House Speaker Mike Johnson is rebuffing pressure to act on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, instead sending members home early for a month-long break from Washington after the week's legislative agenda was upended by Republican members who are clamoring for a vote.
Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Tuesday morning that he wants to give the White House "space" to release the Epstein information on its own, despite the bipartisan push for legislation that aims to force the release of more documents.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the U.N. human rights office said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed 25 people across Gaza, according to local health officials.

President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, planned to head to the Middle East as the U.S. tries once again to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the State Department's spokesperson said Tuesday.
Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters that Witkoff was going to the region with a "strong hope" that the U.S. can deliver a ceasefire deal as well as a new humanitarian corridor for aid distribution.

Sweat covers Isaac Barnes's face under his beekeeper's veil as he hauls boxes of honeycomb from his hives to his truck. It's a workout in what feels like a sauna as the late-morning June temperatures rise.
Though Barnes was hot, his bees were even hotter. Their body temperatures can be up to 27 degrees Fahrenheit (about 15 Celsius) higher than the air around them. As global temperatures rise under climate change, scientists are trying to better understand the effects on managed and wild bees as they pollinate crops, gather nectar, make honey and reproduce.

Iranian government offices, banks and businesses in the capital province of Tehran will shut down on Wednesday due to an intense heat wave and the need to conserve energy, state-run media reported.
With temperatures in the capital exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the government has advised citizens to stay indoors during peak heat hours.

Ana García rents a shack at a beach just north of Barcelona every year, spending two months there in the summer with her daughter. But García fears summers by the sea in Montgat, about a 30-minute drive from central Barcelona, eventually could be numbered.
Storms and sea level rise driven by climate change are eroding the man-made beaches in metropolitan Barcelona, with the sea swallowing swathes of coastline every year, authorities say. Compared to natural coastlines, man-made beaches erode faster. Montgat's coastline has eroded especially fast, locals and authorities say.

When the "KissCam" at a Coldplay concert landed on a couple who tried (but failed) to duck out of the spotlight, the internet immediately got to work.
In hours, the clip was just about everywhere. Endless memes, parody videos and photos of the pair's shocked faces filled social media feeds. Online sleuths rushed to identify who was on camera. Artificial intelligence and software company Astronomer eventually confirmed that its CEO and chief people officer were in fact the couple in the video — and announced the CEO's resignation over the weekend.

Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Emma Stone, Dwayne Johnson, Adam Sandler and Idris Elba are just some of the celebrities headlining films at this year's Venice International Film Festival. Organizers on Tuesday unveiled the starry lineup for its 82nd edition, which kicks off a busy fall film festival season in August.
Two years after launching "Poor Things" at Venice, Yorgos Lanthimos and Stone are returning with "Bugonia," an English language remake of the South Korean sci-fi comedy "Save the Green Planet!" that is among the 21 films playing in the main competition. Clooney will also be back as star of Noah Baumbach's "Jay Kelly," in which he plays a famous actor on a trip through Europe with his longtime manager (Sandler).

The draw made Monday for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League:
League Path

Australia's Parliament resumed Tuesday for the first time since the center-left Labor Party won one of the nation's largest-ever majorities in the May elections. The day was largely ceremonial, with reminders of conflict in the Middle East.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside Parliament House on Tuesday, calling for the government to impose sanctions on Israel after Australia joined another 27 countries in issuing a joint statement, saying the war in Gaza "must end now."
