Our daily lap around the world

💥 Israel-Hamas war update: President Biden flew to Israel last night to meet with Middle Eastern world leaders in an attempt to prevent the ongoing war from spreading to other countries or militant groups, as well as to secure the release of ~200 Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The US military has also notified ~2,000 troops to prepare for a potential deployment to support Israel. In the Gaza Strip, an explosion yesterday at a local hospital killed more than 500 Palestinians (mostly civilians), with Hamas blaming the incident on an Israeli airstrike and Israel’s military saying it was a misfire by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group based in Gaza.

🇮🇳 India’s Supreme Court rejected the legalization of same-sex marriage. The ruling, which said the issue of same-sex marriage should be decided by India’s Parliament, comes five years after justices overturned colonial-era laws which criminalized homosexuality across India. As part of yesterday’s order, the Supreme Court also declared that transgender Indians can marry as long as one partner identifies as a man and the other a woman, and ordered the federal government to ensure certain fundamental protections for India’s LGBTQ+ citizens (including equal access to goods and services).

🇲🇽 Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel reportedly ordered its members to stop making fentanyl. The cartel, which is the leading exporter of fentanyl to America, says its recent ban on the drug came after increasing pressure from US law enforcement to dismantle the organization due to fentanyl’s impact on Americans. The illegal opioid can be fatal in doses as low as 2 mg, and is responsible for nearly 70% of the 107,000 overdose deaths in the US each year, per CDC data.