The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped to 4.2 percent in June, even as hiring slowed sharply and employers added far fewer jobs than economists had forecast, according to new Labor Department data released Thursday.

Despite the looming 2026 midterm elections and the growing list of congressional responsibilities, a persistent group of Republicans are vowing to obstruct all U.S. House business until leadership effectively forces the Senate to take up a voter ID bill.

Iran’s military command warned the United States and Israel on Thursday against launching any new attack as the Islamic Republic prepares a massive state funeral for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Israeli airstrikes on February 28 at the opening of the war.

The Ukrainian Red Cross said Thursday that one of its main humanitarian warehouses was destroyed in a large-scale Russian attack on Kyiv that killed at least 27 people and injured more than 90 others in the deadliest strike on the Ukrainian capital this year.

The Dutch centrist government came under mounting pressure Thursday after another municipality announced it would refuse to accommodate asylum seekers despite national legislation requiring local authorities to help shelter people fleeing war, persecution, and poverty.

The French government faced mounting political pressure Thursday after nearly 3,000 people were evacuated from wildfires in southern France, prompting Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to warn that this year’s fire season had begun weeks earlier than usual following a record-breaking heatwave blamed for killing thousands of people in France and neighboring Spain.

Turkey has condemned Israel for recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the systematic killing of some 1.5 million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, ahead of hosting next week’s NATO summit.

Israel marked 1,000 days since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre on Thursday with a day of mourning, protest, and national soul-searching, as bereaved families, survivors, former hostages, and demonstrators gathered across the country to remember the dead and demand accountability from the government.

President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to confront what officials describe as years of “weaponized” lawfare against American farmers, ranchers, and small businesses, with the Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration set to announce a new agreement Thursday aimed at protecting rural America from regulatory abuse.

A period of national mourning was underway in Venezuela on Thursday as hope of finding survivors faded following last week’s devastating twin earthquakes, with the official death toll nearing 2,000 and tens of thousands of people still unaccounted for.