Biden crashes, Trump lies: A campaign-defining presidential debate. With four months to go until Election Day, the earliest-ever general election debate featured two presidents–one current, one former–and a lot of bitter personal attacks. (The Conversation)

Iran votes in snap poll for new president after hard-liner’s death amid rising tensions in Mideast. Iranians voted Friday in a snap election to replace the late hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, with the race’s sole reformist candidate vowing to seek “friendly relations” with the West in an effort to energize supporters in a vote beset by apathy. (AP)

Cargo theft rates surge as criminals go high-tech. Cargo thieves are changing tactics as supply chains have digitized, making it critical for companies to implement multiple security layers to prevent losses, experts say. (Commercial Risk)

Credit card swipe fee suit will continue, nearly 2 decades since it started. In 2005, the same year Google Maps and Wedding Crashers graced the world, four merchant associations filed the antitrust, class action. (Morning Brew)

Macron has done well by France. But he risks throwing it all away. His seven years as president have seen a sustained effort to remake France as a modern, business-friendly economy. (The Economist)

College may not be the ‘great equalizer’−luck and hiring practices also play a role, a sociologist explains. The idea that a college degree levels the playing field for students of different socioeconomic classes has been bolstered in recent years. Research from 2011 and 2017, for example, found that earning a bachelor’s degree helped students from less advantaged backgrounds do as well as their better-off peers. (The Conversation)

What happened this week in the UK election campaign. The U.K. general election on July 4 is just days away now, no doubt to the relief of the party leaders who have crisscrossed the country in a grueling month of campaigning. (AP)

Russia warns it can take unspecified measures in response to US drone flights over Black Sea. The Russian Defense Ministry noted a recent “increased intensity” of U.S. drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for strikes on Russian facilities.” (AP)

High-stakes French legislative election hits torrid final stretch before first-round voting begins. With their own and France’s fates in the balance, candidates were making their last campaign pushes Friday for the first round of voting in a pivotal and polarizing legislative election in which the centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron risks a potentially fatal beating at the hands of the surging far right. (AP)

Military flees Bolivia government palace, general in custody after coup attempt fails. Armored vehicles rammed the doors of Bolivia’s government palace Wednesday in an apparent coup attempt, but President Luis Arce vowed to stand firm and named a new army commander who ordered troops to stand down. (NPR)

Kenya’s president has withdrawn the controversial tax bill after deadly protests. Kenyan President William Ruto says he will not sign into law a controversial tax bill that has sparked widespread protests across the country, but activists said demonstrations will continue. (NPR)

Gassy cows and pigs will face a carbon tax in Denmark, the first country to do so. Denmark will tax livestock farmers for the greenhouse gases emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030, the first country to do so as it targets a major source of methane emissions, one of the most potent gases contributing to global warming. (NPR)

Israel’s many conflicts could soon crack its Iron Dome. Tensions are high along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been trading fire with the militia group Hezbollah. In a speech last week, Hezbollah’s leader warned that if war erupts, then all of Israel would be under threat. (NPR)