The US announced a new round of strikes on Iran after several tankers were targeted while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian media reported explosions in the early hours of Wednesday in the southern province of Hormozgan, including at the ports of Bandar Abbas and Sirik, as well as on Qeshm Island, close to the narrowest section of the strait.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it was conducting “a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”

“The US strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said in a statement on X.

A video posted on social media reportedly shows the strikes on Bandar Abbas.

Shahid Haghani Port in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran pic.twitter.com/GyhZYbC2yj

— sarah (@sahouraxo) July 7, 2026

Press TV shared a video that it said showed another strike in the port.

Three commercial vessels were struck by projectiles earlier on Tuesday, according to maritime security agencies and the UK military. Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari blamed Iran for the attack on the Qatari-flagged LNG tanker Al Rekayyat and demanded that Tehran “refrain from endangering global energy supplies.”

The hostilities mark the third night of strikes since the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on June 17, and the first such strikes this month. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the attacks violated the accord.

The latest round of bombing occurred on the sixth day of funeral processions for Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the opening wave of the US-Israeli air war on February 28. The ceremonies drew crowds of millions in Tehran and other cities. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attended a reception ceremony in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Tuesday.

Vladimir Zelensky can end the conflict with Russia in a single day by ordering Ukrainian troops to withdraw from Donbass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche in an interview published on Tuesday.

Moscow has long insisted that Ukraine pull its forces from the predominantly Russian-speaking region, which voted to join Russia in 2022. The Kremlin argues that such a withdrawal is essential for a lasting peace settlement, while Kiev has rejected the demand and instead intensified its long-range strikes on Russia.

“Zelensky came to power promising his people to stop the war… And he still can stop the war, [by] taking the very responsible decision to withdraw his troops from Donbass, from the regions that are now Russian regions,” Peskov said. The Ukrainian leader must recognize the de facto reality on the ground “as a de jure,” he added.

The next day the war will be over.

Asked whether launching Russia’s military operation in Ukraine had been justified, Peskov said Moscow was forced into the decision. 

Peskov argued that the conflict has since become a “full-scale war,” with Russia facing not only Ukraine but also its Western backers. He accused the US and European countries of supplying Kiev with “millions of tons of weapons,” military advisers, satellite intelligence, and artificial intelligence.

“If it’s not direct involvement, what is it?” he asked.

Asked about the risk of nuclear escalation, Peskov said Russia is “too big and too responsible” to trigger a third world war and continues to maintain “good dialogue” with the US. Although bilateral ties with Washington are “at zero,” both sides remain pragmatic enough to keep communication channels open, he said.

“Will any country tolerate that? No… We’re going to ensure our security,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly accused European governments of pursuing “radical militarization” through higher defense spending and increasingly confrontational rhetoric. Last month, President Vladimir Putin said NATO members were “openly preparing for a war” with Russia and using claims of a Russian threat to justify the military buildup.

Watch the full interview with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov below:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), clearing the way for the country’s athletes to return to international competition.

The decision comes nearly three years after the ROC was suspended “until further notice” for bringing under its umbrella sports organizations from four former Ukrainian regions that had voted overwhelmingly to join Russia a year earlier.

In a statement on Tuesday, the IOC said it had lifted the suspension after finding that the ROC “no longer includes as its members any regional sports organizations in territories falling under the jurisdiction of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine” and had confirmed it would not conduct any activities there. The Olympic body said it would “continue” monitoring the situation.

The IOC also withdrew its recommendations on Russian athletes’ participation in international competitions. Athletes returning to competition will still be required to meet anti-doping rules.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova welcomed the decision, writing on Telegram: “Common sense has prevailed! Global sport will go on. It will go on with Russia!” 

Moscow described the IOC’s 2023 suspension of the ROC as “politically motivated” and an example of “deliberate segregation” that violated the principles of the Olympic Movement. 

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Western countries of politicizing sport and pressuring international federations to exclude Russian athletes, arguing that competitors should be judged solely on their sporting merit.

Veteran French politician Marine Le Pen has announced that she will run for president in 2027 after an appeals court shortened the ban on holding elected office imposed last year while upholding her conviction over the misuse of European Parliament funds.

A three-time presidential candidate who reached the runoff in 2017 and 2022, Le Pen had been widely viewed as the frontrunner to succeed President Emmanuel Macron before last year’s conviction sidelined her from the race. She has denied any wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld Le Pen’s conviction but reduced her five-year ban on holding elected office to 45 months, with 30 months suspended, making her eligible to stand in 2027. The court also sentenced her to three years in prison, including two years suspended, ordered the remaining year to be served under home detention with electronic monitoring, and imposed a €100,000 ($114,000) fine.

The judges said that Le Pen had already been serving the ban since March 31, 2025, and credited that time when reducing the restriction.

The case centered on European Parliament funds intended for parliamentary assistants that the court found had instead been used to pay National Rally staff working in France. The ruling said that the scheme caused €2.8 million in losses to the European Parliament. The National Rally was also convicted and fined €2 million, with half the amount suspended.

French media reported that Le Pen left the courthouse without speaking to reporters and was due to give a television interview later on Tuesday.

Le Pen’s lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, called the decision “a good start” and said no decision had yet been made on whether to appeal to the Court of Cassation.

Le Pen took over the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011 and transformed the party – renamed the National Rally in 2018 – into France’s largest opposition force. Her protege, Jordan Bardella, had been preparing to replace her as the party’s presidential candidate if she remained barred from running. Opinion polls have consistently placed both among the leading contenders for the 2027 election.

US President Donald Trump has arrived in Ankara for NATO’s annual summit, kicking the meeting off with a show of friendship for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and threats of US military withdrawal for the bloc’s European members.

Trump touched down in Türkiye on Tuesday, at a time of heightened acrimony between Washington and the Europeans. Trump has pushed his NATO allies to hike defense spending to 5% of GDP, a figure agreed upon at last year’s summit, but one increasingly difficult to meet as European economies stagnate.

The US president told reporters that he is “very disappointed with NATO” for not meeting this target and backing the US-Israeli war on Iran, and suggested that he could announce further drawdowns of US forces in Europe in response.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has used the summit to ask for more weapons from his EU backers, this time anti-air systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. One day earlier, the Russian military launched a combined missile and drone assault on Kiev, destroying weapons factories and other military infrastructure.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who infamously referred to Trump as “daddy” during last year’s meeting in The Hague, is using the Ankara summit as an opportunity to prove his value to Trump.

“President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” he said on Monday, telling reporters that he plans to flatter the US president by bringing up “the Trump trillion” – his term for the trillion dollars that Canada and NATO’s European members have spent cumulatively on defense since Trump’s first term in office began in 2017.

The Netherlands has run out of options for continued direct military assistance to Ukraine, Defense Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius has said. The EU and NATO member has been an active supporter of Kiev in its conflict with Moscow, including by supplying US-made F-16 fighter jets as part of a scheme with Belgium, Denmark, and Norway.

Ukraine has been heavily dependent on weapons supplies from its Western backers throughout most of the conflict, which is now in its fifth year.

“We don’t have opportunities any more as the Netherlands because we have done so much,” Yesilgoz-Zegerius told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, on Tuesday.

“We are at our limit,” she added when asked specifically about whether the Netherlands could provide more US-made Patriot missiles to Kiev.

In January, the Ukrainian leader blamed the West for what he called air defense missile shortages, and complained that Kiev’s backers were too slow to provide funding for the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) scheme, under which European NATO members were paying for US-made weapons for Ukraine.

In December 2025, Zelensky also demanded more money from the West by stating there was “a constant shortage” of funding for Ukrainian arms production.

Other European NATO members are also seemingly growing weary of funneling money and weapons into Kiev’s military effort. Last week, Germany’s FAZ newspaper reported that Italy has blocked a NATO financial pledge to Ukraine for 2027 after the bloc signed off on a €70 billion ($80 billion) package this year. Last month, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament that Rome would not back the PURL scheme.

Russia has repeatedly condemned continued Western arms shipments to Ukraine, arguing that they only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome. Moscow also stated that military assistance is evidence of NATO becoming a direct party to the conflict, warning that this risks a direct confrontation between Russia and the bloc.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has released declassified documents identifying Ukrainian nationalist leader Dmitry Klyachkovsky, also known as “Klim Savur,” as one of the principal architects of the massacre of Poles in western Ukraine during World War II.

Militants from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), killed at least 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia – now largely part of Ukraine – between 1943 and 1944. Known as the Volhynia massacre, the campaign is considered one of the region’s worst wartime atrocities.

Born in 1911 in Zbarazh – then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now in Ukraine’s Ternopol Region – Klyachkovsky initially headed the OUN’s youth wing, Yunatstvo, before rising during World War II to become one of the UPA’s most influential field commanders. Operating under aliases, his true identity eluded Soviet authorities for years.

Published on Sunday by the FSB’s Central Archive, the newly released files include photographs and Soviet security memos from 1943 to 1945 tracing efforts to identify Klyachkovsky and the operation in which he was killed. Among them is a 1938 group photo of the Ukrainian nationalist sports organization Sokol featuring Klyachkovsky. A July 1944 memo states that Soviet agents used the photograph and information gathered from a recruited source to confirm Klyachkovsky’s identity as the UPA commander operating under the aliases “Klim Savur” and “Okhrym.”

“Klyachkovsky Dmitry Semenovich, born in 1911, studied at a secondary school in Poland, completed seven grades. For his membership and activities in Ukrainian nationalist organizations, he was expelled from school and arrested. In Zbarazh and elsewhere, he worked as a shop assistant,” the memo states.

It goes on to say that Klyachkovsky was arrested by the NKVD between 1939 and 1941, although the information was still being verified at the time. Historical records indicate he had indeed been arrested over nationalist activities in that period before escaping from a Soviet prison during the Wehrmacht’s 1941 offensive. The document also states that he was in Lviv during the early period of the German occupation and that two of his sisters were living in the US during the war.

The Volhynia massacre remains one of the main unresolved historical disputes between Ukraine and Poland, Kiev’s key backer in its current conflict with Russia. While Warsaw recognizes the killings as genocide, Kiev honors figures such as OUN leader Stepan Bandera as “national heroes” and insists no foreign country can dictate which historical figures the nation venerates. Last week, Ukrainian parliament approved plans to establish a national pantheon commemorating prominent historical figures, including World War II era nationalist figures, prompting widespread criticism. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz warned that “Ukraine will not join the EU” – its long-held goal – as long as it continues to glorify figures such as Bandera.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the released document was a reminder to Warsaw that Poland is arming “the successors of the murderers of their own ancestors.”

The US Justice Department (DOJ) has explained its decision not to pursue fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who was initially targeted under the administration of President Joe Biden.

A US judge in June ordered prosecutors to justify their decision to drop their case against Adani, saying federal prosecutors did not sufficiently explain their decision.

Prosecutors had said in May that they do not intend to pursue the case, which charged Adani with securities fraud and wire fraud stemming from an alleged bribery scheme.

The case is “primarily foreign, hard to prove, and inconsistent with the agency’s current priorities,” the DOJ said in a ten-page submission on Saturday, Reuters reported.

It listed reasons why it sought to dismiss all charges with prejudice against Adani and other ⁠defendants.

In the latest filing, the DOJ sought to shift the blame to prosecutors under the Biden administration for initiating a “baseless case against Adani with little chance of success.”

“The indictment was unsealed in the final days of the prior administration, apparently as a ‘name and shame’ designed to levy accusations without any realistic prospect of a trial ever occurring,” the DOJ’s court filing said.

The DOJ submission says federal attorneys should not prosecute a “foreign case” of alleged conduct that involves “no criminal organizations and no US companies, and does not affect national security.”

“The alleged ‘payments’ in this case ‌were ⁠made by Indian nationals, working for Indian companies, to the Indian government, with no US interests implicated in any way,” the filing says.

The 2024 case charged Adani with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials to get approval for a group arm to develop a solar energy ⁠plant. The charges also allege that Adani misled US investors by providing reassuring information about his company’s anti-corruption practices.

The Adani Group has consistently denied the charges, and Gautam Adani has not appeared in a US court to respond to them.

The charges, however, remain officially pending until they are dismissed.

Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani had in May agreed to settle an SEC lawsuit by paying a combined $18 million in penalties without admitting or denying the charges.

Gautam Adani has been the target of India’s opposition parties, who claim that his conglomerate has been protected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Modi’s opponents say he has longstanding ties with Adani going back nearly two decades to when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, to which the Adanis also belong.

They accuse the government of favoring the group in business deals, charges the Indian government has rejected as “wild allegations.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will vacate his parliamentary seat and attempt to win it back in an effort to “stick two fingers up to the establishment.” Farage’s finances are currently being investigated in what he calls an “establishment hit-job.”

In a video address on Tuesday, Farage announced that will step down as MP for Clacton-on-Sea, a constituency he won in 2024. Rather than retiring from politics, he will contest the seat again, essentially placing his political future in the hands of his constituents.

Farage’s announcement comes at the height of his popularity. Reform has been the UK’s most popular political party for more than 300 successive opinion polls, and the party won 1,452 seats in local elections across England in May – almost as many seats as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party lost.

However, Farage has been under investigation by Britain’s parliamentary standards watchdog since May, over a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift he received from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne before he took office in 2024. The standards probe could soon be expanded, after the Sunday Times revealed that he failed to declare funding from convicted fraudster George Cottrell between 2019 and 2024.

If I lose, they win. If they win, you lose.

If you lose, Britain will forever be broken and nothing will change. We will prevail.

My message to the people of Clacton. 👇 pic.twitter.com/j9LCX2v0Dw

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 7, 2026

“I have done nothing wrong,” Farage said on Tuesday, describing Harborne’s donation as “a large personal gift” which will allow him to pay his security bills for years to come. Cottrell allegedly allowed Farage to stay at some of his properties and avail of his private security, but Farage maintains that he was not obliged to declare these benefits as he was not in office when he received them. 

Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare “registrable benefits” received in the 12 months before their election. However, personal gifts and benefits are excluded from this requirement. 

Farage said that he considered stepping down from public life after The Times published an image of his daughter’s home last week, a move that he claimed “directly threatened her security.” Sky News attempted to contact Farage’s daughter after the photo was published.

“But then I thought, why should I be judged by Sky News and their ilk?” he said, arguing that “the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions.” Farage won Clacton by 46.2% to Conservative candidate Giles Watling’s 27.9% in 2024. With the Tories bleeding support to Reform, Farage is likely gambling on an even clearer win this time around, describing the election as “a chance to stick two fingers up to the establishment.”

On the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara, Ukraine and Russia seemed to be locked in a competition to see who can torch more of the opponent’s capital. Russia won.

On the night of July 7, Kiev launched over 430 UAVs at Moscow and the Moscow region – the biggest such attack in the past two years. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, over 95% of all Ukrainian drones launched that night were targeting the Russian capital. Russia shot down most of them well before they reached the capital, except 36, which were intercepted near Moscow.

The attack was not one-off, Ukraine has been launching wave after large wave of UAVs at Russia’s capital region almost nightly in the past two weeks. The most significant infrastructural damage was dealt to an oil refinery in Moscow’s southeast. Targeting fuel refineries and other energy infrastructure has become Kiev’s modus operandi as it aims to inflict economic damage on Russia.

Compare that to the Russian strikes on Kiev on July 2 and July 6 – both of which Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko called “the most massive” attacks of the kind. The strikes hit multiple production sites in Kiev, specifically those making drones, warheads, and communication equipment. Russian forces used cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as long-range UAVs. According to Ukrainian media reports, Ukrainian air defenses did not manage to intercept any of the missiles.

See the difference? Kiev is trying to hurt Moscow, deal economic damage, hinder or paralyze fuel supplies. Moscow is trying to secure its airspace, its energy infrastructure, and its civilians by crippling Kiev’s ability to carry out those exact strikes.

But more importantly, Vladimir Zelensky, Ukraine’s unelected (because he canceled the elections) leader, is trying to impress his Western backers. Those drones he keeps flinging at Russia, are paid for by those same NATO members gathered in Türkiye to decide whether to send more cash his way. These sponsors – who orchestrated events that set this war in motion in the first place – need reassurance that their money is buying them results. And what better results than seeing the enemy capital in flames?

And if such results are not delivered, then the powers that be in Brussels, Washington, Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere may just decide its time to cut their losses and throw their faithful proxy Zelensky under the bus.

In this sense, Russia’s successful strikes on Kiev may actually play into Kiev’s and its backers’ hand – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga has already demanded supplies of NATO air defense missiles.

Will this stop Russia? Again, likely not. Because Russia, unlike Kiev, isn’t trying to impress some foreign sugar daddy. As evidenced by the targets chosen and the objectives achieved, Russia’s goal is to methodically dismantle Ukraine’s ability to launch deep strikes into Russian territory. If it has to get through advanced Western missile defense systems to do so – that’s what it will have to do. If anything, it’s an incentive to ramp up the strikes further to disable more of Ukraine’s drone capabilities before those systems are delivered.

Meanwhile, Russian ground troops will continue to advance on the frontline, liberating hamlet after village after town from dwindling Ukrainian manpower thrown into the grinder by a corrupt regime and twisted Western interests.

France has withdrawn its diplomats from Burkina Faso in response to the West African nation’s decision to break off relations with Paris, AFP reported on Monday, citing the French Foreign Ministry.

The Burkinabe transitional government notified France on June 26 that it was severing diplomatic relations with immediate effect, accusing Paris of having “neo-colonial ambitions” and supporting “subversive networks and terrorists.” France rejected the move as “hostile and baseless” and said it was considering reciprocal measures.

The Sahel nation expelled French Ambassador Luc Hallade in 2023 and ordered France’s defense attaché, Emmanuel Pasquier, and his team to leave over allegations that they were engaged in subversive activities. In 2024, the Burkinabe government also declared three French diplomats persona non grata, giving them 48 hours to leave Ouagadougou.

Paris has lost its foothold in several former colonies amid a wave of anti-French sentiment fueled by allegations of military failures. Burkina Faso’s neighbors, Mali and Niger, have also cut security cooperation with France, which said it does not recognize the military authorities in the three Sahel states as legitimate governments.

The three Sahel states have repeatedly accused Paris of acts of aggression, including allegations of backing or sponsoring jihadist groups behind the region’s deadly insurgency. France has denied the claims, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson previously dismissing them as “fanciful.”

The African Union (AU) values Russia’s support in addressing African issues at the UN and welcomes Moscow’s backing for expanding the financing of African peacekeeping missions, African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a joint press conference following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Youssouf said “the AU also appreciates the position of the Russia on the reform of the UN Security Council and its support for Africa’s legitimate aspirations to obtain two permanent seats on the Security Council, as well as five non-permanent seats.”

Lavrov said Russia and the AU have agreed to strengthen coordination within the UN Security Council and share the common position that Africa’s representation must be increased. The minister noted that greater African representation would help correct a historical injustice, arguing that any future expansion should primarily benefit African countries rather than Western states, which he said are already overrepresented.

The Russian minister voiced support for the AU’s agenda for reparations from former colonizers and broader efforts to strengthen sovereignty across the continent. He added that Russia and the AU confirmed the importance of holding regular political consultations and agreed to make them an annual format.

The two sides discussed counterterrorism cooperation, particularly in the Sahel region, with the AU chairperson expressing confidence that collaboration would continue to expand.

Lavrov stated that Moscow hopes Youssouf will participate in the third Russia-Africa Summit, which will take place in the capital in October.

The top Russian diplomat arrived in Ethiopia on Monday as part of an African tour. The visit marks Lavrov’s first trip to the country since 2022.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just approved more than a dozen new Jewish settlements in the West Bank. But this latest wave of expansion is just the beginning, as different factions within Israel want to push its borders further into Lebanon, Syria, and beyond.

In early July, Netanyahu approved plans to establish 13 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The settlements will be constructed along the main north-south road linking the Palestinian cities of Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem, which is already dotted with dozens of settler outposts. The majority of these were illegally constructed, then retroactively legalized by the Israeli government over the last two decades.

Netanyahu and his hardline coalition partners reject this ruling, and consider the West Bank and East Jerusalem – which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War – to be “our homeland.” 

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister hinted that his territorial ambitions also extend into Lebanon.

Lebanon in Israel’s sights

Israeli forces currently occupy around 600 sq km of southern Lebanon. Under the current framework deal between Israel and Lebanon, the Israeli military will withdraw from Lebanese territory once Hezbollah is disarmed. Hezbollah has shown no intention of disarming and has rejected the deal as “null and void.” However, even if the militant group were to lay down its weapons, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will likely remain in southern Lebanon “indefinitely in order to protect our residents and communities from jihadist elements.”

Netanyahu went a step further in his interview with Fox, claiming that some Christian villages in Lebanon “have actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we protect them against the Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them.”

Netanyahu: We also take care of our friends, especially the Christians in the Middle East. The Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel. We protect Christians in the Middle East pic.twitter.com/SyeCM2PHMm

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 5, 2026

“It’s not only the Christians in Lebanon who asked for our protection. It’s the Druze, it’s Muslims, the Sunni Muslims, and quite a few of the Shiite Muslims too,” he continued, adding that “they’d like to free Lebanon.”

Netanyahu did not specify which Christian villages he was referring to, or whether he had spoken to any Christian officials in Lebanon. “No village in the south has made such a request,” Hanna al-Amil, president of the Christian municipality of Rmeish, told L’Orient-Le Jour on Monday. A separate statement signed by 15 villages in southern Lebanon described Netanyahu’s remarks as “completely fabricated” and “unrelated to reality.”

Hezbollah is not an anti-Christian organization, and its members have fought alongside Christians against incursions from Syrian Islamic State jihadists. As such, Netanyahu’s statement may be an attempt to legitimize the “indefinite” military presence in Lebanon envisioned by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

Settlers target Syria

As Netanyahu spoke to Fox News on Sunday, the IDF arrested around 100 settlers after they left an Israeli-occupied ‘buffer zone’ in southern Syria and set up camp on Syrian territory. The settlers – members of a group called the HaBashan Pioneers – have tried to set up an outpost on Syrian territory three times over the last year, with the IDF thwarting all three attempts.

אלימות קשה במהלך פינוי מאחז יהודי בבשן!! 🛑🛑🛑

כוחות צבא ומשטרה מקיפים את פעילי התנועה שהתיישבו בבשן. למרות פסיביות מוחלטת מצד הפעילים, תועדה אלימות קשה מצד חלק מכוחות הביטחון.
בנוסף מחרימים הכוחות את מכשירי הטלפון כדי שלא יוכלו לתעד את האלימות שמופעלת כלפיהם!! pic.twitter.com/tJ85bi8tSJ

— תנועת חלוצי הבשן (@HaluzeyHabashan) July 5, 2026

“The IDF strongly condemns the attempted border crossing and emphasizes that this is a serious incident and a criminal offense that endangers both IDF soldiers and civilians,” the Israeli military said in a statement. The HaBashan Pioneers – named after the biblical region encompassing southern Syria and the Golan Heights – have called on the Israeli government to “raze the Sunni villages in the Bashan and replace them with a Jewish settlement.”

Unlike the West Bank settlers, the HaBashan Pioneers do not have the backing of the Israeli government, with hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir the only member of Netanyahu’s cabinet to publicly express support for the group. However, the IDF’s military occupation of southern Syria has expanded since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024. At least ten military bases have been built in the once-demilitarized buffer zone that separated the Golan Heights from Syria proper, and Katz has also described the IDF’s presence in this area as “indefinite.”

The soft settlement of Cyprus

Between 2021 and 2025, Israelis have purchased more than 3,800 properties in Cyprus, most of them in Limassol, Larnaca, and Paphos. Approximately 12,000 Israeli families now live in Cyprus, up from 300 in 2003, the vast majority of them arriving after Israel’s war on Gaza began in 2023.

Last month, Israel’s i24 News described Cyprus as “Israel’s civilian refuge” and “a critical strategic asset for Israel.”

“Zionist schools are being built – that’s what they call them – synagogues are being built,” Cypriot opposition leader Stefanos Stefanou warned last summer, claiming that Israeli land purchases are creating “settlements in all but name,” which are “almost inaccessible to anyone other than Israeli nationals.”

While this influx is entirely legal, it has been accompanied by increasing Israeli influence on the island’s politics. Less than a week after Cyprus assumed the EU’s rotating presidency this January, a series of covertly-recorded videos emerged exposing minor corruption schemes within President Nikos Christodoulides’s government. The videos were recorded and publicized by Black Cube, an Israeli private intelligence firm with deep ties to the IDF’s intelligence wing and the Mossad spy agency.

It remains unclear who hired Black Cube to intervene against Christodoulides, who is not regarded as an opponent of Israel. However, RT has covered the company’s work in depth in our ‘Wired for War’ series, and found that it typically acts in Israel’s interests.

In the face of Ankara’s escalating aggression, Israel is deepening one of the most important strategic alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean with Greece and Cyprus.
🇮🇱🇬🇷🇨🇾

Erdogan’s Turkey has occupied northern Cyprus since 1974, has threatened Greece with war for decades… pic.twitter.com/zeDwWOvKxP

— עמיחי שיקלי - Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) June 22, 2026

Settlement on four fronts

Israel’s territorial expansion in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, and the expansion of its influence in Cyprus, are not being driven by the same actors. The Israeli government backs ultra-Orthodox settlers in the West Bank, but opposes some of the more hardline groups in Syria. Private individuals are leading the Israeli property-buying spree in Cyprus, but the island’s growing Israeli population is placing its government under increasing Israeli pressure – evident during Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli’s visit to Nicosia last year, in which he called on the Cypriot government to “combat anti-Semitism” and step up security protection for Israeli expats.

What remains unclear is whether this four-front expansion will strengthen and secure Israel, or set the Jewish state up for new clashes and conflicts.

Ukrainian forces launched more than 430 kamikaze drones towards Moscow overnight, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Tuesday. The attack came as Vladimir Zelensky traveled to Ankara, Türkiye, where NATO leaders are gathering for a summit.

Sobyanin said the threat to the Russian capital had been neutralized, with most of the drones shot down long before they reached Moscow. Only 36 were intercepted near the city, he added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier reported that 452 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted over a 12-hour period overnight.

On June 25, Zelensky announced a 40-day pressure campaign against Russia involving long-range strikes and clandestine operations. Kiev’s drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, as well as on commercial vessels it suspects of transporting Russian oil, are intended to inflict maximum economic damage on the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described that attack as a turning point that justified more powerful long-range strikes on Ukrainian military targets. Overnight from Sunday into Monday, Russia launched a large-scale barrage that hit drone-related facilities in the Ukrainian capital. The Defense Ministry said the strikes were retaliatory.

The NATO summit in Ankara gives Zelensky and his European backers another chance to lobby US President Donald Trump. However, there are reportedly concerns that the American leader would be coming at the high-profile event in a sour mood, potentially leading to renewed criticism of bloc members over their refusal to directly support the US-Israeli war on Iran and their failure to ramp up defense spending.

According to The Telegraph, Zelensky will not participate in the main part of the summit, where he would have been able to appeal to Trump and other leaders directly, because organizers feared he could upset Trump.

An online feud between France captain Kylian Mbappe and Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla has escalated into threats of legal action after the French footballer called the lawmaker a “despicable woman” in response to what he described as racist remarks.

The dispute began on Saturday after France beat Paraguay 1-0 in the World Cup round of 16, with Mbappe converting the winning penalty. Amarilla accused the French captain of disrespecting Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill by refusing to shake his hand at the final whistle.

In a now-deleted post on X, the senator called Mbappe an “arrogant and ugly Cameroonian pretending to be French” and said she regretted that no Paraguayan player had slapped him after the match.

Amarilla also mocked the striker, claiming he had “never even learned to write,” had “sucked on coconuts instead of his mother’s milk,” and that “the most educated voices he ever heard were chimpanzees.”

Mbappe responded on Monday, accusing Amarilla of tarnishing Paraguay’s image through “recklessness and brazen racism.”

“You are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has sweated passion and honor throughout the competition,” he wrote on X.

French President Emmanuel Macron also took to X to voice his support for Mbappe, hailing “one more goal for Kylian Mbappe. This time against racism.”

On Tuesday, Amarilla posted an open letter to Mbappe, saying she deleted her original posts after realizing she had responded “with the same insults” she condemns. She nevertheless demanded that the French star retract his remarks and apologize, accusing him of gender-based political violence and threatening legal action.

In her letter, Amarilla also took issue with Mbappe’s post-match comments, in which he said France was ready to “get our hands dirty in the shit” to win the physical battle against Paraguay. She said she interpreted the remark as an insult to the Paraguayan team and the country.

The Paraguayan Foreign Ministry has distanced itself from Amarilla’s remarks, saying they were regrettable and “in no way reflect the position of the government of Paraguay or the Paraguayan people.”

Before their defeat by France, Paraguay had enjoyed a historic World Cup run, including a shock win over Germany in the first knockout round that led President Santiago Pena to declare a national holiday.

Two bombs exploded near the hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying on Tuesday. Macron’s office said he was unaware of the blasts and met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as scheduled.

At least 18 people, including four police officers, were wounded, local media reported, citing the Syrian Interior Ministry. The blasts hit a busy area between the Tourism Ministry and the National Museum, across the street from the Four Seasons hotel where Macron was holding talks with civil society groups.

مشاهد من لحظة حدوث الانفجار الثاني جراء عبوات ناسفة بدمشق https://t.co/HxJvWQoz0U pic.twitter.com/ajcjiyR8gd

— Omar Alhariri (@omar_alharir) July 7, 2026

Macron is making the first visit by an EU head of state to Damascus since jihadist leader al-Sharaa ousted President Bashar Assad and seized control of Syria in December 2024.

A Syrian security source later said the explosions were caused by improvised explosive devices that were discovered by security personnel and detonated as bomb disposal teams attempted to defuse them. One device was planted inside a parked car near the hotel, while the other, which was hidden in a roadside trash bin, exploded next to an ambulance where dozens of people had gathered a few meters away.

The Interior Ministry said the blasts occurred outside the security perimeter established for the French president’s visit and posed no direct threat to Macron or his delegation. It added that no group immediately claimed responsibility.

The Elysee Palace confirmed that Macron was on his way to meet with al-Sharaa when the explosions occurred and did not hear the blasts, adding that no changes were made to the French president’s schedule.

Images released later show Macron standing with al-Sharaa and greeting other Syrian officials and military officers.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has admitted to imitating Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies as he pursues development for the Southeast Asian nation, which faces challenges similar to India’s.

Subianto revealed his admiration for Modi during a banquet he hosted for the Indian leader, who is on a three-day official visit to Indonesia.

“I follow your career, copied your programs,” Subianto said, addressing Modi directly.

Subianto drew parallels between India and Indonesia, citing the demographic similarities and challenges both countries face, and the milestones India has achieved.

“We have the same problems… and yet India has achieved (much) progress,” the Indonesia president said, citing a large population, dependence on agriculture, and natural disasters – the same challenges that India has faced. 

“I openly admit that I follow your career and I copied a lot of your program(s),” he added.

#WATCH | A light-hearted moment with a deeper message. 🇮🇳🤝🇮🇩

Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto drew smiles as he said during the banquet lunch “I copy your career and many of your progress…”

“I’m happy there is no copyright in following this progress”, he said amidst the… pic.twitter.com/EVPSlt2Pib

— DD News (@DDNewslive) July 7, 2026

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with around 280 million people. Both countries have a median age of around 30, though India’s below-35 cohort of 950 million is more than three times the entire population of Indonesia.

During his trip, Modi sought to tap the synergies between this vast pool of youth in India and Indonesia, with initiatives centered around youth-oriented education and the startup ecosystem of the two nations.

“The 21st century is a technology-driven century,” Modi said. “India and Indonesia are both nations powered by the energy of their youth. Our young people have a natural affinity for technology.” 

An overseas campus of the Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore) will be opened in the Singhasari SEZ in Indonesia. IIMs are considered centers of excellence in the South Asian country, with their alumni spread across the world. 

“This will greatly benefit young people across the ASEAN region,” Modi said, signaling India’s intent to widen its soft power diplomacy beyond Indonesia, into the ASEAN geopolitical arena.

Modi also announced the launch of the Indonesia Open Network (ION), based on India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) architecture.

“Today, we concluded an important agreement to strengthen technology cooperation between our young people in areas such as artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and digital public Infrastructure. We also agreed to further deepen collaboration between the start-up ecosystems of our two countries,” Modi stated.

Deepening the growing trust between our two countries, the two leaders signed 14 memoranda of understanding, including on maritime safety and security, space cooperation, defense, steel supply chains, rare earths, healthcare, agriculture, and science and technology.

Palestinian families are demanding accountability over the deaths of children killed during Israeli military operations and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since late 2023.

Through the stories of children ranging from infants to teenagers, told by grieving relatives, RT describes lives cut short and what they say is a complete lack of justice.

According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Palestinian children remain among the highest casualty groups of the conflict. The latest name added to that list is 15-year-old Amir Jaber, who was shot dead by Israeli forces near his home in Ramallah during a military raid last month. The IDF claimed troops opened fire during what it described as a violent disturbance.

“No one holds Israel accountable except God, they killed him and others in cold blood,” says Amir’s brother, while another relative asks, “Who is going to hold them accountable?” Families interviewed by RT say no one has ever been prosecuted over the deaths of their children.

Russia launched a series of large-scale retaliatory strikes on Ukraine on Monday, hitting a range of military targets in the capital Kiev and beyond.

The Western media has predictably described the assault as “cruel” and “horrifying,” accusing Russia of striking residential areas.

The reality, however, is very different. Moscow says it has hit key military targets, including a plant producing components for long-range drones. The operation came in response to Ukraine’s long-range combined drone and missile attacks on Moscow and St. Petersburg over the weekend.

Kiev’s strikes came days after Russian forces announced the capture of Konstantinovka, a key Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass, marking another significant battlefield development.

Watch the full video below.

Support for NATO in the US has slipped following President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the military bloc, according to an internal survey seen by Politico.

In a report released last week citing polling data, Politico said just 43% of US adults believe NATO would honor Article 5 – the bloc’s collective defense clause in which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all – if the US came under attack. This is the lowest level of confidence among the bloc’s 32 members and well below the 57% average.

The data did not include a year-on-year comparison, but sources familiar with last year’s results said the bloc-wide average has fallen by around eight percentage points since 2025, with the decline driven primarily by the US.

While overall support for NATO remains relatively strong, with 72% describing the transatlantic partnership as important, the poll pointed to shifting attitudes toward Russia and China across member states.

The survey was reportedly conducted among more than 31,000 people from March to April. A NATO official declined to comment on the findings, saying they are “for internal use.”

Analysts suggest the shift in US public opinion reflects Trump’s repeated criticism of NATO.

For years, Trump has accused European NATO members of failing to spend enough on their own defense. Last week, he called the relationship with NATO “one sided” and said it is “ridiculous” to maintain it, pointing to the gap in defense spending between the US and its allies in a Truth Social post. The post came ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, which begins on Tuesday.

Amid Trump’s criticism, in June, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a six-month review of America’s military footprint in Europe, warning that future troop deployments, funding, and basing arrangements will depend on whether NATO members meet Washington’s demands.

Ukraine’s state-backed Mirotvorets database of alleged “enemies of the state” has blacklisted Polish presidential chief-of-staff Zbigniew Bogucki, calling him an “anti-Ukrainian propagandist.” Bogucki responded by declaring himself an enemy of “Banderism” and Kiev’s “historical lies.”

Tensions between Warsaw and Kiev deepened in May after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky granted an elite commando unit an honorific referencing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – a WWII-era ultranationalist militia which cooperated with Nazi Germany and took part in ethnic cleansings targeting thousands of Poles, Jews, and Russians in what is now western Ukraine.

Mirotvorets listed Bogucki, who is head of Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s office, on Monday after he used the term ‘Malopolska Wschodnia’ (Eastern Lesser Poland) during an address to the Polish parliament last Friday.

Ukrainian nationalists, including movements from which the UPA later emerged, cited the campaign as justification for attacks on Polish officials and people they viewed as collaborators or traitors. The territory is now divided between Poland and Ukraine, with the larger portion under Ukrainian sovereignty.

Mirotvorets was launched after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev as an ostensibly independent project, but is widely believed to cooperate with Ukrainian security services in publishing personal data of people it identifies as enemies. Several individuals whose details appeared on the site were later murdered. When blacklisted figures die for any reason, the database marks them as ‘liquidated’, reinforcing its reputation among critics as a ‘kill list’.

Stepan Bandera was a leading figure in the WWII-era Ukrainian nationalist movement and is honored as a national hero in modern Ukraine. Kiev is currently moving to establish a national pantheon for Bandera and other historical figures it considers worthy of commemoration, stating that other nations have no say in the matter.

Disputes over Ukraine’s treatment of Polish historical grievances have strained bilateral ties since Kiev declared independence in 1991. The issue was largely swept under the rug after Warsaw became one of Ukraine’s most vocal backers in its conflict with Russia.

Ukrainian officials have accused those who highlight UPA crimes of serving Moscow’s interests. Conservative politicians in Poland, meanwhile, have argued that Ukraine cannot belong in the European Union while continuing to honor Bandera and his movement.

China has urged the US to end its decades-long blockade and sanctions against Cuba, condemning Washington’s “coercion and pressure.”  

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning made the remarks on Monday when asked about Cuba’s request for a special session of the UN General Assembly, scheduled for July 7, to discuss the US embargo. The request followed Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s warning that the sanctions have pushed the island into an “unsustainable” situation and amount to “genocide.”  

The island nation, which has been under a US embargo since 1960, has endured daily blackouts and severe fuel deficits in recent months after Venezuela, once its main oil supplier, stopped crude shipments under pressure from the US earlier this year. This was preceded by the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by American commandos in January.  

“The US 60-plus years of full blockade and illicit sanctions have brought profound sufferings to the Cuban people,” Mao said, urging Washington to “stop its blockade, coercion and pressuring against Cuba at once.”  

She said the US had recently escalated its sanctions, dealing another blow to the Cuban people and drawing concern from the international community. Beijing opposes unilateral sanctions with “no basis in international law,” she added, reaffirming China’s support for Cuba’s sovereignty and opposition to external interference.  

“We stand ready to work with the rest of the world to uphold international fairness and justice,” she concluded.  

US news outlet Axios reported in late May, citing anonymous US officials, that the White House was planning to further ramp up pressure on Cuba in the hope that worsening economic conditions would eventually trigger regime change.  

Russia, China, Mexico, and several other countries have been supplying Cuba with humanitarian aid. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last month that Moscow continues to provide support to the island, including fuel. In late March, Russia delivered around 700,000 barrels of crude oil.

The Moroccan authorities have arrested ten suspected members of a cell linked to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) affiliates in the Sahel and foiled attacks in the North African country, officials have said.

The suspects were arrested on Monday in coordinated raids in Agadir, Taroudant, Casablanca, El Hajeb, Tetouan, Fqih Ben Salah, and Safi, according to Morocco’s counterterrorism agency, the Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations (BCIJ).

The agency said the suspects received guidance and direct support from Islamic State’s branch in the Sahel and were preparing attacks aimed at undermining public order in Morocco.

Security forces seized weapons, chemicals, bomb-making equipment, knives, military-style uniforms, extremist manuscripts with detailed instructions on assembling explosive devices, digital equipment, and two recordings containing pledges of allegiance to IS.

Investigators also found a vehicle with a fuel tank modified to run on butane gas during a search of a warehouse in the city of Inezgane. The BCIJ said the vehicle was intended for use in a suicide bombing or ramming attack against sensitive targets and facilities.

The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the IS Sahel branch are among the most active armed groups in the region. Their fighters have carried out attacks across the tri-border area between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, while also targeting towns, military bases, and transportation routes.

In February 2025, the BCIJ said it dismantled a 12-member cell loyal to IS that was planning attacks on national and foreign targets. In July 2025, the agency also announced the arrest of four suspected IS-linked extremists operating between the northern cities of Tetouan and Chefchaouen.

The European Commission is considering creating a new foreign affairs department in a move that would strip powers from the EU’s diplomatic service headed by Kaja Kallas, according to Politico. The reported plans are the latest sign of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s push to tighten her grip on the bloc’s foreign policy apparatus.

The proposal is one of several options under review as the commission reassesses how it manages the bloc’s external relations, Politico reported on Monday. Officials told the outlet it could involve merging departments responsible for trade and regional policy into one “supercharged” body.

The reported overhaul comes less than a month after the Financial Times reported that France and Germany were discussing a radical overhaul of Kallas’ External Affairs Service (EEAS). Created under the Lisbon Treaty in 2010, the EEAS took over many foreign policy functions previously handled by the European Commission.

Kallas and von der Leyen have reportedly been locked in a tug of war over who should steer EU foreign policy. Von der Leyen is said to have outmaneuvered the former Estonian prime minister by taking direct control of key geographic portfolios and pushing for a new intelligence body reporting directly to her office.

The issue became prominent during the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in spring, when the EU took nearly two days to produce a unified response. Kallas and von der Leyen released separate statements and reportedly did not speak directly throughout the weekend when the operation started, while member states remained divided over the bloc’s position.

A Ukrainian woman identified by Interpol as the main suspect in last week’s bomb attack on millionaire Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco has been found dead, Ukrainian police have confirmed. A serving foreign intelligence officer may have been involved in her killing.

Anastasia Berezovskaya, 39, was placed on an international wanted list on suspicion of planting the explosive device that seriously injured the Ukrainian-born businessman and members of his family in the European principality. Her death was first reported on Tuesday by Ukrainskaya Pravda, with an official statement corroborating the details.

Ukrainian investigators said they checked Berezovskaya’s contacts after she returned to the country on July 1. Among them were two men, a former law enforcement officer and a serving officer of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR). Both made crypto payment to the woman’s account, which made them suspects in the Monaco bombing.

When confronted, the HUR operative confessed that he and his partner murdered Berezovskaya. Her body with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and shell casings were discovered at the location one of the alleged killers revealed.

The police said one of the suspects in the murder had a basement room that “resembled a torture dungeon.” The authorities claim the HUR officer went rogue and did not report his payments to Berezovskaya to his superiors.

French media said investigators in Monaco suspected that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) could have been involved in the bombing. The police statement identified the agency as a partner in its investigation and said the HUR collaborated with it as well.

The CIA reportedly invested millions of dollars following the 2015 armed coup in Kiev to rebuild the HUR from scratch, overhaul the SBU, and turn them into intelligence agencies focused on Russia.

India will sell its supersonic BrahMos cruise missiles to fellow BRICS member Indonesia along with Astra air-to-air missiles as the two countries signed a raft of agreements to strengthen their defense and economic cooperation.

Indonesia on Tuesday conferred the country’s highest honor, Bintang Adipurna of the Republic of Indonesia, on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on an official visit to the country.

The two countries elevated their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2018, and Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Indonesia since then.

The missiles deal is one of the key milestones of Modi’s visit. Named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, the BrahMos is among the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world. Modi and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed the missile deal along with other bilateral agreements on Tuesday.

Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto conferred the country's highest honour ’Bintang Adipurna of the Republic of Indonesia’ medal of honour upon PM @narendramodi.#India | #Indonesia | @PMOIndia | @MEAIndia | @IndianEmbJkt pic.twitter.com/SLKdsj4V1l

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 7, 2026

Jointly developed by India and Russia and manufactured in India, BrahMos missiles have already been sold to the Philippines. Global interest in the weapon has ticked up since their lethal use by India against Pakistan last year in a brief clash, which India dubbed Operation Sindoor.

India will also supply additional BrahMos batteries to Jakarta.

🚨Made in 🇮🇳 Missiles Go Global: Indonesia Signs Up For BrahMos & Astra

The announcement marks a significant boost for India's growing defence export ambitions. https://t.co/JL544CVqox pic.twitter.com/Wbmj2xpSLO

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 7, 2026

Astra is a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization, and was also used by the Indian Air Force during Operation Sindoor.

Modi’s visit also yielded outcomes on critical minerals and maritime cooperation. India will invest in steel manufacturing, nickel, and rare-earth magnets in Indonesia as New Delhi focuses on strengthening its minerals supply chain.

A Chinese nuclear submarine launched a long-range ballistic missile with a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, marking the first test of the kind since 2024.

“This test launch is a routine part of the Chinese PLA Navy’s annual training,” Navy spokesman Wang Xuemeng said in a statement. “The Chinese side notified relevant countries in advance.”

“This test launch complies with international law and international practice and is not directed at any specific country or target,” Wang added.

The spokesman said the missile “landed precisely within the designated waters.” CNN, citing a regional source, reported that it landed near the exclusive economic zone of either Kiribati or Tuvalu.

The US, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan condemned the test as a dangerous escalation. US State Department spokesman Thomas Pigott said “Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons buildup is of great concern to the region and the world.” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong accused China of destabilizing the region, describing its military activities as “lacking in transparency and reassurance.”

The US and China have exchanged warm gestures in recent months. US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in May during a visit that both sides said was cordial. Trump stated on Monday that he expects Xi to visit the US in late September. Xi earlier congratulated Trump on the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.

Nevertheless, tensions have persisted. In May, the US imposed new sanctions on Chinese oil companies allegedly involved in trade with Iran and blacklisted another batch of entities the following month that it accused of supplying weapons to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. China responded by sanctioning ten US companies involved in the defense, aerospace, and rare-earth mining sectors.

China has also condemned the US-Israel war against Iran and the US energy blockade of Cuba as violations of international law.

It has been one month since Abhijeet Dipke, founder of an online meme turned political movement, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), landed in Delhi from the US, where he did his Master’s in Public Relations at Boston University.

Dipke and supporters of ‘Cockroach’ movement have spent last month at Jantar Mantar, an iconic site in the heart of Indian capital, protesting against Narendra Modi-led government policies. The protesters demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid a controversy over question paper leaks for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), India’s unified, nationwide entrance examination for undergraduate medical programs.

The test was conducted on May 3, but 10 days later, the National Testing Agency cancelled the exam following widespread allegations of the circulation of a “guess paper” and multiple accusations of irregularities. This had affected over 2.2 million aspirants. On June 21, the re-test was conducted. At least 11 students have allegedly died by suicide in the period between the cancellation of NEET and the scheduled re-test, according to Indian media reports citing police records and family accounts. 

Paper leaks in India constitute a huge and volatile problem owing to a vast demand-supply mismatch; millions of candidates fiercely compete for a small number of government seats in jobs and medical degrees.

Even though the NEET exam was conducted afresh, CPJ movement supporters reject the government’s claim that the crisis has been resolved. 

Protesters’ Demands

After landing in India on June 6, Dipke led a massive youth sit-in protest in the capital that was followed by a series of local demonstrations in Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Bengaluru.

On June 20, the CJP began its second nationwide protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. The rally appeared to draw a larger crowd demanding the resignation of the education minister and turned into a continuous sit-down campaign which continues to date. While over the days the number of protesters has reduced, the demands still stand. 

For 22-year-old Santosh Singh, from Jaipur, it took hours of travel to participate in the protest in Delhi. “I am here for my brother, who studied hard for NEET but got mentally disturbed after the exam was cancelled. He could not be here, but I came. The system is taking away our hard work and selling it,” Singh said. He argued that the exams in the country have turned into “a lottery.”  

“The youth of India are really pissed off and uncertain about their future,” says Singh. “The dreams of India’s youth are wiped out by a simple WhatsApp paper leak, it totally ruins your sanity. This is not about politics or political parties; this is the question of youth’s dignity.”

Anju Kirti, 22, a student from Delhi, who joined the protest at Jantar Mantar, said the re-exam conducted by the government does not address the “systematic corruption in education.” “We want an end to it,” she said. 

In India, observers say that unemployment, delays in competitive examinations, recruitment bottlenecks and repeated paper leaks have left many young people deeply frustrated. The CJP quickly emerged as an outlet for that anger.

However, the slogans and demands voiced from the protest site were not limited to education. Over the past two weeks, a range of political, climate and farmers’ activists have joined the CJP founder on the makeshift stage. Some opposition parties in India, including Aam Aadmi Party  (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party have also openly voiced support for the Cockroach movement, with their representatives appearing on the stage along with Dipke. Addressing protesters on Saturday, TMC party MP Mahua Moitra urged them not to be discouraged by criticism or labels. “This is your chance to write history. Take it, grab it, stay with it,” she said.

On June 28, climate activist Sonam Wanchuk, 59,  began an indefinite hunger strike demanding the resignation of Pradhan. The hunger strike on Monday entered its second week, with activists raising concerns over his condition. “Still Alive, though not kicking…” Wanchuk posted on his X account on Sunday.

Ahead of the June 20 rally, Dipke wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the government to provide Rs 10 million ($105 000) compensation to families of students who allegedly died by suicide amid examination-related controversies. Dipke also reiterated the demand for the removal of the education minister.

“The Cockroach Janta Party has been demanding the resignation of the education minister for the past month and has been protesting across the country for our demands. All that we students want is to see some accountability for the loss of lives... He [the Education Minister] is serving at your pleasure, and the buck stops with the prime minister,” Dipkee said, addressing CPJ supporters.

On July 4, Dipke released another letter written by CPJ to Modi. The letter, which many social media commenters claimed to be AI-generated, urges the PM to break his “resounding silence” over the CPJ protest at the Jantar Mantar and hold the education minister accountable. 

“We have been sitting in protest at the Jantar Mantar for the past 15 days, and today marks the seventh day of educationist Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite hunger strike. How long will your government choose to ignore our voices, sir?” the letter asked. 

Letter to PM Modi:

For how long will you ignore Jantar Mantar and our voices? pic.twitter.com/hSIpehvzxt

— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) July 4, 2026

“We are sitting here because your government has repeatedly failed to stop exam paper leaks that have shattered the faith and future of crores of young Indians,” the letter said. The CJP claimed that the number of student suicides rose from 11 before the beginning of their rally on June 20 till 29. 

Government's response 

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in an interview with an Indian news channel in June slammed the ‘cockroach’ movement, comparing them with “disruptive elements.”

“Those who were rejected in democracy have come in disguise and are now after the system. They raise slogans for those who want to divide the country. They have been identified,” Pradhan said during an interview with NDTV. He added that some people do not have faith in the country’s progress.

Commenting on the question paper leaks, Pradhan accused the teachers who were found involved in the incident as “protectors who turned predators.”  He also praised the NEET re-exam as a success. 

The fresh exam was held on June 21 under heavy security, with the country’s armed forces and state police units deployed alongside biometric verification systems. Authorities also temporarily blocked the Telegram messaging platform across India from June 16 to June 22. The move came after the National Testing Agency raised concerns over the growing misuse of the platform by organized networks allegedly targeting NEET aspirants with fake paper leak claims and fraudulent schemes.

The speed with which the CJP emerged as a movement and gained attention in India – at least online – triggered a sharp political backlash from the ruling BJP, whose senior leaders dismissed it as a “foreign-sponsored propaganda blitz” rather than a genuine popular movement.

Sukanta Majumdar, union minister and chief of the West Bengal BJP, claimed that the CJP’s online traffic was being artificially boosted by cross-border bots. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also publicly attacked the party’s online rise, suggesting that the trending anti-paper-leak agitation was heavily driven by foreign bot networks, specifically linking them to an “anti-India George Soros gang.”

The CJP emerged on May 16 as a reaction to an uncomfortable remark by chief justice of India, Surya Kant, in open court, who compared young people to cockroaches.  The online reaction to CPJ was phenomenal, within just five days, the number of followers on CJP’s Instagram page surpassed 20 million, beating both the furling BJP and the key opposition Congress party on social media and quickly morphing into a real-life movement of youngsters.

Even though the movement succeeded in channeling the concerns of Gen Z, political analysts argue it is too early to predict whether it is short-term hype or could someday translate into a full-fledged political force.

“The future of the Cockroach Janata Party is uncertain beyond next year,” says Sakshi Tyagi, a research scholar based in New Delhi. She added that internet protests tend to explode and vanish as fast as they appear.

Even then, the emergence of the movement serves as a wake up call to the entire political establishment, including the opposition. “In a BJP-dominated national climate, simply being anti-BJP is no longer a sufficient political identity. Voters, especially young voters, are looking for freshness, authenticity, risk, and recognisable anger,” said Rasheed Kidwai, author and political commentator. “They want a political language that feels alive, not focus-grouped. They want leaders who look like they have arrived from outside the durbar, not inherited a room inside it. 

“This is why the CJP matters even if it never becomes a real party. It has already performed one function that many opposition parties struggle with: capturing the mood at speed. Its absurdity made it legible. Its humour made it shareable. Its anger made it sticky,”  the expert added. 

“I feel really sad for the many very young people now being conned again by CJP (AAP), as we have gone through the entire cycle in 2008-2013 period with the AAP-IAC (India Against Corruption) giant scam,” Manudhane said in a post on X. He was referring to the anti-corruption movement that was particularly visible around 2011 and eventually led to the formation of the AAP led by activist and former Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal.

“All we can do is warn the young folks, based on our earlier experience. Rest is their destiny now. But remember, with Kejriwal, the end result is guaranteed. He’ll use and throw you out most mercilessly like he did with the entire founding team in IAC AAP itself, while cornering all gains. You under-estimate the man at your severe peril. Research and learn,” Manudhane added. 

Online, too, the CPJ movement has not escaped criticism. Social media users have alleged that Dipke appears at protest sites after spending much of his time in luxury hotels, while others have pointed to his political background to argue that the CJP is not an impartial youth platform, but a strategic proxy for mainstream opposition parties.

Back at the protest site in Jantar Mantar, 23‑year‑old graduate Yugesh Sampath, who has been looking for a job for the past two years, says he hopes the “cockroaches” will not “vanish” until corruption in education and employment comes to an end.

European carmakers are facing one of the toughest crises in their history. Plant closures, layoffs, and shrinking profits have become increasingly common as Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers continue to expand their global footprint.

German luxury carmaker Porsche has become the latest victim. The company is expected to cut an additional 4,000 jobs, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Monday. In March, the sports car manufacturer reported a 93% drop in operating profits following a costly pivot away from its long-term EV strategy.

But these setbacks are only part of the story. Behind them lies a combination of soaring energy costs, mounting regulatory pressure, shifting supply chains, and intensifying international competition that is reshaping one of the region’s most important industries.

How bad is the crisis?

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and the global semiconductor shortage, European carmakers have been battered by weakening consumer demand and persistently high production costs, largely driven by elevated energy prices.

At the same time, expensive energy has left European manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage compared with many rivals in Asia and North America.

The strain is already triggering deep restructuring across the industry. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW have announced job cuts and cost-cutting measures; Stellantis has reduced output at several European plants, particularly in Italy; Renault is continuing its restructuring in France; and the UK has seen factory closures as manufacturers struggle to contain rising costs.

Which countries have been hardest hit?

The crisis is weighing most heavily on countries where the automotive industry is a major source of jobs and economic growth. In 2019, the sector supported around 13.8 million jobs – 6.1% of total EU employment – and accounted for more than 7% of the bloc’s GDP.

Spain also remains heavily reliant on vehicle exports, while the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary are even more exposed, with much of their industrial output dependent on foreign-owned carmakers. As a result, even relatively small production cuts can have an outsized impact on jobs and regional economies.

Outside the EU, the UK also remains vulnerable. Although its automotive sector is smaller, it still supports around 200,000 manufacturing jobs and some 800,000 positions across the wider industry.

How much of the problem stems from energy prices?

Energy costs have become one of the key structural pressures on Europe’s auto industry. After the disruption of traditional energy flows, the shift away from relatively cheap Russian pipeline gas has increased reliance on more expensive alternatives, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the US. For an energy-intensive sector such as automotive production – where steel, aluminium, chemicals, and battery materials are essential inputs – this has raised costs across the entire value chain.

Combined with competition from regions with lower energy costs, this has eroded one of Europe’s traditional advantages: cheap and stable industrial energy. As a result, energy has shifted from a competitive strength to a persistent headwind for European automakers.

Why are European carmakers losing ground to China?

Europe’s weakening position in the global auto market is increasingly linked to the rise of China as the leading EV powerhouse. Chinese manufacturers have scaled up production rapidly, supported by fully integrated domestic battery supply chains – from raw materials processing to cell manufacturing – giving them a structural cost advantage over European rivals.

A vast domestic market also allows Chinese firms to produce at far larger volumes, lowering unit costs and speeding up innovation. By contrast, Europe’s market is fragmented across multiple countries and regulatory systems.

European automakers also face higher production costs, particularly for energy and labor, alongside heavier regulatory requirements linked to emissions targets and industrial policy. According to the International Energy Agency, China produced 12.4 million electric cars in 2024, compared with 2.4 million in the EU and around 80,000 in the UK – roughly five times the combined European output.

The green transition impact

The pressure has been amplified by slower-than-expected EV adoption across Europe. As demand lags behind targets, automakers are caught between costly EV investments and continued reliance on petrol and diesel models to sustain profits.

Several carmakers warn that both EU rules and the UK’s ZEV targets risk moving faster than consumer demand. Critics say regulation has outpaced market readiness, while supporters argue that slowing the transition would leave Europe trailing in the global shift to clean mobility.

Why aren’t Europeans buying new cars?

Years of high inflation have squeezed household budgets, making consumers more reluctant to make big-ticket purchases. Although the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have begun cutting interest rates, borrowing costs remain well above pre-2022 levels, keeping car loans and leasing expensive.

The transition to electric vehicles has added another obstacle. While EV prices are gradually falling, they remain higher than comparable petrol and diesel models, and concerns over charging infrastructure, driving range, and resale values continue to dampen demand.

Government policy has also weighed on sales. Several countries have scaled back or scrapped EV subsidies amid budget pressures. Germany, Europe’s largest car market, ended its purchase incentives in late 2023, contributing to a sharp decline in EV registrations.

What are European governments doing to tackle the crisis?

European governments are trying to support the auto industry without derailing the transition to cleaner transport, combining financial incentives, industrial investment, and more flexible climate rules.

The EU has invested in domestic EV and battery production, funding battery plants, critical raw materials, and charging infrastructure. It has also imposed tariffs on Chinese-made EVs over alleged unfair subsidies and relaxed CO₂ compliance rules by giving automakers more time to meet emissions targets. The UK has retained its ZEV Mandate while easing some compliance requirements and pledging further investment in domestic battery production and EV supply chains.

What happens if Europe fails to reverse the trend?

With millions of jobs tied to the auto sector, a prolonged decline would extend far beyond factory gates, hitting suppliers, local economies, and entire industrial regions. Analysts warn that further shrinkage could reduce exports, deter investment, weaken one of Europe’s key manufacturing sectors, and increase pressure on public finances.

The crisis also carries strategic risks. As China strengthens its lead in EVs and battery technology, Europe risks losing its automotive edge and becoming more dependent on imported vehicles, batteries, and critical technologies.

The EU has condemned FIFA for suspending a one-match ban imposed on top US striker Folarin Balogun following an unprecedented intervention by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Trump confirmed that he asked the global football governing body to review a referee’s decision to issue a red card to Balogun during the US team’s 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday. The red card automatically disqualified Balogun from the next match in the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup, jointly hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico.

“As a fan, I too believe it was the wrong decision,” European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef wrote on X, adding that decisions on these matters “belong to sporting bodies, not politicians.”

European Commission spokeswoman Eva Hrncirova called for “fair play and transparent competition.” European football governing body UEFA released a strongly worded statement, saying the swift reversal of Balogun’s red card “crossed a red line.”

“We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,” UEFA said.

“I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Trump said. “I thought it was two great athletes that crashed into each other and got entangled. That was not a guy punching somebody in the face or anything that, you know, would be different.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino also defended the handling of Balogun’s case, insisting that the organization’s judicial bodies are independent.

According to media reports, Infantino has cultivated close ties with Trump. FIFA recently created and awarded its Peace Prize to the US president following his unsuccessful campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump reportedly called Infantino to push for Balogun’s suspension to be revoked.

Good fortune did not help the US team, however, as it lost 4-1 to Belgium on Monday and was eliminated from the tournament. Shortly after the victory, the Belgian team’s official X account posted: “Overturn this.”

Overturn this. 🧏‍♂️ #USABEL pic.twitter.com/KcBAJp3Z7d

— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) July 7, 2026

Around four in five asylum grants issued by the British Home Office lacked sufficient evidence and were “likely to be incorrect,” according to a report by Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) John Tuckett.

The findings are based on surveys of 262 decision-makers and 69 technical specialists, as well as data collected by the Home Office from July to December 2025. Around 85% of respondents said they believe senior managers “prioritized quantity over quality” when assessing asylum applications.

Tuckett, a government-appointed inspector, reviewed 47 asylum approvals issued by Home Office staff from August to September 2025. As many as 37 were found to be based on “insufficient evidence” and “were therefore likely to be incorrect,” he wrote.

While the report acknowledged that the inspection had a limited scope, it maintained that the findings indicate that the asylum decision-making system is “not in a good state.”

The inspection “raised concerns that the focus on clearing the backlog ‘at all costs’ had resulted in the prioritization of quantity over quality,” Tuckett said in a statement accompanying the report. “Decision quality had declined significantly and was at an unacceptable level.”

The Home Office responded by arguing that the findings were based on a small sample of cases. “Our assessment of nearly 4,000 cases shows 94% of decisions are considered ‘correct’ against agreed criteria,” it said, as quoted by The Sun.

Last week, media reports said a Pakistani grooming gang ringleader convicted of dozens of child sex offenses in the UK could not be deported under existing law, fueling further public outrage.

Last month, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the government’s policies as creating a “two-tier system” marked by “anti-white racism” in a widely discussed essay. Reform UK currently leads opinion polls with 26% support, followed by the ruling Labour Party with 24%, according to Ipsos.

Labour’s poor showing in local elections in May sparked unrest within the party, prompting Prime Minister Keir Starmer to announce that he will resign later this year.

Polish military counterintelligence will investigate those responsible for exposing secret deliveries of Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has announced.

The controversy erupted on Saturday after several Polish social media accounts reported that Warsaw had quietly transferred US-made PAC-3 Patriot interceptors to Kiev in March without parliamentary approval or informing the public.

Former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party backed the whistleblowers, condemning the transfer as a move that weakened Poland’s own air defenses.

“After consulting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, while maintaining responsibility toward public opinion and in accordance with legal regulations, I have ordered the declassification of all donations to Ukraine for the years 2022-2026,” Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X.

He added that he had instructed the Polish Military Counterintelligence Service to investigate those who had “intentionally sought to disclose state secrets.”

The minister noted that Poland’s military aid to Ukraine began under the previous PiS government, when Blaszczak served as defense minister from 2018 to 2023.

The transfer comes amid mounting pressure on Patriot missile supplies. According to the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), NATO countries face a backlog of roughly 4,300 Patriot interceptors – equivalent to about seven years of production at 2025 manufacturing rates – after US stockpiles were heavily depleted during the war with Iran.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed claims that it intends to attack NATO members.

President Vladimir Putin last month argued that NATO and EU leaders were using their allegations of a Russian threat to justify higher military spending and the “radical militarization” of their countries.

The European Shooting Confederation (ESC) decided on Monday to move a major competition from Estonia to Spain due to the Baltic state’s refusal to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete.

Russian and Belarusian athletes have been barred from nearly all international events since the Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022. Several sports federations have since reversed course, lifting restrictions on competitors from the two countries.

According to Estonian Public Broadcasting, the ESC warned Estonia’s national shooting federation that all eligible athletes must be allowed to take part in the European Air Gun Championships in March 2027, which will serve as a qualifying event for the 2027 European Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The championship has been moved from the Estonian capital, Tallinn to Granada, Spain because of Estonia’s ban on Russian and Belarusian citizens taking part in sporting events in Estonia.

“Of course, it is regrettable that we will not have the opportunity to host the 2027 European Air Gun Championships. However, the Estonian Shooting Sport Federation adheres to the policy of the Estonian state and therefore cannot allow citizens of Belarus or Russia to enter Estonia,” Vahur Karus, the president of the Estonian Shooting Sport Federation, said.

A number of sports governing bodies have since relaxed restrictions on Russian athletes, including the international federations for fencing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling, aquatic sports, and gymnastics.

Last month, however, the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca went against a recent decision by the global governing body World Gymnastics (WG) to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete with their national flags and anthems.

Moscow has said the politicization of sports is unacceptable and has accused the West of applying double standards to countries involved in armed conflicts. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the International Olympic Committee to “stop using international sports as an instrument of politics.”

US President Donald Trump has a consistent understanding of the Ukraine conflict and is receptive of what Moscow has to say on it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. The official also confirmed that Russia expects Trump to resume contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon.

Just days earlier, the two presidents spoke by phone on the 250th anniversary of US independence. According to the Kremlin, Putin and Trump spoke for nearly 1.5 hours on Saturday and discussed a wide range of topics, including Ukraine, Iran, and bilateral ties. The Trump administration has sought to play the role of a mediator in the Ukraine conflict.

“President Trump has a consistent position [on the Ukraine conflict],” Peskov told journalists on Monday, commenting on the US president’s role in the peace process. “He is consistent and confident in his understanding of what is happening. Most importantly, he is open to hearing the information that President Putin conveys to him.”

Washington resumed direct contact with Moscow in early 2025 after Trump returned to the White House following years of diplomatic freeze under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Several rounds of US-mediated talks, as well as direct meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, have yielded some tangible results, including major prisoner exchanges, the repatriation of fallen soldiers, and the exchange of peace memorandums, but have failed to produce a peace deal.

The process slowed down earlier this year as the US shifted its focus to Iran, but Trump signaled last month that Washington will resume efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.

On Monday, Peskov confirmed that both presidents “have an understanding” that “their contacts will continue in the near future.” Reuters reported that the US president could call his Russian counterpart later this week after meeting Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Türkiye.

Ukrainian drones have targeted one of Russia’s largest fuel‑processing plants, as Kiev carried out another large‑scale overnight UAV raid inside the country.  

The attack on the Omsk Oil Refinery in Omsk Region is the first in central Russia since the start of the Ukraine conflict. Governor Vitaly Khotsenko wrote on Telegram on Monday that the facility was hit after several drones reached the city’s northern industrial zone.  

Khotsenko said most of the incoming UAVs were destroyed by air defenses and that, according to preliminary information, there were no deaths or injuries. 

Russian media reported air‑raid sirens sounded in Omsk’s Central and Oktyabrsky districts and that the threat from drones prompted a temporary suspension of arrivals and departures at Omsk airport, while flights over the region were halted.  

The Omsk Oil Refinery, operated by Gazprom Neft, specializes in the production of gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene and road‑building bitumen. With an installed capacity of 20.5 million tons of crude per year, it accounts for around one in every six liters of Euro‑5 gasoline and diesel fuel produced in Russia, as well as a significant share of the country’s aviation fuel. 

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that more than 600 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or suppressed across more than 20 regions in the latest mass raid and that the primary targets were energy facilities.  

The ministry added that Vladimir Zelensky ordered the attacks on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara “to demonstrate to his European sponsors, including the UK, his willingness to strike civilian targets in Russia from Ukraine at their expense.”  

President Vladimir Putin has said Western elites continue to support the Kiev regime, which they have chosen as “a battering ram against Russia,” with no thought for the Ukrainian people. He said the West is attempting to sow unrest and destabilize the internal political situation in Russia, as Kiev’s forces retreat on the front lines and resort to “openly terrorist actions.”  

Moscow has previously said it would respond with “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure. According to the Defense Ministry, Russian forces carried out another large-scale missile and drone strike against such targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Monday.

The latest Russian missile strike on a Kiev suburb hit a weapons depot storing depleted uranium (DU) munitions, Ukrainian journalist and former legislator Igor Mosiychuk claimed on Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry has vowed to carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities in retaliation for Kiev’s “terrorist attacks” on Russian civilian targets. The campaign has already significantly degraded Ukraine’s ability to produce long-range weapons, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Overnight on Monday, Russian forces launched another large-scale strike on Ukraine, with missiles hitting the Kiev suburb of Vishnyovoe. Videos circulating online showed powerful secondary explosions, indicating that a munitions depot or military production site had been struck.

“A munitions depot in Vishnyovoe was hit by Russian missiles. I don’t know which bastards placed it there on the outskirts of Kiev. It’s detonating right now,” Mosiychuk said in an interview on YouTube.

“[Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky is silent... the Defense Ministry advisers are silent,” Mosiychuk said. “They’re keeping quiet about the situation.” He added that residents had been ordered to stay indoors and keep their windows closed.

The air quality index in Vishnyovoe briefly reached the “red” category, indicating hazardous conditions, before later improving, according to Ukrainian outlet RBC.

DU munitions have long been controversial because of their radioactive properties and heavy-metal toxicity. If such ammunition was present, the explosion could have dispersed radioactive and toxic DU particles, which can pose health risks if inhaled or ingested.

Moscow has long argued that Ukraine’s Western backers are waging a proxy war against Russia by supplying weapons to Kiev. Last month, President Putin said Ukraine had been turned into a “battering ram” against Russia “without any sympathy for the Ukrainian people.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is entering its third age. When it was founded three quarters of a century ago, it was meant to contain the spread of communism and confront the military might of the Soviet Union. In other words, to keep Western Europe capitalist and under US control. Despite the allegations of the Soviet propaganda at the time, NATO was a defensive rather than an aggressive alliance. Through all the crises of the Cold War period, it stood still.

When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union imploded, NATO gained a victory it had not won. The US-led military bloc refused to dissolve upon the completion of its original mission. Instead, it sought to become the sole security regulator for Europe. It went onto an offensive and waged war against Serbia. It went “out of area” to fight in Afghanistan. It embarked on an enlargement spree to include the former Soviet satellite countries of Eastern Europe, and some ex-republics of the USSR itself.

Yet, it miserably failed to manage relations with the former adversary, Russia. It spurned Moscow’s request for membership and proposed a partnership instead which turned out to be essentially hollow. It ignored Russia’s security interests by refusing to stop its expansion all the way toward the Russian border and turning down Moscow’s proposals for a pan-European security order. The issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO, which the Kremlin perceived as an intolerable threat to its national security, became the principal cause of the Ukraine war, now in its fifth year.

From 2025, US President Donald Trump’s policies have kick-started a process of NATO’s internal transformation. The US National Defense Strategy clearly makes Europe responsible for “handling” Russia. Thus, with Washington revising its global strategic priorities, European members of the alliance are being ordered to carry more financial and military burden. Under conditions of the ongoing war, this means much greater involvement in the conflict. The European elites, long reluctant to increase defense spending and fearful of being drawn into wars, have changed their minds and eagerly embraced the new responsibilities and risks as an opportunity.

There are reasons for that change. Militarization is now thought to be a driver for relaunching the EU’s flagging economies. A militarily stronger Europe would be more autonomous strategically in a world where America is reducing its commitments to allies. Adding a military dimension to the EU could cement the union in the face of the many mounting challenges. Politically, rearmament and mobilization in the face of the “enemy at the gates” makes it easier for the ruling elites to brand their opponents “Kremlin stooges,” and thus protect their hold on power. In ideological terms, fighting Russia (for now, via Ukraine) has become a new unifying idea for Europe.

For Russia, this NATO 3.0 means, above all, that for the first time since the defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies in 1945, Europe is again becoming a clear and immediate enemy of Russia. People in Moscow entertain no illusions about the adversarial attitude of the United States toward Russia, but Washington now is a back seat driver when it comes to the conflict with Russia. Whereas in the days of the Cold War NATO appeared to Russians as “America in Europe,” now when they look at NATO, they see Europe backed by America.

What is even more important is that NATO 3.0 is clearly on the offensive, with most decisive goals. The European elites’ strategy toward Russia is no longer deterrence as in the days of the Cold War; the goal is Russia’s destruction as a major power. This is what “strategic defeat” is all about. The Europeans dream of eliminating Russia as a serious factor in the geopolitics of Eurasia: to them, this would mean the “final solution” of the long-dreaded “Russia problem.”

This, however, will not happen. The fundamental flaw of European thinking is their belief that Russia would rather accept defeat, degradation and disintegration than use the arsenal which it currently possesses. This arsenal is not limited to nuclear weapons, although point may be reached when they will have to be used. The Kremlin, so far, has been exceedingly restrained in using its more powerful conventional capabilities, or engaging some high-value, high-visibility targets. There are many explanations for such restraint, but it is foolhardy – actually, fatal – to believe that either the Russian leadership or the Russian people would ever surrender to NATO.

The European NATO leaders’ enormous deficit of modern strategic culture – unsurprising after the eight decades of having delegated their security to the United States – and their blind Russophobia, a result of deep-seated vintage European racism and the real or perceived grudges against Russia piled over the last five centuries, have put Europe on a direct collision course with Russia. NATO 3.0 means war. Should it actually come to that, there will be no more NATO.

Huge crowds attended the funeral procession of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in central Tehran on Monday, which also featured a banner reading ‘Kill Trump’ and chants of ‘Death to America’. 

It was the largest public event of the multi-day funeral, with mourners lining the nearly 20-km (12-mile) route through the Iranian capital. State media reported that millions turned out to pay tribute to Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran. 

The footage showed mourners holding flower-framed portraits of Khamenei, chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, and carrying a large banner reading “Kill Trump: $100 million Iranian bounty.” Many waved red-and-white flags symbolizing martyrdom and revenge in Shia tradition as trucks carrying the flag-draped caskets of Khamenei and four of his family members made their way through the city. 

As the procession passed beneath a bridge, mourners hurled stones at a billboard depicting US President Donald Trump with a bullet aimed at his head. The sign read in Persian: “The US killed our father. We won’t let you go!” 

According to media reports, some participants also carried posters depicting US Vice President J.D. Vance, US War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the crosshairs of a gunsight alongside the words “There will be blood.” 

Call for revenge: Crimson protests rise for Iran's martyred Leader. pic.twitter.com/gpG8JNJO7Y

— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) July 6, 2026

The burial ceremonies come more than four months after Khamenei was assassinated on February 28 in a concentrated US-Israeli airstrike on his official residence in Tehran. Several relatives were also killed, including his son-in-law, daughter, and 14-month-old granddaughter. 

The ceremonies began on Friday, attended by Iranian officials, foreign dignitaries, and regional delegations. The cortege is scheduled to move to the holy city of Qom before continuing to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala. Khamenei will be buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his hometown, on Thursday. 

Mourners chanted slogans calling for revenge for the Leader's blood and resistance against adversaries and traitors, while waving Iranian flags as well red flags of revenge and carrying portraits of martyred Leader. pic.twitter.com/k4EOzlI97h

— Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) July 6, 2026

Trump said over the weekend that renewed peace talks with Iran had been delayed for a week by the funeral ceremonies. A preliminary peace agreement was reached last month, paving the way for further negotiations, although Israel has opposed the process and Tehran has accused it of trying to derail diplomacy. 

A drone strike that destroyed an early 20th-century museum masterpiece in the Russian city of Sevastopol last month was planned by British officers acting as advisers to the Ukrainian military, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.

In early June, the Ukrainian military targeted a museum hosting the iconic Russian panorama painting ‘The Defense of Sevastopol’, depicting the city’s defense by the Russian Army from British and French invading forces during the 1853-1856 Crimean War.

The panorama, which was 115 meters in length and 14 meters high, was “almost completely destroyed” in the attack and the blaze caused by the strike, local Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said at the time.

On Monday, the SVR called the attack a “carefully planned provocation orchestrated by London” and its intelligence services. According to Moscow, Ukrainian soldiers only launched the drones that hit the museum and were unaware of the strike’s target.

“The flight missions were uploaded into the weapons systems by British specialists operating under the guise of military advisers,” the statement said, adding that the attack made absolutely no sense in terms of military strategy as there are no military facilities near the museum.

The Russian Empire signed the unfavorable Paris Treaty after the Crimean War, which banned it from having a navy in the Black Sea as well as any military fortifications on its shores, but was able to effectively nullify the conditions of the treaty in the following decades.

“It is regrettable that London has still not learned the lessons of the past,” the SVR said in its statement, adding that the UK would “have to answer for this strike as well as other barbaric crimes against the peoples of Russia and Ukraine.”

Moscow has described the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war between Russia and Kiev’s Western backers, who use Ukraine “as a battering ram.”

President Vladimir Putin stated last month that Russia is facing “unprecedented pressure from Western elites,” adding that Kiev’s backers are nonetheless unable to inflict a defeat on Moscow.

New Delhi and Moscow have made progress in talks to boost trade, India’s ambassador to Russia has said.

Speaking at Russia’s main investment and trade platform Innoprom 2026 on Monday, Vinay Kumar said that the two countries are negotiating a bilateral investment protection agreement and working to remove non-tariff barriers, particularly with regards to agriculture and food products.

India-Russia trade is now at about $58 to $60 billion, and both countries are pursuing a trade target of $100 billion by 2030 that was set during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December.

Kumar said that Indian businesses were responding “very positively and actively” to the country’s expanding diplomatic presence, citing New Delhi’s Consulate General in Ekaterinburg that was opened in November.

📹 India, Eurasian Economic Union Advance Free Trade Agreement Talks: 🇮🇳 Ambassador to Russia

Vinay Kumar said the second round of talks was held in Moscow just 10 days ago.

He added that India and Russia are also negotiating a bilateral investment protection agreement and… https://t.co/s1obyMaWua pic.twitter.com/iAo1vQqGwd

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 6, 2026

India is represented by over 30 companies in the investment fair being held at the Ekaterinburg-EXPO International Exhibition Center.

India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) have also made progress in discussing a free trade agreement. The second round of talks was held in Moscow late last month, Kumar said.

Another Innoprom conclave will be held in India in September, ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi.

“Russia is steadily strengthening its status as a reliable supplier of high-tech products,” Mishustin said. “Last year, despite the difficult circumstances, we increased non-resource, non-energy exports by more than 11%. The strongest growth was recorded with China, India, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.”

Russia will continue to build international infrastructure and establish stable cooperative ties with friendly countries and partners within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), he said.

Western Europe has been enduring another record-breaking heat wave, with temperatures topping 40C in several countries. France, the UK, Germany and Switzerland have all seen their hottest June temperatures on record, while the extreme weather has disrupted transport, power generation and industrial output.

The scorching temperatures are burning a multi-billion-euro hole in the EU's already fragile economy. From parched fields to idle factories, the bloc is feeling the heat beyond what thermometers may indicate. Economists, meanwhile, warn that climate-driven heat waves are no longer temporary events but a structural macroeconomic risk.

Productivity is the first casualty

The most immediate economic cost of extreme heat is lost productivity. According to German insurer Allianz Trade, every additional degree between 30C and 35C cuts labor productivity by roughly $1.30 per hour – equivalent to nearly 3% of average hourly output. Construction, agriculture, logistics and other labor-intensive sectors bear the brunt as workers struggle in extreme temperatures.

As another heat wave swept the region, Patrick Martin, head of France's main employers' federation Medef, summed up the impact: “France is working in slow mode.”

The blow is increasingly being felt at the macroeconomic level, according to Carsten Brzeski, ING's global head of macro research. Heat waves have evolved from isolated weather events into a key economic variable, shaking the bloc’s business activity in ways reminiscent of the Covid-19 lockdowns. “Thermometers, it turns out, have become a leading indicator of economic growth,” he wrote last month, warning that heat waves now pose “a new downside risk to European growth.”
Brzeski said Germany, despite its relatively mild climate, could rank third in Europe for cumulative heat-related economic losses by 2030 because its infrastructure, housing stock and labor-intensive industries were built for cooler conditions.

The heat is literally melting Europe's transport infrastructure. Roads are cracking, rail tracks are buckling and tram networks are grinding to a halt across Western Europe. In Germany, major highways near Berlin and Hamburg were damaged by the heat, while in Leipzig tram services were suspended after track sealant melted. France's SNCF cut train services around Paris to protect its rail network, and Eurostar imposed speed restrictions as temperatures soared.

The damage extends beyond roads and railways. Water levels on the Rhine – Europe's busiest inland waterway – have fallen so low that cargo vessels can carry only around 25% to 45% of their normal loads. The restrictions have driven up freight costs and disrupted deliveries of fuel, chemicals and industrial raw materials, forcing companies such as BASF to adjust operations at their flagship Ludwigshafen complex. Engineers warn that much of Europe's transport infrastructure was designed for a cooler climate.

Surging demand for air conditioning is driving up electricity consumption just as extreme temperatures are squeezing supply. During the evening peak, Belgium's quarter-hour power price hit a record €1,038 per MWh, while the price in Germany reached €747 per MWh, according to exchange data cited by energy market intelligence firm Montel in late June.

High temperatures reduce the efficiency of solar panels and gas-fired power plants, while forcing some nuclear reactors to scale back or halt operations because rivers used for cooling have become too warm. France's EDF curbed output at the Nogent-sur-Seine and Bugey plants, while Swiss utility Axpo temporarily shut both reactors at the Beznau nuclear plant after the temperature of the River Aare reached 25C.

The latest heat wave has laid bare Europe's self-inflicted energy crunch. The EU's years-long, sanctions-driven shift from Russian energy has come at a cost. As the bloc reduced purchases of cheaper Russian gas, it became increasingly dependent on US LNG, which accounted for 59% of imports in early 2026 and more than 64% in April, according to Bruegel. Analysts warn that such reliance on a single supplier leaves the EU more exposed to price shocks and supply disruptions.

Luxembourg MEP Fernand Kartheiser has said the bloc could ease pressure on households and industry by buying competitively priced Russian energy instead of relying on more expensive American LNG.

Yet despite its pledge to phase out Russian gas, the EU continues to buy it at prevailing market prices. Russia emerged as the third-largest gas supplier to the EU in the first half of 2026, after Norway and the US, delivering approximately 22.1 billion cubic meters of gas and accounting for about 12% of the EU's gas consumption.

The economic cost of extreme heat extends beyond lost working hours and soaring electricity bills, fueling inflation, driving up food prices, and weighing on economic growth across the EU.

Agriculture is among the sectors under the greatest pressure. Repeated heat waves and droughts have scorched crops, dried out farmland and reduced yields across Southern and Western Europe. The European Central Bank estimates that the 2022 drought alone added 0.7 percentage points to food inflation across the EU. With another severe heat wave gripping the continent, economists warn that weather-sensitive staples could once again become more expensive.

Households pay the price

Ultimately, European households are paying the price. The economic damage does not end when temperatures fall. Research suggests economic activity declines by around 1% in the year after a major heat wave, with losses deepening to as much as 1.5% in the second year as disrupted production, damaged infrastructure and weaker investment continue to weigh on growth.

Studies suggest climate change could reduce the average European’s income by up to 3% over the course of this century as slower growth, higher energy bills and rising food prices steadily erode purchasing power.

The impact is already visible across the bloc. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has struggled to regain momentum after contracting in 2024, with economists increasingly identifying extreme heat as another structural headwind alongside high energy costs and weak industrial output.

According to Allianz Trade, climate-related losses could shave between 5% and 7% off the EU's cumulative GDP between 2026 and 2030. France is projected to suffer the biggest hit, with losses of around $240 billion, followed by Italy ($147 billion), Germany ($131 billion) and Spain ($120 billion).

The Russian military has launched its latest long-range barrage against what it described as key military targets in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine.

Moscow announced in early June that it would intensify such operations following a high-profile Ukrainian drone raid that killed 21 civilians, most of them teenage girls, and wounded dozens more.

Kiev describes its Western-funded kamikaze drone attacks on Russia as central to its military strategy and is seeking additional funding.

What did Russia target in Kiev?

The overnight strikes, reportedly carried out with ballistic and cruise missiles as well as long-range drones, hit multiple sites in the Ukrainian capital and in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkassy, Chernigov, and Kiev regions.

The Russian Defense Ministry listed the following targets in Kiev:

• Abris PT, also known as Kiev-71, which produces various shorter-range drones for the Ukrainian military, as well as drone components.

• Burevestnik, also known as Kiev-1, a Soviet-era plant specializing in radio equipment, which Moscow says produces medium- and long-range drones.

• Ukr Armo Tekh, also known as Kiev-79, an armored vehicle manufacturer that also supplies missile warheads, according to the report.

• Kuznia na Rybalskom, a shipyard on the Rybalsky Peninsula founded in the late 19th century as a metal-casting plant. The site has been associated with former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and produces Gyurza-type naval kamikaze drones.

• Kvant, meaning “quantum,” a Soviet-era military research and production facility that Russia says makes missile and aircraft guidance components, including for Neptun-MD missiles, as well as other hardware.

In Kiev Region, the Russian military said it targeted:

• Vizar, a state-owned plant involved in maintaining Ukrainian air defense systems and producing components for long-range drones.

• An oil depot in the city of Vishnyovoe, which Moscow says supplies gasoline and diesel to the Ukrainian military.

The ministry said airfields and military-linked energy facilities were also hit in other parts of Ukraine.

Did the barrage stand out?

Not particularly from the Russian military’s perspective. In its briefings, the Defense Ministry distinguishes between “massive” and “group” strikes, with the difference depending on the number of units involved.

For example, between June 27 and July 3, the ministry reported five group strikes and one massive strike, the latter carried out overnight on July 1-2.

According to Kiev, all 29 ballistic missiles pierced its air defenses, as did some cruise missiles and drones, resulting in direct hits at 34 locations and debris damage at 16 others.

Are Ukraine’s air defenses failing?

Ukrainian officials, as well as the country’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, have long complained about shortages of Western air defense systems and interceptors, especially US-made Patriot missiles.

Last week, Zelensky said Norway had pledged to fund 200 Patriot missiles, but Ukraine had not yet received any of them. While thanking donors for their support, he stressed: “We need them to simply deliver what they promised.”

Norway later said Zelensky had misconstrued its pledge, explaining that it was prepared to pay for Patriot missiles only if Kiev found a willing supplier amid a global shortage of the weapons.

Why is Russia ramping up strikes?

Moscow says it is responding to changes in Ukrainian strategy by increasing military pressure on the country.

Kiev has said it wants to inflict maximum economic damage on Russia by striking energy infrastructure, including oil refineries and export terminals, with Western-funded drones. On the night of Russia’s latest barrage, the Russian military said it detected 626 Ukrainian drones outside what Moscow considers the combat zone and shot down 613 of them.

Russia, however, frames its retaliation not as a response to economic damage but as a reaction to what it calls Kiev’s terrorist tactics. Officials in Moscow have pointed to a deadly drone raid on a vocational college dormitory in Starobelsk in May as a turning point, insisting that it was a deliberate attack on teenage students while they were sleeping.

“The leadership in Kiev has decided to start a new chapter in their crimes and give the broader conflict a new quality. Well. That is their choice,” President Vladimir Putin said during a Russian Security Council meeting after the attack.

What could Kiev gain by targeting civilians?

Russia claims the Ukrainian leadership’s main objective is to secure more Western funding. Moscow argues that Kiev is pursuing a two-pronged approach: provoking heavier Russian strikes in order to present itself as a victim, while depicting damage to Russian infrastructure as proof that it is shifting the battlefield balance.

According to Putin, “the situation for Ukrainian troops is turning from difficult to critical” and cannot be improved “neither with Western aid, which they [Ukrainian officials] can’t help but embezzle, nor with forced mobilization which involves hunting people in the streets like stray dogs and throwing them to the front line.”

Last week, the Russian military reported the full capture of Konstantinovka, a settlement that had served as one of Ukraine’s remaining strongholds in Donbass. Kiev denied losing it.

Will Ukraine get more Western money?

That remains unclear. Old pledges could be reiterated this week, as NATO leaders gather for a regular summit in Ankara, Türkiye.

A Bloomberg report has suggested that some members of the US-led bloc, including Italy, oppose even mentioning past aid commitments, instead pushing for language similar to last year’s final communique, which omitted such funding.

The EU remains the primary sponsor of the Ukrainian war effort. Brussels, London, and Kiev are reportedly trying to convince US President Donald Trump that there is a path towards Ukrainian victory in the conflict.

Is there a risk of further escalation?

Significant, according to Moscow. In an interview over the weekend, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is fighting what amounts to a real war, rather than merely a special military operation.

“This conflict continues as a war, because Berlin, Paris, the Hague, Oslo and, unfortunately, Washington are backing Kiev,” Peskov said. “Washington is using its satellites to help them [the Ukrainians] target us with Western weapons.”

Asked whether Russia was considering strikes on NATO member Poland, as some Western media have claimed, Peskov said “scary tales” about Russia regularly appear in the press, but added that “there are plenty of plants in Polish territory that make drones that later attack us.” He described his remark as “a statement of facts.”

Russia shipped a record volume of wheat to Tanzania in the 2025/26 season, exporting more than 850,000 tons, the Russian agriculture export agency Agroexport reported on Monday. 

The agency stated that the figure is 16% higher than the previous season and 47% above the five-year average. 

“Russia is a key supplier of wheat to Tanzania,” Agroexport said, adding that Russian exporters have steadily expanded their presence in the East African market in recent years.  

According to the estimates from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Tanzania imported around 1.5 million tons of wheat in the 2025/26 season, up 200,000 tons from the previous year and the highest level on record. 

Agroexport also reported that East African Community (EAC) countries are playing an increasingly important role in Russia’s wheat exports to Africa. Combined shipments to the bloc were about 3.5 million tons in the 2025/26 season, up 26% from a year earlier and accounting for roughly 16-17% of Russia’s total wheat exports to the continent. 

The record shipments to Tanzania come as Russia continues to expand wheat exports across Africa. Agroexport reported last week that exports to neighboring Kenya rose 10% year-on-year to around 1.4 million tons in the current season through late May. 

Wheat exports to Egypt also increased by 19% this year, while deliveries to Sudan surged 78%, according to the agency. 

Heavy monsoon rains have marooned India’s financial capital Mumbai, leaving six dead over the weekend. Flooding and landslides have cut off regular access to the city.

The deaths were reported in the eastern suburb of Mankhurd, where a four-story residential building collapsed. The victims included a woman and five children, according to civic authorities.

Between 8:30 AM local time on July 4 and 8:30 AM the following day, weather stations in Mumbai recorded more than 200 millimeters of rainfall, with more heavy rain and winds forecast.

Landslides on the expressway connecting Mumbai with the IT and manufacturing hub of Pune disrupted traffic; the two cities are the largest in Maharashtra state on the country’s west coast.

Airline services were disrupted and long-distance train services connecting ⁠Mumbai and Pune were cancelled.

Heavy rains cause widespread flooding in Mumbai. Commuters face knee-deep water. Please be cautious! 🙏
#Mumbai #HeavyRain #Monsoon pic.twitter.com/6Z8ujUcsXY

— Manjesh Jangir🚩हिन्दू (@manjesh_jangir) July 6, 2026

The chief minister of Maharashtra warned of a possible downpour in the city of Nashik on Tuesday. A high alert has been sounded as heavy rains are expected to continue across the state until July 8, although the rain in Mumbai has abated.

The rain started late last month, after a late and weak onset of monsoon in mid-June, uprooting trees on Mumbai’s roads and killing ⁠at least three people, according to media reports.

India was hit by the worst flooding in its modern history in 2005, when it saw the most rain recorded in over a century, taking the lives of an estimated 1,000 people.

India’s Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast more heavy rainfall in many states in the coming days.

On June 30, the IMD projected that the South Asian nation is likely to see below-average monsoon rainfall in July after logging its fifth-driest June since the country started maintaining records in 1901.

British police chiefs need to stop taking sides in “woke… culture wars” and focus entirely on the “prevention and detection of crime,” according to a government-backed report that recommends a “fundamental overhaul” of policing in the UK.

Co-authored by former Labour Party Home Secretary Lord Blunkett and published on Monday, the report found that Britain’s police departments are plagued by corrupt leadership, nepotism, abuse of power, and low morale among officers. 

The report also highlighted concerns that police leaders are “preferencing certain groups,” with some “woke” chiefs “taking sides in the so-called ‘culture wars.’”

“Police leaders should be resolute in refusing to take sides, or to be diverted from the course of focusing entirely on the prevention, detection and prosecution of crime,” the report recommends, adding that “the background or identity of any perpetrator or victim of crime should have absolutely no bearing” on their treatment by the police service.

Official anti-racism guidance from the National Police Chiefs’ Council explicitly instructs officers not to be “color blind.” Equality, it states, “does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’.” Although the document is now under review, other arms of the British justice system have doubled down on apparently two-tier policies. Last week,  the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales ordered its own prosecutors last week to question their own “unconscious bias” when deciding whether to charge suspects from ethnic minorities.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Blunkett admitted that “there is a perception” of two-tier policing in the UK. “We’ve moved the pendulum,” he said. “It swung from the [1999] Macpherson report about outright racism in the force… all the way through to people saying, ‘oh, it’s woke’, and we make it clear in the report that there’s no room for culture wars or woke.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has described the UK as “a two-tier state against white people,” and portrayed the death of Nowak as a direct consequence of decades of policing “guidelines that led them to treat different ethnic groups in different ways.” 

More evidence of two-tier policing against white people in Britain.

This young man was attacked by ethnic minority men and instead of arresting them, the police arrested the victim.

Only Reform will put an end to this. pic.twitter.com/PzZmndzkla

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) July 3, 2026

Two days before Blunkett’s report was published, Farage shared a video showing Birmingham police officers arresting a white youth after he was attacked by a group of black men. “This young man was attacked by ethnic minority men and instead of arresting them, the police arrested the victim,” he wrote on X, describing the video as “more evidence of two-tier policing against white people in Britain.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said investments by global technology firms, including Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Mastercard, are strengthening the country’s position as Africa’s leading digital hub.

In his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa said the investments would support cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, job creation and economic growth, while warning that South Africa must protect data sovereignty and citizens’ privacy.

”Our country’s ambition to be a leading digital investment destination is being recognised by some of the world’s leading technology companies,” Ramaphosa said.

Among the projects is a new Digital Exchange Port to be built in the Eastern Cape, the first of four connectivity hubs planned across the continent to improve reliable cloud services. Ramaphosa said Google would also establish a R3 million digital innovation centre at South West Gauteng TVET College in Soweto as part of its commitment to developing digital skills. He also noted that Amazon Web Services announced plans in 2023 to invest R30.4 billion in local cloud infrastructure, while Microsoft last year committed R5.4 billion towards expanding hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure.

Ramaphosa welcomed Mastercard’s recent launch of its Africa Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, which will begin with a phased rollout in South Africa and Nigeria to strengthen cyber resilience and support secure digital growth across the continent.

Ramaphosa said small, medium and micro enterprises stand to benefit significantly from cloud computing, with one study estimating that wider adoption could unlock more than R185 billion for South Africa’s economy by 2030.

Despite the opportunities, Ramaphosa cautioned that South Africa must ensure innovation is matched by appropriate regulation as it positions itself as “a continental cloud and AI gateway.”

“There is a need for ‘guardrails’ to prevent abuse and other risks,” he stressed.

”The digital economy must safeguard the rights and privacy of citizens, support environmental sustainability and uphold our country’s sovereignty.”

“In the digital age, sovereignty is measured not only by territorial borders. It is increasingly measured by a nation’s ability to secure its data, develop its own digital capabilities and exercise meaningful control over the technologies on which its economy depends,” he noted.

He said government was investing in its own cloud infrastructure through institutions such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to strengthen the country’s digital capabilities.

”As we navigate these complexities, we must deepen collaboration across government, business, labour, industry and civil society in pursuit of a digital future that is secure, inclusive and leaves no-one behind,” the president concluded.

First published by IOL

Hundreds of thousands are attending the funeral of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran in a clear display of solidarity and defiance by the country’s people, geostrategic analyst Christopher Helali, who is attending the ceremony, has told RT.

Khamenei was assassinated in an airstrike on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, along with several close relatives, including his son-in-law, daughter and 14-month-old granddaughter. His son Mojtaba Khamenei, who was wounded in the attack, was chosen to succeed him as the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.

In an interview with RT on Monday, Helali told RT that there is “a real sense of unity” at the funeral.

By showing up to the ceremony in such massive numbers, the Iranians are signaling that “they want to have a strong country, a stable country, a resilient country, and they want their sovereignty,” he said.

According to Helali, Khamenei’s funeral has also completely negated Washington’s narrative that Iran is in international isolation.

“Over 120 countries are represented here,” he said, adding that not only “most of the Global South,” but nations viewed as the US allies like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also sent delegations, he said.

The presence of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chair of the Security Council, at the ceremony was “very important,” the analyst noted.

Moscow and Tehran “find themselves… in the closest point they’ve ever been in history… and I believe that in the coming years, we’re going to see an even deeper relationship… as they confront the same hostile Euro-Atlantic forces that seek to destroy their sovereignty,” he said.

Imagine a Hollywood movie. It’s a thriller about a big bad secret. One of those that have far-reaching, even earth-shaking political stakes attached to them; the sort of ‘this-changes-everything’ information that, if revealed, can topple governments, break up alliances, and redefine friends and enemies on the grand chessboard of geopolitics.

Such a secret could be, for instance, about an international conspiratorial network of pedophilia and other especially revolting crimes, serving as a pervasive influence operation to capture US and other Western ‘elites’ on behalf of a genocidal apartheid state in the Middle East and its global backers.

Or the secret could involve an infamous massacre of protesters. When the slaughter occurred, its systematic misrepresentation served to further manipulate Western public opinion to endorse a regime change operation in a country slotted for a Western geopolitical coup.

Finally, maybe the big bad secret is about the worst single peacetime terrorist attack ever carried out on vital infrastructure, a whole national economy and all who depend on it, and, last but not least, the environment; an act which takes place in Europe and against a NATO member state. And the bizarre fact that the political and mainstream media ‘elites’ of the attacked state have, in effect, obstinately helped cover up first the real identity of the crime’s perpetrators and then their sponsors.

The international conspiracy of child abuse and more is, of course, the Epstein network, with its obvious ties to Israel and virtually certain links to Israeli intelligence in particular. The mass killing of protesters refers to what is known as the Kiev ‘Maidan’ or ‘Snipers’ Massacre’ of February 2014, which Western politicians and their compliant mainstream media rapidly blamed on Ukraine’s old regime, conveniently in the process of being toppled in a particularly violent ‘color revolution’. In reality, as the Canadian-Ukrainian political scientist Ivan Katchanovski has demonstrated with painstaking, exhaustive, and peer-reviewed research, the massacre was a false flag operation carried out by anti-regime forces.

In economic terms, the destruction of Nord Stream closed the door to supplying Germany’s industry and households with inexpensive Russian gas. This was a terrorist strike at the heart of Germany’s already declining prosperity. And it worked, making a powerful and devastating contribution to the country’s catastrophic economic tailspin and the worsening lives of most Germans.

Yet if the attack was shocking, its aftermath was mindboggling. Initially, Western leaders, ‘experts’ (such as Carlo Masala and Janis Kluge), and mainstream media propaganda outlets seriously tried to sell the moronic idea that Russia had detonated the pipelines, although it had no conceivable motive to do so. Kiev was by no means silent. Ukrainian government official Mikhail Podoliak loudly agreed that this was a terrible crime and called on the West to punish Moscow.

Then, slowly, even in the West, reality asserted itself. The harebrained story about big bad Russia was quietly dropped – without anyone ever being challenged over having contaminated the public sphere with such biased nonsense in the first place. Western mainstream media, such as the American Wall Street Journal and German Spiegel, surely well supplied with leaks and instructions, have now settled for a slightly less absurd but still incomplete story: We are all supposed to believe that Nord Stream was blown up by a plucky team of Ukrainian ‘commandos’ and them alone.

That as well makes no sense. Yes, it is very much Kiev’s modus operandi to launch a brazen and perfidious terror attack on one of its most important and generous backers. Yet it obviously needed help. From whom exactly and in what shape, the future will show. Poland, judging by its behavior since the attack, was certainly very closely involved. Its politicians and spies have, in essence, been boasting about it, adding insult to injury for Germany. Other prime suspects include the US, the UK, and Norway, all of them so-called ‘allies’ of Germany within NATO. With friends like these, Germans need no enemies.

In other words, whatever happens next, it will be impossible to conduct a trial against Sergei K. and not bring up the obvious issue of his accomplices and sponsors. And that is the point where you may rush to the conclusion that Sergei’s personal and well-deserved come-uppance might turn into one of those Hollywood-movie-type cases, where the stunning revelation of the big secret will finally make a difference to what can only be termed Berlin’s insane policy of national masochism.

Once there is a Ukrainian terrorist in the dock and it has become inevitable to face who sent him to brutally damage the German economy and worsen the lives of almost every single German citizen, surely German governments cannot possibly continue their perverse and exceedingly expensive support for Kiev, you may think.

Indeed, they may even have to rethink another, even more wasteful policy, namely Germany’s new militarism: Based on silly scaremongering about Russia, it is making all Germans poorer, as even the anything but rebellious Zeit newspaper has to admit. Indeed, it will ruin what is left of Germany.

Ultimately, perhaps even those voices of reason in the BSW and AfD parties will prevail that argue for an end to the proxy war via Ukraine, normalization with Russia, and, specifically, repairing and using the Nord Stream pipelines.

If only! But the real world is not a Hollywood movie. In reality, especially the worst secrets and the greatest lies do not change everything when finally revealed. They should, but they don’t. Consider, for instance, that the very incomplete knowledge that we have of the Epstein crimes should have immediately shattered the US-Israeli relationship. Yet, while there are fissures, it is holding up well enough to ensure US support for Israel’s ongoing crimes, including genocide. Indeed, it is so robust that the US has just lost a war against Iran while following Israeli orders and is about to permanently integrate Israel into its military-industrial complex.

Unfortunately, the same is likely to happen in the case of the Nord Stream attack. Even if the truth about Kiev’s involvement in a horrific attack on Germany should ever be revealed, Berlin will pretend that nothing has really changed. Indeed, a perverse op-ed in Spiegel is already preparing the ground for such a solution, pretending, in essence, that Germans should be grateful to Kiev for blowing up a pipeline that was just no good.

That Spiegel thereby in effect endorses a sabotage of Germany’s vital infrastructure should occupy German prosecutors, but it probably won’t: They are busy going after ordinary citizens for plausibly calling Chancellor Friedrich Merz “Lying Fritz” or sharing RT information.

The reason why the biggest lies are so resilient is depressing and simple: Some lies are so important, so baked into policies, which current “elites” refuse to change because they would fall with them, that the truth must not be allowed to harm these lies: They are too big to fail. That is why, ultimately, the only real hope lies in a genuine replacement of political elites. If Germans have really had enough of being impoverished for Ukraine, the country that, unlike Russia, has actually fiercely and perfidiously attacked them, then they will have to vote very differently.

The US military deployment in northern Nigeria has failed to produce major improvements in the country’s security crisis despite Washington’s claim that its counterterrorism mission was successful, Nigerian political figure Samuel Memeh has told RT.

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) head Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson said at a press briefing on Thursday that the unit had withdrawn most of the troops deployed to the West African country. The AFRICOM commander, however, said Washington would maintain intelligence sharing and broader security cooperation with Abuja.

About 200 American soldiers were deployed to Nigeria two months after US and Nigerian forces launched a joint operation in the Lake Chad Basin area in December, including strikes targeting militants on Christmas Day.

Speaking to RT in an interview published on Sunday, Samuel Memeh, chairman of Nigeria’s opposition Democratic Leadership Alliance, argued the mission “has not yielded significant improvements” in the country’s security.

“There are reports that as a result of the mineral resources that are deposited in these areas, and so there are a lot of foreign interests,” Memeh said.

He noted foreign military support alone cannot defeat terrorism in Nigeria, where armed groups have repeatedly targeted schools, communities, and security forces.

“It is not a war that can be won by only the external forces,” Memeh said, adding that “local problems require local solutions.”

In December, Abuja said it had reached a bilateral security agreement with Washington covering intelligence sharing and “other forms of support,” after previously rejecting any unilateral military intervention on its soil. The announcement came weeks after US President Donald Trump threatened action over Abuja’s alleged failure to address what he called a “genocide” of Christians in Africa’s most populous country.

Indonesia and India are boosting financial ties via a local currency settlement mechanism to lessen their reliance on the US dollar, a top diplomat has told RT India.

Bank Indonesia and the Reserve Bank of India have agreed on a local currency settlement (LCS) framework for this, the Indonesian Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Yudho Sasongko, said in an interview given ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jakarta.

Modi was accorded a warm welcome Monday, with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto welcoming him at the airport. Fighter jets accompanied the prime minister’s plane from the time it entered Indonesian air space.

“Central banks are still working on its operational implementation,” Sasongko said, referring to the mechanism. “Once in place, it is expected to reduce transaction costs, lessen reliance on the US dollar, and facilitate bilateral trade and investment.” 

Quick response (QR) code linkages to facilitate easier retail payments for tourists are also being explored, he said.

📹 🇮🇳🇮🇩 Grand Welcome For PM Modi In Jakarta

PM Narendra Modi was welcomed by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto upon his arrival in Jakarta.

In a special gesture, Indonesian Air Force fighter jets escorted the PM's aircraft after it entered the country's airspace. https://t.co/DM61UONmjL pic.twitter.com/JHgroicp1D

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 6, 2026

Indonesia and India share a strong commitment to amplifying the voice of the Global South, Sasongko added, reiterating that reforms at the UN, including of the Security Council, are vital for a just global order. Sasongko also pledged firm backing for India’s BRICS chairmanship.

As two of the largest economies of the Indo-Pacific, Indonesia sees India as a “broader and more substantive” partner “who respects sovereignty, international law, and an inclusive regional order,” he said.

Jakarta aims to see a deeper ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with “concrete initiatives and greater synergy between the ASEAN Outlook and India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative.” 

He said boosting maritime and air connectivity between the nations will “translate directly into investment, jobs, tourism, and shared regional prosperity.” 

Critical minerals and rare earths are, the diplomat explained, “priority sectors” with strong potential for deeper collaboration essential to support resilient and diversified supply chains for clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Sasongko said cooperation in steel and downstream metal industries could leverage Indonesia’s resource base and India’s manufacturing capabilities to create mutually beneficial partnerships. He also mentioned pharmaceuticals and medical devices, renewable energy and the electric vehicle battery ecosystem, digital technologies, and food processing as potential areas of cooperation.

Bilateral trade between the countries was pegged at $28.16 billion in FY25. India mainly imports mineral fuels, especially coal, palm oil, iron, and steel from Indonesia. Jakarta’s cumulative foreign direct investment in India in the April 2000-March 2025 period was $659.30 million.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has thanked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for Moscow’s cooperation in the construction of the El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). 

Speaking after inaugurating Egypt’s State Strategic Command headquarters in the New Capital on Saturday, he pointed to accomplishments and upcoming progress in joint projects. 

“I seize this opportunity to thank Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation for this constructive and longstanding cooperation, which continues to yield remarkable achievements in our mega-development projects,” the Egyptian leader said. 

Sisi said the installation of the reactor pressure vessel for the facility’s second power unit is expected within days. 

“This facility will have a significant positive impact on sustainable development by delivering clean energy to power investment projects as well as services citizens need,” the president stressed. 

The total cost of the project is estimated at $28.75 billion. Russia is financing about 85% of the construction through a 22-year loan to Egypt carrying an annual interest rate of 3%. 

Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev said in April that the first shipment of nuclear fuel for El-Dabaa is expected to arrive in 2027. He also said preparations are underway to turn the first power unit into an operational nuclear facility as early as next year, allowing testing and commissioning to begin ahead of electricity generation for Egyptian consumers in 2028. 

In September, Egyptian Energy Minister Mahmoud Esmat announced that construction of the project is expected to be completed by 2029. 

Ukraine launched another large-scale drone attack against Russia overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. More than 600 UAVs were brought down by air defenses across the country.

The incoming drones were blown up or suppressed via electronic warfare in more than 20 regions, the ministry has said in a statement.

The primary targets of the raid were energy facilities in Bryansk, Belgorod, Leningrad, Yaroslavl and Kaluga regions as well as in Crimea, the statement read.

A total of 147 drones were destroyed in Bryansk Region, while 64 were intercepted in the skies above the Crimean peninsula, it added.

Vladimir Zelensky ordered the attack “on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara [on June 7 and 8] to demonstrate to his European sponsors, including the UK, his willingness to strike civilian targets in Russia from Ukraine at their expense,” the ministry said.

Kiev’s plans were thwarted thanks to the professionalism of Russia’s anti-aircraft units, mobile fire teams and aviation, the statement read, assuring that the infrastructural damage done by the few drones that were able to make it through will be repaired swiftly.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanian wrote on Telegram that 11 UAVs had been intercepted on approach to the Russian capital.

The raid caused a blackout in Crimea, with the local electric grid operator, Krymenergo, saying that “due to technological disruptions caused by external influences on high-voltage networks, a massive outage occurred in all cities and districts of the republic of Crimea.” 

The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, confirmed that there was a power outage in the largest city on the peninsula as a result of drone strikes on energy infrastructure. By morning, “power had returned to most residential buildings,” he said.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the government of Vladimir Zelensky that “the more strikes the opponent attempts to deliver against our civilian sites… the larger the safety zone we will have to create in the adjacent territory.” 

Moscow previously said that it would respond to terrorist attacks by Kiev with “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers.” 

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian forces carried out another large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry has detailed the targets of its latest retaliatory long-range strikes inside Ukraine, saying that military-industrial facilities and energy infrastructure were hit.

The drone and missile barrage was carried out “in response to terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime” against Russia, the ministry said. According to the Russian military, the strikes targeted high-value sites in Kiev and Kiev Region, as well as airfields in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkassy, Chernigov, and Kiev Region.

The ministry said the targets in the Ukrainian capital included Abris PT, a major military drone manufacturer, Burevestnik, a producer of radio equipment used in UAVs, Ukr Armo Tekh, an armored vehicle plant that also makes missile warheads, Kuznia na Rybalskom (“the Rybalsky Peninsula Forge”), a shipyard producing naval drones, and Kvant (“Quantum”), a manufacturer of guidance components for Ukraine’s Neptune missiles.

Ukrainian media earlier published several videos showing powerful blasts followed by secondary explosions, typical of military-grade munitions. The footage was said to show the aftermath of a Russian strike on the Vizar plant in Kiev Region.

The Ukrainian military reported direct hits by Russian projectiles at 34 locations, including strikes by 29 ballistic missiles, none of which it said were intercepted by air defenses.

The implicit admission of degrading Ukrainian anti-missile capabilities comes ahead of a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, where members of the US-led military bloc are expected to discuss long-term aid for Kiev, which some members reportedly oppose.

Kiev has argued that expanding long-range attacks on Russian energy infrastructure could shift the balance of the conflict in its favor, provided it receives billions of dollars in additional Western funding.

Malian forces backed by Russia’s Africa Corps have repelled a coordinated terrorist assault on several locations across the West African nation, killing at least 26 militants, the army has said.

In an initial statement on Saturday, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) said armed groups had targeted military positions in Aguel-Hoc, Anefis, Gao, Sevare, and Kenioroba. It later said all the attacks had been “vigorously repelled” and that the situation was “totally under control.”

The statement came after Azawad Liberation Front spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane wrote on Facebook that the separatist group had launched an offensive to take control of the town of Anefis in northern Mali.

According to the provisional toll, “20 terrorists on motorcycles and in equipped vehicles were neutralized” in Sevare. In Gao, one soldier was killed and four others wounded, while six terrorists were neutralized and one vehicle destroyed, the army said.

“The human and material toll of these two coordinated operations is particularly heavy in the ranks of the enemy,” the army stated.

African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf condemned the July 4 attacks, describing them as “a stark reminder that terrorism and violent extremism continue to pose a serious threat to Mali, the Sahel, and the African continent as a whole.”

He extended condolences to the families of those killed and reaffirmed the AU’s support for efforts to combat terrorism and restore stability across the Sahel.

In April, coordinated strikes hit multiple locations in Mali, including military sites and infrastructure in Bamako and Kati. Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed in an attack on his residence, prompting the country’s transitional leader Assimi Goita to assume direct control of the republic’s defense.

US President Donald Trump has suggested that he may need a restraining order against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, reviving a public feud between the two leaders.

The Italian prime minister last month dismissed Trump’s claim that she had desperately been seeking a photo opportunity with him during a G7 summit in France. Meloni argued that appearing too friendly with the US president could damage a politician’s popularity, contrary to what he believes.

On Sunday, Trump shared an image on Truth Social showing Meloni looking up at him with an admiring expression. The caption read: “Restraining order needed.” The two leaders are due to meet this week in Ankara at a NATO leaders’ summit. The joke, however, does not appear to have originated with Trump.

I MIGHT NEED A RESTRAINING ORDER!!!😎🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/Lm8wfb3wpv

— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) June 21, 2026

Relations between Trump and Meloni deteriorated after Italy declined to directly back the US-Israeli war with Iran. Meloni also criticized Trump’s remarks about Pope Leo XIV, after the US president described the American-born pontiff as “weak on crime” and “ungrateful.”

Tajani and other Italian ministers attended a celebration of the 250th anniversary of US independence hosted by the US Embassy in Rome. Speaking at the event, Tajani said that “the friendship between Italy and the United States is stronger than any controversy.”

US Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta also struck a conciliatory tone in a recent interview with local media, saying Meloni “has done an excellent job” as prime minister and has helped Italy “become a global leader.”

Trump’s latest post has drawn criticism in Italy. Carlo Calenda, a former economic development minister who now leads the liberal Azione party, called the US president “a despicable two-bit bully” and voiced support for Meloni.

The US is “very much in a space race” against China as the two nations look to land humans on the Moon and establish permanent bases there in the coming years, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has said.

The US remains the only country to have sent manned missions to the Moon, with American astronauts visiting the Earth’s satellite six times as part of the Apollo program between 1969 and 1972.

During an interview with ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS on Sunday, Isaacman stressed that the Chinese “will land their taikonauts on the Moon – there’s no question.” Beijing’s lunar program is “moving at incredible speeds,” he added.

“The question is – will the US return before them and will we do so in a different way this time? Will we build the base, establish that enduring presence? I think the answer is yes,” the NASA chief said.

According to Isaacman, the American and Chinese timelines for putting humans on the Moon are very close. “They are thinking in 2029, we’re saying end of 2028 is when we’re targeting the landing. That’s months, not years,” he explained.

NASA will also begin building a lunar base in 2027, so when astronauts reach the surface “there’s going to be a buggy there, a lunar terrain vehicle, there’s going to be a start of infrastructure,” Isaacman said.

“But I would say, early 2030s, the Moon is going to be like the International Space Station. You’re going to have crews that are there on pretty extended periods of time, as we learn in that environment and prepare for Mars,” he added.

Beijing has repeatedly said it has no intention of engaging in a space race with Washington, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterating earlier this year that “space is not an arena for major country contest.”

“China will continue to work with various countries for open space cooperation and advance the common endeavor of humanity in exploring outer space,” Guo said.

China proposed working together with the US but NASA remains legally banned from any collaboration with China’s space agency under the 2011 Wolf Amendment.

The Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were hit by a combined missile and drone strike early Monday morning, in what the Russian Defense Ministry called a response to terrorist attacks by Vladimir Zelensky’s government.

The first wave of blasts in Kiev was heard at around 1:30 AM local time, followed by more explosions in multiple waves until 5 AM. Videos shared on social media showed numerous powerful blasts around the Ukrainian capital, some followed by secondary detonations, suggesting that a weapons depot, production facility, or air-defense system had been hit.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it used long-range precision weapons and attack drones to hit Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises, fuel and energy facilities in Kiev and Kiev Region, and military airfield infrastructure across several regions in retaliation for “terrorist attacks” on civilian infrastructure inside Russia.

Officials in Kiev reported damage at multiple locations, claiming that most of them were “civilian infrastructure,” and circulated photos and videos of several damaged buildings, including one partially collapsed residential building. The head of the local military administration, Timur Tkachenko, said at least nine people were killed and dozens injured.

The exact locations and types of facilities hit are difficult to verify, as Ukrainian authorities tightly restrict information about strike sites and penalize those who share footage of impacts, except when civilian infrastructure is affected.

Moscow previously pledged to conduct “systematic and consistent strikes” on Kiev’s military installations in retaliation for deadly “terrorist attacks.” Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Friday that the recent campaign against Ukraine’s defense industry has already significantly degraded Kiev’s ability to produce long-range weapons.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday following weeks of intensive combat in the area, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it the “key” to liberating the rest of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Putin also warned Kiev and its “instigators” that any further “terrorist” PR stunts would only lead to the loss of more territory, forcing the Russian military to push Ukrainian forces farther from Russia’s borders in Sumy, Kharkov, and Dnepropetrovsk regions to establish a wider “security zone” and protect civilians.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has called for regional governments to be cut off from the federal intelligence-sharing network if the country’s most popular party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), wins upcoming state elections.

The minister branded the right-wing party, which has enjoyed the largest share of public support for months, “anti-democratic” in an interview with Bild published on Sunday, and said Berlin should be prepared to “consistently counter it.”

Pistorius claimed that the AfD could not be trusted with state secrets because of its alleged “undeniable” ties to Moscow.

“We are intensively examining the question of to whom we can grant access to classified information,” said Pistorius, who has been a vocal proponent of Germany’s rapid militarization and potential mandatory conscription to prepare for a direct conflict with Russia as early as 2028.

Is the AfD ‘extremist’?

Pistorius claimed that the AfD is “opposed to the very constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany” and willing to “destroy our democracy from within.” All other major political parties in Germany have been avoiding virtually any form of cooperation with what they call the “far right” as part of an informal ban policy known as the “firewall.”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, sought to label it a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization” in 2025. The AfD challenged the designation in the Administrative Court of Cologne, which issued a temporary injunction in the case last year pending a final ruling.

Back in 2025, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel described her party as a “libertarian conservative” force that fights bureaucracy and seeks to “free the people from the state.” She also criticized the then-German government for fostering “immigration into the social system” and accused the EU of Hitler-like censorship in a lengthy interview with Elon Musk on X ahead of snap elections.

Is the AfD tied to Russia?

Pistorius has insisted that no proof is needed of the AfD’s supposed ties to Moscow and that “you only have to listen to the public statements of many, many AfD representatives.” He also claimed that there is a “suspicion” that the party receives “money coming from Russia.”

Weidel told Reuters last week that Berlin urgently needed to lift the ban on Russian oil and gas imports to prop up its struggling economy, arguing that “the loss of this energy has set us back years.”

“Cheap energy from Russia was the secret of the success of ‘Made in Germany’. We need it back,” she said. The party’s co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, has also advocated the restoration of dialogue with Russia and previously urged Merz to “call Moscow.”

There is no hard proof of Moscow providing funding or any other form of assistance to the right-wing party, although German media claimed back in 2018 that some party members had traveled to Moscow on a “Russian-sponsored charter.” Only one of the three politicians in question is still an AfD member.

In 2024, AfD MEP Petr Bystron was accused of receiving money from a media network allegedly linked to Russia in exchange for “spreading Kremlin narratives.” He denied the accusations and called the still-pending probe politically motivated.

Why attack the AfD now?

The AfD is projected to perform well in the upcoming regional elections in two eastern German states, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while in Berlin it is also locked in a four-way statistical tie for first place in an exceptionally fragmented political landscape.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the party is polling at 41%, nearly 20 percentage points ahead of its closest competitors from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), according to another INSA survey published last week. If the party is able to keep this margin of victory, it could potentially even secure a majority in the regional parliament and form a government without entering a coalition.

The AfD had already gained record support in two regional elections outside its traditional political heartland in March 2026, securing nearly 20% of the vote in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and nearly 19% in Baden-Wurttemberg, virtually doubling its results compared to the previous elections in both cases.

How unpopular is the current German government?

The AfD has been steadily gaining ground in recent months amid the plummeting ratings of Merz’s government. An INSA survey published in late June suggested that it enjoys the greatest support among all German parties, at 29%, seven percentage points ahead of the CDU.

The survey results make Merz the least popular chancellor in almost 30 years. Respondents were mostly concerned about the country losing its attractiveness for business (78%), the negative effects of climate change (66%), and the migrant influx under the current government (51%), the poll suggested.

The US-based opinion research institute Morning Consult also ranked Merz the world’s most unpopular leader in April.

Thieves have stolen around €4 million worth of jewelry from the Lalique Museum in northeastern France, despite the site reportedly getting “special attention” following last year’s brazen Louvre heist.

The break-in took place at around 5:30 AM on Sunday at the museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, a village in the Bas-Rhin department near the German border. Several masked individuals forced open a door and smashed six display cases before fleeing with around 20 pieces of jewelry.

The damage is still being assessed, but one source close to the investigation said the loss could be “close to 4 million” euros, AFP reported. The stolen items were made of crystal and contained no precious stones, meaning they cannot be melted down.

The mayor of Wingen-sur-Moder suggested the thieves may have been “well informed,” as they immediately targeted the jewelry. The mayor told regional newspaper DNA that “all the alarms went off as they should,” but claimed the security company failed to immediately alert the gendarmes. According to Le Parisien, a cleaner who arrived at the site was the first to call law enforcement.

The incidents triggered a national scandal over museum security. Le Parisien reported that the Lalique Museum was considered a “sensitive site” and had been receiving “special attention” since the Louvre robbery, but a source close to the investigation said the protection measures were “not sufficient.”

The Lalique Museum, opened in 2011, is dedicated to jeweler and glassmaker Rene Lalique and his successors. The site displays more than 650 works, ranging from Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewelry to modern crystal pieces. The museum said it would remain closed for several days following the burglary, citing the need to prepare for a “calm and safe” reopening.

FIFA has suspended a one-match ban imposed on US striker Folarin Balogun, clearing him to play in the World Cup Round of 16 against Belgium after US President Donald Trump reportedly asked the governing body’s chief to review the case.

Balogun was sent off in the 64th minute of the US team’s 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on Wednesday. Under World Cup rules, the red card carried an automatic one-match suspension, which would have ruled the Nigerian-American forward out of Monday’s knockout clash at Seattle Stadium.

However, FIFA announced on Sunday that the implementation of the automatic suspension had been suspended for a probationary period of one year under Article 27 of its disciplinary code. The decision means Balogun, who has scored three goals in the tournament, will be available as the US seeks its first World Cup quarter-final appearance since 2002.

The New York Times reported that Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Wednesday and asked him to review Balogun’s suspension, citing people familiar with the conversation. The White House has not publicly confirmed the call, but referred reporters to Trump’s celebratory post on Truth Social.

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump wrote on Sunday.

“We’re not defending the national team or federation, we are defending football,” Garcia said.

The reversal is highly unusual, though not without recent precedent. FIFA made a somewhat similar move before the tournament when it cleared Cristiano Ronaldo to play for Portugal, despite a red-card ban carried over from a qualifier against Ireland. Ronaldo was handed a three-match ban, but two matches were suspended, allowing him to feature at the World Cup.

FIFA’s decision comes amid scrutiny of Infantino’s close ties with Trump. The governing body previously created and awarded the US president its Peace Prize following his public but unsuccessful campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The US is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19 and is being staged across 16 cities, including 11 in the US. The final is scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The US and Belgium last met at a World Cup in the Round of 16 in 2014, when Belgium won 2-1 after extra time despite a record 16-save performance by US goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Several key players from the HK Kremenchuk hockey club, including Ukrainian national team goalkeeper Eduard Zakharchenko and club forward Yegor Bezugly, have reportedly been press-ganged into the army, according to a former teammate.

Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown more forceful as it has had to rely on mandatory mobilization to replenish troops amid battlefield losses, mass desertions, draft dodging, and setbacks on the front lines, including the recent loss of the fortified stronghold of Konstantinovka in the northwest of Donbass.

The new incident was first reported by former Ukrainian national team netminder Artur Ogandzhanyan. A conscription crew came to HK Kremenchuk’s home rink, Iceberg, and took the men away, he said on his Telegram channel on Friday. In total, four men from the hockey club were conscripted, Ogandzhanyan said in an update on Sunday.

This is not the first time Kiev’s draft officers have forcibly conscripted top Ukrainian athletes.

Last November, former Dynamo Kiev midfielder Denis Garmash was reportedly forcibly mobilized in Kiev. In October, former Dynamo player Artur Rudko was detained while trying to leave the country via Odessa Region and conscripted.

Ukrainian press gangs have increasingly used violent methods to kidnap men, often taking them off the street and from their homes, in what has been nationally dubbed “busification.”

Moscow has accused Kiev and its Western backers of being willing to wage war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Kiev is catching men “like dogs on the street.”

Following a victory in the Supreme Court that allows states to ban trans athletes from competing against biological girls and women, conservative advocacy groups have warned Democratic states: “you’re next!”

The right-wing campaign to stop transgender girls and women from competing against biological females received a massive boost following the recent ruling that said states are free to rule on the issue as they see fit.

In a decision led by the Supreme Court’s six conservatives, the justices ruled that states can separate teams based on “biological sex” without breaching the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and Title IX, a landmark 1972 anti-discrimination law.

“Separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable: Given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, allowing only biological females to play on women’s and girls’ teams can reduce the risk of physical injury and ensure fair competition,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote for the conservative majority.

The ruling marks the latest setback to the LGBTQ+ community, which has struggled against repeated losses at the Supreme Court in recent years. However, the Liberals do not view the court’s ruling as a total loss as it did not mandate the decision to prohibit transgender women from competition against biological women. The final decision will be up to each individual state to decide.

The court’s ruling means that 27 Republican-led states will be legally permitted to ban transgender females from competition in female athletics, while the remaining Democrat-run states plus Washington DC and 395 other municipalities will come under extreme pressure to end the controversial practice.

“The Supreme Court has allowed states to be as cruel as they want to be to transgender people,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, told reporters. “They’ve also allowed states like Minnesota to be as kind and welcoming as they can.” He said “nothing will change” regarding the state’s treatment of transgender athletes.

Thus far, the sound and fury behind the transgender battle is far greater than the total numbers would have us believe. In reality, there are very few transgender athletes competing in state sports, the Washington Post revealed. In Mississippi, for example, a 2023 report discovered no trans students were participating in sports, while the state of Washington reported that fewer than 10 of approximately 250,000 student-athletes in the state identified as transgender. In conservative Florida, state records show that just two trans girls have played girls sports over the last decade. Despite the low number of transgender athletes, the political right wants to put an end to the madness before the day comes when biological females become an endangered species on the awards podium.

In fact, much of the noise surrounding the battle over transgender rights is coming from the parents of girls and young women who do not wish to see their children get hurt from competing against biological males. There is also the question of fair competition where trophies, fame, and lucrative school scholarships are on the line. Why should a biological female train her entire life in a particular sport only to be beaten – or severely injured – by a transgender female with unfair physical advantages?

A Pew Research Center survey last year revealed that two-thirds of American adults supported laws that require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. That number is an increase of eight percentage points from 2022.

“Blue states with boys on girls’ podiums… you’re next,” Kristen Waggoner, president of the Alliance Defending Freedom, posted on X moments after the court’s ruling was announced.

Currently, Republicans said they were hopeful over the court’s interpretation of Title IX, the law banning discrimination on the basis of sex in schools funded by the US government. Six of the nine justices affirmed that “sex” refers to biological sex, not gender identity, as many on the left believe it to be. The court also ruled that it sees intrinsic biological differences between boys and girls that could make a crucial difference in sports.

“The legislatures and the schools are better equipped – and under the Constitution, are the more appropriate entities – to assess the competing medical and scientific considerations and draw appropriate lines,” he wrote.

Is there any way to appease both the liberals and conservatives in what has turned into a lightning rod in the political arena? One highly controversial solution is to create an entirely separate sporting organization reserved specifically for transgender athletes.

Presently, the response to creating separate tournaments or leagues for transgender athletes is heavily polarized. Proponents of this “separate but equal” approach view it as a pragmatic compromise that protects cisgender fair competition while allowing trans athletes to participate. Conversely, many LGBTQ+ advocates and human rights organizations, such as the Mama Bears Facebook Community, strongly oppose it. They argue that separate leagues marginalize transgender athletes, reinforce stigma, and often lack the necessary participation numbers to be viable.

Now that the Supreme Court has spoken, Conservatives and Liberals will be hard-pressed to win over public opinion in one of the most compelling, contentious, and consequential political debates of the day. The very survival of female sport hangs in the balance.

A trove of highly sensitive unredacted military documents containing staff information and security procedures at the British Army’s largest garrison has been found at a garbage disposal site in northern England, The Sun reported on Saturday.

It comes as the long-underfunded UK military is going through a rough patch, with all five of its Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarines currently stuck in port due to a maintenance backlog. The tight budget became the point of contention for former British Defense Secretary John Healey, who resigned last month after a row over funding with outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

According to the outlet, the cache of military documents was discovered in a recycling bin in Catterick Bridge by a member of the public and handed over to the tabloid.

The papers could provide dangerous information to hostile actors, the Sun reported, citing Colonel Philip Ingram, a former senior intelligence and security officer in the British Army.

“There is a clear security risk. It’s a breach of procedures which shows a lack of care,” he reportedly said, stressing that such sensitive documents should have been shredded or burned before disposal.

Last year, documents containing information about Catterick Garrison’s soldiers, shift patterns, and weapon issue details were found scattered on a Newcastle street, spilling from a torn trash bag.

A similar scandal took place in Poland last October, when news outlet Onet reported that classified military documents were found at a landfill. The Polish military denied the report, accusing the outlet of holding unauthorized copies of sensitive papers.

The Royal Navy has been reduced to the worst state in British history, retired chief of the Naval Staff, Lord Alan West, has told the Sun. London now operates the smallest fleet ever, according to the outlet.

A total of nine ships have been scrapped over the past two years under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the UK is now operating a fleet that includes five operational frigates and no amphibious assault ships, the Sun reported on Friday. The government dropped plans for new Type 83 destroyers and Type 32 frigates, calling them “unaffordable,” it added.

According to West, Starmer’s naval policy has been catastrophic. “The number of ships we have is pathetic, to do the things we need to do,” the former first sea lord and Labour security minister said.

“The last time the Navy took this sort of hammering was in Samuel Pepys time [in 1667] and the Dutch sailed up to Chatham, burnt the fleet and stole the flagship,” he said, referring to the Second Anglo-Dutch War in the 17th century, where the British suffered heavy losses in a raid on Medway and were forced to sign a peace treaty favorable to Amsterdam.

Last month, The Telegraph and Daily Mail also reported that the UK’s entire available fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines is stuck in port awaiting maintenance.

The report comes as London continues to raise defense spending under the slogans of “transforming” the military in a “more dangerous and volatile” word, all while citing the alleged “Russian threat.”

Earlier this week, the British government announced an additional £15 billion ($20 billion) for the armed forces and vowed to bring total military funding to nearly £300 billion over the next four years in what Starmer himself called “record investment.”

The list of spending targets includes the Dreadnought and SSN-AUKUS submarine projects, as well as “multi-billion-pound upgrades at Faslane, Portsmouth and Devonport” naval bases but provides no timeline for the projects’ completion.

The spending increase comes in the face of a growing budget deficit and higher inflation. Reuters reported in May that British government borrowing had jumped by 30% year-on-year to £23.3 billion, with debt servicing costs 54% higher than the 2025 level.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, two concepts entered common political usage, the “war of necessity” and the “war of choice.” The first meant territorial defense and national survival and the second, a war launched not in response to an immediate attack but by calculation and design. The terms were popularized by the American commentator Charles Krauthammer, and later developed by Richard Haass, who used them to assess the US intervention in Iraq in 2003.

The Bush administration launched that war not because Iraq posed an immediate threat to the United States, but because Washington chose to act, guided by political and ideological motives. A war of necessity was understood as a response to aggression and a war of choice as something preemptive.

That debate was partly opportunistic, reflecting internal American political struggles, yet the larger question wasn’t new, because arguments about “just wars” have been part of political thought for centuries. Until the second half of the 20th century, however, such arguments remained largely theoretical and war, just or unjust, was accepted as a common instrument of state policy, or the continuation of politics by other means.

After the dissolution of the USSR, the global balance of power disappeared. At the same time, the West’s conviction that it was morally and politically on the right side of history produced a new temptation to reshape humanity in its own image, by whatever means were deemed necessary, including military force. Within the liberal paradigm, force was legitimate when used by those assumed to be acting on behalf of progress.

As the liberal order exhausted itself, the ideological and normative framework weakened, but military force remained. It has now recovered its older function as an instrument by which states position themselves in a disorderly international environment. In such a world, the distinction between choice and necessity becomes blurred even if the decision to wage war is always the result of an assessment of changing circumstances and of a political choice made by state authorities on that basis. Or, in some cases, of what is perceived as the absence of any choice.

The emergence of a new international order will be prolonged and chaotic, and nuclear weapons make this process take longer, because they prevent, or have so far prevented, a decisive showdown between the major powers. While that process continues, the use of military force is shaped by constantly changing interpretations of whether is necessary to gain short-term advantages and to secure a more favorable place in the future order, whose final shape remains unclear.

Whether these calculations are correct becomes apparent only from the outcome of the campaign. Only then can one say if a war was truly dictated by necessity, by choice, or by some unstable mixture of the two.

In modern wars, as a rule, there is no such thing as absolute victory. The end of a conflict usually means the establishment of a certain status quo, which often implies the continuation of confrontation by other means and this status quo may be stable and even long-lasting, but it rarely resolves the contradictions that produced the military clash in the first place.

This reflects the nature of today’s world, where power has become multifaceted. New methods of warfare, the weaponization of economic ties, the ability to concentrate resources for asymmetric responses, rival sources of state stability, and the inability to enforce a watertight embargo all complicate the balance of power and often, they work in favor of the weaker party.

The number of variables that must be taken into account when determining what is “necessary” has grown so quickly that a linear prediction of outcomes is almost impossible, and necessity, moreover, doesn’t only mean retaliation. In a period of rapid change in the external environment, proactive and preemptive steps may also be required in order to avoid being forced to respond later from a weaker position.

This, too, recalls the pre-liberal order, when such action was regarded as a natural element of military strategy rather than a violation of political morality. The need to make a choice is dictated by constant external pressure, but the nature of that necessity isn’t shaped by circumstances alone. It is also determined by the accumulated inheritance of each state in its potential, strategic traditions, historical experience and political culture.

In this sense, the question is not merely whether a state chooses war or is forced into it. It is a question of what kind of civilization makes that choice, and on what foundations it rests. The turbulence of the present era is testing civilizations for resilience and suitability to the global conditions now taking shape.

This article was first published by Global Affairs and was translated and edited by the RT team.

Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea over the weekend have left at least two dead, regional Governor Sergey Aksyonov said on Sunday.

An overnight drone strike on the northern part of the Russian peninsula killed one person and injured two others, Aksyonov said in a statement, adding that one of the survivors remains in serious condition.

A day earlier, a separate drone raid killed one civilian and wounded two others, including a 10-year-old child, he said.

At least 71 Ukrainian drones were intercepted above Crimea and the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Rostov regions overnight on Sunday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russia’s military reported nearly 400 interceptions over the country the previous day, as Ukraine escalated its long-range UAV attacks on Russian infrastructure, targeting oil refineries and logistics facilities amid battlefield setbacks.

Kiev has also increased strikes on purely civilian targets in recent months, including museums, ambulances and buses.

Ukrainian strikes have killed 21 children and wounded 183 others in the past three months, the highest figure since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission responsible for tracking Kiev’s war crimes.

Overall, Ukraine has killed 422 civilians, and wounded 2,618 others in the second quarter of this year, he said in a virtual meeting on Friday.

Russian Pacific Fleet warships have arrived in the Chinese port of Qingdao for annual joint naval drills, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.

The two navies, supported by aviation, will conduct search-and-rescue operations, anti-submarine and air defense drills, and live-fire artillery exercises, the ministry said.

Video released by the ministry shows a detachment of Russian Pacific Fleet vessels arriving at the port. It also captures the official welcoming ceremony, where sailors from both countries exchange handshakes as children present flowers to the visiting crews.

China’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that the exercise is part of the annual cooperation plan between the two militaries and is aimed at jointly addressing security challenges and maintaining regional peace and stability. It added that some forces from both sides would conduct a joint maritime patrol in parts of the Pacific Ocean following the drills.

The drills come as Russia and China continue to expand military cooperation alongside closer political and economic ties.

Earlier this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing. During the visit, the parties signed over 40 cooperation agreements in areas including trade, technology, and media exchanges.

Putin said Russia-China relations had reached an unprecedented level, describing them as a model of a genuine comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation. Xi said that the ties had reached “the highest level in history.” The two sides also agreed to extend a friendship treaty first signed in 2001.

A decorated US Air Force serviceman with no history of violence suddenly abducted, raped and murdered a three-year-old girl.

When a search party found Jimmy Shaver wandering near San Antonio, Texas, he appeared to be in a trance, unable to explain where he was or how he had gotten there. After his arrest, he reportedly failed to recognize his own wife when she visited him in jail. Until the moment he was executed four years later, Shaver insisted he had no memory of committing the crime for which he had been sentenced to death.

More than seventy years later, some researchers believe his case may have been linked to one of the CIA’s darkest Cold War programs: MKULTRA, the covert project that sought to manipulate, erase and ultimately control the human mind through drugs, hypnosis and psychological experimentation.

Whether the hearing lived up to those promises is another question. But the testimony presented before Congress suggested that, more than sixty years after MKULTRA officially ended, many of the program’s darkest secrets may still remain hidden.

Congress promises – again

Task force chair Anna Paulina Luna left little doubt about the gravity of the allegations.

“Administering drugs to people without their consent. Subjecting humans to psychological torture. Using prisoners and hospital patients as non-consenting research subjects. These are crimes against humanity. Some of the worst, most notorious crimes of the 20th century,” she declared in her opening remarks.

“The American people deserve the complete record. The victims and their families deserve acknowledgement, accountability, and justice. No one went to prison. No one was ever compensated by the government for the harm they caused.”

The language was uncompromising. Yet it was also strikingly familiar.

Nearly half a century ago, Congress opened another investigation into MKULTRA, promising victims that the full truth would finally emerge and that those responsible would be held accountable. Those commitments quietly faded away. The victims were never fully identified, compensation never came, and many of the program’s records were presumed lost forever.

Tom O’Neill, author of CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, reminded lawmakers that they were retracing a path Congress had already walked once before.

According to O’Neill, lawmakers in the 1970s accepted one of the CIA’s most consequential claims with remarkably little scrutiny: that after more than two decades of secret experimentation, the agency had simply failed to master mind control.

CIA officials repeatedly insisted that “their twenty-five-year effort to learn how to control the human mind had been a colossal failure.”

O’Neill believes that conclusion deserves to be revisited.

For years, he has argued that the historical record tells a very different story – one that Congress never fully examined and that may have been deliberately obscured by the destruction of key evidence. To make that case, he turned not to speculation, but to documents exchanged between two of the central figures behind the CIA’s most secretive experiments.

The blueprint for mind control

To support his argument that Congress never uncovered the full scope of MKULTRA, O’Neill pointed to a cache of correspondence that, in his view, fundamentally changes our understanding of the program.

The letters were exchanged between psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West, who “sought to control the minds of people without their knowledge, with the ultimate goal of creating programmed killers” and “Sherman Grifford” – the pseudonym used by Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA’s chief poisoner who designed and oversaw MKULTRA from its earliest days. Far from describing a failed scientific curiosity, O’Neill argued, the documents laid out an extraordinarily ambitious blueprint for manipulating the human mind.

The opening letter, written by West in 1953, “outlined the objectives, methods and intended outcomes of experiments he hoped to conduct on unwitting human subjects.”

“It reads like a page torn from the research notebook of Josef Mengele,”

O’Neill told lawmakers, comparing the proposals to the infamous Nazi doctor’s experiments at Auschwitz.

According to the correspondence, West proposed conducting experiments on “unwilling subjects,” including members of the military, psychiatric patients, prisoners of civilian jails, and “special subjects” identified by the CIA.

His methods ranged from administering psychedelic drugs, including LSD, to combining them with hypnosis in an effort to induce trance states, confusion, amnesia and other artificially created psychological conditions.

The ultimate objective extended far beyond studying human behavior.

West envisioned techniques that could extract information from unwilling subjects, implant false memories and alter the beliefs, attitudes and loyalties of individuals who had previously remained resistant to interrogation or manipulation.

According to O’Neill, Gottlieb responded enthusiastically.

If the correspondence accurately reflected the CIA’s ambitions, it suggested that MKULTRA was never merely a loose collection of bizarre experiments. It was an organized effort to develop practical methods of psychological control while shielding the entire enterprise from public scrutiny.

The case that should never have happened

For O’Neill, Jimmy Shaver’s aforementioned case illustrates those ambitions more vividly than any surviving document.

An extraordinary crime unfolded just one year after Gottlieb approved West’s proposals. Before the murder, Shaver had been undergoing experimental treatment for severe migraines at the Air Force hospital where West headed psychiatric services.

West himself later appeared as the court-appointed psychiatric expert during the proceedings.

Shaver was convicted and sentenced to death. Until his execution in 1958, however, he maintained that he had absolutely no memory of committing the crime for which he had been condemned.

O’Neill does not present the case as definitive proof of CIA mind control. Rather, he argues that the extraordinary overlap between Shaver’s unexplained behavior, his treatment under West’s supervision and the psychiatrist’s own proposals for inducing amnesia and altered mental states demands far closer scrutiny than it has ever received.

For him, the case raises the same uncomfortable possibility that has shadowed MKULTRA for decades: that some of the program’s most consequential experiments may never have been acknowledged, let alone investigated.

That is precisely why, O’Neill concluded, Congress should resist accepting the historical record at face value.

“Nearly fifty years ago, another committee investigating MKULTRA believed it had been told the truth about the program,” he told lawmakers. “It had not.”

Instead, he urged the task force to undertake “a thorough reexamination of what this program accomplished, what Congress was told, and what may still remain hidden.”

A trail deliberately erased

If O’Neill challenged Congress to reconsider what MKULTRA achieved, journalist and historian Stephen Kinzer focused on a different question: why so much of the program remains unknowable.

“I am painfully aware that I have discovered only a small portion of what Gottlieb did and what MKULTRA was,” he said. At the heart of the project, Kinzer argued, was an ambition far more radical than simply improving interrogation techniques.

In its quest to “implant a new mind into someone’s brain,” the CIA first sought to “destroy the mind that was there already.” To pursue that objective, MKULTRA experiments spread across prisons, psychiatric hospitals, universities, brothels and CIA safe houses. By any modern standard, Kinzer argued, many of those experiments amounted to medical torture.

The victims, he noted, occupied a special category inside the CIA. “They were called expendables,” Kinzer said – “human beings who would not be missed if they disappeared.”

According to Kinzer, Gottlieb effectively operated with “what amounted to a license to kill.” Even today, no one knows how many people were subjected to MKULTRA experiments, nor how many died as a result.

Yet Kinzer argued that focusing solely on Gottlieb risks misunderstanding how the program actually functioned.

The CIA’s senior leadership, he said, deliberately gave Gottlieb extraordinary freedom while maintaining enough distance to later deny institutional responsibility.

“This was a way for the CIA to deny its institutional role in MKULTRA,” Kinzer argued, “and to portray it misleadingly as the product of one man’s sadism or excessive zeal.”

If that strategy succeeded, it was only because another decision made the historical record even harder to reconstruct.

As public scrutiny intensified during the 1970s, Gottlieb and his superior, CIA Director Richard Helms, ordered virtually all MKULTRA files destroyed.

For decades, that decision has been treated as the moment the trail went cold.

Despite the destruction order, thousands of previously overlooked MKULTRA documents were later discovered hidden among the CIA’s financial records by an agency analyst.

“That same diligence could bring results today,” he told lawmakers.

For Kinzer, the surviving files suggest that historians may still know only a fraction of what remains buried inside the agency’s vast archives.

The death that still haunts MKULTRA

If Congress decides to press further, Kinzer suggested, one of the first places to begin would be the mysterious death of Frank Olson.

Officially, Olson was an Army scientist who committed suicide by jumping from the window of a New York hotel in November 1953.

In reality, Kinzer reminded lawmakers, Olson was secretly working for the CIA and had become deeply involved in MKULTRA. Shortly before his death, Olson had reportedly expressed growing moral reservations about the program and indicated that he wanted to leave it. His death has remained controversial ever since. “Evidence suggests that his death may not have been a suicide,” Kinzer said.

If undisclosed CIA records still exist, he argued, they could finally clarify one of the agency’s most enduring Cold War mysteries.

But Olson’s case is important for another reason. Rather than viewing it solely as an unresolved historical episode, Kinzer urged lawmakers to ask a broader – and potentially more unsettling – question.

Or did it simply evolve into something else?

Did MKULTRA really end?

MKULTRA officially came to an end in 1963, after years of secret experimentation failed to produce the breakthrough its architects had sought.

Sidney Gottlieb himself ultimately concluded that “there is no such thing as mind control.”

Kinzer does not dismiss that assessment. Instead, he argues that it reflected the technological limits of its time. “Even if he was right,” Kinzer told lawmakers, “he may have been right only at that time.”

Since MKULTRA’s closure, neuroscience, cyber technology and artificial intelligence have advanced in ways Gottlieb could scarcely have imagined.

Those developments, Kinzer argued, raise an uncomfortable possibility. Rather than asking only what MKULTRA accomplished during the Cold War, Congress should also consider whether the technologies available to intelligence agencies today have reopened questions the CIA failed to answer decades ago.

“Covert agencies may have access to tools for mind control that Sidney Gottlieb could not have imagined,” Kinzer warned.

He urged the task force to consider whether “some new incarnation of MKULTRA exists today.”

For Kinzer, revisiting the history of the program is therefore about more than establishing the historical record.

“It has a chance to connect the past to the future,” he said. “It could help prevent the emergence of a 21st-century MKULTRA that could be even more destructive than the original.”

One last chance

Whether Congress succeeds where previous investigations failed remains an open question.

Chair Anna Paulina Luna closed the hearing by arguing that lawmakers have “a constitutional obligation to ensure the CIA never does this again.”

She also revealed that she had recently visited CIA headquarters in Langley, where officials told her previously unseen MKULTRA records are currently being prepared for declassification.

That disclosure may prove to be the hearing’s most significant outcome.

Nearly fifty years ago, Congress also promised victims and their families that the full truth about MKULTRA would finally come to light. Those promises were never fulfilled.

Today’s task force has pledged to finish what its predecessors began.

Whether it succeeds may ultimately depend on a simple question: how much of the story still remains locked inside the CIA’s archives.

Kiev has refused to accept the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the fighting over Konstantinovka – a key Donbass stronghold liberated earlier this week – the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Moscow has offered a humanitarian pause to ensure the remains of the dead could be handed over to relatives and buried properly, it added.

The Defense Ministry made its proposal on Saturday through the existing security service channels, it said in a statement on Telegram. The Ukrainian military was asked to halt the shelling of Konstantinova between 12:00 noon and 6:00 PM (Mocow time) on Monday to make the handover possible and inform the Russian command about their decision in advance.

“The Ukrainian side has rejected this proposal,” the Russian ministry said on Sunday.
“The Kiev regime has done absolutely nothing so that the bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen could be buried properly by their relatives,” the statement added, calling it “yet another” demonstration of the Ukrainian authorities treating soldiers as “cannon fodder.” 

Kiev has been accused of deliberately obstructing the return of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in the past. Last year, the governor of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky, published nearly 100 names of dead Ukrainian soldiers he said had been disowned by Kiev. The documents published by the official also contained their ID and places of death.

Balitsky also accused Kiev of trying to conceal the scale of the Ukrainian losses and avoid paying compensation to the fallen soldiers’ families at the time.

The latest development comes days after the Russian military reported the full liberation of Konstantinovka. The strategic Donbass city was taken after weeks of intense fighting. According to Russian Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy, the Ukrainian military lost around 13,500 troops in the battle.

The European Union has abandoned its historic focus on trade and begun to increasingly define itself in terms of its military and geopolitical priorities, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told RT in an interview on Saturday.

She made the remark days after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev and the “so-called European pseudo-peacekeepers” of seeking to prolong the conflict. He said their goal was “not peace, but the continuation of the war with Russia to the last Ukrainian.”

Speaking on Friday after visiting an auxiliary command post alongside top military commanders, Putin said Ukraine’s European backers were openly encouraging attacks on civilian targets, including infrastructure, transport, and student dormitories.

Last week, Brussels transferred €3.9 billion ($4.44 billion) to Ukraine under a €90 billion loan package that allocates €30 billion for budget support and €60 billion for defense in 2026-2027. The latest tranche is expected to finance drone procurement, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“European integration has been moving from let’s trade with each other to let’s go to war,” the former diplomat said, stressing that the bloc had increasingly embraced a geopolitical and defense agenda instead of its usual focus on trade.

Kneissl pointed to the creation of an EU defense commissioner, whom she described as “a commissioner for war.”

“Europe was always about trade,” she said, reiterating that von der Leyen had established a geopolitical commission in 2019.

“We Europeans do not have the power to project force and have never really been able to define some sort of values with which some of us don’t agree,” the former diplomat continued, having expressed doubts that “this geopolitical commission will work.”

Watch the full interview below:

The nations of Europe have been degraded to the status of Third World countries due to their failed immigration policies, US President Donald Trump has said.

Trump took a step back from celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence to take another jab at Washington’s supposed allies in the EU and UK.

“Europe is learning that when you take in Third World criminals, you become a Third World Country. It happens quickly, in just a blink of the eye,” the president wrote in a post on X on Saturday, July 4.

Trump also implied that his tougher stance on immigration has spared America the same outcome. “I was elected just in time!!!” he said.

Despite the number of asylum-seekers arriving in the EU subsiding since the 2015 migration crisis, the foreign-born population in the bloc reached a record 64.2 million last year, expanding by 20.2 million since 2010, according to a report by the Center for Research and Analysis on Migration at RFBerlin.

Vance was commenting on the recent resignation of Keir Starmer, who became the sixth British prime minister to leave the post in the space of just a decade. The UK has “been failed by its leadership for a long time” and “can do a lot more than it’s currently doing,” he stressed.

Last week, Trump warned the EU countries that he will impose a 100% tariff on all goods they send to America if the bloc moves forward with increasing taxes on digital services provided by American tech companies.

In late June, the US president also told NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that he was “disappointed with most” of the bloc’s European members.

“I just want loyalty... In Germany, we have 50,000 troops. And then you want a little – give us a little nudge, give us a little kiss. We don’t want much. And they say, ‘No, we can’t do it,’” he said.

It’s not every day that an EU member state has the opportunity to push back in favor of freedom. At least not without elections. But a German court did have that chance – and promptly blew it on behalf of European citizens everywhere.

Back in 2022 when the Ukraine war was ramping up, the European Commission made an executive order banning Russian media broadcasting in the EU. Meaning that you couldn’t – and still can’t – access RT from within the EU, either on TV or on the web, without a VPN.

So some folks running a website in Saarbrucken, Germany, near the French border, started including some RT videos in their live feed. They reportedly did this exactly four times, back in 2023. Whoop-dee-do, right?

Wrong. This is the EUSSR we’re talking about, remember?

For this, the accused ended up facing criminal prosecution in Germany for promoting some EU-sanctioned RT Germany content. But it turns out that even the German court in Saarbrucken considering this case had doubts as to whether these guys and their website actually fit the definition of an “operator” under the EU sanction’s language that “prohibits any operator from broadcasting, enabling, facilitating or otherwise contributing to broadcast, any” Russian media content. So the German court referred the question to the European Court of Justice tasked with interpreting and clarifying EU regulations and laws.

The German court missed the forest for the trees and got down into the weeds and all hung up on the comparatively minor issue of whether the website could be considered an “operator” without being a commercial entity. Which the European court then used as a prelude to launch a sweeping McCarthyist “reds under the bed”-style tirade.

“The term ‘disinformation’ is a translation of the Russian word ‘дезинформация’ (dezinformatsiya), coined in the early 1920s by the Soviet intelligence services. Joseph Stalin is credited as being the originator of that term, deliberately making it sound French in order to make it seem Western in origin and thereby enhance its credibility,” wrote the EU court, self-identifying as a history professor. How about if I take that as an open invitation to self-identify as a judge in my capacity as a final-year law student?

The ECJ ultimately ruled that commercialism is irrelevant when the website solicits donations, and had raised over €60,000 within a period of a year. It basically said, look, any commercial nature of the platform risks being a false dichotomy, because who’s to say that the sanctioned entities themselves wouldn’t be paying these independent outlets through donations to promote their banned content: ”Even though, for the purposes of classification as an ‘operator’, no economic activity or income generation is necessary, the context of an appeal for donations enabling such sums to be collected warrants some comment. The fact that some websites are financed by donations rather than by a registered commercial activity justifies increased vigilance as to their possible use as a tool for propaganda purposes, in particular in the case of State-sponsored disinformation campaigns,” the European court ruled. “That lack of clarity makes it more difficult to identify financial flows and, therefore, the actors likely to influence editorial policy or content. It thus creates an environment conducive to interference by external interests, including by third countries, which may intervene directly or indirectly in the production or broadcasting of content.”

This court case had been stayed, or suspended, in Germany pending the ruling by this European Court of Justice. But now it’s free to convict these guys of promoting banned Russian content, under the pretext that just maybe they’re not-so-independent media that schemed on the down-low to distribute Russian media content – something that a lot of people have been doing all over social media of their own volition.

Ultimately, what the buzz around this case effectively does is put a chilling effect on that sharing, and it also risks making people self-censor out of fear of being dragged into court for a judicial proctology exam and having their lives potentially ruined in the press over accusations of Russian collusion. What if these guys (and others) just happen to agree with some of the views expressed on banned Russian media? Who’s going to protect their honestly-held views from establishment authoritarianism?

Hang on, here’s a volunteer for the task.

Oh, great. So the same people who censor speech are also its self-appointed defenders. Like an arsonist who goes running around setting fires but also works as a firefighter as their day job.

What’s clear from all this is that EU regulation may look precise on paper, but enforcement isn’t so straightforward. When even member state courts require an official interpretation, then how is the average person supposed to avoid running afoul of the law? The result ends up being less about what’s actually banned and more about what merely feels safe to touch. Not exactly the kind of vibe that one tends to aim for in a democracy.

A military-grade aerial drone has been discovered washed ashore on a beach on the Black Sea Coast of Türkiye, Ihlas News Agency (IHA) has reported.

The UAV was spotted by local residents in the Filyos district of Zonguldak province, who called emergency services, the agency said in an article on Sunday.

The area was swiftly cordoned off by police, and bomb disposal experts were deployed over concerns that the drone could be carrying explosives, it added.

The initial assessment suggested that it was a military UAV, but a more thorough technical examination will be required to determine its country of origin, according to IHA.

The Turkish authorities haven’t yet commented on the discovery of the UAV, which is the second in less than a week.

Zonguldak'ın Çaycuma ilçesine bağlı Filyos beldesinde, askeri amaçlı olduğu değerlendirilen bir insansız hava aracı (İHA) sahile vurdu. pic.twitter.com/p0w7PC1JzQ

— Tapınakçı (@Mr_Tapinakci) July 5, 2026

On Wednesday, a drone carrying 5kg of explosives went down in northeastern Trabzon province, IHA reported. Investigators determined that the aircraft was of Ukrainian origin, the agency said, adding that local residents experienced a brief panic before the crash site was secured.

In late March, the Turkish government said that they are closely monitoring the risks posed by drones in the Black Sea. According to Ankara, it maintains “contact with the relevant parties to prevent the war from spreading… and to prevent further escalation.”

Kiev has ramped up its long-range UAV attacks on energy infrastructure and civilian targets inside Russia amid continued setbacks on the battlefield in recent months.

There have been a number of incidents of explosive-laden drones, flying towards Russia’s northwestern Leningrad Region, crashing in NATO member states – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

North Korea has tested a strategic cruise missile and other weapon systems aboard its newest naval destroyer, KCNA state news agency reported Sunday. The country’s leader Kim Jong-un reportedly observed the launch and evaluations of the vessel’s combat systems.

Conducted on July 3 aboard the newly built 5,000-ton warship Kang Kon, the tests reportedly assessed the vessel’s target detection and information processing capabilities, integrated firepower system, naval guns, automatic cannons, and electronic warfare equipment as part of its performance evaluation.

The news agency cited Kim as hailing the reliability and combat effectiveness of the destroyer’s weapon systems.

The North Korean leader reportedly noted that recent advances in domestic weapons development demonstrated the potential of the country’s naval combat systems to strengthen military readiness for strategic operations.

Kim also outlined further plans for developing additional surface and underwater combat systems and deploying them in operational waters, according to the report.

He called for continued efforts to expand North Korea’s war deterrence and war-fighting capabilities, KCNA noted.

The country’s leader ordered officials to complete the destroyer’s testing program and commission the vessel into the navy within two months, according to the report.

Kim reportedly convened a consultative meeting later in the day on the development of the country’s shipbuilding industry.

In June, Pyongyang commissioned the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon and announced plans to deploy the Kang Kon, a vessel of the same class, as part of North Korea’s broader naval modernization drive.

He also revealed plans to follow the current destroyer program with a new class of 10,000-ton strategic surface combatants.

Israel has no intention of leaving Lebanon. At least, it won’t do so now and on terms that would suit Beirut (not to mention Hezbollah and Tehran). Moreover, in parallel with the Lebanese campaign, West Jerusalem is reactivating operations in Syria: Israeli forces launched an artillery strike on the village of Abidin in the western part of Syria’s Daraa Governorate, and, according to regional sources, Israeli aircraft conducted flights over the rural areas of Daraa and Quneitra governorates  near the Golan Heights.

At first glance, it appears that yet another breakthrough has occurred on the Lebanese front. The US, Israel, and Lebanon signed a trilateral framework agreement in Washington (although three agreements have already been reached in the past two months). US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented it as a step toward the restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty, the disarmament of Hezbollah, and the dismantling of its infrastructure. But upon careful examination of the agreement, it becomes clear that it cannot ensure lasting peace; it only creates a diplomatic pause during which each side will attempt to consolidate its own position.

This is a ‘framework’ agreement – and that says it all. It’s not a full-fledged peace treaty or a final settlement, but a set of principles that have yet to be transformed into a working mechanism. The agreement provides for the gradual restoration of control over the Lebanese army, the start of Hezbollah’s disarmament, and the eventual withdrawal of Israeli troops after the elimination of the threat to Israel. In other words, Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon is not immediate and unconditional, but is tied to a condition that is nearly impossible to fulfill quickly.

This is the crux of the matter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has explicitly stated that Israel will not leave southern Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remains armed and poses a threat. This effectively means that Israel’s presence is not a temporary measure, but a permanent instrument of pressure. As long as Hezbollah exists, Israel remains in Lebanon; but as long as Israel remains, Hezbollah has a reason not to disarm. It becomes a vicious circle, in which each side justifies its actions by the actions of the other.

Lebanon finds itself in the most difficult position. Formally, Beirut has committed itself to regaining control over southern Lebanon. But Hezbollah is not simply an armed group that can be disarmed by administrative action. It is an independent military-political force that is firmly integrated into the Lebanese system; it has a social base, infrastructure, and external support. Therefore, the demand to disarm Hezbollah may sound good on paper, but in practice, instead of a peace mechanism it could become a pretext for a new internal crisis.

It is no coincidence that Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri, a staunch Hezbollah ally, has already criticized the agreement and stated that it will not be implemented. As expected, Hezbollah rejected the agreement, perceiving it as a form of capitulation. This is the biggest problem: the agreement was signed by three nations, but the main armed player – Hezbollah – which is directly responsible for stabilizing the situation in southern Lebanon, is not a party to the agreement. 

At the same time, Israel is reopening the Syrian front. The attack on Abidin in Daraa Governorate is not a random incident. Southern Syria, Daraa, Quneitra, and the area near the Golan Heights have long been perceived by Israel as a potential threat. Following the weakening of the Syrian state and the shift in the regional balance of power, Israel has changed its defense strategy and is actively forming buffer zones around its borders. West Jerusalem explains its role in maintaining a security zone in southern Syria by the need to prevent attacks by armed groups.

This is why Syria is again becoming part of Israel’s overall strategy. Israel demonstrates that if it is forced to make concessions in Lebanon, it can still  expand pressure along other perimeters – through Syria, the Golan Heights, Daraa, and Quneitra. This is a signal not only to Damascus, but also to Tehran and Hezbollah: Israel will not wait for the threat to fully materialize; it will act preemptively. 

The ultimate goal of all these maneuvers in Lebanon and Syria is to ‘squeeze’ Iran. Having failed to achieve its objectives in 2025 and in the spring of 2026, Israel wants to take revenge presently. According to Tehran, the signed US-Iran memorandum specifically mentions the cessation of military operations, including in Lebanon, and the parties’ commitment to respect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. For Tehran, this is an attempt to include Lebanon in a broader bargaining process with Washington and to demonstrate that the stabilization of the region is impossible without taking Iranian influence into account.

The situation is complex: The US attempts to portray the agreement as a diplomatic success even though the sides continue to exchange blows and the ceasefire could come to an end at any moment; Israel is given the chance to maintain a military presence in Lebanon until its conditions are fully met; Lebanon receives the promise of restored sovereignty – but with no means of immediate control over Hezbollah, this becomes largely impossible. Meanwhile, Iran attempts to integrate the Lebanese issue into its dialogue with Washington; and Syria is becoming an additional pressure point, playing the role of a ‘whipping boy’.

In such circumstances, peace remains elusive. This is merely a managed tactical pause before the next round of war. Israel will not leave Lebanon because the threat of Hezbollah persists; Hezbollah will not disarm because Israel remains; and Lebanon cannot fully control the south because state institutions are weaker than the Hezbollah movement on the ground. Apparently, the US is trying to freeze the conflict without resolving its main contradiction.

The strike on Abidin, Syria, shows that Israel is not thinking solely in terms of the Lebanese front. It is building a broader security belt from southern Lebanon to southern Syria. And while US President Donald Trump is telling the world about agreements, a completely different reality is taking shape on the ground: a reality of buffer zones, artillery strikes, air patrols, and the constant expectation of a new round of escalation. 

Even if we assume that Trump genuinely seeks to end the war and reach a peace agreement with Iran, including in the context of the Lebanon crisis, he will find this extremely difficult to achieve; the stakes are too high, and in many ways, he was the one who raised them. Therefore, the framework agreement looks less like the beginning of peace and more like an attempt to legally formalize a temporary balance of power. And the longer this temporary balance is presented as a peace settlement, the greater the likelihood that Lebanon will once again become the arena of a major war and a bargaining chip in the struggle between the opposing sides.

The parliamentary opposition in Poland has demanded answers from the government of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after reports of a secret delivery of in-demand Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine.

On Saturday, several Polish social media accounts, including prominent blogger Pawel Sokala, claimed that the authorities in Warsaw had handed over a batch of US-made PAC3 interceptors to Kiev in March without announcing it publicly or consulting with parliament.

The critical shortage of Patriot missiles due to their heavy use in the Ukraine conflict and the American-Israeli war against Iran had forced Washington to delay the contracted shipments of the interceptors to some of its allies in Europe and Asia in recent months. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Pentagon has exhausted almost 50% of its stockpile of Patriots since the attack on Tehran in late February.

“We desperately need them for our air defense system,” he said, claiming that the Patriots are the only type of munitions capable of shooting down the Russian Iskander missiles stationed in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.

“We must pass a law prohibiting the transfer of any Polish weapons abroad without parliamentary consent,” Bosak insisted.

Moscow has repeatedly called speculations that it is planning to attack Western European countries “nonsense,” aimed at scaring domestic audiences and justifying increased defense spending. The Iskanders have been deployed in Kaliningrad for defensive purposes in response to NATO’s expansion, according to the Russian authorities.

Blaszczak insisted that Tusk’s government must answer if the delivery did happen and if Poland’s overall position in the queue for receiving the interceptors from the US has somehow been affected by it.

Warsaw has been one of the staunchest supporters of Kiev during its conflict with Moscow, but relations between the neighboring countries soured in recent weeks after Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky named a special-forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which was responsible for ethnic cleansing of Poles during the Second World War.

Earlier this week, Poland announced that it will not transfer its remaining Soviet-era MiG-29 jets to Ukraine, while also warning that Kiev will have problems with joining the EU if it continues to honor nationalists involved in crimes against the Polish people.

The recent liberation of Konstantinovka – a key Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass – could pave the way for Russian forces to take control of the entire region in short order, former Pentagon security policy analyst Michael Maloof has told RT.

The Russian military announced on Friday that its troops had seized the heavily fortified Ukrainian stronghold, which is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Konstantinovka agglomeration in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Speaking to RT on Saturday, Maloof described the liberation of Konstantinovka as a “very significant development” in that “it opens up the way, it breaks a logjam, if you will, for Russian troops now to basically take over all of the Donbass and to expand.”

“They’re not going to have much to bargain with. I think that’s basically what it’s getting down to. Their armed forces are in retreat. They don’t have the manpower. They can’t recruit fast enough. They can’t even train them. And now, basically, the Russian army is going to become a steamroller, and President Putin made clear that he was going to be accelerating this effort now,” he said.

President Putin inspected an auxiliary command post on Friday, where he was briefed by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and senior frontline commanders, and called Konstantinovka the “key to liberating the entire territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”

Watch the full interview below:

US President Donald Trump has taken the stage in Washington, DC, to deliver his Freedom 250 address after a storm threat forced a chaotic evacuation of the National Mall and left many attendees unable to get back through security in time for the speech.

Thousands had gathered near the Washington Monument on Saturday for the “Salute to America” celebration marking 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

The event was billed as the centerpiece of the country’s Independence Day festivities, with military flyovers, live performances, a presidential address, and what organizers described as the largest fireworks display in history.

“There’s no way we can be deterred,” Trump told the cheering crowd, recalling that he had told organizers and security officials that “if we have to speak in front of one person at 4 o’clock in the morning, I’m going to be here.”

FULL SPEECH: President Trump Honors America with Historic Speech on 250th Anniversary - 07/04/26 pic.twitter.com/uBtV5K5BjI

— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) July 5, 2026

The program was thrown into disarray after severe thunderstorms moved toward the US capital, prompting security officials to order crowds off the Mall and into nearby buildings, museums, Metro stations, and other shelters. Videos shared online showed attendees streaming away from the stage area as the evacuation order triggered confusion across the heavily secured zone.

CHAOS on the National Mall rn as visitors for tonight’s Independence Day celebration are running back to the mall to keep their seats despite Secret Service telling everyone to leave due to incoming thunderstorms. pic.twitter.com/SChmoOoY5Z

— Mike Carter (@MikeCarterTV) July 5, 2026

Many people were forced into crowded buildings to wait out the storm, while others reportedly remained outside despite lightning, strong winds, and repeated warnings.

BREAKING: National Mall evacuation now includes Salute To America area of the fireworks as storm approaches Washington DC during #America250

| Licensing @FreedomNTV Desk@freedomnews.tv pic.twitter.com/8Wnd1dk9qL

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) July 4, 2026

Security screenings were suspended during the evacuation, and the process of reopening checkpoints left many attendees stuck in lines or unable to return to the main viewing area before Trump began speaking.

NOW: National Guard Troops are FLIPPING picnic tables on the National Mall as Motorcycle Police instruct the crowd to Evacuate the Great American State Fair

Video by @noturtlesoup17 | Licensing @FreedomNTV desk@freedomnews.tv pic.twitter.com/pEhfOCwKAD

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) July 5, 2026

Several planned elements, including some military flyovers, were reportedly delayed or canceled because of the weather. The disruption followed a day of extreme heat in Washington, with temperatures climbing above 100 F (37.8 C). The city’s Independence Day parade was canceled earlier in the day, while medics and National Guard personnel were seen assisting overheated attendees and distributing water.

Unfortunately, the weather may have disrupted parts of the @Freedom250 celebration, but we were grateful to open the beautiful @USDA building to provide shelter. And then this happened… these incredible patriots spontaneously broke into the National Anthem.🇺🇸

I love my country. pic.twitter.com/ELljfmif9S

— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) July 5, 2026

Trump had vowed earlier in the evening that he would deliver the speech regardless of the storm threat. “We’re going to be there no matter what,” he wrote on Truth Social, urging supporters to return once the weather cleared.

🇺🇸 BREAKING: The largest fireworks show in the history of the WORLD has just kicked off in Washington, DC

850,000 MUNITIONS — last year's was 20,000

Trump PROMISED to make it happen, and he MADE IT HAPPEN! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/727Ms8gEiF

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 5, 2026

The constant churn of British prime ministers shows that the UK political system is badly failing the public, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said, warning that ordinary people are “crying out” for real change.

Britain’s problem is bigger than any single leader, as the succession of David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer points to deep dysfunction in a system that is no longer delivering for the public, Vance suggested in an interview with The Sunday Times.

“What I see is six prime ministers in the last few years. What that says to me is that something is very broken about British politics and that people are really crying out for significant structural change,” Vance said. He added that the country has “been failed by its leadership for a long time” and “can do a lot more than it’s currently doing.”

Vance said he did not know much about Burnham personally, but stressed that Washington would work with whoever leads one of America’s “closest and most important allies.”

The vice president’s comments, published on the 250th anniversary of the US declaration of independence from the UK, come after months of unusually blunt criticism of London from Washington.

Vance was especially outspoken when he condemned the brutal stabbing of British teenager Henry Nowak last month, arguing that it would not have happened had European elites “stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants.” Downing Street responded by accusing foreign politicians of trying to “interfere” in British democracy and “stir up division.”

The vice president rejected the idea that such criticism amounted to hostility toward Britain, insisting that “it comes from a perspective of love and admiration… even though sometimes what we say is provocative.”

The liberation of the city of Konstantinovka gives Russia an opportunity to envelop the last heavily fortified area under Ukrainian control in Donbass, former US Army officer and military commentator Stanislav Krapivnik has said.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday after weeks of intensive combat in the area. Konstantinovka is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which Ukrainian troops have turned into a single, heavily fortified fortress, riddled with a vast system of reinforced trenches, tunnels, and bunkers. The city lies some 15km southeast of Kramatorsk, with the small town of Druzhkovka located in between.

Gaining control of Konstantinovka opens new opportunities for Moscow to advance on the last Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass, Krapivnik told RT on Saturday.

“This is very important because this also allows Russian forces to go around Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk and start to hit them in a double envelopment,” he added.

The situation for Ukrainian frontline troops in the area appears to be dire, with both attempts to hold their positions and efforts to retreat likely to result in heavy losses due to “Russian drone dominance, Russian artillery, and Russian aviation,” Krapivnik believes.

“At this point, the only way they’re coming out of this alive is to surrender. Once they’re spotted, they either stay in place and get destroyed or they run and get destroyed,” he said.

Watch the full interview below:

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine conflict, the situation around Iran, and the prospects for restoring bilateral ties, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.

The conversation took place on Saturday, as the United States marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. According to Ushakov, Putin personally congratulated Trump and the American people on reaching the milestone, after sending a formal message to the White House a day earlier.

The call lasted one hour and 25 minutes, Ushakov said, describing it as “businesslike and highly constructive.”

Ukraine conflict

Putin briefed Trump on what Ushakov described as the real situation on the ground in Ukraine, saying Russian forces were advancing along the entire line of contact and taking “one settlement after another.”

Putin reiterated Moscow’s preference for a political and diplomatic settlement, provided that Russia’s core positions are taken into account. At the same time, he accused Kiev and its European backers of seeking to prolong and escalate the conflict, including through “terrorism against civilians.”

Trump, according to Ushakov, again confirmed his readiness to help bring the hostilities to an end and seek a peaceful settlement. He also argued that ending the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible could unlock “enormous prospects” for mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and the US, the Kremlin aide said.

Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will continue mediation efforts and are ready to visit Moscow “at a convenient time,” Ushakov added.

Iran settlement

Putin expressed hope that the negotiation process based on the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran would help produce mutually acceptable, long-term solutions to key issues, Ushakov said. The Russian president also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to provide practical assistance to efforts aimed at de-escalation and stabilizing the region.

Trump thanked Russia for what he described as its balanced position and constructive proposals, according to the Kremlin aide.

Bilateral ties

Turning to bilateral ties, the presidents emphasized the importance of continuing contacts, including with regards to military-political and economic issues.

The two presidents stressed the importance of preserving the shared pages of Russian-American history. Putin reminded Trump of Russia’s contribution to the emergence of American statehood, while both leaders highlighted the alliance between Moscow and Washington during World War II.

Trump mentioned that he personally admires St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, while Putin wished the US success in hosting the ongoing FIFA World Cup, citing Russia’s own experience as host in 2018.

What’s next?

According to Ushakov, Moscow initiated the previous phone call on June 14, Trump’s 80th birthday, while this time it was the American side that proposed speaking on the day of the 250th anniversary of US independence.

The presidents agreed to remain in contact and hold another call in the near future, according to Ushakov. Putin also reminded Trump that he has a standing invitation to visit Moscow.

German police have deployed pepper spray and batons in a clash with left-wing activists in the city of Erfurt. The demonstrators were attempting to derail a convention of the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The right-wing party advocates tougher immigration laws and also opposes Germany’s support for Ukraine, including sanctions against Russia. Speaking late last month, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel called for lifting a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to help revive Germany’s ailing economy.

Worum geht es nochmal in #Erfurt?
(von @chefreporterNRW) pic.twitter.com/gd9PjmXFy6

— ANNA LÜSE (@i_burgerin) July 4, 2026

Founded in 2013, the party came in second with 20% in last February’s federal elections, winning 152 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag. However, the AfD was excluded from coalition talks and government formation as part of a policy known as the ‘firewall’ in German politics.

According to police estimates, approximately 31,000 protesters descended on Erfurt on Saturday, with organizers putting the number at 50,000. Some of the activists set up road barricades, while others glued themselves to railway tracks.

On top of that, Antifa members also attempted to forcibly breach a police cordon surrounding the city exhibition hall, where the AfD convention was taking place. Several AfD delegates, as well as conservative YouTubers filming the rally, were reportedly beaten up by the left-wing radicals. 

So sieht das „Fest der Demokratie“ in Erfurt aus: Unsere Reporter von @apollo_news_de werden von einem Mob gejagt und mit Schlägen, Tritten gegen den Kopf traktiert. Die Kollegen mussten medizinisch versorgt werden. (Foto/Video @BILD ) pic.twitter.com/TKNhImaX8u pic.twitter.com/llHxUssiMM

— Max Roland (@maxroland20) July 4, 2026

During Saturday’s convention, AfD delegates re-elected Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla as party co-chairs.

Speaking to the broadcaster ‘Phoenix’, Weidel said that she sees “no coalition possibilities” with the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at present.

“Currently, that’s not possible under [Chancellor] Friedrich Merz,” she concluded.

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt’s elections slated for September, similarly ruled out a coalition with the CDU at the regional level.

“I can’t save Germany with those who have knowingly driven it into the ground for the last 20 or 30 years, in every respect,” he explained, claiming that the Christian Democrats are “sliding further and further to the left.”

According to an ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll published on Thursday, the AfD is Germany’s most popular political party, enjoying the support of 27% of respondents. The CDU, which, together with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), forms the current ruling coalition, is trailing with 22% of the vote, the survey indicated.

Meanwhile, 84% of Germans are dissatisfied with Chancellor Merz’s performance, including 51% of supporters of his own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, the poll showed.

The survey comes as Germany’s economy remains largely moribund, with high energy prices rendering local businesses uncompetitive. Despite economic problems, Merz’s government has been actively pouring money into a military buildup, as well as aid for Ukraine, citing a supposed Russian threat.

A week-long funeral for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has begun in Iran, with thousands of mourners urging the country’s authorities to exact revenge on the US and Israel for his killing.

The burial ceremonies come more than four months after Khamenei was assassinated on February 28 at the very beginning of the latest US-Israeli aggression against Iran. He was killed in a concentrated airstrike on his official residence in Tehran alongside multiple relatives, including his son-in-law, daughter, and 14-month-old granddaughter.

Coffins holding the remains of Khamenei and his family members have been put on display at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in the Iranian capital, with top officials and foreign dignitaries paying their last respects.

Thousands of mourners gathered outside the mosque, with many seen carrying Iranian national flags, as well as blood-red flags, an important symbol in Shia Islam. The flag, called the ‘Ya la-Tharat al-Husayn’ dates back to the late 7th century, when it was first raised after the Battle of Karbala in a call to avenge the death of Imam Husayn ibn Ali.

Attendees were heard chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” as well as demanding “revenge” on those behind Khamenei’s assassination.

The funeral is set to continue throughout the next week, with an estimated 30 million expected to participate in the mourning of Khamenei in Iran and neighboring Iraq, where more than half the population are Shia Muslims. 

The US-Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year was completely unprovoked, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has stated on his way back from the Islamic Republic. The deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council attended the funeral ceremony for Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran on Friday.

The 86-year-old was assassinated, along with several members of his family, on February 28 during the first wave of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

Speaking to Russian journalists as he flew back to Russia on Saturday, Medvedev said that “there was no serious reason for the American attack… [as] Iran posed no threat to the United States.”

The Russian official noted that Tehran was engaged in negotiations with Washington at the time US President Donald Trump ordered the attack. This fact, according to Medvedev, points to the erosion of international law.

He also recounted that before hostilities began in late February, Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed a roadmap aimed at peacefully resolving the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. The US and Israel cited the latter as one of the pretexts for military action against the Islamic Republic.

“I think Iran surmounted this toughest of ordeals with dignity,” Medvedev observed, saying that even though some parts of Tehran still lie in ruins, life in the Iranian capital has largely returned to normal.

He told Russian reporters that during the course of the conflict, the Islamic Republic realized that it possesses a deterrent on par with nuclear weapons – namely the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s energy shipments passed before the conflict began. Global crude prices soared to as high as $120 a barrel after Tehran imposed its blockade.

In the event of renewed aggression, Iran could similarly block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Medvedev suggested. The vital chokepoint that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden is another important waterway for Middle Eastern oil exports.

Referring to Western sanctions imposed on both Moscow and Tehran, the ex-Russian president dismissed them as “illegal unilateral restrictions” that are in breach of international law.

Russian forces have repelled a Ukrainian long-range combined drone and missile attack, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

During the assault, anti-aircraft defenses downed over 500 targets, mainly long-range kamikaze drones, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It added that the military destroyed 10 FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles and at least nine munitions fired by US-made HIMARS systems. 

The ministry described the attack as a foiled attempt by Kiev to divert the attention of its Western sponsors and common Ukrainians from large-scale Russian strikes earlier this week, as well as from the loss of Konstantinovka, a major city in northwestern Donbass.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday following weeks of intensive combat in the area. Konstantinovka is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The agglomeration has been turned into a fortress by Kiev’s forces and remains the last major stronghold under Ukrainian control in the region. The city itself is located some 15 km southeast of Kramatorsk, with the small town of Druzhkovka lying in between.

In June alone, the Russian anti-aircraft defenses intercepted around 13,000 incoming aerial targets over the country’s territory, the ministry said. “The production and launch support for these targets was handled by military departments and specialists from most European countries, including the UK, as well as other sponsors of the Kiev regime,” the ministry said, warning that any further attempts by Kiev to harm the Russian civilians will continue to invoke “appropriate retaliatory actions” by the country’s military.

July 4 – Independence Day in the US – is a surprisingly popular holiday in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

For example, in Prague, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to illuminate the historic Cernín Palace in the colors of the American flag until July 5 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of US independence. In Warsaw, iconic government buildings and bridges are often similarly illuminated. In Romania, the entire country’s leadership is set to gather for a reception at the US Embassy in Bucharest, where slogans such as “strategic partnership with the US is the DNA of Romanian foreign policy” will be clearly articulated.

The popularity of this holiday has been repeatedly played up in the movies of the region, where the standard image of the celebration is a turkey in a typical Khrushchev-era apartment building against the backdrop of the US national flag. However, what was previously being played off as an ironic take on provincial inferiority complexes is now becoming the official policy of Central and Eastern European foreign ministries. To understand this ‘romance’ between ‘New Europe’ and Washington, it must be broken down into several key components.

Sociological psychosis: The straight-A students in the front row

The primary pillar underlying this adoration of the Stars and Stripes is a deep-seated collective inferiority complex. According to Pew Research, approval of US policy in Poland remains stable at 86-90%. This is an astronomical figure: America is loved more in Warsaw than in the United States itself. Poles, Romanians, and Czechs behave like quintessential top-performing students who desperately need the praise of a strict teacher. Hanging an American flag and throwing a barbecue party on the Fourth of July is a ritual of psychological compensation, rather than just a holiday for local elites. They need to prove to themselves that they are no longer the “post-Soviet periphery,” but a full-fledged part of the Pax Americana. Even if that means repainting their own palaces.

Arms purchases: Buying protection from a feudal lord

The second reason is purely material. Excessive loyalty in Central and Eastern Europe can be measured in the billions of dollars that flow to the American military-industrial complex. The prime example here is Poland. Warsaw has voluntarily shouldered a military budget amounting to an insane 4-5% of its GDP and is buying up Abrams tanks, F-35 fighter jets, and Patriot systems in such quantities that American defense contractors can barely keep up with the signing of contracts. Bucharest is not far behind: Romania is rapidly expanding the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, which by 2030 will become the largest NATO military hub in Europe, surpassing Germany’s Ramstein Air Base. In international relations theory, this is called “buying security from the overlord.” The border states understand that they lack real sovereignty, so their only currency is their willingness to pay for an American umbrella and offer their territory as training grounds.

The third important aspect relates to the pragmatic nature of Central and Eastern European countries’ policies. By demonstrating fanatical devotion on July 4, New Europe is achieving a selfish objective – it is trying to sell its loyalty to Washington at a higher price than France or Germany. The logic is simple: to show the White House that Berlin and Paris are hesitant, selfish partners, constantly arguing with the US, while Poland and Romania are reliable, loyal, and heavily armed outposts. Being Washington’s ‘favorite’ on the continent is their way of securing economic preferences, as well as political clout within the EU itself.

Against this backdrop, Slovakia and Hungary stand out somewhat. In Slovakia, the level of trust in the US barely exceeds 30%, while in Hungary the situation is slightly more complex. Under Viktor Orban, Budapest spent years pointedly ignoring official receptions at the American embassy and clashing with the Biden administration. However, at the same time, Hungary became a veritable Mecca for American right-wing conservatives. Orban managed to build a unique bridge with the MAGA movement: Budapest became the first European venue for America’s prestigious Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Tucker Carlson broadcast for weeks from the banks of the Danube, and conservative American professors were welcomed by Hungarian universities, where they helped to create a new school of thought based on ‘traditional values’.

Hungary loved America – but only the ‘right’ kind, Trumpist America, cynically using its right wing as a battering ram against Brussels. Current Prime Minister Péter Magyar is being forced to break this paradox. On the one hand, he needs to make peace with Brussels and Washington. On the other hand, he has already declared war on Orban’s legacy, cutting off government funding for CPAC and launching criminal investigations into the diversion of funds to American lobbyists. Magyar is forced to walk a tightrope: he won’t install red, white and blue lighting in Böm Square in Budapest, lest right-wing voters accuse him of being a ‘Soros pup’, and must limit himself to dry, formal telegrams.

In the mid-2000s, old-school diplomats on Moscow’s Smolenskaya Square recalled their interactions with Central and Eastern European countries within the framework of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) and the Warsaw Pact. During major communist holidays – May Day or the anniversary of the October Revolution – the most ardent, proactive, and vocal enthusiasts were not the officials in Moscow. The elites of the Eastern European borderlands traditionally tried to appear holier than the Pope. It was in Prague, Warsaw, and Bucharest that they renamed streets ahead of schedule, reported 100% turnout at demonstrations, and demanded that portraits of general secretaries be hung on every street corner, turning party protocol into a farce akin to something described by Franz Kafka.

In classical international relations theory, this phenomenon of excessive loyalty among small states is called ‘bandwagoning’. And here lies the most profound tool of American soft power. Once upon a time, the nomenklatura elites of Central and Eastern Europe dutifully studied at the Higher Party School in Moscow. After 1991, their children and successors flocked to study in the UK and the US on State Department scholarships. Washington reprogrammed the mental code of the local bureaucracy through Ivy League institutions: they think in American terms and sincerely consider the Pax Americana their sole civilizational matrix. This is classic mimetic sovereignty; they have gradually transitioned into a cargo cult: the population believes that if they copy the external attributes of the master, they will automatically be able to join the major leagues.

Kostantinovka was Ukraine’s “most fortified” stronghold, guarded by some 15,500 troops, most of whom have been eliminated during the Russian operation to capture the city, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy has said.

During a briefing on Saturday, Rudskoy, who is the head of operations at the Russian General Staff, said that throughout several weeks of intense fighting for the strategic city, the Ukrainian military lost around 13,500 troops, 14 tanks, 283 armored fighting vehicles, 1,400 cars, 200 field artillery guns and eight multiple rocket launch systems.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov briefed President Vladimir Putin about the liberation of Konstantinovka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic when the commander-in-chief visited an auxiliary command post on Friday.

Why is Konstantinovka important?

The general described Konstantinovka as “a major industrial and logistics hub, which is the key to the last remaining stronghold of the Kiev regime in Donbass – the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration.”

“Most fortified” link in Ukraine’s defense belt

The government in Kiev, which understood the strategic value of Konstantinovka, had started creating an extensive defense system in and around the city back in 2014, Rudskoy noted.

“Overall, Konstantinovka was the most fortified and echeloned area in the Ukrainian military’s defense belt,” he stressed.

The fortifications around the city consisted of two defense lines, which included more than 150 km of trenches and anti-tank ditches with three rows of artificial obstacles and mine fields, according to the general.

Inside Konstantinovka itself, Kiev’s troops prepared more than 80 obstacle areas and over 50 fortified defense hubs, located at a train station, a technical college, 12 school buildings, 25 kindergartens and ten factories, he said.

The city had been guarded by 45 Ukrainian battalions, equipped with various Western-supplied arms, including heavy weaponry, Rudskoy added.

How did the Russians capture the stronghold?

“Despite all the measures taken by the Ukrainian military’s command, the Ukrainian units failed to hold on to the city under pressure from the Russian troops,” the operation’s chief stressed.

After that, the Russian military exploited the supply and rotation difficulties experienced by the Ukrainians to accelerate its advance within the city and “completely captured Kostiantnovka,” the general said.

Kiev’s failed attempt to reassure Western backers

According to Rudskoy, the Ukrainian high command “did not spare the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers, ordering them to hold the defense [in Konstantinovka] until the end.”

“By doing so, the Kiev regime tried to convince its Western curators that the Ukrainian troops are capable of stopping the advance of the Russian army,” he stressed.

“Donbass will be liberated”

The Russian military is continuing to close in on the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk region from several sides. It is the last populated Ukrainian-held area in the DPR, Rudskoy said.

“The tasks assigned by the supreme commander-in-chief to fully liberate Donbass will be achieved,” he insisted.

Russia and the United States bear a “special responsibility” for maintaining global security, President Vladimir Putin has said while congratulating his counterpart Donald Trump on the 250th anniversary of American independence.

In a letter published by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin wished Trump and his family “health, well-being and success,” and the American people “happiness and prosperity,” while describing the signing of the US Declaration of Independence as “an important milestone in world history.” 

He also emphasized the countries’ shared history and special responsibilities as nuclear powers.

“We were allies in two world wars, together freed humanity from the horrors of Nazism, and later played an important role in laying the foundations of the modern world order. Today, Russia and the United States, as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, bear a special responsibility for ensuring global security and stability,” the message reads.

During the American Revolutionary War, Empress Catherine the Great refused Britain’s requests to send Russian troops to fight the colonists and later established the League of Armed Neutrality, which challenged London’s naval blockade and was widely seen as favoring the American cause.

Since Trump returned to office last year, Moscow and Washington have renewed high-level contacts after years of strained relations. Putin and Trump met in person last August and have held several phone calls discussing the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East, and broader bilateral ties. However, several outstanding issues, including Ukraine-related sanctions and diplomatic property disputes, have not yet been resolved.

At the start of the US and Israeli military campaign against Iran, we identified seven lessons from the new conflict. Sanctions, we noted, are often followed by force; pressure on Iran would be long-term; concessions to the attacking side wouldn’t work; the leadership of the targeted country would become one of the main targets; internal unrest would encourage external intervention; support from friendly states would matter, but wouldn’t solve the victim’s problems, and finally, the balance of power would remain the decisive factor in security affairs.

Force answered with force is a crude instrument, but it remains an effective way of halting escalation. Now that the conflict appears to have been paused, we can draw several further lessons, even while recognizing that this pause is likely to prove temporary.

The first lesson is that a major power can withdraw, which strictly speaking, isn’t new. Recent history offers many examples, as the United States ended its long military presence in Afghanistan and before that, the Soviet Union also withdrew from Afghanistan. Earlier still, the United States was forced out of Vietnam.

In the Persian Gulf crisis, the US and Israel inflicted serious damage on Iran, but they failed to crush their opponent. They also appear to have judged further escalation, especially a ground operation, too risky and the result was a retreat from the objective of destroying the enemy and a turn towards diplomacy.

This leads to the second lesson in that diplomacy works, and compromise remains possible.

The 20th century was marked by the terrible experience of wars ending in crushing defeats. The First World War destroyed at least four empires and the Second World War ended in the complete defeat of the Axis powers, whose sovereignty remains restricted to this day. The Cold War ended in political defeat and the collapse of the Soviet Union and more recent local military operations led to the disintegration or change of government in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The underlying issues remain unresolved. But the parties have at least reached a temporary settlement through negotiation and specific concessions. They were compelled to treat one another as legitimate negotiating partners and willingly or not, they acknowledged each other as equals, despite the obvious disparity in their capabilities.

The third lesson is that tolerance for losses can determine the outcome because in war, the scale of losses matters and so does the willingness to accept them and the 20th century again gives us two extremes. In the world wars, casualties reached unimaginable proportions, while in many local conflicts, however, the very fact of casualties became a decisive factor in ending the war. This was especially true of the American experience in Vietnam.

After the Cold War, Western military operations were generally designed to keep casualties low. Russia’s losses in the North Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR were serious and were a factor in the ceasefire after the First Chechen War, but those lessons helped reduce losses in the Second Chechen War.

The Gulf crisis illustrates both models as the US and Israel were not prepared to accept the higher casualties that a ground operation might have required, at least not without confidence in success, whereas Iran, by contrast, showed that it was ready to absorb losses. Civilian casualties and the assassination of several dozen prominent political figures didn’t break its resolve.

The fourth lesson is that a margin of safety matters. The great powers entered the First World War with little understanding of the costs ahead while the Second World War began between mobilized military camps, largely prepared for war and regarding it as inevitable. The Cold War was a story of building strategic reserves, followed by the “open-door” effect of gradual détente. The Soviet economy was ready for world war, but in the atmosphere of easing tensions, much of that capacity became unnecessary.

Iran has spent its entire history as an Islamic republic preparing for open military confrontation and its ability to hold out in the current conflict is largely the result of how its armed forces, security agencies, command system and economy are organized. In peacetime, such a system can look costly, unbalanced and cumbersome, but under extreme pressure, it has proved effective.

Israel, too, lives under a regime of constant military mobilization, though on different principles. Military-bloc states are returning to world politics and China is strengthening its resilience while Western countries are moving in the same direction. Russia and Ukraine have also been forced along this path, but Ukraine appears to have reached the peak of its militarization, while Russia still has room to grow.

The fifth lesson is that nuclear weapons both solve problems and fail to solve them. Fear of Iran becoming a nuclear power is one of the long-term reasons for its containment by the US and Israel. If Iran had already acquired nuclear weapons, as North Korea has, such a bold attack would hardly have been possible and one achievement of the campaign against Iran is that it has bought time by delaying Tehran’s progress towards nuclear-weapon status.

At the same time, neither the US nor Israel seriously considered using nuclear weapons to escalate further or defeat Iran. Both are technically capable of large-scale nuclear strikes or individual precision strikes with tactical warheads, but such a step would invite condemnation and might still fail to produce victory.

Iran would have a chance of maintaining stability and control even after several nuclear strikes and the destruction of individual cities or infrastructure and its resolve might even rise to a new and unpredictable level.

Nuclear weapons can cause enormous damage. But they don’t automatically destroy the target state, especially one that has spent decades preparing to resist attack and this creates uncertainty. In some conflicts, the political significance of nuclear weapons may be reduced, while at the same time, the temptation to use them simply to inflict damage may grow.

Images of strikes against Iran didn’t break its will to resist and Iran’s own information operations against its enemies were also limited. The conflict also produced a large amount of AI-generated disinformation, though the quality of such material hasn’t yet made it a universal weapon. So, information warfare matters greatly, including in Ukraine, but it still has limits.

The seventh lesson is that leaving a war is harder than entering one. Launching a military campaign is easy, but ending it is far more difficult, especially when the original objectives haven’t been achieved and this is the situation the US faced after its attempt to crush Iran with missiles and bombs failed.

Retreat and compromise carry a high price and they also bring domestic political risks. Negotiations may be attacked by the public or political opposition as weakness while any concession makes that risk greater.

The US has shown that it is prepared to step back if escalation becomes too costly. But the matter isn’t settled and at the next opportunity, the guns may start firing again.

The strategy for exiting a conflict has become an extremely difficult diplomatic and technical challenge. The US and Israel didn’t crush Iran, and they tried to leave the conflict at the right moment, but Iran held its ground while avoiding a devastating prolonged war.

How long this balance lasts remains to be seen.

This article was first published by Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team.

Moscow is aware that the Baltic states have allowed Ukraine to use their airspace for drone strikes targeting north-western Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Galuzin has said.

Kiev has been ramping up its long-range UAV attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia’s Leningrad Region, which surrounds the country’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, since spring. There have been a number of incidents where explosive-laden drones crashed in nearby NATO member states – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – while on their way to Russia in recent months.

Leningrad Region witnessed its latest major Ukrainian drone attack in the early hours on Saturday; at least 72 UAVs were shot down by air defenses, according to local governor Aleksandr Drozdenko.

On the same day, Galuzin told RIA Novosti that the Russian authorities “have verified data indicating that Latvia and other Baltic republics have already provided air corridors for Ukrainian drones that have attacked our country’s civilian infrastructure.”

In May, the ruling coalition in Latvia collapsed over the slow military response to Ukrainian drones. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo claimed that he had challenged Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on the issue in-person during their meeting in Armenia the same month, calling the aerial incursions “unacceptable.” Estonia had also reported intercepting several UAVs over its territory.

However, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Monday that Tallinn will accept Ukrainian drones violating its airspace as long as they are causing damage to Russia. “Of course we are not happy about [the UAV incursions]. But we are not saying to Ukraine to stop it,” he told the Financial Times.

On May 28, 2026, the US government announced plans to establish an Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya for its citizens exposed to the virus in the DR Congo. It was also to be used as a treatment center for Americans who contract Ebola.

The 50-bed unit was to be set up at the Laikipia Military Airbase, 125 miles Northwest of the capital, Nairobi, with the US government committing $13.5 million toward the facility’s construction.

Already, the US had deployed more than 30 members of the US Public Health Service to coordinate the establishment and running of the facility before the courts stopped the process. The plan, however, attracted criticism from ordinary Kenyans, politicians, human rights defenders, the doctors’ union, and the country’s Law Society.

By the time the court order was issued, construction of the controversial facility was already underway, prompting protests from locals. Hundreds of residents of Nanyuki town, where the facility was being built, poured into the streets to oppose it. Security officers used force to repulse demonstrators who were trying to reach the military installation where the construction was happening. The protesters cited fears over potential health risks associated with hosting an Ebola centre in their neighbourhood.

‘The execution plan left a lot to be desired’

The head of Kenya’s Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah, said that “lack of transparency and public involvement in the establishment of the quarantine facility raised more questions than answers’’.

“If the establishment of the Ebola quarantine facility was for the good of the country, then there was no need to treat it with a lot of secrecy and confidentiality,” he told RT.

He added, “The idea itself was not bad, but the execution plan left a lot to be desired”.

Atellah wondered why the US settled on Kenya as the host of its Ebola quarantine center when the outbreak was in the DR Congo.

“Why not put the facility in the DR Congo, where it is needed the most. If they are afraid of exposing their own citizens to the virus, why should they put Kenyans at risk of hosting them?”

Kenyan government officials were economical with details about the plan to set up the facility, forcing civil society groups to go to court.

The Katiba Institute, a civil society group focusing on constitutional matters in Kenya, went to court to stop the establishment of a quarantine facility. In its petition, the group argued that the planned facility was being established in secret and unilaterally, and that it “raised grave constitutional concerns”.

Joshua Malidzo Nyawa, an Advocate acting on behalf of Katiba Institute, told the court that bringing Ebola-exposed individuals into Kenya could increase the risk of the disease spreading in the country.

Law Society of Kenya President Charles Kanjama accused the US of playing double standards by pushing to have the Ebola quarantine center in Kenya despite the US having a more advanced and better-funded health system compared to the East African nation.

“It makes no sense that the US, with its advanced health system, is afraid of ‘importing’ the Ebola virus into its territory but wants to put Kenya at risk,” Kanjama told RT.

He added, “If this is not neocolonialism, then tell me what it is”.

‘Lack of transparency has raised a lot of suspicion’

Dr. Bonface Mouka, head of security, diplomacy, and peace studies at Kenyatta University, argues that it is hard to ignore the question of sovereignty whenever a foreign government supports such a critical infrastructure in another country.

According to Mouka, the global strengthening of disease surveillance and response capabilities through cross-border collaborations is a strategic imperative, but the public good must guide such agreements.

He added that the world learned vital lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, which demonstrated that health emergencies can rapidly evolve into national security crises with economic and social consequences.

“As much as the Ebola quarantine facility agreement between Kenya and the US was a good idea, it must be embedded within Kenya’s own national security and public health frameworks. Anything outside that becomes a security concern,” he noted.

‘Total disregard for sovereignty’

Mariah Muli, an associate fellow on global security and diplomacy at the Horn Institute, argues that global health has become an important component of diplomacy and security cooperation and that the US can use investments in health preparedness to strengthen bilateral relations.

“The United States views Kenya as a strategic partner in the region, and such investments are expected as part of bilateral relations. Partnerships are good, but when they are shrouded in secrecy, they become more of a one-sided affair,” Muli said.

She told RT that in the Ebola quarantine facility case, “the US seemed to be dictating to Kenya on what to do, in total disregard for its sovereignty”. 

“It appears a call was made, and Kenya was told that the facility must be set up on US conditions and there was no room for asking questions or opposing,” Muli suggests.

“Global health cooperation is necessary in an interconnected world, and Kenya stands to benefit from strategic partnerships in epidemic preparedness and response. But any arrangement that appears to sidestep public participation or compromise national sovereignty is bound to face resistance, regardless of its intended benefits,” she concluded.

A skydiver carrying a giant American flag crashed into a hospitality tent during an Independence Day rodeo in California.

The accident happened during the opening ceremony of the Folsom Pro Rodeo near Sacramento, California on Thursday. The event is one of the city’s annual Fourth of July traditions held this year as part of celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.

The event traditionally begins with a parachutist delivering the flag into the arena.

Holy smokes!!!

Huge crash at the Folsom Pro Rodeo

Thankfully he walked away with no injuries 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/z4rYPPlNvL

— TONY™ (@TONYxTWO) July 4, 2026

Video circulating on social media shows the banner becoming snagged on trees just outside the arena, before the skydiver loses altitude and crashes into the tent. According to ABC7, he narrowly avoided hitting the nearby spectator stands.

Crazy scene at the Folsom Rodeo as a parachuter had a rough landing. Good news: he’s okay 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Hpp3zScfYA

— Bussin' With The Boys (@BussinWTB) July 3, 2026

The parachutist was safe and suffered only a cut lip, local media cited the rodeo’s organizers as saying. No injuries among spectators were reported.

Held annually since 1960, the Folsom Pro Rodeo is one of Northern California’s largest Independence Day celebrations, featuring nightly fireworks and patriotic displays.

The Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry has published footage of its rescuers fleeing from a large fire whirl in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The agency has been tackling blazes near the defunct Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant since last week, but have so far been unable to contain the fire.

The 30 km (19 mile) radius exclusion zone was set up around the plant after the 1986 nuclear disaster. The mostly-forested area of 2,600 km² (1,000 square miles) remains closed to the public due to being heavily contaminated with radiation.

The clip, which was uploaded by the ministry on its Telegram channel on Friday, captured the formation of a large fire devil that quickly started moving towards the firefighters, forcing them to jump into their vehicles and retreat.

“A Fire tornado: wind, dust and flames merge into one destructive force. That’s exactly how the blazes, which parts of the Kiev Region are constantly fighting in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, look,” the post read.

On July 4, the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence. Americans will honor the Founding Fathers, the Continental Army, and France’s decisive contribution to victory over Britain. But one foreign power that also helped shape the fate of the young republic has largely disappeared from popular memory.

Twice in American history, first during the War of Independence and later during the Civil War, the Russian Empire took diplomatic and naval steps that helped the United States survive moments when its future was far from certain. Both times, St. Andrew’s flag flew on the side of the American republic.

When people think of the American Revolution, they usually picture battles at Lexington, Saratoga, or Yorktown. Far less attention is paid to the struggle at sea. Yet Britain’s greatest advantage over the rebellious colonies was not simply the Royal Navy itself, but its ability to wage economic warfare across the world’s oceans.

In the eighteenth century, a maritime empire lived or died by commerce. Merchant fleets carried not only wealth but also food, weapons, military supplies, and the resources needed to sustain both armies and colonies. Disrupting those shipping lanes could cripple an opponent without winning a single decisive naval battle.

One of the most effective tools for doing so was privateering.

Privateers occupied a legal middle ground between naval officers and pirates. Governments issued them letters of marque authorizing privately owned vessels to capture enemy merchant ships. Unlike pirates, privateers operated under state authority, bringing captured cargoes back to friendly ports, where the proceeds were divided between the state and the shipowners.

The system allowed maritime powers to wage commercial warfare on an enormous scale without maintaining prohibitively expensive fleets. Privateers could also stop neutral merchant ships if they were suspected of carrying goods destined for the enemy, particularly military supplies. As the American War of Independence expanded into a broader European conflict following the intervention of France and Spain, this increasingly drew neutral shipping into the fighting.

Russia, despite remaining outside the war itself, found its merchant vessels among those affected. Russian ships carrying grain and other cargoes to Mediterranean ports were increasingly intercepted by both regular warships and privateers. What had begun as Britain’s campaign against its enemies was gradually becoming a threat to neutral commerce across Europe.

By the late 1770s, Catherine the Great concluded that neutrality meant little unless it could be defended. The stage was set for one of the most consequential diplomatic interventions of the American Revolution.

By 1778, Russia had already begun looking for ways to protect its merchant shipping. St. Petersburg proposed that Denmark jointly escort commercial vessels sailing to Russian ports, hoping to shield neutral trade from the growing conflict. The following spring, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden each dispatched naval squadrons to patrol northern waters while issuing declarations defending the rights of neutral commerce.

The effort, however, failed to stop the seizures. Spain, despite being aligned with revolutionary France against Britain, continued intercepting Russian and Dutch merchant ships carrying grain to Mediterranean ports. 

On February 28, 1780, the Russian empress responded with one of the most important diplomatic initiatives of the eighteenth century: the Declaration of Armed Neutrality.

Its message was simple. Russia had respected the rights of neutral commerce throughout its own wars and expected the same treatment in return. If Russian merchant ships continued to be stopped or their cargoes confiscated, the empire would defend its maritime rights by force. Any attempt to seize Russian vessels now carried the risk of war with one of Europe’s great powers.

The declaration established several principles that would reshape maritime law. Neutral ships were to enjoy free navigation between the ports of belligerent states. Enemy goods carried aboard neutral vessels were to remain protected unless they constituted military contraband. Blockades would be recognized only when they were physically enforced by naval forces rather than proclaimed on paper. Most importantly, Russia pledged to back these principles with armed squadrons rather than diplomatic protests alone.

Catherine’s initiative quickly evolved into something far larger than a Russian policy. Denmark and Sweden joined almost immediately, effectively closing the Baltic to unrestricted operations by the warring powers. Over the following years, the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria, Portugal, and the Kingdom of Naples also adhered to the convention. Even France, Spain, and the United States broadly accepted its principles, although they never formally entered the league. Britain, whose naval strategy stood to lose the most, remained the only major power to reject it.

The greatest beneficiary, however, was neither Russia nor the European neutrals. It was the thirteen rebelling colonies.

For a nation celebrating 250 years of independence, this remains one of the least remembered international chapters of the American Revolution.

When Russian warships sailed into New York

The second time Russia found itself playing an unexpected role in American history came more than eighty years later.

By 1863, the United States was fighting for its survival once again. The Civil War had reached its most decisive phase. Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation earlier that year, transforming the conflict from a struggle to preserve the Union into a war against slavery itself. Across the Atlantic, another monarch had only recently carried out a similarly transformative reform. In 1861, Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom, earning the title by which history still remembers him – the Liberator.

The parallel did not go unnoticed.

As the Civil War intensified, Britain openly sympathized with the Confederacy. The reasons were hardly ideological. British textile mills depended heavily on cotton from the slaveholding South, while many in London viewed a divided United States as preferable to the emergence of a stronger rival across the Atlantic.

The danger was real. A direct British intervention, or even a limited naval operation, could have dramatically altered the course of the war.

Rather than keeping his fleets bottled up in European waters, he dispatched two Russian naval squadrons across the Atlantic and Pacific. Rear Admiral Stepan Lesovsky sailed for New York, while Rear Admiral Andrei Popov headed to San Francisco. Officially, the deployment was presented as a training cruise. In reality, it carried a far more important strategic message.

Should Britain enter the war against either Russia or the Union, Russian warships would already be positioned to threaten British maritime commerce across the world’s oceans.

For Washington, however, the arrival of the Russian fleet sent an entirely different signal.

It demonstrated that at a moment when most European powers were either hostile or cautiously waiting to see who would prevail, one great power had chosen to make its presence felt on the side of the Union.

Popov’s squadron reached San Francisco at a particularly vulnerable moment. The Union possessed virtually no naval force on the Pacific coast. The ironclad Camanche, intended to defend the region, had sunk in the bay while still being transported in sections aboard a sailing vessel. Meanwhile, a British squadron stationed in Canada remained a potential threat should London decide to intervene.

Against that backdrop, the presence of Russian corvettes and clippers effectively secured California’s coastline and discouraged any attempt to impose a blockade or launch raids against Union territory.

Only weeks after their arrival, a devastating fire broke out in San Francisco. Around 200 Russian officers and sailors joined local firefighters to battle the flames. Six of them lost their lives. Today, a modest memorial on the Embarcadero waterfront still commemorates their sacrifice.

American historians have often regarded Popov’s deployment as one of the expedition’s most tangible contributions to the Union war effort. Even without firing a shot, the squadron altered the strategic balance along the Pacific coast.

On the opposite coast, Lesovsky’s arrival in New York became a public sensation.

Thousands of New Yorkers welcomed the Russian sailors. Banquets were organized in their honor, Broadway hosted celebratory processions, and the city’s political and business elite competed to demonstrate their gratitude. At the very moment when British and French naval officers also filled New York’s harbor, public enthusiasm left little doubt about which visitors Americans regarded as friends.

Lesovsky’s squadron represented a formidable force: the frigates Alexander Nevsky, Peresvet, and Oslyabya, the corvettes Varyag and Vityaz, and the clipper Almaz. In effect, Russia had dispatched nearly all of the Baltic Fleet’s ocean-going warships.

The tsar’s geopolitical masterstroke

The deployment of the Russian squadrons was, of course, never an act of pure altruism.

At the very moment American newspapers celebrated the arrival of Russian warships, Alexander II faced mounting tensions much closer to home. The January Uprising had erupted in Russian-controlled Poland earlier that year, drawing sympathy from Britain and France. Memories of the Crimean War were still fresh in St. Petersburg, and another confrontation with the Western powers seemed entirely possible.

Sending the fleet overseas therefore accomplished two strategic objectives at once.

If Britain intervened against Russia over Poland, Russian cruisers would already be positioned to strike British shipping across the Atlantic and Pacific. If Britain intervened in the American Civil War on behalf of the Confederacy, those same squadrons would complicate London’s military calculations and strengthen the Union’s position.

It was an elegant geopolitical move that advanced Russian interests while simultaneously benefiting the United States.

London ultimately chose not to escalate. France followed the same course. Whether the Russian squadrons alone changed that decision remains a matter of historical debate, but their presence undeniably became part of the broader strategic equation confronting the European powers.

For Americans living through the Civil War, however, the symbolism mattered just as much as the strategy.

Historian James Ford Rhodes, one of the founders of modern American historiography, later recalled the extraordinary reception given to the Russian fleet. Banquets, parades, official ceremonies, and public celebrations reflected what he described as genuine gratitude toward the only great European power that had openly demonstrated goodwill toward the Union at one of the darkest moments in its history.

For many Americans of the 1860s, Russia was not a rival. It was a friend.

History rarely unfolds through grand battles alone.

Sometimes the outcome of a war depends on diplomatic declarations, the movement of a few naval squadrons, or the willingness of one power to defend principles that also happen to serve its own interests.

Neither Catherine II nor Alexander II acted out of sentiment toward the United States. Both pursued Russia’s strategic objectives. Yet on two separate occasions, those objectives aligned with the survival of the American republic.

The first came when Britain’s naval dominance threatened to isolate the rebelling colonies from global trade. The second came when the Union faced the possibility of foreign intervention during the Civil War.

In both cases, Russian actions helped make those outcomes less likely.

Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, Americans will rightly celebrate the men who founded their republic. Yet the history of the United States was never written by Americans alone. Foreign allies, rivals, and unexpected partners all left their mark on the nation’s story.

Among them was the Russian Empire.

The European Union does more to support Palestinians than any other international actor, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has claimed.

The bloc’s leadership has repeatedly faced criticism – including from within the EU – for failing to forcefully condemn Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, which have caused widespread civilian casualties and destruction.

Speaking at a press conference at University College Cork in Ireland on Friday, von der Leyen was asked why the European Commission was “dragging” its feet on Gaza and the West Bank. She rejected the criticism, saying the EU is “the world's largest provider of assistance to the Palestinian people” and insisting that “no one does more than us.”

As evidence, she pointed to the humanitarian air bridge Brussels has operated since October 2023, when Israel launched its offensive against Hamas following the group’s deadly cross-border attack.

Von der Leyen also said any decision to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement rests with member states, requiring a qualified majority vote.

Her position has drawn repeated criticism from lawmakers in the European Parliament. During a debate in late April, Belgian MEP Kathleen Van Brempt accused Brussels of applying “double standards” by imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict while remaining “silent” on Israel’s actions in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed those concerns in March, telling Politico that von der Leyen had been “systematically biased in favor of the US and Israel.”

The Commission also came under scrutiny for failing to issue a unified response during the US-Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year, despite several EU member states publicly condemning the attacks.

In March, von der Leyen dismissed debate over whether the conflict was a “war of choice or necessity,” saying “there should be no tears shed for the Iranian regime.”

US President Donald Trump has delivered a speech from Mount Rushmore as his country marks the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, part of the White House-backed Freedom 250 celebrations billed as the biggest birthday party in American history.

Trump spoke beneath the granite faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, with military tributes, flyovers, and a fireworks display also scheduled at the South Dakota landmark.

“The United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history, and it is great to be your president,” Trump told the nation, claiming that “no country has done more good for this world.”

Trump said it was the “core of the patriotic duty of every American” to protect the country’s unique identity from “mortal threats” such as communism.

“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country, who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success,” Trump said, comparing the threat of communism to those posed by the two world wars and 9/11.

A recent Gallup poll found that only 58% of US adults said they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be American – the lowest level recorded since the pollster began asking the question in 2001. Other polling has suggested that a significant number of Americans do not plan to celebrate July 4 this year, while many doubt the country’s ability to endure another 250 years.

The return of fireworks to Mount Rushmore has prompted environmental and wildfire concerns, as much of the US endures a record heat wave that has disrupted July Fourth events elsewhere. While Mount Rushmore itself is forecast to be cooler, with storms possible, critics have warned about holding a large pyrotechnic display in the Black Hills region amid broader drought and fire-risk concerns.

In Washington, DC, the anniversary celebrations are set to continue with a large ‘Salute to America’ event, military flyovers, and what organizers have described as a record-scale fireworks show.

Over 60 long-range Ukrainian drones were downed en route to the Russian capital overnight, after Moscow announced the liberation of the key Ukrainian stronghold of Konstantinovka and warned Kiev against targeting civilians to simulate “imaginary achievements.”

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said at least 62 drones had been intercepted in the Moscow Region on Saturday. The raid came just hours after the Defense Ministry briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on the liberation of Konstantinovka in the northwest of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

The mayor reported no casualties or damage on the ground, adding that emergency services swiftly responded to all of the sites where debris fell.

St. Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov said an overnight drone attack targeted an oil terminal in the city, and that a total of 72 UAVs were intercepted. There were no casualties and the aftermath of the incident has been fully dealt with, he added. Debris from one of the UAVs fell in the suburb of Peterhof, home to an 18th-century imperial palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Russia’s air defenses intercepted a total of 389 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions overnight, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

Escalating long-range attacks on Russian infrastructure, including oil refineries and bridges in border regions, have become a key element of Kiev’s war strategy, as manpower shortages have prevented it from turning the tide on the battlefield.

On Friday alone, a woman was killed by a missile strike in Russia’s Belgorod Region, while a drone attack on a market in Tokmak, Zaporozhye Region, left five residents dead and another 18 injured.

“To reinforce their legends and lies, their false statements, the opponent may take certain actions of a diversionary-terrorist nature, carry out raids – even with small forces, but with great propaganda pomp – in order to confirm their theses about imaginary achievements,” Putin said.

The Russian president also warned that continued attacks on civilian sites would only force Moscow to push Ukrainian forces farther from Russia’s borders in Sumy, Kharkov, and Dnepropetrovsk regions.

In the meantime, Moscow has vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial infrastructure and facilities supporting its operation, after Russian attacks in June already degraded Kiev’s ability to produce long-range weapons and strike targets deep inside Russia.

A severe heatwave across the US is raising concerns for World Cup matches and major Fourth of July events, with several cities facing their highest temperatures in more than a decade.

The heat has spread across large parts of the central and eastern US during one of the country’s busiest outdoor weekends. Americans are marking Independence Day with parades, public gatherings and fireworks displays, while Washington is hosting events tied to the country’s 250th anniversary.

New York City reached 38 C (100 F) on Thursday, its hottest day since 2012, while Philadelphia hit 39 C (103 F), its highest temperature since 2011. Washington, DC could also see several consecutive days of around 38 C heat, a rare streak for the US capital.

The conditions have also affected the FIFA World Cup, which is being hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Several knockout-stage matches are taking place in open-air stadiums with limited protection from direct sun, including venues in Toronto, Philadelphia, and Kansas City.

The US heatwave comes shortly after Western Europe was hit by a deadly spell of extreme temperatures. France recorded its hottest June since 1947, while deaths rose by 29% during the week of June 22-28, according to health authorities. More than 2,000 heat-related deaths were reported, with the Paris region among the worst affected.

The same heatwave broke temperature records across parts of Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Hungary. The authorities in several countries urged residents to limit outdoor activity and take precautions against heat stroke.

A week-long state funeral for the Islamic Republic’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has begun in Iran, more than four months after he was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes. The ceremonies mark the end of nearly four decades of Khamenei’s leadership. Millions of mourners are expected to attend, and it could be one of the largest funeral gatherings in modern history. Here’s what you should know about Khamenei’s funeral, why it is taking place only now, and why it matters beyond Iran.

Who was Khamenei?

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei served as Iran’s supreme leader from 1989 until his assassination in February 2026. Succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, he led the country for nearly 37 years, making him one of the region’s longest-serving leaders.  

Although Iran has an elected president, the supreme leader is the country’s highest political and religious figure, with the final say on major state affairs, including the armed forces, foreign policy, and the judiciary.  

Khamenei was also a senior Shia cleric whose role went beyond politics. During his rule, Iran expanded its regional reach while facing decades of Western sanctions and confrontation with the US and Israel.

Foreign dignitaries and international delegations have begun arriving in Tehran to attend the farewell and funeral ceremonies for martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. pic.twitter.com/0h4fV8TGhR

— Mehr News Agency (@MehrnewsCom) July 3, 2026

How did he die and why is the funeral only taking place now?

Khamenei was assassinated on February 28, when US-Israeli strikes hit his residential and official compound in central Tehran during the first wave of the US-Israeli attack on Iran. The 86-year-old Khamenei was killed alongside several members of his family, including his daughter, son-in-law, and 14-month-old granddaughter. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who formally succeeded him as supreme leader weeks later, was also reportedly injured in the attack and has not appeared publicly since. 

Khamenei’s funeral was postponed because of the war and the security situation, Iranian officials said. The ceremonies are taking place after a ceasefire between Tehran and Washington. 

The delay was unusual, as Islamic tradition generally calls for burial as soon as possible after death. The authorities said Khamenei’s body was preserved in accordance with religious requirements. It remains unclear whether Mojtaba Khamenei will attend his father’s funeral.

How will the funeral unfold?

The state funeral will take place over seven days, from July 3 to July 9, with ceremonies in several cities across Iran and Iraq. Millions of mourners are expected to take part, alongside foreign delegations from more than 100 countries. 

The ceremonies began with Khamenei’s body lying in state at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, where mourners can pay their respects before the main funeral procession. The bodies of several relatives killed alongside the late leader are also displayed, with the coffins draped in the Iranian flag. 

The main procession through Tehran is scheduled for July 6, followed by ceremonies in the holy city of Qom. The cortege will then travel to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, home to some of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines, before returning to Iran for Khamenei’s burial at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace and one of Shia Islam’s most important pilgrimage sites.

The funeral is taking place during Muharram, the holiest month of mourning in Shia Islam, which commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a central figure in the faith. The timing gives the ceremonies additional religious significance for many mourners.

A farewell ceremony for former Supreme Leader of the Islamic regime in Iran, Ali Khamenei has begun in Tehran

The ceremonies will take place in several cities, and he will be buried in Mashhad. Representatives from Russia and China, including Dmitry Medvedev, will attend the… pic.twitter.com/EykhcNioBM

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 3, 2026

Who is attending and what security measures are in place?

Senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, are leading the funeral ceremonies alongside senior clerics and military commanders. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has also appeared at the events. 

Foreign delegations, including officials from China, India, Pakistan, Türkiye, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and several Central Asian states are taking part. Russia is represented by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, who is attending on behalf of President Vladimir Putin. The delegation also includes Foreign Ministry officials, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and Muslim clerics. 

Iranian officials said countries that backed the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran were not invited, which means no representatives from the US, Israel or the EU are attending. 

Security has been tightened, with Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization announcing that Tehran’s airspace will be temporarily closed during the main funeral procession. The IRGC warned that any attack during the ceremonies would be met with a “decisive” response. 

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Mojtaba Khamenei had been “marked for death.”

What signal is Iran sending?

Iranian officials have presented the funeral as both a period of national mourning and a demonstration of national unity. Pezeshkian called on Iranians “of every ethnicity, religion, preference, and political tendency” to attend, saying a large turnout would send “a clear message to the world.”  

Images and videos from Tehran have shown thousands of people gathering for the ceremonies, while officials have estimated attendance could reach between four million and 15 million mourners. The funeral could end up as one of the largest in modern history, according to media reports.

What comes next for Iran?

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington are expected to resume after Khamenei’s burial, with Qatar continuing to act as a key mediator. The latest round of discussions in Doha focused on issues including maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the release of frozen Iranian funds, but there was no sign of a major breakthrough. 

The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video featuring highlights from the battle for the city of Konstantinovka, after Moscow announced the full liberation of the key Ukrainian stronghold on Friday.

Konstantinovka is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of small cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The agglomeration has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces and remains the last major stronghold under Kiev’s control in the region.

Footage released by the military shortly after the announcement shows moments from the fierce battle for the city.

The liberation of Konstantinovka has been touted as a major achievement by the Russian leadership. The city is located at the southernmost tip of the fortified agglomeration, some 15 km southeast of Kramatorsk; the small town of Druzhkovka is located between them.