Axios

President Biden assured Israeli President Reuven Rivlin during talks at the White House Monday evening that he won't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon during his time in office.

Why it matters: The United States' already struggling effort to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was made more complicated by last week's election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi to the Iranian presidency.

The U.S. launched airstrikes Sunday night against three facilities on the Iraq-Syria border, which the Pentagon says Iran-backed militias have been using to carry out drone attacks on U.S. personnel.

Why it matters: The Washington Post reported last month that U.S. officials were growing increasingly alarmed by the use of small, low-flying drones — rather than traditional rocket fire — to covertly strike U.S. targets in Iraq.

Ethiopia's government declared an immediate, unilateral ceasefire in its Tigray region on Monday after nearly eight months of deadly violence, AP reports.

Why it matters: The crisis in Tigray has killed thousands of civilians and displaced 1.7 million people, per the New York Times. Over 900,000 people are facing the world's worst famine in a decade. Government forces have also been accused of ethnic cleansing and sexual violence.

The U.S. and Israel are working to coordinate a White House visit for new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in July, three Israeli officials and two U.S. sources told me.

Why it matters: It's another sign that the Biden administration wants to help stabilize the new and fragile Israeli government.

In a landmark report released Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged countries to adopt “transformative agendas" to uproot systematic racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd last year.

Why it matters: The report, mandated by the Human Rights Council in June 2020, "could not find a single example of a state that has fully reckoned with the past or comprehensively accounted for the impacts of the lives of people of African descent today," one investigator told a news conference Monday.

Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, head of the Social Democratic Party, resigned Monday after losing a no-confidence vote last week and declining to call for snap elections.

The state of play: Löfven will remain as head of Sweden's caretaker government as the parliament speaker begins the process of asking party leaders to attempt to form a new governing coalition.

One year after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, the city's once-lauded political freedoms have been dramatically curtailed, leaving residents to cope with their home's authoritarian transformation.

Why it matters: By asserting total political control over one of the world's top financial hubs, the Chinese Communist Party is trying to demonstrate that its model of authoritarianism can preserve the wealth of those who agree to toe the party line.

The parties of President Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen failed to win any of France's 12 mainland regions in the country's second round of regional elections Sunday.

Why it matters: The regional polls are seen as a barometer for next year's presidential election. The results suggest that election may end up being wide open, rather than a duel between Macron and Le Pen.

President Biden directed airstrikes on Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region in response to unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement Sunday.

Details: U.S. military forces conducted the "defensive precision airstrikes" against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the region on Sunday evening, said Kirby, who stressed the U.S. strikes were legal and in self-defense.