Good Thursday morning! A cyberattack shuts down car dealerships; Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un have signed a pact; And, it’s World Refugee Day, we dive into the state of displacement around the world.

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Good morning,

The Summer Solstice is here, marking the astronomical first day of summer. That means today is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (most daylight, least darkness).

According to the National Weather Service, the summer solstice will occur today at 4:51 PM ET. That’s when the sun reaches its most northern point in the sky for the entire year.

Fun fact: it’s the earliest summer solstice in 228 years. You’d have to go back to June 20, 1796. George Washington was president.

Moral of the story: hope you enjoy the sunlight!

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

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📌 RUSSIA AND NORTH KOREA SOLIDIFY PARTNERSHIP

Kim Jong Un pulled out all the stops for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea yesterday. It was flamboyant and theatrical, intact with limo rides, roaring crowds in the thousands, and massive public portraits.

DETAILS OF THE DEAL
Russia and North Korea, two of the West’s biggest adversaries, signed a mutual defense pledge to aid each other if either country were to face “aggression.” It’s raising eyebrows as Russia desperately looks for allies amid its war in Ukraine – and both countries face sharper tensions with the United States.

The text of the deal was not released specifying what “mutual assistance” would be in the event of aggression, like military or monetary aid. But observers are calling it the strongest pact between Moscow and Pyongyang since the Cold War.

DESPERATE TIMES…
Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has increasingly found himself isolated from the West and has worked overtime to strengthen his ties to world leaders who support his war – like China and North Korea. And now, as the war he thought would be over in two days has eclipsed two years, Putin is in dire need of help from the friends he has left to see it through.

The answer: an arms agreement with North Korea that gives Russia the weapons it desperately needs, in exchange for money or new technology that could enhance North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

📌 WORLD REFUGEE DAY: MILLIONS IMPACTED BY CRISES AROUND THE WORLD

This World Refugee Day we want to take a moment to look at the millions of people forced to flee their homes due to the impacts of wars, violence, or persecution. The annual UN day is meant to celebrate the strength and courage of refugees, this year with a special focus on solidarity.

In 2023, over 117 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced — the 12th consecutive year that the number has risen.

CHARTING THE NUMBERS
According to the newly released Global Trends report from the UN’s refugee agency, 1 in every 69 people on Earth have been forced from their homes. Just a decade ago, about 1 in 125 people shared a similar fate.

• That means, the proportion of the global population with the status has nearly doubled in 10 years.

  

  Charting growth from 2000 to 2023. Via: UNHCR.

• The “forcibly displaced” category includes refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people.

  • Internally displaced people, or individuals who aim to escape conflict while remaining in their home country, have seen the biggest rise. Over five years, this number has increased by nearly 50%.

LOOKING AT THE CONFLICTS
Syria remains the largest displacement crisis worldwide — amounting to almost 14 million people — due to fighting inside the country that began in 2011. Sudan is the largest active humanitarian crisis, with more than 9 million people currently displaced.

• The report highlights “key displacement situations” in Myanmar, due to poverty and escalating violence, Afghanistan’s internal displacement and food insecurity, and two decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• The Gaza Strip has seen the vast majority of its population internally displaced in the past year — 1.7 million people of just over 2 million — due to the war between Israel and Hamas.

🇸🇩 SPOTLIGHT ON SUDAN

The war in Sudan, described as "one of the most catastrophic ones" despite getting less attention and media coverage than other crises, has left more than 9 million people internally displaced and another 2 million fleeing to neighboring countries.

• Five million of them are children; 2.1 million are under five years old.

The UN estimates that almost 14,000 people have been killed in Sudan since a civil war broke out in April of last year between the country's two most powerful generals. But, with large parts of the country too dangerous for aid workers to access, that figure is expected to be much higher.

THE CONFLICT
Sudan’s armed forces, led by the country’s president, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, are battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by former VP, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. It has pit Arab militias against Darfur's poorly-armed Black indigenous communities.

• The RSF is accused of ethnic cleansing, kidnappings, and genocide.

  • About 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – are in need of humanitarian aid.

  • Aid agencies have struggled to raise funds to support those in and around Darfur, while trucks that attempt to deliver goods have been blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted and detained.

  • Last week, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding that the paramilitary force stop its siege on an area in Darfur where more than a million people are said to be trapped. But, there is no end in sight.

🗺️ WHERE PEOPLE GO AS AMERICA CRACKS DOWN ON ASYLUM SEEKERS

Of the millions of refugees, only about 24% are hosted by high-income countries. It comes as the Biden administration recently cracked-down on asylum claims at the US-Mexico border.

WHERE PEOPLE GO
When forced to leave their country, over two thirds of refugees land in countries across the border. Turkey and Iran mostly host refugees from Syria.

• Lebanon has the most refugees per-capita in the world, with an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, or one in four people. Jordan has the second-highest, with 2 million registered Palestinian refugees and over 760,000 people from Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.

AMERICAN SUPPORT
149 countries have agreed to provide refugees with protections under the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention. It asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.

• The US has faced the “most complex challenge” when it comes to refugees of any country in the developed world — alluding to an influx across the US-Mexican border.

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 Tropical Storm Alberto, first of the season, threatens Texas with severe flooding. (NBC NEWS)

📌 California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to take smartphones out of schools. (POLITICO)

📌 Scorching temperatures making life miserable for millions from Midwest to New England (DAILY NEWS)

📌 Massive underwater drone skates off California coast (AXIOS)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 Head of Lebanon's Hezbollah threatens Israel and Cyprus (REUTERS)

📌 Iran signals a major boost in nuclear program at key site (WASHINGTON POST)

📌 Two environmental protesters arrested after spraying Stonehenge with orange paint (USA TODAY)

📌 China changed village names to erase Uyghur Muslim culture(BBC)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 US mortgage rates drop below 7% for first time since March (BLOOMBERG)

📌 Boeing sent two astronauts into space. Now it needs to get them home. (WSJ)

📌 Cyberattack shuts down auto dealerships across the U.S. Here's what to know. (CBS NEWS)

📌 Pilots warned smoke could penetrate cabin if Boeing 737 Max planes have a bird strike. (CNN)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Willie Mays, San Francisco Giants legend and MLB all-time great, is dead (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE)

📌 Post Malone sets August release date for new album, ‘F-1 Trillion’. (VARIETY)

📌 Netflix to open massive entertainment, dining and shopping complexes in two cities in 2025 (VARIETY)

📌 Billy Joel reacts to Justin Timberlake’s DWI arrest near his Hamptons home: ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’ (NY POST)

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🗓 ON THIS DAY: JUNE 20

• 1941: The Ford Motor Company signed its first contract with autoworkers’ union.

• 1963: The “Red Telephone”— a hotline between the US and the Soviet Union — was installed. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was to allow the nations’ leaders to directly communicate in the event of a nuclear crisis.

• 1972: President Richard Nixon met with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, at the White House and secretly tapped it. The tape, made three days after the arrest of the Watergate burglars, ended up with a 18.5-minute gap.

• 1975: Steven Spielberg's ‘Jaws’ was released in theaters.