Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Russia’s latest offensive: “Explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early on Monday, the eve of a NATO summit, as Russia mounted its second major attack on the city in days. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who is expected to attend the NATO summit, in Turkey, said in a social media post that 12 people had been killed in the attack and 64 others wounded, including two children.”

* In related news: “President Donald Trump, speaking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin by telephone for nearly 90 minutes, offered to help find a solution ⁠to the Ukraine war, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments made public early on Sunday.”

* A closely watched NATO summit: “Fresh off a week of star-spangled celebrations of America’s 250th, President Donald Trump departs for Turkey on Monday to meet with fellow leaders of NATO. They hope he wouldn’t declare independence from them.”

* Hegseth isn’t fully in charge: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was planning to head to Brussels last month to deliver what would be a bombshell announcement in a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s top military chiefs. The U.S., he planned to say, was preparing additional cuts to its forces in Europe that would go beyond the canceled deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and the earlier withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania, people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth’s proposal was nixed after it was shared with Marco Rubio — President Trump’s national-security adviser — and other senior officials, the people said.”

* From an American perspective, these Iranian leaders aren’t better: “The death of Iran’s supreme leader on the opening day of the war raised U.S. and Israeli hopes that the regime he led — and that has held the country in an Islamic vice grip since 1979 — had been pushed to the brink of collapse. Four months later, however, as Iran stages a belated state funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the burial rites testify instead to the Islamic republic’s survival and mark the ascendance of a new generation of leaders that is more entrenched and hard-line, according to security officials and experts.”

* Another step backward for the Make America Healthy Again crowd: “The Trump administration is apparently departing from a landmark Biden-era report that detailed human health risks including cancer from farms contaminated with ‘forever chemicals.’”

* Elusive transparency on McConnell’s health: “Staff for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said last week that the senator is ‘continuing his recovery’ in a hospital while the Senate is out of session. But his office has released no details about the former Republican leader’s condition during his weekslong hospitalization or whether he will be at the Capitol when the Senate returns next week.”

See you tomorrow.

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