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South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and his wife, Kim Hye Kyung, are pictured at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Aug. 24, 2025, before flying to Washington, D.C., USA.

Kyodo via Reuters Connect

What We’re Watching: South Korea’s Lee to meet Trump, Israel offers withdrawal for Hezbollah disarmament, Maryland man now headed to Uganda

Lee-Trump meeting to center on China

South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung visits Washington, D.C., with plenty on his agenda as he meets US President Donald Trump. Top of the list will be China. Unlike his predecessors, Lee wants to boost ties with Beijing – he even said Seoul should stay out of any China-Taiwan conflict. Meanwhile Trump wants South Korea to bolster its forces so that the American troops stationed there can focus on containing China rather than helping defend the locals from North Korea – this, unsurprisingly, worries Seoul. Trump’s post this morning about there being a “Purge or Revolution” in South Korea won’t help, either. Lee’s charm offensive has already begun, with the use of Trump’s (likely) favorite attire: a red hat.

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Hard Numbers: Starlink glitch hits Ukraine, Fake ambassador gets real cash in India, French president sues over “she’s a man” scandal, and more…

2.5: Ukraine’s military communications were down for 2.5 hours last night, during a global outage of Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals. Ukraine relies heavily on Starlink because of their resistance to Russian espionage and signal jamming. But that comes at a cost: a new report says that in 2022 Musk ordered the company to deactivate over 100 terminals during a pivotal Ukrainian counteroffensive.

52,095: Wait, you’ve never heard of the country of “Westarctica”? How about “Seborga”? Indian authorities have arrested a man who posed as an ambassador – replete with credentials and diplomatic license plates – from both fictional states. His grift? Scamming people for money in exchange for fake jobs abroad. As part of the raid, authorities recovered $52,095 in cash from the bogus embassy he ran on the outskirts of New Delhi.

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People walk out of the West Wing of the White House with "The Epstein Files: Phase 1" binders, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2025.

REUTERS

What We're Watching: Trump under fire for Epstein scandal, Brazil raids Bolsonaro's home​, North Korean beaches close to foreigners

Trump, under GOP pressure, orders release of Epstein materials

“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” US President Donald Trump reportedly wrote in a 2003 note to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump says the letter is “fake” and has threatened to sue media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Journal. But after days of claiming that the Epstein case was a “hoax” – despite promising to publicize the files during his 2024 campaign – Trump instructed the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony from the Epstein prosecution. This falls short of some MAGA demands for the release of all investigative materials, but Trump is under pressure: 62% of Republicans now believe he is hiding Epstein’s “client list.” Could the scandal undermine Trump’s vice-like hold on his own party?

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- YouTube

The dangerous new nuclear arms race

Is the world entering a new, dangerous nuclear era? China is expanding its stockpile of nuclear warheads at an alarming rate. Russia continues to rattle its nuclear saber in Ukraine. Even US allies are publicly and privately questioning whether they need their own nuclear deterrent.

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- YouTube

Do nuclear weapons make a country safer?

Does acquiring nuclear weapons make your country safer? It’s a difficult question. On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks back to the 1990s and a tale of two radically different nuclear—Ukraine and North Korea.

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a televised message, after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025.

Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

What We’re Watching: Khamenei emerges from bunker, North Korea opens beach resort, & More

Iran’s leader reappears, but big challenges await

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has finally emerged from his bunker, delivering a public video message for the first time since the United States bombed three key nuclear sites in his country last weekend. The Ayatollah claimed “victory” and sought to downplay the effects of the US strikes. His week-long absence had reportedly left many Iranians worried. He faces a myriad of challenges now, including reasserting his power in the wake of Israel’s wave of assassinations of top commanders and aides. He also will need to decide what’s next for Iran’s damaged nuclear program.

Putin and Xi to miss BRICS summit

In a week where the alliance between Europe and the US rebounded at the NATO summit, the premier Global South grouping appears to be trending in the opposite direction: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will skip the BRICS summit, which starts on July 6. Putin is wary of his outstanding war crimes arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, while Beijing says Xi won’t go because he’s already met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva twice in the last year. Brasilia sees this as a snub.

North Korea to open… a beach resort.

Looking for a last-minute summer get-away? Seeking a quiet spot that’s off the beaten track? The new Wonsan Kalma beach resort in North Korea might be just the place for you! Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un hopes the coastal enclave, formerly a missile-testing site, will help to boost tourism. The idea was born seven years ago, in part because of Donald Trump’s musings about the appeal of North Korean beaches. The resort will officially open on July 1.

By the way, it just so happens that GZERO’s puppet satire series PUPPET REGIME actually has a song about this – you can rock along on Instagram or YouTube.

People demonstrations outside the Supreme Court against gender-affirming care for transgender children in Washington, DC, on December 4, 2024. The Court is hearing oral arguments in the United States vs. Skirmetti, which challenges Tennessee’s ban on transgender care for minors. The ruling could affect the 26 states that criminalize gender-affirming care for children.

(Photo by Allison Bailey/NurPhoto)

HARD NUMBERS: SCOTUS affirm transition care ban, OpenAI dons combat boots, and more

6-3: In a 6-3 vote with national implications, the US Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for children, deciding that it doesn’t contravene the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Tennessee is one of 25 states that have banned gender transition care for minors.

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Israeli police dispersed a demonstration in West Jerusalem in which Israelis gathered to demand an end to the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, on April 9, 2025.

Saeed Qaq/Reuters Connect

HARD NUMBERS: Deadly Israeli strike hits Gaza, UK nabs Universal theme park, US visa clampdown crosses threshold, North Korea gets combat lessons, Pleas for release of activist

23: An Israeli airstrike hit a residential area in northern Gaza on Wednesday, reportedly killing 23 people, according to local health officials. A Hamas-run health ministry said that eight women and eight children were among the dead. Israel said it had struck a senior Hamas militant. Meanwhile, in West Jerusalem, police dispersed demonstrators who gathered to protest the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza and the killing of Palestinian emergency workers.

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