All The International Politics!

Heavy, acrid wildfire smoke blanketed much of the eastern United States on Saturday, marring preparations for the weekend's highly anticipated World Cup final to be held in an open stadium in New Jersey. Wildfires burning in Canada have sent noxious smog billowing across the border, with residents in New York, Washington, D.C., and the American Midwest urged to stay indoors because of dangerously poor air quality. At one point on Saturday, the smoke made New York the most polluted city in the world, followed closely by Toronto and Washington, according to air-quality tracker IQAir.

Organised by International Gay Rugby, the biennial competition attracts up to 4,000 players from around the world, with the Amanda Mark Cup for women’s teams also set to be part of the event. The bid is being led by Leeds Hunters, with support from Leeds City Council, the University of Leeds, the Leeds Rhinos Foundation and Leeds Tykes.

The US president made the remark on Tuesday (1 July) at the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, with Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump seated in the audience. Trump had been reflecting on the only two father-and-son pairs to receive the Medal of Honor, the US military’s highest award, Theodore Roosevelt and his son Theodore Roosevelt Jr, and Arthur MacArthur and his son Douglas MacArthur, before turning to his own sons, Donald Jr and Eric.

Cruz was present at the Stonewall Inn during the historic 1969 uprising that helped ignite the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. While she was described by The New York Times as having played a quieter role in comparison to activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, she became a deeply respected elder within New York’s transgender community over the decades that followed.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a key Republican who ‌went from a vocal critic of Donald Trump to one of his most loyal allies on Capitol Hill after Trump became president, has died at age 71. The South Carolina lawmaker died after a "brief and sudden illness," his office posted on X early on Sunday. NBC News said emergency personnel ​had responded to a call for cardiac arrest at his Capitol ​Hill home on Saturday night.

A diarrhea-causing parasite has led to a growing outbreak in the United States that has sickened more than 1,000 people and sent dozens to hospital.  As of Wednesday, multiple states had reported cyclospora infections, which can cause watery diarrhea, bloating, fever and nausea.  While cases are common in the spring and summer, the current outbreak has led to an unusually high number, making it one of the largest the country has seen. No deaths have been reported. 

A Canadian whose son was killed on the front lines of the Ukraine war is now working to help those whose loved ones are missing in action get answers. His new organization, called the International League of POW/MIA Families of the War in Ukraine, aims to establish a central body responsible for helping families around the world.

Speaking at the Attitude PRIDE Awards on 4 July, journalist Willoughby was asked if she had any hope for the trans community. “Not really. I get the impression that the Labour machine is too great to actually turn around,” she said. “Andy Burnham at the end of the day is one individual and we’ve already seen early signs that he’s having to comply and maybe water down his true feelings to actually get the gig as Prime Minister, which is really disappointing.”

A 25 June screenshot shared on the message board Resetera by user Neha showed a failed attempt to search for LGBTQ+-tagged titles on Steam’s Chinese interface; they were met with a warning stating that the content “violates local laws and regulations” and cannot be displayed. Another user on X posted a similar screenshot showing the same message on Steam.

Penalties for those found to be carrying out conversion therapy include up to five years in prison and unlimited fines, in the UK Government’s draft bill to ban the practice. The new trans-inclusive bill would criminalise “abusive acts” aimed at changing someone’s sexual orientation or transgender identity. The Cabinet Office said the legislation will ensure LGBTQ+ people are “protected from physical and psychological abuse to change who they are”.

The district has claimed that schools have been targeted for having 61 boys on the roster for girls’ sports teams. However, all of the names provided by the Department of Education are mascots, trainers or managers, leading the district to call the claims “simply not true”. Jeffco Public Schools issued a public letter that details an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) since it was launched in June 2025. The OCR is responsible for deploying Trump’s Title IX, which includes the lawful restriction of transgender athletes’ participation in school sports.

Harvey Weinstein won't face a fourth trial on a New York rape charge. Prosecutors dropped the #MeToo-era case on Thursday after his accuser said she could not bear to testify again. The movie mogul still stands convicted of another sexual felony in New York and others in California, and he remains behind bars. But the New York rape charge had remained unresolved after an overturned conviction followed by two hung juries.

Apple hiked iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry's data centre buildout. “The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge,” Apple said in a statement to CBC News. “We have never seen a ​component price increase this much, this quickly.” The company has shielded customers from increases thus far, it said. "But we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today's increases for ​iPad and Mac."

Rescuers are desperately searching through piles of rubble in Venezuela after the country was rocked by two powerful earthquakes on Wednesday, leaving scores of people dead and widespread destruction in a country already beset by economic and political turmoil. At least 589 people have died, 2,980 more have been injured and many remain missing in the largest earthquake event to hit the country in more than a century. The true extent of the toll is still feared to be much higher as crews dig through rubble and survivors are left on the street with nowhere to go.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced anti-government chants on Thursday, with attendees calling for his resignation during a speech at a military graduation ceremony in southern Israel, Anadolu reports. According to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the chants erupted during Netanyahu’s address at a graduation ceremony for combat officers at the Bahad 1 military base, home to the Israeli army’s officers training school.