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This morning’s 3-by-3 travels across a criminalized abortion bill in Brazil, a civil war-induced banking crisis in Yemen, a record-breaking Hollywood fundraiser for Biden, and more. Let’s fly!

Politics

• Israeli military allows daily pause for humanitarian aid

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced that it will cease fighting on a 7.5-mile route in Rafah between the hours of 8 AM and 7 PM every day, allowing humanitarian aid trucks to make deliveries to Palestinians in critical condition — many of whom have been deprived of consistent food since the Kerem Shalom crossing was blocked in early May. The UN received 68 trucks per day from May 6 to June 6, following Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, yet many aid groups indicate 500 trucks per day are needed. As President Biden pushes his proposal to end the war in Gaza (with no signs of adoption from either side yet), Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has publicly criticized IDF for enacting this “unacceptable” daily pause and reiterated the need to accomplish military goals.

• Brazilian bill would criminalize abortion after 22 weeks

Conservative lawmakers in Brazil’s lower house have expedited a bill that would, if passed, equate abortion after 22 weeks with homicide and increase the existing prison sentence for abortion from 1-3 years to 6-20 years in such cases. In a country where abortion is currently only permitted if the pregnancy was caused by rape, the mother’s life is at risk, or the fetus has an unfunctional brain, and where 61% of the rape victims in 2022 were under the age of 14, critics worry this bill would disproportionally criminalize these young girls who are less likely to detect the irregular indicators of pregnancy until after 22 weeks. Though Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva campaigned as anti-abortion and has been making efforts to reach Evangelicals, given that Christians make up the country’s voting majority, he and his wife have criticized the measure, stating that it is “insanity that someone wants to punish a woman with a sentence that’s longer than the criminal who committed the rape.”

• South African president reelected via historic coalition

Despite his African National Congress party losing its 30-year majority in parliament two weeks ago, South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has been reelected for a second term due to an unprecedented coalition deal with rival political parties. The Democratic Alliance is white-led and centrist, the country’s second-biggest party, and a long-time critic of the ANC, but it has agreed to co-govern the nation in its so-called “government of national unity” — likening to the unity government that Nelson Mandela formed when he became the nation’s first post-Apartheid president in 1994. With 2 other parties joining the coalition and others such as former President Jacob Zuma’s MK Party boycotting, analysts forecast that ideological conflicts will very likely arise in this “new birth” for South Africa.

Business

• Yemen’s civil war breaks the banks

An almost 10-year civil war between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels has resulted in a divide of the country’s banks and financial system, with the Houthis running the north and center and the government running the south. The resulting differences in currency and exchange rates have ceased liquidity throughout Houthi-controlled areas, leaving citizens unable to withdraw any money, reducing international financial transactions, and deepening poverty in the Middle East’s poorest country. Having designated these rebels as a global terrorist group in January, the U.S. is actively defending against Houthi attacks on shipping vessels in the Red and Arabian Seas and enduring the U.S. Navy’s most sustained combat since World War II — hesitant to hit back too hard and indirectly increase tensions with Iran.

• China & Australia restore trade with wine and pandas

Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Australia for the first time in 7 years to continue repairing a relationship that fractured during Australia’s previous conservative administration, leaving the island continent with a series of trade blocks in 2020 that cost it $30 billion annually. Since the current center-left government assumed power in 2022, Australia has seen almost every trade ban lifted and nearly restored its $790 million wine business with China — now hoping to end the last remaining ban on live lobster exports. With both countries appreciating the past two years of “very deliberate, very patient work… to bring about a stabilization of the relationship,” China has also promised to loan 2 new pandas to Australia’s Adelaide Zoo, consistent with the Asian nation’s long-standing and signature method of diplomacy.

• California lawsuit accuses Apple of underpaying women

Two employees have accused Apple of “intentionally, knowingly, and deliberately paying women less than men for substantially similar work,” filing a class action lawsuit that represents over 12,000 current and former female employees across the company’s engineering, marketing, and AppleCare teams. The plaintiffs, who individually discovered they were being paid less than their male counterparts, largely attribute the gender discrepancies to a biased performance evaluation system and the company’s practice of asking each employee for their pay expectation — a figure that women have been shown to set lower than men due to its correlation with prior pay and the unequal reaction they receive for negotiating aggressively. The class action law firms bringing this case have a successful track record in sex bias cases, having negotiated a $215 million settlement with Goldman Sachs last year and a $175 million settlement with Sterling Jewelers in 2022.

Culture

• Biden raises $30 million at Hollywood gala

President Biden left the G7 summit in southern Italy and flew straight to LA for a special conversation event with former President Obama, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel at the Peacock Theater and attended by Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Jack Black, and many more. Organized by Biden campaign co-chair and Hollywood executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, Biden raised a Democratic record-breaking $30 million while discussing his administration’s accomplishments to date and highlighting the significance of the upcoming election — with Biden and Obama notably focusing on the 2 Supreme Court seats at stake. In comparison, the Trump campaign’s record event raised $50.5 million at a billionaire’s Florida home in April, still cumulatively outpacing Biden’s by a substantial margin.

• Ukraine War likely to show up in Euro Cup

The European Cup (Europe’s largest international soccer tournament led by UEFA) is underway, and officials in host country Germany expect the Ukraine War to show up in the stands. Despite federation rules banning political statements in the stadiums, two Ukrainian qualifying games in March featured banners calling Russia a terrorist state and fans swearing at Vladimir Putin — for which Ukraine was fined $16,000 per expletive. With Russia banned from competing due to its military invasion, UEFA will fine $10,700 for a political banner or national anthem disturbance, and each country’s team will be financially responsible for the actions of its fans.

• George Strait plays America’s largest concert ever

Country star George Strait broke the record for the biggest ticketed concert in America, selling 110,905 tickets at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field and surpassing a 1977 concert by the Grateful Dead. Strait now holds the number one and two slots for highest attended concerts in a U.S. venue, not including music festivals such as Coachella or Summerfest. Compared to a younger star, Taylor Swift’s largest-ever crowd was 96,000 in Melbourne, Australia (which she sold three nights in a row).

Written by Outer Voice founders

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