At today’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Brussels, leaders are expected to echo commitments pledged during the Group of Seven (G7) gathering over the weekend, including joint responses to Chinese and Russian actions.
 
The G7 communiqué denounced (NYT) the Chinese government’s abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and Russia’s “destabilizing behavior and malign activities.” Also, G7 leaders agreed to launch a transparent, climate-friendly global infrastructure plan as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (CNN). At its summit, the NATO alliance is expected to refocus its guiding strategy (Economist) to encompass issues such as climate change and technological threats. U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (AP) on the sidelines of the summit, and they are expected to discuss Iran, Syria’s civil war, and Turkey’s role in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

By a vote of 60 to 59, Israel’s legislature approved an ideologically diverse coalition government that sidelines former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new government was sworn in (Haaretz) on Sunday night, with right-wing Naftali Bennett set to lead as prime minister for two years, followed by centrist Yair Lapid for another two.
 
Jordan: The prosecutor of a state security court charged two confidants of Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the half brother of King Abdullah II, with attempted sedition (AP). The two men were arrested and Hamzah was placed under house arrest in April amid allegations that they were plotting with foreign parties to destabilize Jordan.

Japan called off talks with South Korea slated to take place on the sidelines of the G7 summit, a South Korean official told Yonhap. The official said it was due to a planned South Korean military exercise around the Dokdo/Takeshima islands, which both countries claim.
 
China: Despite U.S. efforts to prevent the sale of U.S.-made DNA sequencers, test kits, and other technologies to Xinjiang police over concerns that they could be used to track people, the New York Times reports that goods by U.S. companies Thermo Fisher Scientific and Promega continue to flow to the region.

A trial by Myanmar’s military junta against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi begins today (AFP). She faces more than a decade in jail on a wide range of charges, which have been denounced by human rights organizations as politically motivated.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Derek J. Mitchell writes that outside observers’ failure to act in Myanmar will lead to a failed state.
 
India: A fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in New Delhi left hundreds of people homeless (Al Jazeera). It is the second time a fire has destroyed the camp since 2018.

President Cyril Ramaphosa urged leaders of G7 countries (Reuters) to support a patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines and to help finance a World Health Organization (WHO) program to boost testing, treatments, and vaccines worldwide. G7 countries committed 870 million vaccine doses, but the program still needs $16 billion this year to be fully funded (WHO).
 
DRC: Hospitals in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are overwhelmed by a surge (Reuters) in COVID-19 cases, President Felix Tshisekedi said. The country has administered fewer than thirty thousand vaccine doses.
 
For the Africa in Transition blog, CFR’s Michelle Gavin argues that supporting vaccinations in Africa is in the United States’ and global interest.

Azerbaijan released fifteen Armenian prisoners (Politico) in exchange for information on nearly one hundred thousand land mines. The deal, brokered by the United States and the European Union, is seen as a confidence-building step in the aftermath of conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region last year.
 
The Global Conflict Tracker follows the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Nicaraguan authorities detained five prominent opposition figures (BBC) for allegedly inciting foreign interference in the country’s affairs. The arrests follow the detentions of seven other opposition members earlier this month.
 
Mexico: The May collapse of a Mexico City Metro line, which killed twenty-six people, was due to previously flagged construction flaws, according to a New York Times investigation. The company that built the line is currently constructing part of a government-backed railway, Tren Maya, in the country’s south.

The U.S. company Novavax announced that its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine had an overall efficacy of 90.4 percent (NYT) and was 100 percent effective at preventing moderate and severe disease in large clinical trials. Novavax said it might not seek U.S. authorization for the vaccine until September due to high supply in the country and is currently applying in the EU, India, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.