June 23, 2026 - Daily News Digest

On this day: in 2016, The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.

QOTD: “We’re doing very well in terms of negotiating a fair and reasonable deal,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “Money that’s being unfrozen is going to be used to buy food, and the food is going to be bought exclusively through the United States from our farmers, and corn, soybeans, all of the things they need are going to be bought from our farmers,” he said.

IRAN/US/PAKISTAN - Iran President Visits Pakistan After Historic Deal With US
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-23/iran-president-to-visit-pakistan-following-historic-deal-with-us

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday for talks with Pakistani officials about how to deepen the relationship between the two countries following the US-Iran truce that Pakistan helped mediate.

Pezeshkian was greeted at Islamabad’s Noor Khan Air Base by a delegation of top Pakistani leaders, including his counterpart Asif Ali Zardari as well as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Traveling with the Iranian team was Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and other officials.

The two sides are set to discuss ongoing diplomatic engagements following the deal’s signing, as well as regional and international developments of mutual interest, Pakistan said Monday evening. They will also explore deeper cooperation in areas such as trade, energy, border security, people-to-people exchanges and regional connectivity.

The visit is a sign of bolstered ties between the neighboring countries after Pakistan’s central role in mediating the US-Iran conflict. The war launched by the US and Israel in February upended global energy supplies, pushed oil prices to almost two-decade highs and left thousands dead. Pakistan is heavily reliant on the Strait of Hormuz for its energy needs and was hit hard by the war’s economic fallout.

MORE: Iran says technical talks with US in Switzerland conclude successfully
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/23/iran-says-technical-talks-with-us-in-switzerland-conclude-successfully

Iran says technical talks in Switzerland with the United States and mediators have concluded successfully, paving the way for the next phase of negotiations aimed at ending their more than 100-day war.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who led Iran’s technical negotiating team, said the four-party talks concluded with an agreement on arrangements for future negotiations, including working groups and implementation mechanisms, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Gharibabadi said the discussions followed a high-level committee meeting held on Sunday to monitor the implementation of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, a framework agreement signed virtually by the US and Iranian presidents on June 17 to end the war.

“Technical discussions were held to determine the implementation mechanisms of the memorandum of understanding and the statement issued at the conclusion of the high-level meeting, and the necessary understandings were reached,” he said.

Earlier, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf said an agreement has been reached with the US to release $12bn in frozen Iranian assets.

US President Donald Trump says those funds will be used to buy US produce.

LATAM/POL - Latin America Is Moving Further to the Right. Here’s What That Looks Like
https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/how-latin-america-became-more-trump-aligned-than-ever-0c2a1910?mod=world_lead_pos4

The election of Abelardo de la Espriella as Colombia’s president marks another step in Latin America’s transformation into a region more deeply aligned with the political style and policy priorities of President Trump.

From the Andes to Central America, new leaders are taking power with populist mandates centered on free-market economic policies and iron-fisted security strategies.

This pivot is fueled by anti-incumbent sentiment after years of sluggish economic growth and, for some countries, a surge in transnational organized crime. The Trump administration now finds itself with an unprecedented network of eager partners willing to cooperate on aggressive antimigration enforcement and joint counternarcotics operations.

This ideological group also offers the U.S. a counterweight to try to block Chinese economic expansionism in the region.

Latin America’s two biggest countries—Brazil and Mexico—remain run by leftist governments, though both have working relations with Trump. Brazil’s presidential election on Oct. 4 could tip the region even further into the Trump orbit if Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, edges out President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Here is a look at the wave of Trump-aligned Latin American leaders to take power since he assumed office last year.

CHINA/INDIA/POL - India says ties with China normalising as top officials meet in Delhi
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-says-ties-with-china-normalising-top-officials-meet-delhi-2026-06-22/

Indian National Security Adviser ​Ajit Doval spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister ‌Wang Yi on Monday on the sidelines of a BRICS National Security Advisers' meeting in New Delhi, India's ​foreign ministry said.

Here are some details:

India, chair ​of the BRICS group, is hosting a ⁠meeting of the BRICS national security advisers in ​New Delhi on Monday and Tuesday.

India's foreign ministry ​described the talks between Doval and Wang as "constructive and forward-looking".

The two leaders discussed recent developments in their relationship and 'noted ​progress towards gradual normalisation', according to the ​statement.

Relations between the neighbours improved in 2024, ending years of ‌friction ⁠that began with a border clash in 2020.

"We must respect each other's core interests, properly handle sensitive issues", Wang said in a Chinese foreign ​ministry readout.

Wang ​urged the ⁠resumption of bilateral dialogue mechanisms, and promoting exchanges in trade, finance, law ​enforcement and media.

Wang also said the BRICS ​mechanism ⁠should actively advocate the promotion of the multi-polarisation process.

BRICS brings together founders, Brazil, Russia, India, China ⁠and ​South Africa as well as ​other, more recent joiners.

UK/POL - Andy Burnham prepares for a UK Labour leadership contest that may be a coronation
https://apnews.com/article/andy-burnham-uk-labour-leadership-contest-starmer-693acb49a71838b7acf3f8fa4663f8bc

Andy Burnham, Britain’s newest lawmaker and likely its next prime minister, was meeting Labour Party colleagues on Tuesday, in preparation for a leadership contest in which he may be the only contender.

Burnham is the strong front-runner to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced Monday that he would step down within weeks after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

Burnham, a former Cabinet minister who served since 2017 as mayor of Greater Manchester, won a special election last week for a seat in Parliament with the express aim of challenging Starmer for the leadership.

Burnham’s chances got a big boost on Monday when former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who was considered his main rival, announced his support.

The U.K. parliamentary system allows governing parties to change leaders — and thus prime ministers — without the need for a national election. The next general election doesn’t have to be held until 2029.

Nominations for the Labour leadership will open on July 9 and close a week later. If Burnham is the only contender, he could be prime minister by July 17. If there is a contest, the winner should be in place by the time Parliament returns from its summer break on Sept. 1.

EUROPE/FRANCE/WEATHER - France records hottest-ever night as 40 drown trying to escape heatwave
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/23/about-20-drown-in-france-trying-to-escape-heatwave-sweeping-much-of-europe

At least 40 ⁠people have drowned in France while swimming in unsupervised areas to seek relief from a heatwave gripping the country and other parts of Europe.

Speaking after a crisis meeting on Tuesday as France recorded its hottest-ever night, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the death toll since Thursday was mainly young people.

“They are the first victims of the crisis we are facing,” he said, calling the fatalities a “tragic scourge” on a day when temperatures in most of the country are forecast to reach about 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

His comments came after Sports Minister Marina ⁠Ferrari told France ⁠Inter radio that “to go swimming in unauthorised areas during a ‌heatwave is not something to take lightly”.

Separately, local authorities said the heatwave was the most likely reason for the deaths of two children aged two and four who were found unconscious in a car outside their home in Carpentras in southeastern France.

Three more people aged 80 to 95 died in the Bordeaux region from heat-related health issues, local official Sophie Brocas told France TV.

MYANMAR/THAILAND - Over 5,000 people trapped in Myanmar scam centres near Thai border, rights group says
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/over-5000-people-trapped-myanmar-scam-centres-near-thai-border-rights-group-says-2026-06-23/

More than 5,300 people are still trapped in online scam centres near Myanmar's Thai border, a human rights group said, over one year after thousands were freed during a multinational crackdown in the region.

In a June 22 letter to Thai ​police urging them to take action, the Civil Society Network for Human ​Trafficking Victim Assistance (CSNHTV) said many of those trapped were foreign nationals held ⁠at four locations inside areas controlled by a Myanmar militia.

The group estimates that the ​people trapped include around 1,600 Chinese nationals, some 200 Burmese, 20 Thais as well ​as citizens from the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brazil, Russia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.

Scam centres in Southeast Asia, including those in Myanmar and Cambodia, run illegal online schemes that defraud people worldwide and ​generate billions of dollars of annual revenues, according to the United Nations.

Many of these facilities, ​such as those along parts of the Myanmar-Thailand border, are operated by foreign nationals trafficked there ‌by ⁠criminal gangs, often working in oppressive environments and subjected to abuse.

KENYA/US/HEALTH - Kenya says it's halting US-backed Ebola quarantine center
https://www.dw.com/en/kenya-health-minister-says-halting-us-backed-ebola-quarantine-center/a-77672493

Kenya's Health Minister Aden Duale assured a Kenyan court on Tuesday that he had ordered an immediate halt to the construction of a US-backed Ebola quarantine facility at an air base.

Duale had been found in contempt of court on Monday for failing to observe previous orders to suspend the construction pending an evaluation by the judiciary.

The tented facility in the central town of Nanyuki was supposed to serve as a treatment center for US nationals should any contract Ebola amid the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The plans to build it, first announced in May, had led to sometimes violent protests, with a total of three people being killed in the vicinity.

ISRAEL/GAZA/UN - Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-targeted-gaza-children-resulting-genocide-un-inquiry-says-2026-06-23/

Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting ​in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, an independent U.N. inquiry said ‌on Tuesday.

The report by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Around 30% of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found.

A previous report by the commission in September found that Israel had committed genocide ​in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited these acts — accusations that Israel called scandalous.

Israel's mission in Geneva said Israel ​rejected what it called the Commission's "second defamatory advocacy report".

"Israel dismisses this libelous sham," it said in a statement, adding that "every child ⁠deserves protection" and asserting that the report ignored "the brutal tactics of Hamas".