It's not just the U.S. Record heat, flash flooding, wildfires and other extreme weather events are ravaging nearly every corner of the globe, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.

• 🇯🇵 Japan has set numerous heat records in June and is also seeing record rainfall for the second straight month. Bullet train service had to be suspended due to the threat of landslides.
• 🇪🇺 Europe has already seen heat waves sweep across Greece and Sicily, imperiling tourism in both locations, as well as damaging flooding in Germany.
• 🇧🇷 In Brazil, catastrophic flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Mexico and parts of Central America are still in the grips of the same long-lasting heat wave that's affecting the southwest U.S.
• 🇮🇳 New Delhi, India, has recorded 37 straight days with temperatures above 104.

Zoom out: A bevy of studies show the strong links between heat waves and human-caused global warming.

🌊 What's next: A lot of dangerous weather and climate events are yet to come, including what is anticipated to be a potentially record-setting Atlantic hurricane season.

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McDonald's is launching a new $5 meal deal nationwide as the fast-food price wars heat up, Axios' Kelly Tyko and Nathan Bomey report.

• Restaurant chains are feeling compelled to put the "value" back into the value meal after years of price hikes have hampered sales, and McDonald's is under particularly acute pressure.

🔮 What they're saying: Neil Saunders, GlobalData managing director, recently told Axios that consumers really want everyday low prices, not limited-time deals and offers.

• "McDonald's $5 meal is sensible, but it will only be offered for a limited time so it will not resolve perceptions that the chain has become very expensive," Saunders said.

1. 🇷🇺 Russia and North Korea signed a mutual-defense pact, agreeing to come to each other's aid if either of them is invaded. Go deeper.
2. ⚖️ Judge Aileen Cannon rejected suggestions from two of her superiors on the bench to pass the high-profile case to a more experienced judge. Go deeper.
3. 🎤 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify for CNN's presidential debate next week. Go deeper.
4. 🏀 The Los Angeles Lakers have hired JJ Reddick as their next head coach, ESPN reports. Reddick played in the NBA for 15 years. He's now an ESPN analyst and hosts a podcast with LeBron James.

There's a large, shiny monolith atop a remote desert mountain outside of Las Vegas, and no one is quite sure how it got there.

• Las Vegas police and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have both been mystified by the shimmering prism since discovering it last week.

⁉️ Similar columns have popped up around the world over the past four years — first in Utah, then Romania, central California and in downtown Las Vegas. They usually disappear shortly after they're first spotted.