Coming Up This Week

• Cuba's foreign ministry announced Friday that four Russian navy ships will dock in Havana this week. The ministry was quick to clarify that the visit is a friendly one and isn't intended to spark a new Cuban Missile Crisis: "None of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region."
• G7 leaders meet in Puglia, Italy from Thursday to Saturday.
• Following the G7 meeting, Switzerland will host many of the same world leaders for a peace summit on Ukraine. Pres. Zelensky said he hoped the meeting would help accelerate a "just end" to the war, but he also accused Russia of leaning on Chinese diplomats to dissuade other Asian countries from participating.

Commodity Prices

• Aluminum: $2,578/ton
• Antimony (ingot min. 99.65% fob China): $22,400/ton
• Cobalt: $27,150/ton
• Copper: $9,763/ton
• Gold: $2,293/toz
• Lead: $2,200/ton
• Natural Gas (Nymex): $2.99/MMbtu
• WTI Crude Oil (Nymex): $75.67/barrel
• Zinc: $2,767/ton

Gaza

• Israel rescued four hostages in Gaza on Saturday - but was criticized for its heavy-handed rescue operation. Hamas said Israeli troops killed 274 Gazans - and three hostages - during the rescue effort; and Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan condemned the incident.
• Israel said some of the hostages it rescued were being held in the home of a journalist, Al Jazeera reporter Abdallah Aljamal (who was killed in the raid, along with his wife and father). Israel has frequently accused Al Jazeera of sympathizing or collaborating with Hamas, and this latest claim - if true - would seem to support its case against the Qatari media outlet.
• Separately, the UN added Israel and Hamas to its list of countries and militaries that have violated children's rights. The UN Security Council could choose whether to punish countries on the list, but the U.S. will probably veto any sanctions against Israel.
• Centrist minister Benny Gantz made good on his threat to leave PM Netanyahu's government if Netanyahu failed to address key concerns - like the lack of a clear post-war plan for Gaza - by Saturday (June 8). Netanyahu ignored Gantz's ultimatum, and Gantz duly resigned yesterday.
• Gantz's departure won't break Netanyahu's government, but it will leave Netanyahu more dependent on the far-right and ultra-orthodox partners remaining in his fragile coalition. It will also deprive the U.S. of its most reliable senior partner in the Israeli government.

Iran

• Iran's Guardian Council approved six candidates to run in presidential elections on June 28. All but one of them are staunch conservatives, and the sole approved reformist candidate - former health minister and deputy parliament speaker Masoud Pezeshkian - has no real chance of winning.
• The council - which is made up of conservative clerics - disqualified all of the remotely liberal (by Iranian standards) candidates who sought to run, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Afghanistan

• Al Qaeda's propaganda arm, As Sahab, released new pamphlets entitled "This is Gaza: A War of Existence, Not a War of Borders."
• In the pamphlets, Sayf Al Adl - who is believed to be the terror group's current leader - called on new foreign recruits to "go to Afghanistan, learn from its conditions, and benefit from [the Taliban’s] experience."
• The invitation to train for jihad in Afghanistan suggests the country remains a safe haven for terrorists.

DRC

• Suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels killed at least 80 people in three villages in North Kivu on Friday. The ADF has been on a violent run in the province lately, killing at least 30 others in separate attacks over the past two weeks.

North Korea

• South Korea reinstalled loudspeakers along its border with North Korea and resumed broadcasts of propaganda and K-pop to the sheltered citizens of its belligerent northern neighbor.
• Analysts worry that the broadcasts will provoke North Korea's Kim Jong Un into fresh retaliation - perhaps including new missile launches.

Belt and Road

• India's ministry of mines said it is in talks with several African countries - namely, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe - about forming critical mineral partnerships.
• Analysts see India's initiative as a way to reduce the country's reliance on a rival - China - for critical minerals like cobalt, nickel, graphite, and uranium.
• The UAE is similarly seeking to carve out a share of Africa's critical mineral supply: Emirates Global Aluminum just signed a non-binding agreement with the military junta in Guinea to build an alumina refinery - Guinea's second (the first is operated by Russia's Rusal) - for around $4 billion. This project will have a Chinese partner, though.

Other News

• Germany and France both saw a surge in support for far-right candidates in European parliamentary elections that ended yesterday. Pres. Macron of France called for fresh elections after his centrist party received less than half the support that Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party received.
• Iraq said it was close to reaching an agreement with semi-autonomous Kurdistan to restart oil production in the north, after a hiatus of over a year that arose from a spat with Egypt and Turkey over payments.