Next time you find yourself stranded somewhere due to travel issues, just know that there are two people who had it way worse than you.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams remain floating in the International Space Station without a return date because of issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Due to leaks in the vehicle’s helium system and the failure of some of its thrusters, NASA announced on Friday an indefinite delay in bringing home two of the unluckiest standby passengers in history.

This isn’t a Major Tom situation: NASA said Starliner could return immediately in case of an emergency but wants to comfortably check all the boxes required for a safe reentry before greenlighting the capsule to undock from the ISS and land in the New Mexico desert.

How did we get here?

After numerous holdups, Boeing successfully launched Starliner on June 5. It docked at the ISS the following day, giving a major boost to NASA’s plan to lean on private companies to shuttle astronauts to space.

Wilmore and Williams were originally supposed to spend just eight days at the space station and come home on June 14 (10 days ago), but the helium leak and thruster issues led to delays. NASA pushed back their return date multiple times, and on Friday, they acknowledged that the homebound flight wouldn’t happen until July.

There’s no break for the astronauts. Most stranded air passengers would use their extra time to run up a tab at Chili’s Too or buy a romance novel at Hudson News, but Wilmore and Williams are using their extended stay to get some work done. They’re scheduled to conduct spacewalks today and on July 2 while NASA gathers data about how Starliner functions during an extended mission, which could be helpful for future journeys scheduled to last six months.

While there’s no timetable for a return, there is a time limit. Starliner was only intended to spend 45 days at the space station, a countdown that began when the ship reached the ISS. If you’re keeping track at home, the crew’s 45th day at the ISS would be July 21.—DL

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🚙 Car dealership software hack will be resolved in the coming days. CDK Global, the company whose software powers 15,000 auto retailers across North America, said its systems are being restored following multiple cyberattacks last week that caused chaos at car dealerships. The hackers demanded tens of millions of dollars in payment, which CDK was planning to send, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Now, dealerships will need to assess the fallout after some resorted to using pen and paper to record transactions during the busy summer sale season.

It was a sweaty, multiple-showers-per-day kind of weekend. If you live in the Ohio Valley, Northeast, or mid-Atlantic, chances are your weekend conversations revolved around the weather. An enduring heat wave sent temperatures in Baltimore and Washington, DC, soaring to at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking records. But the heat hasn’t been confined to the US: Around the globe, 1,400 temperature records were broken across five continents last week. For 4 in 5 people in the world, humanity’s production of fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses made the recent heat twice as likely to occur, per Climate Central and the WaPo.

Apple and Meta are considering an AI partnership. Like Buzz and Woody, rivals Apple and Meta are warming up to each other. The two tech giants are discussing integrating Meta’s generative AI model into Apple’s new AI platform, Apple Intelligence, the WSJ reports. Instead of building an in-house AI model, Apple opted for the partnership route and previously announced a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to iPhones. Apple has also reportedly held talks with AI startups Anthropic and Perplexity to fuse their AI models with Apple Intelligence and get that sweet, sweet distribution Apple provides.

The only thing cooler than winning gold at the Paris Olympics will be the temperatures in the rooms of American athletes.

Team USA and several other countries are planning to bring air conditioners to next month’s Olympics amid concerns that France’s plans to use eco-friendly cooling pipes in the athletes’ village would hinder their performance. Paris has hyped up its plans to slash the carbon footprint of the Olympics by half and host the most sustainable Games ever, but that could be jeopardized if thousands of competitors are sucking up BTUs for two weeks.

Paris doesn’t do air conditioning. The International Energy Agency reports that fewer than 1 in 10 European homes has air conditioning, with AC units being even less common in Paris. More than 99% of apartments in Emily’s adopted city lack air conditioning.

• The climate is moderate but…in 2019, Paris experienced a July heat wave that drove the temperature as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit, far above the average July high of 79 degrees.

An unfair advantage? Along with the US, other countries planning to bring ACs to Paris include Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Greece, and possibly China. That could give them an edge over countries that can’t afford the luxury in a competition where every second (of sleep) counts.—DL

Have a slice day. Imagine a piping-hot pizza made just the way you like it. It can change moods—perhaps even change lives. And with Ooni’s Koda 2 Max pizza oven’s supersized 24-inch cooking area, you can bake one 20-inch NY-style, two 12-inch pizzas, or three 10-inch pizzas simultaneously. The choice is deliciously yours.

The only beef that matters in Argentina right now is the beef people have with beef prices. Thanks to nearly 300% inflation and an economic recession, beef consumption in Argentina—practically a national pastime—is down 16% this year to a record low. The average citizen is putting away just 44 kilograms (97 pounds) of beef in 2024, down from 52 kilograms (115 pounds) last year and far from the peak in the 1950s when people were consuming an average of 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of beef per year. Argentines are managing their shrinking purchasing power by buying cheaper meat and less expensive staples like pasta.

Biden, Trump square off in first presidential debate: President Biden and former President Trump will take the debate stage on Thursday night, but under different rules than their last verbal duel in 2020. Both candidates decided to bypass the Commission on Presidential Debates, which had been the organizer since 1988, to instead participate in a debate hosted by CNN that will be available on streaming. Some of the changes from 2020 include no live audience, muted microphones when the other candidate is speaking, and no props or written notes allowed on stage. It is the earliest televised US general election debate since 1960.

The Supreme Court has 15 cases it will decide this week: The most pivotal being whether Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for election interference, as he contends he can’t be charged for actions taken while serving as president. Other major cases the court will rule on include the legality of emergency abortions in states that have banned the procedure, regulations on outdoor homeless encampments, and whether social media platforms can censor users.

Everything else…

• Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is tonight. Edmonton clawed its way back from a 3–0 series deficit and is trying to become the first Canadian franchise to bring home the Cup since 1993.
• It’s Half-Christmas on Tuesday (June 25), the holiday brought to you by Workaholics. Get weird and buy someone something nice.
• Season 3 of The Bear premieres on Thursday.
• The NBA Draft is Thursday night in Brooklyn. While Victor Wembanyama was the surefire first pick last year, there’s no lock to be the top choice this year.
• National Pride Day is on Friday.
• Behold the peloton: The Tour de France begins on Saturday. Two-time champ Tadej Pogačar is the favorite to win this year.