| When will Sweden join NATO? |
| In less than a week, NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius, Lithuania. But the prime minister of Sweden will continue not to be among them, given the continued opposition of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Sweden’s membership. |
| Erdogan has blocked the bid, saying Sweden has harbored Kurdish exiles and refugees affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist group. Every other country has voted for Sweden’s inclusion — except Hungary, whose foreign minister said that his country would sign off once Turkey had done so. |
| The issue is critical for NATO, which is loath to show signs of internal division at the alliance’s annual summit, particularly as the war in Ukraine grinds on. Sweden broke from decades of neutrality after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year by seeking to join the alliance. |
| U.S.-Sweden relations: In a meeting at the White House, President Biden told Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden that he was “anxiously looking forward” to the country’s acceptance. The U.S. leader said he supported the sale of long-desired fighter jets to Turkey — but it is unclear what else might convince Erdogan to budge. |
 The aftermath of the Israeli military raid in Jenin.Alaa Badarneh/EPA, via Shutterstock |
| Israel’s incursion in the West Bank ends |
| The Israeli military’s 48-hour operation in the West Bank city of Jenin ended early yesterday morning, according to officials. The operation was one of the largest in many years against armed militant groups, but few on either side harbored any illusions, saying that the groups that had lost weapons and people to the incursion would rebuild and that the troops would be back. |
| Three decades after the Oslo peace process, prospects for peaceful coexistence or Palestinian statehood seem ever more remote. Underlying sources of Palestinian anger remain, including the West Bank occupation dating to the 1967 Middle Eastern war, continued encroachment by Jewish settlements and a lack of economic opportunity. |
| Ultranationalist members of Israel’s government reject any talks or political progress with the Palestinian leadership, which is weak, divided and unwilling or unable to police rising hotbeds of militancy. |
| The latest: Israeli analysts said the military had achieved tactical success in Jenin. But the episode lacked any deeper strategy and could spur even more violence and revenge attacks, others said. |
| Related: Young Palestinians fighting against Israel are recording farewell messages to their loved ones on their phones. |
 Ukrainian emergency rescue teams practicing a nuclear disaster drill in Zaporizhzhia.David Guttenfelder for The New York Times |
| Tensions surge around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant |
| Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of plotting to sabotage the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, which has become one of the war’s main flash points. The leader of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency called for greater access for inspections, even as analysts said that the immediate risk of serious harm to the facility appeared low. |
| President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, citing the country’s intelligence service, said that Russian troops who seized the plant last year had placed objects that look like explosives on the roof of several power units. A Kremlin spokesman said that Ukraine had planned to sabotage the plant and that Russia took measures to counteract the threat. |
| Separately, Ukraine’s military launched an overnight strike on the Russian-occupied city of Makiivka, demonstrating the ability to attack targets deep behind Russian lines, even as Ukraine’s troops fight in grueling trench warfare to reclaim land. |
| On the ground: Ukrainian authorities conducted drills last week to test their emergency response, though some residents in the city of Nikopol, just a few miles from the plant, said they had no plans to leave, in part because they have nowhere else to go. |
| THE LATEST NEWS Around the World |
 Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA, via Shutterstock |
| Four countries are taking Iran to the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the 2020 downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet and the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew.At least 16 people were killed in a gas leak at an informal housing encampment on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the police said.The tourist who etched a love note into a wall of the Colosseum in Rome apologized, saying he didn’t know that the site was ancient.An Israeli researcher missing for months in Iraq is being held by a Shiite militia linked to Iran, according to the office of Israel’s prime minister.King Charles III took part in a second coronation, purely ceremonial, in Scotland. |
| Other Big Stories |
 Thomas Trutschel/Photothek, via Getty Images |
| Germany plans to slash social benefits and rein in government debt but increase the amount spent on the military in 2024, according to a federal budget.The Secret Service is investigating who brought cocaine into a guest lobby of the White House.Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s long-rumored competitor app to Twitter, is here.The U.S. approved the construction of up to 98 wind turbine generators off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J. |
| A Morning Read |
 The New York Times |
| Bei Zhenying’s husband was brilliant, quirky and intensely private. But only after the Shanghai police took him away did she come to suspect that he might be an anonymous dissident blogger who had won fame while evading the surveillance state for years. |
| SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC |
| Loved, liked or admired? Novak Djokovic has won more Grand Slam titles than any other man, but why do people not warm to him as they do to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal? |
| How soccer managers get jobs: The way appointments are made has changed over the years. Data, presentations and extensive résumés play a key role. |
| Alessia Russo on joining Arsenal: The England forward talks about leaving Manchester United. |
| From The Times: The Paris St.-Germain soccer team said that Kylian Mbappé had to sign a new deal this summer — or leave. |
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
| The best films of 2023 (so far) |
| Our critics picked six films to watch this summer. Read the full list here. |
| “Asteroid City”: Wes Anderson’s latest follows the staging of a play about the goings-on in a small desert town in the 1950s. “The film is about desire and death, small mysteries and cosmic unknowns and the stories that we make of all the stuff called life,” Manohla Dargis writes. |
| “Sanctuary”: A wealthy heir and a longtime employee vie for control over their uncommon relationship in this twisty duet directed by Zachary Wigon. Jeannette Catsoulis’s take: “Sexual but not sexy, ‘Sanctuary’ is fantastically dynamic and emphatically theatrical.” |
| “Full Time”: In Éric Gravel’s film, a single mother who is the lead chambermaid of a five-star hotel in Paris must navigate the overwhelming demands of her routine. It “moves with the breathless tension of a Safdie brothers joint,” Beatrice Loayza writes. |
| What to Cook |
 Linda Xiao for The New York Times |
| This summer pasta is made with little more than fresh tomato sauce and good ricotta. |
