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The vessel, MSV Faize Noore Oliya, was attacked about 13 nautical miles south of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah.

An India-flagged cargo vessel overturned and sank in the Red Sea off Yemen’s western coast after it was attacked by a projectile on Tuesday. There were 14 crew members on the ship, of which 13 were Indian sailors and one was Yemeni. All 14 sailors were rescued by Yemeni forces and have received medical assistance.

The vessel, MSV Faize Noore Oliya, was attacked about 13 nautical miles south of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah.

The Yemeni National Resistance Force, also known as the Guards of the Republic, in a statement said that the coast guard and naval units carried out a joint operation to rescue the sailors.

India Condemns “Unprovoked” Attack

India in a statement strongly condemned the “unprovoked” attack on the ship near Yemeni waters.

The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, said that the Indian vessel was hit by a projectile which caused the ship to overturn and sink.

He said that he has instructed the Director General Maritime Administration (DGMA) to take immediate steps in coordination with all agencies to ensure the security of Indian seafarers in the region and provide necessary assistance to the rescued crew.

“India strongly condemns this unprovoked attack on the defenseless mechanised sailing vessel. The safety of our people is our supreme priority & I am relieved to inform that ALL 14 seafarers (including 13 Indians) have been safely rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard and brought to the Port of Mokha,” he wrote on X.

Indian MSV Faize Noore Oliya has been hit by a projectile near Yemeni waters, causing the vessel to capsize and sink.

India strongly condemns this unprovoked attack on the defenseless mechanised sailing vessel. The safety of our people is our supreme priority & I am relieved to…

— Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) August 4, 2026

The Ministry of External Affairs also said in a statement that the Embassy in Riyadh is closely monitoring the situation and proactively coordinating with the Yemeni authorities for the safety and security of the crew

India also called the incidents of attacks on Indian vessels “deeply worrisome” and called for an end to the targeting of commercial vessels.

“The continuing incidents of attacks on commercial shipping in the region are deeply worrisome. The targeting of commercial shipping in the region must end, and free and unimpeded navigation and commerce through the international waterways in the region, in keeping with international law, must be restored at the earliest,” India said in the statement.

The safety and welfare of Indian seafarers have escalated into a severe humanitarian and diplomatic crisis for India. This development stems from a dramatic surge in missile and drone strikes targeting commercial merchant shipping in global conflict hotspots.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/india-flagged-ship-sinks-after-attack-in-red-sea-13-indian-sailors-rescued-11866075?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

While Mohsin Naqvi refrained from taking names, his back-to-back salvos have fueled speculations about whether Pakistan is headed to a major power reshuffle

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has claimed to have unearthed what he calls the “biggest scam” in the country’s history. He suggested that multiple pillars of the state machinery, including judges and politicians, were part of it.

While Naqvi refrained from taking names, his back-to-back salvos have fueled speculations about whether Pakistan is headed to a major power reshuffle,

Naqvi, who is known to be close to Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshall Asim Munir, asserted that action would be taken against “every person” responsible. “I don’t think there has ever been such a massive scam in the history of Pakistan, where judges, bureaucrats, politicians and bankers were all involved,” he told reporters.

“For 21 years, bribes were paid, and people kept taking it. We will go after each and every person responsible,” he added.

Naqvi’s ‘Cockroach’ Remark

Just a few days back, the minister said Pakistan’s system of governance had “collapse” and that it was no longer capable of addressing its political and economic challenges. He suggested that Pakistan’s “cockroaches” could overturn the country if they united.

“The system we are living under has collapsed whether you agree or not. Problems cannot be solved through it. If this system continues, we will still be sitting here 10 years from now discussing the same issues,” he had said.

The remarks were seen as a reference to the Gen-Z protests in India led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over the paper leak controversy linked to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG) 2026.

Power Shake-Up Soon?

According to experts, Naqvi’s back-to-back attacks against his own government –– led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif –– points to a wider internal conflict. The minister, who is also the chief of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has long harboured dreams of being the premier.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/pakistan-heading-to-power-shake-up-naqvis-veiled-attack-on-sharif-over-biggest-scam-in-history-ws-l-10252977.html

Authorities recovered a loaded pistol from suspect’s vehicle and found a 16-round magazine loaded with ammunition in his pocket during the arrest.

A 38-year-old man armed with a loaded pistol and ammunition was arrested near US President Donald Trump’s California golf course after allegedly photographing security arrangements just days before a Republican National Committee fundraiser at the venue. Authorities recovered a cache of weapons, body armour and notebooks containing what “concerning statements” during a search of his home, they said.

Here’s what we know so far:

1. Arrested Days Before Trump’s Visit

Jeanine John Taele, 38, was arrested at Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, just two days before Donald Trump was due to attend a Republican National Committee fundraising dinner at the property.

2. Suspect Was Allegedly Monitoring Security

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Jeanine John Taele was seen taking photographs and recording videos of security preparations around the golf course before he was stopped by deputies.

3. Gun, Ammunition Found

Deputies recovered a loaded pistol from Jeanine John Taele’s vehicle and found a 16-round magazine loaded with ammunition in his pocket during the arrest.

Trump also pushed back on Iranian claims about control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route. He said that access through the strait would remain entirely up to the US.

“Deal, or Total Surrender”: these are the two options that US President Donald Trump has put in front of Iran’s leadership.

The ultimatum came in a lengthy rant on his social media platform, Truth Social, in which Trump accused Iran of being “duplicitous,” claiming the country had “begged” for talks before publicly denying that any discussions were taking place.

“Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades,” he wrote.

Trump also pushed back on Iranian claims about control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route. “They then go on to give their usual blather in saying, the Strait of Hormuz will be operated powerfully by them, when it is already completely controlled by the United States Navy and our ‘Blockade’ or, as some say, ‘The United States Wall of Steel!'” he wrote.

He said that access through the strait would remain entirely up to the US. “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished,” Trump added.

Trump’s fresh comments come a day after he announced he was pulling back from carrying out a major military strike he had previously threatened against Iran.

Speaking on Sunday, Trump said he had shelved plans for what he described as “the biggest attack since World War II,” after being urged to hold off by Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He said he chose to give diplomacy more room after speaking with senior Gulf leaders, and after an approach from Iranian officials he did not name.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/deal-or-total-surrender-trump-slams-irans-duplicity-in-denying-talks-11860907?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Amid Iran war, Netanyahu said India remains one of the key countries with which Israel is strengthening ties.

Amid the ongoing Iran conflict and shifting geopolitical equations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel is investing heavily in its relationship with India, describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “one of our greatest friends” and praising the support Israel has received from India.

Speaking about Israel’s foreign relations, Netanyahu said India remains one of the key countries with which Israel is strengthening ties.

Netanyahu praises India ties

“We need to cultivate additional alliances,” Netanyahu said.

“That’s why I’m investing heavily in our relationship with India, with my friend Narendra, who is one of our greatest friends.”

He also said, “They say Israel is isolated. The support that Israel—and I personally—receive in India is simply unbelievable.”

Netanyahu’s remarks come as India and Israel continue to expand cooperation across several strategic sectors.

Growing India-Israel partnership

Netanyahu has been one of the central figures in strengthening India-Israel relations, particularly during Prime Minister Modi’s tenure. The partnership between the two countries has focused on defence, technology, trade and broader strategic cooperation over the years.

In 2018, Netanyahu paid a high-profile visit to India, during which both sides signed nine agreements and described their relationship as a “special” partnership.

The visit marked another important step in expanding bilateral cooperation across multiple sectors.

Partnership expanded in 2026

The relationship has continued to grow in 2026. Prime Minister Modi and Netanyahu elevated bilateral ties to what has been described as the India-Israel Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation and Prosperity. PM Modi visited Israel in February this year.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/pm-modi-is-one-of-our-greatest-friends-netanyahu-says-israel-is-investing-heavily-in-india-ties-10250318.html

Republic of Balochistan considers August 11 its Independence Day and said the occasion would continue to be celebrated every year.

Republic of Balochistan on Monday declared August 11 as the Independence Day of Balochistan and called for worldwide celebrations, weeks after announcing the province’s independence from Pakistan.

In a statement, the Republic of Balochistan urged Baloch people to mark the day with national unity and appealed to the international community to recognise what it described as an independent and sovereign Balochistan.

Call for worldwide celebrations

Baloch liberation leader Mir Yar Baloch said people across the Baloch nation should hoist the national flag of an independent Balochistan at their homes, neighbourhoods, markets, shops, educational institutions and other public places.

He said the observance was aimed at passing on the significance of the historic day to future generations.

According to the statement, the Republic of Balochistan considers August 11 its Independence Day and said the occasion would continue to be celebrated every year. The statement claimed that the partition of the Indian subcontinent led to prolonged conflict, unrest, terrorism, economic instability and political crises across the region.

It further alleged that Pakistan’s policies had affected not only the region but also other parts of the world. The statement referred to Kashmir, the military action in Balochistan in March 1948, the 1971 conflict in East Pakistan, operations involving Palestinians in Jordan, the Soviet-Afghan war, the 1998 nuclear tests in Chagai district and developments after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

The Republic of Balochistan announces worldwide celebrations of August 11 as the Independence Day of Balochistan with national unity

3 August, 2026

On this occasion, the residents of the Baloch nation will hoist the national flag of independent Balochistan in their homes,… pic.twitter.com/CsDZqWAC8x

— Mir Yar Baloch (@miryar_baloch) August 3, 2026

The group claimed these events had contributed to instability, conflict and bloodshed in the region.

Appeal for international recognition

The Republic of Balochistan said it believes lasting peace, development and prosperity cannot be achieved as long as Pakistan remains in its present form.

It urged the international community to recognise Balochistan’s independence and support its position.

 

Chinese military researchers have used outputs from leading U.S. artificial intelligence models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic to ​train domestic AI systems to advance China’s defence capabilities, according to a Reuters review of more than 80 Chinese academic papers and patents.
The previously unreported findings offer a rare glimpse into ‌how military and security-linked institutions in China are leveraging cutting-edge U.S. AI models as a shortcut to developing specialised systems of their own, despite Washington’s efforts to restrict Beijing’s access to advanced chips and other strategic technologies.

The documents show widespread use of a technique known as “model distillation,” in which outputs from a powerful AI system are used to train smaller, specialised models that can be deployed locally without the enormous computing requirements needed to build frontier AI systems from scratch.
Reuters’ review, which included research, compiled by the Washington-based Jamestown ​Foundation and shared exclusively with the news agency, showed distillation is widely used by researchers linked to the People’s Liberation Army and other military institutions.
The papers suggest Chinese defence institutions see leading U.S. AI ​models as both a source of technical insight and a way to close the gap with American rivals.

The dispute centres on unauthorised extraction, not distillation itself, a widely ⁠used industry practice.
The issue has emerged as a major flashpoint ahead of U.S.-China talks on AI governance and safety. U.S. officials have accused some Chinese entities of using distillation to extract capabilities from American AI models, potentially undermining export ​controls and infringing intellectual property rights.
China has rejected the accusations, saying Washington is pursuing AI “hegemonism” while arguing that U.S. firms have engaged in similar practices.
Chinese developers have also disputed claims that their AI advances rely on foreign models. AI startup Moonshot last ​week denied allegations by the Trump administration that its Kimi K3 model was built using distillation, saying it was driven by proprietary innovations.

Sunny Cheung, a Jamestown fellow who analysed over 60 of the papers, said Chinese military scientists are systematically capturing the reasoning steps of Western models to adapt them for surveillance, cyber warfare and tactical decision-making.
“Teaching a model the right answer is one thing but teaching it the reasoning behind the answer is much harder,” said Cheung.
“These papers show Chinese military-linked researchers are trying to transfer that ​expensive, proprietary reasoning from Western models into smaller systems they can control and deploy locally.”
Reuters verified the academic literature and identified an additional two dozen military-linked case studies.
One paper published last year by researchers in PLA Unit 96941, a ​military intelligence and cyber-warfare unit in Beijing, described using OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 to process sensitive military source code.

The researchers said third-party models were unsuitable for handling classified information. To overcome that limitation, they used GPT-3.5 to summarize software code and trained a ‌domestic model on ⁠those summaries to run entirely within Chinese military networks.
The White House, Pentagon, China’s foreign ministry, the PLA and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.

WIDE USE, FROM MONITORING TO MILITARY

Chinese researchers have used distillation for purposes ranging from content monitoring to military deployment, Reuters’ and Jamestown’s review of the papers showed.
At the North University of China, which has close links to the country’s weapons industry, researchers used Anthropic’s Claude 3 Haiku to generate synthetic training data for a text classification model for social media monitoring and content moderation.
Anthropic said it does not provide commercial access to Claude in China or to Beijing-controlled firms and uses monitoring systems to detect policy violations.
The company added that distilled models may ​lose the original systems’ safety safeguards, potentially allowing sensitive ​capabilities to be transferred to models beyond its ⁠control.
A 2024 paper from the PLA’s National University of Defense Technology described using distillation to shrink an image-processing model for deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles, allowing drones to analyse live video and support navigation and targeting decisions in real time even when communications are cut.
Similarly, researchers at China’s Academy of Military Sciences used distillation to run a ​target-recognition model on tactical hardware during simulated maritime operations involving drones, ships and unmanned submarines, a study published earlier this year showed.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinese-military-researchers-tap-us-ai-models-train-defence-systems-2026-07-31/

Iran on Sunday said it is close to reaching an agreement with Oman on a new maritime route through the Strait of Hormuz, separate from the existing shipping corridors. According to Tehran, the proposed route is intended to protect the sovereign rights and security interests of both countries.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said the two countries were nearing an understanding on the new route, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also indicated that negotiations were in their final stages.

However, details of the proposed maritime corridor were not immediately available. Iran has effectively maintained control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz since the outbreak of war on February 28. Around 20 per cent of global oil consumption passes through the waterway under normal circumstances.

“We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern route nor the southern route — but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security,” Esmaeil Baqaei said in an interview with state television, as reported by AFP.

Earlier, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying negotiations with Oman, the other littoral state on the Strait of Hormuz, “were on track for finalisation and were going through their final stages.”

Oman did not immediately comment on the development.

Baqaei said the proposed agreement on a new maritime route was unrelated to whether the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened or remain closed.

“An understanding between Iran and Oman on a new route has nothing to do with whether the Strait of Hormuz is reopened or remains closed,” he said.

He blamed the United States for the closure of the strategic waterway.

Source : https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/iran-oman-close-to-deal-on-new-strait-of-hormuz-shipping-route-says-tehran-article-13991377.html

UKRAINE has given Vladimir Putin a major headache by dragging Iran towards the Ukraine war and giving Donald Trump a reason to tighten the screws on Moscow.

Kyiv’s daring drone strike on an Iranian military cargo ship in the Caspian Sea sparked threats from Tehran that may see two conflicts collide.

As opposing allies become drawn into the conflict, experts say Volodymyr Zelensky could seal a World War Three-style showdown to defeat Putin.

Ukraine’s attack on Iran targeted a supply line that the Kremlin has used to import lethal Shahed suicide drones and missiles from the pariah state since 2022.

It marked the first direct clash between the two nations since Russia‘s invasion.

Iran claimed that the vessel was purely commercial and vowed to respond – declaring that the “hostile and criminal” strike “cannot go unanswered”.

But the move could position Ukraine as an ally to Trump in a shadow war against the anti-Western axis.

Foreign policy experts say it could be a high-risk strategy from Zelensky to convince the US president to tighten the screws on Putin.

Dr Richard Arnold, an Eastern European security expert, told The Sun: “Ukraine wants to be in Trump’s good books.

“Trump has shown a lot of frustration with Nato allies who have not come to his aid and it appears Zelensky’s almost trying to say, ‘look, we’re the better partner than your Nato partners.’”

Dr Arnold suggested that Ukraine may be positioning itself as an anti-Iran shield.

Zelensky is “trying to build up the image of Ukraine as the Israel of Eastern Europe,” he said.

Since the outbreak of the Iran war, Kyiv has provided the US with technical expertise to counter the Iranian Shahed drones – weapons that Russia has used extensively to attack Ukrainian cities.

Professor Mikhail Alexseev, a political science expert at San Diego University, said it is a calculated move to drum up support in Washington.

He told The Sun: “For Ukraine, it’s very important to have the United States on its side. Ukraine needs to show Trump that it has the cards.

“This is one of the cards – that it can help the United States prevail in achieving objectives in Iran, with having its nuclear program suppressed and ensuring security in the Strait of Hormuz.”

After attacking the Iranian ship, Zelensky revealed that Russia has been feeding Tehran satellite intelligence to strike American military bases in the Gulf.

He said: “There is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes – both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterward, to assess the damage inflicted.”

The Ukrainian leader promised to share the intel with Washington – but made a point of aligning the US and Ukraine’s ambitions.

He said: “None of us in the world should turn a blind eye to one very simple fact: evil always seeks ways to make things worse and spread further.

“Russia must be stopped. This war must be stopped. Pressure on the aggressor must work.”

Zelensky’s bid to win over the White House appears to have been paying dividends.

At the Nato summit in Ankara, Trump said he would grant Ukraine the game-changing licence to build state-of-the-art Patriot missile interceptors.

It may prove decisive in dismantling Putin’s last major advantage – Russia’s missile capabilities – with Zelensky claiming the “battle in the sky” will be key to winning the war.

Ukraine has been desperate to bolster its rapidly-depleting stockpile of interceptors amid a slew of deadly ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv.

But the growing alignment between Washington and Kyiv could prompt Putin to pile more support behind Iran and deepen the conflict.

Arnold said: “It gives Russia a powerful incentive not to let Iran fail. That’s how this war becomes almost unstoppable.”

He warned that “escalation of the conflict is far more likely than resolution”.

It comes after Nato scrambled fighter jets after a Russian Kh-101 missile smashed into Poland this week.

Washington previously warned that Putin could be plotting an armed attack on Poland to test the international alliance – as it faces calls to fight back.

Alexseev said that the conflict has been moving in the direction of an all-out global war for some time.

He explained: “Russia’s war against Ukraine has been not just a small regional war, but a much broader international conflict from the get-go.

“We have seen the way that Russia aligned its forces, counting on economic support from India and China, on military support with Shahed drones and ballistic missile technology from Iran, with troops and artillery ammunition from North Korea.

“Wars, particularly involving great powers, rarely can be contained on a regional scale.”

As the Ukraine and the Iran wars collide, experts fear allies on both sides could be dragged into World War Three.

Alekseev said: “We’re moving into the kind of environment where conflict is normalised, everybody retaliates, nobody takes a step back, and we’re approaching the kind of conditions that led to larger wars in the past.”

Arnold warned: “There are a lot of voices, unfortunately, saying we are in what is called the pre-war period.

“Scholars have been noting for some time how similar the world of today looks to the world before World War One.”

Meanwhile, the strain on Putin’s weakening war machine has backed the dictator into a corner.

Kremlin Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country is enduring a “very difficult period”, and Putin recently made the rare admission that the country is “struggling” with an energy crisis.

Dwindling manpower has seen Moscow deploy 30,000 North Korean troops and parliament allow even the most hardened criminals to be drafted.

Arnold said: “Russia is facing a manpower problem, simply because it hasn’t got enough people to power its industries and fight the war in Ukraine.”

Russia has suffered 1.4 million casualties since invading Ukraine in 2022, including an estimated 500,000 deaths.

A report last month showed that the average life expectancy for Russian troops on the frontline was just 20 minutes.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16782034/zelensky-iran-ukraine-war-doom-putin-trump/

Donald Trump was reportedly considering renewed heavy attacks on Iran over this weekend.

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that the US and Israel had agreed to “hold off” on planned strikes on Iran at the request of Tehran and other countries in the region, claiming that the Middle East allies have reached the parameters of a deal to end the war.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said that the emerging deal “would include the immediate, complete, and total opening” of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most vital energy conduit which has mostly been closed by Iran since the war broke out on February 28.

“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II. Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to. This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” he said.

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” he added.

Trump said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israel — which had conducted joint strikes with the American military in February, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei — has agreed to join the US in the commitment to try to complete the agreement with Iran that would bring about an end to the war.

“Get to work, everybody, and get it DONE,” he said.

US, Israel Planned Joint Strikes On Iran’s Energy-Related Targets
Donald Trump had on Friday threatened to hit Iran “very hard”, as US media reported that he was considering renewed heavy attacks over this weekend.
“We’ll be hitting him very hard and, you know, at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore’,” he said as he hosted a cabinet meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

The Wall Street Journal later reported that he had ordered a fresh strike aimed at convincing Iran to surrender, which could begin as soon as this weekend.

CBS News reported that the US and Israel were planning joint strikes on energy-related targets, possibly throughout the weekend.

Trump had not yet given the green light for the campaign, but Israel and the US were coordinating, CBS said, citing multiple unnamed sources.

It would have marked the first time that Israel joined in attacks on Iran since the initial phase of the war.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trump-to-hold-off-new-strikes-on-iran-says-for-future-benefit-of-world-11854541?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The July 27 Rawalakot violence triggered nationwide rallies, with demonstrators targeting the government and military establishment.

Mass protests have erupted across several major Pakistani cities against the alleged crackdown on demonstrators in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Rawalakot on July 27, with protesters accusing the Shehbaz Sharif government and the military establishment of using force to suppress demands for civil and political rights.

Demonstrations were reported in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi, where protesters raised slogans against the authorities and expressed solidarity with the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).

The protests come amid mounting anger over the alleged use of force in Rawalakot, continuing internet restrictions, arrests of activists and calls to boycott regional elections.

Massive Solidarity Rally In Islamabad

Islamabad’s F-10 Markaz witnessed a large public gathering in solidarity with the people of PoK and the Awami Action Committee.

Former Pakistani Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan led a rally in the F-10 sector, condemning the alleged police action in Rawalakot and demanding accountability for the reported deaths and injuries.

Members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), civil rights activists and groups representing the Kashmiri diaspora also participated in demonstrations in the federal capital.

Protesters accused the authorities of attempting to silence peaceful dissent and demanded an independent investigation into the alleged violence of July 27.

Lahore Press Club Placed Under Heavy Security

In Lahore, a large police contingent was deployed around the Lahore Press Club ahead of planned demonstrations.

Roads leading to the venue were reportedly blocked as riot police attempted to prevent students, activists and civil society members from assembling. Protesters described the security arrangements as an attempt to impose an undeclared ban on public gatherings.

Despite the restrictions, demonstrators carrying flags of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir gathered at different locations in the city before facing police action.

Eyewitnesses alleged that several protesters, including women, were detained merely for carrying or displaying the flag.

Anger Directed At Maryam Nawaz Government

Much of the anger in Lahore was directed at the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

Protesters accused her administration of hypocrisy, referring to her past statements about her family’s Kashmiri roots while questioning the police response to demonstrations organised in support of Kashmiris.

They also accused the provincial administration of using sweeping arrests and preventive detentions to discourage participation in the rallies.

The alleged police action further intensified resentment, resulting in confrontations between protesters and security personnel in parts of the city.

Protesters Allege Wider Ban On Dissent

Activists claimed the crackdown was part of a wider attempt to restrict rallies concerning sensitive political and human rights issues.

They alleged that demonstrations supporting Palestine, Kashmir and Balochistan were increasingly being blocked by the authorities, effectively denying citizens their fundamental democratic rights.

Protesters accused the government of adopting an authoritarian approach by restricting peaceful assemblies, disrupting communications and deploying large police contingents around protest venues.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/pok-siege-massive-protests-erupt-across-pakistani-cities-over-rawalakot-killings-exclusive-ws-l-10246161.html

At least nine people were killed and 22 civilians injured in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after Russia launched an intense barrage of ballistic missiles and drones overnight into Saturday, authorities said.

A five-story residential building in the city’s Solomianskyi District was damaged by falling debris and a fire broke out. Rescue workers evacuated 35 people from the upper floors of the building and two people died, with eight reported injured including two children, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.

In the Darnytskyi District of Kyiv, seven people were killed and another 14 injured after the attack caused fires and damage to houses, vehicles, an administrative and non-residential building, the emergency services said.

Elsewhere, emergency workers extinguished a fire in a non-residential building in the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi district. There was no additional information about earlier reports by the district mayor that people were trapped in another residential building.

Damage to commercial and residential buildings was reported in two other city districts.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed the United States and other Western partners over Ukraine’s need for more Patriot anti-ballistic missile defense systems to counter missile attacks from Russia.

The Ukrainian leader late Friday said he spoke to U.S. Vice President JD Vance and discussed a meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this week in Washington, which Zelenskyy described as “positive and productive.”

“The Russian air strikes on our country continue and air defense, specifically interceptors for Patriot systems against ballistic missiles, remains a top priority,” Zelenskyy said Friday in a post on Telegram.

At a NATO summit in Ankara in July, Trump said the U.S. would give Ukraine a license to make Patriot systems but he appeared to move away from that commitment on Friday during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, saying he had not yet made a final decision on the matter.

Saturday’s attack on Kyiv came just two days after a large-scale Russian ballistic missile and drone attack across Ukraine killed 10 civilians and wounded more than 50 others and saw a Russian missile enter Polish airspace.

From a basement shelter where she was taking cover as a second air alarm sounded for another wave, Liudmyla Nakonechna, 64, described how she was woken by loud explosions at 1:30 a.m.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-zelenskyy-missile-attack-ballistics-eb62397d10bca2d6db4269a3bcfc9dc6

Under the new plan, students would reportedly have to pay $100,000 to work in the US — that’s over Rs 95 lakh at current exchange rates.

Here’s a number that should worry every Indian student dreaming of a US degree — $100,000.

That’s the fee the Trump administration is reportedly weighing on international students who want to work in America after they graduate. If it goes through, it could shut the door on one of the most popular pathways Indian students use to build a career in the US.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, top officials in the US are considering attaching a six-figure price tag to a work permit called “Optional Practical Training (OPT)”. However, the White House hasn’t announced anything official yet.

For lakhs of Indian families who spend crores sending their children to US universities, that’s reason enough to sit up and take notice.

What Exactly Is Being Proposed?

Right now, OPT lets international students work in the US for up to a year after finishing their degree, without needing a separate work visa. Students in STEM fields — science, tech, engineering, maths — get an extra two years on top of that. So, a computer science graduate can work in the US for up to three years on OPT alone.

It’s the bridge that gets Indian graduates from a US classroom to a US job. And often, it’s the bridge to something bigger: the H-1B visa, America’s main work visa for skilled foreign professionals.

Under the new plan, students would reportedly have to pay $100,000 — that’s over Rs 95 lakh at current exchange rates — just to access this bridge. For most families, that’s simply not affordable. Officials pushing the idea say OPT has been misused for visa fraud and overstays. Critics say it will just price out genuine talent.

This Isn’t Trump’s First $100,000 Move

If this number sounds familiar, it should. Earlier this year, the Trump administration slapped a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications too. That move hit the tech industry hard, since American companies use H-1B visas to hire specialised foreign workers — and Indians make up nearly three out of every four H-1B holders.

That H-1B fee ran into legal trouble almost immediately. A federal appeals court in Boston blocked the government from enforcing it just last week, after pushback from big tech companies. So, this new OPT proposal looks like a second attempt at the same goal — cutting down the number of foreign workers in the US — just approached from a different angle.

Why This Hits Indian Students Hardest

India isn’t just another country on this list. It’s the biggest one.

According to the latest Open Doors report, over 3.63 lakh Indian students were enrolled in US institutions in 2024-25 — the highest of any country in the world, ahead of even China. Indian students made up nearly a third of all international students in America that year.

And OPT is central to why so many Indians choose the US in the first place. Data shows Indian participation in OPT jumped by 47 percent in a single year, with roughly 40 per cent of Indian students in the US taking part in the programme. For many, the calculation is simple: take on education loans now, work in the US for a few years after graduating, and pay it all back with a US salary.

A $100,000 fee breaks that calculation completely. It would mean students already stretching their finances for tuition and living costs would need to find an entirely new, massive sum — just for permission to work legally after they’ve already earned their degree.

Education consultants say the fallout could show up fast: fewer Indian students choosing STEM programmes in the US, more students looking at Canada, the UK, Germany or Australia instead, and Indian graduates already in the US scrambling to figure out their next move before any rule change kicks in.

A Pattern of Tightening Rules

This proposal doesn’t exist in isolation. Indian student enrollment was already showing cracks before this news broke. New enrollments for Indian students fell by close to 45 per cent between August 2024 and August 2025, according to US government arrival data, driven largely by visa interview delays and stricter scrutiny.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/after-court-setback-on-h-1b-visas-trump-plans-1-00-000-fee-for-foreign-students-wanting-to-work-after-graduation-11846178?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

Saudi Arabia and 13 nations formed a maritime coalition in Riyadh to guard the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden amid Houthi blockades.

Saudi Arabia and 13 other countries signed a joint statement in Riyadh on Thursday to establish a multinational defensive maritime coalition guarding the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as the Iran-aligned Houthis continue a naval blockade against the kingdom and the Strait of Hormuz remains shut to commercial shipping.

Fourteen Signatories, 43 Nations At The Table

The Saudi Ministry of Defense named the signatories as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia. Military chiefs of staff and representatives from 43 countries, along with a European Union delegation, attended the Riyadh meeting in person or by video link to review the coalition’s draft charter.

Riyadh To Host Command Structure

Saudi Arabia will serve as the coalition’s founding nation and host its headquarters in the kingdom, according to the ministry’s statement. The framework includes a joint command and leadership structure, a joint operations control centre, and a general secretariat. The ministry said the door remains open for any additional country to join once it completes its own domestic accession procedures.

The statement described the alliance as strictly defensive, saying it does not target any state or organisation and that all activity will operate within international law and each member’s national sovereignty. Objectives listed include protecting freedom of navigation, securing international trade routes and energy shipments through Bab el-Mandeb, and coordinating intelligence, information sharing and joint naval exercises among members.

The initiative follows a visit by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman to the United States, where officials discussed regional security, including attacks on Saudi infrastructure tied to the Houthis and Iran-aligned groups in Iraq.

Blockade Declared Since July 20

The Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20, accusing Riyadh of besieging Yemen, a claim that Saudi officials have denied. The group has since attacked Saudi-linked vessels in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has responded with air strikes on Houthi facilities at Yemen’s Hodeidah port, which it says are used to threaten commercial shipping.

Hormuz Shut Since March, Ten Ships A Day

The coalition proposal lands on top of a separate crisis at the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed to commercial traffic since March 2, when Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the closure during the wider US-Israel-Iran conflict. Tanker transits through Hormuz fell to 10 ships on July 23, against a pre-crisis baseline of roughly 88 a day, according to shipping tracker PortWatch. Brent crude stood near $90 a barrel on July 29.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/14-nations-join-saudi-led-naval-coalition-to-protect-red-sea-shipping-as-oil-prices-near-90-ws-l-10243681.html

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had personally assured him that Beijing would not arm Iran.

US President Donald Trump said he would be “quite disappointed” if China supplied weapons to Iran, responding to reports that Tehran could soon receive hundreds of Chinese-made shoulder-fired missiles. Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had personally assured him that Beijing would not arm Iran. The remarks come as reports claimed that Iran is expected to receive a shipment of up to 400 Chinese-manufactured shoulder-fired missiles within weeks.

“Well, that would be surprising. He (Xi) told me very strongly he wouldn’t partake, and he knows I’d be quite disappointed,” Trump said.

Intelligence assessments, first reported by CNN, suggested China was preparing to deliver new air defence systems to Iran as Tehran seeks to rebuild parts of its military capabilities with help from foreign partners.

Last week, Trump had warned both China and Russia against supplying weapons to Iran, while saying he believed assurances from Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin that neither country was currently providing military assistance to Tehran.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that, in his view, both nations were refraining from arms transfers to Iran.

“Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating,” he wrote, adding, “If they did, it would be very bad for them- Certainly not in their best interests.”

The comments come as Washington continues to examine whether Russian and Chinese intelligence networks have been assisting Tehran by providing targeting information following recent strikes on US military installations.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/trump-says-he-would-be-disappointed-if-china-arms-iran-xi-jinping-told-me-he-wont-ws-l-10241662.html

Saudi Arabia is facing a difficult dilemma. Ever since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on 28 February, the Saudis have largely tried to stay out of it.

But now, after being attacked from three sides, the Saudis have had enough. This week, they carried out joint strikes with the US on Iranian proxy militias in Iraq who they believe have been launching drones at the Kingdom.

For Saudi Arabia the dilemma now is whether to keep on hitting back as a deterrent, or whether to try to de-escalate the situation, perhaps by paying off some of their adversaries.

So who is attacking who and why?

First, a bit of context. There are broadly two sides in the conflict that has been consuming the Gulf and other parts of the Middle East for five months now.

On one side there is Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Allied to them are the Houthis in Yemen, a tribal group who took over much of the country in 2014.

Also backed by Iran are the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq, the paramilitary group that has allegedly carried out 30 drone strikes on Saudi Arabia and has now been attacked in return.

Then there is Hezbollah in Lebanon, still a potent force but one that is currently lying low.

On the opposite side of this conflict is the US with its immensely powerful Central Command (Centcom) forces plus – to varying degrees – the Gulf Arab states and Jordan. Israel remains a close US ally but is currently not an active participant in this war.

Iran has most recently been concentrating its drone and missile attacks on Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as targeting any commercial shipping that tries to slip through the Strait of Hormuz while avoiding Iran’s new rules and routing.

The addition of Iraqi militias and the Houthis in Yemen is a relatively new phenomenon and it shows how – without a lasting peace deal between the US and Iran – the region risks becoming ever more embroiled in a widening conflict.

There are a number of reasons why Saudi Arabia is trying not to get sucked into a full-scale conflict.

Its de facto ruler, the relatively young Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, has embarked the country on a course known as “Vision 2030”.

His aim is to diversify the Kingdom away from its dependence on oil revenues and create vibrant, modern, domestic industries that will provide meaningful jobs for the hundreds of thousands of graduates and school leavers pouring onto the job market each year.

Part of Vision 2030 involves attracting foreign investment. Part of it also involves building things like data centres that are vulnerable to attack.

This is not going to work if Saudi Arabia finds itself under an enduring, long-term threat from drones fired across its southern border by the Houthis in Yemen or ballistic missiles fired directly by Iran.

Back in September 2019, the Saudis suffered an unpleasant shock.

With relations with Iran in a poor state, the Saudis woke up to find that an Iranian proxy militia in Iraq had launched a fleet of drones at two of its most vital oil facilities, at Abqaiq and Khurais.

At the time there was a suggestion that the attack had come from the Houthis in Yemen but I visited the site straight afterwards and I could clearly see the holes in the superstructures all facing northwards.

That attack knocked half of Saudi oil exports offline for several days and it was a wake-up call to Riyadh as to just how vulnerable its critical national infrastructure is to attack.

On Monday, satellite images showed the Abqaiq oil facility was struck by drones launched once again by Iranian proxy militias in Iraq.

Then there is oil, still the lifeblood of the Saudi economy.

Iran retaliated against US and Israeli attacks in February by effectively closing off the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping channel between Iran and the Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas travelled.

In response, the Saudis pumped as much oil as they could – around five million barrels per day – through their east-west pipeline to their export terminal on the Red Sea, on their opposite coast, at Yanbu.

From there it was loaded onto tankers that headed south, out into the Arabian Sea and off to markets in Asia.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyx83l8jv8o

CENTCOM said the strikes targeted “Iran-aligned terrorists” allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to carry out attacks.

The US and Saudi Arabia carried out joint airstrikes on Tuesday against Iran-aligned militants in Iraq after more than 30 drone attacks targeting US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure in the past 72 hours, the US military said.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes targeted “Iran-aligned terrorists” allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to carry out attacks.

“US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

The US military said the drone attacks against American forces were unsuccessful and warned that “the IRGC and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further US military response.”

CENTCOM said the latest strikes targeted weapons and logistics sites in eastern Iraq. It also said that from February through April 2026, there had been “more than 600 attempted attacks on US citizens and facilities by Iran-aligned terrorist militias” in Iraq.

Strikes Follow Saudi Drone Interception Claims
The joint strikes came after Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said its forces had intercepted drones targeting oil facilities in the kingdom’s east.

Saudi defence ministry spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said the drones were launched from Iraqi territory by Iran-linked militias.

“Air defences intercepted and destroyed several drones that attempted to target oil installations,” al-Maliki said, adding that the attacks were carried out by “militias linked to Iran.”

Fresh Escalation After US Claims Iranian Attack
The strikes were announced shortly after CENTCOM said it had intercepted multiple missiles launched by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in what it described as an “attempted surprise attack” on US forces in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/us-saudi-launch-strikes-on-iran-aligned-targets-in-iraq-after-wave-of-attacks-in-last-72-hours-ws-l-10239320.html

What makes the deployment of the J-20 significant are its stealth characteristics which enable it to dominate contested airspace

China has stepped up operational deployments of its frontline J-20 ‘Mighty Dragon’ stealth fighter jets at airbases which are ranged against India.

The satellite images in this report, sourced from Vantor, show that China had deployed eleven J-20s across two air bases in late June and early July this year.

On July 9, seven J-20s were positioned on the tarmac at Hotan, a dual-use (civil and military) airbase in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The base lies 389 km to the northeast of Leh and just 245 km to the northeast of the Indian Air Force (IAF) airfield at Daulat Beg Oldie in north Ladakh. Commercial satellite imagery obtained by NDTV shows this to be the largest concentration of J-20s deployed against India at any Chinese airbase to date.

A second image, published in this report, shows four J-20s on the flightline at Damxung airbase, part of the Tibetan Lhasa prefecture. The base lies 344 km northwest of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

“Seven J-20s at Hotan and four at Damxung confirm that fifth-generation operations from high-altitude bases facing India are now routine for the PLAAF, not signalling,” Sameer Joshi, a former fighter pilot and co-founder of NewSpace, among India’s fastest growing aerospace and defence R&D companies, told NDTV. PLAAF is short for People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

“For the IAF, a low-observable threat on the northern front is now the baseline – and that sharpens the urgency of our counter-stealth sensors, integrated air defence and standoff strike capability,” Joshi added.

What makes the deployment of the J-20 significant are its stealth characteristics which enable it to dominate contested airspace. With a miniscule radar signature, on account of its advanced stealth shaping, the J-20 retains a significant edge over the IAF’s current generation of fighter jets, including the French-built Dassault Rafale, which are non-stealth platforms.

India currently does not operate any stealth fighters with the homegrown Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) – the country’s first stealth jet – at least a decade away from entering squadron service, assuming key technologies onboard are successfully validated in an extensive flight-test programme.

China’s deployment of modern J-20 fighters came into sharp focus following a report in The War Zone that J-20 numbers have grown steeply: from roughly 50 aircraft in 2019 to about 200 by late 2022, with production estimates doubling in the years after. By late 2025, output was running at around 120 jets a year, pushing the fleet to roughly 300-500 aircraft (depending on the source) across more than a dozen PLAAF units by mid-2026. The UK-based Royal United Services Institute projects China could field around 1,000 J-20s by 2030.

“I can only say that having a capacity to produce 125 planes per year speaks volumes of their advanced manufacturing capability,” Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari (retired) said.

“They are producing it almost like commercial aircraft, which can only happen when the supply chain is fully integrated, very exacting manufacturing tolerances are met by all suppliers and top quality human resource is available to sustain this enterprise,” said Air Marshal Tiwari, who was Vice Chief of the Air Staff during ‘Operation Sindoor’, the 88-hour conflict between India and Pakistan fought in May last year.

“In short, they envisioned a national roadmap, put an empowered team to execute it and provided persistent support to make it happen. To prove to the world that they can compete with the best. It has been a national mission for them. After the first Gulf War, they realised the importance of air power and worked in a mission mode to achieve it,” he said.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/exclusive-china-deployed-11-j-20-stealth-jets-at-airbases-ranged-against-india-in-june-july-11828288?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Trump said he remained willing to give diplomacy an opportunity despite warning that military action could resume if talks failed.

US President Donald Trump on Monday expressed optimism about the prospects of a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran, saying there was a “good chance” ongoing efforts to restart negotiations could produce results, even as a fragile pause in hostilities between the two countries entered its third day.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he remained willing to give diplomacy an opportunity despite warning that military action could resume if talks failed.

“I have a lot of patience… We’ll see what happens. I think there is a good chance that something could happen,” Trump said when asked about negotiations with Tehran.

The US president added that Iran had sought to de-escalate tensions and reopen channels of communication.

“They asked us very nicely, ‘Please stop, let’s meet.’ And that’s where we are right now. We’ll see what happens. If we don’t make a deal, we go back to the same thing,” he said.

Third Day Without Direct US-Iran Strikes
The comments came as the United States and Iran refrained from launching direct attacks against each other for a third consecutive day following nearly two weeks of intense hostilities.

The latest conflict erupted after diplomatic efforts over Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz collapsed, triggering renewed US military strikes on Iranian targets. The confrontation has heightened tensions across the Middle East and rattled global energy markets.

While Trump’s administration has indicated that the pause in military action is intended to create space for diplomacy, Tehran denied that direct negotiations with Washington are currently underway.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said mediators were relaying messages between the two sides, but no formal talks were taking place.

“Mediators may convey messages from the American side to us regarding current developments in the region. But at present, we are not engaged in any negotiations with the United States,” Baqaei said.

 

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/trump-good-chance-iran-deal-fragile-truce-10236761.html

The deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament assereted the Strait of Hormuz would “never” return to pre-war conditions.

Iran has rejected any proposal for a new passage or alternative route through the Strait of Hormuz, setting three conditions for any future negotiations.

According to Al Arabiya, Tehran wants discussions to begin only after the Strait’s status is addressed first to affirm that it remains under Iran’s full control. The release of frozen Iranian funds should come next, while the nuclear issue should be taken up only afterwards.

Iran has also informed Pakistan that it is ready to continue negotiations in Geneva, Doha or Islamabad, Al Arabiya reported.

Talks on reopening Strait continue

As per reports, the two-day talks between Oman and Iran on reopening the waterways around the Strait of Hormuz are making progress. An Iranian official said Omani officials left Tehran around noon local time on Saturday. Also, US bombing did not resume.

This weekend, the United States paused military strikes on Iran. At the same time, discussions between Oman and Iran on reopening the Strait appear to be moving in a positive direction, although regional officials cautioned that further negotiations would still be required.

Iran asserts control over Strait

An oil tanker that moved away from Iran’s designated shipping route in the Strait of Hormuz exploded after colliding with a naval mine.

The deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament assereted the Strait of Hormuz would “never” return to pre-war conditions.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a post on X said, “Day 149 of the war. Iran continues to hold full control over the Strait of Hormuz – without Iran’s permission, not even a bird can cross. Today, one ship tried to pass through an alternate route. It got hit.”

The IRGC also said it had stopped six vessels in the Strait of Hormuz after issuing warnings, saying this confirmed Iran’s full control over navigation in the area.

Araghchi accuses US of violating agreement

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of deliberately violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) concerning the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Press TV, Araghchi said Article 5 of the memorandum was clear and that Washington’s actions went beyond a misunderstanding.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iran-rejects-new-strait-of-hormuz-route-sets-3-conditions-for-fresh-nuclear-talks-as-trump-halts-strikes-10234681.html

IRAN is threatening to attack Ukraine in retaliation for a drone strike on one of its ships carrying military hardware to Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the strike in the Caspian Sea as he also revealed Russia has been passing satellite images to Iran to help it attack American bases.

He said Ukraine had “achieved very strong results with long‑range strikes in the Caspian Sea – including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship.”

And he added: “Since the beginning of July, we have recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and U.S. military facilities located there.

“These images subsequently appear in Iran. There is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes.”

He said Ukraine will share the intelligence with allies, raising fears that the world’s two major conflicts could merge into one.

The Caspian Sea – the world’s largest inland waterway – is bordered by Russia and Iran and has long been used as a supply route between the two sanctioned countries.

Tehran uses it to ship military hardware such as Shahed drones to Russia to help its war against Ukraine, which has been disrupting deliveries with long-range strikes.

The latest drone attack on the ship, which killed one sailor and injured another, took place in the early hours of Saturday.

Tehran reacted furiously, summoning Ukraine’s chief diplomat in Iran for a dressing down and threatening to retaliate.

Tehran and Kyiv are only 1,200 miles apart and both possess ballistic missiles which could easily reach each other.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the attack would not go unanswered.
Analysts said the development is a clear indication that the war is widening.

American foreign policy expert Paul Musgrave, an associate professor at Qatar’s Georgetown University, said: “We are looking at global energy markets being drawn in, and that’s going to draw in everywhere where there’s global energy supplies.”

Ukraine also revealed that Russia is planning to escalate its troop mobilisation in the autumn, including drafting another 30,000 troops from North Korea, ready for a renewed winter assault.

Meanwhile, there has been a lull in daily attacks between America and Iran, but an oil tanker was reported to have exploded after hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16749640/iran-threatens-retaliate-drone-hits-ship/

US-Iran War: Washington has asked Qatar and Pakistan to mediate an immediate ceasefire and help restart negotiations with Tehran under the MoU.

US-Iran War News: After carrying out strikes on Iran for 13 consecutive nights, the United States is now reportedly seeking a temporary ceasefire and a return to negotiations with Tehran under the previously suspended Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

The reported diplomatic outreach comes weeks after US President Donald Trump declared that the ceasefire with Iran was over, accusing Tehran of violating its terms and conditions.

According to sources, Washington has proposed a new temporary ceasefire and is seeking to revive the collapsed MOU. The discussions are also expected to cover Yemen, with Trump reportedly seeking to include the Houthis in the proposed arrangement.

However, Iran is considered highly unlikely to accept the US proposal. Reports said Tehran has rejected all negotiations throughout this week and has made it clear that it will not begin talks under any circumstances. At the same time, Trump has warned that the United States is preparing a “massive attack” on Iran that would be “bigger than any attack ever carried out before”.

US turns to mediation after days of escalation
According to reports, Washington has asked Qatar and Pakistan to mediate an immediate ceasefire and help restart negotiations with Tehran under the Memorandum of Understanding.

The reported diplomatic move follows several days of military escalation after Trump issued direct threats against Tehran and launched strikes across central and southern Iran.

Iran responded by launching heavy ballistic missiles and large drone attacks targeting key infrastructure across Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. Tehran also warned London that British bases would come under direct attack if US forces continued using them.

Trade routes and regional tensions add pressure
Reports said Iranian forces have established complete operational control over the Strait of Hormuz, identifying American-linked vessels and bringing maritime traffic through the waterway to a standstill.

At Bab al-Mandab, AnsarAllah reportedly shifted its focus back towards the mainland following intense pressure and launched fresh offensive operations against Saudi Arabia.

With trade routes disrupted, allies under threat and the conflict spreading across the region, Washington reportedly approached Doha and Islamabad to open direct communication with Iran.

Tehran sets condition for talks
According to the reports, Qatari envoys had submitted a draft proposal to both sides aimed at restarting negotiations shortly before strikes targeted southern Iran two days ago.

While Tehran initially did not respond positively to the proposal as it sought greater leverage on the battlefield, it has now laid down a clear condition.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/another-trump-taco-moment-us-seeks-iran-ceasefire-after-13-nights-of-strikes-10233645.html

India avoids a steeper US tariff, with exports facing a 10% Section 301 duty from Friday after New Delhi tightened rules against forced-labour imports.

India will pay a 10% tariff on most of its exports to the US from Friday after the Trump administration rolled out the levy under a new legal provision as the successor to the temporary duty of the same rate that expired on July 24.

The 10% rate is lower than the 12.5% India would have faced under the office of the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) June draft, and averts a comparative disadvantage against China, Vietnam and around 36 other economies that were placed in the higher bracket. The tariff, imposed under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, is paid on top of the applicable Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) duty, and follows the conclusion of one of two Section 301 investigations against India.

Alongside India, USTR placed 16 other economies in the 10% bracket — among them Pakistan, Sri Lanka and, notably, Bangladesh, a direct competitor in textiles and garments, one of India’s largest export categories to the US. The lower rate applies to economies that have adopted a forced-labour import prohibition, committed to one through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or implemented a partial regime with the same effect.

That said, the new duties under Section 301 are both temporary and partial, people aware of the matter said — temporary because the architecture is expected to be superseded once the interim BTA (bilateral trade agreement) is signed, and partial because only one of the two Section 301 investigations has concluded.

India’s placement in the lower bracket followed a July 13 amendment to the Foreign Trade Policy banning the import of goods produced wholly or partly through forced or compulsory labour — a measure USTR had, in its June 2 draft report, found India to be without.

“Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement announcing the tariff. “I am encouraged by the trading partners who have moved quickly to adopt forced labour import prohibitions, and look forward to ensuring their effective enforcement.”

The 60 economies covered by the action together account for over 99% of US imports. Alongside India, the White House named Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom among those in the 10% bracket. Specific tariff arrangements have been put in place for the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. USTR has accused China and Vietnam, both in the 12.5% bracket, of flouting the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

USTR’s June 2 draft report had found that India “failed to impose and effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition”, that the failure was unreasonable, and that it burdened or restricted US commerce — placing India in the 12.5% bracket at that stage. Representations by New Delhi in April, May and early July, followed by the July 13 ban, moved India into the lower group by the July 24 determination, people aware of the matter said. USTR said it had received over 1,600 written comments on the proposed action and held public hearings between July 7 and July 9 at which more than 100 witnesses testified.

Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), described the outcome as a significant achievement given the United States is India’s largest export destination. “India secured the lower 10% tariff, down from the 12.5% rate proposed in the USTR’s draft, after introducing measures to prohibit imports made with forced labour,” he said. “The USTR considered this a policy improvement, placing India in the lower-tariff category alongside 16 other economies.”

The excess-capacity investigation, launched in the same month as the forced-labour one, covers 16 economies including India. Its outcome carries the potential to erode India’s position against key export rivals — among them China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — persons aware of the matter said. Of India’s neighbouring competitors, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are not subject to the excess-capacity investigation. If it produces duties on India but not on them, the parity established by Thursday’s action would invert.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-lands-at-10-under-us-forced-labour-tariff-escapes-steeper-125-101784940355023.html

Trump’s comment on Truth Social comes amid reports that Washington is investigating whether Moscow and Beijing are giving Iran targeting information, following a series of strikes on US bases.

US President Donald Trump warned China and Russia on Friday against selling weapons to Iran — while saying he believed assurances from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin that they were not yet doing so.

“Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests.”

Trump’s comment on Truth Social comes amid reports that Washington is investigating whether Moscow and Beijing are giving Iran targeting information, following a series of strikes on US bases.

The US leader said Chinese president Xi had told him when they met in Beijing in May that he would not arm Iran under any circumstances, adding: “considering our relationship, I take him at his word.”

Trump added that Putin had made a similar promise despite the war in Ukraine.

“He understands that I do not sell Weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO Countries. They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea,” Trump said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/not-in-best-interests-trump-warns-china-russia-against-arms-sale-to-iran-11818585?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

 

The United States said Thursday that it would impose new tariffs on 60 trading partners over forced labor concerns, replacing an expiring global duty rolled out by President Donald Trump earlier this year.

The Trump administration on Friday will impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European Union, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labor bans, just as a temporary 10% global tariff expires.

The move is the White House’s latest effort to restore President Donald Trump’s campaign vision of a near-global tariff after the US Supreme Court in February struck down his “reciprocal” duties of 10% to 50% imposed last year under a national emergencies law to try to shrink the US trade deficit.

The new tariffs, announced on Thursday in a Federal Register notice, will cover 99.4% of US imports, but include numerous product exemptions, such as oil and gas, fertilizer and certain food items.

Imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the new duties allow the administration to maintain a tariff floor on virtually all US imports despite the Supreme Court setback. The tariffs are also likely to face less legal risk than those struck down in February, as Section 301 has survived prior court challenges.

Trump responded to the February Supreme Court ruling by imposing a temporary 10% tariff for 150 days that expires at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Friday (0401 GMT). The new duties will take effect at that exact same moment, with goods in transit exempted until 12:01 am EDT on July 28.

“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it. It’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. “Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere.”

Greer has previously pledged that for countries that have reached trade deals with Washington that have capped US tariff rates, the new forced labor duties would not push them above those caps. The deals include anti-forced labor provisions.

Under the final determination, the US will impose a 10% duty on goods of Argentina, Bangladesh, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago.

The European Union, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland were assigned rates that, combined with pre-existing most-favored-nation tariff rates, would total 10% or 12.5%. The other 38 countries, including China, were assigned a 12.5% rate.

SIMILAR RATES, DIFFERENT TARIFF

“As expected, the forced labor tariffs largely replicate current tariff levels as negotiated in various reciprocal trade agreements, and replace the 10% tariffs under Section 122 that expire on Friday,” said Tim Brightbill, a trade law partner with Wiley Rein in Washington.

A senior Trump administration official disputed suggestions that the forced labor tariffs were simply a direct replacement for the expiring levies despite the timing, similar duty rates and vast coverage of nearly all US imports.

The official said the US has stronger import bans on goods made with forced labor and enforces them more rigidly than any other country, giving rivals an unfair trading advantage over the US.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been calling for the eradication of forced labour from global supply chains, “so we’re really responding to that call,” the official said.

The official added that Trump would “always use the tools at his disposal to achieve his trade policy objectives, and that includes tariffs.”

Many goods will be exempted from the duties, including oil and gas, fertilizer, certain foodstuffs and goods that are already subject to Section 232 national security tariffs, such as autos, steel, aluminum and copper, the official said.

Other goods that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade will also be exempted because of the highly integrated North American supply chain and high levels of US content in the goods.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-imposes-new-tariffs-on-60-countries-over-forced-labour-concerns-11813910?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have reached a landmark agreement on civil nuclear power, the U.S. Energy Department said on ‌Wednesday, a deal that allows the kingdom to build nuclear reactors using American technology and to enrich uranium.
A civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia has been in the works for years during both President Donald Trump’s first administration and that of former President Joe Biden.

No deal has come together before now, however, in part because of warnings from nonproliferation ​groups who say that it could offer Saudi Arabia a path to develop a nuclear weapon.
Unlike the Biden plan, the current deal ​does not include a so-called Additional Protocol that allows the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out intrusive snap ⁠inspections.
The deal would also allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste, both of which are potential pathways to making a nuclear weapon. ​The UAE agreed to forgo both of those when it signed a similar deal with the U.S. in 2009.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and his ​counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the pact, known as a 123 Agreement, alongside a bilateral safeguards agreement, the U.S. Energy Department said in a release.
The administration said the deal also abides by nonproliferation agreements in the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which are among the world’s strongest. Saudi Arabia has long said if it does not partner with the ​U.S., it could partner with China or Russia which have different proliferation standards.
The energy department said the deal now goes to Congress. Unless Congress ​raises votes to object to the deal within 90 session days, the deal will go into force. But it would need to have a two-thirds majority to override a ‌presidential veto.
⁠Some nuclear experts called on lawmakers to vote down the deal.

“We urge all members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to recognize the risks and to exercise their power to reject or modify Trump’s proposed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia so as not to open the door for nuclear proliferation in the Middle East even wider,” said Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.
The about 30-year deal for the construction of AP1000 ​reactors, which is worth tens of ​billions of dollars, would benefit Westinghouse, ⁠jointly owned by Canada-based Cameco (CCO.TO), and Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.N).

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-says-it-reached-nuclear-cooperation-deal-with-saudi-arabia-2026-07-22/

The Iranian-aligned Houthis on Thursday claimed military strikes on two Saudi oil tankers as part of a naval blockade on ​Saudi Arabia, advancing toward a second chokehold on world oil supplies at the Red Sea in coordination with Iran’s attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile the U.S. military said on Wednesday it ‌launched a new round of strikes on Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, marking a 12th successive night of American attacks.

The Yemen-based militants, who control areas near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the opposite end of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, said on Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in what some analysts have viewed as a tactical move by Iran to seek leverage.
Even before the renewed threats to shipping traffic in the Red Sea, Iran’s near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz had stoked ​inflation around the world, pushing up oil prices and squeezing U.S. gasoline consumers at a time when the unpopular war has put Trump’s Republican allies under pressure ahead of congressional elections in November.

Five tankers changed course in the ​Red Sea to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, and three tankers loaded with Saudi oil for China and India made U-turns on Tuesday.
Then the Houthis said their ⁠forces carried out missile and drone strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, identifying them as the Encelia and the Layla.
A maritime security source said Encelia had transmitted a distress call, reporting it had been struck ​by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea late on Wednesday. British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the Saudi-flagged tanker was struck by an unknown projectile about 70 nautical miles southwest of Saudi Arabia’s ​Al Shuqaiq. The attack on the Layla remained unconfirmed.
Millions of barrels per day of Saudi oil have been heading to the kingdom’s Red Sea port of Yanbu to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. If shipments cannot pass through the Red Sea’s southern strait, they have only the northern route through the Suez Canal, adding weeks and costs to the journey.

Moreover, the Houthi threat to impose a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia could significantly widen the war and strain a U.S. military, current and former U.S. officials said.

TRUMP THREATENS INFRASTRUCTURE

Before the Red Sea ​flare-up, Trump vowed on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s joint military command in turn warned that if Trump’s threat against infrastructure was ​carried out, Iranian forces would target regional oil, gas, electricity and economic infrastructure and prevent the export of “even a single drop of oil,” Iranian state media reported.
Hours later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported an explosion in what it called a mined route south of ‌the Strait of ⁠Hormuz, saying one of three oil tankers had caught fire while the other two turned back. The Guards said the strait was under their control and “completely closed,” warning that no tanker would be allowed to enter or leave without coordination with Iran.

In 12 straight days of attacks since a June ceasefire fell apart, American strikes have widened from the south to western and central areas of Iran. The U.S. military’s Central Command said it would continue to “further degrade” Iran’s ability to threaten ship traffic.
Iranian media reports said the U.S. twice on Thursday attacked a military target in Bushehr, near the country’s only operating commercial nuclear power reactor, marking three strikes there in two days.
State TV reported two people were ​killed and 11 wounded in what a Khuzestan provincial official ​described as a U.S. missile attack on the ⁠Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/rubio-says-us-still-willing-negotiate-over-iran-crisis-2026-07-22/

The remarks came after US President Donald Trump warned that American forces will destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned that Tehran would not let the situation in the Strait of Hormuz return to its pre-war state. He said the security of the strait was in the absence of American forces from the region. Ghalibaf also warned that Iran would not let any Gulf nation sell its oil if Iran is not allowed to sell its crude.

In a post on X, Ghalibaf said the conflict had become an “all or none” equation.

“In a region where we do not sell oil, no one will sell oil. If our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe, and the security of the strait is in the absence of American forces. We have repeatedly said that the situation of the strait will not return to pre-war conditions,” he wrote.

معادلهٔ این جنگ مشخص است: یا همه یا هیچکس!

در منطقه‌ای که ما نفت نفروشیم، کسی نفت نخواهد فروخت. اگر امنیت ما تأمین نشود، هیچ زیرساختی ایمن نخواهد بود و امنیت تنگه در نبود نیروهای آمریکایی است. بارها گفته‌ایم که وضعیت تنگه به قبل از جنگ باز نمی‌گردد.

— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) July 22, 2026

The remarks came after US President Donald Trump warned that American forces will destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

“From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran,” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

US-Iran War

The US military has announced that it was conducting a 12th night of strikes against Iran as both sides increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure. US Central Command said the attacks were designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters,” as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping.

The continued American airstrikes are occurring even as diplomatic efforts show little public sign of progress and officials on both sides have dug in on the dispute over the crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed. The unpopular war threatens further worldwide economic disruption and is sending fuel prices up ahead of midterm U.S. elections this fall.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said his country would adopt an “eye for an eye” defence doctrine.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/no-one-will-sell-oil-if-tehran-cant-irans-big-warning-to-us-middle-east-11808797?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

US military says it’s launched an 11th night of strikes on Iran as they vie for control of choked-off Strait of Hormuz.

The US military said it launched an 11th night of strikes on Iran early Wednesday as attacks across the Middle East overshadowed diplomatic efforts in Pakistan to salvage an interim ceasefire deal that has collapsed.

US Central Command did not immediately reveal the targets being struck in the latest wave, which comes after President Donald Trump telegraphed that strikes would be intensifying.

Before the newest barrage, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict seeking to revamp diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to world energy supplies.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the US had “no interest in meeting.” He signaled that US forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium.

With negotiations and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz largely stalled, both sides have sought to gain leverage by targeting civilian infrastructure in the region relied on by millions of people.

A barrage of US strikes hasn’t loosened Iran’s grip on the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas was shipped before the war.

The US continued its airstrikes on the Islamic Republic Tuesday, and Iran attacked a tanker in the strait, forcing the crew to abandon the ship. Iran also kept up attacks against US allies in the region. Sirens in Bahrain and Kuwait warned residents of incoming projectiles.

The escalation pushed energy prices higher. The international benchmark for crude oil traded Tuesday above $91 a barrel and regular gasoline in the US climbed to an average of $4 a gallon.

With US midterm elections approaching in the fall, polls have pointed to the unpopularity of the war among Americans, who have felt the pain of pricier gas and seen new casualties in a conflict that weeks ago seemed to be winding down.

The number of wounded US personnel in the Iran war has grown to well over 500 troops, a US official told The Associated Press. The total is higher than the Pentagon’s official tally on the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which currently shows 482 wounded.

The US official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the system has a significant lag in reporting injuries. The official said that was a function of its design and not intentional.

In the Red Sea, Iran-backed Yemen’s Houthi rebels have opened a new front against Saudi Arabia by declaring a naval blockade of the kingdom, threatening the flow of global oil supplies and trade. With the Strait of Hormuz blocked up, Saudi Arabia has been relying on a pipeline to the Red Sea to get millions of barrels of oil out to market.

A news agency in Yemen that is run by the Houthis, SABA, said Tuesday that six ships in the Red Sea were forced to reroute after they received warnings from the rebel group. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the claim.

Three Houthi officials said the group warned international shipping companies on Monday to avoid transiting through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they weren’t authorized to speak to journalists.

Momeni, Iran’s interior minister, met Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations. Momeni later met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In a statement, Sharif expressed deep concern over the recent US-Iran escalation, and urged all sides to exercise restraint and avoid actions that could further destabilize the region.

Pakistan’s political leadership and Munir, who serves as both the chief of army staff and defense forces, played a key role in brokering last month’s interim agreement between the US and Iran. Islamabad has been working to persuade both sides to return to the negotiating table.

Trump told reporters that Iranian officials “want to desperately meet. And until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in meeting.” He said the US would soon target the area near Pickaxe Mountain — a fortified underground site near one of Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment facilities.

Iran’s military leaders said any attack on nuclear or “other sensitive facilities” would be considered a major escalation, according to a statement reported by Iranian state media.

“We declare that if the invading and terrorist military of that country enters such a phase, we will regard it as an expansion of the war across the region, and all interests of the United States, its allies, and its supporters will become targets of powerful attacks by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said the statement from the armed forces’ Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.

A deep level of mistrust persists on both sides. Iran came under a surprise attack in June 2025 and again in February while it was engaging in nuclear negotiations with the US. The interim deal unraveled when Iran resumed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which was supposed to be reopened under the agreement.

US Central Command said Tuesday it targeted “Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and air defense systems.” It released more footage of bombings that targeted sites in Iran.

“American forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression toward civilian mariners seeking to freely and openly transit the strait,” the command said.

Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard in Fars, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the strait off Oman, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as two other attacks on ships Monday in the waterway.

The route close to Oman’s shores has been the one the US military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control.

To enforce the blockade in the strait, as of Tuesday US forces have redirected eight commercial vessels and disabled one, CENTCOM said on X.

Tehran also hit US-allied countries throughout the Mideast on Tuesday.

Jordan’s military said Iran targeted it with five drones and three missiles, all of which were shot down. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens on Tuesday afternoon as another Iranian barrage targeted the island kingdom, which is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

In Iraq, flights were temporarily suspended at Irbil International Airport after a wave of attacks targeted the capital of the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region, according to Iraq’s state-run news agency. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but in the past both Iran and Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched attacks in the Kurdish region, where US troops are present.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-military-launches-11th-consecutive-night-of-strikes-on-iran-11803634?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

 

THE World Cup was a smashing success for Donald Trump’s economy – a risk that has landed America a huge windfall.

The tournament brought in billions of viewers worldwide, and for those involved across the country, a major cash boost.

Bidding to host the World Cup years ago was always going to be a gamble.

The US isn’t known as a nation that loves soccer, but there was belief that would change once the tournament arrived.

That thought process ended up being correct, and it brought on massive returns for the country.

According to Bank of America, the 2026 World Cup provided a $20 BILLION boost to the US economy.

CEO Brian Moynihan said revealed the figure is half of what the tournament generated as a whole.

“Even when we look into host cities like a Kansas City, we can see the growth rate in spending faster than other cities,” Moynihan told the New York Post.

“So it’s having this on-the-ground economic impact, and that spending is going into what we call bricks-and-mortar — going to bars and restaurants and things like that — not necessarily only the people in the stadium.”

Bank of America is seeing that Americans are spending money faster than they have since the beginning of 2022.

Credit and debit card spending is up 6.3 percent since last June and even without rising gas prices that number is still 5.6 percent.

Financial figures from the US government echo that economic boom.

Food and retail services are up 6.7 percent from last June’s figure.

According to the New York/New Jersey host committee, fans spent $1.2 billion on the World Cup in June alone.

That generated a total economic impact of $2.1 billion and brought in $228 million in tax revenue.

Hotels saw a huge boost in revenue as well.

Rooms in Kansas City saw a whopping 90 percent boost in revenue while San Francisco went up by 55 percent, according to data from CoStar Group.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/16725562/donald-trump-fifa-world-cup-gamble-economy-boost/

President Trump ordered American forces to pummel Iranian military targets for a tenth consecutive night Monday, after vowing to avenge the deaths of US service members “many times over.”

“Today at 4 pm ET, US forces began a new round of strikes against Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction,” CENTCOM announced on X.

“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the combatant command added.

The assault wrapped up at around 9 p.m. ET.

“US forces struck Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems,” according to CENTCOM, which released footage of several structures being hit in the precision strikes.

“Commercial vessel transits through the vital international maritime corridor continue,” the combatant command noted. “Since early May, CENTCOM forces have helped facilitate the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil.”

The latest round of airstrikes were announced just hours after Trump fumed over the deaths of three US service members, who were killed during Iranian strikes on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military,” the president added.

Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, was killed in action on Friday at the US military outpost in Jordan and 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan, 25, was killed the next day. A third US service member was killed during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone but has not been identified.

A total of 17 American service members have been killed since the launch of Operation Epic Fury by the US and Israel Feb. 28.

The US has repeatedly bombed Iran following the collapse of last month’s memorandum of understanding that called for a 60-day reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and continued nuclear talks.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/07/20/us-news/trump-orders-airstrikes-against-iran-for-10th-consecutive-night/

President Donald Trump has imposed new 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian imports, citing what his administration calls discriminatory trade practices against US industries.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive action imposing an additional 50% tariff on a wide range of Canadian imports, with the Trump administration saying the move is a response to what it described as “discriminatory” Canadian trade practices affecting several US industries.

According to senior administration officials, Trump signed three proclamations on Monday formalizing the tariffs under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. The new duties are scheduled to take effect 30 days after they were signed.

The move comes amid renewed trade tensions between the United States and Canada. Administration officials also noted that Trump had previously threatened tariffs in response to wildfire smoke entering the United States from Canada, although they said separate tariff measures are being explored regarding the wildfire issue.

 

Donald Trump praised incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham for plans to fast track North Sea oil drilling, claiming Aberdeen residents were celebrating the move, though Burnham is expected to limit the plan to existing licences rather than issue new ones.

Donald Trump has publicly praised incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham for plans to speed up oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, weighing in just hours before Burnham officially takes office. In his first social media post addressing the new Labour leader, Trump claimed Burnham would be opening up the North Sea oil reserve completely. The comment came ahead of Burnham’s swearing in as prime minister on Monday.

According to The Telegraph, Burnham is expected to stick with Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment not to issue brand new drilling licences in the North Sea. Still, reports suggest he plans to accelerate drilling under licences that already exist.

What Trump Wrote on Truth Social

Trump’s post was enthusiastic in tone. He wrote that the people of Aberdeen, Scotland were celebrating in the streets because Burnham had promised to fully open up what Trump described as one of the greatest sources of quality oil on Earth. He claimed the North Sea holds hundreds of years of untapped capacity and argued it could transform the United Kingdom from what he called a poverty stricken disaster into one of the richest countries in the world.
He also took aim at Britain’s current reliance on Norwegian oil imports, calling it ridiculous that the UK pays Norway billions of dollars annually for oil that he said comes from a less valuable section of the North Sea.

pic.twitter.com/X8EzCXzlmT

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 19, 2026

Trump went further, suggesting that the UK planned to remove wind turbines he described as old and unattractive, which he said tower over and damage the appearance of Aberdeen. He called their removal something that would be widely appreciated across the country. He closed the post by declaring his affection for Scotland and insisting that unlocking the UK’s potential starts with fully opening North Sea oil.

 

Vasyl Krupych knows what it is to fight for Ukraine.

He describes terrifying scenes from battles in the eastern Donbas region where, sometimes praying, sometimes crying, the machine gunner somehow survived the onslaught by Russian troops.

But last December, by then serving in the rear, Krupych was attacked by his own countrymen whilst out searching for draft dodgers.

He says two men ignored demands to show their documents and fled. When his patrol gave chase, Krupych was badly beaten with a crowbar. He spent six weeks in hospital.

“He broke my rib, I was lying there and couldn’t breathe,” the veteran recalled in a recent interview.

“What did we fight for, if soldiers can now get beaten?”

Surge in violence

Ukraine’s military ombudswoman says such attacks are now “regular” and “a major problem” as the country struggles to mobilise men to fight in the fifth, draining year of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

It’s not a topic people here care to discuss much, wary of feeding Russian propaganda.

But the latest National Police Service report recorded more than 600 assaults on recruitment officers to date and warned that the aggression has become “increasingly threatening”.

The first big alert came in April when several recruiters were stabbed, one fatally. Then this month in Lviv, some 200 protesters surrounded officers attempting to detain a suspected draft dodger and smashed and overturned their car.

The riot made headlines as President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned violence against serving soldiers.

His controversial decision since then to sack Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov – over a clash of character and vision with Ukraine’s commander-in-chief – means attempts to address the conscription crisis will stall.

But the anger that just exploded in Lviv suggests that the need is urgent.

‘Busification’

The reasons appear to range from plain fear of the front line – now everyone knows someone who’s been injured or killed – to a reluctance to sign up for a war that has no end in sight.

The only surge of enthusiasm since the initial rush to the front was in late 2023, when Ukraine launched a counter-offensive to seize back territory in the south-east.

It didn’t last.

That’s when the “brutal mobilisation” phase began, according to opposition MP Oleksandr Honcharenko.

He blames that for the backlash.

“These officers are hunting for people on the streets and sometimes using quite violent methods,” the MP says.

“Violence leads to violence. It’s a huge problem and it’s going to get worse.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Saturday warned the US of “unforgettable lessons” and said that the ceasefire violation proves the ‘worthlessness’ of President Donald Trump’s signature.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has sharply criticised the United States, saying a recent violation of an agreement underscores the “worthlessness” of the American president’s signature. In his recent message, Khamenei accused Washington of repeatedly failing to honour its commitments and warned of ‘unforgettable lessons’ if the US continues its attacks.

Khamenei said the alleged breach demonstrates a pattern of unreliability and reinforces Iran’s long-held distrust of US intentions. “The violation of the agreement once again proved the worthlessness and invalidity of the U.S. President’s signature. It proved that brutality, lying, and totalitarianism are the path of the Great Satan,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in his statement.

The statement attributed to Khamenei, still unseen since the war began, was read out on state television.

The remarks come amid escalating tensions and stalled diplomatic engagement between Tehran and Washington.

Earlier today, Iran announced that it is suspendingall ceasefire-related commitments under its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Tehran has “suspended” commitments to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the US last month. “The US has violated and suspended all its commitments within the framework of the Islamabad MOU. We have also suspended our commitments; we are not implementing them, and we are busy defending the country,” he said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

The US and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday. The widening strikes threatened civilians and services to them, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy again was on alert.

 

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/middle-east/irans-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khamenei-says-us-deal-breach-proves-worthlessness-of-president-trumps-signature-article-155130510

The attack came after Ukraine’s intensified drone strikes on Russian logistics and energy sites resulted in the deaths of nine people and injured over 80

Russia launched one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv since the start of the war overnight, firing dozens of missiles at the Ukrainian capital as Ukraine intensified its long-range drone campaign against targets deep inside Russian territory. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russian forces launched repeated ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv during the night. Monitoring channels reported that about 35 to 40 missiles were fired towards the capital and surrounding region, including Iskander-M, S-400 and Zircon missiles.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a multi-storey residential building was hit in the Solomianskyi district.

In the Shevchenkivskyi district, falling missile debris sparked a fire in another apartment building, while fires also broke out at a shopping and entertainment centre and several vehicles in the Dniprovskyi district.

A private home caught fire in the Sviatoshynskyi district, Klitschko said. Emergency services were sent to all affected locations.

The latest barrage came as Ukraine stepped up drone attacks on Russian territory, targeting logistics centres and energy infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Moscow’s military supply chain.

Russian officials said Ukrainian drone strikes killed nine people and injured more than 80 others across the country. One of the deadliest attacks struck warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, in the Tambov and Moscow regions.

Tambov regional Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said seven night-shift workers were killed and 25 others injured after drones hit a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Kotovsk, about 360km (220 miles) from the Ukrainian border. “Seven people working the night shift died at the scene,” Pervyshov wrote on Telegram.

He added that Russian air defences had intercepted 28 drones approaching the region and claimed the number of casualties could have been much higher.

A second Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal, about 50 km east of Moscow, was also hit, according to Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates-biggest-missile-barrages-kyiv-amazon-wildberries-attack-article-155131356

The $65-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor links Gwadar Port in Balochistan to China’s Xinjiang through highways, railways and pipelines.

Balochistan has declared independence from Pakistan. Although it remains unrecognised internationally, it has raised fresh questions over the future of China’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), one of the flagship projects under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a project worth around $65 billion and stretches nearly 3,000 kilometres. It connects the deep-sea Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province to China’s Xinjiang region through highways, railways and pipelines.

At the centre of the debate is Gwadar Port, the most strategic asset in the corridor, and whether an independent Balochistan would continue to honour agreements signed between Pakistan and China.

Who would control Gwadar Port?
International law draws a distinction between ownership and operation. Gwadar Port is physically located in Balochistan. If the region were to become an internationally recognised sovereign state, the port would become part of its territory under the principle of territorial sovereignty.

However, this would not automatically cancel agreements signed by Pakistan.

China currently operates Gwadar through the China Overseas Ports Holding Company (COPHC) under a long-term concession agreement with the Government of Pakistan. The concession grants China operational rights but does not transfer sovereignty over the port.

Can the agreements be changed?
An independent Balochistan would not be legally required to accept every commercial agreement signed by Pakistan. A recognised successor government could choose to honour existing contracts, renegotiate them or cancel them, subject to domestic law and international arbitration obligations.

Foreign investors may also seek compensation through arbitration if contracts are cancelled without legal grounds.

Similarly, an independent Balochistan could legally renegotiate port concessions, mining contracts, energy projects and infrastructure agreements inherited from Pakistan. Such reviews have taken place in several newly independent countries, particularly in relation to strategic assets and natural resources.

What happens to CPEC?
Gwadar serves as the southern gateway of CPEC, linking western China to the Arabian Sea through roads, railways, pipelines and industrial projects.

If Pakistan no longer controlled Gwadar, the existing CPEC framework would effectively cease to operate in its current form. China would likely need to negotiate a fresh agreement with an independent Balochistan to keep the corridor functioning.

Without such an arrangement, projects connecting Gwadar to Pakistan’s interior could face political and commercial uncertainty.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/balochistan-declares-independence-from-pakistan-what-it-means-for-chinas-60-billion-cpec-project-10220186.html

Pakistan has been negotiating an expanded defence pact with Kuwait in exchange for energy cooperation and investment, according ​to five sources with knowledge of the talks.

The talks remain at an early stage, all the sources said, and could still be complicated by ‌heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, said one source.

Reuters reported on Thursday that there were mounting concerns in Islamabad that its mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia, signed last year, could draw Pakistan into the US-Iran war., opens new tab After the Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched an attack on Saudi Arabia on Monday, nuclear-armed Pakistan told Iran it would treat attacks on the kingdom as attacks on itself.

Any defence deal ​with Kuwait, which has come under heavy attacks from Iran this year, would also raise questions about Pakistan’s role in future mediation between the U.S. and ​Iran.

Kuwait has had a more limited defence deal with Pakistan for training and joint exercises since 2023. It is now seeking ⁠a show of force by Islamabad that would be similar to Pakistan’s pact with Saudi Arabia, including “thousands of Pakistani troops on the ground, fighter jets, drones, an air defence ​system, and other defence-related facilities,” said a Pakistani government official.

It is unclear whether Pakistan is willing to go this far, given that its agreement with Saudi Arabia was the ​result of a decades-old close alliance with Riyadh.

“Kuwait’s wish list includes everything,” said a Pakistani security official with knowledge of the talks. “But let me be clear about one thing: We are not and we cannot consider a deployment of combat troops at this stage.”

A Middle Eastern source confirmed that Kuwait has been in conversations with Pakistan, including about defence procurement, but said it was “not clear this ​will amount to a defence pact per se.”

Reuters spoke to four Pakistani sources and one Middle Eastern source, none of whom was authorised to speak on the record.

Pakistan’s ​military media wing and Kuwait’s information ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistan-kuwait-discuss-expanded-defence-pact-sources-say-2026-07-17

The US will impose a 25% tariff on most imports from Brazil starting later this month. It’s the first action in the Trump administration’s new tariff strategy, after the Supreme Court struck down its prior impositions.

The US Trade Representative’s office (USTR) has said it will impose a 25% tariff on most imports from Brazil. The charges are set to come into effect in a week, on July 22.

The trade barriers are the first of their kind since the Supreme Court annulled the cornerstone of US President Donald Trump’s prior sweeping tariff regime, famously announced on what Trump dubbed “Liberation Day” in 2025.

It also comes amid friction between the Trump administration and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, not least because of Trump’s ties to Brazil’s former right-wing populist president Jair Bolsonaro and his family. Brazil votes in general elections this October.

What US measures are planned against Brazil?

Following an investigation, the USTR argued that Brazil’s trade practices on a range of issues from digital trade to illegal deforestation were unfair. It also singled out Brazil’s instant payment system, Pix, arguing that this disadvantages US credit card companies.

“Extensive negotiations with Brazil over the past year have not resolved these issues, but we remain open to continuing negotiations with Brazil to bring about long-needed changes to the problems identified in this investigation,” the USTR’s Jamieson Greer said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Greer called safeguarding American economic interests against unfair practices the “bedrock of President Trump’s America First policies.”

The tariffs will apply to most Brazilian imports, including sugar, agricultural machinery, clothing, electrical machinery, paper and steel.

But various products that are in considerable demand among US consumers or businesses are exempt, including beef, coffee, rare earths, energy products, aircraft and aircraft parts, organic honey and pig iron.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the blame lay with Lula and his administration, asserting that they had not negotiated with the US in good faith.

“[Lula’s] economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians,” Rubio wrote. “For the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-slaps-25-tariffs-on-brazil-with-election-looming/a-77978372

A fire at an orphanage in the province of Algiers has killed 11 people and injured 19 more, authorities said. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed his condolences amid his trip to Berlin.

Locals and emergency crews rushed to an orphanage in the Mohammadia district of the province of Algiers on Thursday, responding to a fire at the building.

Blackened masonry was visible above two window openings behind the exterior gates and emergency services gathered outside.

What do we know about the fire?

Authorities in Algeria said that 11 people were killed and 19 more injured amid the fire.

Ten of the wounded suffered burns of various severity, and emergency crews helped five people with disabilities to leave the orphanage to safety, the civil protection agency said.

It gave no information at first about the victims or their ages or the possible cause of the fire.

The fire appears to have broken out overnight, with locals saying they first heard fire engines at around 3 a.m. local time.

National television showed Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb visiting the wounded at two medical facilities in Algiers.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was visiting Berlin for talks with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, expressed his condolences in a social media post.

Tebboune said he had received news “of the deaths of children and the injuries of others following a fire that broke out at a children’s care facility.”

Hundreds of fires amid severe heat wave

Algeria has faced several days of extreme summer heat, with the civil defense reporting 932 fires between July 8 and 15.

Most had been extinguished but a small number were still burning, it said.

The civil defense said it had mobilized more than 19,000 personnel and 700 trucks to battle forest fires, as well as six helicopters and 12 water-bombing aircraft.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/algeria-fire-at-orphanage-kills-11-including-children/a-77991351

SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket came within a second or so from blasting off on a test flight Thursday, but some of the engines failed to ignite, triggering a launch abort amid billowing clouds of smoke and vapor.

Elon Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight” before sending Starship from Texas on a space-skimming journey halfway around the world. It will be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 meters) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

SpaceX’s launch webcast showed the start of engine ignition three seconds before the planned liftoff, viewed from a drone high above the pad. Although the company did not elaborate, onscreen data showed four engines not firing, with the remaining 29 engines immediately shutting down and keeping the rocket anchored to the pad. It was the first time a full-scale Starship experienced a last-second abort like this.

The launch team immediately began draining the fuel from the rocket.

“Most probable launch timing is early next week,” Musk said via X.

Everything was going SpaceX’s way, even the weather, until the partial engine ignition. In the end, the rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have doomed the launch. Some earlier Starship flights ended in explosive fireballs.

Elon Musk’s company had newest, most advanced Starlinks aboard

Twenty of SpaceX’s newest and most advanced Starlinks were on board Starship for release during the planned hourlong flight from Starbase, the company’s hub near the Texas-Mexico border. The internet satellites were going to try communicating with Starlinks already in orbit while taking photos of Starship’s heat shield.

Neither the first-stage booster nor spacecraft were meant to be recovered, with both ending up in the sea.

The rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have resulted in a failed launch. Some earlier Starship flights, for example, ended in explosive fireballs.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/starship-spacex-rocket-musk-nasa-455927b93b0fdc5512a4567a53eb3228

US strikes overnight hit an airport and two bridges in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media said Friday.

The United States launched fresh strikes Thursday on Iran with bridges and transport infrastructure among the apparent targets, as Tehran responded with attacks on US allies in the Gulf.

The rekindled fighting over the vital Strait of Hormuz came a month after the signing of a preliminary deal that aimed to end the conflict, which broke out in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced it was conducting a new wave of strikes on Thursday evening to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities” — the sixth straight night of attacks by American forces.

Iranian state media reported strikes on two bridges, a railway station and an airport in the southern part of the Islamic republic, near the strategic strait, which is crucial to global oil and gas flows.

Three people were killed in the attack on the bridges in Hormozgan province, state TV said on Telegram.

State TV in Tehran earlier reported two explosions in the western city of Bushehr — home to Iran’s only civilian nuclear plant — in a “continuation of the American enemy aggression”.

Tehran had earlier warned it would target infrastructure across the region if US President Donald Trump followed through on a threat to attack power plants and bridges in Iran — though the White House said he remained “open to diplomacy”.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Thursday that they struck a US airbase in Jordan with ballistic missiles in response to what they described as an American attack near a children’s cancer hospital, near Ahvaz in the southwest.
‘Never back down’

Iranian state media said the hospital was evacuated following US airstrikes on the area that foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei slammed as “barbaric”.

Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, said the strikes were “very intense”, adding: “My hands are shaking. There were at least 11, 12 explosions. My ears are exploding.”

US allies in the Gulf, meanwhile, responded to attacks, with Kuwait saying early Friday its air defences were again combatting missile and drone attacks, and Bahrain sounding air raid sirens.

A senior Iranian military spokesman called for the US to withdraw from the region, saying “we will never back down over the Strait of Hormuz”, state TV reported.

The Strait of Hormuz was briefly reopened after the US-Iran deal in June, but Tehran said last week it would be closed again “until the US ends its aggression”.

The United States has also reimposed its blockade of Iran’s ports.

On Thursday, the American military said forces had boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman to “ensure full compliance”, adding that three vessels had been redirected since the blockade resumed.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-strikes-hit-bridges-airport-in-iran-report-11782076?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

U.S. President Donald Trump declassified intelligence on Thursday that he maintained showed Chinese interference in U.S. elections, reviving his long-running attacks on election security despite a U.S. intelligence assessment that found no evidence Beijing affected the 2020 vote that he lost.

The ​25-minute prime-time address underscored Trump’s effort to make election security a central political issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, when his fellow Republicans will be defending their slender congressional majorities.

Trump used his remarks to ‌again press Republicans in Congress to pass legislation imposing new voter identification and citizenship requirements, despite longstanding findings that voter fraud in U.S. elections is rare. The bill has stalled in the Senate amid fierce Democratic opposition.

Trump said the declassified documents would reveal “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.” But many appeared to show the opposite, or were not related to U.S. election infrastructure at all.

The speech came at a challenging political moment for Trump and Republicans, with his approval rating weighed down by the unpopular Iran war and high energy prices. Trump only briefly mentioned the war ​at the outset, saying the U.S. was “winning big,” while listing a series of domestic accomplishments, including tax cuts and his immigration crackdown, before turning to election security.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/with-midterms-deck-trump-deliver-primetime-speech-election-security-2026-07-16

Iran said it no longer considers itself bound by June 17 memorandum aimed at halting hostilities, as US strikes on Iranian military facilities near the Strait of Hormuz continued.

Iran on Wednesday dismissed United States President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that Tehran was seeking talks with Washington. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said it has “currently has no plans for negotiations” and remains focused on its defence.

He added that Tehran no longer considers itself bound by the June 17 memorandum aimed at halting hostilities, as US strikes on Iranian military facilities near the Strait of Hormuz continued.

‘No Plans For Negotiations’
Baghaei rejected Trump’s latest assertion that Iran had reached out to the United States to strike a deal, saying no such contact had taken place.

“We currently have no plans for negotiations and are focused on defence,” Baghaei said, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.

His remarks came after Trump claimed that American negotiators had contacted Iranian representatives and urged them to make a deal. The US president also said Iran wanted to “settle so badly”, reiterating his assertion that Tehran was interested in reviving negotiations, Reuters reported.

Baghaei, however, denied that Iran had approached Washington and accused the United States of violating the first provision of a 14-point memorandum agreed on June 17, under which both sides had declared an immediate end to military operations and committed not to use force against each other.

According to the Iranian spokesperson, Tehran no longer considers itself bound by the memorandum after the US allegedly failed to honour its commitments.

He said Iran would withhold its own obligations under the memorandum of understanding as long as the other side did the same, warning that any breach would prompt reciprocal action.

“The other side has violated its commitments and broken its promises from the outset of the memorandum of understanding, and the Islamic Republic will respond proportionately both in the field and in implementing its commitments,” Baghaei said.

He further said Iran’s armed forces had repeatedly demonstrated that any action they deemed an act of aggression would be met with a reciprocal response.

Meanwhile, Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, signalled that Tehran no longer considers the agreement enforceable, saying “a memorandum of understanding only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented.”

“If Iran is not to derive any benefit from the memorandum of understanding, we have no reason to adhere,” he added.

In the last few days, Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran has reached out for talks, but Tehran has rejected each of those assertions, insisting that it is not pursuing negotiations with Washington at this stage.

The comments come as American strikes against Iranian military facilities near the Strait of Hormuz continue, further escalating tensions between the two countries.

US Launches New Wave Of Strikes On Iran
The United States launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran on Wednesday, targeting what it said were military assets used to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump also warned that Washington could expand its military campaign unless Tehran returned to negotiations.

According to US Central Command, the strikes were aimed at degrading Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels navigating the strategically important waterway.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/no-plans-for-negotiations-iran-rejects-trumps-claim-it-wants-talks-with-us-says-mou-no-longer-binding-ws-l-10214572.html

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has described Bill Gates’ relationship with late sex offender Jeffery Epstein as “distasteful”, but said he himself had made mistakes in life by being friends with people “who weren’t great”.

On Tuesday, Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway stopped giving donations to the Microsoft co-founder’s charity for the first time in 20 years and instead handed his remaining stock to foundations linked to his family.

Buffett told CNBC he and Gates have had a “wonderful friendship” but confirmed his pivot over donations followed Gates’ testimony to US Congress about Epstein.

Gates called Buffett “a dear friend”, adding: “My gratitude to Warren is immeasurable.”

Gates appeared before the US House Oversight Committee in June to answer questions about his relationship with Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In a transcript of his testimony, Gates said that he had been introduced to Epstein in 2011 as someone who could help raise billions of dollars for global health, which is a key focus of the Gates Foundation.

He said: “I recall being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues, but I did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed.”

In 2008, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution.

Gates told the committee: “I should never have met with Epstein in the first place. Based on what I know now, I understand that even if he had delivered the donors he promised, it would not have justified associating with him.”

Buffett said on Wednesday he had read Gates’ testimony.

He said: “While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I’ve made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people, choosing friends and finding out later that one way or another they weren’t what I thought they were.

“So, I found nothing in there that was beyond what I could picture myself doing.”

Buffett said the decision to stop donations to the foundation did not come as a surprise to Gates. The two met around three weeks ago for three hours.

The 95-year-old said: “At some point I had read what Congress had come up with, I’d read everything and all I can say is I don’t know whether I’ve done dumber things but I’ve done many dumb things in life.”

Buffett added that he and Gates have had an “enormous number of good times together” since they met in 1991. “It has been a wonderful friendship,” he said.

Gates said: “I cherish the time we spend together. I hope we have much more of it ahead.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz97wx2zj78o

 

 

President Trump on Tuesday warned the US will pummel Iran until “I say it’s enough” and that “energy targets” are next in his ramped-up war effort.

“I’ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we’ll hit energy targets,” Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst in an interview on the stepped-up military operation.

“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight. We’re going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. We’re going to hit them very hard the night after, and then next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” Trump said.

“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight. We’re going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. We’re going to hit them very hard the night after, and then next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” Trump said.

“Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

The escalation in rhetoric is reminiscent of Trump’s ominous Easter warning, in which he threatened to bomb Iranian infrastructure on “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day” if the “crazy b—–ds” running the country didn’t “Open the F—in’ Strait.”

The president had given the regime an April 7 deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, further warning that “a whole civilization will die” if Tehran refused.

The tough talk produced a short-lived, two-week cease-fire that Tehran agreed to on the deadline Trump set.

The president’s latest threat to expand the list of US military targets in Iran came as the US forces battered coastal parts of the country for a fourth consecutive day.

The airstrikes, along with the reimposition of a US Naval blockade on Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, are part of the president’s effort to apply pressure on the regime to agree to a peace deal and abide by its terms.

“The only way you can negotiate with these people is through strength, and the only strength is military strength, and that’s what we’ve done,” Trump told Yingst.

The president later likened Iran to a “great boxer” who needs to be “beat up” some more before submitting.

“It’s like a great boxer. You think you have them beat, and then all of a sudden he comes back and he gives you a shot,” Trump said.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/07/14/us-news/trump-says-us-will-knock-out-irans-power-plants-and-bridges-next-week-unless-regime-makes-a-deal/

“The days are over when someone strikes us and we don’t hit back with a decisive blow,” said Israeli Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday (Jul 14) to strike powerfully against Iran if it staged a new attack on his country.

“I will say it to the leaders of Iran: Do not count on things remaining quiet if you attack us,” Netanyahu said at a conference in Dimona.

The southern town hosts a facility officially dedicated to nuclear research but is widely believed to house Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal.

“The days are over when someone strikes us and we don’t hit back with a decisive blow,” Netanyahu added.

He said the strikes would be more powerful than the ones carried out jointly with key ally the United States earlier this year.

“Do not count on a rerun,” Netanyahu said, referring to the previous attacks on Iran, according to a video released by his office.

“Because it will not be a rerun, and that was already powerful enough. This will be a different event, much more powerful.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/netanyahu-israel-iran-strikes-threat-6254131

 

The updated version also allows an exception for countries that import less than 15 per cent of Russia’s natural gas exports and are taking significant steps to reduce those imports, which could exempt Japan, France, Hungary, and Belgium.

US lawmakers have unveiled a revised version of the Russia sanctions bill, the bipartisan bill first introduced by late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, easing the original 500 per cent tariff proposal for nations importing Russian energy, including India and China. The measure, if implemented, would now grant US President Donald Trump authority to hit the countries with tariff rates up to 100 per cent.

The bill seeks to impose sanctions on Russian officials and to use tariffs to pressure China and India to reduce their dependence on Russia as an energy supplier. US lawmakers believe that sanctions would ramp up economic pressure on Moscow to end its four-year-long invasion of Ukraine, which has killed roughly 2 million military troops and devastated Kyiv with nearly $200 billion in damage.

China, India, Slovakia, Hungary, and Azerbaijan are the top five purchasers of Russian crude, while China, France, Japan, Hungary, and Belgium are the top importers of Russian natural gas. If Trump imposed the levies, that also would threaten to shake the already volatile US trade relationships with China and India.

The New Version

The new version of the bill reduces tariffs that could be imposed on third-party buyers of Russian oil and natural gas to a maximum of 100 per cent for the top five purchasers, down from the previous proposal’s blanket 500 per cent.

The updated version also allows an exception for countries that import less than 15 per cent of Russia’s natural gas exports and are taking significant steps to reduce those imports, which could exempt Japan, France, Hungary, and Belgium.

The measure also imposes sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers that do not depend on Western maritime services, on Russian financial institutions, including the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and on Russia’s largest state-owned energy projects, including Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 1, 2 and 3.

In addition, the new version includes a provision that allows Trump to waive the sanctions if he deems it in the U.S. national interest to do so

Lindsey Graham’s Tariff Push

Senator Graham, who died last week, had announced during his trip to Ukraine just a day earlier that he had reached an agreement with Republican President Donald Trump to move forward with the Russia sanctions bill, more than a year after it was introduced.

Senate aides said there were 26 co-sponsors for the bill, and they expected more within several hours, expressing optimism about its chances of passage. “We’re pretty confident on its path,” one aide said.

The bill is changed from the original version introduced by Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, in April 2025.

Why US Softened The Bill

A Senate aide told news agency Reuters that some of the provisions from the original bill were softened after months of negotiations that had gone into getting a deal with Trump.

“This is the only product that currently has buy-in from everybody and is likely the only product that is going to move forward and put pressure on Russia the way we would all like to get,” the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

The Bill May Become Law

Trump, meanwhile, told reporters at the White House that sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah might be added to the bill, saying it would be a “very big thing” if those measures were added.

The president also expressed optimism that the bill would pass and become law.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/relief-to-india-china-as-us-eases-500-russian-oil-tariff-threat-11772684?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Yemen’s Houthi movement fired missiles at Saudi ​Arabia after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between ‌the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.
Saudi Arabia intercepted missiles “launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the southern region,” the spokesperson for a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on X.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said they had targeted the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s Abha, the capital of a mountainous southern region bordering Yemen where many Saudis escape the summer heat.
The strikes ​are the first claimed by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia since an informal truce went into effect in March 2022 following Houthi attacks on ​Saudi energy infrastructure.
Monday’s violence threatened renewed conflict on Saudi Arabia’s southern border after Iranian drone and missile attacks targeting its ⁠eastern regions and Riyadh subsided following an April truce in the Iran conflict.

The country’s size relative to other much smaller Gulf states meant it fared better during ​the war, continuing to export oil via a pipeline from the east to its west coast on the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
A wider conflict ​with the Houthis, who have in the past targeted Red Sea shipping, could challenge that.
The Saudi government’s communication office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

IRANIAN PLANE

Earlier Monday, the Houthi movement, which controls northern Yemen, accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes against the international airport in Sanaa and had vowed to retaliate. The Houthis called Monday’s attacks “blatant aggression” and ​said they had ended a period of de-escalation.
They also warned airlines against flying in Saudi airspace until the “siege” on Sanaa airport was lifted.

The strikes on Sanaa ​airport were claimed by Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is heavily backed by Riyadh, where many of its members reside.
The Yemeni government’s defence ministry said the runway at Sanaa International Airport ‌had been ⁠targeted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in violation of Yemeni sovereignty.
It said government forces would respond to any hostile aircraft violating Yemen’s airspace “by all available means”, and held Iran responsible.
An armed forces spokesman later said the aircraft had landed at Houthi-controlled Hodeidah airport.
It was unclear whether any attempt had been made to stop it from landing in Hodeidah, about 150 km (93 miles) southwest of Sanaa, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

YEARS-LONG WAR FLARES UP

Another minister said the Houthis were detaining ​another plane, belonging to the International Committee ​of the Red Cross, at Sanaa ⁠airport. Hachem Osseiran, ICRC spokesperson for the Middle East, told Reuters all ICRC staff and the crew of the plane were safe and accounted for, declining to comment further.
In recent days an ICRC-mediated prisoner exchange deal between the Houthis and ​Yemen’s internationally recognised government fell through, with both sides exchanging blame in a sign of growing tension.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemeni-military-targets-sanaa-airport-runway-stop-iranian-plane-landing-defence-2026-07-13/

 

Ukraine and nine other countries announced Monday they were forming a coalition to protect Europe from ballistic missiles, utilizing Kyiv’s experience in fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion for over four years.

“Our goal is to build a shared ballistic missile defense capability for Europe,” the 10 nations said in a statement in Paris at talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He was asking two dozen leaders for help in developing measures against Russia’s missile attacks that have pummeled his country and made the rest of Europe wary of Moscow’s wider ambitions on the continent.

Zelenskyy and the leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom said they recognized “the growing threat posed by ballistic missiles,” which are harder to stop than cruise missiles or drones.

“We believe that protecting Europe requires a comprehensive solution, in the form of an integrated missile defense architecture, to deter and neutralize future missile threats,” the statement said. “We recognize Ukraine’s unique experience, gained through its defense against the war of aggression waged by Russia.”

The statement gave no time frame for setting up the defense system and said the plan remained open to other countries.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine and its partners could, within the next 12 months, jointly develop a mass-produced, low-cost system with missiles that would let Europe supply itself with new antiballistic capability and provide it to others around the world who need protection.

Putin shows no sign Russia is backing down

Russian President Vladimir Putin was unyielding, vowing Monday emphatic retaliation to Kyiv’s recent long-range attacks on refineries, tankers and terminals that have caused widespread fuel shortages.

“Wherever they attempt to strike Russian territory, we will respond in kind, but our strikes will be several times more powerful,” Putin told a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists.

European foreign ministers were meeting separately in Brussels where they discussed Ukraine’s needs and Russia’s threats to the continent.

Zelenskyy is keen to accelerate efforts with European countries to develop its air defenses ahead of winter, when Russia usually intensifies its attacks to deny Ukrainians electricity, heat and water.

Ukrainian officials were in Paris to present a proposed Anti-Ballistic Program and meet with government leaders, national security advisers and defense companies who might take part, Zelenskyy said.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge last week to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems to counter the ballistic missiles could mark a major breakthrough for Kyiv. However, experts and Ukrainian officials warn that turning the idea into reality would probably take years. It was unclear how quickly a European system could be built.

Ukraine wants to push Putin into negotiations

Kyiv and its European backers want to press home Ukraine’s recent successes and compel Putin to negotiate an end to the fighting, although Moscow has shown no willingness to compromise despite peace efforts by the Trump administration.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow will closely follow the Paris meeting but dismissed its aspirations.

“This is a coalition of warmongers,” Peskov said. “They are driven by the profound delusion that it’s possible to inflict a strategic defeat on our country, so this is a coalition of the deluded, a coalition of those who incite the war.”

Ukraine’s advances in drone technology have given it an edge recently, analysts and Western officials say. Its strikes on supply routes behind the front have robbed the Russian army of momentum and made its progress slow and costly, they say.

Ukraine says it hit 105 Russian vessels in 8 days

Ukrainian forces struck 105 Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov next to the Crimean Peninsula between July 6-13, said Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

The vessels included tankers, dry cargo ships, a ferry and tugboats, Brovdi said on the Telegram messaging app.

The campaign is part of a broader Ukrainian effort to isolate the Crimean Peninsula, which is enduring its worst fuel crisis since it was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, and disrupt Russian logistics. Crimea is a key rear base for Russian forces occupying parts of southern Ukraine.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims, and Russian officials made no immediate comment.

European leaders demonstrate their commitment to Kyiv

The Paris meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, which brings together more than 30 countries and about 25 heads of state and government, appeared to be a demonstration of a long-term commitment to Ukraine and a warning to Russia, as Moscow tests Europe’s resilience.

Zelenskyy’s trip to the French capital followed the death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters in Washington. Lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko called Graham “the closest link between Ukraine, our president and Trump.”

The trip also comes amid a major reshuffle of Zelenskyy’s government that saw Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko step down Sunday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he would summon the Russian ambassador to France and impose sanctions against Russian hackers. He told BFMTV-RMC that the issue is about “a vast cyber campaign aimed at sabotage and espionage, carried out by Russia in about 10 European countries.”

Ukraine’s neighbors have also felt the war’s impact.

In the latest incident, a drone launched during Russian overnight attacks on Ukraine’s Odesa region crashed and exploded on Moldova’s territory, Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday. It said the incident was “serious and unacceptable.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-europe-coalition-putin-d813eb18fba24a57f7cb2000b302ef4d

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since February 28, when he was injured in the same US and Israeli strikes that also killed his father.

US President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran has lost military capabilities and its top commanders in the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic. He also claimed that Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who had been noticeably missing from his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s, funeral last week, was also “90 per cent gone.”

“They have no navy, they have no air force, it’s all gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone, their leaders have all been killed, their best leaders have been killed,” Trump said, speaking in an interview with Fox News.

Trump further claimed that Iran’s best leaders have been killed in the war. “They’re gone. Khomeini is gone,” the president said, using the name of the late Iranian revolutionary leader who died in 1989, while apparently referring to Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war on February 28.

“His son is 90 per cent gone,” he added.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since February 28, when he was injured in the same US and Israeli strikes that also killed his father. His ongoing absence has sparked significant public speculation about his health and whereabouts.

The War

Trump’s remarks came as the US and Iran exchanged renewed strikes over the weekend, marking the end of a months-long ceasefire. The US president has also formally notified Congress that military action against Iran resumed last week as he ordered multiple rounds of strikes on Iranian targets.

He also separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mojtaba-khamenei-is-90-gone-trumps-big-claim-as-us-strikes-iran-again-11767635?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Typhoon Bavi, the most powerful storm to strike mainland China this year, brought heavy rain to the eastern coast on Sunday ​and lashed densely populated cities with violent winds, testing the country’s ability to cope with extreme weather.
Bavi had weakened by Sunday morning to a tropical storm as it ‌pushed inland, but forecasters warned that the France-sized storm system could unleash prolonged and widespread rain across eastern and northern China in the coming days.

Over 2.8 million people have been evacuated, according to a Reuters tally of figures reported by state media.
Of those, more than 2.2 million were in Zhejiang, an economic and technological powerhouse in the world’s second-largest economy. There has been no official reports of deaths or injuries.
Bavi struck Zhejiang’s coastal city of Yuhuan at around ​11:20 p.m. (1520 GMT) on Saturday before making a second landfall in Yueqing, part of the city of Wenzhou, at around midnight.
“The winds were very strong,” Yueqing resident Li Liangxing told ​Reuters. “We could hear roof tiles and tree branches falling. Of course we were scared, but we live by the sea, so we’re used to it.”

Gesturing ⁠toward a flooded canal beside his residential compound, Li said he had never seen the water so high.
“There used to be a walkway there, but now it’s underwater.”
More than 1,300 trees fell across ​Yueqing, with more than 700 of them uprooted entirely, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The deepest flooding reached roughly half the height of a vehicle tire.
Emergency crews on Sunday deployed excavators and chainsaws to clear ​waterlogged streets littered with fallen trees.
In the city’s mountainous north, footage aired by CCTV showed a landslide that sent large boulders tumbling onto a mountain road, while swollen river waters submerged nearby trees.
In Kanmen, a coastal fishing town in Yuhuan, 72-year-old parcel shop owner Lin Yongjin was counting the cost of Bavi.
His shop, which faces the sea, bore the brunt of the storm. Metal frames supporting the entrance canopy had collapsed, and a window in a neighbouring ​building had been blown out. Lin estimated the typhoon had caused more than 6,000 yuan ($885) in damage.

“After it came ashore, there was nothing we could do. Rainwater poured into the house. We spent ​the whole night dealing with it and didn’t get to sleep until after 5 a.m.,” he said.

Having lived through many typhoons, Lin said this one stood out. “It was a very powerful typhoon. It made landfall right here ‌in Kanmen. ⁠We were right in its path.”

FLIGHTS, TRAINS DISRUPTED

Bavi passed northern Taiwan on Saturday, bringing strong winds and driving rain across much of the island. The storm dumped nearly 80 cm (31 inches) of rain in one area in the northern county of Miaoli.
Taiwan’s fire department said on Sunday that 134 people had been injured, mainly due to falling off motorbikes, slipping or being struck by objects. It reported no deaths. The transport ministry said 137 international flights had been cancelled on Sunday, along with 62 domestic trips.
The disruption also extended to China’s transport networks. In Zhejiang’s provincial capital, Hangzhou, two major train stations ​suspended all services and 327 flights were cancelled ​at Xiaoshan International Airport.
In neighbouring Shanghai, a total ⁠of 1,620 train trips and 684 flights were cancelled, state-backed The Paper reported.

By Sunday afternoon, Bavi had moved into eastern Anhui province and was forecast to turn northeast before entering the northern Yellow Sea on Tuesday, China’s National Meteorological Center said.
The storm is expected to dump heavy to torrential rain ​across the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui from Monday, exacerbating flood risks in areas that have already been soaked by ​earlier downpours.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/typhoon-bavi-batters-east-china-taiwan-reports-134-injured-2026-07-12/

VLADIMIR Putin’s warmongering has soared to new heights – threatening to deploy nukes in space and spark all-out war.

From satellite stalking to “shrapnel cloud” missiles, experts say an orbital conflict is a real threat – because Vlad has so little to lose.

Victoria Sampson, chief director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation, told The Sun: “It’s very possible that Russia could start a war in space.

“There are intelligence reports that Russia is thought to be working on a nuclear warhead that if it were to be put into space on a satellite would be a very crude but extremely effective anti-satellite weapon.”

If the Russians detonated a nuke in low orbit, it would likely destroy more than 80 per cent of the satellites in space.

It could also wipe out internet, mobile phone signal and GPS for much of the world.

Head of US Space Command General Stephen Whiting told The Times he is “very concerned” about the Kremlin’s nuclear plan.

In recent years, the Kremlin has demonstrated its ability to use dangerous high velocity co-orbital space capabilities.

Moscow could use its own satellite as a weapon by deploying one up close to another country’s satellite.

When in range, Putin’s crack space hit squad could then release objects at a high velocity to target the rival satellite.

“It’s basically like spraying it with bullets or a gun,” Victoria said. “The idea is you can send a message to another country saying ‘hey, if you’re going to be interfering with us, we can shoot down one of your satellites’.”

But Victoria believes war-hungry Putin would only start a war in space as “an end of days ‘Putin in the bunker’ type of scenario”.

Despite this, Victoria warns that there are already key signs Putin may be willing to take war to space.

“Russia has demonstrated the ability to blow up its own satellites in orbit from another satellite that’s in orbit,” she explained.

“They’ve also been able to launch an interceptor from the ground to directly hit a satellite to show off destructive counter space capabilities.

“They definitely are already doing jamming and sweeping.

“The jamming is interfering with any kind of electronic broadcasting and sweeping is basically swapping out information that’s being broadcast.

“And Russia’s very good about interfering with GPS. We’re seeing a lot of situations where civil aviation is having a trouble using GPS because it’s interfered with in the Baltics.”

Victoria admits she is fearful of Russia’s space plans due to how little they have to lose should they strike first.

Moscow has just 370 satellites up in space compared to the US who have about 11,000 and China who have around 1,000.

Russia is currently involved with the national space station, meaning they have researchers on the International Space Station (ISS).

But the ISS is expected to go out of service within the next five or six years – and it leaves Russia with no space base to test or station scientists.

Victoria said: “Russia used to be a global space power but its currently a failing state.

“Their civil space systems are going through corruption and quality control issues. They don’t have a commercial space sector to speak of.

“But I think it could be more of an incentive for Russia to interfere with space because they have less to lose in terms of numbers.

“They have a lot less physical infrastructure in space that could be interfered with, lowering the impact of a conflict.”

The discrepancy between Russia’s space capabilities and their superpower rivals has a second advantage.

Victoria said: “Space is really important for a lot of countries as a national security enabler but the more countries depend upon space, the more of an incentive it is for their adversaries to deny, degrade, disrupt, destroy, or somehow intervene with our ability to use space.”

Last year, British Space Command boss Major General Paul Tedman warned that Russia had been trying to jam the UK’s military satellites on a weekly basis.

Putin has also been eavesdropping on satellites used by European armies, Germany’s defence minister said.

Back in May, Putin was even accused of knocking out the GPS signal of an RAF jet carrying the then-UK Defence Secretary John Healey.

Victoria continued: “The West is definitely taking these sort of threats of space capabilities seriously.

“That’s why you’re seeing such an increase in terms of countries creating their own military space organisations.”

The Kremlin has refused to respond to any of the allegations.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16679326/putin-plotting-space-war-nuclear-weapons-orbit/

Iran has initiated repairs on various nuclear and missile facilities that were damaged by recent US and Israeli strikes, as revealed by a CNN investigation utilizing satellite imagery.

Iran has begun repairing several nuclear and missile facilities damaged in recent US and Israeli strikes, according to a CNN visual investigation that cites satellite imagery showing reconstruction work at multiple strategic sites. The findings suggest that some of the repair efforts took place while a US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) was still in effect, potentially undermining a key provision requiring Tehran to freeze its nuclear programme.

The investigation analysed commercial satellite images and identified construction activity at several major nuclear and military installations, including the Parchin military complex, the underground Pickaxe Mountain facility, and the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.

According to CNN, satellite images show ongoing reconstruction at the Parchin complex, while activity has also resumed at the heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain facility, which has long been associated with Iran’s sensitive nuclear infrastructure.

Large coverings have allegedly been installed over buildings that were damaged in Natanz and Isfahan. Experts contacted by CNN mentioned that these coverings might serve to hide the attempts to retrieve nuclear materials from being observed by satellites and to prevent inspection teams from observing the activities. The report also specified that the experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency were not able to access the damaged facilities after the conflict.

The investigation also found evidence of extensive work at Iran’s underground missile bases. Satellite imagery showed excavators, dump trucks and other heavy machinery clearing debris from tunnel entrances that had been blocked during the strikes.

CNN reported that at least 50 of the 69 tunnel access points examined had already been reopened, potentially restoring Iranian access to missiles that had been trapped underground after the attacks.

The findings come as tensions remain high despite recent diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran. The US-Iran memorandum, negotiated to reduce hostilities and stabilise the Strait of Hormuz, included commitments by Iran to suspend activities related to its nuclear programme. The reported reconstruction work during the agreement’s implementation period could raise fresh questions about Tehran’s compliance.

Iran has not publicly commented on CNN’s findings or addressed the satellite imagery cited in the investigation.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/middle-east/caught-on-satellite-iran-rebuilt-key-nuclear-sites-while-mou-with-us-was-in-force-new-report-reveals-article-155077921

The U.S. military launched strikes on Iran after it struck a ​container ship on Sunday, while Tehran said it had again closed the Strait of Hormuz and some Gulf states came under attack.
A series of attacks between the U.S. and Iran ‌over the past several days led President Donald Trump to declare the end of a ceasefire meant to halt the fighting that the U.S. and Israel began on February 28, though Trump has left the door open to continued negotiations.

Iran said it closed the strait after firing a warning shot that struck a vessel traveling on an unapproved route. It warned that any retaliation over the incident would be met with a “severe response.”

STRAIT OF HORMUZ AGAIN IN FOCUS, GULF STATES HIT

U.S. Central Command identified the vessel as ​the M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship, saying it suffered significant engine-room damage and that a civilian crew member was missing.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said the crew of a ​container ship damaged east of Oman had abandoned the vessel and were in a lifeboat.
Iranian state media reported explosions in a number of port cities.

Soon after, Iran’s Revolutionary ⁠Guards said they had destroyed a command and control centre and drone hangars at a base in U.S. ally Jordon. The United Arab Emirates said its air defence systems were engaging missiles and drones from Iran, ​Qatar said it had intercepted a missile attack while warning sirens sounded in Bahrain and explosions were heard in Doha.
The war has destabilized the Gulf, while Iran’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused energy ​prices to surge, fuelling global inflation and raising fears of an economic slowdown.
Higher prices, especially for gasoline, are a politically sensitive issue for Trump ahead of November congressional elections.
Iran said several ships attempted to move through the waterway on an “unauthorized route” and disregarded warnings to correct their course.

The strait — which was a conduit before the war for one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies — will remain closed until “the end of U.S. interference in this region,” the Revolutionary Guards said.
Central Command said it began its ​strikes at 7:15 p.m. ET (2315 GMT) on Saturday, roughly an hour after the Iranians released their statement, which included a warning that “new enemy bases” in the Middle East would be targeted if the United States retaliated for ​the container ship incident.
Trump ordered the strikes, Central Command said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington demands that Tehran publicly state it will stop attacks on ships in the strait, and that all lanes ‌will be open ⁠without tolls, senior U.S. officials have said.

IRAN VOWS TO ‘AVENGE THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRED LEADER’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire agreement. “There can only be mutual compliance,” he wrote on X on Friday.

The U.S. revoked the license authorizing the sale of Iranian crude on Tuesday after three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers came under fire earlier in the week, prompting the U.S. to hit Iranian sites. Iran then struck U.S. military sites in Gulf states.
While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran uses such actions to gain leverage in negotiations.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Iran, the U.S., Qatar and Pakistan had ​agreed to negotiate in a call that mediators were ​trying to arrange for Saturday while Araqchi was ⁠in Oman, a Gulf state trying to mediate an end to the war.
It was not immediately clear whether those efforts succeeded.
Araqchi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi met in Oman to exchange “views on appropriate mechanisms for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz,” according to a statement from the Iranian foreign minister. Oman’s ​state news agency said Omani and Iranian negotiators would continue talks “at the technical and political levels.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-declares-strait-hormuz-closed-unauthorised-vessel-hit-2026-07-11/

President Zelenskyy acknowledged the interception of many drones and missiles but highlighted Ukraine’s urgent need for enhanced air defense systems, particularly against ballistic missiles.

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed six people, including a child, and wounded 29 others overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, as Kyiv also claimed to have damaged more than two dozen Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov. Ukraine’s General Staff said overnight strikes damaged 21 tankers used to transport oil and petroleum products, as well as four tugboats, two cargo ships and a dredging vessel.

Russia disputed the scale of the attack, saying only four ships had come under attack and that one person had been killed in the Ukrainian drone strikes.

In Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region, four people, including a child, were killed and 17 others injured after two aerial glide bombs struck a crowded civilian area, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov.

In Kyiv, 11 people, including one child, were injured in overnight missile and drone attacks, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Explosions and fires were reported in the capital’s Solomianskyi, Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts.

In the southern Odesa region, two people were killed after a Russian missile hit a building, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. Another man was wounded by shrapnel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 12 missiles, including six ballistic missiles, and 121 drones overnight.

He said most of the drones and some of the missiles had been intercepted, but the ballistic missiles reached their targets, again highlighting what he described as Ukraine’s critical shortage of air defence systems.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down or electronically suppressed two missiles and 111 drones, adding that direct hits were recorded at 11 locations.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted drone production facilities in Kyiv, as well as the ports of Izmail and Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region.

The ministry also said Russian air defences destroyed 178 Ukrainian drones overnight over eight Russian regions, as well as over the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black and Azov seas.

Ukraine, which is critically low on munitions for its Patriot air defence systems, has been largely unable to down ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, over the past month.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-latest-update-kyiv-attack-videos-sea-of-azov-vessels-strike-article-155077321

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon upgraded their nations’ ​diplomatic ties on Saturday, as Modi seeks to ‌bolster New Delhi’s ties in the Asia-Pacific region.
The leaders elevated bilateral relations to a “strategic partnership” during talks in Auckland, reflecting their ​nations’ “shared democratic values, deep people-to-people links, and shared ​interests in the Indo-Pacific”, they said in a ⁠statement.

Modi, who arrived on Friday night after signing ​deals with Indonesia and Australia, is to address an Indian diaspora ​event at an Auckland arena later on Saturday, public broadcaster Radio New Zealand reported.
The first visit by an Indian prime minister to ​New Zealand in 40 years comes amid rising ​anti-Indian sentiment in New Zealand and tensions in its ruling coalition ‌caused ⁠by a free-trade agreement between the two nations.
The two countries have also moved closer on security, signing a defence cooperation arrangement and pledging greater collaboration on maritime ​safety, reflecting shared ​concerns about ⁠stability in the Indo-Pacific.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-india-upgrade-ties-pm-modi-visits-auckland-2026-07-11/

When asked about the new plot by Iran to assassinate him that Israel warned about, US President Donald Trump said that there were no new plans. However, he claimed that Iran has wanted him dead for years.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he has directed officials to “bomb” Iran on a massive scale if the Islamic Republic succeeds in killing him.

Speaking to the New York Post, Trump said that he has been on Iran’s “list” for a long time.

“I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with… The only thing is, I’ve left instructions, if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before,” he said.

When asked about the new plot by Iran to assassinate him that Israel warned about, he said that there were no new plans. However, he claimed that Iran has wanted him dead for years.

“No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,” he said. “I’ve been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know.”

“I hope you’ll miss me,” he added.

After the NATO Summit in Ankara, Trump swapped his plans while travelling back to the United States. The White House later acknowledged it to be a security tactic for the president’s safety.

Since Trump directed the attack that killed Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani, he has been a target for the Islamic Republic.

This is not the first time Trump has claimed that he is the ‘number one’ target of Iran’s so-called ‘kill list’.

“Their leaders are gone. Then they had another set of leaders. They’re gone. Now they have another set of leaders. They may be gone, who knows,” he said while speaking at a conference at the NATO summit in Turkey.

“And you know what? I may be gone too,” Trump added.

“Because I’m their number one target. It’s out all over the place. I’m their number one target,” Trump added.

The Republican leader has also claimed, although he has been “lucky” all this while, that might not continue to be the case.

“I saw a thing this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky. But that maybe doesn’t last very long,” he said on Wednesday.

Trump Declares US-Iran Ceasefire “Over”

Trump’s comments come after he declared the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran “over”. He called the negotiators of Iran “scum” and said that he does not like them at all.

“I don’t like them at all. And frankly, I think we wasted a lot of time with them, I think we should just do our business,” Trump said in his first remarks after the US attacked 80 sites in Iran.

“They’re vicious, violent people… so far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Trump added.

Trump added that US representatives can continue negotiations, but he cast doubt on the outcome. “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time,” he said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/bomb-them-donald-trump-says-hes-left-instructions-if-iran-assassinates-him-11755910?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Tehran, for years, has openly threatened to retaliate against Trump for America’s alleged role in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, who was a top general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the president’s first term.

In the weeks leading up to the United States’ renewed strike on Iran amid former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s week-long funeral procession, Israel shared new intelligence with the Pentagon, indicating that Tehran was again plotting to kill US President Donald Trump, according to US media reports.

The information about a supposed ‘kill plot’ added another layer of tension between Washington and Tehran as a ceasefire deal between the countries comes under strain, marking the escalation.

Quoting a source, CNN reported that the warning about Iran’s alleged assassination plan came this week. However, another source told the publication that a steady hum of the plan was picked up by US intelligence in recent weeks, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot.

However, some American officials are worried the Israeli intelligence could merely be an effort to sway Trump’s decision-making as he contemplated whether to intensify American military action against Iran or continue with the ceasefire plan.

Any details about the Israeli warning are not clear so far, but CNN reported that the United States has not vetted it itself, nor was it tracking it before the Israeli warning.

Iran’s Threat To Trump

Tehran, for years, has openly threatened to retaliate against Trump for America’s alleged role in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, who was a top general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the president’s first term. Even during the funeral procession of Ali Khamenei and his other family members killed in the February 28 US-Israeli strikes, Iranian mourners chanted for Trump’s death, with mourners unveiling a banner that read “We Will Kill Trump.”

The American commander-in-chief himself alluded this week that there was an Iranian threat to his life. “They want to take out the US leader—me,” Trump told reporters in Ankara during the NATO summit.

“I’m on every list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long,” he said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/how-israel-used-kill-plot-intel-to-convince-trump-to-attack-iran-again-11751766?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The European Parliament resolution expressed concern over what lawmakers described as a deteriorating human rights situation in Pakistan

The European Parliament has issued one of its strongest warnings yet to Pakistan, linking the country’s human rights record to the future of its preferential trade access to the European Union under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) programme.

In a resolution adopted this week, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) said Pakistan must fulfil its international human rights obligations or risk jeopardising the trade benefits it currently enjoys under the GSP+ framework. The scheme grants developing countries preferential access to the EU market in return for implementing 27 international conventions covering human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and good governance.

The resolution expressed concern over what lawmakers described as a deteriorating human rights situation in Pakistan. It called on Islamabad to immediately end enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and the misuse of laws relating to blasphemy, anti-terrorism and cybercrime against political opponents, journalists, minorities and civil society activists.

MEPs specifically highlighted the cases of Baloch rights activist Mahrang Baloch and human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari, urging Pakistani authorities to end what they described as the crackdown on peaceful activists. The resolution also referred to cases involving Ali Wazir, Hanif Pashteen and Dad Shah, calling for justice and due process.

“The European Parliament calls on Pakistan to uphold its international commitments on human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the resolution states, while stressing that continued implementation of the GSP+ scheme depends on compliance with the conventions underpinning the trade arrangement.

The lawmakers further urged Pakistan to guarantee independent courts and fair trials, expressing concern over what they described as the weaponisation of state institutions and laws against dissenting voices. They also called for an immediate halt to enforced disappearances in Balochistan and the release of individuals detained arbitrarily.

The resolution asks the European Commission and the European External Action Service to place these concerns at the centre of the upcoming EU-Pakistan GSP+ monitoring dialogue. It also urges the Commission to closely assess Pakistan’s implementation of its treaty obligations while reviewing the country’s continued eligibility for preferential market access.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/european-union-warns-pakistan-human-rights-failures-could-cost-it-valuable-trade-benefits-ws-l-10202578.html

Australia’s concerns have been addressed after the big change came in December 2025, when India passed the SHANTI Act.

For years, India and Australia had a civil nuclear agreement on paper. But one crucial piece was missing – uranium. Despite signing a framework over a decade ago, Australia never operationalised uranium exports to India because of concerns over India’s civil nuclear laws and safeguards. That hesitation has finally ended during PM Narendra Modi’s current visit to Melbourne.

Australia’s concerns have been addressed after the big change came in December 2025, when India passed the SHANTI Act, a sweeping overhaul of its civil nuclear framework. The law opened the sector to private and foreign participation under a regulated licensing system and updated rules that had remained largely unchanged for decades.

The timing is significant. India wants to dramatically expand its nuclear power programme – from the current 8.8 GW to 100 GW by 2047. That ambition will require technology, investment and, most importantly, a steady supply of uranium.

This is where Australia comes in. Home to nearly 28 per cent of the world’s known uranium reserves, it is one of the few countries that can become a long-term and reliable supplier. The new legal framework appears to have addressed Canberra’s concerns, allowing the two sides to finally activate an agreement that had remained dormant for years.

The story, however, is bigger than energy.

It reflects how much the relationship between India and Australia has evolved. In 2010, Canberra refused to sell uranium to India because New Delhi was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That decision defined Australia’s approach for years.

Today, the same country is ready to supply uranium.

What changed wasn’t India’s NPT status – it remains outside the treaty. What changed was the level of strategic trust. India’s strong non-proliferation record, closer ties with Australia through forums such as the Quad, and the reforms brought in through the SHANTI Act have together altered the equation.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/from-no-to-nuclear-why-australia-is-finally-selling-uranium-to-india-ws-l-10202518.html

Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian “mid-strike” drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots told ​Reuters.
Kyiv’s development of “mid-strike” drones that can hit targets dozens of kilometres behind front lines accurately and cheaply, and are often flown via Starlink, has transformed the war ‌in Ukraine.

In a concerted mid-strike campaign this year, Ukraine has attacked supply lines, fuel storage facilities, air-defence installations and command centres, disrupting Russian forces’ logistics and causing fuel shortages in Russian-occupied Crimea.
But Russia is now developing many ways to try to counter the mid-range strikes, four drone commanders and pilots told a Reuters crew that visited Ukraine’s 422nd Unmanned Systems Regiment at work in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

JAMMING DEVICES

Russia’s methods to protect fuel and other military ​supplies range from hiding shipments in civilian vehicles to using sophisticated electronic jamming devices to block connections used to pilot the drones, they said.

Jamming devices have been installed by ​Russia near towns and military facilities, including some that can disrupt the Starlink systems operated by Musk’s SpaceX, they said.
Most of Ukraine’s mid-strike missions ⁠are flown using Starlink, which allows a pilot to remotely communicate with a drone and had been considered largely immune to jamming.
Serhii Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine’s defence ministry, said Russia ​was deploying a jamming system called the Volna Kupol Garant that emits a signal strong enough to destabilise the Starlink connection in an area of about 20 square km (7.7 square miles). He added ​that about 10 had been detected so far.
However, the system is itself a prominent target for Ukrainian drone crews keen to knock out any impediment to their flights.
The 422nd regiment has taken part in operations to hit two of these systems, including one that was struck several hours after being detected in a joint mission with the SBU security service, Kolesnyk said.

A video of one attack showed a large explosion as a drone struck ​a site containing six large boxes resembling trailers.
“As soon as we struck that installation, our Starlink-equipped (drones) flew without problems,” said a crew commander who uses the callsign ‘Dyryhent’.
Musk has meanwhile cut ​Russian forces off from using Starlink to stop Moscow using it in its own drone strikes.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment for this story, nor did Russia’s defence ministry. Reuters was not able ‌to independently ⁠verify the tactics being used by Russia to avoid strikes.

MILITARY SUPPLIES IN CIVILIAN VEHICLES

During Reuters’ visit to the 422nd regiment, Ukrainian soldiers operating in a field in the dim red glow of headtorches loaded a warhead packed with high explosive into a winged drone. Its propeller engine spluttered and then roared into life.

Launched by a catapult, the “Zozulya” (“Cuckoo”) drone flew southeast towards Crimea under cover of darkness, targeting a base used by Russian drone pilots.
Kolesnyk and other drone commanders outlined some of the tactics Moscow is using to protect fuel and other supplies.
“We hit water tankers and the ​tankers were burning because there was gasoline inside,” ​Kolesnyk said. “We’ve hit painted-up milk trucks that ⁠had diesel fuel in them.”
Russian forces now run small convoys of fuel tankers protected by pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, take smaller roads to avoid surveillance and use civilian vehicles to carry supplies, the Ukrainian commanders said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence told Reuters Russian forces were using small civilian ​cars, quadbikes and motorcycles to transport fuel, ammunition and provisions to the front.
They also use camouflaged dugouts, abandoned buildings and agricultural structures to ​conceal supplies and civilian petrol ⁠stations to store fuel for the military, it said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-tries-jam-musks-starlink-systems-counter-ukrainian-drones-2026-07-08/

The U.S. military said on Wednesday it launched fresh strikes on Iran to keep the Strait of ‌Hormuz open to shipping, triggering Iranian attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain in the latest escalation to derail efforts to end the war.
The latest round of attacks, which the U.S. said was carried out in response to Tuesday’s assault on three cargo ships transiting the strait, came hours after President Donald Trump said he believed an interim ceasefire with Iran to be “over.”

“U.S. Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM, the U.S. military’s Middle East ​command, wrote on X.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”
The U.S. strikes rattled several cities along Iran’s southern coast ​and left some areas without power. Iran responded with a second day of attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, both home to U.S. military bases.

Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said it ⁠was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar briefly issued an “elevated security threat” alert before later giving the all-clear.
The U.S. strikes against Iran on Wednesday will be greater in number than the ones carried out on Tuesday, a U.S. official ​told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Control of the strait, through which a ​fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war, has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world’s most powerful military. While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran uses such actions to gain leverage in negotiations.

“The U.S. has yet to learn that bullying and breaking its commitments no longer come without a cost. Let me be clear: If you strike, you will be struck back,” Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, wrote on X.
“The Strait of ​Hormuz will be reopened only under Iranian arrangements, not through U.S. threats.”
The latest exchange of strikes appeared to dim hopes of turning a memorandum of understanding signed on June 17 into a permanent deal to end the war, which began with ​U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.

Asked before a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday whether the memorandum of understanding was over, Trump said: “It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them.”
“If we ‌make a ⁠deal with Iran I’m not sure that will stick,” Trump later said. “I found them to be very dishonourable people.”
But Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to escalate military action before backing off, said he did not expect a return to full-fledged war, and that it was not clear whether the negotiations on reaching a permanent deal would continue.
Also on Wednesday, Trump said he did not think the war would restart: “Anything that happens is going to be over very quickly … and will only make it safer, including for oil.”
Wednesday’s attacks pushed oil prices higher, with Brent crude futures rising about 1% to $78.80 a barrel by 0054 GMT. Even so, prices remained well below the late-April peak of more than $120 a barrel.

MAJOR IRAN PORT CITY ​HIT BY STRIKES

Iranian media reported strikes primarily along Iran’s ​southern coast, from the Strait of Hormuz to the ⁠Gulf of Oman.
Among the locations hit were Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Konarak and Chabahar, neighbouring coastal cities near Iran’s border with Pakistan.
Electricity had been restored to most areas of Chabahar after strikes knocked out power for some in the ​city, Mehr news agency reported, citing the local utility. Media also reported that a maritime traffic control tower in Chabahar was hit.
A firefighter was killed in a ​strike on the airport in the ⁠southeastern city of Iranshahr, state media reported. In northern Iran, a U.S. attack hit a railway bridge near the town of Aqqala, according to Press TV.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-targets-sites-bahrain-kuwait-after-wave-us-strikes-2026-07-08/

During a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, when a reporter asked Trump to clarify his social media post regarding the ‘restraining order’ post on Meloni, the US President said, “We had a bad relationship. It became a little bad because she refused to help us.”

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he ‘likes’ Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but the relationship between the two leaders “soured” after she refused to be involved in the Iran war.

During a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, when a reporter asked Trump to clarify his social media post regarding the ‘restraining order’ post on Meloni, the US President said, “We had a bad relationship. It became a little bad because she refused to help us.”

He added, “She refused to get involved with the Hormuz Strait. Or you could also say just Iran. She refused to get involved.”

🇺🇸🇮🇹 BREAKING: Trump on Italian PM Giorgia Meloni:

“I think she is a nice person, actually.”

“Our relationship became a little strained because she refused to help us with Iran.

It soured things a bit, but I still like her.” pic.twitter.com/49L6IlXxTT

— NATO NEWS (@NATO307287741) July 7, 2026

Trump said that Meloni made a “mistake” by not getting involved in any military operations in the Strait of Hormuz.

“You know, they get a lot of their oil from them. We don’t get any of it. We have a lot of oil,” Trump stated.

But later on in the interview, he said that he likes her and that she is a “nice person, actually”.

The pair fell out late last month after Trump claimed in remarks to an Italian TV channel that Meloni had “begged” him for a photo together at the G7 summit, and he only agreed because he “felt sorry for her”.

Meloni angrily denied the claim, calling it “made up”, prompting Trump to double down, with his remarks opening an unusually personal rift with one of Europe’s most prominent right-wing leaders.

The spat prompted an undiplomatic back-and-forth which dragged on until Sunday when he published a doctored image on his Truth Social platform showing Meloni looking at him as if adoringly in a post accompanied by the words “Restraining Order Needed”.

Trump has been highly critical of European NATO countries ahead of the Ankara meeting, with allies seeking to showcase growing defence spending in the hope of placating him.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trumps-i-like-her-remark-on-giorgia-meloni-amid-spat-then-a-no-help-complaint-11740285

 

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said that people have been likening the leader’s assassination to the martyrdom of Imam Hussain.

Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei will be regarded as the second Imam Hussain in a hundred years from now, Tehran said on Tuesday, as lakhs of people gathered across the country to pay respects to him at a grand funeral and chant revenge slogans against the US and Israel.

Briefing a group of foreign journalists amid the funeral ceremonies of Ayatollah Khamenei, his family, and other officials who were killed in the February 28 strike on Iran by the US and Israel, an Iranian top official said that people have been likening the leader’s assassination to the martyrdom of Imam Hussain.

“Ayatollah Khamenei will be regarded as the second Imam Hussain in 100 years from now,” the official said, adding that his killing is a “turning point in Islam, Shi’ism and Iran”.

Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was martyred in the Battle of Karbala. The battle is seen as a fight for resistance and Imam Hussain holds special significance among Shia Muslims.

Responding to a question asked by NDTV, the official said that the demand for revenge against the US and Israel for their crimes is a demand for justice, and there is no wrong in demanding that. “What’s wrong in demanding justice,” the official asked, as chants against the US and Israel grows louder.

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Iran as the last rites of Khamenei are being performed amid an overwhelming sense of grief and loss, with many demanding revenge against the US and Israel for the deadly strikes on February 28. The attack had killed Khamenei and four of his family members, including his 14-month-old granddaughter Zahra.

The tiny coffin of the child has become the defining image of the dayslong funeral procession amid a call for revenge by Iranians.

Mourners who have gathered for the funeral procession are carrying red flags symbolising “blood debt”, and printed with slogans saying “Ya Latharat al-Khamenei” (“Oh Avengers of Khamenei”).

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ayatollah-ali-khamenei-funeral-khamenei-will-be-regarded-as-second-imam-hussain-in-100-years-iran-11740377

Russia hammered Kyiv and the surrounding region with missiles and drones early on Monday, killing at least ‌28 people and exposing Ukraine’s critical shortage of U.S.-made air-defence interceptors, officials said.
Rescuers were digging bodies from the rubble of a Kyiv high-rise ripped open in the overnight bombardment. The latest attack came on the eve of a NATO summit where U.S. President Donald Trump is due to hold talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a renewed push for peace.

Ukraine’s military was unable to down any of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia, ​according to air force data, reflecting its increasing vulnerability to Moscow’s strikes as stocks of its prized Patriot missiles run out.
Zelenskiy has pleaded for interceptors — the only weapon in ​Ukraine’s arsenal that can shoot down ballistic projectiles, whose high velocity and steep flight path make them difficult to stop.
Speaking in his nightly video ⁠address, Zelenskiy said it was “simply absurd that, in the modern world, production has still not been scaled up to the level actually required to protect people from ballistic terror.”

He said that ​Ukraine had the know-how to produce the weapons and if it received U.S. licences to manufacture U.S. Patriot systems “our production would be sufficient not only to defend Ukraine but also to assist partners ​who need them”.
Earlier, the president called for “strong decisions” at the NATO summit in Turkey, which begins on Tuesday, to ensure Ukraine can defend itself. Ukrainian air force data shows air defences shot down just four of 49 ballistic missiles in July.
“As long as Patriot missiles sit in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep destroying residential buildings,” Zelenskiy said on X. “The U.S. and Europe have the power to stop this terror.”
Ukraine intercepted ​37 other missiles and more than 90% of the 351 drones used during Monday’s attack, the air force said.

SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS

At least 18 people were killed in Kyiv, the Emergency Services said ​on Telegram as search and rescue operations recovered more bodies as crews worked through the night. Prosecutors said 10 were killed in the wider Kyiv region. Emergency Services reported repeated explosions and many damaged residential buildings in ‌Vyshneve, outside ⁠the capital.
The governor of southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said a drone strike on a filling station killed two people later on Monday.
And in Sumy region on the Russian border, where Moscow wants to broaden a buffer zone, the regional governor said two residents died in separate Russian drone strikes.

In Kyiv, nearly 30 buildings were significantly damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
A search operation dragged into Monday afternoon as crews combed mountains of rubble and twisted metal in the multi-storey building whose top floors had been torn open.
Alyona, 22, was waiting to hear news about her 19-year-old friend Vika, who was ​missing after the attack.
“We’re sitting here and waiting ​until they retrieve them … She’s so kind, ⁠only 19 years old. She’s such a kind girl,” Alyona told Reuters as she watched from a nearby playground.
Reuters television footage showed what appeared to be human remains trapped beneath concrete debris on an upper floor of a building.
The bodies of an entire family — two parents and a child — were ​pulled from rubble there, said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
Monday’s attack came days after this year’s deadliest strike on Kyiv, which killed 31 people ​last Thursday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/ukrainian-capital-kyiv-under-missile-attack-officials-say-2026-07-05/

The funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was more than a national farewell. The sea of mourners in Tehran sent a message to the United States and Israel that their attempt ​to break the Islamic Republic had failed.
Rather than looking weakened by the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28, Iran presented itself as defiant, unified and determined ‌to shape what comes next.

That defiance and ability to survive now underpins Iran’s negotiating strategy, regional officials, diplomats and analysts say, depicting the funeral as the moment Tehran sought to transform endurance into leverage.

NOT ‘A DIAMOND FOR A LOLLIPOP’

The war, they say, has underlined Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and enabled it to demand that any deal on its nuclear programme begins with recognition that its control over the vital oil chokepoint is a reality that must be accepted.
A 60-day ceasefire was intended by Washington to revive ​diplomacy on stopping Iran developing a nuclear arsenal, but has instead opened a different contest.

In this contest, Iran’s location rather than its uranium is its most powerful asset, with Tehran seeking to convert ​wartime gains into permanent strategic advantage by securing acceptance of its dominant position around the strait
The 60-day clock towards a final deal following the ceasefire agreement and ⁠the accompanying memorandum of understanding is yet to start. In that vacuum, Iran is setting the pace.
Although huge revenues might be earned from charging fees for vessels using the strait, Tehran sees Hormuz less as an economic ​asset than as a source of political legitimacy, said Alex Vatanka of the U.S.-based Middle East Institute.
“The symbolic part is more important for the Iranians than revenues,” Vatanka said. “They want some kind of symbolic acceptance that the ​Strait is Iran’s. It’s about accepting Iran as the sovereign power over the Strait.”

Citing a Persian saying, Vatanka added: “Why give away a diamond for a lollipop?”
According to Tehran’s calculation, Hormuz is the diamond. Sanctions relief and frozen assets are the lollipop.

‘DIVINE BLESSING’

Iran’s leadership has echoed this position.
“The Strait of Hormuz is our greatest power tool; we must properly protect this divine blessing,” said Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, adding that Iran would “under no circumstances relinquish its rights” there.
Iran is deliberately slowing negotiations to lock in ​what it sees as the war’s dividends before returning to the nuclear question, regional sources and diplomats say.

For Tehran – which denies seeking a nuclear bomb – uranium can wait, but consolidating its position on Hormuz cannot, said ​Alan Eyre, a former U.S. diplomat with expertise on Iran.
“Iran is perfectly happy to play for time and just drag negotiations out,” Eyre said. “It wants control of Hormuz and is holding talks to institutionalise that control.”
That could mean embedding its influence ‌through transit ⁠arrangements, coordination mechanisms or charges for services along the corridor that carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, while Gulf states wait to see whether Washington can or is able to reverse the new reality.
Tehran believes U.S. President Donald Trump – constrained by domestic politics and wary of another confrontation before midterm elections to Congress in November – is under more pressure to secure a deal than Iran is to make concessions.
“The Iranians know that President Trump wants to get out; he wants to move on,” Eyre said. “They know they can squeeze him because time is on their side.”
Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator, said Washington’s military campaign had failed ​to break Iran’s leverage, leaving U.S. diplomacy with a ​flawed ceasefire whose implementation has become a battleground ⁠in its own right.
Tehran, he said, has little reason to engage seriously on its nuclear programme until it is confident the new reality around Hormuz has been accepted and meaningful progress made on unlocking billions of dollars in frozen assets held abroad.
“The 60-day clock was always a fantasy,” Miller said. “The Iranians are not going to move ​to the nuclear file until they’re relatively confident they’ve achieved this new status quo. They want to make sure that Trump understands, and that the world ​understands, that there’s no going back ⁠to February 27.”

IRAN WON’T GIVE UP HORMUZ

Iran is exploiting what Miller calls the key reality of the post-war order – neither U.S. military power nor the threat of a U.S. naval blockade fundamentally altered its position on the Strait of Hormuz.
“They’re not going to give it up,” he said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/khamenei-funeral-signals-irans-defiance-new-regional-order-2026-07-06/

Ukraine’s president plans to use the Nato meeting in Turkey to urge Kyiv’s allies to deliver the air defence systems it urgently needs to protect it from escalating Russian attacks.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s call for help rings with extra intensity after Russian missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital twice in less than a week, crashing into blocks of flats and killing more than 50 civilians.

The summit in Ankara will also be a chance for Zelensky to hold a crucial meeting with Donald Trump and press home his case that Russia’s “brutal” attacks are a show of weakness, not strength, and that Vladimir Putin should be pressured into talks towards a “dignified” peace.

The latest strikes on Ukraine come as it has been stepping up its own long-range drone attacks against Russia, hitting oil refineries and military targets there and causing significant fuel shortages and power cuts.

Underscoring that threat, Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said anti-air defences intercepted “most” of the 430 unmanned aerial drones fired by Ukraine towards the capital overnight. The severity of the damage was not immediately clear.

Russian social media accounts are full of videos of people queuing for hours to buy petrol and fighting over what little they’re allowed.

On the eve of the Nato gathering, which will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Zelensky voiced hope that the meeting in Turkey would not be “empty”.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte has urged member states to “pull their weight” and ensure Ukraine gets what it needs “to defend its sovereignty”.

He underlined that Kyiv was “changing the dynamic on the battlefield”, referring to efforts to stall Russian ground troops in the east.

That’s also about the recent drone strikes, apparently giving Ukraine an edge. ​

The phrase of the month here is “window of opportunity”.

But as the war in the skies has intensified, Russia’s ballistic missiles are causing Kyiv real problems.

Ukraine’s air force issues a daily tally of the weapons Moscow launches alongside the number intercepted.

On Monday, almost all drones were blocked successfully but the failure rate for missiles was glaringly obvious.

Ukraine did not stop a single ballistic missile in that attack.

It isn’t easy: they fly at several thousand kilometres an hour and there just aren’t enough US-made Patriot air defence missiles in Ukraine to counter them.

“It is simply absurd that, in today’s world, production has still not been scaled up to the level actually required to protect people from ballistic terror,” Zelensky said, venting his frustration in a video address on Monday.

He has been calling on European allies to hand over their own stockpiles of Patriot missiles, arguing that they’re no good to anyone in storage when civilians are being killed now in Ukraine.

“Russia is placing its bets on ballistic weapons, and those who want peace must place their bets on protection against ballistic attacks,” Zelensky argues, setting out his case for meetings in Ankara.

But Patriot systems are in short supply worldwide and it’s not clear how many would ever be enough if Russia were to escalate its ballistic attacks further.

That’s why Zelensky also talks about Ukraine producing its own equivalent, with Nato help.

The Russian attacks, though, do suggest that Ukraine’s deep strikes are getting under the Kremlin’s skin.

After years of Russia targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including power stations in mid-winter, Moscow now accuses Kyiv of “terrorism” for hitting its oil refineries with drones.

Zelensky calls it an “influence campaign” and he will be keen to share details with Nato allies.

The aim is to pressure Putin into peace talks on terms that Kyiv could stomach – that doesn’t include surrendering the entire eastern Donbas region, as Moscow still demands.

The campaign targets have been high profile.

An oil terminal in St Petersburg was hit with drones ahead of Putin’s showpiece economic forum in the city in June. Then there were strikes on a refinery in Moscow itself, creating explosion videos that went viral.

Now there’s a confirmed hit on an oil refinery in Omsk, Siberia, 2,500 km from Ukraine’s border. The drone must have flown undetected for many hours, which shows how stretched Russia’s own air defences actually are.

Ukraine’s “influence” efforts also include Crimea, the peninsula which Putin seized in 2014 and which is deeply important to him personally.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d227e5zj6o

Three sons of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed beside ​his coffin and those of four other family members on Sunday, but Mojtaba, the son who succeeded him as Iran’s supreme leader, did not make an appearance.
State TV showed Mostafa, Meysam and ‌Masoud Khamenei praying behind the coffins laid out in the vast courtyard of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, a sprawling religious complex.

Their father, alongside several other members of the family, was killed in an airstrike when the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28.
The conflict, which raged for several weeks before the sides reached a shaky ceasefire, has caused death and destruction across the region and left Iran’s theocratic government, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in ​power.
In a show of public devotion to the state and revolutionary zeal, the Islamic Republic is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, including taking his remains to Shi’ite religious sites ​in neighbouring Iraq.

After a day lying in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to visit, Khamenei’s coffin was displayed outdoors on Saturday under ⁠glass, along with those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.
On Sunday, tens of thousands more mourners, including soldiers, seminary students and ordinary men and women filed into the Mosalla to pay their respects ​to Khamenei and his family, waving flags emblazoned with promises of revenge against America and Israel.
Others prayed in unison at the complex named after Iran’s first supreme leader Khomeini, whom Khamenei succeeded in 1989.
The farewell ceremony ​was extended by about an hour to 10 p.m. (1830 GMT) due to the high number of people taking part, state media reported.

NO SIGHTINGS OF MOJTABA

There has still been no public sighting or image released of Mojtaba, said to have been injured in the attack that killed his father and the other family members on February 28, when Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian targets at the start of the war.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s face was disfigured and he suffered a significant injury to one or ​both legs, people close to his inner circle told Reuters.
One disappointed mourner said she had hoped to see the new supreme leader during the funeral events.

“Until the last moment, before the prayer began, I kept ​telling those around me that I hoped (Mojtaba Khamenei) himself would come. That was our only wish,” a young woman wearing makeup and sunglasses told the semi-official Tasnim news agency in an interview.
A ceasefire has suspended the four-month-old war under ‌an agreement with Washington ⁠that Iran’s authorities say will ultimately bring huge economic benefits, in line with what they describe as a victory over a superpower.
During the war, more than 3,000 people were killed, including many of Iran’s most senior politicians and military commanders. Military bases and major infrastructure projects were destroyed causing billions of dollars in damage.
But Iran successfully struck U.S. bases in the region, inflicted pain on the Gulf Arab countries that host them, and asserted its control of the Strait of Hormuz, causing a spike in global energy prices, which U.S. President Donald Trump said led him to push faster for peace.
The interim deal reached last month includes the unfreezing of ​billions of dollars in Iranian assets held abroad, and ​waivers from financial sanctions that had brought ⁠Iran’s economy to its knees.
Trump told the Axios news website that peace talks had been paused for a week for the events surrounding the funeral.
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf prayed behind the coffins. Masoud Khamenei was seen crying and wiping his tears with a keffiyeh – the chequered ​scarf that is a symbol in Iran of militant revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians – as an imam recited funeral prayers.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-sons-irans-slain-leader-khamenei-appear-funeral-not-his-successor-2026-07-05/

U.S. ​President Donald Trump, speaking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin by telephone for nearly 90 minutes, offered ‌to help find a solution to the Ukraine war, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments made public early on Sunday.
Ushakov said Trump made the offer during the call on Saturday, U.S. Independence Day, in the context of his participation next week at ​the NATO summit in Turkey.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he also spoke to Trump.

“The American president once ​again confirmed his readiness to work towards a rapid end to the fighting and ⁠find solutions to overcome the crisis,” Ushakov said of Trump’s call with the Russian president.
Ushakov, who described the ​conversation as “business-like and quite constructive,” said Russia sought “a political-diplomatic resolution of the conflict, with due account of Russia’s fundamental ​approach.”
Ushakov accused Kyiv and its European allies of “counting on extending and even escalating the conflict, and on terrorism against civilians.”
He was referring to Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian targets, mainly linked to the oil industry, which have triggered fuel shortages in several Russian ​regions.

Ushakov said Putin “depicted the real situation on the battlefield where the Russian armed forces are confidently advancing, liberating ​one locality after another.”
Russian commanders told Putin on Friday that Moscow’s troops had captured the strategically important city of Kostiantynivka in ‌eastern ⁠Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
On Saturday, Zelenskiy and Ukraine’s General Staff dismissed that claim, saying Kyiv’s forces still controlled the city.
Russia has said any solution must include Moscow assuming full control over Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Ukraine rejects that assertion and Zelenskiy urged Putin last month to hold a one-on-one meeting with him, but the Kremlin leader refused.

U.S. ENVOYS

Ushakov quoted Trump ​as saying that Washington’s envoys, ​Steve Witkoff and Jared ⁠Kushner, would keep trying to broker a settlement and were prepared to make another visit to Moscow.

U.S. diplomatic efforts have virtually stalled as Washington is focused on the war ​with Iran.
Ushakov said Putin expressed hope during the conversation that U.S. diplomatic efforts ​in the Iran ⁠conflict would “allow for mutually acceptable long-term solutions to be found on key issues of a settlement.”
Ushakov said Putin also reminded Trump that he had an open invitation to visit Moscow.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-offered-over-phone-help-putin-find-deal-with-ukraine-kremlin-aide-says-2026-07-04/

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and President Donald Trump could hardly be more different personally, but each prevailed during the Supreme Court’s most recent term when their interests aligned.
The mutual benefits of the dynamic between Roberts, a mild-mannered Midwestern institutionalist, and Trump, an audacious billionaire New York real estate developer, were on display when the court issued ​several major rulings favoring the president during its eventful nine-month term that ended on Tuesday.

Among those was a decision, authored by Roberts, that gave Trump broad authority to fire regulatory agency heads, capping a decades-long conservative push to strengthen the ‌president’s grip on key levers of government power.
Overall, the court has been highly deferential to Trump in his second term in office, as he has pushed to expand his powers in domestic affairs and foreign policy, drawing numerous legal challenges.
Yet the court’s term also brought into sharper focus the differences between Roberts and Trump. In three major cases where their alignment on issues broke down, Trump was handed stinging defeats. Roberts penned each of these rulings.

The trio of Trump losses, which were joined by a different lineup of justices but backed in each case by the court’s three liberals, dealt Trump big setbacks on tariffs, birthright citizenship and his unprecedented bid to fire a ​member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
John Yoo, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, said these rebukes should put to rest the idea that the court is merely “an arm of the Trump agenda.”
“This term shows that ​Trump wins at the court only when his agenda coincides with Roberts’ agenda,” said Yoo, who served as a Justice Department lawyer under Republican President George W. Bush.

MOVING RIGHTWARD

Roberts has served as chief justice for two ⁠decades, and with four different presidents in the White House — two Democrats and two Republicans. For most of that time, the Roberts Court had a 5-4 conservative majority, with former Justice Anthony Kennedy serving as a “swing vote.”

Things changed dramatically with Trump’s appointment during his first term of ​three justices — Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.
With the resulting conservative supermajority provided by Trump, the Roberts Court has moved American law dramatically to the right this decade. This has included rulings that have rolled back abortion rights and affirmative action policies, expanded ​gun and religious rights, limited the authority of regulatory agencies, and more.
And the court continued that trend during its latest term.
In two pro-Republican rulings, it gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in April and struck down a campaign funding restriction on Tuesday, advancing long-held aims of the Roberts Court.
According to Syracuse University College of Law professor Jenny Breen, the court’s continued erosion of the Voting Rights Act marked “a decades-long project for Chief Justice Roberts.”

The 6-3 Voting Rights Act ruling, powered by the conservative justices and authored by Justice Samuel Alito, made it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under that historic 1965 civil rights law.
The ruling opened ​the door for Republican-led Southern states to dismantle Democratic-held majority-Black and majority-Latino districts ahead of the November midterm elections. Black and Latino voters tend to support Democratic candidates. Trump’s fellow Republicans seek to retain control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
As major Republican committees head toward ​the November midterm elections with a significant cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts, Trump’s party gained another boost from the Supreme Court. As it has done in other campaign finance rulings, the Roberts Court struck down funding limits in a ruling on Tuesday rejecting federal restrictions on coordinated spending between political parties and ‌their candidates, citing ⁠free speech grounds.

PRESIDENTIAL POWER

Perhaps the ruling that earned Roberts the most praise from conservative legal minds and Trump supporters alike was one that, according to some legal analysts, boosted presidential power under the U.S. Constitution more than any prior ruling in the Supreme Court’s history.
Monday’s 6-3 decision authored by Roberts in a case called Trump v. Slaughter overturned the court’s 1935 precedent that had recognized the authority of Congress to protect leaders of independent regulatory agencies from presidential removal at will. By freeing Trump to fire these officials in a ruling involving his ouster of Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter, the court consolidated the president’s authority over the executive branch.
“His best work has come when the limits of the executive branch have been tested by Trump’s adversaries,” Robert Luther III, a George Mason University law professor who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office during ​Trump’s first term, said of Roberts.
The Slaughter decision is seen as the ​high-water mark for the “unitary executive” theory, a conservative legal doctrine ⁠popularized during the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980s that had made steady inroads with like-minded justices. That theory sees the president as having sole authority over the U.S. government’s executive branch, including the power to fire and replace heads of federal agencies at will.
According to American University Washington College of Law professor Elizabeth Beske, the ascendancy of the unitary executive is “part of a decades-long John Roberts project.”
“Roberts has always ​been a unitary executive guy, since his days in the White House Counsel’s office” during Reagan’s presidency, Beske said.
“There have been a lot of scholarly headwinds in the past few years against the ​moves taken in Slaughter,” Beske said of ⁠the ruling, “but I think he set out to do it long ago and could not be stopped.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/when-their-interests-align-trump-roberts-both-win-supreme-court-2026-07-04/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr ​Zelenskiy said on Saturday he had ‌spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump on the Fourth of July holiday and called ​for “American resolve” to help end the ​more than four-year-old war with Russia.
Zelenskiy ⁠said he had a “very good” conversation ​with Trump, discussing the situation on the ​front line.

“There is a real prospect to end this war and American resolve will have ​a crucial meaning,” he said.

Zelenskiy said ​he and Trump had agreed to continue their discussion ‌at ⁠next week’s NATO summit in Turkey.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraines-zelenskiy-says-he-spoke-trump-calls-american-resolve-help-end-war-2026-07-04/

Tens of thousands of Iranians thronged a vast outdoor prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday to view the coffins of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader killed at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and his family.
Dressed ​in black and draped in the red, white and green flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran, mourners held up portraits of Khamenei and his son and successor, Mojtaba.

In a show of ‌public devotion to the Islamic Republic’s theocratic state and revolutionary zeal, Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for the supreme leader killed in February by the opening airstrikes of the war.

After a day lying in state indoors for senior Iranian leaders and foreign officials to visit, Khamenei’s coffin was put on display under glass outdoors, along with those of his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and 14-month-old granddaughter.
There has still been no public sighting or image released of his son, the new leader, said to have been injured in the same ​attack.
Mourners filed into the vast courtyard of the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, beating their chests, wailing and waving the banners of the Islamic Republic. Women dressed in black chadors wore white visors or held umbrellas ​to shield from the hot mid-morning sun.

“Let us wail!” a compere encouraged the crowds through a loudspeaker. Chants of “Death to America” echoed through the huge prayer hall.

BLOOD FEUD

“Everyone here ⁠has come to avenge the blood of their supreme leader,” Arash Rahimi, 40, told Reuters in the crowd. “As our leader has said, we have a blood feud with the United States. Our relations with the United States will ​never be good.”
The funeral is taking place at a critical moment for Iran, with its clerical rulers, backed by the military, buoyed from having survived the onslaught with their ruling system intact.
The war has been paused for a ceasefire ​under an agreement with Washington that Iran’s authorities say will ultimately bring huge economic benefits, in line with what they describe as a victory over a superpower.
The Axios news website quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as saying peace talks had been paused for a week for the events surrounding the funeral.

With Iran’s leaders all attending, Washington could take them all out with “one shot”, it quoted Trump as saying: “But we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.”
Trump also told the news outlet that ​he was surprised to see some Iranians crying at the funeral, saying he thought people hated Khamenei. “Maybe it’s fake tears,” he said.

Iran’s embassy in Armenia reacted to Trump’s remarks in a post on X: “You don’t understand these things ​because you have neither civilization, nor history, nor honor.”
Within Iran, beyond the displays of solidarity with the leadership, it remains impossible to assess how deeply public loyalty runs across a country of 90 million people.
Weeks before the war, hundreds of thousands of ‌Iranians demonstrated against ⁠the government in protests that were put down in a violent crackdown in which thousands were killed. But there has been little or no public sign of such dissent since the U.S. and Israeli attacks began.
During the war, more than 3,000 people were killed including many of Iran’s most senior politicians and military commanders. Military bases and major infrastructure projects were destroyed causing billions of dollars in damage.
But Iran successfully struck U.S. bases in the region, inflicted pain on the Gulf Arab countries that host them, and asserted its control of the Strait of Hormuz, causing a spike in global energy prices which Trump said led him to push faster for peace.
The interim deal reached last month includes the ​unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets held ​abroad, and waivers from financial sanctions that had brought ⁠Iran’s economy to its knees.

SHI’ITE MARTYRDOM

In Iran’s theocratic system, Khamenei was not only head of state and leader of a revolutionary movement, but the earthly representative for Shi’ite Islam’s last imam, a holy figure who disappeared in the ninth century.
His death in an enemy attack plays into a long tradition of martyrdom and ritual mourning, dating to the ​seventh-century death in battle of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein, which divided Islam into its Shi’ite and Sunni branches.
Burials are meant to be conducted within a day ​of death in Islam, but because ⁠of the risks of holding a big funeral during the war it was postponed until after last month’s interim truce deal was agreed.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/iranians-flock-week-long-funeral-rites-khamenei-2026-07-04/

The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign ​dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran’s late Supreme Leader, slain by U.S. and Israeli bombs.
Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year reign was brought to ‌an end in February by the first airstrike of the war, in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic’s theocratic state and revolutionary zeal.

Khamenei’s body was expected to be taken to Qom, Najaf and Kerbala, the great Shi’ite centres of Iran and Iraq, before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad, home to the country’s holiest pilgrim shrine.

CRITICAL MOMENT FOR ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

His coffin was unveiled late on Thursday to a throng of sobbing supporters, swaying and beating their heads in time to a sung lament as flowers were thrown from the bier into ​the crowd. On Friday the coffin — and those of family members killed with him — was laid in state in the great prayer hall built to honour his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The funeral is taking place at ​a critical moment for Iran, where the clerical rulers backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are riding high from surviving what they saw as an existential war against their greatest ⁠and most powerful foes.

Authorities aim to mobilise millions of people for the big processions over the coming days, offering transport, food and lodging to buoy the numbers.
But nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution, and for all the official proclamations ​of national unity in the run-up to Khamenei’s funeral, the Islamic Republic has rarely been so internally fractured.
Support for the clerical leadership is paper thin, analysts say, and the new Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in any ​new image since being wounded in the strike that killed his father.
Years of crippling sanctions have paralysed the economy as accelerating bouts of mass nationwide protests have been put down by security forces with increasing force — culminating in the killing of thousands of demonstrators in January.

Those deep problems have been brushed aside this week, with the authorities mounting a display of state power and mass support.
Tehran streets were tightly controlled, with military and police vehicles lining the major roads and police and members of the black-shirted volunteer Basij paramilitary force patrolling on motorbikes. Iran ​warned the United States and Israel against any attacks during the funeral.
After the coffins arrived on Friday, borne high across the upraised hands of a waiting crowd, they were laid in the prayer hall on a white, stepped dais before a ​high, intricately tiled, arched recess, flanked by national and black mourning flags.
A black turban, worn by clerics claiming descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, lay on the coffin on a folded chequered scarf, a symbol in Iran of militant revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians.
Former ‌Russian President Dmitry ⁠Medvedev, Chinese National People’s Congress deputy head He Wei, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iraqi President Nizar Amedi were among the foreign leaders and officials attending.

Families of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior commander Imad Mughniyeh, close Lebanese allies of Iran killed in Israeli strikes, attended the ceremony.
Iran’s own political leaders — the president, parliament speaker, foreign minister and others — filed in to weep and pray on Friday morning. A group of generals stood saluting in front of the coffin. Among them was the new Revolutionary Guards head Ahmad Vahidi, having not appeared in public since his appointment for fear of assassination.

SOBBING CROWDS, FUNERAL TOUR OF IRAN AND IRAQ

In Iran’s theocratic system, Khamenei was not only head of state and leader of a revolutionary movement, ​but the representative on earth for Shi’ite Islam’s 12th imam, ​who disappeared in the ninth century.
His death in an ⁠enemy attack plays into a powerful Shi’ite tradition of martyrdom and mourning, in which processions of flagellants beat their chests or backs.
That potent symbolism has been evident in the black funeral flags hanging over city streets since his death referencing the seventh-century martyrdom of Shi’ism’s third imam, Hossein.
In central Tehran overnight, a crowd stood sobbing and chanting, led by a Basij ​member, as others handed out posters of the late Khamenei.
“God willing, only by avenging his blood, demanding justice for it, and ensuring that our leader’s blood is not left ​unavenged, can this sorrow of the ⁠people be somewhat alleviated,” said Mobina Razaaghi, an 18-year-old student from Isfahan, attending the funeral events with classmates.
Killed alongside Khamenei, and displayed in coffins next to his, were his daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter, as well as the wife of his son Mojtaba.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-slain-leader-khamenei-laid-state-tehran-week-mass-funeral-events-2026-07-03/

NATO leaders gather next week in Ankara, where Europeans aim to set aside strife with U.S. President Donald Trump over Iran and Greenland ​and show they are stepping up to defend the continent as Washington cuts back on its commitments to the alliance.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says ‌the gathering next Tuesday and Wednesday will show Europeans are honouring pledges to hike defence spending to deter Russia from any attack, with arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars to be signed.

Leaders are also expected to vow to keep funding weapons for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend a dinner hosted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who will also hold bilateral talks with Trump.
European ​officials say they hope Trump’s strong relationships with Erdogan and Rutte will ensure a smooth summit but cannot be sure, given lingering transatlantic bitterness over the Iran ​war and the U.S. president’s frequent criticism of NATO.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump complained the United States was spending ⁠money to protect NATO members “without getting any benefit from so doing”.

Rutte and other NATO leaders have insisted the alliance contributes to the United States’ own security and that Europeans ​are heeding Trump’s longstanding calls to spend more on their own defence.

RUTTE SAYS EUROPEANS TAKING GREATER RESPONSIBILITY

“The summit next week will focus on turning extra spending into combat-ready capabilities, and ​significantly scaling up our defence industries,” Rutte said in Berlin on Wednesday.
“NATO is, and will always be, a transatlantic alliance but we need to rebalance it for the better,” he added. “Working closely with the United States, European allies and Canada are taking greater responsibility for conventional defence in Europe.”
Rutte said last month that NATO’s European members and Canada spent $90 billion more on defence in 2025 than in the ​previous year, to reach a total of more than $570 billion.

In The Hague last year, NATO leaders agreed to spend 3.5% of GDP on core defence items such as weapons ​and troops by 2035 – up from a previous goal of 2%. They also agreed to invest a further 1.5% of GDP on broader defence-related investments such as boosting cybersecurity.

EUROPEANS HOPE FOR REPEAT OF ‌SMOOTH HAGUE ⁠SUMMIT

European officials are hoping for a repeat of that summit, where Trump reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the 32-member alliance and its Article 5 mutual defence pact, as well as praising his fellow leaders.
But the past 12 months have severely strained the alliance, with Trump threatening to take Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark and then waging a war against Iran that roiled the global economy without consulting European allies.
The U.S. has also announced troop withdrawals from Europe, cut the forces it assigns to NATO’s defence plans – including an aircraft carrier, ​refuelling aircraft, fighter jets and drones – and ​launched a six-month review of its military ⁠presence on the continent.

“The alliance is alive and kicking but a bit bruised,” said a European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/nato-leaders-gather-ankara-aiming-smooth-over-tensions-with-trump-2026-07-03/

The world’s biggest internet domain seller, GoDaddy, has warned that India’s crackdown on fake websites impersonating famous brands will make the internet less safe for legitimate ​businesses and carry global ramifications.
Soaring smartphone and internet use has coincided with a worsening problem of online fraud in India, the world’s most populous nation. It’s a key challenge for Prime Minister Narendra ‌Modi’s government, which last year received 2.4 million complaints of alleged cyber fraud amounting to $2.4 billion.

Starting in 2019, lawsuits were brought by dozens of Indian and global firms – Amazon against fake shopping sites trading on its name and McDonald’s complaining against bogus sites offering franchises. In December, an Indian court blocked more than 1,100 such websites.
The New Delhi judge however went further, ordering sweeping new measures that tech experts say have rewritten rules of internet governance: Domain sellers should not offer buyers free privacy protection by default, the buyer’s details should be released to ​anyone with a “legitimate interest” within 72 hours, and website addresses that are variations of protected brand names must be prohibited.

U.S.-based GoDaddy (GDDY.N), has challenged the directives before a larger bench of judges at the Delhi High Court, ​according to a Reuters review of non-public filings. It says the ruling will affect legitimate businesses that have names similar to big brands.
Stopping privacy-by-default features, GoDaddy said, will result ⁠in public disclosure of name, address, telephone and email of legitimate website owners, exposing them to “foreseeable privacy and security risks” such as stalking and harassment.
As domain names operate globally, not locally, the order could force GoDaddy to regulate website addresses ​across the world, it said.
On the court’s order imposing a 72-hour deadline on companies to provide registration details to anyone with “legitimate interest”, GoDaddy argues it has no wherewithal to assess who has legitimate interest or not.

The “commercially destabilising” directives may force domain ​name companies to “exit India”, said one of GoDaddy’s appeal documents that ran into 5,121 pages.
The Indian government and GoDaddy did not respond to e-mails from Reuters requesting comment.

‘ENGINES FOR LARGE SCALE DECEPTION’

With annual revenue of $5 billion, GoDaddy manages 80 million domains and serves over 20 million users. In 2024, company executives said India was its biggest region in the emerging market space.
GoDaddy rivals, Arizona-based Namecheap and Netherlands-based Hosting Concepts, have also challenged the New Delhi ruling, court records show, although Reuters could not ascertain details of their appeals. The companies did not ​respond to Reuters queries.
The legal dispute embroiling GoDaddy and others was triggered by more than 20 companies that sought the court’s intervention on fake websites damaging their brand. These included Amazon (AMZN.O), McDonald’s (MCD.N), Microsoft (MSFT.O), Xiaomi (1810.HK), and Colgate-Palmolive (CL.N). None of the ​companies responded to queries from Reuters.

The December ruling noted the fake websites were “engines for large scale deception”.
One of the 14 measures outlined by the court said masking a domain buyer’s registration details should now be offered as a payable service as the feature acts “as ‌a cloak” to ⁠hide the identity of rogue operators.
Despite the court order, which remains in force, GoDaddy’s website still promotes its offering as one which includes “free privacy protection forever … we redact your name, address, phone number and email” from the public directory.
GoDaddy argues that diluting the privacy feature will run contrary to India’s data protection law and the European Union GDPR law which mandates a “privacy by default” approach.
Farzaneh Badii, a New York-based researcher on internet governance, criticised the New Delhi ruling, noting that Europe redacted such details because publishing them had been abused by harassment and targeted phishing.
“The people exposed will be journalists, activists, small business owners, and private individuals. The brand impersonators will not,” she said.

MCDONALD A COMMON NAME, GODADDY SAYS

Modi’s Home Minister, Amit Shah, ​said this year that one person falls prey to cybercrime ​every 37 seconds in India, and lack of action ⁠risks turning the menace into a “national crisis.”
While the sweeping December directives were issued by a court, they followed government’s submissions, documents showed.
An unreported 59-page IT ministry document from 2023, contained in GoDaddy’s latest appeal papers, revealed New Delhi conveyed to the judge it was concerned about the “issue of domain name abuse” and “lack of stringent verification”.
The home ministry, tasked with handling ​cybercrime, told the judge registration details “should be readily (made) available” for investigations.
That stand is in line with Modi’s bitter disagreements and spats with global technology giants in recent years. New Delhi has repeatedly criticised ​companies like Meta, X, Google ⁠and Telegram – and even taken some on in courts – for not doing enough to police content it sees as against national interests.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/worlds-biggest-domain-seller-fears-indias-fake-site-crackdown-could-damage-2026-07-03/

Donald Trump Jr. helped take an online retailer known as the “Amazon of guns” public last year. Now, GrabAGun, where the U.S. president’s son is a shareholder and board member, could reap a windfall from a proposed rule change at Trump’s Bureau of Alcohol, ​Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that would make it easier to ship guns directly to people’s homes.
If finalized, the rule would be among the most consequential changes to the U.S. gun policy in two decades, potentially driving huge growth in online gun sales, ‌according to ten industry officials, store owners, and gun-control advocates interviewed by Reuters.

The proposal would allow licensed dealers to ship firearms directly to in-state residents who undergo an online identity verification and background check, along with a seven-day waiting period after notifying local law enforcement. Currently, online buyers must pick up firearms at physical stores and undergo in-person background checks unless they have a permit.
Some gun shop owners, industry officials and gun control advocates argue the direct shipping of firearms poses significant public safety and security risks and threatens the viability of small brick-and-mortar gun shops.
The change could benefit Trump Jr., whose more than 300,000 shares, in GrabAGun are worth more than $700,000 – down from more than $5 million last year.

A spokesperson for Trump Jr., Andrew ​Surabian, said in a statement that the president’s son had no role in the ATF proposal.
“Don is a lifelong businessman and vocal advocate of our Second Amendment rights,” he said. “He does not interface with the Federal Government as part of his role with any company that he ​invests in or advises and had zero involvement in this particular decision.”
GrabAGun CEO Marc Nemati told Reuters that neither he nor Trump Jr. knew this proposal was coming. He said in an interview that the company is still ⁠analyzing the potential impact of the rule change on its $100 million in revenue.
The CEO was bullish, however, in a May news release : “We believe GrabAGun is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this potential opportunity.”

A GROWTH MARKET IN FIREARMS HOME DELIVERY

The ATF projects that half of all gun buyers – nearly 3.3 million people a year – ​would eventually use the home-delivery method. Some industry leaders told Reuters they expect the actual numbers to be far higher because of the convenience of online shopping. Online ordering for in-store pickup currently represents a smaller but still substantial portion of U.S. gun sales, industry experts say.

ATF chief counsel Robert Leider said in ​an interview that he oversaw a team effort at the agency to craft the proposed rule. He said it aimed to align the gun industry with the rest of the modern economy. The agency estimates the change would save consumers $103.7 million annually in travel and processing time.
Leider said he was unaware of Trump Jr.’s connection to GrabAGun until asked by Reuters and that the president’s son had no influence on the proposed rule. Leider declined to say whether the White House had any role in the proposal.
The White House said it had no record or knowledge of any “interaction with the President’s son on any of these topics.”
The rule is one of 34 deregulatory measures proposed by ATF this spring in ​response to a February 2025 presidential executive order, to expand gun access.

Marianna Mitchem, a senior firearms industry advisor at Everytown for Gun Safety, worked at ATF for more than 20 years, including about four as the industry liaison. She said the industry had never asked for a similar policy in her interactions and ​that physical gun shops had historically played a key role in vetting owners.
“ATF always says the gun store is the first line of defense in gun safety,” said Mitchem, who opposes the proposed rule. “But now they are flipping it.”

‘PEOPLE BUY EVERYTHING ONLINE’

Founded in 2010, GrabAGun is one of the nation’s leading online-first gun retailers, though some competitors ‌with physical retail operations ⁠also provide online ordering. GrabAGun would be poised for substantial growth under the new ATF rule but competitors including major outdoor stores and other retailers could also take advantage of the regulations, according to industry analysts, former ATF officials and gun shop owners.
Trump Jr. emerged as the face of GrabAGun last year when it went public through a special purpose acquisition company merger that netted the company $119 million. That SPAC was brought by 1789 Capital, where Trump Jr. is a partner.
Shares of the company, which trades under the ticker PEW, have dropped 85% over the past year. Reuters could not establish the factors driving the stock’s falling price.
Trump Jr. argued at the time that the online gun sales were safe because they were sending guns to gun shops for customer pickup – rather than directly to homes, as the new rule would allow. He also made TV appearances to argue that young people and women who may not otherwise want to visit ​a gun store would flock to the company’s more accessible website.
“People buy ​everything online,” Trump Jr told Fox Business, last summer.

GUN SHOPS WORRY ABOUT SAFETY, ⁠LOST BUSINESS

The proposed rule is now in a public comment period that closes in early August. The proposal may not be finalized until late 2026 or early 2027 and could still be withdrawn or changed.
Gun-control groups, including Everytown, Brady and Giffords, argue shipping millions of firearms to buyers’ homes is ripe for illegal gun trafficking, mail theft and straw purchases, when a legal buyer purchases a firearm on behalf of someone prohibited from owning one.
“Even with the most robust ​virtual sales and background check process, there is no way for a gun store that is selling a gun over the internet to know if the person making the purchase is funneling the firearms to others,” ​Giffords spokesperson Aneesa McMillan said in a statement.
The ⁠change coincides with a similar proposal by the U.S. Postal Service to lift a century-old ban on mailing handguns.
Justin Anderson, the director of online sales at Hyatt Guns, which has a storefront in North Carolina and is one of the nation’s largest gun retailers, said physical shops act as the “last line of defense” to ensure dangerous people do not obtain weapons. While Anderson said Hyatt would likely adopt home delivery if the rule is finalized, the safety concerns give him pause.
Smaller shop owners said in interviews they worried about both the safety and financial risks that would result from the proposal. Many smaller rural dealers survive on “transfer fees” – which can run about $30 ⁠per weapon – charged to ​complete background checks for online purchases that require in-store delivery. Such transactions also drive foot traffic for ammunition and accessories that drive sales.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-jrs-amazon-guns-could-make-millions-under-new-proposed-firearm-rule-2026-07-02/