The Guardian - Pjotr Sauer / Gunmen kill at least 15 in attacks on synagogue and churches in Russia’s Dagestan
 

• Gunmen opened fire in two cities in Russia’s north Caucasus region of Dagestan, targeting a synagogue, two Orthodox churches and a police post and killing at least 15 police officers and a priest, Russian media reported. 

• “This is a day of tragedy day for Dagestan and the whole country,” Sergei Melikov, governor of the Dagestan region, said in a video published early on Monday on the Telegram messaging app. 

• In the city of Derbent, gunmen attacked a synagogue, home to a Jewish community in the predominantly Muslim region. Russia’s state media Tass said the attackers also shot at two nearby Orthodox churches, killing a police officer and a priest. 

• Footage published on social media from Derbent showed a group of gunmen engaged in heavy fire with police. Officials said the Derbent synagogue was set on fire and a clip from the scene appeared to show flames coming out of the building, which is listed as a Unesco heritage site.

   

The Washington Post - Victoria Bisset, Mohamad El Chamaa and Lior Soroka / Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza City, authorities say
 

• Israeli airstrikes on four neighborhoods in Gaza City killed at least 38 people Saturday, the Gaza civil defense force said, adding that rescue crews were continuing to search for more dead and wounded in the rubble. 

• The bombardment hit residential buildings in the city’s north, south, east and west, with significant damage and a massive crater reported in the densely built Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City. 

• In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets “struck two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City,” without elaborating. The Gaza civil defense force did not say if combatants were among the dead. 

• Video from Shati verified by Storyful showed entire blocks destroyed by the strike, with residents covered in dust from the debris while searching for survivors.

   

Financial Times - Ben Hall, Ian Johnston and Steven Bernard / French trust Marine Le Pen’s RN most on economy, FT poll suggests
 

• Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance faces an uphill battle convincing voters that its opponents would crash the economy after fresh polling suggested that the far-right Rassemblement National was more trusted on the issue. 

• Macron’s Ensemble is heading into the last week of campaigning before Sunday’s high-stakes first-round vote trailing its far-right and leftwing rivalsI.

• It is struggling to land its core message that it is the only credible party to manage the economy and public finances. 

• An Ipsos poll for the Financial Times carried out on June 19-20 found that 25 per cent of respondents had most confidence in Marine Le Pen’s RN to take the correct decisions on economic issues.

   

Politico - Eddy Wax and Hanna Cokelaere / Von der Leyen feels the squeeze as EU liberals implode
 

• Days before a make-or-break meeting at which EU leaders will decide on her future, Renew Europe, one of the three parties that von der Leyen hopes will back her for a second term as European Commission president, is hemorrhaging seats in the European Parliament. 

• “The simple math … makes this very tight for von der Leyen at the moment,” said Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen, a former secretary general of the pan-European liberal party ALDE.  

• A surprise decision Friday by Czech populist Andrej Babiš to pull his seven MEPs out of Renew capped a miserable EU election period for the liberals, who have plummeted from 102 seats to just 74. Renew, which was the third-largest group in the Parliament, has been overtaken by the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), home of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.   

• If any more symbolism about the trajectory of the liberals was needed, one of their heavy-hitters — Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister for the past 14 years — will attend his final European Council this week before taking up his new post as secretary-general of NATO.

Our opinion reads for today:

• Project Syndicate / A Far-Right Resurgence in Europe?
• Foreign Policy - Bob Davis / How Big Is CCP Inc.?