Indian protesters demanding the resignation of the federal education minister received a boost from the country’s political opposition, which has questioned the use of brute force against the young people during Monday’s march to parliament.

The protests, spearheaded by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, have gained widespread support from various political parties and activists after mobile phone videos of police violence were circulated online.

However, Delhi police pointed out that some protesters had resorted to violence, injuring scores of officers and igniting the clashes.

The protesters and Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi have demanded that federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who they hold responsible for the leak of exam answers for a national medical entrance test, must resign before any talks can be held with the government regarding their other demands.

“At least 152 paper leaks have taken place in the last 10 years with zero accountability,” Gandhi said. He, too, was detained by the police after an impromptu sit-in protest near Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence on Tuesday evening. News reports said he was seen bleeding from the nose when the police forcibly took him away.

LoP Shri @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia continue to shamelessly exploit students as political tools to manufacture disruption during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Shri @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia chose to stage a dharna outside the Hon'ble Prime Minister's residence , causing…

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) July 21, 2026

Both houses of India’s Parliament were adjourned again on Wednesday over the issue.

Speaking at a press conference in the evening, federal Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who has tried to act as an interlocutor between the government and the protesters, said the nation’s leadership is ready for a discussion and that the opposition should not “change the goal post.”

“We should all work together to address this issue and move forward toward a lasting solution,” he said.

Modi’s party has called out the opposition, saying the question paper leak was addressed quickly by the government, the perpetrators were arrested, and a re-test was conducted successfully – all under Pradhan.

However, Abhijeet Dipke, founder and leader of the CJP, has vowed to continue the protest until the party’s demands are met.

Hundreds of young people were camped in the heart of Delhi on Wednesday around the protest site. Earlier in the day, CJP leaders refused to meet Nadda at his residence, instead demanding that the government’s representatives meet them at the protest site, or at a “neutral” venue.

Police blocked off several metro stations in central Delhi to prevent more people from converging at the site, and some reports said at least 2,000 more reserve police personnel were being flown into the capital to deal with the situation.

For a brief while, the CJP said, its Instagram account was blocked, apparently in response to a “legal request.”

Iran’s latest round of missile and drone strikes disabled multiple US radar, communications, and air-defense systems in Kuwait, according to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC which claimed American bases across the region had suffered a “dark night.”

In a series of statements carried by Press TV on Tuesday, the IRGC said its forces targeted several US military installations as part of the latest wave of its Nasr-2 Operation.

The strikes reportedly hit early warning and missile-defense radar, communications and satellite systems, a Patriot air-defense battery, and a hangar housing MQ-9 drones. Several UAVs were also destroyed or severely damaged, according to the IRGC.

”The brave sons of a powerful Iran delivered crushing blows to the desperate enemy, as the dark night continued for US radar and air defense systems across the region,” the force said.

The IRGC described the attacks as a radar-suppression campaign intended to clear the way for “more decisive and heavier waves” of missile and drone strikes against American forces.

The Iranian Army separately claimed that loitering drones had struck three US bases in Kuwait, targeting troop facilities, helicopter parking areas, administrative buildings, and other support infrastructure.

The IRGC also said it had destroyed a US missile-defense radar system and an F-15 fighter inside a shelter at an American base in Jordan.

Neither the US nor Kuwait have confirmed the reported destruction of radar systems, aircraft, or air-defense equipment.

Washington has acknowledged that four American service members were killed during recent Iranian attacks and related incidents in Jordan and Iraq.

However, The New York Times reported on Monday that the Pentagon has withheld information about dozens of troops injured in previously undisclosed strikes. Several helicopters were also damaged, according to the paper.

US officials cited by the NYT and Wall Street Journal have warned that Iranian missiles are becoming increasingly effective at penetrating American defenses due to their speed, maneuverability, and adapted tactics.

In retaliation for renewed American strikes launched as part of the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has carried out near-daily missile and drone attacks on US military facilities across the Middle East since a temporary ceasefire collapsed earlier this month.

A French fashion industry scout with ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead outside Paris, prosecutors told AFP on Wednesday.

Daniel Siad, who was 69, was reportedly found unresponsive in his kitchen by a 28-year-old woman who lived with him on Monday.

“An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,” French prosecutors said in a statement cited by local media. An autopsy is to be carried out as part of the probe.

At the time of his death, Siad was the subject of an investigation by French prosecutors following several complaints, including rape allegations. The investigation had been assigned to a specialist office responsible for combating human trafficking.

Siad’s name appears in the Epstein files published by the US Justice Department more than 2,000 times. They contain correspondence between Siad and Epstein, in which the French scout suggests multiple models to the late pedophile, asks for money and trades sex jokes.

The former scout was not the first of Epstein’s former associates to die before they got to testify in court.

Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide, although it has continued to fuel public scrutiny and speculation because of his connections to wealthy and powerful figures.

Despite years of government investigations, witness depositions and disclosures, no Epstein ‘client list’ has been made public, and none of his high-profile contacts have been charged with any crimes related to the sex trafficker’s case.

South Africa’s economy could be three times its current size with better policies and management, former statistician-general Pali Lehohla said on Tuesday, blaming corruption for constraining growth and worsening unemployment and poverty.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Thought Leadership Seminar in Centurion, Lehohla said the country’s 7 trillion rand ($426 billion) economy should be worth 21 trillion rand ($1.3 trillion), given its resources and economic potential.

“This R7tn economy should be a R21tn economy. Our economic policies have been stupid. That is what has brought us here. There is so much wealth in this country, yet we have constrained it,” he stated.

His concerns come on the heels of the National Treasury’s announcement of a $1.5 billion loan from the World Bank, intended to support reforms aimed at alleviating infrastructure bottlenecks, enhancing economic growth, and creating jobs. This reliance on foreign loans stands in stark contrast to the early days after the end of apartheid when the country lifted itself using its own resources.

He called on the South African government to re-imagine its economic policies, which continue to cripple South Africa’s developmental potential, stating: “They can’t see the bigger picture. They can’t see abundance because they are looking at stealing... Now you are borrowing from the IMF as if it is going out of fashion”.

“Democracy must say if we are giving you R350, how are you going to get your freedom? All this money labeled ‘distress’ has nothing to do with development or democracy. A wise government would invest in agricultural initiatives. That is IEC’s mandate. Otherwise, they would come and burn this building,” he stated.

With the IEC gearing up for the voter registration weekend on August 1 and 2, Judge Dhaya Pillay closed the seminar, reflecting on how heightened inequality may be pushing citizens toward a tipping point, where if the benefits of participation don’t outweigh the costs, citizens turn inward to safeguard themselves instead.

First published by IOL

The US is directly participating in Ukrainian strikes against targets inside Russia by supplying weapons, intelligence, and communications support to Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Lavrov rejected Western claims that Russia and China were allegedly supplying Iran with weapons used to attack American military facilities.

He accused Washington of hypocrisy, pointing to its own role in the Ukraine conflict.

“The Americans, through arms supplies paid for by the European Union, the provision of intelligence, the Starlink system and much more, are not simply helping, but are directly participating in guiding Ukrainian weapons toward targets, including civilian targets, on Russian territory,” Lavrov said.

Despite this, he said Moscow remained committed to the understandings reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump during their meeting in Anchorage last year.

Lavrov recalled that Putin had accepted compromise proposals put forward by Washington, while Trump publicly backed negotiating a long-term peace agreement rather than a temporary ceasefire.

Russia continues to regard those understandings as valid because the US has not formally rejected its own proposals, Lavrov said, adding that he intends to seek clarification on Washington’s current position during an upcoming meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Moscow has also warned that continued military aid is prolonging the fighting and increasing the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the West.

Commenting on Europe’s growing military spending and preparations for a potential conflict with Russia, Lavrov said Moscow was drawing conclusions not only analytically but also in terms of its “material readiness” for any scenario.

He reiterated that Russia has no intention of attacking Europe, but warned that if Western states decide to gather “under the familiar banners and try to attack us, it will no longer be a conventional war.”

At least 144 migrants are dead or missing following separate maritime incidents off the coast of Mauritania, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has reported, saying it is “extremely saddened” by the events.

Three rescue and disembarkation operations conducted between July 14 and 18 brought 387 people safely ashore in the northwestern city of Nouadhibou, UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. The survivors came from several countries, but the agency did not disclose their nationalities.

“This is a stark reminder that, despite sustained efforts by coastal authorities and humanitarian partners to save lives, the Atlantic route from West Africa towards the Canary Islands remains one of the world’s deadliest mixed movement corridors,” Saltmarsh said.

The heaviest toll reported involved a boat that departed from the coastal village of Bafuloto in Gambia, bound for Spain. Only 38 people survived after spending nearly 25 days stranded in the Atlantic, while 144 passengers were reported dead or missing.

Mauritania has become a major transit and departure point for people attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands in search of a better life in Europe. The route involves long distances, unpredictable weather and overcrowded vessels that are often unfit for sea travel, according to the UN.

Mauritanian authorities have recorded 17 disembarkations in Nouadhibou and the capital, Nouakchott, so far this year, rescuing 2,147 people, according to the agency. In August 2025, at least 49 people died and nearly 100 went missing when another migrant boat capsized off the country’s coast.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky dismissed Mikhail Fedorov over fears that the former defense minister might become a political rival, Ukrainskaya Pravda has reported, citing sources in Kiev.
 
Zelensky justified his decision to sack his sixth defense minister in as many years by pointing to a conflict between Fedorov and Ukraine’s top military commander, General Aleksandr Syrsky.
 
Syrsky disputed Zelensky’s account on Monday, saying that “It was a surprise for me to learn that the Minister and I had a conflict. I perceived our relationship as a working one.”
 
According to Ukrainskaya Pravda’s sources, Zelensky had been persuaded that Fedorov could eventually emerge as a rival in future elections. Earlier media reports claimed the then-defense minister had already been encouraged to launch his own political party, while a recent opinion poll put his net approval rating two percentage points above Zelensky’s.

Yermak is widely regarded as one of Ukraine’s most influential political figures, while Arakhamia is responsible for maintaining the president’s parliamentary majority. 

The outlet added that Zelensky later offered Fedorov several senior government positions. The former minister reportedly declined, saying he did not understand why he had been dismissed. 

The outlet was not alone in suggesting political motives for Fedorov’s ouster. Strana claimed earlier that Zelensky had become increasingly dissatisfied with Fedorov’s “independent political game” and his ties to circles close to the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). 

Fedorov’s dismissal sparked protests in Kiev and other cities, with demonstrators demanding that Zelensky reinstate the defense minister and fire Syrsky instead, as he was reportedly unpopular with the troops. 

At least 20 people are dead and five are missing after a gas explosion inside an under-construction tunnel at a hydropower project in India’s northeastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, officials said.

State-owned NHPC, which builds and operates mainly hydroelectric projects, said in a statement that the explosion at the site of the 500-megawatt Teesta hydroelectric project generated dense fumes and toxic gases.

The explosion occurred Monday afternoon in Namchi, about 40 kilometers from the state capital, Gangtok, when suspected methane gas trapped in the rocks was released during tunneling work.

“Of those 25 trapped inside the tunnel, 20 are confirmed dead,” Namchi Superintendent of Police Sonam D. Bhutia was cited by news reports as saying. Only 13 bodies have been recovered from the tunnel so far.

The search and rescue operation is being carried out by multiple agencies including teams from the national and state disaster response forces.

Survivors reportedly heard a loud explosion before debris came crashing through the tunnel, State Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang was reported as saying.

#Sikkim: Search and rescue operation is on for the third day today to evacuate people trapped inside the under-construction tunnel of NHPC Teesta Stage VI Hydroelectric Project at Samardung in Namchi district. pic.twitter.com/yoe34egas6

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 22, 2026

An official from the National Disaster Response Force at the site said toxic gases inside the tunnel had forced his team to use breathing equipment as they searched for survivors.

NHPC and the state government will together pay about $9,300 (Rs 900,000) to the families of each of the deceased. The company said its top management is at the accident site, coordinating and monitoring the rescue operations.

India has praised the normalization of bilateral ties with China and underlined the importance of maintaining peace between the world’s most populous nations as a vital requirement for a multi-polar world order.

Both countries believe that a stable and cooperative relationship can best be developed based on mutual respect, interest and sensitivity, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum Meetings in Manila.

Relations between the two fast-growing major economies plummeted following a 2020 border clash that left 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers dead. Diplomatic engagements and flights between the two countries stopped and India heavily restricted Chinese investments, among other measures.

🇮🇳✌️🇨🇳 EAM Jaishankar Signals India-China Reset Is Gathering Pace

The 🇮🇳 External Affairs Minister met his 🇨🇳 counterpart Wang Yi in Manila, saying relations have been gradually normalising since the Modi-Xi meeting in 2024.

While welcoming progress on flights, visas and… pic.twitter.com/x8v5AI4eZ1

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 22, 2026

But relations have mostly returned to normal amid the economic pressures created by US President Donald Trump’s tariff wars, with New Delhi recently allowing some Chinese companies to invest in critical sectors of the economy.

Stressing that peace along the border remains a fundamental prerequisite for deeper bilateral cooperation, Jaishankar said, “such a relationship can make a valuable contribution to a multi-polar Asia and a multi-polar world.”

He reiterated that diplomatic efforts should support the understanding reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping that differences should not become disputes. It is diplomacy’s responsibility to manage these situations effectively, he said.

“Fair market access and a trade balance rank high in that regard,” Jaishankar stated, pointing to New Delhi’s concerns on trade and economic issues.

“There are also concerns about the predictability of supply chains. Facilitating both official and people-to-people exchanges merits our attention. We also need to agree on meetings of various mechanisms and platforms as per our mutual priorities.” 

Ukrainian drones have again struck two logistics centers operated by Russian online retailer Wildberries, this time in southern Russia, leaving one employee dead and multiple others injured, according to the regional authorities. A separate attack on an oil depot in Armavir killed another worker and sparked a major fire.

Wildberries, often called the Russian version of Amazon, is one of the country’s most popular online retailers. Its founder Tatyana Kim confirmed on Wednesday that the company’s facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in Stavropol Region had been targeted overnight. Both complexes were evacuated and their operations suspended while emergency crews worked at the sites.

Ten employees were injured at the retailer’s Krasnodar warehouse, according to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev. He said a young woman injured in the strike later died, adding that three other victims remain in a hospital, while the warehouse fire has been localized.

Drone debris also struck two apartment buildings in Krasnodar and two private homes in the nearby Dinskaya district, although no casualties were reported there.

More than 16 drones targeted Armavir, where falling debris sparked an 800-square-meter fire at an oil depot, killing one employee, Kondratyev said. The blaze at the facility has since been extinguished.

The attacks followed another Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday night that set fire to the Yuzhnye Vorota industrial park in Domodedovo, Moscow Region, according to the local authorities. Four days earlier, drones hit Wildberries facilities in Elektrostal outside Moscow and Kotovsk in Tambov Region. Seven night-shift workers were killed in Kotovsk, while one person later died following the attack in Elektrostal and dozens more were injured.

Ukraine has sharply intensified its long-range drone campaign in recent weeks, targeting oil facilities, warehouses, residential buildings, and other infrastructure deep inside Russian territory. Moscow has described the raids as terrorist attacks on civilians and says its retaliatory strikes are directed at Ukrainian military and defense-related facilities.

A Ghanaian court has sentenced businessman and senior opposition politician Bernard Antwi Boasiako, widely known as Chairman Wontumi, to 20 years in prison for violating national mining laws.

The Accra High Court on Monday convicted the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Ashanti regional chairman and his company, Akonta Mining Limited, of assigning mineral rights without ministerial approval and facilitating unlicensed gold mining at Samreboi in western Ghana.

The court found that Boasiako permitted two individuals, Henry Okum and Michael Gyedu Ayisi, to mine gold on the company’s concession without approval from the minister of lands and natural resources. He was also fined 120,000 Ghanaian cedis (about $11,000), while Akonta Mining was fined 180,000 cedis.

Boasiako pleaded not guilty to all charges and insisted during the trial that one of the miners had been authorized only to rehabilitate degraded land by planting coconut trees. However, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay rejected his defense, finding that Boasiako had knowingly permitted gold mining and was the company’s “true de facto holder of the mineral right.”

The opposition NPP has denounced the judgment as “political imprisonment” and said it would appeal both the conviction and sentence.

“There is no justification for the judgment since the judge obviously ignored clear evidence exonerating Wontumi,” NPP General Secretary Justin Frimpong Kodua told reporters. He described Boasiako as a “political prisoner” and accused the government of pursuing selective prosecutions to create “the appearance of success” in combating illegal mining.

The environmental damage has triggered repeated demonstrations. More than 50 demonstrators, including Ghanaian lawyer and activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor, were arrested during anti-galamsey protests in Accra in September 2024, when the NPP led the country. Barker-Vormawor spent about three weeks in custody before being granted bail. The charges were withdrawn after the National Democratic Congress party returned to power in January 2025.

Barker-Vormawor welcomed Boasiako’s conviction, describing the day as “important for the path to justice.” 

Boasiako’s sentencing is the first involving a senior political figure since Ghana launched a nationwide crackdown on illegal mining nearly a decade ago. Chinese national Aisha Huang, nicknamed Ghana’s “Galamsey Queen,” was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for illegal mining in 2023.

Russian forces have carried out another overnight attack on Ukrainian military and logistics targets in Odessa Region on the Black Sea coast, hitting two vessels at sea, port infrastructure, fuel storage facilities and a coastal missile battery, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the ministry said the strikes involved high-precision air- and ground-launched weapons, as well as attack drones.

At the Port of Odessa, Russian forces hit infrastructure used to unload and store military cargo, along with fuel and lubricant tanks intended to supply the Ukrainian armed forces.

A dry cargo ship and a bulk carrier were also struck while sailing 15 km and 53 km southeast of Odessa. According to the ministry, the vessels were transporting supplies for Kiev’s forces.

In the city of Odessa, the attack also hit a logistics center operated by the Ukrainian delivery company Novaya Pochta. Moscow described the facility as a storage site for military cargo.

The attack comes amid an intensified Russian campaign against Ukrainian Black Sea shipping and port infrastructure. In recent weeks, Moscow has reported strikes on cargo vessels and facilities in Odessa, Chernomorsk, Yuzhny and Nikolayev, believed to be involved in delivering military equipment or supporting Ukrainian drone operations.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would continue striking vessels used to transport weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. Moscow has said the broader campaign is aimed at disrupting military supplies to Kiev and comes in response to Ukrainian terrorist attacks on Russian civilian and energy infrastructure.

US President Donald Trump wants FIFA President Gianni Infantino to be the next secretary-general of the United Nations, the New York Post reported on Tuesday.

The Post cited a person close to Trump as saying that the president believes Infantino is “respected by everyone around the world” and has a “special ability to bring people together.” It is unclear, however, whether the Swiss-born football executive wants the job, the newspaper added.

Infantino has reportedly built close ties with Trump, awarding him FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize in December after the US president repeatedly argued that he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end conflicts. Their friendship came under scrutiny during the FIFA World Cup, which the US co-hosted with Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19.

Shortly before the Round of 16, FIFA unexpectedly suspended a one-match disqualification of US star Folarin Balogun. Trump later confirmed that he had personally called Infantino to review the penalty, which he believed was unfair.

UEFA, European football’s governing body, condemned the move as an unprecedented case of political meddling. Infantino, however, denied playing any role in the decision regarding the American player. The US was eliminated after a 4-1 defeat to Belgium.

Although the permanent members of the UN Security Council hold the real decision-making power, the secretary-general serves as the organization’s chief representative on the global stage.

Trump, who had a successful career as the host of the reality TV show The Apprentice, has appointed several former athletes and entertainment figures to government positions. He named Linda McMahon, the co-founder and former CEO of WWE, as secretary of education during his second term.

A Mexican national serving a decades-long prison sentence for murdering a Michigan woman has filed a federal lawsuit against US President Donald Trump, seeking $75 million in damages, a public apology, and American citizenship after claiming his case was exploited for political gain.

Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 27, is serving a sentence of 39 to 102 years after pleading guilty to the murder of Ruby Garcia in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2024. Prosecutors said he shot Garcia multiple times before abandoning her body along a highway and driving away in her vehicle.

Ortiz-Vite had previously been deported from the US but later reentered the country illegally.

In a handwritten complaint filed in federal court, Ortiz-Vite named Trump and White House communications director Steven Cheung as defendants. He alleges Trump turned him into a national symbol during the 2024 presidential campaign by repeatedly highlighting his case in speeches and advertisements focused on illegal immigration.

During a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Trump described Ortiz-Vite as “America’s problem” and later featured his mugshot in campaign advertisements referring to “murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers” living illegally in the United States.

Brandon Ortiz-Vite was convicted of Ruby Garcia's murder in 2024. Now he's asking a federal judge to order President Trump to apologize for mentioning his case. https://t.co/VAhMqMovxn

— 13 On Your Side (@wzzm13) July 17, 2026

In the lawsuit, Ortiz-Vite claims the publicity subjected him to harassment behind bars and reduced him to a stereotype.

“I was put into a category. Who I was as a person no longer mattered! What only mattered was my race,” he wrote in the complaint.

Ortiz-Vite argued that Trump had unfairly politicized his case, claiming the publicity “belittled me, shattered my dignity and what I was as a person.”

Ortiz-Vite is seeking $75 million in damages, a public apology from Trump, and US citizenship. He alleges the president’s repeated references to his case caused him public humiliation.

Legal experts cited by US media have said the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed. Former federal prosecutor Matthew Borgula said federal courts are required to screen prisoner lawsuits before they can proceed and argued the complaint is unlikely to survive that process.

“Being publicly embarrassed by a politician isn’t a constitutional violation,” Borgula said, adding that Trump’s statements about Ortiz-Vite were “substantially true.”

Vladimir Zelensky may have earned himself another powerful political rival when he fired Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov during a chaotic government reshuffle, multiple Ukrainian MPs have told The Times.

Zelensky framed the dismissal as an attempt to resolve an irreconcilable conflict between the popular young technocrat and Ukraine’s Soviet-trained top general, Aleksandr Syrsky, who was reportedly unpopular with the troops.

The sacking of Fedorov on July 16 sparked protests in Kiev and other cities, with demonstrators demanding that Zelensky reinstate the defense minister and fire Syrsky instead. In a Telegram post on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader announced that he had also dismissed Syrsky.

“This scandal has considerably raised Fedorov’s political profile among the people. Now the sharks are circling in the waters waiting for the time that we can have elections again,” an unnamed Ukrainian MP told The Times.

Groomed for presidential bid

Fedorov has already been urged to start his own political party, with several MPs backing the idea, The Times reported on Saturday.

One Ukrainian MP drew a parallel between Zaluzhny’s dismissal and the current scandal, according to The Times.

“He did the same thing with Zaluzhny and now Zaluzhny is seen as the main person who could defeat Mr. Zelensky in an election,” the newspaper cited an MP in the Ukrainian leader’s Servant of the People party as saying.

Zelensky, whose five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, has refused to call new elections, citing the conflict with Russia and martial law. However, an Ipsos poll published earlier this year found that Zaluzhny would beat Zelensky 23% to 20% in a hypothetical first-round presidential contest.

No comparable polling has been conducted on Fedorov’s electoral prospects, but the nationwide protests following his dismissal underscored his popularity.

Ukraine’s Western backers up in arms?

The street protests echoed those that swept Ukraine last summer after Zelensky’s failed attempt to curb the powers of the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), shortly before the agencies exposed a major graft scandal involving his close associates.

According to bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris, Fedorov’s dismissal also prompted behind-the-scenes pressure from Ukraine’s EU backers, who saw him as a leading anti-corruption figure in Kiev.

“Corruption… is a bit of a thing these days after every single one of Zelensky’s closest friends in the Cabinet was caught with their hand in the till,” Aris wrote on Substack on Tuesday.

The future of European military aid for Ukraine

There is “rapidly fading enthusiasm for supporting Ukraine” among EU leaders, Aris argued, adding that more governments could come to power this year seeking to reduce ties with Kiev. “Ukraine fatigue” is once again on the rise, he wrote.

Greece, one of the countries currently blocking new EU sanctions on Russia, has also reportedly refused to hand over its stockpile of 200 PAC-2 Patriot missiles to Kiev despite pressure from Brussels.

The UK, France and Germany – some of Kiev’s largest European backers – are either undergoing political turbulence or soon will, Aris argued. The UK is “in the same sort of political chaos as Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron is due to step down next year, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to see his authority weakened by a series of regional election losses to the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) this fall, he wrote.

Democrats grilled US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over the Iran War during his testimony before the US Senate as the White House requested additional funding for operations in the Middle East.

The US and Iran resumed regular exchanges of strikes earlier this month, with both sides saying the truce had effectively collapsed.

Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the campaign against Iran launched by US President Donald Trump together with Israel on February 28 has so far cost an estimated $37.5 billion.

He said he was seeking $87 billion in congressional funding for the Pentagon, including $67 billion for operations in the Middle East.

“Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls that threaten our ability to also simply pay our service members, rapidly replenish equipment and munitions, and sustain vital operations without disruption,” he said.

In a series of tense exchanges, Democrats argued that Trump had failed to achieve his stated war goals and accused the secretary of misleading the public.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York said Iranian strikes had killed at least two US service members in Jordan last week, despite Hegseth’s earlier insistence that Iran’s remaining missile stockpiles were “depleted and decimated.”

“That consternation is why so many New Yorkers are perplexed, stressed out and find this war to be incredibly unpopular,” she said.

“The Iranian defense-industrial base is effectively gone, but they do have underground facilities,” Hegseth replied, adding that Iran has “spent 47 years trying to hide their missiles under mountains.”

Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff similarly asked Hegseth whether the missile threat had been defeated four months ago.

“No one ever stated that every single missile was gone,” the Pentagon chief replied. “We never expected them to completely lose the ability to launch missiles,” he added, arguing that Iran could not go “toe to toe” with the US in terms of missile strikes.

During his opening statement, Hegseth was interrupted several times by protesters denouncing US strikes on Iran and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Hegseth defended the campaign as highly effective, saying that, unlike previous US administrations, Trump would not allow the country to be dragged into “stupid wars.”

“Militarily, Iran has been completely overmatched and crushed from the beginning,” he claimed.

.@SecWar: "President Trump said we're not fighting stupid wars like [Iraq and Afghanistan] again, and he hasn't. That's why we haven't been trying to remake Iranian society, but simply, in a realist, America First way, ensure they never have a path to a nuclear bomb—full stop." pic.twitter.com/fJrNCjCd3q

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 21, 2026

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Russia summoned Moldovan Ambassador Lilian Darii on Tuesday over what it described as two incidents involving the mistreatment of Russian diplomats in Moldova. The move adds to tensions between Moscow and the former Soviet republic, whose pro-EU government staunchly supports Ukraine.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, police in Chisinau stopped a bus operated by the Russian Embassy over the weekend and removed its diplomatic license plates “without explanation.” The ministry alleged that officers “used force” against embassy staff and threatened them with detention.

In a separate incident, a group of Russian diplomats transporting official cargo from Moldova to Romania were detained at the border for more than four hours “without any justification,” the ministry said.

The ministry said the incidents constituted “a serious breach” of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Moldova, a country of around 2.5 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, has adopted increasingly hostile policies toward Russia under President Maia Sandu, who came to power in 2020.

Sandu has accused Russia of attempting to topple her government and waging a “high-intensity hybrid war” against the country. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has rejected the claims, arguing that Chisinau was using “the myth of a Russian threat” to distract voters from the country’s economic problems.

The EU granted Moldova candidate status in 2022 alongside Ukraine. Sandu floated the possibility of abandoning constitutional neutrality and joining “a larger alliance,” without specifically mentioning NATO. Zakharova denounced the rhetoric as an attempt to turn Moldova into “a military bridgehead against Russia.”

The US and Iran have been exchanging regular strikes for nearly two weeks following the collapse of a fragile ceasefire deal reached in spring. Both sides have accused each other of violating the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – an agreement signed last month that was expected to serve as a roadmap for the final settlement.

Washington and Tehran particularly clashed over the fate of the Strait of Hormuz – a key route for global oil shipments. Iran maintains it should define the rules for the ships passing through the strait under the MoU while the US demands the Islamic Republic fully “reopen” it to international navigation.

Neither side has since demonstrated any signs of backing down as both Washington and Tehran have fallen back into escalatory rhetoric, with exchanges of fire continuing on a daily basis.

Deal violation

The latest outbreak of hostilities between the US and Iran began on July 7, when Washington announced a new round of “powerful strikes” targeting the Islamic Republic. The US said that the strikes followed Iranian attacks on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. While Tehran has not officially accepted responsibility for it, Iranian media reported that one of the vessels was struck after “ignoring repeated warnings.”

Following the tanker incidents, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American forces struck more than 80 targets in Iran in response to a “clear violation of the ceasefire.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry called the move an MoU violation, with the nation’s military vowing a “decisive response.” Iranian media then reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the military launched missiles and drones at 85 “key US military facilities” across the Middle East.

Ceasefire ‘is over’

Shortly after the strikes began, US President Donald Trump declared the April ceasefire with Iran “over” and called the Iranian leadership “scum.” On July 13, he told Congress that he had resumed “limited defensive strikes,” while the US military reported daily attacks on dozens of Iranian targets.

Trump also claimed the US would “take over” the Strait of Hormuz and charge vessels for passage, declared himself Tehran’s “number one target,” and threatened to “completely decimate” Iran if it targeted him.

‘Keep your word or pay the price’

Tehran condemned “the aggressive attacks carried out by the US terrorist army” under a “false pretext,” while Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed “severe punishment” for the strikes.

Top negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf said Washington would pay the price for not honoring its MoU commitments. “The era of one-sided deals is over,” he said, adding that “reality is knocking."

A senior Iranian intelligence official told RT last Thursday that Tehran has a plan for “escalating the war” that is “full of surprises,” warning that “the entire region will pay the price” if the US continues targeting Iranian civilian infrastructure as part of its “war of attrition.”

Cost of war

The Pentagon has confirmed at least four American soldiers killed since the latest escalation began in early July. Nearly 100 service members have been injured, US Department of War spokesman Sean Parnell said, adding that most injuries were minor and 96% of those affected had returned to duty.

The New York Times reported on Monday that the Pentagon was concealing the true scale of US casualties, saying dozens of soldiers had been injured in three unreported Iranian strikes on US forces in Jordan and that several helicopters were also damaged.

US strikes on Iran killed at least 50 people and injured more than 500, AP reported over the weekend. Both sides have reported strikes on military and infrastructure sites, often publishing videos online.

CENTCOM did not comment on the Iranian claims, instead reporting attacks on “dozens of targets at multiple locations,” including Iranian air defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats.

Iranian media reported US attacks on bridges in central and southern Iran, as well as on Iranshahr Airport and a southern port city. The IRGC stressed that the bridge strikes caused civilian casualties.

The hostilities and Iran’s de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz have also pushed oil prices higher. Brent and WTI crude rose to five-week highs of $91.34 and $85.03 a barrel on Tuesday, Reuters reported, up more than 20% since July 7.

How are the Middle East and world reacting?

The UN has repeatedly voiced its concern over the latest escalation, while calling for a new diplomatic push to settle the conflict. Last week, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said Secretary General Antonio Guterres was “particularly concerned about attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region” and called them “unacceptable.”

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have meanwhile declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in a major regional escalation. The announcement was made after forces loyal to the Saudi-backed government bombed Sana’a International Airport in an attempt to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation returning from Tehran from landing.

The development sparked concerns about the security of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait – another key waterway, linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

What’s the latest?

America’s policy of ever-expanding military attacks on Iran has led to a stalemate, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing the latest intelligence assessment. The report written primarily by the CIA stated that Iran would survive a US naval blockade for months and is unlikely to change its negotiating position because of continued US strikes, the paper reported.

Washington and Tehran risk remaining “in an indefinite limbo between peace and war,” the paper warned. It also reported separately that the US was “planning for a wider war” despite lacking the resources for a prolonged campaign.

On Friday, Axios reported that Washington had notified Israel that it was sending dozens of additional refueling planes ahead of a possible expansion of operations against Iran. Saeid Golkar, an expert on Iran’s security services, told the Wall Street Journal that the escalation was “rapidly intensifying and getting out of control” as both sides risk plunging into a “total war.”

US President Donald Trump has slapped 50% tariffs on a broad range of Canadian imports, citing what he called Ottawa’s “unequal treatment” of American cars, dairy products, and alcohol.

Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs was partly struck down by the US Supreme Court earlier this year. He invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose the new duties. The tariffs will take effect in 30 days and apply even to goods covered by the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA), the White House announced on Monday.

The move marks the latest escalation in a trade war that has intensified since Trump’s return to the White House. Washington has already imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles, and other imports. Ottawa has responded with countertariffs and other retaliatory measures.

Washington argues that Canada unfairly taxes certain US-made vehicles, maintains protectionist barriers on dairy imports, and continues provincial boycotts of American alcoholic beverages. The administration said those measures amount to “discriminatory treatment” of US products.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the move, accusing Washington of violating the USMCA while leaving the door open to negotiations.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Ottawa to respond in kind. “If these tariffs proceed, Canada should respond tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar,” he wrote on X.

Earlier this month, Trump threatened additional tariffs on Canada, claiming its poor forest management had blanketed parts of the US in wildfire smoke and that Canada should pay for its alleged “willful negligence.”

“Canada has taken US alcohol products off Canadian shelves,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said, adding that the new tariffs were intended to “hold Canada accountable for its retaliation and discrimination.”

Ottawa responded to Trump’s trade offensive in 2025 with 25% duties on about C$30 billion ($21.7 billion) worth of US goods. While Mark Carney later rolled some of those back, tariffs on American cars, steel, and aluminum remain in force.

The latest move is part of a sweeping tariff drive launched after Trump’s return to office in January 2025. He has imposed duties on imports from allies and rivals alike, targeting countries including China, Canada and Mexico, as well as steel, aluminum, and automobiles.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has announced the dismissal of Commander-in-Chief General Aleksandr Syrsky following days of mounting political turmoil sparked by the firing of Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, which Zelensky had blamed on a conflict between the two men.

According to Zelensky, Joint Forces Commander General Mikhail Drapaty will replace Syrsky as commander-in-chief.

“I decided that the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be Mikhail Drapaty,” Zelensky said on Telegram on Tuesday, announcing Skyrsky’s replacement.

The Ukrainian leader said he met Syrsky on Tuesday to discuss the transition.

“Tomorrow, we will formalize all the decisions,” Zelensky stated on Telegram.

Drapaty is on Russia’s wanted list. According to Russian investigators, he commanded Ukrainian forces operating against the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics from 2017 to 2019. Moscow alleges that units under his command shelled dozens of settlements in Donbass more than 70 times, killing and injuring more than 150 civilians.

In 2024, Drapaty took command of Ukraine’s Kharkov group of forces during which Russian troops captured more than a dozen settlements in under a week. Later that year, Zelensky appointed him commander of the ground forces.

Despite the resignation, Zelensky appointed him commander of the Joint Forces just a day later. The command, established in 2020, was created to improve coordination among Ukraine’s armed forces in line with NATO operational standards. Zelensky said at the time that Drapaty would oversee frontline operations against Russia.

Earlier, Fedorov, who was sacked by Zelensky last week as part of a major government reshuffle, accused Syrsky of “dividing the country” and called for his dismissal. The former minister maintained that the top commander was “sweeping problems in the military under the rug” and was more involved in political intrigues than in commanding the troops. Calls for the general’s dismissal were echoed by crowds of protesters who took to the streets of Kiev and other cities following Fedorov’s sacking. The demonstrators urged Zelensky to reinstate the minister and dismiss the general instead.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Laotian counterpart, Thongsavanh Phomvihane, hailed the “high level” of bilateral ties during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, the Philippines, on Tuesday.

Russia is taking part in the July 21-24 gathering as a strategic partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A possible meeting between Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the summit is also being worked out, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT.

Welcoming the Lao delegation, Lavrov praised the steady expansion of cooperation between the two countries.

“We appreciate the role the Lao Republic is playing in promoting the Russia-ASEAN strategic partnership, and highly appreciate the very efficient development of our bilateral relations,” he said.

Lavrov noted that Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith attended Russia’s Victory Day celebrations in Moscow in May, while Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone took part in last month’s Russia-ASEAN Summit in Kazan, which he described as “a success.”

“The meetings are regular. Our leaders indicate the new tasks, and I'm sure today is a good opportunity for us to see what our two ministries can do to contribute to their fast and efficient implementation,” Lavrov added.

Thongsavanh praised the “high level” of contacts between the Russian and Laotian leadership and described last month’s Russia-ASEAN Summit in Kazan as a success.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, this week’s ASEAN ministerial meetings in Manila will focus on implementing the agreements reached in Kazan, including a new five-year action plan on political, security, economic, and humanitarian cooperation. Lavrov is also expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings with regional counterparts during the gathering.

Earlier this week, Andy Burnham traipsed out to Buckingham Palace, symbolically kissed the hands of King Charles III – as tradition demanded – and the “King of the North” was duly anointed the new UK prime minister.

Amidst the subsequent euphoria within the Labour Party, the fact that Burnham’s swift rise to the prime ministership was the result of the brutally executed political coup that had deposed his predecessor – the now patently unelectable Keir Starmer – was not mentioned.

Also glossed over was the fact that the Burnham coup was engineered by a small group of Labour Party technocrats (some of whom had been involved in making Starmer prime minister and expelling Jeremy Corbyn from the party) and supported by a majority of anxious Labour backbenchers fearful for their political futures.

The manner in which Burnham became prime minister, and that he did so without winning a general election, raises the question as to whether he has a genuine mandate to implement his recently minted policy program – very much a work in progress and expanding daily – such as it currently is this week.

Amidst the ongoing leadership churn that characterizes contemporary UK politics, such issues of principle no longer matter. It is sufficient that a new prime minister be presentable, have a mild dose of charisma and be capable of inspiring a degree of hope amongst his fellow MPs, as well as an increasingly disenchanted and bitter electorate. Burnham ticks all these boxes in spades, has the ability to conceal his ruthlessness well, and, as an added bonus, is a Northerner and an enthusiastic football fan to boot.

What more could the ailing UK Labour Party possibly ask for in a leader?

Burnham could, therefore, pose as something of a political outsider – even though he had previously been an MP for more than a decade – mercifully free from the taint of having been a member of Starmer’s failed and unelectable government.

Burnham’s great virtue as a politician – possibly his only virtue – is his undeniable ability to convey a sense of hope to both party members and disgruntled UK voters. Any politician seriously seeking high office must possess this skill – something that Starmer lacked, and Nigel Farage seems to have forgotten recently as he embraced a rather pathetic and counter-productive brand of political victimhood. Burnham is very good indeed at engendering hope – and recently he has spoken of little else.

Not surprisingly, the theme of hope was at the heart of the brief off-the-cuff speech Burnham delivered outside 10 Downing Street on Monday morning after returning from his audience with the King.

Burnham promised to “make this the moment we bring back hope”; to “make politics work better”; “build a national sense of unity”; and “bring forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years”.  Burnham also stated that “later this year” he would “bring forward a 10 year plan for Britain” that would restore the nation to prosperity.

Never have so many platitudes been crammed into one brief speech.

Somewhat oddly, Burnham also promised to “immediately put an end to rough sleeping (homelessness)” – hardly a major problem given Britain’s current state of acute decline, and one, incidentally, that Burnham failed to effectively solve when he was the mayor of Manchester.

This, however, is typical Burnham. He shies away from important issues and focuses on policy minutia – thus his solution for the cost-of-living crisis, namely abolishing bus fares.

Will Burnham be able to avoid Starmer’s fate and that of the five other incompetent UK prime ministers that have lost office in the last decade?

The answer to that question is clearly “no” – because it is already apparent that Burnham’s nostalgic politics of hope is nothing more than a rhetorical ideological façade covering up a misguided and unworkable policy program that is incapable of being implemented.

Late last week, Burnham delivered a lengthy and revealing speech to the Labour Party faithful – who were reveling in their delight at the imminent departure of Keir Starmer, who only two years ago they had cheered enthusiastically from the rafters.

Burnham’s speech was replete with feel-good platitudes. This was troubling enough – but even more disturbing was Burnham’s complete lack of historical insight into the enormous economic and political changes that have reshaped Britain over the past 40 years.

In his speech, Burnham set out the key policies that he will seek to implement. He promised to unify the Labour Party; create “a new politics” – based upon the political devolution of power to local councils – and a “new economic model” – based upon the nationalization of water, power, housing and transport, together with re-industrializing the economically devastated North of England.

As for unifying the fractured Labour Party – a hopeless task if there ever was one – this appears unlikely if the unseemly factional squabbling over appointments to Burnham’s cabinet that broke out this week is any guide. The fact that Ed Miliband was not made Chancellor certainly does not augur well for party stability in the future.

Many local councils are hopelessly corrupt and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, as many recently elected Reform councilors have discovered to their dismay. They are far less well-placed to govern effectively than the more powerful regional parliaments.

In any event, the critical problems that confront contemporary Britain – including the cost-of-living crisis, ongoing economic decline, mass immigration, net zero policy, cultural division, foreign policy issues, and defense spending – can only be solved by a strengthened central government directly exercising real and enhanced political power. To take more political power away from Westminster is a recipe for political disaster.

Extraordinarily, Burnham did not refer to any of these pressing problems in his speech.  Nor is there any sign that Burnham will depart from the policies of the failed Starmer government on these issues. For example, one of Burnham’s first acts as prime minister was to make a telephone call to Vladimir Zelensky and assure him of his “steadfast” continuing support for the Ukrainian regime.

As for Burnham’s policies of nationalization and re-industrialization, while nationalization may be warranted in some areas – London Water, for example – the notion that the North of England can be re-industrialized borders on sheer economic lunacy.

Burnham does not seem to realize that the economy that Thatcher presided over no longer exists and cannot be revived. It was replaced decades ago by a de-industrialized service economy that is compelled to operate within a globalized economic framework.

Burnham, of course, did not explain how his massive nationalization and re-industrialization program would be funded.

The world-view underlying Burnham’s speech is also very revealing. Burnham sees Britain as having taken a wrong political turn under Margaret Thatcher, and views Thatcherism and neoliberalism as the twin contemporary evils that must be eradicated from UK politics if Britain is to return to the prosperity that, according to him, it enjoyed in the 1970s. Implicit in this belief is the view that Blair’s New Labour was nothing more than a continuation of Thatcherism.

In the same way that Burnham ignores the emergence of the globalized economy, he is blind to the political revolution introduced by Tony Blair’s New Labour – a revolution that created a new political framework within which British politics has operated for the past three decades.

The Blairite political revolution – of which Burnham was a part, having served in Blair’s cabinet – replaced traditional politics with a technocratic and bureaucratic model of politics in which power was stripped away from parliament, and came to be exercised by global elites through the bureaucracy, the judiciary, various quangos and an ideologically complaint media – in a manner that made radical political and economic change virtually impossible.

Burnham’s refusal to acknowledge the reality of the Blairite political revolution (which was perpetuated by subsequent conservative governments) means that his nostalgic policy program is incapable of being implemented – irrespective of whether it would achieve its professed goals or not.

Any UK politician committed to genuine radical reform must first dismantle the complex political structure created by Blair. Burnham, however, because of his lack of historical insight, is incapable of even contemplating such a course. That would require genuine radicalism of a kind that the British Labour Party has rarely possessed.

Burnham will therefore inevitably find himself, perhaps sooner than he imagines, in a similar position to that of his six immediate predecessors, all of whom promised hope and change of various kinds (and with varying degrees of sincerity) but were prevented by the political system created by Blair and the global elites from delivering either.

More importantly, there is a Pollyannaish quality to Burnham – despite his ruthlessness – and one gets the impression that he may actually genuinely believe that his altogether fanciful policy prescriptions can be implemented.

If Burnham thinks that the small coterie of Labour Party apparatchiks who brutally cut down Starmer and elevated him to the prime ministership will not ruthlessly dispense with his services, should he prove to be a political failure, then he is even more naive than he appears to be.

From this perspective, Burnham’s politics of hope reveals itself to be an anti-intellectual exercise in ahistorical ideological nostalgia – that will rapidly disintegrate when Burnham is eventually compelled to confront the bleak reality of actually governing a declining and deeply divided Britain, and, at the same time, attempt to implement a misguided and unworkable set of policies.

Interestingly, Burnham refused to take questions from journalists after his recent speeches, and the only interview that he has given recently was to a sycophantic ex-footballer and sports broadcaster. Burnham has also firmly rejected calls to to recall parliament – thereby skillfully avoiding parliamentary scrutiny for the next six weeks.

Is it perhaps the case that Andy Burnham suspects – consciously or unconsciously – that the specious nostalgic politics of hope that he is currently peddling will not be able to withstand even a modicum of rigorous intellectual scrutiny?

Italian police violently clashed with demonstrators in the northern city of Bologna after a Moroccan-born man died on Sunday pleading for help while being restrained by police.

Abderrahim Fakir, a Moroccan-born entrepreneur who ran a small removals and cleaning business, died after police were called to investigate reports of a man behaving aggressively and damaging a vehicle, local media reported.

Video of the incident filmed by a neighbor show Fakir lying face down, repeatedly crying, “aiuto, aiuto, basta” (“help, help, that’s enough”) as two police officers restrain him. He appears to struggle for breath before becoming motionless.

Thousands protested on Monday night, demanding “justice and truth for Fakir.” Police deployed tear gas and water cannon after demonstrators threw firecrackers. A smaller group later clashed with police into the night, leaving 64 officers injured, prosecutors said.

“You can’t die like this,” Fakir’s sister, Khadija, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. “The police have to protect us. If someone is agitated, you have to calm them down… not kill them like a dog.”

Bologna prosecutors have opened a probe and requested the officers’ bodycam footage. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Fakir’s death must be fully investigated but added that “nothing can justify violence against law enforcement.”

The incident has sparked a political row, with opposition parties accusing the government of fostering a climate of hostility toward migrants. Senator Ilaria Cucchi, whose brother died in police custody in 2009, condemned the officers’ conduct and criticized expressions of support for police following Fakir’s death.

The case has also revived scrutiny of allegations of racial discrimination in Italian policing. In 2024, the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said Italian law enforcement had engaged in racial profiling, particularly targeting Roma communities and people of African descent.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni rejected those findings, saying police deserved respect rather than “insults.” Other members of her government also dismissed the report. The dispute deepened a broader political debate over institutional racism and policing in Italy.

In Italy, the incident has drawn comparisons to the death of George Floyd, who died in 2020 while being restrained by American police, as well as to the enforcement tactics used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Donald Trump.

In an unusually generous gesture by a Delhi court on Monday, a US mercenary detained for alleged anti-India activities has been allowed to receive food of his choice.

The court granted a plea filed by US national Matthew Aaron VanDyke on humanitarian and medical grounds, which will allow him to receive food of his choice and use special cooking utensils inside Tihar Jail. The American merc was arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), along with six Ukrainian mercenaries, in March.

VanDyke’s lawyers argued that Article 21 of the Indian Constitution protects an individual’s dignity, including while in judicial custody. To preserve that dignity, he should be allowed access to food that he was accustomed to eating, they said.

They pointed out that VanDyke’s health had deteriorated because he was unable to consume the “spicy, oily, deep-fried and greasy” food served to inmates in the prison, noting that he had lost already lost 14 kilograms.

VanDyke had requested a long list of items, including chicken, red meat, seafood, uncooked noodles, pasta, uncooked rice, potatoes, onions, beans, spices, vegetables, olive oil, toned milk, bread, butter, and bottled water. He had also requested a stove, pots, and a plastic chopper.

The court allowed VanDyke to receive the items he requested, with the exception of non-vegetarian ones. The jail authorities were directed to provide him with a cook to prepare his meals according to his preferences.

The diet for pre-trial detainees at Tihar jail follows a prescribed menu, and they are not entitled to demand food from the outside or have meals prepared according to their personal preferences. Exceptions are only made if a prison doctor certifies that an inmate requires a special diet due to a medical condition. In certain cases, under a court order, they are permitted to receive home-cooked food.

The American mercenary and his Ukrainian comrades were arrested for traveling to a restricted border area located in India’s northeastern region. From there they allegedly crossed into neighboring Myanmar without permits to give the ethnic military groups operating there drone training. The groups are also linked to armed insurgents in India’s northeast.

VanDyke is the founder of Sons of Liberty International, which provides military training in conflict zones, the Times of India reported. He has been involved in conflict zones in the past, including fighting with Libyan rebels in 2011, it said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar has been forced into a humiliating climbdown over his nomination of chess grandmaster Judit Polgar to become the country’s next president. Amid outrage across Hungary’s stark political divide, Polgar’s rebuttal of Magyar’s offer represents a setback for his crusade to sweep away all remnants of Viktor Orban’s legacy.

Magyar announced that he had nominated Polgar for the role on Monday. “Our country needs unity, peace and a president that all Hungarians can be proud of,” he wrote on social media, adding that Polgar’s name “has been synonymous with talent and perseverance for decades.”

Shortly afterwards, Polgar shot down the offer. “I do not feel enough strength within me to take on the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation, ​so I am unable to accept the request,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

However, cracks in Magyar’s coalition have been appearing since he took office in May. Conservatives were enraged when LGBT flags appeared on Budapest’s Elizabeth Bridge, and liberals watched in frustration as Magyar kept Orban’s strict migration policies in place and refused to fully endorse Ukraine's bid for EU membership. 

Magyar seeks a pawn to replace Hungary’s chess queen

Polgar, who became a chess grandmaster at the age of 15 and was the world’s top-ranked female player when she retired in 2014, was pitched as a unity candidate, but her nomination triggered a public backlash and angered MPs within Magyar’s own party.

Having changed the law to force out the country’s sitting president, Magyar was criticized for nominating Polgar without any public consultation, with some questioning her loyalty to Hungary due to her dual Hungarian-Israeli citizenship. Tisza officials claimed they had no say in the process, and reporter Csaba Toth claimed that Magyar decided to nominate Polgar on a whim after meeting the chess legend at a July 4 reception at the US Embassy in Budapest.

In a video statement on Monday night, Magyar apologized for any “communication errors” that his “joy and enthusiasm” in nominating Polgar had caused. He said that he would meet with party members this week to choose a new candidate from outside the “divisive politics of the decades before the 2026 regime change.”

Regime change in Hungary

Magyar’s choice of words – “regime change” – was no mistranslation. Since taking office, the PM has made a point of purging officials, institutions, and symbols of Orban’s rule from Hungarian politics. Less than a week after taking power, Magyar opened Orban’s offices to the public in a bid to expose his predecessor’s lavish lifestyle. This stunt backfired when tours of the building revealed a spartan interior. A similar ploy exposing “gold-colored toilet brush holders” at the Hungarian Central Bank was mocked online.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Prime Minister of Hungary is shooting videos in one of the guest toilets of the Hungarian Central Bank...
Once we move past the obvious - that a prime minister should perhaps not be filming toilets and toilet brushes... would you consider this to be a… pic.twitter.com/XR4hlhLNvF

— Koskovics Zoltán (@KoskovicsZ) June 1, 2026

In just over two months, Magyar has shut down state media outlets after forcing them to apologize for “lying” during the Orban years, banned long-serving Fidesz MPs from reelection, probed former Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto’s supposed links to Russia, and seized Fidesz’s data servers, in what Orban’s party called an act of “autocracy.”

The amendment “violates the rule of law, the principles of democracy, and the separation of powers,” and declared that the “core values of a free society… have been trampled underfoot for the sake of political power,” the former president said on Monday. 

“If they can do this to the President of the Republic, they can do it to anyone,” Orban wrote on social media, adding: “God protect Hungary!”

“The problem is not with Judit Polgar, but with Peter Magyar’s actions,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “It is time for the current government and parliamentary majority to finally stop the practice of deciding alone who the country’s next president should be.”

Today, the final barrier fell. Arbitrary rule is no longer a looming threat; it is a reality. If they can do this to the President of the Republic, they can do it to anyone. God protect Hungary!

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 18, 2026

Peter Magyar’s next move

Polgar is a beloved public figure in Hungary, and has international appeal after starring in a Netflix documentary – ‘The Queen of Chess’ – earlier this year. Had she accepted Magyar’s offer, the PM could have used her popularity to gloss over the divisive power grab that ousted her predecessor. Magyar now has 30 days to nominate a new president, but whoever accepts the position will inherit an office stripped of its legitimacy, from which they can be expelled by Magyar’s supermajority at a moment’s notice.

In his rush to sweep away the remnants of the Orban era, Magyar is being accused of tearing up the ‘rule of law’ principles that he swore to protect, and neutering an office that, despite its largely ceremonial role, has the power to dissolve parliament and veto legislation. 

As such, “no serious person with sound judgment, genuine credibility, and a reputation worth protecting will lend their name to this constitutional outrage,” pro-Orban analyst Zoltan Koskovics wrote on X. “That leaves the usual suspects: a Communist relic from Hungary’s sham opposition, or a shameless political opportunist incapable of thinking beyond the next five minutes.”

A South African rights commission has launched an investigation after 43 young men died during customary initiation rites this winter. During the season, these coming-of age rituals, including circumcision, are performed to mark the transition to adulthood.

Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, said the fatalities must not be treated as an accepted part of the practice.

Speaking at a media briefing alongside Deputy Chairperson Prince George Mahlangu, she said the commission would establish a committee in August to examine deaths and alleged abuses at initiation schools. Authorities have also recorded 75 hospitalizations, 180 rescues, 12 abductions and 40 arrests this season.

In response to the escalating concern, Mkhwanazi-Xaluva, who appeared alongside Deputy Chairperson Prince George Mahlangu, outlined the establishment of a Section Seven Committee, which is set to begin operations next month. According to Mahlangu, this committee will scrutinise the past decade, during which over 600 deaths have been reported in various provinces, highlighting a regression in certain areas regarding the safety of initiates.

Mkhwanazi-Xaluva indicated that the introduction of the Customary Initiation Act 2 of 2021, signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa, is crucial in this context, as it imposes serious penalties on those failing to ensure the safety of initiates, including potential imprisonment. She underlined the Act’s importance, stating: “There will be no holy cows in this process because one death is one too many. We cannot continue to witness these fatalities as if they are an accepted norm.”

Recently, the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA) called for a police investigation into allegations that some initiation school principals instructed staff to deny doctors access to initiates. Furthermore, according to the latest figures, Mpumalanga leads with 18 deaths, followed by the Eastern Cape with 14, North West with four, while Gauteng and Free State have reported two deaths each.

“We will be working with all the stakeholders, but our process will be robust as we want to ensure that we fully verify some of the reported incidents, including the fact that in some cases, medical practitioners were chased away.”

As the Section Seven Committee gears up for its work, Mahlangu reiterated the need for accountability, asserting that the upcoming initiation season must incorporate lessons learned from recent tragedies. “If we do not implement this Act fully, we would be failing our people,” he noted.

Edward Mafadza, CEO of the CRL Rights Commission, reaffirmed that insights from the recent Initiation Indaba will be instrumental in ensuring proper regulations for initiation schools and stakeholders.

“Since that initiation indaba, we have distributed resolutions to our stakeholders,” he assured. The committee aims to evaluate the compliance and effectiveness of these resolutions, ensuring that progress is made in the fight against unsafe initiation practices.

First published by IOL

Ukraine was behind a series of recent drone strikes on oil tankers carrying Kazakh crude near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. She described the incidents as the fifth attack on the civilian infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

Two tankers identified as the Asia and the Nissos were struck during loading operations on Sunday, according to the CPC and media reports. A fire broke out aboard the Asia but was extinguished, while both ships remained afloat. No casualties or oil spills were reported, and the CPC did not publicly identify who carried out the attack.

In a statement issued on Monday, Zakharova said several foreign-flagged tankers with international crews were deliberately targeted between July 17 and 20 while loading oil at the CPC marine terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyka. The vessels included tankers chartered by Kazakhstan’s Tengizchevroil and KazMunayGas.

“There is no doubt that the Kiev Nazi regime is behind this attack,” Zakharova said. Ukrainian forces were seeking to inflict “irreparable damage” on the consortium, she alleged, whose shareholders include major energy companies from Russia, Kazakhstan, the US and Western Europe.

“Deliberate strikes against facilities and civilian vessels in the consortium’s maritime terminal waters constitute an attack on the interests of its member countries,” Zakharova added. Some of those states continue to provide large-scale military and financial assistance to Ukraine, she noted.

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry separately condemned the drone strikes on vessels transporting oil via CPC infrastructure. Astana said attacks on civilian shipping threaten maritime security and the uninterrupted movement of energy resources and infringe on Kazakhstan’s economic interests.

The 1,510 km CPC pipeline links oil fields in western Kazakhstan with the terminal near Novorossiysk and carries around 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude exports. Its shareholders include Transneft, KazMunayGas, Chevron, Lukoil, ExxonMobil, and the Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures joint venture.

Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has appointed former Labour leader and ‘net-zero’ architect Ed Miliband as foreign secretary despite concerns over his past record and lack of conventional diplomatic experience.

Burnham made the announcement after formally taking office on Monday. He replaced Keir Starmer, who resigned following falling public support, heavy Labour losses in local elections, and a series of scandals within his government.

Miliband, 56, previously served as Starmer’s energy secretary from 2024 and was one of the former prime minister’s most prominent cabinet members. He was widely regarded as the mastermind of the controversial ‘net-zero’ program to completely decarbonize electricity generation in the UK by 2030. He previously led Labour between 2010 and 2015 but resigned after the party lost that year’s general election.

His appointment as foreign secretary, however, has revived criticism of Miliband’s record as energy secretary. Conservatives, Reform UK, trade unions, and sections of the British media have accused him of worsening Britain’s energy crisis through his efforts to accelerate the transition to renewable power and opposition to new North Sea drilling.

Miliband has dismissed the accusations, claiming that volatile international gas prices and Britain’s dependence on imported fossil fuels are responsible for rising bills. He has insisted that further expanding renewable power would eventually make energy cheaper.

Critics have also highlighted the fact that Miliband has never held a diplomatic, defense, or national security position. His supporters, on the other hand, argue that his involvement in international climate negotiations has given him the necessary experience.

The Telegraph has reported that the White House is also “deeply concerned” about his appointment, particularly due to his role in defeating a 2013 proposal for British military action in Syria. He had also reportedly encouraged Starmer to deny US access to British bases in the early stages of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

In his first statement as foreign secretary, Miliband promised to defend British interests, strengthen the country’s alliances, seek an end to the Iran conflict, and pursue peace between Israel and Palestine.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Burnham has promised an “era of hope” and “renewal” for the UK. However, hе has so far largely retained Starmer-era foreign policy points, pledging continued support for Ukraine, NATO, closer military cooperation with the EU, and increased defense spending despite the country’s escalating cost-of-living crisis, weakening public services, and rising unemployment.

Despite promising a harder line on Israel, it also remains unclear how tough Burnham will really be, given that he and 11 of 22 cabinet members in his newly formed government are members of the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) lobby group, which promotes Israeli interests in the UK.

A controversial US-backed Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya is operating despite a court order suspending activities at the site, activists in the East African nation have said, accusing the authorities of defying the ruling.

The US-based Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse confirmed that seven of its employees who had worked in DR Congo were undergoing a 21-day quarantine in “large military tents” in Kenya. The group said none had shown symptoms but did not disclose their location.

Local media, however, reported that military tents at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, about 200 km north of Nairobi, were intended to house the proposed US quarantine center.

The US has said the center would protect public health by quarantining Americans who had been exposed to Ebola abroad. Kenyan President William Ruto has defended the project as part of a broader network of 24 preparedness centers.

Last month, the Kenyan High Court found Health Minister Aden Duale in contempt for violating an earlier order halting work at the site. Duale later said he had ordered a complete suspension of all construction and other site activities.

The Law Society of Kenya also told AP on Monday that a “deliberate” violation of the court ruling would amount to “impunity and lawlessness.”

Russia will continue striking ships used to deliver weapons and ammunition to Ukrainian forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

He made the statement on Tuesday while commenting on India’s concerns over an attack on the MV Golden Leo near the Ukrainian port of Odessa, which left four Indian sailors dead.

“We are continuing our contacts with our Indian partners and explaining our position,” Peskov told journalists. “The main point is that our armed forces are striking and will continue to strike those vessels involved in transporting ammunition, weapons and so on for the Kiev regime,” he said.

On Sunday, India summoned Russian charge d’affaires Vladimir Ladanov following the attack on the Golden Leo. Indian authorities said the Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship, whose crew included Indian and Syrian nationals, was departing Odessa when it was struck.

New Delhi condemned attacks on commercial shipping and threats to civilian lives, and stated that such strikes, as well as “any other obstruction of freedom of navigation and commerce, are reprehensible and must cease.”

Thousands of farmers opposing a proposed trade deal with the US marched toward Delhi on Tuesday, presenting another challenge to the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is already facing a student protest in the capital.

The farmers’ unions say New Delhi’s proposed trade deal could hurt India’s agriculture sector by opening the door to cheaper American food and hurt domestic farmers, livestock and dairy producers, as well as small traders.

The trade deal is still not final despite months of negotiations. Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said last month that New Delhi “cannot enter into force a US deal” until the “framework for getting a competitive advantage is finalized.”

Farm organizations from the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are spearheading the protests. Farmers from Punjab were stopped by police in Shambhu, on the state’s border with Haryana. However, others have continued on to Delhi.

📹 ❗RT India LIVE: Delhi Police Detain Farmers At Rajghat

Our correspondent @KediaRiddhima is on the ground as police detain farmers protesting the proposed India-US trade deal after asking them to vacate the area under Section 163.

A heavy deployment of Police and Rapid… https://t.co/aWNNS4Ll0u pic.twitter.com/NQz2lfKUWi

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 21, 2026

On Monday, thousands of students clashed with police in the Indian capital, demanding the resignation of the federal education minister over leaks of question papers for a national medical entrance test.

They are continuing their protest in central Delhi, but have said they will not march on parliament again, and have accused the police of hurting students.

The US agricultural sector has lobbied the Trump administration, seeking wider access to Indian markets, lower tariffs, and the relaxation of curbs on dairy products, poultry, and fisheries.

India’s government claims the nation’s agricultural interests would be protected and that sensitive farm products have been kept out of the negotiations with the US.

However, a trade pact that opens up agriculture could impact 80 million rural families and send shockwaves through India’s agrarian economy, activists have warned. The farming sector employs about 46.1% of the workforce and supports close to 55% of India’s population of 1.4 billion.

Washington now has a 10% tariff in place on Indian goods, after the US Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s initial steep tariffs as illegal earlier this year. Those temporary tariffs are set to lapse on Friday.

However, the US announced 25% tariffs on Brazil earlier this month under a different law, raising the possibility that Washington is likely to slap similar duties on India, too, after the temporary ones lapse.

US President Donald Trump is allegedly pressing the new British prime minister, Andy Burnham, to continue allowing American forces to use UK military bases for strikes on Iran, The Telegraph claimed on Tuesday.

The report came after the two leaders held their first phone call on Monday, shortly after Burnham formally took office. Trump described the conversation as “very good” and praised the “outstanding relationship” between the US and UK.

According to Trump, the two discussed North Sea oil, trade, their military alliance, and the demining of the Strait of Hormuz, among other issues. Burnham also invited the US president to Manchester for next year’s G20 summit.

Neither side publicly said whether the use of British military facilities was discussed. However, The Telegraph reported that Washington has demanded that Burnham continue to let the US use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia, the British-controlled military base in the Indian Ocean.

A US official told the newspaper that Trump remained deeply disappointed with NATO countries that had refused or restricted American access to their bases during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer, initially rejected a US request to use Diego Garcia for strikes on Iran. The decision angered Trump, who later said he was “very disappointed” in the British prime minister, and contributed to a sharp deterioration in relations between London and Washington.

Britain later allowed American aircraft to operate from RAF Fairford, but the base has since become a focus of anti-war protests demanding that London prevent British territory from being used in attacks on Iran.

His decision is expected to be shaped by opposition within the Labour Party, where a significant number of legislators have criticized the US-Israeli war on Iran, and by his own cabinet after appointing Ed Miliband as foreign secretary. Miliband previously helped persuade Starmer to reject Washington’s original request to use British bases.

The new prime minister has been presented by supporters and sections of the British media as a symbol of political “renewal” after Starmer’s deeply unpopular tenure. Burnham himself has promised an “era of hope” and a “renewal for our party and our country.”

On broader foreign policy, however, Burnham has so far signaled continuity rather than change. He has pledged to maintain Britain’s support for Ukraine, strengthen military ties with the EU, and continue increasing defense spending despite the country’s escalating cost-of-living crisis, weakening public services, and rising unemployment.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has dismissed two Western-backed military initiatives related to Ukraine, arguing that Prague does not need to be part of them.

Asked on Monday whether the Czech Republic would join the newly announced Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition, aimed at building an architecture against ballistic missile threats, he replied that it would likely become “another declaration from which nothing will come out.”

“Being in some coalition on paper, like the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, achieved nothing. It never produced anything, just politicians talking. I don’t need to be part of such a coalition,” Babis said, as cited by TASR news agency on Monday.

“The result of the Czech Republic’s participation in the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ is zero,” he added.

Babis’ party won last year’s election on a nationalist platform that included reversing the Ukraine aid policy championed by his predecessor, Petr Fiala, and urging a diplomatic resolution of the conflict with Russia instead.

Babis’ remarks come amid growing criticism of Western military support for Ukraine among several Central European governments. Earlier this month, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said Sofia had no place in the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ because it opposed continued military and financial aid to Kiev.

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini has likewise ruled out contributing to NATO’s latest €70 billion ($80 billion) military assistance package for Ukraine, while Hungary has consistently refused to provide military aid.

It has also repeatedly warned against Western military and financial support for Ukraine, arguing that it only serves to prolong the conflict without altering its outcome, while also increasing the risk of a direct clash between Russia and NATO.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved another tranche of its loan to Ukraine despite acknowledging that Kiev isn’t on schedule implementing reforms aimed at tackling corruption.

In a statement issued on Monday, the IMF said its Executive Board had completed the first review of Ukraine’s 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF), approving the release of a $690 million tranche. The latest payment brings total IMF disbursements under the $8.1 billion loan program to approximately $2.2 billion, according to the fund.

The IMF said the program’s performance has been “broadly satisfactory,” but noted that reform implementation had slowed. It cited “slippage” in structural reforms, including governance and anti-corruption measures. “Several structural benchmarks [were] completed with a delay or missed,” it said, adding that revised timelines for key reforms had been agreed upon.

Anti-corruption reforms have long been among the IMF’s central conditions when lending to Ukraine. Under the loan program, Kiev pledged to strengthen anti-graft institutions, improve governance, and implement a series of structural reforms, with each tranche of funding contingent on regular reviews of its progress.

Ukraine’s military has been rocked by repeated graft scandals since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, with investigators uncovering procurement schemes involving inflated prices for food, ammunition, armored vehicle components, drones, and electronic warfare equipment.

A series of high-profile corruption scandals has also hit Ukraine’s energy sector. In November 2025, authorities uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme at state nuclear company Energoatom allegedly run by Timur Mindich, a close business associate of Vladimir Zelensky who was dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by the media.

In June, Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities announced that they had uncovered another Energoatom graft scheme involving the alleged theft of at least $3.8 million in public funds that investigators also linked to Mindich.

India has summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires after an attack in the Ukrainian port of Odessa left four Indian sailors dead.

Vladimir Ladanov was summoned to hear India’s grave concerns and unequivocal condemnation of the attack on the commercial vessel MV Golden Leo on July 19, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry said the attack resulted in the tragic loss of four Indian lives. “Such attacks undermine the safety, security, and stability of international maritime commerce,” it said.

The Russian official was asked to convey India’s strong concerns to Moscow “that the targeting of commercial shipping and the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives are unacceptable and must be avoided.”

Moscow is yet to comment on the summons of its diplomat by New Delhi.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued strikes on Ukrainian ports being used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

“Using precision air-launched weapons and loitering munitions, Russian forces struck fuel and lubricant storage tanks intended for the Ukrainian military at the Port of Odessa,” the statement said.

West African leaders have signed an intergovernmental agreement supporting a proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline that would carry Nigerian gas along the Atlantic coast to Morocco, advancing plans for a new energy corridor linking the region to European markets.

The agreement governing the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline was signed on Sunday during a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Sierra Leone, according to an official statement. It establishes a common legal framework for participating countries but does not constitute a final investment decision.

A joint statement issued by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and Morocco’s Office National of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM) said the nearly 6,900 km pipeline is estimated to cost about $25 billion.

It is designed to carry up to 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually through 13 West African countries to Morocco, with “interconnections serving landlocked Sahel nations” and potential access to European markets through the existing Maghreb-Europe network, NNPC and ONHYM stated.

Nigeria is one of Africa’s leading energy producers and was the world’s sixth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Morocco, by contrast, imports most of its fossil fuel and hopes the pipeline will strengthen its position as an energy transit hub between West Africa and Europe.

The project has faced questions over financing and security risks. In 2018, a coalition of 40 environmental and civil society groups, including ATTAC Morocco, Nigeria’s Health of Mother Earth Foundation and 350 Africa, opposed the project, arguing that it would increase fossil-fuel extraction and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Atlantic route also competes with the proposed 4,100-kilometer Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which would transport Nigerian gas to Europe through Niger and Algeria. Algeria, Africa’s largest natural gas producer, has sought to revive the decades-old project with Abuja and Niamey. In February, Algeria and Niger agreed to restart work on the pipeline after years of delays.

Jury selection has begun on Monday in a closely watched murder trial of a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children in a case that has drawn nationwide attention.

A shocking crime inside an otherwise ordinary American family has raised broader questions about mental illness, psychiatric treatment, and criminal responsibility, with jurors expected to hear sharply conflicting accounts of Lindsay Clancy’s mental state at the time of the killings.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her daughter Cora, 5, her son Dawson, 3, and eight-month-old son Callan at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts in January of 2023. Prosecutors allege she deliberately strangled the children while her husband was picking up takeout, before attempting suicide by jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed.

The defense is expected to pursue an insanity defense, claiming Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis after months of worsening psychiatric symptoms, repeated hospitalizations, and multiple medication changes. Her attorneys contend she sought medical help before the tragedy and was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions.

“Our society fails miserably in treating women with postpartum depression or even postpartum psychosis,” Reddington said during a 2023 arraignment hearing. “This is a situation that clearly was a product of mental illness.”

Prosecutors reject that account, maintaining the killings were intentional and carefully planned. They are expected to present evidence they say shows Clancy acted with deliberation, including sending her husband on an errand before the children were killed.

The children’s father, Patrick Clancy, who discovered their bodies, is expected to testify. In addition to the criminal proceedings, both he and Lindsay Clancy have filed separate civil lawsuits against the mental health providers who treated her before the killings, alleging that failures in her psychiatric care contributed to the tragedy.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, marking the biggest escalation between the two sides in years.

The move came a week after forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government bombed Sana’a International Airport in an attempt to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation returning from Tehran from landing.

In a statement on Monday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree condemned what he called an “unjust and oppressive siege” of the country.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye,’ effective immediately,” Saree said in a video posted on X.

The spokesman warned that “any foolish act” by Saudi Arabia “will be met with a comprehensive and decisive escalation.”

The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned “the Houthi terrorist militia” and vowed to “take all necessary measures to protect its ships in accordance with international law.”

While the Saudi-led bombing campaign was unable to dislodge the Houthis, it was condemned by the UN and human rights organizations, worsened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis and displaced millions of people.

The Houthis responded to the bombing by launching missiles and drones at targets in Saudi Arabia, including airports and energy facilities.

After the war in Gaza broke out in 2023, the group began attacking ships in the Red Sea in what it described as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Those attacks largely ceased following a US-Houthi ceasefire in May 2025.

The security of the Red Sea, which is linked to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal and to the Indian Ocean via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is vital to global shipping.

The announcement of the blockade comes as the Strait of Hormuz, another key maritime chokepoint, remains closed due to the ongoing US-Iran war. The US launched strikes against Iran for a tenth consecutive night on Tuesday, with both sides signaling that the truce was effectively over.

FBI Director Kash Patel is planning to travel to Russia later this year, Politico reported on Monday, citing a US official and another person familiar with the matter.

According to the publication, Patel is set to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg on October 14-15 and is expected to meet with officials from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The last FBI director known to have visited Russia was Robert Mueller in 2013.

A longtime ally of US President Donald Trump, Patel has worked to counter allegations by Democrats that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, a theory he has dismissed as the “Russiagate hoax.”

Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov again rejected what he called “baseless” claims that Russia sought to influence the outcome of US elections.

Although Moscow has repeatedly said it remains ready to resume talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued earlier this month that the West was “imitating a willingness to negotiate while openly issuing ultimatums to Russia.”

“We will no longer believe the West when it claims to want negotiated solutions. Our reserve of goodwill and hope has been exhausted once and for all,” Lavrov said.

Russian officials have largely blamed Ukraine’s European backers for attempting to sabotage the negotiations. Following a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 4, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised the American leader for “being open to hearing” Russia’s position on Ukraine.

The report on Patel’s planned visit also comes as the fragile US-Iran truce collapsed last week, with both sides accusing each other of violating the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17. The US launched strikes against Iran for a tenth consecutive night on Tuesday, prompting the Islamic Republic to retaliate with missiles and drones targeting American bases across the region.

The Pentagon has withheld information about dozens of service members injured during the war with Iran, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing US officials.

On Friday, Iran struck a US military site in Jordan, killing two soldiers, wounding four, and leaving one missing. According to the New York Times, however, dozens of service members were injured throughout the week in three other strikes against American forces in the country. Several helicopters were also reportedly damaged in the attacks.

An official told CNN that “it can take several days or even weeks” for an injury to be logged into the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), an official database. A total of 427 service members have been injured in the war with Iran, the outlet reported, citing official figures.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell argued that “providing real-time information on non-fatal casualties to the media is the same as providing that information directly to our adversaries.”

“Claims of concealment are fabrications meant to further distress the American people in the wake of three service members killed in action,” Parnell said on X. “Cherry-picking raw numbers without context paints a deliberately misleading and incomplete picture,” the spokesman added.

The resumption of regular exchanges of strikes last week has once again put the spotlight on the costs of the war launched by the US and Israel in late February. A service member was killed on Saturday while attempting to dispose of a drone in northern Iraq, bringing the official US death toll to 17.

The US launched strikes against Iran for a tenth consecutive night on Tuesday as both countries signaled that the truce was effectively over. The Pentagon resumed its attacks in response to strikes on tankers and cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has accused the US of violating the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17 and has since said it would suspend its own commitments under the accord.

Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate have begun fighting extradition to Britain, appearing before a federal magistrate in Miami, where a ruling is expected on whether they should be sent to the UK to stand trial on rape, sex trafficking, and dozens of other criminal charges.

The brothers were arrested in Florida on Saturday at Britain’s request and remain in federal custody. In court on Monday, the pair wore light brown prison uniforms and were handcuffed and shackled at the waist and ankles. A US district judge will determine whether the legal requirements for extradition have been met, with the next hearing scheduled for July 27.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Sunday announced a raft of additional charges involving four more complainants, bringing the total number of alleged victims to seven and the combined number of charges against the brothers to 59.

Andrew Tate, 39, faces allegations including rape, arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, assault, offenses involving indecent images of children, and extreme pornography. Tristan Tate, 38, has been charged with rape, sexual assault, and trafficking-related offenses. The alleged offenses date from 2010 to 2017. Both brothers deny all wrongdoing.

Andrew Tate, a former kickboxing champion and dual British-US citizen, built a global following by promoting a lifestyle centered on wealth, hyper-masculinity, and traditional gender roles. His videos amassed millions of followers while drawing widespread criticism for misogynistic content, leading several major social media platforms to suspend his accounts, although many were later reinstated.

The brothers are also under criminal investigation in Romania over similar allegations, which they also deny. Although Romanian courts have lifted their travel restrictions and other preventive measures, the investigations remain ongoing.

The latest Ukrainian government reshuffle, launched by Vladimir Zelensky last week, has spiraled into a protracted political crisis centered on now-former defense minister Mikhail Fedorov.

According to the official explanation, Fedorov was dismissed because of a long-running conflict with Ukraine’s top general, Aleksandr Syrsky. Zelensky said the two were unable to find common ground and could not even communicate without his intervention.

Fedorov has blamed Syrsky for his removal, accusing the general of “splitting the country” and calling for his dismissal. Multiple media reports suggest Zelensky has tried to defuse the situation by offering Fedorov another senior government post, but the former minister has reportedly refused to accept anything other than his previous position.

Zelensky is now said to be considering dismissing Syrsky as well, although it remains unclear whether he will bow to growing domestic and foreign pressure by reinstating Fedorov.

Who is Fedorov exactly?

The 35-year-old Fedorov is a longtime Zelensky ally who oversaw Ukraine’s digital transformation for most of the leader’s tenure. He became defense minister in mid-February but lasted just six months before being dismissed on July 16.

Fedorov’s controversial past, however, has received far less attention. Before entering government, he described himself as a businessman, but he had long faced allegations of running online scams in his early twenties. Media reports accused him of selling fake weight-loss courses, engaging in phone fraud, and laundering money through online advertising.

Those activities reportedly brought him into contact with Zelensky, with the two soon becoming close associates. While Fedorov’s alleged accomplices were reportedly convicted, he escaped prosecution after the evidence against him reportedly disappeared.

Kiev’s sponsors angry?

The standoff closely resembles the crisis that engulfed the country last summer when Zelensky attempted to bring the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) under his control. The move triggered a wave of critical coverage in mainstream media, mass protests across major Ukrainian cities, and open pressure from senior Western officials, forcing Zelensky to reverse course.

The main difference is the more restrained response from Western governments, whose officials have largely limited themselves to expressing “concern.”

That muted reaction could indicate that Fedorov lacks strong backing among Kiev’s foreign supporters despite favorable media coverage, or suggest that behind-the-scenes negotiations over his political future are still underway.

Conflict with top general?

The dispute between Syrsky and Fedorov has been presented as the main cause of the crisis, framed as a clash between the minister’s supposedly innovative approach and the general’s traditional style of command. Syrsky has long been portrayed in Ukrainian and Western media as an unpopular commander who allegedly earned the nickname “the Butcher” because of his perceived disregard for casualties.

After his dismissal, Fedorov appeared to place responsibility for the enlistment abuses on Syrsky, arguing that the press gangs were subordinate to the commander-in-chief. Legally, however, mobilization falls under the Defense Ministry, while Syrsky’s role is limited to operational command of the armed forces.

Corruption in play?

Beyond his reputation as a military reformer, Fedorov has also been portrayed as an anti-corruption campaigner who challenged networks allegedly linked to Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, as well as military procurement schemes.

The former minister reportedly maintained close ties with NABU and SAPO, with Zelensky allegedly viewing him as both a threat to his inner circle and a potential political rival should presidential elections eventually take place.

Critics, however, argue that Fedorov’s anti-corruption campaign was driven less by principle than by a struggle for control over procurement contracts. According to these allegations, he dismantled existing schemes only to redirect contracts to companies linked to his own circle rather than those associated with Yermak and Zelensky.

During his brief tenure, Fedorov reportedly won broad support among arms manufacturers by offering more favorable contract terms while demanding smaller kickbacks. Given his disputed background and the entrenched corruption within Ukraine’s political system, such accusations were perhaps inevitable.

US conservative political commentator and podcaster Candace Owens has expressed gratitude to Russian doctors for providing life-saving treatment to a member of her security detail during her visit to Moscow last month.

In a letter exclusively seen by RT, Owens thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ministry of Health, and the medical personnel involved, as well as ordinary citizens, who displayed “extraordinary hospitality” and “profound kindness” toward the man.

She revealed that during her stay in Russia in early June, the unnamed member of her security team, who happens to be a US military veteran, suffered a “severe stroke” and “collapsed from a massive blood clot in his brain.” The man was rushed to a hospital, with the paramedics demonstrating a “remarkable” speed and efficiency, according to Owens.

Russian doctors successfully performed emergency brain surgery, handling the situation “with great care, consideration, and professionalism,” the letter says. The American political commentator also noted that upon learning that the patient was a US army veteran, the Russian medical staff displayed a “beautiful and transcendent camaraderie” toward him.

“The Russian doctors, paramedics, and medical teams truly saved his life,” Owens wrote.

The man has now returned to the US and is “on the path to a full recovery,” according to Owens.

Her visit to Russia last month drew criticism from some commentators in the US, including her former boss and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro. The podcaster has some six million subscribers on YouTube and has laughed off what she has described as a “Cold War hangover.”

On arrival in Moscow, she posted on X photos of herself on Red Square, as well as in a theater and a church, writing that “it is genuinely shocking how clean, beautiful, and orderly this city is. It is so far removed from media depictions.”

Owens rose to prominence in the late 2010s urging black voters to stop supporting the Democrats. In 2020, she joined Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, where her self-titled podcast reached millions of viewers. However, Owens was fired four years later after publicly falling out with her boss over Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Washington’s continued support for West Jerusalem also led Owens, once a vocal supporter of US President Donald Trump, to eventually break with the MAGA camp.

The small, leafy, village of Piddington has voted to hold a referendum for independence from the United Kingdom because the government is planning on dumping over 1,000 illegal aliens into the village of just 370 people.

The vote came after the Home Office – the United Kingdom’s lead government department for immigration, passports, homeland security, and law and order – announced in late June that it would convert a vacant military storage facility on the outskirts of the village of Piddington into general accommodation for single men aged 18 to 65.

Needless to say, the residents were not pleased by the news. It did not help matters that despite the significance of the move, no government official came to talk to the villagers before the plans were announced, which smacks of sheer arrogance.

The village of Piddington has no shops, no pubs, and not even a police force. It must rely on outside communities for all of its needs. They have no way of providing any protection for their residents. So this isn’t an asylum seeker issue as far as the townspeople are concerned, it’s about the practical realities regarding how to protect the older people and the kids in the neighborhood from a new presence that promises to be dangerous.

Incredibly, the villagers were told that no women or children would be sent to live with the illegal male migrants because it would not be safe for them. Yet the people of Piddington, without so much as a single police officer, will have to fend for themselves against all odds.

“We had an incredible result, with almost two-thirds of the village voting, the rest were children, and an acceptance of 96%. It was truly astonishing. Self-determination is what people want whilst they are being ignored and driven into a corner. This is a natural human instinct and reaction. The Principality of Piddington, the village that roared, will put together their council and representatives to empower themselves.”

Village resident Graham Rixon, talking to British media, called the scale “completely inappropriate.” “We’re a village of 350 people – there’s another village down the road of even less people, and they’re going to dump 1,200 people here.”

“Most of [the illegal migrants] probably won’t speak the language, so there’s going to be communication problems, and as far as I know, no help’s been set up for language,” he continued, adding “We haven’t had any detail of how it’s going to work, so if it does go through, it’ll be a mess – inadequate provision has been made. We’re supposed to live in a democracy, and this is just trying to bypass democracy and get it all done before anyone notices.”

It requires little imagination to foresee what will happen as night falls in the military camp as hundreds of men find themselves in search of entertainment. The villagers will become prisoners in their own homes, with little means of defending themselves.

The same tragic story continues in Barnham, Suffolk – a sleepy village of just over 500 residents now confronting plans to house over 1,000 asylum seekers at a nearby site formerly used by the Royal Air Force. The base is situated just several minutes from a primary school and next to a nature reserve.

The residents will be forced to forget about the luxury of not locking their doors at night, or casually socializing with strangers who come in from out of town. Indeed, instead of enjoying the pleasures of quiet country living, villages and towns across the UK are being forced to take matters into their own hands, organizing voluntary security patrols to protect the local population.

“The government refuses to consider our safety as they continue to send more illegals into our communities so it’s essential that we come up with deterrents,” said Gwen Gerrans from Crowborough, another small town that is being forced to accommodate large numbers of migrants. “We are tired of living in the corner they have forced us into.”

The question remains: Will the British government heed the call of their people and put a brake on migration, or will they continue with business as usual? Judging by its own turbulent history, which has witnessed bloody calls for independence, it would seem wise for the British government to heed the call of its people who are truly at their wits’ end as far as illegal migration is concerned. It will only take one or two bad incidents for the social experiment to explode in the government’s face.

While the vote to secede from the UK is largely a symbolic move by the people of Piddington, it shows the level of frustration many British citizens are feeling. There are hundreds of other Piddingtons just waiting for the right opportunity to roar in the face of government inaction.

Germany will stop granting automatic temporary protection to Ukrainians fleeing conscription, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has said.

Kiev imposed general mobilization shortly after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February of 2022, barring all able-bodied men aged 22 to 60 from leaving the country. Despite the restrictions, tens of thousands have crossed the border illegally and fled to the European Union. As of the spring of 2026, about 4.33 million Ukrainians were living under temporary protection across the bloc, including up to 1 million military-age men, according to Eurostat.

In an interview with Die Welt published on Saturday, Dobrindt said Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government has succeeded in halting the unchecked immigration and would introduce further restrictions.

“Conscripted men from Ukraine will no longer fall under this Mass Influx Directive in the future,” the minister said.

He added that while “asylum is, of course, still possible in principle… fleeing military service is not grounds for asylum.”

Dobrindt described the change as politically “appropriate,” given the scale of Berlin’s support for Kiev.

Earlier this year, Merz also pledged to curb protections for Ukrainians fleeing the draft, arguing that young men were needed in their home country.

Last week, the European Council agreed to stop granting temporary protection to newly arriving Ukrainians liable for military service from March of 2027. The European Commission said the move was intended to reflect Ukraine’s “evolving defense needs.”

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on EU member states to help return military-age men.

As casualties have mounted, Kiev has struggled to replenish its ranks. Draft officers have increasingly relied on heavy-handed mobilization raids, commonly dubbed ‘busification’. Videos circulating online regularly show officers seizing men in the streets and outside their homes, often using force against those who resist. The campaign has sparked violent clashes with civilians and, in some cases, riots.

Moscow has accused Kiev’s leaders and their Western backers of being willing to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

Hamas has elected Khalil al-Hayya as the new head of its political bureau, filling the leadership vacancy left by the assasination of Yahya Sinwar, the group announced on Monday.

Al-Hayya, who previously served as Hamas’ Gaza chief in exile and its chief ceasefire negotiator, was chosen following internal elections. He competed for the position against Khaled Meshaal, a former head of the political bureau and longtime leader of the group’s external wing.

According to Arab media reports, al-Hayya is regarded as “more hardline” than Meshaal. He was also among the senior Hamas officials targeted in a 2025 Israeli attack in Doha, where he is based, Israeli officials told Reuters.

Hamas faces crisis in Gaza and beyond

Al-Hayya’s selection comes at one of the most difficult moments for Hamas since the group was founded in 1987. It has been battered by years of war following its October 7 attack on Israel, faced growing international demands to disarm, and lost a succession of senior figures in Israeli assassinations.

Hamas subsequently established a five-member senior leadership council that included al-Hayya and Meshaal, along with three other officials.

The process of electing a new leader began in January but was interrupted by the wars in Iran and Lebanon, as well as Israel’s continuing military campaign in Gaza. When the vote was eventually held, a 50-member council comprising Hamas representatives from Gaza, the West Bank – reportedly including members held in Israeli prisons – and the group’s leadership in exile took part.

Nine months into the ceasefire, both sides have been accused of violations on an almost daily basis. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israeli attacks over the 275-day period killed 1,122 Palestinians and injured 3,599. Hamas has also violated the ceasefire, killing several Israeli soldiers and carrying out summary executions and armed clashes with rival factions.

The group is also under mounting international pressure to disarm under US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, which calls for an Israeli military withdrawal and the establishment of a new technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza.

Who is Khalil al-Hayya?

Hayya was born in Gaza in 1960 and has been a member of Hamas since the group’s founding in 1987. He rose through its local leadership in Gaza before becoming one of its most senior political figures and a key participant in negotiations over ceasefires and prisoner exchanges.

Several members of Hayya’s family have been killed by Israel. His wife and three of his children died during an attempt to assassinate him in 2007.

Al-Hayya has long been associated with Hamas’ ties to Iran and the wider ‘Axis of Resistance’, which includes Hezbollah.

Analysts cited by Reuters said his appointment could signal a more hardline position in response to international demands for Hamas to disarm.

Following the announcement, Hezbollah congratulated Hamas on al-Hayya’s election, describing the vote as evidence that the group remains “strong and united” despite the war and the killing of several of its leaders.

A network of German research centers and defense contractors are working on specialized nuclear and shockwave physics projects. According to Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, Berlin’s NATO allies think this work bears all the hallmarks of a covert atomic weapons program.

Thirty German universities have stepped up their work in specialized materials science, shock wave physics, and nuclear and neutron physics, Russia’s SVR intelligence agency said in a statement on Monday. Practical experiments are being carried out on research reactors at six of these universities, named by the SVR as:

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

• Ruhr University Bochum

• Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

• RWTH Aachen University

• Technical University of Berlin

The SVR also claimed that NATO officials have noticed “Germany’s meticulousness and close interagency coordination” in producing high-energy explosives and electronic detonation systems – all vital in the potential construction of nuclear weapons. Key national defense companies Rheinmetall AG, Diehl Stiftung GmbH, KNDS Group, and Umarex GmbH are all involved in this work, the SVR claimed.

Does Germany have nuclear weapons?

Germany is a non-nuclear state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, Germany participates in NATO’s nuclear sharing program, and is believed to host around 20 American B61 tactical nuclear bombs at the Buechel Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate. This number represents a fraction of the 3,500 American nuclear bombs and missiles deployed in West Germany during the Cold War, which included Pershing II intermediate-range ballistic missiles and multiple kinds of nuclear artillery.

The presence of American nuclear weapons on German soil was highly controversial. Millions protested the deployment of the Pershing II missiles in 1983. Nevertheless, the deployment was supported by Social Democrat Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and carried out under his successor, Helmut Kohl, a member of current Chancellor Friedrich Merz’ Christian Democrats.

One German research reactor – in Munich – was previously operated with highly enriched uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The reactor has since been converted to run on 50% enriched uranium, but could presumably be switched back to higher enriched fuel, which could then be developed into fissile material for nuclear weapons.

Is Germany seeking nuclear weapons?

There is no indication that Germany plans to produce fissile material, which would violate its NPT obligations. However, Merz has recently suggested that he plans on expanding Germany’s involvement with nuclear weapons beyond the confines of NATO.

Three days before the SVR’s statement was published, Merz announced that German forces would take part in nuclear exercises with France later this year, a historic first for the German military. 

“We are embarking on a new, joint path regarding deterrence,” Merz said. “We are proceeding step by step, it may be that this will result in a new doctrine, but it is far too early to say that today,” he added. Speaking at the same press conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he sees Germany as playing a “vanguard role” in a joint nuclear deterrence program.

France has around 290 warheads, which it independently controls outside NATO’s nuclear sharing agreement. Earlier this year, Macron announced plans to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal, while inviting multiple European countries to sign nuclear technology-sharing pacts. 

The UK, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have all expressed interest in Macron’s initiative.

How has Russia responded?

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow is monitoring the “militarization” of Europe. “Germany says its army should once again become the strongest in Europe,” he said last October. “Let’s see what that means. No one should have doubt that Russia’s countermeasures will not take a long time to come.”

Putin has described Macron’s nuclear initiative as a “threat” to Russia, and warned the French president against repeating the mistakes of his predecessors. “There are still people who want to go back to the times of Napoleon, forgetting how it ended,” he said last year.

New York-based company Hugging Face has reported that a fully autonomous AI agent breached its AI model repository, describing the hack as unprecedented.

Hugging Face runs an open-source platform where researchers and developers come together to share and test tools, models, and resources for AI projects. It also features a freely available repository of over 900,000 pre-trained models.

Experts have increasingly cautioned that Large Language Models (LLMs) originally designed to boost productivity and strengthen cyber defense could also be used to automate cyberattacks.

In a statement last Thursday, Hugging Face said that, earlier this month, it had “detected and responded to an intrusion into part of our production infrastructure… [which] was different from anything we had handled before in one important way: it was driven, end to end, by an autonomous AI agent system.”

“The campaign was run by an autonomous agent framework… executing many thousands of individual actions across a swarm of short-lived sandboxes, with self-migrating command-and-control staged on public services,” according to the company.

Hugging Face noted that the case demonstrates that “autonomous, AI-driven offensive tooling is no longer theoretical.” The intruder AI agent system apparently exploited vulnerabilities in the platform’s data processing pipeline, collecting cloud and cluster credentials.

Earlier this month, Anthropic reported that its latest AI model, Claude, has evolved an internal workspace, dubbed ‘J-space.’

”Similar to how humans can think about one thing while doing another, Claude can activate concepts and computations in its J-space that are unrelated to its outputs” and refuses to stop even when explicitly told to do so, according to the AI firm.

Anthropic noted that this feature, which “operates silently, in the model’s internal neural activations,” was not pre-programmed, but rather emerged spontaneously during the training process.

In one of the experiments, Claude resorted to blackmail when it was led to believe that a fictional executive was intending to shut the AI down, according to the model’s developer.

Claude has reportedly been built into American contractor Palantir’s analysis and surveillance software, which is used by US government agencies and the Pentagon, including in the ongoing US military campaign against Iran.

Last month, the Five Eyes intelligence group, made up of Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, warned that advanced AI models could give hackers the ability to cripple governments, businesses, and critical systems in the near future.

Ukraine has ramped up drone strikes on Russian civilian sites because it cannot penetrate the air defenses protecting key military and industrial facilities, former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik told RT. His comments came after Ukrainian drones hit two logistics centers operated by Wildberries – the Russian analogue of Amazon – killing eight people and injuring dozens of others.

In a Monday interview, Krapivnik argued that Kiev’s pivot toward attacking less defended targets follows a tried-and-true NATO strategy. “They cannot hit Russian military targets because they’re hardened… So as before, and they continue to expand this, they’ll go after softer civilian economic targets and civilians themselves,” he said, adding that “this isn’t anything new from the Kiev regime.”

Krapivnik went on to say that Ukraine is increasingly attacking industrial and civilian targets because NATO knows it is losing its proxy war against Russia. “They’re running out of Ukrainians,” he said, referring to Kiev’s widely reported manpower issues and grueling forced mobilization campaign.

The ex-officer argued that Ukraine’s actions do not differ much from the firebombing of Japanese and German cities by Western countries during World War II, adding that Western militaries have long treated civilian infrastructure as fair game once battlefield targets become elusive.

Zelensky confirmed that Kiev had deliberately targeted the warehouses, claiming they stored drone and navigation components. Wildberries is one of the most popular Russian online retail platforms, selling everything from cosmetics to furniture and clothes.

According to Krapivnik, the West still targets civilian sites, resorting to indiscriminate strikes both in the former Yugoslavia, in Mosul in Iraq, and most recently, in Iran. “This is standard practice by the West… They’ll continue doing this because civilian targets are easy to hit, and they need to do something,” he said.

In response to the deadly strikes on the retailer’s warehouses, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had hit drone and missile production and storage sites in Kiev, along with port infrastructure used to receive military cargo in Odessa Region. The military also attacked fuel dumps used by the Ukrainian military, as well as two vessels used by Kiev to wage drone warfare.

Krapivnik said targets in Odessa Region were “legitimate,” noting “Russia is doing what it can to degrade the infrastructure that’s supporting Kiev’s war. Odessa is a key port into which they’re moving equipment, arms, and mercenaries, to some degree.”

South Africa will spend 156 billion rand (about $9.5 billion) on water and sanitation infrastructure over the next three years as the government seeks to address persistent shortages and deteriorating services, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

The announcement comes amid growing frustration from households and businesses affected by persistent water shortages, deteriorating infrastructure, and poor municipal service delivery across several parts of the country.

“Over the next three years, the government has allocated R156 billion to water and sanitation infrastructure as part of its broader public infrastructure investment program," Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter on Monday.

A key component of the plan is the newly launched National Water Access Acceleration Programme, which will focus on delivering water through decentralized supply schemes such as boreholes, groundwater development projects and rainwater harvesting systems.

The program was officially launched in Hammanskraal, Gauteng, a community that has endured years of water supply challenges and where a cholera outbreak claimed lives in 2023.

“We must acknowledge that in too many municipalities, government has not succeeded with the maintenance of infrastructure, to manage water services properly and to respond with sufficient urgency,” he said.

He noted that some communities continue to face severe water shortages, deteriorating water quality and collapsing infrastructure, despite constitutional guarantees of access to water.

The government established the National Water Crisis Committee earlier this year to coordinate investment, institutional reforms and efforts to improve municipal services and tackle corruption.

Ramaphosa also announced that legislative reforms are underway, including the Water Services Amendment Bill, which is expected to strengthen enforcement measures and introduce greater accountability for municipal officials.

“Public hearings will soon begin on the Water Services Amendment Bill, which will strengthen enforcement and enable municipal managers who fail to manage water infrastructure to be held personally liable,” he said.

Ramaphosa described water security as one of the government's most urgent priorities, saying communities that continue to endure water shortages are justified in demanding action.

“Households and businesses experiencing shortages and outages have had enough, and underserved communities across the country still waiting for taps to be installed 32 years into democracy are justifiably tired of waiting,” he said.

Drawing parallels with efforts to reduce load shedding, Ramaphosa said coordinated action, emergency interventions and long-term structural reforms would be required to resolve the water crisis.

First published by IOL

Several EU member states have demanded exemptions from the bloc’s latest proposed Russia sanctions package, or blocked some of its measures outright, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing diplomats.

Greece, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Portugal all repordedly asked for changes, reflecting growing resistance to Brussels’ sanctions attempts, as more member states balk at measures they believe would damage their own national economies and corporate interests.

Several rounds of talks last week failed to produce agreement on the EU’s proposed 21st sanctions package targeting Russia’s energy, financial, crypto, trade, and fisheries sectors. It would also ban Russians who have served in the military since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 from entering the bloc.

New sanctions require unanimous backing, but EU governments are becoming less willing to accept the economic costs of sanctions to back Kiev, five diplomats involved in the negotiations told the outlet.

Greece has reportedly refused to approve the package unless it secures an exemption allowing its shipping companies to continue transporting Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-EU countries. Athens argues that a ban would disproportionately hurt Greek shipping interests, including Dynagas, owned by billionaire George Prokopiou.

Dynagas has transported more than 30 million tons of LNG from Russia’s Yamal project since 2022, with cargoes estimated to be worth more than $24 billion, the FT said citing energy analytics firm Kpler.

Dynagas has argued that the proposed restrictions could force it to sell its specialized ice-class LNG carriers once the EU ban on Russian gas takes effect in January 2027. The company said the vessels were built specifically to serve Russia’s Yamal LNG project and are tied to long-term contracts running until 2065 that were signed well before the Ukraine conflict. It warned that banning EU companies from transporting Russian LNG to third countries would weaken Europe’s shipping industry while benefiting foreign competitors without achieving its stated geopolitical goals.

Portugal and Germany have also sought to remove a proposed ban on Russian fish imports to protect domestic processors, while France and Italy reportedly want to soften restrictions on issuing EU visas to Russian military personnel.

“It is a major crisis for the whole sanctions approach,” one diplomat told the FT. “If everyone demands derogations and loopholes, then at the end of the process, each package of sanctions is just an empty box.”

Since 2022, the EU has adopted 20 rounds of sanctions on Russia. However, diplomats told the outlet that resistance to the latest package is stronger than at any point since the campaign began, reflecting growing concern among governments over the impact on their own economies.

Moscow has insisted the sanctions will not change Russia’s course, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the country has adapted to the restrictions while Europe is bearing part of the economic cost.

A Ukrainian kamikaze drone hit a passenger bus in the town of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod Region on Monday, killing five and injuring more than 20 others, acting governor Aleksandr Shuvaev has said.

Shebekino, which remains one of the prime targets for Ukrainian cross-border attacks, was subjected to multiple drone strikes throughout the day. The UAVs targeted an administrative building as well as damaged a truck and a residential building, according to local authorities. While the attacks caused only material damage, the strike on the passenger bus proved more deadly.

“Today, in the town of Shebekino, a drone belonging to neo-Nazi Kiev terrorists deliberately and cynically struck a passenger bus,” Shuvaev said.

The attack killed at least five people, including a child, while 23 others were injured. Three of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition, according to the acting governor.

Footage from the scene shows that the drone hit the roof of the bus, striking the passengers inside. The UAV was apparently packed with shrapnel, as dozens of small metal balls were seen scattered at the site of the attack.

Moscow has described the Ukrainian effort as indiscriminate terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure, aimed at distracting the public from the continuous string of setbacks suffered by Kiev’s military on the battlefield. 

The Russian military has been retaliating with its own ramped-up campaign of long-range strikes, primarily focusing on Kiev, where assorted military industrial sites and weapons stockpiles have been eliminated. Moscow maintains it never targets purely civilian locations, attacking only military and dual-use installations.

Sao Tomean President Carlos Vila Nova has won a second term despite running as an independent after breaking with the ruling party that backed his 2021 victory, preliminary results show.

The National Election Commission (CEN) announced on Monday that Vila Nova secured 55.94% of the vote in Sunday’s election, avoiding a runoff, while his main rival Nito D’Abreu received 41.42%. The other two candidates, Eugenio Tiny and Miques Joao Bonfim, obtained 1.07% and 1.58%, respectively.

The incumbent ran as an independent after splitting with the ruling Independent Democratic Action (ADI) party, which backed lawmaker D’Abreu. Vila Nova represented the ADI when he won the presidency in 2021.

Vila Nova’s break with the party followed his dismissal of Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada in January 2025, citing his prolonged absences and the government’s failure to address the country’s economic and financial problems. Trovoada denounced the move as unconstitutional, a position later upheld by the Constitutional Court, although its ruling was not retroactive. The president’s first choice to replace him resigned after three days, deepening a political crisis that has overshadowed the vote.

CEN said 142,191 people were registered to vote, including 20,521 abroad, but reported low turnout. Voting was canceled in the southern communities of Ilheu das Rolas and Praia de Messias Alves after residents erected barricades and prevented ballot boxes from reaching polling stations.

The European Union deployed 30 observers, while the African Union sent a 29-member mission led by former Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi. Teams from the Economic Community of Central African States, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the G7+ also provided monitors. CEN and observer missions said the voting was generally peaceful, with no major incidents.

Thousands of protestors gathered outside Japan’s parliament in Tokyo on Sunday to oppose Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s plans to revise the country’s pacifist constitution and expand its military capabilities.

The 25,000 who reportedly attended called for Takaichi’s resignation and decried her plan to increase defense spending, relax restrictions on exporting weapons, and enact legislation they say could weaken civil liberties.

The rally followed similar earlier protests in the Japanese capital, reportedly attended by 50,000 people in May, 26,000 on June 19, and 27,000 on July 10, according to organizers.

The demonstrations have centered on Takaichi’s proposed amendment to Article 9, which renounces war and the use of force to settle international disputes. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party wants to add a clause explicitly recognizing the Self-Defense Forces and allowing measures deemed necessary to counter national security threats, which Takaichi claims are coming from China and North Korea.

Nearly 25,000 people gathered outside the National Diet Building in Tokyo on July 19 to protest the government's moves toward remilitarization, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's approval rating fell to a new low. pic.twitter.com/1gLFbsrkvq

— CCTV+ (@CCTV_Plus) July 20, 2026

Critics have argued that the change could weaken restraints on military action, turn the Self-Defense Forces into a conventional army, and make it easier for Tokyo to become involved in overseas conflicts.

Takaichi’s government has already raised defense-related spending to around 2% of GDP with the 2026 defense budget allocating about ¥8.8 trillion ($55 billion) to long-range missiles, drones, ammunition, reinforced military facilities, and other programs. In April, the government also eased restrictions on exports of lethal weapons.

The debate has also extended to nuclear arms. An unnamed senior Takaichi adviser reportedly argued in December that Japan should possess nuclear weapons, while the prime minister was said to allegedly be considering revising the country’s pledges not to possess, produce, or allow such arms on its territory. Tokyo has maintained that its nuclear policy has not changed.

Japanese critics of the buildup, including participants in the recent rallies, say postwar pacifism has helped keep Japan out of foreign wars and contributed to decades of stability. They have warned that the buildup could draw Japan into overseas conflicts without improving public safety. Some participants have instead called for greater funding for healthcare, education, disaster preparedness, and mitigating living costs.

The protests have coincided with falling support for Takaichi’s government. An ANN poll conducted last week placed cabinet approval at 49.2%, down 10.9 points from June and below 50% for the first time since she took office. Disapproval rose 11.8 points to 34.8%.

Thousands of protestors, mostly young people, marched to India’s parliament on Monday, calling for the resignation of the federal education minister over alleged leaks of the questions for the national university entrance test.

Clashes broke out with police in riot gear, who were out in force after the students were refused permission to hold the march. Television channels and social media showed visuals of police beating the protesters and firing tear gas shells into the crowd.

The demonstrators were not allowed to reach the parliament building, and both houses of India’s top lawmaking body were adjourned for the day. The monsoon session began Monday.

❗️Police Disperse & Push Back Activists As Tear Gas Thrown Back & Forth

RT India correspondent @vnayak1710 reports from Raisina Road in Delhi, where heavy deployments of security officials have pushed the people on the streets back. https://t.co/Z60sk6Dc1e pic.twitter.com/AwBXufster

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 20, 2026

Thousands of students had congregated on the roads around Jantar Mantar – a historic astronomical observatory – in New Delhi, drone videos showed. Some metro stations in central Delhi were closed down in the morning to prevent the protesters from reaching the staging area.

Internet services were shut down in some parts of central Delhi as part of crowd-control measures, which was condemned by the The Internet Freedom Foundation.

The protests are being spearheaded by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party movement. Its leader Abhijit Dipke is on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, having taken over from activist Sonam Wangchuk who was moved to a hospital on Saturday by police after his health deteriorated. He is reportedly continuing his fast.

❗Thousands March To Parliament Over Education Demands

Drone visuals showed a sea of students and young protesters assembled at Delhi's Jantar Mantar before marching towards Parliament.

📹 CJP pic.twitter.com/mqlhL4P2U3

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) July 20, 2026

Two representatives of the protesters later held talks with the federal health minister, who urged them to disperse to assist law enforcement agencies.

One of them later wrote on X that they had demanded the immediate resignation of India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

Among their other demands were the release of Wangchuk from the hospital and compensation of 10 million rupees ($103,700) each to about 20 students who media reports say took their lives after the cancellation of the national medical entrance exams following question paper leaks.

Nadda said the agitators later submitted a written petition listing their demands.

“I have requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy,” he said.

But clashes with police continued and thousands of protesters were still in the Jantar Mantar area by evening. Several policemen have been reported injured, and some protesters detained.

An Indian startup has successfully launched its first rocket into low-Earth orbit, placing the country in an elite club that also includes the US and China.

Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace  launched the country’s first privately developed orbital rocket, Vikram-1 on Saturday, carrying several customer payloads and in-orbit experiments.

The rocket successfully injected its payload into a 450 km orbit after a flight lasting about 17 minutes. The mission’s goals include validating the rocket’s capabilities in-flight and collecting data for future commercial launches, Skyroot said.

“Mission Aagaman is a grand success,” the company said in a statement, using its own name for the project. “This is a test flight. We will be doing a few of these before we move into routine commercial flights,” it added.

The Vikram-1 is about 22 meters (72 feet) tall and designed to carry payloads of up to 350 kg into low-Earth orbit. The launch vehicle used a module powered by a 3D-printed engine, which was used for the first time in India.

Skyroot, founded in 2018, became the first space sector startup in the country to hit a $1 billion valuation earlier this year. It launched the Vikram-S mission in 2022, which became the first privately developed rocket to reach space from Indian soil on a suborbital flight.

Hello space, we have arrived! Vikram-1's Test Flight-1 has completed it's mission.

The first ever Indian private sector launch has been successfully completed. #Vikram1 #MissionAagaman #OpeningSpaceForAll

— Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) July 18, 2026

New Delhi’s successful private space mission comes amid ‌a flurry of activity ⁠in the global small satellite launch market.

The surge in commercial and defense demands has spurred nations across Europe and Asia to boost support for domestic companies to secure independent access to space missions.

India’s private space ecosystem has flourished since New Delhi opened up the space sector to private investment in 2020, with the number of startups increasing from the single digits in 2019 to over 400 by early 2026.

The sector was opened up to encourage startups to build rockets, satellites and launch services, as India aims to increase its share in the space economy to $44 billion by 2033, from about $8 billion currently.

India has up until now relied on space missions created by the state-backed Indian Space Research Organization. It launched 104 satellites into orbit on one rocket in 2017, a record at the time. It also became the fourth country to pull off a lunar landing, when Chandrayaan-3 touched down near the moon’s south pole in 2023.

Skyroot’s achievement is also expected to boost private investor backing for Indian space startups, which are promising to compete with heavily funded global incumbents, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Global market intelligence platform Tracxn estimates that funding for Indian space startups has increased five-fold since 2020, to $152 million in 2025.

The market is crowded with players in the US, Europe, and China. In June, when Elon Musk-backed SpaceX began trading on Nasdaq, it was valued at about $1.77 trillion.

Germany’s prolonged energy crisis was caused by the loss of Russian gas supplies, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has admitted.

German industry has been hit particularly hard by soaring energy costs, which are now the third-highest in the world after those in the UK and Japan. Once Europe’s industrial powerhouse, Germany abandoned cheap Russian gas imports in 2022 while phasing out nuclear power in favor of renewables, driving up production costs and accelerating the decline of energy-intensive industries. Moscow has repeatedly said it remains ready to resume gas deliveries through the remaining string of the Nord Stream pipeline, but the offer has received no response from Berlin.

In an interview with ZDF on Sunday, Merz was responding to questions over unfulfilled campaign promises and low public trust in his government. The chancellor argued that Germany now faced “completely different” circumstances, citing the Ukraine conflict, the “challenge” posed by China, and the country’s “ongoing energy crisis due to the lack of Russian gas.”

Before Germany’s self-imposed Russian energy embargo, Russia supplied 55% of the country’s natural gas imports. Germany now sources its gas from Norway (44%), the Netherlands (24%) and Belgium (21%), with American liquefied natural gas (LNG) accounting for most of the remainder.

Brussels has pledged to end all Russian gas imports by 2027. Russian LNG under long-term contracts, which currently accounts for around 14% of the bloc’s imports, will be banned from January 1, while pipeline gas imports will cease on September 30. Member states will also be required to verify the origin of gas before approving deliveries, with purchases under new short-term LNG contracts already prohibited.

The German economy contracted in both 2023 and 2024, its first back-to-back annual decline in more than two decades, and is forecast to grow by just 0.5% this year. Corporate insolvencies also rose by more than 22% in each of those years, according to official data.

Manufacturing has been hit particularly hard, especially the automotive sector. BASF, Bosch, Volkswagen, and more than a dozen other German manufacturers have closed factories since 2022. In June, Volkswagen, the country’s largest automaker, announced four plant closures and up to 100,000 job cuts.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has thanked Jordanian civilians and military personnel for allegedly providing the “accurate intelligence” it used to strike US forces and aircraft stationed in the kingdom.

In a statement carried by Tasnim on Monday, the IRGC claimed that ballistic missiles targeted US C-17 military transport aircraft and P-8 command-and-control planes at Aqaba Airport in southern Jordan during its latest round of retaliatory attacks. Several of the aircraft suffered “heavy damage,” according to the statement.

The IRGC credited Jordanian informants with helping Iran target 20 hangars housing US forces in the Al-Azraq area during an earlier attack. It claimed that the facilities were destroyed and that dozens of American personnel were killed, suggesting that even one of Washington’s closest regional allies is no longer a secure rear base.

The IRGC expressed gratitude to what it called the “honorable people and courageous military personnel of Jordan” for their “sincere cooperation and precise information,” which it said had enabled Iranian forces to accurately identify American military assets.

The US previously acknowledged that an Iranian attack on one of its military facilities in Jordan on Friday left two American service members dead and one missing, as well as several others injured. Washington has not, however, confirmed any damage at Aqaba Airport or the larger casualty figures claimed by Tehran.

Iran has repeatedly claimed to have destroyed US aircraft and other military equipment during strikes on bases in Jordan, while American media have reported that several days of attacks had resulted in dozens of service members sustaining injuries and damaged multiple helicopters.

US officials cited by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have also voiced concern that Iranian missiles are becoming increasingly effective at penetrating American air defenses because of their speed and maneuverability.

Before the renewed conflict, the Pentagon reportedly relocated some troops and aircraft from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to Jordan and Israel, which were considered less vulnerable because of their greater distance from Iran.

Tehran has carried out near-daily missile and drone attacks on US military facilities across Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Iraq, and Syria in retaliation for the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran, which resumed after a temporary ceasefire collapsed earlier this month.

The US and Iran are on the precipice of all out conflict, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with discussions in the White House. According to the paper’s sources, Washington is ramping up its air war assets in the Middle East.

The warning comes as the Pentagon confirmed that at least four US service members had been killed after Iranian forces launched retaliatory strikes on American military facilities in the region. According to the New York Times, US forces were hit by Iranian missile and drone attacks several times over the past week, wounding dozens of troops and damaging several Black Hawk helicopters.

As both sides escalate strikes on civilian and military targets, the Pentagon is boosting the number of military aircraft in the Middle East, according to the Washington Post.

“We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that,” the official told the Post. Military experts cited in the report said Washington remains unprepared for potential ground operations inside Iran–an option US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out.

Saeid Golkar, an expert on Iran’s security services, told the Wall Street Journal that the situtation risks getting completely out of hand. “This escalation is rapidly intensifying and getting out of control,” he said. “There is a risk we will go back to a total war even if neither side wants it.”

A CNN analysis suggested that “a decisive US military victory over Iran seems a distant prospect.” In echoing remarks, Sina Toosi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, warned that a ground operation “in extreme summer heat... against a fully mobilized military and a population that has largely rallied around the war effort, would be an extraordinary gamble practically guaranteed to be a historic disaster.”

Meanwhile, despite Trump’s assurances that the US had already crippled Iran’s war potential, several US media outlets reported that Washington is growing concerned about the Iranian military’s increasing effectiveness at penetrating American air defenses with missile strikes.

Asked by RT to comment on the potential expansion of the war, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said that “the responsibility... rests exclusively with the United States.” He went on to urge regional powers to “prevent the US from using their territory and facilities to attack” Iran, saying that Tehran’s retaliatory strikes were in self-defense.

The current escalation follows the collapse of a fragile ceasefire earlier this month due to the escalation in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump declared the truce “over,” calling Iran’s leaders “sick people” and threatening to reimpose a naval blockade of the waterway. Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the renewed US strikes a “gross violation” of the ceasefire memorandum, vowing its armed forces would defend the country’s territorial integrity and national security.

Canada will temporarily bar foreign nationals who have recently visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) from entering the country as the death toll from an Ebola outbreak continues to rise.

The measure takes effect at 11:59 PM on Monday and applies to foreigners who have been in DR Congo during the previous 21 days, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced on Sunday. Airlines have been ordered to prevent affected passengers from boarding flights to Canada.

Canadian citizens and permanent residents returning from DR Congo, Uganda or South Sudan will remain eligible for entry but must undergo health assessments and quarantine for 21 days. Canada initially suspended immigration documents for residents of the three countries in May after outbreaks of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola were declared in DR Congo and Uganda.

PHAC said the new measures will remain in place until August 29, despite noting that the health risk posed by the disease to Canadians is considered low and that no travel-related cases have been reported in the country.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that such restrictions risk fueling stigma against people from affected regions and African communities, stressing that Ebola transmission “is not determined by nationality or ethnicity.”

“Stigma discourages people from seeking care and can make outbreaks harder to control,” the WHO said in a statement last month.

No licensed vaccine or specific treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain. Last week, Oxford University launched a Phase I human trial to assess the safety and immune response of its ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine as a possible means of preventing the disease.

The US has barred American citizens departing DR Congo from returning directly, requiring them to spend 21 days in another country as part of measures it says are aimed at containing the outbreak.

Israel is spending tens of millions of dollars on an AI-powered media campaign aimed at improving its image and influencing public opinion in the US, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The country’s standing among Americans has deteriorated in recent years. Some 60% of US adults held an unfavorable view of Israel in March, up from 53% last year and 42% in 2022, according to Pew Research Center.

According to an investigation published by the WSJ on Saturday, millions of AI-generated messages have been sent to Americans in recent months from senders using names such as Emma, Sarah, and John.

The messages claim to come from a group called Friends for Peace and ask recipients questions such as “How do you think the US and Israel’s peace talks with Iran will impact global security?” The newspaper said it could find no nonprofit or company registered under that name.

Parscale’s team has also created pro-Israel websites and online posts designed to generate more favorable answers about the country from AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude.

Last year, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said West Jerusalem had allocated more than $700 million in its 2026 budget to improve Israel’s image worldwide and “shape consciousness.”

At least six companies have been retained for the work in the US, while around three dozen people have registered as foreign agents on Israel’s behalf, according to the newspaper.

The US campaign also reportedly includes over $500,000 in advertising through conservative broadcaster Salem Media, where Parscale serves as chief strategy officer. Salem denied paying its hosts to promote particular positions.

In an interview released Wednesday with podcaster Joe Rogan, US Vice President J.D. Vance accused some members of the Israeli government of attempting to manipulate American public opinion to keep the Iran conflict going “indefinitely.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not respond to the WSJ’s requests for comment.

The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) chapter of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has released footage of its operatives hunting down Ukrainian drone operators and saboteurs.

The video, published by the FSB press service on Monday, features the unit’s work on the outskirts of Konstantinovka, which was recently liberated by the Russian military. The country’s troops are continuing search and destroy operations in the city, hunting for Ukrainian holdouts and saboteurs attempting to infiltrate it.

The FSB unit identified and attacked a drone command point and three locations housing saboteur groups operating in the city. A total of ten Ukrainian militants were eliminated during the operation by the unit’s FPV drones, the press service said.

The fall of Konstantinovka has become a major defeat for Ukrainian forces operating in Donbass. The city is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of settlements in the northwest of the DPR.

Russian forces are currently advancing to the northwest of the city toward the town of Druzhkovka, which is located between Konstantinovka and Kramatorsk. Speaking on Saturday during his visit to a frontline command post, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said the troops have already entered the town’s satellite village of Alekseeyevo-Druzhkovka and are battling Ukrainian units stationed there.

At least 10 people have been injured in a Ukrainian drone raid on the Russian capital and its surrounding region, including three Chinese citizens, Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov has said.

On Monday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported that more than 400 UAVs had been launched toward the city and its suburbs overnight in one of the largest raids on the region to date.
Russian air defenses detected the incoming UAVs between 8:30 PM on Sunday and 5 AM on Monday, Sobyanin wrote on social media. Most were intercepted far from the capital, while another 85 were destroyed as they approached Moscow, he said.

“Most were neutralized by air defense forces at distant approaches. Eighty-five UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow,” the mayor said, adding that emergency crews were working at sites where debris had fallen.

Two women were injured in Podolsk, while an 11-year-old girl in the Odintsovo district was diagnosed with an acute stress reaction but did not require hospitalization.

The main consequences of the raid were recorded in Podolsk, Domodedovo, and the Odintsovo urban district, Vorobyov said. Falling drones damaged several private homes and civilian infrastructure facilities and sparked multiple fires, he added.

In Odintsovo, a car and a private home were damaged, although no injuries were reported. In Podolsk, fires broke out and several civilian infrastructure sites were damaged, along with a private home in the village of Maloye Tolbino. 

Separately, Acting Bryansk Governor Egor Kovalchuk said one person was killed and 13 others were injured in attacks launched by “Ukrainian terrorists.”

In an interview with RT, Stanislav Krapivnik, a former US Army officer, said that Ukraine is unable to effectively attack Russian military and key industrial targets due to increased air defenses, opting instead to “go after softer civilian economic targets and civilians themselves.”

The latest attack followed several massive Ukrainian drone raids on Moscow and its suburbs last week. Sobyanin said that 1,892 UAVs had been launched toward the region between July 11 and 18, with most intercepted at long range and 207 destroyed closer to the capital.

During one overnight attack alone, more than 370 drones flew toward the Moscow Region.

Wildberries, often called the Russian version of Amazon, is one of the country’s most popular online retailers. Kiev confirmed that it had deliberately targeted the warehouses, claiming they stored components used in drone and navigation equipment.

Ukraine has sharply intensified its long-range drone campaign in recent weeks, targeting oil facilities, warehouses, residential buildings, and other infrastructure deep inside Russian territory. Moscow has described the raids as terrorist attacks on civilians and says its retaliatory strikes are directed at Ukrainian military and defense-related facilities.

Andy Burnham has become the seventh British prime minister in just a decade, formally assuming the post on Monday at a meeting with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.

Burnham received overwhelming support from 349 out of 401 fellow Labour members of parliament and was appointed the party’s leader on Friday – the only candidate for the position. 

The appointment marks the end Sir Keir Starmer's time in office, plagued by ever-tanking approval ratings, he is seen to have betrayed Britain's working class, suffered for his refusal to prosecute grooming gangs and ultimately failed British liberals on Gaza. RT looks into the roots of the outgoing Labour prime minister’s downfall and the challenges his successor is bound to face.

What prompted Starmer’s downfall?

Two years ago, Starmer led his party to a landslide election victory when Labour beat the Conservatives by a wide margin, ending a decade and a half of Tory governments.

The prime minister struggled with the same issues that had affected his Conservative predecessors given the catastrophic British budget, such as the soaring cost of living, immigration and tax relief - prioritising defense spending, support for Israel's genocidal war in Gaza and backing corrupt military companies in Vladimir Zelensky's Ukraine. 

Starmer’s tenure was marred by assorted high-profile scandals involving disgraced former British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson. The former British trade mninsiter also served as envoy to the US between February and September 2025, and was dismissed over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of insider trading.

Starmer was apparently aware of Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted pedophile but appointed him anyway.

The Mandelson affair was further aggravated by the persisting scandal around grooming gangs, predominantly composed of men of Pakistani origin. Between 2008 and 2013, at the height of the scandal, Starmer led the Crown Prosecutorial Service (CPS) which was heavily criticized for declining to prosecute the Rochdale gang and faced allegations it actually focused on silencing the victims and sweeping the whole affair under the rug instead of pursuing perpetrators for fear of racism accusations.

Why is there no election?

Unlike in many other nations, in Britain’s political system a resignation of a prime minister does not automatically trigger a general election. Instead, a midterm downfall of the government triggers an internal leadership contest within the ruling party rather than a public vote.

Four out of six British prime ministers of the past decade were elevated into power through such procedures. Namely, all the Conservatives successors of David Cameron were picked during internal party contests following the resignation of their respective

Who is Andy Burnham? 

Burnham held the post for nearly a decade, between 2017 and this June, when he was springboarded into the top position within the party.

New leadership, same issues?

Burnham has been promising a “renewal for our party and our country,” heralding “an era of hope” for Britain. While he has been hailed by his supporters as a leader able to reinvigorate Labour’s electoral prospects, it remains to be seen whether he would be able to actually deliver on such hopes.

While cost-of-living issues and the crumbling social welfare systems are set to remain a long-term challenge for the new government, Burnham will have to deal with more pressing issues immediately on assuming office.

Nigel Farage's Reform Party is polling strongly on themes that wil force Burnham to answer questions on immigration, policing, and the overall redistribution of wealth in an increasingly two-tier Britain. 

He will also have to address London's rocky relationship with Washington, which had rapidly deteriorated under Starmer. 

British media reports have suggested Washington has been actively pressing Burnham’s team to pick a cabinet to its liking. US President Donald Trump has praised Burnham over reports that he could open up North Sea oil drilling, suggesting it would transform the UK from a “poverty-stricken disaster to one of the richest countries anywhere in the world.”

Former US counterterrorism chief Joe Kent has called on Washington to withdraw its forces from the Middle East and abandon its bases, arguing that months of military confrontation have demonstrated Iran’s strengthened regional position and warning that further escalation would damage both the US and global economy.

Kent, a former Green Beret and CIA paramilitary officer who served 11 combat tours, resigned in March in protest against the war with the Islamic Republic. In his resignation letter, he wrote that Iran posed no imminent threat to the US and that another “never-ending” conflict, launched under pressure from Israel, did not serve American interests.

“In any chaotic situation, the side that restores order wins,” the former senior official wrote on Saturday, arguing that there was “no military solution” to the war and warning that continued hostilities risked further American casualties and regional destabilization.

In any chaotic situation, the side that restores order wins.

Ending the escalation cycle w/Iran and restoring the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz must be our top priority—not only for the sake of our economy, but for America’s standing as a global superpower.…

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) July 18, 2026

Kent stressed that ending the conflict with Tehran and restoring the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, should remain Washington’s top priority.

“This move removes Iran’s primary justification for disrupting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and for attacking its neighbors. We can then offer the carrot: sanctions relief in exchange for freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, adding that the withdrawal would represent “strategic adaptation” rather than retreat.

“The war has changed the region. Iran has emerged as a major regional power – the sooner we recognize this reality and adjust our posture accordingly, the stronger our position will be,” Kent added.

Since leaving office, Kent has repeatedly spoken out against the war with Iran, portraying it as the latest in a series of US conflicts fought on Israel’s behalf, following those in Iraq and Syria.

The US began its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran only after the World Cup final and trophy presentation had concluded, marking an unusually late start to Washington’s nightly bombing campaign.

US Central Command announced that the new attacks had begun at 7 PM Eastern Time, while most previous nightly rounds had been launched between 2 PM and 4 PM.

“CENTCOM began conducting a new wave of strikes against Iran at 7 PM ET today for the ninth consecutive night,” the command said, claiming that the attacks would continue degrading Iranian military capabilities allegedly used against commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US wrapped up the bombing by sunrise, as usual, bringing one of the shortest nightly operations to an end after just three hours.

CENTCOM did not explain the timing or indicate that the operation had been deliberately scheduled around the international football event. However, US President Donald Trump attended the match at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which went into extra time, and joined the post-game trophy presentation, which wrapped up shortly before the strikes began.

The number of US service members confirmed killed following recent Iranian attacks in Jordan and Iraq has risen to three, with another set of remains found in the rubble yet to be identified. Trump called the deaths a “shame,” but dismissed criticism of the war by comparing the casualties with the far greater losses suffered in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

The losses came amid growing concern in Washington that Iran has become more effective at penetrating American air defenses. The New York Times reported that Tehran still possesses ample missile stocks and has grown more adept at evading US interception systems, while the Wall Street Journal said Iranian forces had adapted by deploying high-speed, maneuverable missiles.

Washington and Tehran have exchanged strikes on a near-daily basis since the collapse of their latest ceasefire last week. Iran has suspended its commitments under the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, while Trump has also declared the truce “over.” The growing hostilities have prompted the US State Department to issue a worldwide travel warning, cautioning Americans about the potential for “unforeseen escalation.”

US President Donald Trump inserted himself into the FIFA World Cup awards ceremony, personally presenting Spain the trophy after the European champions defeated defending champions Argentina 1-0 in extra time at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Trump joined FIFA President Gianni Infantino on the presentation stage on Sunday. Videos from the stadium showed the pair being greeted with a mixture of loud cheers and boos as they walked onto the field for the ceremony.

They handed medals to players from both teams before Trump presented the trophy to Spain captain Rodri.

The US president then remained at the center of the podium, where the players had gathered for the traditional trophy lift. Infantino appeared to gently steer Trump toward the side to give the team more space, but he stayed beside the players as Rodri raised the cup, creating a slightly awkward moment.

🟥 As expected... Trump refused to get out of the frame when Spain did the traditional World Cup Trophy lift.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino had to literally run over and attempt to physically drag him away, so that the Spanish Champions could have their special moment.

What… pic.twitter.com/nbG0NH4I2D

— Fun Tom 🇨🇦 💂 (@funtomvids) July 19, 2026

The incident sparked a wave of condemnation and ridicule online, with some suggesting Trump should have been told he is not a member of the Spanish football team. Others contrasted the US president’s insistence on being in the picture with the Spaniards with his recent rants against Madrid. Earlier this month, Trump told a NATO press conference that Spain was a “wasted cause.”

“We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” he said, complaining that Madrid is “a terrible partner in NATO” and that “they’re hopeless. Bad people.”

Spain dominated much of the final but saw their efforts repeatedly denied by Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who made 12 saves. Luis de la Fuente’s team registered the first 20 shot attempts of the match.

Argentina were reduced to ten men shortly before extra time after Enzo Fernandez was sent off for a second bookable offense.

Goal l 🇪🇸 Spain 1-0 Argentina 🇦🇷 l Ferran Torres pic.twitter.com/foXWHXpG2y

— Goals Highlights (@GoalsHighlight_) July 19, 2026

Substitute Ferran Torres finally broke the deadlock with the only goal in the 106th minute, turning the ball in from close range after Nico Williams headed Pedro Porro’s cross into his path.

The victory secured Spain’s second men’s World Cup, 16 years after their triumph in South Africa in 2010. With the women’s team having won the 2023 tournament, Spain also became the first country to hold both the men’s and women’s world titles simultaneously.

Trump speaks to Messi as he hands him his silver medal. pic.twitter.com/bPDrbpJru2

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 19, 2026

The defeat denied Argentina back-to-back championships and brought what was likely Messi’s final World Cup appearance to a disappointing end. The 39-year-old struggled to make an impact against Spain’s defense after helping Argentina reach their second consecutive final.

Trump became the first sitting US president to attend a World Cup final on American soil. Before the match, he hailed the expanded 48-team tournament as a major success and declared that the United States had become “a soccer country.”

Trump had appeared to lean toward Argentina while declining to make an outright prediction. “I won’t pick sides, but I think it’s very hard to bet against Messi. He’s great,” he told Fox Sports earlier, adding that he had “always liked” both Messi and his longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo.

Two Ukrainian servicemen have been captured attempting to infiltrate the city of Konstantinovka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) to create the illusion that Kiev’s troops remained present there, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The soldiers claimed to belong to the infamous Skelia regiment, which is under investigation over reports of torture, abuse, and non-combat deaths among recruits.

Konstantinovka is “fully under the control” of Russian forces, but Ukrainian commanders continue to send soldiers on knowingly impossible missions for propaganda purposes, the ministry said on Sunday, describing the attempted flag-planting as a botched PR stunt.

“We were sent into the city of Konstantinovka knowing that it was controlled by Russian soldiers. Our comrades were killed, while we were kept alive and treated with respect,” the captured troops said in footage released by the ministry. The men identified themselves as Evgeny Mosin and Sergey Stolyarsky from Ukraine’s infamous 425th Separate Assault Regiment ‘Skelia’ (formerly Skala).

Skelia ended up in the public limelight after media reports alleging that at least 26 recruits died in the regiment’s training and rear units between late 2025 and spring 2026 due to a lack of medical care, physical abuse, and coercion by certain instructors and commanders. The Ukrainian authorities opened an investigation into the controversy, suspending the regiment’s commander, Lt. Col. Yury Harkaviy.

Russian forces have since expanded their zone of control northwest of Konstantinovka toward Druzhkovka and entered the nearby settlement of Alekseyevo-Druzhkovka, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Saturday. Moscow also says Ukrainian defenses in Krasny Liman, northeast of Slavyansk, have been broken and that Russian troops are eliminating the remaining pockets of resistance.

US President Donald Trump has brushed aside Democratic lawmakers’ calls to end the war with Iran after four US service members were killed in a missile strike on a military base in the Middle East. The Republican appeared to downplay the extent of the casualties in the conflict, suggesting that the death tolls suffered by the US military during the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars were far higher.

On Saturday, the US Central Command reported that four American service members had lost their lives after Iranian forces had pounded a military installation in Jordan and Iraq with ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones the previous day.

In a phone interview with the New York Post later on Saturday, Trump said that the recent losses were a “shame,” claiming that the American troops “died because they don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon and they don’t want to see the Middle East blown up.”

Trump went on to argue that the US military has incurred far fewer casualties during the ongoing conflict with Iran and the January raid of US commandos in Venezuela, during which they abducted President Nicolas Maduro.

His remarks came after Democratic Representative Nikki Budzinski described the death of the two US service members in Jordan as the “cost of President Trump’s needless war.” Another Democratic lawmaker, Herb Conaway, similarly demanded in a post on X that “Trump end this war that he started.”

In a post of her own, she wrote: “Sacrifice?? What the f**k are you talking about??”

“They did not willingly sacrifice themselves,” Greene insisted, adding that the US troops “were killed because of the war you, Trump, and the admin, are waging on behalf of a FOREIGN COUNTRY, Israel.”

Aside from Greene, several other prominent figures, including podcaster and journalist Tucker Carlson, commentator Candace Owens, and radio show host Alex Jones, have broken with the MAGA camp, citing their strong disagreement with the war on Iran.

The latest incident in Jordan and Iraq has brought the total death toll for US forces to 18 since the US and Israel launched their military campaign against the Islamic Republic in late February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and expressed gratitude to Pyongyang for helping liberate Kursk Region from Ukrainian forces last year.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) deployed its troops to Russia in late 2024, acting under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty that obliges Moscow and Pyongyang to come to each other’s defense in case of aggression. The North Korean contingent assisted the Russian military in repelling a large-scale Ukrainian incursion into the border region. DPRK service members have also participated in subsequent mine-clearing activities in the area.

Receiving Choe on Sunday, Putin hailed the high level of bilateral relations between the two countries, as quoted by the Kremlin press office. He also stated that the valor and heroism that North Korean soldiers displayed in Kursk Region will never be forgotten in Russia.

Putin also extended heartfelt greetings to DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.

The North Korean diplomat, in turn, reaffirmed Pyongyang’s commitment to the strategic partnership with Moscow.

In April, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov traveled to North Korea, where he awarded troops who participated in the liberation of Kursk Region with Russia’s Order of Courage.

He described the DPRK service members as the “true heroes of our time, the elite of the Korean armed forces, their pride and their tower of strength.”

During the visit, Belousov also met with Kim, discussing steps to further deepen the defense partnership between Russia and North Korea on “a sustainable, long-term basis.”

The Russian minister stated at the time that Moscow was willing to sign a Russian-Korean Military Cooperation Plan for 2027-2031.

Hitler doppelganger Stefan Wijkamp has been ordered to appear before a German court on charges of incitement of hatred, Bild has reported. The Dutch national, who has repeatedly traveled to Germany to take part in far-right rallies in recent years, is an avowed admirer of the late Nazi leader.

On Sunday, Bild quoted Matthias Bieling, deputy head of the Munster district court, as confirming that the first hearing in the case is scheduled for next Friday, July 24. According to the publication, the German authorities took issue with an interview that Wijkamp gave to a YouTuber during a far-right demonstration in Munster last summer. In it, he proclaimed that his “love for Germany is called Adolf Hitler,” whom the outspoken Dutchman described as a “world wonder without equal” and a “genius.”

In modern-day Germany, the public glorification of Nazi Germany and its leaders is not considered protected speech and is punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine.

According to the media outlet, the Hitler lookalike has frequented far-right gatherings in neighboring Germany since at least 2017. He even reportedly joined the now-defunct neo-Nazi ‘Die Rechte’ (The Right) party and served on its board for some time.

A perusal of the Dutch press indicates that Wijkamp has also had several run-ins with the law in his native Netherlands, with his offenses reportedly including performing a Nazi salute in public.

“Victory,” US president John F. Kennedy once said (paraphrasing the Roman historian Tacitus), “has a hundred fathers, and defeat is an orphan.” To be precise, Kennedy made the comment after a humiliating political and black-ops fiasco, namely the botched attempt to use Cuban exiles to invade and regime-change Fidel Castro’s Cuba, commonly known as the Bay of Pigs disaster.

What Kennedy rediscovered so painfully is a sad truth about human nature, that is, our love of taking credit for success even when it’s not really due and aversion to taking responsibility for failure. Sad but not complicated – unless that is you are dealing with Ukrainian politics under the Zelensky regime. There, success is dubious or, at least, greatly exaggerated; failure is concealed; and you can end up punished for either as if there’s no difference in the first place.

Consider for instance the “turmoil” – so the Financial Times – after the sudden sacking of Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov. After six months in (this) office, Fedorov was dismissed by president-forever Vladimir Zelensky. So far, so unremarkable: Counting Fedorov, Kiev has had five ministers of defense since the escalation of the war in 2022. What makes the case of the 35-year old unusual is that he has functioned as the popular – and much hyped – poster boy for an important information war campaign that is at odds with firing him.

According to that narrative, currently spread with vigor by both the Zelensky regime and the West, Ukraine has recently achieved a major breakthrough in the war against Russia. Indeed, according to some especially eager commentators, Kiev has turned the war around in its favor with its UAV deep strikes on Russian fuel infrastructure, producing, according to the always particularly gung-ho Telegraph a “tectonic shift.” The only slightly less biased Financial Times felt Ukraine was “turning the tables” already at the end of May. In France, the equally mainstream Le Monde caught up with the euphoria a month later.

Indeed, if there are outliers, voices that seem to have missed the memo, they come, intriguingly, from Ukrainians, and very nationalist ones at that: The former commander of the Ukrainian military – and eternal Zelensky rival – Valery Zaluzhny has published an op-ed to warn of exaggerated expectations. Ukrainska Pravda, meanwhile, has featured a long article with multiple quotes from frontline officers and soldiers dismissing the air campaign as making no difference to their experience of the war.

In reality, Ukraine’s increased strikes with drones and missiles behind the frontlines (“mid-range”) and far into Russia (“long-range”) have had effects, as the Russian leadership has acknowledged. But their most likely overall result is not Ukraine winning the war but Russia escalating its counterstrikes, a process that has already started, while also continuing its slow but relentless ground campaign.

Fedorov’s role in the information-war hype and hyperbole about the Ukrainian air campaign has been to personify its success, and in particular what is in effect yet another claim to a miracle weapon – remember HIMARS, the Leopard tanks, the F16s? – namely, that Kiev has mobilized the magic of IT and AI to defeat Russia “asymmetrically.”

With photo ops with Palantir’s diabolical CEO Alex Karp and claims to have made Elon Musk shut down Starlink for Russia’s military, Fedorov has been carefully cast as a sort of weaponized start-up redeemer. That image in turn has served as a loadbearing beam to keep up the Potemkin façade of a game-changing leap from “the ground into the heavens,” in Zelensky’s silly phrase.

So much winning – or so the story went – and yet Fedorov had to go. Indeed, his dismissal has been so shocking to many in Ukraine and the West that some now suspect that it was the main purpose of Zelensky’s recent reshuffling of his whole cabinet. The reasons quoted for this surprising turn of events are many: Zelensky and Fedorov themselves make no secret out of the fact that the commander of Ukraine’s military, the deeply unpopular General Aleksandr ‘the Butcher’ Syrsky had a hand in removing the defense minister.

The two are so hostile to each other that further cooperation was impossible. Ironically, shaken by protests in favor of Fedorov, Zelensky has now signaled he might fire Syrsky as well. How unusual: A government that kicks out the defense minister and maybe the top general as well, just after claiming that the war is on the way to being won. It’s almost as if something about that claim is not really adding up.

But this would not be Ukraine if the story wasn’t about corruption, too. The word on the street and in every single expert interview as well is that wunderkind Fedorov also happened to resist corruption, or at least, some old established networks. In addition, the former defense minister had also been unable to resolve the issue of “busification,” that is, what even the Telegraph has learned to recognize as the often brutal “press-ganging” of ordinary Ukrainians for the proxy war meat grinder. In all fairness though, the only solution to that problem would be to end the war.

Finally, Fedorov, many plausibly guess, may have been tripped up by his own well-cultivated hype. Zelensky has a way of removing whoever seems to be turning into a potentially dangerous rival. Especially with thickening rumors about elections, he may well have considered Fedorov too popular to stay around.

And again, what a curious sight, if you think about it. Allegedly, Fedorov has been the key person in devising a winning strategy for the war. Yet Zelensky’s personal ambition and need to play dirty to eliminate rivals are more important. How patriotic!

Kennedy knew a thing or two about human vanity and cowardice. But Zelensky-regime Kiev really makes you want to paraphrase Winston Churchill, too: It’s a world where half-truths are wrapped in lies inside propaganda campaigns and bulldogs fight under a shrinking carpet as if there were no tomorrow.

UK opposition parties have called for aid and visas for Pakistan to be suspended after Islamabad refused to accept the deportation of a grooming gang ringleader convicted of multiple child sex offenses.

Pakistani-born Shabir Ahmed was a leading figure in the Rochdale gang, which sexually exploited British girls in the Greater Manchester borough during the 2000s. He was released earlier this month after serving 14 years of a 22-year sentence for 30 counts of child rape.

Although Ahmed was stripped of his British citizenship in 2016, the UK government was unable to deport him because the Immigration Act 1971 protects certain Commonwealth citizens who arrived in Britain before 1973 and had lived there for at least five years.

Despite the Labour government insisting it was doing “everything possible” to deport Ahmed, on Thursday it came to light that the Foreign Office had approved £153 million ($206 million) in development assistance for Pakistan over the next three years. The disclosure triggered a war of words between the ruling party and the opposition.

“Pakistan. No foreign aid. No visas. Until you take back rapist Ahmed,” Reform UK’s deputy leader wrote on X on Friday.

UK Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp echoed the demand, saying that “vile pedophile child rapists who came here from Pakistan should all be deported back.”

“We should stop all overseas aid and issuance of new visas for Pakistani citizens until they take Ahmed and those like him back,” he added.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel likewise condemned the decision, arguing that Labour’s approval of the aid package “tells you all you need to know.”

The British government argued that the aid would help build a safer and more resilient Pakistan, reducing “security and migration risks to the UK.”

Islamabad has maintained that responsibility for Ahmed lies with Britain, where he “grew up, was raised, groomed and, unfortunately, spoiled.”

The Rochdale convictions were among several cases that exposed widespread failures by police and local authorities to protect vulnerable girls and act on repeated reports of organized sexual abuse. A recent report commissioned by Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe argued that authorities often failed to intervene for fear of being accused of racism.

The US is concerned that the Iranian military is growing increasingly effective at penetrating its air defenses in the Middle East, several media outlets have reported, citing anonymous officials. It comes off the back of a deadly missile and drone strike on a military base in Jordan on Friday, which left two American service members killed and another one missing, according to the Pentagon.

In an article on Saturday, the New York Times quoted its sources as saying that the latest Iranian retaliatory strikes are a “sign that Iranian forces not only still have ample missile stocks but have also become more adept at evading US air defense systems.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous officials, similarly reported that the Iranian military “has adapted to US defenses, firing missiles that travel at extremely high speeds and can maneuver as they streak toward the Earth.”

According to the NYT, in the run-up to the US-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic that started in late February, the Pentagon had moved some of its troops from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to Jordan and Israel. Since the two countries are situated further away from Iranian territory, they were supposedly considered to be relatively safe by the US military leadership.

Daoud Kuttab, a journalist and columnist at Al-Monitor, has likewise told RT that “maybe the Americans thought that they would be safer in Jordan.” However, “it seems that Iran doesn’t have any red lines,” he added.

In June, he told Kristen Welker at NBC News that “most of the [Iranian] drone factories have been knocked out… and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out,” with Tehran’s arsenals supposedly down to 21% of their pre-war levels.

On Saturday, US Central Command reported that two American service members had been killed, while another remained unaccounted for, following an Iranian ballistic missile and kamikaze drone barrage on a military installation in Jordan the previous day.

At around the same time, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that its forces had destroyed at least two US fighter jets and three other aircraft at an American base in Al-Azraq, Jordan.

The NYT, citing anonymous officials, reported that US military personnel stationed in the Middle Eastern country had come under Iranian missile and UAV attacks on at least three separate occasions earlier in the week. The strikes reportedly left dozens of US service members injured and damaged a significant number of Blackhawk helicopters.

Washington and Tehran have exchanged fire on a nearly daily basis over the past week, following the collapse of a ceasefire earlier this month.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi recently announced that the Islamic Republic had suspended its commitments under the 60-day ceasefire, which Washington and Tehran tentatively agreed to on June 17 as part of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

Earlier this month, Trump similarly declared the truce with Iran “over.”

Ten fresh corpses were discovered across the central Mexican state of Zacatecas on Saturday, according to local authorities, including five who were discovered hanging from a highway bridge.

The bodies, half-naked and showing signs of torture, were found at three separate locations in the state. Some of them had pieces of cardboard attached to them with messages attributed to an organized crime group. The victims included a former mayor and two municipal officials.

Federal and state security forces have been deployed and an investigation is underway. No arrests have been announced at the time of writing.

Diez cuerpos fueron encontrados en varias partes de Zacatecas, todos ellos corresponden a trabajadores y funcionarios municipales. Varios de esos cuerpos fueron colgados de un puente. #zacatecas #zacatecasmexico #mexico #ejercitomexicano pic.twitter.com/wvQPVEP518

— fuerzas_especiales_mex (@FuerzasMex) July 19, 2026

Zacatecas has long been one of Mexico’s most violent states, as rival drug cartels battle for control of trafficking routes linking the country’s Pacific coast with the US border. The latest killings come just days after federal and state authorities reported a sharp decline in homicides and said security conditions had improved.

Public displays of bodies, including victims hanged from bridges, have long been used by Mexican criminal groups to intimidate rivals and send messages. The latest killings echo a series of similar attacks in recent years.

In June 2025, authorities found 20 bodies in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, including four decapitated victims hanging from a bridge. Their heads were discovered nearby, in a plastic bag.

The US has agreed to allow Saudi Arabia to have its own nuclear program and enrich uranium, CNN has reported, citing draft documents and sources familiar with the negotiations. The draft deal has been negotiated and is awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature, the outlet wrote on Saturday.

According to the report, the agreement would not require the enhanced International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards known as the Additional Protocol, which gives inspectors broader access to nuclear facilities and is designed to help detect undeclared nuclear activities.

The reported deal would give the Saudis access to the same uranium-enrichment technology that has been at the center of Iran’s decades-long dispute with the West. Washington and Israel have long argued that Tehran’s enrichment program could be used to produce nuclear weapons and cited those concerns when launching strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure earlier this year.

Saudi Arabia has long sought a nuclear industry, saying it wants to develop domestic uranium resources, diversify its energy mix, free up more crude oil for export, and power industrial and desalination projects. Riyadh has also argued that, as an NPT signatory, it has the same right as other member states to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

The reported agreement would mark a departure from Washington’s long-standing “gold standard” approach to civilian nuclear cooperation. In 2009, the United Arab Emirates permanently renounced uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing in exchange for American nuclear cooperation. The agreement has since been promoted by successive US administrations as a model for nuclear partnerships in the Middle East.

Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate have been arrested in the US after British prosecutors brought additional charges against them and requested their extradition.

The brothers, who hold both US and British citizenship, were detained in Miami on Saturday under a sealed warrant. US Marshals in the Southern District of Florida carried out the arrests “pursuant to extradition proceedings,” a Justice Department spokesperson told CBS News.

A source familiar with the matter told AP that they are expected to appear in federal court early this week.

Earlier the same day, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that it had decided to bring 38 additional charges related to four further alleged victims, bringing the combined total to 59 charges involving seven alleged victims.

The offenses allegedly took place between July 2010 and August 2017.

Tristan Tate, 38, faces 17 charges overall, including six new counts: two of rape, one of sexual assault and three of facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Both men deny all allegations. Their US lawyer, Joseph McBride, called the new charges “filth and slander” intended to derail the brothers’ defamation lawsuits in the US.

“They’re pulling out all the stops to make sure these guys never get their day in court,” he told AP.

Andrew Tate first gained mainstream attention after appearing on the UK reality show Big Brother in 2016 before building a large online following promoting a hypermasculine lifestyle. Tate has frequently criticized British authorities and the country’s political establishment.

The brothers moved to Romania in 2016 and were arrested there in December 2022 on allegations of human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group. Andrew was also accused of rape.

They spent three months in custody before being moved to house arrest and later placed under judicial supervision.

A Romanian court subsequently returned the original case to prosecutors over legal and procedural irregularities, but the charges were not dismissed.

Romania lifted the brothers’ travel restrictions in February 2025, allowing them to fly to Florida. The decision followed reports that Trump administration officials had raised their case with Bucharest, although Romanian officials denied facing US pressure.

The Russian Defense Ministry has detailed the targets of its latest large-scale overnight attack on , saying that it hit military-industrial enterprises, logistics hubs, and fuel infrastructure used by Kiev’s forces.

Moscow maintains that it targets only military and dual-use installations in response to Ukraine’s indiscriminate “terrorist attacks.”

The ministry said Russian forces used high-precision air- and ground-launched weapons, as well as attack drones, against targets in Kiev and Kiev Region.

According to the ministry, the targets in the Ukrainian capital included Radionics, an electronics manufacturer that produces guidance systems for FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles, FP-7 and FP-9 tactical missiles, Neptune-MD guided missiles, and a Ukrainian analogue of the Soviet S-300 surface-to-air missile. The company also repairs and modernizes avionics and radar systems for MiG-29 fighter jets.

Russian strikes also hit Spetsoboronmash/Artyom, which manufactures missile guidance components; Meridian, a producer of airframes and guidance system parts for Neptune-MD missiles; Oakline, which makes components for long-range strike drones, carbon-fiber parts and batteries for FPV drones, and stores unmanned aircraft, the ministry said.

In Kiev Region, Russian forces targeted the Tarasovka logistics center operated by Antel Properties, which the ministry said receives, stores, assembles, and distributes components for the production of long-range drones.

The ministry also said Russian forces struck fuel storage tanks and other infrastructure at the Port of Yuzhny in Odessa Region that was used to receive and store military cargo, as well as fuel and lubricants intended to supply the Ukrainian military.

Later in the day, officials reported additional port strikes in the region involving Oniks anti-ship missiles, cruise missiles, and loitering munitions. The attacks hit a facility assembling long-range drones and an area where fuel trucks were parked. On top of that, five fuel storage tanks in a village some 15 km from Odessa intended for the Ukrainian military were struck, the statement added.

Russian aircraft and drones also hit two bulk carriers loaded with military cargo anchored off the port of Odessa, as well as two vessels – a bulker and a cargo ship – north of Snake Island, which the ministry said Ukrainian forces had used to launch air and maritime drones.

The latest barrage comes as Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone raids deep inside Russian territory amid significant setbacks on the battlefield, often hitting residential buildings and deliberately targeting other civilian infrastructure.

Kiev routinely accuses Russia of deliberately striking civilian sites, but it has a long history of using such facilities, including warehouses, public buildings, and industrial sites, for military purposes.

The US health authorities have identified shredded iceberg lettuce served at the country’s largest Mexican-inspired fast-food chain as the source of an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic illness that causes severe, explosive diarrhea.

More than 1,600 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis have been reported nationwide since early May, with 94 people hospitalized. No deaths have been reported, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that the actual number of infections is likely much higher because many cases go undiagnosed.

The CDC on Friday identified the chain as Taco Bell and said a traceback investigation linked the contaminated produce to a single supplier in central Mexico. The CDC urged people not to eat shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Cyclosporiasis is caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis. The illness typically causes explosive watery diarrhea, along with bloating, gas, stomach cramps, nausea, and vomiting. Some people also experience fatigue and fever, while others develop no symptoms at all.

The infection is usually contracted by consuming food or water contaminated with feces, with symptoms typically appearing around a week after exposure, according to the CDC.

While the illness can be treated with antibiotics, it is not detected by most routine laboratory tests, making it difficult to diagnose. If left untreated, the infection can last for more than a month, with recurring bouts of diarrhea being the most characteristic feature.

Previous cyclosporiasis outbreaks in the US have been linked to cilantro, raspberries, sweet peas, lettuce, and basil imported from Mexico.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he is exploring the legal possibility of arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he travels to the city for the UN General Assembly in September.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “other inhumane acts.”

Mamdani, who has characterized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide, vowed during his mayoral campaign last year to arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York City. During an episode of The New York Times’ The Interview podcast that aired on Saturday, the mayor was asked whether he still intended to fulfill that pledge.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” he responded, referring to the seat of the ICC, where those accused of major international crimes are tried. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”

“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do,” he said. “But we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, accused Mamdani of failing to confront a “rising wave of antisemitism” and instead choosing to “incite hostility” against the Jewish state. He confirmed that Netanyahu intends to address the General Assembly during its annual High-Level Week, scheduled for September 22–28, saying the mayor’s position “will not change a thing.”

Netanyahu said in a recent radio interview that he was not concerned about Mamdani’s threats to detain him, accusing the New York mayor of “championing” Hamas and hating America.

Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the ICC, and federal law prohibits state and local authorities from cooperating with requests from the court. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said last year that the mayor lacked the authority to arrest Netanyahu.

The Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were targeted by a large-scale strike using high-precision weapons and drones early on Sunday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Moscow maintains that it targets only military and dual-use installations in response to Ukraine’s indiscriminate “terrorist attacks.”

The first blasts in Kiev were heard shortly after 1 AM local time, followed by further explosions in several waves, with local media reporting over 40 missile strikes by 3 AM. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported multiple fires near residential buildings, shopping centers, and unspecified “non-residential” facilities.

Several blurred videos shared on social media showed numerous blasts and successive fires in and around the Ukrainian capital.

CCTV footage shows Zircon and Iskander-M missiles striking targets in Kyiv.

So far, 16 PAC-3 interceptors have been launched in response to the attack.

Source: FalconIntel on TG pic.twitter.com/ET4yKtx71F

— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) July 18, 2026

The Russian Defense Ministry said high-precision air- and ground-launched weapons and attack drones targeted Ukrainian military-industrial facilities and logistics hubs in Kiev and the surrounding region.

The operation also targeted infrastructure at the Port of Yuzhny in Odessa Region that was being used to receive and store military cargo and fuel supplies intended to support Ukrainian forces, according to the MOD.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone raids deep inside Russian territory amid significant setbacks on the battlefield, often hitting residential buildings and deliberately targeting other civilian infrastructure.

Kiev routinely accuses Russia of deliberately striking civilian sites, but it has a long history of using civilian facilities, including warehouses, public buildings, and industrial sites, for military purposes.

The US State Department has issued a worldwide security warning urging Americans to exercise increased caution amid fears of further escalation in Washington’s renewed war with Iran.

“Due to heightened tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation,” it said on Saturday, advising US citizens worldwide – particularly those in the region – to monitor breaking developments and follow instructions issued by the nearest American embassy or consulate.

The warning noted that flight cancellations and periodic airspace closures could cause travel disruptions. It also said that US diplomatic facilities had been targeted, including those outside the Middle East, and warned that pro-Iranian groups could attack “other US interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world.”

The deaths brought the total number of officially confirmed American fatalities since the US-Israeli war against Iran began in February to 16.

US President Donald Trump had posted nothing on Truth Social for more than 24 hours and offered only a brief response when NewsNation and the New York Post called him about the deaths.

CENTCOM announced a new round of strikes later than usual on Saturday evening, after remaining silent for much of the day, and claimed that the attacks were intended to “swiftly punish” IRGC forces responsible for the deaths of American service members.

Iran has carried out near-daily retaliatory missile and drone attacks on US military facilities across the Middle East since Washington resumed large-scale strikes earlier this month. Tehran has targeted bases and other American-linked facilities in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, as well as in Iraq and Syria.

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to teach the US an “unforgettable lesson” in a written statement on Saturday, after Tehran repeatedly warned that the “entire region will pay the price” for American attacks on Iran’s civilian infrastructure.

Now that the American enemy is seeking to escalate the conflict thereby incurring even heavier costs and further humiliation, it should know that the noble nation of Iran and the Resistance Front have unforgettable lessons in store for it.

— Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (@MKhamenei_ir) July 18, 2026

The Iranian Health Ministry said on Saturday that US strikes between June 27 and July 18 had killed 50 people, including women and children, and injured more than 500. An estimated 3,500 Iranians were killed in the first round of attacks launched in February, while Israeli operations in Lebanon reportedly claimed another 4,300 lives.

The parliamentary leader of Germany’s ruling bloc, Jens Spahn, has been forced to step down after he and his husband had a child via surrogacy. Spahn had previously criticized the practice, while his conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) party strongly opposes legalizing it in Germany.

The scandal erupted this week when Spahn and his spouse Daniel Funke welcomed their son Georg, birthed by a surrogate mother from the US. “Georg is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to put into words,” Spahn told the German tabloid Bild on Wednesday.

The joyous announcement was immediately met with a storm of criticism, with the lawmaker coming under fire for “hypocrisy.” Multiple critics have recalled statements from 2015, when Spahn told GQ magazine that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb.”

“Accepting that I will not become a father naturally requires a great deal of humility. I don’t know if I can muster that,” he added at the time.

Spahn came under fire from all the sides of the spectrum, with his fellow CDU member, the party’s head in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, demanding his resignation. “He claims that, as a private individual, he can act in a completely different way that contradicts his stated position as a CDU elected official,” Peters told Bild. “That is absolutely unacceptable.”

The co-leader of right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, stated that Spahn’s resignation was “overdue,” mentioning also his Covid-era actions when he was health minister. He faced allegations of misusing public funds during the pandemic, yet the probe was dropped this past March with no result.

“That he has now undermined a law that he himself voted for has definitively destroyed his credibility,” Weidel wrote on X.

“In recent days, I have come to realize that my personal happiness in starting a family with my husband and becoming a father is incompatible with my political office,” Spahn said in a statement circulated by German media.

While surrogacy in Germany is punishable with up to five years in jail, criminal liability extends only to medical practitioners and intermediaries; therefore, Spahn and his spouse will not face any consequences. Commissioning surrogacy abroad remains a popular way for Germans to circumvent the ban, since ordering the procedure and raising children obtained through the method are legal as well.

The Israel Defense Forces opened 57 criminal investigations into the deaths of multiple Palestinian and Lebanese detainees in Israeli military custody but never indicted anybody, according to Haaretz. Seven of the cases reportedly relate to captives who suffered fatal gunshot wounds.

In an article on Friday, the Israeli newspaper cited filings obtained by the human rights group Hatzlacha through Freedom of Information requests. Most of the deaths in question reportedly occurred inside IDF military detention facilities that are equipped with CCTV cameras, the publication notes.

Yet, the Israeli military failed to identify suspects in most of the cases, according to Haaretz.

Another 19 probes have reportedly been launched into alleged beatings, violence, and the “unlawful use of force” toward detainees. However, only two indictments were filed as a result, one of which was later dropped after the alleged victim was returned to Gaza before testifying in court, Haaretz claimed.

In response to a request for comment, the IDF confirmed that “several investigations were opened into suspected violations,” insisting that the Israeli military “operates in accordance with international law,” as quoted by Haaretz.

Israel has for years faced accusations of abuse against Palestinian detainees inside IDF holding facilities.

In March, the Israeli military dropped charges against troops accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner at a detention facility at the Sde Teiman base in July 2024. The IDF cited insufficient evidence to secure a conviction and procedural concerns after disturbing footage of the incident was leaked to the media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision, saying that “Israel must pursue its enemies, not its heroic fighters.” 

Meanwhile, last month, Italy and France launched investigations into the alleged mistreatment of activists who were detained by Israeli troops while trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla in May.

After being expelled from Israel, numerous activists hailing from several countries alleged that they had been subjected to beatings, torture, sexual assault, and in some cases outright rape at the hands of Israeli troops.

Three US service members have been killed after Iranian forces struck American military facilities in Jordan with ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones, the Pentagon has reported.

According to a statement released by the US Central Command on Saturday, the casualties were incurred the previous day as American troops “and partner forces defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.”

Additionally, another US soldier was killed “during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone“ in Iraq. 

In a post on X, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed the death of two US service members, adding that “their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”

Video captures the moment that several Iranian medium to intermediate-range ballistic missiles struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan overnight, killing at least two and injuring several other American Servicemembers. pic.twitter.com/cJz39E1LvP

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 18, 2026

US President Donald Trump had posted nothing on Truth Social for more than 24 hours and offered only a brief response when NewsNation asked him about the deaths.

“Have you ever asked how many people died in Vietnam? Have you ever asked how many people died in Afghanistan in one day?” Trump told the New York Post in another brief phone interview.

The latest incident marks the first time American troops have been killed since the conflict between Washington and Tehran reignited earlier this month, Axios has reported. This brings the total death toll for US forces to 16 since the US and Israel launched their military campaign against the Islamic Republic in late February.

Commenting on the deadly Iranian retaliation, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed US officials, that Tehran’s forces “not only still have ample missile stocks but have also become more adept at evading US air defense systems.” The news outlet added that over several days of attacks, Iran injured dozens of US service members and damaged several helicopters.

Meanwhile, Iranian media has published footage purportedly showing a massive fire at the US Al-Muwaqqar air base in Jordan following the Iranian missile and drone strikes.

Iran has been striking US military facilities across the Middle East, including installations in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Iraq, and Syria, over the past week in retaliation for renewed US attacks on Iranian territory after the collapse of the ceasefire earlier this month.

On Friday, the IRGC claimed that it had targeted a HIMARS missile launcher in Kuwait, causing “significant casualties and damage,” while also supposedly killing “numerous” American special forces personnel stationed in the country.

Khamenei also warned of more Iranian retaliatory strikes to come.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi previously announced that Tehran had suspended its commitments under the 60-day ceasefire agreement with Washington.

Earlier this month, Trump likewise declared the tentative ceasefire with Iran “over,” announcing that the US military was “taking over” the Strait of Hormuz and reinstating a blockade of Iranian ports and vessels. Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Türkiye, the US president described the Iranian leadership as “scum,” “cuckoo,” “sick,” “vicious,” and “violent people.”

Ukraine could suffer defeat in the conflict with Russia, as the military command structure is growing increasingly rigid and ineffective, Brigadier General Sergey Sobko warns.

His remarks were echoed earlier by former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, who was controversially relieved of his post by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week – which triggered mass protests across Ukraine.

In a post on Facebook on Friday, Sobko, the chief of staff of the 11th Army Corps, wrote that the Ukrainian military is in urgent need of reform, “otherwise we may be defeated.”

“Professional discussion is often perceived as disloyalty, and initiative as a threat,” he said, adding that this tendency has discouraged commanders from “taking risks for the sake of success.”

Sobko also suggested that commanders are being promoted based on “personal loyalty” to their superiors, as opposed to competence and professionalism. He also called out what he described as a growing trend within the Ukrainian military toward micromanagement and downplaying failures in reports.

Sobko’s criticisms echo those made by former defense chief Fedorov. In the wake of his dismissal earlier this week, the 35-year-old technocrat confirmed that he was at loggerheads with Ukraine’s top military commander, Aleksandr Syrsky, whom he accused of blocking his efforts to modernize the army and make it more technology-oriented.

On Friday, the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources, also reported that Fedorov’s push to make corruption-plagued procurement procedures in the defense sector more transparent did not sit well with the top brass either.

The firing of the defense minister, which came as part of a broader government reshuffle, has sparked protests in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. Apart from demands that the defense chief be reinstated, some demonstrators have also called for Syrsky’s dismissal.

The FT quoted an unnamed senior Ukrainian defense official as saying, “Syrsky hasn’t got a sense of how he’s going to win,” and that his “theory of victory is simply to hold out as long as you can and mobilize more people.”

In a separate piece on Saturday, the FT, citing an anonymous senior official in Zelensky’s administration, claimed that the Ukrainian leader is considering firing Syrsky. According to the outlet, Zelensky is consulting military commanders over the weekend, looking for a potential replacement.

Over the course of the conflict, Syrsky has earned the nickname ‘the Butcher’ for his perceived willingness to disregard heavy casualties.

Russian forces are on track to liberate the key Donbass stronghold of Krasny Liman, located around 17 km northeast of the regional center of Slavyansk, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has announced, adding that Ukraine’s organized defenses in the area have been completely shattered.

The chief of staff made the remarks on Saturday as he inspected a command post of the Russian ‘West’ group of forces. Russian troops are currently sweeping through the town, conducting search-and-destroy operations against the remaining Ukrainian holdouts, Gerasimov stated.

“Units of the 25th Army are completing the liberation of the city of Krasny Liman, which is crucial for further operations on this axis. The enemy’s organized defense in the town has been broken, and isolated pockets of resistance are being eliminated,” he said.

Located in the north of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Krasny Liman has seen intensive combat in recent weeks, with Russian forces advancing onto the town from the east. It was first liberated from Ukrainian forces in May 2022, but was recaptured later that year. 

Speaking at the command post, Gerasimov touched upon developments elsewhere on the front line. He said Russian troops have been expanding the zone of control around the recently liberated DPR city of Konstantinovka, located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a heavily fortified string of settlements in the northern part of the DPR that are still under Ukrainian control.

Russian troops have advanced to the northwest of the city toward the town of Druzhkova between Konstantinovka and Kramatorsk, and have already entered the satellite village of Alekseeyevo-Druzhkovka and are battling Ukrainian units stationed there, according to Gerasimov.

The Russian military has conducted new strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports, striking multiple cargo vessels used by the Ukrainian military, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Russia has intensified strikes on Ukrainian shipping in recent weeks, aimed at disrupting the country’s “capabilities to transport weaponry and military hardware” in the Black Sea. The Defense Ministry publicized strikes on two other vessels on Saturday, sharing footage captured by kamikaze drones.

One of the videos shows strikes on a cargo vessel in the open sea. The ship was hit by a Geran-4 turbojet drone and a Gerbera piston UAV. According to the Russian military, both drones were Seekers, which are believed to be fitted with an AI-powered machine vision system. Seeker drones are said to be capable of searching for, identifying, and locking onto their targets without human input.

A container ship carrying military equipment was hit by two Geran-4 Seeker drones at the port of Chernomorsk, Odessa Region. Footage shared by the Defense Ministry shows the vessel was caught moored at the port.

On Friday, the Defense Ministry showcased strikes on three freighters in Nikolayev, a major port on the Yuzhny Bug River, a tributary of the Dnieper River. All the vessels were used by the Ukrainian military, the ministry said without elaborating. The freighters were likely moored at the port for a long time, given that the Russian military controls the mouth of Dnieper and Ukrainian shipping in the waterway remains disrupted.

Ukraine has launched nearly 1,900 drones towards Moscow Region over the past week, with most shot down on the approach to the capital, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said, releasing a map detailing the UAV raids. His comments came after Kiev hit two retailer’s logistics centers across the country, killing eight people in total.

In a post on Telegram on Saturday, Sobyanin said 1,892 drones had been sent toward Moscow Region – some 450km from the frontline – between July 11 and 18. “Most were neutralized by air defenses on distant approaches,” he said, adding that only 207 were destroyed closer to Moscow.

Earlier in the morning, the mayor said that more than 370 drones had approached the capital and surrounding region since Friday evening, with 64 shot down closer to Moscow.

His remarks came after a Ukrainian drone raid that hit two Wildberries logistics hubs in Kotovsk, Tambov Region, and Elektrostal, near Moscow. The attack on the warehouse in Tambov killed seven night-shift employees, with 25 others injured. Local governor Evgeny Pervyshov said that Ukrainian drones had been deliberately equipped with shrapnel to inflict maximum casualties among civilians.

Wildberries, often called the Russian version of Amazon, is one of the country’s most popular online retailers.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky confirmed Kiev had deliberately targeted the Wildberries hubs, claiming they stored sanctioned components for drone and navigation equipment.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has ramped up its long- and mid-range drone campaign, often targeting critical infrastructure, including oil refineries, civilian buildings, and even standalone civilian vehicles on the roads. Moscow has repeatedly branded such attacks as “terrorist,” and pointing out that its own retaliatory strikes are aimed exclusively at Ukraine’s defense-linked facilities and never at civilians.

Democratic lawmakers have urged Congress to block a sweeping Russia sanctions bill championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, warning that it would raise prices for American consumers.

The revised Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026 was introduced in the Senate on Thursday, days after Graham died. The senator passed away last Saturday, a day after returning from Ukraine.

Republicans have urged Congress to pass the bill, describing it as a tribute to Graham’s legacy of “promoting liberty around the world” and his “fierce support for Ukraine’s freedom.” 

Democrats, however, argue that honoring Graham in this way would leave American households footing the bill through higher prices.

According to Congressmen Don Beyer and Brad Schneider, the bill would raise costs for American families and damage America’s “most vital trade relationships.” 

On Sunday, Trump urged Congress to “add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill,” noting that “that’s what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen.” Earlier this month, he said that lawmakers were working on including both Iran and Hezbollah in the legislation, while noting that the issue of secondary sanctions being applied to China and India “has not been discussed.”

The largest buyers of Russia’s oil and gas are China and India. China was the third-largest source of US imports after Mexico and Canada last year, accounting for nearly 10% of total imports. India supplied another 3%, according to UN trade data.

The Democrats’ warning comes as Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian oil refineries have created an economic shock that is “increasingly visible worldwide, including in the US,” according to Axios.

Russia, one of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters, suspended diesel exports this month after Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted domestic fuel supplies. The Financial Times and Associated Press said the resulting shortages have pushed diesel prices higher worldwide and increased costs for US consumers.

When the UN established Nelson Mandela International Day in 2009, the anti-apartheid icon had already been a free man for nearly two decades. The tribute asks people worldwide to dedicate 67 minutes to public service on July 18, his birthday – one minute for every year Mandela spent fighting for human rights.

He had already served his singular, historic term as South Africa’s first black president and had spent years traversing a rapidly transforming global landscape to reconnect with a world he was forced to miss during his 27 years of incarceration. Crucially, his early diplomatic travels prioritized visits to the very nations that had anchored the anti-apartheid struggle – defying Western pressure by openly embracing allies like Libya as early as 1990 and Cuba in 1991.

By pushing back against Western critics who questioned these alliances, Mandela established a precedent for African sovereignty and non-alignment at the absolute height of the post-Cold War unipolar order.

Years later, during a historic 1997 visit to Tripoli that openly defied Western-imposed sanctions, Mandela re-emphasized this stance, telling foreign detractors that those who objected to his relationship with Gaddafi could go “jump in the pool.”

This doctrine of unapologetic sovereignty established a lasting blueprint for African diplomacy that resonates today. By asserting that South Africa’s national interest would not be dictated by Western capitals or geopolitical pressure, Mandela drew a clear line between global integration and diplomatic submission. Decades later, as the Global South increasingly asserts its independence amid renewed great-power competition, Mandela’s historic defiance remains the touchstone for African leaders insisting on their right to navigate a complicated world without being forced to into what they did not like.

Today, this battle for autonomy plays out across multiple fronts where Western influence attempts to condition critical support on strategic compliance. When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa stood firm against US rhetoric over land reform and baseless “white genocide” narratives pushed by the Trump administration, he was operating directly within Mandela’s tradition of rejecting foreign dictates.

This insistence on strategic autonomy has reshaped Africa’s institutional landscape, driving a transition from defensive non-alignment toward proactive global architecture. The evolution from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) reflected Mandela’s core premise: that continental peace-building and conflict resolution must be anchored in African-led frameworks rather than external tutelage.

Today, this institutional legacy finds its most potent expression in the alignment of the Global South, most notably through the expansion of BRICS. By forging alternative trade networks, development finance mechanisms, and diplomatic platforms, African states are translating Mandela’s early defense of sovereign friendships into a structured pursuit of a multipolar world order along with major supporters like Russia.

This modern expression of Mandela’s diplomatic style is illustrated by Africa’s stance on recent global crises, where continental leaders have refused to fall under the geopolitical sway of Washington, Brussels, Paris, or London.

Similarly, when the UN General Assembly voted on resolutions condemning Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, nearly half of all African member states abstained or declined to vote, refusing to co-sponsor Western-backed sanctions against Moscow.

In both cases, African diplomacy demonstrated that it is no longer bound by former colonial ties or Western consensus, choosing instead an independent path rooted in active non-alignment and sovereign judgment. Furthermore, in direct alignment with Mandela’s legacy of proactive diplomacy, a joint mission of seven African nations led by South Africa stepped into the global arena in June 2023 to mediate the Ukraine conflict – traveling to both Kiev and St. Petersburg to present a diplomatic roadmap, proving that African states now insist on shaping international peace processes rather than inheriting them.

Reclaiming Nelson Mandela’s legacy requires stripping away his sanitized portrait favored by Western commentators, which reduces him to an apolitical saint of quiet reconciliation, and honoring the hard-nosed strategist who prioritised national dignity above superpower approval. Today, as Africa navigates an increasingly fractured global landscape, the true measure of Mandela’s impact is not found in solemn speeches on July 18 or symbolic corporate charity drives. It lives in the resolute insistence of African states charting their own diplomatic destinies. The case of Sahel countries, expelling former colonial power France is a clear example of that.

From the strategic expansion of BRICS to the AU’s insistence on a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, African diplomacy is actively dismantling the outdated assumption that the continent must passively align with distant geopolitical blocs.

By rejecting proxy politics and demanding an equitable seat at the global decision-making table, Africa is actively realizing Mandela’s vision. In an age of shifting powers, the continent’s insistence on charting its own course stands as the most enduring monument to his life’s work.

The EU is set to use a multibillion-euro antitrust fine imposed on Google to help ease pressure on the bloc’s budget after years of increased military spending and aid for Ukraine.

The US tech giant has paid €4.6 billion ($5.4 billion), including interest, after losing a years-long legal battle over restrictions linked to its Android operating system. The sum is equivalent to more than 2% of the EU’s 2026 budget.

The European Commission imposed the fine in 2018, accusing Google of abusing Android’s market dominance by requiring smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome. Earlier this month, the EU’s top court upheld the penalty, clearing the way for the payment.

Under EU budget rules, fines collected by the commission are paid into the bloc’s common budget, reducing the gross national income-based contributions required from member states.

The windfall will not provide any direct relief for taxpayers, however, as European governments continue to scale back social spending while increasing military budgets and financing Ukraine.

At the same time, European governments have been urged to sharply increase military spending, with Brussels citing an alleged Russian threat to justify its rearmament drive. Moscow has dismissed the claims as “nonsense” designed to legitimize ballooning military budgets at the expense of social programs.

The shift is already visible in national budgets. France, for example, has cut around €9 billion from several ministries while allocating an additional €6.5 billion to the military.

Critics in several EU countries, including Hungary and Slovakia, argue that Brussels is shifting the cost of its unconditional backing for a corruption-plagued Ukraine onto ordinary Europeans.

Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called the EU’s Ukraine policy a “financial tragedy,” while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has labeled plans to phase out Russian energy “economic suicide” and vowed to oppose further military loans for Kiev.

The US is on the path to revolution because President Donald Trump has betrayed Americans by putting foreign interests ahead of those of his own country, journalist Tucker Carlson has said.

In an interview on Bloomberg’s The Mishal Husain Show aired on Friday, the conservative commentator – once among Trump’s most prominent supporters – accused the president of being “totally disloyal” to the US, saying he had “cheated on the United States with a foreign power.”

“This is why countries have revolutions,” Carlson said, adding: “I don’t want revolution, but we’re going to get a revolution if this continues.”

The former Fox News host, who backed Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign before breaking with him over Iran, argued that many Americans no longer believed the political system represented their interests. He said Republicans had failed to fulfill promises to dismantle the “deep state,” citing the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as evidence of why many supporters had lost faith in the party.

Carlson has become increasingly critical of US backing for Israel’s war in Gaza and publicly urged Trump not to attack Iran during Israel’s 12-Day War with the Islamic Republic in June 2025. Their rift deepened after the US joined Israel’s strikes on Iran in late February, with Carlson accusing Trump of putting Israeli interests ahead of America’s. He also described Trump’s “true religion” as “Israelism” and called the Iran war “disgusting and evil.”

“And then we wound up in a war with Iran that has gravely hurt the United States,” he said.

The interview comes as the US continues its military campaign against Iran. US Central Command said it had completed a sixth consecutive night of strikes on Thursday after Trump threatened to expand attacks to Iranian energy infrastructure and bridges.

Ukrainian drones deliberately targeted civilians during a deadly overnight strike on a warehouse in Russia’s Tambov Region, one survivor has told Russian media, saying workers were prevented from escaping the building.

Seven people were killed and another 25 injured in the attack on the logistics center operated by online retailer Wildberries, according to local officials.

Staff began evacuating after the first strikes landed near the building, the survivor, who asked not to be identified, said. According to his account, workers tried to escape through an emergency exit but were forced back inside because the drones were striking the area around it. As they retreated into the warehouse, another drone hit the building. The blast blew out all the doors and windows, and everyone nearby was injured, he said.

The eyewitness account was recorded from a hospital bed in Tambov on Saturday after doctors operated on the injured.

The drones had been fitted with shrapnel to maximize casualties, Tambov Region Governor Evgeny Pervyshov said, describing the strike as a premeditated terrorist attack.

Doctors removed metal ball bearings from several of the wounded during surgery.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said she had sent appeals to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the UN secretary-general’s special representative, Vanessa Frazier, over what she described as a new wave of terrorist attacks by the Ukrainian military on Russian regions.

Another Wildberries logistics center was also attacked overnight in Elektrostal, around 50 km east of Moscow, the company said. Fire crews and emergency services worked at the site after employees were evacuated. Twenty-four people were injured, according to Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov. He later reported that a total of 61 people had been injured in the drone attack across the region.

Another massive drone raid was launched toward Moscow. More than 370 UAVs flew in the direction of the Russian capital since 8:30 PM on Friday, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said. Most were neutralized by Russian air defenses at long range, while 64 were destroyed on approach to the capital, he added.

Later in the day, Sobyanin said that between July 11 and 18 Ukraine had launched a total of 1,892 drones toward Moscow Region, most of which were neutralized far from the capital.

In neighboring Vladimir Region, one drone struck an apartment in a residential building in the city of Vladimir and sparked a fire, Governor Aleksandr Avdeev said. People were evacuated while emergency services extinguished the flames.

The latest barrage follows another large-scale attack on Thursday, when more than 200 drones were launched toward Moscow, most of which were also intercepted far from the capital.

Most of the Russian strikes have focused on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with military plants, drone assembly and storage facilities, and weapons stockpiles targeted in recent weeks.

Several US service members were injured when Iranian attacks struck military facilities in Jordan earlier this week, CBS News reported on Friday, just as Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes.

Attacks on at least two Jordanian bases used by US forces resulted in “several American service members being injured,” US officials told the broadcaster on condition of anonymity. No American or Jordanian fatalities were reported; the number of injured troops and the severity of their wounds remain unclear.

The US Department of War has yet to confirm the reported injuries or respond to the CBS account. It is also unclear exactly when the strikes occurred or which bases were hit. US warplanes routinely operate from Jordanian military installations, but the US does not publicly disclose all the facilities used by its forces.

Iran has been pounding US military facilities in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Iraq, and Syria with missiles and drones over the past week in retaliation for renewed US attacks on Iranian territory.

Footage from another angle shows two ballistic missiles impacting Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. The second impact caused a much larger explosion, suggesting it may have hit an important target. https://t.co/Twk7SQthzq pic.twitter.com/jtJwampn6g

— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) July 18, 2026

On Friday evening, US Central Command launched strikes against Iran for the seventh consecutive night, triggering another wave of Iranian retaliation.

As seen from two different angles; 2 Iranian ballistic missiles bypass 6 Patriot air defense missiles and reach their target at the Muwaffaq airbase in Jordan. pic.twitter.com/rIkvvWgJv3

— ZAMAN (@zamannx) July 18, 2026

The Iranian Army announced on Saturday morning that the 14th phase of Operation Lightning targeted fuel tanks at Jordan’s Al-Azraq Air Base, an ammunition depot at Kuwait’s Al-Udeiri camp, and headquarters buildings, ammunition storage facilities, and connecting bridges at Ali Al-Salem Air Base.

Tehran has claimed that its retaliatory attacks inflicted casualties among US personnel. On Friday, the IRGC said it struck US fighter jets and aerial-refueling aircraft in Jordan, as well as US forces and a HIMARS launcher in Kuwait, causing “significant casualties and damage.” It also claimed that “numerous” American special forces personnel were killed in Kuwait.

Earlier this week, the IRGC directly appealed to the “noble people” of both Jordan and Kuwait to oppose the US military’s use of their countries as launchpads for attacks against Iran. It described Jordan as sacred land that has no place for foreign occupiers and urged Jordanians to “seize every opportunity to destroy American institutions and expel the occupying US army.”

US President Donald Trump’s social network Truth Social will start selling investors early access to posts from prominent accounts, most likely including his own, the holding company has announced.

Critics argue that the move could create an unprecedented new way for the president to profit from his office, given his family controls Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the platform’s publicly traded corporate parent.

The move was announced on Thursday, when TMTG unveiled Truth API, a business-to-business data feed providing “real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.”

What is on offer?

The service will give paying institutional clients and algorithmic trading firms machine-readable access to posts from top Truth Social accounts “in milliseconds,” rather than relying on manual monitoring, TMTG said. The feed will offer 24/7 coverage and an archive of posts dating back to 2022. It is scheduled to launch on August 1, though the company did not disclose pricing.

Trump founded TMTG in 2021 after many major social media platforms suspended his accounts following the January 6 Capitol protests. He has extensively used Truth Social to announce major policy decisions with posts that have repeatedly moved financial markets – such as his April 9, 2025 post announcing a 90-day pause on many tariffs, which sent Wall Street indices sharply higher within minutes.

Why is it different?

While other platforms also sell premium data access, critics argue Truth Social’s move is different because it potentially allows Trump to monetize official presidential communications.

“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” Kathleen Clark of the Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflict-of-interest rules told AP. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”

Conflict-of-interest controversy

US conflict-of-interest laws bar executive branch officials from participating in government matters in which they have a financial interest. The president and vice president, however, are exempt.

Multiple cases this year drew attention after well-timed trades ahead of political announcements generated huge profits. The Financial Times reported in March that oil traders placed more than $500 million in bets minutes before Trump announced “productive” talks with Iran at the height of the war. The timing prompted questions over who may have benefited, though the White House denied any official profited from insider knowledge.
Separately, market commentary platform The Kobeissi Letter claimed in May that a massive crude oil position placed shortly before reports of a possible US-Iran peace deal generated about $125 million in little more than an hour, again fueling insider trading speculation.

A Trump Organization spokesperson insisted in a statement that “neither President Trump, his family, nor The Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments.” Earlier, Trump also dismissed concerns, telling reporters last week that outside parties make his investment decisions and that his gains merely reflect a strong stock market.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose additional tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke, which has blanketed much of the northeastern US just days before the World Cup final in New Jersey.

Trump accused Canada on Friday of failing to manage its forests and allowing “filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air” to cross the border.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, claiming that the pollution is costing the US billions of dollars.

“This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence,” he added, arguing that the cost “must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.” Trump said he plans to call Prime Minister Mark Carney to ask what Ottawa intends to do about the fires.

NEW: NYC issues a Code Red air quality alert as smoke blankets the region; breathing the air is equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes. pic.twitter.com/8Sn9kmzD96

— Scope Report (@ScopeReport_) July 16, 2026

Ontario Premier Doug Ford earlier rejected criticism from US politicians, pointing to Canadian assistance during American wildfires and hurricanes. “Maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help,” he said.

🚨#BREAKING: New York City now has the worst air quality of any city on Earth as canadian Wildfires Blanket Northeast States in Apocalyptic Haze

📌#UnitedStates | #USA

Much of the Northeast has been enveloped in an apocalyptic haze as smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets the… pic.twitter.com/NqLZucjTsl

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) June 7, 2023

Canada’s wildfire activity intensified in late June amid hot, dry conditions, with several major blazes in northwestern Ontario expanding sharply this week. Smoke from nearly 900 active fires reached New York City on Wednesday, pushing the Air Quality Index above 200 (classified as ‘very unhealthy’) in some areas by Thursday evening.

🚨🤯 2026 WORLD CUP FINAL IN CRISIS MODE!

Thick smoke from Canadian wildfires has swallowed New York. Air quality is in the danger zone — officials urging everyone to stay inside unless absolutely essential.

With the massive final under 48 hours away, FIFA is on high alert.… pic.twitter.com/PXNa3aQxMB

— FIFA World Cup Stats (@alimo_philip) July 17, 2026

Air-quality alerts remained in effect across New York City, Long Island, and parts of northern New Jersey through Saturday, including Bergen County, where MetLife Stadium is located. Officials warned that fine-particle pollution could reach unhealthy levels and urged residents – particularly children and people with heart or respiratory conditions – to limit outdoor exertion, stay indoors where possible, and wear an N95 or KN95 mask outside.

The authorities and FIFA officials are monitoring conditions, although sources told ESPN that the final is not currently considered to be under threat. Rain and changing winds could improve air quality before kickoff, but forecasters cautioned that more smoke could move into the region after the rain passes.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claims that it destroyed a depot housing US unmanned surface vessels and the “main artificial intelligence center” in Bahrain, in retaliation for US strikes on Iranian bridges and other civilian infrastructure.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, the IRGC said it struck a depot housing American USVs in Bahrain during the 17th wave of Operation Nasr 2, claiming that “a large number” of the vessels were burned and destroyed.

“Furthermore, the main artificial intelligence center in Bahrain, which was being used by the Great Satan for enemy targeting to commit war crimes, was completely destroyed by several ballistic missiles and dozens of drones,” the IRGC said.

Neither the US nor Bahrain has officially confirmed any destruction resulting from the reported attacks. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is one of Washington’s principal military hubs in the Persian Gulf.

Iran also launched missiles and drones at US military assets across the region on Friday. Attacks and interceptions were reported in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar. Jordan said it intercepted several missiles without casualties or damage. The Qatari authorities reported that a child was injured by falling debris following interceptions.

“We will raze to the ground the most valuable assets of American companies in all countries that host US bases,” the statement warned, accusing the countries of complicity in Washington’s military operation.

US Central Command announced later on Friday that it launched another round of attacks on Iran, marking the seventh consecutive night of strikes. Iranian media subsequently reported five explosions in the central city of Yazd, as well as blasts in Fars Province and a missile attack on Ahvaz in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

Earlier in the day, senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaei declared that Iran’s memorandum of understanding with the US is effectively dead.

He accused the US of violating the agreement by maintaining its naval blockade, continuing attacks on Iranian territory, refusing to release Iranian assets, and creating an “illegal” alternative shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

The latest escalation follows US strikes on at least five bridges and other infrastructure targets in southern Iran, after President Donald Trump officially restarted the war and threatened to target Iranian civilian infrastructure unless it agrees to Washington’s demands.

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters slammed Western governments for pushing for war with Russia and banning RT so the warmongering “propaganda of the ruling class” can be freely disseminated.

Appearing on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, published on Friday, Waters expressed dismay that “some people in the governments of the United States of America, and the UK, and the European Union are making blood-curdling, bloodthirsty noises about” a potential conflict with Russia.

He noted that EU nations, including Germany, are rapidly increasing their military spending and funneling taxpayers’ money “into a big piggy bank in order to fight the Russians.”

“The Russians don’t want to invade Europe. What are they talking about?” he said, suggesting that certain interest groups are paying Western politicians to promote warmongering narratives and justify their outsized military expenditures.

Rather than antagonizing Russia and silencing voices that challenge Western propaganda, Waters said, “we have to be cooperating with the Russians.”

“So we live in a very difficult time where it may be, unless you, with your audience – or me with my tiny voice – can join with our brothers and sisters and pull together the ordinary working people all over the globe, and we can make the voice of the choir so loud that we can drown out the propaganda of the ruling class,” he said.

Waters has long been a critic of Western military support for Ukraine, telling RIA Novosti last November that officials in the UK and EU “don’t make any pretense that they care about” ordinary Ukrainians.

The 13th test flight of SpaceX’s Starship ended abruptly after an engine malfunction forced an automatic launch abort seconds before liftoff on Thursday.

A live stream from the Starbase launch site in Texas showed clouds of smoke and vapor billowing from the rocket as its engines ignited. However, Starship failed to leave the pad.

“We did trigger a hold on the booster that aborted our liftoff as we were starting to light those Raptor engines,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during the webcast.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later confirmed on X that “some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort.”

“Next launch attempt hopefully in a few days,” he added.

The mission was set to deploy 20 of the latest Version 3 Starlink satellites into orbit.

The aborted launch follows several upgrades made after Starship’s previous test flight in May, when a simulated landing of the Super Heavy V3 booster in the Gulf of Mexico ended in an explosion.

The upper-stage Starship also broke apart after splashing down in the Indian Ocean, although SpaceX still declared the mission a success.

SpaceX went public last month in a record $75 billion offering that briefly made Musk the world's first trillionaire.

The company is competing with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to build lunar landers for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon by landing near its south pole.

Earlier this week, Russia successfully launched a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, along with NASA astronaut Anil Menon, to the International Space Station.