard and Andrew Mcdonald report for POLITICO.
Iran is heading to the polls today in a presidential election runoff that pits an anti-Western hard liner against a reformist. In the first round, which saw just 40% of the electorate vote, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian secured a 43% vote share, against 39% for conservative Saeed Jalili. Benoit Faucon and Aresu Eqbali report for the Wall Street Journal.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrived in Moscow today to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s government confirmed. The visit has been criticized by E.U. leaders, who stress that Orbán is not acting on behalf of the bloc. Jaroslav Lukiv reports for BBC News.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia next week and hold talks with Putin, the Kremlin confirmed yesterday. Relations between Moscow and New Delhi have become fraught since Russia began strengthening ties with India’s main rival, China, because of its war in Ukraine. Vladimir Isachenkov and Ashok Sharma report for AP News.
Peru’s Congress yesterday passed 15-12 a law introducing a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity. Human rights organizations oppose the law and argue the measure will hinder ongoing investigations into serious abuses. Reuters reports.
Brazil’s police have indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro for money laundering and criminal association relating to undeclared diamonds he received from Saudi Arabia while in office, according to a source. It marks Bolsonaro’s second indictment since leaving office, following another in May for allegedly falsifying his Covid vaccine certificate. Gabriela Sà Pessoa and Mauricio Savarese report for ABC News.
Russian authorities arrested a top military colonel and charged him with large-scale fraud, state media TASS reported. Artyom Gorodilov was previously the commander of the troops responsible for the 2022 Bucha massacre in Ukraine. A military court ordered Gorodilov be held in pretrial detention until Aug. 19. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, and has denied any wrongdoing. Paul Sonne reports for the New York Times.
Sweden’s foreign ministry said yesterday it will summon the Iraqi chargé d’affaires in Stockholm to protest the recent death sentences received by three Swedes in Iraq. All were related to a deadly shooting earlier this year, the foreign ministry said, adding that it has received information that a fourth Swedish citizen has also received a death sentence. AP News reports.
The man who stabbed South Korea’s opposition leader in the neck in January, the worst assault on a politician in the country in nearly two decades, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison. John Yoon reports for the New York Times.
A militia attack on a gold mine in northeastern Congo killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers, a civil society group said yesterday. A group known as the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, or CODECO, claimed responsibility for the attack. Voice of America reports.
A roadside bomb in Pakistan planted on a bridge killed two people and injured eight others today, officials said. No group has claimed responsibility at the time of writing. ABC news reports.
Senior members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian militant network blamed for the deadly Bali bombings, announced they are disbanding the group, according to a report yesterday by a Jakarta-based think tank. The report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict confirmed the authenticity of a June 30 video statement by 16 Jemaah Islamiyah leaders announcing they were disbanding. CNN reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call yesterday “it is time to close” a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza. White House officials say they want to take advantage of Hamas’s positive response to the latest proposal to close the remaining gaps. A senior Biden administration official said there was now a broad agreement about the steps required to transition from phase one, a temporary ceasefire, to phase two, a permanent end to the fighting and a hostage release. Barak Ravid reports for Axios; Aaron Boxerman, Michael D. Shear, and Thomas Fuller report for the New York Times.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
On the same day International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan announced arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders, he canceled a sensitive mission to collect evidence in the region, sources told Reuters. Planning for the visit to Gaza, Jerusalem, and Ramallah to collect on-site evidence of war crimes had taken months to coordinate with U.S. officials, four sources said. The sudden cancellation, which upended these plans, angered both Washington and London. Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den Berg and Humeyra Pamuk report.
One of the largest hospitals in southern Gaza, the European Hospital in Khan Younis, is “now completely empty” after medical staff, patients, and their families fled the facility following an Israeli evacuation order, according to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Annabelle Timsit, Hazem Balousha, and Anika Arora Seth report for the Washington Post.
The Israeli military said today it was conducting counterterrorism activity that included an airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin. The Palestinian ministry of health said five people were killed. AP News reports.
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
A Virginia school board member who rejected calls to resign over his presence inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty this week and was sentenced to 12 days in jail. Miles Adkins, a former U.S. marine, also received two years of probation for misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct during the riot, after admitting he stormed the Capitol and helped a rioter enter through a smashed window. Spencer S. Hsu reports for the Washington Post.
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH TENSIONS
Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched more than 200 rockets into northern Israel in response to Israel’s killing of one of its senior commanders. The Israeli military said one of its officers was killed in the barrage. Lebanese media reported that one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Houla. David Gritten reports for BBC News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS
Russian troops have taken control of parts of Chasiv Yar, a key hilltop town in eastern Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry said yesterday. The town is seen as a gateway to the parts of the Donetsk region that are still in Ukraine’s hands. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military said its forces had retreated from the district after their defensive positions were destroyed. Ivana Kottasová, Daria Tarasova-Markina and Radina Gigova report for CNN.