First Thing: Thom Tillis won’t seek re-election after clash with Trump over ‘big beautiful bill’

President insulted Republican senator and threatened to back his primary challenger after he opposed domestic bill. Plus, how a generation of ‘virgins’ is leading America’s next sexual revolution

Good morning.

Thom Tillis announced yesterday that he would not run for re-election to the US Senate next year, one day after the North Carolina Republican’s vote against Donald Trump’s signature piece of domestic legislation prompted the president to launch a barrage of threats and insults – as well as promise to support a primary challenger to defeat him in their party’s 2026 primary.

“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said in a statement.

Shortly after Tillis refused to support the bill in a procedural vote in the Senate on Saturday, Trump attacked the senator, accusing him of grandstanding.

• What is the latest on Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’? The US Senate opened debate on the sprawling domestic policy legislation yesterday. Formal debate on the measure began after Democrats forced Senate clerks to read the entire 940-page bill aloud, to underscore their argument that the public is largely unaware of what the package actually contains.

• Follow live updates here.

Tens of thousands flee Gaza City after Israel warns of major offensive

Tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing eastern parts of Gaza City in the north of the territory on Sunday after Israel warned of a major offensive.

The messages on social media from the Israel Defense Forces directed those living in several crowded neighborhoods to al-Mawasi, a coastal area much farther south that is already overcrowded and has very limited facilities.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos as entire families tried to pack their remaining belongings, tents and meagre stocks of foods on to donkey carts, bicycles, improvised pickup trucks and cars.

• What’s happening with the planned ceasefire talks? Israeli officials are due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the US, which is fuelling the war by providing weapons to the Israeli military. Israel’s strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, is expected at the White House later today for talks on Iran and Gaza, an Israeli official said.

Iran’s nuclear enrichment ‘will never stop’, nation’s UN ambassador says

Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said yesterday that his country’s nuclear enrichment “will never stop” because it was permitted for “peaceful energy” purposes under the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“The enrichment is our right, an inalienable right, and we want to implement this right,” Iravani told CBS News, adding that Iran was ready for negotiations but “unconditional surrender is not negotiation. It is dictating the policy toward us.”

• What’s Trump threatening to do about leaked intelligence? Donald Trump said he was weighing forcing journalists who published leaked details from a US intelligence report assessing the impact of the recent American military strikes on Iran to reveal their sources – and the president also claimed his administration could prosecute those reporters and sources if they did not comply.

In other news …

• Canada has rescinded its digital services tax in an attempt to advance trade negotiations with the US, the country’s finance ministry has announced, days after Donald Trump ended trade talks amid a dispute over the levy.

• Seoul residents are grappling with an invasion of so-called “lovebugs”, a species of flying insect that has swarmed the South Korean capital, as the climate crisis draws them farther north.

• A T-shirt worn by Beyoncé during a Juneteenth performance on her Cowboy Carter tour has caused a wave of criticism for the Houston-born superstar and sparked a discussion over how Americans frame their history.

• Russia has fired more than 500 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight, in a barrage that Kyiv described as the biggest air attack so far of the three-year war.

Stat of the day: Meat allergy linked to ticks explodes to 450,000 cases

Blood-sucking ticks that trigger a bizarre allergy to meat in the people they bite are exploding in number and spreading across the US, to the extent that they could infect millions of people, experts have warned. The condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome, has proliferated to as many as 450,000 people.

Don’t miss this: A generation of ‘virgins’ is leading America’s next sexual revolution

“I’ve spent the last several years interviewing more than 100 teenagers and twentysomethings about their sex lives,” writes Carter Sherman. “It is true that gen z are having even less sex less than millennials, but they are not uninterested in sex. Instead, many have understood, from an early age, something that eluded past generations: that sex, its consequences, and control over both are political weapons.”

Or this: ‘The nurse told me I couldn’t keep my baby’ – how a controversial Danish ‘parenting test’ separated a Greenlandic woman from her children

Two hours after Keira Alexandra Kronvold gave birth, her daughter was taken from her – the third child to be removed from her care following a now-banned assessment that disproportionately targets Inuit women in Denmark. Will she win the fight to get Zammi back?

Climate check: ‘Climate is our biggest war’, warns CEO of Cop30 ahead of UN summit in Brazil

With only four months before Cop30, Ana Toni, the chief executive of the crucial global summit, is worried: “Climate is our biggest war. Climate is here for the next 100 years. We need to focus and … not allow those [other] wars to take our attention away from the bigger fight that we need to have.”

Last Thing: Thousands in Norway told they had won life-changing sums in lottery error

Thousands of Norwegians were mistakenly told they had won life-changing sums in the country’s Eurojackpot draw after an error by the state-owned gambling operator, Norsk Tipping. “It was a very fun minute,” said Lise Naustdal, who thought she had won nearly 1.9m kroner (£138,000).

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email [email protected]