June 28 0400 UTC Brief

In the U.S. At least four people are dead in Kentucky after heavy rains triggered flooding, Governor Andy Beshear said. In Washington, President Trump has nominated Oklahoma lawman Lance Schroyer to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement, putting a low-profile career officer in charge of an agency that rarely stays out of the spotlight for long. Separately, the U.S. military says it carried out fresh strikes on targets in Iran after a drone attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command says the targets included surveillance infrastructure, communications systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities. In the UK The Ministry of Defence is facing criticism for still not updating its transgender policy more than a year after the Supreme Court said sex under the Equality Act means biological sex. Until revised guidance is published, commanders are handling access to single-sex accommodation and facilities case by case, and the department says it cannot give a timetable. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has identified more than 4,000 potential child sexual exploitation cases for possible reinvestigation after reviewing about 12,000 reports dating back to 2010. The cases have been referred to the National Crime Agency, which is expected to decide within weeks how many should be formally reopened. The government is also set to abolish the Vagrancy Act, ending a 200-year-old law that made rough sleeping a criminal offence. Ministers say the change shifts policy away from punishing homelessness and toward support, while keeping powers to deal with organised begging and exploitation. In business and tech ASML is denying a Bloomberg report that a U.S.-restricted EUV chipmaking tool, or related equipment, may have reached China. The company says it has never shipped an EUV machine or China-bound component designed for one, and says it knows the location of every EUV tool it has built. The machines are apparently the less mysterious part. In the Pacific Polls have opened in New Caledonia for the territory’s first provincial elections since 2019, after delays linked to stalled talks over its political future. The result will help shape the balance of power ahead of renewed negotiations with France, with independence still the central issue.