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Deadly flooding is once again testing communities across eastern Kentucky as emergency crews race to rescue stranded residents, while President Trump escalates trade tensions with a sweeping tariff threat aimed at countries taxing American tech giants.

We'll also examine his new ICE director nominee, the latest cracks in the Gulf ceasefire, breakthroughs from Mars and the space economy, and the World Cup upsets reshaping the knockout bracket.

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Governor Andy Beshear said emergency crews were pulling residents from flooded homes and vehicles across eastern Kentucky on Saturday, with at least one person confirmed dead and more rain forecast through the weekend. Several counties reported road washouts and stranded drivers as creeks burst their banks.

Beshear declared a state of emergency and urged residents in low-lying areas to move to higher ground immediately. The state is still rebuilding from previous flood disasters in Appalachia, where steep terrain funnels rainfall into narrow valleys with terrifying speed.

President Trump on Friday threatened an immediate 100% tariff on any country that imposes a digital services tax on American companies. European nations have been debating taxes targeting US tech giants that operate in their markets without paying local income tax.

Trump's threat would supersede any previously negotiated trade deals, potentially hitting dozens of countries simultaneously. Markets responded quickly, with European stocks falling and the dollar rising as traders priced in a new round of global trade disruption.

President Trump nominated Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Schroyer would replace Todd Lyons, who resigned at the end of May, after David Venturella's stint as acting head this summer.

Senate confirmation hearings have not yet been scheduled, but Republican leadership signaled the nomination will move quickly through committee. Civil-rights groups raised concerns about Schroyer's record on traffic-stop civil-liberties cases during his Oklahoma career.

Israel carried out fresh strikes on southern Lebanon today, killing at least one person a day after the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire framework was signed. Hezbollah condemned the agreement on state media, leaving the deal's implementation timeline in serious doubt.

Under this week's US-Iran memorandum, UN inspectors gain access to Tehran's nuclear facilities for the first time under the interim agreement. International Atomic Energy Agency officials called the access historically significant — even as missile strikes tested the deal's survival overnight.

Burkina Faso's military junta severed diplomatic ties with France today, accusing the former colonial power of undermining the country's national interests. The move is the latest break in a wider Sahel realignment that has already removed French troops from Mali and Niger.

A state judge ruled that challenger Dan J. Sullivan can appear on the Senate ballot against incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, reversing the elections office's earlier finding of ineligibility. Alaska's ranked-choice ballot is about to get a lot more confusing for voters skimming surnames.

The Trump administration approved Anthropic's Mythos 5 AI model for limited release to roughly 100 companies and federal agencies. Clearance marks a significant step in government-sanctioned deployment of frontier AI systems outside the open consumer market.

New Lyme disease vaccines are nearing regulatory review, but rural communities most exposed to tick-borne illness may be among the least likely to adopt them. NPR surveyed hunters in high-risk areas and found deep skepticism rooted in broader vaccine hesitancy and distrust of federal health guidance.

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Closed-end bond funds run by scandal-hit Western Asset Management are trading at unusually wide discounts to net asset value, creating what some advisers see as an opening for individual investors. Professional managers face fiduciary constraints that retail buyers don't.

Veteran investor Jeremy Grantham warned this week that US stock valuations have reached their most extreme levels in American history, surpassing even the 2000 dot-com peak. AI-driven multiple expansion has pushed markets into territory Grantham says historically precedes sharp corrections.

Alphabet's TPU chips are emerging as a durable competitive advantage in the AI arms race, with analysts projecting $3 billion in revenue from the infrastructure for 2026. Projections show a surge to $25 billion by 2027 as enterprise AI adoption accelerates globally.

NASA's Perseverance rover discovered a record trove of organic molecules on Mars — the strongest chemical signal of potential past life yet found on the planet. Researchers are still determining whether the molecules are biological or formed through geological processes.

Researchers modeling the Oropouche outbreak now estimate up to 9.4 million infections across the Americas, vastly outpacing official case counts. The gap exposes how thin tropical disease surveillance has become as climate shifts expand mosquito habitats.

Job postings across the private space economy are up more than 40 percent year-over-year as of June 2026, even as overall US postings fell about 5 percent. Median annual salaries in the sector run between $100,000 and $135,000, with a combined industry payroll of roughly $57.9 billion.

Ecuador staged a stunning comeback to eliminate Germany from the group stage in one of the tournament's biggest upsets so far. Turkey delivered its own late drama, with Kaan Ayhan scoring in the 98th minute to beat the United States 3-2.

Oklahoma City re-signed center Isaiah Hartenstein to a three-year, $75 million extension through the 2028-29 season. Hartenstein started 20 playoff games during OKC's championship run and averaged 9.4 rebounds per game on the year.

St. Louis acquired veteran defenseman Brandon Carlo from the Maple Leafs for two late-round picks, adding experienced depth to their blue line heading into next season. Carlo, 29, carries one year remaining on his deal at a $3.485 million cap hit.

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A Chinese film called Dear You has become an unexpected box office hit in Singapore, sparking heated debate over diaspora identity and what it means to inherit a culture you've never lived in. Critics are divided on whether the film captures or caricatures the Chinese-Singaporean experience for its overseas audience.

K. Bhagyaraj, one of Tamil-language cinema's most prolific writer-director-actors, died Saturday from cardiac arrest in Chennai at 73. Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister called the loss irreparable to the culture and ordered state honors for his final rites.

MSNBC is expanding weekend video podcasts, replacing live evening hosted hours with on-demand programming starting June 28. Veteran anchor Alex Witt is departing the network as part of changes that include staffing reductions below 2 percent of the organization.

What it is: Uzbekistan became the first Central Asian nation to qualify for a World Cup this summer, and Uzbek fans are using the tournament to showcase the country's culture, music, and food to a global audience for the first time. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has publicly called the national team a symbol of "the new Uzbekistan," tying the squad's run directly to the country's recent diplomatic and economic opening.

The detail: A decade-long internal liberalization program — easing visa rules, opening the cotton sector to outside auditing, and allowing more independent media — has paired with state investment in football infrastructure that began in the early 2020s. Uzbekistan's football federation has invested in academies modeled on Belgian and Croatian systems, with national-team players now drawn from a domestic professional league that did not exist at this scale a decade ago.

Why it matters: A successful World Cup run gives Mirziyoyev's government tangible soft-power material at a moment when Central Asia is being courted by China, Russia, Turkey, and the Gulf simultaneously. Uzbekistan's appearance also signals to other Central Asian states — particularly Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — that the path through FIFA's expanded qualification system is now realistic to plan around.

What to watch: Watch how the team performs in its remaining group match and what the diplomatic itinerary looks like for Uzbek officials visiting US host cities through the tournament. Also watch whether the country's tourism ministry releases promised visa simplifications during the World Cup window, which has historically driven the largest post-tournament inbound-tourism bumps for first-time qualifying countries.

- A woman in Alberta filmed a grizzly bear circling her and her dog at close range near a campsite, narrating the encounter in the calmest voice ever recorded by a human staring down 800 pounds of apex predator.

- Vanilla Ice's Freedom 250 concert on the National Lawn was canceled hours before showtime due to "inclement weather" that never actually arrived in D.C., proving once again that if there's a problem, yo, he'll solve it.

- An Australian homeowner got an unwelcome double surprise after snake catchers discovered a large carpet python and a massive huntsman spider sharing the same bedroom, proving some roommates really don't need introductions.

That’s today’s Five Minute Daily. Share this with someone who wants a clear, fast briefing on the day’s events.

—The Five Minute Daily Team