June 8, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1959, the United States Postal Service sent mail by a guided missile. Just before noon, a Regulus I missile, holding two small blue-and-red metal containers of mail, was launched from the USS Barbero submarine. The delivery was a success—the mail reached a Florida naval station in 22 minutes—but somewhat unsurprisingly, mail-by-missile never caught on.
QotD: "The firm support for Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un's leadership of the DPRK socialist cause will not change, and the firm determination to safeguard common interests and good strategic environment ... will not change,” China’s President Xi said in Pyongyang.
ISRAEL/IRAN/MIL – Iran and Israel say they have halted strikes on each other for now.
Iran and Israel said on Monday they had halted attacks on each other following an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump that they immediately "stop 'shooting'", though Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The wave of attacks over the past 24 hours marked the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since an April ceasefire, threatening to wreck Washington's efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than three-month war.
Oil prices - which had risen by as much as 5% after the flurry of attacks - later pared gains when Iran's military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over. The dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months.
A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran.
Israel struck Iranian targets after Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday. Tehran said its strikes were retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel hit a petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.
US/ISRAEL/LEBANON – Trump and Netanyahu’s rift over Lebanon is deepening.
An explosive new round of fighting highlighted the deep and growing disagreements between Israel and the U.S. over Lebanon, as President Trump tries to salvage a deal to end the broader war with Iran.
Iran has conditioned that deal on an end to the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and its militia ally, Hezbollah. Tehran upped the ante overnight by firing waves of missiles at Israel after Israel attacked Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Despite Trump’s effort to calm the growing tensions, Israel retaliated against targets in Iran including an important petrochemical facility, extending an exchange of fire that Iran warned could pull in energy facilities across the region.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” Trump said Monday morning on social media. Both combatants said they had ended their attacks.
The president had been briefed throughout Sunday as tensions between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran grew. He spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Israel retaliated against Iran and again on Monday after the exchange of fire, people familiar with the matter said.
PHILIPPINES/MOTHER NATURE – Powerful Philippine quake leaves at least 32 feared dead, survivors recount fear.
The death toll in a powerful 7.8‑magnitude earthquake off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Monday has risen to at least 32, with dozens of people injured, disaster officials said, as Manila stepped up search and rescue operations.
The quake, which triggered tsunami warnings across several countries, hit early in the morning about 20 km (12.4 miles) off the coast of Sarangani province, with tremors felt strongly across Mindanao and 420 km away in the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Residents in the worst-affected location, General Santos City, home to about 700,000 people, recalled the fear they felt as tremors shook the area, saying they were unlike anything they had experienced in the past.
"It was the first time I experienced something that strong, that I really couldn’t stop myself from tearing up. I thought about my children and my niece, what if something had happened to them?" said Jojo Calma, 44, who was driving his motorised tricycle taxi in front of a building when it collapsed.
PERU/ELECTIONS – Presidential election too close to call.
https://www.dw.com/en/peru-presidential-election-too-close-to-call/a-77458446
The results of Peru's presidential runoff were still up in the air on Monday morning, even though more than 90% of the votes had been counted.
Preliminary results show that right-wing conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori received approximately 50.5% of the vote, while left-wing politician Roberto Sanchez was on around 49.5%.
However, it was expected that Fujimori's lead would narrow. Votes from the capital, Lima, Fujimori's stronghold, are usually counted first. Meanwhile, Sanchez could gain ground in the final stretch as ballots from rural areas are tallied.
Exit polls and quick counts also suggested a tight finish. Late on Sunday, pollster Ipsos published an early tally showing Sanchez leading the race with 50.3%, compared to Fujimori's 49.7%. According to Ipsos representatives, this is a statistical tie.
CHINA/DPRK – China’s Xi vows unwavering support for North Korea’s Kim in rare Pyongyang visit.
"I am deeply pleased and also feel a special sense of closeness," Xi told Kim on his first international trip this year.
No matter how the international situation changed, he reaffirmed to Kim, China would continue to highly value its traditional friendship with North Korea, the summary showed.
"The firm support for Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un's leadership of the DPRK socialist cause will not change, and the firm determination to safeguard common interests and good strategic environment ... will not change," Xi added.
He was referring to the North's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The Chinese leader arrived to a red-carpet welcome from Kim and wife Ri Sol Ju, alongside a guard of honour, while children presented bouquets of flowers, video from Chinese state media showed.
A 21-gun salute was fired at the capital's Kim Il Sung Square, a site of military parades and state celebrations, as spectators dwarfed by huge portraits of the leaders chanted slogans and released balloons, the Xinhua news agency said.
Ties were at a "new historical starting point", Xi said earlier, before urging stronger exchanges in areas from diplomacy, law enforcement and the military to agriculture, trade, technology and construction.
LATVIA/UKR/RUS – Latvia: NATO jet shoots down stray drone.
https://www.dw.com/en/latvia-nato-jet-shoots-down-stray-drone/a-77456678
A French military Rafale fighter jet on Monday shot down a drone that entered Latvia's airspace from Russia, according to the Latvian military.
The French military jet that shot down the drone is stationed in Siauliai, Lithuania, as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission. Since 2004, the mission has patrolled the skies of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
Lithuanian military spokesperson Gintautas Ciunis told the AFP news agency that the incident happened at around 10 a.m. local time (0800 GMT).
Earlier on Monday, authorities warned people in several eastern Latvian regions to take shelter indoors due to an impending threat.
According to the Latvian army, the alert ended when the drone was shot down.
The Latvian Ministry of Defense said there have been no reports of property damage or injuries among local residents.
The military said the drone was a foreign aircraft that ended up in Latvian airspace as a result of "Russian electromagnetic warfare."
Initially, no further details were available.
UKRAINE/POLAND – Poland’s Tusk seeks calm and dialogue with Ukraine in row over army unit.
Poland's prime minister called for solidarity and talks between Warsaw and Kyiv on Monday after diplomatic relations deteriorated over the naming of a Ukrainian army unit after nationalist insurgents who massacred Poles in World War Two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy caused outrage in Poland last month by renaming an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that fought in the 1939-45 war.
The dispute has dragged Ukraine's relations with one of Kyiv's staunchest supporters since Russia's 2022 invasion to a new low as Kyiv seeks to bolster support for its efforts to join the European Union.
A Polish advisory body was meeting on Monday to discuss a proposal by Polish President Karol Nawrocki that Zelenskiy should be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour.
Tusk called for direct talks between Nawrocki and Zelenskiy.
"Since diplomacy has yielded no results, I publicly appeal to Presidents @NawrockiKn and @ZelenskyyUa for a direct and honest conversation," Tusk, a political opponent of Nawrocki, wrote on X.
UKR/EUROPE – European leaders back Zelensky’s call for direct Russia talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received the backing of the leaders of the UK, France and Germany in calling for direct ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to a joint statement issued following defence talks in London on Sunday.
Zelensky met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at 10 Downing Street for talks as Russia's war has stretched into its fifth year.
The leaders "supported the proposal for a direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia – with active US and European participation – to bring about a ceasefire and support further negotiations", they said in a joint statement with Zelensky.
"The current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations," it said.
"International borders must not be changed by force."
Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an open letter on Thursday.
US/SCREWWORM – USDA confirms two more cases of New World screwworm in the US.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday confirmed two more cases of New World screwworm in Texas, involving a calf in La Salle County and a dog in Andrews County.
The USDA said epidemiological investigations are ongoing in both cases.
New World screwworm is a pest that threatens livestock, pets, wildlife, and, in rare cases, people, the USDA said.
A second case of the flesh-eating parasite was confirmed in Texas by the USDA on Friday, emerging just miles from where the first U.S. detection in decades was reported last week.
Screwworms are flies whose females lay eggs in open wounds on warm-blooded animals. Once hatched, larvae burrow into living flesh, feeding on tissue and potentially killing the host if left untreated.
The parasite has been moving north through Mexico for more than a year.
The U.S. has closed its borders to cattle imports for more than a year to stop the parasite spreading into border states. To curb its advance through Mexico, the U.S. has invested millions of dollars in measures such as building sterile fly production facilities, expanding trapping and increased livestock monitoring.
US/INTEL – Senators warn of intelligence gaps if surveillance program expires.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/us/politics/cotton-grassley-surveillance-program.html
Two senior Republican senators warned the Trump administration on Saturday to prepare for the possible expiration of a key tool for U.S. government surveillance, urging top officials to take steps to bridge any gaps in intelligence gathering.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the national security adviser, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the chair of the Intelligence Committee, and Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who leads the Judiciary Committee, said they believed that Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act may not be renewed before it expires on June 12, despite weeks of bipartisan negotiations aimed at preserving the program.
Those negotiations fell apart on Friday after Democrats refused to back a renewal because of concerns over President Trump’s recent appointment of Bill Pulte, a close ally and the federal housing director, to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies. The defeat left uncertain the future of Section 702, which allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets overseas — including when they are communicating with Americans.
In their letter, the senators urged the administration to identify intelligence targets that could be affected by a lapse, to explore alternative legal authorities to continue collecting intelligence and, if necessary, to draft an executive order to address the gap left by the expiration of the law. The letter was first reported by Punchbowl News.